I placed down my chopsticks and gazed at Mr. Zhang before I turned to the rest of the table and said, “And so we entered Mr. Zhang’s office. My father took a seat and said, ‘When you once found Nie Xiaojun his first work at the carriage station, there was something that you did not know, Zhang! Did you know that he had a colleague who also had a bumpy life?’

” ‘Oh? There’s such a lad?’ Mr. Zhang asked Nie Xiaojun pointedly. Nie Xiaojun nodded and replied, ‘Yeah. A lost boy; about six to seven years old. He’s the Yang Xiaoshan we know today!’

“My father added sharply, ‘And what a terrible life he’s had! He lost his father to a sudden sickness when he was barely two. His mother tried to take care of him, but widows were dreadfully stigmatized and ostracized in those days. She then remarried to a Ma Lao’Er (literally the second son of Ma), a son of the Ma Family Ranch. This Ma Lao’Er was a tolerable person but his brother Ma Xiazi (literally Blind Ma) ill-treated Yang Xiaoshan and his mother tremendously. Widely notorious for being a lousy snob, Ma Xiazi was born with only one eye due to a disfigurement since birth. Everyone in the village knew of his evil deeds, although none dared to speak against him.

” ‘The little boy Yang Xiaoshan then experienced once more the pain of losing his loved ones. His parents – both his stepfather and his mother – died during the earthquake. Due to a stroke of luck, the little Xiaoshan’s sleeping cot had a box above his head that had shielded and saved him from any falling debris during the quake, whereas Ma Xiazi’s shed, which had a roof made of hay, too, weathered the disaster and hence he, also, survived. Only the good die young, indeed. Seeing as Yang Xiaoshan had survived when his parents had perished filled Ma Xiazi with resentful wrath for the boy might one day compete with him for the family fortune despite not being a true son of the Ma Family. Ma Xiazi then made up an excuse and wanted to beat the boy to death, yet many villagers came to his help and held back the large bully. Realizing that he could no longer stay, Yang Xiaoshan fled. But this episode was witnessed by the boy’s uncle, Liu Wenhua who had been sent by his family to check on the safety of his sister, Yang Xiaoshan’s mother. Being only fourteen or fifteen, the brash and impulsive Liu Wenhua lunged at Ma Xiazi who retaliated with a three-pronged rake. They fought furiously until the villagers held them both back.

” ‘Liu Wenhua pedaled as hard as he could on his bicycle to his home and related the entire story to his elder brother, Liu Wenfeng, who was a chef skilled in making tofu. A large and beefy person, no one ever dared infuriate Liu Wenfeng for fear of his wrath. When Liu Wenhua came to him, he was clearing up the wreckage of the tofu room of the kitchen he worked in with his apprentices. Listening to Liu Wenhua’s gripe about Ma Xiazi, the seething Liu Wenhua mustered his apprentices and charged directly to the Ma Family Ranch. Without much flair for talking, he began fighting with Ma Xiazi. The staff and workers of the Ranch immediately stood aside and watched, filled with resentment after suffering for so long the oppression by Ma Xiazi. Without anyone to help him, Ma Xiazi was so badly beaten that he had lost a leg. From then on, Ma Xiazi would be known as the Blind Limper. The people from the Liu Family excavated through the ruins and dug up the corpse of little Xiaoshan’s mother and left, leaving a few of their men to search and ask about the boy, yet to no avail…

” ‘Later on, the Blind Limper filed a complaint to the authorities, demanding compensation for the injuries he had incurred. The authorities sent some people to the village to mediate the issue. They summoned both parties – the people from both the Liu Family and the Ma Family Ranch, which made a huge turn up with a strong group of people. The Liu Family agreed to compromise with the compensation, with the condition that the Ma Family first return to them the boy Yang Xiaoshan! Tired and disgusted with Ma Xiazi’s usual antics, even the people from the Ma Family agreed that they should first return the child to the Liu Family. Having not foreseen this turn of events, Ma Xiazi grew angry and flustered, saying, “How would I know where did that rabid cur run to? Why are you saying this to me, which side are you on? Never mind, I’ll settle this myself!” Presented with an opportunity to keep themselves out of trouble, the rest of the Ma Family then snarled at him, “Very good! You’d do well to remember that this is a decision you made yourself! Since you do not need us, we’ll rid ourselves of your filth! Let us leave!” With a wave of the leader’s hands, the rest of the Ma Family retreated. Spurred by this sudden change in the status quo, Liu Wenfeng spat furiously, slamming hard on the table, “I’m better than you, a man who only knows how to bully a kid! You reap what you sow! Would I have struck you if you did not lay your hands on the child? Go and ask everyone in my village, does Liu Wenfeng ever unjustly hit anyone? I only hit you because you are a creature lesser than a man! Return the child, or consider the deal off!” The Liu Family then retreated as well. The people from the authorities could only shake their heads and quietly slip away, leaving the case unresolved.

