With that said, the old man looked at my pants. I was still wearing the pants the hospital had provided. He continued washing the porcelain in silence. A lot of the grime had been washed out in the huge footbath before him and there was a basket set beside it.
I didn’t think the old man was very talkative. He was either an introverted person or a cautious one. I couldn’t ask anything if it was the latter, but if he was just introverted, then I could make friends with him. I looked at all the porcelain the old man had already washed and said to him, “Uncle, I think you’re the best washer here. How about you wash my friend’s?”
He shook his head, “No, it’s uniformly distributed.”
“But you wash so well,” I said. “I’ll pay you more to wash it. I’ll talk with the boss. Which one’s the boss?”
He didn’t look up as he said leisurely, “No. If everyone’s like you, the others won’t have food on the table and I’ll work myself to death.”
“Then I won’t buy it,” I said.
The old man looked at me and then at the other people again before he started laughing, “I can’t force you to buy if you don’t want to, now can I?”
I looked at the people around me and then at the boss, suddenly realizing that I was wrong again. My heart suddenly felt very uncomfortable. If it was before, I could see most situations clearly at first glance, but now my eyes had become dull. At this time, I realized that it wasn’t that I couldn’t see it, but that I was too lazy to look.
This old man had a special bearing, he was the best porcelain washer here, and one could tell at a glance that he was an old treasure hunter. The others weren’t as old as him and they weren’t acting as leisurely as he was.
I had also asked who the boss was. The old man was actually the owner of this place, hiding among the crowd and doing the lowest form of work. Those who washed porcelain here probably didn’t even know that the old man was their boss.
The old treasure hunter hid among these people by the sea and used his knowledge to carefully select quality goods. It was no wonder nothing had happened for more than thirty years.
I looked around, pulled a nearby chair over, and sat down. The old man was unmoved and concentrated on washing. I whispered to him, “How much is left in the sea? I’ll take it. Your boss has to give me some VIP treatment.”
The old man shook the water off the porcelain and completely ignored me. I put my hand on his thigh and squeezed, “I know the rules. I’ll make an offer on WeChat.”
When the old man looked down at my hand, I quickly retracted it. “Do you love talking nonsense?” He asked me. “I just wash things. If you want to buy something, go look for the boss.”
I made an understanding expression and asked, “Speaking of which, do you know why this island is called Qilin Island? Do you know any of the legends?” I pointed to Fatty, “My boss always wants to know these kinds of things.”
The old man wiped his hands on his apron and asked me, “Where are you from?”
“Hangzhou.”
“Do you know why Hangzhou is called Hangzhou?”
I was at a loss for words. Someone came over to get the baskets and the old man handed them out one by one before he turned to drive me away, “I can’t wash fast with you sitting here. Go away.” With that said, he poured the dirty water out at my feet.
I immediately jumped up and dodged it. Although the discussion seemed fruitless, I had actually determined that the old man wasn’t introverted, but very cautious. Once I thought about it, it didn’t make sense for a grave robbing veteran of more than thirty years to be introverted. I was clearly out of my mind.
I went back to Fatty and saw that he had picked out seven or eight baskets of things. I looked at the price and realized that it was almost all the money he had on hand. I told him to take it easy since the market for porcelain fished out from the sea had been uncertain recently. He might end up shooting himself in the foot. Fatty said it was fine and paid for it. When we got back to the hospital, we saw that Uncle Two’s people had come and were helping us with the discharge procedures.
After that, I moved to a seaside guesthouse that only cost forty yuan a night. The inside had been converted into a mahjong room.
That was where I saw Liu Sang again.
He was leaning against the hotel lobby’s balcony alone and looking out at the sea. I didn’t see Uncle Two or Poker-Face, but according to Uncle Two’s men, they had already come up and were waiting for something at the beach.
When Fatty and I walked over to Liu Sang, Fatty kicked him, “Cocky brat, how dare you show up.”
Liu Sang continued staring at the black horizon without looking at us and said, “It’s going to thunder soon.”
MereBear's Translation 