Chapter 238 - A Perfect New World (II)
Chapter 238 – A Perfect New World (II)
Chi Xiaochi sucks on a mung bean ice lolly while working on a problem.
The screen was closed, filtering some of the heat from the hot air, which was blowing on the back, which was not as comfortable, but better than nothing.
Zhu Shoucheng poured Chi Xiaochi a glass of boiling water from a thermos: “Don’t drink it, let it dry first. Let it dry into cold white water, it’s soothing to drink.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “Thank you, teacher.”
Zhu Shoucheng, who has poured the water, sits across the makeshift desk that has been converted from a dining table to a desk, staring at Chi Xiaochi with unblinking eyes, which makes Chi Xiaochi feel a little bit hairy.
He didn’t know what Zhu Shoucheng wanted, he just felt instinctively uncomfortable.
…… is not yet the unusual kind of discomfort with pressure.
As it turns out, Zhu Shoucheng is not in the same state as he usually is when he is tutored.
He asked Chi Xiaochi warmly, “Aren’t the popsicles good?”
Chi Xiaochi, who is always sharp-witted, said much less when he realised something was wrong: “Yes. Very well. Thank you, teacher.”
Zhu Shoucheng : “Can I get through to your home phone?”
Chi Xiaochi : “…… can’t.”
Zhu Shoucheng : “Neither can my family. Do you know why?”
Chi Xiaochi : “If your house doesn’t work either, the whole building’s line may be down …… It should be a line fault on the telephone office side.”
”Oh…” Zhu Shoucheng smiled again showing his teeth, “Xiaochi is so clever.”
The tone of voice was so loud that it sent tingles down the back of one’s spine.
Chi Xiaochi raised the corners of her mouth stiffly, moved her shoulders unnaturally, threw the clean popsicle stick into the trash, and pulled a roll of paper to wipe the pale green sweet juice from her hands.
Zhu Shoucheng suddenly raises his hand and tries to touch Chi Xiaochi’s face.
Chi Xiaochi deftly avoids it: “…… teacher?”
Zhu Shoucheng pointed to the corner of his mouth, smiling broadly: “There’s something dirty.”
Chi Xiaochi said dryly, “Thank you, teacher.”
After a few moments of silence, Zhu Shoucheng stands up and closes the wide open window screen.
The thin “brush” of a roller sliding over the edge of the screen gives Chi Xiaochi goosebumps.
He stops writing and turns his head to look at Zhu Shoucheng.
Zhu Shoucheng turns back to Chi Xiaochi and collides with him face to face.
He smiled and pointed to the empty mid-air, “There are mosquitoes.”
With that, as if as a matter of course, he reached out and pulled the inner glass window shut as well.
The lock on the inside of the window was old, half broken and could not be locked from the inside, and Zhu Shoucheng did not care much about it.
When he was seated again, he did not return to his seat, but sat down close to Chi Xiaochi.
He should have had hot dry noodles for lunch.
Chi Xiaochi smelled the onion, garlic and dashi on him.
Zhu Shoucheng put his face up and said, “Are there any questions you don’t know how to do?”
When he opened his mouth, it tasted like fermented garlic.
Chi Xiaochi dodged halfway across the room, her face already vaguely white: “Teacher, aren’t you hot to sit here.”
”It’s hot.” Zhu Shoucheng says, “You have a strong fire, and it’s good to be young.”
Chi Xiaochi’s brow furrowed, “Teacher, I want to do the questions.”
Zhu Shoucheng said, “Do it. You do.”
Chi Xiaochi was so tormented by the inner turmoil that she got up and left with her homework and textbooks in her arms.
A pair of strong arms came from behind and clamped him in a deadly embrace that smelled of fermented food.
A hand heavily tainted with the smell of fountain pen water covered his mouth and nose.
Zhu Shoucheng leaned in close to Chi Xiaochi’s ear and whispered, yet eagerly, “……Xiaochi, you have very white legs.”
Chi Xiaochi, who was dragged from the living room to the bedroom with her mouth over her waist, seized every opportunity to make a noise, stomping her feet and then stomping her legs and then stomping her legs and then biting her mouth, like a mad little animal that had been annoyed.
Zhu Shoucheng repeats in his ear “be a good boy”, “don’t tell your parents, they won’t believe a word of it”, “you’re not a good boy if you make a fuss” and so on, but he doesn’t listen to a single word of this nonsense.
Zhu Shoucheng had obviously never encountered such fierce resistance before and was at a loss for words.
In a moment of dazed concentration, Chi Xiaochi kicked up and shattered the monarchs on the small desk in his bedroom.
