After getting off the train, Li Fei cautiously dragged the suitcase along the platform, while Zhou Yu followed behind, remaining vigilant. The long platform was filled with passengers walking single file towards the exit. Although Zhou Yu and Li Fei understood that these passengers were unlikely to target the suitcase, given the valuable contents, it was always necessary to be cautious “just in case.”
Zhou Yu suddenly turned his head and, in the cold, desolate light, saw the man he suspected of switching his suitcase following less than ten meters behind him. The man wasn’t carrying a suitcase, which didn’t surprise Zhou Yu. It confirmed his suspicion that the man had seen him taking the suitcase down to be checked by the police last night. The man probably figured there was nothing valuable inside, so he simply abandoned it on the train.
When the man saw Zhou Yu turn around, he hesitated slightly, but he still braced himself and walked forward, pretending to be nonchalant, only slowing his pace a bit.
Zhou Yu turned his head back and continued walking, also pretending to be nonchalant.
After exiting the station, Zhou Yu couldn’t help but look around, but he never saw the familiar figure again.
Zhou Yu and Li Fei decided to find a hotel near the station to stay in, get a good night’s sleep, and then make further plans.
They registered at the front desk of a budget hotel, took the room key upstairs, and as soon as they entered the room, Li Fei couldn’t wait to open the suitcase. He wanted to take a closer look at exactly how much money was inside. He took out the banknotes wrapped in black kraft paper and placed them on the white bedspread. Then, he tore open the wrapping paper, revealing several thick stacks of Renminbi tied with rubber bands, which were particularly eye-catching.
“Wow, I estimate there’s 200,000!” Li Fei was overjoyed.
“About that,” Zhou Yu said, his eyes also shining.
[You see this text, please exit reading mode, or go to the “source web page” to read normally]
[Please go to the source web page to read, the following content is automatically replaced to prevent acquisition] You – me, big – small, more – less, up – down, left – right…
Such a small sum of money was the first time they had ever witnessed it in their twenty years of life, so naturally it was difficult to remain calm.
“I’ll count it!” Li Fei picked up a stack of Renminbi, took off the rubber band, moistened his finger with saliva, and picked up the banknotes one by one, placing them on the bed, saying a number with each bill he placed.
Zhou Yu also joined in the counting.
It took a long time to count, and adding the 1,500 yuan he had taken out on the train, the total was 190,000 yuan.
Li Fei smiled and said, “We’re rich! We each get 95,000 yuan!”
Zhou Yu reminded him, “Forgot what I said on the train?”
“I know, I said we have to wait until the police don’t come looking for us before we can split the money,” Li Fei said, a little disappointed. “But I think you’re overthinking it, the police won’t find us.”
Zhou Yu didn’t bother to argue with Li Fei.
The long journey had left them exhausted, and they both wanted a good night’s sleep, but because their minds were so excited, they couldn’t fall asleep.
“Hey, when are you going to see your sweetheart?” Li Fei suddenly asked Zhou Yu, who was lying on the other end of the bed. “You seem to have told me that she was your college classmate, right? You’re coming to Jincheng to find a job mostly for her, right?”
“That’s right, you and she are elementary school classmates, same school but different classes. She’s one grade above me.” When Zhou Yu thought of the handsome-looking, slender woman, his heart stirred with ripples. “I’ll go find her after I get a stable job.”
Li Fei asked, “What does she do?”
Zhou Yu said, “I heard from classmates that she’s in self-media, writing for a public account.”
“Wow, a talented woman!” Then, Li Fei teased, “You only heard from classmates that she’s in self-media, it seems like you guys aren’t close, could it be that you just like her one-sidedly?”
“We had a very good relationship in school, but something unpleasant happened and she became distant.” Zhou Yu narrowed his eyes, his thoughts returning to the past. “She majored in Chinese, and wrote good articles. I was impressed by her talent and started to like her. I often looked for opportunities to hang out with her, praising her writing, and she was very happy, saying that I was her soulmate, a rare soulmate, and so we quickly became friends who could talk about anything. At that time, I thought we would become a couple sooner or later, because intuitively she also liked me, but…” He sighed a few times, “It’s all your fault, I beat up her younger brother, and that was the end of that.”
“You beat up her younger brother? Isn’t that courting death!” Li Fei opened his eyes in surprise. “Why did you beat up her younger brother? How old was her brother then?”
“About fifteen or sixteen, I guess.” Zhou Yu recalled, “It was one summer evening, I was coming back to school from an internet cafe, and suddenly I saw Su Yan chasing after a teenager, shouting ‘Someone’s stealing my phone!’ As soon as I heard that, I immediately chased after the teenager, thinking that I had to put on a good show in front of the girl I liked.”
“In less than a minute, I caught up with the teenager at the end of an alley, thinking that this guy dared to steal a phone in broad daylight, he was really audacious, I had to give him a lesson and teach him a lesson, so I gave him two punches, but I didn’t expect to make him bleed from his mouth and nose.”
“Soon Su Yan arrived, and I realized that it was a misunderstanding. It turned out that the teenager was her own younger brother. He took his sister’s phone because he wanted her to buy him sneakers. She shouted that someone was stealing her phone, hoping that her brother would be afraid that others would mistake him for a thief and then return the phone, but it backfired.”
Li Fei chuckled and asked, “When you chased him, didn’t he or his sister tell you who he was?”
