By the time Zou Yameng limped out of the bathroom, You from the Sun was just playing its ending theme. Lu Li switched channels and made room for his sister.
“Sis, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Hm?”
“A while ago, I reported our situation to the government. Their attitude was pretty good. They asked me to gather information on the minors in our low-rent district who don’t have guardians. They also said they’d solve our problems as soon as possible.”
“What’s the point of reporting anything to those fat-brained idiots?”
“They asked, so I just told the truth.”
Zou Yameng took the remote and turned the TV volume down. Then she looked at Lu Li strangely.
“This official you’re talking about... is he one of your classmate’s parents? Your class monitor’s parent?”
“Yeah. So what he said is pretty credible.”
Zou Yameng felt a little bitter inside.
“Haven’t we siblings made it this far on our own? Do we still need them worrying about us?”
“We made it through, but others didn’t. That kid who used to live next door to us, the one who fought with me every day? They said he got sold to Southeast Asia and had a kidney taken. He was a year younger than me.”
The topic was heavy. Zou Yameng unconsciously sat up straighter.
“...Then where the hell were they before?”
“...”
Seeing Lu Li stay silent, Zou Yameng leaned against his shoulder and stared blankly at the TV.
“Then go do it. My little brother’s grown up now. He has his own career. It has nothing to do with his big sister anymore.”
Lu Li didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He wrapped an arm around her.
“What career? It’s just a job. Sis, you still haven’t told me about the Six-Province Tournament. How exactly did you hurt your foot?”
“I pushed too hard against He Ping. I couldn’t hold out through the finals. But a blessing in disguise, right? Your sister here only got second place, but my treatment’s even better than the champion’s.”
“Oh?”
“The champion only got an invitation from the provincial team. Your sister got an invitation from the national team the very night after the finals.”
Zou Yameng proudly opened her email on her phone. An invitation from the Divine Realm Women’s National Table Tennis Team appeared before Lu Li.
It had been sent in an official capacity. First, they praised her outstanding performance in the Six-Province Tournament. Then they invited her to head to the capital after the New Year and join the second team. They even specifically told her to rest and recover well.
“How come it’s only the second team?” Lu Li deliberately twisted his mouth to the side.
The moment Zou Yameng saw his goofy expression, she burst into laughter.
“Dummy. I’m just a newcomer. Skipping the youth training camp and going straight into the second team is already amazing. That’s also thanks to Coach Dan’s connections. She never said anything, but I heard her calling an old teammate at night, asking them to do their best to place me in the second team...”
“We should visit and thank her properly sometime.”
Coach Dan had always taken especially good care of his sister. The fact that she had made it this far in table tennis was inseparable from Coach Dan’s help.
“Mhm. Whatever you say~” She rubbed against him like a cat.
Lu Li couldn’t help closing his eyes. He sighed at how everything had finally gotten back on track. His sister had secured her ticket to the world stage early. He hadn’t rekindled things with An Baili. The game’s development was also starting to take shape. If life could stay this smooth forever, that would be nice.
*
October 4th. Morning.
The morning fog still hadn’t cleared. The air carried a trace of dampness. In the distance, the high-rises looked blurred in the mist, like reflections in water.
Compared to the empty, leisurely urban districts, the low-rent district was clearly much busier. People wore shabby knit caps covered in pills and trudged numbly toward the city.
This was October 4th, 2017. The taverns had not yet been hit with liquor restrictions. That plane bound for Sanya had not yet fallen into the Pacific. The amendment to the marriage law was still sitting in Congress. Nothing had happened yet. There was still room to change everything.
He knew very well that everything he was doing would deeply affect everyone in this low-rent district.
Including himself.
Deep inside the low-rent district was Chuanhai’s “urban village.” The buildings were cramped, the roads filthy. Beside a cart selling rice noodle rolls sat an uncovered sewer opening. The fragrance of the rice rolls mixed with the stench of the drain. The result was hard to describe.
