Chapter 1: Who Am I
My name is Wang Hua, from Shenyang, Liaoning. I currently live in a farmhouse by the highway in Atascosa County, southern Texas, USA. With some spare money, I raise cattle and sheep, living a leisurely life.
The days are dull and I miss the past. I recall December 14, 2014, at 10:22 in my home in Shenyang, Liaoning Province.
Liaoning Shenyang
"Ring! Ring! Ring!" I was woken up by the ringing of the phone, and I reached out to touch my mobile phone on the bedside table. Without my glasses, I squinted at the caller display, which showed a huge horse face with big eyes staring at me, its chubby red cheeks seeming to say something.
"Hey? Old Horse, what's going on?"
"What's wrong with you, Old Wang?" A loud and thick voice came from the other end of the phone, "Come out and take a few shots, quickly!"
Lao Ma, about 180 cm tall, with an exceptionally strong physique, a pair of big eyes that are very attractive, wherever he goes, it's like a short wall. Ma is my elementary school classmate, because our families live close by, so we got along well when we were young.
But in the third grade of elementary school, I moved to a new home, and after graduating from elementary school, I didn't attend the same junior high school, so we gradually lost touch. Who would have thought that when we grew up, he actually moved into the same neighborhood as my parents, just across the street, and we ended up hanging out together again.
"Who was it?" I still couldn't quite recall, reaching out to grab the soda water from the bedside table that I hadn't finished last night and took a sip, casually asking: "I just got back from Anshan yesterday, had dinner at my mom's place and didn't get home until almost 10 pm, then watched some TV before going to bed too late."
My point is if there aren't enough people I won't go, want to stay home and catch up on sleep.
"I'm telling you, Ah! Hurry up and come out, stupid!" On the phone was another high-pitched male voice, "I know I'm late coming back, but Hanmei, Ye Juan, and my colleague Yesheng are all waiting for you at the internet cafe, hurry up!"
"Wait for me! Dudduddud!" Before I could finish speaking, the phone on that end had already hung up. I felt around the bedside and found the potassium chloride tablets, sodium bicarbonate, and Jinshuibao capsules. I opened each one and poured them into the Jinshuibao capsule cap, then downed the remaining soda water in one gulp.
Tired, he rubbed his face with his hands, turned over and got out of bed, went from the master bedroom to the bathroom to wash up.
I walked to the water heater, pulled out the plug, squeezed toothpaste, looked at myself in the mirror brushing my teeth slowly, turned the faucet all the way to the right and rinsed my mouth with hot water that had been kept warm overnight from last night's washing, then opened the showerhead for a simple shower.
Simply ate the leftover dishes brought back from parents' home last night, too lazy to heat them up. Wore clothes and wandered out of the door to the internet cafe below my mom's community.
In 2008, I was 20 years old. After failing the college entrance exam and not wanting to retake it, I reluctantly attended a vocational school affiliated with my mother's work unit to study for an associate degree. After graduation, I was assigned to work in a factory in Anshan.
That was a coking plant. After Xi Dada came to power, he implemented a revolutionary new policy for coal mining units. The factory I was in was a joint venture coking plant that specialized in processing coal from one coal mining enterprise and supplying it to another steel mill. Of course, it also faced reform. Due to the single market, single product, single raw material supplier, and lack of market competitiveness, it was shut down for rectification.
And I, a skilled pusher who has been tempered for many years, officially bid farewell to the factory where I struggled for 4 years, went on vacation and rotated shifts, with an indefinite period of waiting for further notice.
Just as I received the news that I had to roll up my bedding and leave, when I was feeling confused about my future, I got a call from my mother who had retired from the power supply department of a certain coal group.
"My mom said something like this at the time: 'Son, I heard from your Aunt Zhou that your factory went bankrupt, so you should come back. The house your dad bought for you has been decorated and vacant for half a year now. You came back last time was also half a year ago, and every time you say you're busy. This time it's just right to come back and take a good rest. Don't worry about work, your dad and I will think of a way.'"
The two communities are not far apart, a 10-minute walk, just enough for me to calm down and relieve fatigue.
I called my mom to tell her about my plans for the day, going to see friends and meet up with classmates. As I was walking towards the internet cafe in my mom's neighborhood, I suddenly saw someone walking across the street who reminded me of past events that I had long suppressed and didn't want to think about again.
He was my physical education teacher in high school, and due to his unique temperament and outstanding appearance, he is extremely similar to the Chuan Shan Jia (Armadillo) in the common memory of the 80s children's program Calabaza, hence the name Chuan Shan Jia.
At that time, I was not good at cultural classes, but my body was okay. I drew for a period of time and found that it wasn't my material, so I wanted to take the sports specialty class, thus forming an inexplicable bond with him.
Because I started school late and repeated a year in junior high, when I was in the second year of senior high, I was 19 years old. At that time, I was almost 1.8 meters tall and weighed over 180 pounds. Since childhood, I have never bullied anyone, nor have I ever been bullied by older students.
At that time, in the city where I lived, there were always some kids who didn't go to school anymore and some students who loved to cause trouble together. They would find younger students who looked easy to bully and "borrow" money from them. In Northeastern dialect, "borrowing" means asking for money under false pretenses with no intention of paying it back.
I've never been bullied or had money taken from me since I was a kid, no one dared to mess with me. It's all thanks to my tall stature and big head that stood out from others when I was young. Later on, I found out that kids develop at different rates, some grow earlier than others, and I happened to be an early developer.
I remember when I told my mom and class teacher that I wanted to practice sports, the next day they sent me to the sports department. At that time, the person in charge of high school students with special sports talents was Chuan Shan Jia.
He took one look at me and circled around me a few times, sizing me up and down, saying that someone like me was just about good enough for basketball or football, but forget about long-distance running, how about shot put?
Seeing this, some people may ask, with your poor eyesight and taking medication for high blood pressure, low PH value, and kidney protection, how can you still practice shot put?
After graduating from high school, I stopped exercising and got fatter and fatter. Now I have mild metabolic syndrome caused by obesity. The doctor said that if my weight goes down, it will be a good thing.
After graduating from high school, I never saw the pangolin again. Although my high school and college were in the same district, just two intersections apart. When I saw him again, I secretly thought that if I could go back to my high school days, maybe I wouldn't hurt anyone, and maybe things would be very different now.
That year in the third year of high school, I was still practicing sports. According to Chuan Shan Jia, my grades wouldn't make it into a top-tier university, but getting into a second-tier one would be a sure thing. So, with full confidence, I spent each day expecting to get into a second-tier university.
It wasn't until that morning when we all went to school for our morning exercise...
