Chapter 20: 20

Chu Yi wasn’t very interested in standing around and spectating. Whenever there were car accidents, fights, or arguments, he’d never go to take a look.

A murder?

He wasn’t very interested in that, either. A life gone—what was there to be excited about? Someone tried to kill themselves back then at the bridge, and there were a lot of people watching too; he heard that they did end up jumping, afterwards.

But the river was too shallow, so they didn’t drown; though they did break their leg.

For quite a long time, a lot of people joked about the event. He thought it was good though—he was relieved—at least they didn’t die.

He looked in the direction that the crowd was running towards. It was that little street that went by the river.

So that meant that right now, a lot of people could be running in the direction of his tree hollow. He was somewhat unhappy. The tree hollow was his little secret. He didn’t want anyone else to discover it.
Hesitantly, he walked a short distance towards the little street. He saw blood on the ground.

It was quite a long streak, dripping down.

He stopped.

Forget it.

It was better not to see this sort of thing.

He turned to go to the supermarket. A few women minding the goods in the supermarket poked their heads out to look. When they saw him walk over, they even asked, “Did you see what was going on? Did someone get stabbed?”

“Dunno,” Chu Yi replied.

The supermarket was about as busy as usual. Nobody noticed the commotion outside.

–

That was the way, a lot of the time. Things could happen right next to you—someone could leave, or come; someone could be born, or die—but if you didn’t see it, then nothing had ever happened.

If Yan Hang hadn’t seen him that day, and hadn’t walked over to him…

To him, Yan Hang would never have existed.

Human life was so solipsistic.

Chu Yi gripped Yan Hang’s wallet and walked back and forth between the aisles of assorted vegetables.
Yan Hang’s mood was poor, but his eating habits didn’t seem affected. He wanted to buy something Yan Hang would like to eat, but only after walking all around the shop did he realise that he didn’t know what Yan Hang liked.

Finally, all he could do was buy a couple of things that could be eaten after a casual amount of prepping: shrimp, meatballs, some green vegetables.

And a pack of iced red tea.

Walking out of the supermarket, Chu Yi saw a police car turning towards the river with its lights flashing.
Looks like something really did happen. He sighed and jogged across the street with his things.

When he reached Yan Hang’s doorstep, he noticed that Yan Hang had pulled the curtains open. He was standing before the window blankly with a cigarette in his mouth, his hair still wet and dripping with water.

Chu Yi walked over. “I just b-bought…”

“What happened over there?” asked Yan Hang.

“Oh.” Chu Yi turned his head and glanced. “I d-didn’t go s-see. Think someone d-died.”

The cigarette in Yan Hang’s mouth suddenly shook; a chunk of ash fell.

Chu Yi stared, stunned. Yan Hang’s response surprised him slightly.

After some time, he realised that Yan Hang wasn’t moving to open the door for him. He could only point to the door. “O-Open the door.”

Yan Hang held his cigarette and went to open the door. He took the groceries from Chu Yi. “Chu Yi.”

“Hm?” Chu Yi looked at him.

–

“Do me a favour,” said Yan Hang. “Go and check out what happened over there.”

Chu Yi was stunned again, but he quickly nodded anyway. “Okay. I’ll go look. You’ll have t-to wait a moment.”

Yan Hang only closed the door after watching Chu Yi stride quickly across the road. He took the groceries to the kitchen.

When he wanted to place them on the counter, he finally noticed his hands shaking terribly—he couldn’t lift them at all.

He was forced to use both hands to grab the bag and put it onto the surface.

Opening the bag, his hands seemed to lose control, trembling so much that he was tempted to dance along to their rhythm.

He braced against the counter and bowed his head. With eyes closed, he breathed in deeply, then slowly exhaled.

Then inhaled again.

Then exhaled again.

After calming down a little, he bit his lip, turned violently, and left the kitchen. He entered Dad’s bedroom and switched the lights on.

Dad’s room was the same as always: the folded quilt, the folded towel blanket, the messy clothing draped over the back of the chair, and the very faint remnants of the smell of smoke.

After another night, the smell of cigarettes in this room would disappear completely.

Yan Hang stood in the room for a few seconds. He walked to the bedside and took the pillow away.

There was nothing under the pillow. He shook it. Nothing fell out. He grabbed the pillow and pressed it all over. Nothing.

He pulled the duvet aside. Nothing. He shook it. Nothing. He pressed it all over. Nothing. He shook the towel blanket open too, and there was nothing there.

The bedsheets, the bed board, under the bed.

Nothing anywhere.

He went over to pick up the clothes Dad had draped over the back of the chair. Nothing. Rather annoyed, he tossed them aside and pulled the wardrobe open.

