The Road Home Chapter 3

A note: I realized today that I forgot to include the lyrics of the song mentioned in the prologue. For those who are interested, you can go back to the end of the prologue's post. I've linked a video of the song and put the translated lyrics there. (And if no one is interested, I still had to include it for completeness's sake. LOL.) Sorry, I was away too long and forgot my usual routine. ?

Their hearts may not have forgotten one another, but ten years is a big distance to bridge. Luckily, there seem to be a few people who, knowingly or unknowingly, are helping them to bridge it. ?

Chapter 3 — A Snowy Night on the Frontier (3)

This story was translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only. All forms of reproduction, redistribution, or re-posting are not authorized. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the copy is unauthorized and has been taken without consent of the translator.

Lu Yanchen took his jacket back from Gui Xiao and, without bothering to get rid of the snow on his b.u.t.ton-up s.h.i.+rt, slipped it on.

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Soon two police vehicles arrived on site.

The expression of the police officer hopping off the car had originally been rather grave, but seeing that it was once again Lu Yanchen, he could not hold back a chortle. "We see each other again, Commander Lu. Such good luck for me on my s.h.i.+ft tonight. I got to run into you twice."

Lu Yanchen gave a shrug of his shoulders, rather resigned about this himself. "Discharged from service now. Nothing to do."

The police officer let out laugh. Then, efficiently, he took the thugs away.

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Afterwards, they once more followed proper procedures and went to give… police statements.

When that group stole Xiao Cai's vehicle previously, the people had not known it was worth a million RMB or so and had just dumped it out on the gra.s.slands and then left. During dinner, they showed a photograph of the vehicle to the fence who would be selling the stolen goods. That other party knew a good thing when he saw it and, with a slap to his thigh, had cried, "That's good stuff, bros. Quick, go get that car." Everyone thought they had struck it big, but when they went back, they discovered the vehicle had been driven away and a case had even been filed with the police.

All that ha.s.sle and it turned out to be nothing more than an untouchable fancy, like a flower in a mirror or a moon's reflection in the water[1].

That gang of people had been burning in fury with no outlet, and so they had searched everywhere for a place to eat, planning on having a meal of booze to douse the flames. To their surprise, they came across that vehicle again… Unable to contain their delight, that gang of ruffians had wanted to give a scare to the vehicle owner to get some revenge, and then while they were at it, they would take the vehicle away.

But they had not expected that this time the ones with the vehicle owner were no ordinary people. They were the just-discharged commander of the counter-terrorism squadron and one of his most capable subordinates.

Not only had those ruffians not managed to gain anything out of this, they ended up getting rounded up all in one go. What was more, they had been the ones to deliver themselves straight into the people's hands.

"The people over in Sonid want to catch these guys. Not bad now. We've saved ourselves some work." As the police officer saw them out the door, he patted Xiao Cai on the shoulder. "That vehicle of yours should be presented with a silk banner of acknowledgement of contribution. Ha! It helped us save police manpower and helped the country save on resources spent."

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By the time the fuss was over, it was already approaching midnight.

Lu Yanchen had Qin Mingyu take Xiao Cai's vehicle and drive the three men while he drove Xiao Cai and Gui Xiao back to the hotel. The snow was coming down hard and the roads were slick. Because it was late at night, Lu Yanchen did not drive very fast.

Warm, comfortable air blew out from the heat vents. Gui Xiao discovered after the fact that this time he had shut the window of his own accord. This snowy night in the depths of winter actually ended up stirring up the memories of that summer of her youth. Back then, she had loved to catch rides in his car. Beneath the sweltering sun, in temperatures of more than thirty degrees Celsius, she would use up his gas while, with the car windows all tightly shut, enjoying the rush of air-conditioning on her.

Lu Yanchen fished out a package of smokes from his pants pocket and clamped his teeth on a cigarette, then felt around in the storage compartment beneath the center console. His fingers slid back and forth, searching for something. Gui Xiao reached a hand over, picked up a lighter, and handed it to him.

