Chapter 23
AFTER GU FEI VANISHED from school in the middle of Political Science class without even taking his bag, their teacher was so furious that she rushed to the office and berated Lao-Xu. At the end of the morning periods, Lao-Xu came to their classroom and stopped Jiang Cheng just as he was about to leave.
“Jiang Cheng,” he began.
“I don’t know,” said Jiang Cheng. He knew Lao-Xu wanted to ask what happened to Gu Fei, but he really had no idea.
“There has to be a reason he ran off, right?” Lao-Xu said.
Jiang Cheng only knew that Gu Fei had picked up a call and said he was going home immediately. He didn’t hear anything else. But he didn’t want to tell Lao-Xu about that, either. Who knew what was up with Gu Fei, and who knew if he wanted Lao-Xu to know? He didn’t want to say too much.
Clearly, Zhou Jing didn’t think about it as deeply as he did. As soon as Lao-Xu grabbed him and asked, he squealed. “He picked up a call and said he was going home, then he ran off. Maybe something happened at home?”
“Really, now.” Lao-Xu frowned. After Zhou Jing left, he seized Jiang Cheng again. “Even Zhou Jing knows, and you don’t?”
“Does it matter whether or not I know? Either way, you know now, don’t you?” Bag over his shoulder, Jiang Cheng walked out.
“Will you bring Gu Fei his bag?” Lao-Xu asked behind him.
“No.” Jiang Cheng turned. “Xu-zong, if ever I run out halfway through a school day and leave my bag behind, please don’t ask anyone to bring it back for me.”
“Why?” asked Lao-Xu.
“Because it’s annoying,” Jiang Cheng said. “Not everyone likes it when other people touch their stuff, let alone take it to their house. I mean it. If he wants it, he can come back for it. Even a group of thugs can walk into the school, so why would you worry about a student getting in?”
Lao-Xu stared, seemingly thrown by this. Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything else. He turned and left.
Lao-Xu was an old nag. He cared too much about too many things. At their age, the last thing they needed was someone hovering over them like a mother hen. Especially Gu Fei—you could tell from a glance that he preferred being alone.
Jiang Cheng was certain Lao-Xu would call Gu Fei in a moment, and just as certain that Gu Fei would ignore the call. Theirs was a relationship that couldn’t be salvaged without a major improvement to Lao-Xu’s emotional intelligence.
At a time like this, Jiang Cheng suddenly missed his old homeroom teacher. The instant this reminiscence began, he swiftly lifted his head and gasped in a cold breath, cutting off the wave of nostalgia before it could take root.
He wanted to eat at Wang Jiuri’s meat pie place again for lunch, but he thought about how he would have nothing to say if he ran into Captain Jiuri there. He didn’t want the captain to drag him around the whole time yapping about strategy. He decided to have a bowl of noodles at a little shop on the corner instead.
When he returned to Li Baoguo’s place, he was surprised to find that Li Baoguo was home, sitting on the couch and smoking. He was looking at a piece of paper in the dim light. Li Baoguo’s home was in a dip between two buildings, so the light was dreadful. Outside, the sunlight dazzled; indoors, it was already dusk. Every time Jiang Cheng entered, he felt the weight of it pressing down on him. He reached out and turned the living room light on.
“Oh.” Li Baoguo looked up, startled. “You’re back, Chengcheng?”
“Mm-hm.” Jiang Cheng took one look at his father: His face was splotched with patches of green and purple, and the corner of his mouth was swollen. It looked like yesterday’s beating was a bad one; if he hadn’t gone over to stop it, Li Baoguo might have been in the hospital now. “Are your…wounds okay?”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s fine.” Li Baoguo touched his own face. “It’s just a scratch. Back when I worked in the plant, I wouldn’t even need one hand to take on kids like that—” “I ate already,” Jiang Cheng cut him off before going to his room. “You should eat something.”
