“The Yellow River flows eastward, the celestial star in the sky, Shen, joins the Big Dipper ah!”
“Seeing the uneven road, roar…” Shen Chang’an was humming along with the player in the car. He seemed to be in a good mood, but the melody from his mouth had slightly lost its shape.
The watery mist permeated over the mountain village road. Once in a while, wild birds swept past in a flurry, making the whole road appear incomparably bleak and desolate. As he listened to Shen Chang’an’s out of tune singing, Ding Yang took out his cell phone and looked at it. It had been less than half an hour since he exchanged driver’s seats with Shen Chang’an, but he always felt that they had been driving on this road for several hours.
He touched the photo of the great men on his body, and he felt more at ease. Fortunately, he had laminated the photo, and was not in fear of it getting wet from the rain.
When the van turned a corner, Ding Yang caught sight of a man who was drenched all over and beckoning to them from not far away. He seemed to want them to give him a ride. In this desolate place outside of town, with it raining so hard outside, it was very dangerous to walk outside alone. Ding Yang hastily said, “Chang’an, there’s a man ahead who wants a lift. Let’s give him a ride.”
“Where?” Shen Chang’an braked, and the water in a muddy puddle splashed several meters away under the pressure of the wheel. Seeing that the beckoning man was sprayed from head to toe in muddy water, Ding Yang’s lips trembled, wanting to give up on the idea. He was afraid that the other party would kill Shen Chang’an after getting in the car.
“Brother Yang, where’s the person?” Shen Chang’an looked around and didn’t see anyone. After turning off the player, he looked at Ding Yang suspiciously. “Did you make a mistake?”
Ding Yang blinked and then carefully looked at the man on the side of the road. It turned out that it was not a man, but a tree stump. He didn’t know what boring person draped old and shabby clothes on it, and from a distance, it looked like a man stretching out his hand.
“The rain was too heavy, and I couldn’t see clearly.” Ding Yang smiled in embarrassment, and his heart was somewhat uneasy. “We should quickly leave. Sister Juan and the others are still waiting for us to return.”
Shen Chang’an looked at his watch. “There’s more than two hours left. There’s time.”
The van started again. Maybe because Shen Chang’an’s attitude had affected Ding Yang, most of his inexplicable fear had disappeared. In order to prevent the atmosphere in the van from turning awkward, he began to chat with Shen Chang’an.
Fortunately, the other person was not a taciturn person. The ambience between the two people as they conversed was very harmonious. After chatting, Ding Yang looked at the heavy rain outside the window, worried. “These days, the rice harvest season has been really good. The rain is so heavy. I don’t know if it’ll affect the villagers harvest.”
“The summer rain always comes in a hurry, and it clears up quickly. Don’t worry.” Shen Chang’an took a long look at Ding Yang. This colleague looked pretty young, but his heart was very good.
“That’s good.” Ding Yang laughed. “My hometown is in the countryside. When I was a child, I saw a lot of rushing about to harvest rice in the summer, so I get worried whenever I run into bad weather. Chang’an, you’re from a big city. You don’t know much about the countryside, right?”
This new colleague was white and tender. He didn’t look like a kid who grew up in the village.
“When I was a child, I spent two years in the countryside. I don’t know anything about it,” Shen Chang’an said with a smile. “Before I came here to work, I heard from my friends that there’s a lot of delicious food here. Is it the same in our Wuming city?”
Hearing the words, “our Wuming city,” Ding Yang unconsciously felt closer to Shen Chang’an. He immediately said, “It certainly is. When we talk about the good food here outside, we always use the provincial capital as an example. In fact, there’s a lot of food in other cities in our province, but they are not famous.”
“It would be a pity if we can’t make it to the dinner party tonight in such heavy rain.” After listening to Ding Yang’s introduction of several kinds of delicious food, Shen Chang’an stepped on the accelerator, and the speed of the van increased a little.
No one could stop him from pursuing delicious food!
“The rain … it seems lighter?” Shortly after the speed of the van had increased, Ding Yang noticed that the rain outside had suddenly become lighter, and even the watery mist that affected his sight had become thinner.
“It seems that we can return in time to get dressed and have dinner.” Shen Chang’an was in high spirits. When he smiled, his eyes were slightly curved, like a beautiful crescent moon.
After the van left the mountain village road, the cell phone, which had no signal, finally regained its communication function. Before the van entered the main road, Ding Yang’s cell phone rang.
As soon as the answer button was pressed, Gao Shujuan’s sharp voice came out of the cell phone receiver without the use of the speaker function.
