Main Text Chapter 1
On the eve of Christmas in 1999, the weather was uncomfortably cold, and I was drinking with several friends in a split-level street-front commercial unit in the Aowei Residential Compound. There were five people with me: Zhang Chen, Wang Yi, Shao Ke, Gao Kang, and Liu Zhong. Among these six people, except for me, Liu Zhong, the others all counted as promising young men. Among them, Wang Yi, Shao Ke, and Gao Kang were even talents proficient in both fine arts and music. At that time they had not yet left their hometowns, each busy making a small living. Only on weekend evenings during their leisure time, the few of them would pool dozens of yuan to casually buy some mutton and napa cabbage, Zhang Chen would bring an electric hot pot from home, they would ask for a case of beer from the nearby small shop, and using a secondhand PS game console as a CD player, the group would chat heartily for a whole night, lying down casually on whichever chair or sofa when tired, waking up to continue playing games, watching porn, and drinking, until Sunday night when they each dispersed.
That night we talked about drawing manga and writing scripts. Among these people, the most diligent at writing was me, the most diligent at drawing was Gao Kang, and the one proficient in everything was Wang Yi. We talked about the scripts of youth writers at the time and then started getting off topic, each of us speaking up about the stories we wanted to write and loudly expressing our opinions, with Gao Kang and Wang Yi even arguing fiercely. I felt that at that moment I seemed to see Owen Stone writing Lust for Life passionately through the night. Several years later I understood this was merely wishful thinking. Van Gogh was dead, and Owen Stone had made a fortune.
Halfway through eating the bought mutton slices, the case of beer had already hit the bottom, and remembering that Gong Lei had not come, I turned and asked Zhang Chen, "Where did Leizi go?"
Zhang Chen sighed and said, "Taking care of the family business; his dad had a car accident last week, and half his body still can't move."
Everyone knew Gong Lei's family ran a daily-use wholesale shop, with the house located in the downtown area, and it couldn't lack a person for a single second 24 hours a day.
At the mention of this topic, everyone fell silent.
I thought for a moment and cautiously suggested, "Should we go see Leizi after eating?"
None of these people hadn't always been used to being poor, and they also knew the hardships of life, so they successively expressed agreement. Since they were going to visit someone, they stopped drinking further, the few of them ate some mutton casually, packed up the things hastily, and set off.
To get from the Aowei Residential Compound to Gong Lei's house meant crossing half the city, and we chose to take a taxi.
Taking a taxi for six people was already the limit of our expenses. The night at the end of December in a northern city was deep and cold, and the six of us stood on the street corner talking some cold jokes from time to time and mocking each other, yet not a single taxi was willing to stop. Public security in this city had always been bad, and drivers seeing six fierce-looking half-grown youths flagging down cars there would mostly flee as far as possible. We could only pray for someone not afraid of death to let themselves be hit.
After waiting for almost half an hour, finally a driver was willing to stop. Shao Ke had the best appearance among these people, so he went up to negotiate with the driver, and the six of us squeezed into the Santana pushing and hugging each other, while Liu Zhong took a wrinkled five-yuan bill out of his pocket and placed it on the dashboard. This meant that upon return he definitely wouldn't have money, and it would depend on the others.
No matter what, the taxi carried these people whose bodies were squeezed into U and L shapes to the destination, and the driver didn't even look at these people much, driving away like flying. Leaving the few of us standing in place stretching our arms and kicking our legs, estimating that if squeezed a little longer we would all become Zs...
Gong Lei's house was very easy to find, with the commercial room and residence together, the sixth stall counted from the street corner, named "Xinyuan Daily-Use Wholesale". We used to drink here often in the past, and every night Gong Lei's father would take an erhu and scrape away on it yi-ya yi-ya, and in the twilight we would listen to the unique desolate sound of the erhu, so that everything on this street corner looked a little desolate.
Pushing the door and going inside, the few of us saw Gong Lei moving a case of shampoo outward, and Li Kun standing near the door straightening a case of shampoo on the shelf.
