FWP Chapter 13

Chapter 13: 13 People Rarely Meet by Chance

Chapter 13: 13 People Rarely Meet by Chance

In the autumn of ’08, Zhou Zhao, having just gotten his driver’s license, fell uncontrollably in love with driving.

He drove Yu Zipei to and from school every day and played chauffeur for his dad on weekends. He was also passionate about critiquing every luxury car he saw on the road. Coincidentally, Li Tinglin shared the same hobby.

The two of them sat in the front, pontificating, while Wanderer, who had been dragged along for a joyride, only understood bits and pieces, turning his face to the window to look at the scenery.

This year, he left home, left Zeng Haitang, and became Sun Wukong thrown into the Supreme Lord Lao’s alchemic furnace.

The city and civilization transformed into raging flames, into thick smoke, constantly grinding at his already fragile heart.

He thought he was the Great Sage Sun, rubbing his fists and eager to find that “Xun position” (a specific point in Bagua).

But after busying himself for a long time, he dejectedly realized that his only common point with the Great Sage Sun was that they both evolved from monkeys. The Great Sage was extraordinarily gifted and lucky, a stone monkey, while he was just a mortal with a fleshy body, who would only turn into ashes after being burned dry.

The car drove out of the city and onto the highway. Zhou Zhao looked at the road signs and dutifully reported that the next service area was 16 kilometers away, asking if anyone needed to use the restroom.

Li Tinglin’s phone was connected to the car’s Bluetooth, playing music at a deafening volume. They had to shout to be heard. He shouted, “I don’t need to pee!”

Zhou Zhao also shouted, “Wanderer, do you need to pee!”

Wanderer nodded, then realized Zhou Zhao couldn’t see him, so he shouted, “Pee!”

Perhaps he was too loud; Zhou Zhao thought he was in a hurry. “How full are you!”

“What?”

Zhou Zhao had never heard Wanderer speak with such vigor. He deliberately lowered the car window a bit, the wind howling in, making the car even noisier than a vegetable market.

Li Tinglin glanced at Zhou Zhao’s actions, curiously staring at Wanderer.

Wanderer was actually a little urgent. It took half an hour to get from the city to the highway, and he had finished a liter of water in that time. He didn’t notice Zhou Zhao opening the window, assuming Li Tinglin’s taste was just that noisy and terrible.

Zhou Zhao shouted again, “Below seven-tenths full, 120 km/h; above seven-tenths, 150 km/h. You decide how fast we go!”

“Damn, you’re crazy.” Li Tinglin glared at Zhou Zhao, turned around, and fastened his seatbelt. “Thirty percent over the speed limit! Six points!”

Wanderer didn’t want Zhou Zhao to lose points. “That six points! Six points!”

“Losing six points, huh? Fine! You’ll treat me to a meal later!” Zhou Zhao raised an eyebrow, lowered his sunglasses, and floored the accelerator. The car shot forward.

Wanderer and Li Tinglin leaned back in unison. Li Tinglin cursed under his breath, grabbing the handle on the car ceiling and remaining silent.

The wind grew stronger, as if punishing them for not obeying traffic laws, barging in and slapping them in the face.

Wanderer couldn’t open his eyes, trying his best to watch the road and pay attention to traffic conditions.

The car was traveling between two mountains, much higher than the ones near Wanderer’s home. He saw a section of the Great Wall winding around the mountainside in the distance, the wall rising and falling, stretching into the mountains until it disappeared from view.

Zhou Zhao closed the window, taking the time to introduce to Wanderer: “Juyong Pass! Do you see it? It’s full of tourists up there.”

Li Tinglin said softly, “Your eyesight is good enough, you could spot tourists even driving a rocket.”

Zhou Zhao didn’t care. He had a perfectly good “reason.” He asked his reason, “Are you about to pee your pants!”

Wanderer covered his face. Even if the Great Wall were right in front of him, he wouldn’t dare to look at it. He said, aggrieved, “Yes.”

At the service area, as soon as the car stopped, Wanderer couldn’t wait to push open the door and run out.

Zhou Zhao called out, “Left, left, you’re going the wrong way.”

Wanderer, who was rushing headfirst to the right, silently changed direction. Zhou Zhao laughed, thinking, “What a simpleton.”

Wanderer didn’t close the car door tightly, so Zhou Zhao got out and walked around to close it.

