AM Chapter 2

02 Stepdad

02 Stepdad

That evening, Chen Mo devoured some food at a convenience store. After finishing, he rode his friend’s motorcycle towards an old residential building in the county town, a place with minimal surveillance.

He finally found an internet cafe that was secluded, sparsely populated, and relatively clean. However, less than an hour after turning on a computer, Liang Jingren arrived with his henchmen.

—Over a dozen people surrounded the small internet cafe.

Because there were few people inside, and both the owner and the customers were pushovers, Liang Jingren ordered two of his men to clear out all the irrelevant people within five minutes.

Chen Mo would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, but when Liang Jingren walked in, he remained seated in the swivel chair, merely shifting his hand from the mouse to the armrest of the not-so-comfortable gaming chair.

Liang Jingren was wearing the same clothes he had on during the day, except his tie was gone, and a few buttons on his collar were undone. The sleeves of both arms were rolled up. One of his hands was still in his pocket.

His suit trousers were perfectly ironed. Every step he took forward was like a straight steel pen stabbing forward, making Chen Mo’s heart pound.

When Liang Jingren reached him, Chen Mo finally couldn’t help but swallow. He opened his mouth and asked, “What do you want?”

“To beat you up,” Liang Jingren said.

Chen Mo gave a dry laugh and said, “Are you kidding me?”

Liang Jingren finally took his hand out of his pocket. Chen Mo subconsciously wanted to get up and dodge, but in the blink of an eye, Liang Jingren’s fist was already in front of him—only a foot away from his nose.

Chen Mo held his breath, afraid to breathe.

Liang Jingren unclenched his fist and, as if by magic, produced a lollipop, holding it between two fingers. “Have you eaten?”

Chen Mo stared at the lollipop in front of him for a moment, then nodded. “I ate.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the large hand in front of him clenched the lollipop. The fist, which had been so close, struck with lightning speed. Chen Mo didn’t have time to react at all. A punch landed squarely on his face, sending him tumbling backward in the chair.

He sat up in surprise from the chair back. When his hand touched the blood flowing from under his nose, he looked up in surprise at the person approaching him and raising his foot—

“Fuck!” Chen Mo cursed and dodged to the side. Liang Jingren kicked the gaming chair he had just been sitting in, sending it spinning several times.

Chen Mo frowned, covering his bleeding nose as he got up. He yelled at Liang Jingren, “Are you sick in the head?!”

Liang Jingren put the lollipop back in his pocket and turned to sneer at him. “I already said that if I didn’t beat the shit out of you today, I wouldn’t be Liang, and I said it in front of the police comrades, haha, so you should have been prepared for this.”

Chen Mo’s heart sank. Damn, I should have run further away!

That night, Chen Mo was unilaterally beaten for more than ten minutes. Although Liang Jingren didn’t hold back and left him with a bruised and swollen face, he still had some reservations—Liang Jingren didn’t hit his stomach.

In the end, he didn’t live up to his boast about “beating the shit out of him,” hehe…

Chen Mo, knocked to the ground for the umpteenth time, even had the mind to think about random things. Perhaps only by distracting himself like this could he lessen the pain of being beaten.

Chen Mo knew that resistance was futile. He couldn’t beat Liang Jingren at all, let alone force his way out of the encirclement of Liang Jingren’s henchmen. So he could only retreat step by step, or curl up in a corner with his arms protecting his head, hoping that Liang Jingren would show a bit of sympathy and spare him.

In the end, he was too weak to even defend himself. He lowered his arms and sat slumped against the wall, panting heavily, but Liang Jingren wouldn’t let him go. He crouched down, grabbed him by the collar, and forcibly dragged him up.

Liang Jingren pursed his lips, looking very sullen, as if he was the one suffering.

“Hurry up and admit your mistake,” Liang Jingren said again.

During the beating, Liang Jingren had repeated the same words many times. Chen Mo didn’t understand why he was so persistent.

Or perhaps, shouldn’t I be so persistent?

That’s right, as long as I obey him, maybe he’ll be lenient?

Chen Mo tilted his head, reached out to grab the hand that was pulling his collar, bit his already broken lip, and said in a docile tone, “I’m sorry.”

Liang Jingren didn’t seem to expect him to apologize at this moment. He was shocked and released his hand, his pupils trembling as he stood up and wanted to retreat, as if he had touched something dirty. But at this moment, Chen Mo knelt up straight and grabbed his hand with both hands before he could retract it.

