The Autobiography of a Tomb Raider

"Mom! I'm back," Li Jing said, dragging me into her house like I was a stray dog.
Li Jing’s mother, though only in her forties, had already gone quite gray, with deep forehead wrinkles that spoke of a life full of hardships.
"Xiao Jing, who is this? A classmate of yours?"

"No, Mom," Li Jing said, pulling my arm. "Mom, I caught this guy by the moat. He was acting suspiciously, and I think he’s one of those electric fishers."
"Electric fishing?" Li Jing’s mother looked at me with a puzzled expression. "Young man, are you an electric fisher?"
I quickly explained that it was all a misunderstanding and that I wasn’t an electric fisher at all.

Li Jing’s mother looked at me kindly and shook her head with a smile. "You don’t look like an electric fisher to me. Xiao Jing, you’ve made a mistake this time. You even dragged him here. Apologize to him."
Later, I figured out why Li Jing was so determined to catch electric fishers.
It was because the Shunde Forestry Bureau had put out a bounty. At the time, the ecological damage to the Yangtze River was severe, with species like the Chinese sturgeon and the Yangtze River dolphin on the brink of extinction. The authorities had made a strong push to protect the river environment, and this effort had reached Shunde.

Anyone who caught someone electric fishing or using explosives to fish could claim a reward from the Forestry Bureau—500 yuan per person!
That’s why Li Jing had been so persistent. She thought I was an electric fisher and wanted to turn me in for the reward.
Because her family needed the money.

Under her mother’s insistence, Li Jing reluctantly apologized to me. She said, "Classmate, I’m sorry."
Li Jing’s mother was warm and hospitable. To make up for the misunderstanding, she invited me to stay for lunch.
It was already past two in the afternoon, and I was starving, so I agreed.

For lunch, we had rice with three dishes: scrambled eggs with leeks, stir-fried zucchini and green beans, and a cold lotus root salad. The home-cooked meal was simple but delicious.
I kept my head down and focused on eating, while Li Jing glared at me. Every now and then, she would tap her porcelain bowl loudly with her chopsticks, making a scene and earning disapproving looks from her mother.
She was upset because I was eating their eggs.

Li Jing’s mother scolded her, "Xiao Jing, where are your manners? What has this classmate done to upset you?"
Li Jing bit the tip of her chopsticks and pouted. "He hasn’t done anything, but I just don’t like him."
That made me angry.
Even though I came from a poor family and had no parents to care for me, I had one thing: a strong sense of pride.

I put down my bowl and chopsticks and stood up to say goodbye to Li Jing’s mother.
"Who cares about your eggs?" I thought angrily.
But just as I reached the door, I was pushed back inside by a group of people.

There were six or seven of them, all young men in their twenties or thirties. They carried buckets of paint, and some had sticks in their hands.
"Where’s Li Dequan? Get Li Dequan out here!"
"If he doesn’t come out, we’ll beat up his wife and kids!"

They looked fierce, and I was terrified. I’d never seen anything like this before. Li Jing and her mother didn’t look much better—their faces were pale.
One of the men walked into the house with a paint bucket. When he saw the food on the table, he sneered.
"Damn, you’ve got money for eggs but not to pay me back?"

"Let’s see you eat this!" He poured red paint all over the table.
The smell of the paint was overwhelming, and the food was ruined. Li Jing’s mother looked terrified, while Li Jing kept her head down and stayed silent.
The man laughed. "You like eggs, huh? No money, huh?"

He used his stick to push the paint-covered scrambled eggs toward Li Jing.
"Go on, eat it. You like eggs, right? If you finish this plate, we’ll leave. Haha." The others joined in, laughing.
"What are you doing?!" I couldn’t take it anymore. This was bullying!

"Oh?" The man looked at me and smirked. "And who the hell are you?"
I took a deep breath and said, "I’m Li Jing’s classmate. If you don’t stop, I’ll call the police!"
"What? Call the police?"

The group burst into laughter.
"Paying back debts is only right! You little brat, you dare call the police?"
He swung his stick at my head.

I instinctively raised my arm to block it, but I was too slow. The stick hit me square on the head.
My head felt sticky, and when I touched it, I realized I was bleeding.
Everything started spinning.

"Stop!"
"I’ll eat it! I’ll eat it!" Li Jing, who had been silent until now, suddenly looked up, her eyes red. She shouted at the men.
Li Jing’s mother was crying.

Li Jing grabbed the eggs from the plate and started shoving them into her mouth.
The eggs were covered in paint, and the smell was unbearable. Li Jing gagged after the first bite.
"Haha, not good enough! Eat it all! I said eat it all! Are you deaf?"

Li Jing kept eating the eggs.
Five minutes later, the plate was empty.
"Well, that was entertaining. At least we got a good show today. And remember, tell Li Dequan that if we come back and he still doesn’t have the money, it won’t be this easy next time."

With that, the men left, cursing and laughing.
My head was bleeding badly, and I felt terrible lying on the ground.
"Are you okay?" Li Jing wiped the paint from her mouth and carefully helped me up.

Li Jing’s mother found some gauze and bandaged my head. I rested on their bed for over an hour before I felt better.
"Classmate, I’m so sorry you got hurt because of us," Li Jing’s mother said, her voice full of guilt.
"Auntie, who were those people?" I asked, still feeling a throbbing pain in my head.

"My dad’s business failed, and he owes them a lot of money," Li Jing explained.
"Business failed? How much does he owe?"
Li Jing’s mother sighed. "Fifty thousand yuan."

"Fifty thousand?!" I was shocked. That was a huge amount of money. Even if they saved every penny, it would take years to pay it back.
"Classmate, do you live at school or should we take you to the hospital? We’re really sorry about this," Li Jing’s mother said apologetically.
"No, no, I don’t need to go to school. I can walk by myself. I’m fine now."

As I left, Li Jing walked me out.
"Hey, I’m sorry about earlier," she said, walking beside me with her head down.
"It’s fine. It’s all in the past," I said generously, waving it off with a smile.

"You’re not from our school, are you? Which school do you go to? I’ll come visit you sometime," Li Jing suddenly asked.
"Uh, well…" I lied, "I’m in my second year at No. 1 High School."
"No. 1 High School? You must be a good student," Li Jing said with a smile.

I blushed and didn’t respond. My grades were consistently in the bottom three of my class—a fact I wasn’t proud of.
Back then, Xiaolingtong phones were just becoming popular, but most students couldn’t afford them, so we didn’t exchange numbers. However, Li Jing said I should come visit her sometime and even asked me to help her with her studies.
When I got back to the inn, Boss Wang was drinking tea.

He nearly spat out his tea when he saw me with a bandaged head.
"Yunfeng, what happened to you? Did you fall into a ditch while scattering soil?" Boss Wang asked loudly.
I awkwardly replied, "Boss, I got beaten up."

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