WHF Ch 76 – Try it with me

Lao Qi had been awake for a few days—to be precise, he woke up the day after they arrived in Jiamusi. His mental state was relatively stable, his memory was mostly gone, and he drifted in and out of consciousness, but he had a great appetite.

Even the doctors marveled that he was the first patient they’d seen whose body was ravenous for food before his mind had even recovered.

That day, Yu Tianbai didn’t stay long at the hospital. He bought the usual fruits for visiting patients, dropped them off, and left. He had another patient waiting for him at home. While Tu Laoqi could jolt upright from his sleep and eat on his own, the Young Master couldn’t. Yu Tianbai was genuinely afraid he might sleep himself to death.

So, it was only after Xiu Ma had fully woken up that Yu Tianbai told him about Lao Qi. The focus, however, wasn’t on the one lying in bed, but on the one still out there.

They didn’t know where Lao Wu was now, but the matters he’d left behind weren’t finished. Or rather, to put it more accurately, there was post-mortem business to handle.

Initially, Yu Tianbai thought he was about to broaden his life experiences yet again—after all, even his years in the army hadn’t involved digging up corpses in the wild. But his preparations to carry a body were rendered unnecessary the night before, when news came from the local public security bureau. Villagers had found an unidentified female corpse, and the police had begun their investigation.

The situation was now polarized. On the bright side, he wouldn’t have to make the Young Master look at a dead body. On the downside, Tu Lao Wu had left Yu Tianbai with one final remark:

“The place where Fang Hui is lying now is the reason why Yan Guoxian did all this.”

Yu Tianbai was completely bewildered. Had Yan Guoxian built himself a personal hall of repentance?

Now, the problem circled back to the very beginning: why did Yan Guoxian do all of this? But at this point, he was probably scrubbing toilets in a detention center. After all, when the Songyuan police went to arrest Factory Director Sun Jiu for so-called group debauchery, Secretary Yan himself had been present.

End of flashback. The scene returned to the congee shop. While Yu Tianbai was telling his story, Xiu Ma had silently eaten three more buns and half a bowl of congee, leaving Yu Tianbai staring in astonishment.

“Are you that hungry?” he asked, pushing the last bun over to the Young Master.

The Young Master didn’t stand on ceremony and claimed the last one. Chewing, he said, “Aren’t I trying to recover my strength?”

Yu Tianbai was nonchalant. 

“It’s not like you have anywhere urgent to go—unless you have something urgent you need to do?”

As soon as the words were out, both of them froze. Yu Tianbai remembered what the Young Master had said that morning right after opening his eyes: “I don’t have the strength right now.”

He cleared his throat. Now he could neither encourage the Young Master to eat more nor tell him to stop. He simply plugged his own mouth with a spoonful of congee.

This state-banquet-level brunch ended at eleven. Between eating and talking, they had managed to delay the owner’s closing time by an hour. Before leaving, Yu Tianbai packed up the last dregs of congee from the owner’s pot as an apology for making him work overtime.

It was the end of March, and the weather was turning warm. They weren’t in a hurry to go back to their place, so they strolled towards the Songhua River. As they passed a fishing platform, they both tacitly stopped their idle chatter, because this was where they had argued last time.

Or perhaps, where the confession had happened.

Springtime always passed quickly. Although not much time had gone by, the scenery had changed quite a bit. The distant treetops were tinged with green, and more tourists were taking pictures on the viewing platform. They were probably locals, just out for a walk in the warm weather. Small cities never really have a tourist season, and they themselves felt like long-term residents.

The only thing that broke the illusion was that everyone who passed the Young Master couldn’t help but glance at him.

Although some of it was due to his looks—Yu Tianbai was long used to the incidental stares he received—the Young Master was particularly conspicuous today.

The reason was simple: his arm was injured. The black sling, paired with the baseball jacket he had to wear draped over his shoulders, made Xiu Ma look exactly like a young triad boss on an inspection tour. Plus, he had slept well for the past few days and just had a hearty meal, so it was no surprise he looked so full of spirit.

