CH 9

He knew Jiang Xiao didn’t come from Huaihai province. He was from Rongxiang Province, a long way off in central China. But Lin ChengYu wasn’t clear exactly where. He’d never heard “Houlin” mentioned at all.

Jiang Xiao rarely returned to his hometown. He had a poor relationship with his relatives, and when he finally made money, he went back to his hometown once to move his parents’ graves to the best cemetery in Liujiang, where it was easier to worship. But at the time Lin ChengYu was busy studying. He knew about it, but he wasn’t personally involved, and Jiang Xiao didn’t talk about it. He preferred to tell Lin ChengYu about happy things, not stories from the worst part of his youth.

But if his life was good at home, why would he go out to work when in his teens?

Lin ChengYu never dreamed he’d be reborn. In his last life he wouldn’t meet Jiang Xiao for another four years. But now he couldn’t wait. He didn’t want Jiang Xiao to suffer so much to make a living when he was young.

But when exactly did Jiang Xiao come to Liujiang? And where the hell was he now? Lin ChengYu didn’t know enough about Jiang Xiao’s past. He knew Jiang Xiao had dropped out of high school and gone to work because his parents died. Now that Lin ChengYu was reborn, he wanted to go to Rongxiang province to search for him.

But the IT industry was still underdeveloped, and it was almost impossible to track someone. His family might have money but their business was along the coast. They couldn’t reach all the way to Rongxiang province thousands of miles away.

The elder Lin kept Lin ChengYu abroad until his injuries were healed. When he came back, he was apprehensive and on edge. That was when he happened to see Lin RongJia’s photo.

Maybe it was fate. How else could Lin RongJia happen to take that picture with her camera, and accidentally show it to him before it was deleted?

Maybe heaven saw his misery and the bitter, belated regret he felt in his last life. Maybe it granted him and Jiang Xiao another chance.

The photo showed a version of Jiang Xiao that Lin ChengYu had never seen before. He was only fifteen, so young and yet he was carrying two bags that size. As he stared into the camera his eyes were widened slightly. His hair was a mess and his face was soft and tender, very pleasant-looking and likeable. And his clothes were worn out and had been washed too many times. He looked like a puppy who’d fallen into a dust pile.

He didn’t know how many times he looked at that picture of Jiang Xiao. It was a treasure that made his heart ache, and the surprise of seeing him there made Lin ChengYu even more anxious to find him.

The boy in the photo obviously wasn’t a tourist. There was no parent or guardian around him. He was alone.

Combining the details from the picture with what he knew from his last life, Lin ChengYu began to wonder if the fifteen-year-old Jiang Xiao was already working in Liujiang. Although he was a minor, there were a lot of small factories in Liujiang, and there were oversights in management. It wasn’t unusual for an underage boy to go to work.

The information he chased down later was consistent with this theory. The conductor on the bus had some impressions of Jiang Xiao and remembered that he traveled from one industrial park to another.

Logically speaking, even if a minor was able to find work through loopholes, there were still restrictions. Generally, they could only do short-term work. They couldn’t sign a contract to work long-term, so they had to change jobs frequently.

But there weren’t cameras everywhere like there would be in the future. Aside from the clues he got from the bus, further information was thin on the ground.

Both industrial parks were crowded with people. Who would remember a random stranger passing by? Anyway, Jiang Xiao had gone back to Houlin long ago. Lin ChengYu wouldn’t find him even if he turned the place upside down.

In the end, his actions were so conspicuous that the old man of the Lin family called him over to question him about it.

Since the car accident, the old man had begun to feel there was something wrong with his grandson’s brain. He hadn’t become slow-witted, but his personality changed dramatically.

While the old man was partial towards Lin ChengYu, his expectations were high. After school, Lin ChengYu had special instructors for other subjects in addition to his normal schoolwork. If he was going to take over the company when he was older, he had to wear himself out a bit now.