Shao Ke didn't say a second word, rolled up his sleeves, and went over to help, and the few of us also snapped to sudden realization, each and every one pitching in, and the work that originally would have taken over an hour was finished in under 20 minutes.
Gong Lei moved stools for everyone and fetched a basin of hot water to wash hands.
We settled down in the shop before he asked, "How come you guys came?"
"Food doesn't taste good without you." Zhang Chen tossed a Honghe cigarette to Li Kun. Li Kun was a childhood friend of Gong Lei's, his family raised cars and was quite wealthy, and he was planning to get married next year.
"Can you not disgust me?" Gong Lei said that with his mouth, but he indeed looked very happy. "You guys didn't eat your fill, right? I'll treat you tonight."
Gao Kang and Wang Yi reached out and stopped Gong Lei. At this time anyone could say they were poor, yet not a single person dared to say they were the poorest in front of Gong Lei.
"Don't, don't, we just ate enough to throw up, spare us. I brought a few movies, you get the VCD player out."
Gong Lei took the hint, saw that the sky outside was indeed very late, and went to close the front door. Before long, high and low groans rising and falling echoed from the television; this was the so-called "study time". In fact, except for Li Kun, basically everyone in this room was a virgin, theorizing at most one by one. Wasn't it said that seventy percent of Chinese people's sex knowledge was learned from porn? I saw this saying was correct.
Watching porn did not affect our conversation. Anyway, the television volume wasn't turned up loud. Liu Zhong and Wang Yi were talking there about the female lead's bodily merits, Shao Ke and I were flipping through outdated Hong Kong magazines and playing Parasite Eve in front of the secondhand 14-inch Sony television, and Zhang Chen, Li Kun, Gao Kang, and Gong Lei were gathered together discussing the hardship of making money recently.
It was already past midnight, and the wind outside the door blew hu-la hu-la, carrying shrill howls and sharp cries, while inside the room was a scene of warmth. We watched all the way until someone came to smash on the door early the next morning, and we hurriedly put the things away, the few people each going home.
The street in the morning was extremely cold, and we found another taxi that didn't want its life, taking a taxi back to the Aowei Residential Compound, which was the shop I was currently watching for someone. The brothers locked the front door and dropped dead asleep. Such days had remained unchanged from the beginning of the year until now.
I always believed that I benefited greatly from getting to know these people that year. In that year we talked about countless topics, from creation to art, from Japanese goods to rock and roll, from women to school, from dreams to reality. I learned many things from it, some of which I never dared to imagine, and some of which I had never heard of before. I thought my horizons had broadened from then on, and felt indignant for these people being obscure in such a small city.
In fact, I had dropped out of school to work two years before that, drifting through many places and changing many jobs over the two years. After the Spring Festival that year, the weekend life I loved slowly drifted away from me at last, Shao Ke and Gao Kang left their hometown to make a living in Beijing, Liu Zhong began to indulge in the internet, and Zhang Chen graduated from university to begin an IT career of selling pirated discs. As for me, I changed job after job, continuously working, making money, and spending money.
Three years passed in a flash. I felt I had grown up, yet seemed not to have grown up, having written a few things I wanted to write, just failing to write a complete beginning.
I thought I probably had no chance to finish writing the story I wanted to write.
On the eve of New Year's Day in 2003, having drunk alcohol, I strolled the streets of a certain special economic zone in southern China. Work was still going smoothly at this time, only my girlfriend had just left me, and my heart felt entirely black and ash-colored, and lifting my gaze to look, even the night sky was hazy without revealing a single bit of starlight. The male and female groans peculiar to Shenzhen's nights rose and fell one after another in an endless stream. I strolled to a secluded spot near the Luohu Pass, and just as I wanted to catch my breath and sit down, I heard a faint, low cry for help.