The sound of a vase disintegrating caused Lou Ying, who was downstairs preparing for Chi Xiaochi’s revision, to put her pencil on hold.
He lifted his head and looked in the direction of the ceiling.
”……Xiaochi?”
The building was built early and is at least 20 years old and has very poor sound insulation, but Lou Ying couldn’t tell for a while whether the sound was coming from the small Chi Family or from neighbour Zhu Shoucheng’s house.
When he heard a faint “Xiaochi” from downstairs, Zhu Shoucheng was confused and immediately restrained Chi Xiaochi, and nimbly pressed a pillow over his mouth, pressing his black tower-like body against Chi Xiaochi’s body.
Chi Xiaochi, for the first time in his life, is in such intimate contact with a human being that he whimpers and whimpers as the smell of a middle-aged man’s head oil returns to his mouth through his breath, causing his chest to choke and his breath to drain away.
Chi Xiaochi’s heart was beating incredibly fast, and the blood in his limbs felt like it had stopped flowing under the extreme pressure, and his fingertips and toes were gradually going numb and numb.
Lou Brother, help me ……
I am here ……
Zhu Shoucheng was afraid that someone would ruin his good deed, so he didn’t dare to make any more moves, except to keep Chi Xiaochi at bay.
Not long afterwards, footsteps came from the entrance to the building.
The sound of footsteps all the way to Chi Family’s doorstep.
This was followed by Lou Ying’s trademark gentle accent: “Is Xiaochi home? Did you break something?”
Zhu Shoucheng twisted his head to look at the clock and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Two fifty, not quite three.
He remembers that when he bumped into the two of them at lunchtime, he had arranged with Chi Xiaochi, in front of Lou Ying, for a tutoring session at 3pm.
Now Lou Ying won’t want to come after her, will she?
Lou Ying called for the door two or three more times, but the door remained closed and unanswered.
Zhu Shoucheng shows a look of relief.
But the next moment there was a knock on the door of his own room from outside, and
Lou Ying’s slightly worried voice came from outside: “Teacher Zhu, you are there, right? Did something fall at your house just now. …… Teacher Zhu?”
Chi Xiaochi struggled even more fiercely, unable to stop making tiny whimpering sounds.
Zhu Shoucheng was in a state of panic, so he didn’t even bother to be discreet and covered Chi Xiaochi’s nose as well.
The feeling of being cut off from oxygen instantly drained Chi Xiaochi of what little energy he had left.
Lou Ying outside, seeing that he could not open the door, moved on to another house nearby and continued knocking.
In the middle of the day, adults who are doing their jobs go to work, those who are not doing their jobs cut off their fans and can’t lie down at home, so they go to game halls and department stores to cool off.
Some students go out to tutorials, others go out to have fun, and hardly anyone wants to stay in the hot building to warm up the sweat.
As luck would have it, Lou Ying was unable to knock on the door of any of the nearby houses and had to go home.
Zhu Shoucheng, relieved to hear the footsteps leaving from near and far, removes the pillow and hugs Chi Xiaochi, who is already unconscious.
He was just about to get into the swing of things when a resounding footstep and the jingling of keys scared Zhu Shoucheng out of his wits and he re-gagged Chi Xiaochi with a pillow.
In the meantime, Chi Xiaochi inhaled some fresh air and his chaotic consciousness cleared up a little.
He opened his eyes vaguely, no longer struggling and shouting, but showing complete tameness and waiting quietly for his strength to return to find a way out.
When he remembered that he always forgot his house key, he made an extra copy when he had it engraved and left it with Lou Ying, just in case.
The door to the Chi Family has been opened, but Chi Xiaochi cannot be optimistic.
He was not dragged away by Zhu Shoucheng, everything in the house was normal and there were no signs of a struggle to remind anyone of ……
Suddenly, Chi Xiaochi’s eyes glowed with a faint light as he thought of something.
The sound was indeed difficult to locate and Lou Ying could only use it to determine that one of the occupants on the first floor had dropped something.
Lou Ying, who is always discreet, knocked on the door first to check the situation.
After no family around answered, he realised something was wrong.
If it wasn’t Chi Xiaochi who broke something, whose house could it have been?
One is bound to be awake before breaking things, and even if one is asleep, waving one’s arms and legs and breaking things in one’s sleep, it is impossible to go back to sleep after making so much noise.
Of course, it is also possible that strong winds blew things over.
But if there was such a strong wind, Lou Ying, who was at home with the windows open, couldn’t have failed to notice it.
…… So, Lou Brother he must have noticed something was wrong.
