Electronic Nezha

Chapter 101 Romeo and Juliet

Now that things have come to this, I need to quickly find a place to sort things out with Hao Hao.

"I'll take Hao Hao and go first, you two continue."

Old Wang was groaning and moaning under the pressure from number 23. He looked up at me and said, "Can you do one more? I'll find you someone with a weaker hand."

“No need—” I said to number 23, “Big sister, use as much force as you can. If you can make him break the teapot, I’ll give you a tip for two hours.”

The older woman laughed and said, "No, we also value professional ethics—"

When I passed by her, I took a special look at her skin. She should take care of it, but it was just normal skin.

The changing area was noisy with people coming and going. I pulled Hao Hao to sit on a bench in a corner where no one was paying attention and asked impatiently, "Do you know how I fell asleep just now?"

"The person massaged you for a while and you fell asleep."

"Where's the auntie who gave you the massage?"

"It's the same. She came over and put her hand on that aunt's shoulder. After saying a few words, the aunt couldn't open her eyes anymore."

I asked, "Didn't she care about you?"

“She touched my ankle and said, ‘You really are an idiot.’ Then she walked up to you and kept saying things like ‘alien’ and ‘don’t make a pointless struggle.’ I couldn’t understand what she was saying. Then she started repeating those two sentences over and over again: ‘Your son was killed.’ ‘Your son is not human.’”

I shuddered and said, "Hypnosis?" My shudder was just a nagging feeling; I didn't believe in this stuff either. The movies made it too far-fetched. They could just shake a pocket watch for a while and make you unrecognizable, not even your own mother. If that were true, why would anyone rob a bank? They could just put a rack on a farm tricycle with a row of pocket watches hanging on it, and let anyone who came up to watch tell them their bank card PIN. You could make at least a million a month doing that in a rural area.

Even after thinking about this, I still felt uneasy, so I asked Hao Hao, "She didn't mention anything like 'bank password,' did she?"

"No."

"You were watching the whole time she was hypnotizing me?"

"Well, at first I thought this was the standard procedure for foot massages, until she picked up the teapot."

I forgot that the chip Hao Hao ate was just a combat chip and didn't cover much common sense in life. If Hao Hao were a normal person, he should have realized something was wrong when that person started hypnotizing his aunt. Fortunately, that's how it was, which led to her eventual exposure.

Hao Hao said, "Brother, that thing doesn't seem to be human."

“I noticed that too,” I asked him. “Are you scared?”

"Don't be afraid. No matter what it is, if she tries anything to harm you, I'll beat her up!"

I patted him on the shoulder.

Hao Hao said, "Brother, you're in danger now. Let me go with you."

I pondered for a moment, when some neighbors who came to take a bath recognized Hao Hao. Our conversation could only end there. This is the difficulty of taking someone who is considered a fool by others out for activities. You have to find reasons and create conditions for even the most normal behaviors of ordinary people.

You could say it's harder for us to meet than Romeo to Juliet. Wait, that's not quite accurate. Meeting is secondary; the main problem is the difficulty in talking. A Shaanxi folk song is more fitting: "Meeting is easy, talking is hard."

As we were changing our clothes and heading out, we ran into one of Chen Feng's subordinates, who was bringing him a new set of clothes. Everything from the inside out was brand new, including the shoes and socks, which were newly bought to match the outfit.

I was looking for a place to discuss a solution with Hao Hao, and as soon as I stepped out of the bathhouse, I saw Aunt Xu waiting there with her bicycle.

"Aunt Xu, are you afraid I'll lose Hao Hao?" I could only laugh it off.

When Hao Hao came out of the bathhouse, he wasn't wearing a rope around his waist. Aunt Xu took the rope out of his pocket, tied it around his waist, and held the other end in her hand, saying apologetically, "I thought it was almost time and I didn't want to cause you any trouble, so I came here to wait." She had been waiting for a long time; she certainly couldn't imagine that besides eating, we also got a foot massage…

"It was returned to Zhao intact, with no missing limbs."

The fool now smells wonderful, and because he rubbed off a lot of fine dirt, he looks much cleaner and more energetic.

Aunt Xu looked at her simple-minded son for a moment, then said happily, "It still has to be washed like this—Boss Liu, you have to take the money." She handed over a few 10-yuan bills; I couldn't tell if it was two or three. This included the bathhouse entrance fee and the meal. This old lady was truly proud and unwilling to take advantage of anyone.

I jumped back with my hands behind my back: "If you keep doing this, I'll get angry!"

Aunt Xu could tell that I definitely wouldn't accept the money, so she said to Hao Hao, "Hao Hao, you should say thank you."

"Thanks--"

Hao Hao was lost in thought when a word unconsciously slipped out of his mouth, but thankfully he reacted quickly and swallowed the second word back.

Aunt Xu looked at Hao Hao in surprise, then immediately asked me, "Did Hao Hao just speak?"

"I didn't hear you." Before coming up with a solution, we absolutely cannot let Aunt Xu realize that something is wrong with Hao Hao. Forget about saying "thank you," even saying "shit" would probably excite the old lady so much that she couldn't sleep.

Before Hao Hao left, he secretly gestured to me a whistle gesture for when something happens. As I wandered alone through the fruit market, my mind was completely blank. When faced with a major event, a person's first reaction isn't fear, anger, or sadness. For example, if you lose fifty yuan, you might be depressed for a day; if your new phone is stolen, you'll be furious for a week. But what if one day the UN Secretary-General called you and said, "Mr. Fengzi, a group of aliens are targeting you; be careful." Then you'd probably be just like me right now—completely bewildered.

At this point, I should have gone to discuss it with Liu Zhenhua immediately, but he had already gone to school. I wanted to call Wang Aili to ask Liu Zhenhua to come home, but after thinking about it for a long time, none of the reasons worked. When the child is at home, you can say whatever you want, such as that he has a fever, a cough, or a stomachache. But when he is already at school, calling him home is only possible if it is a major incident. I can't exactly tell Teacher Wang that aliens are about to attack and ask her to give Liu Zhenhua half a day off so we can discuss a solution.

Seeing that I returned to the stall alone, Li Ping asked, "Where's Lao Wang?"

"I've gone to talk to you about something." I repeated to Li Ping what Lao Wang had said to Chen Feng.

"What did Chen Feng say?"

"You'll have to ask Lao Wang. Hao Hao and I left first."

Old Wang came back in the afternoon, but Chen Feng wasn't with him.

"Chen Feng said—" Old Wang said to Li Ping as soon as he returned, as if to take credit, "He really acted too frivolously these past two days, and asked me to apologize to you."

Li Ping breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I won't say anything more, I'll reimburse you for the bath!"

Old Wang said mysteriously, "I treated them to a big bath!"

Li Ping asked with a smile, "How big?"

"I'm old," I said.

Li Ping laughed.

Old Wang shrugged and said, "Don't reveal your secrets." After he finished speaking, he patted me and said, "Number 23 is a hit."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone says that number 23 made a customer smash a teapot, and after that, the customer insisted on adding another hour. When we left, there were many people queuing up there, specifically asking for number 23."

Alright, I've recently brought two hot topics to the local area—first, the fermented rice wine at Yaxiange, and then No. 23 at the public bathhouse. It would be a waste for the Culture and Tourism Bureau not to ask me to shoot a promotional video or something.

(End of this chapter)