Chapter 180: Guard Against Fire, Theft, and Room Chang'an

On July 1, 2006, the entire Qinghai-Tibet Railway was completed and opened to traffic; on July 31, Fang Chang'an celebrated his fifteenth birthday; on August 8, Wang Ke celebrated her fifteenth birthday. These were all joyous occasions. Then came August 24, which brought an event that deeply saddened Pluto—or at least made it feel that way, as it was stripped of its planetary status in the solar system.

During this period, Fang Chang'an unlocked a new achievement: for the first time, he laid eyes on the man who might well become the ultimate antagonist in his future life's journey—Shen Mo's father, Shen Chengyan's older brother, Shen Chengli.

Wang Ke's birthday had not yet passed at the time. Fang Chang'an and Shen Chengyan went together to the city to inspect the newly decorated steamed bun shop.

Due to its positioning as a "boutique snack bar," the shop was located inside a shopping mall in the East City commercial district, surrounded by office workers. With such a prime location came high rent naturally. Shen Chengyan had asked Shen Chengli for a "brother's discount," yet it still cost more than twenty thousand yuan a year—because the shopping mall belonged to Shen Chengli.

According to Shen Chengyan, in order to finish building this mall back in the day, Shen Chengli had even delayed his own marriage. There was simply no help for it, because once married, he would fall under the constraints of heavenly laws and could no longer engage in any business within the province.

The shop was on the second floor, featuring a design fairly common in large modern cities: two glass walls, wooden fences dividing the main dining hall into various areas, standardized faux-wood tables and chairs, and opaque walls decorated in an ink-wash painting style. A section of the wall even bore printed calligraphy in running script, introducing the historical anecdotes and origins of pan-fried steamed buns.

Overall, it struck a balance of minimalist elegance with a subtle traditional charm. Fang Chang'an was quite satisfied, never expecting he possessed such innate talent in interior design.

The recipe had always been tested and modified under Zhang Fei's supervision. Shen Chengyan had originally intended for Zhang Fei to take charge of the kitchen at this city branch, but both Zhang Fei and his wife felt a sense of reluctance—or rather, fear—about coming to the city, and ultimately refused. As a result, the role was given to Peng Liangliang, who was younger and much more driven. In any case, the recipe, heat control, and timing had all been standardized, so it should have been well within his capabilities.

Counting Peng Liangliang, there were now seven employees in the shop, three men and four women. Learning that the grand opening was imminent and that the boss had come for an "inspection" today, they had prepared some ingredients ahead of time, made half a pan of buns, and served two to each person on custom-made plates.

"Taste it and see if it tastes better than the ones in the town."

Shen Chengyan was extremely satisfied with the finished decoration, looking somewhat as though he regarded this as his own personal masterpiece. Beaming with pride and a sense of accomplished ambition, he snapped open the paper sleeve of a pair of chopsticks, picked up a bun, took a bite, and immediately let out a soft "Mmm~," turning to Peng Liangliang who stood nearby to praise, "Delicious! Really delicious!"

Though Fang Chang'an was distantly related to Peng Liangliang and it was precisely because of Fang Chang'an that Peng Liangliang had started working at the bun shop, the two had rarely interacted and were practically strangers, nowhere near as familiar as they were with Shen Chengyan. In particular, Peng Liangliang knew quite a few details and had no idea how to get along with this "genius" who was younger than him. Standing off to the side, he felt rather nervous, only looking as though he were finally releasing a breath of relief when he heard Shen Chengyan's praise.

"It really is quite fragrant."

It was already past ten o'clock in the morning, and Fang Chang'an was at an age with a thriving metabolism. He quickly finished both buns—one meat-filled and the other chive and egg. Both flavors were exceptional.

"You guys go back to whatever you're busy with; there's no need for everyone to just stand around here."

Shen Chengyan first dismissed Peng Liangliang and the other service staff lingering nearby, and then lowered his voice to say to Fang Chang'an, "These buns look pretty big in size, but actually they count as two or three of the old small ones at most. Isn't fifty cents a bit too ruthless?"

