v1c5 (1/2)
Volume One: Eastwood Is All Stones
Chapter 5: A finger in the night wind
“Xu Le is willing to see you only because your mom raised him for two years after the mining accident. He is grateful…. But you must clearly understand that he is one who doesn’t like to cause trouble. Better let the words you hear rot inside your tummy.”
Having returned to the apartment building of the Bell-Tower Street, Li Wei shot a threatening stare at Little Qiang, still feeling a bit worried. The boy was, after all, just a ten-year-old kid. What if he spilled the words out inadvertently?
The little fellow showed a puckered mouth and was almost scared to tears by Li Wei’s stern stare. Li Wei’s eyes always appeared clear and adorable, but every orphan hanging around the Bell-Tower Street knew how cruel and merciless the sixteen-year-old chief could become.
The metal shaft was no longer in Li Wei’s hands. He had probably hidden it somewhere. His hands now held a beer bottle and continued pouring beer down his throat. He sat under the street light and hummed the tune of a folk song, looking quite content. The little fellow gave him a timid peek, and then hesitated for a while, but the question still burst out eventually.
“Brother Le rarely comes back to the Bell-Tower Street in the last two years. What on earth is he doing?”
“Who knows? The bloke always fancied craftsmans.h.i.+p since he was little. Who’d have thought he could be so brutal. Do you still remember that thing we saw that year?” Li Wei gulped down a mouthful of beer and gasped in admiration.
“I was only five back then. I don’t remember a thing now.”
The little fellow licked his lips as he cast a side glance at the beer bottle in Li Wei’s grip, looking quite curious. The lives of the orphans in the Eastwood Grand District were generally worriless, only that finding drinks that contained alcohol had always been difficult. And liquors in the black market were simply way too expensive.
“That’s right. I was only eleven, myself. Xu Le was only ten at that time.”
Li Wei threw the empty beer bottle onto the garbage pile under the street light not far from him and took a deep breath. His young and puerile face seemed to have been gradually taken over by traces of numbness.
“If that thing never happened ten years ago, we’d probably still be in school. We might even have earned our professional certificate and made it into the Riverwest University…heck…we might even go to the Capital Star as exchange students.”
The street light cast long shadows behind the two boys, one tall and one short, and the shadows draped over the garbage piles in a distance. A black cat quietly walked by in the dark shadows. No matter how wide his yellow pupils dilated, once again, he didn’t see any mouse. The entire surroundings were submerged in desolation and deathly stillness.
……
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The mining accident ten years ago had buried underground over three hundred miners. What made it worse was when the collapse also reached the temporary residence complex. Many visiting relatives also became unfortunate victims and countless families were brutally broken apart.
The accident shocked the entire Federation. Such disastrous tragedy and large death toll in a society with super advanced technology resulted in the dismissal of many government officials. Top officials of the Department of Homeland Security and the Governor of the Riverwest State all resigned under the immense pressure of the news media. Three officials ended up with criminal charges. Even the Deputy Secretary in charge of safety and security of the Eastwood Grand District was sentenced to four years of jail time.
The aftermath reactions of the Federation government and the justice system were indeed swift and strict. But the perished lives were lost forever. The severe mining accident gave the final heavy blow to the mining industry of the Eastwood Grand District, which was already on the brink of crumple and was just hanging by a thread. The United Mining Corporation filed bankruptcy and was soon taken over by the Federation government.
This event had deep impacts on many future government policies, but few gave any thought to the fact that the deepest impacts were really about the lives of the many orphans.
……
……
The orphans who partic.i.p.ated in the rally at the Bell-Tower Street during the day were all victims of this mining accident. Li Wei was one of them, so was the little fellow, and so was Xu Le.
Xu Le was one of the many orphans resulted from the mining accident. To be more precise, he was an oddball among the orphans. Over the years he never cast admiring glances at the swaggering gang leaders on the streets. His favorite activity was to sit in the grocery store by the street corner and watch others repair electronic appliances.
He didn’t look muscular, sinister, ruthless or callous. In fact his face always carried a slight smile, as though nothing could bother him no matter how difficult the situation was.
Strangely, none of the fight-eager orphans dared to provoke him. It almost seemed as if orphans of the three streets actually respected him. The respect was probably largely due to Li Wei’s sincere respect for him.