Chapter 20: The Blazing Chariot of Fire

  Near the rice noodle stall, there is a dog meat shop. The dirty iron cages are packed with filthy dogs, their mouths tied up with wire, pitifully staring at passersby. On the rack, a skinned dog carcass hangs, and the floor is awash with polluted water. The shop is crowded with people, and the big sign above reads "Live Dogs Killed on the Spot".

  "It's really cruel, and no one cares?" Ma Ling turned around, not looking at the dog in the cage.

  "This world is so messed up, people can't even live a decent life, who has time to care about dogs." Liu Handong lowered his head and ate his rice noodles.

  After dinner, Liu Handong settled the bill. His mother gave him 300 yuan to pay for his meals in detention, leaving him with only a few dozen yuan. The two bowls of rice noodles and beef cost 25 yuan together, leaving only two or three small bills and coins in his pocket.

  Ma Ling put on his helmet and stepped onto the motorcycle: "I should go, let's shake hands."

  Liu Handong stretched out his hand and shook hands with Ma Ling.

  Ma Ling started up the motorcycle and sped away, leaving behind a string of silvery laughter: "Save some for dinner, don't starve yourself to death."

  Liu Handong's palm held a fifty-yuan bill folded into small squares, still carrying Ma Ling's body temperature.

  Apart from her mother, Ma Ling was the first woman to give herself money to spend.

  Back at No. 108, just as he was going upstairs, Zhu Xiaoqiang suddenly darted out and said mysteriously: "Dong Ge, you're back, I've got something to tell you."

  "What's up?"

  Zhu Xiaoqiang looked around and said in a low voice: "The residents on the third floor are raising chickens."

  "What?"

  "Last night I brought a man back and messed around for half the night, so I didn't sleep well." said Zhu Xiaoqiang.

  "Oh, aren't you supposed to be playing games all night?" Liu Handong continued walking upstairs.

  "You don't know, that sound is keeping people awake, humming and buzzing nonstop..." Zhu Xiaoqiang's expression was very exaggerated, as if he was in extreme pain.

  "What are you telling me this for? Do you want me to tell the landlord and get them evicted?" Liu Handong asked.

  "I didn't mean it that way, Dong Ge, you have a good relationship with them, can you ask them to keep their voices down next time?"

  "I have nothing to do with them." Liu Handong quickly clarified, if Ma Ling heard this, it would be unclear.

  Zhu Xiaoqiang asked strangely: "Then they've inquired about you several times, asking where you went. Ah, Dong Ge, why haven't you come to stay here for half a month?"

  Liu Handong said: "I was detained by the Public Security Bureau." Then he left Zhu Xiaoqiang with a big mouth, and went upstairs.

  Sitting on the bed board, Liu Handong took out the few pitiful banknotes from his body and counted them one by one. In total, he had 58 yuan and 40 cents. Even eating was a problem, and the top priority at the moment was to find a job. He knew how to repair cars and drive, so buying a newspaper to look for recruitment information should be helpful.

  As I walked downstairs, I suddenly noticed that Wang Zhigang's disabled vehicle was parked in the yard, with a shattered windshield, a dented gas tank, and twisted tires. I also thought of Zhang Dajie's stall on the street, which made me think that something bad had happened to Wang Dage.

  Just as I was about to ask the landlady, Zhang's sister came in with a lunchbox and a bitter face. Seeing Liu Handong was like seeing an old friend, and she poured out her troubles, saying that Wang Zhigang had gotten drunk and crashed into a big tree while driving a few days ago. The car was destroyed and he was injured, now lying in the hospital. Just the hospital fees were already tens of thousands, and Zhang's sister had to take care of him every day, bringing him food, and her business was suffering, and she even had to send her child back to the countryside.

  "How can I get through these days?" Zhang's sister burst into tears.

  "Liu Handong had an idea: 'Sister, anyway the car is ruined, why don't I help you fix it? After fixing it, I'll help your brother run the business and we can split the money. The gas money will be on me.'"

  Sister Zhang's eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands, saying: "Big brother, you're right!"

