âIs it very remote over there?â Standing at the roadside, watching the customers lined up behind them get into taxis one by one, Ji Huan inclined his head to look at Ah Jin.
âWell ⌠although, it indeed seems a bit remoteâŚâ Rubbing his chin with one hand, Ah Jinâs eyebrows furrowed slightly.
The corners of Ji Huanâs mouth curved upwards slightly.
At this moment, his heart suddenly settled down.
There were so many things that had happened on this night, going from the human world to another place all at once. Although there were many familiar things, the essence had changed completely as if the sky and the earth were turning upside down ; anyone he met here carried with them the intimidating power of making him fall to his knees with weak legs, plus the incomprehensible language, the completely confusing situationâŚIn addition to that, the current Ah Jin also looked extremely different from his usual self.
He realized that he himself did not fit in here, Ji Huan was extremely at a loss.
Until just now, at the moment he found out even Ah Jin was surprised that he had been refused by the taxi drivers (to take them in as passengers) ; when he discovered that Ah Jin also did not have everything under his control, he seemed to have taken a reassuring pill and settled down.
âLooks like things might have changed a bit over there.â Rubbing his chin, Ah Jin looked up at the clear blue sky that turned into a magnificent red-violet color, accompanied with the rise of the first stage of a purple crescent moon.
Gesturing to Ji Huan to follow him, Ah Jin turned and walked towards the dark alley.
Undoubtedly, only after one simple turn, but it was like a different world here : The strange difference really did not come from the streetscape on either side of the alley. Well, unlike the meticulously decorated open type of small store next door, this alley was completely closed. He didnât know what kind of business the shops here were in, but they were all closed except for one shop that looked like a general merchandise store, which was open. From the outside it looked outdated, old and ruined. However, as the only shop open here, a crowd of people had gathered in front of the shop.
A group of people who didnât look like good people by all possible means.
The clothes they wore were different kinds of odd and eccentric. The exposed parts were pierced and tattoos. On top of that, they had multi-colored and weird hairstyles. The people in front of this shop looked like a group of hooligans who were not to be trifled with.
Ji Huan followed behind Ah Jin in silence. He could not understand why Ah Jin had come to such a place, but he didnât choose to speak out on the matter.
Wearing a thick cloak and carrying their luggage behind Ah Jin, Ji Huan and Grandpa looked like two little attendants.
With even strides, Ah Jin walked straight towards the grocery shop.
Although he did not show his face, Ah Jin looked out of place in the alley: A cloak of fairly good material was draped over his body. The exposed suit was neat and tidy, without a single crease in it. As he stretched out one foot and was about to step into the general shop, a half cigarette butt was suddenly thrown next to him. However, as if he hadnât seen it, Ah Jinâs left foot stepped on it.
The foot fell just in time to put out the cigarette butt. Without any pause, the well-made, high quality, handmade leather shoes walked past at the same pace as before and went straight into the shop.
Only then, Ah Jin pulled his cloak down, his pale face and dark eyes exposed to the light at the same time. He looked straight towards the owner who was watching television behind the counter.
Following behind him, Ji Huan also saw the only âpersonâ in the shop.
It was a very fat woman with a greasy face. She was smoking a cigarette and eating a snack, at the same time she was also watching the television intently. Her thickly lipsticked mouth occasionally emitted a shout that Ji Huan could not understand. Curiously, Ji Huan looked at the screen in front of her. He noticed that a fighting programme was being shown there.
The contestants were obviously magical creatures, unlike human boxing, judo and other fighting matches, this was a rather violent and bloody program. As Ji Huanâs eyes move to the screen, one contestant happens to land a death bite on the other, and like the woman in the shop, the crowd around them is letting out a huge cheer!
Grabbing a random bottle of the drink in the vendor from the counter, the woman pried off the cap with one hand and gulped it down until the bottle was empty. After burping, she looked as if she had just seen Ah Jinâs group next to her.
âĎΞĐТФ-ΨΧ?â (What do you want to buy, little white face?)
[ĺ°ç˝č /xiÇo bĂĄi liÇn : attractive young man (usually derog.) / pretty boy / gigolo]
Naturally Ji Huan was unable to understand anything she said and the person who responded to her was Ah Jin.
Standing still, Ah Jin did not mean to touch any of the shopâs goods, Ah Jinâs stagnant eyes stared straight at the woman in front of him.
âĎŃ ŃĐžŃŃĐźŃ.â (I need someone to take me to Yefa.)
Using this strange language, Ah Jinâs voice sounded even lower than when he spoke Chinese, in a way that would be hypnotic.
The woman who was about to throw the empty bottle into the bin, missed it and it rolled out. The empty bottle did not fall into the trash bin. It rolled out and landed at Ji Huanâs feet.
Ji Huan picked up the bottle and put it into the bin.
It was a simple action, but God knows how hard it was for him to do it.
This woman was more powerful than any of the demons he had encountered before.
As if not noticing Jie Huanâs presence at all, the womanâs tiny eyes just stared at Ah Jinâs face.