Just as he took his jacket off to lie down in bed, the door opened.
“Chengcheng.” Li Baoguo stuck his upper body through the door. “You were okay yesterday, right?”
Jiang Cheng was exasperated. He didn’t have a habit of locking the door;
after all, for most of his life, he’d only need to shut his door and no one would open it at will. Now it looked like he had to remember to lock.
“I’m fine,” Jiang Cheng said. “I just want to take a nap.”
“Your dad’s useless,” Li Baoguo said, showing no intention of leaving.
“Your dad was beaten up on the street and you had to come save him. Are you ashamed of me?”
Jiang Cheng didn’t speak. It had taken him a moment to realize that when Li Baoguo said “your dad,” he meant himself.
“But don’t worry,” Li Baoguo went on. “If anything happens to me, I won’t drag you down with me!”
“Got it.” Jiang Cheng tried to be patient. “I’m going to take a nap. I’m a little tired.”
Li Baoguo nodded and left, leaving the door open. Jiang Cheng was forced to walk over and close it. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided against locking it. Li Baoguo was outside—he would hear the lock turn. Jiang Cheng didn’t want to make things too awkward.
When he lay back in bed, he felt utterly drained. He didn’t know whether it was because he played basketball with an injury, or because he hadn’t slept well last night.
Li Baoguo didn’t go out to play mahjong during lunchtime, which was unlike him. Jiang Cheng could hear him coughing in the living room the whole time. More than once he thought about getting up and telling him to get it checked out at the hospital. Li Baoguo had had that cough since winter break;
now it was almost time for midterms, and it’d continued without any improvement.
He couldn’t take a midday nap listening to that racket. Upstairs, someone was beating their kid again—not the one from yesterday, but a different family.
There were many families with children on this block, taking turns to beat their kids. Today it was yours, tomorrow it’d be mine; some were ahead of schedule and ended up beating them together.
Every kid screamed heartrendingly. In between the screams, neighbors who couldn’t bear it anymore would come out and try to make peace, which got them an upbraiding as well. And if they couldn’t stand being yelled at, it would evolve into a big verbal spat.
Basically, the old buildings around here were always noisy—full of a kind of vigorous life Jiang Cheng had never encountered before.
He heard the sound of the living room door shutting, and Li Baoguo’s coughing finally disappeared. Jiang Cheng grabbed his phone and looked at the time. He was due to get up for school.
Gu Fei wasn’t at school that afternoon, either.
Since school started, Gu Fei had regularly either been late for class or skipped altogether. It seemed normal enough. His classmates weren’t curious, and his teachers never really asked about it. Only Lao-Xu kept on questioning it.
At the end of the school day, Jiang Cheng was accosted by Lao-Xu again.
“Are you against communicating with your teacher, Jiang Cheng?”
Lao-Xu smelled of alcohol; Jiang Cheng had noticed it in the past couple weeks. Lao-Xu didn’t get drunk, but the scent often lingered on him. Zhou Jing said he always took a gulp or two with his breakfast. He’d even been named and shamed by the principal in front of their whole school before, but that didn’t stop him.
“On that point, at least, he’s kind of badass,” Zhou Jing had said.
Jiang Cheng wondered whether this was why Lao-Xu liked the poet Li Bai so much that he was always bringing him up in class during his long tangents.
Whatever the lesson was about, he’d find a way to link it back to Li Bai somehow. “Speaking of so-and-so, I’d like to talk about Li Bai,” was how he usually started. “Li Bai, that old geezer…” “Have you been drinking?” Jiang Cheng asked.
“I had a bit at lunch.” Lao-Xu let out a sheepish chuckle. “Jiang Cheng, I notice you and Gu Fei coordinate well in basketball. You must be quite close off the court too, right?”
“…It’s just basketball. Anyone who can play knows how to coordinate.”
