Chapter 2: Stimulating Travel

  "Xing Tian!" A loud shout pierced through the thick fog of the early morning, causing the basketball hoops in the stadium to shake slightly. A figure quickly emerged from behind the track and caught up. No need to look, that one shout was enough to know it was our dorm's "big brother" - Ding Xiang. Old Ding is indeed a legendary big brother, six or seven years older than everyone else in our dorm, he had done business for several years before coming back to hit the books with us younger brothers. As he would say, in this day and age not knowing computers is equivalent to being illiterate. So he came back to learn how to type. I really admire him. His "two-finger zen" skills are improving faster than Master Hai Deng's, I'm even surprised he can use just two fingers to type 90 words per minute, it's too awesome!

  But he has never had the habit of going for a run in the morning, today is really a rare occurrence.

  "What's up?" Old Ding raised his head to look at the guy next to me who was half a head taller than me. His height of 195 cm was almost 15 cm taller than mine. I'm not considered short among people, but standing in front of him made me feel a bit inferior.

  "May Day is approaching, and we will have several days off. What are your plans, going back home or staying at school?"

  "Not going home. It's too far to go back and forth, and no one will reimburse me for the train ticket, so I won't go." Our school is in Yunnan, my home is in Henan. One word difference.

  The difference can be as much as 180,000 miles in between.

  "That's great, let's go out and have some fun together! I'll introduce you to a few beautiful girls. They're all available."

  "Never mind, the beautiful woman you mentioned. I reckon they all use cocaine. Who knows if she has HIV? It's scary!"

  Honestly, Old Ding has been around for many years and knows all sorts of people. The other day we went to a dance hall and ran into several pretty girls. Unexpectedly, Old Ding knew them and introduced us while telling us that these girls were very open-minded. In his words, "they're all usable!" We were all thrilled and enthusiastically showed our hospitality to the girls, getting them excited and flustered. On the spot, we decided to book a room. However, there were too many monks and not enough porridge. Old Ding gave up, and the others played rock-paper-scissors. I was eliminated in the first round, and at that time, I was quite disappointed. Although it was embarrassing, I had to admit that I'm still a virgin. A great opportunity slipped away before my eyes. Watching them enter the hotel one by one, I almost drowned in my own saliva and tears. 555, those guys are heartless.

  The next day, I saw my brothers return with a somewhat unsightly complexion. Only after asking did I learn that afterwards, the girls one by one took out syringes from their small bags and "shot up" right in front of them. It scared the hell out of my brothers. We're all outsiders, where we come from, taking drugs is just something we've heard about but never actually seen. Now our eyes have been opened. Watching the beauties get high until they passed out, my brothers' faces turned white. The first thing that came to everyone's mind was HIV and AIDS. As a result, they were so scared that they ran back before dawn. Little White even forgot to wear his underwear, holding it in his hand as he ran back. As a result, I felt great for a whole week. I told them: "This is what you call retribution. Haha."

  Today, Old Ding brought this up again. I'm not falling for it.

  "No way, no way. Last time was an accident. I only knew those people by sight. Who would have thought they could come up with that kind of plane? This time won't happen, this time I'm quite familiar, absolutely all are gentle OLs, you can rest assured." Old Ding patted his chest, guaranteeing it.

  "Alright then, you're so good. Is being a swindler going to be in vain? Spit it out..." I had an expression of disbelief and a look that said I understood everything.

  "Still Xing Tian is formidable, others are just... this time... hehe... final design of SQL database and JAVA language. You see..." Old Ding had a "pure and innocent" smile on his face.

  "Oh, this issue is quite serious and the current policy is also quite sensitive, so it's a bit tricky to grasp..."

  "We're the only two brothers in this world. If you don't help me, I'm done for. These are the last two practical courses. Once I pass, I'll have no more worries, and besides, I've seen that you've already finished your graduation project. Can you do another one for me? I promise our leader that I'll take care of food expenses for a month, and I'll be in charge of fetching hot water for the dormitory, as long as it meets the leader's requirements." Then, he gazed at me with his two small eyes, looking pitiful.

