YV | Chapter 8

After the rain passed, Zhang Xu resumed work. His hand had not fully healed, and the doctor said to rest, which was also empty talk. There was still some of the last camphor wood left. Zhang Xu drew sketches, cut the rough blank, refined the structure, and finally shaped it. He sank into the lonely world the wood gave him, and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

The carving went smoothly, faster than any of his previous works, and it did not rain during the process. The right humidity was very friendly to wood. Zhang Xu was in a good mood, and called Huang Zong, saying it was carved, when should he send it over?

Huang Zong said, wait a moment.

Zhang Xu drank tea and waited half an hour, then Huang Zong called back.

“A great immortal figured it out for me, this afternoon from 2 to 3 is just right. Boss Zhang, come deliver it yourself, your birth characters are good for me!”

“...You even know my birth characters?”

Huang Zong pretended to be stupid, “Haha.”

Zhang Xu also laughed, rather reservedly.

“I’ll add money, give you five thousand as an appearance fee!”

Businesspeople are really superstitious about this kind of thing. Zhang Xu, acting on the basic principle of maintaining connections, and of course with the mindset that money thrown by a nouveau riche should not be turned down, did not think much and agreed.

“Deal, I’ll arrive at 2:30.”

He hung up, and when he turned back he suddenly saw a white-haired, white-bearded old immortal with a kind face. For some reason, he was in a daze for quite a while.

Zhang Xu respected human beliefs, so he handled things seriously, carefully packed the wood carving, and after lifting it into the trunk, fixed it in place properly. To prevent any accidents, he deliberately left an hour and a half early.

He did not expect an accident to still come.

The road out of the Jiangping Road parking lot led to the main road, with a traffic light every three steps, and some sections under subway construction, causing year-round congestion. Even if road rage got mixed in, it would not be able to let out a single fart.

No matter how good-tempered Zhang Xu was, after being cut off by three cars in a row, he could not help rolling his eyes. It was not that he was sure to win in a driving contest. In a broad sense, obeying traffic rules was everyone’s responsibility. In a narrow sense, even if you did not look at the monk, you had to look at the Buddha. The Moon Old Man in the trunk would equally look down on every driver who blasted past in a frenzy.

Zhang Xu kept his temper and turned around, choosing to take a five-kilometer detour.

When the car reached the intersection at the end of the front alley and back alley, it was still within the scenic area, just with fewer people. There were quite a few stray cats and dogs, though.

The sun was hiding under thick clouds. When it suddenly peeked out, it was more glaring than usual. Even though Zhang Xu had already slowed the car, he was still caught off guard and had direct sunlight hit his pupils. Unlucky as hell, less than an inch in front of the hood, a shadow flew out like a heavenly soldier descending, looking very much like a staged scam.

Zhang Xu reacted fairly fast, brake and handbrake flying together, the rubber tires scraping the ground with a piercing sound, dust instantly rising. Zhang Xu lurched forward with the force of inertia, the seat belt tightening around him until he could not breathe smoothly, and the Moon Old Man in the trunk suffered as well.

He did not have time to care about any of that, Zhang Xu clearly felt the front tire run over something.

It could also be a person.

Zhang Xu got out of the car and first saw a pair of bony legs, and froze for a moment.

Not far away, a girl’s scream came, and she shouted,

Xiao Yang!

Then, a bald head flew and jumped out from the alley beside them, with two scenic-area security guards chasing after him. The guards were cursing, “You little crooked-head, stand there for me!”

Cat-and-mouse real combat training, the scene was a total mess, with both meat and vegetables.

Zhang Xu’s temples throbbed. The one lying on the ground did not move at all. Afraid the person was dead, he cautiously went forward to check. Just as he stepped, he stepped on something and looked down. It looked like some kind of spare part, cracked and with paint peeling off.

The person braced himself and climbed up, still never lifting his head.

Zhang Xu frowned.

At this moment, the big-eyed girl’s cry suddenly changed tone, not so sharp, and she sucked in a breath of cold air before falling silent. She covered her own mouth, her shocked gaze mixed with indescribable complexity. She looked at Zhang Xu, then at Sheng Xiaoyang, the collision of impulse and reason sending up fierce sparks. In the end, she silently stepped back half a step, and glared at the bald head, hoping he would get as far away as possible.

Sheng Xiaoyang frantically fumbled for the fragments on the ground, his hands shaking badly. He picked something up, could not hold it, and dropped it again. He had no idea what was happening around him, submerged in his own dead-water world.

