Are You Addicted? (English Translation Vol 1)

Chapter 13: I'll Definitely Befriend This Person!

"Driver, please slow down a bit."

The taxi driver answered back, annoyed, "How slow do you want to go? Look at where the speedometer is already!"

"Just follow that person in front of us, the one wearing a blue school uniform. Just follow him and you're good."

The driver was thoroughly mad now, "After messing around for half a day, you just want me to follow a person who's walking? Are you deliberately trying to torment me? This car charges by the kilometer, not by time. Taking up half of my workday to come to this place, is it worth it?"

Gu Hai dug out 200 RMB and directly threw it at him.

The driver's attitude immediately became more subdued.

"I say, lad, if you want to follow a pedestrian, why don't you get off and walk as well? Or, find an electric bike. They all help you save more money than you riding in this car. Spending 200 yuan to go such a small distance, you don't regret wasting the money?"

"It's easy for me to be noticed if I walk...... speed up, he just turned a corner."

Gu Hai finally got out of the taxi when they reached the alleyway that leads to Bai Luo Yin's house. He saw rows of old and broken-down courtyard houses, a sharp contrast to the tall, modern skyscrapers surrounding them. Based on Gu Hai's experience, soon, the residents here will be paid off and the buildings demolished to make way for newer buildings. These elderly men and women who constantly roam around these alleyways will lose the only place they call home. since the subsidy given by the government won't be enough for the residents to buy any house in Beijing.

(T/N: Courtyard houses are a bunch of buildings that encloses a central courtyard to make a single home for a household. It is a style of Chinese architecture that has been around for a long time.)

Walking deeper into the alleyway, Gu Hai sees Bai Luo Yin entering a courtyard.

He looks down at his watch and sees that 50 minutes have passed. He finally understood why Bai Luo Yin is always late. Based on what he observed about Bai Luo Yin's family's financial status, they probably don't even own a bicycle.

Bai Luo Yin entered the house, threw his backpack on the messy bed, took off his school uniform, and walked into the kitchen with his chest bare. He opened the rice cooker and stared blankly at it for a few moments, before yelling to Bai Han Qi, who was in the courtyard.

"Didn't you say you cooked congee? How did it become regular rice?"

(T/N: Congee is a type of rice porridge.)

Bai Han Qi fiercely slapped his forehead, regret clear on his face.

"I was just outside washing the clothes and forgot about the congee that was cooking. All the water was steamed out, so it turned into regular rice."

When Gu Hai arrived at the entrance to the courtyard, Bai Luo Yin was pouring tap water into a bowl of white rice, stirring them together to form "congee." He drank one bowl after another, with only a side of salted vegetables to go with it.

After he ate, Bai Luo Yin rinsed the bowl and went inside. Not long after, he came out again and saw Bai Han Qi hanging up the laundry to dry. Angrily, Bai Luo Yin snatched a pair of underwear off the clothes line.

He asked Bai Han Qi in a cold voice, "Isn't this pair of underwear already clean? Why did you wash it? I only have three pairs of underwear in total. One was thrown down the drain by you, one was dirty, and now you wash the only clean pair of underwear left. What am I supposed to wear tomorrow?"

Bai Han Qi thought about it for a moment, and then dried his wet hands on his shirt, softly saying, "Dad will go buy you a pair right now."

"No need." Bai Luo Yin grabbed a hold of Bai Han Qi, "I'll just wear it now, it should be dry tomorrow morning."

Gu Hai was so amused by this father-son pair.

When it's time to leave, Gu Hai didn't call a cab and ran home instead, so he didn't have to exercise later at the house. He kept on thinking back on what he witnessed earlier, the crazy lives of the pair. The more he thought about it, the funnier it seemed, though it also seemed not funny at the same time.

To tell the truth, he was here for three reasons. The first reason is that he wanted to figure out why Bai Luo Yin is always late, the second one is he wanted to see how his fellow classmate was, and the third is that he was just bored.

Now that all three purposes have been fulfilled, there is also an unexpected gain.

Gu Hai discovered that what they each have, the other lacks.

Based on the logic that opposites attract, he is definitely going to befriend Bai Luo Yin.