SAYE [Run Freely]

Chapter 2

Jiang Cheng looked him in the eye for a moment before he pulled down his mask: "Don't slap my back."

Li Bao Guo's home was situated on an old, small street with little shops of every kind on either side. They were crippled yet full of vitality and breadths of life—food, clothes, and products for daily use were all available with low lying apartment buildings sited on top of the shops.

Jiang Cheng raised his head to look past the intersecting electrical cords hanging above only to see the walls. The original color of the exterior walls was impossible to decipher, especially whether the dark gloomy color came from the sky outside or if they were originally like that.

With a heart full of feelings, he could not quite place, he followed Li Bao Guo into a hallway. They cut through a few piles of miscellaneous objects, vegetables and came to a full stop in front of a door at the innermost side of the first floor.

"The environment here definitely can't compare to the one you were previously in," Li Bao Guo said as he opened the door. "But what's mine is yours!"

Jiang Cheng did not say anything as he glanced at the hallway in which a light bulb was covered by spider webs. He could virtually feel the bulb being suffocated until it was unable to breathe.

"What's mine is yours!" Li Bao Guo opened the door, turned around, and patted his shoulder heavily. "What's yours is mine! That's the relationship between a father and a son!"

"I told you, don't touch me." Jiang Cheng said, rather irritated.

"Yo," Li Bao Guo walked into the room and turned on the light. "You've really been spoiled rotten, talking to an elder like that. Let me tell you, I've never spoiled your brother and sister before. If you had grown up at home this whole time, I would've fixed you up with some beatings...come, you'll sleep in this room...this room was previously your brother's..."

Jiang Cheng did not listen to what Li Bao Guo had to say as he dragged his suitcase into the room. Seeing that this apartment was only a two-bedroom unit, it really did make one wonder how a large family was previously able to live in such a small space.

The room that was supposedly 'cleaned and arranged'...was probably not cleaned. Without so much a glance inside and just merely smelling the odor, one could easily deduce that the dust particles in the air were mingled with a mild taste of mold.

Inside was an old wardrobe, a study table and a frame-rack bed piled with miscellaneous junk on the upper level. However, the lower level was clean with the bedsheet and quilt newly washed.

"Leave your things in here and arrange them tomorrow," Li Bao Guo said. "Let us father and son have a drink."

"Drink what?" Jiang Cheng stared blankly and then took a glimpse at his phone; it was almost ten o'clock.

"Alcohol." Li Bao Guo looked at him, "We haven't seen each other for the past ten years or so. It's only natural that we have to have a drink to celebrate this occasion!"

"...No," Jiang Cheng was a bit speechless, "I don't want to drink."

"You don't want to drink?" Li Bao Guo's eyes grew in diameter. After he stared intently at him for a few seconds, his eyes finally contracted, and a smile appeared instead, "Don't tell me you haven't had a drink before? You're already in high school..."

"I don't want to drink," Jiang Cheng interrupted him. "I want to sleep."

"Sleep?" Li Bao Guo froze, somewhat perplexed at such a demand. However, he did not question further and instead turned around to leave while simultaneously uttering some words with his hoarse voice. "Sure, sure, sure, you can sleep, sleep."