Chapter 26

Lin Wuyu’s message arrived when Ding Ji was slaughtering Old Six, which really made one feel very embarrassed.

He didn’t expect that one day he himself would be able to fall into serial debt.

“Did you hear what your Peng ge said?” Ding Ji stared at Old Six.

Old Six glanced at Liu Jinpeng, “He is several years younger than me.”

“Even if I was in my mother’s womb, I would still be your fucking Peng ge !” Liu Jinpeng stared.

“Did you understand clearly?” Ding Ji asked the sixth, “Dig up the money, and he is your Peng ge .”

Old Six nodded numbly.

“Scram.” Ding Ji pushed him.

After Old Six walked away slowly, Liu Jinpeng clicked his tongue with some disgust, “Is he really in love?”

“Isn’t he pretending?” Ding Ji said.

“Can that even be pretended, does he have the acting skills?” Liu Jinpeng said, “This reaction is like, as though he encountered true love and intends to accompany them in life and death, and then a sudden thunderbolt 1 made the Queen Mother of the West whip out the Milky Way 2 .”

Ding Ji glanced at him, “The Queen Mother of the West uses a gold hairpin.”

“Golden hairpin?” Liu Jinpeng said, “Isn’t the Milky Way silver? Why is it a gold hairpin?”

“Then, silver hairpin.” Ding Ji said.

“It doesn’t matter what hairpin it is!” Liu Jinpeng pointed in the direction where Lao Liu left, “It’s just, Old Six this kind of person, is he worthy? He lacks being beaten 3 , he deserves to be whipped out!”

“I also admire him a lot,” Ding Ji said. “Being trapped in the river of love to the extent of choking on water and killing your brain, he doesn’t even have a bit of IQ?”

“You don’t understand this,” Liu Jinpeng waved his hand, “The river of love is not made of water, the river of love is completely wine, and when you go down, you will be drunk.”

“Even when I’m drunk, I still wouldn’t have zero IQ ah,” Ding Ji said.

“Just a metaphor!” Liu Jinpeng shouted, probably angry that he didn’t get the praise he deserved for saying such a philosophical sentence, “With your IQ, even if you don’t fall into the river of love, still wouldn’t be as high as you!”

Ding Ji couldn’t help laughing, “Why are you so clever today.”

“It’s like that when you fall in love with someone,” Liu Jinpeng sighed, “I’ve also loved someone before ah… Of course! I’m not the same as Old Six! His river of love has brainlessness mixed in it.”

“I know I know,” Ding Ji put his arm on Liu Jinpeng, “But your love is a bit too blitz. I knew you were in love the day before, but you got over your love the next day…”

“Experiencing it is just sufficient,” Liu Jinpeng said. “A child like you can’t understand it, that kind of feeling is really beautiful.”

“Tell me.” Ding Ji shook his shoulder.

“Tell you what?” Liu Jinpeng furrowed his eyebrows. While he looked very reluctant, he also talked incessantly at the same time, “It’s just that you think about her all the time, think of her when you see anything, and when others talk about eating, you recall drinking milk tea with her. When she doesn’t contact you, you will be restless, you will always look at your phone. If the phone rings, you will be excited if it is her. No matter what plans you’ve made that day, if she said let’s hang out, you immediately won’t have anything else to do…”

Ding Ji listened to him and was amused all the way, but gritted his teeth and endured it.

He really felt that he hadn’t paid too much attention to Liu Jinpeng’s feelings yet they had already passed by. He had only seen the photo of the girl once, and it was shown to him when Liu Jinpeng had been muddleheadedly reminiscing about the past.

He has never had such an emotional experience, but it wasn’t that he doesn’t think about which girl is beautiful and which girl is good. Their class leader was beautiful and likable. He quite liked looking at her, but he didn’t feel any more than that.

But he didn’t completely believe what Liu Jinpeng said. This person would see a person and like that person, Ding Ji would hear him praise a certain girl for being kind, careful, beautiful every now and then. Every time, he sounded so sincere, as though he was about to jump into the river of love the next second. He had only jumped in once during these many years, and as soon as he got wet, he let the waves beat back to the shore..

