Chapter 51 Uncle Two

When I woke up, I found myself back in Agui’s room, and Yun Cai was taking care of me. I had been awakened by the noise outside.

I wasn’t hurt at all— only physically exhausted— so sleep was all I needed. Yun Cai saw me sit up, and immediately handed me some water before going outside to call someone. Pan Zi soon came in and asked me how I felt.

I didn’t see Uncle Two, so I ignored his question and asked, “Fatty and Poker-face, how are they?”

Pan Zi told me that they had been rushed to the hospital. There hadn’t been any news yet, but he reassured me that they wouldn’t die. Even if they were unlucky enough to die, then there was nothing I could do about it.

I felt a little calmer after hearing this, knowing that there was at least some hope when I went to the hospital. I then asked Pan Zi what was going on, but he wouldn’t say anything. All he would say was that my Uncle Two wouldn’t let him talk about these things with me. Uncle Two was still at the lake and would tell me personally when he came back. Pan Zi then told me to get some more rest and left. I didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed very busy outside.

Several buildings near Agui’s house had all been taken over by Uncle Two, and I saw a lot of Uncle Two and Uncle Three’s former associates. I figured there were more than twenty of them, and when I thought back on what I had seen at the lake that day, I estimated that hundreds of people had come this time. It seemed like Agui had recovered from his mental breakdown at that time, and worked hard, but when I asked him about it, he didn’t know anything.

I had no choice but to comply and rested at Agui’s house for two days. After my body recovered, Uncle Two came back from the lake.

There were also a lot of people who appeared with him, including several cousins from Changsha. Many of them had been mixed up with Uncle Three and were all prominent figures in our family. I asked myself, what’s going on, why are they all here?

I didn’t dare start asking questions, because Uncle Two and those relatives didn’t look good. After exchanging pleasantries with them, I found that they were all looking at me strangely.

Uncle Two’s complexion didn’t look good, but he finally got the relatives to disperse after a lot of trouble. He looked at me, hooked his arm around my shoulder, and then asked if I was alright.

I nodded and said that I was fine, and then asked him in a low voice what the situation was. He looked at me, sighed, patted me on the shoulder, and then motioned for me to go on a walk with him.

As we walked to the stream near the village, he didn’t say a single word the entire way. We came to the old house that had been burned down, and Uncle Two said, “I saw your e-mail.”

I already had a feeling this had something to do with my e-mail, so I watched him as I waited for him to continue. He paused before saying, “Do you believe what you wrote in your e-mail?”

“What can I say? I don’t want to believe it, but it’s not like I can’t, because I can’t think of any other possibility.” I said, “You and Uncle Three have known each other for so long, haven’t you noticed anything unusual?”

Uncle Two lit a cigarette and looked at me with a frown on his face, but he still didn’t say anything.

I continued: “That’s what others were saying, and Uncle Three didn’t deny it, so I’m not without doubts.”

Uncle Two looked at me, finished taking a few puffs of his cigarette, and then paused before suddenly saying: “You don’t have to doubt. I’ll tell you, it’s really true.”

“Really?” I asked, “How can you be sure?”

Uncle Two said slowly, “We’ve known about this for a long time.”

I stood there looking at Uncle Two, unable to believe my ears.

Uncle Two looked at me before continuing: “Little Xie, some things aren’t as simple as you think. But there are also many things that aren’t as complicated as you think.”

“If you knew, how could you let this happen?” I asked.

Uncle Two stood there silently before making a gesture to continue our walk, and then handed me something.

When I took it and glanced at it, I saw it was a photo: “This is?”

“I grabbed one before burning that house down. I think it’s much more appropriate to show it to you now than it was at that time.” He said.

I paused for a moment, completely blindsided. The house? Burning? Fuck! It couldn’t be! I immediately said, “Uncle, did you do that?!”

I wanted to keep talking, but Uncle Two motioned with his hand and showed me the photo: “Let’s not mention those things.”

I took a look. It was a very ordinary black-and-white photo, but it was also a group photo. Upon closer inspection, I could see a strange middle-aged man talking to Wen-Jin, while the rest of the team was in the background.

The middle-aged man wasn’t in the other photos I had seen before. He was very white and thin, but he looked familiar to me.

“This was the photo Bald Chu wanted you to see.” Uncle Two said, “This is the piece of evidence I found that can best explain the situation. I figured if there was no way out, then I’d have to let you know in the end. This physical evidence is much more telling than whatever comes out of my mouth.”

“Is this it?” I couldn’t understand, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

“Don’t you know who this man is?” He asked, pointing to the stranger.

I looked at the thin, white man and suddenly remembered who he was. I couldn’t help exclaiming, “How could it be him? He’s not…”

This person had no connection with our story, but he wasn’t an unimportant person either. If he appeared in a photo with Wen-Jin’s team, then her team’s arrangement wasn’t what I had initially thought.

As we continued our walk, Uncle Two said, “I can’t tell you the details, Little Xie, but I can tell you a story. Thing is, sometimes stories are just stories. Do you want to listen?”

<Chapter 50 Escape> <Table of Contents> <Chapter 52 Happy>

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Updated 9/1/2020