Fang Chang'an also lowered his voice in response. "That depends on who you're comparing it to. Around here, even at noon, no matter how huge your appetite is, stuffing yourself with six buns and a bowl of spicy soup will leave you thoroughly full, right? That's five yuan in total. For five yuan in this shopping mall, what can you buy anywhere else? A single hamburger, and it might even be cold and hard."

"No matter what, a hamburger is still a foreign thing."

"Whichever country it's from, filling your stomach is what matters most. Rest assured, pragmatic people are the absolute majority."

Fang Chang'an still had a certain degree of confidence in this. With several thousand years of tradition right here, as long as something stopped working, people would pull even gods and buddhas down from their altars. How long could the halo of junk food last? It would soon return to its proper, ordinary status.

Besides, among those working around here, who would still be desperate to eat a hamburger? Only Shen Chengyan, who had stayed in the town all along, had an ideological awareness that hadn't caught up yet.

"I kept saying we should set the price a bit higher, but you just wouldn't listen. When on earth will we ever break even like this?"

Shen Chengyan playfully tapped him on the head in annoyance. "How much does a single bun even cost to make? A yuan each—you might as well go rob a bank."

"The cost isn't just the raw ingredients. Look at how expensive the rent is here."

"We'll talk about that in a couple of years."

"Then let's raise the price of the soup a bit more, to two yuan and fifty cents a bowl."

"Three years ago, two yuan and fifty cents was enough for a whole day's living expenses, and you'd spend it on just a single bowl of soup?"

Fang Chang'an curled his lips and said nothing. Fearing he might have spoken too harshly, Shen Chengyan apologized, "Sorry, your uncle was just talking off the top of his head without any other meaning. I just feel that one shouldn't be greedy when doing business."

"Even if you scold me much worse, I can only sit here and take it."

After three years of getting along, Shen Chengyan was an elder figure to Fang Chang'an, so remarks like that really amounted to nothing. "I'm just afraid that if we set our prices too low, the other shops will feel a sense of imbalance. Don't forget, the reason other shops price their items high is partly for profit, but also because their rent and other overhead costs are extremely high, whereas our rent is a brother's discount."

Shen Chengyan was slightly startled. He truly hadn't considered this aspect, though he didn't care much either. "It's fine, just treat it as that differentiation thing you talked about. They're high-end, we're low-end; ours is simply meant to fill people's stomachs."

"Fine then."

Fang Chang'an said no more. "As long as the supply of ingredients and materials keeps up, just tell me directly whenever you decide to open. Where are we heading next?"

Shen Chengyan shot him a sideways glance. "Where do you think?"

Fang Chang'an asked in confusion, "I'm listening to you."

"Still playing dumb with me!"

Shen Chengyan stood up, chuckled, and patted him on the head. "I'm just like your Teacher Cheng; I watched you grow up. You don't even need to stick your tail up for me to know what you're thinking..."

At this point, he suddenly paused, seeing his older brother walk in from outside. Stopping his sentence, he greeted him, "Weren't you busy today, Big Brother? How do you have time to drop by?"

"Just passing by, so I thought I'd drop in for a look."

As Shen Chengli spoke, he walked over while surveying the shop's interior decoration. Shen Chengyan introduced them, "My brother, Momo's dad. This is Fang Chang'an."

Fang Chang'an stood up and greeted him very politely, "Hello, Uncle."

Shen Chengli was considerably taller than Shen Chengyan. While Fang Chang'an was no longer shorter than Shen Chengyan, he was still half a head shorter than Shen Chengli. Visually, his height must have been close to one meter eighty-five, making him undeniably towering among their generation. With a square face, he looked rather majestic and imposing.

From the moment he stepped into the shop, he had already guessed Fang Chang'an's identity and had been observing him covertly. Now, seeing Fang Chang'an greet him, he merely nodded casually and said to Shen Chengyan, "The decoration is nice. Lots of style."

