Chapter 9 – Hit and Run
Novel Title: 一屋暗灯 (Ephemeral Light)
Author：麦香鸡呢 (McChicken)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 宋谨 (Song Jin -MC), 宋星阑 (Song Xinglan -ML)
*Please read at sin.Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
֍֍֍
This summer was quite fulfilling for Song Jin. He and several classmates took on small projects together. Besides doing RTK work under the sun, they also did GPS data processing on the computer. In terms of division of labour, Song Jin tended to work more on static data. So he didn’t have to go out in the sun much. After a whole summer, he was almost not tanned at all, although his nearsightedness had worsened slightly. Sometimes, he had to wear glasses to see things in the distance clearly.
Apart from doing surveying work, the place where Song Jin spent the most time was the dessert shop. Occasionally, Tang Min and the others would pester him to eat dessert. But Song Jin wouldn’t touch anything with cream except for bread.
“I’ll vomit,” Song Jin said. “I really can’t eat cream.”
“In that case, it seems that my cake-making skills are not good enough,” Tang Min pondered. “That’s why our Song Jin Gege doesn’t want to eat.”
The words ‘Gege’ were undoubtedly one of the most difficult terms for Song Jin to face. He forced a smile. “I really don’t like it.”
“Alright then, let’s go. Let’s go out for a meal together,” Tang Min took off his apron and the bow tie on his shirt. “Didn’t we say we’d go try that new Korean barbecue place? The manager said he’d treat us.”
“I never said that!” He Hao, who was checking accounts, jumped up. “Tang Min! Unless you have a recording, don’t pin it on me!”
Tang Min took out his phone and calmly played a recording.
It was actually a voice message on WeChat. Tang Min was talking to a friend and in the background, He Hao could be heard saying loudly, “When that barbecue place opens, I’ll treat you all!”
He Hao had nothing to say. He tore up the pile of receipts from the day and only replied weakly, “Alright. When you guys go, eat more vegetables and less meat. Pork is so expensive now. And those barbecue places definitely use inferior meat. I don’t want you guys to get sick.”
Tang Min laughed as he put his arm around Song Jin’s shoulder and waved it to He Hao. “Alright, Manager He. Then we’ll just order more beef. When you close up, come join us.”
This was Tang Min’s habit. He was tall and Song Jin was slightly shorter, making him a perfect armrest. Tang Min liked to put his arm on Song Jin’s shoulder, transferring some of his weight to him, and jokingly calling it strength training for Song Jin.
Song Jin: “You just make me hunch my shoulders.”
The evening breeze of summer was warm but not glaringly hot. The street was filled with flowing traffic and the lights of the opposite shopping mall were dazzling. Everything was bustling with life.
As they reached the entrance of the mall, He Hao hadn’t caught up yet, probably still tirelessly checking on accounts in the store. Song Jin sent him a WeChat message to hurry up.
“Hey, that guy looks familiar,” Tang Min glanced into the distance. “Isn’t he the one who was angry at you in the store not long ago?”
Song Jin’s hand trembled and his phone almost fell to the ground. He looked up. But his vision blurred due to the distance. Since he wasn’t wearing glasses, he couldn’t make out which moving figure might be Song Xinglan.
“You must be mistaken,” Song Jin’s voice trembled slightly. “It can’t be that coincidental.”
Tang Min: “I’m not sure. But he looks like him. Tall and good-looking. Honestly, I remember him quite vividly. He just seems to have a bad personality. But these types of guys are quite popular in high school. Girls like this kind of guy.”
Song Jin: “Not necessarily. A bad personality isn’t something a good-looking face can solve.”
Tang Min turned to look at Song Jin and chuckled, “Wow. This is the first time I’ve heard you say something like that. You usually seem so gentle. I didn’t expect you to hold grudges?”
Song Jin thought to himself; This isn’t me holding a grudge. It’s just a normal reaction to the treatment I’ve received.
“Stop looking. It might not be him,” Song Jin said. “Let’s go inside. It’s probably crowded. So we should queue up and take a number.”
“Okay,” Tang Min glanced at his phone. “He Hao said he had locked the door. He’ll be crossing the road soon.”
Song Jin forgot whether he had answered or not. His thoughts had already become muddled and chaotic because of Tang Min’s speculation about the possibility of seeing Song Xinglan in the distance. Today was the second week after school started and in just a few days, it would be Song Xinglan’s birthday.
Song Jin didn’t want to remember this day. But he just couldn’t forget it. He had calculated when he was very young that his birthday was only two months apart from his brother’s. One was born in autumn, the other at the end of summer.
During the ten years they were apart, every time September came around, Song Jin would think, ‘Summer is almost over. Before summer ends, it’s my Didi’s birthday’.
However, he also knew how far apart and different he and Song Xinglan were. As he grew older, the thoughts of trying to see Song Xinglan were gradually buried. It left him with the only firm belief that ‘he definitely doesn’t want to see me’, which was indeed true. Song Xinglan hated him. He hated him to the extreme.
Song Jin admitted that he was sick in the mind. Over the past ten years, he had accepted all of his mother’s resentment. But he had not felt an excessive burden. Instead, he took it as a feeling of reliance and need.
