v1c7 (1/2)
Volume One: Eastwood Is All Stones
Chapter 7: He doesn’t know his talent
Feng Yu was a middle-aged man, who always liked to describe himself as: a mature, sedate, reliable, and handsome yet with a grain of ripeness from vicissitudes, stunning middle-aged uncle who could capture the hearts of the entire world, especially those of the young girls.
He wasn’t exaggerating too much. Suppose that he was willing to take a bath once in a while, shave a bit more often, replace his mouthful of ugly teeth, and put on some appropriate pieces of clothing, maybe even become a few years younger, then he certainly possessed that special grace.
Unfortunately the reality didn’t allow that many suppositions, so Feng Yu was still just an ordinary, childless, middle-aged citizen who did nothing but drink liquor, chit chat, daydream inside the electrical appliance repair shop in the fourth district of the Xiang-Lan Boulevard from Monday through Thursday every week and drool over the occasional female police officers in uniform who happened to walk past the repair shop.
The appliance repair shop always had good business because Feng Yu certainly had excellent craftsmans.h.i.+p. Whether it was the latest model of the rollable crystal screen, the antique liquid crystal display, an overclocked room thermal control, or an electric skateboard for kids, as long as it was a machine powered by electricity, he could always put it back to order.
Good business naturally meant a stable income. For that reason, during every three-day weekend protected by law, Feng Yu got into the habit of closing down the shop and frequented himself in the many major recreation clubs of the Riverwest State. He got to know many of the girls in the recreation clubs and at the same time spent a great deal of money. His neighbors in the district had long known the h.o.r.n.y side of the middle-aged man, so no one ever showed any sign of surprise.
However, none of them knew that during the weekends of the last two years, Feng Yu had not spent every weekend on relieving his male hormones, but instead, had gone to a secluded mine tunnel far from the city. The mine tunnel had been abandoned for many years. Especially after the mine accident ten years ago and the bankruptcy of the United Mining Corporation, no one ever visited the mine tunnel again. Even though the miner’s old break room had been turned into an appliance repair shop, no one else ever learned about it.
Xu Le shot a sharp glare at the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa. After a quiet sigh, he took out the dishes from the oven by his side and laid them on the table.
“Time to eat,” he said softly as he went on retrieving a hot towel for the middle-aged man to wipe his face with first.
No matter how annoyed Xu Le found himself, his habitual softheartedness and kindness would always soon take over. Not able to stomach the dispirited look of the middle-aged uncle, he couldn’t help but look after him.
Feng Yu sat on the table and started chewing the cheap-looking meat, making loud disgusting noises.
“Why’s the buffalo meat so tough?” he suddenly exclaimed.
“No meat tastes good if you leave it in a freezer for half a year.”
With a blank face, Xu Le filled his own bowl with rice and then sat by the table. The two men’s dining habits had turned into something quite unusual in the last two years. If an ordinary Eastwood District resident had seen this, he would have considered them excessively luxurious.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Xu Le suddenly put down his chopsticks and demanded sincerely. “I know you worked for the military as an electrical technician and only became a deserter because you offended your supervising officer. But that electric prod you taught me how to make, man, doesn’t it look a bit too authentic? See…it has been several days now. I must have really scared Bao Longtao. He didn’t dare to ask Li Wei about me at all.”
“Didn’t I tell you two years ago? I am a man with stories!” Uncle Feng Yu clearly didn’t mind the nausea-causing effect of his tone and continued with a leisurely voice filled with self-complacency.
“In those old days with my rank and security clearance in the military, the kind of design doc.u.ments I could get my hands on will totally blow you away. Even if you wanted a battle-grade cannon, I could have made one for you, as long as you’ve got the needed materials, let alone a mere electric prod.”
Xu Le had grown quite used to this kind of conversation. Naturally he didn’t show much of a reaction.
“Will you give up the bragging? Remember that time when we were lucky to find a central control unit for a Mech at the waste station? You looked at it for five days and still dared not repair it.”