(1)
“A-Qiang.” Half of the free lunch break had already passed, yet Sun Wei came looking for Fang Qiang, his expression evasive and a bit hesitant. “Say… maybe… I should just do it myself?”
“You finally worked up the nerve, huh? Let me tell you in advance, there’s a ninety-nine percent chance you’ll fail. She barely even knows you.”
“It’s fine. If I don’t do this once before graduating middle school, I’ll feel like I failed at life.” Sun Wei clenched his fists, straightened his back with effort. “And I don’t need a love letter—I’m going to tell her directly!”
“…You’d better be ready for anything.”
“Relax, I’m not fragile like you—ha ha!” Sun Wei strode off with the air of someone who’s got nothing to lose, acting like a barefoot man unafraid of those wearing shoes.
He must have already accepted he’d fail… or maybe he never planned to succeed at all.
Maybe this kind of confession was just so he wouldn’t have regrets when looking back on his middle school days.
“What an idiot…” Fang Qiang shook his head helplessly.
“Where’s A-Wei going?” An Jing, who was about to sneak out for a bathroom break during the indoor nap period, tiptoed over and rested her hand on Fang Qiang’s shoulder. “He’s walking like a crab.”
“He said he’s going to confess himself.”
“Huh? He actually has the guts?”
“Just hope he does as he said… and doesn’t mope all day if he gets rejected.” “Don’t worry, A-Qiang.” An Jing gave his back a hearty slap. “With A-Wei’s personality, even if his girlfriend dumped him, he probably couldn’t stay sad for a whole day!” “…I feel like someone’s taking a jab at me.”
“Am I?”
“Ahem!!”
(2-1)
Class 4 of Grade 9 was right next to Class 5, and Sun Wei entered through the main classroom door.
Zhou Chao, who was leaning on the railing, touched his lips and really wanted a smoke to enjoy the show, but unfortunately, they were at school. If he really lit up here, he’d get at least a serious warning if not expelled.
“Class 4’s class monitor.” He smacked his lips. Spotting An Jing leaning by the door, with Zhu Ying feeding her a minty hard candy, he called out with a grin, “Zhu Ying, got any more? Give me one, my mouth tastes bland.”
“Here you go!”
“Why is this a hawthorn one? It’s different from what you gave An Jing.”
“My favorite flavors all go to Xiao Jing, of course! You don’t qualify~”
“Ha ha…”
“Zhou Chao, Class 4’s class monitor—do you know anything about her?”
“Uh… these days, she’s basically a Xiao Tai Mei…”
“What? Seriously? That girl who always looks so well-behaved?”
“Yeah.” Zhou Chao tossed the hawthorn candy in his mouth and glanced sidelong at Fang Qiang. “Why would I lie to you?”
“Then Sun Wei’s got no chance, does he?”
“Not necessarily.” Zhou Chao shifted his gaze away from Fang Qiang’s face, looking down at the students coming and going downstairs. “Xiao Tai Mei are actually more likely to accept someone’s confession—but it never lasts long.”
“At least it lets a guy who’s never dated get a taste.” “Ha ha, did you get a taste?”
“Screw you!” Fang Qiang smacked the wall. “Then it’s better for A-Wei not to succeed!”
As everyone waited for the result, Sun Wei suddenly bolted out of the classroom like a startled rat, scrambling onto the corridor, chased by an arm sticking out of the classroom door—on the arm were fake tattoos mimicking scars.
“With your sneaky face, you still have the nerve to confess to me? What kind of April Fool’s joke is this? You’re the real joke here, it’s hilarious! I bet your thing isn’t even half as big as my boyfriend’s!!”
“That’s… pretty harsh…” Fang Qiang covered his face.
“This isn’t even the worst of it.” Zhou Chao spread his hands.
“A-Wei’s so miserable… his face is turning purple.” An Jing frowned.
“That’s just how Xiao Tai Mei are.” Zhu Ying shook her head. “He picked the wrong girl to confess to. If it was someone like Xiao Ru, even if she refused, she’d never say something so mean…” “You, you—you’re going too far! I was just joking!”
◎
“Joking, my ass! Look at yourself! You useless little prick!” The girl even chased him out, her face twisted in a mocking grin. “You think someone would want a boyfriend like you? Who’d be blind enough to fall for you!”
“Xiao Tai Mei who just started acting out really don’t have much bite.” Zhou Chao stroked his chin, still had the energy to critique.
“Even if you tried to sell your ass, no one would want you. Disgusting, just like a cockroach!” “Class 4’s class monitor” slammed an unknown math book into Sun Wei’s face, then turned and marched back into the classroom without a backward glance.
Sun Wei was hopping mad, completely forgetting he was on the enemy’s turf. He pointed right at the girl and shouted, “You bastard spawn, I f* your mother!! You think I’m interested in you? That nasty thing of yours makes me sick! The stench is wafting right off you! Smelly b**!!”
Zhou Chao, who’d been enjoying the show, suddenly froze. “He actually dared to curse her out… he’s doomed.”
“What?” Zhu Ying was puzzled. “He just cursed her back, that’s all. She cursed him first—it’s only fair, even if he was a bit rough.”
