Chapter Thirty-One: The Deck's Gaze

  Ma Fei took the stolen wallet from Zhao Erhu's hand, turned around and chased after the girl on the dock along the bluestone steps.

  He was only thinking about that beautiful girl in his heart and didn't notice that his sworn brother Li Guoting was standing among the crowd on the dock. When Li Guoting saw him running over, he hurriedly waved at him and shouted to call out to him. Ma Fei just kept running forward, whether it was because of the noise of the people on the dock or if he really didn't hear, anyway, he didn't see Li Guoting in the crowd, nor did he hear his shout.

  Ma Fei ran to the back of the girl, only to see the man who had been following her turn around, glare at him with his eyes wide open, and scold Ma Fei who was panting: "What are you doing?"

  The girl probably heard the man's scolding and stopped in her tracks, turning around. She looked up to see that it was the young man who had helped her on the stairs earlier. In fact, from that moment on, the girl had a good impression of Ma Fei, who was dressed neatly, had good manners, and was handsome. When she saw Ma Fei running up to her, panting, she didn't look surprised, but calmly reached out to stop Wang, the man carrying a suitcase behind him, from scolding Ma Fei, saying: "Uncle Wang, there's no need to scold him, he must be in a hurry for some reason."

  That Mr. Wang, after hearing the girl's words, stopped humming and stood respectfully beside her, but his two eyes were vigilantly scanning Ma Fei back and forth. His gaze was filled with discontent as he watched Ma Fei's every move.

  "Miss, is this your purse?" Ma Fei held up the purse that Zhao Erhu had stolen and handed it to the young woman.

  "Oh, yeah, it's my wallet. Where did you get it from?" It wasn't until then that the girl realized her wallet was gone.

  "Hehe, just now the young lady accidentally fell down. After the young lady left, I saw a wallet on the ground and thought it must have been dropped by her earlier. So I rushed over to return it to you." Ma Fei handed the wallet back to the girl with a smile and courtesy.

  The girl took the wallet from Ma Fei's hand, glanced at it, and put it into her own shoulder bag. She bowed slightly to thank him and said, "Thank you."

  "Miss, won't you open it and take a look? Might something be missing?" Ma Fei reminded the young girl with even greater courtesy.

  The girl smiled and said: "No need, I believe you. Oh, by the way, I still don't know your name. May I ask what it is?"

  When the girl asked her name, Ma Fei quickly replied: "My name is Ma Fei."

  "Ma Fei, hmm, I remember. Goodbye!" The girl smiled slightly and made a small goodbye gesture with her hand before turning around to walk towards the floating bridge connected to the passenger ship.

  Ma Fei had just asked the girl's name when the man carrying a suitcase pushed him away, saying: "Go, go, go away, don't follow Miss."

  Ma Fei had no choice but to stop and no longer move forward.

  The crowd thronged around the young lady who quickly walked up the gangway of the steamer.

  "Second brother, second brother." Li Guoting suddenly reached out from behind Ma Fei's back, grabbed his arm and called out.

  Ma Fei turned his head and saw that the one calling him was Li Guoting. He took another look at Li Guoting in front of him, whose black hair was covered with dust and weeds, messy and unkempt on his head. His face was also dusty, clearly unwashed. Ma Fei asked: "Big brother, what's wrong? Where did you stay last night? Didn't you stay in an inn?"

  Li Guoting somewhat embarrassedly said to Ma Fei: "Something happened in the city last night, never mind, I'll tell you later. Where's Third Brother?"

  "He's waiting for you over there by the stairs." Ma Fei turned around and pointed with his hand to the high stairs in front of them.

  Li Guoting raised his eyes and looked over, and indeed saw Zhao Erhu still waiting for his arrival at the steps, looking around in all directions.

  "Third brother, Second Tiger, come down quickly. We are at the dock below." Li Guoting shouted loudly towards Zhao Erhu.

  Zhao Erhu stood on the stairs and heard Li Guoting's shout. He turned around and ran down the stairs.

  "Hey, big brother, why are you so late? You've kept me and second brother waiting." Zhao Erhu said.

  "Ah, I almost got caught by those patrolling cops in the city last night. Unfortunately, those scoundrels even searched me and took all the silver coins on me." Li Guoting said with his head hung low.

  "Oh, how did Big Brother run into those cops? I didn't run into anything with Second Tiger," Ma Fei said.

  "You two know the way here. I'm coming back here for the first time and can't find my way. On the road, I ran into those police officers." Li Guoting said.

  Ma Fei was about to say something, when suddenly, the whistle sounded from the dock behind him. Ma Fei turned his head and quickly said to Li Guoting and Zhao Erhu: "Big brother, third brother, the ship is about to set off, let's hurry up and buy tickets, or we'll miss it."

  "Well, let San Di go buy it then, I don't understand. The money on me was also confiscated by the police." Li Guoting said.