Lin ChengYu had natural talent, but he was only fourteen years old. There were plenty of times he didn’t listen to his elders. But after his injury, all the rough edges that used to appear now and then were gone. He learned everything so rapidly. The teachers praised him over and over, saying he was well-behaved and quick to learn.

Although the old man was pleased, there were times he thought it was a little strange. Sometimes when he sat with the child and their eyes met, he couldn’t help but freeze.

It was like Lin ChengYu’s gaze had changed. The occasional disobedience of a fourteen-year-old boy had vanished like a superficial phenomenon. His eyes were stoic. He was too calm, like he’d already matured into an inscrutable adult.

But at least he was obedient. That was a good thing… right?

Because of Lin ChengYu’s recent good behavior, he was easily able to find an excuse to replace the family doctor. And when it came to searching for a certain person, the old man listened to him. He looked at the boy in the photo, a child about the same age as Lin ChengYu.

“What do you want with him?” the elder man asked casually. “Is he a former classmate?”

“… Sort of.” Lin ChengYu couldn’t explain much to his grandfather. He sighed, and his next sentence couldn’t help but reveal some truth. “I feel sorry for him. I owe him too much. I don’t want to see him suffer anymore.”

The elder Lin made up a story on his own, deciding that his grandson probably bullied this classmate when he was a child, and now he regretted it. If the other boy were struggling, and there was an opportunity to make up for it, that would make some sense.

The Lin family had become wealthy. It wasn’t a big deal to do a kindness to someone.

Lin ChengYu didn’t explain much about it. It could wait until after Jiang Xiao was located. But the people he sent in search weren’t able to find Jiang Xiao at all. He didn’t know how many times he showed that photo to various people, one after another. Despite the initial hope, he was disappointed again and again.

Jiang Xiao didn’t stay in the industrial park very long. All he did there was get on and off the bus. Most of his time was spent in the wholesale market. Lin ChengYu was looking for a needle in the wrong haystack. It was inevitable not to find anything.

When Ye Bing went to deliver a load of goods, he actually heard some workers gossiping about it.

“It’s a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old they’re still searching for, right?”

Another worker said, “They say if you help to find him, they’ll pay you ten thousand yuan. It must be the child of a rich family who ran away from home.”

Ye Bing didn’t see the photo. He was busy and only heard about it in passing. He didn’t associate it with Jiang Xiao.

In Houlin, Jiang Xiao didn’t know anything about it. For him, aside from selling things and studying, there were no surprises in his life.

After the midterm exam, his current batch of merchandise sold out. Jiang Xiao was pondering when to go back to Liujiang. This time, it wouldn’t take four days. After all, he’d been around to several different wholesalers and had a better understanding of the situation. He’d also kept the phone numbers of a few bosses.

During the last visit, Jiang Xiao didn’t spend his time in vain. Not every holiday was as long as Golden Week. He had to be prepared, and he already had a good idea of what to buy next. Before he left, he made phone calls to some bosses to get things ready. Of course, he still had some leeway in case there were new products at the site.

This time, he and Ye Bing set out during the day and didn’t arrive until night. The truck stopped at the factory and waited to be loaded. Ye Bing wasn’t made of iron. He couldn’t drive fatigued, so he wouldn’t leave until early the next morning after loading was complete. The night was open for Jiang Xiao.

The lights of the wholesale market stayed on until early in the morning. Jiang Xiao brought two bigger bags this time, but there were still limitations on what he could select. Everything had to be small. Also, while many products weren’t available in Houlin, every fad arrived and departed in a burst. The TV series The World of Mortals had already finished broadcasting. A new drama was airing now, called Modern Men and Women, but it wasn’t as popular.

There was still a large demand gap, but the amount of demand for certain goods was limited. In fact, Jiang Xiao’s bracelet market had already reached saturation. This time he didn’t buy very many of them, aside from a few he didn’t get last time that customers specifically requested.