“It’s not about cursing or not.” Zhou Chao frowned. “Her boyfriend might be a middle schooler, but he hasn’t come to school for the whole of ninth grade. Maybe he got expelled or dropped out…”
“Just another thug, isn’t he?”
“He’s not your average thug. Even the older guys listen to him. He’s got about a dozen followers under him. For a middle schooler, he’s already a pretty serious delinquent.” Zhou Chao spread his hands. “A-Wei’s going to get beaten up.”
“What do we do?”
“…A-Qiang, how many can you take on?”
“…People like you, maybe three at most.” Fang Qiang scratched his head. “Any more and I’d be totally outmatched.”
“You’re not seriously thinking of fighting, are you? Absolutely not! Even if you do, Xiao Jing can’t go. She definitely wouldn’t win!”
“Hey, hey… if a brother’s in trouble, of course we’d step up.”
“Ha ha, don’t worry, we won’t need to. Fighting’s for hotheads.”
“Ahem!” Fang Qiang coughed loudly.
As they were talking, Sun Wei came swaggering back towards Class 5, having thoroughly vented his anger. Spotting his buddies looking at him, he even waved with pride—like a triumphant general returning home.
“This guy doesn’t even know what’s coming for him.” Zhou Chao laughed and shook his head, looking at Sun Wei as he approached. “Kid, do you even know who you pissed off?”
“What?”
“She’s half a Xiao Tai Mei now, and her boyfriend used to be the School Bully at our school. You remember—the guy who looked like Fat Tiger, hasn’t shown up all year.”
“So what? I’ve got A-Qiang.”
“Idiot. That guy’s got at least a dozen lackeys. You think he’s just some regular punk?”
“Crap!” Sun Wei started sweating buckets. “Seriously… for real? And she’s the class monitor—how did she become a Xiao Tai Mei…”
“Bottled it up too long, so now she’s lashing out. Once they start, it’s easy to go to extremes. She still keeps up her class monitor image and her grades aren’t too bad, so she hasn’t gone completely off the rails.” Zhou Chao smacked his lips. “That guy, you know who I mean, right? Messing with his girlfriend is one thing, but you actually dared to curse her out—so viciously.”
“Damn it, but I can’t just let her insult me like that! She used to be such a nice girl!”
“Tsk tsk.” Zhou Chao smacked his lips. “Should I book you a hospital bed in advance?”
“Come on, man! Aren’t we brothers? If we are, you gotta help me!”
“Brothers aren’t for this kind of thing.” Zhou Chao slung an arm around Sun Wei’s shoulders. “Hey, at least it’s 2010 now. If this was ten or twenty years ago, you might have gotten whacked in the night.”
“Shit!”
“Cut the sarcasm, Zhou Chao.” Fang Qiang sighed. “Is A-Wei definitely going to get beaten up?”
“Eighty percent chance.”
“Who can we call for help?” An Jing started counting on her fingers. “Will Yang Lingfei come? What about Lei Laohu? He acts all cocky, but if someone bullies our class, he’d help, right?”
“Forget it, don’t always think about solving things with fights. That just makes things escalate.” Zhou Chao gave Sun Wei a hard pat on the back. “Kid, you’d better ride my motorbike home with me tonight. Leave early, less chance of getting caught.”
“Today? Something’s happening today?”
“Who knows…”
“Crap!” Now Sun Wei was starting to regret it.
(3)
The last class in the afternoon was homeroom. It was almost time to go home, and the Cheng Hong Sunset hung in the sky, not yet ready to set. The new homeroom teacher, Ye Wen, told the students to self-study while she propped her chin and graded the English tests from that morning.
The classroom wasn’t exactly quiet, but not noisy either. People were talking, but all in hushed voices.
Suddenly, there was a light tap on the window glass. Ye Wen instinctively glanced at the tightly closed classroom door, then followed the sound to the window facing the corridor.
A perfectly ordinary-looking man was smiling at her, lifting a bag of something and giving it a little shake.
Ye Wen sighed helplessly, got up, and opened the classroom door, looking at this as-ordinary-as-could-be man. “What are you doing? Class isn’t over yet.”
“I came early and had nowhere else to go.” The man scratched his head with an awkward grin. “I bought you the snacks you wanted—what’s all this for?”
“Keeping a few students after school today, giving them some treats. Might be pretty late.” Ye Wen shook her head, and the two earrings on her earlobes swayed gently. “Go wait in my office, go on, go on.”
“How am I supposed to know where your office is?”
“Then wait at the door for a while, ten more minutes.”
“Oh, okay.” The young man scratched his head. “Hey, is No.2 Middle School in this little city always this rowdy? I just saw a dozen punks squatting in the alley next to the school gate. Don’t your teachers do anything?”
“You think every school is Wenlan? Actually, I’ve never seen that many before, either.”
“Do they all leave on their own after school?”
“Could be, who knows?”
“Kinda nostalgic… youth always has to have a few punks around.”
“Nostalgic? Who was the one who got beat up with a bruised nose and swollen face back then, huh?”