Sissy (Niang Niang Qiang) - Chap 58
Chapter 58
The young man with the last name Ji looked like he hadn’t eaten for a long time. He immediately downed two whole bowls of the bone without even raising his head. Li Chengxiu was too stunned to speak.
He couldn’t help feeling a little sympathetic. Although his own economic situation was not particularly good, he still could support himself and a dog. The young man probably was still going to school and had no income, so he was even in a more difficult situation.
Li Chengxiu quickly fried some rice and served it to the youngster.
He then squatted down and mixed the medicine given by the vet into the food meant for Teacup. From time to time, he looked up at the guy who was enthusiastically munching and let out a quiet sigh in his heart.
The young man kept eating for a while, and when he finally had satisfied his primal hunger, he realized that he was really missing his manners. His face slightly red, he looked down at Li Chengxiu who was peeking at him: “Hey, why aren’t you eating?”
Li Chengxiu shook the small pink bowl in his hand.
The man seemed to have just noticed the existence of Teacup. He said “Huh?” and then grinned: “Isn’t this the kind of dog that only women have?”
Li Chengxiu lowered his head: “Somebody else gave it to me.”
“A girl?”
Li Chengxiu’s back slightly froze, and he suddenly remembered the first time he saw Teacup.
It was tied into a large bouquet of flowers, and was given to him by Shao Qun as a gift. At that time, Li Chengxiu was overwhelmed by the warm emotions and sweetness in his heart.
Thinking about it now, this was Shao Qun’s usual trick. He would get angry at Li Chengxiu, say horrible things to him, do horrible things to him… And afterwards he would find a way to show his goodwill. But he would never sincerely apologize.
As soon as Li Chengxiu thought of Shao Qun, dark and heavy sadness overwhelmed him, and he didn’t know if he could ever recover.
Seeing that Li Chengxiu didn’t respond, the guy didn’t care to ask anymore. He lowered his head and continued eating, “How is your cooking so delicious? I could smell the aroma in my apartment already. You’re not a cook by any chance?”
Li Chengxiu stood up and said, “I am.”
The youngster raised his eyebrows: “So it’s true! No wonder then.”
Li Chengxiu got himself a bowl of rice, sat opposite the guy and also started eating.
He finally remembered that he was actually a host, so he wanted to say “Eat some more! Don’t be shy!”, but he suddenly realized that there was almost nothing left anymore.
The youngster awkwardly blinked at him.
Li Chengxiu asked carefully, “Are you full?”
The guy gave it a thought and finally shook his head.
The corner of Li Chengxiu’s mouth unconsciously twitched. He got up and went to get two more dishes. To think of it, he had almost forgotten how to laugh.
When he was full of food and drink, the young man became more talkative. He asked Li Chengxiu for his first name. Li Chengxiu, in turn, started calling him Xiao Ji.
Li Chengxiu wasn’t someone who talked much, so he didn’t really know how to chat with strangers. Basically, Xiao Ji just asked questions, and Li Chengxiu answered.
The youngster had never met somebody as boring as Li Chengxiu, so he soon was tired of the conversation and squatted down to tease Teacup.
Teacup was eating when Xiao Ji poked its spine with his finger a few times. That caused poor Teacup to lose its balance, so it turned around and glared at the guy.
Li Chengxiu couldn’t help but say, “Stop teasing him! The pup has just recovered, so it needs to eat well.”
“The sicker you are the more active you need to be! The more you spoil the dog, the more delicate it becomes.” Xiao Ji said all that while pulling at Teacup’s head, continuing to happily tease it.
Li Chengxiu raised his eyebrows. He couldn’t stand it anymore. He went up to move the puppy and its bowl to a different place.
Xiao Ji sat back in his seat coyly. Then he had the audacity to ask, “Is there any dessert?”
Li Chengxiu was helpless. He rarely encountered someone who really didn’t treat himself as an outsider, and he didn’t know how to deal with that.
He got up and rummaged through his refrigerator, and finally found a piece of jujube cake that he had bought in the morning. He handed it to Xiao Ji: “It’s jujube cake. Do you want it?”
Xiao Ji looked at the appearance of that thing and wrinkled his nose: “Forget it.”
Even after eating, the guy didn’t want to leave, and Li Chengxiu was too embarrassed to drive him away.
When Teacup was done with its food, Xiao Ji came up to hug it, and Li Chengxiu felt truly terrified.
Finally, when it was already past 10 pm, Xiao Ji patted his butt and left extremely satisfied.
Li Chengxiu was already very tired by the time he saw him out.
Since then, Li Chengxiu felt that the young man started to take advantage of him.
Every now and then, he asked Li Chengxiu to take him to the basketball court. After going there six or seven times, he finally memorized the way. So he just began coming around to eat.
