Through The Strait Gates Chapter 7
Xu Xilin didn't give a f.u.c.k about who Wu Tao held a grudge with, but if Wu Tao was using his name, it really wasn't that pleasant.
It was Xu Xilin's turn to be the cla.s.s helper on Monday morning. He brought a bag of fruits and another bag of snacks and shared it with all the other helpers, using "my alarm clock didn't ring this morning" as an excuse, and apologized jokingly, a large smile on his face. He humored everyone, causing everyone to not badger over the fact that he was slacking off.
After the job was done, he opened the English textbook absent-mindedly, randomly choosing a page and joining the buzzing chant. At the same time, he was calculating what Wu Tao and the other was planning to do--because this Dou Xun had a same quality as the broadleaf bracket-plant hanging on the window at the back of the cla.s.sroom. His feet seemed to be permanently rooted to the cla.s.sroom's ground, and wouldn't budge easily.
And plus, no matter if it was Li Buozhi or Wu Tao, these little "gangsters" were afraid of those stronger than them, and would only be brave enough to push around those weaker than them. They wouldn't dare to bully Qilixiang's darling right in her face where everyone could see.
Thinking, Xu Xilin turned back to sneaked a peek at Dou Xun--what he didn't expect that he was noticed by the sensitive Dou Xun! Before Xu Xilin could be awkward, Dou Xun shot a poisonous glare at him.
"f.u.c.k," Xu Xilin, attacked by no reason, turned back, fuming, "Who cares if he's alive or dead."
Xu Xilin quickly forgot all about Dou Xun. His entire mind was occupied by the afternoon's PE cla.s.ses--only Monday and Friday afternoons had PE cla.s.s(only one), and the Friday afternoon one was usually taken away by other teachers for other uses--which made the Monday one extra precious.
During breaktime, Xu Xilin went to the school team thrice to finally stop the coach in his way, running so much that he felt that his legs had thinned. He shamelessly booked a court, but who knew that when he left the cla.s.sroom in the second break, he horrifyingly saw Qilixiang go downstairs with a lesson plan in her hand, ready to forcibly take the PE cla.s.s for her own use against morality!
Xu Xilin immediately went back the way he took, and dashed into the cla.s.sroom, "Luo Bing! Luo Bing!"
Luo Bing had her face buried in chemistry homework, guessing out the answer from a few tiny bottles. She was halfway through writing a chemical formula, but then was freaked out by Xu Xilin.
"Qilixiang's down from the mountains," Xu Xilin propped one hand on her desk, "The people need your protection, cla.s.s president, it's time for you to show your responsibility as a member of the cla.s.s committee...Jeez, sis, why do you have to conspire in a time like this, what if this can't be wiped off?"
Luo Bing's deskmate, a girl, subtly took out a small bottle of nail polish while he was talking. She painted a tiny pink heart on his thumb on Luo Bing's desk, and looked up at him with a smile.
"Hehe, just testing out the color."
Xu Xilin didn't have time to lower himself to the same level as the likes of her, as he could already feel the "mosquito coil" smell on Qilixiang in the air. "C'mon, fast, we're all relying on you two!"
The moment Qilixiang stepped foot into the cla.s.sroom, she was instantly surrounded by a group of hardworking students lead by Luo Bing. They each had one physics workbook in hand, and automatically lined up into a queue for their questions to be answered.
In free study periods, it was usual for math and physics teachers to have such treatment when they enter the room. They were basically already used to these fan meeting-like sort of treatment, so Qilixiang didn't take notice of it. After she finished answering a mountain of homework questions, she looked up and realized something--more than half of the cla.s.s had already left!
Facing the teacher's confusion, Luo Bing answered innocently, "Aren't they just at PE cla.s.s?"
Qilixiang: "......"
Calling up friends and occupying an entire court, Xu Xilin was in a pretty good mood--if he ignored the fact that everyone who saw him asked, "Tuanzuo, what is that on your nail?"
Just outside the stadium, he saw Wu Tao talking with Li Buozhi, them even exchanging cigarettes like spies meeting up.
Xu Xilin was holding a basketball, and had another one he dug from the equipment room for back up. He tapped on Wu Tao's back with one, and nodded to Li Buozhi as a gesture, "We've enough people today, wanna play full-court?"
Wu Tao looked at him and shook his head, "You go ahead with the other guys, I have stuff to do today."
Confusion swarmed into Xu Xilin's mind. They finally s.n.a.t.c.hed this precious period of PE from under Qilixiang's eyelids, but he just refused like this? It was normal if it was someone since exams were close, and people needed to study, but Wu Tao was always the one in the lead! How is this different from a food lover not eating the delicacies fed to him, or a pervert pushing aside a willing, gorgeous girl?
"Oh, okay." Xu Xilin walked forward a few steps, dribbling the ball. Debating in his mind about what felt wrong, he took the ball in his hands, and glanced back at Wu Tao.
Coincidentally, Wu Tao was also sneaking peeks at him, and then their gazes met. Wu Tao's eyes hid away, as if he was guilty of something.
Something was very, very wrong.
Xu Xilin contemplated the issue all the way to the basketball court. Then he suddenly remembered that when he sprinted out of his seat, Dou
Xun wasn't on his. Lao Cheng, who came in a hurry, tossed his jacket onto the basketball stand and ran over loudly, "I only have half of the cla.s.s free, this term's math "yellow leaflet" answer isn't finished yet."
