WHF Ch 3 – “Climax.”

Yu Tianbai took a drag of his cigarette. He had been out of the car for two minutes, and the north wind had smoked most of the cigarette for him. Standing in the snow, he felt the menthol flavor of the cigarette was heavier than usual, overpowering the tar taste and becoming the dominant note in the icy wilderness.

But Yu Tianbai only cared for the tar taste.

He took another hard drag, then tossed the cigarette butt to the ground. The farmland beneath his feet still had leftover stubble. He stared at the black spot the cigarette burned into the snow, and suddenly his thoughts drifted to the kid in the car.

A few seconds later, he nudged some snow over the cigarette butt with the tip of his shoe, covering it. Then he turned and got back into the car.

The young master didn’t say anything on his own, didn’t even glance his way. To avoid speaking first himself, Yu Tianbai also avoided looking at him. He closed the car door, buckled his seatbelt, released the handbrake, and started the engine with the gas pedal in one fluid motion.

The weather was clear, the road was smooth, and the only issue was that it seemed a bit too quiet now.

Yu Tianbai was someone who liked to strike up conversations, but it depended on the person. Someone like Xiu Ma, once given a topic, would go on and on without stopping. Not enthusiastically, but freely, though the freedom was just for himself. Of course, it wasn’t enough for him to perform alone on stage; he also needed to drag the audience below to cheer for him. And right now, the only audience member was the poor driver gripping the steering wheel, the pitiful Yu Tianbai.

The nearest rest stop was still ten kilometers away. Yu Tianbai let out a heavy sigh. The nameless frustration in his heart was like an engine hood baking under the sun, rising steadily.

Was it really worth it? Was it really worth it? He lifted the brim of his cap, letting the sun-fueled irritability fly out.

His internal monologue ended, but the car remained quiet.

Listen to a storytelling podcast? No way. Last time, it was about Wang Po scheming with Ximen Qing, and who knows what it would be now.

Listen to the radio? No way. He didn’t want to find even a sliver of common ground with this kid, not even music taste.

After a moment, Yu Tianbai adjusted his stiff cheeks. But just as he let out the first syllable, he caught a glimpse of the young master’s face turning toward him in his peripheral vision.

Both of them stopped talking at the same time, like a kettle lifted off the stove, leaving only invisible steam rising.

“You go first,” Yu Tianbai relented, shifting his gaze to the left.

It was a concession, but also a chance for the kid to see what else he could come up with.

“I was going to say,” he tilted his head toward Yu Tianbai, “why do you keep taking small roads?”

He never should’ve given him the chance.

“This isn’t a small road.” The muscles in his face tightened again, and Yu Tianbai tried to force a calm smile. “This is the shortest road.”

Xiu Ma’s response came immediately.

“Isn’t that the same as a small road? No toll booths, no rest stops the whole way. Wouldn’t it be unsurprising to run into a bandit?”

Bandit? The calm in Yu Tianbai’s smile vanished, and he started trying to suppress the sarcasm in his tone.

“Let me ask you,” his index finger tapped on the steering wheel, “what do you think this trip is for?”

Since getting in the car, the young master had been nestled in his graphite-colored down jacket. From the rearview mirror, his face looked like a prince observing others from behind a gauze curtain. Yu Tianbai raised his chin, waiting for him to speak.

“Your post on the forum said visiting production, learning and observing, and hands-on experience. Now that I think about it, it’s definitely not about pharmaceutical equipment, right?”

What annoyed him was that the young master remembered it quite accurately, almost word-for-word from the post.

So he chose to tell the truth.

“Very good, smart. Let me explain it to you, then.” He stopped looking at Xiu Ma’s face. “Visiting production means going to a health supplement wholesaler. Learning and observing means asking the boss which products sell the most. As for the last part, you read it yourself, so you should understand, right?”

He locked onto those light-colored eyes again, slowing his speech with a slight smile. “Hands-on experience. If necessary, personally testing the products. You get what I mean, don’t you?”

Xiu Ma’s posture didn’t change, and he didn’t say a word, but his eyes widened in silent stillness.

Not in surprise, but in shock.

Yu Tianbai admitted he’d made a pretty crude joke. If no one was watching, he could’ve grinned for a full minute. He kept his mouth closed, but his lips curled upward twice uncontrollably.

“I have another question for you.”

The third curl was interrupted by Xiu Ma’s question. Yu Tianbai glanced to the right. The young master’s face was surprisingly composed, with no trace of embarrassment from being called out.

“Why did you choose this line of work? I don’t want excuses like you enjoy it. I don’t believe you’re doing it to make ends meet. So why do you do this?”

This was why Yu Tianbai knew he could never get along with this guy. They’d known each other for two years, spent two hours together, but he could already foresee every minute and second of their future interactions being like this, with no change in sight.

After a sigh, Yu Tianbai countered with a question.

“Do you have any dream jobs?”

“Plenty.” The roadside snow reflected the light, illuminating the young master’s golden hair. “I’ll achieve them one by one.”

That was the truth, Xiu Ma’s life philosophy. Before twenty, he might’ve veered off course a bit, but after twenty, this was how he thought. If he wanted something, he’d fight for it. If he couldn’t get it, he’d fight harder until he did.