“Xiao Ding, where did you go with Xiao Shen? Why couldn’t I get through to your cell phone all this time?”
“Sister Juan, I …”
“I heard that there was a landslide in Corn Village, and there was an accident. You two should come back first and go there when the weather is good!”
“I …”
“Xiao Shen, that child, has just come to work. He is gentle. As a senior, you should take good care of him.”
The gentle Shen Chang’an heard this and smiled at Ding Yang. He truly did look gentle and well-behaved. Ding Yang silently listened to Gao Shujuan’s words. After hanging up the phone, he looked at Shen Chang’an with mixed feelings. If he goes back to tell his colleagues that this gentle new colleague was a man who operated a van like a plane speeding off the road, who would believe him?
Ding Yang touched his own face. People who looked gentle with fair skin truly had an unfair advantage.
Shen Chang’an drove the van back to where he was living and lent Ding Yan a set of clothes he hadn’t worn. Ding Yang was a little embarrassed and even said that he would wash it and return it when he went back.
“You’re too polite, Brother Yang.” Shen Chang’an handed ginger tea to Ding Yang. “I live nearby. It’s more convenient to come to my house to change.”
Ding Yang was still a little embarrassed. He glanced about the house where Shen Chang’an lived. It looked like a model house, and probably because it had just been moved into, there was no lingering scent of cooked food. The housing prices in Wuming City were not high. Most families liked to buy three-bedroom apartments with an area of more than 90 square meters. For example, Shen Chang’an’s two-bedroom apartment with an area of approximately 70 square meters was not common in this area.
He didn’t ask whether the house was purchased or rented. He took two sips from the teacup. “There’s still an hour before the dinner party. Should we sit for a while?”
“En.” Shen Chang’an turned on the TV. His house had not yet set up a broadband connection. The TV only received a few local TV stations, and snowflakes were floating on the screen.
Ding Yang looked at the TV and couldn’t help sitting up straight. His finger trembled as it pointed to the TV. “Chang’an, quickly watch the news.”
The city TV station was broadcasting a news emergency, saying that the road leading to Corn Village had collapsed, and a car accident had happened. The driver died after the rescue failed. They asked others to not drive vehicles on this road now.
“Fortunately, we came back in time.” Shen Chang’an watched the TV and rejoiced, “Otherwise, we might have gotten stuck midway on the road.”
“The collapsed section of road was where we passed through.” Ding Yang was a local. He was very familiar with the nearby routes, so he immediately recognized the collapsed section shown on TV at a glance. They had just passed by there not too long ago. “When we were coming back a short while ago, we didn’t seem to have seen any collapsed areas?”
Shen Chang’an looked at Ding Yang with a complicated look. “Brother Yang, surely you don’t mean that you want to come across such a thing?”
“No. Don’t you find it strange?” Ding Yang said. “When we were coming back, we didn’t encounter any other vehicles, but in this video, there was an ambulance. Isn’t there something weird about this?”
“Brother Yang, our job is to propagate science, not the publicizing of strange events.” Shen Chang’an calmly patted him on the shoulder. “Maybe the ambulance was in a nearby village and just happened to run into a car accident. It’s normal that we didn’t come across it on our way back. The collapse should have happened after we left. Don’t scare yourself. It was just an accident, nothing more.”
The strength of the pat on his shoulder was quite soft, yet Ding Yang was able to calm down. He thought about it carefully, and Chang’an’s explanation was reasonable. He was already sitting here peacefully. Why did he still want to scare himself?
Completely drinking the cup of ginger tea, Ding Yang’s stomach was somewhat bloated, and he ran to the toilet to let water out.
“At 3:08 pm, after receiving the phone call, our hospital rushed to the site of the accident. Unfortunately, the injured person was already beyond rescue and died…”
Shen Chang’an glanced at the TV screen which listed the surname, age, and body characteristics of the deceased so that the family members of the deceased could claim the body as soon as possible.
He picked up the remote control and turned off the TV. He turned his head to see Ding Yang coming out of the bathroom, and whispered, “The deceased was only in his thirties. The family waiting for his return, I don’t know how sad that must be.”
Ding Yang sighed. “Life is like this, so we should cherish our family more and don’t leave behind any regrets.”
Shen Chang’an briefly curled the corners of his mouth. “Come on, let’s go to the dinner party.”
“Oh, okay.” Ding Yang instantly nodded. Ever since he had sat in the car driven by Chang’an at breaking high speed, afterwards, he was unable to turn down the various kinds of small suggestions from Chang’an.
