Book 2: Loss of Voice

"Didn't you complain that the place was old, rundown and small, and didn't even have a carpark?" Yu Yan lowered his head and used his chopsticks to poke at a piece of sweet and sour pork rib. He took a tentative bite; the bone was made from lotus root, the meat from soy product, and it had been marinated in preserved plum juice. The texture was firm and crunchy, the sweetness and sourness at just the right level… But when savoured carefully, he still felt that something was missing.

In the first monthly test since school started, Liu Zhongqi made it to the top five in his year, breaking his personal best record. Having learned from his past mistakes, Yu Lanchuan didn't dare use red packets to take care of the gremlin child this time. Hence, he freed up a weekend and brought him out to celebrate—even though Yu Lanchuan didn't know what there was to celebrate. When he was at school, he had never dropped below second place.

He didn't have much to talk about with a chuuni teenager. He didn't want it to be awkward, so he invited Yu Yan along to accompany them, and let the police officer strengthen the kid's personal safety awareness.

Yu Lanchuan had his assistant select the restaurant and make a reservation. He had not been to the place before and when he entered, he saw that the decor and the atmosphere at the place were very high class. There was even a creek winding around the small tables. There was dry ice hidden below the water and as the water circled around continuously, white mist rose from all directions. A person sitting inside would feel that they were there to attend the Feast of Peaches with the deities.

When he opened the menu, he finally realised that this was a vegetarian restaurant.

Yu Yan could not imagine what kind of pretense Director Yu usually put on in front of his colleagues for his assistant to think that he survived on eating flowers and drinking dew, and that even his poop had the flavour of Darjeeling. Only a restaurant with such a faintly deity-like air was worthy of the faintly deity-like Director Yu.

"It's okay." Yu Lanchuan poked at the lushly green dishes absent-mindedly. "That place is near, I can just walk to work. It's also convenient for Xiao-Qi to go to school. He doesn't even have to take the subway."

"Then go! Don't talk about other things, just that 7,000 plus a month rental of yours, who's gonna give that much to you? I don't even earn that much in a month!" Yu Yan was someone who wouldn't look like a crown prince even if he wore the dragon robes. In the midst of the zenlike clouds and mist, he spewed out crass and unsophisticated words. "If you don't have to drive, wouldn't you save on parking and petrol? If you rent out your car together with the number plate, it's extra income. Master Lan, becoming rich depends on being economical!"

Yu Lanchuan regretted bringing this person out to eat. He was a little embarrassing.

He picked up a piece of king oyster mushroom masquerading as abalone, his mouth not tasting anything. "It's not a question of moving. That apartment is a symbol, you don't understand. Moving in means-"

"I understand," Yu Yan cut him off. "The rules of your world. Doesn't it just say that whoever's name is on the property deed, that person's the alliance leader? Since ancient times, the jianghu has been a place of danger and evil. There are those who took that position by seizing power, those who depended on their virtue and morals, those who depended on their martial arts skills, those who depended on evil and sinister plots, those who depended on castrating themselves^[1]... Today, you, Master Lan, depend on an apartment to take that position. No one has done that before. It feels so modern."

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.

"The public security in that area is also under our jurisdiction. In the future, if there's anything, I can hug the alliance leader's thigh." Yu Yan glanced at Liu Zhongqi who was studiously drinking soup, then drew close to Yu Lanchuan and whispered in his ear. "There's even a beautiful lady who has quite the fate with you staying next door."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Get lost!"

Yu Yan reached out and patted his shoulder. "Go, don't disappoint the great trust the older generation has put on you, Master Lan."

"I'm already busy enough, where would I find the energy to interfere with their affairs." Yu Lanchuan avoided his hands in distaste. As though he wanted to show that he was not at all related to the next door apartment, he sat up straight and proper for a while and said coldly, "I don't think I will after all. I'll save myself the trouble-"

Before he could finish speaking, his phone suddenly rang. Yu Lanchuan looked at the screen and his face didn't look good—his landlord was calling.

His landlord wasn't a straightforward person. One phone call lasted a full five minutes, the words going around in circles in a sticky voice. Yu Yan finished a bowl of fake red braised meat and only then was the other side done talking.

"What's the matter?" Yu Yan watched his expression and his intuition struck. "Don't tell me your rent is going up?"

The deity-like Yu Lanchuan put down his phone. Since there was a minor, he swallowed his curses back down.

