Chapter Fifty: With a Flick of His Sleeve, He Leaves Without Taking a Single Cloud Along! (Please add to your favorites and vote for recommendations!)
Shenzhen, in a cramped rented room on the outskirts of Pu Xi.
Having just submitted his resignation letter to his boss—titled “The world is so beautiful, I don’t want to die bald and suddenly”—Zhang Quandan, now unemployed, sat at his computer desk, intensely scrutinizing the videos that had utterly overturned his worldview and values.
It was already past eight in the morning. His eyes were wide open and bloodshot, the keys of his keyboard worn slick with use, scattered with clumps of hair. Clearly, he had spent the entire night in a marathon of sleepless obsession.
He had downloaded several videos to his desktop, and he could no longer recall how many times he’d watched them through the night. The notepad beside his keyboard was filled with densely packed notes, recording the fruits of his night’s labor.
Finally, after completing his forty-first viewing of the first video filmed by the Master of Scavenging at the landfill, Zhang Quandan abruptly rose from his chair and pushed his large round glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“Heh...”
“Ahahahahaha!”
With a burst of manic laughter, the morning sunlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains, glinting coldly on his lenses.
“Master. I’ve finally found you!”
...
On Bilibili, when Zhang Quandan posted “After a night of rigorous deduction and analysis, I’ve finally not let you all down—I found the address of the Master of Scavenging!”, the community was utterly baffled.
“Don’t be ridiculous, OP. Just a couple of videos and you found the master’s address?”
“Someone help, another one’s gone mad. Drag him away!”
Seeing these foolish replies, Zhang Quandan was so angry his already bald scalp practically bristled.
“You bunch of idiots, watch as I carefully analyze it for you!” he replied at once.
“All right, all right, the nurses dragging him away can pause—let the patient finish speaking first!”
Hmph! Morons.
Seeing the latest reply, Zhang Quandan smiled coldly, adjusted his glasses, and began hammering away at the keyboard.
“To find the location of the scavenger elder, we must first determine the timing! That is, are the videos recent, and does the scavenger elder still reside at the filming location? Following this logic, I examined the videos closely and found the first crucial clue!”
“What clue?”
“The lighting in the video! Everyone knows, the position of the sun varies with the seasons. By analyzing the third video, where the sun is at five degrees above the left of the cameraman, who faces north, and considering the angle of sunlight and shadows, paired with the master’s comment, ‘It’s still a bit chilly at seven in the morning,’ we can deduce that the day is the 24th, the day of Frost’s Descent!”
“Another piece of evidence perfectly corroborates this; we don’t know the scavenger elder’s identity, so I focused on another key figure in the videos, Li Erchun! After a bit of research, I found this creator, and saw that his work ‘Reborn: I Am My Own Uncle’ had indeed been on hiatus for two days. Coupled with my earlier analysis, we can be certain the first video’s upload and filming occurred on the same day! Thus, every update was filmed on the day of upload!”
“With the time confirmed, next is location! Look at the master’s second video, the midnight flute performance, at 12 minutes and 21 seconds! The camera swings past the rear of the bus where the master lives, revealing the license plate: Tian E54213! At 15 minutes and 11 seconds, the scrapped car in front of the bus bears Tian E54188! Everyone knows, scrapped vehicles are processed by local authorities at designated junkyards. And Tian E... is Rongdian’s plate!”
By this point, many of the foolish viewers were kneeling before their phones: “God, 666!” “But, god, I believe you found the master in Rongdian via plates, but how did you deduce he’s at the Third Waste Sorting Facility?”
“Heh, heh, heh, heh.” Zhang Quandan pushed his glasses up again, flashing a sly smile at the computer.
“Of course...the constellations!”
“Look at the master’s second video. Night sky, Orion is in the upper left, and the cameraman faces the distant city. Given Orion’s position this season, we can deduce the landfill lies southeast of the city!”
“After consulting Rongdian’s city map, I found two landfills southeast of the city: the Third Waste Sorting Facility and a private recycling center. But—here’s the key—the private center doesn’t accept old vehicles!”
“So...there’s only one truth.”
“The master himself...is at the Third Waste Sorting Facility!”
Once Zhang Quandan finished his analysis, the comments section fell into stunned silence.
Then, a wave of eager fans rushed to the scene: “Steady!” “Bilibili’s Sherlock Holmes!” “Steady +10086!”
Seeing the flood of enthusiastic replies, Zhang Quandan grinned mischievously and posted his final message: “I’ve packed my bags and bought my ticket. Brothers, after this post, I, Zhang Quandan, will embark on my pilgrimage! Wish me luck!”
“Damn! Awesome! Rongdian isn’t far from here, I’m buying a ticket too. When I get there, I’ll send you all a video of the master!”
