CH 15

What rule was it – saying that once you run into a red light, you will run into all the red lights regardless of whether you accelerate or slow down, you will always run into it. 

Roughly applying the same concept, once you have lost face in front of someone, you will always lose face upon seeing them regardless of how careful or impossible you think it is – your “face” never belonged to you. 

Just like now, five minutes ago Gu Fei was still pointing a finger at his mother like he was going to hit her, and five minutes later, he appeared on the sidewalk – with the help of a God – like he had rushed out just to see him lose face. 

The time that Jiang Cheng soared in the air was relatively short, but he was well aware of the profound thoughts that the human brain can conjure in just a split second. 

For example, he knew that Gu Fei was not in the best of moods and the twenty pounds of thoughts that swarmed his mind could be seen in his expression, ready to explode at any time. 

For example, he knew that flying over in this angle would certainly make him collide into the extremely moody Gu Fei. 

For example, he knew that because of the unchanging power of this collision, the impact would be undeniably immense – Gu Fei would be knocked down. 

For example, he also knew that he should put his hand to the side right away, or else, when the two of them knocked against each other, the scab that had somewhat started to form on the hollow of his palm – with much difficulty – would immediately split open from the pressure. 

…

In short, when he spread his arms wide open as if he was rushing toward the sun and flew toward Gu Fei, the expression on Gu Fei’s face was unpredictable. 

Jiang Cheng knocked straight into Gu Fei. 

Bam.

After the first time when he knew the weight of a human body could make such a loud sound from colliding against wood, he once more knew for the first time that a human colliding against another human could also create such a stereoscopic sound. 

His forehead smashed into Gu Fei’s collarbone first; his mouth knocked against something, in any case, his teeth seemed to have bitten into a zipper or something, and then he could not distinguish what happened after – in short, various parts of his body, whether in fast or slow motion, all smashed against Gu Fei.

Gu Fei didn’t even get to stagger back when he was struck by him; his vision simply met the sky – he had fallen directly to the ground.

He followed him and fell. 

When they collided, he couldn’t sense whether it hurt or not, and now that he had fallen to the ground it certainly did not hurt. Although Gu Fei was not fat, in the end, he was still the cushion beneath. 

When Jiang Cheng fell to the ground, he even had the illusion that his surroundings were soaring with a storm of snow. 

After a few seconds, he determined that that was indeed an illusion; there was no snow underneath Gu Fei – only the tiled pavement of the sidewalk. 

That hard fall made the two somewhat puzzled. 

Jiang Cheng returned to his senses when he heard Gu Fei whisper, “what the fuck” and he used his uninjured hand to try and quickly push himself up: “Sor…”

Unfortunately, his hand did not locate a proper spot and instead pressed into Gu Fei’s rib. 

“Fuck!” Gu Fei shouted in pain, “You fucking idiot!”

To be honest, Jiang Cheng was in quite a foul mood – the brief joy brought by twirling on Gu Miao’s skateboard merely cured the symptoms but not the root cause. Furthermore, being reduced to playing on a skateboard with a primary schoolkid in the middle of the night was very depressing, no matter how you put it. 

The words that Gu Fei had said just now were enough to make him a bit angry… but he was the one that collided against Gu Fei after all, and it wasn’t a soft collision either. He could even see that the zipper on Gu Fei’s jacket had gone missing. 

“Fuck off!” Gu Fei lifted his arm and shoved him to the side.  

“Fuck your uncle. I didn’t fucking do it on purpose!” Having said that, Jiang Cheng felt an aching sensation on his teeth; there was something in his mouth. He turned his head to the side and spat; out came half of the zipper-head. 

Ding.

The sound was quite sharp and clear. 

As soon as he heard that, he suddenly felt a burst of pain and soreness in his mouth. He didn’t dare to think how he had actually managed to bite the zipper-head off; he didn’t dare to lick his front teeth to see if they were still there. 

“It must not be easy to be a pretentious prick! Stop being fake all the time!” Gu Fei must have not fallen lightly, evident by the characteristically splenetic feature on his face as he raised his hand, “Xueba!”

“Fuck off, motherfucker,” Jiang Cheng was shoved by him until his ass heavily struck the ground; he immediately retorted, “Try to hit me again and see what happens!” 

Gu Fei didn’t even bother to look at him as he kicked him in the stomach. 

