A week ago.
January 12th, 2025.
After passing through a long tunnel, the green on the mountains lining both sides of the road deepened noticeably.
Jing Lan knew this indicated the signature moso bamboo of his hometown.
Their destination was near.
However, before he could even begin to comment on the scenery outside the window, the figure soundly sleeping in the passenger seat lost their balance and tumbled headfirst towards Jing Lan’s driver’s seat.
“You blockhead… can’t you just lean against your own side and sleep properly?!” Jing Lan’s hand, gripping the steering wheel, nearly slipped as he swiftly pushed the passenger, who had awoken from their slumber due to the sudden imbalance, back to their side.
Seated in the passenger seat was a gaunt, listless young man.
The young man straightened up.
A girl’s teasing laughter drifted from the back seat: “Are you really so eager to get close to our senior?”
“N-not at all! Don’t say things that could be so easily misunderstood!”
Ling Yechen, sitting in the passenger seat, rubbed his eyes and sighed.
“My spirits are just too low. Last semester, our city’s education bureau stirred up so much trouble with all sorts of convoluted lectures and training sessions; even the final push for senior year is exhausting.”
“Then get some proper rest these next few days. Don’t worry about your parents; if your grades are good in the end, they’ll have nothing to say.” Jing Lan, driving the car, said as he rolled down the windows of both the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
A rich scent of vegetation and rain-kissed air wafted through the windows, caressing their faces.
It was currently the winter break.
The Lunar New Year was still more than ten days away.
Ah, no. To be precise, the winter break hadn’t officially begun yet.
At least, not for high school students.
As a senior high student, it was impossible for Ling Yechen to be on holiday so early.
Furthermore, it was generally unheard of for a senior high student to travel during their final year.
His presence here, in his good friend’s car heading to a scenic area, was something he had shamelessly fought for after reaching the absolute limit of his endurance.
Simply put, he had bickered with his parents, claiming his depression had flared up, that he had no desire to attend school whatsoever, and absolutely needed a break.
“You have the nerve to say you’re having an episode again! What about your final exams?!” His father, who had just finished work and was settled on the sofa scrolling through short videos on his phone, shot a murderous glare that seemed to pierce through the screen.
He then seemed to recall that his son had indeed been diagnosed with depression the previous year, and reluctantly reined in his anger.
A ‘hmph’ escaped his nostrils, exhaling a plume of smoke that had just passed through his lungs.
New Year’s Eve on the 28th, school closed that day?
Final exams on the 24th, results on the 26th, parent-teacher conference on the 27th?
Ling Yechen went over the upcoming school schedule with his father, item by item, promising he would return for the final exams.
Just then, his mother returned home, laughing heartily into her phone.
His mother was in high spirits; it seemed she had closed a successful deal.
Hearing that her son wanted a break before his final exams, to his surprise, she readily agreed.
Such a thing would rarely happen in most families, unless the parents were exceptionally open-minded.
If they were exceptionally open-minded, their child likely wouldn’t be suffering from depression.
Therefore, Ling Yechen’s parents did not immediately reject such an outrageous request for a break before the senior year’s first semester final exams, for three reasons.
First, his son had been diagnosed with depression the previous year.
The second point was crucial.
Ling Yechen had ranked in the top 20 in his grade in the previous year’s final exams.
At a high school that, while not among the nation’s top hundred, was certainly just outside that prestigious group, maintaining that standing, he had every hope of gaining admission to a prestigious university.
The third point, however, was that Ling Yechen had not told his parents that his grades had plummeted to outside the top 200 in his grade in recent months.
If he had, his parents’ fury would likely drown out any consideration they might have for someone suffering from depression.
His only hope was the final exams, to return to his peak performance, ensuring the parent-teacher conference would pass without incident.
Yet, this was almost impossible.
His extremely poor mental state had plagued him for far too long.
Looking back now, steeling himself to ask his parents for a two-week leave of absence could hardly be considered a mere tantrum.
He truly needed a chance to clear his mind.
That night, his parents reluctantly granted his request.
Coincidentally, one of his father’s brothers was returning to their ancestral home in the south, and his mother suggested Ling Yechen go with him for ten days.