It was probably not similar to Lin Wuyu’s experience of unrequited love. Though, the one he had an unrequited love for was a man.

After Liu Jinpeng finished expressing his feelings, he invited him to dinner.

It could be considered a celebration of Liu Jinpeng’s successful employment and his successful college entrance examination.

Ding Ji remembered that the last time he used a celebration as an excuse to eat, it was time for the end of the third mock exam.

When someone talks about eating, you recall drinking milk tea with her…

Tsk.

Sitting down in the restaurant, when Liu Jinpeng went to select fish, he called Lin Wuyu.

“You didn’t reply to my message,” Lin Wuyu answered the phone, “I thought you were going to go back on your words.”

“I had something to do just now, I’m in the restaurant now,” Ding Ji heard that Lin Wuyu’s side was quite noisy, he probably was with a group of classmates, “Are you guys also eating?”

“Yeah,” Lin Wuyu said, “We’re going to sing karaoke after eating, so tiring.”

“Isn’t it normal for young people to sing karaoke,” Ding Ji said, “Where did this old person like you come from ah?”

“You’re someone who drinks honeysuckle tea from a coffee mate bottle…” Lin Wuyu laughed.

“I haven’t had a drink these days, my grandma didn’t make me tea.” Ding Ji said.

“Do you have time tomorrow?” Lin Wuyu asked.

“What kind of job did you find me?” Ding Ji asked, “Why does it sound so dishonest?”

Lin Wuyu laughed and said nothing.

Ding Ji still remembered Lin Wuyu saying “male prostitution”, listening to him laughing like that, he had the illusion that he was about to be pulled into the devil’s lair, “What on earth are you doing?”

“Tomorrow I’m going to take aerial photography early in the morning,” Lin Wuyu said, “For a documentary…”

“With a drone? Are you taking me to play?” Ding Ji asked quickly.

“You think beautifully,” Lin Wuyu said, “I’m going to make money, you’re going to work to pay me back, but if you have something to do tomorrow, then next time…”

“I’m free.” Ding Ji said.

If she said let’s hang out, you immediately won’t have anything else to do…

Ding Ji suddenly felt a little helpless. He was actually brainwashed by Liu Jinpeng’s words. When Liu Jinpeng came in, he kicked Liu Jinpeng’s ass.

“You’ve gone crazy!” Liu Jinpeng glared at him, covering his butt.

“Then that’s good,” Lin Wuyu said on the other side of the phone, “Tomorrow you can wait for me at the entrance of your grandma’s supermarket, and the car will go around to pick you up…”

“But I can’t fly drones,” Ding Ji was a little worried, “What can I do if I go ah?”

At four o’clock in the morning, Ding Ji stood under the lonely street lamp with Lin Wuyu’s drone bag at his feet. His eyes were full of tears from yawning seven times. He saw a car coming in from the end of the road, he saw the car stop, Lin Wuyu jumped out of the car.

He pulled open the door of the trunk.

“These are the tasks you will do today.” Lin Wuyu said, “Bring the bag.”

Ding Ji picked up his bag and walked over. His sleep-deprived brain made him feel that if a police car came over in this scene at this moment, he would immediately raise his hands above his head.

There were a lot of things in the trunk. There was a silver colored bag, which looked similar to Lin Wuyu’s black one, it looked like a big backpack with a hard outer. It was probably carrying a drone. He put the black bag on top.

He glanced at the things next to him and could roughly see them, cables, several notebooks, battery boxes…

“Go, get in the car,” Lin Wuyu closed the trunk door and patted him on the back, “Your job today is to do chores for me, help me get things, and follow me.”

“…Oh.” Ding Ji responded and got into the back seat of the car.

Five alarms were set at four in the morning.

Get up to do errands for someone?

This debt is…

“Ben ge , this is my assistant, Xiao Ding.” Lin Wuyu got into the car and introduced Ding Ji to the driver, and then pointed to the driver, “The big brother I’ve known for many years, Ben ge .”