âξΜĐĐĐĐШЪХΟ.â (That place is not an easy place that everyone wants to go to / itâs not easy for everyone wants to go to that place)
The expression on Ah Jinâs face was without a single ripple. His pale, slender fingers suddenly reached into his cloak from his side. As he took it out again, he pushed the three gold bars on the counter in front of that woman.
The counter was dark and lacquered with old oil stains, Ah Jinâs fingers did not even touch the surface of the counter for a moment as he pushed the gold bars down. He gracefully returned his hand to his side.
His jet black eyes looked indifferently at the woman.
Grabbing one of the gold bars, the woman took a bite. Her teeth were obviously quite sharp, a small piece of gold bar was actually bitten off directly by her. She nodded as she took a closer look at the gaping hole in the bar. She took the bitten off piece of gold and rubbed it together with the gaping one in her hand and in a few moments a round ball of gold took shape in her palm.
âĎβΨΧ.VĐ¨Ď .â (Three pieces wonât do, itâll need five.) She held out five fingers.
ââ ŚĎβι.ŃгппŃĐźŃ.â(Seven pieces, send me straight home.)
Extending his hand out, Ah Jin pulled out two more gold bars from his mantle.
Taking a closer look at Ah Jin, the woman suddenly roared and within moments someone ran through the door.
It was an unusually large and strong man. The upper half of his body was not clothed at all, solid muscles were exposed in darkness along with the bizarre tattoo on it. The tattoo was incomplete, with scars that marred the pattern of the image. The tattoos and scars were coupled with his fierce expression. This man just did not look like a good guy.
The woman said something to him and the burly man then gave a sidelong glance at Ah Jin and the others before he went out of the door.
âGo with him.â Ah Jin immediately said to Jihuan.
âHuh?â Ji Huan gave him a look.
âThatâs our driver now, heâll drive us straight to the gate.â With a faint smile, Ah Jin went straight out the door.
Ji Huan hurriedly pulled Grandpa, picked up his luggage, followed the blond strong man and together with Ah Jin out of the narrow doorway of the grocery shop.
As they walked past the group of people at the door, those who had been crouching and chatting suddenly looked up, their eyes were unusually cold, reminding Ji Huan of snakes without warmth.
The macho blonde man led them straight to a ramshackle van and pulled open the back door, with no thought of helping the guests with their luggage at all, he walked straight to the front, pulled open the front door and sat down in the driverâs seat.
Ji Huan and Grandpa hastily put the baggage in along with Xiao Bai (remember this is the pig). The storage box was dirty and there was a large patch of dried black and red liquid. Looking there for a moment, Ji Huan then placed a bundle next to the stain.
Putting the baggage away, he helped his Grandpa into the back seat and sat him down. With Grandpa and Hei Danâs milk powder bag filling up the back seat, he had no choice but to take the second row seat and continue to sit with Ah Jin.
As soon as the door closed, the strong blonde man started the car and with a bang, bang, bang sound, the ramshackle minivan flew out of the dark alley!
ââ
The car was driving very fast, suddenly turning left and right, and there were also several times of emergency braking one after another. Even though he was usually in good health, he couldnât take it too. He took out a bottle of motion sickness pills from the bag he had brought with him. He took one for himself and another for Grandpa behind him. He wanted to ask Ah Jin if he needed it, but when he looked up, he realized that while they were having carsick, Ah Jin had fished out an old newspaper from somewhere and was reading it, relaxed and not bothered by the driverâs driving skills at all so he took the bottle of medicine back.
Hei Dan was also a bit dizzy, but Ji Huan didnât dare to give him any random medicine. He gently rubbed his back through his cloak. After lying on his uncleâs chest for a while, Hei Dan finally felt a bit more energetic. Ji Huan noticed that Hei Dan started to rub against his arms, only then did he lift the cloak to reveal his little head.
His little mouth was gaping, Hei Dan was hungry.
Grandpa quickly took out a can of milk powder from the bag behind him, Ji Huan took the milk powder and a thermos from his own carry-on bag, skillfully brewed a bottle of milk and put the bottle into Hei Danâs little paws, who then nestled in his uncleâs arms and sucked the milk.
After pouring out the water for Hei Danâs milk powder, there was still a small amount of water left in the thermos, so Ji Huan took a sip and handed it to Grandpa in the back seat, who then drank the water as well.
His family already had something to drink so it was not good for Ah Jin, who was next to them, to be ignored. Ji Huan took out a thermos of water and a small packet of tea from his bag. He made a thermos of tea in simple steps. Ah Jin then had tea to drink too.
âThank you.â After taking a look at the thermos in his hand and smelling the tea, Ah Jin took a sip of the tea. With a slant of his eyes, holding the thermos, Ah Jinâs line of sight immediately met with Hei Dan who was holding a milk bottle.
Hei Dan immediately took a few sips of milk anxiously.
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and Ah Jinâs line of sight fell back to the pages of the newspaper again.
