Electronic Nezha

Chapter 12 Going Home
The fruit market is deserted by 5 pm, so I decided to take advantage of the time before Liu Zhenhua gets out of school to go back to my parents' house. Liu Zhenhua and I haven't been back for almost a month. That's the downside of doing business; holidays are our busiest time.

I followed the wall to the back wall of the market and found my dusty ride, a Geely electric car. This thing has opened up a whole new world for me since it was invented—it's so economical!
But I regretted it as soon as I got on the road. It was the start of the evening rush hour, and my little Geely and I were moving slowly. If I wanted to get to an intersection smoothly, I would have to wait for two green lights. On one of the busiest roads, the traffic was moving slowly. Ahead of me on the side of the road, a magnificent six-story villa stood out. On the roof hung a huge AI-modeled billboard featuring a pretty little nurse.
Shiya Plastic Surgery Hospital.

I felt a little uncomfortable on my ex-wife's turf, unsure of where to look, when two young girls in nurse uniforms knocked on my car window. I had just rolled the window down halfway when one of the younger girls threw a business card with an advertising slogan onto my passenger seat: "Sir, interested in cosmetic surgery?"

I glanced up at her and asked, "Do you think I need plastic surgery?"

The young nurse smiled sweetly and said, "You have a good appearance. If you don't want to help someone in need, you can at least make them even better." It was obviously a platitude. With my looks, getting plastic surgery wouldn't necessarily help someone in need, and it certainly wouldn't make them even better.

I was about to make a sarcastic remark to her when the slightly older woman pulled her companion aside and said to me, "I'm sorry, sir, you absolutely do not need plastic surgery." Before I could even close the car window, she dragged the young nurse toward a luxury car behind, scolding her junior, "Does he look like he can afford plastic surgery?"

The young nurse protested: "But didn't you even give them to people riding electric bikes?"

"That's what you don't understand. Rich people sometimes ride electric bikes for convenience, while those who drive these low-end cars are definitely not rich."

I rolled the car window down to its lowest position and called out, "Sister, I'm still here."

The young nurse said, "I'm sorry, that's not what we meant..."

The older man waved his hand and said, "The light is green, please go slowly."

The light did turn green, but in the end, it only moved forward by three parking spaces. The two nurses went back to work behind the traffic. Sure enough, they even gave business cards to people riding electric bikes.

I shook my head and smiled wryly. I should have ridden Old Wang's bike.

When I arrived at my parents' house, the aroma of leftover food wafted through the air. I asked them, and sure enough, they had reheated the leftovers from lunch and eaten a quick bite. My mother, who suffers from rheumatism, was currently applying heat to her legs under a small covered table, afraid that the treatment wouldn't be effective in time. She kept urging me to eat this and that. My father was reclining on the sofa, smoking and glancing at the TV, with a homemade ashtray made from a canned food jar beside him.

I took a cigarette from the old man's cigarette case, lit it, moved the small ashtray closer to myself, and casually stubbed out his cigarette: "You should smoke less."

My dad took the cigarette I had just lit, put it in his mouth, and put the ashtray back in its original place, saying lazily, "It's right that you smoke less. I've completed my mission and could die at any moment. What do I need to smoke less for?"

My mother was used to the behavior of my father and me, and asked me, "I'll fry you two eggs, and you can eat this?"

I said, "Don't bother, we have it at home."

My dad exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "It's noodles with soybean paste again, isn't it? Don't let Liu Zhenhua eat that all the time, he won't get enough nutrition."

"No, someone else does it."

My dad's hand, which was flicking cigarette ash, froze in mid-air. He asked suspiciously, "You don't have 'someone else,' do you?"

Chinese is a profound language. Please analyze what each of the two instances of "有人" (yǒu rén, meaning "someone") represents here.
"No, what are you thinking? Who would want someone like me?" I stood up and wandered around the living room. This house was my and Han Shiya's wedding home, and it witnessed our ten-year marriage. So everything here was both familiar and strange. The place where my and Han Shiya's wedding photo used to hang on the wall now had an ugly frame mark after it was taken down.

My mom sighed, "When you and Han Shiya first said you wanted a divorce, I thought you were just having a tiff. How did you actually get divorced?"

