Chapter 7 – Summer Camp
TL: Milaryn
Edit: IlkonEbi

The world is not very large as destiny will always find a way to make enemies meet. When Zhang Yahan saw Jiaming, she was obviously stunned but ended up not greeting him.

A few years later, young people would consider this type of trip to be a blind-date type of game, but since it was only 1994 right now, unacquainted boys and girls did not communicate with each other very well. The three girls that came together sat on the last row of the bus and were being rowdy. Jiaming and Lingjing sat together as usual; Jiaming had taken out the radio that Lingjing had gifted him and they listened to the radio station, sharing a headphone each. On the bus, only those two children looked like they were lovers, and with Lingjing being beautiful, many of the guys would occasionally shoot over curious and somewhat envious looks.

As to Liu Huaisha, she sat in a single person spot eating a lollipop and playing Tetris on the latest (at that time) handheld console. Zhang Yahan, who was sitting at the front, occasionally exchanged a few words with the camp leader and was relatively cold to Huang Haoyun. Jiaming thought that since she just returned to the country, she wanted to take a look at what kind of students that they would likely need to teach in the future. As to Huang Haoyun, he was just tagging along like a good-for-nothing bug.

Zhang Yahan would also sometimes look at Jiaming, as she thought about last night’s situation; she really considered that child to be quite nasty and felt really angry in her heart. When she saw that the two of them look like a couple, she was anxious to expose Jiaming and reveal his true face so that this beauty, Lingjing, would not become a victim. She came back from abroad so she was relatively forward-thinking; she did not think that because the two of them were still young they would keep having a pure relationship. In England, many children that were around their age had already hit third base.

As the bus left the city, she saw the two of them intimately listening to the radio and she turned and said a few words to the camp leader. Not long after, the leader took out a tape player, put in a tape, and Wakin Chau’s “A Life of Fighting Is But A Dream” started playing in the bus.

At that time, Wakin Chau’s “Nothing Will Stop Me From Loving You” had just been released, but a good song was a good song. The leader wanted to set up a lively atmosphere after all, so he started singing it out loudly – the passengers on the bus either joined in or groaned about it. Jiaming and Lingjing could not continue listening to the radio, so he turned it off and listened to the singing as well. Zhang Yahan was silently proud; when she accidentally glanced at him, she saw a hint of Jiaming smirking, as if he had seen through her intent. When she looked back at him again, Jiaming had closed his eyes and looked rather engrossed in listening to the song. She dismissed the thought as it seemed that her mind was making things up.

At around 10 am, the group reached the campsite. The plan was to first prepare lunch in a glade in the forest at the foot of the mountain. Then, after eating lunch, they planned to spend the afternoon climbing to the mountain summit and setting up the tents there to stay overnight.

These locations were probably carefully selected by the travel agency. As the group leader led the way, they passed through a small forest and arrived at a clearing with a small sparkling clear pond surrounded by trees and grass speckled with small yellow flowers. This area was great for photos and when the group saw it, they immediately liked this location. They collected firewood, started a live fire and prepared to start cooking.

Originally, the camp lead wanted to split people up into small groups via drawing lots, however because everyone had their own clique, they would likely not agree to that method. As they divided the cooking utensils to everyone, he was worried that Jiaming and the two girls would be unreliable. The surrounding boys and girls invited the three of them to join their own group, but Liu Huaisha was very competitive and instantly refused, “Hmph, we’ll see who doesn’t have lunch at the end!”

Even though Huaisha boasted like this, the truth was that she was neither anything like a modern woman nor knowledgeable about cooking. However to her knowledge, Lingjing often helped her mother with cooking at home, and Jiaming also seemed to know how to cook, so she had boasted with confidence earlier. They split the duties – she went out to collect firewood and start the fire, while Jiaming washed the rice and Lingjing gathered the vegetables. Everything went rather smoothly and a while later, the fire crackled merrily and they placed the pot on top of it, waiting for the rice to cook. The only surprise was when Huaisha returned with a few poisonous mushrooms scaring Jiaming.

