Room 102 was stunned for a moment. Presumably, even if he truly intended to commit suicide, he hadn’t expected someone to ask such a question.
Only after a pause of a few seconds did Room 102 utter a line: “Oh, not yet. I’m just recording my experiences.”
What kind of thing is “not yet”?
Chen Jian looked at this man, feeling that this answer wasn’t much more normal than Shan Yu’s question.
“Recording is no problem,” Shan Yu looked at him. “If the records are publicly displayed, and your descriptions aren’t accurate and comprehensive enough, causing any negative impact on our guesthouse…”
“They won’t,” Room 102 walked toward the staircase. “I have a very good impression of this place. I’m not a store evaluator or some kind of internet influencer.”
Shan Yu didn’t speak, simply sitting in his wheelchair and watching him.
When the elevator came up, Chen Jian followed behind Shan Yu into the elevator. Only after the doors closed did he say a word: “What on earth is this guy doing?”
“Keep an eye on him,” Shan Yu said. “He really might be planning to commit suicide.”
“No way?” Chen Jian felt the hair on his arms stand up, but thinking about it made him feel a sudden flash of anger. “If anyone dares to die here one more time, see if I don’t give him a violent thrashing…”
“Desecrating a corpse?” Shan Yu said. “That’s illegal, you know. Insulting a corpse.”
Chen Jian looked at him without speaking.
“It’s fine, Manager,” Shan Yu gave a faint smile. “Relax, isn’t he still not dead yet? People said so themselves—not yet.”
The elevator doors opened on the first floor. Chen Jian walked out of the elevator and bumped head-on into Room 102, who had just come down the stairs from the fourth floor.
He even smiled at the two of them before returning to his room.
Chen Jian took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it.
Not yet.
Not yet.
Everything on the first floor was as usual. Several guests were having breakfast in the dining room. Tourists in the small town generally wouldn’t come over until close to noon, so it was quite leisurely this time of morning.
Although the Joyful Beans had planned to get up early today to avoid queuing, after that half-past-midnight commotion last night, they were all still sleeping right now.
In truth, even without that incident, they might not have been able to get up, but it ultimately gave them a very sufficient reason for sleeping in late.
“Take the trouble to ask Sister Zhao to make more desserts and the like today,” Shan Yu instructed Hu Pan at the front desk. “Provide them free of charge to all guests. Coffee is fine too. If there’s not enough, go buy some more pastries; Manager Chen will transfer you the money in a bit.”
“Mm,” Hu Pan nodded. “Are you guys going out?”
“We’ll be back at noon,” Chen Jian could tell Hu Pan felt a bit uneasy. “If anything comes up, call. Lao Si and Lao Wu will both come over today.”
“Mm.” Hu Pan made a gesture of wiping her forehead in the air and gave her hand a flick. “I’m not flustered.”
Chen Jian gave a faint smile: “Nothing will happen today. Chen Dahu was caught, and those few he hung around with are all busy fleeing right now.”
Just as they were talking, Liu Wu came downstairs from upstairs, yawning.
Chen Jian glanced at him—this valiant university student sure picked an ill-timed moment to show up.
“Morning.” Liu Wu greeted them very cheerfully.
“Come over here.” Shan Yu pointed at him with his folded cane. “Student Liu.”
Is there no need to keep it a secret that he’s your cousin anymore?
Lecturing a guest in front of Hu Pan isn’t quite justifiable, right?
Liu Wu looked at Chen Jian. Chen Jian bent down and whispered in Shan Yu’s ear: “He’s not your brother right now; he’s a guest.”
“The guest is precisely who I’m scolding.” Shan Yu turned his wheelchair half a turn and drove toward the side door by the warehouse.
Liu Wu followed behind, obedient and well-behaved.
“What’s wrong?” Hu Pan asked in a low voice.
“It was too dangerous for them to follow out to catch the thief yesterday,” Chen Jian covered for Shan Yu. “They’re all kids; if anything happened, we’d be in trouble.”
“That’s true,” Hu Pan nodded. “Not to mention Liu Wu is Boss Shan’s relative.”
Chen Jian was stunned: “How did you know?”
“The phone calls came through, didn’t they? Didn’t Boss Shan’s mom first ask if any university students checked in before looking for Boss Shan? And Liu Wu has always acted like he’s very familiar with you,” Hu Pan said. “Do you not even understand logic this simple?”
“…I guess so.” Chen Jian said.
Hu Pan laughed: “Indeed.”
“Liu Wu is Boss Shan’s cousin,” Chen Jian said.
“I figured as much too,” Hu Pan said with a smile. “I was thinking of asking him about it one of these days.”
No need to ask, he might spill it to you himself one of these days.
When going out today, Shan Yu was still the one driving. Sitting in the passenger seat, Chen Jian felt restless and uneasy, constantly having his paralyzed boss serve as his driver…
“What are we eating?” Shan Yu asked.
“Depends on whether you want to eat Chinese or Wes…” Chen Jian said.
“Chinese, Chinese, Chinese, Chinese, Chinese, Chinese,” Shan Yu interrupted his words. “Chinese food.”
Chen Jian burst out laughing: “Then just drive straight ahead. Past Xiaopang Noodle Shop, there are several places—they have porridge, steamed buns, flatbreads, soy milk, and the like.”
“Those steamed buns you ate before,” Shan Yu drove the car over there, “are they good?”
“Good,” Chen Jian said. “The filling is especially generous. Their steamed dumplings are pretty good too.”
“Let’s go eat those.” Shan Yu said.
As the car drove past Xiaopang Noodle Shop, Chen Jian noticed that Shan Yu and he looked into the noodle shop at the same time.
“What are you looking at?” Chen Jian smiled.
“Looking to see if that fat big sister spotted us.” Shan Yu said.
“We’re driving; she can’t see clearly. She probably doesn’t recognize our car either,” Chen Jian said.
Parking by the curb, getting out of the car, and entering the shop—Shan Yu performed all of these very nimbly, terrified that Big Sister Hu might see him, his legs nearly achieving a medical miracle.
Steamed buns, steamed dumplings, soy milk—Chen Jian ordered breakfast according to his own habits.
Shan Yu took a sip of soy milk, picked up a steamed bun, and began practicing “no talking while eating.”
Chen Jian also picked up a steamed dumpling to eat. Shan Yu said “no talking while eating” was the easiest thing to achieve, but in reality it wasn’t too easy, especially between acquaintances.
Several times, Chen Jian subconsciously wanted to open his mouth to say something—talk about what happened last night, talk about Chen Erhu or something—only to forcefully repress it again.
How did Shan Yu manage it when he was still a kid?
And it was only he alone who wasn’t allowed to talk.
Thinking of this, he felt like laughing again.
“What do you want to say?” Shan Yu asked after finishing three steamed buns.
“Nothing.” Chen Jian thought about it, but opened his mouth after all. “Liu Wu said this ‘no talking while eating’…”
Before he could finish his words, Shan Yu let out a tsk.
“You’re the only one who doesn’t talk while eating,” Chen Jian said.
“He’s the one who should most refrain from talking while eating,” Shan Yu said. “He should just be directly muted.”
Chen Jian smiled without speaking.
“I talked a lot when I was little,” Shan Yu said. “The reason I kept talking during meals was because my mom’s cooking tasted terrible, and my dad’s cooking tasted terrible too.”
“My mom…” Chen Jian followed up with a line, paused for a moment before continuing, “cooked quite deliciously. Cooking by myself according to what she taught me, I still can’t make that flavor.”
“I can’t make the flavor my mom makes either,” Shan Yu said. “Making anything at random tastes better than hers.”
Chen Jian gave a faint smile.
“Though it’s been quite a while since I last ate food cooked by her.” Shan Yu said.
“Have you…” Chen Jian glanced at him. “…not been back home in a long time… I mean, have you also not gone back after coming out?”
“Mm, don’t want to go back yet. We’ll talk about it when the time comes.” Shan Yu picked up a steamed dumpling and put it into his mouth.
Chen Half-Immortal… Chen Massage had pretty good business early this morning. They were all old customers in the village who woke up early.
When he saw Shan Yu come in, Chen Massage, who was massaging an old woman’s neck, greeted him: “How’s that medicine working?”
“Very good,” Shan Yu nodded. “It’s just that once I stop, I have a bit of trouble sleeping again.”
“It takes taking it for a while to get better. Wait till I take a look at you,” Chen Massage said.
“It happened at your shop, right?” An uncle looked at Chen Jian and asked a question.
“Hm?” Chen Jian looked at him.
Presumably asking about last night’s incident.
This was Old Uncle Fu from the village, who ran a small supermarket in the old town and didn’t usually return to the village much. He actually knew about it already?
“Was it Chen Dahu who went to your shop to steal stuff yesterday and got caught?” The old woman whose neck was being massaged asked a question.
“Yes.” Shan Yu answered.
“Ridding the people of a menace!” The old woman suddenly raised her voice and shouted out.
Shan Yu was visibly startled by this sudden praise, almost standing up from his chair.
“How long can he be sentenced for?” Old Uncle Fu asked. “Must be several years, right?”
“Not clear yet,” Chen Jian said. “Not that fast.”
“Things can be quiet for a while now,” the old woman said. “What a scourge!”
“I heard it was Chen Erhu who caught his brother?” Old Uncle Fu asked. “Sacrificing family ties for justice.”
