Echoes of Lotus District | Chapter 54 | A Desperate Standoff | Novela.app

At three in the afternoon, the three of them, plus a chubby man named Wang Qiyi, were squatting outside the office of a cable factory. The office was a nondescript three-story building with no sense of design. Outside was a stretch of bare concrete, lacking even a decorative flowerbed to keep up appearances. They squatted under the blazing sun like four mangy dogs of varying sizes, tongues out and panting for breath. Wang Qiyi was a heavy man with a large belly and a natural aversion to heat. After standing in the sun for several hours, his sweat wasn't just pouring—it was a torrential downpour. His vision was beginning to blur, and he felt lightheaded, fearing he might collapse at any moment. Clutching a handkerchief, he wiped his brow incessantly. His lips were pale as he pleaded with Qi Lian, "Boss Qi, business is just business. It’s not worth risking your life over. You’ve seen it yourself—it’s not that I’m lying to you, and it’s not that the factory doesn’t want the work. There’s truly no other way. Squatting here won't do any good." "I don't know if it'll do any good, but I do know that if I go back without the goods, I might as well be dead. So, I’m staying right here. We have a contract, and I’m not being unreasonable—I’m just waiting for the goods you promised me." Wang Qiyi wiped his face again. The coarse cloth handkerchief was so soaked he could have wrung water out of it. In his fifty-odd years of life, he had never encountered a young man like this. He was immune to both persuasion and threats. For the past few hours, he had repeated that single sentence over and over, after practically dragging Wang Qiyi from his shop to the factory. Wang Qiyi was merely a distributor; he didn't call the shots at this plant. They gave him a bit of face by calling him "Old Wang" only because they had worked together for over a decade. He had no power to influence their production schedule, especially for such high-demand items. He had talked until his throat was raw, but they didn't believe him. They had forced him into a car and driven over an hour to get here. The office staff had met them once, dismissed them with a few cold, indifferent remarks, and sent them away. Qi Lian had simply said, "I need those cables. I can't go back without them. I'll wait right here." And so, the three of them truly squatted by the entrance and refused to budge. Passersby looked at them as if they were fools. Qi Lian’s clothes were completely drenched, and the ground beneath his feet was stained dark with sweat. Wang Qiyi couldn't take it anymore. He had no choice but to steel himself and head back into the office to try and sweet-talk them again. Watching his rotund figure waddle away, Qi Shuai lowered his voice and said, "Shit, how long are we going to squat here? If we keep this up, what if something actually happens to us?" Qi Lian was staring at a line of ants on the ground carrying something black and indistinguishable. He wiped the sweat away before it could sting his eyes and whispered back, "It’s better if something happens. If one of us faints, it’ll be easier to handle. If nothing happens in an hour, one of you just drop to the ground. Make it look convincing." Jiang Yuan looked at Qi Lian. "Fainting is easy. The problem is, if they really don't have the stock, even a god couldn't help us." Qi Lian squinted at his surroundings and curled his lip. "A big factory like this wouldn't go without hoarding raw materials. It’s impossible for them not to have a single meter of cable. When we arrived and I said I was going to the restroom, I took the chance to look around. Their workshops are in normal production, and there are trucks waiting to be loaded. They can't possibly be unable to spare an amount as small as ours." Qi Shuai spat on the ground. "Shit, then that’s fine. We’ll hold out to the bitter end." Wang Qiyi’s heavy frame emerged from the doorway. He sighed and leaned weakly against the wall, looking as though he had failed yet again. Before Qi Lian and the others could fake a collapse, Wang Qiyi reached his limit first. His eyes rolled back, his body went limp, and he slid toward the ground. Qi Lian lunged forward with lightning speed to catch him, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Someone’s fainted! A man is dying here!" Qi Shuai and Jiang Yuan caught on instantly and began hollering as well. In a moment, a crowd gathered, and the entrance descended into chaos. They followed Wang Qiyi as he was carried into an empty meeting room. Someone from the factory brought them each a bottle of water and made them all drink a vial of liquid heatstroke medicine. By then, the sun had begun to set. The crowd eventually dispersed, leaving the four of them alone. No one came out to give them an answer. Suddenly, Jiang Yuan’s phone rang. His expression shifted instantly. He bolted upright, stammering incoherently, "What? And now? Okay, I understand." Qi Lian and Qi Shuai both stared at him. He hung up and wiped his face with a large hand, looking torn. "Speak," Qi Lian commanded. "My mom said He Mei started bleeding this afternoon. She’s