Addicted: Book One - The Inquietude of Youth (1-44)

Chapter 21 - Old ginger is spicier than young ginger

Translator: Estreline | Edit: ernurse86 |Proofread: Blue Blossoms

∞

After school, Bai Luo Yin was walking down the road in a very perplexed state of mind. On one hand, he was wondering how to make Shi Hui completely gave up on him, amicably. On the other hand, he wanted to sincerely convince Gu Hai to stop bothering him.

Weighing his options, he decided that Gu Hai is his priority.

Shi Hui's matter was destined to be a prolonged war and he had to resolve that annoying fly first who was bothering him so much. By swatting away/aside the fly, he can then tackle his heart's problem.

The weather was suffocating, making people breathless. It was supposed to be the beginning of autumn, yet his body felt sticky; he had only walked a few steps and yet he would be sweating.

When will the rain fall?

Bai Luo Yin walked on the streets, looking around at the stores and plants and flowers at the roadside. Suddenly, two words caught his eyes and he couldn't help but to stop.

Lubricant oil...

........

After the first bell of the afternoon class, Gu Hai suddenly found a black spot on his arm. He ran his fingers on the desk and saw that two of his fingers had dark stains. How can there be black powder on my desk without no reason? This must be Bai Luo Yin doing...

So childish.

Gu Hai snorted, cleaned the table with a wet towel, and raised his hand to ask permission from the teacher to go out. The teacher allowed Gu Hai, so he got up and went outside. The winds outside were strong, causing the door to shut after him.

Bai Luo Yin smirked when he heard the door close.

Gu Hai washed his hands and walked back to the back door of the classroom. He found that the door was locked and it won't open no matter how hard he tried. He gently knocked on the door and one student stood up to help him. But, no matter how hard they twist the doorknob, it wouldn't budge.

Gu Hai went to the front door and tried opening it but to no avail.

Gu Hai then thought about the black powder on his desk and he suddenly understood what had happened. All of it must have been Bai Luo Yin's dirty trick. His real aim wasn't to make his arm dirty, but to lock him outside!

Do you think that I can't get in if you locked the doors?

Gu Hai walked out of the school building, and stood on the ground and looked up. The windows of class 27 were wide open. The building had three floors, but for Gu Hai who had been practicing climbing since the age of five or six, it was a piece of cake.

He looked around and saw no one nearby. Gu Hai's feet perched on the window frame, his hand grabbed the water pipe next to the window and climbed quickly. His actions were very swift, each step light, stable and fast. In less than half a minute, Gu Hai was already on the third floor. He took a peek through a window inside the class. Upon seeing that the teacher was writing on the board, he took the opportunity to quickly move his hand from the water pipe to the windowsill.

Eh? Why is grill so slippery?

Bai Luo Yin heard a loud sound from outside. He knew that Gu Hai had gone down. His heartbeat quickened as if he had swallowed hundreds of peppermint candies; he felt refreshed and satisfied. It had been so long since he had this much fun and it felt as if he was lying on a meadow and strolling on the beachside...

Bang, bang, bang!

A few loud knocks on the door suddenly disturbed Bai Luo Yin's thoughts.

Didn't he just fell down? How did he get here this quickly?

Director Zhang from the security department angrily knocked on the door. He shouted, "Didn't someone call to tell me that a teacher has fainted? And why isn't this door be open? Open it!"

The teacher was shocked, he hurriedly put his book down and rushed to open the door, only to find that the door won't open.

"Sir, the backdoor is also locked."

Director Zhang stared at a sticker on the doorknob.

Bai Luo Yin's patent?

"Let me."

Bai Luo Yin approached the door and secretly pulled out the rubber band from the inside of the lock. Soon, the door opened and Bai Luo Yin saw Director Zhang's angry face.

"Are you Bai Luo Yin?"

Bai Luo Yin hesitated for a minute, then he nodded.

"Come to my office!"

His loud voice shocked some students who had just woken up from their sleep.

"To put it nicely, you are vandalizing. To put it severely, this shows that you have serious issues with your way of thinking and your morals! Why did you make that prank call? And do you think you can do whatever you want to the door locks? You have grown up, how can you do such a childish thing like this?"

Bai Luo Yin's ears were ringing, his head was a mess, but he clearly knew who gave Director Zhang a call. Now he could only curse that guy and wish his leg was broken or something.

"You have to pay for damaging the public property, bring 100 yuan by tomorrow."

"Why do I have to pay? Those two locks are not badly damaged, if at all. I can fix it right away!"

"You tampered with them so you have to pay. That's the rule."

"Our family is poor, I can't afford it."

"You can't pay for it, but you can tamper with the locks, eh? And you're still joking about the patent. Okay, you don't want to pay? Give me your parent's phone number. I'll get it from them."

"It's better to get it from me rather than getting it from him."

"Enough! Give me the number!"

Bai Luo Yin rattled off a series of numbers.

The call went through and Bai Han Qi's simple and honest voice could be heard from the other side of the phone.

"Who is this?"

"I am the director of the security department at Bai Luo Yin's school. He broke two doors locks in his classroom. I asked him to pay the fine, but he said that his family is poor. I only wanted to hear, just how poor is your family? You can damage the property yet you cannot pay the fine."

"The lock in our house has been broken for almost five years, we didn't even change it to a new one. However, in these 5 years, not even a single thief broke in. So tell me, how poor is our family?"

Director Zhang exhaled heavily, he was shocked.

Bai Luo Yin almost laughed out loud. As expected, a chunk of old ginger gives adequate spicy flavor.

-

Translator's Note:

The original title of this chapter is "姜还是老的辣" literally means old ginger is spicier than young ginger. It's an idiom which means the older you get, the wiser you become. Or you could just say, experience counts.