TSIBAMS Chapter 1
by VolareWhen Ye Xing swayed all the way from the train to a bus to this small, run-down town, the sun had already set.
He dragged his heavy suitcase out of the station. The streetlights ahead were sparsely lit, casting shadows on the somewhat dated buildings. However, the roadside stalls under the lights were bustling with activity. Although Ye Xing looked down on this place, his stomach very honestly grumbled a few times.
“Worthless thing, if you dare to eat, you dare to shit yourself!”
Ye Xing cursed himself in his mind while pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket that was soaked with sweat and crumpled. When unfolded, the address written by Fang Rong was still vaguely visible.
Fang Rong was Ye Xing’s mother. Just last night, she had packed Ye Xing’s daily necessities into a suitcase and given him the train ticket and this piece of paper. “You go to this place first. I’ve already taken care of the transfer procedures. I’ll come see you next month.”
She didn’t explain much more.
This wasn’t the first time Ye Xing had moved with his parents, but he didn’t expect the place they came to this time to be so shabby.
Dragging his suitcase to the intersection, there wasn’t a single taxi in sight. Instead, there was a row of neatly lined-up tricycles.
How novel.
He decided to wait and see, bought a can of coke, squatted by the roadside, took a sip, and glanced at the road, ready to flag down a taxi at any moment.
Just then, a pair of shoes suddenly appeared in front of him. They looked as if they had never been washed, so dirty that the color was almost indistinguishable. Ye Xing had no interest in looking up at this person’s face, only wishing he would walk away quickly so he could watch for cars.
However, the owner of these shoes didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving immediately.
Ye Xing quietly stared at the shoes, silently counting numbers in his mind to calculate how long before he left—
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9…
At the tenth second, this person suddenly squatted down, nonchalantly picked up half a cigarette someone had thrown away, shook it, and then put it in his mouth and clicked a lighter.
Ye Xing’s eyes widened.
Holy shit.
This person not only hadn’t washed his shoes, but he probably hadn’t washed his hair either!
The cigarette-picking man still didn’t seem like he wanted to leave, and instead, he sat down next to Ye Xing. Ye Xing felt his whole body suddenly stiffen—
Would it be too rude to get up and walk away at this moment?
He was a person who was very afraid of embarrassment. To avoid awkward situations, he had done many bizarre things in the past. Just as he was moving sideways at a subtle speed of one millimeter per second, the cigarette-picking man suddenly spoke, “Got a light?”
Only then did Ye Xing realize that his cigarette hadn’t been lit. It was probably because the lighter was out of fuel. He clicked it several times, but there was still no reaction.
“I don’t smoke,” Ye Xing replied.
The cigarette-picking man put the half-smoked cigarette in his pocket, then looked up and stared at his suitcase for a while, then turned his gaze to him. “You’re not from here, are you?”
“Yeah,” Ye Xing didn’t have the habit of striking up conversations with strangers, but if someone else initiated the topic, he would usually respond politely, “Just moved here.”
“Waiting for someone to pick you up?” the cigarette-picking man asked.
“No one’s picking me up, waiting for a car,” Ye Xing glanced at the road, where there was still no sign of any taxis. Then he continued, “It’ll take me less time to walk than wait for a taxi.”
“Don’t wait, we don’t have those fancy city things here,” the cigarette-picking man pointed to a row of tricycles lined up by the road, “This is our taxi.”
After saying that, the man got up, patted his butt, and walked away, without taking away a single cloud.
Ye Xing tossed the empty soda can into the trash can not far away, stood up, kneaded his slightly numb calves, and then walked to the first tricycle in line, handing the address over. “How much to get here?”
He no longer had the desire to find other means of transportation. Even if it cost a hundred, he would accept it.
To his surprise, the tricycle driver glanced at the address, then looked straight ahead, uttering two words with an expression that brooked no bargaining, “Twenty.”
Huh??
Before Ye Xing could react, the tricycle driver saw his surprised expression, thought he was complaining about the price, and waved his hand impatiently. “If you want to sit, sit. If not, then get lost!”
“Sit! Sit! Sit!”
He quickly lifted his suitcase on, and then he went to the other side and got into the car.
The electric tricycle started, shaking Ye Xing’s butt almost off the seat. He held on tight and looked at the road. That was where he had gotten off the bus. Only now did he notice that this station even had a name. In the middle of the building, there were two large characters written: “Chen Town Bus Terminal.” So, this place was probably called “Chen Town”?
