Chapter 4: CH 4

“Pfft!” Gu Yaoyang laughed.

Lin Yuyan asked him, “What are you laughing at?”

“Would a Miniature Pinscher look like that?” Gu Yaoyang walked towards the easel. He pinched his chin as he carefully looked at the painting. A large area of the canvas was left blank and there was a round fat ball on the middle of it, with four legs sticking out under the ball, a round nose with its nostril facing up the sky, and finally, two little black bean-like eyes with harsh highlights on top of its face.

To say that this painting was a painting of a Miniature Pinscher…

…It barely resembled one

Lin YuYan wanted to refute him, but he didn’t. While there was some distance between him and Gu Yaoyang, he sneaked to the door and ran to his bag. There, he took out yesterday’s letter and also his cellphone. If Gu Yaouyang bore no ill intentions, he’ll give him the letter. Otherwise, he’ll have to call the police immediately.

Lin Yuyan didn’t want to tell the cooking auntie that there was an uninvited guest in the house as it might cause her unnecessary worry. Although he was a head shorter than Gu Yaoyang, if they fought…

Forget it, he’ll just grab the baseball bat in the corner.

He knew that Gu Yaoyang should be pretty fierce. Although he had never seen him in action before, Zhuo Hang said that even those arrogant bullies would scoot away once he’s near them.

So, in conclusion, he is definitely not a good guy.

Lin Yuyan returned to the studio with his self defence tools. He wanted to hand over the letter as soon as possible so that he would quickly leave his house, but once he stepped inside the studio, he saw Gu Yaoyang sitting in front of the easel with a pencil in hand.

“You…” Lin Yuyan was about to ask him what he was doing, but when the words reached the tip of his tongue, it changed into, “You can draw?”

Gu Yaoyang ignored him. He stroked the pencil onto the canvas and drew a simple outline. His strokes were quick and concise, soon a vague outline of what he was drawing appeared on the canvas.

Lin Yuyan was stunned. He watched as Gu Yaoyang drew a lovely Miniature Pinscher on his canvas with a few strokes. The muscle lines on its body were very lifelike.

“I heard that your mother is a fashion designer?” Gu Yaoyang asked as he looked at him.

“Yeah.” Lin Yuyan responded before asking his own question, “How did you know?”

Gu Yaoyang placed the pencil down. He briefly glanced at the baseball bat in Lin Yuyan’s hand. He stood up and said, “I know where your family lives and as for your parent’s job… Well, isn’t it quite easy?”

Lin Yuyan’s family background wasn’t a secret. It was also pretty easy to look them up on the internet. He glanced at the canvas and slightly blushed. Gu Yaoyang pointed at the drawing he had just finished and asked him, “What’s this?”

Lin Yuyan reluctantly answered him, ” A Miniature Pinscher.”

Then he pointed to Lin Yuyan’s painting, “And what about this?”

Lin Yuyan pursed his lips and stayed silent. The two drawings that were placed together formed quite a contrast. With a quick glance, people could tell that one was a drawing of a Miniature Pinscher, and as for the other one…

He felt a little bit embarrassed, so he gave Gu Yaoyang the letter in his hand and left a, “you can go now” before turning his head and running away.

At about ten o’clock in the evening, a yellow-haired man stood under the streetlamp at the north gate of the villa area while smoking a cigarette in his hand. He saw someone walking towards him. Seeing who it was, he hurriedly put out his cigarette and greeted him, “Yaoyang!’

The envelope in the other’s hand was thrown to him, asking him to hold it for him.

Yellow hair’s name was actually Shao Zheng. He was the man Lin Yuyan met in the tube-shaped building. He followed Gu Yaoyang and asked him, “He gave you this?”

Gu Yaoyang lazily responded to him with an “En.” They walked out of the area from the north gate. The security guard stationed at the door didn’t seem to see them passing by. They closed the door behind them as they left the villa area.

“I didn’t know that it was actually him that day.” said Shao Zheng. He knew that Gu Yaoyang didn’t intend to read the letter, so he folded it and stuffed it inside his pocket. After waiting for a few minutes for Gu Yaoyang’s reply which didn’t come, Shao Zheng followed him and stayed silent as well. Generally speaking, it’s better to shut up in this kind of situation. He had known Gu Yaoyang for many years by now, so he naturally knew that he wasn’t a talkative person.

But of course, there were exceptions to this. Such as that boy named Lin Yuyan.

Shao Zheng had only met Lin Yuyan two or three times. Frankly, he wasn’t really impressed by him, but he knew that this boy was Gu Yaoyang’s newly discovered toy.

He’ll be in a good mood once he’s finished with him. It was like keeping a kitten or a puppy as a pet.

Shao Zheng sometimes felt that Lin Yuyan was unlucky. It wasn’t a good thing to “save” Gu Yaoyang; but he actually went and did just that, saving Gu Yaoyang in their first year in high school. Now he was targeted by him. Even if he wanted to get rid of him, he could only wait for Gu Yaoyang to get tired of him. Or else? Try to run away from him? Even if he hid under three feet of solid ground, Gu Yaoyang would still manage to find him and pull him out.

