Chapter 182 - 167: I Won’t Put On a False Front

Chapter 182: Chapter 167: I Won’t Put On a False Front

"Uncle Dongliang, so what’s the relationship between Second Grandpa and that middle-aged man?" An utterly absurd guess suddenly popped into Xu An’s head, and he couldn’t help but blurt out, "Don’t tell me... that man is Second Grandpa’s illegitimate son!"

COUGH, COUGH—COUGH, COUGH, COUGH—

The guess startled Xu Dongliang so much he choked. After a violent coughing fit, Xu Dongliang pressed both hands on Xu An’s head and gave his hair a vigorous ruffle. "If Granny Xu heard you say that," he said, exasperated, "I guarantee you’d be in for a world of hurt. Does Second Grandpa look like that kind of person to you? You’re so young! What kind of filthy thoughts are running through that head of yours? You have such a dirty mind!"

Heh heh!

Knowing he was in the wrong, Xu An didn’t argue. He just let out a couple of silly laughs, hoping to smooth things over. Xu Dongliang knew Xu An was just spouting nonsense, so after a few words of reprimand, he let the matter drop and began to explain the relationship between Second Grandpa and the simple-looking middle-aged man.

Back in the eighties and nineties, Second Grandpa saw other people making fortunes as black-market traders and got tempted. He decided to make a trip himself to see how it worked. If it wasn’t too difficult or risky, he planned to bring the people of Xu Family Village in on it, hoping every household could become a "ten-thousand-yuan household." And so, carrying a thousand-odd yuan scraped together by the whole village, Second Grandpa set off on his journey south, the hopeful eyes of every villager upon him.

Never mind the train stations of the eighties and nineties—even in the early 21st century, they were crawling with master thieves and the notorious bag-snatching motorcycle gangs. At the time, Second Grandpa hadn’t grown his beard yet and lacked the sagely air he has now. With his burly, imposing frame, he looked every bit the fierce bandit, so no one dared to mess with him on the way there.

On the way back, however, he ran into some petty thieves who picked the wrong target. The thieves weren’t after Second Grandpa, though, but a young couple with a child sitting across from him. You could tell just from their clothes that the family was well-off. To top it off, the child had been snacking nonstop since boarding, at one point even pulling out a hamburger and fries. Naturally, the family of three became a target.

At the little boy’s enthusiastic urging, Second Grandpa ate a couple of fries, his first taste of Western food. If the rest of the trip had been uneventful, they would have remained mere nodding acquaintances, going their separate ways after getting off the train, never to meet again. But then the three thieves made their move...

Second Grandpa never detailed how he subdued the three thieves. But in the end, he was holding one in each hand as if they were baby chicks, while some helpful passengers caught the third. They handed them all over to law enforcement officers, who searched the three unconscious men and found five blades, one of which was a meat cleaver.

Second Grandpa even ended up in the newspaper because of it. If you ask Granny Xu, she can still dig out the clipping to show you. It was also because of this experience that Second Grandpa decided the trading business was too risky. He sold off all the goods he had brought back, distributed the money among the villagers, and never spoke of it again.

The rest of the story is pretty predictable. That little boy was the simple-looking middle-aged man from today, and the young couple were his parents. After they got off the train, Second Grandpa and the man’s parents stayed in touch, exchanging greetings on holidays. That continued until a few years ago, when the man came to work here in Hai City, and the two of them began to stay in direct contact.

’So that’s how it is. No wonder Second Grandpa could attend a meeting in the city, no wonder he was so confident, no wonder he wasn’t the least bit worried...’

The three people in the room seemed to have finished their discussion. They all came out together and gestured for Xu An and Dongliang to come over so they could all leave.

After seeing off the old village chief’s party of three and Professor Yu, the simple-looking middle-aged man returned to his office. He rummaged through the papers on his desk and pulled out a document: "Proposal for a Policy Subsidy Program for Solitary and Empty-Nest Elderly in Hai City." The man then opened the document and flipped to the second-to-last page, where there was a supplementary note.

’...Research shows that the vast majority of solitary and empty-nest seniors exhibit self-depriving behavior in their daily lives. Staple foods like rice, flour, and oil distributed to them are often stored until they expire, unopened... We recommend establishing cafeterias for the elderly and issuing meal vouchers for them to dine there... We also recommend increasing the number of volunteers to deliver meals and offer companionship to seniors with mobility issues, helping them with their basic daily needs...’

As he reviewed the document, the dopey look on the middle-aged man’s face completely vanished. His gaze sharpened, and his features filled with resolve, composure, and calm, instantly inspiring a sense of trust.

"’Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant... sells six thousand meals a day... eight yuan for three dishes and a soup,’ the man muttered. He curled the fingers of his right hand and began to tap a steady rhythm on the desk."

Xu An didn’t get home until ten at night. Granny Xu, Xu Kang, and Xu Le were already sound asleep. He drew a basin of well water to wash his face, and only then, while drying off, did he catch his reflection in the mirror. His perfectly normal face was now sporting a pair of sausage lips. In disbelief, Xu An reached out a finger and flicked his lower lip, watching it bounce twice with a WOBBLE, WOBBLE. When he talked, both lips jiggled the same way, but he couldn’t feel a thing...

’Just as I thought. Whether it was the burly-looking Second Grandpa, the carefree Uncle Dongliang, the ivory-tower academic Professor Yu, or that seemingly pure and harmless, dopey-looking middle-aged man—every last one of them was a sly fox! How else could they look at a face like mine and carry on a dead-serious conversation with a straight face?!’

Xu An tiptoed back into the bedroom. He was extremely quiet, making hardly any sound, and didn’t even turn on his phone screen, feeling his way to the bed in the pitch dark. Despite his efforts, Xu Kang and Xu Le still heard him. They cracked their eyes open a tiny slit. Upon seeing it was Xu An, both of them shot bolt upright, their faces groggy with confusion.

"Why’d you fall asleep? You said you were going to wait for Big Brother to come back so we could sleep together!" Xu Le, playing the accuser, poked a chubby finger right into Xu Kang’s plump little face.

"You fell asleep first! I called you a bunch of times and you didn’t answer, and then... and then... then I fell asleep too," Xu Kang said, slapping Xu Le’s finger away. He started off sounding self-righteous, but his voice trailed off at the end.

"Didn’t I tell you on the phone I’d be home late and that you should go to sleep first? You both promised me you would, but you broke your promise!" Seeing the two were about to argue over who fell asleep first and were only getting more awake by the second, Xu An quickly cut in.

"We missed you, Big Brother! The room gets really scary when you’re not here!" Xu Kang and Xu Le hid in Xu An’s embrace, pointing a finger at the wall. "Look, Big Brother! There’s a shadow of a person moving on the wall! Is the old witch here to take us away?"

Xu An looked closely and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The "old witch’s shadow" the boys were talking about was just the shadow of the longan tree outside, cast on the wall by moonlight filtering through the window. As the evening breeze rustled the leaves, the shadow on the wall moved with them...

"See the moon outside? That’s just the shadow the tree makes when the moonlight shines on it. It’s not an old witch," Xu An explained earnestly. But from the utterly baffled looks on their little faces, he knew they didn’t understand at all.

Xu An thought for a moment, then got out of bed and walked to the window. He hooked his thumbs together and pressed his other fingers tight. After adjusting the angle a bit, the shadow of an eagle appeared on the wall. As he changed his hand gestures, the shadow morphed into a running rabbit, then into a turtle pulling its head into its shell. The constant transformations made the two little ones gasp in delight, the scary witch’s shadow completely forgotten...