Chapter 8: Here Comes Trouble (And Make it Triple)

Hand in pocket, a handsome young man walked down the brick-layed path, humming a lovely tune that caused heads to turn where he went. He was tall, easily dwarfing the figures of pedestrians near the busy road as they chattered and haggled in the weekend market. Aromatic scents of spices and the jingling of gilted jewelry filled the air with its usual bustling noise.

"Young man, are you interested in authentic spices straight from Xiashan?"

He stopped just in front of a low-roofed stall, leaning down to take a closer look at the myriad of spices the owner presented. Golden ginger, dried star anise, matte red chili peppers, amongst the others, filled his nose with a cloying aroma. "I'll buy some, but would you like to listen to a line or two of my singing? I'm practicing to be a musician."

"No problem young man, go ahead," the owner enthused, after a split moment of confusion from the unusual request.

The young man inhaled slowly, tapping his finger against the folding table, before singing a soft tune with a low voice, as if to a lover. The owner's eyes glazed slightly, as did the eyes of the other customers around the young man.

"Thank you for listening," the young man said after he was finished. "Could you lower the price for me to five yuan for one kilogram?" He pointed to the spices. "With this, this, and this?"

"No problem," the owner repeated, shuffling the appropriate amount onto a weight before pouring it into multiple thin plastic bags. He handed the bags towards the outstretched palm of the other, and the young man smiled charmingly before passing the bills over.

A few beats later, the owner blinked. The young man had long left. He shook his head, quickly jumping back to work.

"Old age is finally catching up to me. It seems I've blanked out on an encounter with a customer!"

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[September 2016]

The Monday after the first hectic week of school, class five voted for its class monitor, an unusual precedent in Ying Yu highschool. Chen laoshi, Year One Class Five's teacher, made the class enclose their heads with their arms on their desks and vote with raised hands for their preferred candidate.

When Wang Canghai won, Liu Fengmian gave an audible `whoop` and slapped him square on the back. At that time, Wang Canghai could not help but feel a slight feeling of trepidation, but also pride, in his achievement. Zhou Rong had not given him the pleasure of a response, choosing instead to look contemplatively down at the shallow gouges on her desk, while Yang Guang huffed in surprise and indignation but nevertheless settled down.

Song Wenbin and his crew of dipshits—Yin Aiguo and Chen Zhu—congratulated him on becoming the teacher's choretaker. He was not wrong. Wang Canghai wondered what the hype about the position was all about, if all he ever seemed to do was collect homework and pass out thick worksheets back to the class. Perhaps it was the academic honor; perhaps power in the form of class leadership (occasionally) for class activities, or recommendation opportunities to the teacher. Either way, Wang Canghai regretted, somewhat, pushing himself into the spotlight with his new class monitor and class five ling xiu positions, although not enough to quell the virulent fire of revenge sustained towards Liang Shen, ling xiu of class one.

Monday afternoon, Chen laoshi adhered to Wang Canghai's request and set up a meeting between him and the martial arts student she knew. At some point, Liu Fengmian had jokingly remarked, "am I not good enough for you?", although there seemed to be a spark of jealousy in his gaze.

Wang Canghai had shrugged in response, replying with, "just wanted some more variety. You can teach me taekwondo, if you want." And that was that.

"Yo coach, what'd you need me for again?" A loud voice crowed, belonging to a tall girl with almond eyes—Zhang Yiling, ling xiu of class nine. The outcasts. The bottom of the ladder, worst of the worst, manned by one girl alone. Liu Fengmian almost choked on his spit when he saw her enter the emptied classroom, the dredges of idle chatter from the hallway spilling in through the open door.

"This is Wang Canghai and Liu Fengmian," Chen laoshi greeted, pointing at said persons. "Wang Canghai, Liu Fengmian, this is Zhang Yiling. An old student of mine."

"We know each other already," Wang Canghai commented. "She knocked me unconscious the first time we saw each other."

Zhang Yiling laughed. "It was a mistake! I thought I was being challenged—I still don't know who actually wrote that letter, by the way—but for all it's worth, I'm sorry about that."

"I'm not too concerned about it anymore."

Liu Fengmian folded his arms across his chest. "What kind of martial arts do you practice, by the way? That's what we're here to find out, since we heard you were a practitioner."

"Boxing," Zhang Yiling replied, grinning as she gave them a thumbs up. "So this is what the meeting is about? I thought it'd be about ling xiu business, seeing as you became one a few days ago. You wanna put me up on that offer against Jelly Glasses?"

Wang Canghai threw an eraser with streamlined accuracy towards her face, to which she caught it with two deft fingers.

"What was that fo—"

"Nice reflexes," Wang Canghai observed, peeking at Chen laoshi, who paused before giving him a wry smile at the reference. "Let's be allies. You also want to take down Liang Shen, correct? If that's who you mean by 'Jelly Glasses'."

