Chapter 1: CH 1

It was Lin Yuyan’s first time coming to such a place.

In the narrow corridor, many kinds of miscellaneous knick-knacks were placed inside, while the yellow walls surrounding them were covered with thick oil stains.

At the end of the corridor was a pool that should be open to the public. In there, several unwashed tablewares and chopsticks were thrown in. It was unknown how long those items were left in there.

Lin Yuyan took out a piece of toilet paper from his school bag, placed it on the faucet, and then turned off the tap water that had been leaking for a while now. After that, he took out his notebook, compared it to the address above before he proceeded to walk up to the next floor.

Upstairs was in a similar state. The simple, crude stairs creaked as Lin Yuyan stepped on them. A section of the wooden stair was rotten, as it was exposed to the rain and the sun, yet nobody repaired it. He could only step over it and take two more steps before he finally reached his destination.

The door of this house was fairly clean. An old-fashioned rusty lock hung on the green painted iron door. There was dust everywhere. It was as if nobody had opened this door for a very long time.

There weren’t any curtains inside the room. Lin Yuyan stood outside of the window and looked in. It was empty, only a single bed and a few unwanted clothes remained.

“Hey, who are you looking for?” At this moment, the door next door opened.

Lin Yuyan turned his head around and saw a thin young man walking out of the door with a cigarette in his mouth. He had a head full of dazzling dyed yellow hair with a weird tattoo on his arms.

“Hello.” Lin Yuyan said, “Excuse me, does Gu Yaoyang live here?”

Huang Mao looked at him for a while before asking, “Who are you?”

Lin Yuyan also looked at him, feeling a little bit of familiarity with the stranger in front of him. He hesitated for a while before he stretched out his right hand and said politely, “My name is Lin Yuyan, Gu Yaoyang’s classmate.”

“Classmate?” Huang Mao choked suddenly. He asked incredulously, “What are you looking for him for? Do you want him to go back to school? “

“Is there something wrong?” Lin Yuyan saw that he didn’t intend to accept his handshake, so he pulled his hand back again. “He didn’t go to school last semester, he’ll be in his third year of high school in the second half of the year. His teacher hoped that he could return.”

Huang Mao looked like he had just heard a joke. “Is your teacher sick in the head or something? You didn’t care about his first two years in high school, but now you came all the way out here just to spew some bullsh*t?” His voice showed contempt and his eyes carried an unfriendly gaze. He then said to Lin Yuyan, “Get out, Gu Yaoyang doesn’t live here anymore.”

Huang Mao didn’t want to continue talking to Lin Yuyan. He turned around and was about to leave when Lin Yuyan caught him and hurriedly asked, “Do you know where he lives now?”

Huang Mao had run out of patience with him. “I don’t and even if I do, I won’t tell you.” He was too lazy to deal with him anymore, so he pushed Lin Yuyan off of him, nearly pushing Lin Yuyan onto a pile of trash right behind him.

Lin Yuyan staggered a few times before stabilizing his foothold. He thought for a bit before he decided to follow him from a distance to go downstairs together.

Summer in Linzhou was very hot, oftentimes there Was barely any wind blowing by. The scorching heat of the sun landed on the ground. If you cracked an egg onto the ground, you could hear a “Zizi” sound as the egg cooks.

Lin Yuyan never knew that there was such a place.

Dilapidated houses, messy shantytowns, and cobweb-like wires hung around in the air. The streets were filthy with rubbish scattered around. As he was looking around, Lin Yuyan saw something that made his face turn red.

It was a poster with a woman named Miss Bao on it. She was wearing no clothes and had her butt up, facing the camera.

Lin Yuyan hurried away from the poster and started to walk on a different side.

Huang Mao went downstairs to eat, so he entered a small restaurant on the opposite side of the road. Lin Yuyan had a nagging feeling of familiarity with this man. After he thought about it carefully, he really did see him once.

He should be Gu Yaoyang’s friend. If he followed him, maybe he could find him.

“Beep Beep.” His phone was ringing. Lin Yuyan glanced at his phone before he immediately connected the call. “No, I might not be able to go today.”

The caller was his friend, Zhuo Hang. The two originally made an appointment to watch a stage play together, but because he hadn’t found Guo Yaoyang yet, it seemed like they had to delay the appointment.

“Haven’t found him?” Zhuo Hang’s voice came from the other side of the phone. Lin Yuyan said, “Not yet, he doesn’t seem to live here anymore.”

