Chapter 113
H IS MOM FROZE where she stood and stared at him in shock.
“I’ll say this for the last time,” Gu Fei said in a hushed voice as he stood up and pointed at her. “You’re not going anywhere. This afternoon, you’re watching the store.”
“What’s wrong with you?!” his mom yelled, finally coming back to her senses. “What the hell are you yelling for, you nutjob?! You just yell at me for fun whenever you feel like it! What kind of son yells at his own mother like this?!”
“What kind of mother behaves the way you do?!” Gu Fei kicked the counter again.
It was a hard kick this time. All of the pent-up frustration and despair that had been scrambling up his insides and clawing for a way out now channeled itself into one violent stomp.
As his foot slammed into it, the counter tipped and toppled over.
Everything on the countertop scattered over the ground in a series of loud crashes and clangs.
Even the little table in front of Gu Miao fell with them.
Gu Miao lifted her head and looked over at them, her eyes opening as wide as saucers even while her face remained blank.
Gu Fei turned to look at her, then lifted his hand in front of his face.
Gu Miao understood, and closed her eyes accordingly.
She wasn’t especially sensitive to sound, because in most instances, she couldn’t understand other people’s conversations.
It was easier for her to comprehend what she could see with her own eyes.
“Da-Fei, have you gone insane?” His mom stared at him.
Her voice was so quiet and shaky it was barely above a whisper.
The cash register had hit her foot when it crashed to the ground.
It clearly hurt so much that she could hardly speak.
She had to hold on to a nearby shelf for support, her brow furling into a knot.
“Who in this family isn’t?” Gu Fei replied, looking back at her.
Someone wandered in through the front door just then—they’d made such a racket that two grannies had rushed over from the clinic next door. “What’s wrong, what’s wrong? What happened? Whoa! What’s going on here?! Whoa!”
Gu Fei turned around. The grannies wore the signature animated expressions you always saw on the Steelworks mob who loved a good show—it suffocated him. “Get out!” He ground out the words between gritted teeth.
The grannies were stunned. “Whoa!”
“Get out! Get out! Get out!” his mom screamed as she lunged toward the door. “Out, out, out! The hell are you looking at?! This is none of your business!”
After shooing away the nosy grannies, she crouched down in the doorway and started crying.
“You can get out too,” said Gu Fei.
The kick hadn’t managed to release much of his irritation and despair, but it did draw all the strength from his body. His legs felt weak as he fell back into the chair; it was as though there was nothing supporting his body anymore.
His mom didn’t get out. She stayed crouched in the doorway, rubbing the top of her foot and crying.
Gu Miao righted her little table, picked up her notepad and pencils, and put her head down to go back to what she was doing before. She wasn’t drawing today; she was writing.
This tiny little shop was not Gu Fei’s only source of income.
It wasn’t even his primary source of income.
But he ate here, rested here, and hung out with his friends and listened to them chat here.
Gu Miao would fly around on her skateboard outside, and when she got tired or thirsty, she would come in for a drink or just to space out.
This was where Gu Miao had grown up, and it was part of what he had thought of as home all these years.
Now, it had become a burden. As much as he hated to admit it, ever since he was little, many things were burdens to him. Many, many things that he saw as just a part of life were burdens that weighed him down, firm and unyielding.
Growing up, Gu Fei had shut his eyes and closed his ears; if he couldn’t see or hear, then he could follow the path under his feet and go on like that forever.
But now, everything had changed. Jiang Cheng had smacked him wide awake. He had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
Even though he had blown up on Jiang Cheng that one time, Gu Fei had never blamed him, not really. In some small corner of his heart, one that he had almost forgotten about, perhaps he too had hoped.
Hoped that someone would appear.
Someone astride a fantastical rainbow-colored horse, wielding a huge rainbow-colored sword, his long rainbow-colored hair billowing in the wind, tears of diamonds running down his face whenever he cried… And then he would probably have to go and beat the guy up.
But this person had appeared anyway, and in the most unusual manner. He’d first picked up Gu Fei’s little sister, then proceeded to face-plant his way into Gu Fei’s life.
Ever since he met Jiang Cheng at the train station that day Gu Fei’s life had completely unraveled, and yet he didn’t fight it. He allowed Jiang Cheng to hack numerous cracks, both big and small, into the walls of his world, so that rays of light could shine in.
Like warm sun on spring grass.
He heard the sound of a motorcycle outside, followed by the sound of a motorcycle crashing to the ground.
Gu Fei frowned and sighed.
“What happened?” a man yelled in panic outside. “Xiao-Jin! What’s wrong, Xiao-Jin?”
To be honest, if Gu Fei hadn’t known the man was Liu Li—his mother’s boyfriend, the one Jiang Cheng called “Ponytail Guy”—and that he was calling out for his mom, he really wouldn’t have known who this “Xiao-Jin” referred to.
“Jin” was not a part of his mother’s first or last name.
It must’ve been her 108th pet name or something.
Liu Li charged into the store. “Feifei, your mom—”
“Shut the hell up,” Gu Fei snapped, his face cold. “Who the hell are you talking to?”
“Da…Fei?” Liu Li hesitated. “What’s wrong with your mom? Was there…was there a robbery?”
Gu Fei stared at him wordlessly, and Liu Li looked back at him.
After a few seconds of eye contact, Gu Fei stood up, took two strides over to Liu Li, and grabbed his collar as the man instinctively tried to shrink back.
His mom started shouting in alarm. “Da-Fei, what are you doing?!”