The music in the blonde brawny manâs car ahead sounded as if it shook the sky, the shabby van was thumping and lurching. The environment was obviously exceptionally noisy, yet the few passengers in the back seat had arranged themselves quite well. In contrast to the noise in front of them, there was a feeling of peace and quiet.
Although Ah Jin, the one he was most afraid of, was right next to him. But since his uncle was closer to him, Hei Dan was less afraid.
After drinking his milk, he started to want to play with his uncle. His skinny little black paws grabbed his uncleâs fingertips. He was a child that was very easy to coax, even with just Ji Huanâs one finger, he could play with it for a long time. However, he felt a bit sorry for him for being such a good boy. After thinking about the situation, it was not a suitable time to play with anything else, so he rummaged through his bag and took out a book.
It was a book about how to read, he had previously bought for Hei Dan in the neighboring town.
On this trip, he didnât take much of his own stuff, however for Hei Danâs, he did take everything he could, including a few âlearn to readâ books. Although he knew he probably wouldnât need it in the future, he didnât want to throw it away so he stuffed it into his bag.
Putting Hei Dan on his chest, Ji Huan unfolded the book in front of him.
Hei Danâs white ringed eyes widened when the brightly colored picture book was displayed in front of him!
On the first page was something that Hei Dan was quite familiar with: eggs.
âChicken egg.â At the time, Ji Huanâs uttered those two words, Hei Danâs little paw clawed it way over at once.
This was a storybook that used an egg personification as the main character, introducing many commonly seen things in life through the perspective of an egg. It had it all, whether pictures and phonetics writing. Overall it was very comprehensive. On each page there was a small button that, if you pressed it, would emit a sound of pronunciation, with musical accompaniment!
Hei Danâs attention was immediately and completely focused on the book.
âOh, is this a book for children?â When Ji Huan accompanied Hei Dan reading the book, Ah Jinâs voice suddenly came from the side. When he looked up, he realized that Ah Jin had somehow closed the newspaper and put it aside.At the moment, he was looking at the book in his ⌠hands with great interest.
After living together for so many days, Ji Huan felt that he still couldnât understand A Jin as a person, but he did know one thing about his hobby: reading books.
He could read a dirty old newspaper for half a day, but the one he was holding was a baby book âŚ
As it turns out, Ah Jin seemed to have some interest in baby books as well.
Taking the initiative to move a little closer towards Ji Huan, he looked at the content of the book.
âVery interesting âŚhowever, heâŚincluding you, will need and should learn the language here later.â The implication behind his words was that the contents of the book were completely useless.
âI know, but âŚâ Ji Huan nodded his head. He was about to continue, but Ah Jin spoke again.
âBut this book isnât for nothing, how about I teach you the local language according to the contents of this book when I have nothing to do on the road?â Ah Jin suggested.
To Ji Huan, this suggestion from Ah Jin was exactly what he had been wanting for. Thereupon, the book quickly passed from Ji Huanâs hands to Ah Jinâs. The teacher of the teaching changed from Ji Huan to Ah Jin, and the object of the teaching changed from Hei Dan to Ji Huan.
Ah Jin taught meticulously. Not only did he translate the cross-referenced nouns into the local vocabulary but he also wrote how to write the words in the book (â using the water multi-coloured pens that Ji Huan had bought for Hei Dan =-=). After he had finished pronouncing it out, Ji Huan made a note of how to pronounce it in pinyin in another small book.
Ji Huan was a good student and during the journey, he mastered almost all of the words and pronunciation from this book.
He was so intent on learning that he didnât notice that the music in the car had suddenly diminished. The blonde brawny man in front of him was glancing back through the rear view mirror from time to time, his gaze was extremely strange.
The book fell into Ah Jinâs hands smoothly without him realising it, while Ji Huan was holding a small book and memorizing the words in silence.
The white ring eyes stared straight at his own little picture book as it flew away from his eyes, Hei Dan flattened his eyes in aggravation, so grieve that he accidentally fell asleep.
The latter time Ji Huan had been memorizing words and remembering coordinates at the same time, as the sky became darker and darker, the landscape around him became more and more overgrown. The afternoonâs still comfortable temperature suddenly became extremely cold, Ji Huan had to wrap himself and Hei Dan all up in his cloak. At this time, looking out of the window, he strained to observe that the outside seemed to have turned into a desert.
He had seen a group of wild beasts running past the car, but before they could get close, he didnât know what the driver in front of him had done but the beasts with their glowing red eyes suddenly ran away.
Ji Huan saw them again once more later, that one time they were tearing at something in a car on the side of the road.
The blonde brawny manâs van âbang bangâ passed by them, Ah Jinâs line of eyes dropped to the baby reading material in his hands without even raising his eyelids.
After some more time, an exceptionally tall perimeter wall suddenly appeared to their left side, the purple curved moon hanging high above it. The wall was so high that Ji huan could not see the structure inside at all.
The van drove very fast and soon the all-sides walls of black buildings were left behind them.
After a little more driving, when a tattered road sign appeared on the left side, Ji Huan finally saw the sign of human habitation again.
Translator notes:
Btw, I just realized that Ji Huanâs name has a good meaning behind it.