Lu Li walked up to the cart and looked at the vendor’s youthful face.
“One rice noodle roll. Add two eggs.”
“Coming right up.” The vendor looked up, and a hint of surprise flashed through his eyes. “Brother Lu, what brings you here?”
That simple “what brings you here” made Lu Li’s heart tighten for no reason.
Ever since he had entered Chuanhai No.1 High School, he had rarely spent time in the low-rent district. Even his old companions now felt a little unfamiliar.
People always encourage charging forward with the current, or fighting upstream. But they always overlook the ordinary people left far behind by the times.
Shuming was his friend.
At least, he used to be.
“Mingzi, how much?”
Shuming hurriedly waved his hands.
“Brother, why would I take your money? This one’s on me! Sit, sit.”
The so-called seat was just a small round table and a grimy little red plastic stool. After Lu Li sat down, he didn’t bring up paying again. He only watched quietly as Shuming busied himself. The stall’s business was actually pretty good.
Shuming seemed to have perfectly blended into the role of a street vendor. He nodded and bowed, thanked people with a bent back, and had completely lost the spark he used to have in his youth.
In truth, Shuming was the same age as him. But standing next to Lu Li, Shuming looked much older.
The rice noodle roll tasted great, but eating beside an open sewer still felt awkward. Lu Li stood up and waited to the side. When Shuming came over to clear the dishes, he froze for a moment, then asked nervously,
“Brother... was it not to your taste?”
“It tastes great. I just need to talk to you about something. We can talk after you close up.”
Shuming’s overly respectful attitude made Lu Li uncomfortable.
He still remembered how, back in elementary school, they had gone to raid a bird’s nest together. Shuming got scared of being caught by the park staff and ran off by himself, leaving Lu Li stuck in the tree and unable to get down.
Afterward, Shuming didn’t dare look anyone in the eye for a whole month. He kept saying he was a traitor, and that thirty years ago, he would’ve been paraded through the streets for it.
“Brother Lu, then sit down. Standing is tiring.”
Shuming had always been timid and cowardly, the type who would stammer even talking to strangers. The first time Lu Li met him, Shuming was being bullied by their elementary school classmates.
Completely different from now.
Time’s magic was truly mysterious.
Lu Li stood there without speaking. Shuming quickly threw himself back into work. The autumn weather was crisp and cool, yet he still got so busy that sweat covered his forehead.
Two hours later, the last batch of breakfast customers finally left. Only then did Shuming start packing up the stall. Suddenly remembering something, he slapped his forehead and looked at Lu Li.
“Brother, sorry, sorry! Once I get busy, I forget everything! Sorry, sorry!”
Liking to say sorry was not a good habit. It gave people the feeling that you were easy to bully.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I had things to do too. It’s no big deal.”
Lu Li stepped forward to help him load the little tables and stools into the cart, but Shuming stopped him in a fluster, like he’d been shown too much honor.
“Brother, please don’t do that. Let me handle it myself.”
He had gone from calling him “you” to “you” in the formal sense. It sounded more respectful, but really, it only meant they had grown more distant.
That made Lu Li think of a conversation between two seagulls, the kind that sounded like it was asking about the ultimate purpose of human life. The existence of that question itself was a kind of emptiness, just like its answer.
Maybe the final goal of life was simply “to go down to the docks and grab some chips.”
Some people spend their whole lives seeking an answer and never find one. Others reach the end of that emptiness while still young.
Shuming was the latter.
After he finished packing the cart, Shuming wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at Lu Li apologetically.
“Brother Lu, what did you want to see me about?”
“I just wanted to ask how you’ve been doing. And Brother Wei and the others too.” Lu Li was rarely this awkward. “I haven’t kept in touch with them much. I don’t even know how to find them anymore...”
Shuming’s expression stayed calm. He didn’t seem surprised at all that Lu Li had lost contact with Brother Wei and the others.
Completely opposite from how things had been ten years ago, this time, Lu Li was the traitor among them.
