The old man was small and thin, with a round face, round, dark eyes, and a nose slightly wider than average. A thick, bushy white beard grew down to his neck, fluffy like a cloud of cotton candy, and a small fringe of white hair peeked out from under his green beanie.
It suddenly clicked for Jiang Wu.
This was the little old man he had nearly run into yesterday at the school’s small back gate. And he finally understood what Lu Sheng had meant by, “Someone will find you soon.”
Calmly, he said, “Not interested.” He picked up his things and continued upstairs.
His new rental was on the third floor. Only the sound of Jiang Wu’s footsteps echoed in the stairwell. Reaching the third floor, a layout with two apartments per landing, the little old man was already standing leisurely in front of apartment 302, stroking his fluffy white beard. Right before Jiang Wu’s eyes, he walked straight through the door, opened it from the inside, and slowly stroked his beard again. “Little Ghost, I’m not joking with you.”
Just then, voices came from the floor above. Someone was coming downstairs. Jiang Wu grabbed his things, entered the apartment, and shut the door.
He flipped on the light. This was a small one-bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The living room was less than ten square meters, his suitcases sitting on the floor. The old man glanced around, somewhat satisfied. “Likes to read. Good habit.”
Jiang Wu stood his ground. He repeated, “I’m just an ordinary person. You can leave now.”
Ignoring his words, the old man introduced himself. “My surname is Li, given name Dao. I am a Dean of Discipline. You can call me Director Li.” He opened his palm to reveal a small, blackened lump.
Jiang Wu didn’t recognize it at first, but soon, his eyelid twitched.
It was an unburned piece of Solid Alcohol.
Li Dao’s interest was immediately piqued. His dark, bean-like eyes sparkled with sharpness. “I was also at Two Boundary Mountain last night. I saw you kill that old bird with the Solid Alcohol.” He smiled. “Did you get a call from the police today? That concerned citizen was me.”
Jiang Wu dropped all pretense. “So what?”
Li Dao closed his fist. “You killed it, which means you’re no ordinary person, or at least you won’t be one in the future. In any case, I don’t care who you are, or why you killed it. I’m just here to recruit you—” He fished a crumpled envelope out of his pocket. “Your Admission Notice.” He opened it, pulled out a piece of paper—the name field still blank—took out a pen, and asked Jiang Wu, “What’s your name?”
Jiang Wu said, “…”
Knowing he couldn’t just force Li Dao out, he set down his new books and went into the kitchen to make dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was Shrimp Sanxian Noodles. He filled a large bowl with live, fresh shrimp for Banfen, then cooked and peeled the rest for himself. Once the water boiled, he cut open the noodle bag, pulled out a serving of Egg Noodles, paused, then pulled out a large, extra serving, adding it all to the boiling water.
Soon, he returned to the living room carrying two bowls of noodles.
But Li Dao was gone.
On the dining table lay the crumpled envelope. Jiang Wu walked over, set down the noodle bowls, stared at the envelope for a few seconds, did not touch it, and sat down to eat.
This time, the noodles were cooked through, only slightly too salty. Jiang Wu bowed his head and ate both bowls clean before returning to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
After tidying the kitchen, he rolled up his sleeves, organized his books, went to the bedroom to make the bed, swept and mopped the entire apartment again, and by the time he was done showering, it was midnight.
He went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Passing the dining table, the envelope lay untouched where he had left it. He drained the glass in one go, set it down, and went back to his room.
Over the following days, Jiang Wu juggled school and his part-time jobs. This routine continued until the day heavy snow fell upon Xianjiang once more.
Leaving the school, he found the snow had stopped. The night was dark and deep. The wintersweet trees by the school gate had bloomed overnight. Under the orange streetlamps, the yellow blossoms looked exceptionally lively, their rich fragrance mingling with the sweet scent of roasted sweet potatoes drifting from an old lady’s cart at the fork in the road ahead. The combined aroma was mouthwatering.
