GPS translations

四百粉福利：过门六章一次发完666（下）

4: Conflict

 

Xu Xilin was Class 1’s organization leader, and was also on the school’s basketball team. And he was also extremely loyal to his friends and acquaintances. He often used the the advantage of his position to help his classmates get a spot on the court. If there was anyone that he wanted to become friends with, no matter male, or female, he could. Being the core of the group of the back three rows in the class, this was the first time he had received such a baffling and rude face.

 

“*Psycho.” Xu Xilin thought. 

(a better translation would be “asshole”, but let’s keep it the Chinese way)

 

He did not became a people person because he was cheap and sticky. He did not have the kink of pressing a hot face to a cold ass. The initial good impression towards Do Xun incinerated into ashes blown away.

 

In a blink of an eye, Xu Xilin moved a Mr. Do into the “doesn’t know to appreciate favor––weirdo” column.

 

Do Xun was probably one, really.

 

If defining anyone else as being unsociable was “cannot fit into the major group of people”, dearest classmate Do Xun’s unsociable was probably “cannot fit into the species”.

 

For the whole week, except for questions in class that he was forced to answer, Do Xun wasn’t seen to talk with anything else alive.

 

Every day, he sat in the most isolated corner of the class, arrived early and left late. Came alone, departed alone, and except for leaving through the back door to go to the bathroom, he basically didn’t walk around even the least bit in class.

 

He never lift his head up while walking, and didn’t really look people in the eye. Except for the time in class, he always had a pair of headphones on, blocking out the noise around him completely. At first, when people met him in the school or the corridors, they would greet him friendly, but seeing as he never even glanced at them once, slowly, no one did it anymore.

 

All the boys in the class, with Xu Xilin in the lead, viewed him with disdain.

 

The last period of Thursday was a free study period. Xu Xilin texted the school basketball team’s coach, and reserved the court. He picked this day because Tsai Jing didn’t have work on Thursday night.

 

In this decade, smartphones weren’t a thing yet, and the non-smart phones weren’t common among high school students yet. The main communication channel among students were still passing notes around.

Xu Xilin tossed the crunched-up note to the student in charge of sports in their class. “Hey, did you bring a basketball?”

 

Wu Tao, the student in charge of sports in their class, was someone who was the best at sports among normal students, and the best at studying among sports students. As he performed extraordinarily above his usual level in the senior high school entrance test, he successfully became the only sports special student in the experimental class. But as he preferred having fun over studying, and had to undergo harsh training every day, he did not have exactly the best experience in the experimental class. Only when fun was involved did he fit in the class, specifically Xu Xilin and the other guys, completely.

 

Wu Tao’s note came back quickly. “No, but I think Yiran brought one.”

 

Yiran’s full name was Yu Yiran, and she was actually a girl. But the young lady was 1.78 meters tall, and weighted 78 kilograms, exactly twice as the lightest girl in class. She couldn’t fit in any of the girls’ uniforms, so she had to order a boys’ one. And she fitted in completely with Xu Xilin and the other guys, and played basketball with them, gender conformity tossed aside like trash.

 

An helpless Tsai Jing helped them pass the note back and forth, and twisted back to tap on Xu Xilin’s blank biology test. “They’ll have to be passed back when the bell rings! Quick!”

 

They would have to attend forced free-study periods at night once they were in third grade, which meant this was the last semester when they could go out after school. Xu Xilin’s mind had already drifted away to the basketball court, and he absentmindedly answered a few inheritance questions. Basically dumbass permutation questions. They didn’t require brain cells. Once finished, he glanced at the experiment designing questions after it, and they were so goddamn annoyingly long that he couldn’t even start on reading the questions themselves.

 

Seemingly bored, Xu Xilin did some pen spinning for a while, and then tore off a note anxiously, scribbling on it, “Both Tsai and Lao-Ye are going to go. You bring two. Half court, 3v3.”

 

After he finished writing it, he saw Tsai Jing glaring at him seriously, and he had to put on a smile, promising, “This is the last one.”

 

This time, he was too embarrassed to pass it through Tsai Jing, so he tossed the ball of paper, hitting Wu Tao straight on his head.

 

Wu Tao gave him a middle finger, scribbled something on the note, and tossed it back––an eye for an eye. Unfortunately, his aim was off, and the paper fluttered away from its designed route, landing on Do Xun’s desk.

 

Xu Xilin: “......”

 

“Cut it out, you two.” Tsai Jing sighed, and threw his pen down, turning back to whisper at Do Xun, “Do Xun...that classmate over there, can you pass the piece of paper on your desk to me?”

 

That son of a bitch, Do Xun, definitely heard them, but he deliberately ignored them on purpose. Pissed off, Xu Xilin frowned. He had the loyal side of him––he’s nice to everyone who’s nice to him––but he also had the spoiled side of him: who hates him was a complete dumbass to him.

 

Seeing him like that, Tsai Jing knew that the “young master” was about to explode, so he reacted quickly and held Xu Xilin back. “Forget about it, I’ll get it.”

