Hengyin Pingyang

It felt strange to be back in my hometown.

He looked at the old street, renovated after years of disrepair, and the Yumingjiang Bridge, which he'd taken the airport bus back to the county town on.

In just over a thousand days and nights, everything had changed.

Ordinary people's lives were never as full of ceremony as those of BOSS.

There were no grand, imposing buildings here, no bustling streets with colorful lights.

Looking out the bus window, he couldn't spot a single building over thirty stories high in the two riverside scenic belts, front and back.

The ferry at the dock was still carrying cargo, and the sand dredging boats on the shore rumbled.

On the fishing boats around the Xiao Xizhou artificial island, men still basked in the July sun, diligently hauling nets for shrimp, their shouts echoing to the heavens.

In the side streets and alleys branching off the main riverside road, the small market was filled with stalls selling used computers and phones, while the entrance to the human resources market remained as deserted and desolate as ever.

Few people were seen behind the long, curved counters of the People's Department Store. The gold jewelry under the display tables was the same stock as a few years ago, though the sales staff had new faces.

The asphalt intersection on Daxing'anling Road had been repaved. A few years ago, this intersection would cause a half-hour traffic jam; now, it only took eight minutes to get through the traffic lights.

The old residential area in Hexi hadn't been demolished yet. They said the compensation for demolition was too high, and the area had become too expensive to tear down. Later, the city government simply designated the area as a historical monument for tourists.

Here, one could still see old posters from a few years ago, claiming a meteor had fallen into an old house, and the TV station had even reported on it, though it eventually faded into obscurity.

On the bustling streets and alleys, a few familiar faces occasionally appeared.

... All of this made Jiang Xueming feel inexplicably at ease.

Everywhere was the hustle and bustle of everyday life, people rushing about for a living.

This was Hengyin City, the "big city" Xue Ming had visited as a child. Everything novel and interesting that came his way, from childhood to adulthood, had always come from this city to his hometown, Pingyang county.

"Brother! Look!" Jiang Bailu said, sitting beside Xue Ming and pointing out the bus window. "That's where you used to work!"

Jiang Xueming followed his sister's gaze.

The environmental absorption tower of the battery factory stood there, with several abandoned cooling towers next to it.

Workers in simple blue uniforms, wearing small yellow helmets, rode electric bikes, crowding towards the factory gate.

... Jiang Xueming had once been one of them.

He replied, "Mm."

Jiang Bailu said excitedly, "Brother! When you worked the second shift, you used to ride your bike to school to pick me up after work! I'd be on the back, hugging you. Then we'd speed home like the wind, whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

He remembered that when they worked in three shifts, the second shift had the most normal schedule. Work started at 8 AM and ended at 4 PM. They only had two days a week to pick Bailu up and take her home.

Sitting on her brother's back was Bailu's happiest time.

Jiang Xueming still only grunted, like a piece of wood.

Perhaps finding her brother too boring, Jiang Bailu pouted, looking displeased.

She reached across the aisle and tugged at Xiao Qi's clothes with her small hand.

"Sister-in-law! Sister-in-law! Brother isn't paying attention to me! He doesn't care about me anymore now that he has you."

Xiao Qi was fast asleep, not waking up at all.

"Don't disturb her sleep," Jiang Xueming said, stroking his sister's head. "Be good, I'll take you to buy new clothes, buy you delicious food, and take you to see cats."

"Okay!" Bailu immediately brightened up and stopped disturbing the sleeping Xiao Qi.

Only Xiao Qi, sitting in the adjacent seat, seemed to be having a dream.

Faintly, one could hear her murmuring in her sleep, accompanied by a strangely maniacal laugh.

"Hold me. Yes, yes, yes. Hold me tighter, yes, yes, yes."

Hearing these nonsensical words.

Xue Ming and Bailu both wore strange expressions.

The bus stopped at the Pingyang Agricultural University bus station. This was considered the western suburb of Hengyin City, close to the countryside.

From here, they would have to take other transportation back to Pingyang county.

Before heading home, Xue Ming had a few things to do.

After getting off the bus, he put a hat and mask on Bailu, so that acquaintances wouldn't recognize her.

He first took the two girls to the small market around Pingyang Agricultural University. They bought a few cheap outfits and then found a quiet shop near the farmer's market, returning with six pairs of fake shoes, intending to fool his parents.

Then, they followed Xiao Dong Men's food street towards the entrance of Agricultural University.

Many people on the road recognized Jiang Xueming and greeted him.

The owner of the convenience store, called Xinmei Jia, whose red sign resembled a counterfeit Meiyijia, came up to offer Xue Ming cigarettes.

