Chapter 39.1 Throwing the Handkerchief
After more than ten days of intense travel, it was really a happy thing to be able to relax on the sofa at home. Lin Banxia simply took a shower and went into the bedroom to rest. He slept until Ji Leshui got off work in the evening.
Ji Leshui still didn’t dare to enter Lin Banxia’s house, so he knocked on the door for a while and called Lin Banxia to get up.
“Get up, Lin Banxia. Are you still alive?” Ji Leshui called outside the door.
Lin Banxia got up from the bed, rubbed his messy hair, walked to the door, and saw Ji Leshui outside.
“Why are you back so early?” Lin Banxia asked.
“I got off work early.” Ji Leshui said with a smile, “By the way, where is the boss?”
“He seems to be next door.” Lin Banxia said, “Do you want to over and take a look?”
The two went next door, and sure enough they saw Song Qingluo with Small Cave sitting next to him in the living room. This scene of one big and one small, sitting on the sofa, looked very harmonious.
“Small Cave. Small Cave.” When Ji Leshui saw Small Cave, he immediately smiled brightly, rushed to Small Cave and hugged Small Cave into his arms, “I came back from work, did you miss me.”
Small Cave rubbed Ji Leshui’s hand with his smooth forehead, and Ji Leshui immediately became silly and happy. Seeing that he and Small Cave were getting along so harmoniously, Lin Banxia completely let go of his worries.
In the evening, the three of them went to have a meal together at the gate of a nearby community as usual. Ji Leshui asked curiously about Lin Banxia’s travel experience in Russia.
Lin Banxia told him what he could, and Ji Leshui was very envious.
“By the way, Banxia, while you were traveling…” Ji Leshui hesitated, “Your family seems to be looking for you.”
“Huh?” Lin Banxia stopped picking up vegetables.
“They called your former classmate, and that person happened to know me, so he came to ask me.” Ji Leshui said, “Do you… want to call them back and ask?”
“No need.” Lin Banxia shook his head.
“Okay.” Ji Leshui didn’t force it.
Lin Banxia went to the toilet on the way. Ji Leshui lowered his head and happily looked for chicken in the spicy hotpot. He heard Song Qingluo from the opposite side ask softly: “Do you know his family?”
“I don’t know them.” Ji Leshui said, “Although I went to the same school as Banxia in high school, we only started to get to know each other in college. However, our place is small, and I have heard some rumors about Banxia’s family…”
“Is it convenient to tell me?” Song Qingluo asked tactfully.
“This… shouldn’t be a secret.” Ji Leshui scratched his head and told Song Qingluo what he knew. In fact, all the classmates in the class knew these things, so they were not considered secrets. “Ban Xia’s parents have been gone since he was a child, and he grew up with other relatives. Later, something happened at his relatives’ house, and it was very unpleasant. After that, he had no contact with his family, and he paid for his college tuition all by himself. He earned money from part-time work. He was living very hard at that time, but he never asked for a penny from his family. I think maybe his relationship with his relatives is not very good.”
“He has a sister?” Song Qingluo asked.
“Yes, he has a sister that he loves very much.” Ji Leshui finally found a piece of chicken among the countless red peppers and stuffed it into his mouth with satisfaction, “But there is something a little strange.”
“What?” Song Qingluo asked.
“It seems like he hasn’t had much contact with his sister, at least never in front of us… It seems that his sister is very strictly controlled by the family, and she is not allowed to contact Banxia.” Ji Leshui said, “This matter with Banxia. He mentioned once or twice that his sister was not doing well at home. When he bought this house, he thought that when his sister was older, he would bring her over. What’s the matter? Boss, what’s the point of asking this? Is something wrong?”
“When he came back, he seemed to have received a call from his home. I just wanted to know about it.” Song Qingluo replied.
“This is strange.” Ji Leshui said, “But boss, if possible, you’d better not mention his family and sister in front of Banxia. Although he is slow, he must be sad in his heart.”
“Okay, I understand.” Song Qingluo nodded.
Lin Banxia happened to come back from going to the toilet and asked what the two of them were talking about. Ji Leshui made an excuse to fool him, and Song Qingluo didn’t say much after that. Lin Banxia thought he was tired and didn’t think much about it. The three of them had a full meal and went back.
