Back at the entrance of the supermarket, Shen Chang’an found that the cushion on the bicycle was burning hot from basking in the sun. Shen Chang’an went into the supermarket and bought some fruits and vegetables and meat. After staring at the bicycle in torment for half the day, he gritted his teeth and sat on it.
More than a week into working at the Department, the workload was quite relaxed, and the nature of the work was also not dangerous. Everyday, he started and finished work on time, and on several occasions rested at noon for two hours. Shen Chang’an somewhat understood why his colleagues said that this was the Enjoying a Life in Retirement Department.
Returning to the residential community, Shen Chang’an saw an old uncle carrying a bag of rice upstairs and was about to ask if help was needed, but who would have imagined that the uncle was the first to speak, “I’m strong.”
OK, OK ba, you are old in age but strong in spirit.
Shen Chang’an followed closely behind the uncle, slowly walking up the stairs, and finally arrived on the fourth floor. The uncle put down the bag of rice and turned to him. “You just moved in upstairs?”
“Yes, just moved in a week ago, and I live right above you. If you…”
“You’re the only single person household living upstairs. You must pay attention to safety.” The uncle quickly glanced at him, dragged the bag of rice into the house with one hand, and in front of Shen Chang’an’s face, closed the door.
This uncle was a little fierce.
Shen Chang’an packed up the things he bought and put them in the refrigerator, nimbly cooked a good meal for himself, and then started his bad habit of watching TV while eating.
In order to better understand the popular local customs, he had been continuously watching Wuming City’s local TV station these several days. Not to mention, that Small Household Affairs program slotted at noon everyday was pretty interesting.
Today’s slotted program showed a primary school student clamouring that there were ghosts in the house, terribly scaring the adults at home. Finally. after undergoing many investigations, it turned out that the school term was about to start in two weeks. This bear child’s1 summer vacation homework didn’t even have half a word written in it, and without any better options, told lies to deceive people, and carried out a plan to destroy the summer vacation homework, leaving no traces.
In the last part of the interview, the child with mosaics on their face was still wailing and insisting that there were ghosts in the house. Sitting beside the child was the father, and across his whole face was a silently enduring expression of “This is my child, can’t beat to death.”
After eating and tidying up the kitchen, Shen Chang’an received a phone call from Director Du saying that he received important news that someone living in his community was going to jump off the building to commit suicide and wanted him to hurriedly take a look.
Shen Chang’an immediately grabbed his work badge and put it on and hurried downstairs. As soon as he was out of the building where he lived, he saw that opposite the floor below was surrounded by firefighters and policemen. Perhaps because the sunshine today was too intense, there weren’t many people who came out to watch the bustling scene.
Seeing him come over, a tan firefighter reached out his hand but wasn’t able to block him. “It’s such a hot day, don’t come to watch the excitement. The person involved is emotionally unstable and having too many people around will affect his mood. It’s meaningless for you to watch this lively scene. What will you do if you have a hand in his death?”
Shen Chang’an took out his work badge and handed it to the other party, not paying much attention to the other party’s tone. “What happened?”
“So you are from the Civil Service Department, ah.” A young police officer who got out of a police car approached him and glanced at Shen Chang’an’s work badge with a subtle expression. “Just leave this to us. You can take a few photos of the scene to report back to your superiors. Afterwards, go back and have a cup of tea to cool off, ba.”
Young man, this strong scornful tone could very easily offend people, did you not know?
Shen Chang’an nudged the glasses on the bridge of his nose and saw a firefighter on the top floor fastened to a safety rope, preparing to approach the person when he wasn’t paying attention. In the room behind the person, he saw a faint silhouette of two policemen, who were presumably trying to reason with the person.
The inflatable mat on the ground was not yet fully inflated. If the person jumped down at this moment and didn’t die, he’d most likely become half crippled. However, the person was extremely agitated, and the upper half of his body leaned out from time to time, which was very dangerous.
“Why do I feel … as if someone was pulling him out?”
Shen Chang’an turned his head and saw that the one who spoke was a child whose forehead was damp with sweat.
Seeing that Shen Chang’an was watching him, the child shrank his shoulders back.
