WHF Ch 21 – Isn’t that your ex-boyfriend? 

In the parking lot of the service area, Yu Tianbai pinched a fried dough stick and opened the car door. Xiu Ma was in the passenger seat, it was unclear whether he was resting with his eyes closed or asleep.

Yu Tianbai looked at him, chewed silently for a moment, and then asked:

“Were you scared by me?”

“No.”

The answer came immediately, it seems Xiu Ma wasn’t asleep.

“I’ve never heard a gunshot before.” He continued.

Yu Tianbai nodded, swallowing the fried dough stick in his mouth.

“And never been pointed at with a gun.”

The person in the driver’s seat was thoughtful, but his mouth wasn’t idle, he took another bite.

“So weren’t you still scared by me?” he asked vaguely.

Xiu Ma slowly opened his eyes. The crisp sound of gunshots still echoed in his ears. Five bullets, one shot, one bolt action, a total of ten sounds. Each shot hit the ground near the people’s feet. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hit them, but he didn’t want to.

Those two ran pretty fast. The older one got up first, ignoring his nephew. The younger one struggled on the ground for a while before Xiu Ma remembered he was still on top of him. Once released, the man ran away like a lame rabbit.

One old, one young, one after the other, accompanied by five gunshots, disappeared behind the half-person-high corn stalks.

If it weren’t for legal obligations and responsibilities, they would probably be carrying corpses now. Xiu Ma didn’t want to think about that possibility. He raised his hand and touched the auricle of his left ear.

“I feel like you hit my ear.”

After speaking, he looked down at his fingertips again. There was no blood, but his ear was still burning. It must have been rubbed red.

“You’re really fine.” Yu Tianbai drawled, turning his body to face him directly. “Do you want me to get closer and take a look for you?”

Xiu Ma’s brows furrowed. He quietly increased the distance between himself and Yu Tianbai and asked, “Will they go back and call the police?”

“Sure,” Yu Tianbai rolled up the paper bag after finishing the fried dough stick, “if they can make up a legal source for the gun.”

After a moment of silence, Xiu Ma turned to look at him: “I finally believe you were in the army today.”

“Huh?” Yu Tianbai questioned his topic change, “Why, didn’t I seem like it before?”

Xiu Ma looked left and right, as if confirming that his next words wouldn’t fall into someone else’s ears.

“I thought it would be the kind whose WeChat signature is ‘Two years of compulsory military service, a lifetime of military sentiment’, and after leaving the army, they would open a ‘Veteran Barbecue’, ‘Veteran Renovation’, ‘Veteran Bathhouse’…”

His voice trailed off, he raised his hands in a “no offense” gesture, and winked meaningfully.

“You don’t seem like that, but you really can shoot.”

Finally, he added a seemingly ambiguous compliment.

“Don’t imitate me, I practiced in the army.” Yu Tianbai replied with an equally pertinent sentence. After speaking, he tilted his head and stared at Xiu Ma, “But to be honest, the bathhouse I ran before really wasn’t called ‘Veteran’.”

Looking at Xiu Ma’s interested expression, he was momentarily speechless.

“It’s called ‘Tianchi’.”

Xiu Ma burst out laughing on the spot. After slapping his thighs a few times, he took a deep breath and straightened up, then continued to laugh uncontrollably. After he finished laughing foolishly, he pointed at Yu Tianbai:

“That name doesn’t suit you, it should be changed to ‘Di Fu’.”

“Tian” corresponds to “Di,” “Chi” corresponds to “Fu.” It’s not a perfect parallelism, but there is a trace to follow. For a second or two, Yu Tianbai almost laughed along with him, but the dignity of being a boss shut him up. He pushed Xiu Ma’s arm several times, but couldn’t stop the boy’s gushing laughter. Yu Tianbai could only take a breath and turn to look out the window. It was indeed a good day today. He even felt that his mood had improved a little.

His fingers were still a little numb, and the shoulder that had supported the gunstock was also aching. Predictably, there would definitely be a bruise under his collarbone tomorrow morning. After all, he wasn’t twenty-three years old and in the army anymore, and his body wasn’t as resilient.

So was he really that proud back then?

No, perhaps the actual situation was really like what Xiu Ma said. Reciting the slogans known to everyone in the barracks, changing their WeChat signature to “Sedimentation,” posting more pictures of their backs in military uniform when they left the army—these were all common among comrades, and so was the emptiness—for him personally.

He felt even more unsuccessful in the first twenty-plus years of his life after leaving the army. No university, no job, messed up his relationship with his family, while his younger brother got into a top university, while the family’s courtyard was being renovated, while everything was flourishing.

Emptiness, like the blue sky of Northeast China, was a real emptiness.

Xiu Ma, on his right, finally stopped laughing. He caught his breath and turned to look at Yu Tianbai.

