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Capítulo 20

Xiao Fen watched the scissors dance with delight. Although she wasn't good at it, the person asking the questions changed to Brother Tai.

"I don't think I know your name yet?" Tai asked awkwardly. "What do people call you?"

"Just call me Xiaofen," Xiaofen said casually.

"You really enjoy getting haircuts?"

"Yeah, but I've only just graduated. Hehe."

So becoming a hairdresser is your dream?

"Dreams...that sounds so sophisticated, right? Hey, don't move!"

"Did you want to be a hairdresser since you were a child?"

"No way! When I was little, I wanted to be a star. I wanted to dress up beautifully every day, sing, act, go on shows and play games. What girl wouldn't want to be a star? But I soon realized I was just average-looking and my singing was just average, so I gave up!"

"oh."

"But even if I'm not a celebrity, I can still cut celebrities' hair! One day when I'm good enough, I can point at the TV and say, 'Look, look! I cut Fang Jiwei's hair, and I did Wang Jie's hair too! And I designed Ye Yunyi's latest look!'" Xiao Fen became happier and happier as she spoke, her voice practically dancing: "Hehe, am I being a bit of a gossip?"

"Won't."

"But it will take a very long time before we can become that powerful, sigh."

"Of course, before I became the eldest brother, I wasn't..."

"Isn't it all about taking the blame for our older brother and helping him kill people? Sigh, if only it were that simple."

"Simple?" Tai's expression showed a hint of despair.

"To become a great designer, I don't know how many heads I'd have to cut first. Business at our shop isn't good, and I'm the worst at it, so how could I possibly cut that many heads? I'll just have to wait and see."

After completing the task, Tai stared wide-eyed at his brand-new self in the mirror.

—A sincere, down-to-earth, and late-starting high school student.

"Not bad, right? This looks much more down-to-earth." Xiao Fen patted Tai Ge on the shoulder.

The proprietress, who had been taking deep breaths and exhaling repeatedly, finally collapsed to the ground, her legs giving way.

With a serious expression, Tai took a deep breath, as if making up his mind, and said, "This is exactly the feeling I wanted."

"Then I'll dye it a reddish color for you now." Xiao Fen hadn't forgotten about this.

"Red?" Tai Ge's body trembled.

"A gang leader can't be too down-to-earth, right? Gangsters need to have a bit of a rebellious streak!"

"..."

When he left the barbershop, Tai didn't say a word all night.

The two burly men who were standing close by didn't say a word, afraid that they would burst out laughing if they opened their mouths.

Having skipped dinner, Tai lit a cigarette outside a brothel.

Occasionally, he would touch the head that was as red as fire and couldn't help but laugh...

5

Xiaofen's life is very simple.

Besides listening to the radio and watching TV, her favorite thing to do was to clip newspaper articles.

Since three years ago, when she was still in school, she watched with everyone crowd in front of the TV to watch the Chinese Taipei team, which was not initially favored, defeat Japan twice in a row to win silver medals at the Barcelona Olympics. Xiao Fen became obsessed with baseball, or rather, she became obsessed with the Times Hawks and Chun Kuo Bears, whose Olympic medal-winning rosters later joined the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Among them, the Times Hawks, known as the "Violent Hawks" for their strong hitting, attracted her the most.

Besides brand-new scissors, her drawer also contained a scrapbook filled with clippings from Times Hawks newspapers and magazines. When there were no other tasks at the shop, it was Xiao Fen's time to savor the memories of her heroes; she knew every single Times Hawks player's game statistics inside and out.

It was a rather hot afternoon in Australia.

The proprietress behind the counter was eating grass jelly milk shaved ice while flipping through a gossip magazine she had just bought.

Traditional barbershops are full of magazines filled with pornography, violence, bizarre crimes, supernatural and charlatan advertisements. The latest issue is a must-buy, and even those two years past their expiration date are hard to throw away. Every issue is a source of great interest for everyone.

The shop door opened, and a burst of hot air rushed in.

In the hot wind, a burly man wearing a white t-shirt, flip-flops, and shorts, revealing half of his body covered in tattoos, walked into the barbershop.

"Excuse me, is Sister Xiaofen here?" the tattooed, burly man asked politely.

Xiaofen... Sister?

Without prior arrangement, the proprietress and the three hairdressers turned to look at Xiao Fen, who was clipping newspaper articles.

"Sister Xiaofen, could you please cut my hair?" The tattooed, burly man bowed.

What kind of etiquette is this!

"Boss lady, is this alright?"

Xiao Fen's eyes lit up, and she quickly put down the newspaper she was cutting and stood up.

The proprietress immediately said, "I'm sorry, Xiaofen is a beginner, her skills aren't very good yet, would you like to..."

The tattooed, burly man stared at the proprietress with extremely fierce eyes, exuding a burst of murderous intent.

The tiger on the left arm throbbed with its massive muscles, leaping and bounding all the way to the azure dragon on the right arm. If you listened closely, you could almost hear the grinding sound of the tiger and the dragon's teeth almost grinding together.

"...As for Xiao Fen, of course there's no problem, no problem." The proprietress felt as if her neck was about to be snapped, and she couldn't help but feel dizzy.