  "Considering Comrade Lao Ding's attitude towards serving the people is still sincere, I'll satisfy your small request." I patted him on the shoulder generously, for things that are not a big deal to me but can "help" others, I won't hesitate.

  "Haha" "Haha", both of us burst out laughing.

  Seeing Old Ding's sweat, I stopped and let him sit down and rest for a while.

  "Xing Tian, you're really something, running 4-5 kilometers and you're not even tired? Your physical fitness is pretty good!"

  "That's because you're too weak. I've been practicing with my brother, he's even more formidable, a member of the armed police, working in Zhongnanhai. I only practiced with him for less than a month. Just tagging along behind him, laughing and joking around."

  "Ass, Zhongnanhai bodyguard. Awesome, awesome." Lao Ding was full of admiration.

  "That's him, not me! But both of us brothers are interested in weapons, he became a soldier, I didn't."

  "Why didn't you join the army?"

  "I'm afraid of hardship and also afraid of death." Nothing to be ashamed of, I'm very calm about it.

  "Shut up. You really have the nerve to say that." Old Ding's face was full of disdain.

  "What's wrong with saying that? You're not afraid of hardship, go join the army!"

  "I want to contribute my strength to economic construction!" Old Ding said with a sincere face.

  "You're even more shameless than me, and you're still making excuses." I looked at him with an even more contemptuous expression.

  "Alright, alright. Seriously, let's go to Tengchong for Labour Day and have some fun, check out the volcanoes and geothermal activity."

  "Alright, you pay and I'll travel, but isn't that place close to the border? Won't anything happen?" I'm quite worried.

  "No way, no way, Yunnan is not as chaotic as you said, besides, it's still far from the national border, far away!"

  "Alright, are they going together?"

  "Go, it's lively with many people!"

  "Alright, let's set off tomorrow!"

  Looking back, I made that life-changing travel plan so casually at the time.

  The train arrived at Baoshan City. There were seven of us in total: Xiao Bai, Zhao Gang, Meng Guang, Old Ding, Xiao Bai's girlfriend, Zhao Gang's girlfriend, and me. We got off the train. Originally, we wanted to rush to Tengchong immediately, but there were too many tourists. The restaurants on that side were all full, and for things without a guarantee, everyone was unwilling, so we could only stay in Baoshan first.

  Century restaurant, five-star, cool. Don't need me to pay, even cooler! Just seeing Xiao Bai and Zhao Gang holding hands is a bit annoying. Fortunately, I have brothers who are as poor as I am.

  We unanimously agree that we can't let these two kids off. Decided to play cards at night and not let them sleep, haha.

  Unexpectedly, two people didn't keep their promise, after eating they borrowed money and ran away, making the three of us very sad.

  At night, the bedside phone rang, I was surprised, there were no acquaintances here, as soon as I answered the phone: "Hello! Mr., do you want service?" I was stunned, is this really happening? It scared me and I quickly hung up.

  The ringing continued to disturb everyone for a whole night. The next day nobody got out of bed, it seemed like everyone was quite "distraught".

  Because I couldn't book a room on the other side of Tengchong, so I had to stay another day. Feeling bored, I went out with Old Ding for a stroll and ended up at the World Trade Tower in the city center.

  The more than 20-storey twin towers are the largest and highest buildings in Baoshan. From the outside, it looks a bit like "two chopsticks stuck in bread with a rope tied between them". Inside is really big. The underground is a supermarket. Floors one to six are commercial buildings, and above that are office buildings and hotels.

  After walking around inside for a while, it's really not bad, this is a border city and also a tourist city, as the shopping center of the city, it fully shows its style of "having capacity is great". It took three or four hours to stroll through the mall. Finally back on the first floor, when I was about to leave, I thought of buying some snacks for Xiaobai and them (for MM) when I got back. So I let Lao Ding wait on the first floor while I went down to the underground supermarket.