Where the hell was that letter?

Dad couldn’t possibly have that letter on his person. The envelope was very old, but there wasn’t a trace of a wrinkle. The letter could only be in this room.

But the room was only this big, and there were only so many things in it. Dad had so few things, it was as if he was simply on a business trip for two or three days.

–

Where the hell was it?!

He took each piece of clothing out of the wardrobe and felt them, but Dad only had so many clothes—after he took a few out, the wardrobe was empty.

He reached into the wardrobe and felt about carefully. Nothing.

Finally, he slammed the wardrobe door shut viciously, then kicked the chair out of frustration. “Fuck!”

“Yan Hang?” Chu Yi’s voice came from the living room.

He turned. Chu Yi stood outside the window. The window faced the doors of both rooms; probably because he’d seen Yan Hang, the expression on Chu Yi’s face was a bit unsettled.

“Have you checked it out?” Yan Hang walked over and opened the door.

“Yeah.” Chu Yi nodded. “But I c-couldn’t go over, there were p-police cars and, an ambulance.”

“Did you see the dead person?” Yan Hang looked at him. He felt slightly unable to breathe.

“Covered u-up,” Chu Yi shook his head. “I just s-saw a g-gold watch.”

“They were wearing a gold watch?” asked Yan Hang.

“Mhm.” Chu Yi rubbed his hand on his clothes, somewhat uneasy. “I can g-go back and check again…”

“No need.” Yan Hang couldn’t tell if he was relieved or whether his heart had grown even tenser. It felt as if his whole person was in suspense, no part of him secure; no matter how much he pressed down, he couldn’t find the ground.

He had a constant anxious desire to stuff something into his empty heart and fill it up.

In the end, he grabbed Chu Yi, pressing Chu Yi’s head against his chest and hugging him with all his might.

Chu Yi started with fright. His first reaction was that Yan Hang was going to punch him to vent his anger; subconsciously, he raised his arms to protect his head.

But Yan Hang hugged him, and his whole face was pressed onto Yan Hang’s chest.

His arms stilled in their open position.

Yan Hang hugged very tightly; he felt as if his nose was completely flattened, and breathing was somewhat difficult. After a moment, when he saw that Yan Hang had no intention of letting go, he could only open his mouth subtly to help himself breathe.

Yan Hang lowered his head and rubbed it against Chu Yi’s, then placed his chin on top of Chu Yi’s head.
Then pressed down, hard.

Chu Yi didn’t know whether the top of his own head was too weak, or if it was Yan Hang’s chin that was too powerful—he just felt quite a bit of pain.

But he didn’t make a sound.

He wasn’t sure what in the world was going on with Yan Hang, nor did he know what that gold-watch-wearing corpse had to do with his unusual behaviour.

He only knew that Yan Hang was in a very poor mood, and that his emotions weren’t too stable.

The ever-cocky and freewheeling Yan Hang suddenly becoming this way made his heart hurt.

He hesitated, then pulled his arm in tightly, hugging Yan Hang’s waist, hugging very tight.

After a moment, Yan Hang let go of him and stroked his head.

He let go too, swiftly glancing over Yan Hang’s face. He hadn’t cried.

“Are you gonna do your homework?” Yan Hang went over and drew the curtains shut, then looked outside from a crack between the curtains.

“Huh?” Chu Yi didn’t register his words.

“I’ll cook.” Yan Hang turned and entered the kitchen. “You do your homework.”

Yan Hang’s words were very clear, and his tone was normal too. It looked like he was completely fine now.

But Chu Yi had been here since noon, and he’d skipped all his afternoon lessons. Where would he get homework from? Even if he did have homework, his bag was still at school.

Chu Yi walked to the kitchen door and looked at Yan Hang.

Back towards him, Yan Hang stood in front of the counter. He took out all the groceries and laid them out neatly.

Chu Yi went over. He brought a head of bok choy to the sink, quickly stripped the leaves off, and began to wash the vegetables handily.

“How do you want the shrimp done?” Yan Hang asked.

“B-boiled plain,” Chu Yi said. That was simpler.

“‘Kay,” Yan Hang replied. He stood in front of the stove and stared at the water in the pot.

After he was done washing the vegetables, Chu Yi put them on the counter.

Yan Hang’s current condition was strange. As a safety precaution, Chu Yi took the knife, bowed down and began to chop the bok choy.

“How do you want this one done?” Yan Hang looked at him.

“Stir-fried with meatballs,” said Chu Yi.

Yan Hang didn’t speak again.

Chu Yi finished chopping the vegetables and chopped the meatballs up too. It was best not to let Yan Hang use the knife.