Maybe he had been holding it in for too long; Wanderer stood waiting for a long time, getting a little impatient. Zhou Zhao didn’t know where he came from, standing behind him. Zhou Zhao didn’t understand what Wanderer was doing standing there in a preparatory stance, suddenly speaking out: “Hey, you…”

Wanderer widened his eyes nervously. He wanted to stop him, but it was too late.

Amidst the splashing water sounds, Wanderer’s expression was frozen. Zhou Zhao cooperatively whistled in the background, long and short, stopping and starting.

However long Wanderer took, Zhou Zhao took just as long.

A big brother next to them couldn’t help but turn his head to glance at Wanderer: “Buddy, how old are you? Still need someone to coax you while you pee?”

/

“That’s the guest bedroom, usually where my parents sleep when they come to see the kids. The cleaning lady washed the bedding a couple of days ago…”

Yu Zipei showed Wanderer the bathroom and the automatic water dispenser in her house. She pointed to a door and was about to say something, but was abruptly interrupted by a yawn.

Wanderer held a glass of carbonated water and waited for Yu Zipei to finish yawning. “It’s okay, it’s good enough to have a place to sleep.”

“What are you laughing at? You were laughing in the car, and now you’re still laughing,” Yu Zipei said suspiciously. “Don’t get any ideas, I won’t make the mistake of falling in love with a boy for the second time.”

Wanderer waved his hand. “No. It’s not because of that.”

“Huh?”

Wanderer found a high stool to sit on. He leaned against the island counter, looking at the rising sun in the buildings outside the floor-to-ceiling window. “I’m just thinking, life is so unpredictable. You and I could actually sit together and chat one day, and you’re even willing to bring me back, give me a place to sleep.”

“I feel like it’s unreal.”

Yu Zipei patted him on the shoulder. “Is it real, right? I’ll ask you, did you come to my wedding?”

Wanderer met her gaze. “I…”

Yu Zipei didn’t allow Wanderer to look away. Just now in the elevator, she was still shouting about wanting to sleep for fourteen hours straight. She was facing the floor-to-ceiling window, and the sunlight dispelled her sleepiness. Wanderer noticed near her brow bone, there were holes left by a pair of eyebrow piercings.

Yu Zipei was very serious; she didn’t want to hear Wanderer lie.

“After your friend died, you went to many places. Tell me, in those places you went, was there… my wedding?”

Wanderer lowered his head. After a long silence, he squeezed out a sentence from his throat, “I’m sorry.”

On December 20, 2012, the checkout areas of supermarkets were crowded with people.

They whispered to each other, chattering about the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world.

An old lady said, “What end of the world? I think you’re just stingy. Where did you move the shopping bags that used to be at the entrance?”

The cashier scanned and entered items swiftly, taking the time to maintain order in the queue. “I have some here too. Do you want big ones or small ones? Big ones are three mao, small ones are one mao.”

The old lady spat. “Might as well all die together in the apocalypse. Three mao, one mao, the people who run supermarkets are so stingy.”

The cashier rolled her eyes discreetly. The total was fifty-one yuan, ninety-three mao. The old lady pulled out a hundred-yuan bill. The cashier asked her colleagues around for change, and seeing that none was available, a young man standing behind the old lady handed out a pile of change. “I’ll do it.”

This was a young man with shoulder-length hair. He was holding a pile of new clothes, a pair of leather shoes hooked on his little finger. A scarf covered the lower half of his face, revealing a pair of large, vacant eyes.

The cashier said hesitantly, “How should I calculate this? Otherwise, I’ll ring you up first.”

The old lady raised an eyebrow. “Your chain supermarket can’t even break a hundred-yuan bill? I’m in a hurry to go home and cook.”

The young man: “No, no, I’m not cutting in line. I’ll help you pay for it.”

The old lady: “That’s great. Thank you, young man.” She took her hundred-yuan bill from the cashier and quickly packed the ground meat and toilet cleaner she bought into the cloth bag she brought.

After the old lady left, it was the young man’s turn.

The cashier scanned the items while muttering, “I think she’s more like the apocalypse. At her age, she doesn’t even know shame, taking advantage endlessly.”

She unfolded a suit jacket, and a plastic-sealed red envelope fell out. The young man said, “Oh, I bought this red envelope outside. I forgot to take it out when I was trying on clothes.”

The red envelope was printed with “A Hundred Years of Harmony.”

The cashier had a good impression of him and took the initiative to strike up a conversation. “Going to a wedding?”

“Yeah.”

