Chapter Twelve: First Encounter with Jiao Ge

  "Look, Xiao Hua, his eyes are so sharp!" My uncle didn't know that Uncle He had pointed him out to me and thought I discovered him myself. He turned around with a mixture of surprise and delight, looking at me.

  "This kid has been following us all the way, changing dozens of cars and still thinks we're all freeloaders, his mom's even our little Hua didn't deceive him, hahaha!"

  The car stopped behind that black Jeep, and surprisingly, the license plate was covered with a black cloth. The black paint on this car's body also made people feel very awkward, as if someone had used a spray can to cover up its original color. Seeing my confusion, my uncle signaled me not to ask any more questions.

  He opened the car door and jumped out, saying something to a middle-aged man who came up.

  After about 3 minutes, my uncle took a small black package from the middle-aged man and waved at Mr. Huo. The two of them walked towards the big car and got in. My uncle sat in the back row, and the middle-aged man sat in the passenger seat. Mr. Huo started the car without saying a word and followed the black car.

  "Put it on, hurry up," the middle-aged man turned his head to look at my uncle as soon as the car had driven less than a hundred meters. My uncle hesitated for a moment before handing over the black thing in his hand to me.

  I don't know what it is, but I still reached out and took it. When I opened it, it was a hooded hat that looked like the mask in CS, but it felt much thicker. However, when I turned it around in my hand several times, I couldn't find any holes to see through.

  I looked at my uncle and then at the middle-aged man in the passenger seat, "It seems that this hat is not only to hide my face, but also to make me see nothing. No wonder I said that the front row can't be sat down, if I need to hide, I can just hide in the back row, why do you need to come up here?"

  I thought so in my heart, but still followed the words and put that hat on my head. No wonder the hood was so thick, I really couldn't see anything at all, not even a single ray of light in front of me.

  The truck swayed and drove for about 40 minutes, with no one speaking on the bus, everyone was silent, and didn't know where they had arrived.

  The car stopped, and I heard my uncle's voice beside my ear. He rarely lowered his tone of speech, using what he considered a soft and gentle tone to say loudly, "Xiao Hua, you follow this person for a while and wait for us in the room."

  I was pulled off the bus, and with a hat on my head, I couldn't see anything. But in my heart, I thought: "With this getup, people passing by must think I'm an escaped prisoner caught by the police!"

  I was scared by my own thoughts, and my walking speed slowed down. The middle-aged man who was pulling my arm obviously felt my hesitation, and he pulled my arm forward, saying: "Come on, go to the room and stay there, there's food and drink, and a big bed, isn't it better than hiding under the back seat?"

  After hearing his words, I felt a lot more at ease. Firstly, he didn't know that we knew he had been following us all the way. He must have seen my uncle taking me to the car, and since my uncle was his former superior, this car belonged to them too. No matter who they were, out of respect for my uncle, they wouldn't harm me.

  Secondly, I believe that my uncle and Huo Shu will never harm me. After all, if they want to harm me, there's no need for such a big fuss as long as they don't bring me along.

  Thinking of this, my footsteps became firm again, and I was pulled by the man up three steps into a building, through a small door on the side into a large hall.

  Walked another 27 steps and stopped in front of an elevator, waited for 76 counts until the elevator door opened. When the people inside the elevator pushed out a cart-like thing, we entered the elevator. There were only two of us in the elevator, neither of us spoke.

  This should be a service elevator, and there was quite a bit of operating noise during the ascent. I estimate that the elevator went up to around 10 or 11 floors. When we got out of the elevator, there was a very soft carpet underfoot. We turned right and walked for 24 steps before stopping again. A middle-aged man knocked on the door.

  The door creaked open from inside, still no one spoke. My arm was pulled by the person behind the door and led into the room. The door behind me closed, and that middle-aged man with a flat head never came in. The hard-soled military boots trampled on the soft carpet, making a dull sound that gradually faded away through the door.

  The hood on my head was lifted by someone, and I subconsciously covered my eyes with my hands, afraid of being stabbed by the sudden strong light. But the surrounding environment was very quiet, and the light was also very dim.

  "Call me Lao Jiao," a gentle voice sounded in my ear, and my eyes quickly adjusted to the light in the room. It was a suite with curtains drawn and no lights on.

  I am standing face-to-face with a man who claims to be Lao Jiao outside the room.

  Lao Jiao is a young man of medium build, twenty-two or three years old, about 176 cm tall, neither fat nor thin, with very white skin and hair that is not too long or too short, looking gentle in appearance.

  His eyes are not very big, but they are very spirited. His nose is not very high, but it exudes a refined air. His mouth is not large, yet it always wears a smile. In his left hand he holds an open book, and in his right hand he grasps a string of large golden prayer beads.

  He seemed to be reading a book before knocking on the door, and his accent was so standard that it was impossible to tell who he was from his Mandarin. The words coming out of his smiling mouth made people feel very warm.

  "Please come in and sit down," he said with a smile, beckoning me inside with his hand before heading in himself.

  I followed and walked past, seeing a small reception room-like room inside, with a boss desk in the room, a bookcase behind the boss desk, a row of sofas in front of the boss desk, and a tea table in front of the sofa.

  There was a table lamp on one end of the coffee table, Old Jiao sat in front of it, pointing to the single sofa at the other end and said "Sit down!" Then he continued to flip through the book in his hand under the dim yellow light of the lamp.

  I walked over and sat down, looking around the room's layout. Old Jiao looked up from his book and saw me looking around, then smiled at me and said, "How's my hotel? It just opened in February this year."

  I took a look at him and didn't respond, thinking to myself what do I have to lose by checking out your hotel or not. I was blindfolded and had my arm twisted as I was brought in through the back door, and wasn't taken directly to you until after I entered the house. It wasn't until we were inside that you finally removed my hood, and now you're trying to act all high and mighty?!

  He saw that I didn't respond, so he continued to read under the lamplight. It was then that I noticed he was holding a string of 108 Tibetan Buddhist prayer beads in his hand while reading, and the book he was reading was different from modern books - it was a handwritten copy with vertical lines, and judging from the yellowed paper, this book was quite old.

  I thought again, this is 2008, not 14 years before rebirth, this guy is so strange.