Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 156 - 5 A Fleeting Moment (2)

Chapter 156 -5 A Fleeting Moment (2)

Li Yan hung the towel on the hook and exhaled.

“Goodbye, Uncle Li. See you, Uncle Li~”

The girl with the backpack, munching on a deep-fried dough stick, dashed out of the door in a few brisk steps, her wet hair tangled as she brushed past Li Yan.

“Finish your soy milk, leaving some at the bottom for whom to see?”

Chen Kun yelled.

“I’m going to be late.”

The girl, her voice nasal from the rush, was already out of sight.

Li Yan wiped his face with the back of his hand, feeling the prickly stubble. He had just turned twenty-six after the New Year, yet he had heard the title “Uncle Li” plenty of times.

The girl’s name was Chen Xinrui, Chen Kun’s daughter, thirteen years old. Oh, and Chen Kun is twenty-nine.

“She’s getting cheekier.”

Chen Kun stretched out the newspaper, muttering under his breath.

“You know, Kun, you’re not even thirty yet, am I right? Why do I feel like you’ve retired early or something?”

Li Yan teased.

“I call this enjoying life. Look at you, ten years ago in the woods at the east end of your village, you were playing kiss-chase in the dark with the girls, right? And look how old my daughter is now?”

“Well, that’s because I still want to have fun for a couple more years, don’t I?”

Li Yan laughed carelessly.

“Want to have fun? Having a daughter will keep you busy, let me tell you.” Chen Kun pulled up a chair, leaning in close to Li Yan. “This little girl is different from a bald boy, like those guys in our office…”

Li Yan listened with a smile, and after a while, Chen Kun suddenly fell silent.

“What’s up, Kun? Got your tongue tied?”

Chen Kun laughed and cursed in response. He chuckled twice and then said, “Before, I’d say one thing, and you’d counter with three. Last time you visited, Xinrui was still little. I remember those days very clearly. What happened, did a misdiagnosis scare you?”

The matter of Li Yan’s leukemia diagnosis was a dodgy subject. Traditional Chinese doctors and such, that was just banter. Relying on the fact that Chen Kun and the others had never seen him in an acute episode, Li Yan claimed he had been misdiagnosed, which led Zhang Jiyong to tease him for quite some time.

“Of course.” Li Yan nodded, his smile ambiguous. “I was practically waiting to die with my eyes closed.”

Both Chen Kun and Li Yan laughed.

Suddenly, a ringtone broke the moment.

“Money~ ain’t easy to earn. Whether you’re a lady or a businessman…”

Li Yan picked up his phone.

“Hello?”

“Senior brother?”

It was Lei Jing on the other end of the line.

“You’re still in Capital City, right?”

Lei Jing had just landed at the airport.

“Where are you? Give me your address, I’ll come to pick you up after I finish work tonight.”

“Oh, on the Second Ring Road…”

After Li Yan gave his address, he hung up the phone. Chen Kun across from him lifted his face.

“Eight o’clock tonight.”

“Solid plan, let’s keep drinking.”

The two uncles pointed at each other, and simultaneously let out a “nah~”.

…

The setting sun tilted westward, and tender willows swayed gently.

A man in a white tank top flashed by over the lake, his chest muscles bulging, leg muscles sinewy like a cheetah as he sprinted.

He clenched his teeth, his face muscles twitching as sweat dripped from his cheeks.

This man was Gao Sheng, a sprinter from the provincial team who had won the national championship twice. At just twenty-two, he was full of youthful vigor.

In his eyes, not far ahead, was a tall and skinny young man in black attire, his stride oddly short and light. Despite exerting all his effort, he simply couldn’t catch up with the man.

Suddenly, the man stopped. The runner surged forward several steps before halting, turning around in surprise.

“Why did you stop running?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them.

The stranger didn’t know him. Why should he care if he stopped running?

The tall and lanky guy looked up: “Huh? Tired, going to take a rest.”

Gao Sheng composed himself before speaking, “Buddy, are you a track and field athlete?”

Li Yan realized he might have run a bit fast just now and casually responded, “Ah, yes.”

“Which team?”

Gao Sheng was fishing for information.

“Oh, the national team.”

Li Yan knew he was a fast runner, so he spoke with confidence. He figured smoothing this over should end the matter. After all, bumping into a national team athlete in Capital City wasn’t that far-fetched.

Gao Sheng was taken aback and, after coughing once, said, “The national team is formed temporarily; the members are selected from provincial teams. It’s May now, and the national team’s athletes list hasn’t been announced yet. Which provincial team are you from?”

“North, Beijing…”

Li Yan had not expected to encounter someone who knew his stuff. He laughed it off and turned to leave.

Gao Sheng opened his mouth to speak, but Li Yan had already disappeared without a trace. Gao Sheng could only mutter to himself, “The Beijing team is a city team… And I’ve never seen you before.”

Li Yan got on the bus, not giving the recent incident any thought. He looked left and right for an empty seat and, finding none, grabbed the handrail with one hand and took out his phone to play “Don’t Step on the White Tile.”

This was a mobile game that tested finger speed and reaction time. Li Yan had downloaded it that morning to try it out, but it wasn’t much help. It served more as a distraction.

Bored, he gazed out of the bus window and spotted someone familiar.

On the grass field, a group of boys and girls in school uniforms were shoving each other around. One side had more than ten people, and the other side only had five.

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Chen Xinrui was on the side with fewer people. She was holding onto a girl who was looking down and not saying anything, fearlessly standing in front of her, her brows furrowed, yelling at the group opposite her.

The bus sped away, and Li Yan, with his arms crossed, watched the shrinking figures of the young boys and girls, wondering why his niece was so unpopular. Back in the day, her father Chen Kun could have easily won over thirty or more people. Every generation gets weaker.

With a hiss of steam, the bus reached a stop, but Li Yan had no intention of getting off.

It wasn’t a big deal, and he decided not to tell her family to avoid upsetting the child. The sun was setting, and he wondered if dinner was ready, considering Kun’s wife was an excellent cook.

Speaking of which, the world really is a small place.

Li Yan chuckled to himself.

At one end of the grass field, “What do you want to do?” “This has nothing to do with you.” “Picking on someone from our class is not okay.” No matter the era, the quarrels of schoolchildren were much the same, though not always so harmonious and often laced with profanity.

“I’m saying.”

Zhao Xin’s expression wasn’t looking good. She patted Chen Xinrui’s shoulder – the latter looking ready to fight injustice on the spot.

“Could you let go of me first? Your sweaty palm is soaking my sleeve.”

…

By the time Chen Xinrui hummed a tune and bounced back home, four pairs of eyes were fixed on her face at once.

“Hello, Third Uncle.” “Hello, Fourth Uncle.”

The little girl’s eyes were round and darting.

Zhang Jiyong smiled shyly. He wore glasses and had a bit of an intellectual aura. He nodded at the girl.

Guo Zijian just grinned mischievously and responded heartily.

Li Yan was chewing on a radish, the only person among the five who wasn’t staring at Xinrui.

“Yan Zi, soup.”

Chen Kun’s wife came over.

“Thanks, Sister-in-law.”

Li Yan shifted to the side as Chen Kun’s wife placed the chicken soup on the table. Having been with Chen Kun since she was fifteen, she had known Li Yan for ten years and was quite familiar with him.

The six settled at the table. Guo Zijian passed a cigarette to Li Yan and lit his own, exhaling a breath of smoke before asking, “Yan Bro, when are you coming back from your trip to Guangdong?”

Li Yan didn’t answer and just pressed down the cigarette offered to him, shaking his head, “With kids around, I won’t smoke anymore.”

Guo Zijian looked surprised and, after hesitating for a moment, snuffed out the cigarette in his own mouth.

“Yan Zi, aren’t you eating meat? I noticed you haven’t touched any meat dishes since you got here two days ago?”

Chen Kun also asked.

“Of course, I’ll eat. Why wouldn’t I?”

Li Yan picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of meat. Since returning from the Renchen battlefield, he indeed had developed a taste for lighter dishes, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t eat meat.

“Stop staring at me. I just had a bit of a scare. You guys need to take care of your health.”

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with my health, I go to the gym every day.”

“Cut the crap. You go through three female trainers a month at the gym and still claim your health is fine?”

As the spicy alcohol settled in their stomachs, they all burst into laughter.