Heh, that name is so basic it could’ve been thought up by someone using their toes. Why didn’t they just call it “Town”? They’re even playing with a homophone!
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”
These words popped into Ye Xing’s head. They were from the 1942 old movie, *Casablanca*, which was in black and white. His taste in movies was always out of sync with his peers. To be precise, no one was interested in the movies he collected. Teenagers were at an age where they liked to hang out in groups, but he had no choice but to develop the habit of watching movies alone. Gradually, watching movies became a very personal thing for him.
He took out his phone and saw twenty unread messages and two missed calls. He had fallen asleep on the way here, and he couldn’t remember when he had put it on silent.
All of the messages were from Fang Rong. Ye Xing was so annoyed by the sound of the tricycle that he didn’t feel like making a phone call. He held the phone tightly and typed quickly, afraid that it would fly out.
-I’ve arrived. I’m on my way to the house now.
Ye Xing didn’t want to call the place he hadn’t seen yet “home,” so he stiffly typed the word “house.” After clicking send, he couldn’t help but laugh.
Soon, Fang Rong replied. It seemed like she had been holding her phone, waiting for news.
-Take a taxi, don’t tire yourself out. Do you have enough money? I’ll send you some more.
-Enough, I took a tricycle, it only cost 20.
He changed the exclamation mark at the end to a period and then sent a cheeky “You didn’t expect that, did you?” emoji.
Fang Rong clearly wasn’t in the mood to joke with him. She transferred three thousand yuan to him and then sent a voice message. Her voice was tired, telling Ye Xing to buy some food and daily necessities. She told him to remember to open the windows to air out the new house and that she would come over next month.
Okay.
Ye Xing put his phone back in his pocket and looked around the small town along the way, thinking that this place could only ever be a town. It took so long to get here by bus, he didn’t even know if it existed on the map.
Why did Mom want me to live here? What kind of good schools could there be here?
Ye Xing was puzzled, but he immediately let it go.
Oh well, with my terrible grades, I’m just wasting the school’s resources.
He didn’t know how long it had been, but Ye Xing’s butt had become numb from the shaking. Finally, he heard the driver say, “We’re here.”
Ye Xing felt relieved, and he was eager to rescue his poor butt. As soon as the tricycle braked, and before it had completely stopped, he couldn’t wait to jump out.
He forgot something very important: to look behind him before getting out of the vehicle.
Coincidentally, a skateboard rushed out from behind, and it crashed into his ankle with a strong impact.
“Damn it!”
“Damn it!”
Two voices spoke at the same time. The second voice came from the person on the skateboard. That person didn’t have time to react to the airborne Ye Xing and lost their balance, falling backward.
Before a person falls, they will subconsciously grab the closest object.
Ye Xing was nearly knocked away by the skateboard and before he could even stand steady, he was pulled by the person behind him, and they fell backward together.
The person was not heavy. Normally, he could definitely withstand the force, but everything happened so quickly. His ankle and body were attacked one after another, and he could only fall to the ground with the person behind him.
…
…
Everything happened too fast. When Ye Xing reacted, he was already on top of the skateboarding man.
Although the fall was tragic, at least there was a human cushion underneath him, which was a blessing in disguise.
Ye Xing took a deep breath. Although the person under him was a little more miserable, he had no time to think about others. The sudden shock and the pain coming from his ankle immediately turned into anger.
“I’ll fuck you…” He broke free from the stranger’s pull, turned around, and began to curse.
Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the other party, and their voice was even louder than his.
“Are you blind?!”
He couldn’t see the person’s face. He was wearing a baseball cap, and with the dim streetlight, his entire face was in shadow. But from the sound of his rapid breathing, he could tell that the other person was also shaken up, “I…damn it!”
Ye Xing was clearly intimidated by the other person’s momentum and became even more annoyed.
“You crashed into me, and you’re still right?” Ye Xing flipped off of him, supporting himself with one hand on the ground, ready to stand up.
Who knew that the other person would reach out and grab Ye Xing’s supporting hand, and yell loudly, “Didn’t anyone teach you to look behind you before you get out of a car?!”
Ye Xing was caught off guard and fell back to the ground.
This time, he had a solid, intimate contact with the earth.
“I’ll fuck your mother!” The pain on his skin and the feeling of embarrassment erupted at the same time. Ye Xing was still in the position he had fallen, clenching his fists. “Do you want to fight?!”
