Chapter 4: 4

I followed the address on the name card and found Dafei Car Workshop situated along Liaoyang East Road. I stood at the main entrance and looked up at the signboard as I figured that the boss of this place was probably called Dafei.

Dafei sounded like a very familiar name to me. Then again, a name that sounded like just any other guy on the street would sound familiar to most, so I wasn’t sure if I seriously knew who this person was at all.

As I was still immersed in my thoughts, one of the technicians came out to welcome me warmly, “Hello, sir! What repairs does your car need?” He then looked behind me and noticed that I hadn’t driven here at all, so his expression became more wary as he asked, “Sir, is there something I can help you with?”

I hesitated for a moment before saying, “I want to ask you about something. Did you guys repair a car that looked like this about two to three months ago?” I proceeded to describe my own car model and color.

The technician cut me off impatiently, “We can’t divulge any information about our customers.”

I laughed and lied, “My friend said he repaired his car at one of the workshops here and recommended it to me, but there are so many workshops around here and he can’t remember exactly which one it is.”

This technician must have learned Bian Lian* techniques. A huge smile immediately covered his face again as he dragged me into the workshop, “It was definitely here!”

I insisted on checking the records and the technician wasn’t very happy to comply, but he pulled out an old and filthy notebook from a drawer anyway and started flipping through it in front of me.

I watched as the date on the notebook entries moved further and further away from today and hope of finding my car in this notebook began to wane. The technician was very uneasy and started bragging about how their workshop technicians were good at their job but cheap, so they had many old customers. I didn’t react to that, so he suddenly started saying that these records weren’t accurate because there were many returning customers who didn’t bother keeping any records with them.

As he spoke, I noticed that the entries were already from half a year ago. He was still going to continue turning the pages, so I stopped him and said, “Don’t bother. My friend only bought this car three months ago.”

The technician slammed the table and tried to sound convincing as he said, “Then he probably came to repair the car without leaving any records with us.” He obviously wasn’t convinced by his own lie either, but stared back at me anyway.

I asked, “Is this the only book of records you have?”

The technician whacked his head and seemed to have thought of something. “That’s right, there’s another book. Please wait here for a while.” He then skipped towards a room, which I guessed belonged to the boss.

A few moments later, I heard angry shouts from the boss, “Are you stupid?! How can you let just anyone see that book?”

I started wondering to myself, “Why did they purposely split their repair jobs into two separate record books? And one of them is actually kept secret? Does that one contain records for stolen cars or other illegal vehicles?”

When I thought about this possibility, I broke into a cold sweat. Most of these car workshops were owned by people with quite some connections, and those who dabbled in illegal car repairs were definitely gangsters of sorts. Was my sudden visit to their workshop going to make me look like one of those undercover journalists trying to expose them? Were they going to end up killing me for that?

The more I thought about it, the more unsettled I became. I was about to make myself scarce when I heard the boss roar from inside the office again, “I want to see for myself who’s here to actually check these things!” The door was opened from the inside and a man with fierce looking facial features stormed out of the room.

Judging from his mannerisms, I figured that this man must be the boss of this place. I despaired inwardly and was about to claim that this was all a misunderstanding when the boss stared at me in surprise and said, “Oh? What brings you here?”

I didn’t know how to answer that question, so I just simply made up something. “I happened to pass by.” It seemed like we actually did know each other. He might actually have repaired my car before after all.

As I had guessed, the boss asked, “Where’s the car?”

I smiled and tried my luck. “Tsk, I can’t believe you’re asking me. How on earth did you fix that car the last time?”

“What about it? Is there a problem?”

“Of course! You didn’t change the airbag!”

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“I didn’t change the what?” asked the boss with widened eyes, as if he hadn’t heard me clearly.

I was afraid that he was going to feign ignorance, so I repeated myself loudly, “You didn’t change the airbag!”

He dragged me aside and whispered, “Why would that car need an airbag?”

I instantly hit the roof. “How can you say such a thing!”

He didn’t bother arguing with me and dragged me towards his office instead. “We’ll talk inside!”

I didn’t want to at first, but he was too strong for me and I had no choice but to follow him into his office.

When I entered the office, I noticed another young man already standing inside. He looked very familiar but I couldn’t place him. I was still trying to recall when I heard the young man say to the boss, “Brother Dafei, something went wrong with the repair job. It’s as if it hadn’t been knocked…”

Dafei gave the young man a glare and the young man instantly shut his mouth.

I guessed that this young man also had his car repaired here and the workshop hadn’t done a good job of it either, so the boss had also dragged him into the office to try and placate him in the privacy of the office. I immediately looked up at the young man to see that he was also looking at me. When our eyes met, I could sense a slight panic in the young man’s eyes.

The boss said to the young man, “Alright, alright, hurry up and drive it away. If there are any other problems, look for me then.”

The young man wanted to say more, but he ended up just glancing at me one more time before leaving the office quietly.

For some reason, I suddenly felt like the young man was trying to tell me something else. After a while, I heard the sound of a car engine starting up and I guessed the young man was leaving with his car. So, I instinctively turned to look out of the office window and saw that he was in the driver’s seat.

But when I looked more carefully, I couldn’t help but gasp. That young man was driving a box truck!

For some reason, the scenes from the accident that night flashed in my mind when I saw this box truck.

I couldn’t really remember exactly how it happened and I had only briefly glanced at the truck that collided with the Peugeot 408. I didn’t look at the license plate carefully and I couldn’t remember the model or brand of the truck at all. But when I saw this particular truck drive out from the workshop, my instinct told me that this was the same one that collided with the Peugeot 408 that night. This young man was possibly the truck driver that I had been looking for all this time!

I remember Inspector Ji telling me that according to what the police had observed from the scene, after the accident occurred, the truck driver had tried to save me. In other words, that young man in the office just now was actually my benefactor!

Gratefulness immediately welled up in my heart as I dashed out of the office and shouted at the truck that was driving away, “Wait! Wait!”

The truck was initially driving at a very low speed, but once I started shouting at the young man, he didn’t stop and started driving even faster instead. He left in a great hurry, leaving me in a daze at the entrance.

In my mind, I felt that it was really hard to find another person like that selfless soldier, Lei Feng. It was hard to find someone who did good deeds without leaving his name behind. Someone like this truck driver who drove off without asking for anything in return for his good deeds was an even rarer sight.

This thought instantly filled me with great admiration for the young man.

TL notes:

*  Bian Lian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bian_lian A technique used mostly in Szechuan opera performances where the performer changes their masks at top speed and nobody really knows how it happens.

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