Chapter 33: A Distant Memory Suddenly Resurfaces
The night was deep.
The clanging of workers on the construction site had ceased, and the roar of machinery had fallen silent.
Only a few scattered lights remained in the residential buildings as the entire city slipped into a state of quiet.
The door to the clinic was suddenly pushed open a crack, and a thin figure squeezed out.
The figure wore a large, black poncho. A hood obscured most of their face, and the lower half was covered by a black mask, completely concealing their features.
Beneath the poncho was a long gown that reached almost to the ankles, and on their feet were a pair of cloth shoes.
He carried several large bags printed with the Huimin Supermarket logo, stuffed to the brim with all sorts of instant food.
His way of walking was peculiar. He moved quickly, hugging the walls. When he reached an intersection, he would first peek out, and only after confirming no one was around would he dash across the street, continuing to stick to the walls on the other side.
Every fifty meters or so, he would abruptly turn to look behind him, then scan his surroundings.
After traversing a long, straight street, the figure suddenly turned left onto a small path.
Three seconds after the figure turned the corner, a petite figure appeared on the street, tiptoeing along the same route the first person had taken.
The path was smooth at first, but the farther one went, the more overgrown it became with weeds, which eventually grew to be half a person tall.
At the end of the weeds stood an abandoned house. The second floor had partially collapsed, and the entire building was engulfed by creeping vines, making it impossible to locate any doors or windows.
The figure reached into the vines and fumbled around, seemingly finding a doorknob. With a CREAK, a sliver of faint light shone from behind the vines. The figure quickly slipped inside and shut the door again, and the weak light instantly vanished into the night.
Inside, the house was also pitch-black. The only source of light was a faint glimmer seeping from under the bedroom door.
The newcomer set down the bags, removed his poncho, and took off his mask.
With long hair secured at the back of his head with a pin, a meticulously groomed goatee, and an aqua-blue long robe, the man was none other than the Old Chinese Physician from the clinic.
Hanging the poncho on the wall, the Old Chinese Physician walked over and tried the bedroom doorknob.
The door was unlocked and opened easily.
The bedroom’s furnishings were spartan, containing only two camp beds. In the center of the room was a simple wooden cabinet, on top of which sat a porcelain plate and a whole pack of candles.
There was nothing else.
A single candle was lit on the porcelain plate, serving as the only light source in the house.
Reclining on the farther camp bed was a man of indeterminate age who weighed well over three hundred pounds. His sheer bulk made the camp bed creak protestingly.
His hair and beard were long. Perhaps because they hadn’t been washed in a very long time, they were not only greasy but also matted into clumps, emitting a foul stench.
The man was holding an iPhone 4S. Hearing the door open, he quickly glanced up at the person who had entered.
Upon seeing it was the Old Chinese Physician, he returned his gaze to his phone and said casually, "Dad, you’re here."
Seeing his son in this state, the Old Chinese Physician was overcome with anger and immediately began to scold him.
"Look at you! What have you become? You promised me you’d turn over a new leaf and be a better person. Is this what you call turning over a new leaf?"
The man grunted twice to show he’d heard, but he continued to play with his phone.
Perhaps this scene and conversation had played out countless times. The Old Chinese Physician had grown tired of it. He let out a long sigh and got straight to the point.
"A couple of days ago, I ran into that first couple I treated when I opened the clinic. It sounds like they started a company and made a lot of money. They were talking about earning a million a month, and then they mentioned wanting another child who looks just like him."
"I’m not sure if he was trying to imply something, but I’ve had a sense of unease ever since that meeting. I can’t shake the feeling that disaster is about to strike."
This topic piqued the man’s interest slightly. He finally tore his eyes away from his phone, but he was only interested in the first part of what his father said.
"Ha! With his gun shooting blanks, he wants a kid that looks like him? Maybe in his next life."
With that, the man reached down and grabbed the fat around his waist, sending a ripple through his flesh. The camp bed creaked incessantly.