“Handsome little guy, tell uncle why you think that.” Shen Chang’an squatted in front of the child and looked at him with a smile.
The child looked at him suspiciously and couldn’t help but take two steps backwards. Mommy said that friendly looking adults who called themselves uncle and aunty outside for no reason, aside from being kind-hearted people, may also be crooks.
“Ah!”
A woman who was hiding under the shade of a tree to watch the lively scene screamed. Shen Chang’an quickly looked up. More than half of the man’s body who was about to jump off the building was already hanging out the window. The two policemen who were trying to reason with him were desperately tugging at one of his legs, and half their bodies were also leaning out.
Upon seeing this, Shen Chang’an rushed into the corridor. The two policemen waiting downstairs also hurried after him and dashed upstairs. Just then, a look of contempt flashed across the young policeman’s eyes as he watched Shen Chang’an. Listening to the sounds of his footsteps running up the stairs, he couldn’t help but wonder what exactly the other party had grown up eating that in just a few seconds, he had actually managed to leave them so far behind?
Running into the person’s room, Shen Chang’an found that not only were two policemen pulling the man who had jumped off the building, but a woman and child were also pulling the man. The child’s face was flushed, and he was shouting, “Dad, don’t jump. I’ll do my homework really well in the future.”
Reaching out to lift the child to one side, Shen Chang’an stretched out his hand to pull the man, unable to help frowning as he tugged. Why was it so heavy? Was he tugging a person, or a tonne of steel?
The policeman next to him was grabbing onto the man, gums bleeding and blue veins visibly protruding from the neck and forehead. He took a deep breath, and suddenly lifted upwards!
Wasn’t pulled up …
“Hey.” He stuck out his head and looked at the man hanging outside, eyebrows raised high in a frown. Once again taking another deep breath and pulling up hard with all his strength, the man was easily dragged back up. It was as if it was a mere illusion that the man was so heavy that he had difficulty breathing a short while ago.
After the man was dragged back into the room, he incessantly twitched from head to toe, eyes seized with terror.
“Now you know to be afraid?” Shen Chang’an leaned against the wall, panting. The two exhausted policemen simply sat their butts on the ground.
There was no air conditioner in the room, and the heat resembled a steam basket. The policemen who were closely running up the stairs behind Shen Chang’an let out a sigh of relief when they saw that everyone was fine.
“Comrade, thank you for your help just now. Otherwise, the two of us wouldn’t have been able to hold on.” Sitting motionlessly on the ground, the old policeman with bleeding gums smiled gratefully at Shen Chang’an, and said with an uneven breath, “I’ve been in the police force for so many years and have rarely pulled such a heavy person.”
Shen Chang’an looked at the man lying on the ground. This man was not at all fat, just somewhat burly, and even seemed a bit familiar looking. Wasn’t he the father who resisted the urge to beat the bear child in the Small Household Affairs program slotted at noon?
Was being a parent so difficult now? The child was unwilling to do their homework, so they went so far as to jump off a building in anger?
Once again looking at the child who was crying, sniveling and in tears, Shen Chang’an felt that the child would definitely finish his homework in earnest in the future.
The young policeman who had sneered at Shen Chang’an a moment ago walked up to him, a red flush of shame spreading from his face to his neck, and expressed his thanks in a low voice.
“What?” Shen Chang’an looked at him with an innocent face, appearing as if he hadn’t heard him clearly.
“Thank you for helping our Li Dui. And I’m sorry.” The young policeman knew that Shen Chang’an was putting up an act, but nevertheless repeated, “I offended you downstairs just now.”
Seeing the other person’s face flushed bright red with shame, Shen Chang’an gave an agreeable yet cheerful smile. “Never mind that. I’ve always been magnanimous and will not care about such trivial matters.” Because of such trivial matters, he responded on the spot.
The lady of the house finally recovered from her panic and thanked them again and again.
The paramedics came up and carried the delirious man downstairs. The lady, the child, and the paramedics left together.
Shen Chang’an was just about to leave when he was stopped by the man called Li Dui.