The man in the driver’s seat didn’t respond right away. His pointed chin lifted slightly under the cap’s brim, and he was looking at himself in the rearview mirror.

“There are a lot of fake things in this world. Money gets spent, stocks crash, businesses get scammed, lovers run off. But there’s one thing that will never lie to you.” His eyes looked bright in the rearview mirror, full of vigor. Then, with clear enunciation, he said two words:

“Climax.”

Xiu Ma’s brows furrowed with the trailing note, and he shifted his gaze directly to Yu Tianbai’s face. Yu Tianbai loved seeing this expression of genuine thought.

“Don’t doubt me. I mean exactly what you think I mean. Unless you can’t handle it.”

Before the young master could respond, Yu Tianbai quickly added another line.

“But if you can’t, that’s fine. This is my trade, after all. Try some of the stuff I sell.”

A perfect bookend.

But the second before Xiu Ma could explode, Yu Tianbai slammed on the brakes again, and the van screeched to a halt on the road.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Stopping like that in the middle of the road? You might want to die, but I still want to live!”

Hearing his long-overdue outburst brought a hint of amusement to Yu Tianbai, but now wasn’t the time to tease him solo.

Yu Tianbai nodded toward the back of Xiu Ma’s seat. “There’s someone behind you.”

Someone?

Never mind that this was freezing Jilin, on a national highway far from the city. Xiu Ma’s eyes flicked across Yu Tianbai’s nonchalant face before he turned to look at the blinding snow outside.

The window rolled down, and there really was someone.

On the shaded side of the highway, where the snow hadn’t been compacted by passing cars, a person lay flat on their back in the frozen, crusted snow. They were wrapped in a military coat and wearing a Lei Feng hat, their face obscured. Kneeling in front of them was another person dressed identically.

The kneeling one seemed stunned that a car had stopped. After a long pause, he struggled to his feet, talking as he approached.

“Big brother, thank you, thank you! I’ve been kneeling here for nearly half the afternoon!”

“Wait,” Yu Tianbai tilted his head, calling out past Xiu Ma. “Stay where you are. Don’t come closer.”

The man froze in place, his Lei Feng hat crooked on his head. The person at his feet remained still, perfectly steady, without the slightest movement.

Yu Tianbai leaned across the space in front of Xiu Ma, propping his hand on the window frame.

“Is he alive or dead?”

Xiu Ma shrank back from his movement, but the smell of cigarette smoke mixed with the crisp air from outside drilled precisely into his nose. He felt a sneeze coming on and could only turn his face toward the window along with Yu Tianbai’s motion.

The person on the ground looked stable, with a ruddy complexion and a calm expression, not like someone who was ill. The standing man was momentarily speechless and first took off the item slung over his shoulder.

“You two big brothers, I’m Tu Laoqi, and the one lying on the ground is my uncle, Tu Laowu. We’ve been working together for years. After the Lantern Festival, we were heading back to the city for work. But while we stepped off to relieve ourselves by the lake, the driver just drove off with the car!”

Yu Tianbai thoughtfully pulled back his hand from the window frame and asked.

“So what’s wrong with your uncle? Is he drunk?”

Tu Laoqi finally straightened his crooked Lei Feng hat. Having just poured out his complaints, white steam was still puffing from his mouth.

“I’m not afraid of you laughing, but my uncle has a condition.”

He lowered his voice, and Yu Tianbai raised an eyebrow.

“My uncle, when it snows, he gets drunk easily.”

On the unseen snowy ground, the lying man’s fingers twitched slightly.

Yu Tianbai had leaned back into the driver’s seat, while Xiu Ma was still full of skepticism.

“Is that a real condition? How does he survive in the Northeast?”

“Absolutely true,” Tu Laoqi said, seeing the yellow-haired young master take him seriously, his enthusiasm rising. “Li Bai said, ‘The snowflakes of Yanshan are as big as mats, falling one by one on the Xuanyuan Terrace.’ Even the poet sage drank to calm his nerves at the sight of snow. My uncle doesn’t need to. He gets drunk on his own.”

Xiu Ma was still nodding slowly, but he heard the person behind him start the engine again. He turned to stare at Yu Tianbai.

“We’re not helping them?” he asked.

In the driver’s seat, Yu Tianbai’s teeth bit down on his lower lip. He softened his voice. “Right now, the ones who need saving the most are us.”

What did that mean?

His gaze hadn’t left Yu Tianbai’s face when a sharp sound came from outside the window. It wasn’t footsteps or a lighter, but something vaguely familiar that he couldn’t quite place.

But to Yu Tianbai, the sound was unmistakable. He took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.

Xiu Ma turned his head. Outside the window, there were now two figures. The person who had been lying down was standing, not just standing but holding the brown, elongated cloth bag that had been on the ground. The front half was still wrapped in fabric, but the back half was uncovered.

That sound had been the cocking of a gun.

The barrel was pointed at the driver’s seat. Yu Tianbai stared straight ahead, while Tu Laowu’s lips twitched to one side, his reddened eyes locked on him.

“Get out.”