“Ah? Then where does he live?”

Lin Yuyan said, “I don’t know either.”

Zhuo Hang then said, “Then what should we do? Don’t look for him? I don’t think he’ll go to school even if he’s found and he’s so fierce. What if he gets upset and beats someone up?”

Lin Yuyan said, “But Teacher Li especially tasked me to give that item to him.”

Zhuo Hang was puzzled: “Why did Old Li have you go? You guys have nothing to do with each other, right?”

Lin Yuyan didn’t say a word. He really had nothing to do with Gu Yaoyang. They didn’t have anything to do with each other, but there was a little bit of… personal hatred.

He pursed his lips and remembered something he wasn’t very happy about. Gu Yaoyang was the worst person he had ever seen in his life and he was also the first person he hated in the seventeen years of him living his life.

Just as he was about to answer Zhuo Hang’s question, Huang Mao walked out of the small restaurant. He hung up the call and stared closely at him.

Huang Mao didn’t go far. Wearing his slippers, he returned back to his place. Lin Yuyan didn’t know when he would come out, so he decided to try his luck and wait downstairs.  While waiting, Lin Yuyan became hungry, so he went to a small store nearby and bought a pack of biscuits. The dry biscuit had no flavour as he chewed on them, but it wasn’t particularly unpalatable.

Lin Yuyan actually didn’t have to wait. After all, summer vacation was still long. When he had nothing to do, he could always try to find him then.

But he didn’t want to come here in the future. He just wanted to finish the task entrusted to him by his teacher today and create a clear divide with Gu Yaoyang.

Even if he can’t wait for Huang Mao to go downstairs today, he doesn’t want to come back there again.

Fortunately, in the evening, Huang Mao changed his clothes and came out again. Lin Yuyan’s legs were numb from waiting. He stamped his legs on the spot before following behind him secretly, entering a festive bar street.

At seven or eight o’clock, the sky darkened. The streets were bustling with activity and there were already many customers. Lin Yuyan followed Huang Mao all the way, but he ended up standing still at the intersection of the road. The lights in front of him were dazzling bright and the background noise was very loud. The men and women there hugged unscrupulously, making him hesitate whether to follow him any further.

At this moment, a beautiful long-haired woman came over, said nothing, and grabbed his hand. She asked coquettishly, “Hey, where is this handsome guy from?”

Lin Yuyan was taken aback. He hurriedly broke free and took a few steps back in a panic.

“So shy? Your face is all red.” The woman wore a low-cut red suspender, her twin peaks stood up, looking like they were about to pop out. Her long black wavy hair was draped over her shoulders. She flashed a charming smile to him.

She asked Lin Yuyan, “Little handsome guy, where are you going?”

Lin Yuyan was too flustered to speak. He had never encountered such a situation before. He was so nervous he could only whisper, “I, I’m here to find someone…”

“What?” She didn’t seem to hear clearly. She leaned in front of Lin Yuyan, poked his face with her scarlet fingernails, and asked with a teasing tone, “Still carrying a schoolbag? Are you still in school?”

Lin Yuyan didn’t respond to her. He stepped back again and whispered, “Yes, can you let me go?”

“Let you go?” The closer she got, the deeper the smell of the low-quality perfume penetrated into his nose. “Don’t be afraid little bro, why don’t you let this big sister accompany you? This big sister of yours is very skilled, I’ll help you open up your bud for free okay?”

O  – open his bud?

Lin Yuyan didn’t understand what she was saying at first, until she traced her fingers down his neck, and into his shirt. His eyes widened in horror as he realized what she meant, immediately causing him to run off to the distance.

Huang Mao had long since disappeared. Lin Yuyan wasn’t sure if he found out he was following him and brought him to this place on purpose. The woman’s sweet and melodious laughter sounded as if she was mocking his ugliness when he fled. Lin Yuyan’s face was pale, his eyes were red. He looked just like a frightened rabbit.

He desperately wanted to go home. but as he was running, he accidentally bumped into someone. He apologized in a hurry but didn’t get a response. He raised his head and was about to say it again, but he stood frozen in shock as he saw a familiar face.

The person he was looking for the entire day, Gu Yaoyang, was standing in front of him. looking at him with the corners of his mouth hooked upwards. “Now, who do we have here?”

“Ah, it turned out to be Miss Lin who likes to cry. Lin Jiaojiao (making fun of him for being frail and pampered)?”