There are just some people in this world who walk carefully along the edge of a cliff, while the darkness of the abyss still bares its fangs and claws.

A secondhand old man phone with a camera function was not cheap. Sheng Xiaoyang had saved money for a long time and bargained with the boss. The boss could not understand his gestures, so he ripped him off and said it was not cheap at all, just six hundred, take it or leave it.

Sheng Xiaoyang hesitated for a long time. The six-hundred-yuan phone was the best thing he could reach within his ability, and he might have to eat steamed buns for half a month.

He was too poor.

Sheng Xiaoyang did not tell Big-Eyed about this. No one would understand. The phone did not have a card inserted, and the boss said he could give him a nice number for free, but Sheng Xiaoyang did not want it. A phone card was useless to him.

The first function Sheng Xiaoyang learned on the old man phone was taking pictures, so he only used this function.

More than a hundred photos of Zhang Xu, Sheng Xiaoyang secretly took them and secretly looked at them. Even if the pixels were blurred into mosaics, Sheng Xiaoyang was happy.

The blurred shadow and features of Zhang Xu, Sheng Xiaoyang could imagine them as stars in the dead of night.

Now the stars had become glass, crushed by heavy tires, shattered into pieces in the cracks of the bluestone road, not a single bit could be picked up.

Sheng Xiaoyang’s eyes were sore and swollen. He did not want to cry, he was just sullen, with anger in his chest. He had to go mad somehow.

Seeing that the person looked lost and forlorn, Zhang Xu did not know for a moment how to speak. His attitude had to be good, after all, the loss was caused by him.

The security guards on the side added fuel to the fire, saying, “Boss Zhang, ignore these people, they’re just here to scam you! Running around blind, what are they doing!”

The bald head cursed, “Bullshit, you old dead thing, if you hadn’t chased us, would we have run?! Showing off yourself there too.”

“You’re affecting the city appearance, obstructing the view.”

The bald head had no education and kept cursing bullshit back and forth: “What view, view your mother’s view!”

The two sides started arguing, and only Big-Eyed was truly and sincerely worried for Sheng Xiaoyang.

Zhang Xu’s brow tightened, and he did not join the fire over there. He stared fixedly at the half-kneeling person on the ground, observing his reaction. That person seemed to be isolated by a thick barrier, not even a single strand of hair moving.

Oh, his hair was cut so short it was like a scrub brush, and indeed could not move.

Zhang Xu bent down. When he spoke, his voice was a little hoarse. He patted Sheng Xiaoyang’s shoulder and said, sorry.

Sheng Xiaoyang’s shoulder blades suddenly stiffened, and the fine hairs on the back of his neck stood up like steel needles.

This was the first time Zhang Xu had seen the words “hair standing on end” appear so concretely.

The bald head watched from the side and offered a cheap remark, it was over, he was done for.

The skin at the corner of Sheng Xiaoyang’s eye twitched slightly. His right hand lifted to grab Zhang Xu’s forearm, twisting it violently outward, and dragging him away with force.

Zhang Xu’s vision went black. His half-disabled right arm got worse on top of worse, and the pain shot straight to the top of his head. Yet clenching the molars in the back of his mouth, he still did not make a sound.

Looking not very big, not wild and not rough, but using nothing but clever force, where had he learned that?

Zhang Xu steadied himself, and it was a close call that no one fell over. Before he could feel relieved, a gust of force rushed at his ear again, and the urgent prospect of disfigurement came as promised. Zhang Xu considered whether to dodge, and in the end stayed where he was.

It was not that he wanted to show off, mainly because he could not dodge.

That person’s speed, strength, tricky angle, and the angry force that could punch someone straight to the moon, simply did not leave any room to avoid it.

Zhang Xu was mentally prepared to be disfigured.

However, the fist brushed past the corner of Zhang Xu’s mouth, and the anger in Sheng Xiaoyang’s eyes was extinguished by a gentle rain and breeze after meeting the pair of soft eyes in front of him.

“...”

Sheng Xiaoyang stared blankly and tilted his head.

Zhang Xu was also stunned.

What was going on?

“Is there anywhere you don’t feel well?” Zhang Xu said. “I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Sheng Xiaoyang looked into Zhang Xu’s eyes, then slowly lowered his gaze, looking at his lips. So many words jumped into his brain one after another, unable to form a sentence. Sheng Xiaoyang frowned in distress.