"Of course!" Zhang Yiling exclaimed, raising a fist with enthusiasm matching that of a child hearing news about Disneyland.

"I'd like to trade information with each other," Wang Canghai proposed, leaning back on his chair. Liu Fengmian, who stood behind him, nodded alongside his words. "Other things preferably as well, such as training. I don't want to be your competitor, but when it comes to it, we'll inevitably have to face off against each other—so I'd understand if you're a bit put off by this offer."

"Sure, sure," Zhang Yiling agreed nonchalantly, shrugging. "I don't even care about the ling xiu system, I'm just doing it because everyone else in class nine sucks. It's just a buncha delinquents I swear!"

Wang Canghai and Liu Fengmian stared at her.

"That's Zhang Yiling for you," Chen laoshi sighed. Then, she threw a workbook at Zhang Yiling, the thin papers bouncing off her thick skull. "And you! You're practically a delinquent as well, your teacher told me all about your escapades!"

"What?! Teachers converse with each other?!"

"....We're not all miserable adults."

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After they exchanged contact information, Wang Canghai and Liu Fengmian ambled over towards the nearly empty bike rack, dappled golden light filtering through the neighboring trees onto the concrete ground. They heard a soft singing nearby, turning their heads to the side to see a tall student stand near the line of trees along the brick wall, obscured by the thinning branches.

"That's some amazing singing," Liu Fengmian couldn't help but utter, and Wang Canghai agreed, hearing the perfect pitch and undulations of the song.

"I know right?" The stranger replied with an exaggerated flourish of his hands.

Immediately, Liu Fengmian looked like he wanted to take back the compliment. Wang Canghai felt an undeterminable itch at the back of his head.

The sky was a mauve purple.

The clouds were green.

Wang Canghai blinked. His vision swam.

The sky was light blue.

The clouds were whitish-gray.

The other student waved in front of their faces, confusion etched on his handsome features. To his side, Liu Fengmian also seemed to snap out of his daze.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying again?" Wang Canghai asked, rubbing his forehead with his left hand, feeling like he'd missed out on something.

The student chuckled, waving his apology off. "It's fine, I was just asking if anything was concerning you two. You looked tired." He began to walk past the both of them.

"Anyway, make sure to get some sleep."

Liu Fengmian shot Wang Canghai a judging look, one eyebrow raised, when the student went out of earshot. "That's Jin Haoyang, right? I don't understand how he's so popular, if he's always that weird."

"Yeah," Wang Canghai agreed. He noticed the itching was gone.

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Jin Haoyang's expression twisted from his usual cordial smile into one of contempt and derision as he faced away from the pair, jaw clenched tight and face scrunched.

"Just as Liang Shen said, huh. Wang Canghai, Liu Fengmian—you two are scum!"

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Wednesday lunch was the club fair, an event both Liu Fengmian and Wang Canghai had been looking forward to. They were joined by Zhang Yiling, who, when prompted about her friends, had nonchalantly grinned and replied, "sometimes I want to hang out with them. Sometimes I want to hang out with others. Is that alright?" Wang Canghai and Liu Fengmian saw nothing wrong with that, turning back to the music club table, who had a student with bleached-white hair and slitted eyebrows leisurely seated behind it. Interestingly enough, he also had black-painted nails and cute hair clips on the left side.

"Are you three interested?" He asked, indicating in front of him, which consisted of a plain sheet of lined paper taped to the bumpy surface and a black pen. "Just put your names and contact information down on here."

"I'll sign up with you," Liu Fengmian excitedly whispered to Wang Canghai, who nodded in reply.

"Are you two joining the basketball team by any chance?" Zhang Yiling asked.

"No. At least, I'm not," Liu Fengmian replied. "Why?"

"Damn, I was hoping to have something in common with you guys! What else are you signing up for?"

Wang Canghai mulled over his options as he scanned the general perimeter around the school's front. "I'm not going to join too many clubs. I suppose I would like to sign up for track as well, and that would be it for me. Zhang Yiling, do you remember what we talked about yesterday?"

"No."

"What."

"I'm kidding, I remember!" Zhang Yiling laughed. "Wasn't it about buying me ice cream?"

"No, that wasn't it—" Wang Canghai deadpanned with a disbelieving expression, before a blue-haired interruption inserted himself into the conversation.

"If you don't mind, could you move somewhere else?" Jin Haoyang asked politely, pointing at the line behind him. "There's a lot of students waiting."

`He must be, what, around 185 cm tall?` Wang Canghai thought, cranking his neck up to answer the other. "We'll be off then. My bad."

Liu Fengmian and Zhang Yiling went to follow Wang Canghai as he turned and began to walk away. In the corner of his eye, he could see a flicker of white innocuously inch out from underneath the table, catching Liu Fengmian's unsuspecting foot and tripping him. Liu Fengmian's face morphed into one of horrific anticipation as he crashed loudly into the calligraphy club's folding table; glimmers of the sun caught on the plastic of the pens as they clattered to the ground in the ensuing cacophony, surprised screams and yelps of students nearby echoing in the gated yard.

