Heart Like Brilliant Words

Chapter 14

After hearing his words, Lin Yuyan immediately begged for mercy. He even said a few nice words to escape this disaster. 

Shao Zheng’s van stopped at the intersection near them. He opened the car door and prepared to go out when he saw this scene in front of him, making him slip and nearly fall butt-first to the ground. 

“You- Why are you here?” Let alone getting carried by Gu Yaoyang, he didn’t even expect Lin Yuyan to be here. Could he be “injured?” 

Gu Yaoyang bluntly said, “No.” He placed the young man on the ground, letting him walk on his own before getting on the van. 

Lin Yuyan was a little embarrassed and didn’t explain too much. He obediently walked over and said to Shao Zheng, “Thank you.” before getting into the car together. 

He… hasn’t left yet? Shao Zheng was puzzled as he held the steering wheel and looked at them through the rearview mirror. 

Gu Yaoyang slept in the back of the car with Lin Yuyang sitting next to him. Shao Zheng grimaced. He didn’t dare to openly look, so he only sneakily glanced at them. Maybe he looked at them too obviously, because Gu Yaoyang opened his eyes and stared at him. He immediately turned his head around and looked at the window, watching the scenery outside. 

But what freaking scenery is even outside for him to see? It was just a shantytown that got demolished not long ago because a car ran over it with yellow sandy soil as far as one can see.

“Yaoyang.”

“Hmm?”

Shao Zheng saw that Gu Yaoyang was awake and said, “I’m going to Uncle Zhou’s later to fix something for him, do you wanna come?” 

Gu Yaoyang casually replied with an affirmative, “En.” 

Shao Zheng glanced at Lin Yuyan who had pricked up his ears as he listened to their conversation and asked, “Is he going too?” 

Lin Yuyan immediately replied, “I’m going!”

Gu Yaoyang chuckled as he asked, “What are you? My follower?” 

Lin Yuyan snorted twice, not wanting to admit it, but unfortunately, his current behavior was indeed quite similar to one. 

Uncle Zhou didn’t seem to live on Wenchang street, as his place was even more remote than Wechang street. In fact, it was almost in the suburbs. The van drove through an abandoned train lane before stopping at a tree-lined road, a few dozen meters away. 

At ten o clock in the morning, the sky was getting hot again, and the tree around them made a “Zhili zhili’ sound as the wind blew around them, making the temperature quite chilly. Shao Zheng took out a toolbox from the car before stepping on the steps in front of him. 

The steps weren’t too wide, with simple self-built installations on both sides. Uncle Zhou’s house was on the left side. There was a bamboo and rattan chair near Uncle Zhou’s red-painted door with more than a dozen potted flowers next to those chairs. 

Shao Zheng knocked on the door. After waiting for a few minutes, an old man in a wheelchair came and opened the door. 

“So early today.” Said the old man as he glanced at Shao Zheng before turning his head and seeing Gu Yaoyang. He seemed a little surprised and said with a smile, “Yaoyang is here too?”

Gu Yaoyang nodded before lightly saying, “To see if you can walk.” 

Uncle Zhou’s trousers were both empty. After hearing what Gu Yaoyang said, the joy in his eyes vanished before he unwillingly turned his wheelchair and went away. 

Shao Zheng coughed and stepped into the room first. Lin Yuyan blinked before following behind Gu Yaoyang and entering the room together. 

Uncle Zhou’s house was a bit special. It wasn’t big, but it was full of plants and potted flowers, especially sunflowers. There were many plants that Lin Yuyan didn’t recognize here.   

The light in Uncle Zhou’s house was broken and his water pipe was also blocked. Shao Zheng went to fix the water pipe while Gu Yaoyang replaced the broken lightbulb. He picked up a chair and placed it down before standing on it and unscrewing the lightbulb. 

Lin Yuyan couldn’t help them, so he squatted among the flowers as he looked at him, still thinking that he should be a good person. 

“Drink some tea.” Said Uncle Zhou as he turned his wheelchair over and handed him a cup of fragrant flower tea. 

Lin Yuyan quickly thanked him and sat down on the small bench that Uncle Zhou had handed over.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you.” Uncle Zhou looked like he was in his fifties, but his face had many wrinkles. His eyes were sunken in his eyebags, his hands were rough, but he had a refined temperament. He asked. “Are you Yaoyang’s friend?”  

Lin Yuyan was worried that he’d repeat Grandma Hu’s situation, so he directly nodded and introduced himself with a smile. 

Uncle Zhou seemed relieved as he said with a smile, “It’s rare for Yaoyang to make new friends.” 