Right on cue, Jiang Wu’s stomach growled. He jogged over to the cart, stooped to pick out a sweet potato from the roaster, and finally selected a long, skinny one. “This one.”
“This one’s good, sweet!” The old lady wrapped it in waxed paper and weighed it. “7 yuan.”
Jiang Wu added a smaller 3-yuan sweet potato and handed the old lady a 10-yuan note.
It was New Year’s Eve. Most people had flocked downtown to wait for the countdown, making the roads unexpectedly empty, with barely a car in sight. Jiang Wu peeled back a small ring of skin from the small sweet potato—still scalding hot—and nibbled at it contentedly as he walked home.
After finishing both sweet potatoes, Jiang Wu caught a bus heading toward his new apartment. It wasn’t crowded at this hour, plenty of empty seats. He found a window seat. With over forty minutes of travel, he dozed off the moment he sat down. A disoriented, half-asleep bus announcement later, and he stumbled off the bus.
He practically walked back to his apartment complex with his eyes closed. Nearing his building, he saw that familiar head of short, reddish-brown hair, and was just accepting it as a sleep-deprived mirage until he fumbled for his keys at the foot of the stairs.
Ge Bei was freezing to death, stamping his feet and rubbing his hands. When Jiang Wu ignored him again, he couldn’t even muster the energy to be angry and just followed him upstairs, shivering. “My name is Ge… Bei.”
Jiang Wu was now certain he wasn’t hallucinating. He stopped abruptly, whipping his head around so fast Ge Bei nearly crashed into him, grabbing the railing just in time. Ge Bei had apparently been aiming for a cool look; his black leather jacket hung open over a plain white crewneck T-shirt. The tip of his nose was red from the cold, but his dark eyes were sparkling as they fixed on Jiang Wu. “The ‘Bei’ from Bei, Nan, meaning North-South, not Xi, the West. Ge Bei.”
Jiang Wu, still carrying the grumpiness of incomplete sleep, wasn’t curious about why Ge Bei had tracked him down. He just frowned. “I understand.”
He turned to head upstairs again. Ge Bei froze for a second, then caught up, following silently. At his door, Jiang Wu finally found his keys. Sensing the large presence looming behind him, he held the key without inserting it. “Do you still need something?”
Ge Bei’s gaze uncontrollably landed on Jiang Wu’s profile again.
Ugly. Really ugly.
No matter the angle, whether subjective or objective, even a blind man would have to admit Jiang Wu’s looks were ugly from every conceivable angle, without exception.
Why?
Despite being so ugly…
He despised ugly people the most.
As he thought this, the words spilled from his mouth. “Tan Yiqian and I broke up.”
Jiang Wu looked completely baffled. “That’s your business.”
“…” Ge Bei scratched his hair, then blurted out recklessly, “I like you! It doesn’t matter that you’re ugly, I don’t mind!”
Having finally said it, Ge Bei breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He stared at Jiang Wu. He had been too scared to admit it, afraid his friends would laugh behind his back that he had fallen so hard for an ugly person! But he couldn’t control it. He thought of Jiang Wu when he ate, thought of Jiang Wu when he slept, and thought of Jiang Wu even while holding Tan Yiqian’s hand!
He took a deep breath. “So starting today, I’m officially going to pursue you!”
“…” Jiang Wu was silent.
At that moment, his ear twitched. Two slow claps sounded from downstairs.
Simultaneously, Tan Yiqian’s laughing voice rang out. “So devoted! Truly too devoted! No wonder they call you Xianjiang’s Most Devoted, Ge Bei!”
Ge Bei whirled around, shocked. “How are you here?!”
Tan Yiqian was walking up the stairs at a leisurely pace, stopping at the second-floor landing to smile at Ge Bei. “Just came to see my ex-boyfriend, and my new rival in love.”
Color drained from Ge Bei’s face. He turned back hastily to explain to Jiang Wu, “I didn’t bring him—”
The answer was a loud click as Jiang Wu shut the door in his face, already inside.