He couldn’t help shivering as he looked at Gu Yaoyang’s back. He then glanced at Lin Yuyan’s house and shrugged his shoulders.

On the third day of summer vacation, Zhuo Hang thought about this good friend of his. So, with a pair of dark circles under his eyes that he got from playing games late into the night, he called Lin Yuyan and asked him out to eat dinner together.

They both grew up together and their parents also had business dealings with each other. Although the two of them had different hobbies, they were still able to talk to each other and make good friends with each other. The two of them didn’t go to any expensive high-end restaurants for dinner. Instead, they found a fast-food restaurant near their school and ordered a couple of hamburgers, drinks, and some chicken nuggets. Zhuo Hang arrived several minutes late for their appointment. His skin was tanned, with a few red spots around his face. It looked like he was sunburned.

Lin Yuyan asked this good brother of his, “What’s up with your face?”

Zhuo Hang answered him, “Don’t mention it. Yesterday, my dad disconnected my internet cable. He forced me to carry my computer and squat in front of the neighbor’s house the whole day and night! The sun was so hot at noon, it toasted me dry and peeled a layer off of my skin!”

Lin Yuyan’s mouth twitched at his answer. He pushed the drink in front of him and continued chatting with Zhuo Hang.

During the holiday, the businesses around the school were practically deserted. There wasn’t anyone in the restaurant, only a few scattered tables inside it. Near their table were other boys who attended the same high school as them. They were in the same grade as Lin Yuyan. They had met before, but they weren’t familiar with one another.

One of the boys at the table mysteriously said, “Guys, guess where I went yesterday?”

One of them casually asked him, “I don’t know. Where did you go yesterday?

The boy held on to the climax for a bit, then revealed in an impressive manner: “Wenchang Street.”

“Holy sh*t! Really?” The boys at the same table weren’t interested earlier, but now all of them leaned over with surprise.

One of them asked him, “How did you manage to get in there? I thought that place doesn’t allow strangers to enter?

“Yeah, how did you get in and how did you get out of there alive? We’re not talking to a ghost right now, right?”

Zhuo Hang placed his drink down. He continued to listen with his ears pricked up.

The boy smugly answered their questions, “I went there with my brother.”

“Really?” A few people didn’t believe him and curiously asked him, “So, how’s it like in there? Is it like what people said about it in the forums?”

“Just about.” The boy stated. He continued on and said, “Actually, it isn’t really that scary. It’s just some ordinary old street. The buildings were a bit old and crowded and it looked like it hadn’t really developed much in the last decade. There were also some shoe repairers around there.”

“Never underestimate the skill to repair shoes okay, who knows, it might just be those big bosses who had retired.”

Lin Yuyan was also curiously listening to the conversation, but he didn’t understand what they were talking about, so he asked Zhuo Hang. “Where’s this Wenchang street they’re talking about?”

Zhuo Hang asked him, “You didn’t know?”

Lin Yuyan shook his head.

“It makes sense, that place isn’t on the map in the first place anyway.” Zhuo Hang mysteriously said to him.

Wenchang street was located at the northwest corner of Linzhou city. On the map, it appeared as an undeveloped vacant land. A group of people lived there, though most of them were gangsters and thugs. There were also former prisoners who were recently released and thugs and felons who fled from jail.

Zhuo Hang mysteriously whispered to him, “I heard that the police couldn’t control the people there, life or death, they had nothing to do with the people outside the area.”

Lin Yuyan felt incredulous, “Is there really such a place here in the city? How did the felons escape in the first place? Could they commit more crimes there?”

Zhuo Hang said to him, “Although you could indeed commit crimes there, you shouldn’t forget that the people living on that street are different from soft tofus like us. It isn’t certain who’ll be the cat and mouse after entering that street. You know, last time, I saw a piece of news in the forum. It said that there’s a prisoner who escaped jail for a week. Apparently, he went into hiding on that street. But a week later, he came out and surrendered himself to the police. At that time, he was practically covered in injuries all over his body, and he also had a broken arm.”

“Wait, there’s a forum about that street?”

“Of course there is, but it has to be outside the wall. There are also only about a few dozen members and it’s also expensive and confidential.” The boy sitting close to them was still talking to his friends about his trip to the street. Zhuo Hang was eager to try and go there. He wanted to go over to the boy and ask about his expedition to Wancheng street yesterday. High school students liked these kinds of things. The more mysterious they are, the more they yearn to explore it.

Lin Yuyan asked this buddy of his, “Do you also want to go and have a look inside?”

Zhuo Hang excitedly said, “Of course, my idol lives there!”

Lin Yuyan was dumbfounded, “Your idol is a felon?!”

“How could that be!” Zhuo Hang then explained to him, ” He’s the local snake (local bully who oppresses the people) on that Wancheng street. You see, his parents died when he was just twelve years old, so he ran to that street to survive.”