Chapter Forty-Four: I Must Have Been Cursed for Eight Generations to End Up with You! (Please add to your favorites, please vote for recommendations!)

Inside the Lanzhou noodle shop near the recycling station, Li Erchun burped, watching Li Shixin grinning as he paid out all the money they'd earned that afternoon. He even used the last two yuan to buy a bottle of mineral water, leaving Li Erchun feeling utterly hopeless about the future.

“Old man, thanks for the beef noodles. But it’s getting late, I’ve got to go.”

Seeing Li Shixin return to the table, Li Erchun stood up and grabbed his suitcase.

With a toothpick in his mouth, Li Shixin glanced at him and chuckled, “Do you have a place to stay?”

“If I had somewhere to stay, would I still be hanging around with you?!” Li Erchun was nearly at his breaking point, his face so dark it seemed ready to drip water.

“Sigh,” Li Shixin shook his head and sighed, “Young man, you cried like a little girl at noon because you couldn’t get beef noodles. Now you’ve eaten an entire bowl, not even leaving the soup. Yet you’re still unhappy, worrying about where to sleep tonight. Isn’t your day exhausting?”

“Old man!” Li Erchun couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed Li Shixin’s collar. “Tell me, who in this society isn’t tired? Who has it easy? Don’t act like some immortal; you’re ancient, I’m not! You’ve got no tomorrow after today, you could drop dead on the street any day, but I’ve still got plenty of life ahead of me!”

Li Erchun himself wasn’t sure where his anger came from. After yelling, he saw everyone in the noodle shop staring at him in shock. He quickly looked away and released Li Shixin’s collar.

“Anyway, thanks for the beef noodles. I’m leaving, let’s part ways here.” He picked up his suitcase again and turned to leave.

“I know where to stay tonight.”

Just as he was about to step out the door, an aged, magnetic voice spoke from behind.

Li Erchun’s foot froze on the threshold.

...

“Old man, what are you looking for? You said you knew where to stay, where is it?” It was past seven in the evening, and Li Erchun was dragging his large suitcase along the street, watching Li Shixin stroll casually ahead. He couldn’t help but ask.

“I don’t know either.” Li Shixin turned around, smiling.

“Then what are you wandering around for?” Li Erchun was at his wit’s end, feeling completely unable to figure out what the old man was thinking.

His mind jumped around too damn much!

Just then, from the alley ahead, there was a clattering sound. A bedraggled figure emerged, dressed in filthy, patched cotton clothes so greasy it was impossible to tell their face or even their gender.

Hunched over, dragging behind him a handcart that looked as if it had been chopped in half and then crudely reassembled, piled high with junk.

Li Shixin’s eyes lit up. He began to observe the person closely as he walked forward.

The scavenger, sensing someone approaching, hunched lower, as if fearing harm, and quickly dodged to the side. When Li Shixin stood before him, he could sense the man’s panic. After several attempts to avoid him, blocked each time, he finally stole a quick glance at Li Shixin and gave a slight bow.

“Friend, may I ask where you usually sleep at night?” Li Shixin examined the scavenger carefully and spoke, under Li Erchun’s puzzled gaze.

Li Erchun was on the verge of a meltdown!

...

This was a waste sorting facility on the outskirts.

Standing at the factory gates, one could see the distant city lights of Rongdian just beginning to glow, homes illuminated everywhere.

But inside the sorting facility, it felt like the end of the world.

The cold autumn wind swept over the withered grass; piles of colorful plastic garbage formed small hills; cars scrapped years ago lay scattered in all directions, and as the wind passed, they emitted a chorus of mournful steel groans.

“We… we’re here.” The homeless man, head still bowed, managed to say.

Li Shixin nodded and beckoned to Li Erchun, following the vagrant into the junkyard. Unlike the desolate surroundings, the junkyard had a touch of human presence; on the side farthest from the garbage piles, several Maple-brand buses from the seventies, their shells rusted and mottled, flickered with firelight inside. By the firelight, Li Shixin could see shadowy figures moving.

The vagrant pointed to one wheel-less, scrapped van, “I live… here. You… can stay wherever…”

“Thank you, friend.”

The vagrant ignored Li Shixin’s thanks, dragging his pile of junk and hunching into his “home.”

“Old man! Is this place even livable?” Faced with such miserable surroundings, Li Erchun grimaced and shouted.

Li Shixin raised an eyebrow and pointed at the van, “If he can live here, why can’t we?”

“Well… damn!” Li Erchun decided not to argue, having already experienced Li Shixin’s absurd “steamed bun equals beef noodles” theory.

Li Shixin, hands behind his back, wandered around the junkyard before settling on a bus whose front end was completely deformed—clearly totaled in a severe crash. The windshield was stained with reddish-brown smears, the seats stripped out, but most windows were still intact.

Seeing Li Erchun staring nervously at the twisted bus, Li Shixin frowned, “Why are you just standing there? Get to cleaning!”

“Old man! Someone must’ve died in here! You want to sleep here? That’s way too creepy!”

Li Shixin chuckled and gestured to the surroundings, “Kid, this is the only vehicle with windows and nobody inside. Tonight it’ll be seven or eight degrees; do you think freezing outside is scarier, or sleeping in a bus where someone died?”

“I…”

“Who the hell said you could stay here? Did you ask me?” Suddenly, a loud shout came from nearby.

In the dim firelight, Li Erchun saw a tall, filthy vagrant leading three or four others, brandishing a stick as they strode over.

“O-o-o-old man! W-w-what do we do?” Seeing the situation, Li Erchun panicked.

Li Shixin watched the approaching vagrants, squinting his eyes. “Go talk to them.”

“Uh, okay!”

“Why are you just standing there? Go!”

“Damn it, old man, you want me to go?”

Seeing Li Erchun dumbfounded, Li Shixin simply smiled.

“Following you is the worst luck I’ve ever had!” As the rough-looking vagrants approached, Li Erchun gritted his teeth, pulled out his phone, and switched on the recording function before shakily stepping forward.

“What do you want? I’m telling you, I—I’m recording this, and if you lay a finger on me, I’ll send the video to the police station!”

The tall vagrant leader stared at the phone in his hand as if he were looking at an alien, then…

He burst out laughing, and so did his companions!