Chapter 54: Where I Am
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“You’re here waiting for Little Shiyu, right?”
7:32
Little Chu Feng stood at the street corner with his backpack on his back, eyeing the unfamiliar uncle. The uncle appeared friendly, but Little Chu Feng remained cautious and didn’t want to engage in much conversation. He just nodded.
“I’m the owner of the convenience store downstairs from his house,” Ji Shiming said with a smile. “You should have seen me before, right?”
Little Chu Feng hadn’t seen him before. He awkwardly chuckled, “..Haha.”
“Oh? There’s an egg next to your backpack. Why is it here? Be careful not to drop it,” Ji Shiming reached out, not very politely, and took out a boiled egg from the side pocket of Little Chu Feng’s backpack. “Here, take it and put it inside your backpack.”
Little Chu Feng felt a bit disgusted by the egg that had been touched by the uncle. He quickly said, “I don’t want it. I… I don’t like to eat…”
“Oh, I see,” the uncle guessed with a smile, “Is it… for Little Shiyu?”
“…,” Little Chu Feng didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know this uncle, why was he talking to him? And how did he know his name? Little Chu Feng wanted to leave immediately, so he said, “I don’t want the egg. You can have it, uncle.”
“Haha, thank you,” Ji Shiming put the egg in his pocket. Then, as if he had just remembered something, he casually said, “Oh, by the way, you shouldn’t wait here. I just saw Little Shiyu heading that way. If you hurry, you might still catch him.”
The seven-year-old Little Chu Feng looked towards the direction indicated by the uncle. It was a small alley, a bit remote and not many people walked there.
After saying that, the uncle didn’t pay much attention to him and walked away. If the uncle had insisted that he take that alley, Little Chu Feng might have become suspicious and wouldn’t have gone. But the uncle just left it at that.
—Was Xie Shiyu really in that alley?
Little Chu Feng remembered that there was indeed a convenience store downstairs from Xie Shiyu’s apartment building, although Xie Shiyu had never taken him inside. The uncle could indeed be the owner of the convenience store, and what he said might be true.
Little Chu Feng took another careful look and confirmed that the alley did lead in the direction of the school.
—-Little Shiyu might really have taken a shortcut.
With the bright sunlight in the early morning, Little Chu Feng slung his backpack over his shoulder and ran towards the secluded alley.
Ji Shiming stood in the shade of the trees on the street, watching as Little Chu Feng ran into the alley.
He doesn’t like kids, nor does he have any interest in harming them.
But, there are others who do.
The route he pointed out to Little Chu Feng wasn’t the shortcut Little Shiyu would take, but rather the path that the pedophile from room 104 would inevitably pass through when leaving.
Ji Shiming glanced at his watch; it was almost time for the pedophile to leave.
The alley was intricate and complex; for someone who hadn’t been there before, it was easy to get lost, especially for a seven-year-old like Little Chu Feng who hadn’t developed a sense of spatial awareness or direction yet.
Moreover, the alley was deserted, making it a suitable place for a crime.
Ji Shiming didn’t linger to watch; he hummed a tune and quietly made his way back to the residential building.
He didn’t like to plan his life so definitively or rigidly. Perhaps the pedophile had left early today, or maybe a bit later. Would he and Little Chu Feng really meet in the alley? And if they did, would the pedophile really strike today?
That wasn’t Ji Shiming’s concern.
Life needed a bit of artistic ambiguity to appreciate the surprises it offered.
Ji Shiming watched as Little Chu Feng’s blue backpack disappeared into the distance, smiling to himself. He remembered he had a batch of popular counterfeit backpacks in his warehouse, modeled after the authentic adidas backpack. He decided to go back and display those counterfeit backpacks in his convenience store.
—–I wonder what expression Little Shiyu will have when he sees them.
Ji Shiming tossed the boiled egg in his hand and, with a benevolent smile, walked back towards the residential building.
***
Little Shiyu walked out of Uncle’s convenience store.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu had his hands in his pockets, looking cold and indifferent as he walked briskly. He was thinking: the little blue backpack and the boiled egg, these two seemingly ordinary but very Chu Feng-like items, appearing together in Uncle’s convenience store, this was definitely no coincidence.
Uncle must have investigated Chu Feng beforehand, and he had seen Chu Feng today!
From what he could see now, Uncle Ji Shiming hadn’t directly targeted Chu Feng. This indicated that Uncle wasn’t very sure if it was him who took the blue ribbon, so he didn’t directly kidnap Chu Feng to blackmail him and escalate the situation; he just used the backpack and the boiled egg to test him.
To achieve this, Chu Feng had to be delayed from getting to school on time.
Little Shiyu immediately recalled the road maps of his Grandma’s house, the residential building, and the school.
It is now 8:03.
School has already started.
Chu Feng must have been delayed somewhere. Chu Feng filtered through possible locations in his mind…
***
Alley.
Where is this place?
“Little Shiyu Shiyu—”
Little Chu Feng called out, but no one responded. He looked around, surrounded by dilapidated buildings. He turned a corner, but still didn’t see Little Shiyu Shiyu.
Little Chu Feng decided to leave the alley and go to school on his own.
