Chapter 146

Chapter 146

I had to admit, Xu Jiren far surpassed his father, Xu Xinyi, both in his gift for business and in his keen grasp of current affairs!

After the Xu family became major grain merchants throughout Fubei County, he began supporting a number of influential figures without asking for anything in return.

He spread his bets around, cultivating good relations with every faction without openly taking any side.

As a result, the family somehow emerged unscathed from an age of unprecedented upheaval and chaos. Even after the founding of the People’s Republic, the Xu family still enjoyed considerable prestige in both Lianghe Town and Fubei County…

Perhaps because the Xus knew their family’s class background was complicated, however, they kept an extremely low profile after the founding of the new nation.

For reasons of his own, Xu Jiren had emigrated to the United States at the end of 1948. Control of the Xu family later passed to Xu Xinyi’s second son–Xu Jiren’s younger brother, Xu Jiye.

In the early 1950s, Xu Jiye voluntarily turned over a great deal of the family’s property, fields, and houses to the state. He retained only the Xu family’s ancestral home and enough grain for their own needs.

He declared that from then on, every member of the Xu family would support themselves through honest labor and become ordinary working people again!

That decision also enabled them to weather the great storms of the 1960s and ’70s without incident…

Only after reform and opening up did the Xu family’s descendants begin to rise again. Some went to college, while others went into business.

The children of Xu Xinyi’s youngest daughter, Xu Jiyuan, later moved to the United States one after another. With help from their eldest uncle, Xu Jiren, who was already firmly established there, they did quite well for themselves.

They brought Xu Jiyuan over at the end of the 1980s.

Xu Jiye had no wish to leave his homeland, so he stayed behind and continued living with his wife in the Xu family’s ancestral home west of Lianghe Town.

Then, seven or eight years ago, Xu Jiye’s eldest son, who did business in Shanghai, finally persuaded the elderly couple to move there with him.

The Xu family’s ancestral home was then practically given away for a token price to a branch of distant relatives–the present owner…

After listening to the owner tell the Xu family’s story, I couldn’t help feeling deeply moved.

“Every person in this world can live an extraordinarily eventful life. Xu Xinyi was merely the protagonist of a strange tale from the Republican era that I happened across in the Fubei County Gazetteer. Who would have thought that he and his descendants would each give rise to so many complicated stories of their own…?”

It was true!

I had no idea what Xu Xinyi’s three children had actually experienced over the course of their lives, but the present owner’s account alone offered a glimpse of the mighty tides of history they had lived through!

After repeatedly thanking him, Old Cao and I left.

Our visit to the Xu family’s ancestral home hadn’t yielded any more useful information about Xiaowan Village’s living corpse or that mysterious black plant.

But the Xu family’s story had given me a new perspective on life…

I, Wu Zhong, would overcome the three life tribulations I had been destined to face since birth–and live a brilliant life that belonged to me alone! I would never surrender or bow my head to fate.

I silently made that vow to myself.

In truth, taking the initiative to find a master and learn the esoteric arts had already been my first step toward defying Heaven and changing my fate!

…

Those peaceful, stable days continued until just before the New Year’s Day holiday.

By then, it was already the depths of winter.

Winters in Sichuan and Chongqing were a damp, overcast kind of cold.

The temperature didn’t look particularly low. It was even several degrees above freezing!

But the endless drizzle and relentless gusts of frigid wind always made you want to crawl under the covers, wrap yourself into a ball, and never come out!

To put it in the language of an Internet meme from years later: the cold in the north dealt physical damage, while the cold in the south dealt magic damage!

Of course, although Internet cafés had already begun appearing in our little town by the late 1990s, they were extremely expensive and not many people went… I certainly had never visited one.

During the week or two before New Year’s Day, a cheerful mood filled the entire school. The pressure of our studies also eased a little, and even our homework decreased.

That was because every class had students rehearsing acts for the New Year’s gala, an event the school took fairly seriously.

There were fifteen classes across all three grades, and each class had to put on two acts.

