Chapter 9: CH 9

Behind the building was a path that was not too wide, with two rows of poplar trees towering above it.

Lin Yuyan didn’t have to carefully look for the other party. When he turned into a corner, he saw an elderly grandmother looking up at one of the trees.

Lin Yuyan walked towards her. He followed her gaze as he raised his head.

Gu Yaoyang had changed into a new T-shirt, though it was also black in color. He was sitting on a thick branch over ten meters high above the ground. One of his legs was bent, and the other was left to casually hang in the air.

He was biting onto a gauze as he held a frightened yellow cat in his arms. The yellow cat meowed as Gu Yaoyang examined its injured front leg before bandaging it.

Lin Yuyan was stunned at this scene. The sight before him was like a colorful ink painting that he could never draw. A blue sky background, surrounded by leaves as the wind blew from the southeast, making the leaves produce a rustling sound as it passed by.

Grandma Hu was a small woman. She was wearing a cotton blouse as she held her hands up, afraid that the two young ones would fall off the tree, urging them to come down first, “Come down first, come down here and let me see its injury. There’s no need to worry, so get down here first.”

Gu Yaoyang didn’t answer. Instead, he lightly glanced at Lin Yuyan. His gaze wasn’t any different from usual, but Lin Yuyan was a little dazed. It’s as if he didn’t know Gu Yaoyang anymore.

Excluding their first meeting, he never saw Gu Yaoyang as a good person inside his heart. He was a loner, he hung out with gangsters outside of the school, and he also liked to bully people. But it seemed that Gu Yaoyang’s victim was only him.

At least in school, he didn’t see how the other party treated other people.

So, obviously, Lin Yuyan thought that he wasn’t a good person. He even hated him, feared him, wanted to avoid the other party as much as possible.

But at this moment, he was holding the kitten before placing it on his shoulders. He allowed the frightened kitten to treat him as an enemy as it scratched and bit him, yet still rescued it down the tree before handing it to Grandmother Hu.

Grandma Hu checked him over first. She made sure that he didn’t suffer any injuries from rescuing the kitten before taking Xiao Huang from him. She coaxed the little kitten while repeatedly thanking Gu Yaoyang for his help.

Gu Yaoyang patted off the leaves sticking onto his body and remained silent. He walked to Lin Yuyan and asked, “You haven’t left yet?”

“Ah…” Lin Yuyan came to his senses and replied, “I was about to say goodbye first before leaving.”

Gu Yaoyang nodded, indicating that he understood.

“I…” Lin Yuyan moved the corners of his mouth as if he wanted to say something. But just as his thoughts were at the tip of his tongue, he didn’t know how to say it to him.

He didn’t know Gu Yaoyang that well before and seemed to have drawn the wrong impression of him inside his mind and felt a little bit guilty about it. But at this moment, Grandma Hu went up to them. She looked over at him curiously as she asked, ” Who are you?”

“Hello,” Lin Yuyan greeted her politely as he bent down to the older woman before introducing himself, “My name is Lin Yuyan.”

The wrinkle on her face seemed to form a smile. The corners of her eyes looked particularly deep as she continued to ask, “Are you Gu Yaoyang’s friend?”

“No, I’m just his classmate.”

“Classmate?” Said Grandmother Hu as she thought out loud. She thought for a bit before asking, “Aren’t they the same?”

Strictly speaking, they aren’t really the same…

But Lin Yuyan understood a few things about elderly people since he often talked to them. In the end, he followed the elder’s wishes and replied with a ‘yes’

“Good, it’s good to know that Yaoyang has friends now.” Said Grandma Hu as she kindly patted Lin Yuyan’s shoulder before saying to Gu Yaoyang, “I made some pickles a few days ago and they’re all sealed up now. I’ll tell Dongdong to send them to you on another day, you have to remember to eat them.”

Pickles? Lin Yuyan remembered the bottles of chili sauce inside Gu Yaoyang’s refrigerator, was that from Grandma Hu?

Grandma Hu reminded Gu Yaoyang again, “Don’t always go by yourself,  you haven’t been going to Xiao Ling’s place recently, and no one took care of the meal. If you don’t want to make it yourself, just wait until I’m finished cooking and I’ll tell Dongdong to deliver them to you.”

Gu Yaoyang casually responded with a look as if he didn’t take note of what the elder reminded him.

Grandma Hu helplessly shook her head before leaving after she finished explaining. She probably had a bad leg looking at how she limped as she left.

“Let’s go?”

“Huh?”

Gu Yaoyang said, “I’ll take you to the intersection. You can’t take a taxi here.”

“Oh, okay.”

On their way to the intersection, neither of them spoke.

Lin Yuyan attempted to start a conversation as they walked, “The people here seem… to be good people.”

“Huh?”

Lin Yuyan said, ” I heard from Zhuo Hang that this street is a little chaotic.” He asked Gu Yaoyang, “Do you know Zhuo Hang? He’s-“

“Your friend.” Said Gu Yaoyang as he lit a cigarette. His expression didn’t change as he said that, but the tone he used when he said these two words seemed a little odd.

“Yeah,”  Lin Yuyan didn’t seem to care as he continued, “He told me that this street is quite dangerous but it seemed like he was not entirely correct. It’s pretty calm here and the people I met were all pretty nice.

For one, Hu Dongdong and Grandma Hu were both very kind and enthusiastic about him.

Gu Yaoyang asked: “What did he say?”

Lin Yuyan thought for a while before repeating Zhuo Hang’s word’s almost exactly as he said it, “I actually didn’t believe that such a place still exists until now where fighting, killing, and arson can happen. Obviously, these kinds of things would only appear in movies-”

But before he finished speaking, Gu Yaoyang’s expression abruptly changed. He suddenly grabbed his wrist before quickly running away. He was fast. Gu Yaoyang’s legs were slender yet powerful at the same time, just like a nimble leopard. Lin Yuyan had no idea what was happening, so he simply followed behind Gu Yaoyang with some difficulty. He panted as he asked the other party, “What- What’s wrong?”

Gu Yaoyang didn’t answer, but he solemnly said, “Don’t look back.”

Don’t- don’t look back?

Lin Yuyan had a bad feeling for a split second. Could it be that what Zhuo Hang said was… was true? The fear inside of him nearly made his heart jump out, he closely followed Gu Yaoyang, not daring to relax his guards for even a second. He didn’t know how long he had been running, and his heart felt like it was about to jump straight out of his chest. He was finally dragged into a small alley that could only accommodate two people with how narrow it was.

Lin Yuyan was so tired that he almost directly sat on the ground. Just as he was about to speak, Gu Yaoyang pressed him against the wall and slightly covered his mouth  with his hands.

Lin Yuyan was a little scared that they weren’t hiding well enough, so he tugged Gu Yaoyang’s shirt as if he was asking him, ‘what’s the matter?’

Gu Yaoyang glanced at the entrance of the alley for a few seconds without making any movements when he suddenly turned his head to face him. He laughed as he whispered to his ear, “He lied to you.”