A hundred meters ahead, another scrap collector on a tricycle spotted the same rolling red can at the exact same moment.
Our eyes met. Sparks flew. In perfect sync, we both stomped the pedals like our lives depended on it and charged.
The wind howled past my ears. Ten meters… five meters… I seized the handlebar with my right hand, left hand flashing behind me to grab my weapon of choice—the sacred two-toothed rake! (Why only two teeth? Because nine teeth belong to Zhu Bajie, the pig. Two teeth are for flipping trash heaps. Basic knowledge, people!)
The other guy wasn't slow either—he yanked out his own rake. In that instant, the narrow alley turned into an ancient battlefield. Two cavalry generals thundering toward each other, victory decided in the split second our tricycles crossed.
The moment we passed— My left arm shot out like lightning, rake sweeping low. At the same time I yanked the handlebars hard; the tricycle zig-zagged beautifully to dodge his counterattack. A tiny "clink" vibrated up the handle—got it!
I glanced at my rake. A perfectly speared aluminum can dangled from the teeth like a war trophy.
If this were ancient times, I'd definitely be a general galloping across the plains!
"Damn skinny bamboo pole, your luck is bullsh*t good again!" the loser cursed. Because of chronic malnutrition and exhaustion, I'm thin as a rail—hence the elegant nickname "Skinny Bamboo."
"Luck? Nah, this is called skill." I grinned shamelessly.
"Pfft, I was just going easy on you today~ Starting tomorrow, your bro is done being a Trash King. I'm following the boss to strike it rich, hahaha!" He pedaled off laughing like a madman.
"Strike it rich? Boss?" I stared at his retreating back, completely lost.
His name is Xiong San—third son in his family. We weren't friends, just familiar faces. I save every cent; he blows it all on booze and buddies the moment he has cash. Different species too different to ever be close.
Little did I know, the next time I saw Xiong San… would be the last time I ever saw him alive.
I wandered a few more streets, but the sky was getting dark and business had been trash all day—barely a hundred yuan's worth of scrap, maybe ten yuan profit after costs. Whatever, time to head home early.
Soon I reached the northwest corner of B City—an old district full of crumbling two-story buildings from right after Liberation. You'd never believe this was part of the glittering international metropolis. Thugs, gamblers, hookers, dealers—every kind of person lived here. The only thing we all had in common was being dirt poor.
This was B City's true slum. The city government swore every year to "clean up this eyesore," but every year the fights, stabbings, rapes, and murders kept happening. We scrap collectors lived right in the middle of it. No money for real houses, so we built shanties out of tin sheets and scrap wood.
"Yo~~ Xiao Liu's back~" The speaker was the old man who ran the biggest scrapyard in the area. Most of us sold to him—he paid the best and was decent to us, even if he looked like a horror-movie extra.
Short, skinny as a skeleton, face full of wrinkles, fingernails long and yellow like dead branches. Right now he was standing on top of a pile of creepy wooden mannequins under a streetlamp, shadow stretching across his face like a demon trading souls atop a mountain of corpses.
"Business sucked today, so I knocked off early," I answered, already used to his creepy aesthetic.
After weighing my haul: "Not much today, huh. Xiao Liu, I'm just saying—you keep your buying prices too high, you barely make anything."
"Heh, small profits but quick turnover~" I laughed.
"Psh, city folks don't care about a few mao," he grumbled.
I ignored him, pushed my now-empty tricycle toward my shack, locked the bike, then reached inside the door in the dark and tugged the string—click. A weak 25-watt fluorescent tube flickered to life.
The shack was less than thirty square meters. Bed, busted wardrobe, tiny round table, a couple stools—after that there was almost no floor left. Pots, pans, and the gas stove had to live in the walkway.
If you didn't turn on the light first you'd definitely trip over the "minefield." I navigated the obstacle course, flopped onto the bed, and let the thin mattress suck away the day's exhaustion. A few minutes later I bounced back up, clattered around the pots, and scarfed down dinner.
Just when I was about to take a cold shower and meet the God of Dreams, the phone rang.
Phones weren't luxury items anymore. Thanks to the brutal price war between China Mobile and China Unicom, plans were dirt cheap: no monthly fee, free incoming calls, minimum one yuan a month, and they even installed it for free and threw in the handset. I never call out, so basically I pay one yuan a month for a free phone emergency line home. Win-win.
But because I never get calls, every ring makes my heart drop—something must have happened back home.
"Hello…?"