That meant a certain group of people had a perfectly legitimate excuse to skip evening study and the “minor subjects” that weren’t tested on the high school entrance exam–music and art, for example–and find somewhere else to rehearse.

Needless to say, Wang Dachun was definitely one of them!

He rounded up his gang of followers and announced that they were rehearsing something called “breakdancing.” He also said it was performed by some incredibly popular foreigner named Michael Jackson…

In addition, as the class arts representative, Yao Nan planned to perform a solo. Several of her girlfriends would dance backup for her.

Thus, during some of our minor classes and evening study periods, the desk beside mine and the one behind it–four seats in all–held no one but me. It felt a little empty.

At first, I thought it was pretty nice and quiet.

I could do my homework, review, and preview lessons on my own without any distractions…

But as time passed, I discovered that it was actually rather boring!

Especially without Wang Dachun around.

During evening study, whenever no teacher was supervising, the guy’s mouth never stopped running. He would yap and yap without pause.

Even if Yao Nan and I ignored him, he could still chatter away at our backs, telling one funny story after another. When he finally annoyed us, either one of us could turn and glare at him, and he would behave himself for a little while.

But it never took long before that mouth started yapping again…

He was like a fly circling endlessly beside your ear.

Believe it or not, once the fly’s buzzing disappeared from evening study, I actually found myself missing it!

And whenever Yao Nan sat beside me, her clothes and her body always carried a faint, pleasant fragrance.

Now that I couldn’t smell it, I found that a little strange too.

As for Zeng Jin, his main role was to play the straight man for Wang Dachun’s jokes…

I set down my pen and sighed.

Looks like I really do think of those three as friends. I’ve gotten used to having them around me at school, and now that they’re gone, I actually feel uncomfortable. Maybe I should find an excuse to go watch them rehearse?

I muttered silently to myself.
Nearly a full semester had passed, and I had adapted to the pace of middle school. After placing first in the grade on three consecutive monthly exams, I was no longer as anxious as I had been at the beginning.

In any case, missing a few evening study periods wasn’t going to knock me out of first place.

Once I made up my mind and saw that no teacher was supervising us, I slipped out…

I wasn’t even worried about being caught!

Good students always get special privileges, don’t they? I’ve placed first in the grade every time. Even if a teacher catches me cutting class, they won’t be too hard on me–especially when it’s only evening study, right? Heh heh heh!

It wasn’t as if I were some rigid little bookworm.

Our school was the largest and best middle school serving the several towns west of Fubei County, so even back then, it had its own auditorium for evening performances. It had been converted from a large factory building and was rather crude, but it was still pretty good.

Unlike auditoriums in big cities–or the ones today–it didn’t have fixed seating. It was basically one enormous empty floor. Whenever there was a show, each student had to carry over a stool from their classroom to sit on.

As a result, the place was normally extremely spacious.

Students rehearsing acts from the different classes would each claim a small patch of the auditorium for themselves.

After I walked in, I quickly spotted the area occupied by my class.

Wang Dachun had Zeng Jin and several other followers dancing with him while music played from a cassette recorder. Their whole bodies twitched as if they were having seizures… Strangely enough, though, their backward footwork used some kind of visual trick that made them look as if they were gliding!

I nodded. “This breakdancing stuff is kind of interesting. That move almost resembles a glamour spell, doesn’t it?”

Wang Dachun finished a sequence, reached down to grab his crotch, and thrust his hips forward several times.

Me: “…”

What kind of move was that? Was he sure the school leaders and our homeroom teacher wouldn’t chew him out when they saw it?

He turned his head, spotted me, and came running over happily with Zeng Jin.

“Boss! What are you doing here? You skipped evening study too? Now that’s rare. Did you miss Yao Nan and me so much that you had to come see us?”

“Get lost!”

I gave him an irritated kick.

Still grinning cheekily, he asked, “Boss, how did we look? Was it good? Weren’t the moonwalk and hip thrusts cool?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know whether they’re cool. But when you do that move onstage in front of more than a thousand students… I’m sure the school administrators and Mr. Chen will make some fascinating faces.”