The harmony and coordination in this moment, where one searched and the other handed, were too familiar.

Biting his cigarette, Lu Yanchen did not take it from her. After several seconds, he pulled the cigarette out from between his teeth and tossed it into the storage compartment.

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When they arrived at the hotel, Qin Xiaonan, in the back seat, was already in a slumber of sweet dreams. Xiao Cai pressed her palms together respectfully, expressing in a whisper, "Commander Lu, my heartfelt grat.i.tude. We'll get together some other day." Once Xiao Cai finished saying this, she got off the vehicle first.

Gui Xiao, who was sitting in the front pa.s.senger seat, unfastened her seat belt and turned a glance on Lu Yanchen.

Lu Yanchen's middle finger lifted ever so slightly from the steering wheel. The meaning of that: No need for thanks. She could leave now.

This entire night of dramatic ups and downs had left everyone rather exhausted.

Fortunately, this day could be considered to have come to an end.

Back in her hotel room, Gui Xiao took a hot shower. When she stepped back out, Xiao Cai was on the phone with her husband, vividly describing this wild night that had been like something of stories. Xiao Cai was an easygoing Northeastern girl who did not take things to heart. The incident had only just pa.s.sed, but she felt no retrospective fear and was even chortling as she incessantly sang praises of "that friend of Gui Xiao" and just how manly he was. "Hubs, you don't even know. His looks are so much like one of those fair-complexioned young hunks, but he just emits this whole air of righteous strength. Sure enough, a man needs to have been a soldier before he's truly his best. Even after just two years in the military, he'll still be completely changed over and become a whole new man."

On the other end of the line, the Northeasterner man protested that his wife was praising another man.

Xiao Cai and her husband had a sweet, lovey-dovey moment of exchanging a few words of banter, and then after the call was hung up, she sidled up to Gui Xiao with a feigned covert manner. "Gui Xiao, did you and Commander Lu date before? I'll be honest; when the two of you were sitting side by side in the car, I felt that the whole atmosphere was just too wrong."

"No." Gui Xiao rubbed her hair with a towel. "We're just schoolmates. We don't really know each other… It was just because we had nothing to say; that's why it felt awkward."

Xiao Cai still felt that something was not right.

But who doesn't have a past? It was understandable that Gui Xiao did not want to say anything.

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As a result of the "great kindness of retrieving the car," coupled with the "great kindness of saving her life," in the few days that followed, Xiao Cai purposely bought quite a few expensive gifts, hoping to send them over specifically to Lu Yanchen.

As text messages came in and got sent out, Gui Xiao would always speculate whether it was Lu Yanchen… Eventually, she became more sensitive to any noise from Xiao Cai's mobile phone than to a call coming in on her own phone… Feeling that if things continued this way her heart definitely would not be able to handle it, she decided to go out and roam around with the other three men who were travelling with them. This place was not big, but was quite different. There were many stores with signs written in both Han Chinese characters and Mongolian script. Everywhere, Mongolian people could be seen, and the people and local culture were simple and unspoiled.

Gui Xiao even went with them to a ChinMongoliRussia merchandise expo and trade fair, but she could not understand what the Mongolian folks there were saying.

She did buy a few things, though, and the person said he could drive the items over to her hotel. The vendor's vehicle was actually very similar to Lu Yanchen's, both being a Russian vehicle that Gui Xiao was not familiar with. The person who would be delivering the items offhandedly mentioned, "Russian cars are relatively better at withstanding winter weather, and they can also carry a lot of things in them."

Gui Xiao nodded. She had finally managed to temporarily forget about Lu Yanchen, but now with this one, simple sentence, her memories were brought up again.

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When night came and she had nothing to do, she would also sit beside the window in her hotel room and gaze out at Erenhot's nightscape.

On the surface, he had been the one more deeply hurt in that relations.h.i.+p back then. However, perhaps only she and Lu Yanchen, the two involved parties, were clear on the fact that that had been a separation that had devastated both sides.