The apartment’s soundproofing was subpar, and with Jiang Wu’s supernaturally sharp ears, even with earplugs in, Tan Yiqian and Ge Bei’s argument was crystal clear.
“Breaking up is breaking up, but chasing that freak? What, deliberately trying to disgust me?”
“Don’t keep calling him a freak, he has a name.”
“Oh, defending him already? He’s ugly, can’t I say it?”
“Shut up! Let’s take this somewhere else—”
“I’m not going anywhere! By the time break is over, the whole school will know you’re chasing Jiang Wu. Sooner or later, I’ll lose face either way… Don’t pull me! I’m not leaving! Ge Bei, I’m warning you, we broke up, so what you’re doing right now is assault…”
…
The sound of the arguing faded away until it disappeared completely. Jiang Wu closed his homework book and pulled out his phone.
He didn’t need a business card; he had a photographic memory. He opened the dial pad and began typing—
137…
Suddenly, he understood what Lu Sheng’s words had meant.
“Someone will find you soon.”
It wasn’t referring to Li Dao.
It was Ge Bei.
The call connected. After a few rings, it was picked up. Lu Sheng’s voice sounded even more cold and metallic over the phone.
“Who.”
Jiang Wu took a deep breath. “Jiang Wu. When would be a good time? I want to see you.”
Lu Sheng recited an address and hung up.
It sounded vaguely familiar. Jiang Wu quickly placed it; it was the place he had been handing out flyers for recently—the Cloud Top Restaurant.
When he left home, Jiang Wu also tucked the envelope Li Dao had left behind into his pocket.
~
At 11:35 PM, the pianist at Cloud Top Restaurant was playing a romantic tune.
Jiang Wu stepped out of the elevator. The waiter stationed at the elevator entrance was surprised by his appearance, but politely asked, “Do you have a reservation, sir?”
Jiang Wu gave Lu Sheng’s name. The waiter, even more astonished, kept stealing glances at Jiang Wu as he led him into another elevator, swiped a card to access a floor, and escorted him ten floors straight up.
This was the true Cloud Top viewing platform, overlooking the entire city center, with only a single dining table.
When the elevator doors opened again, Jiang Wu saw, in the distance by the floor-to-ceiling window, a tall, slender silhouette.
No lights were on. Outside, a thousand neon lights flickered, but Lu Sheng was cloaked in darkness.
Just like downstairs, there was a pianist playing in Lu Sheng’s private restaurant.
Jiang Wu, whose musical knowledge was minimal, still recognized Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
The elevator doors closed behind him. The restaurant was plunged into an even deeper gloom. Jiang Wu clenched his fingers, then relaxed them, and, stepping to the surging, fervent melody, walked towards Lu Sheng.
He stopped about a meter away from him.
As he did, the piano reached the third movement.
Lu Sheng turned. The neon lights outside illuminated the left side of his face. His unfathomably deep pupils were now black again. He set down his teacup and said flatly, “What do you want.”
Jiang Wu let out a soft breath. “I met a mysterious old man. He gave me an envelope.”
At that moment, Gongliang Ye approached with a tray. He set down a hot drink, pulled out the chair opposite, and smiled. “Please, have a seat.”
Jiang Wu nodded politely. “Thank you.”
However, he didn’t sit. He waited until Gongliang Ye had withdrawn before saying, “I haven’t opened it yet. But it should be an Admission Notice.”
Lu Sheng’s expression was unreadable in the play of light and shadow. “You want to go?”
Jiang Wu’s lips curved slightly. “It seems you know this school.”
Lu Sheng didn’t confirm or deny. Jiang Wu continued, “I can go. But I have a condition.”
As soon as he finished, the piano piece ended. Simultaneously, loud BOOMS exploded outside the window.
A grand display of golden fireworks bloomed and shone high in the dark night sky, transforming into a dreamy, romantic golden shower that drifted down like rain against the floor-to-ceiling window.
Soft gold light flashed across the youth’s humble yet unyielding brow. Jiang Wu’s words were firm and resolute. “You must take away my ability—the Death Notice Vision.”
