WHF Ch 14 – Do You Pity Me?

When Yu Tianbai returned with two popsicles, Xiu Ma was leaning against the car door, his nose no longer bleeding.

“Want to ice it?” He offered one to Xiu Ma.

Xiu Ma didn’t take the popsicle, just looked up at him, a faint bloodstain still lingering on the tip of his nose.

“Shouldn’t you get that checked at a hospital?” Xiu Ma pointed to his side. “I think you broke a rib.”

“No way, it doesn’t feel like a break.” Seeing Xiu Ma didn’t take the popsicle, Yu Tianbai leaned against the car beside him, casually pressing the popsicle to his own chin.

“You know, why’d you only aim for my face?”

Yu Tianbai stared ahead, muttering to himself. Xiu Ma glanced at him sideways and answered, “I clearly kicked you in the ribs too.”

“Yeah, nice job.” The reply was a praise devoid of any real admiration, classic Yu Tianbai style.

The conversation stalled. Xiu Ma looked down at his knuckles, red from the punches he’d thrown.

“But your face doesn’t show it. No obvious injuries,” Xiu Ma added, trying to justify himself.

“I’m tough,” Yu Tianbai replied bluntly. “But you might not be. Tomorrow, you’ll probably swell up. That first punch I threw had some force.”

After a moment’s hesitation, the young master snatched the other popsicle from Yu Tianbai’s hand.

The fight they’d had was satisfying, neither holding back. But the police showed up quickly, so it ended with a sense of unfinished business. Still, that was fine. If they’d gone all out, Yu Tianbai might not be so stubbornly refusing the hospital.

And that other guy? He’d bolted, apparently, before the cops even arrived.

The van was parked in a lot off the highway, facing the roaring road. The weather today wasn’t particularly clear or cold. In the five minutes leaning against the car with Xiu Ma, Yu Tianbai felt a rare calm.

No desires, no thoughts, as if the fight had beaten out all the old grudges. They were like elementary school boys who’d just brawled, standing at the school gate with popsicles.

Yu Tianbai decided to break the comfortable silence.

But before he could find the words, the young master beat him to it. “I’m coming with you to Heilongjiang. I’ll head back to Changchun once everything’s done.”

Yu Tianbai, hands in his pockets, looked at him, surprised to see the young master already eating the popsicle.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t come. Follow along,” Yu Tianbai replied. “Also, that was for icing your face, not eating.”

The young master hummed, shoving another bite into his mouth. After a long pause, he stared ahead and said, “I’ll fight tooth and nail for what I want.”

“You said that already, to everyone in the hall,” Yu Tianbai reminded him.

“But this time, I’m saying it to you,” Xiu Ma shot back.

Neither picked up the thread, and silence settled in for a while. Then Xiu Ma spoke again. “I don’t want to leave yet. I’m happy on this road. So, for now, you’re still my boss. You can say no, but it won’t matter. I’m sticking with you to the end.”

Yu Tianbai was momentarily speechless, blinking. “You sound like a kid talking nonsense.”

Xiu Ma tossed the popsicle stick into a nearby trash can. “Well, in your nonsense, you’re still my uncle.”

A few crows flew across the sky, and Xiu Ma straightened up.

“As my boss, you’ll treat people fairly, right?” he asked Yu Tianbai.

Yu Tianbai turned to him. “What else would I do?”

“That thing about ditching me,” Xiu Ma said, stepping from the car to stand in front of Yu Tianbai, whose gaze followed him. “Shouldn’t you let me choose between punching you or choking you?”

Yu Tianbai laughed, slowly straightening. This kid was a real businessman, picking up his boss’s ways. But when Xiu Ma grabbed his collar, the laughter stopped. His lower back pressed against the car door, and he froze.

He was serious.

As the fist came up, Yu Tianbai instinctively closed his eyes, bracing for a bloody mess. Instead, darkness fell over his face. His hat had been slapped back onto his head, just like when he’d put it on Xiu Ma’s.

Half a minute later, he silently removed the hat. The young master had already opened the car door and settled into the passenger seat, looking pleased with himself.

“Where’d you pull this hat from—your crotch?” Yu Tianbai shook the hat, opening the driver’s door. The young master gave him a complicated look.

“Can you cut back on the low-class talk?” the young master retorted.

Yu Tianbai grinned knowingly. “Can’t handle that already?”

Xiu Ma didn’t respond to that. After a pause, he said, “I’m hungry.”

“Anything you want to eat?” Yu Tianbai pulled out a cigarette, thought for a moment, then put it back.