His short-tempered father and his brother were ‘wine-and-meat friends,’ and bringing his brother into the conversation about the matter seemed to lighten his mood somewhat, and thus, he finally agreed to the arrangement.
Returning to his room, Ling Yechen let out a sigh of relief.
Lying on his bed, his gaze fell upon the disassembled drum kit, stored in its boxes, in the corner of his bedroom.
The last time he had played the drums… was two years ago.
That was also the time he first met this group of friends.
So, he picked up his phone.
“I’ve taken leave. Two weeks. I just can’t take it anymore. I feel like I’m on the verge of collapse. I need to go back to my hometown to rest for a while.”
The message was received by Jing Lan, who had just started his university holiday and was playing CS2 at home.
Jing Lan replied: “Your hometown? If I recall correctly, your hometown is very close to mine. We’ve been planning to go back to Keke’s high school, National High School, to put on a performance for the junior students. If you have time…”
Of course he had time.
Even if he didn’t, he’d make time.
Ling Yechen recalled the feel of his walnut drumsticks.
The only hobby he had ever chosen for himself, from childhood.
He easily persuaded his father’s brother, his paternal uncle, to give him four days to visit his friends.
After all, his parents would never allow him to travel alone, separate from family.
Now, he was sitting in his friends’ car.
The scenery outside the window was so breathtaking that it felt alien to Ling Yechen.
Having grown up in a large northern city, he had rarely seen such dense forests or rugged mountains.
He felt as if he had stepped into a nation called ‘Sumeru’ from a certain two-character mobile game.
Perhaps finding the journey too dull, the girl in the back seat leaned forward.
“Hey, I mean, your band is performing the day after tomorrow. Ling Yechen, you probably haven’t practiced yet, have you?”
The girl’s name was Lui Si.
She wore a light khaki hoodie, and her hair, styled with a side fringe, was casually tied into a single side bun.
She was not a Westerner named Louise.
Her surname was Lu, and her given name was Yisi.
Coincidentally, her surname was the same as the male protagonist of a famous two-character novel, a character widely known for his uselessness.
“Not only have I not practiced… Honestly, the last time I played drums was that performance two years ago with Senior Jing Lan and Keke…” Ling Yechen sighed, as he spoke, he mimed holding drumsticks in his empty hands, swinging them a few times.
“Oh? Isn’t that quite risky? I know a little about bands; a drummer won’t be back in form without at least two weeks of practice, right? What if, mid-performance, your hand slips and a drumstick flies off, landing squarely on the bald head of the principal in the front row of the audience…”
“Lui Si, why do you always come up with such elaborate scenarios?!” Ling Yechen retorted, exasperated.
Jing Lan had actually discussed this issue with Ling Yechen; the performance wasn’t a high-stakes one.
It was even more casual than their first performance as a band at the comic convention two years prior, and the students in this border region’s school hadn’t seen much, so it wouldn’t matter much if the playing wasn’t perfect.
“Just relax. The setlist is very simple.” Jing Lan gave a light tap on the horn to alert a young boy herding sheep by the roadside to move aside.
“U2’s ‘With or Without You.’ The drum rhythm isn’t complicated.
You’ll know how to play it after one listen.
By the way, I asked you to listen to it earlier; did you?”
Ling Yechen nodded. “Keke chose this song? She still loves U2 so much.”
Jing Lan casually opened the car’s MP3 player, scrolled through a couple of pages, and selected the song.
The smooth and gentle intro of the 1987 rock classic began to play.
No sooner had his gaze left the MP3 player’s screen than Jing Lan suddenly gripped the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes.
The car’s frame groaned with a dull thud.
Lui Si in the back seat was nearly flung into the front.
“We hit something!” the girl exclaimed in alarm.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s a dog.” Jing Lan craned his neck to peer ahead of the car. “Honestly! It just sprang out of the bushes. Has this dog never had traffic safety lessons?”
“Dogs generally don’t receive that kind of education, do they?” Ling Yechen rolled down his window, poking his head out, and saw a large wolfdog lying on its back, paws in the air, in the middle of the road.
Next to its body, a fresh pool of blood was spreading.
“This is truly terrible.” Jing Lan unbuckled his seatbelt with a sigh of dejection, preparing to get out of the car. “Now that I’ve killed a dog, I might struggle to pet another one in the future.”