Salt, onion, ginger slices, Sichuan peppers. Yan Hang put all the seasoning in the pot and continued to stare blankly.

Wearing a gold watch.

Yan Hang didn’t have any memory of anyone wearing a gold watch. Based on Chu Yi’s reaction, it wasn’t someone he was familiar with either.

So was today’s incident just an accident?

Though he hoped so, logically it was difficult to accept. When Dad left, it wasn’t the same as usual; he didn’t have to think too much to know that something big was about to happen. Then someone died by the river in the afternoon.

It was very hard for him to believe that it was an accident.

The water boiled. The fragrance of the seasoning wafted out. He added some baijiu, then reached out to take the shrimp. Just as he extended his hand, a plate was handed over.

He turned to look. Chu Yi had been standing by him the whole time, now passing the shrimp over.

He poured the shrimp into the pot. “Get ice.”

Chu Yi immediately took the ice tray from the freezer and brought it over.

“Pour it all into a bowl,” he said.

“Okay.” Chu Yi took a big bowl and knocked the ice tray along the edge of the bowl a few times, thwack thwack thwack.

The sound was quite loud. Yan Hang started in alarm and turned to look at him. “Are you knocking the ice cubes out, or trying to break the bowl?”

“It won’t break.” Chu Yi knocked again, and all the ice cubes fell out of the tray into the bowl. “I know wh-what I’m doing, relax.”

Chu Yi did things very efficiently; with a word, he knew exactly what to do. After he was finished with the ice cubes, he added cold boiled water right away and put the bowl of iced water next to his hands.

Yan Hang scooped out the shrimp and put them in. “Get another bowl. The meat will only be tender once it’s thoroughly cooled.”

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“Right.” Chu Yi did as he was told.

After the shrimp was done, he fried the meatballs and bok choy together, then boiled a pack of frozen dumplings.

Chu Yi set the table and carried the dishes out to the coffee table. He even put out the iced red tea.

Yan Hang went over and touched the bottle. It was icy. Chu Yi must’ve put it in the fridge earlier.

He glanced at the spot Dad usually occupied on the sofa and sat there, then took the remote and turned the TV on.

There was no need to change channels; the local news came on immediately.

Neither of them spoke over the meal. They ate as they watched the news.

The news went on about trivialities as usual. No mention of the homicide at the riverside.

The local channel’s journalists were even less effective than WeChat’s Moments feature.

But Yan Hang felt as if watching the news was just part of a standard procedure. He needed this noise while eating. If they actually did report on the event, he wasn’t even sure he’d be willing to watch.

When they had finished eating, Chu Yi’s workaholic spirit revived anew to swiftly tidy away the things on the coffee table. After busying himself in the kitchen, he even wiped down the countertop.

The TV began to play the weather report. Just as Yan Hang was about to grab the remote and change channels, a phone ringtone rang out.

His heart dropped; he seized his phone with somewhat excessive strength. With a crack, two jagged lines formed on the tempered-glass screen protector.

“It’s mine… mine ringing.” Chu Yi took out his phone and stood next to him, speaking softly with a face full of shock.

Yan Hang looked at the black screen of his own phone. He pulled the screen protector off and chucked the phone onto the coffee table. “Is it your mum calling to scold you?”

“Maybe.” Chu Yi gave a slightly forced chuckle and picked up the call.

“You don’t have to come back! Die out there!” The moment he picked up, Mum’s voice exploded out of the phone. “All of you, not picking up when you don’t feel like it, not coming home when you don’t feel like it! Skipping class whenever you want to! Don’t come back, then! If anyone comes back, I’ll break their leg!”

Not waiting for Chu Yi to make a sound, Mum hung up.

“Go back,” said Yan Hang. “I’m fine, just a little stressed. I’ll be alright after a bit of sleep.”

Chu Yi stood in place, not moving.

Yan Hang looked at him. “How long have we known each other? For you to be that worried?”

Chu Yi quickly calculated. “About one s-school term.”

Yan Hang laughed. “Is that very long?”

“Mhm.” Chu Yi laughed too.

“A lifetime is made up of so many ‘one school term’s,” said Yan Hang. “You can’t even count them all.”

Chu Yi frowned and didn’t speak.

“Thanks,” said Yan Hang.

Chu Yi’s half-knit brow froze. Only after a moment did it return to its usual position. Yan Hang wasn’t speaking as he usually did; he didn’t even have time to respond “thanks for what” to this sudden “thanks”.

“You’re pretty cute,” said Yan Hang. “Other people just don’t see it.”

“It’s f-fine as long as y-you do,” said Chu Yi.