The car’s AC hummed. The young master slowly turned his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “Iron pot stew.”

Twenty minutes later, in an iron pot stew restaurant outside Changchun, Xiu Ma wielded chopsticks, grabbing food wherever Yu Tianbai reached, turning it into a chopstick duel. When the skirmish paused, Yu Tianbai dumped all the cat-ear noodles from Xiu Ma’s side into his own mouth.

Three days.

Yu Tianbai sat in the car, toothpick in his mouth. Just three days together, yet it felt like he’d spent a lifetime on this kid. Xiu Ma sat beside him, looking at his phone—a rare sight, him glued to a screen.

“Where are we staying tonight?” he asked.

“Wherever’s closest. Any problem with that?”

The fight had worn him out, and he wasn’t young anymore. No night drives for him. That’s thirty-year-old life. The highway had plenty of rest stops, some new, some old, but they’d do. They’d stay wherever they ended up tonight.

Xiu Ma fell silent for a bit before replying, “The closest one looks a bit run-down.”

“Perfect for living the experience,” Yu Tianbai said, his mind elsewhere. He’d eaten his fill stealing the young master’s food and was in a great mood.

The car started, the sun dipping west, and the conversation stopped. The van glided along the road for a while before Yu Tianbai realized Xiu Ma had more to say. From his experience with kids, he knew the boy would speak up again.

Sure enough, before they hit the first fork, the guy on his right turned his head.

“Why’d you agree to let me keep following you?”

That’s what he wanted to ask?

Yu Tianbai looked thoughtful, though his mind was blank.

“Isn’t that what you wanted?”

He guessed the guy was rolling his eyes. Without checking the rearview mirror, Yu Tianbai added, “You might as well ask why I ditched you.”

“Alright,” Xiu Ma replied with unexpected enthusiasm. “Tell me.”

Yu Tianbai suddenly realized he’d been the one trapped. He was reading the kid, but the kid was just curious. He tugged the corner of his mouth into his signature Yu Tianbai expression—used when he wanted to smile but couldn’t, just to loosen his stiff muscles.

“Because I felt guilty.”

Xiu Ma thought he’d misheard. “Guilty?”

“I almost got you killed,” Yu Tianbai said, staring ahead, his face expressionless.

From Changchun to Shulan, and back to Changchun, their journey hadn’t exactly been peaceful. But “almost killed” was a stretch. Xiu Ma leaned back, thinking, then realized it was about the ice.

When the chain yanked him downward, Xiu Ma had panicked a bit. But as he’d said, the chain wasn’t secure and came loose with a tug.

So he’d stood there watching as, in the next second, Yu Tianbai rushed toward him—looking genuinely frantic.

“That’s a bit dramatic,” Xiu Ma said, almost laughing. “The river wasn’t even that deep. I wouldn’t have died if I fell in.”

Yu Tianbai didn’t reply right away. He lifted his gaze, glancing at him through the rearview mirror.

“Your life’s not as tough as you think.”

After hearing Yu Tianbai, Xiu Ma shot him a look.

“A little injury’s fine. I’m not afraid of pain.”

The car pulled onto the service road near the rest stop. Yu Tianbai’s brows furrowed slightly for a moment before he replied, “I’m not someone who’s worried about you. I just don’t want to hurt someone because of me. Sometimes I hurt people on purpose, but accidental’s different.”

He’d said too much again. The streetlights flashed overhead, and Xiu Ma blinked, looking out the window before saying, “Let me get this straight: my getting hurt would make you feel guilty, so you just left.”

He pressed the back of his head against the seat, looking at the man driving quietly. “Do you pity me?”

A quiet pause.

Yu Tianbai gave that signature corner-tug grin, gritting his teeth. “I’m afraid I’ll jinx you to death.”

This time, Xiu Ma was the one grinning, ready to say more. “If you pity me—”

The car screeched to a halt, tires locking and skidding a meter across the asphalt. Xiu Ma slammed against the seat, shutting up.

“Don’t worry, the brakes are fixed—when you weren’t in the car,” Yu Tianbai said. “I haven’t even asked how you found me.”

Xiu Ma stared, his brain still catching up from brakes to the question, finally spitting out a classic response: “Why’d you stop in the middle of the road?”

Yu Tianbai pointed behind him casually. “We’re here.”

Near the edge of Heilongjiang, this was the most remote stretch of highway, the most isolated service area. It stood in the middle of the road, not even a single light on. Still, they could make out a small red building a few dozen meters away, the words “Guest House” faintly glowing.

“It’s a bit old, but definitely a bargain,” the scheming boss said with unrealistic optimism, already unbuckling his seatbelt.

