С нетерпением жду весеннего ветерка!

Глава 61

When she finally managed to call Li Changsheng's parents from the village head's house, the only place with a telephone, he had already negotiated a price with the tractor driver and was riding on the tractor to the town's bus station. Amidst the roar of the tractor, he chatted happily with the young driver, telling him, "My name is Li Changsheng, I'm seventeen years old, my ancestral home is Shantou. I've worked in the north with my parents since I was little, but now they've both been transferred back to Shantou, and I'm going back to study with them. This trip was specifically to transfer schools. I went to visit my great-aunt in the countryside. My great-aunt lives in the third house from the east in XX village. She's an excellent Chaozhou cook. Although I don't speak Chaozhou dialect, I can understand it. I'll be studying in Shantou from now on..."

The highest level of lying is to be half lie and half truth.

He was tall and strong, and northerners are generally tall. He wasn't a hothouse flower, so whether it was his physique or his manner of speaking, it would be very convincing to say he was seventeen.

He squeezed the large-denomination banknotes sewn into the inside pocket of his pants, calculating how many yuan he had saved on this trip, which might be enough for a hot meal at a street stall. He asked the driver and found out that there was a small food market a few steps to the left of the bus station, a place frequented by Shantou locals, where the food was good and cheap, unlike the expensive and unpalatable food stalls near the bus station.

While his parents were searching high and low around the bus station, Li Changsheng was leisurely sitting at a food stall in a small market in Shantou, his back to the passersby, slurping down buckwheat noodles, and having found out that there was a reasonably priced hotel nearby.

The next day, as the search party, each carrying a photo of Li Changsheng, asked everyone they met at the bus station, Li Changsheng, having had a good sleep and a good meal, greeted the hotel owner, got on his son's tricycle, drove through the bustling city, past the bus station, and headed towards the national highway that all buses could take.

The boss's son helped flag down a bus heading to Guangzhou and then spent a long time haggling with the driver. The driver reluctantly pulled out a small stool and pointed it out to him to sit in the aisle.

After thanking the shop owner's son, I clutched my bag, leaned against an elderly woman's chair, and looked back at Shantou as it receded into the distance. Rows of phoenix trees, topped with enormous green crowns, seemed to smile and wave goodbye.

Touching the cauliflower in my backpack, I felt a little regretful. Grouper can't survive out of water, otherwise I could have brought one for Shanglin to try.

Li Changsheng's Escape (Part 2)

Guangzhou in 1992 wasn't exactly bustling, but it was enough to fool kids from second-tier cities in the north. Even though Li Changsheng thought he was well-traveled and had lived a long life, he was still shocked by the surging crowds and the enthusiastic touts from all walks of life as soon as he got off the bus.

"Boss, looking for a room?" The young, clever, short hotel clerk grabbed Li Changsheng.

"Boss, come to my place! Reasonable prices and great rooms." A woman with heavy makeup, sprayed with perfume like pesticide, and dressed flamboyantly tugged at his arm. As expected, he saw a young man's face flushed, and he grinned smugly at his opponent, revealing a set of yellow teeth from years of betel nut chewing.

The short shop assistant cursed under his breath, "Prostitute!"

She smiled even more warmly, holding onto Li Changsheng tightly: "Boss, our shop is so cheap, it's close to the station, and we even serve breakfast!"

At the passionate age of seventeen or eighteen, carrying a schoolbag, covered in mud, their clothes smelling of seawater and mud, yet their clothes look expensive, and their eyes radiate confusion and ignorance—they are clearly easy targets!

Li Changsheng squinted, his eyes half-open, still fast asleep and not fully awake.

At the same time, Qiu Shanglin rushed out of the classroom, and Qiu Xialin chased after him, dragging her shoes that were only half-on her feet, shouting, "Wait for me, wait for me!"

Ignoring the shock they caused in the fifth-grade corridor, she brushed past Qiao Liang like a gust of wind, heading straight for the principal's office. Qiao Liang didn't see her clearly, but he recognized Qiu Xia Lin following closely behind. Seeing him frantically calling out "Sister," he immediately realized the person who had been running was Qiu Shang Lin, and turned to shout:

"Qiu Shanglin, this is class time! You're behaving so inappropriately!"

The door to Class 2 opened, and the teacher who was teaching said with displeasure, "Teacher Qiao, please keep your voice down. It's class time now."

Qiao Liang was embarrassed.

When Qiu Xialin rushed into the principal's office, Shanglin had already finished the phone call, the red microphone dangling from his hand, staring blankly at a corner of the wall.

Xia Lin asked anxiously several times, but she didn't come to her senses.

The news I had just heard echoed in my mind.

Li Changsheng has disappeared.

Missing?

How could a living, breathing person, a person with flesh and blood, hands and a brain, possibly disappear?

The world suddenly fell silent—no, it became completely still.

Where could he go? Things are different now than in later years; transportation is convenient, and information is readily available. A single phone call can bring people from all over the world together. Li Changsheng is only thirteen years old. Even if he's precocious, how much can a thirteen-year-old truly understand?

What should you do if you are abducted?

What should I do if I get scammed?

What to do if someone is kidnapped?

What if I sell it?