“Ben ge .” Ding Ji greeted.

“You little one,” Ben ge glanced at Lin Wuyu with a smile, “You told me that he was a friend just now, but now he became an assistant.”

Ding Ji quickly stared at Lin Wuyu.

“Official title,” Lin Wuyu said calmly, “This fellow wants to split the money for this job, how can I bring a friend over to split it.”

Ben ge smiled and drove the car out, “Alright, Assistant Xiao Ding, you should go to sleep first, it will take more than an hour to get there. I see that you haven’t woken up yet.”

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“Ah,” Ding Ji rubbed his eyes, “Even to study for the college entrance examination, I’ve never gotten up so early.”

“Go to sleep,” Lin Wuyu said. He thought about something and asked again, “Do you want to eat something before going to bed?”

“What’s there to eat?” Ding Ji asked.

“Fried dumplings,” Lin Wuyu said, “I just bought them, they’re still very crispy.”

“I smell it,” Ding Ji sniffed, “I’ll eat some first.”

Ben ge laughed, “Eating is still important, you really are Lin Wuyu’s friend.”

Lin Wuyu took a big round lunch box from the passenger seat, opened it, and handed it to Ding Ji, “Here.”

“Have you eaten?” Ding Ji squeezed a fried dumpling.

“I’ve already eaten,” Lin Wuyu said, “This is my snack on the road.”

Ding Ji looked at him, and said after a while, “You really have to thank the country for its prosperity. With your appetite, you can’t even live to be 10 years old.”

Lin Wuyu smiled and leaned back on the chair.

Ben ge was also quite amused while driving, “Ever since I’ve known this kid, I realised the days he’s flying, the food worth for two people would have to be prepared.”

“Eat,” Lin Wuyu laughed and raised his chin at Ding Ji, “It’s all yours.”

Ding Ji originally wanted to be polite and leave some for Lin Wuyu, after all, this was someone else’s snack, what to do if he starves to death if there was no snack on the road.

However, who knows where he bought this fried dumpling, the skin was fried very well. It was fragrant and crispy when he bit into it, even more than the abundant meat stuffing inside. Ding Ji only noticed the stuffing after eating three of them. It was pure meat, with no accompanying vegetables at all, as expected of a snack for Lin Wuyu, who had never eaten smacked cucumbers.

In the end, he only left four of the fried dumplings in the box for Lin Wuyu.

Let’s take it as a token for their long-lasting friendship.

After eating the dumplings, he was satisfied.

Ding Ji just stared at the back of Ben ge ‘s head for three seconds, he didn’t even speak a word to Lin Wuyu, and his eyes soon closed.

When he fell on Lin Wuyu next to him, he saw with his remaining consciousness that Lin Wuyu quickly picked up a small back support and put it on his shoulders, and he immediately fell asleep the moment his face hit the back support.

He even took this time to have a dream; after the car arrived at the destination, Lin Wuyu conjured an unmanned drone the size of a helicopter from the trunk, let him sit on it, and told him that his job today was to test fly.

Then he went up, and after flying into the sky, the magic disappeared, and the helicopter changed back to a drone the size of his butt, and as he tried to keep his balance in the turbulent air while howling, he cursed Lin Wuyu with a string of swore words.

“Hey.” After being slapped on the face, Ding Ji woke up.

At the same time, he realised the car was jostling.

Lin Wuyu held his face with one hand and grabbed his arm with the other, with disgust on his face, “How can you sleep like this?”

“What’s wrong?” Ding Ji hurriedly sat up straight, only then did he see that the car had left the city and was running on a broken dirt road full of potholes.

“It’s been jostling for ten minutes and you still didn’t wake up.” Lin Wuyu let go of his hand, “If I didn’t hold you, you would have knelt down and kowtow to me more than a dozen times.”

“My bad.” Ding Ji wiped his mouth.

“Not much.” Lin Wuyu said.

“What?” Ding Ji asked.