 

Tsai Jing looked around, and checked that there were no teachers snooping on them in the corners. Then he moved his chair a little bit, said a polite “sorry to bother you”, and reached out his arm to grab at the ball of paper on Do Xun’s desk.

 

Do Xun suddenly grabbed the piece of paper, and tossed it into the trash can in the corner.

 

Tsai Jing’s personality was soft and slow, and he was unable to respond in time, stunned. But Xu Xilin was enraged instantly, standing up immediately. Just this moment, Qilixiang came in the room, and her dead-fish eyes glared to fiercely they were close to bursting out of their sockets. “Xu Xilin, why are you standing up!”

 

Tsai Jing grabbed Xu Xilin’s arm. Do Xun raised his gaze up, his expression blank. His gaze met Xu Xilin’s once with a lot of content, both snickering and aggression included.

 

“Don’t worry Missus, I dropped a pen, and he’s helping me look for it.” Tsai Jing said, and grabbed at Xu Xilin, “Sit down.”

 

Qilixiang walked around them a couple of times, make sure the kids weren’t messing around, and then walked to the lecturn, her heels clacking. She sat down, and started to write lesson plans.

 

After a while,Tsai Jing passed a note over carefully, poking Xu Xilin’s arm. “Tao wrote a new one for you. Okay, now, it’s a really cold day, so why are you so inflamed with anger?”

 

Xu Xilin stayed silent, and took Wu Tao’s note, thinking, “I’ll have to teach him a lesson once I get the chance.”

 

Do Xun pulled out a paper towel, dabbed it with some water, and wiped on where the note landed three times, the image of Wu Tao’s back leaning against the bathroom door burning in his mind.

 

“Trash.” Do Xun thought, and raised his hand, the half wet ball of paper illustrating a clean curve in the air, landing precisely in the bin in the corner.

 

The light disturbance alerted Qilixiang, who was at the lecturn. Her gaze scanning across the room, she saw Do Xun stuff his headphones back into his ears like no one was there, and lowered his head. 

 

It gave her a headache. 

 

Qilixiang, being the person she was, did take the shopping card Do Xun’s dad, Do Junliang, gave her. And she did worry about Do Xun’s situation. For the couple days since he arrived, she went and communicated with every single subject’s teacher and every student of the class committee.  But Do Xun didn’t take any of their shit––like an uncooperating hedgehog.

 

The tip of Qilixiang’s pen stopped. She called on a student in the front row. “Luo Bing, come with me.”

 

Class 1’s class committee was made up of various disparate components. It included students like Wu Tao, the sports committee,  who did not study at all, students like Xu Xilin, the organization leader, who did not give the slightest fuck about the teacher, and students like Luo Bing, the class president, that would take a fart from the teacher as their criteria.

 

The next day, after inter-class exercise, Luo Bing went and found Xu Xilin. “Can you help me?”

 

Before Xu Xilin could reply, Wu Tao and Lao Cheng, the two bastards, both stretched out a palm, and pushed him forward. Wobbling, Xu Xilin almost knocked into Luo Bing.

 

“Fuck, are you guys crazy?” said Xu Xilin.

 

Wu Tao and Lao Cheng laughed, their laughter making them not unlike a pair of quacking long-necked wild ducks. It was known throughout the whole class that Luo Bing had a crush on Xu Xilin, and her face popped into a cherry shade of beet red.

 

Xu Xilin actually didn’t have any thoughts about Luo Bing, but to a guy in puberty, the mere thought of “this girl likes me” was exciting enough. Luo Bing’s face flushed red, he floundered around even though he had absolutely no reason to. “Yeah, okay……What is it about?”

 

Qilixiang gave Luo Bing a task: to talk with Do Xun, and make sure he fits in with a rest of the class as soon as possible.

 

Lao Cheng frowned. “Was that mind of Qilixiang’s sat on by Tao? Why would she give that task to a girl?”

 

Qilixiang actually didn’t give the task to a girl specifically. She just told the same thing to every student in the class committee, including both Xu Xilin and Wu Tao. It was just that except for Luo Bing, everyone else ignored her.

 

“Fuck off. You sat on it.” Wu Tao attacked Lao Cheng first. Then he turned back to Luo Bing, “Ignore Qilixiang. I’m close to suspecting that that son of a bitch is her bastard.”

 

Luo Bing’s expression was reluctant. Then she glanced at Xu Xilin as if asking for help. Xu Xilin had the same opinion as Wu Tao, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Tsai Jing pulled at him.

 

At first, Xu Xilin was perplexed. But then he suddenly recalled something––right, every year, their class had a single scholarship: a fifteen hundred dollar sum. It might be nothing to everybody else, but in Luo Bing’s case, it was different: she was an impoverished student. She was a tiny, thin girl. She had a mother at home with serious illness, and she couldn’t work part time at midnight like Tsai Jing. 

 

And whom this scholarship was given to was decided by the homeroom teacher.

 

So she had to take Qilixiang’s words seriously.

 

“Oh, that’s fine,” Xu Xilin answered reluctantly, “We’ll go with you.”

 

Sixth High School had two sets of inter-class exercises. One was the common “times are calling”, and the other was choreographed by the school’s own gymnastics team. Do Xun did not know the latter, and neither did he plan to learn it. Every day, he stood at the back like a wooden stick, and stayed there until it was over. Then he left, silent, alone.

 

When Luo Bing called him, Do Xun did not stop in his steps, but merely glanced at her.

 

Luo Bing had to jog to catch up with him, and spoke her preplanned speech, “Our school has an inter-class exercise check every Monday, and if we’re not in order, points will be taken off. It seems like you don’t know how to do it yet. There’s an event tonight, so can you give twenty minutes for our events committee to teach you?”

 

Xu Tuanzuo was shot in the face even though he was lying down. He wiped his face as if he had a toothache.

 

Lao Cheng put his arm over the back of Xu Xilin’s neck, and whispered in his ear in a pinched voice, “Can you let our class’s events committee teach you?”

 

Xu Xilin muttered a blurred curse. He was extremely reluctant. But he because he knew that Luo Bing had a crush on him, he did not have the “face” to tell her no. He had to view it as a favor of hers.

 

Who knew that that Do Xun did not take it, and stopped in his steps, frowning.

 

Luo Bing said, “It’s pretty easy, you’ll get it on the first try…”

 

“So the check is on Monday, is it?” Do Xun interrupted her harshly. “Then I’ll get a note for sick leave from the nurse on Monday, then. I won’t interrupt you guys’ points.”

 

Finished, he stuck his hands in his pockets, and turned, walking away.

 

Shocked, Luo Bing’s face flushed red. But she refused to give up, and walked faster, trying to catch up to him, “Wait…”

 

Not even turning back, Do Xun raised his arm as a gesture to tell her not to bother him. But Luo Bing was barely over 150cm tall, and compared to Do Xun, she was simply too short. She didn’t decelerate in time, and ran right into his elbow.

 

It wasn’t on purpose, but from other people’s perspectives, it looked like as if he was impatient to talk with her, and pushed her with his elbow.

 

The youth’s elbow was kind of tough, and Luo Bing was a little stunned.

 

Do Xun was stunned, too. He moved his arms awkwardly, and felt like he should say something. But he wasn’t used to apologizing, and he was just simply unable to. He frowned and looked down at Luo Bing, unsure of what to say.

 

Before he could decide on what to say, Xu Xilin and the other guys, who weren’t far away, caught up with them.

 

Xu Xilin arrived. Okay––so last time it was Tsai Jing, and this time, it was a tiny girl. Son of a bitch really knew to *pick the soft persimmons to eat.

 

Enraged, he pulled Luo Bing behind him, and pushed Do Xun back, “Can you speak human? Can you act humane?”

 

Note#1: 

 

1) Pick the soft persimmons to eat: means “he knows who to pick on”.

05 Parents

 

Do Xun and Xu Xilin were “invited” to Qilixiang’s office on Friday’s long break.

 

Xu Xilin hadn’t had such an embarrassing episode in years. He tried to scrape up some remorse, and came to the conclusion that he did nothing wrong. It was all because Do Xun was too big of an arse.

 

From the first day he arrived, Xu Xilin felt like they clashed with each other completely. Then Tsai Jing happened, and Luo Bing happened. The hate kept piling up, quantity change causing qualitative change, the verbal fight changing into a physical one.

 

Qilixiang was enraged. “Speak! Look at how you did your job as the organization leader, Xu Xilin! Why did you get into a fight?”

 

Xu Xilin’s jaw throbbed a numb pain. He accidentally bit his tongue during the fight, so now his mouth was full of the tang of blood. He sneaked a peek out of the corner of his eye at the even more disheveled Do Xun, and decided that this kid was used to fights as he was used to eating. But determined from the result, it was the two years of kickboxing classes he took in junior high that gained the upper hand.

 

In front of the homeroom teacher, Xu Xilin didn’t want to lose. But he also didn’t want to waste any effort on explaining, so he simply lowered his head and acknowledged his mistake. “I was just too rash in the moment, it won’t happen again.”

 

Hearing the sentence full of fake sincerity, Do Xun immediately let out a snicker. His lips split, it was uncomfortable for him to express his disdain with his mouth. So he used every facial muscle he had instead.

 

Qilixiang: “……”

 

She knew why these two rascals got into a fight. Having seen Do Xun’s demeanor, she almost wanted to get over there and punch him herself too.

 

It took Qilixiang several deep breaths to calm down. She slammed her palm down on the desk, and yelled, “Is ‘rash’ even a reason? If you can punch your classmate now because you’re rash, what will happen when you’re ‘rash’ in the future? Stab someone and kill them?”

 

Xu Xilin’s expression dropped. “Ms., I was wrong. Do you need me to go back and write an inspection immediately? There will be no next time, I promise.”

 

Do Xun immediately rolled his eyes.

 

Even a *comical dialogue probably couldn’t be as seamless as them.

 

Qilixiang felt like she really needed some instant cardio-relievers.

 

She had been the homeroom teacher of this class since they were in the first grade of high school. She knew that Xu Xilin was someone who only obeyed the rules on the outside, and never learned his lessons. When admitting his mistakes, he was smooth as a whistle, but that didn’t stop him from having a “next time”. All his beautifully written inspections were written by Tsai Jing.

 

If this was a normal occasion, Qilixiang wouldn’t have let him go so easily. But you only realize when there’s something to compare, and compared to the snorting Do Xun, Xu Xilin seemed much more adorable. Almost to the extent of gentle.

 

Deciding fast, Qilixiang quickly punished them fifty hits each. After some more warnings, she let them go back to their classes.

 

On the surface, she seemed to be harsher to Xu Xilin. But the second the two students left, she pulled out the address book, and called Do Xun’s father, Do Junliang.

 

Qilixiang spoke a single “hey”, and before she could say what she was calling for, Do Junliang had already spoke, uncaring that she was going to speak, “Ms. Zhang……ah, hello, Ms. Zhang, it’s so inappropriate, having you to put effort in calling. Did Do Xun get into trouble again? Let me tell you, don’t think of saving me the embarrassment, just punish him. This tree needs trimming to make him grow straight. Right! So, uh, can I call you later? I’m quite busy over here……”

 

Having been working in a school for a long time, the teacher did not know that words did not mean anything to some people in society. After Do Junliang’s words, she actually waited for Do Xun’s parent to return a call. She waited for a whole day, and received not even a “meow”.

 

She then realized that “I’ll call you later” was the same as “I’ll treat you to a meal later”––they both meant “Bye, please fuck off ASAP.”

 

Until close to the evening did an unfamiliar woman come find her.

 

The woman said that she was Do Xun’s father’s secretary. The first thing she did when she saw Qilixiang was to stuff a jewelry box into her arms. She spoke stickily, “Boss asks you to take care of our child.”

 

“Our child.” The two words revealed her naked, great aspiration of becoming a stepmother.

 

Qilixiang spoke. “On this...I think it would be more appropriate for Do Xun’s parent to come himself. As you can see, he got into a fight with a classmate today, and a physical one…”

 

The secretary did not give the slightest fuck about whether Do Xun got into a fight or not. Bored out of her mind, she cleaned her nails, listening to Qilixiang complain. She rolled her eyes, and gave a perfunctory reply bare of any effort, “Yes, we know, so that’s why we let you, the teacher, take extra care of him.”

 

Qilixiang: “......”

 

“Oh right, missus, the heavy thing in the box is a necklace. If you need, the counter provides unlimited free cleaning in the future.” The secretary’s expression turned into one of drooling, looking as if she could barely keep herself back from stealing it for herself, “One from a famous brand, and a sixty percent discount takes a hundred thousand off! Plus, the service quality is really good.”

 

How high-quality something was wasn't something a normal peasant could recognize by eye. *But it’s hard for one to enter the hall of grace.

 

*But it’s hard for one to enter the hall of grace: Chinese for “nope bitch, I’m broke, art and all that high quality stuff is not for us peasants”

 

Her mouth dry from all the talking, Qilixiang really wanted to smack Miss Sixty Percent Discount in the face.

 

She accepted gifts, but not any gift. A thousand-dollar gift card or two sometimes was enough––her tiny bit of greed wasn’t large enough to contain a famous brand necklace. Qilixiang stuffed the box back into the secretary’s hands. “My total income per year isn’t even a hundred thousand, I can’t take this. Miss, maybe you can take this back and let the parent come, ‘Kay?”

 

The secretary didn’t detect the irony in her words. She replied shyly and delicately, “I am the parent.”

 

Qilixiang failed to communicate with Do Junliang’s brainless secretary. Tired, both physically and mentally, she shooed her away. Glancing at the clock, it was already the afternoon free study period––Sixth High School made a point of having students study on their own, and only had two classes of actual subjects. The remaining two was free study or gym.

 

She snuck to the classroom’s back door, and peeked at the inside from the window to see the math helper and English helper splitting the blackboard to write down the homework requirements for the weekend. The Chinese helper was walking around and taking essays––all those who hadn’t finished theirs yet was bent down on their desks, working hard.

 

Xu Xilin was one of them. But he was more unafraid, since he had Tsai Jing.

 

Tsai Jing was extremely talented, and could create an outstanding essay on the spot. He was verbally composing a spontaneous small book report with full quotes for Xu Xilin to copy down.

 

“*Lu Ai Gong once said to Confucius, *‘I was born deep in the palace, and was raised by women’s hands. I had not tasted any sadness, any worries, any toils, never tasted…’”

 

But Xu Xilin was a classical sciences student. He only knew to memorize things exactly when it came to language arts––he only knew what the teacher taught that was imprinted in his mind, and if it was anything the teacher hadn’t taught, he just scrabbled up rubbish. The only reading materials he read outside of class was *Wuxia and fantasy novels. 

 

His mind was all tangled and messed up with the gigantic amount of information that was input in his brain, “Waaaaait! How do you *write the character for “I” for an emperor?”

 

The LA helper was tense and jittery, close to jumping up and down out of nervousness. “Can’t you just write the spelling? Xu Tuanzuo, can you hurry up? You’re the only one so fashionable copying homework! What, practicing listening?”

 

Right when Qilixiang was really to storm in and catch a copying stereotype, she saw Do Xun, her hand on the doorknob, on the brink of opening the door.

 

A water-based pen was held between Do Xun’s fingers, his desk full of draft paper with writings that no one but him could understand. Even more, he wasn’t concentrated on his own business as usual, and was instead staring at the noisy people surrounding the desk in front of him, his mind drifted to somewhere else.

 

There were still wounds on his face. His expression was a tad bit off––it seemed like disdain at a brief glance, but there was the faintest glint of jealousy underneath.

 

Of course, he wasn’t jealous of the guy that just punched him this morning, it was just……the whole class was bustling with life, and he was the only one stranded from all of them.

 

But the jealousy was merely a quick flash. Do Xun was probably shamed of the showing of weakness, and he soon focused again, his expression turning icy. Looking even more indifferent, he turned back at his desk, and stuffed his headphones back in.

 

Qilixiang sighed, deciding not to go into the classroom after all. She silently went back to the office.

 

She had Do Xun’s report card. His scores weren’t bad––they were on the contrary. They were too good. He already skipped a grade back when he was young, and even tried to skip a second time, although the attempt was blocked by his homeroom teacher back then. The attempt was steadily stopped by the teacher because although Do Xun was indeed smart, he wasn’t a prodigy in a specific field. That meant that except for showing off, his high IQ had no materialistic use.

 

And he already had an antisocial personality, unable to fit in with people the same age as him. If he continued to skip grades, he would never be able to learn to communicate with others.

 

When he was young, a “child genius” did sound nice, but he had to grow up someday. And when he was neither a “child” nor a “genius”, but hadn’t learned how to socialize and fit into society yet, who would give a fuck about him?

 

Unfortunately, ignorant parents and the brainless society’s public opinion loved to worship the intelligence quotient. No one listened to that teacher’s sincere, yelled out truth.

 

Why Do Xun transferred to Sixth High School from out of town was also because Sixth High School had a policy: Eleventh grade students recommended by the school could enter that year’s college entrance examination. The parents clearly expressed that they were here for the policy when they arrived.

 

Even counted fully, the most Do Xun would stay was a semester. Just a brief stopping, as long as he didn’t get involved in anything extreme, the teacher could spend zero effort on this student.

 

And looking at how Do Junliang acted, Qilixiang knew that he was quite proud of his smart child, probably even thinking that she as a homeroom teacher cared too much, unable to sent away with a shopping card.

 

This type of parent always thought this way––the only thing that the child needed to be good at was studying.

 

Qilixiang rubbed her temples, and felt like she had to talk with Do Xun’s parent next week no matter what. If his father wouldn’t come, she’ll simply call his mother. His mother couldn’t not care about her son’s future.

 

Friday evenings were the happiest time of the week in the school––even if homework was spilling out of the student’s backpacks.

 

Wu Tao and the guys gathered around Xu Xilin, discussing loudly and merrily on where they’re going to hang out on the weekend, the noise they created so loud that even the overheating headphones could not defend themselves against it.

 

Do Xun glanced at Xu Xilin’s back once gloomily, and then picked up his backpack and strode out of the classroom from the back door, the split corner of his lips feeling as if thousands of nails were stabbing into it.

 

With a “bang”, he shut the door behind him. Wu Tao looked at Do Xun’s desk, and whispered into Xu Xilin’s ear, “What do you say, Xiao Lin Zi? How about we take care of that kid?”

 

Xu Xilin frowned, knowing that Wu Tao’s “take care” was not a normal one.

 

Wu Tao was a boarding student––Sixth High School wasn’t an actual boarding school, and its dormitory was in bad condition. Most students that lived too far away from the school chose to rent a room close to the school if they could.

 

As there were too little female boarding students, for safety reasons, the school arranged for them to live in the teaching and administrative staff dorm instead. The student dorm building became a boys-only building, and the supervising relaxed, causing the insides to form a special “ecosphere”.

 

Sixth High School was the city’s key high school, and to get to the higher end of the pyramid in the class, you not only had to maintain your relations, but also keep your grades up. And playing around was simply kept that way. Even if someone held a grudge against somebody else, the most they would do was to get a group of people to isolate them in the school. They would never do anything really serious.

 

But the dorms was something else entirely.

 

The dorms had sports students that trained every day and night, poor students from far from the city, and *students here to repeat their last year of high school. They naturally split into several groups, and they had both overlaps and conflicts. Complicated relations sparked conflicts everywhere, eventually forming a grouping situation.

 

*students here to repeat their last year of high school: Chinese people do this not because they were held back in twelfth grade but because they want another shot at a better university.

 

Things like locking people in a bathroom stall was pretty common. Most of the victims didn’t dare to squeak a word, and as long as an ambulance wasn’t needed, the teachers knew nothing.

 

A hand supporting himself on the back of Xu Xilin’s chair and a young, ruthless look on his face, Wu Tao said, “If we put guys like him in our room, he’ll bow down in three days. Won’t dare to meow if we tell him to bark, wanna bet?”

 

Notes:

 

*comical dialogue: xiangsheng, 相聲, a play/dialogue thing performed by a pair

 

*Lu Ai Gong: A lord back in the China’s Chun Qiu Warring Kingdoms Era.

 

*I was born…: text in ancient Chinese, ugh

 

*Wuxia: a genre of Chinese (usually in the YA category) fiction.

 

*Write: Because this novel is in CN. You write Chinese characters, not spell.

 

Happy Valentines~~~

 

surprise, surprise

comprehend

 

06 Undercurrent

 

Wu Tao hung out with Xu Xilin’s group of friends during the day in class. They were pretty nice to each other, and as he was far away from home, Xu Xilin sometimes brought him some snacks or other food to help make his life at the dorms a tad bit better. After a few brush-bys, he became light acquaintances with the bunch of sports students. All of them were polite to Xu Xilin, and greeted him when they brushed by him. When they didn’t have training, every once in a while they would be brought by Wu Tao to play basketball when they didn’t have enough players. They’ve also went out for a few meals together before.

 

But really, Xu Xilin wasn’t really acquainted that much with them, and wasn’t in any conflicts with anyone of them, either. They were what was called “*the water in the well does not offense the water in the river”.

 

He did had heard some nasty rumors that originated from the dorms, but as he hadn’t witnessed them himself, he didn’t ask Wu Tao about it––it was none of his business to.

 

Xu Xilin glanced back at Do Xun’s desk. Most of the normal people, except for vacations and exam weeks, only brought home materials they needed. Most of their things were left in the classroom. Only Do Xun’s desk was empty, clear of even paper scraps, looking as if it was unused.

 

Carrying a five plus kilogram school bag every day...this was psycho to the point of a statement.

 

Pffft, as if anyone would want to take away that pile of trash of his?

 

Xu Xilin asked naturally, “Oh, how? Beat him up?”

 

Wu Tao smiled a little, acting as if he was a supernatural person with loads of secrets in his arms. Used to being a loner in class, at this moment, all the reasons why he was one all seemed to reveal themselves, glowed-up into “above the common herd”.

 

“Beating up would be too less for him,” Mr. Above-the-Common-Herd Wu said casually.

 

Xu Xilin suddenly felt annoyed by Wu Tao’s actions, and did not reply immediately. He thought, “So, if you’re so ‘badass’, why didn’t I see you help Tsai Jing out when he was cornered by those high-rate loaners?”

 

But thoughts were merely thoughts, and Xu Xilin didn’t want to embarrass Wu Tao right in his face. He only spoke, “Nah, forget about it. You don’t know about it, but today, in the 3rd floor office, she screeched at me like batshit crazy. He looks like her newest *sweetie, don’t mess things up.”

 

*not in a romantic sense, don’t get me wrong

 

Wu Tao was not satisfied, and glanced sideways at Xu Xilin, trying to anger him more on purpose. “Qilixiang? She means nothing––dude, not that I’m saying, but if you can take even this, you’re damn well-tempered.”

 

Xu Xilin’s expression darkened.

 

He knew what Wu Tao wanted––he was only looking for trouble. But as he didn’t have a good reason, he wanted to use Xu Xilin as one. Xu Xilin did despise Do Xun quite a lot, but one thing was one, and Xu Xilin did not want to use a bunch of bored out boarding students as a gun. Plus, if he really wanted to fuck up Do Xun, would he need anyone else to help him to?

 

“Pffft, do I look like I can’t take care of him myself and is crying for off-court help?” Xu Xilin looked at Wu Tao, his expression close to smile, but was it, really? “Tao *Ge, I’ve been nice to you most of the time, why the heck is you making me look like a weakling, huh?”

 

He spoke in a joking tone, but a soft, neither hard nail was concealed in his words. Although he embarrassed neither side of the conversation, he still managed to express the notion that he was slightly pissed off.

 

Wu Tao’s expression twisted, the other boys around him looking at each other, afraid to say a word.

 

But then Xu Xilin stood up, and slung his arm over Wu Tao’s back like nothing had happened. He smoothed out the tight atmosphere himself, “It’s literally the weekend, why are you mentioning disappointing people for nothing? My mom’s going to come home this week from the south, and she’s going to bring some fruit; do you want mangoes or mangosteens?”

