NOS Chapter 38
by VolareChapter 38: Zhui Ri Yuan (One)
Ex-boyfriend, Han Chen is Yu Chunming’s ex-boyfriend. Guan Yao repeated this sentence dozens of times in his mind before slowly understanding what it meant.
Along with the understanding came his inexplicable dislike for Han Chen. He might have been empathizing, or perhaps—
An indescribable feeling was budding in the depths of his heart.
“It’s green,” Yu Chunming reminded him at this moment.
Guan Yao woke up as if from a dream, and hurriedly stepped on the accelerator, but forgot that his manual car had to release the clutch first. After a series of fumbling and the horns of the cars behind him, the two finally successfully turned into the gate of the Linchang Staff Family Compound.
“I already brought the things you left in the dormitory this afternoon.” Guan Yao didn’t dare to look Yu Chunming in the eye. Even after entering the house, he kept staring at the floor, “I’ll live in the room my grandma used to live in, and you can sleep in my bed.”
Yu Chunming didn’t answer, his eyes silently scanning a photo frame placed face down on the dining table.
“My grandma’s room is connected to Guan Ning’s room. No one has lived there for several years. It’s full of that little girl’s junk. It’s a mess. If I sleep there, I don’t have to bother cleaning up.” Guan Yao said.
Yu Chunming “Mmm”ed, opened Guan Yao’s door familiarly, and glanced at the small room that was almost the same as it was twenty years ago.
“I changed the new bedsheets and duvet cover.” Guan Yao added.
Yu Chunming smiled when he heard this. He turned his head to look at the anxious man, and then said softly, “I don’t mind you.”
Guan Yao was moving a pile of waste cardboard boxes left by Guan Ning from unpacking the express delivery in the morning. He didn’t hear clearly, and raised his head in confusion: “What did you say?”
“Nothing,” Yu Chunming leaned against the door frame, smiling, “Your room is pretty good, there are still certificates of merit from when you were in junior high school on the wall.”
Guan Yao blushed, fortunately his skin wasn’t that fair, and it was dark now, Yu Chunming couldn’t see clearly, but Guan Yao’s ears were burning badly, but he still had to pretend not to care: “There are photos from elementary school in my drawer, do you want to take a look?”
“Elementary school is unnecessary, do you have any from high school?” Yu Chunming asked.
“You’re really pushing your luck,” Guan Yao stood up straight, throwing all the cardboard boxes to the door, he retorted, “You first take out your photos from when you were a kid and show them to me.”
Yu Chunming narrowed his eyes slightly, crossed his arms and sat down at the dining table: “I only have one photo from when I was a kid, and that photo was later torn to pieces by Yu Huan, so even if you want to see it, you can’t.”
Guan Yao snorted lightly and casually replied, “Making excuses.”
Yu Chunming’s expression was indifferent: “I’m not lying to you, it’s true.”
Guan Yao didn’t care whether this was true or false at the moment, because he had already pretended to be “coerced” and very “unwilling” to take out a thick notebook from under the TV cabinet and put it in front of Yu Chunming: “There’s a photo of me taken before I enlisted in the army clipped inside.”
Guan Yao joined the army at the age of seventeen, that year was when No. 2 Timber Factory officially declared bankruptcy.
Za Mu Er was filled with a desolate atmosphere. Countless prosperous families instantly couldn’t make ends meet. Guan Yao’s grandmother dragged Guan Na, who had no choice but to work in a dance hall, into the director’s office to demand the severance pay that hadn’t been paid out last month along with the laid-off workers, but to no avail.
“I might as well not study and go to work in the south,” Guan Yao said at the time.
After all, during that time, people left the Linchang Staff Family Compound almost every day. They knew clearly that these people would not come back once they left.
Guan Yao also had the same idea: “Don’t they all say that there are opportunities everywhere in the south? I’ll go too, maybe I can make a lot of money.”