“I have another question. The factory director surnamed Sun that you mentioned just now, isn’t he your ex-boyfriend?”

Sometimes, people who laugh too much like to ask excessive questions. Xiu Ma’s question was obviously one of those, and he obviously didn’t realize it himself. He was still waiting for Yu Tianbai’s answer.

Perhaps the boss’s expression had already given the answer, the young master continued with his next question:

“Why did he send people to follow you?”

“Because he wants to convert the glass factory into a spaceship factory, and wants to send me back to be a technical consultant.” Yu Tianbai answered without hesitation, looking at Xiu Ma’s ever-changing expression, he continued, “Don’t you also think it’s impossible?”

Xiu Ma was silent. He knew Yu Tianbai was being difficult again, and this person didn’t know why his ex-boyfriend was after him.

And he wouldn’t admit that he didn’t know.

“Do you really not know?” Xiu Ma didn’t want to end the topic easily, “Or is it that you just don’t want to mention anything about this person.”

Yu Tianbai sat up straight quietly. The smile on his face disappeared. The smile wasn’t really a bonus on his face. Although it was suitable, Yu Tianbai always had a condescending air without it. This suited his face even more.

“Do you really want to ask these questions?” he asked.

Xiu Ma raised his chin at him: “You’re admitting you just don’t want to mention him.”

“Whether I want to mention him or not has nothing to do with you,” Yu Tianbai leaned back in his seat and softened his tone. “Is it fun to watch other people’s relationships? If you like it, go experience it yourself at a massage parlor. You’re not short of money anyway.”

But Xiu Ma wasn’t afraid of him like this—maybe he was afraid when he first got in the car, but now he was bolder.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal, it’s good to be friends after breaking up,” Xiu Ma looked out the car window and stretched his shoulders. “Maybe it’s your personality.”

Yu Tianbai crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to admit it was an eye roll, there was no need to be angry with such a pampered young master—just moisturizing his eyes.

“If you like asking questions so much, I’ll ask you a question too.”

But if the young master sincerely wanted to provoke him, it would be better to just overturn the table and have a fight. That was the most suitable way to communicate, just while he was still warmed up from firing the gun.

The young master was looking over here, Yu Tianbai suddenly brought his face closer, grabbed his left hand and pulled it up sharply.

“Tell me about you—”

A loud police siren directly cut off the second half of the sentence. Yu Tianbai was still firmly holding Xiu Ma’s hand, Xiu Ma’s upper body shrank by half, staring at him, the two looked at each other.

After the siren behind them stopped, Xiu Ma reacted and struggled. He yanked his hand back and tugged at his shirt. Yu Tianbai silently withdrew his hand and sat up straight. The police came from behind and tapped on the car window.

“Why are you parked on the side of the road? I’ve been watching you for a while.”

After another long silence, Yu Tianbai raised his hand and lowered the window.

“What are you carrying in this car?” The police officer put his hands on his hips and scanned the suspicious Wuling Hongguang.

“Our own small business,” Yu Tianbai finally managed his facial muscles and showed a harmless smile to the people’s servant. “Just a small business for the benefit of the public.”

After he finished speaking, he handed over his driver’s license.

The police officer didn’t reply. Obviously, the benefit the boss mentioned didn’t sound quite right. He took the driver’s license with one hand, the person in the passenger seat exhaled and crossed his arms.

“Who is this to you?” He asked Yu Tianbai, pointing to the young master in the passenger seat.

Yu Tianbai glanced sideways at Xiu Ma, then looked back at the police officer, and stated confidently: “My nephew.”

Xiu Ma immediately turned his head back. The police officer looked at him, his eyes narrowed as if by wind and sand. After blinking several times, he asked Yu Tianbai:

“Your nephew?”

The police officer’s expression, like Xiu Ma’s, was full of disbelief. He looked at the ID card in his hand and sighed: “You look quite young.”

“It’s my nephew who looks a bit older.”

Yu Tianbai gestured towards his “nephew.” Xiu Ma’s expression turned stiff.

The policeman compared the photo on the ID with the grinning Yu Tianbai, then asked:

“You two had a fight—why have you been parked on the side of the road for so long?”

Hitting the nail on the head, Yu Tianbai put both hands on the steering wheel, took a breath, and glanced at Xiu Ma. Xiu Ma didn’t look back at Yu Tianbai. He had a premonition that some irrelevant nonsense was about to come out of this person’s mouth.

And under these circumstances, he wasn’t sure if he could hold back from interrupting his nonsense.

“Forget it,” The police officer adjusted his hat and returned the driver’s license to Yu Tianbai. “You guys deal with your family matters yourselves.”

Thank goodness, the policeman’s disinterest gave him a reprieve from suffocating. Xiu Ma dramatically slumped back into his seat, Yu Tianbai glared at him.