A barrage of unpleasant thoughts flashed through her mind, and she felt like her head was about to explode.

My ears were ringing; I couldn't hear or see anything.

Li Changsheng and Qiu Xialin were like children she had raised herself. She would be frantic with worry if her dog got lost, let alone a grown man, especially in the unfamiliar south!

The other person said that he had gotten lost in the countryside near Shantou, where there are many insects and snakes. He was worried that if he went into the mountains and forests, he might be bitten by a venomous snake...

For the first time in her life, she felt afraid.

………

Exit of Guangzhou Bus Station.

The woman and the short man were arguing, and the short man, with a slippery grip on Li Changsheng's hand, found the feeling uncomfortable and shook him off, coldly saying, "Let go!"

The shorter boy was surprised by the boy's strength and awkwardly let go. However, unwilling to give up the fat sheep he had caught, he continued to nag and persuade him.

Seeing the disgust in the boy's eyes, the woman felt smug and moved even closer to Li Changsheng: "Boss, come to our inn... we also have special services..."

Li Changsheng neither nodded nor shook his head, his face stern, but gradually flushed. Just as she was feeling smug, she saw Li Changsheng sneeze loudly, sniffle, fan her away, and say, "I'm allergic, you should stay away."

She sprayed perfume like pesticide, relentlessly. The weather in Guangzhou was scorching, and she was already drenched in sweat under the sun. The sweat mixed with the perfume smell was just too much…

Changsheng thought for a long time but couldn't come up with an adjective.

With her backpack tightly packed, seeing that neither of them was willing to give up and seemed ready to cause trouble again, she said, as if talking to herself or asking a question: "Was it north or south of XXXX Road that we went to last time? Never mind, I'll go by myself, oh no, I should call Ah Song and have him come pick me up."

He then walked toward the grocery store not far away.

The short man and the woman looked at each other in bewilderment.

They spat and turned to go their separate ways.

I thought I'd stumbled upon a sucker who was new to Guangzhou, but it turns out I have connections here, so I can't rip them off at all!

Changsheng took a few steps, then glanced at the two of them out of the corner of his eye and saw that they had gone far away. He smiled slightly, turned back to where he was, determined the direction, and slowly walked along the route of the bus that was rushing past. After walking about a hundred meters, he saw the bus stop sign and breathed a sigh of relief.

Bus and train stations are chaotic places with all sorts of people, so be careful not to offend anyone when you're traveling. If you need directions, avoid asking near the station; instead, try to find a shopping area frequented by locals or a bus stop – there's always a way.

I bought a bottle of water at a nearby kiosk, asked how to get to the train station, then asked something else, and squeezed onto the bus under the strange gaze of the kiosk owner.

He still had rice balls he brought from the countryside in his bag. Fortunately, although the weather was hot, they were still edible. He planned to find a place to eat them with water later, thus saving the cost of a meal. Just like any other Guangzhou local, he boarded the bus, found an empty seat, and calmly looked out the window at the scenery, hiding his initial panic and helplessness in a foreign land. To outsiders, he seemed like a local teenager, perhaps he had gotten his clothes dirty while playing and was planning to go home to wash them.

There were few cars and many people. Two fashionable young women stood next to Li Changsheng, glanced at him a few times, and then chatted happily on their own.

"Are your pants the newest from Mocha Cat? They're really pretty."

The other one was extremely smug, yet forcefully suppressed his pride: "What? I was thinking of getting a different one because I thought the color was ugly."

The first thought to myself was, "If you think it looks bad, why wear it? Pretentious."

After discussing clothing for a while, the two turned to food.

"I ate so many lychees the day before yesterday, I'm almost bursting."

Another frowned: "The lychees aren't sweet this year, I don't like them."

"No, you didn't buy it in the right place! I'll take you there after we finish shopping. It's in the fruit market behind the Mocha Cat flagship store on the commercial street, the second to last shop!"

"Really? Then let's go to the Mocha Cat flagship store one last time. I want to buy a dress."

………

Changsheng, holding the bag, remained calm and touched the cauliflower through the fabric; thankfully, it wasn't crushed.

If lychees are so delicious, shouldn't they also sell delicious durians?

When the bus stopped, the two women got off, and Li Changsheng followed them off, walking leisurely behind them at a distance of two or three people, as if he were also going shopping.

He followed the two to the department store, found the restroom, changed out of his dirty clothes, took out a few large bills, hid the rest of the money on his body, asked someone for directions, and headed straight for the Mocha Cat flagship store.

He had a free men's clothing coupon, which allowed him to get a free men's outfit. It was originally made by the head office for gifting purposes, and they gave Shanglin a dozen or so. He and Xialin liked the beautifully designed cartoon patterns, so they each took one and kept it in their wallets. Luckily, it hadn't expired.

The staff at the Guangzhou flagship store had never heard of exchanging clothing vouchers for shoes before.

Although he looked a bit tired, his clothes and even his dirty shoes were all high-end products from Mocha Cat. After asking the store manager, I smiled and allowed him to change his shoes.

Chang Sheng wasn't greedy; he took the cheapest but sturdiest pair of shoes and put them on directly.

The shop assistant carefully picked up the old shoes she had taken off with two fingers: "I'll wrap them up for you."