Lin Banxia went to bed, thinking that he would have to go to work tomorrow. The leave he asked for was not at the right time, and his boss was very unhappy, but it didn’t matter. The reward this time had been transferred to his bank. When converted into RMB, the amount of more than 100,000 US dollars was more than 800,000 RMB. Lin Banxia was very satisfied with this.
The next day, Lin Banxia went to work.
When he arrived at the unit, Lin Banxia was immediately called into the office by his leader and asked if he still wanted to work there. Of course, the leader’s tone was still very tactful. After all, Lin Banxia had worked diligently for more than half a year at this job. There were really not many people who did not get too tired or miserable and didn’t need psychological counseling. Most people came and worked for a year and a half at most before they couldn’t stand it and had to change jobs. No matter how high the salary was, they couldn’t keep doing it.
“Actually, it’s not that I don’t want to do it.” Lin Banxia has always been a very honest person. When faced with the boss’s questioning, he said very straightforwardly, “It’s just that I recently found a particularly profitable part-time job. Sometimes I will have to take leave.”
“Do you want to do it or not?” The boss thought for a while and said, “Are you very busy working part-time?”
“It’s not very busy.” Lin Banxia explained.
“Do you think this will work?” The boss thought about it and gave him a solution. “From now on, your salary will be calculated based on the number of days. You will be paid for as many days as you have worked. However, in this way, you won’t be able to have a partner. Your work will become more.”
Lin Banxia immediately agreed upon hearing this. He didn’t even plan to keep his job, so he didn’t expect his boss to want to keep him.
After talking with the boss, he decided to sign another labor contract with the company in a few days. Lin Banxia went to work happily.
When he arrived at the office, he heard that his colleagues seemed to be discussing something. When he went over to ask, he realized that everything was not peaceful during this period, so their workload was also extremely heavy. Just a few days before Lin Banxia returned to China, a very serious accident occurred at an amusement park called Jiayue Paradise in the western suburbs.
A roller coaster suddenly derailed and fell more than thirty meters. None of the seven people sitting on the roller coaster survived.
“It’s a good thing that you weren’t here, because we were busy for two or three days because of this matter.” The colleague muttered to Lin Banxia, lamenting his bad luck, “The damage to the car was particularly serious. It fell from such a high place. It was almost impossible to see the original shape. There were all kinds of debris on the ground. I can’t even eat when I think about it now.”
Lin Banxia was also a little surprised. He said: “How did the roller coaster fall? Didn’t the amusement park undergo maintenance?”
“I don’t know.” My colleague said, “The accident is still under investigation… But I heard that it seems to have been caused by aging equipment. Hey, I usually don’t dare to get on these things, but this time it’s even worse. I’m afraid I won’t be able to get on them in my life.”
Lin Banxia also felt a little uncomfortable, not because of fear, but because he thought that most of the people who went to the amusement park were families. Before the accident, everyone must have been happily sitting on it. Unexpectedly, something like this suddenly happened. It’s unknown how many families would be affected. He thought of something and felt a little depressed.
Today was his first day back at work, and he had nothing to do. When Lin Banxia was working the night shift, he heard the roller coaster accident mentioned by his colleagues. He clicked on a news page and saw a row of dazzling characters: Roller coaster derailed! None of the seven tourists survived!
There were photos of the roller coaster after it fell. After Lin Banxia took a few glances, he remembered that he had been to this amusement park when he was in college. It was a class activity, but because the tickets were too expensive, he was reluctant to go in. After looking at the door for a while, he heard screams and laughter coming from inside.
The amusement park must have closed now, Lin Banxia thought regretfully, not knowing whether there would be a chance to play there in the future.
At six o’clock in the morning, Lin Banxia got off work on time and went to the roadside to eat something. Then he wandered back home, washed up briefly, changed his clothes, and started to catch up on his sleep.
While sleepy, Lin Banxia heard a strange crunching sound. If he had to say it, it seemed like someone was chewing glass. He was half asleep, so he opened his eyes blankly, and said, “Who is there?”
The sound came from the closet.
Lin Banxia suddenly woke up. He sat up and looked at the time. It was now noon. He had only slept for six hours. The thick curtains on the windows were tightly drawn, and the room was dark. The sounds in the closet became louder and louder. Lin Banxia put on his shoes and walked to the closet. He held the cabinet door and was about to pull it open on both sides. In the darkness, a pair of small, bone-textured hands stretched out and grabbed the corners of Lin Banxia’s clothes.
Lin Banxia was slightly startled and said: “Small Cave?”