But when he tried to return the way he came…
He found there was no entrance! The scene in front of him was completely unfamiliar. He blinked, trying to go in another direction…
Five minutes later.
Little Chu Feng started to feel anxious; if he didn’t get out soon, he would be late for class! The alleys here were like a maze, with one fork leading to another. The more he hurried, the harder it was to find his way out.
Fifteen minutes later.
Little Chu Feng had completely lost track of where he was. He finally realized that he was truly lost.
Mom said to stay put when lost, not to run around, and wait for someone to find him.
But it was almost eight o’clock.
Even if Little Shiyu Shiyu really took this shortcut through the alley, he would have already reached the school.
Besides Little Shiyu Shiyu, who else would come looking for him?
Little Chu Feng, with his small backpack, crouched on the ground, gazing around at the unfamiliar surroundings. The dilapidated buildings seemed to stare back at him silently, like sinister creatures.
***
Plop.
Sun Wencheng stepped out of room 104 and headed to the factory for work. He yawned and walked into the alley he usually took.
He was a bit late leaving today; he needed to hurry. If he was late, he would lose money, and his already meager salary would be even worse off.
The shortcut alley was as dilapidated as usual, with old, short buildings everywhere, and laundry hanging haphazardly. The gray, muddy walls were not clean anywhere, either plastered with small ads or covered in random graffiti.
Sun Wencheng walked briskly, but suddenly, under the bright sunlight, he saw a little boy.
With his genuine adidas backpack and wearing a short-sleeved uniform, showing a glimpse of tender, fair legs, the sunlight cast on his long, dark eyelashes, making him look as pretty and delicate as a doll. He stood there alone, out of place against the dilapidated and dirty surroundings.
Sun Wencheng quickly stepped aside, hiding behind a small building.
He glanced at the child a few times, then at his watch. He was going to be late for work, but this child was so rare. Even if he couldn’t do anything, it would be great to have a chat… Sun Wencheng was about to step forward and strike up a conversation with the child when suddenly—
Desperate Little Chu Feng, facing the deep alley, shouted again:
“Xie Shiyu! Xie Shiyu—”
Sun Wencheng was startled. Xie Shiyu… wasn’t that the dead brat from room 404!
In Sun Wencheng’s mind, children were divided into two types: one was like the pretty little boy with the blue backpack in front of him, and the other was like the dead brat from room 404, emitting a terrifying aura, speaking in a creepy manner, and could directly star in a horror movie.
—-These “horror movie” kids should never be touched.
It’s best not to provoke friends of horror movie kids either.
Sun Wencheng stepped back. Thinking of the bad orientation of the residential building where he lived, with its poor feng shui, people became weird after living there for a long time, and even the children in the building seemed like horror movie characters!
Sun Wencheng glanced at his watch. He’d better go to work. When he saved up enough money, he would definitely move out of there!
8:03
The first Chinese class had already begun.
Little Chu Feng, with his small blue backpack, stood alone in the deep alley. He stopped in his tracks, looking around at the unfamiliar buildings surrounding him.
The walls of the alley cut out a line of blue sky. Little Chu Feng looked up, wishing he had wings to fly and see where he was. He couldn’t find his way back, nor any familiar scenery; it seemed like the more he wandered in the alley, the deeper he got, and he had no idea where he was.
—–Unable to leave, waiting in place, and no one coming back to find him.
Desperate Little Chu Feng lowered his head, his small hand clutching his backpack strap. Once again, he futilely repeated:
“Xie Shiyu—are you there?”
Just like countless times before, no one responded.
In the empty alley, Little Chu Feng sat alone on the ground, his eyes red, on the verge of tears.
“I’m here.”
A familiar voice suddenly sounded behind him.
Little Chu Feng jerked his head around—
Little Shiyu came running, with small beads of sweat on the tip of his nose. He reached out and took Chu Feng’s hand.
“Got lost?”
“Yeah.”
Chu Feng was still pondering: how to explain to Xie Shiyu why he was in this alley, why he got lost, and why he didn’t tell him before running to find him again…
But Little Shiyu didn’t ask anything.
Little Shiyu reached out and touched Chu Feng’s cheek. “Don’t cry, I’ll take you out.”
“I’m not crying!”
Chu Feng stared at Little Shiyu with red eyes, forcefully holding back the tears in his eyes. He didn’t let a single tear drop, leaving Little Shiyu stunned.
Chu Feng pushed away Little Shiyu’s hand and accused him, “Don’t touch my face.”
Little Shiyu chuckled. “Okay, won’t touch.”
He naturally held Chu Feng’s hand.
Before leaving, Little Shiyu turned back and glared fiercely—
Sun Wencheng, hiding behind the building, was terrified! He was scared stiff. The way the brat from room 404 looked at people was just like the children in “The Grudge”, with their eyes staring darkly at people. Frightened, Sun Wencheng quickly slipped away to the factory.
Beneath the calm surface where nothing happened, there was an undercurrent. But seven-year-old Chu Feng was oblivious to it all.
He was being led by Little Shiyu’s warm hand. Little Shiyu skillfully guided him, turning left and right, until they finally walked out of the maze-like alley.
Together, they headed towards the sunny school campus.
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