All along, she had wanted to see him again, and she did not conceal this at all.

Yet, Lu Yanchen's att.i.tude about this was also very plain—it was best if they had nothing to do with one another in the future.

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And so she suffered in this way until two days before she was to leave the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Xiao Cai, hugging her mobile phone, suddenly grew elated. "I hadn't heard back from him all this time, so I thought the number he gave me was a fake one. It sure isn't easy being a soldier. He only just now returned a message sent three days ago."

Gui Xiao did not know whom she was talking about.

Xiao Cai hurriedly explained, the day of the dinner, she had gotten Qin Mingyu's mobile phone number from him.

She had not expected her message to be sent out for three days before finally receiving his reply today.

"Hurry, hurry! All of them, his good friends and comrades, are having a farewell dinner today. A whole bunch of discharged soldiers are in Erenhot city."

Gui Xiao's teeth were set on edge. "They're having their own internal dinner. Why would we go?"

"Do you think I'm that tactless? It was Commander Lu who stated specifically that he wants you to go. He wants to see you. I'm doing this to repay Commander Lu's kindness to me, and I must complete the task." As Xiao Cai rattled on, she pulled out the pile of expensive items she had long prepared. "And while I'm at it, I can give the gifts."

He wanted her to go?

Gui Xiao did not really believe this. That night, his stance had been very clear.

She vacillated over whether she should decline the invitation and have Xiao Cai go by herself. Feeling very glum about this, Xiao Cai was wanting to persuade her some more, when a phone call came in. Xiao Cai answered it, but after saying a "h.e.l.lo?" she immediately pressed the phone to Gui Xiao's ear.

"Auntie Gui Xiao, my dad and Uncle Lu both drank too much. Please come quick. Everybody's left already and I can't handle them all by myself."

Gui Xiao was silent for a moment.

No matter what, even if he was discharged from the military, he was still a former squadron commander. He had so many comrades, and they would not actually just leave him there.

Gui Xiao straight out exposed his fib. "When Auntie was your age, I had already stopped making up these sorts of lies."

Qin Xiaonan gave a melancholy sigh. "Auntie Gui Xiao, you're Uncle Lu's first love, right?"

Gui Xiao: "……"

In a sad voice that sounded as if he had been wronged, Qin Xiaonan said, "Uncle Lu drank too much, the poor guy."

Gui Xiao could not imagine such a picture.

Qin Xiaonan rambled, "His eyes are all red, and he's telling my dad stuff about you guys from the past."

Her manner softening quite a bit, Gui Xiao instructed, "You… Just keep an eye on them. It's so late already; I won't head over there."

The words had only just left her lips when she heard, from beside the phone, his voice. It was not very distinct. Vaguely, she heard him utter, "Gui Xiao."

Two words, but they tugged at her heart until it sank and sank, all the way down.

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Gui Xiao stuffed the mobile phone into Xiao Cai's hand. "Ask him for an address."

Xiao Cai watched in amazement as Gui Xiao picked up her down parka and pulled it on, That boy really was a little rascal with lots of tricks up his sleeve. How did he manage to successfully persuade her? But Xiao Cai was rather happy about this. Figuring that perhaps she could play matchmaker between Gui Xiao and the man who saved her life, she did not say any more unnecessary words. Grabbing those few bags of things, she asked for the address and then straightaway brought Gui Xiao out with her.

It was a small restaurant, and Qin Mingyu had completely reserved and even specially decorated it.

Outside the door, there were several utterly drunk young men in their twenties sitting on some steps, crying. A few were not weeping aloud but were still wiping at their tears, their eyes reddened. Gui Xiao remembered that when she was little, she had seen this type of scene before in the military compound[2], so although she had never experienced it herself, she could more or less understand that the camaraderie between comrades-in-arms was a very deep and strong bond.

When they pushed opened the gla.s.s door, it was apparent that the restaurant had been specially decorated inside.