Shen Chengyan said smugly, "Of course, I busted my ass for over half a year."

Fang Chang'an was still expecting Shen Chengyan to toss him a couple of compliments, only to find that this fellow completely obliterated his own contribution, omitting him entirely and using the place as ammunition to show off in front of his older brother.

"When is the grand opening?"

"Not decided yet, sometime in the next few days. Basically, all the matters have been settled."

Saying this, Shen Chengyan shouted toward the back, "Liangliang, bring out two more buns!"

"Coming!" Peng Liangliang replied from inside.

"No, no, I have to get going right now." Knowing his younger brother's temperament—someone who would seize any excuse to show off even a steamed bun—Shen Chengli hurriedly waved his hand.

"It's fine, they're already made. Try them, you've got to try them!"

Shen Chengyan forcibly dragged his older brother down. Left with no choice, Shen Chengli sat down. Noticing that the bowls, dishes, and even the paper sleeves wrapping the chopsticks were quite exquisite, he felt a bit surprised. He tasted a bun and remarked, "The flavor is good, especially this chive and egg one. It's just right."

He didn't waste any either; dipping them lightly in vinegar, he finished both buns.

Shen Chengyan said, "You're done eating, so let's go."

Shen Chengli just wiped the corners of his mouth and asked, "Where to?"

"To your place, of course."

Shen Chengyan wore an expression of "How can you possibly ask such a question?" "It's fine if you guys weren't home the last time I came by, but today you have to keep me for a meal, don't you? I haven't really spent much time at your new home yet."

Shen Chengli scolded, "Crap. If you haven't been there eight times, you've been there seven."

"Oh, I was just saying it casually. Let's go, let's go."

Shen Chengyan patted Fang Chang'an, winked at him with the expression of a model uncle, and dragged Shen Chengli toward the exit. Unlike Shen Chengyan, who didn't care about appearances, Shen Chengli had no choice but to say, "All right, all right, take your hand off me first. What kind of look is this?"

Shen Chengyan curled his lip. "I traveled all this way here, and you aren't even willing to let me sit at your house? What kind of look is that?"

"I still have a few friends upstairs. I originally just came down for a quick look and was going right back up, but with you disrupting things... Fine, I need to go up and say a word first. Wait here."

Shen Chengli brushed down his clothes and turned to walk out of the shop.

Shen Chengyan pulled Fang Chang'an down to sit again. Through the glass wall, Fang Chang'an watched Shen Chengli's figure disappear, then turned to Shen Chengyan with a smile and asked, "Uncle Shen, do you think Momo's dad will come back?"

"Why wouldn't he?"

Fang Chang'an smiled and said nothing.

Shen Chengyan wasn't stupid; he immediately understood what Fang Chang'an meant and waved his hand dismissively. "You're overthinking it. It's just a meal, it won't come to that."

A meal certainly wouldn't come to that. Shen Chengyan wanted to help Fang Chang'an see Shen Mo without any ulterior motives; he simply felt that they hadn't seen each other for several times, and since school was about to start again, he had a good intention of letting these two "childhood sweethearts" meet so they could look out for each other in high school.

Fang Chang'an had barely exchanged any words with Shen Chengli just now, yet he instinctively felt that Shen Chengli had been paying attention to him all along while deliberately ignoring him. This was deeply abnormal.

He couldn't figure out the reason for a moment. Logically speaking, Shen Chengli shouldn't know anything; surely Shen Mo wouldn't tell her parents everything? And when all was said and done, there wasn't actually anything between them to begin with...

Yet if he didn't know anything, or if it was merely based on baseless shadows, Shen Chengli's personality shouldn't have led him to treat him this way... Of course, with his limited understanding, he couldn't assume Shen Chengli was intentionally targeting him just because he hadn't spoken to him.

This matter was easy to verify; he just needed to observe what Shen Chengli did next.