His psyche was twisted. As long as the other party needed him, he seemed to be able to endure everything. Even if Song Xinglan considered him a brother for just a second, Song Jin might willingly accept and tolerate everything.
But Song Xinglan didn’t see him that way.
***
The next day, Song Jin went to the dessert shop again, in the afternoon. Tang Min was cutting fruit.
“You’re here,” he turned to look at Song Jin, “It’s hot outside, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, still very hot,” Song Jin was about to put on an apron when he noticed the bandage on Tang Min’s elbow.
“What happened to your hand?” Song Jin bent down to look, “Did you fall?”
“Forget it, it’s quite scary,” Tang Min glanced at his hand, “Last night, when I was crossing the road, a car came straight at me. Luckily, I dodged quickly and fell on the sidewalk.”
Song Jin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His eyes widened as he wondered aloud: “Was it done intentionally?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was drunk driving,” Tang Min shook his head, “There weren’t many people at that intersection and I fell on the sidewalk. I didn’t even see the licence plate clearly. The car just drove away.”
“We can check the surrounding surveillance cameras. Maybe we can find the car,” Song Jin suggested.
“Forget it. Even if we find it, what’s the use? Sometimes it’s better to let things go. As long as nothing serious happened. Who knows? What if I accidentally offend someone with issues and they come looking for trouble? What then?” Tang Min’s words were like a stone thrown into water, causing Song Jin’s heart to race. He understood this feeling better than anyone else. It was just like he would never dare to provoke Song Xinglan. Even when the other person was wrong, he was the one who needed most to be cautious.
Because crazy people don’t listen to reason. They won’t let you sleep well and you’ll never be able to have good dreams.
***
The next afternoon, Song Jin was busy at the dessert shop. In the evening, he returned home to the same old house that hadn’t changed much in years. His mother’s things were still arranged in the room she had lived in before. Song Jin still slept in the attic. But now he didn’t feel like it was cramped, because he was the only one left in the house.
He lay in bed, looking at the faint moonlight outside the attic skylight. Today was Song Xinglan’s birthday. His brother was turning eighteen.
The two of them would only drift further apart in the future, from brothers to enemies, and then to strangers, becoming parts of each other’s lives that would never be mentioned again.
In the past, Song Jin was unwilling to face such an outcome. But now it seems that this might be for the best. Some gaps could not be bridged. So there was no need to force it. No need to make things difficult for each other.
Moreover, after experiencing all that with Song Xinglan, Song Jin no longer deceived himself with blood ties. It didn’t mean anything. Sometimes it was an ironic burden, forcing one to endure while the other went increasingly insane.
It wasn’t hot that night. So Song Jin didn’t turn on the old air conditioner. He just turned on the electric fan. His loose T-shirt fluttered slightly in the breeze. After a tiring day, Song Jin almost fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.
When he was awakened by the sound of a door closing, it was probably early morning.
The electric fan was still humming and Song Jin opened his eyes in the darkness, feeling disoriented. Perhaps because the clouds obscured it, there wasn’t much moonlight outside the window. His vision was shrouded in a layer of murky darkness. Due to his slight nearsightedness, everything he looked at now seemed to be veiled and blurry.
Song Jin propped himself up, not hearing any more noise. It was probably a neighbour returning late. The soundproofing in this old building was not good. Even sleeping in the attic, Song Jin had often been awakened by noises in his sleep. Because of the unclear consciousness during sleep, many sounds would be mysteriously amplified, as if echoing in his ears. He had experienced it before.
Song Jin lay back down, burying his cheek in the pillow, with the electric fan blowing on the back of his head. He fell asleep again in seconds.
As he heard the creaking sound of footsteps on the floor in his daze, he was still vaguely thinking that sometimes when he came home late at night, the neighbour next door might have been disturbed like this too.
With his thoughts scattered, he was about to drift into a dream when suddenly he heard a strange noise from the door. It was the harsh sound of the old doorknob being pressed down and rubbing against something.
Song Jin, even if he hadn’t fully awakened, couldn’t possibly think at this moment that the sound was not coming from his own home.
But before he could even prop himself up with his hands, a hand pressed down on the back of his neck, pinning him firmly to the bed.
The fan’s wind seemed to suddenly magnify several times, whistling fiercely in his face. Song Jin desperately kept his eyes open. His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst through his chest, shaking the entire bed.
He heard the crisp clinking of metal chains and the grinding sound of metal teeth.
Song Jin quickly realised that it was a pair of handcuffs.
Because while he was pinned down by the neck and unable to move, the other person had swiftly and directly cuffed it to his right wrist, like a merciless police officer handcuffing a criminal caught in the act.
Song Jin would rather be truly guilty and arrested than face this moment.
He smelled alcohol. He heard the person behind him breathing heavily.
Breathing also has a tone and sometimes you can tell who it belongs to.
It was Song Xinglan.
֍֍֍
*Translator’s Note: Guess who’s the driver that tried to run Tang Min over? -K
*GLOSSARY:
- RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) work typically refers to the use of RTK GPS technology for surveying or mapping tasks performed outdoors, in direct sunlight. RTK GPS is a satellite navigation technique used to enhance the precision of position data derived from satellite-based positioning systems.
Next update: 2024.07.06
֍֍֍
