Chapter 32: Fleeting Youth

A few days passed in a flash, and on the day Ding Wu was released from prison, Wang Jingzhe arrived at the gate of Tianhe Prison and waited before noon.
There was a car parked on the road opposite the door. Lin Xianyu leaned on the car window and shouted to Wang Jingzhe who had just walked over: "Hey, come here, can I talk to you about poetry and distant places?"
Wang Jingzhe bared his teeth and said: "I'm sorry... I'm uneducated and unskilled."
Lin Xianyu: “???”
After waiting for a while, it was twelve o'clock noon.
Ding Wu, with a short flat head that only showed the skin of his head, walked out of the prison area with a suitcase in his hand and one hand in his pocket. When he arrived at the prison gate and the gate was opened, the guard behind him said: " Reform yourself well after you get out, and don't make mistakes again. I don't want to see you here again."
Ding Wu closed his eyes and took a deep breath: "I either don't commit any crime, or if I commit another crime, I won't even have the chance to come in here."
The supervisor was speechless for a moment. After listening to Ding Wu's words, goose bumps suddenly appeared on his back.
The prison door opened with a "clatter". Under the watchful eyes of armed police standing on both sides of the door with guns, Ding Wu walked out of the prison. When he saw Wang Jingzhe standing opposite him, he threw his bag away and then opened his arms to greet him.
Ding Wu has only one friend in his life, Wang Jingzhe. Similarly, from his twenties to now, Wang Jingzhe has only had one friend.
Wang Jingzhe’s father once teased them that if they were a male and female, they might not have to go through the process of finding a partner.
Wang Jingzhe patted his back and whispered, "It's good that you're out. From now on, we brothers will walk forward hand in hand."
Ding Wu said with a smile: "Let me go with you to sell kitchen knives, I'm afraid I'll starve to death."
"As long as I have something to eat, you won't be left without it!"
"Ding ding, ding ding." On the opposite side of the road, Lin Xianyu honked a few times and leaned out of the car window and shouted, "Get in the car, we're going to welcome him."
Ding Wu tilted his head and asked, "Oh, are you here with your wife to welcome us?"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not familiar with her," Wang Jingzhe said with a roll of his eyes.
Seeing that the two of them didn't move, Lin Xianyu turned the steering wheel and turned the car around. Then, seeing them, he pushed the door open and said, "Your friend just came out. He needs to take a shower, eat, and buy some clothes, right? There's not even a taxi here. Are you still planning to take him to take the bus? Isn't that a waste of time?"
Wang Jingzhe squinted his eyes and said, "You're doing it for free?"
"I'm not short of money, get in the car"
Ding Wu opened the car door and sat in it, saying, "Thank you. I can't refuse such a kind offer, can I?"
"You're welcome, we're all from the same community," Lin Xianyu said with a blink of his eyes.
The two of them had memorized their lines, and Wang Jingzhe felt embarrassed to refuse, so he walked to the other side and sat down.
Lin Xianyu turned his head with a smile on his face, then he stepped on the accelerator and the car sped away.
"If you don't sell the kitchen knife to me, what are your plans?" Wang Jingzhe asked.
"not yet"
"Are you planning to be a coolie?" Wang Jingzhe frowned and said, "You will know nothing when you are in there for a few years. You have to live, right? Follow me for a while. After I finish my business in Longxi, we can think about what to do. Your father is gone, but your mother is still here. Don't you have to take care of her in her old age?"
"She has a house and land in her hometown, so her life is just OK."
When Ding Wu said this, Wang Jingzhe had been paying attention to his expression. He found that Ding Wu's expression was too calm, so calm that it made him a little frightened.
Ding Wu's case of injury resulting in death was caused by his father. Six and a half years ago, his family of three made a living in Beijing. At that time, they bought a small storefront to do business. Unexpectedly, the store was to be demolished less than a month after they took it over. The owner had not informed them at all before, which means that the landlord rented the store to them even though he knew it was going to be demolished. This resulted in all the savings that Ding Wu's family had worked so hard to accumulate being cheated of, and when they went to find the landlord afterwards, he simply denied it.
Ding Wu's father got anxious and went to reason with the other party. However, the landlord was a local thug and was unreasonable. Not only did he not return the money, he also had a dispute with Ding Wu's father and had him beaten up. When Ding Wu found out about it later, he went to find the other party. The landlord gathered a group of people and started fighting with him. While fighting with them, Ding Wu snatched a knife from one of them and stabbed the man to death.
After this incident, Ding Wu was sentenced to eight years in prison for excessive self-defense. Ding Wu's father died of anger due to being beaten before and Ding Wu being in prison.
Ding Wu and his father had a deep relationship. Wang Jingzhe knew him too well. His only childhood friend was a vengeful person. He didn't believe that Ding Wu would forget about this matter after a few years.
Moreover, Wang Jingzhe discovered last time that there was a faint blood line between Ding Wu’s eyebrows.
"Jingzhe, please stop trying to persuade me..." Ding Wu licked his lips, looked out the window and said dazedly, "I've heard too many truths, but I still can't live a good life. I'm sorry for being born as a human being!"
Wang Jingzhe got anxious and grabbed his arm and said, "What the f*ck are you talking to me about? How old are you? You're not even thirty yet. You still have decades to live. Are you planning to do something stupid?"
Ding Wu turned his head and smiled, saying, "Do you remember the cartoon we watched at home when we were young, Slam Dunk?"
"ah?"
Ding Wu said: "I really like watching this cartoon. At that time, Akagi said that he would play in the national competition next, so I ran back home in a hurry the next day after school. When I turned on the TV, it was not on. It was another program. I thought it might take a few days, so I waited. I didn't expect that I would wait for my entire youth."
After hearing this, Wang Jingzhe lowered his head and said nothing, but his heart trembled.
"Later, when I was in my early twenties, I came to Beijing. I was sentenced to eight years in prison and six and a half years. I was almost thirty when I got out. Then my youth in the past few years was gone. I dedicated it all to the cause of labor reform." Ding Wu stared at Wang Jingzhe expressionlessly and said, "You said, my youth is gone, should I still care about the next few decades of life? Half of my life is already missing, so for me, the future doesn't matter."
Lin Xianyu, who was driving, suddenly turned around and whispered, "There is a TV series you may not have watched in recent years. You can watch it when you have time. It's called My Youth, I'm the Master."
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