“But what are you carrying in the back of this car?” The police officer adjusted the walkie-talkie on his shoulder and took a few steps back. “Open it up and let me see.”

The breath he had just exhaled was sucked back in an instant. Xiu Ma, who had been like a shrimp, straightened up. He and Yu Tianbai exchanged a silent look.

The gun was still in the back seat, the gun was still in the back seat!

After a series of clattering sounds, Yu Tianbai was the first to get out of the car and followed the police to the back seat. The owner came out, but the trunk didn’t open. Was this normal on the main road? The police officer cleared his throat.

“Open the trunk.” He repeated.

The sky was azure, the sun was making Yu Tianbai’s eyes uncomfortable. He tried to manage his expression and words: “It’s our fault for parking on the road, every family has a teenager—”

“Open the trunk.” The policeman repeated for the third time, his tone subtly changed, he wasn’t joking.

Xiu Ma pressed himself tightly against the passenger seat. He could feel every breath scraping against his throat, so unbearable he wanted to yell. Every second felt like an eternity.

Law-abiding all his life, who would have thought he would be caught in such a situation?

Behind the car, the not-so-law-abiding boss seemed to have figured things out. The corners of his mouth lifted: “Alright!”

With a bang, the trunk popped open. Xiu Ma could practically feel the sunlight rushing in, casting the shadow of the Type 81 assault rifle on his face, so he simply closed his eyes.

This was the end. The end of Xiu Ma’s life where he was still going back to university, the end of Xiu Ma’s life where he was always striving for things he couldn’t get.

But a few seconds later, what answered all his imaginings was the policeman’s earth-shattering laughter.

“This is why you didn’t want to open the car door for inspection?” The policeman laughed so hard he could hardly breathe, pointing at the goods in the car. Yu Tianbai stood by the back of the car, his face stiff as he followed the policeman’s hand.

A box of colorful, dazzling, rubber objects of various shapes lay in the storage box in the car. After Xiu Ma brought them up, they were thrown here, sitting right in the center, thankfully right in the center.

Of course, except for the one that Xiu Ma used as nunchucks, that one had been thrown away. Perhaps in the future, passersby would find the faded double-headed hero in the corn stalks—but that’s a story for another day.

At this moment, Xiu Ma was looking back, Yu Tianbai was looking forward, their eyes met, Yu Tianbai tried to signal with his eyes towards the Type 81 lever not far behind the seat.

“I understand, I understand, it’s all a business for the benefit of the people, but some people just look at it with colored glasses.”

The policeman hadn’t finished speaking, the initial gloomy atmosphere was swept away, and Xiu Ma, amidst his intermittent laughter, was pulling the cloth bag containing the gun little by little.

“Speaking of this,” The policeman patted Yu Tianbai’s shoulder, Xiu Ma stopped his movements on the spot, “There was an elderly couple downstairs from my house before, they did this business. In order to avoid embarrassing their child, they would always take their child to avoid the area after school.”

At this point, the policeman paused, the corners of his mouth twitching: “Such a good family. Now the child is in graduate school, who knows how long it will be before they can go home.”

The cloth bag was finally pulled to the front seat, but the butt of the gun hit the floor with a thud. The policeman raised his head.

“Kid!” he called to Xiu Ma, who was startled. “You have a good uncle, you should go home and visit often.”

Xiu Ma hugged the cloth bag and nodded slowly and blankly: “Okay, okay.”

The police officer left behind a benevolent proverb, wiped his nose, waved goodbye潇洒地, and turned to get into his car. It was a while after the police car left that Yu Tianbai returned to the driver’s seat and sat down silently.

At this moment, he had an illusion that the two of them were like naughty kids who had just been caught by their homeroom teacher and then released without charge, returning to their seats for evening self-study, forgetting everything that had just happened.

Homework, mission, tasks, the topics they had talked about, and the outburst that almost happened, all vanished into thin air. Yu Tianbai looked at Xiu Ma in the rearview mirror, his state was not much different from his own.

Where were they just now?

Yu Tianbai raised his left hand and pressed it against his aching brow bone. The emotional ups and downs were making his head ache.

“Time to go.” he muttered to himself.

Fasten seat belt, start the car, before putting his hand on the brake, he suddenly noticed Xiu Ma’s phone screen light up.

“Your phone’s ringing.”

He reminded Xiu Ma.

The interesting thing about this kid was that his phone was always on silent, and he never looked at it. God knows how anyone was supposed to contact him by phone.

The young master searched around for a while before remembering that his phone was upside down in the armrest box between them. He pulled the phone out and fell silent while looking at the screen. Yu Tianbai was on his left, their silence shared.

Not intentionally, Yu Tianbai once again inadvertently saw his caller ID.

Mom. Mom again.