This sentence sounded familiar, Grandma Hu had also seemed to say this to him. 

Lin Yuyan inexplicably asked, “Why… is it rare?”

Uncle Zhou stayed silent as he basked in the sun with him for a while. His eyes were fixed on Gu Yaoyang and he looked as if he was remembering something. 

He said that it was around five or six years ago. At that time, Gu Yaoyang was only twelve or thirteen years old. When he found him, he was lying at the corner of Wenchang Street. His upper body was bandaged, but a lot of blood kept seeping out of him. 

If this kind of thing had happened somewhere else, someone might have rescued him or at least called for an ambulance. But the people living on Wenchang Street have more or less experienced some things and have suffered from people’s scorn outside; they have long lost their feelings of sympathy. 

Even if someone pitied him, they wouldn’t dare to go and help him. He was injured too badly and it didn’t look like it came from a normal fight. No one wanted to get into trouble. He had probably laid there for a whole day when he finally regained a little bit of strength. He got up and slowly walked to the place where he lived now. Uncle Zhou was his neighbor at that time and his legs were still in good condition. When he went out, he was startled by his pitiful appearance. He wanted to go around him, but Gu Yaoyang had stopped him from doing so. 

At that time, Gu Yaoyang had handed him some money and asked him to help buy some medicine for him. 

Uncle Zhou thought for a while before finally agreeing to his request. He took the money and went to a nearby hospital to buy some wound medicine and bandages. He watched as the boy applied the medicine himself. 

Uncle Zhou asked Lin Yuyan if he had ever been injured before. 

Lin Yuyan stretched out his index finger that was about to fully heal, he wasn’t sure if this kind of wound counts. If bruises and scratches didn’t count, then he doesn’t seem to have been injured before and was well protected ever since he was a child. 

Uncle Zhou nodded and said, “Then you probably haven’t experienced this type of pain yet. The feeling of a thin gauze sticking to a cracked wound, attached to a newly grown tender meat under it, and having that gauze peeled out little by little. My heart trembled when I saw that, but he didn’t utter a single word.”

His heart tightened as he listened, he knew that the scar would definitely hurt. 

Uncle Zhou continued, “Later, I helped deliver meals for him a few times. There was also Mrs. Hu, who was also kind-hearted. Knowing that such a child was on this street, she followed me and delivered a meal in turn.”

“He didn’t refuse, but he never said thank you.” Uncle Zhou smiled before continuing, “I have met too many white-eyed wolves like him in my life, so I didn’t take it to heart.”

Uncle Zhou said that he had also been in prison before, arrested for a major economic case. He was framed, and after he got out, his wife and family separated. He couldn’t find a job and had no place to live, so he went to Wenchang Street and rented a house. 

About half a year later, Gu Yaoyang’s body recovered, but he didn’t go out or go to school. When he brought food for him, he began to refuse, and his attitude was always cold.

Uncle Zhou took the food back, but he didn’t take it to heart, thinking that maybe one day, the child would leave on his own.

“Then, then what?” Lin Yuyan asked.

Uncle Zhou was silent for a long time before saying, “Then, I had a car accident. My lower body got paralyzed and needed to be amputated.”

 Lin Yuyan’s eyes moved to his legs, not knowing what to say.

“Actually, I don’t remember what happened during that time. After all, I had been lying in the intensive care unit the whole time. When I woke up, my legs were gone. Later, it was Mrs. Hu who said that the money was paid by Yaoyang.”

Lin Yuyan asked: “Is he… rich?”

    Uncle Zhou answered him, “Should be a little bit rich, but at that time, he only had enough money for himself. The medical bills were so expensive and he earned it all together, wanting to pay me back. The kindness of giving him a few meals, helped me…get it together.”

Uncle Zhou vaguely said, but Lin Yuyan was still stunned. Its as if he knew why Gu Yaoyang would participate in that kind of competition…

  After ten minutes, the lights and water pipes were all fixed. Gu Yaoyang washed his hands and called out to Lin Yuyan, ready to leave.

Before Lin Yuyan stood up, Uncle Zhou whispered a few words to him, “Yaoyang is a bitter child. Don’t look at his cold face and foul mouth, he is a good person. You guys should get along well in the future… “

Lin Yuyan smiled at him, but did not respond immediately.

When he went back, Shao Zheng was still driving. He was idle and bored. He waited for the neutral position at the red light, and glanced at the back seat. Gu Yaoyang fell asleep again, and Lin Yuyan came close to him and looked at him quietly.

He looked like there were flowers blossoming on his face.