I waved my hand and said, "We're not on the same wavelength, so it's fine as long as we haven't argued or made a fuss."

"Well, the main problem is that our family isn't good enough for their conditions."

My dad immediately glared at me: "I have two stalls across from the cold storage, how am I not good enough for her? She didn't say she had to find a rich man when she got married."

I said speechlessly, "It's not because of that, Han Shiya, it's just that their lifestyles are too different."

"We keep talking about lifestyle habits, but we all have two shoulders and one head, how different can we be?"

"For example, my mom won't let you smoke on the sofa—of course, you can't smoke at home either. Then your toothbrush has to be placed like a sunflower, facing the sun. You have to squat to pee, and you can't splash any water on the sink. When you go on a road trip, no matter how long you drive, you have to spray every corner of the hotel with alcohol as soon as you arrive. You can't touch anything in the hotel. From the sheets to the duvet cover to the little pad on the sofa, everything has to be replaced with disposable ones. Do you think you can stand that?"

The old man stared in disbelief: "How are we supposed to live like this!" In his anger, his hand trembled, and all the cigarette ash fell onto the sofa. He casually blew it onto the floor.

"No wonder she's a doctor, she's so clean." "Mom, I've told you so many times, what she does is cosmetic surgery, not medicine."

My dad said, "What was the guy she ended up with again? Someone who owned a restaurant?"

I said, "They own the biggest Western restaurant in town."

My dad said resentfully, "She did find someone rich after all. The matchmaker didn't tell me she was so pretentious."

I said, "What I just told you wasn't really anything special; the main issue is our differing philosophies—"

My dad was stunned: "You tolerated all of that?"

I thought to myself that men of that era were really making a fuss over nothing. With Han Shiya's little problem, which wife doesn't have a few of those traits nowadays?

My dad stubbed out his cigarette hard, his emotions a jumbled mess, and said, "It was my fault regarding you and Han Shiya. I shouldn't have forced you to go on blind dates everywhere. Mainly, I was worried you'd cause trouble since you were idle at the time, and I was also eager to have a grandson..."

I said, "Your grandson is taller than me now, you can carry him, but be careful of your old back."

My mom quickly changed the subject: "Yeah, let's talk about something happy. How's Zhenhua doing lately?"

"pretty good."

"And your grades? Still mediocre?"

My dad said firmly, "Boys have potential; they'll figure things out eventually."

I quickly gave him a thumbs up: "Yes, yes, I completely agree with you." I was also giving the old man a heads-up, so he wouldn't faint from excitement the day Liu Zhenhua actually got into Tsinghua or Peking University.

Liu Zhenhua's grandfather, drawing on his son's past experiences, felt I lacked sincerity and finally cursed, "You little brat!"

The small family gathering ended happily.

When I got to the fifth floor, I checked the time and figured Liu Zhenhua should be home by now. I climbed up to the fourth and a half floor, and just as I took out my keys, I saw the door being opened from the inside by the woman with the bamboo pole. She was wearing an apron, holding a shovel, and greeted me warmly, "Master, you're back." The house smelled wonderfully of food.

I said, "How did you know it was me?" I was a little surprised that it opened the door for me. What if it wasn't me or there was someone else in the hallway?

"I can recognize your footsteps." It took the plastic bag from my hand, probably triggering the item description function, "and it also brought some smoked chicken that looks delicious."

But why do I hear a hint of foreign influence in my taste?

Liu Zhenhua came out of his room and gave me a hard-to-describe look when he heard the nickname "Bamboo Pole Man".

My face turned a little red, and I pointed to the smoked chicken and said, "Your grandma gave it to me. I went back there for a while."

How are my grandparents?

"That's good, I've been thinking of you."

"Yes, I'd like to go back and visit them sometime."

"Yes, we should visit the elderly more often..."

Both father and son were a little embarrassed; the conversation had a somewhat artificial, over-the-top feel to it. We don't usually talk like this, especially me...

Good news! Nezha has officially signed a contract, and everyone can now give him tips and vote with monthly tickets. (Thanks to Butterfly for being the patron, and for giving such generous amounts! True love!) Thank you chixirenchen, thank you Moylai123, thank you Liu Fengyan (don't rush me!), thank you DQ, and thank you to the fifty-plus friends who gave tips!

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(End of this chapter)