  The supermarket is too big, it took more than half an hour to buy good things, and when the staff who were weighing sweets in the rest room with electronic scales were resting, a series of deafening loud noises scared me to jump up. The store employees rushed out quickly. I also took a peek, and if I hadn't looked, I would have been fine, but one look made my blood run cold. On the escalator downstairs, there was a dark guy standing, wearing a T-shirt, carrying a travel bag in his hand, holding an AK and shooting at the ceiling. At this time, a burst of gunfire also came from upstairs.

  I was stunned ---- completely dumbfounded, what the hell is going on? Are you kidding me?

  But when his store clerks were beaten like a fishing net, I knew it was true - I encountered robbery.

  The screams of others woke me up from my daze, and I saw a few more armed men coming down, starting to drive people upstairs, those who didn't listen were immediately beaten with the butt of a gun until their faces were covered in blood. Two of them started patrolling around, looking for anyone left behind. One of the bald-headed ones was walking towards me.

  What should I do? I panicked and couldn't let him catch me, it became the only thought in my mind now, but where to hide? I was anxious and looked around frantically, trying to find a place.

  I heard the footsteps getting closer and closer. My head started to sweat. The staff room was so small, with many things inside, where could I hide? The only place that could hide me was the row of metal lockers. I quickly opened one by one, fortunately, I found an unlocked one. I rushed in and quietly closed the door. At this moment, the bald-headed thug walked into the room, he turned around, then started searching the boxes at the entrance to see if anyone was hiding inside. After checking everything, he began to search deeper, finally standing in front of the row of lockers where I was hiding. My heart rose to my throat, and I kept thinking about what to do if he found me hiding inside - should I surrender or fight? Just as I was confused, he started trying to open each locker one by one. The first few were also locked. He used his gun to smash the locks, "Bang Bang" the sound of smashing locks scared me and made my heart beat fast. I decided that if he found me, I would surrender. When he reached my door, he seemed tired, took a deep breath, pulled my door, saw it was locked, I thought he was going to smash the door, closed my eyes, raised my hands, ready to surrender. But he just kicked the door with his foot, making it concave, cursed and then moved on to the last one. The last one was open, he looked inside and didn't see anyone, turned around and walked out. I stood in the locker with my hands up for a while before I came back to myself. I didn't expect to be so lucky. After taking a deep breath, I felt dizzy, if it weren't for the small space of the locker, I would have fallen to the ground. At this time, I realized that all my clothes were soaked with sweat.

  I waited for a while, just as I was sure there was no one around, took a deep breath and prepared to push the door open, when another set of footsteps came. Oh no! He's back, I quickly retreated and stood still holding my breath. However, these footsteps didn't sound like the bald man from earlier, probably someone else. This person also walked around the room, rummaged through things, stood in front of the cabinet and looked at it, seemingly noticing the dented cabinet door, chuckled and muttered a curse under his breath, which sounded similar to what the bald man said earlier. I listened carefully but couldn't understand, only to realize that he wasn't speaking Chinese. Had I encountered foreign thieves?

  Just then, there was a noise outside. This person suddenly darted out, his movements extremely agile, and with a single "listen" it was clear that he had undergone rigorous training. His movements reminded me of someone - my brother, the word "military" instantly popping into my mind. Just then, I heard the person outside laugh and say: "Haha, you're really good at hiding, hiding in the rice." Then, a gunshot rang out.

  It's over, these people are too terrifying, they didn't even give me a chance to surrender. If I get discovered... The image of my brains splattering everywhere flashed before my eyes. No, I mustn't die, I have to live, I won't die. The will to survive gave me strength, and my heavy limbs, which felt like they were filled with lead, suddenly lightened up a lot. Clenching my pale fist, I didn't even dare to breathe, waiting for a long time until the intermittent gunfire from upstairs stopped, and the whole building was as quiet as a tomb. I finally gathered the courage to push open the cabinet door and slowly walked out, then slowly made my way to the entrance, using the supermarket's anti-theft mirror to check if there was anyone around. After confirming that there was no one, I let out a sigh of relief.

  Damn it, what kind of tour am I on? Isn't this just asking for trouble? How unlucky!

  What should I do now? I'm in a mess again!

  Click to view picture link: Spanish Otsoa Forest King