“Comrade, is this calling card yours?” Li Dui picked up a black and gold calling card on the ground. Possibly because the balcony outside was too hot, the surface of the calling card reflected light, and he was unable to clearly see what words were printed on it.
“Thank you.” Unexpectedly, this calling card fell out, and Shen Chang’an smoothly took it. Passing by the washroom adjacent to the master bedroom, he heard the “glug” “glug” sound of water, and easily helped the owner of the house turn off the faucet.
Conserving water was a fine moral character of humankind.
He had barely walked two steps when the faucet began to make “glug” “glug” sounds again. He turned around and looked. Water had started to flow out once more.
“The faucet is broken?” He tapped on the faucet a few times, and the faucet finally stopped leaking water. To prevent it from leaking water again when he left, he found a string in the living room and tied the faucet valve.
“What are you doing?” The young policeman who was about to leave noticed his actions and asked curiously, “You’re also a part-time plumber?”
“The owner of the house doesn’t know when they’ll be coming back. I’m helping them temporarily tie the valve.” Shen Chang’an found a piece of paper, took out a pen and left a message on it, asking the owner of the house to change the tap when they returned, and while he was at it, placed it on the wash basin.
Unsure if it was his own misconception, the young policeman felt that the faucet was trembling, as if it was scared.
He rubbed his eyes. Had he become dizzy with blurred vision catching criminals these past few days?
“My name is Yao Huailin. Do you want to exchange contact information?” Seeing that Shen Chang’an even helped the other party clean the water stains on the wash basin, the young policeman spoke.
“Shen Chang’an.” Shen Chang’an passed over his cell phone to Yao Huailin.
“What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you want to exchange contact information with me. Scan my WeChat QR code.”
“Oh.” Yao Huailin silently took out his cell phone and added Shen Chang’an’s WeChat.
“Chang’an2…you got a good name.” Thinking of what he did downstairs a moment ago, Yao Huailin deliberately praised, “It’s very auspicious to hear.”
“En, I think so too.” Shen Chang’an raised his head and looked at the mirror above the wash basin which showed the image of his smiling face.
“Let’s go.” Yao Huailin glanced at the messy house. “You’re not going to help them clean up the house, ba?”
“What makes you think that?” Shen Chang’an pointed at the wash basin where the paper with the message written on it was. “I just wanted to remind them that a broken faucet is useless. If it’s not changed, it will waste more water resources.”
Yao Huailin: “…”
It turned out that this buddy was still a good baby who saves water.
The two went downstairs. The ambulance had left, and the firetrucks were also on the site collecting rescue tools. Yao Huailin took the initiative to say to Shen Chang’an, “How about I send you to work?”
“No. I’m afraid that others will misunderstand that I did something bad and was arrested by the police.” Shen Chang’an immediately shook his head and refused. “You must know, if you cook up a story and spread it around, I’ll refute it running around on a broken leg.3 I treasure my reputation very much.”
Yao Huailin snorted. “Ok, ba. I’ll mind my own business.”
“This is for you.” Shen Changan took out a stack of low-quality flyers from his pants pocket and put them in Yao Huailin’s hands.
“What’s this?” Yao Huailin opened the flyer which had no sense of design in its layout with its simple and crude slogans.
“Boys and Girls are Equal.”
“Don’t worship God when you are sick, go to the hospital to see a doctor…”
Facing Yao Huailin’s confused eyes, Shen Chang’an slowly said, “Take it back and take a look. This is a small part of our department’s work. There’s no time to delay in building up the spirits of ordinary people, ah.”
Yao Huailin, “…”
Still bearing a grudge against him for those mocking words a moment ago, and even had the nerve to call himself magnanimous?
The Author has Something to Say:
Chang’an: I never hold grudges in my heart, because my petty grievances are written in a small book.
Footnotes:
1. Bear child (熊孩子): Naughty/annoying children
2. Chan’ an (长安): Forever Safe
– Chan (长) means Forever/Constantly/Always
– An (安) means Safe/Secure
3. Refute it running around on a broken leg: If a rumour is made about him, even if Shen Chang’an had a broken leg, he’d still go around denying it.
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