“No!” Guan Yao’s grandmother shouted, “You must study hard for me.”
Guan Yao was unhappy: “I just want to go out and make a living.”
“What’s so good about making a living? Are you planning to run out and look for Jiang Xin again?” Guan Na, Guan Yao’s sister, saw through Guan Yao’s “trick” at a glance.
Teenager Guan Yao pursed his lips: “Maybe I can really bring Jiang Xin back.”
Guan Yao’s grandmother sighed. She didn’t want Guan Yao to leave, but what could she do to make a living at the moment?
But before Guan Yao could pack his bags and leave, the Armed Forces Department of Jin A Lin Mountain Area took a fancy to him first.
“It was also a coincidence,” Guan Yao looked at Yu Chunming, who was flipping through the notebook with relish, and smiled, “That year, just right, the Lin City from our school’s electromechanical class held a big competition. At the end, several schools together held a friendship sports meet. I was the class leader of the electromechanical class, and they recommended me to sign up for a five-kilometer long-distance race. Unexpectedly, this run made me famous.”
Yu Chunming raised his eyes to look at Guan Yao, he knew that this man’s legs and feet were very nimble since he was a child.
Guan Yao gradually became confident in Yu Chunming’s gaze. It was rare for him to talk about his glorious past, so once the floodgates were opened, he couldn’t stop. He only heard this man say: “As a result, guess what, the principal of the school where we held the sports meet, the principal of Lin City Vocational and Technical College, his wife was the leader of the Armed Forces Department of Jin A Lin Mountain Area. She was sitting there in the stands at the time, and she took a fancy to me at a glance, thinking I was a talent, and wanted to recruit me to join the army. At first, I thought that being a soldier didn’t make much money, and at that time, it was the military reform period, and everyone was doing mechanized construction, saying that they needed someone like me who runs fast and knows electromechanical skills, so they recruited me.”
“And then?” Yu Chunming asked with a smile, “Did you perform meritorious service in the army?”
“Of course,” Guan Yao raised an eyebrow, “In the third year of my service, I won first place in the army’s 50-kilometer load-bearing cross-country race, and I even received the award in the capital.”
After speaking, Guan Yao talked about his story on the border defense: “To talk about meritorious service, I really did it, almost… it was about my third term. At that time, two drug traffickers ran away from Songlan, carrying more than ten kilograms of heroin with them, and along the way, they also injured several policemen. At that time, it was winter, and the Blackwater River under our sentry post had already frozen solid, and the two of them were planning to cross the river. After receiving the police’s message, we patrolled non-stop for almost five days. On the sixth day, when I got up in the middle of the night to change shifts, I saw the shadows of those two people.”
In winter, the Blackwater River, the continuous mountain range in the vast white snow, and the sparse village on the opposite bank under the night sky, everything was in full view. That was the most memorable and memorable day for Guan Yao so far, and it was also his most glorious honor before he took off his military uniform.
“It was dark and the visibility was poor, and no one dared to shoot without authorization,” Guan Yao said, “But I saw it clearly, I saw it clearly at a glance, it was those two people, it must be those two drug traffickers, so without thinking, I grabbed my gun and left the sentry post. At first, I was planning to capture them alive.”
But the distance was too far, there was no sentry post on the opposite bank, Guan Yao couldn’t guarantee that he could catch them before crossing the border, so he shot. He knew that if he didn’t hit within two shots, the drug traffickers would reach the center of the river, and he would have no chance.
“They all said I was a sharpshooter, but in fact my marksmanship was terrible, it’s been terrible since the recruit company. And at that time, it wasn’t a Type 95, it was still a Type 81, the sights were so-so, but I don’t know what happened, I hit it that day, two shots, both hit.” Guan Yao said, “One shot directly killed one of the drug traffickers, and one shot injured the other drug trafficker’s calf. The drugs they were carrying weighed a total of thirteen kilograms, which I personally verified. Because of this, I won a collective first-class merit for our sentry post.”
