Chapter 55: Years Like Water

  This is probably the most exciting news I've ever seen, and I quickly dialed Wenxiang's cell phone. As soon as he answered, I asked, "Brother, where is my dad?" Wenxiang said, "I'm not sure where he is either, but I heard that he went to Xiangxi with someone."

  "Xiangxi? What is my dad doing in Xiangxi?" I asked hurriedly.

  Wen Xiang said he wasn't very clear either. There were two others who went with my father, a man and a woman, both older in age. Since they are from a remote area of Hunan, I guess there's no cell phone signal, that's why we can't get in touch with them. I said they've been gone for so long, shouldn't they be back by now? Even if they're not back yet, they won't stay in a place without signal forever, at least they should call home to let us know everything is fine, right? Wen Xiang paused for a moment, seemed like he wanted to say something but after some consideration, he didn't tell me. There are things he didn't tell me because he doesn't want me to worry too much.

  A sleepless night.

  The next day, I and Zhong Ling'er got up very early, while Zhang Yunhao and Wu Lele were still sleeping in. Zhong Ling'er had to go back to school, so I accompanied her for breakfast and offered to see her off, but she refused and took the bus by herself.

  I called my mother and asked if father was back home. Mother said no, then asked about the situation at school. I told her everything is fine, please don't worry.

  I brought two lazy guys each a breakfast, went upstairs, and they still hadn't gotten up. I was thinking of going to Panlong Mountain, so I went to knock on the door. Zhang Junhao came out quickly, originally he was very lazy, but as soon as I said we were going to Panlong Mountain, he immediately became spirited and energetic, like he had been injected with a stimulant, full of energy and vitality.

  I went to knock on Wu Lele's door again, and after knocking for a long time with no response, I called Zhang Yunhao over and said that I had been knocking for so long and there was no reaction inside, what could be the situation? Zhang Yunhao also knocked a few times, fiddled with the lock, but still couldn't open it, saying that he probably slept too soundly. He looked at me, took two steps back, and then suddenly rammed his shoulder into the door.

  Who would have thought that he had just crashed into the door, and the door suddenly opened. This kid couldn't stop the car in time, and was about to crash into Wu Lele who had opened the door. Wu Lele hastily dodged, tripped over her own feet, and with a thud, Zhang Junhao fell to the ground.

  "I'm going to kill you!" Zhang Yunhao cursed, getting up from the ground and shouting at Wu Lele with a red face and thick neck: "What are you doing? Why did you trip me?" Wu Lele stood with her hands on her hips, asking fearlessly: "Who was it that knocked on the door just now? Disturbing this lady's sweet dreams, come out and take responsibility!"

  As a war was about to break out, I hurriedly went to mediate, saying that the door was knocked by me and breakfast had been prepared for you, hurry up and eat, finish eating and hit the road.

  "Going on a trip?" Wu Lele and Zhang Yunhao looked at me together.

  "I'm leaving," I corrected myself.

  Zhang Yunhao asked while eating breakfast, "Where's Zhong Ling'er?" I said she went back to school. Wu Lele smiled and asked, "What, missing her already?" Zhang Yunhao chimed in, "Of course, not just me, but someone else is thinking of her even more." After saying that, he glanced at me. Wu Lele hummed, put down her chopsticks, stood up suddenly, and said, "I'm not eating anymore!" Then she left.

  I stared at Zhang Yunhao, this girl is really getting more and more personality.

  After Zhang Yunhao finished breakfast, we went to buy some food and drinks, threw them into the car, and set off towards Panlong Mountain.

  I didn't expect that there would be more people here today than yesterday, we went straight to the entrance of the cave and found two security guards in uniform standing there. I tried to go up, but they blocked me, saying that someone had died here yesterday and no one was allowed to go up. We were shocked and asked who had died and how he had died. The security guard was very patient and said it was an old man who had died at the water's edge below. He pointed down as he spoke, where there was a large stone, and the water flowing out of the cave flowed over the stone and fell into a small pool below.

  The old man died by the side of the pond.

  I asked the security guard when the old man died, and the security guard said it was probably around dusk yesterday.

  A chill ran from the soles of our feet to the top of our heads, and at that time we were still in the cave, but we didn't know that someone had died just a few meters away from us!

  Who could it be?

  Wu Lele and Zhang Yunhao also looked serious, Zhang Yunhao asked how the old man died, the security guard said it was unclear, maybe he died of sudden cardiac arrest.

  We can't go up to the cave entrance, so we had to return. Perhaps it was because someone had died there before, but none of us felt good in our hearts. If what the security guard said was true, if we had known that there was someone under the rock at the time, maybe we could have saved the old man's life.

  In the car, Zhang Yunhao asked me what to do now and if we should still go into the cave to take a look. I said that we must go in and take a look, but now it's probably impossible to enter. Wu Lele said that we can go in at night. Zhang Yunhao and I both fell silent. The place was already strange and terrifying enough, if we went there at night, it would be like going to seek death.