Yu Yan rubbed his fingers. He vaguely remembered that Yu Lanchuan's tenancy agreement was for a year and the term seemed to be nearly up. "Pah, this cursed mouth of mine. A child's words are harmless… Is your rent really going up?"

The two of them were speaking very softly. All around them was the continuous susurration of the water and there was even someone playing the pipa in the hall. Hence, Liu Zhongqi didn't hear clearly his geges' discussions about "national economy and the people's livelihoods." The young hero had already endured an entire meal and finally could not bear it any more. He put down a vegetable leaf and said to Yu Lanchuan, "Ge, I'm not full. I want to eat fried chicken cutlet. Real chicken."

Yu Yan said, "I want to eat that too, ge. I also want to eat lamb skewers. Real lamb."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

A landlord's mood was ever-changing like a day in June.

The viciously spiking rental was like a tornado, its arrival more unexpected than romance. It surged over majestically, pushing the trendy Director Yu to No. 110 Courtyard.

Granduncle's apartment was well-maintained and had just been cleaned. He also didn't need to renovate it.

At the end of the month, Yu Lanchuan gave up the fight, packed his bags and moved in. His bags included the baggage named Liu Zhongqi.

Gan Qing had heard from Zhang Meizhen about the two young masters moving in next door. However, she was just an idle shop worker and only slowly started working at ten in the morning. She did not cross paths with those white collar workers and high school students who seemed to be tightly wound springs. The people next door had moved in for a few days and she had only ever heard the sound of the door from next door when she was having breakfast; she had not met the people themselves.

Before she got off work that night, she gnawed on the corn on the cob that Boss Meng had grilled for her while looking at the calendar on her phone and worrying. There were still four days until her wages for this month were paid. She hadn't planned her expenses well. She was out of money.

Gan Qing tossed the corncob that she had gnawed clean into the trash bin. "Uncle Meng, lend me twenty yuan. I'll pay you back when I get paid."

Meng Tianyi heard her and came out, grumbling. He wiped his hands on his apron and dug out fifty yuan which he stuffed into her hands, and scolded, "Why are you out of money again? You only need to feed yourself and out of three meals in a day, two are at my place here. Your rent is only 600. You only have those two old and worn outfits and you don't even pretty yourself up. Where did your money go? What did you spend it on?"

Gan Qing put away the fifty yuan. She stretched her body and answered jokingly. "I'm also wondering the same thing. Help me take a look at my back and see if a God of Poverty is haunting me."

Angered by her apathy, Boss Meng gave her a smack. Gan Qing was too lazy to even dodge and took it directly. Using the edge of the table, she opened a bottle of soft drink and drank from it.

Other than eating and drinking, she was very stingy with her energy. Through all four seasons of the year, she had the vigour of someone in winter hibernation. If she could make one less movement, she would save the effort of that one movement. If she could move her eyes, she wouldn't turn her neck. Even when nodding, she took less effort than other people. When other people nodded, they tucked in their chin, then returned to the same position; when she nodded, she lowered her head and only lifted it again when she needed to.

Meng Tianyi sighed. "You're still young, how can you continue to muddle along like this? You should think about your future. A person has to integrate with society and live their days!"

Gan Qing let out a mhm. "I'm thinking about it right now."

"The hell you are! Why don't you go study something, I heard that there's this… university entrance exams for mature students or self-taught students? Go register for one of them. At least, it's an academic qualification. If you don't want to study, then be like your Uncle Meng and learn a trade, you can get by with that too. I'll pay for your tuition fees, you can slowly pay me back in the future."

Gan Qing said, "My skills are decent. I can cook and can help out in the kitchen."

Meng Tianyi said, "The hell you can! You only know how to eat!"

Hearing that, Gan Qing smiled. She drank a gulp of the chilled soft drink, like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water. As the saying went, "Man must live life so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, and to never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past^[note]."

Her eyes were slightly deep set and her brows a little heavy, pushing down on her eyes. But when she smiled, her features swiftly smoothed out. The corners of her eyes curved into crescents and there was a special kind of sweetness.

Meng Tianyi advised her patiently, "If you don't want to do anything, then you should clean yourself up properly, marry someone and start a family, and live your days properly. That should be okay, right?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Gan Qing gave him a thumbs up. "Just take a look, does someone who acts the way I do have a chance at snagging a rich husband? In the future, I can just lie down at home, take two bottles whenever I want a soft drink, and drink them together."

Meng Tianyi was rather exasperated. "If your shifu was still alive-"

"Uncle Meng," The mischievous smile on Gan Qing's face disappeared all of a sudden. "What are you saying? What shifu?"

After saying that, she threw the empty bottle behind her. The glass bottle dropped accurately into the plastic crate more than a meter away, neatly entering an empty slot, as impressive as any acrobatic stunt. After throwing the bottle, she turned and left.

"Gan'er, before your shifu closed his eyes forever, he was always worrying about you," Meng Tianyi said behind her. "He was afraid because of your temper! He was afraid that when he was gone, no one would take care of you, and no one would clean up after you if you cause trouble."

"I've long since stopped causing trouble." Gan Qing stuck her hands into her pockets and turned around to glance at Meng Tianyi. The streetlight threw her shadow long behind her. She waved at Meng Tianyi. "I've long since been unable to cause trouble."

With the fifty yuan that Boss Meng had lent her, she could afford jianbing for breakfast now. Having gnawed on mantou and salted vegetables for three days in a row, that was what Gan Qing was planning as she left Mudpool Backlane. She had just eaten but she was having cravings already.

Right then, her phone vibrated. Gan Qing picked up and a feeble female voice came from the other side. "Hello… I-It's me."

Gan Qing was someone who smiled at everyone but now, her face suddenly turned cold. She let out an indifferent mhm.

"I've received the money I claimed for treating my appendicitis. I… Should I go to the bank and transfer it to you or…"

"No need," Gan Qing said. "Keep it to pay your heating bills."

"Oh, then-"

Gan Qing cut her off. "Anything else?"

"No, that's all-"

"All right. Call me if there's anything." When she finished speaking, Gan Qing hung up ruthlessly, not the least bit concerned for the other person's dignity… because she knew that the other person had none.

She had spent the whole day at the shop today talking to the customers about Mercury retrograde. Maybe it was coming back to bite her now; in one night, two people in a row had made her unhappy. Near October, the night wind in Yanning no longer brought contentment and was starting to reveal a hint of the coming freeze. Gan Qing wrapped her workout jacket tighter around herself, trying her best to put all her thoughts on jianbing. This way, she could be full of anticipation for tomorrow.

Holding on to this "jianbing" mental support, Gan Qing returned to No. 110 Courtyard. Once she went up, she saw a few familiar figures blocking her front door.

Gan Qing rubbed her eyes, thinking that she must be seeing delusions from thinking too much about jianbing. Those few people were in two groups, as clearly separated as the Jing and Wei rivers were. One group belonged to the north side of the road's Shandong Jianbing while the other group belonged to the south side of the road's Jianbing Guozi^[2]. Both groups were arguing noisily, cornering the alliance leader who had just come back from work at his front door.

"Little Master Yu, you be the judge. It was their Shandong group that beat up our people first!"

"Who was the one who provoked us first?"

"Who was the one who crossed the boundary first?"

"Fuck your boundary! My net profit in one month is more than 10,000, do I need to fight your penniless group for territory? You and your shitty jianbiang, open shop if you can handle the heat, fuck off if you can't!"

Yu Lanchuan clutched his laptop under his arm and, with a wooden expression, watched the two large group leaders with income of over 10,000 a month tear into each other.

"You still dare to fight at this place? Fine, I'll join you!"

"No one's doing any business tomorrow. Not before we settle this once and for all!"

"Who's scared of you?"

"Who's scared of you!"

Gan Qing, "..."

No, nooooooooo!

———

The author has something to say:

[note] he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past — How the Steel Was Tempered.

T/N:

[1] The person who took power by castrating themselves is likely a reference to Dongfang Bubai, a fictional character from Jin Yong's wuxia novels. It was a prerequisite for mastering the skills in a martial arts manual known as Sunflower Manual.

[2] Jianbing is a popular breakfast food in China, commonly sold by street vendors. It consists of a crepe-like wrapping made of wheat and grain, wrapped around different kinds of fillings such as egg, youtiao, preserved meat, and sauces, and there are many regional varieties. It originated in Shandong; one of the two jianbing groups in this chapter is Shandong Jianbing. The other group, Jianbing Guozi, is a regional variety popular in Tianjin.