Jiang Cheng felt that everything in the world had disappeared instantly, and only the bastard Gu Fei remained before him. He jumped up from the ground and returned a hard kick toward him.

Gu Fei quickly moved to the side to avoid it, and thus, Jiang Cheng’s kick was met with the empty air, however, he didn’t hesitate to chase after, and the kick swiftly landed on Gu Fei’s back. 

“Fuck!” Gu Fei’s hand circled back to grab his calf. 

As Jiang Cheng fell back to the ground, his other feet did not forget to swing toward Gu Fei’s face for a mighty good connection.

Gu Fei used his arm to block and then pounced over and straddled him, punching him in the face. 

Motherfucker! He’s fucking strong! Fucking piece of shit!

A string of golden clovers similar to the lights of a small train flashed before Jiang Cheng’s left eye, but he ignored everything and lifted his hand, swinging it ruthlessly toward Gu Fei’s chin – Gu Fei’s face flew upward. 

He used the opportunity to jab Gu Fei in the ribs… but was unsuccessful as Gu Fei quickly grabbed his wrist. 

This next move was something that he really didn’t expect; his index finger pressed firmly into the wound on his palm. 

“Ah——” Jiang Cheng roared, that firm press was similar to turning on a power switch; he suddenly bent his leg and smashed his knee on Gu Fei’s back. 

Gu Fei leaned forward and rested his hand on the side of his head. 

Playing dirty, playing retarded huh, fine! He tilted his head and bit Gu Fei’s wrist. 

“Ahhh!” Gu Fei also yelled out in pain, and since he had bitten him without letting go, Gu Fei could only quickly pinch his cheek. 

This dog | his fucking hand is pretty strong, Jiang Cheng felt his pinched cheeks being thoroughly pierced and a wave of intense soreness and pain was quick to follow suit. 

But at this moment, he was certain that his front teeth still existed, not only were they there, they were fairly prepared and strong – to say the least. 

Just as the fight developed toward a stalemate to that of an idiotic nature, and the two fought on the ground rather inseparably, a voice sounded from the side: “Gu Fei?”

With the two in the midst of such a lively fight, they did not relax the slightest even though they both heard the voice; instead, they continued on very seriously with ‘you hit me, I’ll swing back’. 

“Gu Fei!” The person bellowed in rage and then paused and shouted from the depth of his throat once more, “Jiang Cheng? What… get up! Both of you, get up now!”

In fact, Jiang Cheng had already figured out that it was Lao Xu’s voice the first time, but he didn’t have the time to wonder for what reasons Lao Xu would suddenly appear here, right now.  

“Both of you stop it!” Lao Xu came over and gave the two of them a kick each, “What are you two doing, what is this?! Haven’t you had enough!”

The two finally stopped at the same time. 

But they only stopped; it was as if a pause button had been pressed and their actions were maintained. 

Gu Fei was grasping Jiang Cheng’s collar with one hand while his other hand was being grasped by him; both were semi-kneeling, semi-propped up in a deadlock, neither daring to give up easily. After the firm press in the palm and the bite on the wrist, would the opponent employ any other childish-elementary tricks – the two could not determine this with certainty.   

“Let go!” Lao Xu yanked at their arms for some time until they were finally separated. 

“What’s this all about!” Lao Xi stared at Gu Fei, “How can you fight with even your deskmate?!”

“Did you only see me hitting him?” Gu Fei wiped the corner of his mouth, “Are you blind?”

Lao Xu did not care about Gu Fei’s angry words at all as he turned to look at Jiang Cheng, “And what’s the matter with you? You’re a good kid, why are you fighting with others?”

“I said,” Jiang Cheng shook his hand, there wasn’t any acute pain – it’s numb. “Don’t judge a person by their grades, none of my teachers had ever said that I was a good kid.”

“Hey!” Lao Xu sighed, pointed to the opposite side of the road and said to Gu Fei, “That’s your sister! Look, you’ve scared the little girl until she ran off over there!”

Jiang Cheng, at this moment, remembered that Gu Miao was still nearby; he suddenly felt a bit uneasy, however, when he turned around, he froze. Gu Miao sat alone on a stone seat across the street, holding her cheeks in both her hands while calmly looking over. 

Or rather, it wasn’t ‘calmly’, it was indifferent – not a care in the world.