“Not much drool came out.” Lin Wuyu said.

“You shut your mouth!” Ding Ji glared at him.

“Hang on for a while,” Ben ge said in front, “Just this section of the road is bad, after this is the provincial road, and we’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Are you still going to sleep?” Lin Wuyu asked him while holding the small back support.

“No,” Ding Ji grabbed the back support and pinched it. It was a little yellow starfish, quite soft. “You even put this kind of stuff in the car?”

“Lin Wuyu’s car sleeping pillow.” Ben ge said.

“Mhm.” Lin Wuyu nodded, “I grabbed a dozen dolls before picking that out.”

“…You have too much free time.” Ding Ji said.

“Some shooting sessions are quite tiring. The time spent in the car is much longer than the time working. It is not possible without a good pillow.” Lin Wuyu put the little starfish on the window and leaned his head on it, “See, the size and comfort is just right, you can sleep anywhere.”

Ding Ji laughed.

How childish.

Ben ge ‘s estimate was accurate, and half an hour later, their car merged with two other off-road vehicles on the provincial road.

After driving forward for a while, they turned into a mountain road, and soon there was no road ahead.

“We’re here,” Ben ge said.

“Let’s go.” Lin Wuyu patted Ding Ji, opened the door and got out of the car.

Ding Ji jumped out of the car and smelled a strong grassy fragrance.

It was not only grassy, but also mixed with an earthy smell, and there was a little moisture in the air, making people feel clean immediately.

“You carry this.” Lin Wuyu opened the trunk and busied himself for a while and then handed him the black drone bag.

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When Ding Ji took the bag, he was stunned, “Why is it so heavy?”

“Drone, notebook, batteries,” Lin Wuyu said, “it’s all inside.”

In front of his creditor, Ding Ji earnestly put the bag on his back, “Then what are you taking?”

“I’ll carry the other one, the spare one,” Lin Wuyu said, putting the silver one on his back, “The one you’re carrying is my most expensive piece of equipment. If you break it, I’ll kill you.”

Creditors also have to carry things, that’s fair.

“Rest assured,” Ding Ji adjusted the straps of his backpack, “Who am I.”

The shoot this time wasn’t going to be of the sunrise, if it was, they might have to depart from home last night.

Ding Ji didn’t realise until 20 minutes later, they came by car but there was still 40 minutes of mountain road behind, and the shot was only going to be taken when they reach the top of the mountain. It sounds like they wanted a shot from the highest point down.

“Are you hungry?” Ding Ji couldn’t help but ask Lin Wuyu who was next to him in a low voice, a little regretful that he had eaten all his snacks. Four pancakes might not be enough to support the forty-minute mountain road for this big stomach king.

“Not hungry,” Lin Wuyu felt in his pocket and took out a Snickers bar, “Here.”

“Hm?” Ding Ji was stunned.

“Eat this when you’re hungry.” Lin Wuyu said.

“I’m not hungry, I’m not you!” Ding Ji stressed his voice and yelled.

Lin Wuyu laughed, “Was it fun today?”

“What’s there to have fun?” Ding Ji asked.

Lin Wuyu smiled even more happily: “Walking ah.”

“…Fine.” Ding Ji sighed.

“Look all around,” Lin Wuyu said, “Look at this tree, that grass, and the hill opposite, then it won’t be so boring.”

“Mhm.” Ding Ji nodded.

Lin Wuyu turned his head to the right and pointed to a bush on the side of the road, “This is called a pricked dead bird 4 .”

“What?” Ding Ji quickly turned his head and saw the long thorns on the shrub, “This appearance?”

“Countryside way of calling,” Lin Wuyu turned to the left again, pointing to a clump of plants with small yellow flowers, “This one, it’s called Dingding grass.”

“Dingding grass,” Ding Ji was a little curious, “Why is it called Dingding?”

“I heard,” Lin Wuyu whispered close to his ear, “If this flower is pounded into paste and applied, you can last an entire night 5 .”