Yan Hang turned to look at him and grinned. “Dad said that back then, they wanted another kid, but… there wasn’t enough time. If only I had a little brother like you.”

Chu Yi couldn’t grasp what “there wasn’t enough time” meant in that moment.

“I wouldn’t be alone all the time, then,” Yan Hang said.

“You’re not a-alone n-now.” Chu Yi thought for a moment. “Later I’ll k-keep you company.”

Yan Hang looked at him, staring at him for ages with great focus. Then he rose, walked over, and kissed him on the forehead.

Chu Yi’s entire person froze on the spot.

The very faint scent of perfume on Yan Hang’s body enveloped his face. Even though the kiss was over his hair, he still felt a little dizzy.

All his life, nobody had ever kissed him like this. As far as he could remember, nobody at home had even hugged him before.

This very gentle touch Yan Hang placed on his forehead was the first intimacy he had received in his life up till this point.

“You really need a haircut.” Yan Hang tsked.

“Mhm.” Chu Yi laughed, somewhat embarrassed. He tousled his forelock. “This weekend.”

“I want to be alone tonight,” said Yan Hang. “If anything comes up, I’ll text you.”

“Promise,” said Chu Yi.

“Promise.” Yan Hang nodded.

After Chu Yi left, Yan Hang spaced out on the sofa for a moment, then rose to get a bottle of Dad’s erguotou and a pack of peanuts.

Returning to the sofa, he curled up, lit a cigarette, turned down the TV volume, and continued to watch the local channel.

At night, the local channel would always put on a melodramatic idol drama, the kind where the idols were extremely idol-ly, where even the old blokes on screen had a gentle glow on their smooth skin.

After this show finished, there would be more news.

He sat in the darkness like this, drinking liquor, eating peanuts, staring at the moving lights on display.

This sort of “I’m in the dark” position made him feel secure.

Secure.

When Dad wasn’t home, he needed this feeling even more.

Not a sense of security, but true security.

Today, he could’ve gone out to look for himself. But he didn’t. He made Chu Yi do it for him.

Such subconscious behaviour of hiding oneself as much as possible in situations where danger could arise wasn’t something Dad had explicitly taught him.

But after so many years of living this way, with Dad teaching him to fight, teaching him self-defence, teaching him to read people—this had long since buried itself in the depths of his mind.

When the music from the news broadcast played, the hand he held his glass with trembled lightly.

The full glass of liquor spilled out. He licked the liquor that had spilled out onto his hand, not looking at the screen, only fixing his lowered eyes on the peanuts atop the coffee table.

“Today, at around 6p.m., what looked to be a serious fight broke out in the east of the city…”

As the female newscaster said this on the TV, Yan Hang’s heart clenched. He lifted his head and downed all the liquor in his glass, then stared at the screen.

But his ears couldn’t quite distinguish what she said anymore.

“The Linhe police department received a report… one died from blood loss at the scene… traces of blood all over…”

Yan Hang stared at the familiar street on the screen, sealed off with yellow police tape.

This person died by the river. His identity was still uncertain. Witnesses at the scene of the incident said that he ran out of an alley across the street.

An alley across the street.

The alley across the street was about 500m away from this rented flat. It wasn’t really a proper alley, just a lane formed by the walls of two courtyards on either side; it wouldn’t fit a car, only pedestrians and motorbikes could pass.

When the camera cut to the alley, Yan Hang saw that there was a large patch of blood on the ground still uncleaned.

He frowned.

There was a large amount of visible blood when the camera was on the riverside earlier. It was all blood next to that person. He had probably been stabbed in the alley before running out to the riverside, then died of excessive blood loss after falling to the ground.

…why was there still that much blood in the alley? Whose was it?

And who stabbed him?

“The specifics of the case are still under investigation…”

The news report was very short. Two or three minutes later, it switched to another news story about two old dudes fighting over a bus seat.


“Well done you!” Nana slapped Chu Yi’s back. “Skipped class, too! Why don’t ya drop right out!”

Chu Yi didn’t make a sound. He stared at the seaweed egg-drop soup splashed all over the floor.
His legs and feet burned with pain.

The soup had been knocked over by Nana when he was carrying it out of the kitchen. The whole bowl of soup poured over his trousers.

Nana’s anger was perfectly normal. He didn’t come home for dinner and didn’t tell anyone; Mum, Nana, and Grandpa had waited the whole time, so they still hadn’t eaten.

Today, worrying the whole time about keeping Yan Hang company, he forgot to make up an excuse for Mum.

“Go run some water over it.” Next to them, Grandpa waved a hand.