“She’s not afraid of fights,” Gu Fei said. 

Jiang Cheng no longer said anything, Gu Miao is indeed a bit strange… Gu Fei had previously blocked Gu Miao’s line of sight from his injured hand with much care before, Gu Miao must be scared of blood. 

But now that he and Gu Fei had fought until this piece of land was practically swept clean, she was unexpectedly indifferent. Jiang Cheng recalled the time Gu Fei had that person plastered against the tree – she was eating without even raising her head. 

What’s wrong with this little girl?　

“Both of you, tidy up,” Lao Xu said, unable to ask anything out of the two of them as he pointed at their schoolbags on the ground. “I just so happen to come by for a home visit. We’ll discuss the fight between you two first.”

Home visit?

Jiang Cheng was somewhat startled, a homeroom teacher still out on home visits after nine o’clock while braving the old northern wind… he honestly didn’t know what else to say. 

“Going to whose house for a home visit?” Gu Fei adjusted his clothes, but when he lowered his head to pull up the zipper, he discovered that the zipper-head was missing. He turned to look at Jiang Cheng. 

Jiang Cheng glared back at him.

The fuck you looking at, I ate it!

“I’ve already walked here, whose house do you think I’ll go to,” Lao Xu sighed, “Of course, it’s yours.”

Gu Fei went silent for a while then turned to walk back: “Then, let’s go.”

“Wait a minute,” Lao Xu probably didn’t expect him to be so straightforward, “I also want to know why the two of you were fighting.”

“Boredom,” Gu Fei looked back at him, “Are you going or not?”

Lao Xu wasn’t sure whether he should go for the home visit first or resolve the fight between them. Thus, he would take a step forward only to then stop and take a step back, think about it and move forward.  

“I’m heading back,” Jiang Cheng wanted to beat him to it, “Thank you, Xu Zong.”

Without waiting for Lao Xu to speak, Jiang Cheng turned and walked off. 

Gu Fei whistled from behind him. Jiang Cheng didn’t turn back, reckoning that he was calling for Gu Miao, and sure enough, he immediately heard the wheels on Gu Miao’s skateboard rolling on the ground. 

He sighed softly, tonight was quite… good.

The gambling get-together at Li Baoguo’s place was still going on; for these people who were immersed in front of the table for a long-extended period of time, it appeared as if their entire life remained only before that square foot, and the griping curiosities and gossips could not rival at all those dozen or so cards that shuffled back and forth. 

After the short observation and comments that took place around him in the afternoon, Jiang Cheng disappeared from their field of vision. Now that he had returned, there wasn’t so much a glance in his direction from anyone and only Li Baoguo said: “You’re back? We’ve already had a lunchbox, what do you want to eat?” 

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Jiang Cheng said and went inside his room. 

He took off his jacket only to see that it was covered in dirt and two damaged areas.  

Fuck, he frowned, I just bought this today!

Reckoning that his face wasn’t in the best condition either, he circled the room twice and discovered there wasn’t even a mirror anywhere; with that, he took out his cellphone and tried to turn it on. 

After receiving some warmth, it successfully booted.  He turned the camera toward his own face and looked at himself.  There was a swollen spot on his forehead though not serious and a small cut on his lower lip – probably from when it had smashed against Gu Fei’s zipper. 

Everywhere else was fine with only minor scrapes. 

He sighed, unsure of how he felt now.  　

In fact, the fight was a little… reckless. It was reasonable to say that he also did not usually fight like that – frolicking in the mud with a pig, that is; it felt even more like he, himself, was venting. 

He wasn’t certain to what extent he wanted to fight with Gu Fei; he just wanted to fight, to tear apart, and struggle free of the shackles wrapping securely around his body – the kind that could not be seen, could not be touched or even what it was binding. 

As for Gu Fei, he did not know whether he was led by him… for someone that could single-handedly swing his fist to also unexpectedly roll on the ground completely without style, and bit into a palm – fuck! Why weren’t those lackeys of his there to witness it! 

Hey, your boss is an earthworm rolling on the ground!

Jiang Cheng looked down at his own hand only to see that the blood had already seeped through the gauze. 

He rummaged through his schoolbag – earlier in the day, he had taken some alcohol pads, cotton balls and whatnots from the neighborhood hospital – fortunately, they were not crushed. 

