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The Road Trip
I met Bao at the hostel, who owns the noodle shop next door. He came one day to hang out with the guys in the hostel. He barely finished primary school, but has earthy humor and raw enthusiasm. That’s why when he asked to connect with me on WeChat, I said yes.
Several days later, Bao texted me, 「Do you want to go to Bulang mountain with me today? For a local event there, they invited me for dinner.」
「I’m hanging out with a friend. Can I bring her?」 I was sitting on the couch in Lilian’s hotel room.
Half an hour later, he parked in front of the hotel, took us on the road trip. We drove out of the city, into the wilderness. Massive banana fields unfolded in front of us, under the cloudless sky. I rolled down the window, let the wind blow my stretching mind.
Bao put some old Chinese songs from the 90s. I hummed along, eyes feasting on the fleeting scenery along the road. 「I am so happy!」 I shouted in the wind.
「I am happy that you are happy.」 Lilian’s voice light, while filled with energy. She played around with her camera in the backseat.
「Do you know where we are going?」 Bao asked.
「You said Bulang mountain, right?」 I said.
「Yeah, where is that?」 Lilian asked.
「You don’t know?」 Bao asked, 「You didn’t even look up? What if I sell you to someone?」 He glanced at Lilian in the rearview mirror, then turned to me, 「I might just sell you and keep her.」
「Right.」 I snorted.
「Serious. You should pin down the locations and send to your friends every half an hour.」 He still didn’t smile. 「I used to serve in the military, then work in the SWAT team. I was specialized in rescuing people from kidnapping. You know, there’s a lot of human trafficking here at the border.」
I checked my phone subconsciously, no signal. Well, nothing will happen, obviously. But it’s funny how the universe cooperated with his joke.
「Are we going to the border?」 Lilian asked.
「Yes, very close. The other side of Bulang mountain is Myanmar.」 Bao said, 「There will be several border controls. Very strict with some businesses here.」
「Yeah, drug dealing is one the biggest industries in the world. Even higher revenue than the tech business, such as Apple.」 Lilian said.
Bao squinted his eyes, 「Right. They get a lot of supplies from Myanmar. There’s a Widow Village here, super rich, everyone drives fancy Mercedes. The husbands got arrested for the smuggling business, went to heaven, and left their wives with everything but men…」
The interaction took a bubbling flow between Lilian’s international mind and Bao’s worldly knowledge. It completely countered my expectation of an awkward social mix.
We soon arrived at the first border control. 2 soldiers with medical protection glasses approached us, 「Where are you going?」
「Where are you from?」
「Show us your ID.」
「When are you coming back?」
「Scan the health QR code.」
…
「Hello Brother, you have cool glasses.」 I put on my sunny smile at one of the soldiers.
「Don’t flirt, just scan the QR code,」 Bao told me.
I realized only then that I WAS sort of flirting, in my automatic mode. Last time in Thailand, the sunny smile got Leila and me through the corrupted custom without paying 『tips』. Another time in Paris, it got my residence paperwork expedited by a French officer. Years of 『drifting life』 imprinted this 『skill』 into my being like a conditional reaction. I wasn’t even aware of my smile when I smiled.
More border controls with more QR code scanning and extensive explaining. After a long drive, around 7 pm, we saw a patch of blue roofs from afar. 「Here it is,」 Bao said.
The village nestled deep into the mountain, like a lonely sapphire. Immersed in lush green and chill air, it’s miles away from another village. The isolation of this place was shrouded in mystery for me.
「What do people do here?」 I asked.
「They plant tea trees. It’s the very place for Pu』er tea.」 Bao said, 「They were extremely poor before, but now make a lot of money with tea. Most of the people never went to the city.」
「It’s only minutes away from the border,」 Bao repeated, trying to impress us.
The main road was only a narrow street, sandwiched between 2 rows of aged houses. They were structured with wood beams, with no foundation. A throng of skinny kids in ragged clothes, with or without shoes, swarmed around on the street like tadpoles. Their hearty laughter rang merrily in the dusk breeze.
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