“I called Gu Fei a few times this afternoon, but he didn’t pick up,” Lao-Xu said. “I should’ve looked out for him more—” Jiang Cheng cut him off exasperatedly. “Okay, I get it. I’ll go to his store and check up on him after school, but there’s nothing else I can do apart from that. I don’t know him that well, and I don’t know where he lives.”
“All right, great.” Lao-Xu nodded cheerfully. “Tell him to come to school tomorrow… I wanted to ask Wang Xu to go, but he doesn’t live as close, and you can’t trust that brat…” Jiang Cheng nodded. “I get it.”
It was no big deal to go to Gu Fei’s store for a look, but if Lao-Xu hadn’t badgered him, there was no way he would have gone. Who wanted his teachers and classmates to keep tabs on him all the time to the point of home visits?
Jiang Cheng strolled out of the school and looked at the route map next to the bus stop outside. His wound had torn once today. If practice continued like this for the next few days, it wouldn’t heal before the tournament. He wanted to get some sort of wound adhesive from the hospital when he went to change his dressing so it would heal faster.
There was a bus that went straight to the hospital, and he only had to wait a few minutes before it arrived. He squeezed onto the bus through a sea of Fourth High students; the empty bus filled up halfway at this stop alone. The next stop was some vocational school, and after that, nobody else was able to get on.
The bus was full of students happily chatting away. Jiang Cheng was stuck by the metal pole at the back door. Whenever anyone moved at the back, he would be jostled against the pole. Two stops in, he was so annoyed that he wanted to crush the people next to him to the floor.
They passed another school. Jiang Cheng looked out and saw it was an elementary school, fortunately. Their parents would pick them up, so nobody would board the bus. And it’d been ages now since elementary school let out.
He braced his forehead against the pole. His headphones were in his bag, so he couldn’t take them out now even if he wanted to. All he could do was close his eyes and rest while he listened to the students around him boasting and gossiping.
Halfway between stops, he heard a commotion in the bus and opened his eyes.
“Whoa! Elementary school kids are so fierce these days!” someone said.
“Oof. Looks like they’re gonna crack someone’s head open with that,” someone else said with a laugh.
Jiang Cheng glanced out the window and froze.
Three little boys were screeching and cursing as they ran. Behind them…a little girl with a skateboard was giving chase. Jiang Cheng didn’t have to look too closely to tell it was Gu Miao.
Gu Miao chased them for several steps. The boys ran too fast for her to catch up, so she put the skateboard on the ground, stepped on it, and shot forward. As she passed the bus, Jiang Cheng saw the expression on her face. He couldn’t tell if it was apathy or anger, but he’d never seen her make that expression before. His chest tightened.
The bus was slow, but it was a short journey to the next stop. They were three stops away from the hospital, but Jiang Cheng rushed off at this one, pushing through the crowd.
Gu Miao and the little boys were gone without a trace. He ran in the direction they’d disappeared in, stopping at an intersection. Straight ahead was the main road; the right turn would lead him down an old, shabby little street.
As he was pondering where to go, he heard shouting to his right.
The moment he turned, he saw the remaining two boys running out of an alley. The other had fallen to the ground. Gu Miao was straddling him, smashing his head with her skateboard.
“Fuck!” Jiang Cheng’s knees nearly buckled from fright. He sprinted wildly at them.
The people from the nearby shops all rushed out, first shouting in alarm, then trying to pull Gu Miao off. But whenever anyone approached, Gu Miao would hit them with her skateboard. Two people in a row tried and failed to get close.
The boy on the ground stopped trying to break free. He simply held his head, wailing and screaming. Gu Miao seized the chance to whack his head with the skateboard again. This time, a man grabbed Gu Miao from behind and picked her up. Gu Miao began a frenzied struggle, letting out piercing shrieks.
When Jiang Cheng reached them, the man who picked her up was at a loss, unsure whether to hold on or drop her.
“Gu Miao!” Jiang Cheng yelled as he rushed toward them.