After yet another group of young girls whispered amongst themselves, Yu Tianbai couldn’t resist making a comment.

“You know, why did you let yourself get into such a state two years ago? It would’ve been so much better if you’d just been clean-cut like a college student from the start.”

The first time Yu Tianbai saw Xiu Ma two years ago, it was as if he’d tried to wear every color of the rainbow at once. His short-sleeved shirt alone contained red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet. And that’s not to mention his hair. Yu Tianbai had once seen a documentary about a barn for overwintering dairy cows, and Xiu Ma’s so-called dreadlocks back then weren’t much different from the cows’ bedding.

People hate having their embarrassing pasts brought up, but Xiu Ma didn’t react. Yu Tianbai’s question, however, seemed to stir up his youthful memories. Facing the wind, he stood in silence with Yu Tianbai for a moment.

After a while, he said softly, “Because back then, I wanted everything, and I wanted nothing.”

Back then, Xiu Ma had just been freed from the grimy stove of poverty. His father’s Mercedes and 500-square-meter villa were like a whole new world, and it was a wonder how he adapted. But he did adapt, eventually becoming every bit the young master with butlers and maids since childhood. But sometimes, there were slips, like the first thing he thought of to eat when it got dark.

Going from extreme sorrow to extreme joy, it’s easy for people to quickly forget what they have. Luckily, he had met Yu Tianbai in his most arrogant year.

The crowd by the river finally thinned. They stopped by a railing. The weather was warmer, and water birds were already roosting.

Facing the river, Xiu Ma lamented, “That kick you gave me was the Waterloo of my nineteenth year.”

Yu Tianbai burst out laughing, startling the birds on the other side into flight.

The Young Master’s humor didn’t need elaborate delivery; sometimes a single word was hilarious enough. Yu Tianbai stood with his mouth open, gulping down the northwest wind. When he finally laughed his fill and turned back, he saw that the Young Master had been infected by his mirth.

After spacing out for a while longer, Yu Tianbai asked the person beside him, “What are your plans for later?”

Xiu Ma pouted thoughtfully, then said, “I have to listen to my boss.”

Fortunately, Yu Tianbai was also skilled at such smooth talk. He replied, “Your boss says he’ll listen to you.”

It was Xiu Ma’s turn to ponder. He tilted his head back and said, “Go to the library, or wander around the university town—that’s what I used to do on afternoons when I didn’t have class. I’ve forgotten what I did during vacations, probably just idled around too.”

Then he asked Yu Tianbai, “What about you, usually?”

Yu Tianbai answered almost without thinking, “Drinking, singing, eating barbecue.”

He then added, “That’s what I did when I was your age. I stopped later. Otherwise, I’d have lost my shape long ago from drinking every day.”

Behind the railing where they stood, a group of laughing young people passed by, probably around Xiu Ma’s age. It was March, and many universities had started their semesters.

Yu Tianbai took his arms off the riverside railing, stood up straight, and looked at Xiu Ma. Then he said, “Then today, we’ll live a day your way.”

With that, he turned and walked away, exuding the air of a domineering CEO. But a domineering CEO wouldn’t stop after two steps, only to realize the person he had just grandly addressed hadn’t followed him at all.

“Let’s go. What are you standing there for?” Yu Tianbai circled back and nudged the back of Xiu Ma’s elbow. 

“I’m taking you out to have fun.”

In that moment, Xiu Ma felt as if he were seeing the student-aged Yu Tianbai, standing in the deepening evening glow after school one day, beckoning and shouting something to him.

He couldn’t catch the nineteen-year-old Yu Tianbai, but twenty-nine wasn’t too late either.

Jiamusi also had a university town, and it was bustling with students. With April approaching, there weren’t many college students wandering around out of town like Xiu Ma. But luckily, he could blend in with them, pretending it was just a normal school day with no classes.

Yu Tianbai, however, didn’t quite look the part. Although his age wasn’t that obvious, walking next to Xiu Ma, he looked like a shady character from off-campus taking him out.

