Chapter 132: The Return Trip

I didn’t expect him to ask that out of nowhere. My brain stalled for a second, and I stared at the computer screen for a long while before coming to my senses. I scratched my head, not knowing where to start, trying to stall and brush it off.

This tactic worked well on my Fourth Brother, but it was useless with He Yu. He was extraordinarily sensitive when it came to interpersonal matters, so he quickly poked me with a finger. “What’s the matter? You’ve already said so much. Given our relationship, what is there left to keep secret?”

I hadn’t mentioned this to anyone outside before. For one, I was naturally honest and had always poured my heart out to everyone since I was a kid. My classmates over the years were always looking to take advantage of me, so I truly didn’t have many people outside the family I could trust. But I eventually wised up and tried to avoid bringing up family matters whenever possible.

Secondly, I felt that talking about these things sounded too melodramatic, so I simply kept quiet.

I had originally thought I would go through life alone, but life is always full of surprises. He Yu was someone worth opening my heart to.

While waiting for the people on QQ to bid up the price, I leaned back in my chair and said, “I don’t really get along with my mom. She and Han Cheng have a good relationship and have been dating for several years, but I can’t seem to fit in with them.”

As I mentioned before, my mom left Henan right after her month of postpartum rest^[1]. So my childhood impression of her was limited to the stories my grandfather told me. It wasn’t until I was six that she would occasionally come back for the New Year, but I still wasn’t close to her. After all these years, I can no longer tell whether the problem was mine or hers.

My grandfather was also the first to realize this, so he came to explain it to me, saying my mom went away to work for the sake of the family’s livelihood. At first, I believed him without a doubt, but once I grew older, I realized it was a lie.

Because back when my grandfather was still alive, he had a legendary reputation, and major clients came to him continuously for land inspections^[2]. Our family was actually quite well-off. My grandfather even used to joke that what we had at home was enough to feed me for three lifetimes with plenty to spare. Looking at it now, the excuse of “working for a living” was far too flimsy.

“So you think your mother left Henan for another reason?” He Yu asked.

I nodded and said calmly, “I think she doesn’t like me.”

Perhaps my tone was a bit too nonchalant, because at first, He Yu didn’t catch on that anything was wrong. He paused for a moment before it hit him, and then he let out an “Ah!” of surprise. “No way. You’re her own flesh and blood, and the only child in your family. There’s no reason for that.”

“How did you figure out she doesn’t like you?” Lu Ayao had sat up at some point without me noticing. He pulled over a swivel chair, sat next to me, and helped me keep an eye on the computer screen.

I blinked and began to think back. “I don’t know. There’s no single big reason. When I was little, she never hugged me or held my hand. She would just send me toys at regular intervals. After I grew up, she would send gifts for holidays and birthdays, but it never went beyond that.”

I then gestured toward the bracelet in my hand. “This is just one of many gifts. But I don’t have any particularly deep feelings for these things. Its only value now is hopefully fetching a high price so we can live a little luxuriously and order more meat when we eat out.”

I looked back at the computer with a smile, pretending not to notice that neither He Yu nor Lu Ayao had any trace of a smile on their faces. He Yu opened his mouth as if to say something, but I was starting to feel annoyed by the direction of the conversation.

Just then, I saw an account suddenly post a message: “5,000. Selling?”

The price stunned me. I quickly patted He Yu. “Holy crap! Someone just bumped the price straight up to five thousand!”

Hearing this, He Yu stood up from his chair with a “whoosh” and leaned in close to my screen. He scrolled the mouse twice, staring at the cartoon crab avatar. “For real? How rich is this person? They just hiked the price up by two thousand! Definitely a clueless upstart with no eye for value. Quick, quick, send them a private message before they regret it!”

I was still a bit hesitant. “Wait, selling this bracelet for five thousand is a bit ridiculous, isn’t it? If we sell it for that much, we’ll be total profiteers.”

“Who cares about that! You’d be a fool not to take the money. The three of us can barely afford to eat!” He Yu ruffled my hair.

I thought about it and realized he was right. Besides, the account was mine, even though I was using my Fourth Brother’s name. His reputation might suffer a bit because of this later, but all he would lose was his reputation. If we didn’t sell it, we’d literally end up begging on the streets.

So, I decisively opened the chat box and messaged the crab user: “Transaction via bank account for 5,000. Shipping on the same day as payment. I’ll send you a photo of the shipping receipt. Do you agree?”

The other party replied quickly with an “OK” and then sent a detailed address. I glanced at it; the address was actually in Kaifeng.

Without waiting for me to react, He Yu quickly pulled his bank card out of his pocket and gave it to me. I immediately typed in the account number. After waiting less than ten minutes, the other party replied again: “The transfer has been made.”

“I’ll go check.”

He Yu took the card and found a nearby bank. When he came swaggering back like a total big spender, I knew we had the money.

This was the first time I felt that having money versus being broke were two completely different worlds. We leisurely went to the post office to mail my bracelet. That evening, with the five thousand in hand, we took a bus into the city for a great meal, went to a clothing store to buy some new outfits, and finally headed straight for the train station to buy soft sleeper tickets.

Listening to the rhythmic clatter of the train, I suddenly didn’t feel so irritable anymore. A sense of comfort spread through my entire body. Lu Ayao sat in the aisle, staring blankly.

He Yu was lying across from me. He turned on his side and asked, “So, do you want to travel anywhere else? With our funds, we have more than enough to visit another place!”

I lay on my berth and waved a hand at him. “Forget it, let me just get back soon. Once we reach Kaifeng, I want to take Old Lu to the hospital for another checkup.”

He Yu chuckled. “Take him to the hospital? You can dismiss that idea right now. I asked him a couple of days ago if he wanted to go to a hospital to get his corpse poison wound checked out, and he said he wasn’t going. Have you seen him step foot in a hospital since we left Shennongjia?”

I asked in confusion, “Why?”

“Think about it,” He Yu glanced at Lu Ayao sitting outside and lowered his voice. “How would anyone explain the thing on his face at a hospital? Forget seeing a doctor, he wouldn’t even make it past a nurse. The hospital would definitely wheel him straight into an operating room to take those porcelain shards out of his face.”

I sat up abruptly, forgetting for a moment that I was in a middle bunk. My head slammed right into the top bunk, and the pain almost brought tears to my eyes. The commotion startled the guy above me, who immediately burst into a stream of curses. He was speaking a dialect I couldn’t understand, so I could only apologize frantically.

Lu Ayao heard the noise and came in, looking up at the cursing guy. I have no idea what kind of look passed between them, but the guy quickly shut his mouth. After looking at him, Lu Ayao silently walked over to the bottom bunk and lay down.

He Yu secretly gave me a thumbs-up, then made a chopping motion with his hand and mouthed, “Badass!”