The following day dawned clear and bright. Xiao Wu arose early from her slumber, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she brushed her teeth and washed her face. It was currently winter break; her roommates remained lost in dreams. Donning familiar attire, a day of diligence commenced...
Arriving at the subterranean passageway, he was predictably already present. His unchanging appearance made him easily recognizable. Xiao Wu still observed him furtively, and after setting up her stall, deliberately chose a posture for her "performance" that allowed her to keep him constantly in view.
Everything remained unchanged from the previous day.
For reasons unknown, Xiao Wu suddenly yearned to hear him sing yesterday's song. No, more accurately, she wished she could exchange even a simple greeting with him...
Yet, time flowed onward, second by second. He continued strumming his guitar, she remained standing stock-still.
Approaching noon, Xiao Wu sighed in resignation, thinking, "It seems today will pass wordlessly just like yesterday..."
Perhaps Providence heard her plea. A group of passing middle-aged men suddenly surrounded the motionless Xiao Wu.
"Quite intriguing, this young lady..." A bald man squatted before her, his lecherous eyes repeatedly scanning Xiao Wu's legs clad in white stockings.
The performance time had not yet concluded. Xiao Wu hastily stopped. In all her time performing, she had never encountered such a situation. Xiao Wu had to concede her fear. Her body trembled uncontrollably. She bent down, intending to retrieve her money box, but the bald man before her pressed it firmly to the ground with one hand. Despite exerting all her strength, Xiao Wu could not free the box from his grasp. His four cohorts looked on, laughing derisively.
"What... what do you intend to do?" Xiao Wu summoned her courage and asked.
"We intend nothing, merely wish to watch you continue performing..." The bald man placed a crisp hundred-yuan banknote into the money box. "We too are spectators. Surely you wouldn't refuse to perform?"
"My apologies, it is lunchtime." Xiao Wu attempted again to pull the money box, but he showed no sign of releasing it.
"No matter, I can treat you to lunch. After eating, we can find a secluded spot where you can perform for me at your leisure..." The bald man leered.
"Despicable!"
"Who the hell are you calling despicable?" one of the cohorts, with a vicious countenance, roared nearby.
"Not so loud, you're frightening our little swan." The bald man gestured for silence to the speaker. "Come now, my invitation is quite sincere."
Xiao Wu offered no reply, merely casting imploring glances around, yet no one seemed willing to intervene. A sense of desolation brought tears to Xiao Wu's eyes. She understood the harshness of reality but had not anticipated such severity. Kindhearted individuals seemed nonexistent nowadays. Suddenly, Xiao Wu thought of him, across the way. She desperately wished he would utter just one phrase: "Desist." But he continued strumming the worn guitar resting on his chest...
"Big brother, this young sister is merely a street performing student. I don't want the money in the box; consider it a gift to all of you. Please just let this young sister go..." Xiao Wu yielded, pleading solely for self-preservation. In contemporary society, self-protection was paramount.
"Do you take us for beggars..." The bald leader struck the money box, sending it tumbling to the ground. Shiny coins scattered everywhere. Onlookers finally grasped the gravity of the situation and quickened their pace to depart. A young man who had been listening to the music moments before hastily tossed a one-yuan coin into the guitar case before him and hurried away. His departure was so abrupt, however, that the coin bounced off the edge of the guitar case and rolled towards the opposite side. He set down his guitar and pursued the rolling coin.
A dramatic scene unfolded: he collided headlong with the bald man, retrieving his one-yuan coin from beneath the man's feet.
Facing Xiao Wu, he held up the gleaming coin and smiled. Suddenly, she felt this smiling man was incredibly trustworthy. Xiao Wu's fear dissipated, for he was beside her.
"Playing the damn hero, are you?" The bald man, having risen, delivered a vicious kick to his back. The force was immense; the coin nearly slipped from his grasp again. Clutching the coin tightly, he collapsed to the ground. Unrelenting, the leader continued kicking. The bald man was genuinely enraged. Consider: who in this district dared treat him thus? Let alone molest a street performer; even abducting her openly would elicit no protest. Yet now, some beggar-like fellow had caused him to lose face.
Seeing their leader take action, the cohorts joined in, adding several kicks. The crowd of onlookers gradually swelled. After a full twenty minutes of kicking, the bald man's foot began to ache. He looked up, surveying the surroundings. The crowd hastily dispersed; several security guards in the distance dared not approach... The bald man smirked triumphantly, his anger partially assuaged.
Xiao Wu wept, tears falling silently onto the ground, shed for him.
"Damn it, keep your eyes peeled! Who in this district doesn't recognize me, Bald Fourth Master? Meddling in my affairs, courting death!" He spat a thick wad of phlegm onto the man's head.
"Boss, don't be angry. Don't we have business to attend to? We still need to go to 'Jia Ren' (a nightclub name) tonight..." a nearby cohort reminded him.
"Consider yourself lucky, kid. If not for today's business, I'd cripple your hands and feet." The bald man turned back, leering at the motionless Xiao Wu on the ground. "Beauty, brother has matters to attend to today, so I won't dally with you further. Tomorrow, I will come specifically to watch your 'performance.' Don't even think of fleeing. In Wuhan, finding someone is not difficult for me. Just wait for brother to find you..." With that, he laughed raucously and strode away...
Calm returned once more. Pedestrians hurried back and forth; security guards resumed their posts. It was as if nothing had transpired, save for Xiao Wu's tears and the man lying on the ground, testifying to the events...
"Cough... cough..." He slowly attempted to rise from the ground, but his trembling left hand struggled even to support him.