“Wait,” the young master interjected, raising a concern. “I didn’t finish earlier.”

Yu Tianbai raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. Xiu Ma cleared his throat for a good ten seconds.

“Online, they say this guest house has dirty stuff.”

The words hung in the air. Yu Tianbai squinted at the service area’s sign, then looked back at him. “You sure it’s this one?”

Xiu Ma nodded. “Absolutely certain.”

“Just one person saying that?” Yu Tianbai asked.

Xiu Ma didn’t even bother nodding. “Everyone’s saying it.”

Yu Tianbai sighed softly, then broke into a grin. “Tonight, we’re staying here.”

At the guest house’s front desk sat a woman, her phone blaring something shrill and unpleasant. Yu Tianbai tapped the glass, but she didn’t even look up.

“Double bed room?” she asked.

“Standard room,” Yu Tianbai corrected firmly.

“One room?” She switched to another video, followed by a burst of canned laughter.

Yu Tianbai, hands in his pockets, leaned down, exasperated. “Can you look up at us? Do we look like we’d share a room?”

The woman finally looked up. Her phone autoplayed another round of laughter as she lowered her head, slapping two keys on the counter.

“Only double bed rooms.”

The lobby was garishly red, and the hallway wasn’t much better. Their rooms were adjacent. The young master silently turned his key, while Yu Tianbai glanced his way, starting the conversation.

“If you get scared in the middle of the night, feel free to come to my room.”

Xiu Ma reacted a second or two later with a string of curses. Before he could storm into Yu Tianbai’s room, the other man slammed the door shut. Stripping off his clothes while listening to the young master’s rant, Yu Tianbai realized something else: the soundproofing in these rooms was terrible.

On the road, he’d stayed at plenty of weird places. The opera-listening woman at the desk wasn’t exactly warm, but she didn’t scream backwoods shady either. What did the kid think of this place?

Probably more worried about the so-called “dirty stuff.”

A loose tongue brings trouble. That’s what his squad leader taught him when he was a soldier. Whether that held true might take time to prove. If something really followed them tonight, maybe it’d be that good buddy from the ice.

At that thought, Yu Tianbai’s hand paused as he pulled off his fleece.

“Getting superstitious, huh,” he muttered to himself.

More than that, he should ask himself why he’d agreed to let Xiu Ma keep tagging along. Yu Tianbai stared at the flickering headlights outside the window for a while, then gave up thinking.

Better to look forward to the exciting days ahead.

While Yu Tianbai anticipated an exciting future, two figures appeared in front of the lobby downstairs. The one on the left held a pickaxe, the one on the right a rope. The north wind had been blowing for a while when the left one’s elbow nudged the right.

“You sure you got the room number right?” Tu Lao Wu, standing in the snowstorm for ages, asked his nephew, his voice trembling.

“Absolutely certain,” the nephew replied. “They went into two rooms, those ones, the two with balconies upstairs.”

Lao Wu gave his nephew a heavy look, then started toward the lobby. But after one step, Lao Qi grabbed him.

“Uncle, you sure the factory director meant for us to take them out?” he asked, voice shaky, maybe from the cold.

Faced with the sudden weighty topic, Lao Wu sighed first.

“Nephew, I’ve told you, a man’s head can roll, his blood can spill, but his spine can never bend. If we caused the trouble, we fix it. Let’s settle it tonight!”

When problems arose, he always escalated to grand principles. Lao Qi knew his uncle’s habit, but whether to act wasn’t his concern. He was worried about something else.

“No, Uncle, that’s not what I mean,” the nephew said, a bit uneasy. “I mean, by your plan, we go to the front desk, tell them someone’s waiting downstairs, lure them down, and then—”

Lao Qi clasped his hands, mimicking strangling someone, then continued, “Right?”

His uncle didn’t answer, his cloudy eyes scanning Lao Qi, waiting for him to finish.

“But we walk in, talk to the desk, and there’s cameras up there. When we leave, in the middle of nowhere with just our car, the cops’ll nab us for sure, won’t they?”

Lao Wu fell silent. The kid had a point.

“So, what’s your idea?”

He decided to hand the reins to the kid, see what bright ideas he had.

Lao Qi grinned, leaning in to whisper to his uncle, “Let’s hold off on acting. Lenin said, analyze specific problems specifically. We—”

“Cut the crap,” Lao Wu finally snapped. “Just tell me your plan.”

Lao Qi chuckled, sidling closer to tell his uncle, “We watch them first, see who these two really are and what kind of trouble they’re stirring up in their rooms tonight.”