Chen Mo looked up, rubbing the hand that had reddened knuckles from beating him with his warm palms, and sincerely admitted his mistake, “I was wrong, I shouldn’t have taken Jiang Jinhao’s car without saying a word.”

Hearing this, the corners of Liang Jingren’s mouth twitched, and the hand he was being held trembled uncontrollably. However, Chen Mo held his hand tightly.

“Did I mention this to you?” Liang Jingren looked down at him.

Chen Mo moved his knees and said, “I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have called the police today!”

Liang Jingren laughed in anger, the veins on his forehead throbbing uncontrollably.

“And, and!” Chen Mo continued, “It was wrong of me to pour the rice on the floor before, causing trouble for Aunt Qiao! I’m sorry!”

Liang Jingren stopped laughing.

Chen Mo nervously bit his lip, then continued to admit his mistake, “I took out your red wine at the birthday party and gave it to them to drink…only one bottle! We only drank one bottle!”

“Continue.”

“I’ll pay you back! I’ll use my allowance…no, I’ll get a part-time job, anyway, I’ll pay you back!”

Liang Jingren narrowed his eyes. “Is that the point?”

“Uh…then…” Chen Mo swallowed a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva that rasped in his throat. “I took your ‘Bumblebee’ for a spin a couple of weeks ago…”

Bumblebee was Liang Jingren’s favorite black and yellow modified motorcycle, which he treasured very much.

“I know,” Liang Jingren said.

The villa’s garage had surveillance cameras. Liang Jingren knew exactly when Chen Mo entered the garage and when he returned the motorcycle. Chen Mo had lived in the villa longer than Liang Jingren. He was deliberately talking nonsense.

Chen Mo saw that Liang Jingren’s expression was dissatisfied, thought for a moment, and said, “Last month, I asked Shen Qing to pretend to be a parent and ask the teacher for leave…”

Liang Jingren’s face grew colder and colder. He forcefully flung his hand away, retracting it. “Why are you only going back to last month?”

Chen Mo was stunned, and his two empty hands finally grabbed his clothes. At the same time, his brain quickly recalled, trying to think of what else he had done this month that he could bring up to admit his mistake.

“One night, in the middle of the night, I secretly went downstairs to open the refrigerator…?”

“…”

Liang Jingren clicked his tongue and said through gritted teeth, “The crawfish I packed were stolen by you!”

So what if I ate them? How can taking something from my own refrigerator be called stealing! Is there a need to get angry about it! Chen Mo was unhappily shouting in his heart, but the words that came out of his mouth were soft and weak, “I was hungry!”

As he said that, Chen Mo blinked his eyes pitifully and pouted aggrievedly. “Aunt Qiao took a day off that day and didn’t come, and I was studying all night without any midnight snacks…”

“Damn it, you could have just told me…wait, wait a minute, I almost fell for it again!” Liang Jingren slapped his forehead in annoyance.

Seeing that Liang Jingren’s state wasn’t so tense anymore, Chen Mo pressed his advantage, directly lunging forward and hugging Liang Jingren’s leg. This sudden action startled Liang Jingren.

“I’ll never steal again, can you forgive me?” Chen Mo rubbed his head against Liang Jingren’s leg like a puppy.

Chen Mo rarely showed weakness, and it wasn’t that Liang Jingren couldn’t talk to him properly, but when he looked down and saw this dog acting like a pig, Liang Jingren’s loving heart instantly vanished. He revealed a very disgusted expression and shook his leg to knock the person away.

Chen Mo let out a scream as he fell, as if he had broken his tailbone, while Liang Jingren only watched coldly. Chen Mo felt extremely uncomfortable.

It shouldn’t be like this…

I’ve already admitted so many mistakes, how can he treat me like this? I’ve already shown such weakness, and I still got beaten up, my face is all bruised, how can he treat me like this?

Chen Mo lowered his head, clenching his fists, and muttered softly, “He really thinks he’s my dad…”

“What did you say? I didn’t hear you,” Liang Jingren squatted down again.

This time, Chen Mo didn’t plan to show weakness. He rammed his head upwards, the two foreheads colliding head-on. Liang Jingren, who hadn’t squatted down properly, was directly stunned and fell to the ground.

Chen Mo took several deep breaths before getting up to run away. Liang Jingren also came back to his senses, slowly stood up, and shouted towards the door while covering his forehead, “Stop him!”