  Liu Handong pushed the damaged wheelchair to the repair shop at the south end of Tiehua Street, where there was a dilapidated house with piles of air pumps, water basins, welding machines, and old batteries at the entrance. A stout man was squatting beside an overturned bicycle, scraping the inner tube with a blunt knife, with a Red Plum cigarette dangling from his mouth, its long ash refusing to fall off. On a wooden board were written two characters: Che Xiu (Bicycle Repair).

  "Master, can this be repaired?" Liu Handong asked.

  The man raised his head, narrowed his eyes and said: "Bring it inside, don't worry about what kind of motorcycle, electric bike or bicycle, as long as it's not four-wheeled, I Chen Bachui can fix it."

  It's called a disabled vehicle, but it's actually just a modified Qianjiang 125 motorcycle, which has been converted from two wheels to three and added a compartment that can block wind and rain.

  Liu Handong pushed the car to the door and took out a Red Plum cigarette for Chen Bazhi, saying: "Master Chen, your tools are quite complete here."

  Chen Basheng tucked the cigarette behind his ear and said disdainfully, "You don't even bother to ask around, there's not a second car repair shop on this street, they've all gone out of business except for me."

  Liu Handong said, "Master Chen, I'm a bit tight on cash and need to get the car fixed quickly for business. How about this: I won't trouble you with the work, I'll borrow your tools and fix it myself. Once I've made some money, I'll pay you back."

  Chen Bazhi stopped what he was doing and looked at Liu Handong with a puzzled expression, then looked at the car and said, "Isn't this Wang Qiu's car?"

  Liu Handong said: "Right, I am his neighbor, and I will run for him for two days."

  Chen Bashicheng said: "We're all on the same street, let's not talk about money, you can use whatever tools you want."

  Liu Handong was overjoyed and immediately began repairing the three-wheeled motorcycle. As soon as he started working, it was clear that he knew what he was doing. Chen Bacheng watched him expertly adjusting the wheel spokes and couldn't help but praise: "Good fellow, your craftsmanship is impressive!"

  "Ordinarily, Master Chen, I'm borrowing a welding machine."

  "You can even weld."

  "Stop messing around."

  After an afternoon's work, Liu Handong had the three-wheeled motorcycle looking like new. He disassembled and cleaned the engine parts, replaced the air filter and oil, inflated the tires, polished the spokes with a cotton thread, and even fixed the damaged seat with universal glue.

  "Thanks, Master Chen." Liu Handong straddled his motorcycle and began his own crippled life against the backdrop of the sunset.

  "Slow down." Chen Bashichu puffed on his cigarette and waved goodbye, "Come visit when you're free."

  Liu Handong's luck wasn't bad, and he hadn't even driven 50 meters before he encountered a customer. A man rushed out of the metal processing factory by the side of the road, his face pale, holding his right hand, with blood still dripping down.

  "Master, go to the troop hospital, quickly." The man blocked Zan's way and climbed onto the carriage.

  "What's wrong?" Liu Handong asked.

  "My finger got cut off by the machine saw, Master, please hurry." The man's voice was very low.

  "Hold on!" Liu Handong revved up the engine and the three-wheeled motorcycle shot out with a loud roar.

  The troop hospital is located on the other side of Yún Shān, and reattachment surgery is among the best in the province. It's really rush hour now, and the roads are extremely congested. The most convenient route is to take the Pán Shān highway, but the winding road with 18 bends can only accommodate two cars side by side. This was a road built during the Nationalist era by Chen Ziqiung, and it has been in disuse for some time now.

  ……

  At the foot of Yunshan, the starting point of Panshan Highway, more than a dozen motorcycles are gathering. The engines roar in succession. All riders wear brightly colored professional racing suits and full-face helmets. This is an informal competition. There are off-road vehicles, road bikes, and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Displacement ranges from 125 to 1800, with the largest displacement even larger than that of ordinary cars.

  A girl wearing suspenders holding a white handkerchief standing by the road, she is the starter. When the white handkerchief waves down, these chariots will rush out, the drivers straddle their beloved cars, one by one covering their faces with masks, eyeing each other, then fixing their eyes on the white handkerchief.

  Suddenly, a loud and piercing engine roar came, and everyone turned their heads in unison. They saw a three-wheeled rickshaw whizzing by before their eyes, with small advertisements on the carriage for treating vitiligo and premature ejaculation.