Gu Miao’s eyes were shut and she kept screaming, seeming to hear nothing. In her hands, she gripped the corner of her skateboard tightly.
“Er-Miao!” Jiang Cheng roared. “It’s Jiang Cheng-gege! It’s Cheng-ge!”
“You know her?” someone asked. “What’s wrong with this kid? Has she lost her mind?!”
Jiang Cheng took one look at the boy, whom someone had picked up off the ground. He was howling tearfully, and Jiang Cheng could see blood on his head.
“Here,” Jiang Cheng said to the man holding Gu Miao. “Give her to me.”
“You can’t leave! Are you her family?!” the man said. “Look how badly she hurt the other kid! We have to go to the police. Call your—” “I said give her to me!” Jiang Cheng bellowed, glaring at him.
He’d never seen Gu Miao struggle and scream so desperately; she looked so frantic, and it made his heart clench. Jiang Cheng knew Gu Miao had issues, but seeing her like this made him suddenly lose his composure.
His outburst stunned the other man. Jiang Cheng went over and hugged Gu Miao, pulling her into his arms.
“You can’t leave!” There were more onlookers now. They formed a circle around Gu Miao and him, trapping them inside.
“Go ahead and call the police.” Jiang Cheng hugged Gu Miao. Her screams had quieted somewhat, but she wouldn’t stop trembling.
The wound on the boy’s head wasn’t serious. There was a small cut on the back of his head, which an older lady rinsed with some alcohol. They didn’t know whether there were any other injuries, though. At some point during all the commotion, someone called the police.
Jiang Cheng hugged Gu Miao tightly, rubbing her back firmly to comfort her as he pulled his phone out and called Gu Fei’s number.
The ringing broke off midway. That motherfucker put his phone on Do Not Disturb!
He had to send Gu Fei a message instead.
– Gu Miao’s in trouble. Call me.
Next, he called Wang Xu.
Wang Xu picked up quickly. “Oh, hey! Jiang Cheng? You’re calling me, you uptight bastard?”
“Go find Gu Fei right now,” Jiang Cheng urged in a hushed tone. “Right now! His sister’s in trouble! He’s not picking up!”
“Huh?” Wang Xu was taken aback, but Jiang Cheng could hear him running already. “Wait, hold on, I just got home—I’m going back out now! I’ll go look for him! Where are you guys?”
“I don’t know, I’m near an elementary school right now… The police will be coming soon, I don’t know where we’ll be after that.”
Jiang Cheng looked around at the shocked and furious onlookers. If he hadn’t been here with Gu Miao right now, he had the feeling they would’ve been beating her up.
“Got it!” Wang Xu yelled, and hung up.
The police came soon after. The instant they arrived, they were mobbed by the crowd, who all tried to explain the situation.
“Take the kid to the hospital first,” said an older officer, adding after a look at Jiang Cheng, “Are you this girl’s family?”
“No,” Jiang Cheng said. “I go to school with her brother.”
“Notify her family,” the officer said. “You need to follow us to the hospital first, then we’ll go to the station.”
“Okay.”
Holding Gu Miao, Jiang Cheng picked up the skateboard and walked toward the police car. Gu Miao was silent now, only clinging tightly to his neck.
Her fingers gripped his nape hard; he felt her nails digging into his skin.
“Gu Miao. Gu Miao?” Jiang Cheng murmured softly to her. “You’re digging holes in my neck. Everything’s fine now. Don’t be scared. Your brother’s coming soon.”
Gu Miao didn’t react. She didn’t loosen her grip at all, her body still shaking. The state she was in deeply worried Jiang Cheng. He didn’t know what was wrong with her or why she’d beaten up that other child so ruthlessly, and because he wasn’t her family, he didn’t know if he was doing the right thing… If he made the wrong call, would Gu Fei hunt him down to seek revenge…?
Jiang Cheng covered the medical bill with his own money first. The treatment and exams didn’t cost much; the biggest hurdle was the boy’s parents.