He unwrapped the gauze and used his left hand to rinse his right hand clean and disinfect it – albeit rather slowly and with some efforts. However, because he was unskilled with his left hand, he poked at the wound a few times, and the immense pain that conjured nearly provoked tears to slide down his face.  

He truly wanted to cry. Though he had unfailingly felt that crying was pointless, it had been quite a long time since he arrived here after vacation; from time to time, he would feel so overwhelmingly depressed that he wanted to cry. 

He had always felt that one day he should find a place completely void of human presence and let his tears run loose – wildly, fiercely. 

When he woke up in the morning, the gambling get-together had finally ended though there were two men sleeping on the sofa in the living room and Li Baoguo was snoring on the bed; earth-shattering indeed. 

Without stopping for even a second after he finished washing up, he picked up his schoolbag and left.

Before arriving at school, a call from the distribution center came again: “It’s been three days, and tomorrow will be the last day. If you don’t come to get it, there will be a fee, you know!”

“Can you delivery it?” Jiang Cheng sighed. 

“We can. For 200 yuan we can drop it off downstairs,” the other person said. “There’s an additional fee if you need it brought upstairs.”

Jiang Cheng did not speak. He unexpectedly started to feel sorry about the money and beyond gratified. 

“I think it’s best for you to come and get it yourself,” the other person sounded pretty considerate, “We have many three-wheelers here and to get one to deliver is a separate 100 yuan.”

“Okay, I got it,” Jiang Cheng said.

It’s Saturday tomorrow, that’s good.

Thinking about it again, he felt a little worried; his current bedroom had a bed and a wardrobe that occupied nearly the entire space, and the desk was crammed in with much effort. He wasn’t sure where all those other things of his were going to be placed. 

… perhaps his mother didn’t pack everything – maybe not that much. 

He was still wearing a mask as he walked into the classroom, and the swelling on his forehead that had disappeared quite a bit was partly covered by his hair which made it impossible to see; the clothes he wore today weren’t Gu Fei’s either, so he walked straight to his seat and sat down without anyone noticing anything unusual about him. 

Who knew what Lao Xu had said to Gu Fei during yesterday’s home visit, but Gu Fei magically entered the classroom right before the morning bell sounded. 

Jiang Cheng looked up at him only to be immediately stunned. 

Gu Fei didn’t have any injury on his face whatsoever; there was only a tiny scrape at the side of his chin… what stunned him also was that this fucker was actually wearing glasses!

Shit! What are you pretending to be a xueba for, huh!!

Jiang Cheng glared at him. 

Even stranger was that everyone who saw Gu Fei wasn’t surprised in the least, this meant that perhaps he… frequently wore glasses? 

This reminded him of Pan Zhi, who was slightly shortsighted but was persistent in not wearing glasses. 

“Is it even right for me to wear glasses with such grades!” Pan Zhi had said, “I’d rather not see clearly!”

Just look at how ambitious Pan Zhi was, he even had several pens… 

Gu Fei walked over and threw a bag in front of him before he then sat down. 

Jiang Cheng opened the bag for a look, inside was his sweater and school assignments. 

Shit! The assignments!

He had actually forgotten to get back his assignments after the fight yesterday!

… fought the person and also let him copy the assignments, that’s so fucked up. 

“The swelling hasn’t subsided huh?” Gu Fei said from the side. 

Jiang Cheng turned to look at him, trying to discern whether he was apologetic or rejoicing with that tone, but he was unsuccessful. Gu Fei said that sentence just like how that day was Friday – with not a hint of emotions whatsoever. Thus he did not reply. 

“Da Fei,” Zhou Jing leaned on their desks, “Da Fei!”

Gu Fei pushed up his glasses to look at him. 

“Da Fei?” Zhou Jing turned to the side, “Hey Da Fei…”

Gu Fei slapped the back of his head. 

“Why didn’t you come yesterday? Did you go out to play?” Zhou Jing asked, touching the back of his head. 

“No,” Gu Fei said.

“I thought you were being like how you were last semester, cutting classes to go on trips,” Zhou Jing said. 

Gu Fei sighed and looked at him: “You would cut a day of class for a trip?”

“… that’s true, a day wouldn’t be enough time,” Zhou Jing said, “Hey you…”

“Piss off,” Gu Fei used this simple conclusion.  