  We didn't go anywhere all day, Zhang Junhao suggested buying a computer back, first, there was no computer, and the days were really not comfortable; secondly, there is a ready-made network in this apartment, if you don't use a computer, it's a waste of resources. I think this proposal is very good, but I'm embarrassed to express my opinion because I'm short of money, Wu Lele raised his hand in agreement, and under their persuasion, I had to follow them to the computer city.

  I had originally decided not to buy one, because I didn't bring much money this time to read books, and left most of it for my mother to use at home. The tuition fees are frighteningly expensive, so after sorting everything out, there were only about 3,000 or 4,000 yuan left in my pocket. I estimate that's all the living expenses for this semester, so I didn't dare to spend money recklessly. But when we arrived at Computer City, and saw those attractive laptops, Zhang Yunhao and Wu Lele kept encouraging me, saying "Come on, buy one! We both bought one, you can't be the only one not buying, that's no fun...". I got excited and impulsively spent a lot of money to buy one.

  Actually, I'm not very good at using computers because my family is poor and I rarely go to internet cafes. Fortunately, there are computer classes in school, so I've only used them a few times. Unexpectedly, Wu Lele said she also didn't know how to use it, and moved the computer to my room to ask me to teach her. I said, "You seem pretty clever, how can you not know how to use a computer?" Wu Lele said that when she was in school, all she did was study, no dating, no playing games, no going to internet cafes, and didn't even use a mobile phone, so she naturally wouldn't know how to use a computer. I thought to myself, "I didn't expect this girl to be even more out of touch than me, what a bookworm!"

  I was studying computer with Wu Lele when Zhang Yunhao sent a video file and asked me to take a look. I asked him what it was, and he said it was something good that I would like. After receiving the file, I opened it and found it was an explicit sex scene, which scared me so much that I quickly closed it. Wu Lele asked what it was and wanted to open it again, but I scolded her: "What are you doing? This is not suitable for minors!" Wu Lele said we were already adults and could watch it, trying to grab the mouse to open it again. I deleted the file immediately and seriously educated Wu Lele: "This is pornography, do you understand? Do you know what pornography is?" Wu Lele looked confused and shook her head, saying she didn't understand. I told her to leave if she didn't understand. Wu Lele said she would go to Zhang Yunhao's place to watch it, but I grabbed her and said she couldn't watch it... Suddenly, Wu Lele laughed and said: "Look at you, so anxious! You're really cute!" Then she sat down again, shaking her head and saying: "I finally understand why that deadbeat wanted to buy a computer so badly - he wanted to watch this kind of thing!"

  The next morning, after breakfast, we three got on Zhang Yunhao's off-road vehicle, driven by Zhang Yunhao, and slowly headed to school.

  Before long, the car slowed down and the crowd grew larger, mostly young students. The golden characters of XX University also caught my eye. As I gazed out at the female students outside the window, I sighed: "Female college students are just different from those yellow-haired girls in middle school, they have much more style!"

  Wu Lele hummed and started educating me: "You're here to study, not to look at girls!" I smiled and said, can't I do both? Revolution and entertainment are not mutually exclusive.

  At this time, the car slowly drove towards the school's parking lot. Unexpectedly, there were a lot of cars in this school, and they were all small cars. Zhang Yunhao searched for a long time before finding an empty parking space, just as he was about to drive in, suddenly, a black Porsche quickly came over, rubbed against the front of the car, made a screeching sound, and occupied the parking space.

  Zhang Yunhao quickly stopped the car, pushed it open with force, and kicked the rear of the other car heavily. The door of that car was pushed open, and a man walked out, wearing a green Anima, tall and handsome, with clear facial features. We were taken aback, and to our surprise, it was Fan Feng. Zhang Yunhao shouted at him loudly: "How are you driving? Are your eyes blind?"

  Fan Feng saw us, obviously also stunned for a moment, and then found Zhang Yunhao kicking his car, suddenly furious, pointing at Zhang Yunhao angrily asked: "You little brat said who's blind?"

  "Who else but you, a blind man? Move your car out of the parking space immediately. We discovered this spot first."

  "Are you saying it was discovered by you first?" Fan Feng put his hands in his pockets, glanced at his car and said proudly: "Whoever occupies it first is who it belongs to."

  "My goodness!" Zhang Yunhao was about to kick the car head again, I hurriedly blocked him, and Fan Feng sneered with his hands in his pockets: "Go ahead and kick it, one kick, 10,000 yuan compensation."

  At this time, a girl walked out of the car and looked at us with disdain, letting out a cold snort, raising her head and turning to leave. I saw that it was Niu Niu, who persuaded Zhang Yunhao back into the car, and after searching for a long time, finally found an empty parking space.

  Just as we were about to go find the classroom, Fan Feng and that Huang Mao blocked our way. Huang Mao, relying on his connections, glared at Zhang Yunhao and asked: "Earlier, you kicked Peak's car, how are you going to settle this account?" Zhang Yunhao cracked his knuckles, sneered coldly: "One kick can ruin the car? Are you intentionally picking a fight?"