That kind of stuff wouldn’t sell well unless it was refreshed from time to time.

He got more discs and cassettes, and he carefully selected some small things for the girls, focusing on everyday yet somewhat unique items.

For stationery, he chose pencil bags with cute toy designs, rainbow cream pens, diary books with a higher unit price but with a lock like a magic book, etc. All sorts of things which were fresh and would be easy to sell.

As for personal accessories, there were antique-style hairpins and lace hair ribbons, which were popular with girls. They came in a wider variety of designs in Liujiang than Houlin. But he only got a few kinds. Jiang Xiao didn’t buy bracelets that were too fancy or couldn’t be worn everyday, like the ones from The World of Mortals. He knew very well that this type of fashion would quickly fade, so he changed his thinking and chose several other items.

Jiang Xiao saw a new type of butterfly hairpin in a stall. It was made of delicate metal, and when you gave it a shake, the butterfly wings decorated with colored beads would also tremble, a bit like it was flying.

That sort of thing would be really popular.

He remembered in his last life, around this time in junior high, four-leaf clover designs were popular for a while. The meaning of the four leaves was appealing to girls, like a symbol of their feelings. It had obviously become popular in Liujiang already. Jiang Xiao saw quite a few versions in the market and collected some good-looking ones.

Aside from four-leaf clovers, there were also hand-braided bracelets. The girls would weave them by hand. There were various types of cords and strings in Liujiang, a much richer selection than in Houlin. Thick or thin, colorful, transparent with glitter, or lace. This DIY creativity was still popular at the end of Jiang Xiao’s last life. A lot of girls enjoyed making them.

Jiang Xiao bought materials to decorate the bracelets—various beads and bells, plastic, glass, and more expensive natural stones like garnets and strawberry crystals for attracting romance, which would be popular for years. While bargaining, he asked the boss to give him a hundred or so pamphlets on various bracelet weaving techniques. The pamphlet was only a few thin pages, so it wasn’t worth much money. It was the middle of the night, the boss was worn out by him, and finally gave it to him for free.

Most of the things he bought were inexpensive per unit, and his target customers could afford them.

“Pretty boy, you’re too sharp at bargaining,” he rambled with Jiang Xiao as he packed up the purchases. “You just talk and talk.”

In addition to these items, there were watches.

Ye Bing and other big truck drivers would sometimes carry things privately. In recent years this included mobile phones and watches, which made high profits. Ye Bing and the others all carried expensive goods, things worth thousands of yuan. Jiang Xiao couldn’t buy anything that expensive. His customers obviously couldn’t afford them either.

But watches were something that students needed every day and used frequently. Jiang Xiao didn’t aim at watches worth hundreds of yuan, but ones worth dozens of yuan with unique designs. But he only bought a few, and the price couldn’t be suppressed that much. He bought seven or eight to test the waters.

Jiang Xiao selected about twenty kinds of products to bring back. The last thing he picked up were discs and cassettes and so on. He’d already discussed which titles to buy with the shop owner on the phone. The other person knew better than him what was popular these days. He went over and checked the parcel, ready to take them and go.

The boss on the other side was enthusiastic and sincere. Seeing that Jiang Xiao was so young and capable, after doing business twice, the boss came over and made it a point to tell him, “It’s better to buy more video discs. Don’t get as many cassettes. Get ready for something else.”

Jiang Xiao thought he had some other meaning. After he asked a bit more, the boss pointed him to the counter.

Inside the glass counter were rows of small boxes.

MP3 players.

“A lot of people have started using them lately. It’s more expensive, but it’s convenient and easier to carry,” the boss told him. “Next time, why not try some out?”

TL Notes:

In English, “old man” (老爷子) can be pejorative, but it has a respectful connotation in Chinese. Grandpa Lin is called this throughout the chapter.

braided bracelets – 编手绳 – Here’s an example. I used to make them too!

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter: