The ultimate blue sea

Chapter 33-The Vagrant's Road

"Enough," Hu Bugui interrupted him. "Seal the information, tell the searchers to be quiet about it, and when they find him...if he doesn't want to come back, then forget it. Don't disturb him."

"Captain Hu..." Lu Qingbai wanted to say something else, but he was again interrupted by Hu Bugui.

"I have the final say on this. If the higher authorities are dissatisfied, they can take disciplinary action against me."

Then he dejectedly turned and left. Lu Qingbai took a deep breath. "Bleh, Hu the stubborn donkey."

Meanwhile, that very night, Su Qing wrapped Tu Tutu tightly in the soldier's coat. The kid had tired himself out and lay in his arms dozing. At daybreak, he squeezed into a freight truck with the child—the rumor in the jianghu was that the country had a policy during this time that trucks that specialized in delivering vegetables wouldn't pay tolls, so the great working people had thought of a trick: openly carrying vegetables on the aboveboard path while secretly transporting big porkers on the underground.

Su Qing stealthily bent a metal cage's bars and squeezed into the "underground" along with Tu Tutu. Over their heads was a rag blocking out the sky, and in their noses were all kinds of strange smells. They were surrounded by several large pigs and leaning against onions, radishes, and spinach. It was very rustic.

Though their escape had been leisurely, they were currently in the condition of having nothing but the shirts on their backs, belonging to the absolute most unpropertied proletariat.

If Su Qing had gone on his own, everything would have been fine. He could easily have eaten for himself and kept from starving without spending. But he also had the little encumbrance of Tu Tutu. The little encumbrance had to eat, had to play, had to sleep for a long time every day, or else he wouldn't grow up tall. He also had to go to school and study, but without a residence registration booklet or an ID, what school would take him?

When Su Qing attempted to discuss this problem with Tu Tutu, Division Commander Tu was just teasing the pigs, squatting among them—for Su Qing, the space in the truck wasn't big enough to turn around in, but for Tu Tutu, it could just about amount to a little playground. He was indifferent; wrinkling his nose, he dusted his butt and stood up, smacked a pig on the nose, then said, "Go to school? You can go. I'm not going."

Su Qing said, "None of your nonsense. For me to go, they would have to want me."

Tu Tutu concentrated his gaze on his guardian and thought he was making a big deal out of nothing. Like a little grown-up, he said, "It costs lots of money to go to school. I don't have money. Do you have money?"

This sentence struck Su Qing in his weak spot. He was kept silent for a long moment. He reached out to pluck a vegetable leaf from Tu Tutu's hair and waved a hand, feigning carelessness. "There's no need for you to worry about that. I'll think of a way. Tell me, before you came, what grade were you in?"

Tu Tutu followed suit, also waving a hand with sophisticated self-importance. "There's no need for you to worry about that."

Steam nearly came out of Su Qing's head from anger. Then Tu Tutu suddenly put one hand on his waist and pinched the other hand's fingers in a delicate gesture. Pointing to the pig in front of him, which was about the same height he was, he put on a sharp voice and said in an affected, babyish way, "You little money-burning whelp. Tell me how it is. Your old mother gives you food and drink, and keeps on good terms with your teachers to the tune of four or five hundred yuan each time. I take you to make-up classes, and I find you tutors. So you don't get tired of your tutors, I get you three, one each for language, math, and English. And you test last in your class. What does your old mother owe you from a past lifetime, you little money sink?"