“We’re even!” The person on the ground had enough time to get over the shock and immediately jumped up, brushing the dust off of his clothes. He even reached out to grab Ye Xing’s wrist, “You made me fall, and I made you fall.”
Ye Xing still had fire in his heart and was about to unleash it all, but the other person pulled him up with a jerk.
Just like that, he was pulled up by the other person…
Why didn’t this person follow the script?
How was he supposed to continue arguing like this??
After Ye Xing stood up, he patted his clothes. The pain from his ankle was very sharp, and there was a high probability he was bleeding, but he really didn’t want to squat down and check that minor injury.
He stood straight and logically analyzed the situation to argue with the person opposite him, “Wrong! First of all, I fell with you, and then you made me fall again!”
The other person listened to the tone of this childish argument and was stunned for a moment, but the next second, he laughed. “You fell on top of me and we both fell. How about we go to the hospital and check to see who’s more seriously injured, and then fight based on the injuries?”
“Twenty! Pay the fare first before fighting. Don’t delay me from getting more passengers!” the tricycle driver shouted loudly. He had no time to watch these two kids get in trouble. “Cash or WeChat?”
Who uses cash these days?
Ye Xing ignored the skateboard man and took his suitcase off the tricycle, telling the tricycle driver, “WeChat.”
“The QR code is over there. Scan it yourself!” the tricycle driver pointed behind him.
Ye Xing reached into his pocket to take out his phone, but after feeling around, it was empty. Where was his phone?!
He subconsciously turned to look at the skateboard man behind him.
The latter was taking off his baseball cap and dusting it. His eyes were quite big, with the corners slightly pointing downward. Just by looking at the upper half of his face, he looked like a well-behaved student, but…
His mouth was naturally curved upwards, making him look neither humble nor arrogant, even a bit arrogant.
The other person probably felt someone was looking at him and raised his head, meeting Ye Xing’s gaze very impolitely.
The sudden stare took Ye Xing off guard, and he suddenly couldn’t speak properly. “I… my phone…”
“I didn’t take it!” The skateboard man put his hat back on, then his gaze shifted to a certain spot on the ground, and he raised his chin.
Ye Xing followed his gaze—
His phone was lying on the ground.
How embarrassing!
Ye Xing didn’t even say “thank you.” He just wanted to end the situation as quickly as possible, so he pretended to be in a hurry and went to pick up his phone, checking to see if it was damaged.
Damn it!
It was scratched!
Whatever, it’s not like he’s a young lady. If it’s scratched, then it’s scratched. It looks manly.
Ye Xing sighed, comforting himself while pressing the lock screen button, but the screen didn’t light up.
He pressed it two more times, but still, nothing?!
It was out of battery!
What the hell was going on? Was it not a good day to go out?!
He pounded his head a little in frustration.
Under the streetlight, the other teenager watched Ye Xing’s expressions change from happy to angry, and held back his laughter. He bent down to pick up his skateboard, carefully inspecting it under the dim light.
Ye Xing put his phone back in his pocket and awkwardly told the tricycle driver, “Cash, I guess.”
He didn’t have the habit of carrying a wallet. Usually, he only had his phone and a set of keys, practicing minimalism. If he had to carry more things, he would need a bag, but the idea of going out with a girly bag was something he couldn’t accept.
He searched his pants pockets and then his jacket pockets, only finding a few coins. It was clearly not enough, but Ye Xing was still silently praying for a miracle, while counting them carefully under the streetlight.
1, 2, 3, 4…
When he counted to 12, he raised his head in embarrassment.
“Not enough money?” The tricycle driver had clearly run out of patience, and his voice was even louder, “If you don’t have enough money, why do you try to act like those other people who ride tricycles! Don’t you know there’s this thing called a bus?”
Ye Xing, in another layer of embarrassment, finally found an outlet to be set off, He put the coins back into his pocket and began searching in the side pocket of his suitcase.
“I’m not going to owe you!! I’ll leave you my number, and I’ll come back later with the principal and interest!” Ye Xing said softly while taking out a piece of paper and a pen. “Damn you!”
The tricycle driver’s eyes widened, and he was about to say something when suddenly, the sound of money being transferred came.
Both of them turned their heads in unison. The skateboard man, who had been silent by the side, had cleaned himself up. He had his skateboard in his left hand, and his right hand was holding up his phone, saying to the tricycle driver, “Twenty, right? Please check.”