Small Cave’s round head then popped up, his dark eyes looking at Lin Banxia with an innocent look. Lin Banxia asked: “Why are you here?” He opened the closet door completely but saw nothing. It was empty except for the few clothes that he usually wore.
“What are you doing?” Lin Banxia felt a little strange. He bent down and picked up Small Cave. Small Cave was just a small skeleton, so he was very light. He hummed twice and put his chin on Lin Banxia’s. shoulder, acting coquettishly like a child.
Lin Banxia’s heart suddenly softened, and he wiped the back of its smooth head: “What are you doing here? It’s so dark in the cabinet…”
Small Cave groaned.
Lin Banxia held it in his arms and was about to go to the living room when he heard a crunching sound in his ears. Now it was very clear. He turned his head and saw the small jaws of Small Cave chewing up and down. It seemed like he was chewing something, making the crunching sound he had just heard.
“What are you eating?” Lin Banxia was shocked.
Small Cave couldn’t speak, and showed an innocent expression to Lin Banxia, but the movements of his mouth did not stop.
Afraid that he had eaten something unclean, Lin Banxia quickly reached out and carefully opened its jaws. Unexpectedly, he took out a round eye from inside. This eye was almost entirely white, and the pupil was only the size of the tip of a needle. It was so small, but Lin Banxia felt inexplicably familiar. Had he seen this thing somewhere? Lin Banxia was thinking when he saw the eyeball twisting, as if it was alive, rolling from his hand to the ground. It rolled all the way to the bottom of the bed.
“Huh?” Lin Banxia reacted immediately and wanted to pick it back up, but when he bent down and looked, he saw nothing. The bulging eyeball had disappeared in front of his eyes.
Lin Banxia was a little helpless. After getting up from the ground, the corner of his clothes was caught by Sall Cave. Small Cave held his own joints. He glanced at Lin Banxia eagerly, and then looked under the bed. He looked like a child greedy for candy. Only then did Lin Banxia realize that Small Cave had indeed eaten the eyeballs as candy. He said helplessly: “Small Cave, you can’t just put anything in your mouth. Some things are dirty and will cause diarrhea.”
Small Cave put his finger in his mouth and made a few grunting sounds. He didn’t know if it understood him, but it looked aggrieved, as if someone had robbed his lollipop. Unable to do so, Lin Banxia had no choice but to take out a jelly from the refrigerator and quench Small Cave’s craving. This jelly was a snack that Ji Leshui had put in the refrigerator before, and he didn’t know if it had expired.
After eating the jelly, Small Cave was satisfied. He sat obediently on the sofa and shook his two thin leg bones. Seeing that he was acting like a child, Lin Banxia simply let him watch Peppa Pig and went to sleep for a while.
When Lin Banxia woke up again, Song Qingluo had come back. Lin Banxia was awakened by the smell of food. When he got up, he saw a table of delicious dishes in the living room. The dishes were very rich, including sweet and sour pork ribs, steamed Mandarin fish and even a pot of old hen soup. Lin Banxia was a little surprised when he happened to see Song Qingluo coming out of the kitchen, reaching out to take the apron from his waist.
“So many dishes? Are you celebrating something?” Lin Banxia asked curiously.
“No, I had nothing to do today.” Song Qingluo said, “So, I stopped by the vegetable market.”
Lin Banxia said, “Oh.” Turned around and found that Small Cave was still sitting on the sofa watching Peppa Pig. He had already watched more than 40 episodes[1.].
“Small Cave seemed to have eaten something today, and it was from the closet.” Lin Banxia was indeed hungry, so he went to the kitchen to serve rice and then told Song Qingluo about what happened that afternoon, “A spherical thing, like an eyeball.”
“It’s okay, let him eat it.” Song Qingluo said, “It won’t hurt him.”
Lin Banxia ate a piece of rib, narrowed his eyes happily, and said, “You are really good at cooking, but what on earth is that eyeball-like thing? Why haven’t I seen it before? It can’t be some heretical object right?”
Song Qingluo said calmly: “It’s the last bit of self-respect for your house number.”
Lin Banxia: “?”
Song Qingluo: “Forget it, it’s nothing.”
Lin Banxia: “0.0.”
T/N:
GaleWhale: How long has he been sleeping for Little Cave to have watched 40 episodes of Peppa Pig!? I don’t really watch kids shows, but aren’t episodes at least 10 minutes long usually?
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