“Together! Let’s go together! I’ve had enough of random updates from dog UPs, I want to meet the master face-to-face and hear his wisdom myself!”
...
“What?! Old man, you’re leaving?”
Inside the landfill.
By the bonfire, a group of vagrants stared wide-eyed as Li Shixin announced he’d be leaving tonight.
Li Erchun was especially panicked, “Old man, where are you going? Will I ever see you again?”
“Heh.” Li Shixin looked at them, their faces shocked and reluctant, and waved with a smile, “I’m not riding a crane to the Western Paradise, why wouldn’t you see me?”
Counting today, he’d been out for ten days.
During these ten days, aside from occasionally filming videos with Li Erchun to harvest some applause from Bilibili’s young fans, Li Shixin had spent all his time observing the lives of the vagrants.
After ten days, he’d almost thoroughly studied everyone in the junkyard. Nearly everyone’s past he’d uncovered, and their images and voices could appear vividly in his mind when he closed his eyes.
Though he felt reluctant to leave behind the applause and support from fans, he could not afford to miss the audition.
The fans could wait, but the audition was an opportunity hard-won!
“Old man, what will you do after you leave?” Li Erchun asked, face drawn.
Li Shixin smiled, shook his head, and picked up a dog beside him.
The dog had wandered over to the bus last night, likely drawn by the warmth of the bonfire in the cold weather.
Not a fancy breed, just a mongrel. Clumsy, with a limp in its front paw from an old injury.
Held in Li Shixin’s arms, the dog stretched lazily in comfort.
“What I do is none of your business,” Li Shixin chuckled. “Next you’ll ask me what you should do yourself, right?”
Knowing the answer would be, “None of my business,” Li Erchun could only manage a bitter smile.
Seeing his timid demeanor, Li Shixin laughed, took something from a small bag nearby, and handed it to Li Erchun.
It was an old laptop.
“Before I leave, I’ll give you something. The big guy found it, and though it’s a bit outdated, it still works. Do you need me to tell you what to do next?”
The moment Li Erchun saw the laptop, tears streamed down his face: “Old man, I know what I need to do. I’ll stay grounded and work hard from now on!”
Li Shixin nodded, handed the dog over: “I can’t take Dog Dumb with me, so let him keep you company for a few days. The old stuff by the bus can stay here for now. Take care of it for me, I’ll come back to collect it in a few days.”
“Okay!” Hearing that Li Shixin would return, Li Erchun wiped his tears, hugging both the laptop and the dog.
Li Shixin glanced at the big guy and the syringe man, and the other vagrants, smiling: “I haven’t thought of what gifts to give you, so I owe you for now. But since we’re parting briefly, it wouldn’t be right not to give something. I’ve saved some money from selling scrap these days, so I brought you some things. Hope you’ll like them.”
With that, he pulled out a large package from under his small stool.
As he opened it, the bonfire was engulfed in the aroma of meat!
“Oh my god! Such a big piece of pork head! And roast chicken!” The big guy sprang up, grinning ear to ear.
“Mmm!” Not caring about hygiene, he grabbed a chunk of fatty pork head and stuffed it into his mouth. “Oh, it’s delicious! Haven’t had fresh cooked food in years! Old man, thank you!”
Watching the vagrants scramble for the food, Li Shixin chuckled and produced a stack of old books from beneath his stool, handing them to the big guy.
“Here, big man. This isn’t a gift—it’s a complete set of elementary school textbooks. You know numbers and pinyin, so start from the first book. Spend a little less time bullying people at night, and in half a year you should finish reading them.”
The big guy took the textbooks, each marked with a large number in paint, and was stunned. Then, with a chicken wing still in his mouth, he broke into tears.
“Old man, you treat me better than my own father! I can’t let you go!”
“Don’t be a baby!” Li Shixin patted his dirty head. “Take care of yourself, I’ll be back in a few days.”
“Okay!”
As the big guy wiped his tears and stepped aside, Li Shixin looked at the eyes shining in the firelight, stood up, waved farewell with a smile, picked up the last two items, and turned to leave.
He paused only when passing by the van that always felt like a tomb.
He looked at the two sparks of light in the darkness behind the door, chuckled, and placed the battered flute and a doll—one he’d secretly watched for four nights and cleaned yesterday—at the van’s door.
“Some things are inescapable. My friend, the greatest prison in this world is not a jail, but a boundary drawn by oneself.”
He did not knock; leaving these words, he strode away without looking back.
Only after he had walked far did the van door crack open.
A pair of dry hands snatched up the flute and doll, and then a beast-like howl burst from the van.
“Ahhh! Nannan, mama misses you, mama misses you so much!”