” ‘But the efforts of the brothers of the Liu Family to search for Yang Xiaoshan had not ended there. They conducted processions, striking on pots and pans while yelling for his name; pasted missing person notices and many other ways in their fervent hopes of recovering Yan Xiaoshan. Still, for all their attempts, the sight of Yang Xiaoshan remained elusive! Both the older and second brothers worked at the tofu producing section of a kitchen. In those days, their products were either sold to the government or sold to the public on bicycles. Liu Wenhua used the opportunities to cycle around, peddling his wares while taking sharp looks at every child he had ever come across. This continued for four to five years, yet no news about the little boy Xiaoshan was heard.

” ‘With the implementation of the household responsibility system in China, the Liu Family was assigned the duty of producing beancurd products. Their business grew larger and lager that Liu Wenhua himself started another production line of his own which grew from making tofu to producing other products such beancurd slices, soya bean drinks and many others before expanding his business to manufacturing soya sauce, soybean animal feed, sesame oil and more. Before they realized it, the Liu Family had thrived into one of the nouveau riche households of the area.

” ‘On his deathbed, Liu Wenfeng, the oldest of the Liu Family siblings, held Liu Wenhua’s hands tightly as he gasped, “I am too ashamed to meet your sister in the afterlife! Our family was big when you were still young then, and she had to work to help put food on the table for the family. This had delayed her marriage, and we had not found a good family for her. Who would’ve known that her husband would die so young? With his death, she had endured tremendous difficulties and hardships while dragging a child with her. Alas… I was the one who’d persuaded her to remarry and had inadvertently caused her death in the earthquake! And then there’s also the rabid mongrel of an uncle who has now caused the disappearance of the child… Now that we’ve finally lead a prosperous life… The sweetness that we enjoy daily is more than the bliss that she’s had in her entire life! Never had she enjoyed a happy life! You must continue looking for the boy; the search must never stop…”

” ‘Still, no one knew that little Xiaoshan did not wander far. He went to the areas of Hetao and spent some time playing at the Huan Xiang River. The tide was low when he roamed to the opposite bank of the river. But as the tide grew higher, he became trapped at the other bank without knowing how to return. Therefore he strayed until he reached the place where Nie Xiaojun was working. After speaking to Yang Xiaoshan, Nie Xiaojun found that he was not only an orphan like him, the little boy was very much weaker and frail than him. At that time, the old manager of the carriage station was particularly fond of Nie Xiaojun. Nie Xiaojun’s uncompensated work at the station made him felt guilty, more so since Xiaojun was an orphaned child. Hence he would frequently keep food for the boy. On this day, his wife made some dumplings for Xiaojun. Yang Xiaoshan stared hungrily at them, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets but he could not summon the courage to ask for some.

” ‘But being the kind and pleasant boy he was, Nie Xiaojun only took a small mouthful and left the rest for little Xiaoshan. What a pity for such a boy so young to have to endure such misery and sorrow. He might even one day grow up to be a sad person with barely any pleasant recollections of his past! One day, a man from Shijiazhuang (a city in Hebei Province) came to the village to check on his relative. But utility infrastructure such as public transport, postal services, telephone services and telegraph services were all disrupted because of the earthquake. The man had been hitching rides to reach the village, only to find out that his relatives had died in the calamity and had already been buried by their next of kins. Seeing that the hour was late, he took up lodgings at the carriage station for the night. It was there where he took notice of the little boy Xiaoshan. He was touched to hear that Xiaoshan was also orphaned because of the catastrophe. Without a son of his own, the 40-year-old man, after asking around and finding that the child belonged to no one, promptly took Yang Xiaoshan with him and left.

” ‘Still, like how all good things must come to an end, the man reached home to discover that his wife was terribly crossed when she had seen that her husband had returned home with a stepson, shrieking, “So you think that I cannot bear you a child since I’ve reached 40?” And so, little Xiaoshan once again found himself roaming outside. From the comforts of a home, he was banished to suffer destitution under the gutters of the street. Hence he began meandering around once more, begging to feed himself until he joined a group of brigands and gangsters where he grew up being abused and beaten. He had suffered a clampdown for several times. Later one day, he was arrested for selling switchblades! But juvenile lawbreakers like him were commonly assigned to menial labor by the Public Security Bureau, and Yang Xiaoshan was then sent to a logistics company to work. But the company closed its operations some time later, and its staff began delivering goods on their own using their own vehicles. Some started their own workshops repairing vehicles and Yang Xiaoshan found himself a job in one of these garages until he switched to a driving school that a few other drivers set up. It was there where he learned how to drive a car. But his path once again intertwined with Nie Xiaojun’s when an altercation at the driving school saw him injured and he was hospitalized. Coincidentally, Nie Xiaojun was one of the head specialists for the hospital, and Yang Xiaoshan recognized the man who was once the boy who had shown him kindness!

” ‘Therefore, I would leave it for their family to handle the matter on their own, since it was the nephew who had knocked his own uncle’s car!’ Mr. Zhang flashed a thumbs-up to my father, saying, ‘Spectacular! Well then, now that you’ve helped me, I’ll have Nie Xiaojun help you out! I know you came to me seeking an introduction to enlist his help! I’ll even settle the medical bill for you!’ But I giggled and replied, ‘Since when did I say I had come to you to ask for your help to introduce me to Dr. Nie?’ ”