Li Chengxiu was too thin-skinned and too embarrassed to drive the youngster away. Besides, he felt some pity for him. A half-grown boy alone and far from home had really no one to take care of him. In fact, Li Chengxiu could afford to feed another mouth, and it felt less lonely to have another person around. Over time, Li Chengxiu got used to Xiao Ji coming over to eat and sometimes even deliberately left some food for him when he came back from practicing basketball.
The two were only separated by a wall, so they met often and gradually became familiar with each other.
When Li Wenxun received a call from assistant Zhou, he was quite surprised. Even after the other party introduced himself, he still couldn’t remember who it was exactly.
Only later did he realize that this was Shao Qun’s assistant.
Assistant Zhou’s tone was quite serious, as he asked Li Wenxun to come over to Shenzhen. He said that his boss was really in a bad state, but he didn’t dare to report it to the Shao family.
Taken aback, Li Wenxun asked what exactly was going on. Assistant Zhou went silent for a while, and only after a long time, he finally said, “It’s not good for me as a subordinate to talk about Mr. Shao’s private affairs, but… it’s all because of Li Chengxiu.”
Li Wenxun was dumbfounded. He remembered that the last time he met Shao Qun in Beijing, they had a disagreement. He knew that Shao Qun might really be in trouble this time, so he bought a plane ticket to Shenzhen.
The moment Xiao Zhou opened the door of Shao Qun’s house with his key, such a strong stench of alcohol hit Li Wenxun’s nose that he almost keeled over.
He went in to take a look, and really couldn’t believe that this was the place where Shao Qun lived.
Although Shao Qun was not a very neat person, he had high requirements towards his quality of life. How could he stay in this messy place that looked like a dog kennel?
Li Wenxun kicked away the rolling wine bottle that almost tripped him over and tentatively called out, “Shao Qun?”
Xiao Zhou pointed to the inside of the house: “He’s in the bedroom.”
Li Wenxun and Xiao Zhou entered the bedroom together and saw a man lying motionlessly on the big bed, with most of the buttons on his pajamas undone. He looked unshaven. The curtains in the bedroom were still closed, so the room was very dark, as if it was still night. The window hadn’t been opened in a long time, so the smell was really bad. If one couldn’t see the man’s chest going up and down, one would think that the man on the bed was dead.
Li Wenxun said “Fuck!” and pointed at Shao Qun: “How long has he been like this?”
Xiao Zhou frowned and said, “It’s been four or five days. After no one could find Li Chengxiu’s location, Mr. Shao stopped going to work or even leaving the house. Instead, he just stays here and drinks all day long. At first I didn’t dare to come in but then I got scared that there might have been an accident, so I found someone to pry open the door. Mr. Shao is completely out of it right now, he’s not listening to any persuasion. And I just… don’t dare to inform the Eldest Mrs.Shao and the Master. I could only think of calling you here.”
Li Wenxun patted Xiao Zhou on the shoulder: “You’re right, you shouldn’t let his eldest sister and his father know about this.” He walked over, grabbed Shao Qun’s arm and violently pulled him up from the bed, giving him two loud slaps.
“Shao Qun, you get the fuck up! Look at yourself!”
Shao Qun narrowed his eyes, opening them half-way. It wasn’t clear if he even saw Li Wenxun, before he closed them again.
Li Wenxun said to Xiao Zhou, “Open the curtains.”
Assistant Zhou did as he was told, and the blinding sunlight instantly shone through the large slit.
Shao Qun cursed hoarsely and wanted to turn around.
Li Wenxun said to Xiao Zhou: “Find an hourly worker to clean up the house. Is this fucking place even fit for people to live?” He then dragged Shao Qun into the bathroom, turned on the cold water and poured it all over him.
Shao Qun fought against the sudden coldness and was finally awake. He cursed with his eyes still closed: “Fuck!”
Li Wenxun went up and kicked him: “Damn it, wake up quickly! I didn’t come all the way here to see this shitty appearance of yours.”
Shao Qun sat against the wall and slowly opened his eyes. After a while he finally identified the person in front of him. He then closed his eyes again and said hoarsely, “Who the hell asked you to come here?”
Li Wenxun said angrily: “How could I not come? Should I have let your sister and your father come instead? They would have come just in time to collect your fucking corpse!”
Shao Qun reached out to push the shower head in Li Wenxun’s hand.
Li Wenxun raised his arm, ran the hot water and poured it onto Shao Qun: “Quickly wash yourself.”
Shao Qun held on to the wall, wobbled and tried to stand up, muttering, “What’s the fucking point? He can’t even smell me anymore.” Shao Qun had just lifted his butt, when his feet slipped, and he fell back down on the ground.
Shao Qun couldn’t get up anymore. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. The circles under his eyes were really dark, and he looked completely hopeless.
Li Wenxun got angry when he saw his messy state, grabbed a random bottle and squeezed its contents onto Shao Qun’s head.