After he got rid of the poisonous mushrooms, Jiaming placed the radio on the grassy ground and listened to the broadcast. The three of them sat there watching the few spoiled fellows rush around nonstop while Liu Huaisha and Lingjing pointed and made fun of them. Huang Haoyun had run to the pond to wash the rice, but ended up pouring the whole pot of rice in the pond instead, causing the three of them to instantly burst out into laughter.

The camp leader hurriedly brought some additional rice over, but the Huang young master waved it off. He went over to where Zhang Yahan was and started complaining nonstop about how it was such an annoyance being here playing family with little kids – if he was at home he could do whatever instead. Zhang Yahan turned red with embarrassment, looking like she wished she did not know him and wanting to staple his mouth shut.

After the chaos, Lingjing went to the edge of the forest to take over watching the pot. She had just stood up when the radio suddenly broadcasted the following news: “Today around 11am, two armed robbers held up the Agricultural Bank at Jianghai City’s suburbs. They stole around a total of sixty-seven thousand RMB, then escaped by car towards Highway 42…”

Jiaming was in the middle of stretching when he heard a sudden pained “Ah!” coming from Lingjing. She was just at the edge of the tree line when a middle-aged man rushed out and collided with her. The man had a scar on his face and was carrying a backpack; it looked like he was at the mountain for camping. He was closely followed by a triangular-eyed man who was in the middle of swearing. They suddenly froze when they noticed the many looks they were getting.

Lingjing rubbed her forehead and tried to get up. Seeing the two men, Jiaming had a bad premonition while Zhang Yahan ran over to them and said, “Hey are you ok?” to Lingjing and, “Watch where you’re going…” to the men.

She righteously stood there as the two men looked at the continuously broadcasting radio Jiaming had placed on the ground.

“… The description of the suspects as follows: there were two men, one of them is around 35 or 36 years old with a sturdy build and a scar on his left cheek, the other is around 29 years old with a slimmer build. Both men have guns and are extremely dangerous, warning citizens to…”

At some point, both sides fell silent and Zhang Yahan took the initiative to try and push Lingjing away from them. However an “Ah!” was heard when the scarred man yanked Yahan over instead and placed a Type 54 pistol  to the back of her head, shouting, “No one move!” At the same time, the triangular-eyed man grabbed Lingjing by the shoulder, a self-made short double-barreled gun in his hand.

The news section had finished and the radio was currently broadcasting Da-Yo Lo’s “Love Song of 1990” ; it was providing an incredible contrast between the two situations. It seemed that the two men wanted to escape to the mountains and they started to back away with the two girls. The twenty or so people that were by the pond could only stare with eyes wide open, all too afraid to say anything. Lingjing trembled as the triangular-eyed man dragged her along. She silently looked at Jiaming through the big fat teardrops that trailed down her cheeks.

“Don’t worry, everything will be alright.” Jiaming silently said to her. Since the two of them had been together for so long, he knew she would understand, but she started crying harder at that. Eventually, Jiaming raised both hands and slowly made his way towards the four of them.

“Stop! What are you doing!? You wanna die?” The scarred man shouted, however when he saw it was just a kid, he clearly lowered his guard. Liu Huaisha was tearfully calling from behind him, “Jiaming, come back. Jiaming, please…”

Jiaming took a deep breath and did his best to appear scared and terrified.

“I… Uncle, Can I… Can I switch positions with the two of them…”

[1] Wakin Chau’s “A Life of Fighting Is But A Dream” – https://youtu.be/Ij0-jMzeZ2U if you’re curious.

[2] Wakin Chau’s “Nothing Will Stop Me From Loving You” – https://youtu.be/HUvDaKBcA44 if you’re curious.

[3] Type 54 pistol is a semi-automatic and are improved Chinese copies of the Soviet type Tokarev TT-33 according to Wiki xD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_54_pistol for reference.

[4] Da-Yo Lo’s “Love Song of 1990” – https://youtu.be/qkCQxD-oe9s for the original video if you’re curious. https://youtu.be/elcW6A–kv0 for a higher quality version (and an older Da-Yo) XD