"Hey! You're back?! Haven't seen you in years. Your family seems to be looking for you!"

"Thank you, boss, I don't smoke," Jiang Xueming said, blocking the offered cigarette with a polite, fake smile.

He pulled his sister along and heard the boss's laughter behind him.

"And you've found a wife! Looks like you've made a fortune out there!"

Xiao Qi's face lit up with a smile.

Jiang Xueming turned back to respond.

"A loss, a loss! I've lost so much! I brought my wife home to settle down, and we still have another apartment, right?"

The chatter behind them grew livelier.

"This kid's back to freeload off his parents, hahahahaha!"

At the end of Xiao Dong Men, there was a paper crafting shop selling funeral supplies.

Xue Ming stopped at the entrance and looked around.

Xiao Qi immediately asked, "Why aren't we going any further?"

"I'm looking for someone," Xue Ming replied instantly. "The owner of this shop is very familiar with an older brother of mine. After I quit my job at the battery factory, they treated me very well and arranged a lot of odd jobs for me."

"Oh, what kind of jobs specifically?" Xiao Qi looked at the crowded display of deities inside the paper crafting shop, feeling a strange chill. "It looks kind of eerie."

The Buddha statues were different from the golden figures in temples. Under the light of the red lanterns, they appeared menacing.

They say that human figures and puppets are imbued with the craftsman's spirit when they are made. The person who made these Buddha statues was probably not normal.

Jiang Xueming didn't pay attention to Xiao Qi's words.

He simply walked inside and pulled the red switch for the lantern, changing it to a bright white light.

When Xiao Qi looked at the Buddha statues on the shelves on either side of the shop again, they appeared solemn, majestic, joyful, and peaceful.

A statue of the Martial Saint was enshrined in the temple hall, with couplets on the plaques on either side.

The upper couplet read: "Do good deeds and don't ask about ghosts and spirits."

The lower couplet read: "If you have a guilty conscience, how dare you enter my door?"

A horizontal scroll bore three large characters.

"Forget it."

Xiao Qi mused that the couplet was quite witty and charming, neither purely good nor evil.

She then noticed that the Guan Yu statue, the Martial Saint, had a broken piece on its Green Dragon Crescent Blade. She wondered why a broken old statue was placed in the main position of the shrine.

Just then, a foreigner with blond hair, blue eyes, and round sunglasses emerged from the back room.

"Mr. Chen," Jiang Xueming said immediately. "I'm back to visit my parents."

This "Mr. Chen" was the owner of the paper crafting shop. He was a genuine American who had been in the funeral business outside the Agricultural University for over ten years.

Jiang Xueming wasn't quite sure when he arrived, only knowing that this fake foreigner was very shrewd and spoke Chinese.

When Xue Ming didn't want to sell his youth at the battery factory, he asked this boss for an introduction and got a job as a general helper at a milk tea shop outside the Agricultural University, occasionally delivering food.

"Oh! You're finally home!" Mr. Chen took off his sunglasses, revealing his striking blue eyes. He spoke with a genuine Beijing accent and looked Xiao Qi up and down. "And you brought your girlfriend back! If Old Man Jiang knew about this, he'd brag from Ba Kou all the way to Shiwan, and the neighbors for a hundred miles would hear his boasting."

"Is Boss Ye at the milk tea shop?" Jiang Xueming asked about an old acquaintance.

This Boss Ye was Xue Ming's former employer. He had considerable connections in Hengyin. Xue Ming had seen Boss Ye interact with the police, and he was a very reliable person.

Xue Ming planned to send his sister to Boss Ye's shop for a couple of days to hide.

"It's not convenient for Bailu to go back, is it?" Mr. Chen saw Jiang Xueming's predicament at a glance. "I know. Your parents would probably go crazy if they saw Bailu. I'll keep this a secret for you. Ye Bei should be at the shop right now; he's on a long vacation. Just go find him directly."

"Okay, thank you, Mr. Chen," Jiang Xueming said, bowing as he retreated.

Bailu also bowed and thanked him, "Thank you, Uncle Chen!"

Mr. Chen pouted, looking displeased. "Call me brother! And speak sweetly! I hate it when you post-00s tell the truth!"

Xue Ming was about to leave.

"Wait! Wait, wait, Xiao Jiang!" Mr. Chen came out from the back room with an oil-paper package and stuffed it into Jiang Xueming's backpack.

Xue Ming asked, "What is it?"

After stuffing it in, Mr. Chen zipped up the bag and clapped his hands. "Since you're going home, I'll have you take something to your parents. Don't ask what it is, and don't open it yourself. I won't send you a bomb, don't worry."

"Mhm," Xue Ming nodded. "Then I'll thank you on behalf of my family."