So when the arcade owner was handing over the game tokens, he glanced up a few times at the unusual pair. The man on the left, wearing a plain fleece-lined jacket with a stand-up collar and a smile in his eyes, didn’t look like a good guy no matter how you sliced it. The one on the right seemed more normal, but his blond hair would stand out on anyone, let alone someone this good-looking. The only odd thing was the sling on his arm.

“What can you even play with one arm in a sling?” the man in the fleece jacket asked.

“I’ll give you a two-and-a-half-game handicap,” the blond replied.

The nonchalant way Yu Tianbai tossed the tokens really made it seem like he was a skilled gamer, right until the tokens dropped into the machine and Xiu Ma actually beat him for two and a half games with one arm. Looking at the final score screen, he said hesitantly to Yu Tianbai:

“You really don’t have to go so easy on me.”

This earned him silence from Boss You. He put down the model gun in his hand and answered Xiu Ma, “Let’s switch games.”

The tense, intense electronic sounds were gone, replaced by the cheerful, tinkling music of a dance machine. The two stood before a cute claw machine, watching the claw controlled by Yu Tianbai come up empty yet again.

The Young Master couldn’t even be bothered to watch anymore. He had gone to buy a smoothie next door in the meantime. Now, strolling back, he offered a concerned count for Yu Tianbai:

“Three tokens left. Three more tries and you’ll definitely get it.”

While the Young Master was thoughtfully informing him of this, two college girls who were clearly out shopping had been watching from the side for a while.

Yu Tianbai simply bypassed Xiu Ma and turned to talk to them. 

“Do you want to play?”

Perhaps because Yu Tianbai’s own appearance wasn’t very approachable, and his smile had a sinister edge to it, the two girls looked at each other and even took a step back. In the end, it was up to the Young Master.

He preemptively pushed the tray of tokens towards them. 

“You guys play. Our time is almost up anyway.”

He then glanced at Yu Tianbai, but the man made no comment on his statement, neither verbally nor with his body language. He had deliberately stepped back, leaving the stage to the Young Master.

So the Young Master turned back to the two girls, his eyes asking for their opinion.

Perhaps because the Young Master himself looked so much like a model senior student, the girls thanked them and accepted Boss You’s kind offer.

But Yu Tianbai himself had already retreated five meters away. If he didn’t keep his distance, he felt he wouldn’t be able to resist ruining the act by saying, “Your model senior got into a fight off-campus.”

It was three in the afternoon when they left the arcade. They rode the elevator down in silence. When they reached the mall entrance, Yu Tianbai took out a cigarette in the smoking area by the bus stop. As usual, Xiu Ma waited for him to finish.

This time, however, while waiting, the Young Master suddenly spoke up.

“Are you angry?” Xiu Ma asked.

Yu Tianbai raised his eyes to look at him. He realized then that the Young Master had a habit: a special smile reserved for others—polite, at ease, and exceptionally well-behaved. But he never used it on him. Now, he was directing that damned smile at him, all because he had just chatted with someone else upstairs.

“No. Why would I be angry?” Yu Tianbai snorted through his nose, blowing smoke to the side.

The Young Master was magnanimous. He dropped the smile, stood up straight, and said, “As long as you’re not angry.”

Yu Tianbai put the cigarette back in his mouth and blew the next puff directly into his face. Then he stubbed the butt out on the trash can and turned to walk away.

Xiu Ma took two seconds to process before following, calling out, “Where are you going?”

Compared to his upright, cavalier posture just moments ago, Xiu Ma’s shout was sincere. Yu Tianbai quickened his pace, suppressing a smile at the corner of his lips, and shouted back over his shoulder, “I’m going to buy roasted sweet potatoes!”

Yu Tianbai wasn’t lying. There really was an old man with a roasted sweet potato cart at the nearby intersection. The sweet potatoes were picked out, wrapped in a paper bag, and then put into a plastic bag. Yu Tianbai came back against the wind, his chin buried in his collar, his face above his nose flushed red from the cold. He juggled two sweet potatoes, then tossed the larger one into Xiu Ma’s arms.

When the sweet potato was tossed, Xiu Ma’s right hand was scratching the back of his head. Seeing the piping hot landmine about to fall to the ground, he hurriedly reached out to catch it, but missed.

