Chapter 4
Dad carried my suitcase into the apartment complex.
Lu Liubai had to fetch his own luggage from the trunk, looking rather forlorn.
I walked beside him.
“Which apartment is yours?”
He told me the address.
Directly opposite ours.
I was just about to remark on the coincidence.
Then Dad let out a long, sarcastic sound.
Lu Liubai and I followed his gaze.
A distinguished-looking older man was chatting with my mom. The elegant Ms. Chen was laughing so hard she could barely stand upright.
Dad marched over, bristling with outrage.
My dad was insanely jealous. I was about to go and break things up.
Lu Liubai got there first.
“Dad!”
My father spun around. “What?!”
The distinguished man said, “Hmm?”
Dad narrowed his eyes. “Son, don’t go siding with outsiders.”
The man laughed with all the ease of old money.
“You’re his dad? Then who am I?”
Me: Huh?
Lu Liubai was the son of Dad’s sworn enemy.
So what did that make me? Juliet?
Before I could untangle the implications, Dad’s normally sluggish brain had already caught up.
His handsome eyes narrowed.
He clapped Uncle Lu on the shoulder several times with one large hand, then said in a low, resonant voice, “Lu. This is your son?”
He followed it up with a few affected old-money chuckles.
“Yes.”
“But how come you all arrived together?”
Standing beside his father, Lu Liubai said politely, “Uncle He gave me a ride.”
Uncle Lu’s eyes lit up. “Oh, He! Driving for Didi these days?”
Lu Liubai sounded cool, as though trying to rein his father in.
“Dad, Uncle He drives a BMW.”
Uncle Lu’s smile widened.
“Oh, a premium car service.”
Then he punched Dad hard. “I’ll send some business your way, He! Ha-ha-ha.”
Dad worked his cheek against the pain, his smiling eyes curved like a fox’s.
“You know, Lu, you really shouldn’t raise a son on too tight a budget.”
He gave Uncle Lu a reproachful look.
“I told the boy he could ride for free if he called me Dad, and out it came. Not a second’s hesitation. All to save eighty or a hundred yuan on a fare. Is that really necessary? Don’t you think? Ha-ha-ha.”
Lu Liubai and I watched them trade barbs.
“Tsk.” He looked rather embarrassed.
“That’s your dad?”
I smiled back.
“He’s your dad.”
Lu Liubai laughed.
We watched the two older men walk off, arms around each other’s shoulders, exchanging punches and slaps.
Lu Liubai offered a dubious assessment. “They seem to get along reasonably well.”
It did seem less terrible than I’d thought.
Except Dad had ever so casually wedged himself between Mom and Uncle Lu, leaving them no chance to speak.
Talk about a tightly guarded perimeter.
The three of them walked farther away.
Lu Liubai and I looked at each other.
Suddenly, he turned in another direction.
Seriously?
We were parting ways already?
“Where are you going?” I asked.
Lu Liubai sighed.
“To get my dad something for his bruises. Otherwise Mom’ll be heartbroken later.”
Reasonable.
I waited outside the pharmacy.
When he came out, he’d bought some for me too.
I waved it away. “No need.”
He advised me kindly, “My dad packs quite a punch.”
“We always keep that stuff at home.”
Dad was a big, strapping man, but one little nick on a finger and he’d spend ages crying and whining in Mom’s arms.
My young mind couldn’t comprehend that particular form of romance.
All I could do was comment quietly.
“Dad, if you keep crying, aren’t you worried it’ll heal before you’re done?”
At the thought,
I accepted Lu Liubai’s kind offer after all.
“Actually, now that you’ve moved here, we’ll probably be using a lot more of it.”
Sure enough, the moment I came through the door,
I heard Dad howling.
He was sprawled facedown on the couch while Mom rubbed his lower back.
“That heartless waste of space. And his son’s every bit as sneaky as he is, with that same innocent act.”
His account was remarkably vivid.
“You didn’t see his son, Lu Liubai, flirting with our daughter in the car. Tsk, tsk. Just like his father.”
Mom perked up. “Really? I thought Lu’s son was gorgeous.”
Dad snorted coldly. “It’s all an act.”