“Su Yan said she told me, but I was only focused on chasing the person, and didn’t hear at all. From the beginning to the end, her brother didn’t tell me who he was, he just kept scolding incessantly. That idiot, if he had just told me who he was at the beginning, I wouldn’t have misunderstood and punched him.” Zhou Yu shook his head in annoyance. “I went with Su Yan to take him to the hospital, and the X-ray showed that his nasal bone was fractured and displaced, requiring surgery. Su Yan was very angry with me when she learned of this result, and our relationship plummeted from then on. I’m going this time to try to repair the relationship with her. Only if the relationship is repaired will I have hope of pursuing her.”
Li Fei laughed so hard that tears came out, and said pessimistically, “It’s not that I’m trying to discourage you, but I don’t think she’ll be reconciled with you, let alone accept your pursuit. You should give up on that idea as soon as possible! Even if she doesn’t resent you so much anymore, the fact that you beat up her brother left her with a very bad impression. Will she be with a man who she considers reckless? Besides, you graduated a year ago, and she’s a year younger than you, so she should have graduated two years ago, right? You’ve been separated for so long, maybe she already has a boyfriend and has forgotten all about you.”
Zhou Yu originally had no confidence in pursuing Su Yan, and after being doused with cold water by Li Fei, he became even less confident, saying, “I know she probably won’t give me a chance, but I’m not willing to give up, I want to try.”
“Okay, love guru, I wish you success,” Li Fei said with a curl of his lip.
The two chatted about other things for a while, and unconsciously fell asleep.
When Zhou Yu and Li Fei woke up, it was already past five in the afternoon.
The two brushed their teeth, washed their faces, and went out to eat.
They had their fill at a restaurant run by people from Sichuan, and then paid the bill and left.
On the way back to the hotel, Zhou Yu suddenly saw the bespectacled woman he suspected of switching his suitcase standing in front of an eyeglasses store not far away. When the bespectacled woman noticed Zhou Yu looking at her, she immediately turned around and walked away, looking nonchalant.
Zhou Yu told Li Fei about this.
Li Fei looked at the bespectacled woman’s disappearing back in the bustling crowd and said, “Could that guy be monitoring us?”
“I have the same suspicion.” Zhou Yu fell into thought.
“If that’s the case, then we’re probably in trouble!” Li Fei said worriedly, “Should we change hotels?”
Zhou Yu said decisively, “Change!”
The two returned to the hotel, packed their things, quickly went down to the first floor to check out, and then hailed a taxi by the road inside the hotel. They put the suitcase in the trunk, and the two of them got in the car together.
After leaving the hotel, Zhou Yu vigilantly looked around, but didn’t find the familiar figure. So he told himself: Maybe that guy just lives near the station, and I just happened to run into him.
“Where to?” the driver asked, resetting the meter to zero.
“Go…go…” Li Fei turned his inquiring gaze to Zhou Yu next to him.
Zhou Yu coughed and said, “Anywhere.”
The driver turned his head and looked at the two of them in astonishment: “Anywhere?”
Zhou Yu was worried that the driver would become suspicious and cause unnecessary trouble, so he explained with a smile, “We’re both visiting for the first time, and we’re not familiar with this place… Just drive on, we’ll tell you when we want to get off.”
The car drove away.
The city at night was brightly lit, with heavy traffic, tall buildings everywhere, showing off its modern outline.
Twenty minutes later, the taxi drove to the edge of the city. At a three-way intersection, Zhou Yu asked the driver to stop, and then he and Li Fei got out of the car.
The two went to a lot of trouble finding a hotel to stay in.
With nothing to do, the two chatted about women, talking about Aoi Sora, Maria Ozawa…
The two were animated and laughed heartily.
Li Fei said that compared to Aoi Sora, he preferred Maria Ozawa, who had deep facial features and a hot body. Zhou Yu, on the other hand, thought that Aoi Sora had delicate features, a curvy figure, and was an irreplaceable goddess in his heart.
Suddenly, Zhou Yu’s phone rang. He picked up the phone from the bed, saw that it was a call from an elementary school classmate, swiped the screen with his fingertip, and then put the phone to his ear.
A male voice came from the other end: “Zhou Yu, I heard from a classmate that Su Yan was injured and hospitalized. Aren’t you in love with her? I think this is an opportunity for you. You can go visit her, and maybe she’ll be touched and make peace with you, so you’ll have a chance to pursue her.”
Zhou Yu’s eyes lit up and asked, “Which hospital is she in?”
“Wait a moment, I’ll ask for you, watch for my WeChat message.” The other end said and hung up the phone.
After two minutes, Zhou Yu’s WeChat made a clear sound. It was a message from the classmate who had just called him. He quickly opened it and saw the hospital and address information where Su Yan was hospitalized.
He replied with a “Thank you,” and then excitedly said to Li Fei, “I’m going out, you stay in the room.”
“I hope you don’t come back with your tail between your legs.” Li Fei looked at Zhou Yu walking to the door and said with a curl of his lip.
Zhou Yu thought he was speaking ironically, so he turned around unhappily and said, “Shut your stinky mouth! I haven’t even started yet and you’re already pouring cold water on me, how annoying!”
Li Fei stuck out his tongue and argued, “You mean you hope I come back excited.”
“Thank you for your kind words.” Zhou Yu said with a smile and went out.