Following the source of the sound, I looked over and found that a few dozen meters away from me, two short males who did not look very physically strong were sandwiching a female with an even more petite figure between them. The crime rate in both Shenzhen and Guangzhou was higher than the abortion rate, yet robberies like this in bustling districts were rare. I was originally quite accustomed to these matters, but today I happened to be in a bad mood, with overflowing depression not knowing where to vent, so my head heated up, I lowered my head and scooped up a paving brick wedged into the lawn and rushed over, taking advantage of the two not paying attention to first bash a brick straight into the back of the head of one who looked a bit uglier.
With a pa-cha sound, the brick split. One of these two had his body immediately start softening downward from my smash, while the other reacted quite fast, stabbing over with a whoosh of a knife.
I was just about to raise my hand to throw the broken brick in my hand when, stretching out my hand and turning my body sideways, a knife thrust into my armpit. My initial reaction at the time wasn't so much pain as a chill in my heart, wondering whether I could survive.
Even though I was stabbed, the brick flew forward all the same, hitting that dude's chin, though unfortunately the force was too small, not enough to shake his bones loose and knock him out. At a time like this, it didn't allow me to think much either, so I took the momentum to rush up and fiercely pounce onto his body. My right arm was already somewhat unable to muster strength, but fortunately I had practiced left-hand strength for fun in the past, so I grabbed him firmly by the neck, lowered my head regardless of three-seventy-one, and took a bite straight into the carotid artery.
With one bite down, the man let out a miserable howl, and blood spewed chi from his neck, splashing all over my face. I pressed the advantage, taking another bite at the wound, this time confirming I had truly bitten the carotid artery right through. I felt my whole mouth was filled with a bloody stench, and blood gushed out in streams from the man's neck gu-gu, while the man had long been frightened silly by this bite of mine; it seemed those who used death to threaten others were themselves most afraid of it.
Enduring the pain, I propped myself up with my left hand and just wanted to go ask how the threatened woman was, when a gust of wind swept over from behind. It was none other than the one knocked down by my brick earlier who had woken up. He directly picked up the half-brick that had fallen when I smashed him and returned it to me without alteration.
I had just been injured and had bitten one down, so my mind had relaxed quite a bit, not expecting to suffer such a blow. Struck by the brick, my head went "buzz" and spun countless golden stars. Before I could stand steady and wake up, I was already grabbed by the collar and pushed to the ground.
Judging from the brain of the one I had smashed, it wasn't very clear either; he just lowered his head and tightly gripped my neck, without using a brick or folding knife to deal me a fatal blow. This actually gave the woman who had been frightened silly just a moment ago a bit of time to buffer, and a high-heeled shoe with a slender heel struck horizontally across that ugly face. Having been close to suffocation, I instantly felt my breathing smooth out, and my legs could muster strength, so I raised a foot and kicked mercilessly right into this dude's crotch.
That dude emitted a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering howl, both hands-one clutching his head and the other his lower parts-unexpectedly unable to spare a hand to deal with us for the moment. Seeing the person before my eyes so fierce, I was a bit afraid, yet even more afraid of death, so I lowered my head intending to find whatever usable weapon there was to give him another go; anyway, at worst it would count as excessive self-defense, and getting beaten to death by him wouldn't be worth it.
Unexpectedly, the robbed girl was even more ferocious than me, reaching out from behind that man to strangle the opponent's neck. Strangled like this, the man likely had his instinct for resistance stirred up, and both hands began to grab backward indiscriminately. Gritting my teeth, I rushed over, hugged him from the front, and also started working to choke his neck, so that the three of us tumbled into a clump.
The man had great strength, and the two of us combined couldn't quite contend with him. Due to excessive blood loss and a heavy blow to the head, I felt my head spin in a blur, my body listing to one side, and taking the other two down with me, I collapsed. The three of us rolled all the way down the lawn's slope, rolling to the riverside and tumbling into the river water. Immersed by the icy water, I only felt heaven and earth suddenly become clear and ice-cold, followed immediately by pitch-blackness, and I knew nothing more.