WHI – Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The stale, greasy smell of the green-skinned train mingled with the aroma of instant noodles, stinging Lin Ting’s nostrils. He coughed a few times, jolting awake, and felt momentarily dazed.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Oh, right. Today was the day he was moving to his new home.

…Tsk, home?

He must have dozed off too deeply.

“Hey, young man, are you getting off soon?” An Uncle, over fifty, wiped his nose. Just as he was about to smear something shiny onto the seat cushion, he seemed to sense Lin Ting’s gaze. His hand paused, then moved around, finally rubbing a plastic bucket labeled “Cement Base” on the floor with his feet. “That’s what it says on your ticket.”

“Oh, yes, thank you, sir.” Lin Ting glanced out the window. S City. He had never been here before, but it didn’t feel any different from the city he’d lived in for nearly twenty years.

As long as the same sun and moon shone, Lin Ting felt it wasn’t a big deal.

If even the sun and moon changed, then it wouldn’t be his concern.

“Young people these days are so polite, even saying thank you,” the Uncle said. “Few young people are willing to ride these green-skinned trains anymore. They all go for high-speed rail or planes. If you ask me, life is too good for them. They’ve forgotten how hard the older generation struggled. But you seem alright, you know how to be frugal…”

Indeed, besides himself, the only other young people in the entire seated carriage were a grandmother and her grandchild.

Everyone else was at least 35.

Lin Ting stretched his limbs, feeling as if his bones were out of place, and began to pack. “That’s right. I’ve been watching female streamers dance all the way here, it’s so tough. I’m getting off now, you keep struggling.”

With that, Lin Ting slung a bulging black backpack over his shoulders. He listened to the station announcement and navigated around several people sleeping soundly on the floor with their bedding, heading towards the end of the carriage.

The people lying on the floor seemed displeased by Lin Ting’s walking around, disturbing their sleep. They rolled their eyes towards the ceiling and shifted in their sleep, their mouths still wide open, emitting loud snores.

Lin Ting leaned by the carriage door, glancing sideways, wondering if the cigarette butt trembling slightly on the ceiling above the open mouth would accidentally drop some ash.

Unfortunately, he didn’t see it happen before he got off.

Finally, he heard the Uncle curse, which was then muffled by the heat enveloping him as he stepped off the train.

Lin Ting let out a breath. His estimation of his reaction time was good this time; he wasn’t tackled and beaten. He was quite lucky.

Lin Ting intended to take out his phone to send a message to his mother, but looking at his rather sparse contact list, he backed out of WeChat and hailed a taxi.

As the saying goes, it’s better to rely on oneself than on others.

The taxi driver, with his inch-cut hair, saw that Lin Ting didn’t look like a local and took him on a winding route, finally arriving at the entrance of the residential alley. “Young man, you can’t go in here. Walk a bit further and you’ll be there. It’s sixty-eight yuan and fifty cents, but I’ll just charge you sixty-eight.”

Lin Ting raised his hand and scanned thirty-eight yuan and seventy cents to the inch-cut driver, then turned to leave.

“Hey, hey, hey!” The inch-cut driver unbuckled his seatbelt and hurried after him, his thick, dark hand easily grabbing Lin Ting’s arm. Lin Ting stopped short, almost falling.

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t you understand? Sixty-eight yuan, you trying to skip out on the bill?” The inch-cut driver’s tone was a bit slurred, and his accent suggested he wasn’t a local either.

Lin Ting offered a polite smile and pulled his arm free. He took out his phone, opened the map, and showed it to the driver. “The most common route from the train station to here, without traffic, is this one. It’s about 12 kilometers long. Your taxi company’s standard pricing is 10 yuan for the first 3 kilometers, and then 2 yuan and 3 jiao per kilometer. That comes out to about thirty yuan and seven jiao. I’m giving you an extra eight yuan to wish you prosperity. No need to thank me. Keep the receipt. If we haggle over a few yuan, I’ll start to feel embarrassed.”

With that, Lin Ting quickened his pace and walked away.

Behind him, a string of curses followed, but fortunately, compared to chasing him down and beating him up, the driver was probably more afraid of getting a ticket from a passing traffic police officer.

Actually, Lin Ting wasn’t someone who liked to cause trouble. If it were before, he might have just taken the loss, or halfway told the driver he’d had too much to drink and would vomit all over the car if they detoured. The main thing was that he was quite annoyed right now.

While he didn’t like to provoke people, others couldn’t help but provoke him.

He wasn’t beaten, so he was quite lucky.

Lin Ting walked through the winding alleyways and finally found his “home” by the house number.

This residential area didn’t have the usual gatehouse management. The few small Western-style houses scattered around varied in style. One Chinese-style courtyard had flowers and fish, another European-style villa had a lawn and a swing, and yet another emitted a strong scent of sandalwood from afar, smoky and pungent. It was unexpected that this hadn’t been complained about. The only similarity was that every yard tried its best to display exquisite taste and high-end details. If a patch of green algae was found on a corner and not cleaned, people here would probably laugh about it for a whole year.

This was indeed an auspicious land. The good thing was that even the manhole covers were as exquisite as if custom-made by a luxury boutique. The bad thing was that it always gave people a sense of distant, unapproachable familiarity.

Just like the person in front of him.

“You… you’re Lin Ting, right? Interesting name.”

The man in front of him was over 40 but well-maintained; he could pass for over 30. Dressed in a dark green casual suit, complete with a tie clip and cufflinks, he was looking at Lin Ting with a smile that was as perfect as if drawn with a protractor.

“I’m Gu Jiang. Come in.”

“Thank you.” Lin Ting said, following the man into a modern, minimalist courtyard that was as refined as the man himself.