Jiang Bailu switched to a sweet, affected voice, "Thank you, Uncle Chen!"

Mr. Chen rolled his eyes and almost tripped over the threshold on his way back into the shop. "I hate brats."

Leaving the paper crafting shop, Jiang Xueming found the main entrance of the Agricultural University and finally saw the first destination of his trip.

It was a luxuriously decorated drink shop with an oil-mud tiled roof. The two porch pillars were carved with dragon and snake reliefs. He remembered leaning against these pillars and dozing off when he used to deliver for this shop.

Inside the shop's porch were a rosewood counter and two rows of seats.

The plaque in front of the shop read [Forget Worry Milk Tea].

It exuded an nouveau riche, ostentatious aesthetic. Basically, it was the kind of extravagant spending on a drink shop facade that only happened when people had too much money and nowhere to spend it.

Jiang Xueming once suspected that the owner of this shop had some mysterious side business and that opening this shop was purely out of interest.

The cat cafe and pet clinic next door were still open; everything was unchanged.

As Bailu and Xiao Qi walked, they were so captivated by the cats next door that they veered off course and walked into the cafe.

Jiang Xueming didn't pay much attention. He was just here to ask for a favor, so he walked straight into the milk tea shop.

The three girls behind the counter were the same ones as last time. When he'd last seen them, they were first-year university students working part-time. Now they had already graduated and weren't planning to change jobs. It seemed Boss Ye really paid well.

Jiang Xueming politely greeted them, "Hello, is Boss Ye in?"

"Oh! He's squatting in the storage room," the cashier girl replied without looking up. When there were few customers, she'd just play on her phone.

Jiang Xueming walked in, hearing her words. "Okay, thank you."

The girl suddenly felt something was off and looked up abruptly.

"Brother Xue Ming! Is that you, Brother Xue Ming?!"

"Yes," Jiang Xueming quickened his pace, sensing trouble. "We'll catch up later, thanks."

He turned into the back kitchen, avoiding the bottles and jars, and arrived at the storage room door. Just as he was about to knock, he stopped.

Because he could hear people talking inside the storage room.

He thought to himself that Boss Ye might be meeting someone and it wouldn't be convenient to disturb him, so he waited a bit longer.

A noisy argument erupted from inside, along with Boss Ye's low, playful laughter.

After waiting for a long time, Jiang Xueming grew impatient.

He finally raised his hand and knocked on the door, then immediately pushed it open.

"Boss Ye, I've come to ask for a favor."

Jiang Xueming immediately saw a scene packed with information.

Inside the room, a man was squatting. He had a scar across his eyebrow and was wearing a clean, sharp hoodie with jeans, looking very young. His messy hair was tied back in a small braid.

It was Ye Bei, Boss Ye himself.

A game of Ludo was laid out on the floor.

Besides that, there was no one else.

The scene was very bizarre.

Because the one playing Ludo with Ye Bei was a large white cat.

The cat, just like Ye Bei, had a high degree of synchronization. It squatted beside the board in a human-like posture. The cat was wearing a small dress and a floral crown on its head, with a fire lotus pattern on its forehead.

It held the dice and game pieces with its small paws, its eyes showing the frustration of a loser, both wronged and fierce, sticking out its little tongue in anxiety.

Looking at the game board, it had already lost many steps and many pieces. The numbers on the scoreboard were even more a sight for sore eyes.

The man and the cat in the room simultaneously turned their heads—staring at Jiang Xueming.

Jiang Xueming's mind struggled to process the information. He very politely closed the door at that moment.

He felt something was wrong and knocked again. "Excuse me, I intruded."

A low reply came from inside the room.

"Come in, little brother. Don't mind us. My cat master and I are just playing around."

Hearing the call from inside, Jiang Xueming calmed himself and pushed the door open again, this time properly entering the storage room.

He saw that the table had been moved to the very center of the storage room.

Boss Ye sat there, steady and proper, looking like a human.

The strange clothes the cat had been wearing were gone. That previous outfit was more like a punishment for a prank game.

After some analysis, Jiang Xueming came to a very absurd guess—Boss Ye had been playing Ludo with this cat just now, and whoever lost had to wear a small skirt.

After all, Xue Ming had been to the underground world, where the BOSS was also a black cat. However, compared to the large white cat beside Boss Ye, that BOSS looked much more majestic.

Putting those thoughts aside, Xue Ming got straight to the point of his visit. "Boss Ye, I need to go home. I'd like to leave Bailu with you for a few days. She can help out. I'm entrusting you to take care of her. Is that convenient for you?"

Ye Bei smiled smugly. "No problem!"

The cat then responded expressionlessly, as if greeting him.

"Meow."