Summer Camp

The grudge they'd formed wasn't serious enough to call it fate bringing enemies together. Still, when she saw Jiaming, Zhang Yahan was clearly taken aback, but in the end she didn't greet him.

A few years later, trips like this would just be a dating game in disguise for young people, but this was only 1994, and relationships between unfamiliar men and women weren't so easy to navigate. The three girls who came together took up the back row of the bus, messing around with each other. Jiaming and Lingjing sat together as usual, taking out the radio Lingjing had given him to listen to broadcasts, each wearing one earbud. Throughout the bus, only the two of them looked like a couple, and with Lingjing being so pretty, the other boys kept casting curious and envious glances their way the whole trip.

As for Liu Huaisha, she found a single seat, popped a lollipop in her mouth, and pulled out the latest handheld game console to play Tetris. Up front, Zhang Yahan occasionally exchanged a few words with the tour leader, but was cold and distant toward Huang Haoyun. Jiaming figured she'd just returned from abroad and wanted to see what these students were really like to prepare for future teaching. As for Huang Haoyun, he was just a pathetic tagalong.

Occasionally Zhang Yahan's gaze would land on Jiaming, remembering last night's incident—that kid's rotten behavior made her blood boil. Watching the two who looked like a couple, she wanted nothing more than to expose Jiaming's ugly face, to keep a little beauty like Lingjing from getting hurt. She'd come back from abroad, had progressive ideas, and wouldn't assume their relationship was innocent just because they were young. After all, in England, plenty of kids their age had already crossed that final line.

The bus soon left the city. Seeing the two listening intimately to one radio, she said something to the tour leader. Soon he pulled out a cassette player from the bus, popped in a tape, and Zhou Huajian's "A Dream of Swords and Blades" echoed through the cabin.

Zhou Huajian's album "Unstoppable by Wind and Rain" hadn't been out long, but a good song was a good song. The tour leader, trying to liven things up, started singing along softly. Soon, voices from front and back joined in humming. Jiaming and Lingjing couldn't keep listening to the radio, so they stopped to enjoy the song. Zhang Yahan felt secretly pleased, but when she glanced over, she thought she caught a mocking smile on Jiaming's lips, as if he'd seen right through her. When she looked again, his eyes were closed, looking thoroughly absorbed in the music, and she decided it must have been her imagination.

Around ten o'clock, everyone arrived at the camping site. First, they prepared lunch in a clearing in the woods at the foot of the mountain. The plan was to eat, then spend the afternoon climbing to the top, where they'd set up tents and stay overnight.

It seemed the travel agency had carefully chosen this spot. Following the tour leader, everyone passed through a small forest and arrived at a central pond. Surrounded by trees, the lake water was clear, and the green grass carpet was dotted with tiny yellow flowers—good enough for an album cover. Everyone fell in love with it immediately, then scattered to gather firewood, start fires, and prepare to cook.

The tour leader had originally wanted to split everyone into small teams by drawing lots, but since everyone had their own little groups and no one agreed to separate, he gave up. Still, when handing out cooking utensils, he clearly worried whether Jiaming's trio could manage. The other boys and girls all offered to let the three join their teams, but Liu Huaisha was competitive and refused on the spot: "Hmph, who knows who'll end up going hungry!"

Brave words, but in truth, Sister Liu had always been a modern woman who stayed far from the kitchen. However, she knew Lingjing often helped her mom cook at home, and Jiaming seemed to know something about cooking too, so she had confidence. Once tasks were assigned, she went out to gather firewood and start the fire, Jiaming washed the rice, and Lingjing picked the vegetables. Everything went smoothly at first. Soon, the fire was blazing, the pot was set, and they just waited for the rice to cook—until Sister Liu brought back a few poisonous mushrooms that gave Jiaming a scare...

After dealing with the poisonous mushrooms, Jiaming put the radio on the grass to listen. The three sat there, watching the pampered ones bustle about. Liu Huaisha and Lingjing pointed and laughed at them arrogantly. Huang Haoyun ran to the pond to wash rice, only to dump the whole pot in. Everyone burst out laughing.

The tour leader quickly brought more rice to salvage things. Relieved of that duty, Young Master Huang strutted over to Zhang Yahan, who was trying to start a fire, and complained pompously about how boring this was, like playing house with kids, how things were at home, bragging endlessly. Zhang Yahan's face turned red, and she looked like she wanted to dig a hole and crawl in to show she didn't know him.

After all that chaos, Lingjing probably wanted to go into the woods to relieve herself. She stood up and left. Just then, the radio was broadcasting a news report: "Around eleven this morning, two armed robbers held up an Agricultural Bank on the outskirts of Jianghai City, stealing approximately 67,000 yuan in cash before fleeing toward Highway 42 in a vehicle..."

Jiaming stood up and stretched. Lingjing's sharp cry of pain rang out. She'd barely reached the edge of the woods when a middle-aged man burst out and knocked her over. He had a scar across his face and a travel bag on his back, looking like another hiker. Close behind him, a man with triangular eyes rushed out, cursing something under his breath. Seeing so many people staring, both of them froze.

Lingjing got up, holding her bruised forehead. Jiaming looked at the two men, a bad feeling rising in his chest. In that moment, Zhang Yahan was the first to run over: "Little one, are you okay? How can you walk like that..."

She stood up, speaking righteously, but both men had fixed their eyes on the radio Jiaming had set on the ground, which was still broadcasting.

"...According to witnesses, one of the two men is about thirty-five or thirty-six, slightly built, with a knife scar on his left cheek. The other is about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, thin. Both are armed with firearms and are considered extremely dangerous. Citizens are advised..."

At some point, both sides had fallen dead silent, staring at each other. Zhang Yahan pulled Lingjing, trying to back away, then let out a cry as the scarred man grabbed her, pressing a Type 54 pistol to the back of her head. "Nobody move!" In that shout, Lingjing was also seized by the shoulder by the triangle-eyed man, who held a homemade double-barreled short gun.

The radio had switched to Luo Dayou's "Love Song 1990." Hearing it now, the contrast was overwhelming. The two men seemed intent on escaping into the mountains, dragging a woman and a girl as they backed away. More than twenty people by the pond raised their hands, eyes wide, not daring to speak. Lingjing, pulled along by the triangle-eyed man, trembled, tears streaming down her cheeks in big drops. Her eyes were fixed on Jiaming, but she didn't dare make a sound.

"It's okay, don't worry," Jiaming mouthed silently. After spending so much time together, she could read simple lip movements, but that only made her tears fall faster. Then, Jiaming raised his hands and slowly walked toward the four of them.

"Stop! What are you doing!? You want to die!?" the scarred man shouted. Seeing it was just a kid coming forward, he wasn't too tense. Behind him, Liu Huaisha's voice came, choked with tears: "Jiaming, come back, Jiaming, come back..."

Taking a breath, Jiaming put on his most fearful expression.

"Uncle... I was thinking... Can I trade places with them?"