The storefront of the place for the dinner party was not very big, and the décor was quite average. The advertisement light box outside the restaurant had accumulated a layer of dust, and the coloured printing had already faded away. It said, “22 yuan per customer.” The price was very cheap.
By the time Shen Chang’an and his colleague arrived, the others were already sitting down around the table. When they saw the two of them approaching, Chen Panpan waved at them. “Xiao Yangzi, Shen Chang’an, this way.”
“Chang’an, can you eat spicy food?” Du Zhonghai, who was sitting in the innermost area, wiped the slightly greasy tabletop with a piece of paper. “Their spicy boiled fish and spicy boiled chicken are their specialties.”
“Not very spicy, but it’s OK.” Shen Chang’an couldn’t refrain from looking at Du Zhonghai’s forehead more. Before, the area there had been shiny. Now, there was a wig on his head, but the wig was parted straight down the middle, making Director Du’s appearance seem somewhat funny.
“Then, let’s make it mildly spicy, mildly spicy.” Du Zhonghai touched his chubby stomach, and seemed to have a made a big concession, and called over the boss, “Boss, make a mildly spicy boil today, with fresh fish fillets.”
“Don’t worry, it will be definitely be killed while it’s alive.” The boss looked at Shen Chang’an and said with a smile, “Director Du, is this your new colleague?”
“Yes, this is Xiao Shen, a new colleague in our department.” Du Zhonghai smiled and nodded.
“For the sake of your new colleague, I will give you a pumpkin round flat cake.” The boss nodded to Shen Chang’an and hurried into the back kitchen. The view of his back was majestic, like a general about to go to war.
“Hehe, a new customer has come today. The boss will definitely press the bottom of the box1 again to show off all his unique skills.” Chen Panpan rubbed her hands, anticipation all over her face.
Shen Chang’an, “…”
So the reason why his colleagues brought him to a dinner party with such enthusiasm was simply because they valued his newbie status?
“Don’t be sad,” Xu Ze comforted. “We can leave you the fish maw to eat later.”
Shen Chang’an. “…”
This consolation was not at all useful.
However, when the prepared spicy boiled fish was ready afterwards, Shen Chang’an placed the fish maw into his bowl in front of everyone. Even though the spiciness caused tears, he risked his life to eat a lot.
As a new colleague who had been “used,” he must eat to return the principal.
When paying the bill, the boss asked Shan Chang’an with a smile on his face, ““Young man, how’s the taste of my shop’s fish?”
“It was delicious.” Shen Chang’an’s tongue was so hot that it was about to lose consciousness.
“That’s a must. My shop has been open for more than ten years.” The boss was so happy that he waived off the odd two-yuan charge.
Du Zhonghai and Gao Shujuan lived near one another. After they finished eating, they went home, leaving the four young people to hurry on their way.
“So full ah.” Chen Panpan rubbed her stomach. “In the future when I get married, I must find a man with good cooking skills.”
“So, do you have a boyfriend now?” Xu Ze asked with an expressionless face.
Chen Panpan, “…”
“Which Little Sister wants to get married? Big Brother can help. Come, follow us brothers.” A couple of drunken street thugs came over, and the huge gold chain around their necks shone brightly under the streetlights.
Xu Ze and Ding Yang quickly stood in front of Chen Panpan, frowning as they looked at the several good for nothings with colourful hair. Ding Yang said, “Brothers, this is a main street. Please be a bit more polite.”
“What’s wrong with the main street?” A thug in a floral shirt pushed Ding Yang. Ding Yang couldn’t stand firm and bumped into Shen Chang’an who was next to him.
Clatter. The glasses on the bridge of Shen Chang’an’s nose fell the ground, and the lenses broke into pieces.
Touching the empty bridge of his nose, Shen Chang’an raised his head and looked at the thugs and said, “No one told you that gathering a crowd to forcibly molest or insult women in public will be sentenced to more than five years in prison?”
“Ha ha ha, ai ya, we’re so scared.” The thugs roared with laughter, and one of them even stepped forward and stuck out his chest. “I’m just teasing, just teasing. If you have the ability, come and beat me.”
This kind of gentle man always had a sharp mouth. When they set off to do something, they do it better than anyone else.
///
Footnotes:
1. Press the bottom of the box: Hidden treasures/skills that are hidden in a metaphorical box. The boss is going to open said box and use all his skills to cook.
2. Eat back his principal: Chang’an was used to get good food, so he has to eat his fill.
Translator’s Note:
Sorry, but the updates will be slow and sporadic. I’m currently trying to stockpile chapters.
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