The most remarkable part was that this place still had that type of karaoke where everything was amplified into the entire s.p.a.ce such that everyone could hear it. A man was singing Richie Jen's "Brothers[3]," which very much evoked the feeling of a specific era.

From the relatively dim front entryway, Gui Xiao tried to find him within the boisterous crowd of people in that room.

Out of a corner, Qin Mingyu appeared. "You've come."

That night, it had been evident that Qin Mingyu had not known who Gui Xiao was and had been completely unable to figure out the situation between Gui Xiao and Lu Yanchen. Now, though, in this moment and place, there was something subtle, but notable in the look in his eyes as he set them on Gui Xiao. "Commander Lu is inside. Stay on the right and just keep walking all the way in."

Gui Xiao hesitated. But she was here already. And anyway, wasn't it to see him?

Steeling herself, she walked along the right-hand side and headed towards the back.

Behind her, Qin Mingyu stopped Xiao Cai, who had wanted to trail after her and watch the excitement.

Xiao Cai, slow on the uptake, at last comprehended.

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Inside, near the back door, there was a large, gla.s.s window that faced the back street. On the sides of the gla.s.s there hung curtains—somewhat dirty ones—of deep-scarlet velvet, which were now haphazardly rolled back.

Three men sat around a small, square table in a dim corner. Lu Yanchen was leaning the back of his chair against the window and, in this atmosphere of final revelry before separation, smoking a cigarette. Piled in the ashtray by his hand were cigarette b.u.t.ts of various sizes. Lu Yanchen had actually not drank at all and was gazing out at the snowy night scene, musing over whom he should drive first to the railway station tomorrow after the carousing of this night was done.

He was a jobless b.u.m now anyway, so it wouldn't be bad to drive them one by one. A few days of squatting at the train station should get them all sent off.

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Amid the melody of that nostalgic golden oldie that filled the room, someone even pulled out a harmonica and started playing.

Gui Xiao approached him.

At first when the two men with Lu Yanchen saw a woman's silhouette appear, they were quite taken aback, but after focusing their stares on Gui Xiao's face, they scrambled to shove their chairs back. "Commander Lu, we're going to get some more drinks."

Detecting something, Lu Yanchen tilted his head and looked back over his shoulder. The light and shadows falling on his face deepened, and those deep-black eyes took measure of her from top to bottom.

Gui Xiao was quiet for quite a while before softly calling him: "Lu Chen."

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It had been ten years in which this name had not been used to address him.

That night, when she had shouted it, he had thought he was hearing things.

Lu Yanchen's first action was to feel for the package of cigarettes on the table, but his motions were unexpectedly too rushed and knocked over the ashtray. Likely due to realizing that his manner betrayed that he had lost his cool, his temper instantly flared. "What do you want, coming to find me again?"

These words were absolutely like a huge bucket of cold water filled with ice shards, dumped unpityingly on her in the frozen, s...o...b..und surroundings.

Gui Xiao had been snubbed to the point she was unable to speak.

"Just what do you want?" Lu Yanchen's tone of voice was stiff as he patted away the cigarette ashes on the back of his hand.

There was tightness in her chest. Holding back her anger, she responded, "If you hadn't called me here, I wouldn't have come."

"I called you?" He seemed as if he was watching a big joke.

Gui Xiao was so furious her eyes had become red, and they were fixed with all their might on him. The scene before her eyes gradually grew blurry from the mist that surged upwards in it.

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Seeing her like this, where something seemed not quite right, Lu Yanchen fell silent for a moment, a furrow between his brows. Suddenly, he barked, "Gao Hai!"

"Here!"

Over in the southeast corner was a lad who was about twenty years old or so, and he now ran along the open, karaoke stage towards them. He, too, had had some drinks, and with flushed cheeks, he gazed curiously at the side profile of the face of Gui Xiao, who stood in angry resentment in front of Lu Yanchen's table.

