The grudge between them wasn't all that big, so you could hardly call it fate throwing two enemies together. Still, when Zhang Yahan caught sight of Jiaming she was visibly taken aback — though in the end she didn't greet him.
A few years down the road, a trip like this would be nothing more than a thinly disguised matchmaking game for young people, but this was still only 1994, and boys and girls who didn't know each other still didn't mix so easily.
The three girls who had come together had taken over the back rows of the bus, joking and scuffling among themselves. Jiaming and Lingjing, as usual, sat together, dug out the radio Lingjing had given him, and tuned in to a broadcast, one earpiece apiece.
Of everyone on the bus, these two kids were the only ones who looked like a couple, and Lingjing being so pretty, the other boys kept glancing over with curiosity and envy the whole way.
As for Liu Huaisha, she had snagged a single seat and sat there eating a lollipop while pulling out the newest model of handheld game console to play Tetris. Up at the front of the bus, Zhang Yahan exchanged a few words with the group leader now and then, but she was cool and distant toward Huang Haoyun. Jiaming guessed she had only just come back from abroad and wanted to see what these students were really like so she would be ready for teaching them later. As for Huang Haoyun — the poor guy's nothing but a tagalong.
Now and then Zhang Yahan's gaze would settle on Jiaming; remembering the night before, the brat's nastiness, she felt her anger flare. Then, looking at the two of them sitting there like a couple, she itched to march over and expose Jiaming's ugly true face, so that a little beauty like Lingjing wouldn't fall victim. She was back from abroad, with progressive ideas, and she wouldn't assume their relationship was innocent just because they were young. In England, after all, plenty of kids that age had already gone all the way.
The bus soon left the city. Seeing the two of them listening so intimately to one radio, she said a few words to the group leader, and a moment later he brought a cassette player out of the front of the bus and put in a tape. All at once Wakin Chau's "Swords and Blades Like a Dream" came echoing through the cabin.
Wakin Chau's album <i>Rain or Shine</i> hadn't been out long, but a good song is a good song. The group leader, meaning to liven things up, sang along without accompaniment, and after a moment people at both front and back of the bus were humming in response.
Jiaming and Lingjing could no longer listen to the radio, so they stopped and listened to the music too. Zhang Yahan was secretly pleased with herself; when she happened to glance over, she seemed to catch a mocking smile at the corner of Jiaming's mouth, as though he had seen right through her.
When she looked again, he had his eyes closed and was listening in obvious enjoyment — so she decided it must have been her imagination.
Around ten-something they reached the campsite. First they would make lunch in a clearing in the woods at the foot of the mountain; the plan was to eat, spend the whole afternoon climbing to the summit, and pitch their tents up there for the night.
This was probably a spot the travel agency had picked out with care. Led by the group leader, everyone passed through a small grove and came out at a little pond in the middle of it. Ringed by trees, the water clear, the green carpet of grass dotted with tiny yellow flowers — it was good enough for an album shoot. Everyone took one look and fell in love with the place at once; then it was gather firewood here, start a fire there, and get ready to cook.
The group leader had originally meant to draw lots and split everyone into small teams, but since each person already had their own little group and nobody would agree to be separated, the idea was dropped. Only, as he handed out the cooking gear, he was plainly a bit worried about whether the three of them could manage. The boys and girls around them all offered to let the three join their teams, but Liu Huaisha was too competitive and turned them down on the spot: "Hmph, we'll just see who ends up with nothing to eat!"
Big talk like that, but the truth was that Miss Liu herself was a modern woman who kept as far from a kitchen as she could. As far as she knew, though, Lingjing often helped her mother cook at home, and Jiaming seemed to know something about cooking too, so she had some confidence to lean on.
Once the chores were divided, she went off to gather firewood and build the fire, Jiaming washed the rice, and Lingjing picked over the vegetables.
Everything went fairly smoothly; a moment later the fire was blazing, the pot went on, and all they had to do was wait for the rice to cook — except that Miss Liu came back with a few poisonous mushrooms, which gave Jiaming a start.
After dealing with the poisonous mushrooms, Jiaming set the radio on the grass and listened to the broadcast. The three of them sat there watching a few spoiled kids bustle about nonstop while Huaisha and Lingjing pointed and jeered with great arrogance. Then Huang Haoyun ran to the pondside to wash his rice and tipped the entire pot of it into the water, and the three of them burst out laughing.
The group leader hurried over with fresh rice to salvage the situation. Young Master Huang, relieved of the job, ran over to Zhang Yahan, who was tending the fire, and complained with his nose in the air: this place was so boring, it was like playing house with a bunch of kids, and at home he had this and that — boasting without end. Zhang Yahan listened with her face burning; she looked like she wanted to dig a crack in the ground and crawl into it, just to signal "I don't know him."
After a good spell of squawking chaos, Lingjing got up to leave — probably heading for the trees off to one side to relieve herself. Just then the radio was broadcasting a news item: "At around eleven this morning, two gunmen robbed an Agricultural Bank branch on the outskirts of Jianghai City, making off with roughly sixty-seven thousand yuan in cash before fleeing by car toward Highway 42..."
Jiaming had just stood up to stretch when Lingjing's pained cry of "Ah!" came to him. She had only reached the edge of the grove when a middle-aged man came charging out of it and knocked her over. The man had a knife scar across his face and a travel bag on his back; he looked like he might be a hiker-camper too. Right behind him a man with triangular eyes burst out as well, cursing something under his breath, and seeing so many people staring at them, the two of them froze where they stood.
Lingjing clambered up clutching her sore forehead. Jiaming looked at the two men, and a bad premonition rose in him. In that same instant Zhang Yahan was already the first to run over: "Little one, are you all right? How can you two just walk like that..."
She straightened up and was giving them a righteous piece of her mind, but the two men were both staring fixedly at the radio Jiaming had left on the ground, which was still spilling out sound.
"...According to witnesses, one of the two men is around thirty-five or thirty-six, rather stocky, with a knife scar on his left cheek; the other is around twenty-eight or twenty-nine and on the thin side. Both are armed and extremely dangerous. Members of the public are asked to..."
At some point both sides had gone dead silent, staring at each other. Zhang Yahan, holding on to Lingjing, tried to back away, and then with a cry of "Ah!" she was yanked over by the scarred man, who already had a Type 54 pistol pressed to the back of her head: "Nobody move!" Amid that shout, Lingjing was seized by the shoulder by the triangular-eyed man, and in his hand was a crude homemade double-barreled shotgun.
By now the radio had moved on to Luo Dayou's "Love Song 1990," and heard in that moment the contrast was enormous. The two men clearly meant to flee into the mountains; dragging the two females, one older and one younger, they began backing away. The twenty-odd people by the pond stood with their hands raised and their eyes wide, not one of them daring to speak. Lingjing, hauled along by the triangular-eyed man, was trembling all over, big tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked toward Jiaming, not daring to make a sound.
"Don't worry, it's fine." Jiaming mouthed the words. They had been together so long that she could read simple things from his lips, but that one sentence only made her tears fall faster. Then Jiaming raised both hands and slowly started walking toward the four of them.
"Stop! What do you think you're doing?! You got a death wish?" the scarred man shouted. Seeing that it was only a child coming toward him, he didn't get too nervous. Behind Jiaming, Liu Huaisha called out softly, on the edge of tears: "Jiaming, come back. Jiaming, come back..."
Jiaming took a breath and did his best to put on a frightened expression.
"I... Mister, I was thinking... could I trade places with the two of them...?"