Chapter Ninety-One: Fate

“Brother, I still don’t even know what to call you.”

Xu Fei had already made up his mind. These two fellows did not seem likely to make a move right away, so he fell into casual conversation with the farmhand.

“My good brother, there’s no need for formalities. I’m just a country man with no proper name to speak of. My surname is Li, and folks call me Li Sixi. Right, I haven’t even asked what your surnames are.”

As he spoke, Li Sixi glanced at Zhang Mingyang. He seemed to sense that Zhang Mingyang did not take much to him, and so he tried hard to give him a friendly smile.

“My surname is Xu. My name is Xu Fei.”

Xu Fei nodded with a smile.

He glanced at Zhang Mingyang. His third brother did indeed seem unwilling to pay this Brother Li much mind.

“This is my third brother. His surname is Zhang.”

Zhang Mingyang gave Li Sixi a sidelong look. “My name is Zhang Mingyang.”

Seeing him answer, Li Sixi looked almost flattered, and hurriedly said with a smile, “Brother Zhang, back at the station, I really have you to thank.”

“It was nothing. Just a small matter.”

Zhang Mingyang waved it off, then turned his head toward the window.

Seeing this, Xu Fei smiled and nodded at Li Sixi. “Brother, where in the East Sea are you from?”

“Little Li Village. Ever heard of it?”

“Little Li Village? Is it the one in Tiaoli County of East Sea?”

“That’s right, that’s right. My good brother, have you been there?”

Xu Fei shook his head. It had, however, appeared in his memories; the former Xu Fei had a classmate from Tiaoli County.

“I only know a classmate from your Tiaoli.”

“You’re from East Sea City, aren’t you?” Li Sixi asked.

“Mm.”

“Just by looking at the way you’re dressed, I can tell. Not like us country bumpkins, rustic as can be, ha ha ha…”

When Li Sixi laughed, the folds at the corners of his mouth piled up in layers, giving him the look of a man far older than he was.

And so Xu Fei and Li Sixi chatted idly, a sentence here and a sentence there.

The train soon left East Sea.

Its destination was Nanjing.

This journey would not arrive until eight o’clock the next morning.

Night

quickly wrapped itself around the train.

The lights came on inside the car.

By evening, the air seemed to fill with the fragrance of food, and many people took out the dry provisions they had brought with them.

“Come on, good brothers, if you don’t mind, try the vegetable dumplings my wife made for me.”

Li Sixi opened a dark, battered little box, revealing a dozen or so dumplings arranged neatly inside.

Xu Fei took one look. Those dumplings were wrapped with exceptional care.

“Just from the look of these dumplings, I can tell Brother Li, you’re a blessed man.”

“Is that so? Ha ha, good brother, you really know your stuff. My wife is one of the finest women in our village.”

The moment Li Sixi spoke of his wife, his eyes lit up.

With a smile, he set the box down on the small table between the three of them.

“Come, try them.”

Xu Fei did not stand on ceremony. Smiling, he picked one up with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

“Mm. Delicious!”

Zhang Mingyang looked at him.

“You’re making it sound like you’ve never eaten dumplings before. Really, are they that good?”

Xu Fei pointed at them.

“Third Brother, try one and you’ll know.”

As he spoke, he picked up another and put it in his mouth.

This naturally stirred Zhang Mingyang’s curiosity.

He took out his chopsticks, wiped them on his sleeve, and after glancing at Li Sixi, who was staring wide-eyed at him, he lifted a dumpling with them.

Just before he brought it to his mouth, Zhang Mingyang asked, “What kind of filling is it?”

Li Sixi answered with a smile, “Fennel.”

“Fennel? No wonder the smell is so strong.”

With that, Zhang Mingyang bit into the dumpling.

That single bite was enough.

His eyes flew open.

Then he stuffed the rest of the dumpling into his mouth at once.

“Well? Isn’t it delicious?” Xu Fei asked from the side.

“Mm.”

Zhang Mingyang scarcely had time to answer before he picked up another and shoved it straight into his mouth.

“Third Brother, I still have flatbread here. If you don’t like that, why not eat my flatbread and let me have the dumplings?”

Xu Fei deliberately took out the flatbread.

“No, no.”

Zhang Mingyang was chewing dumplings and could not speak clearly, so he only waved a hand.

Seeing how eagerly he ate, Li Sixi smiled in satisfaction.

“Take it slow, good brother. I still have more.”

As he spoke, he opened the bag and indeed there was another lunch box inside, wrapped in a somewhat yellowed towel.

“What are you eating?” Zhang Mingyang swallowed the dumpling in his mouth before asking.

“I’m not hungry. For us country folk, when we’re not working, it’s just two meals a day.”

With a smile, Li Sixi zipped the bag closed.

Xu Fei handed the flatbread to Li Sixi. “Brother, try the one my wife made.”

“This was made by my sister-in-law?”

Li Sixi took one look, then rubbed his hands hard on his clothes before accepting the flatbread with both hands.

Xu Fei then took out the pickled vegetables.

“If only we had some liquor, that would really be perfect.”

As Zhang Mingyang spoke, he picked up another dumpling and put it into his mouth once more.

“Third Brother, dumplings and wine, is that it?”

Xu Fei smiled and shook his head. “Would you look at that, I really forgot about that.”

“You and your memory…”

Zhang Mingyang gave him a mock-blaming look with a smile.

The brothers exchanged a grin.

Li Sixi, however, opened the bag again.

“Here, I brought some.”

He took out a square bottle of liquor from the bag.

“Old Cellar of the East Sea?”

The moment Zhang Mingyang saw it, his face broke into a broad grin, and the way he looked at Li Sixi changed completely.

“Brother, you are truly our benefactor!”

“Don’t say that, don’t say that!”

Li Sixi hurriedly waved both hands at the title.

Then he handed the bottle to Zhang Mingyang.

“Brother, you like this stuff too?”

Li Sixi smiled and nodded.

“Then that settles it.”

Zhang Mingyang twisted off the cap at once.

“Lao Si, the tools.”

Xu Fei smiled and had already taken three small cups from his pocket.

“Hey, look at you. You didn’t bring any liquor, so why did you bring the drinking vessels?”

When Zhang Mingyang asked that, Xu Fei smiled. “Wasn’t I just thinking that if our mouths got dry, the two of us could always have a little drink in the inn?”

“Fair enough.”

Zhang Mingyang pointed at him with a grin.

Xu Fei took the bottle and poured for all three of them. Zhang Mingyang immediately picked up one cup and offered it to Li Sixi with both hands.

“Come, Brother.”

“Ah, ah, good, good, good…”

Li Sixi took it with a smile.

Xu Fei and the others raised their own cups as well.

“Come, Brother. You bring the liquor, you bring the dumplings. The three of us happened to meet on the road—that’s fate. To fate, let’s drink one!”

Zhang Mingyang was a man who loved his drink. Once seated at a wine table, he was like a general on his own battlefield.

“Yes, yes, what the young brother says is right.”

Li Sixi only nodded with a smile.

The three of them clinked cups.

And drank.

Once the liquor went down, it seemed as though the three strangers had truly become sworn brothers at once.

Zhang Mingyang personally picked up a dumpling and placed it into Li Sixi’s bowl.

As for Xu Fei, while pouring the wine, he sized up one of the men sitting not far across from him.

That man had not eaten a thing.

He merely kept his head down, reading a newspaper.