Yan Hao wasn't good at reading a person's words and face but he had a unique ability—if the other person disliked him, he was able to immediately discern the person's ill will. He could also always accidentally overhear other people discussing him.

He didn't know why he was like that. Maybe it was because no one paid him any attention, so his world was quieter than other people's and hence, also more sensitive.

That evening, when Old Master Yang came to the laundry shop to look for Boss Jiang, Yan Hao was actually right at the door.

It happened to be the time for his dinner. At this time, Boss Jiang would come to take his place to watch the shop, giving him one hour of rest time. But Yan Hao had never dared to take too long. He had always just bought something convenient, stuffed the entire thing into his mouth, and then went back.

It was just that while he was waiting for the lights to change at the intersection, from far he saw Old Master Yang enter the shop.

Even though Old Master Yang had joined the workforce after the country was liberated, he still carried on the old traditions. If his clothes could be patched up, he would not throw them away. He usually just wore cotton shirts and pants; he didn't have anything that needed to be dry-cleaned or anything high-quality that needed special treatment. He was also very unused to the habits of the younger people who were not willing to even wash a pair of socks on their own. If he came to the shop, it was certainly not for the shop's business. He definitely had something to say to Boss Jiang.

Those elderly and high-ranking people made Yan Hao nervous, no matter how kindly they were. He really didn't want to meet Sect Leader Yang face-to-face, so he hesitated a while at the laundry shop's entrance.

Old Yang and Boss Jiang very quickly finished talking and came out. Yan Hao heard their voices.

"...Since she came from thousands of miles away to seek shelter with me, what else could I do?" This was Boss Jiang's voice.

Yan Hao's heart stuttered. He keenly sensed who the words were referring to and his heart started thumping wildly. Following that, he flitted away like a swallow and hid behind a trash can in the little lane at the side.

Boss Jiang supported Old Yang to cross over the laundry shop's doorstep. "Watch your step, Sect Leader Yang."

Yan Hao heard Old Yang say, "It has affected your business, hasn't it?"

Boss Jiang smiled bitterly and let out a regretful sigh.

Old Yang patted him on the shoulder. Boss Jiang only said vaguely, "This is also a problem… Ai, be careful on your way back."

It was the evening rush hour. The tree-lined road was full of rushing people and congested cars. The mannerless drivers honked right into the people's ears, bi— bi—, and the people's voices were cacophonous. The two old men didn't notice the "little sparrow" behind the trash can. Boss Jiang conscientiously watched Old Master Yang walk all the way to the intersection before putting his hand behind his back, lowering his head, and slowly turning around to walk towards his shop. His face drooped down and looked rather anxious and bitter.

What else could I do… Affected your business… Problem...

These few phrases looped in Yan Hao's head. Alone, he curled into himself behind the trash can. He thought, They are talking about me.

Boss Jiang was a friend of his parents. Before Yan Hao's mother passed away, she had entrusted her inarticulate and mediocre little son to him.

From the day he summoned the courage to come to Yanning, Yan Hao had been worrying that he wouldn't be able to do things well and make other people dislike him. He could sense that he was the reason why the shop had been much quieter recently. Clothes were worn on a person's body. Whether or not it was cleaned professionally was another matter, but it had to at least be clean. Many customers heard the baseless rumour that the shop employee was a pervert and had stopped coming—who knew what disgusting thing he would do to the clothes?

Yan Hao had been very scared all the while. It was like walking on thin ice, until just now, when he heard with his own ears what Boss Jiang had said.

Inversely, he now had a feeling of relief. This day had come after all, Boss Jiang also disliked him now.

This was only natural. He had always felt that in his entire life, other than his father who had passed away early, it seemed like no one had ever liked him. He wasn't good at studies, the teachers didn't like him and his schoolmates isolated him. Even his own mother had probably held her nose and brought him up just because it was her duty. She rarely smiled at him and even more rarely praised him. Even if all he was doing was to breathe quietly, she could find something wrong.

Yan Hao knew that Boss Jiang didn't feel like he could directly ask him to leave so he decided to be more self-aware. But after making the resolve a few times, he still didn't have the courage to say goodbye to Boss Jiang in person, so he left a note under the accounts book and left without a word.

He packed the remaining canned cat food into a cardboard box and put it outside the next door pet store. Other than doing business, that pet shore also rescued strays. Sometimes, if they couldn't find a suitable owner after a long time, the store would have to take out a lot of additional capital. He wanted to help them a little.

There was a kitten that was not sleeping late at night. It sprawled against the window, peeking out from between the blinds, looking curiously at him.

Yan Hao smiled at it. He bent his arm, letting Ayanami Rei sit in the crook of his elbow, and walked into the cold night with his back curved and his neck shrank back.

"Where shall we go?" he asked the figurine softly. At that moment, his eyes were not as evasive as they were in the daytime and his voice was also flowing easier. If one listened closely, they would realise that the way he spoke was a little strange. He seemed to have a slight lisp and he tried very hard to say each word clearly, the words seeming to hop out one by one.

"I won't be able to find a job."