“Swish!” Several familiar figures appeared in front of Chen Mo. Chen Mo coldly glanced at them, then pointed to his face. “This was beaten by your boss. Am I not miserable enough?! What, are you going to give me a few punches too?”

The henchmen blocking the door looked at Chen Mo’s face, which was swollen like a pig’s head. No one made a move. One of them said, “Chen Mo, we won’t hit you.” Then, the person next to him added, “Unless Ren Bro tells us to.”

Chen Mo turned his head and looked at the person who was lightly rubbing his forehead, his gaze fixed on them, and asked, “Will you let them hit me?”

Liang Jingren shook his head.

The people blocking the door seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after seeing their boss shake his head.

—Chen Mo was a child they had watched grow up. Even if Ren Bro told them to do it, it would be difficult for them to be cruel.

Chen Mo saw that there were definitely some people among these people who had pity for him. He pitifully begged, “Brothers, just let me go, don’t you have the heart to watch your boss beat me to death?”

“Ren Bro wouldn’t.”

Chen Mo glanced at the person who spoke, cursing “who do you think you are” in his heart. A stream of blood flowed from his nostril at just the right time. Sure enough, some of the people blocking the way softened, and they hurriedly took out tissues from their pockets to give to him.

Chen Mo weakly coughed, said “Thank you, Little Zhuang Bro” and took the tissue. Unexpectedly, Little Zhuang, who had come forward to pat his back, was still on Liang Jingren’s side, and while patting his shoulder, he advised him, “What exactly did you do to make Ren Bro so angry? Wouldn’t it be better for you to admit your mistake properly? Ren Bro isn’t a petty person, don’t be so stubborn…”

Little Zhuang was the youngest of this group of people, and he didn’t speak with much force. Strong Bro was different. He pulled Little Zhuang away, crossed his arms, and stood in front of him. He spoke straight to the point in a loud voice, “If you really think you’re more reasonable, say it, and we’ll all help you judge!”

“That’s right!” The others echoed Strong Bro one by one.

“If Ren Bro is wrong, we’ll side with reason, not with family! Although we won’t do anything, we’ll support you spiritually!”

“That’s right, Chen Mo, don’t always be so stubborn. You’re starving yourself and locking yourself in your room, and you won’t say what’s wrong, making everyone uncomfortable.”

“Ren Bro even went to the police station because of you today!”

So he really went in, no wonder he’s so angry. Chen Mo covered his nose with a tissue and silently turned his head to look at Liang Jingren.

The other party was frowning, seeming very irritable.

That’s right, Liang Jingren really didn’t like the police station.

“Don’t be so impulsive in the future! And don’t call the police randomly! Let’s talk things out properly!”

Chen Mo turned his head and looked at the group of Liang Jingren’s henchmen who were constantly trying to enlighten him and said, “I also want to talk things out properly, but the things I say will get me silenced by your boss.”

After saying that, he turned his head again to look at Liang Jingren.

Hiss…The way Liang Jingren was staring at him at this moment was as if he wanted to bite through his throat.

Chen Mo’s playfulness was aroused, and the moment he got goosebumps, it seemed like he wasn’t in pain anywhere. He wanted to seek a little more stimulation. So he smiled and said, “Ren Bro, can I say it in front of everyone?”

Liang Jingren was stunned.

Chen Mo continued to smile and said, “It’s that thing you’re being so petty about. It’s not good to keep it bottled up in your heart, right? Should I break it open and crush it, and explain the process and the result step by step to the brothers?”

Unexpectedly, Liang Jingren wasn’t provoked by him. Instead, he calmed down. “You know very well what I’m being petty about, but just now you were beating around the bush. What, have you figured it out now and are ready to admit your mistake?”

This time, it was Chen Mo’s turn to freeze.

He had been outmaneuvered—because from beginning to end, he had never planned to reveal the matter to everyone, let alone thought about bowing his head to Liang Jingren.

“Impossible.” Chen Mo clenched his fists. “Why don’t you just keep beating me.”

Hearing Chen Mo’s words, the henchmen blocking the door all looked left and right, looking puzzled.

Seeing Liang Jingren walking over, some people were really worried and stepped forward to say a few words to persuade Chen Mo, “Ren Bro, calm down, don’t really cripple the kid, his handsome face has already been disfigured by you…”

Disfigured? Ah?? Chen Mo carefully reached out to touch his face. “Hiss…” It was indeed covered in injuries, and it hurt wherever he touched.