“What…” Ding Ji was stunned, and took at least ten seconds to react, “The fuck? Is it true or false?”

“Fake,” Lin Wuyu pointed at Ben ge , “Ben ge tried it.”

“Ah?” Ding Ji stared at Ben ge who was walking in front of him, carrying a bag and self-engrossed.

Ben ge also turned his head at this moment, “Lin Wuyu, are you dragging me again?”

“No,” Lin Wuyu laughed at him, then bent down and tugged a grass with some fine hair from the side of the mountain road, “Do you know what this is?”

“What?” Ding Ji looked at the grass.

“Itchy grass, slightly poisonous, it will itch when it touches the skin,” Lin Wuyu said as he raised his hand and rubbed the grass on his face, “But as long as it doesn’t break the skin, you’ll get better soon.”

“Fuck!” Ding Ji roared, and instantly his face felt itchy, “Lin Wuyu, let’s see if your skin is itchy!”

“It’ll be fine in a while,” Lin Wuyu looked at his watch, “Last time I rubbed it, it got better after about a minute.”

Ding Ji scratched his face, feeling like he was bitten by a mosquito. He took out his mobile phone again, opened the camera and looked at himself. There was no change, only a few red marks where he had scratched his face. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Isn’t it very interesting, just looking around like this, I don’t feel anything,” Lin Wuyu said, “Walk a few more minutes and we’ll reach the top.”

“Mhm,” Ding Ji looked at him, “Do you always come here? You know so many odd plants.”

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“Since when did I know?” Lin Wuyu said.

“Huh?” Ding Ji didn’t understand.

Lin Wuyu said, “I’m not a plant lover. How can I recognise so many plants and even know their nicknames?”

“Fuck?” Ding Ji was shocked, “Lin Wuyu, are you lying to me?”

“Yeah,” Lin Wuyu laughed, “I’m afraid you’d be bored.”

“That pricked dead bird, you duped me?” Ding Ji asked.

“Mhm.” Lin Wuyu nodded.

“Then…that Dingding…fuck?” Ding Ji looked at him, “I should’ve recorded you, so that all the teachers and students in Fu Zhong can see what virtues their academic god has!”

Lin Wuyu laughed and took a sip of water.

“What about that itchy grass?” Ding Ji asked, “I really got itchy just now.”

“Trick played on the child prodigy when he was five years old,” Lin Wuyu patted him on the shoulder, “How did you forget?”

“Okay, psychological trick.” Ding Ji clenched his fists at him, “You bastard.”

Lin Wuyu was really amazing. If the itchy grass swept him directly, he would have immediately realised that he was playing tricks but he had set up the tone beforehand, and he even used Ben ge …

“We’re here!” Someone shouted in front.

“Come.” Lin Wuyu bumped against Ding Ji lightly and walked forward.

Ding Ji followed him forward, and after passing some other people, he reached the edge of the top of the mountain, a viewing platform that had been built very well at first and was now a dilapidated observation deck.

“Look.” Lin Wuyu waved his arm.

“It’s spectacular.” Ding Ji looked at the shades of green in front of his eyes.

The hill next to them was already behind them. On this side was an open and intertwined waterway, and a large area of neat farmland in the distance.

“Do you know why I like drones?” Lin Wuyu said.

“As long as the angle changes a little,” Ding Ji said, “The scenery will be completely different.”

“Yeah,” Lin Wuyu smiled, “I only live this one lifetime, if I can see more then I’ll see more.”

“Mhm.” Ding Ji turned to look at him.

“Looking at me counts too.” Lin Wuyu nodded.

“Scram.” Ding Ji said.

Footnotes

a sudden shocking event or disaster Queen Mother is a Goddess of Longevity in Chinese mythology. In one of the folktales, her granddaughter fell in love with a mortal, which was forbidden, so she used her magical tool, golden hairpin to create(?) a galaxy between the two to separate them 欠抽: whatever he does or says makes someone want to beat him up 扎死鸟: I googled it and I don’t think this is a real name? So I just translated each character literally probably referring to bedroom activities