As soon as they arrived at the hospital, they charged madly at Gu Miao and Jiang Cheng, fists swinging; they almost hit the police officers who came over to stop them.
“Don’t hold me back!” the man roared. “Pay up! Pay up! She did this to my son! I’ll do the same to her, the lunatic! You know what, I know this psycho girl, she’s in my son’s class! Freakin’ nutcase! I knew something bad would happen when I saw her in that class! You better keep her inside, or I’ll beat her down the moment I see her!”
“Let the police settle this.” Jiang Cheng knew that Gu Miao was at fault, but the man’s words infuriated him. He suppressed the flames of his rage and added calmly, “If you touch her, I’ll hurt you too, and this’ll never be over.”
“What the fuck?!” the woman screeched. “Mr. Police Officer, did you hear him?!”
Gu Fei finally called him back. “Where are you? I’m coming now.”
“The hospital,” Jiang Cheng said. “Hurry.”
The moment the other family heard that Gu Miao’s family was coming, they grew agitated once again. When Gu Fei arrived, the police were about to bring them all to the station.
“What’s this now?!” the man shouted at the sight of Gu Fei. “Did you come to fight?!”
Behind Gu Fei were Li Yan and Liu Fan, along with Wang Xu and Ding Zhuxin.
“Gu Miao, your brother’s here,” Jiang Cheng whispered to Gu Miao.
“Er-Miao?” Gu Fei jogged over.
Hearing his voice, Gu Miao finally let go of Jiang Cheng’s neck. She turned to look at Gu Fei, then threw herself into his arms, hugging him tight.
“She hit that kid,” Jiang Cheng quietly explained. “Skateboard to the head.”
“I’m sorry.” Gu Fei turned to the couple. “My sister—” “Sorry, my ass! What good is a ‘sorry’?!” the woman exclaimed, pointing at him. “I won’t let this go until I get my hands on her!”
Gu Fei looked at her in silence. After several seconds, he said, “Go on, then.”
This seemed to shock the woman. She staggered back a few steps. “My god! What kind of attitude is this! Are you all seeing this?!”
“Let’s go to the police station first.” Ding Zhuxin walked over. “We’ll listen to what the police have to say on how this should be resolved. If there needs to be treatment and compensation, we’ll oblige, within reason.”
“You—” the woman tried to continue, but Ding Zhuxin cut her off.
“Ma’am.” Ding Zhuxin looked at her. “You’re making such a fuss that the officers can’t even get a word in. If you don’t want to do this the legal way, we’re happy to oblige… But it might not turn out so well for you.”
“Watch your words,” the police officer reminded Ding Zhuxin.
“Pardon me.” Ding Zhuxin smiled at the officer apologetically. “We’re all anxious when something happens to our children. We’ll cooperate, of course.
But cooperation can’t be one-sided, right?”
As they all got ready to go to the station, Gu Fei asked, “Does my friend have to come along, too?”
The officer eyed Jiang Cheng. “Yes.”
“Okay,” Jiang Cheng agreed. He looked at Gu Miao as she leaned on Gu Fei’s shoulder. She seemed much calmer now, no longer seized by that crazed, cold fury from before.
“Thank you,” Gu Fei said.
“Forget that for now. Is Gu Miao…okay? Earlier, she looked…” “She’s fine.” Gu Fei paused. “I’ll tell you about it some other time.”
“All right,” Jiang Cheng replied. He followed the police out.
After a few steps, Gu Fei called out from behind him, “Jiang Cheng.
Your…” Gu Fei pointed at the back of his neck, then reached out to tug at his collar. “You’ve got a cut here.”
Probably from Gu Miao. That munchkin had a strong grip. But Jiang Cheng was too distracted to think about that; when Gu Fei pulled at his collar, he reflexively slapped his hand away.
“…It’s fine,” he said awkwardly.