Xiao Fen blushed with excitement.

As soon as the tattooed, muscular man sat down, Xiao Fen immediately covered him with a blanket and squeezed a large dollop of shampoo onto her hand.

"No! No need!" The tattooed burly man quickly stood up and hurriedly bowed again: "I...I...I'm not used to washing other people's hair. I can wash my own hair at home after the haircut! Please, Sister Xiaofen, cut my hair directly!"

“Oh, right?” Xiao Fen tilted her head.

"What kind of haircut do you want? Or just a simple trim?" Xiaofen took out a shiny pair of scissors from the drawer.

"Anything is fine, Sister Xiaofen, please feel free to do as you please!" the tattooed burly man said respectfully.

"Go ahead and do whatever you want..." Xiao Fen was actually a little worried. After thinking for a moment, she took out a hairstyle magazine that she had just bought yesterday and said, "How about I help you pick out a hairstyle, you take a look?"

"yes!"

So Xiaofen got a haircut based on a style she found in a magazine, all the while arguing with the tattooed burly man. But no matter what Xiaofen tried to bring up, the tattooed burly man only gave very brief answers, not daring to say a word more.

After the haircut, the tattooed man stared blankly at the photo in the magazine, then looked at himself in the mirror.

"How about it? Although they're not quite the same, the styles are basically in the same direction!"

Xiao Fen was a little embarrassed, so she held up a mirror and showed the tattooed man his hairstyle at the back of his head.

A little different? The styles are basically the same?

The man in the mirror looked completely different from the cool guy in the magazine. The tattooed, muscular man was a little confused, a little lost... How did he go from a brute to a pimp in the West Side?

"Thank you, Sister Xiaofen! I'm very satisfied!"

The tattooed, muscular man with tears in his eyes sat down and shouted loudly. His powerful voice almost shattered everyone's eardrums, and Xiao Fen nearly fell to the ground.

"Then...no washing, three hundred yuan." Xiaofen clutched her rapidly beating heart.

After paying, the tattooed man bowed deeply to the shop again before leaving.

"Thank you, Sister Xiaofen! I'll definitely come again next time!" His voice was so hearty that it almost blew up the stray hairs on the ground.

"Definitely!" Xiaofen exclaimed, overjoyed. "Definitely, definitely!"

Xiao Fen's cooking skills are truly "well-known".

Every afternoon or evening, a man "exuding a rough and untamed aura" would arrive at the barbershop.

Whether it's burly thugs with dragon and phoenix tattoos, serious-looking tough guys, or shifty-eyed pimps, they all take turns entering this unassuming barbershop, like clockwork. One a day, seven a week.

It was an absolute coincidence that every man who stared in disbelief in front of the mirror would bow deeply and shout, "Thank you, Sister Xiaofen! I'm extremely satisfied!" as he left the store.

That makes thirty in a month.

The unusual hairstyles created an inexplicable trend in the surrounding area, unexpectedly adding a strange tacit understanding and camaraderie among the gangsters. The originally cool guys became a little shy under the new look.

"Um... hi?"

A strange-looking man with dyed green hair walked along and couldn't help but greet the man sitting on the fire hydrant.

"Hi? Ah..."

The man sitting on the fire hydrant raised his head, and there it was—a pink head that looked exactly like a strawberry.

The two exchanged glances instantly and sighed in unison.

"Sister Xiaofen got her hair cut last week."

"Um...uh..."

"Sigh, umm..."

Not knowing what to say, and not daring to really complain, the two grown men ended their conversation with a knowing, wry smile. As they walked away back to back, they even had a strange feeling of being comforted.

Such conversations, with the same wry smiles, occur repeatedly in this small corner of Taipei.

6

A sunny afternoon.

In front of the mirror, the television was replaying last night's Times Hawks vs. Three Tigers game. This was the third replay, and Xiao Fen had already watched it last night. But since the Times Hawks won in the end, Xiao Fen certainly didn't mind watching it again.

"A match where the outcome was already known is never going to be interesting," Aunt Zhang teased her.

“We ate three meals the day before yesterday, so we still need to eat today,” Xiaofen retorted.

"Nonsense." Sister Wang, dozing in her chair, didn't forget to complain.

While watching TV, his hands never stopped scissors.

Xiao Fen cut out the sports section of the Min Sheng Daily and clipped her favorite professional baseball news articles into her scrapbook.

Whenever the Times Hawks win, the scrapbook gets a thick layer of glue the next day. As a fan of the Times Hawks, she is naturally also a fan of their top hitter, Liao Min-hsiung. More than half of the photos in the scrapbook are of Liao Min-hsiung hitting home runs. Xiao Fen will write the RBI value of each home run directly in the corner of the photo with a red pen.

Busy with work, Xiaofen doesn't close for hours until 11 PM every night, so she's never been to a live professional baseball game. But she's made up her mind that if the Times Hawks ever make it to the championship game, even if only expensive scalped tickets are left, she'll definitely go to the stadium to cheer on her prince.

"Hi."

The wind chimes rang, and Tai, sporting red and black hair, reappeared in the store.

It has been a month since Tai Ge last walked into this store.