  Zhao Erhu heard this and hastily said: "I think it's better if Second Brother goes to buy it this time, I don't have any money on me either."

  Li Guoting immediately asked: "Third brother, isn't it that each of us has one? How come yours is gone?"

  Zhao Erhu looked at Li Guoting and then at Ma Fei, lowered his head and said: "Last night, I went to gamble and lost all my money."

  Ma Fei glared, scolding: "Bastard, who told you to go gamble? Damn it..." Before he finished cursing, the second whistle sounded from the ship. He didn't bother to scold Zhao Erhu anymore and said: "You guys hurry to the gangway, I'll go buy tickets."

  Ma Fei bought the tickets and the three of them boarded the passenger ship bound for Hankou. The ship also set sail.

  The ship carried a boatful of passengers, blowing its whistle, slowly leaving the Chongqing Port and heading towards the foggy river surface.

  After the steamer sailed out of Chongqing's line of sight, the dense fog on the river began to slowly disperse. In the distance, the overlapping mountain peaks on both banks appeared and disappeared in the gradually dispersing fog. The river water churned up murky waves, beating out a rhythmic melody that continuously pounded against the old hull of the steamer. Some water birds flew low over the river surface on either side of the ship, occasionally letting out cries.

  There were many sightseers standing on the deck of the ship. Ma Fei and Li Guoting, Zhao Erhu, also stood here. They had bought the lowest cabin tickets. It was crowded there, with foul air. The three of them stayed below for only a short while before they could not stand the smell there and ran up to the deck.

  Ma Fei stood with Li Guoting and Zhao Erhu, but his heart had already flown to the beautiful girl he saw earlier. He absent-mindedly gazed at the river scenery along the shore with Li Guoting and Zhao Erhu, while occasionally turning his head back to look towards the cabin and the upper deck of the boat, hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl.

  He's a bit resentful of Li Guoting, not coming early or late, just when I was about to ask the girl's name, you appeared, damn it, and made me miss the chance. What a pity, what a pity, it's really a pity.

  When the ship passed through the Three Gorges, people in the cabin all rushed out, and both sides of the ship's side and the deck were crowded with people. Everyone shouted, talked, laughed, and vied to watch the beautiful scenery of the Three Gorges.

  Li Guoting, Ma Fei and Zhao Erhu are all taking a boat trip through the Three Gorges for the first time. They see the mist-shrouded Three Gorges for the first time. The Goddess Peak in the distance reveals its beautiful figure in the river fog, and it also shouts with the noise of the crowd watching the scenery.

  Ma Fei turned his head back again and looked towards the deck behind him, but still did not see the girl's figure.

  "It's strange. I clearly saw the two of them get on this boat, so where did they go? Could it be that they're still in their cabin and haven't come out to enjoy the view?" Ma Fei thought suspiciously.

  When he turned back to look at the upper deck again, he suddenly saw that the girl was standing on the upper deck near his side, excitedly looking towards the beautiful and majestic scenery of the Three Gorges on the riverbank.

  Ma Fei shifted his body backward until he felt aligned with the girl standing at the stern of the ship, only then did he stand still. He occasionally turned his head to look up at the upper deck. However, the girl seemed to be admiring the beautiful scenery in front of her and didn't notice Ma Fei's infatuated gaze on the lower deck.

  The thick fog on the river surface dispersed, and the rolling river water propelled the ship forward quickly. The beautiful mountains on both banks also gradually moved to the back of the ship. After the ship made several big turns on the narrow river surface, it rushed out of the Three Gorges navigation channel and headed towards the Jianghan Plain.

  The girl standing on the upper deck finally looked down at the lower deck, and this glance made her eyes meet again with Ma Fei's, who was standing on the lower deck, staring up at her with an eager smile.

  "Hey----." Ma Fei saw that the girl finally looked over at him, excitedly raised his face and hurriedly waved at her.

  The girl also saw Ma Fei standing below at this time. Seeing Ma Fei waving to him, he also raised his hand and nodded to Ma Fei.

  Ma Fei's heart skipped a beat, and he shouted: "What is your name?"

  "My name is Ye Xinyi." The girl said, turning around and walking back.

  "Ye Xinyi, this name sounds really good. Good. Good." Ma Fei muttered to himself.

  "What are you talking about, brother?" Li Guoting walked over and patted Ma Fei's shoulder, asking.

  "Nothing - nothing at all. Big brother, after a while, we will arrive in Hankou." Ma Fei hastily changed the subject and said to Li Guoting.

  "Hmm, we're going to Hankou, can we enlist in the army?" Li Guoting asked again.

  "There shouldn't be any problem now that battles are being fought everywhere. That one isn't short of soldiers, is he?" Ma Fei said.

  "Ah, Second Brother is indeed more experienced and stronger than me, Li Guoting. I'll listen to you."