The young man put the red envelope in his pocket. It was very hot inside the supermarket. He pulled down his scarf, revealing an exceptionally handsome face. He looked a lot like a tragic male second lead in a movie the cashier watched last week, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, and the corners of his mouth turned down even when he smiled.

She joked, “Your ex-girlfriend’s wedding?”

The young man smiled. “No, it’s someone I’ve liked for many years. He’s getting married.”

The Chinese pronouns “ta” (he, he, or it) are always so confusing. The cashier understood, believing that people with this appearance were all tragic male second leads.

The clothes were packed neatly, and the shoes were placed on the top layer, separated by a layer of plastic bag. The young man held the receipt in his hand, took two steps outward, and suddenly turned around to ask, “What is the end of the world?”

“It’s when everyone is finished together.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

Oh. Tomorrow, everyone will be finished together.

Wanderer walked away full of doubts.

The whole evening, he was thinking about one question: why were Zhou Zhao and Yu Zipei getting married on the day of the apocalypse?

As for the others, he didn’t dare to think about them.

Wanderer put ten thousand yuan into the red envelope. He ate breakfast at the hotel, put the envelope in his pocket, and went to Shichahai.

He bought a candied hawthorn and sat watching the people on the ice. Beijing was still very cold this year. The rock sugar melted in his mouth after a while. He ate one and compared his fist to the hawthorn next to it, “So your hand was this small when you were a kid.”

“I heard from others that you were getting married, but I didn’t know the groom wasn’t Zhou Zhao. I’m so cheap, thinking of going to see. I want to know if he sees me, would he…”

Would he…

Would he what?

Yu Zipei said coldly, “You wanted to steal the bride.”

Wanderer didn’t deny it, honestly humming in acknowledgement.

“I walked outside all morning, freezing through, and my mind cleared up too.” Wanderer carefully glanced at Yu Zipei’s expression. “Around eleven o’clock, I arrived at the hotel, waiting outside, not daring to go in. I saw a long line of cars coming, with him and Li Tinglin, and a few other groomsmen standing together. You were all dressed very well, and I couldn’t even tell if he was the groom, so I just waited for your ceremony to end before going in.”

“But I didn’t expect him to see me so quickly, and even cause… so much trouble.”

Yu Zipei covered her eyes.

It was very troublesome.

At that time, Zhou Zhao and Li Tinglin were standing by her and her ex-husband, toasting with everyone, when Zhou Zhao caught a glimpse of a blurry figure in the crowd. Before anyone could react, Zhou Zhao suddenly threw his glass down and ran away like a madman. He knocked over a passing waiter, who was carrying a bowl of “Hundred Years of Harmony Soup.” The soup bowl was very hot, spilling half of it on Zhou Zhao, but he still ran, ignoring anyone who tried to stop him.

The soup spilled on the ground, and Great Princess, Yu Zipei’s second aunt’s pampered dog, was startled.

Great Princess was a dog that had seen the world. At this moment, she barked wildly a few times, scaring the children into tears. Not only that, but she also broke free from her second aunt’s control and ran wildly through the banquet hall, dragging her leash along the way. Everyone chased after her, forcing Great Princess to the place where the waiter had fallen. This place was terrible. Great Princess stepped on the soup with all four feet, squealing and sliding into Yu Zipei’s carefully designed eight-layer cake.

In an instant, the sounds of crying, scolding, and screaming filled the banquet hall, completely drowning out Yu Zipei’s calls for Zhou Zhao.

Great Princess was startled because of Zhou Zhao, so what was Zhou Zhao startled by?

Yu Zipei couldn’t figure it out because she had a much bigger thing to deal with.

Her ex-husband was a romantic and sentimental rich man who hid a large diamond he had won at an auction inside the eight-layer cake to surprise his wife.

The diamond was very big. How big? Probably big enough to knock someone unconscious if it flew out.

— Great Princess crashed into the cake headfirst, howling and collapsing to the ground. Not far away, another person collapsed to the ground.

Yu Zipei glanced over, and her face, covered with three layers of powder, turned even whiter. She stretched out her hand and shouted, “Great-Grandma—!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Great-Grandma, I’m sorry!” Wanderer bowed three times in a row to Yu Zipei, finally timidly raising his eyes to ask, “Is Great-Grandma okay?”

Yu Zipei said calmly, “Well… she died.”

Wanderer’s heart clenched, and he almost followed in Great-Grandma’s footsteps. At this moment, Yu Zipei’s second half of the sentence came out, “She passed away last year.”