Zhu Shoucheng naturally doesn’t think as much as Chi Xiaochi does.
He felt that Lou Ying should have left after opening the door to confirm that Chi Xiaochi was not there.
……
Lou Ying opened the door and indeed the person was not there and everything was intact.
But this confirms a certain sense of foreboding in Lou Ying’s mind.
Chi Family No broken items, so it must have been Zhu Shoucheng’s house or the neighbour’s house on the other side of the Chi Family, but no one answered the door ……
In broad daylight, is there a thief in the house?
Or did something else happen?
Lou Ying circled the room twice, thinking about what to do next.
It’s a bit rude, but for safety reasons ……
Chi Family is on the first floor of the silo.
Below the bay window, there is a section of concrete edge of approximately ten centimetres.
Lou Ying stepped through the open window of Chi Xiaochi’s house and flipped out, placing one foot on the concrete edge and making sure it was secure before putting the other foot through.
The first one he headed for was the Zhu family.
A thin wall separates the Zhu family from the Chi Family, so it didn’t take Lou Ying long to get to the window in the Zhu living room.
The tightly closed glass window caused his brow to furrow gently.
Who would keep the portal closed like this in this sweltering heat?
And when he saw the textbooks and Chi Xiaochi’s Wen tool bag scattered on the living room table, and a cup of hot water still curling up on the table, a vague thought came to Lou Ying’s mind and exploded with a bang.
The sudden sound of a window being pulled from the living room made Zhu Shoucheng’s blood flow backwards instantly!
His heart almost stopped as he thought of the books Chi Xiaochi had left on the living room table before he had a chance to pack them up, and he released his grip on Chi Xiaochi’s hand and ran out of the room –
…… With his arms half open, he collided face to face with Lou Ying in the bedroom doorway.
Zhu Shoucheng opened his arms and held onto the bedroom door frame, trying to block Lou Ying’s way forward: “Little Lou, how did you get in here?”
But he botched it, raising his arm and exposing Chi Xiaochi, who was struggling to get up behind him.
Chi Xiaochi was so weak that he rolled off the bed with a tom-tom.
Only when she saw Lou Ying did Chi Xiaochi’s anguish and fear come to her head and she opened her mouth in a trembling sob: ” Brother Lou! Lou, help me…”
Lou Ying was from the big city and had read certain similar stories in the newspapers, and now that he had seen Chi Xiaochi’s almost ripped-off knickers, what could he not understand?
His eyes, which were always warm, were tinged with a trifle of violence.
Zhu Shoucheng, seeing that everything was slipping into an uncontrollable situation, also fumed: “It’s all a misunderstanding. He and I ……”
Lou Ying refused to talk to him any more than he had to, and lifted a knee and hit him in the crotch.
Zhu Shoucheng’s face was contorted in pain, and he covered the wounded area and screamed in agony, when Lou Ying found an opportunity to enter the bedroom and help Chi Xiaochi up from the floor, holding his fearful hand and gently reassuring him, “It’s okay, it’s okay, Lou is here.
Zhu Shoucheng suffered pain and was forced into a desperate situation, and the purple-red blood under his eyes blossomed.
He must not let these two walk out!
I chose Chi Xiaochi after a long time because of his good looks, but also because of his parents’ indifference and lack of interest in Chi Xiaochi.
Zhu Shoucheng guarantees that even if Chi Xiaochi were to tell the truth, no one would believe him, given his skinned monkey personality.
But Lou Ying is a different story.
This is the kind of thing that, once he has witnesses, he’s completely screwed!
He sprang up and grabbed Lou Ying by the shoulders, trying to split them apart.
Lou Ying, seeing Chi Xiaochi’s stifled face and the suspicious drool marks on his shoulder up close, became enraged and followed suit, swinging Zhu Shoucheng’s hand free and headbutting him on the chin!
He called out, “Xiaochi, run!”
The pain brought out the animal in Zhu Shoucheng’s bones and he twisted Lou Ying and fought him all the way out of the bedroom.
Zhu Shoucheng had the advantage of height and weight, and was a strong adult, while Lou Ying was a 16-year-old boy who, even though he had been repairing machinery and had built up a nice, muscular body, was not a troublemaker, did not know any fighting skills, and had little experience.
As the struggle intensifies, Chi Xiaochi knows that in his dazed state, he will not be able to pull himself up.
With the strength he had accumulated, he half stumbled, half crawled all the way to the door, pulled open the bolt, and, struggling with all his strength, shouted, “Fire! Put out the fire!!!”
Hearing Chi Xiaochi’s cries for help, Zhu Shoucheng immediately lost his composure and, with a fierce gesture, lifted Lou Ying, who had caught him by the collar, off the ground and pushed him forward.