“Pfft. Who cares about those old fossils? This is fashion. It’s the latest trend. They wouldn’t understand!”

Wang Dachun looked immensely proud of himself.

He was the sort who refused to turn back until he ran headfirst into a wall.

Perhaps that made him somewhat like me. Maybe that was why I had ultimately forgiven his rudeness when we first met and gradually accepted him.

At that moment, a gentle, melodious voice drifted over from nearby.

Someone was singing without accompaniment.

“Tomorrow, will you still recall
the diary you wrote yesterday?

“Tomorrow, will you still think of
the girl who used to cry so easily?

“The teachers have all forgotten
how you never could answer a question.

“Only when I happened across an old photograph
did I remember you, my deskmate…”

Wang Dachun and I turned our heads and saw Yao Nan singing with heartfelt emotion.

She was already quite pretty. Now, immersed in the song, her gaze distant and her voice ethereal, she easily drew her listeners into the wistful melancholy of youth.

I knew the song too. It was called “My Deskmate.”

It was very popular among young people.

Our school radio station would also play it during the break between the end of morning classes and the afternoon rest period.

Wang Dachun immediately bumped my shoulder lightly with his own. Waggling his eyebrows, he said in a sleazy voice, “Whoa! Listen to that, Boss–‘my deskmate,’ huh? And who is Yao Nan’s deskmate? You are! Tsk, tsk… Sis-in-law’s got guts, all right. Isn’t this basically her confessing her love to you in front of the whole school?”

“Screw you!”

I raised my leg and kicked Wang Dachun in the butt.

This time, I put some force into it.

With a miserable yelp, he clutched his backside and went flying. If Zeng Jin hadn’t caught him, he would have hit the floor.

“Ow! Boss, you didn’t have to hit–no, kick–so hard, did you? You practically kicked hemorrhoids out of me!”

I glared at him irritably.

“If you can still run that smart mouth, you’re obviously fine. ‘My Deskmate’ is just a popular song that sounds good. The school radio plays it, and lots of people sing it. Does that mean they’re all confessing their love? You haven’t even finished growing up, yet your head’s already full of this nonsense every day.”

I didn’t believe Yao Nan liked me.

After all, a girl like her, from a good family and blessed with both excellent grades and pretty looks, was bound to have high standards.

Why would she ever be interested in me?

Uh… Besides, I only thought of her as a good friend. I didn’t have any other ideas about her.

Even though I knew some people in our class had been spreading rumors.

An upright person had no reason to fear a crooked shadow!

But honestly, Yao Nan’s rendition of “My Deskmate” really did sound wonderful. Somehow, it had even more feeling than the version on the cassette played over the school radio.

When she finished, everyone nearby applauded.

Some students from other classes even joked that the first prize for vocal performances was sure to go to Class Three of the seventh grade this year.

Their praise made Yao Nan a little embarrassed. She walked over to a table at the side, picked up her thermos, and took several small sips of water.

When she finished drinking, she noticed me too and seemed a little surprised.

She walked over and asked, “Wu Zhong, why aren’t you at evening study? Or are you planning to join Wang Dachun’s dance act too?”

I smiled and shook my head.

“I’m pretty good at martial arts, but when it comes to the dancing arts, I’m hopeless! The classroom felt a little stuffy, so I came out for a walk. It’s a chance to relax too. Anyway, the top student in the grade deserves a few privileges, doesn’t he?”

“Hmph!”

Yao Nan pursed her lips and pretended to be angry.

“Go on, keep getting cocky! Just watch yourself at the final exams. Don’t let me pass you. I… uh, uh… cough, cough… ngh, ngh…”

Halfway through speaking, Yao Nan suddenly became unable to form a complete sentence.

It was as if something had lodged in her throat. A string of strange noises came out, but she couldn’t shape them into intelligible words!

The expression on her face instantly turned utterly terrified.