After waiting for a few minutes, Shen Chengyan's phone rang. He picked it up, answered, and said, "Hello, Big Brother?"

The shop was very quiet, and Fang Chang'an was sitting close by, allowing him to faintly hear Shen Chengli's voice from the other end: "Chengyan, I've got something temporarily come up on my end, I can't break away..."

Shen Chengyan retorted, "What do you mean you can't break away?"

"It means I won't be keeping you for lunch. You can find somewhere random to eat, or go back home to eat; Feifei is probably waiting anxiously at home."

"Even if you don't have time yourself, there's no reason to chase people away, is there? Is Sister-in-law home?"

"She's away on a business trip."

"Is Momo around, at least?"

"Momo has a class reunion, she won't be back until evening."

"Fine, Shen Chengli, you're ruthless!"

"Hey, don't get angry, it just happened to coincide. I'll make it up to you later and have your sister-in-law cook personally."

"Alright, alright."

Shen Chengyan hung up the phone, paused for a moment, and probably figured something out. He turned to Fang Chang'an and said, "What do you want to eat? Uncle's treat, anywhere you want in Yunlong City, we're not going to starve ourselves!"

Fang Chang'an smiled. "Uncle Shen, forget it. There's nothing else to do anyway, and we've already seen the shop. Let's just head straight back; we just ate buns so we aren't hungry."

Shen Chengyan thought about it, nodded, and said, "Alright, then let's pack up and return home."

The two of them immediately went downstairs and got into the car to head back to the town.

Although he didn't know how Shen Chengli had found out, after what had just happened, Fang Chang'an could basically confirm that Shen Chengli indeed knew a fair bit of information and had grown highly vigilant toward him because of it. To prevent him from stepping foot through the door with Shen Chengyan, Shen Chengli hadn't hesitated to resort to such shameless tactics completely devoid of his usual dignity.

"If you won't let me find Shen Mo, then I'll just go find Wang Ke instead!"

As soon as he returned home, Fang Chang'an first called Wang Ke to ask if she wanted to go to school tomorrow to collect their admission letters. Even though the admission letters for City No. 1 High School hadn't arrived today, they might just arrive tomorrow, right?

"My big brother is really... getting more and more outrageous!"

While Fang Chang'an was calling Wang Ke, Shen Chengyan had returned home and couldn't help complaining to his wife.

Cheng Mengfei listened in a mixture of astonishment and amusement—not because she found Shen Chengli funny, but because she found her husband hilarious. She scolded him playfully, "Big Brother isn't like you, he's busy. How old are you, throwing a tantrum like a child with him? What would you have done if you had really messed up his important business?"

"I just wanted to take Chang'an to see Momo."

Shen Chengyan naturally had nothing to hide from his wife and spilled the whole truth. "The two of them haven't seen each other in over two years, and we've missed each other a few times. Now that we've made a trip to the city and I didn't bring him along, would that make any sense?"

"That's true, I suppose."

Cheng Mengfei nodded, then seemed to think of something as she asked, "Did Chang'an bring this up to you?"

"Well, no. He didn't say a single word from beginning to end. Why?"

Being somewhat more meticulous after all, Cheng Mengfei thought for a moment and said, "Chang'an is fifteen this year, and Momo is about to become a high schooler too. They aren't little kids anymore; you need to consider things more carefully when you act."

"Of course—your brain definitely didn't think that far ahead. I mean you need to consider things from Big Brother and Sister-in-law's perspective, and include Chang'an and Momo themselves; you have to think of them..."

Shen Chengyan sighed helplessly, "Oh come on, they haven't seen each other in two years, what could possibly be going on?"

"Let me finish speaking," Cheng Mengfei knitted her brows and scolded playfully. "You don't care, and I don't care either. We treat Momo and Chang'an as completely innocent, but what if Big Brother or Sister-in-law misunderstand? What would happen to Momo then? How would she get along with Chang'an in the future? Who knows, maybe things that were fine between them will become awkward just because you stuck your nose into it!"