Even Zhu Shoucheng himself didn’t notice that he and Lou Ying had wrestled all the way to the window.
…… And when Lou Ying opened the window and came in, he didn’t have time to close it back up.
Chi Xiaochi also came back at this time.
He witnessed Lou Ying being lifted out of Zhu Shoucheng’s body in the air, knocking most of her body out of the window, before losing her weight and tumbling backwards ……
He just disappeared out of the window.
His body, tugging at Chi Xiaochi’s heart, whirled out of existence, leaving a large, empty hole in Chi Xiaochi’s chest.
Snap.
Dang.
Wow.
No one knows why a tricycle full of empty cardboard boxes was parked right under Zhu Shoucheng’s window that day.
Lou Ying fell headfirst, hitting the back of her head on the iron rim of the tricycle’s rear compartment, and rolled to the ground, where a pile of paper boxes, more than one person high, tumbled down, burying Lou Ying’s body completely.
…… Chi Xiaochi has completely forgotten how to walk.
He doesn’t remember how he rolled down the stairs, how he reached Lou Ying or how he threw away the mess of cardboard boxes.
When he removed the cardboard box, he saw Lou Ying’s face and open eyes, and felt his chest and heartbeat, Chi Xiaochi’s breath came out of his throat.
But only seconds later, Lou Ying coughed up a large amount of blood.
Chi Xiaochi is dumbfounded.
It was so full of bright red that his brain wouldn’t turn.
”…… Brother Lou.”
Chi Xiaochi didn’t dare to scream too loudly, didn’t dare to pull at him for fear he would shake the last bit of life out of him.
He became timid for a moment, a hand gently touching his forehead and then his lips, as bewildered as its owner.
” Lou Brother ……”
Chi Xiaochi was on her knees, looking up at the spot where Lou Ying had fallen.
Just two floors, he thought, just two floors.
It’s okay, it must be okay ……
”You go and call!” Zhu Shoucheng’s hiss interrupted his self-delusion, “Call 120!
Chi Xiaochi stared blankly at him, intermittent fragments of information flashing through his mind.
Phone.
The phone in his house is broken. The one in Zhu Shoucheng’s house is also.
Line failure on the telephone office side.
The phones in the whole building are out of order.
120, it’s to call 120 and save Lou’s brother.
Going to borrow a phone.
Should I leave Lou to Zhu Shoucheng?
No, it can’t.
But if you don’t go yourself, who else can go?
Zhu Shoucheng?
What if he runs away.
In case he deliberately delays ……
Not daring to lose any more time, Chi Xiaochi wobbled to his feet and ran off into the distance without a word.
Like a child just learning to run, he ran less than five or six steps before snapping to his knees on the craggy gravel road, blood oozing from his knees and hands.
Chi Xiaochi, unaware of the pain, regained his feet without a word and ran wildly through the hot, dry air, as if to escape the blood that was gradually spreading, to escape this horrible nightmare.
From the old, decaying burglar window in the corner of the ground floor, the faces of two curious schoolchildren peek out.
They are twins, no more than six or seven years old.
When the parents left home, they locked the two sisters in the house.
Chi Xiaochi’s cries and the loud commotion of the fall attracted their attention.
There was no way out of the door, so they had to watch from a distance through the window.
They saw the boxes all over the floor and also saw Mr Zhu crouching and Lou Ying lying down, but when they didn’t move for a long time, they lost interest and went back to their jigsaw puzzles.
Zhu Shoucheng’s nasal cavity was filled with blood, mostly from his nosebleeds that gushed out in large drops as his anxiety flared up.
He was half-kneeling in front of Lou Ying, wiping his bleeding nostrils with the back of his hand, his mind overlapping with a jumble of codes.
Soon, however, he discerned a hint of a useful message in the midst of the garbled code.
Lou Ying was still breathing slightly on the floor, his eyes half-open, not knowing whether he was conscious or had passed out of shock.
As Zhu Shoucheng looked at Lou Ying like this, a thought gradually became clear in his mind.
–He cannot live.
Lou Ying must not live.
Zhu Shoucheng reached out, took hold of an egg-sized stone and, after a moment’s hesitation, tucked it under the back of Lou Ying’s head, which was resting on a jumble of stones.
He then shuddered and wiped the blood from his nose on his lapel, spat a few mouthfuls of saliva on his palm and rubbed it in to make sure his hands were clean before he fished a roll of money out of his inside pocket and, after a brief count, gently slipped it into Lou Ying’s trouser pocket.