The ultimate blue sea

Chapter 38-Catch You Later in the Jianghu

Tu Tutu abandoned his studies once again, sending thanks up to the heavens. Anyway, he was only six and had just started first grade; it wasn't very urgent. In the end, Su Qing didn't give the old swindler the promised two hundred and even blamed him for trying to eat out of the communal pot. Requiting kindness with enmity, he used force to make the old swindler take him out of C City.

He thought that his words now were more and more full of hot air. His name was false, his identity was false, everything about him was false. When he flapped his lips, nine and a half out of ten sentences were cooked up.

Oh, yes, we forgot to say, the old swindler's name was Ji Pengcheng. He had wandered the jianghu for a long time. He had no rival in deception; there was no swindle he wouldn't stoop to. He could have been called the pinnacle of shamelessness, though when he met Su Qing, he learned the meaning of the new generation excelling the previous one.

That night, they boarded an illegal passenger transport and left, and Su Qing bid farewell to his last normal days, beginning his lengthy wanderings.

The ramshackle bus spat exhaust as it whistled along. A slightly cold night wind leaked in through a window with half a pane of broken glass. Su Qing turned to lean against the window, shielding Tu Tutu from the wind, and for the very last and very first time, he voluntarily contacted Hu Bugui.

Hu Bugui had sent Fang Xiu to search everywhere for traces of Su Qing while he himself quietly kept an eye on the other unknown force searching for him. When he found that they were suddenly moving towards C City, he had realized at once that Su Qing was likely there, and that he had revealed himself.

Hu Bugui had moved like lightning, personally taking people to C City, not anticipating that Su Qing would have another fortuitous encounter and move too quickly, leaving just as he arrived.

The RZ Unit was extremely efficient. Following the clues, they quickly found the internet cafe owner, Liu Daqing and his family, and even the construction team Su Qing had worked with. But none of these people could tell them where he had gone. Mrs. Liu, however, remembered Ji Pengcheng picking up Tu Tutu. But when they reached his humble home and had a look, only a bloody bandage and some yellow talismans drawn with cinnabar remained; the premises had been vacated.

Su Qing had chosen the right person. This old fox Ji Pengcheng had plenty of means for vanishing off the face of the earth.

Hu Bugui squatted on the floor clutching the bandage Su Qing had removed, staring blankly at the blood-stained places. It was as if there was something blocking his chest.

It seemed that for a very long time, the center of gravity of his life and his work had been concentrated on a single person. At first it had been to find him. When he had found him, Su Qing had insisted on returning, leaving him anxious once more. Later he had been injured, and before his injuries had been fully healed, he had left without saying goodbye.

Hu Bugui remembered how Su Qing had looked the first time he had seen him. The young man wearing just a dark-colored sweater was sitting in a corner of the bar. The dim lighting outlined his features like a drawing. He was extremely beautiful. Quite a few people had their eyes on him, and he took no notice, seeming naturally dim-witted. When someone came over to take advantage of him, he didn't know it, even happily launched into conversation. 

Some nerve of Hu Bugui's was struck wrong then. He meddlesomely stepped in to defend him. The young man drunkenly raised his head and smiled foolishly at him, stood up swaying, put an arm on his shoulder, and whistled lewdly. "Nice figure. Are you...coming with me?"

Hu Bugui thought that at the time Su Qing had been like an exquisite but empty bag of skin, and in all that had happened afterwards, it was as if he had watched a soul fill up that bag of skin bit by bit. So vivid, lively, even inspiring respect...and a sudden other indescribable feeling—when one person for some reason always, always thinks of another person for a period of time without stopping, they come to understand that feeling.