 

Wu Tao’s gut was still twisted uncomfortably, but Xu Xilin had already given him a step down. Evaluating the pros and cons in his mind, he knew that a little conflict like this wasn’t worth becoming enemies with Xu Xilin. So he looked down, and walked down the steps clumsily. “…Mangoes, mangosteens are too much trouble.”

 

“Great, I’ll carry a box over to your room on Monday,” Xu Xilin pawed Wu Tao’s short hair, “Wash yourself clean and wait on the bed.”

 

Wu Tao cursed in a low voice, “Fuck, my hair!”

 

And the two let the thing slip.

 

Although he got into a fight this morning, and had a tiny conflict with Wu Tao tonight, Xu Xilin’s mood going back home was still pretty bright.

 

His mom was going to be home from a business trip.

 

Xu Xilin actually used his mom’s surname. His family consisted of a mom, a maternal grandmother, a Ms. Du and a dog named Dou-Dou. Except for him, all of his family members were female––even the dog.

 

His parents split when he was very young. His mom never told him why exactly they split––she only skimmed over it, telling him, “Your father doesn’t want to stay with us anymore.”

 

“Dad” had disappeared from his life before Xu Xilin had clear memories.

 

In the earlier years, a divorce was something that shocked the entire neighborhood. Xu Xilin remembered that there were a lot of professional-level gossiping women that loved to pet his head like a dog and spit out a string of sarcastic words that were meant to “pity” his family. All of that were things around when he was three or four years old. A child of that age did not have entire memories, and even though Xu Xilin didn’t remember what his own father looked like, he somehow remembered those people’s faces and what they said.

 

He did not understand what those words meant at that time, but the hidden venom in their words did not need a brain to comprehend––a nose would be enough to sniff that out.

 

Once, their words were heard by Xu Xilin’s mom, and she dashed over in three-inch heels, verbally battling the group of women without a single bad word or repeating her insults. A legendary battle of insults won by the lesser side was thus recorded in history.

 

Xu Xilin’s mom was formerly named Xu Xiaohui, but after her divorce, she changed it to Xu Jin. She was originally a lawyer.

 

She was a mediocre-sized woman, and had a fierce personality. After the landslide win in the battle, she simply left her luggage of a son to her mother, quitting her job as a lawyer and entered the business “sea”.

 

Madame Xu Jin had already saw everything clearly––a child without a father wouldn’t be looked down upon, but a child with a poor father would.

 

After she quit her job, using her acquaintances she gained over the years, she gathered a group of professionals from every field, and started a company herself. Her company specialized in legal consultation and related program design for cross-border mergers and acquisitions. She was overseas for most of the year, drifting everywhere on the globe.

 

As her company performed better and better, their living conditions also improved greatly. They moved out from the old neighborhood where two out of three cats had lost at least one eye. His family had well living conditions now, and all of his neighbors were polite, and knew to keep their distance. Xu Xilin was never pointed at anymore.

 

To Xu Xilin, his grandmother, who raised him, was the person he was closest to, and also the one who doted on him the most. But young humans know by instinct to become close to the strong and powerful, which made the fierce and powerful Xu Jin more influential to him.

 

When Xu Xilin arrived home, Xu Jin had just finished a phone call, waving him over to where she was.

 

“What do you want, gorgeous?” Xu Xilin said.

 

“I have to tell you something…” Then Xu Jin caught a clear glimpse of his face, and her words stopped, her fingers raising his chin. “What happened, did you get into a fight?”

 

“Ow, Mom, your fingernails are so sharp!” Xu Xilin complained. “Don’t worry, I got it all taken care of, Qilixiang won’t bother you……Ow!”

 

Xu Jin pressed down hard on the bruise on his chin. “If I hear you give any of your teachers nicknames again, I’ll…...”

 

Xu Xilin wagged an imaginary tail, grinning at her, “Hit me?”

 

Xu Jin evaluated the tall, strong little bastard, and felt like hitting him would just make her hands hurt. So she said, “I’ll record it for your homeroom teacher to hear.”

 

Xu Xilin: “……”

 

A former lawyer indeed.

 

“Your godmother *Chengzi is back from abroad. She’s arguing about a divorce with her husband, and the household’s all strained. She wants to send her kid over to live with us for a few days.”

 

*Chengzi: 橙子, oranges

 

“Let the kid stay. They’re pretty miserable.” Xu Xilin agreed immediately, setting down his backpack uncaringly.

 

“Chengzi” was a nickname. Chengzi’s actual name was Zhu Xiaocheng. She was Grandma Xu’s goddaughter, and also Xu Xilin’s godmother. 

 

The two family’s friendship traced back to the grandfathers, and were very close in the past––when Zhu Xiaocheng was young, there was a time when her parents weren’t able to take care of her, so they sent her to Xu Jin’s and she lived there for more than a year.