What is he babbling about?

Zhang Xu understood that the shattered thing on the ground should be a phone, the kind used by eighty-year-old grandpas on Jiangping Road. Zhang Xu felt quite embarrassed. He picked up the main unit and pressed it a few times, but it would not turn on. It was completely ruined.

Sheng Xiaoyang felt disappointed about this.

Zhang Xu sighed and apologized kindly, “Sorry, I’ll compensate you with a new one.”

Sheng Xiaoyang still did not react, still staring blankly at Zhang Xu’s mouth, trying very seriously to understand what he was expressing.

Zhang Xu supported him and said to get up first. He was more concerned about Sheng Xiaoyang’s body. The gauze on his neck had bled through, and it looked serious. At this point, there was no need to care about the cause and effect. Zhang Xu bore full responsibility.

Sheng Xiaoyang’s soul seemed to have left his body, and he was not very cooperative with Zhang Xu’s movements. He could not get up, all his strength gathered in Zhang Xu’s hand. Zhang Xu’s right forearm had just been twisted by Sheng Xiaoyang, and it still hurt, so it was not easy to exert force. When Sheng Xiaoyang pressed down again, it only got worse, pain making the corner of Zhang Xu’s eye twitch.

The frequency of the trembling palm pierced through the hot skin and resonated with the flowing blood, and their hearts beat at the same moment for an instant.

Sheng Xiaoyang was pulled back into reality, saw the faintly furrowed brows and eyes on Zhang Xu’s face, and his heart sank as he hurriedly pushed him away.

Sheng Xiaoyang was very sad. He felt that every time he appeared in front of Zhang Xu, it was hasty and abrupt, and things always went against his wishes.

Their eyes met briefly. Zhang Xu saw confusion, timidity, expectation, and distance mixed in Sheng Xiaoyang’s eyes.

He could not make sense of it.

Zhang Xu’s palm suddenly felt empty, but the damp warmth was still there.

Sheng Xiaoyang lowered his head, scrambled up and ran off in one smooth motion, not forgetting to take the broken phone from Zhang Xu’s hand.

Mm, Sheng Xiaoyang’s secret would not be known by anyone, including the person involved himself.

Zhang Xu felt that the development of the situation was somewhat inexplicable.

Big-Eyed stamped her foot, so anxious she was about to cry. Sheng Xiaoyang pulled her to run together. After taking only two steps, he came back again, not toward Zhang Xu, but toward the bald head. Sheng Xiaoyang bared his teeth fiercely and snatched the two buns from the bald head’s hand, making a gesture toward himself with his hand.

Big-Eyed raised her voice to translate: Mine!!

“...” Zhang Xu watched the whole thing. The scene was serious with a little humor mixed in, and somewhat amusing.

Sheng Xiaoyang was like a wild dog not disciplined by the roadside, with a sense of resistance, with vigorous life, and there was also dejection in him. But his dejection did not come from life.

Zhang Xu did not know, and silently looked at the person disappearing ahead.

The bald head was indignant, sourly saying to Zhang Xu, “And that’s it?”

Zhang Xu withdrew his gaze, tilted his head to look at the bald head, and saw the bruise at the corner of his eye and half a front tooth.

The bald head’s psychology was very unbalanced. “I only snatched two buns from him, and he beat me like this!”

Zhang Xu asked, “What is his name?”

The bald head’s full stomach of babble suddenly got stuck, “...Huh?”

Zhang Xu repeated calmly, “What is his name?”

“Sheng Xiaoyang.”

“Where does he live?”

“Don’t know! I’m not his father!”

Zhang Xu raised his hand and patted the back of his head. “Speak properly.”

The bald head had to look up at Zhang Xu. Under the absolute suppression of his aura, he did not dare act up, and from a sensory standpoint, Zhang Xu really was easier to talk to than the security guards, so he cooperated and said oh.

Zhang Xu asked again, how old are you.

The bald head proudly said, “Sixteen!”

Zhang Xu laughed once and said, “Fine, I know.”

The bald head got goosebumps rising all over him, shook twice, and wanted to run, but Zhang Xu grabbed him back like a chick.

The bald head admitted defeat and slid to his knees, shouting, “Big brother, I was wrong, hand me over to the old man.”

Zhang Xu ignored him and called Su Miaomiao.

【📢Author’s note】
Sheng Xiaoyang: Awooo!