"Don't move, let me help you..." Xiao Wu "awakened" and quickly helped him up.
"It's alright, I'm fine." He pushed away the hands supporting his arms.
"It's all my fault... It's because of me you were injured, it's all my fault..." The girl's nature surfaced; as she spoke, tears fell anew.
"Your money..." He disregarded the distressed Xiao Wu, his eyes scanning the scattered coins on the ground.
"It doesn't matter, I don't want it anymore. Let me see to your injuries, please?" Xiao Wu continued blaming herself.
He remained silent, contemplating for a moment. "If you give me the money on the ground, I will let you tend to them..." he said with a smile.
Xiao Wu suddenly realized her wish had been granted. They were conversing now, though the content was somewhat strange. But he was smiling, at her alone...
The subterranean passageway was situated between the Wuhan International Exhibition Center and a large, free public park, flanked on the left by two bustling shopping malls.
Beside a circular rockery pond within the park, Xiao Wu gently tucked the long hair obscuring his face behind his ears. Taking out a handkerchief, she dampened it slightly and wiped away the grime and faint bruises from his face. Perhaps because it was not a holiday, there were few people around. A gentle breeze drifted by, carrying the fragrance of unidentifiable surrounding flowers. A captivating sensation...
Xiao Wu's heart beat increasingly faster, perhaps because the gradually revealed face was unexpectedly handsome.
"Are you finished?" he asked calmly. Yet, Xiao Wu's heart still raced at his words.
"Mm... finished... Now for the medicine..." Xiao Wu put down the handkerchief, opened the recently purchased first-aid kit, and took out medicinal alcohol and cotton swabs.
"Actually, these things are useless to me."
"How can they be useless? Look, your face is bruised..." Xiao Wu insisted.
He ceased resisting, perhaps subdued by her determined gaze...
"Doesn't it hurt?" Xiao Wu asked with concern.
"It hurts. Your application technique is entirely incorrect. An ordinary injured person would likely faint after a couple of your prods..." He was utterly serious, not joking.
"Then I'm truly sorry!" Xiao Wu deliberately applied more force, her tone indicating annoyance, any sense of guilt completely vanished.
Silence descended again...
"Thank you for helping me." After considerable thought, Xiao Wu decided to express her gratitude.
"What?" He did not understand.
"For standing up for me, knocking down that ruffian..." Xiao Wu reminded him.
"Oh. At that time, I was merely retrieving my money." He smiled slightly.
"As if anyone would believe you." Xiao Wu began to appreciate his modest nature. "There was money scattered all over the ground then, why insist on picking up that single coin? Can't you devise a better excuse?"
"Because it did not belong to me. I can only take what is mine."
"Peculiar person..." Xiao Wu thought to herself.
"What happened to your left hand?" Recalling his inability even to support himself earlier brought an ache to her nose.
"It's nothing." He grasped his left wrist with his right hand. "Since I 'awakened,' it has felt devoid of strength. In my memory, it should no longer be part of my body. Yet, after 'awakening,' it reappeared on my body..."
"I don't understand anything you're saying." Xiao Wu paid no mind to his strange words; after all, he was a peculiar person.
"By the way, what is your name?" Xiao Wu asked casually.
He froze, silent again, seemingly contemplating. In truth, he had decided upon awakening. Seeing the pendant containing Angel's photograph had further solidified his decision.
"My name is..." He clenched his fists. "My name is Zhang Jie!"
*I hope I can use your name to continue mastering my own fate in this world, to experience what you called "this is fine..."*
"Zhang Jie?" Xiao Wu repeated the name casually. But to him, she was the first person to acknowledge he possessed a name.
"Is it the 'Jie' for outstanding?" Xiao Wu inquired further.
"No, it is the 'Jie' for pure..." he replied with a smile.
Xiao Wu asked no more. A strange person indeed had a strange name, using a woman's name.
"My name is Li Xiaowu, 20 years old. It's nice to meet you..." She ceased applying medicine and extended her hand towards him.
After a moment's hesitation, he grasped Xiao Wu's hand firmly. "My name is Zhang Jie, 20 years old. It's nice to meet you..."
On this day, 13 met Xiao Wu. Although Xiao Wu did not know the man before her was the world-shaking Sniper King, she only felt he seemed remarkably familiar, and someone she could trust implicitly...
"Are you leaving now?" Standing at the park entrance, Xiao Wu asked.
"Mm, I still have things to do." He glanced towards the antique shop.
"Are you going to look at that pendant?" As soon as she spoke, Xiao Wu regretted it; this revealed she had followed him.
"Mm, I am going to look at that pendant..." He had known about her trailing him yesterday.
"Are you earning money just to buy that pendant?" Recalling his desperate fight for one yuan.
"Mm, it is to buy that pendant. It is very important to me..." He thought of Angel.
"How can we contact each other in the future?" Xiao Wu understood she could not return to the underground passageway, hoping the so-called boss's threat was merely bluster to save face. Xiao Wu was not particularly afraid, perhaps due to inheriting her father's upright blood, unyielding to power.
"I perform in the passageway every day. If you wish to find me, go there..." he stated calmly.
"You still dare to go? That man today said... I advise you to find another place. I can help you look..." Xiao Wu grew agitated, failing to notice the impropriety in her words.
He smiled again. "It's alright. He won't come tomorrow. I guarantee it."
Turning to leave, "Took so much of your money, and you were the first to call me by name. I'll help you just this once..." His voice was soft; Xiao Wu did not hear it.
She merely felt his words were incredibly believable.