in the hospital now. The doctor says it’s a threatened miscarriage." Qi Lian didn't say anything else; he simply urged him, "Then get back there. Go now. Take the car." Jiang Yuan was frantic, torn between his loyalty to his friends and his family. He felt like he was abandoning them. "Qi Lian..." Qi Lian cursed at him. "Stop being so damn indecisive. You only have one wife. No matter how big the trouble is here, it’s nothing compared to her. Get going, or you’ll never hear the end of it for the rest of your life." After Jiang Yuan drove away, Qi Lian and Qi Shuai found a small, thirty-yuan-a-night inn nearby to stay the night. The room had no air conditioning. It was so hot that every time they turned over, they broke into a fresh sweat. Mosquitoes buzzed incessantly, biting them without mercy. The next morning, they rose before dawn; the wretched room was simply unbearable. Qi Lian specifically instructed Qi Shuai, "Don't wash your face. Don't shave." They ate a couple of fried dough sticks nearby and returned to the cable factory to squat by the wall, looking disheveled and scruffy. This time, without Wang Qiyi, the security guard wouldn't let them through the main gate. They simply squatted right at the entrance. Before long, workers began trickling in for their shifts. Qi Shuai joked with a grin, "Hey, brother, what do you think about working here?" A moment later, he added, "Look, a beauty just walked in. That skin, those curves... tsk tsk." Qi Lian shot him a look. "Never seen a woman before?" Unabashed, Qi Shuai replied, "I've seen 'em, I just don't have your level of class." He glanced at Qi Lian and added, "You've got a goddess to serve at home." Qi Lian squinted at the sun as it climbed into the sky. A hint of a smile touched his eyes, and the tension he had carried for a day and a night eased slightly. He was truly exhausted; after two days of only a few hours of sleep, even a man made of iron would start to flag. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Yu Mo: *What did you have for breakfast?* Fortunately, they didn't have to wait much longer. A man with a face so narrow it was the same width as his neck came over to lead them to the office. *** Back in Jinning, He Mei had been in the hospital for two days. The bleeding had stopped, and the doctor cleared her to go home for observation. Jiang Yuan had arrived in Jinning that first night. Looking like a mess, he hadn't even gone home, staying in the hospital room the entire time. Whether He Mei needed to use the restroom or go for a check-up, he carried her everywhere. Her feet never touched the ground. The other patients in the ward watched them with envy, and He Mei felt a flicker of the romance they’d had before they were married. Since she had stopped quarreling with Jiang Yuan, she had put on a little weight. She was no longer as thin as kindling, and a rosy hue had returned to her cheeks. She looked like a well-cared-for young woman. She felt a sense of relief in her heart, and the world seemed wide and bright again. This child hadn't been planned. After they had rediscovered their intimacy, Jiang Yuan had been inseparable from her. One night, in the heat of the moment, he had blurted out, "Give me another child." She hadn't really thought about it and had wanted to refuse, but in her state of infatuation, she felt she would do anything for this man. That moment of hesitation was all it took. Fortunately, the baby wasn't troublesome. She hadn't felt any discomfort at all, until this episode of bleeding. The incident had been triggered by Qiqi. He had been pushed off a stool at school and hit the back of his head on the floor. When the teacher from his extracurricular class called her, she had been scared out of her wits. Qiqi was her life. For the past few years, she had poured all her focus into her son; he was her entire world, the sole recipient of her affection. She had rushed over and had a massive row with the parents of the boy who had pushed him. She wanted to call an ambulance, but the other party thought she was making a mountain out of a molehill. In the end, the examination showed no major issues, aside from a lump the size of an egg on the back of his head. That night, she hadn't dared to sleep. She had read online about people who hit their heads and seemed fine at first, only to die suddenly later. She lay beside her son all night, holding his hand and checking his forehead every so often. Whenever he turned slightly or murmured in his sleep, her heart would race with a tension that made it hard to breathe. And so, by the following afternoon, she discovered she was bleeding. *** | Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 王其义 | Wang Qiyi | A cable distributor working with Qi Lian. | | 藿香正气水 | Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid | A traditional Chinese liquid medicine used to treat heatstroke and gastrointestinal issues. | | 先兆性流产 | Threatened miscarriage | A medical condition indicating a risk of miscarriage. | | 何梅 | He Mei | Jiang Yuan's wife. | | 奇奇 | Qiqi | He Mei and Jiang Yuan's son. | | 晋宁 | Jinning | The city where the characters' homes/families are located. |