Chapter 32: Showing Off

Gotta say, this F-150 was really great. Its gear shifts were buttery smooth, and the power felt super strong. Yeah, the inside was a little worn and beat-up because of its age, but that didn’t stop it from working perfectly at all. Driving home, Liu Heming totally fell in love with it.

Back at the ranch, Liu Heming jumped out of the truck and couldn’t wait to give George a huge bear hug. “George, I’m so happy. Thank you!”

George had really kept his promise: a good truck that saved money. Liu Heming had peeked at other rides while getting the truck. Lots of them were going for six or seven thousand US Dollars. Probably only dropped this low because the truck had seen some trouble before.

“Alright, get acquainted with her. The water truck I scheduled should be here soon,” George chuckled.

“OK, go handle your stuff,” Liu Heming smiled wide.

“Oh, right! Aren’t the folks installing the irrigation systems for my ranch supposed to show up soon? And don’t forget to help me find a Seeder for the Corn. Ugh, thinking about it makes my head throb. Going to cost a decent chunk of change again.”

“Well, what can you do? You could easily skip the Corn and Soybeans and just plant Wheat,” George shrugged.

“Ah, I need Soybeans for my oil press, plus other uses. Corn’s great too – I figure I’ll raise some chickens and pigs later. Store bought Feed is crazy expensive. Better if I just mix some myself,” Liu Heming sighed.

He didn’t want all this hassle, but skipping the hassle meant spending way more money.

Take cooking oil, for instance. Even in Anderson’s little supermarket in the United States, there were tons of different oils: Corn Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Cottonseed Oil… sure, they had Soybean Oil too, but it was mostly that bioengineered stuff.

He wasn’t sure if that genetically modified stuff was bad, but he didn’t want to use it. So, he’d ordered regular Soybean seeds for his oil press. He could make his own oil and maybe cook some edamame too.

As for the Butter George and folks used all the time? It was fine sometimes, but eating lots of it? Just kinda bleh, no real flavor.

Then there were the pigs and chickens. Just feeding them store bought Feed? He didn’t trust that somehow. Better to mix his own feed mash. They might grow slower, but as long as it worked, it was fine. That’s how folks raised them back home. Pigs raised on that kind of looser, watery Feed? Now that tasted amazing.

George didn’t get any of this at all. But he also didn’t care. Waving at Liu Heming, he headed off to wait for the water truck.

Liu Heming figured the time difference; it probably wasn’t the middle of the night back home yet. The desire to show off started gnawing at him.

He was just a regular guy. Since coming to the United States, he’d been constantly busy. Last time, he’d only managed to send his parents a picture of his daughter before tossing that laptop aside, gathering dust.

These last couple days hadn’t been bad, though. Add getting the new truck today? Yeah, he absolutely needed to properly brag to his buddies back home. This big pickup was seriously awesome.

Pulling out his Mobile Phone, he snapped countless pictures of the pickup truck – click, click, click! Then he snapped photos of his house and the Ranch. The house in the pictures? It was his new one, naturally. The old wreck definitely didn’t deserve to be photographed.

Turning on the computer, he logged into QQ. He hadn’t been on for ages, so the messages piled up wildly. He didn’t rush to check them. Instead, he started cleaning out all those QQ groups he’d joined over the years. Any useless groups or ones where he never really talked were gone with a click.

He almost quit his University class group too. Almost. But he clicked away from the ‘leave’ button. Just thinking about it made him pause.

It was a little sad. Back in school, everyone had loads of time. After graduation? Everyone scattered like dust in the wind. Barely stayed in touch. These days, he still chatted with maybe five classmates? Tops.

Then he started reading the actual messages. Tons were from old co-workers asking how he was doing. Too annoying to reply one by one, so he made a new chat group and dumped them all in.

Wang Zhe: “Holy crap! Liu Heming! Did you rise from the dead?”

Tan Liang: “Wow! Crazy! We got an American spy in our midst!”

…

No sooner had the group been made than messages flooded in non-stop.

“Hold up! Hold UP!” Liu Heming typed quickly. “Isn’t it like, dead of night over there? You slackers’ll be late for work tomorrow and get docked pay!”

Du Juan: “Hahaha… Someone spending too long in the United States? Don’t you realize tomorrow’s Saturday?”

Wang Zhe: “Spill it! Things must be way too cushy in the US! How’d you just randomly run off over there?”

“Hehehe,” Liu Heming smirked as he typed. “That’s a long and complicated story, like asking where the kid’s mom is. Point is, I’m stuck here for now. Oh, guess what? Snagged myself a little pre-loved car today. Wanna see pics?”

Having worked together so long, his friends totally read him. No one actually asked to see. They just spammed pointless little emoticons.

Liu Heming felt a brief twinge of disappointment. But he wasn’t giving up. He bombarded the group chat with his carefully taken truck photos – every angle, inside and out. He flooded the group chat screen with nothing but pictures of the truck.

Response? Rows… and rows… and rows of little knife-dripping-blood emoticons.

“I seriously can’t believe you people!” Liu Heming protested. “I get the truck and instantly share it with my best buddies!”

Wang Zhe: “Share? You sure you got the right word? That was pure showing off. How much? Damn, I’m super jealous!”

“Three thousand US Dollars. Used. My poor wallet…” Liu Heming typed, adding a pained emoticon.

That really set them off. Before, it was just truck pictures flooding the screen. Now? It was knives plus exploding mine emoticons spamming everything.

“Hehe. One more thing…” Liu Heming typed once things settled slightly. “Lemme hit you with the heavyweight bomb.” Then he uploaded a photo of himself with his daughter.

Silence. Utter silence hung over the group chat. Long moments later, Wang Zhe finally dropped a string of question marks: “????????????”. Everyone else just kind of stood there digitally.

“Haha! Don’t envy me, fellas! That’s my own adorable, perfect little girl!” Liu Heming thought, bubbling with pride. Showing off the truck? Meh. Showing off his precious daughter? That was the real win! This news was the ultimate bomb. It froze everyone there.

“Alright, chew on that for a while. I gotta hit the fields. Phone data costs a bomb this far away. Chat after work,” Liu Heming typed gleefully. To rub it in, he sent a few extra photos of the prettier parts of his ranch. Then he shut down the computer.

Let them scratch their heads and stew. No matter what… today’s showing off mission was a definite success.