“What for! Let it burn him dead! If ya don’t punish him a little, he’ll be walkin’ on air!” Nana had one hand on her hip and the other pointing at him. “Look at him! These days he comes back to eat when he’s happy, and when he’s not he disappears without a damn word!”

Actually, he wouldn’t come back to eat when he was happy. There was nothing cheerful about coming back to eat.

Chu Yi gently tugged at his trouser leg so it didn’t stick to his skin. Fortunately, the soup had been boiled some time ago, so it wasn’t at its most scalding.

Compared to the pain his legs felt, the pang in his heart about the trousers was worse.

These were the trousers Yan Hang had given him. He didn’t dare to wear the whole set together, so his top was still his school uniform… if he’d known, he would’ve worn his whole school uniform today since he’d already patched that tear on the behind of the trousers.

Nana ranted for a while before resting. He went to the toilet and took the trousers off. His legs and the tops of his feet were all red, but there was no broken skin.

He took the pipe and rinsed his legs for a while. It felt a bit better, but the moment the water left his skin, the fiery burning would immediately return.

He sighed and went to the balcony to grab a pair of large loose underpants to put on. He’d go out to buy some cream later that night.

In the living room, a few of them sat. After Nana spilled the soup, the process of dining was put on temporary pause. Nobody moved, all sitting blankly.

Chu Yi grabbed the mop and went over to clean up the soup on the floor.

“Should we make a police report?” Grandpa suddenly said.

“What’s there to report!” Mum knit her brow. “A grown man not picking up calls from his family? What police officer would have the time to care?”

“Yeah,” Nana said. “Report what? Might as well find someone who can catch cheaters.”

“Enough of that. Never a good word out of your mouth, not even for your own family!” Mum said very impatiently.

“That person on the news just now,” Grandpa said, “isn’t…”

“Are you crazy!” Mum leapt to her feet. “What’s wrong with you!”

“An idiot all his life,” Nana said, pointing at Grandpa. “My farts have more sense than you.”

Chu Yi mopped the floor twice. He took all the dishes out and laid them on the table, then sat in front of his study desk.

Listening to Nana and Mum discuss what was going on with Dad over dinner, he only felt agitated and fearful.

Dad was a cowardly man afraid of trouble; he was especially afraid of Mom scolding him. As far as Chu Yi could remember, his phone being unreachable was a rare occurrence. Even if he’d run out of power, Dad would find a phone somewhere to call back.

He didn’t know what had happened.

Mum didn’t have Dad’s company number, nor the numbers of his coworkers. She didn’t even have someone to ask about not being able to reach him on his cell phone.

“I’ll go to their office tomorrow,” Mum said at last. “What kind of shitty company is this!”

“I’ll go with you,” Nana said.

“Enough with you, what are you going for? I’ll ask what’s going on, and then we’ll see.” Mum’s brow wrinkled.

Chu Yi lay on his desk, flipping through the English textbook.

He had no homework to do today, so he didn’t know what he should be doing.

In this house, he didn’t even have a place to hide for some peace and quiet.

He could only space out like this.

He spaced out till the whole family had returned to their rooms to sleep. Only then did he stand up, nimbly open the door, and go out.

Leaving at this hour, he didn’t have anywhere to go. Back then he would go running, and go chat with his tree hollow.

But today he couldn’t go to the tree hollow. The police line was still there.

When he went to the pharmacy to buy a tube of burn cream, he didn’t manage to get that either. He didn’t know such a tiny tube of burn cream would be so expensive, so much more expensive than toothpaste…

Finally, he stood by the road opposite Yan Hang’s house and sighed.

Yan Hang’s lights were out. Yan Hang was probably asleep.

–

Credits:
Author – Wu Zhe (Weibo)
Raws – Nandemonaiya
Translation – Nandemonaiya
Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Dani Dani, Terukutie, Zhiming
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Note from Nande:

Hey everyone! Thanks for being so patient as we recharged and worked out how we wanted to proceed. Moving forward, we have decided to place A Lucky Coin behind proof of purchase starting from Chapter 21. New updates will be on Google Drive, and access will be given only to those who provide us with proof of having purchased the book. 

We made this decision due to the Situation That Shall Not Be Named. We understand if that means some of you will wait for us to fully translate the novel prior to paying for access. We stress that the purchase is to the author directly and not to us.

As of this chapter, we have translated 20 out of 110 chapters. On JJWXC, VIP chapters started at chapter 17. We believe that if you have stuck with us so far and for so long, you have a general understanding of whether you like the novel enough (and/or our translation style) to support the author and her work.

Previous chapters will remain unlocked on this site as a ‘preview’, if you will, for you and future readers to decide if you can and/or wish to support the author based on our work. 

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