The classes that days was no different from the previous two days; the teacher was solely engrossed in lecturing to himself and the students, absorbed in their own games – an auspicious and peaceful batch indeed. 

Gu Fei was also the same as usual; first, he played that same game and then after he ran out of lives, he put on his earphones and started to watch some videos. 

Jiang Cheng did not hold back as his eyes swept toward him several times. 

Gu Fei was the kind of person who, if you did not look at his eyes, would give others a feeling that he was actually quite gentle, and the manner in which he dressed was both comfortable and tonal; with those glasses on, he simply seemed like what he was not: a real xueba.

In truth, Jiang Cheng was a bit shocked by this inscrutable trait of his. 

After looking at him a few times, he returned his attention back to the teacher because no matter how horrible the teacher’s lecture was, he had to listen, and regardless of whether he was lying on his desk half-asleep and half-awake, he had to listen to the key point. 

Jiang Cheng had never admitted that he was the kind of person who could do well in exams without studying since he was quite clear about how much time he spent studying. But in the current classroom environment, wrapped in this type of learning atmosphere, it actually made him a little nervous. He didn’t cherish his grades much in his previous school, but he absolutely did not want them to be dragged down after transferring to Si Zhong. 

In the last class of the day that was English, Lao Lu’s passion radiated all around – perhaps, because tomorrow was the weekend, and everyone was somewhat absent-minded that he wanted to wake them up. 

However, Jiang Cheng was very seriously taking note, even if he was half-lying on the desk. 

“Let’s talk about today’s assignment!” Lao Lu’s said just before class ended while slapping the desk, “All your assignments can go and open an exhibition! Such a simple assignment yet there are a hundred types of answers!”

“Our class doesn’t have a hundred people,” Wang Xu answered. 

The whole class laughed.

“You! Wang Xuri!” Lao Lu pointed his pointer at him, “The good-for-nothing is you! If all your organs were atrophied, your mouth would certainly remain!”[1]  

Wang Xu pushed the desk, somewhat in a bad mood. 

“Unhappy huh, come to my office after class!” Lao Lu roared and then without waiting for Wang Xu to any sort of reaction, his pointer went toward Jiang Cheng’s direction – even pointing this way and jabbing that way. “Gu Fei!”

“Here,” Gu Fei looked up. 

“Tell me, do you have a problem! You copied the assignment, didn’t you? It must be copied!” Lao Lu said successively, “Did you copy it?! You can say it, you copied it! Did you?!”

Gu Fei waited for a long while without finding a gap to answer him. 

“You copied the assignment! If you’re going to copy it, be a bit more proficient, alright? Alright?!” Lao Lu slapped the desk, “You’ve copied all the answers correctly, not even one wrong! Not even one! Tell me! Who did you copy!”

This time, he actually gave Gu Fei time to reply. 

Gu Fei was silent for a moment and then raised his finger and pointed at Zhou Jing: “Him.”

“Zhou Jing!” Lao Lu bellowed in rage immediately, pointing at Zhou Jing, “You’re quite amazing ah! How about adding a comment about you taking pleasure in helping people in your evaluation for this semester?!” 

Zhou Jing was startled as he turned to look at Gu Fei, who was pointing at him – he opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Lao Lu grabbed the assignments while cursing and he continued to curse until class ended; he swung the pointer under his arm and walked out of the classroom. 

“Shit,” Zhou Jing turned around, “Who did you copy, huh?”

Gu Fei glanced at him without saying anything. 

Zhou Jing was determined for a minute then stood up: “Forget it, who cares.”

After Zhou Jing left, Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Fei, not knowing what he should say. 

“Er Miao will be waiting at the schoolgate in a bit,” Gu Fei said as he fixed his schoolbag, “You should go with her.”

“En?” Jiang Cheng froze, “I just fought with her brother, I don’t want to go with her.” 

“Just try,”Gu Fei said. 

“Okay, fuck,” Jiang Cheng was a little angry. “Then, I’ll try.”

Gu Fei did not speak; after a moment, he took a deep breath: “Do me a favor, thanks.”

“Oh, you must be suffering hard huh.” Jiang Cheng suddenly felt relief. 

“Yeah,” Gu Fei said. 

[1] 要人类器官都退化了你肯定是就剩嘴！- Means: “You can only talk but can’t do anything!” it’s equivalent to, “All talk and no action”/”All talk but no bark”