Liang Jingren didn’t stop. Seeing him walking towards him, Chen Mo became timid and shrank his neck. “Or, or you can lock me up again!”

Unexpectedly, Liang Jingren brushed past him and walked straight to the entrance of the internet cafe. Then, as if releasing all the anger and energy he had nowhere else to vent, he forcefully pulled away the henchmen blocking the way.

After Liang Jingren personally “cleared the way,” he stood at the door without looking back, feeling for a cigarette and lighter, then with a cigarette in his mouth, he lowered his head and said vaguely amidst the sounds of “click, click, click,” “You can go.”

…

Why?

The injuries on my body hurt so much, my face hurts so much, the places where the salt water flowed were burning…why is there salt water?

Chen Mo wiped his eyes. It turned out that tears were unconsciously sliding down from his eyes. He was crying from the pain.

He didn’t know how many times he had tried to light the cigarette, but the irritating “click” sound finally stopped, and Liang Jingren lit the cigarette.

Just as Chen Mo suddenly turned his head to look over, the smoke that came against the wind choked him, causing him to cough.

Liang Jingren’s fingers holding the cigarette were pressed against his lips. He glanced at him askance. “Anyway, you don’t treat me as your dad, so why should I lock you up in the house?”

“So you can call the police again and complain to the police that I imprisoned you…”

“You can go. Why aren’t you leaving when I tell you to leave? Who are you crying and sniveling for?”

“If you want to leave, then leave. If you have the guts, don’t come back.”

Chen Mo silently crumpled the tissue that had wiped his nosebleeds and face into a ball, clenched it tightly, and threw it on the ground. If he could, he really wanted to throw this ball of paper in Liang Jingren’s face.

He took a deep breath, clenching his fists and tensing the muscles in his face, as if he were about to grind his teeth.

He returned to the seat where he had turned on the computer, took the car keys and phone from the seat, and then walked with firm steps, muttering between clenched teeth, past Liang Jingren and his henchmen, “Crazy, leave then, who’s afraid of who, leave then!”

After walking out of the internet cafe, Chen Mo turned his head and cursed at the person standing at the door smoking, “You think this is your house?! This is just a shitty internet cafe! Moron!”

As soon as he finished cursing, Chen Mo immediately turned around and ran towards the opposite side of the road.

The corners of Liang Jingren’s mouth twitched. He flicked open his cigarette, said to the person rushing into the middle of the road, “You’re driving Jiang Jinhao’s car, kid! Remember to return it to him another day!”

Chen Mo was annoyed to death and directly threw the car keys backwards. “I’m not driving it! Take it back! Get lost!”

“You’re the one who should get lost!” Just as Liang Jingren finished shouting, a car sped past in front of him. His eyelids twitched wildly, and seeing that Chen Mo was ignoring him and recklessly crossing the road, he couldn’t help but shout, “Hey, watch out for the car!”

“Damn it!” After running to the opposite side of the road, Chen Mo turned around and raised his middle finger at the group of people at the entrance of the internet cafe, spewing a torrent of abuse, “Admit your mistake, admit your fucking mistake all day long! Stop pointing fingers at me, who do you think you are?! You’re just a stepdad! You’re just a dick!”

Not long after Chen Mo ran away, Liang Jingren was also so angry that he turned around and went into the internet cafe, booked a computer, and started killing everyone in the game.

The brothers who had gathered outside the internet cafe to watch the drama dispersed. Some went back to continue working, and some stayed with Liang Jingren at the internet cafe to play games.

Little Zhuang looked left and right on the side of the road. Seeing that there were no cars coming, he quickly ran to the middle of the road to pick up the forgotten motorcycle keys.

A black car parked around the corner of the internet cafe, and a bespectacled man in a suit got out of the car. Little Zhuang ran up to him with the car keys and asked, “Four Eyes, what exactly is going on with Ren Bro and Chen Mo? Do you know?”

It had been almost a week, and he had asked several brothers, but no one could say for sure. Strong Bro, who had been with Ren Bro the longest, didn’t know what the conflict between the two of them was, but he resolutely sided with Ren Bro, telling him to mind his own business and saying, “Whatever Ren Bro says is what it is.”

Shen Qing looked at Little Zhuang blocking his way, pushed up his glasses, and said, “You underlings don’t know anything. I’m just an accountant. What would I know?”

After saying that, Shen Qing went into the internet cafe with his briefcase to find Director Liang to sign the documents.