Yu Chunming listened quietly, his eyes faintly hot, he couldn’t help asking: “Then what happened later? Why did the army let you retire?”
Hearing this question, the blood that Guan Yao had just ignited instantly cooled down. He wiped his face and looked at Guan Na’s portrait: “Because that year, I returned to Za Mu Er with a big red flower, accompanied by my division commander. But I didn’t see my grandmother, nor my sister. The only thing I saw was a child being held in Auntie Wang’s arms.”
When Guan Na died, Guan Yao was sent to Songlan by the organization to study, and the phone number reserved for the family became an empty number. Guan Yao’s grandmother dialed it over and over again, and finally gave up.
The matter was kept a secret.
“After my sister died, my grandmother’s health deteriorated, and she was hospitalized every now and then. Guan Ning grew up eating Auntie Wang’s milk downstairs. As for me, I was completely out of contact for a year.” Guan Yao smiled bitterly, “So later, when I insisted on retiring, the organization… didn’t stop me much.”
Yu Chunming listened and didn’t speak for a long time. The notebook spread out in front of him stopped again on the page with Guan Yao’s enlistment photo.
“Everyone has their own destiny, my destiny may be harder than others.” Guan Yao paused, and then said, “So they are all dead, and I am still alive.”
“I’m alive too.” Yu Chunming blurted out without thinking, but after he finished speaking, he realized that what qualifications did he have to say that?
Guan Yao was indeed stunned, but then he smiled again, and said, “Okay, then you have to live well, don’t be cursed to death by me.”
This sounded nondescript, but neither of them thought deeply about it. Yu Chunming closed the notebook, and Guan Yao stood up and started cooking. The words just now seemed like a small interlude.
But who knew that there was more than one interlude tonight. Just as Guan Yao had just put the noodles into the pot, there was a knock on the door outside.
“Auntie Jiang?” Guan Yao, with flour still on his hands, looked at the person standing in front of him in surprise after opening the door.
Yu Chunming was also stunned, and his back, which was originally leaning on the sofa, straightened up instantly.
“I’m here to borrow some soy sauce.” Jiang Min looked natural. Today, she looked much more normal than she did in the noodle restaurant that day.
Guan Yao didn’t refuse. He immediately let the person into the house and agreed readily: “Wait, I’ll pour it for you in the kitchen.”
Jiang Min walked slowly into the living room, and then, she saw Yu Chunming sitting on the sofa at a glance.
The woman didn’t speak, and Yu Chunming naturally didn’t speak either. The two of them were well-behaved, one standing and one sitting, in the standard posture of strangers.
But just as Guan Yao took the soy sauce bottle out of the kitchen, Jiang Min spoke lightly. She said, “Last month’s money was paid late.”
These words entered Yu Chunming’s ears word for word, causing his head to buzz instantly.
Guan Yao didn’t understand: “What money was paid late?”
Jiang Min slowly revealed a smile, and then replied, “The minimum living allowance, last month’s minimum living allowance was paid late.”
“If the minimum living allowance is paid late, go to the community,” Guan Yao upheld the principle of the people’s police serving the people and said kindly, “Our community’s secretary is just not concerned, and does the wrong thing every now and then. If you really can’t do it, go to Fang Wang, his apprentice Liu Sheng is our local policeman here.”
Jiang Min didn’t answer, and raised her hand to take the soy sauce bottle.
But when she reached the door, she suddenly remembered her unpromising son Qin Tian, so she suddenly turned around and asked, “When will you release him?”
Guan Yao was already used to Jiang Min’s disjointed words. He knew who this was asking, so he answered readily: “Ten days of detention, what day is it now? Wait a little longer, when it’s time to release him, I’ll notify you.”
“No,” Jiang Min shook her head, “He took drugs.”
Guan Yao sighed: “Yes, he took drugs. That’s why he’s being detained for ten days. Otherwise, why would we arrest him?”