“Chen Erhu doesn’t stay quiet either; he was led astray by his brother,” another auntie said. “Is he going to turn over a new leaf this time?”
“He’s working quite well at our place right now,” Chen Jian said as he leaned a bit closer to the auntie’s side. “Wait, it was just in the middle of last night—all of you know about it already?”
“How big is this place?” Old Uncle Fu said. “Catching a thief right under their window, such a huge commotion… Everyone says that boss is impressive, leading a gang of henchmen to catch Chen Dahu.”
“He’s that boss,” the old woman pointed at Shan Yu. “The one whose leg isn’t good, right?”
“Mm.” Shan Yu nodded. “It’s me.”
“With your leg like this, how did you lead the people?” Old Uncle Fu looked at the section of brace exposed under Shan Yu’s trouser leg. “A fake leg?”
“I directed from inside the room,” Shan Yu pointed at his ear. “They all wore receivers, so they could act in unison.”
“Oh—” The room burst into a collective realization. “High technology!”
Where did any receiver come from…
How did it become high technology?
Chen Jian looked at Shan Yu, somewhat speechless.
After Chen Massage took Shan Yu’s pulse and grabbed the medicine for him, when they left, the group of people in the room were still discussing it. Moreover, adding exaggerated details right in front of the parties involved, the version of the incident iterated rapidly. With the assistance of the party involved, it had already iterated to the version where Dayin’s lame boss remotely controlled high-tech equipment to capture Chen Dahu.
Further down, Chen Dahu would have to be caught and dragged away by a black-robed disciplinary squad.
“You really dare to blab about anything.” Chen Jian said.
“It’s better than having them constantly discuss how two people died at our place,” Shan Yu said. “Fabricating some rumors to suppress it.”
Chen Jian fell silent.
Shan Yu’s line of thinking had always been this bizarre and novel.
“Which way?” Shan Yu asked after getting into the car.
“You don’t even recognize the road back to Dayin anymore?” Chen Jian asked.
“Aren’t we going to the new village?” Shan Yu started the car and glanced at him. “Weren’t you going to return money and get a receipt?”
“I can go by myself.” Chen Jian quickly said. “No need for you to give me a ride.”
“Go back and then start up the motorcycle to drive over?” Shan Yu said.
“Mm.” Chen Jian nodded.
“Isn’t that walking eighteen miles in reverse?” Shan Yu said. “Didn’t that fork in the road when we came over say ‘To New Village’?”
“I… should still go by myself.” Chen Jian said.
Shan Yu didn’t speak; the car drove out.
Chen Jian didn’t speak either, simply staring at the road ahead.
When they reached the fork to the new village, as expected, Shan Yu didn’t ask him, turning straight onto it.
Chen Jian let out a sigh: “Really no need.”
“Driving a car has its benefits, even if it’s a second-hand one,” Shan Yu said. “It’s still worth more than that shabby motorcycle of yours. Let others see that you’re doing better now than before, and your ability to repay is stronger too—so they won’t keep chasing you for money out of fear you won’t be able to pay it back.”
“Then what if they feel that since I’m driving a car, they should immediately chase me to pay back everything in full?” Chen Jian said.
“Who told you to say this car is yours?” Shan Yu said. “Am I your driver now or what?”
Chen Jian burst out laughing.
“Your high-tech thief-catching boss brought you over,” Shan Yu said. “You have a stable income now; repaying the money is no problem.”
“Mm.” Chen Jian responded.
After a moment, he turned his head again to look at Shan Yu: “I know saying this sounds pretty hollow, but I still want to say…”
“No need to thank me,” Shan Yu said. “It’s along the way. If you go back and then come out again, it delays work hours.”
Mind reading—the boss truly is high-tech.
The new village was indeed very new. Compared to the old village, it lacked distinct characteristics, being the kind of uniformly planned administrative village seen everywhere.
Shan Yu drove the car, winding around half the village under Chen Jian’s direction, and stopped outside the courtyard gate of a two-story house.
Chen Jian got out of the car, walked over, and rang the doorbell; dog barks came from inside the courtyard.
Someone poked their head out from the second-floor balcony to take a look. After a while, a woman came out to open the gate for Chen Jian.
Initially, the woman blocked the doorway to speak with Chen Jian. Chen Jian said a few words, and the woman glanced over toward the car.
Perhaps it really worked, or perhaps it was simply out of awkwardness due to someone else being present, but the woman opened the gate a bit wider, letting Chen Jian into the courtyard. Then she left Chen Jian hanging in the courtyard while she went inside the house herself.
Shan Yu watched Chen Jian’s back as he stood right there in the courtyard, with a dog barking at him nearby. He waited for the people inside to accept the money and write him a receipt.