  Everyone was stunned, at this time the white handkerchief fell, and the crowd hurriedly started their motorcycles, more than a dozen cars followed behind Ran in hot pursuit.

  Yunshan Pan Mountain Road was chosen by the racing club as a track because of its high difficulty. The road has nine turns and eighteen bends, and it has been neglected for years, unlike ordinary highways that are flat. Now it's after 6 o'clock, when the sky is neither bright nor dark, and visibility is at its worst. Under such conditions, what matters most is not the performance or displacement of the vehicle, but the driver's skills and experience, and of course, courage.

  The mountainside was lush with trees, their reflections stretching out onto the highway in a fantastical display. The wind rustled through the leaves, creating a soft whooshing sound. It should have been a serene and picturesque scene, but it was disrupted by over a dozen high-performance motorcycles speeding by, their riders using every trick in the book to try and catch up to the one in front, which seemed to be getting away.

  If it were on a flat and straight road, these large-displacement vehicles could catch up with just one twist of the throttle. However, the mountain roads are steep and winding, with extremely sharp turns that require great caution, lest you fall off the cliff and lose your life. These drivers are only amateur enthusiasts looking for thrills, not risking their lives, so they have to slow down at every turn. But that ghostly car in front, instead of slowing down on the turns, actually speeds up, with one rear wheel hanging in mid-air as it passes through, amazingly without flipping over!

  The mountain road is not long, with a total length of no more than five kilometers. When the motorcycles reached the end, the wreckage was nowhere to be seen. The sky only had a blood-red sunset, and everyone took off their helmets, looking at each other, with incomprehension and anger in their eyes.

  This is unscientific!

  Because this mysterious chariot was a gaudy rural fire engine, it was named "Blazing Chariot" by the club car enthusiasts. Every evening thereafter, they would wait here in anticipation of the Blazing Chariot's appearance, but it never showed up.

  Liu Handong sent the injured man to the troop hospital in the shortest time possible and helped with registration and payment, but forgot to ask for the fare. It wasn't until the injured man was pushed into the operating room that he drove his three-wheeled motorcycle away, and on the way, he also picked up another job.

  It seems that this business trip is quite interesting. Liu Handong saw a black BMW 760 parked by the roadside, and the driver, who was dressed up, actually put a dilapidated bicycle into the trunk. The well-dressed boss personally opened the car door and sent an old man with white hair, who was dressed in shabby clothes, into the car. Then he beckoned to Liu Handong's taxi to stop.

  "Still windy and watery." The boss said, Liu Handong glanced at him, this middle-aged man's western-style pants were straight and neat, his leather shoes were shiny, and he had an inexplicable sense of familiarity about him.

  "Master, is the work going well?" The middle-aged man asked casually as he sat in the carriage.

  "I just opened this on the first day and haven't even started yet." Liu Handong said.

  "Haha, I'm quite lucky today," said the middle-aged man. "This road is under repair all day long, and even taxis don't want to run on it. You guys on motorcycles often come here for a spin, business should be good."

  "Thanks." Liu Handong said, he didn't rush at this time, and drove slowly to send the middle-aged man to the gate of Shangfeng Shangshui Villa District in Wenquan Town.

  Still far from the main gate, the guard rushed out and shouted: "The disabled are not allowed to enter." After seeing the passenger, he suddenly became polite: "Sorry, sorry." Then he rushed to Liu Handong: "Go in."

  "It's not far away, I'll walk two steps." The middle-aged passenger got off the bus and reached into his pocket: "Sorry, my wallet was left in the car."

  "It's okay, I'll give it to you next time." Liu Handong knew that the other party would not deliberately ask for this little bit of road expenses, nodded and drove away on his motorcycle.

  The night wind blew against his face, Liu Handong felt somewhat disheartened, having worked for a whole evening without earning a single cent and even losing some money on gasoline.

  He had an urgent need, so he stopped the car and walked down to the roadside, unzipped his pants ready to relieve himself. Suddenly, he felt a pair of eyes staring at him, quickly pulled up his pants and pushed through the bushes. In the midst of the overgrown grass, a large dog was crouching, its fur dirty, the metal wire around its mouth had dug into its flesh, with multiple bloody wounds on its body, clearly unable to move. The big dog looked up at Liu Handong, its eyes filled with pleading.