“Taking drugs is not good.” Jiang Min reorganized her words again. She said with a serious face, “Taking drugs is not good, he must be sent to drug rehabilitation.”
So that’s what she meant, Guan Yao finally understood. He smiled and replied: “Qin Tian is a first-time offender, he doesn’t need drug rehabilitation, and he’s not addicted yet. Let the community watch him after he comes back.”
Jiang Min was not satisfied with this answer. She lit a cigarette and nodded to Guan Yao: “You should lock him up until he dies.”
“How can we expect us to do everything?” Guan Yao shook his head after sending her away.
Yu Chunming sat silently on the sofa, his face a little unsightly.
Guan Yao’s heart tightened, and he quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”
Yu Chunming pulled at the corner of his mouth and didn’t say much: “It’s nothing, I smelled the smoke, and I want to smoke one.”
Guan Yao immediately darkened his face: “You should quit smoking as soon as possible, if you keep smoking, your lungs will be ruined.”
Yu Chunming didn’t speak, looking like he was acquiescing, or like he was turning a deaf ear.
As for Guan Yao, he didn’t know that Yu Chunming wasn’t having a craving for cigarettes at this moment. He had a stomach ache, or maybe a headache, chest pain, or perhaps the places where he had been injured in the past were all aching, but he had already become familiar with this pain over the past year or so, so when the pain flared up, everything was as common as eating and drinking.
But Guan Yao still noticed the clues. When the two of them sat face to face at the dining table, he saw the fine sweat on Yu Chunming’s forehead.
“Do you have neuralgia?” Guan Yao asked.
Yu Chunming’s hand holding the chopsticks was shaking slightly.
“I have medicated wine at home, or I can give you…”
“No need,” Yu Chunming lowered his head to eat, “I’ll be fine in a while.”
“You’ll be fine in a while? The sun will rise in the west tomorrow.” Guan Yao said, “Before, we had an old squad leader in our unit, who was injured in a bomb disposal operation when he was young. Whenever it was cloudy or rainy, his whole body would ache so much that he couldn’t move, and he still pretended to be strong and didn’t seek treatment. He passed away before he was fifty. So if you feel uncomfortable, you have to say it. There’s no good outcome from enduring it alone.”
Yu Chunming took a breath: “Are you cursing me?”
“Oh my god, you’re really taking kindness for malice, am I cursing you? I’ll go and burn incense for you every day, praying that you live a long life, okay?” Guan Yao got up and put a piece of clothing over Yu Chunming’s shoulders, “Also, stay away from the water in the future.”
“Then I might as well resign.” Yu Chunming said inexplicably, “Don’t you all want me to resign?”
Guan Yao looked at him: “When did I say such a thing? It was Chief Zhang who wanted you to resign, and I was the one who helped you plead, and you not only don’t thank me, but you also want to frame me, what’s wrong, do you want to squeeze me out and become the leader yourself?”
Yu Chunming didn’t speak again.
Guan Yao always had a lot of words. He spoke flawlessly and did things smoothly. No one said he was bad, just as no one said Yu Chunming was good.
The two had too many differences, and also too many disagreements, but these differences brought the two closer and closer.
Guan Yao didn’t even know when he started thinking about Yu Chunming almost every moment of every day. Yu Chunming knew very well when he started paying attention to Guan Yao.
—From the day the two met, no, it should be said from the first day the two reunited.
“Don’t think too much,” Guan Yao saw that the person was silent, so he slowed down his tone, “Sometimes, don’t always think about the bad things.”
“But when I think about the good things, good things don’t happen either.” Yu Chunming replied.
“Then don’t think about anything, be a fool. Be a fool, and everything will be fine.” Guan Yao said, following his words.
“Okay, be a fool.” Yu Chunming nodded, he slowly exhaled, and then said, “Tomorrow, let’s go find your Auntie Jiang and find out about the situation back then.”