James Brooks curled his lips in disdain and said, “You talk as if the county government is your family business! ... With today’s exam questions, for your pig brain, getting thirty points is normal—anything above that, you must have copied! But the problem is, you had nowhere to copy from, did you? You didn’t know any of the answers, so whose paper could you copy? ... Did you get the questions in advance or something? I’ve never seen you so confident in an exam before!”

“Heh heh... Mr. Brooks, haven’t you figured it out yet? The exam is just for show—the real deal is what’s behind the scenes! Now that we’re out in society, exams aren’t really about exams anymore. What matters is money, connections, power—the total score is a combination of all those! Back then, teachers decided your fate; now it’s the leaders who decide ours. If the boss says it’s fine, even a zero is no problem! You know me—give me the answers and I still couldn’t copy enough to pass.” The chubby Stephen Foster laughed proudly, holding his belly.

Whenever Stephen Foster laughed, he had to hold his belly first, or else the fat would jiggle so much he might fall over!

“Sigh, the more we muddle along, the less human we become. I’m not even as good as you now. I can’t even tell if it’s society’s problem or my own! ... People always say laid-off workers are pitiful, but we’re even worse—we don’t even have the chance to get a job, let alone get laid off! I really envy you, Old Brooks. If I had a dad who was a bureau chief, would I be worrying about all this?” James Brooks shook his head dramatically.

Stephen Foster’s dad used to be the township party secretary, and by the time he was in college, he’d already been promoted to director of the transportation bureau. The moment they graduated, the differences between students became obvious. James Brooks had been like a fish in water at school, but once he left, he felt restricted everywhere, unable to move an inch. Meanwhile, Stephen Foster had a good dad and never had to worry about anything—just waited for his family to arrange things. Thinking about this always left James Brooks feeling a bit down.

Hearing this, Stephen Foster suddenly looked enlightened and chimed in, “Don’t blame the government for your bad luck! You taught me that... Remember what our sociology professor said in college? Graduation doesn’t mean employment—it means unemployment! We have to be ready for society to re-educate us at any time! When that re-education is done, that’s when we’ll finally have jobs!”

James Brooks shook his head and quickened his pace, ignoring Stephen Foster. “Enough... the more we talk, the more pointless it gets. It’s almost noon—soon the restaurant will get busy!”

“Hey, don’t go! I was just about to say, let’s go to the city and have some fun—are you coming or not? Don’t you miss your Xiangxiang!?”

The chubby guy pulled at James Brooks suggestively, clearly just wanting a buddy to go into the city with.

“Why are you always thinking about my girlfriend? Seriously!” James Brooks got annoyed as soon as he heard that. This was his biggest worry after work, and now Stephen Foster had brought it up again.

“Oh, look at you bragging...” Stephen Foster said, looking gleefully gossipy.

“Are you hoping we break up or something!?” James Brooks glared at Stephen Foster with a dangerous look.

“Come on, Mr. Brooks, if you two really break up, don’t blame me for swooping in!” Stephen Foster joked, the flesh on his cheeks quivering, his beady eyes gleaming mischievously.

James Brooks turned and stared at Stephen Foster maliciously. “You!? With all that flab? What woman would feel desire seeing you? Maybe an appetite, but not that kind of appetite!”

“As long as there’s desire, there’s hope! Appetite is a kind of desire too! Heh heh... Your Xiangxiang loves my flab the most!” Stephen Foster grinned, squinting his eyes.

“Pighead, I haven’t put you in your place for a year and now you’re getting cocky, making jokes about your sister-in-law...”

James Brooks was furious and suddenly reached out to grab the fat guy, who was grinning lewdly.

The two troublemakers started wrestling. When James Brooks tried to grab him, he realized that after not seeing Stephen Foster for two months, his neck had gotten even thicker—he couldn’t even get his hands around it! Hesitating for a second, he was knocked off balance by Stephen Foster’s big belly and almost fell over! Spinning around, James Brooks nimbly got behind Stephen Foster and put him in a chokehold, squeezing until the fat guy stuck out his tongue and yelled for help before letting go. As soon as he let go, James Brooks gave him a kick on his fat butt: “Get lost! Don’t let me see you again!”

You can’t go easy on this guy—when you’re annoyed, he’ll just make you more annoyed; he always brings up the things you least want to talk about!

James Brooks walked ahead, while the sulking Stephen Foster hailed a cab, got in, and stuck his neck out the window to shout, “I’ll call you next Saturday! ... If you don’t go see your firewood girl soon, get ready to wear a green hat... hahaha...”

Stephen Foster shouted back in revenge, sounding extremely pleased with himself and laughing in the most perverted way. By the time James Brooks bent down to pick up a rock to throw at him, the car and the laughter were already far away!

“That damn fatty!...”

James Brooks couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation!

Even though they were always attacking each other, the invitations were always sincere... Ever since they were kids, this fat guy had always left him both laughing and crying, and their situations were very similar: went to school together, got held back together, paid high tuition for college together, graduated together, and now they were both unemployed together! They never really saw eye to eye, always roughhousing and wrestling, but never falling out for real. That’s the good thing about a friend with no filter—no matter how mad you get, it never lasts overnight.

He walked all the way back to the restaurant. The county town wasn’t big; walking east along Yizhong Road to the end, there was his dad’s restaurant—not too big, not too small, but with a very impressive name:

Wulong First Pot!

Chapter 02 Senior Brooks and Junior Brooks