Shen Chengyan thought about it and felt it made some sense. He nodded, but then felt something was off and asked, "What do you mean by 'treat them as completely innocent'?"

Cheng Mengfei shot him a sideways glance without speaking. While she hadn't found any concrete evidence, nor possessed Shumei's skill at piecing things together through rigorous logical deduction, she had practically watched the two children grow up and instinctively felt something wasn't quite right. Especially on the evening when the high school entrance exams ended and Momo had returned home only to throw a tantrum about going back... she always felt that matter was connected to Fang Chang'an.

"That Chengyan, he really is getting more and more outrageous."

Meanwhile, back at home earlier than Shen Chengyan and Fang Chang'an, Shen Chengli was likewise complaining to his wife.

Shumei actually knew that Shen Chengyan was visiting today, but she had no idea what could have caused a conflict between the brothers—especially given how vehemently Shen Chengli was complaining. With a light, amused smile, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"Isn't that shop of his all set up? I went over to take a look, and as soon as I got there, that Fang Chang'an was also present. The moment I walked in, I heard Chengyan say to that Fang Chang'an..."

There was no one else in the living room, but Shen Chengli still looked cautiously to the left and right before lowering his voice to say, "Chengyan said to that Fang Chang'an, he said, 'I watched you grow up, you don't even need to stick your tail up for me to know what you're thinking about Shen Mo.' You tell me, is that something an uncle and an elder is supposed to say?"

"And he's about to become a father himself, seriously!"

Shen Chengli had always been steady and composed, but the moment his precious daughter was involved, composure went right out the window. On the contrary, Shumei listened with a mixture of skepticism and amusement, asking, "No matter how unreliable Chengyan is, he should still know where to draw the line. Did you really hear him say that to Fang Chang'an with your own ears?"

Shen Chengli leaned back and assumed a serious posture. "I heard it today, not a single word off... Well, what Chengyan actually said was 'Shen Mo', so he still had some sense of propriety and at least didn't let Fang Chang'an start calling her 'Momo'."

Shumei seemed to recall something, frowning in thought for a couple of seconds before suddenly bursting into a chuckle. Once she started laughing, she couldn't stop, the laughter growing more and more intense until she finally collapsed onto Shen Chengli, laughing so hard she was out of breath.

"What are you laughing at?"

Seeing his wife laughing so heartily, Shen Chengli felt baffled and smiled along while having no idea what was going on. When she had recovered slightly, he patted her back and pressed for an answer.

"Cough..."

Prompted by his question, Shumei couldn't help laughing anew, coughing from the force of it. She barely managed to restrain herself, sat up, regulated her breathing, and said through her lingering laughter, "You most likely misheard. Chengyan probably didn't say 'thinking about Shen Mo', but rather 'thinking about what'. 'You don't need to stick your tail up for me to know what you're thinking.' Understand?"

Shen Chengli was stunned. Putting it into the context of the situation at the time, he found it somewhat believable, yet still argued, "Impossible! Can't I tell the difference between 'what' and 'Shen Mo'?"

"Then Chengyan must have seen you and cut himself off halfway through saying 'what', and you, having a preconceived notion, heard it and assumed he was talking about Momo..."

Shen Chengli silently pondered this for a moment, then smiled with wry amusement. "Put that way, did I actually wrong him a bit by throwing him out and paying him no mind?"

"You didn't wrong him at all. How could that be wronging him?"

Shumei, who had just appeared virtuous and sensible, instantly changed her tune and adopted a stance of firmly backing up her husband. "Think about it, if you had brought him home today, wouldn't Fang Chang'an have tagged along too? Just for that alone, leaving him hanging wasn't a loss at all."

"I think so too."

Shen Chengli nodded as well, speaking with a mixture of teasing and banter, "Our family's top priority for the next three years is to guard against fire, theft, and Fang Chang'an!"