"Bro…" A soft, sweet voice came through. The little screen lit up with a familiar, beautiful face.
"Sis… is everything okay at home?" I asked immediately.
"No… nothing happened at home…" She shook her head, but her pretty face was unusually serious.
Hearing that, I exhaled in relief, then immediately scolded her for wasting money: "Then why are you calling long-distance? It's expensive!"
"Ugh you're so annoying~~ I'm using my meal money to call you about something super important!"
"Okay okay, what's the big news?"
"Hmph—now I don't wanna tell you anymore~" She pouted so hard her lips almost reached the sky.
"Fine, I'm hanging up—"
"Wait wait don't! I'll talk!" I smirked inside. I've known this girl for seventeen years; she can't keep a secret to save her life.
She suddenly turned dead serious: "Bro… did you know? Sister Yu Xin is getting married…"
Chen Yu Xin.
That name alone conjured her image—long silky hair, gentle smile, the most beautiful girl in ten villages.
Married.
In an age where people treat marriage like changing shoes, I'm probably the only idiot who still thinks it's a woman entrusting the rest of her life to a man.
And the woman doing it… was the one in my dreams.
My heart roared like a tsunami, but my face stayed calm.
"Bro… you okay?" my sister asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, keep talking, what's this 'big news' of yours~" I pretended I hadn't heard clearly.
"I just told you!!"
"That's it? That's your big news?" I raised an eyebrow.
"WHAT?! And that's NOT big?! Bro, don't pretend you didn't hear—don't tell me you don't know Sister Yu Xin likes you, and don't say you don't like her back!" She's not as dumb as I hoped.
"So what?" I answered flatly. My voice was calm, but acid surged in my throat.
"So what?! Then DO something! Go steal the bride! I even know where the wedding is!"
Her face suddenly showed the evil grin of a little demon.
I couldn't help laughing and cursing: "Where did you learn this soap-opera crap?"
"From romance novels, duh! See how smart your sister is? Applying theory to real life~"
I instantly blew up: "Romance novels?! I sent you to school to STUDY, not to read trash! If your grades drop, see how you explain to Dad—"
"STOP STOP STOP! Teacher told us to read extracurricular books to improve composition! And you have zero right to lecture me—your Chinese score never passed in your life!"
"…" Ouch. Scar ripped open.
"Ahem—almost got derailed by you. Bro, what are you going to do?"
"What can I do? She made her choice. It's her right. That man must have things I can never give her. And me? What can I give her? I'm just a trash picker…" I laughed at myself.
My sister was silent for a second, then dropped a line that almost made me spit blood:
"Bro… you really don't understand women at all."
"Hehe, stop acting like an adult, okay? You're still a kid—"
"DON'T interrupt! Listen to me!" She bared her little fangs like an angry kitten. "You don't understand women, and you don't understand Sister Yu Xin. She never wanted you to 'give' her anything. If she likes you, she likes YOU—even if you pick trash for a living. She's been waiting six whole years for you to say something! Do you know how many guys she turned down? Now she's marrying someone else—can you blame her? How many six-year waits does a woman's youth have? And it was a wait with zero promises! You think that guy is better than you? Wrong. He's not even close. She's marrying someone else because of YOU—you pushed her away!"
"…"
I had nothing to say. Having a sharp-tongued genius sister is great—except when she's roasting you alive and you can't talk back.
"You done? I'm hanging up. Keep this up and you won't have meal money the day after tomorrow."
"Last question—are you coming to Sister Yu Xin's wedding or not?"
"I'm… busy."
"Oh… got it."
"Wait—" I stopped her just before she hung up.
"What?"
"Don't talk like an adult anymore. Malnourished, flat as a board—no matter how you look at it you're still a kid~"
I hung up the instant the words left my mouth. Thirty centimeters from my ear I heard her scream:
"BIG BROTHER YOU SUCK! PERVERT BROTHER!!!"
After hanging up, the prankster smile vanished from my face.
I lay on the bed staring at the patched-up ceiling, unable to sleep. My sister's words hammered my heart like an iron mallet.
At some point I drifted into a hazy sleep…
In the dream, a girl appeared. Not tall. Her face was blurry, but the feeling was achingly familiar. Her name was on the tip of my tongue…
Yet suddenly she was very, very far away. A man whose face I couldn't see stood intimately beside her. The familiar feeling began to fade. The tiny regret in my chest slowly settled…
In that moment, I seemed to understand something profound.
Then I woke up— and the dream slipped away like smoke.