 

But then the two families had their separate roads in life, and being apart in different cities meant that they even found it hard to visit each other during Chinese New Year’s due to the traffic. They slowly drifted apart. Only the recent three or four years did the two families reignite their friendship.

 

Zhu Xiaocheng was a beauty––as beautiful as a flower. At the age of forty, her glances from passerby were still as much as when she was young.

 

Unfortunately, she was golden only on the outside, and trash on the inside. Except for acting vulnerable and admiring her looks, she had no other skills. Even her luck was terrible––she managed to marry a rich man, but the rich guy was a scumbag.

 

Zhu Xiaocheng couldn’t bear to lose her rich wife’s status, and had to maintain her half-dead marriage. Then she couldn’t take it anymore, and did something only someone like her could––

 

Ms. Zhu Xiaocheng left her family and everything, and went to the US to worship the Buddha, taking only her scum of a husband’s credit card. She just made the things she didn’t want to see out of sight!

 

……To be honest, this thing, no matter the time, the place, or the person, was full of ridiculous absurdity. No one but Zhu Xiaocheng could’ve done something like this, indeed. 

 

Being past middle-aged, and no heart in any business or her own family, she slowly lost common topics to talk about with people of the same age as her. Loneliness and depression were unavoidable. So she used Xu Jin as her own personal tree hole––because she thought that since she and Xu Jin both failed in marriage, they had common language.

 

Every time Zhu Xiaocheng came back, even if she didn’t went back to her own home, she would grab Xu Jin for a round of spilling her sorrows.

 

Xu Jin never wanted to empathize with her. To be real, she had been annoyed by Zhu Xiaocheng since they were young. Every time Zhu Xiaocheng came over, the normally full of words Ms. Xu Jin would become a mute gourd. Except for “um, I know”, there was only “yes, I know, yes”, and she switched sitting positions every three seconds––as if she was always urgent to go to the bathroom.

 

Sadly, it was useless, as she was the only that was annoyed by Zhu Xiaocheng. Both her mother and son liked her.

 

Zhu Xiaocheng was lovely and well-behaved when she was young, and compared to Xu Jin, who had an extra long rebellious phase, she was a true apple of Grandma Xu’s eye. Grandma Xu had raised Zhu Xiaocheng for more than a year. She treated her as her own, and adored her greatly.

 

As for Xu Xilin, the reason he liked Zhu Xiaocheng was simple: First, she was a major beauty, and second, the beauty never came with empty hands. Limited edition sneakers, watches, electronics…she bought whatever he wanted.

 

Zhu Xiaocheng wasn’t any good at being a mother, but as a godmother, she could have a hundred and twenty points out of a hundred––anyways, Xu Xilin always fled the second the gift was in his hands, and the one that was left to listen to Zhu Xiaocheng was his mom Xu Jin.

 

“Oh, right, Mom,” Xu Xilin asked randomly, “How old is Chengzi’s kid? Are they a girl or a boy?”

 

Xu Jin was stuck at his question, “…Yeah, I actually don’t know, she’s never mentioned.”

 

So every time Zhu Xiaocheng cried mountains of essays to Xu Jin, she could manage to not stray from her topic, and wouldn’t talk about anything else except for how much she was going through––even her own child!

 

Xu Xilin shook his head, and thought that to be born as Zhu Xiaocheng’s child, that kid must’ve done loads of evil stuff the last life, because that was the only way he could be so unlucky this life.

 

As he was lost in thoughts, his phone rang. A local fixed line.

 

Xu Xilin answered the call. “Hey?”

 

“It’s me, “ Tsai Jing’s voice sounded from the other side of the line, pressed low, “I’m using a payphone to call you, I have to tell you something.”

 

Xu Xilin was happy simply by hearing Tsai Jing’s voice, and he asked, the corners of his eyes naturally with smiles in them, “Why are you all saying that you have something you want to tell me today, what is that something?”

 

“You know that Lao Huang asks me to help him sort out some stuff every now and then, right?”

 

“Lao Huang” was their Chinese teacher, and was someone that came back to teach after retirement. He was kind, and cherished Tsai Jing’s talent. After he knew Tsai Jing’s family’s situation, he always found ways to help him find out tasks that could help out his income. He often let Tsai Jing help him sort out drafts and books. None of the tasks were heavy, and the pay was well.

 

“Yeah, what?”

 

“I stayed a while in Lao Huang’s office, but before I left, I remembered that I had left a math paper in class, so I went back to get it,” Tsai Jing said, “And then I heard Tao Ge and the tall guy from Sixth class……”

 

“Li Buozhi from the track and field team?” Xu Xilin’s footsteps heading upstairs halted for a second. Li Buozhi had a bad reputation. Last semester, he got into a conflict with students in the class for the graduated students, and got a disciplinary warning on his record got getting into a fight outside of school.

 

“I think they talked about doing something to Do Xun, and they also mentioned you,” Tsai Jing whispered, “I saw that you didn’t look so pleased when he mentioned this today, so I decided to warn you.”