But Yu Tianbai’s aim was impeccable. The sweet potato flew perfectly onto his left arm, which was in the sling around his neck, getting wedged between his forearm and his chest.

Xiu Ma froze on the spot for several seconds, still in the posture of trying to catch the sweet potato. Yu Tianbai apparently hadn’t expected his own stroke of genius either and stood there frozen with him.

Two or three pedestrians walked by before Yu Tianbai finally let out a loud laugh. The Young Master slowly straightened up, securing the paper bag with his right hand. Meanwhile, Yu Tianbai was bent over, laughing so hard he staggered over to his side like an old man of seventy or eighty.

The “old man” steadied himself, patting Xiu Ma’s shoulder and praising him for the good catch.

The result was that at a quarter past three on a late afternoon with the sun slanting west, Xiu Ma was chasing Yu Tianbai down the quiet streets of the small city, almost throwing the roasted sweet potato in his hand a second time.

Early spring in the north has a very special feeling. The seasons are changing, the view is wide and open, the distant skyline is tinged with yellow, and the air carries the lingering chill of spring. Yu Tianbai and Xiu Ma were back at the riverside railing. The bag holding the roasted sweet potato was open, steam rising in thin wisps.

Yu Tianbai took the first bite. The sweet potato had been cooling in the wind for a while and was now at the perfect temperature. He peeled back the charred skin and held the caramel-colored flesh out to Xiu Ma.

The Young Master was obediently holding the other one, unable to peel it with one hand. He simply opened his mouth and took a bite from the same spot Yu Tianbai had.

“Is it good?” Yu Tianbai asked, his words muffled.

Xiu Ma chewed with full concentration. Only after a good while did he reply, “Roasted sweet potatoes from a street vendor are never not good.”

It wasn’t holiday season, and few locals walked along the river. They quietly shared a single roasted sweet potato by the riverbank, watching flocks of water birds land in the distance.

Yu Tianbai even tossed a piece of sweet potato skin to feed the birds, but it fell into the water like a light leaf, barely making a ripple.

This time, it was Xiu Ma’s turn to laugh.

By the time they started heading home, the sky had turned indigo. Ahead was a commercial street where a shop seemed to be having its grand opening, gathering the small city’s rare buzz of activity. The shop wasn’t large, but the opening ceremony was grand, complete with flower baskets, colorful balloons, a red carpet, and an emcee. As Yu Tianbai stepped onto the edge of the carpet, he saw the owner in the distance, bent over and fiddling with something.

He reacted instantly, turning his head and throwing a single word at the Young Master: “Run.”

The Young Master, always brilliant but occasionally dense, replied to Yu Tianbai’s simple command with, “Huh?”

Almost at the same instant he spoke, the sound of firecrackers erupted behind them—it turned out the owner had been bent over lighting the fuse.

This string of firecrackers was by no means short; the owner must have been hoping for good fortune, setting off at least five thousand rounds. By the time Xiu Ma started running to keep up with Yu Tianbai, the bright flashes were still exploding one after another behind them.

From a distance, their escape wasn’t particularly graceful. With the “battle” raging behind them and the crowd bustling, they looked like two children scared of the noise during New Year’s, crossing the red carpet, running past the street corner, their steps small and hurried.

The noise gradually faded. Yu Tianbai was the first to slow down. In the quietening night, Xiu Ma heard Yu Tianbai’s laugh.

He seemed to be laughing a lot today, and it wasn’t his usual laugh, but one that you could actually hear.

Yu Tianbai turned around, his eyes sparkling with amusement. He didn’t stop walking but continued backward, asking Xiu Ma, “Wasn’t that fun?”

A second string of firecrackers went off. Xiu Ma instinctively covered his ears, looked at Yu Tianbai’s grinning teeth, and shouted back, “Childish!”

They continued forward, and all around them fell silent. Yu Tianbai turned back around to face forward. After they had walked side-by-side for a while, Xiu Ma heard the person on his left ask a question.

The voice was low but steady, and very clear.

He asked, “Do you want to try it with me?”