The Old Chinese Physician waited for a moment, but his son said nothing more. He looked up at his son, who was happily playing with his phone, and felt a growing sense of unfamiliarity.
’How did my hardworking, humble, and ambitious son turn into... this?’
"I plan to finish this one last job and then move somewhere else. We’ve been in Hai City for seven years now. It’s been too long."
"Yeah, whatever. If you say we should move, then we’ll move." The man nodded haphazardly, clearly uninterested in the topic.
*Sigh.*
The Old Chinese Physician brought the bags of instant food from behind the main door into the bedroom, took off his long robe, and lay down on the camp bed near the window.
But he tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep for even a moment.
He replayed his seven years in Hai City, starting from the very first day he arrived, but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary in his memories.
’I hope I’m just overthinking things this time.’
Behind a small earthen mound not far from the abandoned house, the Short-haired Youth who had been tailing the Divine Old Physician let out a series of yawns.
There were many mosquitoes out here in the wilderness, but he was afraid of alerting the people inside the house, so he forced himself to endure the maddening itch without moving. His face was already covered in three or four mosquito bites.
’Why hasn’t that old coot come back out? Don’t tell me he fell asleep in there. What the hell is he hiding in that house that makes him so secretive every time he goes out? He managed to shake me the last few times I tried to follow him.’
Not until the first glimmer of light appeared on the horizon did the Old Chinese Physician, dressed in the same disguise as the night before, finally exit the abandoned house.
At 5:00 AM, the alarm clock rang, right on schedule. Xu An woke up, right on schedule. And right on schedule, a knock came from the courtyard gate.
After getting into the rhythm of things yesterday, the three of them were now working together in perfect order.
Today, they were once again preparing 120 boxed lunches. The menu consisted of steamed pork with rice flour, deep-fried mushrooms, scrambled eggs with tomato, and chilled mung bean soup.
Xu Heping was in charge of washing the vegetables, Liang Dani was responsible for chopping them, and Xu An handled the marinating and processing. The three of them operated like a small assembly line.
By 9:00 AM, thirty minutes faster than yesterday, all the food was cooked and packed.
After cooking for the past two days, Xu An had a whole new appreciation for his physical fitness.
The large wok spatula, made of solid iron, weighed a full three pounds.
He had been wielding this three-pound spatula for two days straight, stir-frying for at least an hour each day, yet he didn’t feel the slightest bit of fatigue. His arm muscles weren’t sore or swollen from overuse either.
He effortlessly loaded the four large boxes of lunches and three large buckets of soup onto the tricycle without even breaking a sweat.
This level of fitness was simply heaven-defying. If he’d been this fit for the physical exam during the college entrance exams, scoring a perfect fifty would have been a piece of cake.
「Hai City Library Construction Site」
Perhaps because the weather was getting hotter and the temperature was rising each day, there were noticeably fewer pedestrians on the street today compared to yesterday.
At twelve o’clock, they had already sold sixty-three boxed lunches by this time yesterday, but so far today, they had only sold fifty.
The nearby office workers were Xu An’s last hope. They should be getting off work right about now and coming out to look for food.
Suddenly, a group of seven or eight young men appeared at the end of the street, shoving each other playfully.
They all looked to be around twenty years old, exuding the youthful and innocent aura unique to college students.
They wore matching uniforms: a white T-shirt with an embroidered ship logo, blue camouflage pants, and black combat boots on their feet.
The moment Xu An saw them, a distant memory resurfaced in his mind.
’How could I have forgotten? The Hai City Nautical College is right near the Hai City Library!’
Back when he was taking the college entrance exams, he had even considered applying to this school, but it had high physical fitness requirements for its students.
In his past life, however, Xu An’s physical condition was so poor that a strong gust of wind could make him sway. There was no way he could have passed.
Later, between going to university, working, and taking care of his grandmother and younger siblings, the fact that he had once considered applying to this school was completely forgotten.
If he hadn’t seen their distinctive uniforms, Xu An would never have remembered the college.
This school had over six thousand students!