Shao Qun was annoyed and shouted, “What the fuck are you doing? Get out! Get out! Get out of here!!”
Li Wenxun scolded: “You’ve turned yourself into this pitiful resemblance of a human being just because of some fucking rabbit. Shao Qun, are you fucking done with your life?”
Shao Qun stared at him with blood-red eyes: “What the hell do you know! Li Chengxiu is not a rabbit. He, he…” Shao Qun was shaking. He wiped the water off his face and covered his head with his hands.
Seeing him like this, Li Wenxun felt uncomfortable. He turned off the water, squatted down, pushed Shao Qun, and asked, “Do you really have your heart set on him?”
Shao Qun nodded and choked: “I’m completely screwed.”
Li Wenxun sighed: “So you like him. What about him? He ran away?”
Shao Qun nodded again: “China is so big. Where the hell am I going to look for him? He earns like 2 RMB a month… If something happens to him, I…” Shao Qun’s shoulders trembled slightly, and he pulled at his hair.
Li Wenxun made a “tsk” sound and then said: “Obviously, what you’re doing right now is not the right way to go about it. Since he ran away, you have to get him back. Drinking all day is gonna help shit all. He’s not just going to fall from the sky all of a sudden. So, how about you quickly clean yourself up, and your bro here will help you brainstorm.”
Shao Qun shook his head: “I’ve been looking for him for a long time… He hasn’t contacted anyone, and no one knows where he went. A-wen, I feel like a living dead. I will kneel down in front of anyone who can find him…”
Li Wenxun and Shao Qun have known each other since they were both still wearing open-crotch pants[5]. Li Wenxun had seen all kinds of Shao Qun in the past – an arrogant gangster, a pretend-serious person, even a desperate person, but he had never seen him as heartbroken as he was now.
He knew that Shao Qun had really fallen deep this time.
Thinking back to the previous Shao Qun talking to him about Li Chengxiu with a confident and arrogant look, compared with today, there really was a world of difference. Li Wenxun couldn’t tell whether him falling like that right now was more abhorrent or rather pitiful.
On the one hand, he felt that Shao Qun was weak, but on the other hand, he was really anxious for him.
Shao Qun couldn’t go on like this. If this continued, he would be entirely ruined.
Li Wenxun coaxed him: “Shao Qun, you can’t be in this state anymore. What if you collapse, before you can even find him? Or what if he comes back and sees you looking like a hobo? You should get back on your feet as quickly as possible. Clean yourself up and eat something. I’ll call Big Li and the others to see if we can come up with a solution. We’ll turn the whole China upside down and dig three feet into the ground just to get him for you, okay? If you keep this alcoholic act up, your sister and your father will eventually find out, and it will be even more difficult for you to find him.”
Li Wenxun managed to persuade Shao Qun to at least wash himself and change into clean clothes.
When he came out of the bathroom, Li Wenxun couldn’t stand looking at him: “Have you stopped eating? You’re so thin! Do you want to fucking starve yourself to death?”
Shao Qun turned a deaf ear to Li Wenxun’s comments, slumped on the sofa, and asked hoarsely, “How can we find him?”
Li Wenxun cursed and walked to the kitchen. When he opened the refrigerator, there was just beer in it. He was so angry that slammed the refrigerator door as hard as he could.
He took out his mobile phone and said to Shao Qun: “Oh, this makes sense! You want to pass away from hunger before you can find him?”
Li Wenxun called Xiao Zhou and asked him to bring some food. He then forced Shao Qun to eat.
Shao Qun continued to ask, “How can I find him? Is there anything you can do?”
Li Wenxun pushed the food in front of him: “Yes, there are certain possibilities. Eat your food first.”
Shao Qun glanced at him suspiciously, picked up his chopsticks and ate two mouthfuls of rice.
When he was almost done with his food, he stared intently at Li Wenxun.
Li Wenxun lit up a cigarette: We can go back to his hometown and see if we can find any clues there.”
Shao Qun glared at him, “He has no father or mother. His old house has been sold, and the relatives in that area have long since stopped contacting him. What clues could we find there?”
Li Wenxun glared right back at him: “Think about it for a minute, even if he sold his house, he wouldn’t sell the place where his mother is buried. Once a year he is bound to come to pay his respects to her. ”
Shao Qun’s eyes lit up, and he was so excited that he couldn’t speak clearly: “Yes… yes…. why didn’t I think of it? Fucking hell, A-wen… Good that you came. I remember that Li Chengxiu once said that someone in his hometown helps him take care of his mother’s grave. Damn, he actually sends money to these people every year!”
Shao Qun jumped up all of a sudden, and he seemed alive again, as if some light had returned to his life.
Seeing him like that, Li Wenxun shook his head and put down his cigarette in the ashtray: “I’m telling you Shao Qun, you’re only allowed to be such an idiot just once in your life. Next time this happens, I’ll fucking slap you to death.”