Chen Jian looked very calm. He had probably done this kind of thing an unknown number of times already; after all, given the previous income of him and his father, the repayment method was bound to be small amounts multiple times, so he had long gotten used to this kind of cold reception.
Yet in Shan Yu’s eyes, this scene was quite excruciating.
Chen Jian not letting him follow over might not have been solely because he was unwilling to trouble him, but more likely because he was unwilling to let anyone see his embarrassed predicament at this moment.
After a few minutes, a man walked out, dangling a cigarette, looking out from the half-open courtyard gate, then handing a piece of paper in his hand to Chen Jian.
Chen Jian took the receipt, said nothing more, turned around, and walked out.
Every time he finished paying back money and received the other party’s receipt, for Chen Jian, it was something that could make him feel relaxed for at least a day or two, even if sometimes, even when returning money, what he faced was complaints and accusations.
Today was considered good. Indeed, just as Shan Yu said, the boss personally driving him over to return money acted as a form of guarantee to the creditor.
Shan Yu kept watching him through the car window. It was just a length of five steps along a village road past the main gate, but being watched made him somewhat unsure of how to walk, not knowing whether he should appear happier to prove that Shan Yu’s idea was correct.
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?” Shan Yu asked a question.
“Hm?” Chen Jian was stunned for a moment, looking at him. “No.”
“Walking these three and a half steps looks so agonizing,” Shan Yu said. “If you don’t want to get in the car, just walk back then.”
If you didn’t keep staring at these three and a half steps, I’d have finished walking long ago.
Chen Jian looped around to the passenger seat and got into the car, discovering that Shan Yu was still looking over there.
“What are you looking at?” He asked a question.
“I don’t know. I feel like your creditor is looking at me, so I turned my face to let them have a look.” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian also looked over there and found that the couple was indeed standing on the second-floor balcony looking over. He was stunned for a long while, leaned back against the seat, and burst out laughing.
Once he started laughing, it became hard to stop. Even after Shan Yu drove the car forward a short distance and made a U-turn, he was still laughing.
“How much did you pay back?” Shan Yu glanced at him. “Happy to this extent—someone who didn’t know better would think you were collecting a debt.”
“No.” Chen Jian rubbed his face, looking ahead.
After a moment, he couldn’t hold back and let out another sigh.
Before Shan Yu could open his mouth to mention oxygen deprivation, he added a sentence: “Deprived of oxygen, going to buy an oxygen tank.”
“Nonsense.” Shan Yu burst out laughing.
The road coming out of the new village was lined on both sides with cornfields. Under the sunlight, the golden corn tassels and green leaves seemed to glow. Shan Yu slowed down the car, staring absently out the car window.
“Don’t look at scenery while driving, and don’t drive while looking at scenery,” Chen Jian reminded him.
“Alright.” Shan Yu stopped the car.
“…Not delaying work hours anymore?” Chen Jian asked.
“Before, up on the mountain, I could see this place,” Shan Yu said. “I felt like it was a thick blanket. Only now when I’m right up close do I realize it’s so tall.”
“Have you never been to the countryside?” Chen Jian tilted his head to look at him.
“Even when I went, I didn’t pay attention to these things,” Shan Yu said. “Looking at it for a long time makes it feel like a dream.”
“Sometimes I dream about it in my sleep,” Chen Jian said. “When I was studying in the city, I would always dream about it—mountains, fields, and the like.”
“Nostalgia, right?” Shan Yu gave a faint smile. “The farther away, the stronger it gets.”
“Chen Erhu told me this morning,” Chen Jian remembered what Chen Erhu had said earlier. “Before his brother gets out, he wants to work hard, and then leave this place.”
Shan Yu turned his head, looking at him: “Is that so?”
“Mm,” Chen Jian nodded. “Also, he asked me if it was a trap you set for Chen Dahu.”
Shan Yu let out a tsk: “His brain isn’t too stupid either… In a few days, I’ll find him to chat.”
“No need, he didn’t blame you. No matter what, you saved him; at least Chen Dahu won’t be able to beat him up anymore,” Chen Jian said. “Nor beat his dad up anymore.”
“Right now he doesn’t blame me,” Shan Yu said. “Without chatting, he’ll always have a knot in his heart. Having brought things to this point, leave no hidden dangers.”
“Mm.” Chen Jian responded.
When Shan Yu restarted the car, he couldn’t resist asking a question after all: “How long will you stay here?”
“Hm?” Shan Yu stepped on the brake and looked at him.
“Chen Erhu said everyone will leave sooner or later.” Chen Jian said.
“Some people leave to make money,” Shan Yu gave a faint smile, “some people come to make money.”
Chen Jian made no sound.
“I don’t plan on leaving yet.” Shan Yu said.