As soon as he entered the courtyard gate, Lin Ting saw his mother lounging on a rattan chair in the courtyard, a book in one hand, and her other hand slowly reaching for a small teacup from the side table, her eyes still on the book. She wasn’t in a hurry. Just like that, relying on muscle memory, she picked up the cup, took a few sips, and put it down.

Only after completing this set of actions did Su Li notice Lin Ting had arrived. “Why didn’t you call me to pick you up?” she said, though she remained in the rattan chair, her posture unchanged in terms of the angle of her back and the tilt of the book and her face.

“I came on my own,” Lin Ting said as he walked closer.

Only when the boy she had raised from 50 centimeters to a full 1.8 meters stood before her did Su Li put down her book and stand up. “Your transfer procedures are all done. You’ll report after the holiday. Pay attention to your studies.”

She then looked Lin Ting up and down, her gaze lingering on the somewhat worn black backpack. Her palm-sized face gradually creased into a frown. “I’ll take you to buy some clothes tomorrow. And this bag… throw it away quickly.”

“Okay, my old bag really doesn’t match your mansion,” Lin Ting agreed readily.

He was thrifty, but he wouldn’t refuse something free.

Su Li was so taken aback by his tone that she couldn’t recover. She pointed at Lin Ting with her slender white fingers for a long time, but couldn’t utter a word. Seeing this, Gu Jiang quickly moved to her side. “The child is still young. Bad habits picked up from those places will be corrected quickly…”

Lin Ting felt his mother’s taste in men was the same as it had been for ten years – she liked good-looking people.

But perhaps because of his father, she now had an additional criterion for choosing a partner: someone who looked refined and wouldn’t cause trouble.

To prevent his mother from fainting from anger, Lin Ting turned and walked into the house with his backpack. Gu Jiang was extremely polite, showing no signs of anger. “Lin Ting, let Auntie show you to your room. It’s on the second floor, on the same floor as Gu Yi’s room. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask Auntie…”

Gu Yi… Lin Ting had wanted to complain about this for a long time. His stepbrother, was his name intentionally chosen like this?

The interior and exterior decoration style of the Western-style house were predictably consistent. It was undoubtedly designed by a designer; ordinary country villas wouldn’t achieve this effect.

Lin Ting stepped onto the pale goose-yellow marble stairs. The round-faced and amiable Auntie led him to a room door.

“Young Master Lin, this is your room. It was tidied up yesterday. Let me know if you need anything else. If not, I’ll go downstairs to start cooking.”

It was the first time in his life that Lin Ting had heard a real person address him as “Young Master,” and to him, no less. He was so shocked his mouth hung open.

This was karma, the karma for his mouth today.

“Auntie, just call me Lin Ting. I’m not used to being called ‘Young Master’ or anything…” Lin Ting said as he pushed open the door. Yes, as expected, it was exquisitely simple and modern, with a black and white design, looking like a five-star hotel – though he’d never stayed in one.

The Auntie, who looked a decade or two older than his mother, had a distressed expression and avoided his gaze. “But…”

Lin Ting casually dropped his large backpack on the floor – the floor was cleaner than his grandfather’s table.

“It’s okay. When they’re around, call me whatever they want. Just between us, you can call me Lin Ting, or Xiao Lin.”

As soon as he said that, Lin Ting regretted it. Because the Auntie’s perfectly round face, as if drawn with a compass, was clearly processing:

if (only Lin Ting is present)

printf (address him as Lin Ting or Xiao Lin)

else

printf (address him as Young Master Lin)

Before the Auntie came to call everyone for dinner, Lin Ting had a little time to himself. He took out his books from his backpack, not many for a top student, and placed them on the empty bookshelf. After thinking for a moment, he took them down and placed them on the desk. He then took out a pair of faded jeans, washed countless times and perfectly suited for a poor person, and two black T-shirts – probably bought by his grandfather from a roadside stall two years ago while having breakfast. He also took out a few pairs of socks with holes that he had painstakingly mended, and put them one by one into the wardrobe.

He never imagined that a sparrow would one day fly to heaven and become a phoenix. Lin Ting didn’t know if this was called good luck.

But he couldn’t smile. He still missed Old Lin, who would open his window at 5 AM and sing at the top of his lungs, prompting the neighbors to shout, “Old Lin, shut up! If you keep making noise, I’ll tie your grandson up and make him my live-in grandson-in-law!” He missed Old Lin, who would queue up to collect eggs and excitedly run to show Lin Ting, seeking praise. He missed Old Lin, who, late at night, would suddenly say, “I don’t have a good son, but I have a good grandson.” He missed Old Lin, who, whenever his exam results came out, would carry a bottle of wine and show off to every household until Lin Ting got angry and they “cursed each other” in the alley, leading the passing neighbors to sigh, “These two have the same mouth.” Old Lin didn’t have much when he was alive, and he didn’t have much when he died. Lin Ting originally wanted to keep something as a memento, but after lying around in a daze for a few days, he vaguely saw Old Lin tell him, “Don’t keep anything. People need to move forward. How can the living be tied down by the dead?”

On the same day, his mother somehow learned of Grandpa’s death. She was silent on the phone for a while, and finally said, “Then take care of yourself. Tell me if you have any difficulties.” Lin Ting wasn’t surprised by this. What was surprising was that the next day she suddenly called and asked Lin Ting to move to S City to live with her.

Lin Ting was like a robot with a program installed, silently handling Old Lin’s funeral – Lin Ting felt Old Lin’s name wasn’t chosen well, otherwise, he wouldn’t have passed away so soon. He then resolutely sold the old, dilapidated house and came alone to this cold, auspicious land.

It felt as if fate had pushed him forward several big steps. Otherwise, Lin Ting couldn’t explain why he had left nothing behind and appeared here as if possessed. He wearily sank into the sofa in his room, his body sinking deeply into it.