Gan Qing coughed to clear her throat. "I… cough, I heard people talk about it afterwards."

Yu Lanchuan raised his brow even higher.

"How about this." Gan Qing tried to brush the matter off. From a few steps away, she turned her head and smiled at him. "Today's the weekend. If you're free in the evening, I'll take you to that little restaurant for a meal, for the same yang chun noodle soup. My treat, don't complain about it being cheap."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "You even know what I ordered?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"I would never have guessed that you had divination skills from a young age."

"So are you going or not?" Gan Qing asked.

Yu Lanchuan studied her for a while, the corners of his lips twitching upwards like he was trying not to smile. He smoothed out his sleeves, affecting nonchalance. "Sure, let's go."

No. 13 High School was located on a very quiet and secluded street. From the outside, it looked like a decent, proper school. The building was already showing its age and looked like something from the past. The outside of the administrative building facing the street was covered with large swathes of creeping vines that rippled everywhere in the breeze. Due to the fact that the school's reputation was in decline in recent years, there were fewer and fewer students. The entrance was also not packed with private vehicles the way other schools were. At a glance, its tranquility had quite a touch of a scholarly air.

Yu Lanchuan lifted his head to look at the large clock hanging on the building and his vision was filled with the verdant greenery. He said with a sigh, "The character of your school really…"

Before he could finish his compliment, he saw a shadow suddenly leap out from the quiet and secluded entrance gate. A young male of the human species burst out like a tornado, chased by a pack of his peers who were hurling obscenities. These people were holding wooden rods that had originally been mop handles or chair legs. They swept past Yu Lanchuan, running and chasing, full of energy and vigour. In less than the time it took for one breath, they had run to the intersection.

From the intersection came the sound of a bicycle bell. A few young ruffians straddling public bikes showed their faces, their heads all topped with garishly coloured fur, and whistled at the students. The one being chased planted himself among the "bike gang" and his back immediately straightened up by quite a significant degree. He turned and cursed, "Motherfuckers, come here if you fucking dare!"

After that, a round of complicated "meeting the in-laws" session took place at the intersection, both parties engaging in improper relationships with the uncles and aunties from the other side, their shouting loud enough to reverberate throughout the area.

Yu Lanchuan muttered, "...hasn't changed a bit in ten years!"

No. 13 High was basically opened for the sake of Mudpool Backlane and produced many types of wild creatures. When a person reached the age of attending senior high, they would have lost quite a bit of their innocence and purity, and those with evil tendencies would have started to grow. It was said that if a person wanted to study seriously in this place, they must have a bit of the capability of an "academic tyrant" so that they could suppress those naughty kids who tried to pull everyone down to sink into depravity with them.

Unlike Yu Lanchuan, Gan Qing was not at all surprised. But unfortunately, they had to pass through the intersection that was the scene of the fight to get to their destination. Those people were currently frantically busy so they couldn't go over and interfere. They could only stand under the streetlight and wait for this round of dispute to end.

"Hold on," Yu Lanchuan said. "Why must they open the restaurant in this kind of place? Every day, there would be people causing a ruckus at the front door and passerbys have to take a detour. Can they even do business?"

"It's still all right, I think," Gan Qing said. "They don't fight every day anyway. It's a small shop, just four tables inside. If there are too many customers, they can't serve everyone. Apparently, the shop is their own so they don't have to pay rent. They can make enough to survive."

After standing for a while, Gan Qing was tired. She squatted down, leaning against the lamp pole, her right arm that was in a splint resting on her knee.

Beside her, Yu Lanchuan found a tree to rest against. He suddenly thought of something. "I remember back then, something newsworthy happened at our school. It was when I was in Year 2. A girl from the next class was in a relationship with someone from No. 13. A teacher caught her when she skipped class and they even found a love letter in her bag."

The teachers and her parents were mad with anger. That day, Yu Lanchuan had come back to the classroom after taking part in the olympiad training. From far, he heard the next class's teacher's near-crumbling voice say, "Why do you like him! He's nothing but a little gangster! You are someone who will enter university in the future, who will further your studies and go abroad. Him? Who knows when he'll go behind bars! Are the two of you even of the same species, getting into a relationship just like that! What relationship! He's just a lump of useless mud, he has nothing to lose. But you? Aren't you destroying your future?"

The girl was crying her heart out, on the verge of being forced to her death by these teachers and parents who were deeply mired in the ugliness of the secular world. She felt that she was in a tragic love story—like Zhu Yingtai, like Liu Lanzhi—and had to prove her faith with her death.

Gan Qing asked, "And then?"

"Halfway through the teacher's scolding, she got tired of listening and turned and jumped out of the window. I was the one who called the ambulance."

Gan Qing was shocked by the way this academic tyrant of a key school described the events. "...She jumped off the building?"

Yu Lanchuan took a deep breath before adding, "Oh, she didn't die. It was just the second floor. She fell on her butt after landing, then stood up, patted off the dust and was fine."

"Then why did you call the ambulance?"

"To take her teacher away," Yu Lanchuan said. "Her jumping off frightened the class teacher into getting a heart attack. He was taken to the hospital and had two stents put in."

As the class monitor from the next class, the sixteen-year old Yu Lanchuan coolly and aloftly helped to take charge of things, and thought that there was something wrong with that girl's head. A young person in their teens tended to go between two extremes. They either pursued the unorthodox path and thought that adults were all fools brainwashed by society, lacking a soul and were short on intelligence; or, they thought themselves well-versed in the ways of human relations with a deep understanding of the rules, both spoken and unspoken, and felt that their peers were all fools. Regardless of which way they took, their hearts would always have a pack of fools taking up long-term residence.

And, after a certain amount of years, they would always walk in the direction of being a fool. For example, Yu Lanchuan. When he was young, he was mature for his age; now, he was falling in the hands of a female ruffian from No. 13.

"How unsensible of her. Little girls only think about love and romance, when they're grown up, it will be too late for regrets." The leader of the female hoodlums said, her voice full of the regrets of age and experience, sounding exactly like the class teacher back then. "Year 2 already and she still wasn't working hard for her academics but instead, got tangled up with a little hoodlum. Wasn't she just destroying her future prospects?"

Yu Lanchuan looked at her curiously. "I feel that hearing those words coming out of your mouth is something out of magical realism."

Gan Qing laughed. All of a sudden, she thought that it was not only the kids in senior high but also the adults who were like that. The young and talented Yu Lanchuan looked like somebody with full control of his future prospects and didn't need others to tell him what to do. But people would still talk behind his back, saying that young people only thought about love and romance. When you have to take care of old parents and young children in the future, you'll understand. Being together with someone who is not a good match for you, we'll see if you don't end up being hammered down by the vicissitudes of life until your head is spinning hopelessly and you have a midlife crisis.

Yu Lanchuan keenly sensed something. He reached out and grabbed the back of her neck. "What are you thinking?"

"Little Master Yu, the throat is a vital spot. If it was in the past, your hand would be cut off." Gan Qing let out a resigned sigh. After that, she looked to the right and to the left and pointed. "Hey, look, they're calling more people."

Yu Lanchuan looked in the direction she was pointing and saw that halfway through the fight, there were people on both sides withdrawing from the fighting ring and calling people on their phones. They were intending to scale up the fight into a large battle. Frustration welled up at once and he dug out a personal alarm from his pocket. He asked Gan Qing, "Will it help if I throw this thing over?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Little Master Yu was the mighty Alliance Leader of this generation, the descendant of the reputable Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang; even though he had the face of a beauty, was there a need for him to carry around an anti-pervert device with him every day?

"There's no use. Little brats these days are all very smart-witted. There are protections for human scum that haven't reached the age of majority and they're also not causing serious harm. They aren't afraid of the police at all. Don't be in such a hurry." Full of experience, Gan Qing gestured and said, "The fact that they've started calling for more people means that the fight is ending soon. Typically, a fight won't happen when there are lots of people."

She had just finished speaking when she saw an old man whose hair had gone all white riding a three-wheeled cart passing before them and heading towards the intersection. As he rode, he rang the cart bell and let out a vigorous shout. "Hey!"

The little hoodlums naturally did not give a damn about this kind of senile old man. No one paid him any heed and no one gave way to him. The old man angrily rang the bell loudly. Perhaps his voice disturbed the mobile signal; one of the little hoodlums who was holding his phone called out Hello? a couple of times, then picked up a stone and threw it at the old man's three-wheeled cart. "Stop your damned bell, old fool!"

The stone bounced up, lifting the white cloth covering the back of the three-wheeled cart. It turned out that under the cloth was a cartful of fresh produce and the cloth cover was to prevent them from being dirtied by the dust. The stone smashed right into a pile of eggs and with a cracking sound, the egg whites and yolks oozed everywhere. The old man reached out to seize the little hoodlum in anger and exasperation. "What are you doing? Pay me back for those eggs! Your parents work hard to earn money to send all of you to school but do you behave yourself at all the whole day?"

Gan Qing frowned and stood up.

The little hoodlum raised his arm and shook the old man off, causing him to stumble. Without waiting for the old man to find his balance, the hoodlum caught the old man by his collar. "Is this your family's land? Your family's road? Is this any of your fucking business?"

As he spoke, he pushed with force. The old man lost his balance and fell backwards with his head facing up, the back of his head heading right for the three-wheeled cart's metal handlebar.

Right at that moment, a hand reached over and supported the old man's back. The hand gave a light upwards push and the old man followed the hand to spring back upright. Someone held his shoulders to help him stand steadily.

Barely recovered from his shock, the old man stood there, then turned to see clearly the young man holding him up.

Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. "It's bad enough that you people are blocking the road and now you've even destroyed someone else's things. Are you going to compensate him?"

The raging brawl was interrupted by this little interlude but when the little hoodlums saw that the newcomers were a "bespectacled nerd" and a woman—and she even had an arm in a splint—they did not take them seriously at all.

The little hoodlums from the other side even happily joined in the jeering. "Exactly! Compensate! Compensate! If they have no money, make them take off their pants in return."

Both sides fanned the flames. The little hoodlum who pushed the old man was flustered and picked up a brick and smashed it at Yu Lanchuan's head. The brick flew forward with a whoosh but before they could see clearly, Yu Lanchuan had already seized the hoodlum's wrist and knocked his head hard against the three-wheeled cart. The hoodlum let out a wail, the brick slipping out of his hand. Yu Lanchuan twisted him into a pretzel and pushed him against the cart, making him kneel.

His companions saw that things were not looking good and came forward to join the fight together. His feet barely moving from the spot, Yu Lanchuan deftly used his fists in place of a sword and took care of the pack of little brats.

From behind him came a playful whistle. Gan Qing cheered, "Oppa is so cool!"

The little hoodlums on the other side were overjoyed at the sight of their opponents being beaten up. There was even an exceptionally scheming one who picked up a club and planned to take the opportunity to get a few strikes in.

Hence, the scene turned even more chaotic. The bad youths on both sides joined in the fight. The little hoodlum who had smashed the eggs at the start gritted his teeth and climbed to his feet while holding his wrist, the pain bringing out tears in his eyes. He had probably never been so aggrieved before. He pulled his jacket open and took out a small machete that hung inside. Under the cover of the chaos, he swung it at Yu Lanchuan's shoulder.

His companions were old hands at fighting and usually wouldn't fight to the point where there was serious trouble. The knives they brought along were just to pretend to be fierce to scare others. When they spied that he was being serious, they were all stunned. Someone blurted out, "Don't…"

Right then a shadow suddenly slipped in between and seized the misbehaving youth's knife-wielding hand and somehow turned the hand so that the blade was aiming at the owner. Right after that, there was the teeth-aching sound of fabric ripping. The machete turned into a flash of light, stabbing a few times at the misbehaving youth's body.

For a moment, not a single sound could be heard. Even Yu Lanchuan was shocked until he forgot to breathe.

The one who struck with the knife just now felt his legs weaken and fell directly to kneel on the ground. The crotch of his pants was damp. Someone pressed a knee on his neck, pushing him to the wall. His shirt was pierced through with three holes, like the "Three Stabs Six Holes^[1]" punishment in underground societies. The machete was in Gan Qing's hand and there were faint blood marks on the blade. The little hoodlum stared at the blood on the blade in terror. He had an illusionary feeling that his chest and belly had been sliced open.

Gan Qing patted his face with the back of the blade. "Has your head cooled down?"

That person was not only cooled down—he was already frozen.

Gan Qing turned back and shot a look at the smashed eggs on the three-wheeled cart. She said very reasonably, "I think you should pay him twenty yuan."

No one moved.

Gan Qing let out a snort of laughter. The tip of the blade scraped across the surface of the wall. "Looks like you guys don't agree?"

A teenager dressed in No. 13's uniform took out his wallet with trembling hands. Without even looking, he grabbed a handful of cash and threw them onto the three-wheeled cart. Gan Qing shot him a look; the teenager seemed to realise something and took a couple of steps forward, smoothened out the crumpled notes and placed them on the edge of the cart like he was respectfully paying protection fees.

Gan Qing finally moved her leg away from where it was wedged against the person's neck. A few teenagers gathered their courage and ran over to help their companion up. They hastily tore open his shirt to check. There were three light scratches on his stomach.

Gan Qing held the machete with the blade facing upwards and tapped the back against her other hand a few times. "This is a controlled weapon. Your senior sister is confiscating it. I'm sure you don't mind."

The little hoodlums didn't dare mind and also didn't dare ask which batch this senior sister was from. They scattered in all directions, scared out of their wits.

Gan Qing turned towards Yu Lanchuan. "Let's go. We're going to eat, right?"

After going through the obstacles of demons and monsters, the two of them finally saw the small restaurant Yu Lanchuan and his basketball team had eaten at back then.

The little restaurant was in a blind alley and was extremely inconspicuous. A small mottled blackboard hung on the door, the menu on it exactly the same as ten years ago—but the prices had gone up. From an average of ten yuan per person, it had inflated to twenty yuan.

The old man riding the three-wheeled cart looked up, his hands on the handlebar to stabilise the cart. "The two of you want to eat at my shop?"

T/N:

[1] 三刀六洞 "Three Stabs Six Holes" - this is a literal translation. It refers to an underground society rule where any member who does something unforgivably wrong and wants to plead for forgiveness must stab themselves three times, each stab piercing through their body; hence, three stabs and six holes. This phrase will pop up again later.