Only then did he turn his eyes onto his real boss. "What's up, Commander Lu?"

"Come." By the dim, hazy light falling in through the window, Lu Yanchen stared at him. "Come closer to me."

"Commander Lu." Out of instinct, Gao Hai s.h.i.+fted back by half a step, a smile plastering his face.

When Lu Yanchen saw the way he was behaving, he knew he had guessed correctly. He a the cigarette package over and gave it a shake. Nothing. It was empty. His temper inevitably rose again, and he dropped his voice. "Apologize."

Against that nostalgic, rising and falling background tune of the harmonica, Gao Hai turned especially bashfully to face Gui Xiao. After working himself up to it for a long time, he finally stammered in a small voice, "I'm sorry, Miss Gui Xiao. Earlier… that was me, um, was me pretending to be Commander Lu. I've always been pretty good at imitating people's voices. I was just, just joking around with, with you."

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[1] 镜花水月 "jing hua shui yue." This idiom refers to something that looks wonderful but you will never be able to have it, just like a "flower in a mirror or a moon in the water," which can be seen but never touched.

[2] 大院 "da yuan." The "da yuan" or "military compound" is a very unique part of China. It is a walled-off s.p.a.ce created specifically for military households and is separated from and strictly forbidden to the public. Guards stand at the gates to ensure that only those with authorization are allowed to enter. In addition to barracks and training grounds, the compounds consist of storied buildings that are the homes to military households as well as their own schools, nurseries, medical centers, cinemas, etc. only for military personnel and their families. Therefore, a compound is like its own large community, exclusive to military families.

[3] The song 《兄弟》 "Brothers", sung by Richie Jen, was released in 2000.

This story was translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only. All forms of reproduction, redistribution, or re-posting are not authorized. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the copy is unauthorized and has been taken without consent of the translator.

Additional Comments:

LOL. Indeed, the style of “Brothers” definitely can evoke the feelings of a certain era. Lyrics below.

《兄弟》
Brothers

#
轻轻的风 像旧梦的声音
The light blowing breeze is like the voice of an old dream
不是我不够坚强 是现实太多僵硬
It is not that I am not strong enough, it is reality that is too harsh
逆流的鱼 是天生的命运
The fish that swim upstream follow the fate to which they were born
不是我不肯低头 是眼泪让人刺痛
It is not that I am unwilling to bow my head in submission, it is my tears that sting too much

✻
忘记吧 若可以 也算是一种幸运
Forget—if you can, that would actually be considered a form of luck
如果一个人的心 只能烧出一个名
If only a single name can be burned out from a person's heart
两个人 要去到哪里
Where will two people go?
牵着两手 就是个天地
Being hand in hand is like being in our own world
一生啊 有什么可珍惜
Oh, in one's life what is there to cherish?
流浪人 没奢侈的爱情
Those who drift and wander aimlessly don't have the luxury of having [romantic] love

△
有今生今生作兄弟
I have this life, and in this life I will be a brother to others
没来世 来世再想你
It won't be for next life; I will use next life to think about you
漂流的河 每一夜每一夜
On the drifting river, every night, every night
下着雨 想起你
As it rains, I will think of you.

Repeat # ✻ △

♦︎
有今生今生作兄弟
I have this life, and in this life I will be a brother to others
没来世 来世再想你
It won't be for next life; I will use next life to think about you
海上的歌　飘过来飘过去
The song on the sea drifts to and fro
黑暗里的回音
An echo in the darkness

Repeat ✻

有今生 作兄弟
I have this life to be a brother to others
没来世 来世再想你
It won't be for next life; I will use next life to think about you
漂流的河 每一夜每一夜
On the drifting river, every night, every night
下着雨 想起你
As it rains, I will think of you.

Repeat ♦︎

漂流的河 每一夜每一夜
On the drifting river, every night, every night
下着雨 想起你
As it rains, I will think of you.

Completed:
1 of 1 Prologue
3 of 43 Chapters
0 of 1 Epilogues

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