"Luckily, you don't need to eat. Otherwise, you'll starve being with me."

"You have to bear mistreatment while being with me… I'm sorry."

"Are you the first Ayanami Rei to sleep on the streets?"

When he passed near No. 110 Courtyard, Yan Hao's steps suddenly paused. He looked towards the little building hidden in the shadows and thought of the woman on the eighth floor… the blade in the pocket of her clothes, and also her desperate, anguished howling in the middle of the night.

"They say that her mental state is abnormal. I feel very bad." Yan Hao patted Ayanami Rei's hair. "Because I seem to be abnormal too."

Ayanami Rei gazed at him with silent eyes.

Yan Hao stood where he was, mulling over something. Then, he put Ayanami Rei in his backpack and flew away.

It was said that back in those years, Tang Qian Yan Yan Ruofei could step on the duckweed on the water to cross a river. When he reached the other side, not even the tips of his shoes would be wet. By the time it was his generation, this unique skill was lost. At most, Yan Hao could just barely climb up buildings, jump over walls, and follow a white collar office worker who had been turned half-deaf by noise pollution. He had been following Nie Ke for a few days.

Nie Ke dressed in western-style suits and leather shoes. His spirits were high and he didn't look at all like there had been a great disturbance in his life. When he bumped into ladies, he was especially talkative. He matched wits with everyone he met, and was very self-assured.

Yan Hao even once saw him have a meal with a young and shy lady. They had seemed to be on a date.

When they parted at the restaurant's entrance, Yan Hao was hidden not far away. He heard Nie Ke say to the girl, "...In your area of specialisation, it's very hard for you to get a footing in Yanning in the future. You have to support your family and you also have a younger brother. The help your family can give you is very limited. You said that they can't even take out one million, that means it's practically impossible for you to buy a house here and settle down. I'm not the kind of person who likes to make empty talk, these are all truths. It's for your own good, please don't take offense. I'm a few years older than you. As your dage, I advise you to go back to your parents' home."

The girl looked like she was in her early twenties and still had the air of a student about her. She was obviously new to the ways of the world and believed his tricks. She replied softly, "But if I go home, there aren't jobs that are suited to my specialisation…"

"You're overthinking things. How many people can work in their own area of specialisation? Doesn't everyone just make do with any job to survive for the time being?" Nie Ke's words sounded very sincere. "Yes, no one's happy with that. How much pain did we go through to enter university and do a postgrad? It wasn't easy for you to get into such a good university and you wasted a good part of your youth to finish your studies. Then, once you graduate, you see that it was all a waste!"

The girl was at the age when she was easily lost. Thinking along the lines of Nie Ke's words, wasn't that really the case? She was so saddened by his words that she could not speak.

"But fortunately, you're a girl." After steadily laying out the foundation, Nie Ke watched the girl's young and fresh face, and his true intentions peeked out. "Girls are better off than guys, you still have a chance for a 'rebirth.' You don't have to depend on yourself for everything. In my case, the person who introduced me to you should probably have told you… To be honest, I really don't have the mood to look for someone else. I really didn't want to come today but the person who set this up is a friend of mine, so I can't reject… But chatting with you, I feel that we hit it off quite well. You're still young, you don't have to hurry. If you're okay with it, you can just treat me as an older brother. If you have any troubles, you can come to me any time."

"Genuine" and sincere, and also did not have anything up his sleeves—such a man gained other people's trust easily. The girl voluntarily added him on WeChat and went away feeling very touched.

Even Yan Hao, eavesdropping at the corner of the wall, was very moved by Nie Ke's heartfelt words. He felt that he was overthinking things and was wrongly putting the blame on a good person.

But when he was about to leave his spot, he saw that Nie Ke didn't move away after saying goodbye to the girl. He smoked a cigarette at the restaurant's entrance, waited a while, and then a middle-aged nasty-looking man came.

Nie Ke hailed him and wrapped an arm around the middle-aged man's shoulder like they were very close. He opened the boot of his car and passed two cigarettes over. The two of them, arms on each other's shoulders, talked about something for a while. Then, Nie Ke took out a stack of bills from his coat's inner pocket and quietly passed it to the other person. The two of them exchanged a look of mutual understanding. Nie Ke smiled, and finally drove away.

He didn't know why but Yan Hao intuitively felt that it was very strange. Before he realised what he was doing, he was stealthily following the middle-aged man who had taken the money.

He saw the man furtively take out the money and counted them. Then, he seemed to be very satisfied and walked away humming a song, passing through a few twisting, winding lanes. Yan Hao saw him go up a rundown residential building. On the side of the building that was close to the road, there were a few small illegal shops providing services such as "House Calls for Getting Rid of Grey Nails" and "Moxibustion and Massages"... The innermost shop was called Peaceful Mind Clinic.

Above the anti-theft windows was a digital signboard. The words "Forty years of experience; many different types of treatment available; effective against psychological problems such as insomnia, depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety" were looping on it.

The words looping on the billboard were bright red in colour. Yan Hao felt like there was a block of ice in his chest. He shivered involuntarily.

He went back to No. 110 Courtyard and again followed Nie Ke.

Soon after that, Yan Hao realised that Nie Ke went out to meet quite a few young women. The lines he used were all the same as what he used on the first day—first cold, then warm. Before a week was up, he had spiritedly gathered a group of "younger sisters," enough to fill up a Grand View Garden^[1].

If a person dug ten pitfalls, they would surely trap at least one naive and guileless girl. On that Friday night, Yan Hao kept watch at the intersection to look out for Nie Ke and saw the man walk over carrying two supermarket plastic bags, walking breezily while sending voice messages.

"...You decide, it's my treat… Sure, dage usually doesn't have time to watch movies anyway. Anything you say. See you tomorrow… What do you want to eat? Let me know ahead of time… Why are you being so polite with me? It's fate that we got to know each other. I'm your family in Yanning…"

Yan Hao's chest was full of stifled and vexed feelings, and a nameless fire suddenly erupted there. Without even thinking, he charged over under the cover of the night.

Nie Ke whistled as he flirted with the other person. He felt a slight breeze at his back but before he could turn around to see, there was a sharp pain at his neck. And then he knew nothing more.

Yan Hao had rushed up to him and knocked him out, and it was completely on a moment's impulse. Suddenly, he didn't know what to do.

He stared at Nie Ke who was lying face-down on the ground for a few seconds and realised that the screen on the phone the man had dropped was still lit up. Yan Hao thought a while, then nervously picked up the phone, squatted by the side of the road and texted the girl on the other end. He's lying to you! This man is scum, he drove his previous wife to madness! He's dating a few girls at the same time, don't fall for his trap!

The girl on the other WeChat account sent a string of question marks.

Yan Hao drew a deep breath, trembled a little, then turned around and carried Nie Ke on his shoulder.

"Hey." Right then, someone spoke behind him. Yan Hao quivered and nearly dropped the human scum on his shoulder. He turned his head around abruptly and saw a thin figure of a woman walk out of the other corner. She was tapping on her phone. The light from the screen shone on her face, clean and cold and slightly familiar. Very quickly, Yan Hao realised that he often saw her at the breakfast stalls but they had never spoken to each other.

Gan Qing locked the screen and slipped the phone into her pocket. She sighed and looked up at Yan Hao, and said, "Why don't you put him down? I didn't see anything just now."

Yan Hao took a step back. His mind was actually already flustered. Defensively, he broadened his shoulders, putting on a fierce appearance to hide his weakness, trying to scare away this woman who was alone.

Gan Qing, "..."

Why is this dude so silly?

Gan Qing stuck her hands in her pockets. "Do you have a grudge against him? Why not we do it this way, you cover him in a sack, drag him over there and beat him up to vent your anger. I didn't see anything."

Yan Hao said, "You… Mind your own business!"

A momentary slip and his words had a bit of a lisp. His face immediately turned red.

Fortunately, Gan Qing didn't seem to notice it. She said sincerely and thoughtfully, "Where do you plan to carry him off to? Listen to my advice, these fake elites say that they have personal assets of a few million but in the end, all they have is a house and a car. They don't have much cash in their bank account. You won't get much from kidnapping him. Old men don't have any value on the market so you can't even sell him. When the time comes, how will you get rid of him? You can only kill him off."

Yan Hao, "..."

"It's very troublesome to kill someone in Yanning, it's not worth the trouble." Gan Qing extended her hand to him. "Come, put him down here. Hurry home and wash up and go to-"

The word "bed" hadn't even left her mouth when Yan Hao turned around and ran off carrying Nie Ke.

Running right after a meal is a recipe for gastroptosis! Gan Qing cursed under her breath, then moved her legs to chase after him.

Tang Qian Yan was indeed Tang Qian Yan. Even if his wings had deteriorated, when he ran for his life he was still an ostrich whose feet barely touched the ground.

Not only was this Yan Hao fast, the scarier thing was he was extremely sharp. Even carrying a man weighing more than a hundred pounds on his shoulder did not affect him leaping up and down.

He turned a corner and jumped into an office building's little courtyard. To deter thieves, the little courtyard's wall had curls of barbed wire on it.

Like the legendary Dapeng bird, Yan Hao leaped up, the tip of his foot stepping lightly on a small indent on the wall, and "flew" upwards. He crossed above the barbed wire to the other side without a single scratch, the curled barbed wire not moving the slightest bit, and landed on the other side without a sound!

Gan Qing's pupils contracted and she came to an abrupt stop. She decided on her next move immediately and detoured around the wall, turning towards the direction of the little courtyard's main entrance.

The CCTV guarding the door flickered in the darkness of the night. A pebble flew over; with a pop, the lens broke. Right after that, Gan Qing leaped over the tightly shut main door.

However, the little courtyard was quiet and tranquil. That foolish sparrow had disappeared.

T/N:

[1] Grand View Garden, also known as Daguanyan (大观园) is from the classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber. It is where Jia Baoyu and many girls of the Jia family stayed.