“What’s the connection between those two? Will the canine court convict you and give you a criminal record in the dog world?”
Jing Lan got out of the car and briefly examined the poor dog.
The dog hadn’t died instantly; there was still a liquid, possibly tears, in its eyes.
But its skull was already somewhat deformed, suggesting it was beyond saving.
The three waited for a few minutes, but no owner appeared to attend to it.
Jing Lan explained that this dog was huge, and if a large truck were to run over it, the wheels could skid, potentially causing a major accident.
This area was abundant in timber and agricultural products, and overloaded trucks were constantly on the move, day and night.
Just then, a truck laden with plump pigs slowly drove past.
“So, it would be better to move the dog’s body to the roadside.”
No sooner said than done.
Once the two young men confirmed the dog posed no threat, they picked up thick branches from the roadside and leveraged the dying dog to the shoulder.
Afterward, they used some tissues and bottled water to clean their hands.
Starting the car and pressing the accelerator, the three drove away.
“I can’t shake the feeling we just committed a murder…” Ling Yechen sighed softly.
Lui Si, however, flashed a mischievous grin. “Perhaps the dog’s vengeful spirit will come tonight to seek revenge, clinging to Little Lanlan’s hand, making his hand once again…”
Ling Yechen, for some reason, blurted out uncontrollably: “Don’t make jokes about Senior Jing Lan!”
“Ah!” Lui Si gasped, slightly startled.
She quickly realized that what she had intended to say was indeed inappropriate.
Jing Lan had once suffered from peripheral neuropathy, which caused his right arm to be almost completely paralyzed before the college entrance exams, forcing him to complete his exams with his left hand.
His grades, naturally, were a complete mess.
And because he couldn’t be sure if he would recover, he didn’t dare repeat the year.
Ling Yechen, as the band’s “temporary hired drummer,” and Lui Si, as the “fan club leader,” both knew about this.
This incident also had some connection to Ling Yechen joining Jing Lan and Keke’s band, but that detail will be set aside for now.
In any case, Lui Si had probably been spending too much time on Tieba forums lately, becoming a bit too fond of dark humor.
This particular joke was indeed ill-timed.
However, Jing Lan waved his hand, signaling Ling Yechen not to dwell on it too much.
“It’s fine. I don’t care anymore. What we need to solve now is your problem. How to get you back on your feet.”
“Mhm! That’s right, Little Ye will definitely find his own strength through music and emerge from the shadows of fate. So, let’s form a band with Senior Jing Lan and Keke for life!” Since Jing Lan didn’t mind, Lui Si took the opportunity to lean into a cliché from a music-themed anime.
“That’s enough! Still going!”
The journey returned to laughter and cheer.
It seemed the poor dog’s blood had not brought too much sorrow.
However, before the enthusiasm of their laughter cooled, the car arrived at a small town along the road called Mengli.
The place names here, derived from minority languages, often began with the character ‘Meng.’
Jing Lan parked the car in front of a very dilapidated brick-and-tile house by the roadside.
If not for the plaque above the door, inscribed with the four characters “Baoguo Restaurant,” no one would have taken it for an eatery.
The owner, Lü Baoguo, was an old comrade in his sixties.
He was very familiar with Jing Lan’s relatives here.
However, it had been over ten years since he last saw Jing Lan, so it took him half a minute to recognize the almost 1.8-meter-tall 19-year-old as the ‘Little Dragon Cub’ (a local ethnic dialect’s term of endearment for boys) who used to follow him up the mountain to dig bamboo rats, responsible for pouring water into the rat holes.
Uncle Baoguo chided Jing Lan for not notifying him sooner, saying he didn’t have anything good to treat these children with now.
“But Old Dao, who sells ‘Haoluosuo’ next door, just steamed a batch, I think. I’ll go get some for you all to eat.”
“What is ‘Haoluosuo’?” Ling Yechen asked.
“It’s a glutinous rice cake, wrapped in banana leaves, with brown sugar and peanuts. Delicious!” the uncle chuckled.
Just as he was speaking, a capable young man in a white shirt walked in and asked the uncle, “Uncle Lü, have you seen my Wangcai? He left yesterday and hasn’t returned since.”