"Sorry—" Liu Fengmian began, apologetic, though Wang Canghai cut him off to glare at the student sitting behind the music club's table.

"You. What is your name?"

"I think it's polite to give yours first," the student replied nonchalantly, giving the pair a cheshire grin. "But since you asked so nicely, Kong Weiming."

"Wang Canghai is mine. Liu Fengmian is his—" Wang Canghai pointed to said person, " —You know, the person you tripped just now. I saw your foot."

"Huh? Why're you accusing me all of a sudden?"

"I just explained why," Wang Canghai replied coldly.

Kong Weiming shrugged. Wang Canghai felt irritation rise in his chest, a familiar impulsive tug in his limb to do anything about the current situation. He refrained. It was enough of a scene when Liu Fengmian tripped, but if the attention shifted to him interrogating Kong Weiming, he might cast an unfavorable light as an aggressor to a poor, innocent bystander.

Still. He needed answers. He'd never met this guy in his entire life. "Don't try and tell me I'm wrong. I saw you clearly put your foot out to trip my friend. Tell me why. Now."

"I dunno," Kong Weiming started, placing a finger on his chin. "If you ask nicely and say 'please', I might consider."

A vein popped in Wang Canghai's forehead. He had to clench his hands into a fist to avoid lashing out. "Y—"

He felt a warm palm encapsulate the back of his head before a harsh push jammed his face straight into the hard table, though he only felt the pain dully because of the adrenaline running through his veins and the anger that roared like crashing waves in his ears.

"Oh! My bad!" was Jin Haoyang's ensuing exclamation. "Sorry, I tripped!"

"Are you okay?" A girl on the sidelines asked with a worried expression.

"Shouldn't you be asking the other guy that?" Another girl voiced out.

"Jin Haoyang, you're so clumsy!"

Jin Haoyang was surrounded by the boys and girls that admired him, his charismatic smile and perfect, white teeth only accentuating his affability. Liu Fengmian was standing up, apologizing for the disturbance as he helped re-setup the calligraphy club's table. Wang Canghai gritted his teeth, covering up his bleeding nose. This was the second time he had one in the span of a week.

"That was such an unlucky trip!" Zhang Yiling exclaimed, peering at the blood. Then, she glanced around, patting her pockets. "I don't have any tissues though."

"I'm fine," Wang Canghai muttered, covering up his bloodied nose with one hand. He proceeded to take a step towards the opening in the encirclement around Jin Haoyang, before letting himself fall and slamming a fist into his cheek.

Jin Haoyang fell back, screeching. "Hey! That's my beautiful face you're ruining!"

"Sorry," Wang Canghai sneered. "I tripped."

"What is going on here?" One of the teachers called out, stomping his way over into the messy scene. His glasses flashed with his balding head as he looked around at the broken poster paper, the blood that dripped from between Wang Canghai's fingers, and the crowd that formed around the two main belligerents. "Jin Haoyang, what is the reason for this?!"

`He's asking that guy?` Wang Canghai noticed, incredulous.

"Sorry for the disturbance laoshi," Jin Haoyang apologized smoothly, tilting his head down slightly. "I was lining up for the music club when I heard a commotion, which turned out to be that student," he pointed to Liu Fengmian, "tripping into a table. I then noticed he," he pointed to Wang Canghai, "was harassing my friend, so I had to stop him. Sorry again for my impulsive behavior, it was my fault."

Wang Canghai knew what he was trying to do. "Laoshi, this is just a misunderstanding. It is the other way around; his friend tripped mine, and I was checking up on the situation." He glanced at Jin Haoyang almost smugly.

"I'm sorry if it seemed like I was harassing him. I was simply asking him about what he did."

The teacher's back still stood ramrod straight, eyes taking into assessment the scene and their injuries. Then, he sighed. "Jin Haoyang, help clean up that table." His gaze sharpened when they fell to Wang Canghai.

"You. Meet me in the office."

Jin Haoyang flashed him a quick smirk when the teacher turned his back towards the main building, and to Wang Canghai's peripherals, he could practically see Liu Fengmian's anger radiating from his body.

`I'm the one that has a bloody nose, clearly, and he's the one that gets away?` Wang Canghai thought angrily.

"Who did you think they were going to believe?" Jin Haoyang whispered, dipping down to place a gentle hand on Wang Canghai's shoulder, who violently shrugged him off. "You, with multiple stains on your reputation, or me, the beloved school's most handsome talented popular idol?"

`This guy…` Wang Canghai thought, eyes darkening.

"I wonder how popular you'll be if the school knows about your true behavior," he whispers out loud back, almost threatening, before turning around to plod dismally after the teacher.