Xu Xilin tossed a ball to him. "You guys start first, my...my stomach hurts."
"What?" Lao Cheng caught the ball in his hands, confused. "Is that a demon sealed in your nail? And why do you need a basketball to accompany you in the bathroom, to make it easier to p.o.o.p? Hey!"
Xu Xilin ignored him, and strode away.
He went back the way he came by the court, seeing Wu Tao and Li Buozhi leading a few people towards the 2nd Educational Building from a far distance.
The 2nd Educational Building was a general activities center. The first floor was the music hall, the second floor the art room, and the third floor was the basically permanently locked up generator room. Based on the course contents, it could be seen that the entire building was merely a decoration. Almost no one ever went there.
Xu Xilin was often late, and every time he was late, he had to flip over walls and fences and all sorts of stuff like that, and also climb through tiny lanes in between buildings. He probably could compete with the weasels and wild cats living here on who was more familiar with the derelict corners of the school.
Right across the 2nd Educational Building, there was the tenth grade multimedia building with a person-wide teeny lane on its side. Xu Xilin weaved into it experiencedly, and saw a twig-thin tiny boy pacing in front of the 2nd Educational Building's entrance nervously.
Before he could recall who this boy was, he saw Wu Tao and the group of people walk over, and the boy froze into a human stick, standing there transfixed to the ground. Somehow, his expression p.i.s.sed off Li Buozhi. Without a second word, he stepped forward and kicked hard on the boy's stomach.
The boy directly fell backwards onto the stairs on his b.u.t.t, and curled up into a ball, protecting his stomach.
The first reaction Xu Xilin had was one of shock. He instinctively stepped forward one step--but only one.
He didn't know the one being beaten up, but he did know the one that was beating people up. He didn't know what grudge was this between boarding students, but he knew to help those closer to him instead of following morality--so he chose to stand by silently and do nothing about it.
Beneath the 2nd Educational Building, Wu Tao pulled Li Buozhi back. He looked around, and then prodded at the boy with the tip of his foot, bending down to ask, "Did you see him to upstairs?"
The beaten boy nodded, trembling. He stretched out a pale hand, and pointed upstairs.
What was upstairs? A frowning Xu Xilin too far from them to hear looked up along the direction he pointed.
Wu Tao shot a glance at Li Buozhi, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and walked first into the 2nd Educational Building. His lackeys followed him into the building, all hitting the boy at the door at least once when they went into it, a punch, or a kick—as if they were pa.s.sing up their entrance tickets.
Li Buozhi, who brought up the rear, dug out something from his pockets. With a swing of his arm, he hit the boy right in the face with it. They boy let out a whimper and bent down, covering his face.
The weapon dropped to the ground—a bra.s.s key.
Li Buozhi laughed lopsidedly.
"You can sleep in the room tonight. Know what to do next time now? Don't make us teach you again."
The boy clutched at his face, unable to speak.
Dou Xun was smoking outside an isolated restroom in the 2nd Educational Building.
In the educational building they usually had cla.s.s in, a teacher found cigarette soot in the bin in a students' restroom, so the teacher persuaded the school to install smoke detectors in the educational building just to catch smoking male students. Being a newcomer, and one that had exceptionally terrible relationships with the other students, Dou Xun was not informed of it by anyone. He came close to being caught several times, but managed to slip away by dashing like h.e.l.l.
After a few tries, he discovered that the only broken smoke detector was in this restroom in the 2nd Educational Building. As almost no one ever came here, it was never fixed. He could let the clouds of smoke snake anywhere they wanted.
Finishing the routine refreshment, Dou Xun washed his hands, and stuffed a piece of gum in his mouth. Just as he was going to return to the cla.s.s, he suddenly saw Wu Tao and his lackeys reflected in the mirror, coming inside.
Dou Xun put his hands into his pockets, and turned the MP3 off. He slowly spun around, looking at Wu Tao, who was in the lead, right in the eye. He did not speak a single word.
His eyes were direct and sharp, giving him a dangerous temperament. A complete different one from the weak thing downstairs. For a split second, Wu Tao hesitated.
Fortunately, Li Buozhi spoke suddenly: "This is the boy?"
His words, once spoken, acted like a signal. The gang fanned out and locked the door, blocking Dou Xun in the middle.
Following his words, Wu Tao shot a glance over his shoulders. His gang was there, and it, in turn, boosted his confidence. "Yes, him."
Unmoving, Dou Xun smiled coldly.
"Do you know what we're here for today?" To show that he wasn't stirring up trouble for no reason, Wu Tao opened his mouth to list Dou Xun's crimes for him. "You punched my brother for free?"
Dou Xun opened his expensive mouth, and answered bluntly. "Not for free, how much do you pay?"
Wu Tao: "......"
As Dou Xun only showed his silent side to people before, Wu Tao did not expect for him to have such a sarcastic and tart side. He was at a loss of words--he failed to think of a response that could make him seem more imposing.
"So c.o.c.ky, huh, which *wild-chicken school are you from? Covered in chicken feathers, haven't you learned manners?" Li Buozhi narrowed his eyes. "Let's teach him a lesson."
*wild-chicken school: a "bad"/lower/lesser school
"Maybe I'll fail to learn it," Dou Xun said with a blank expression, "It would be better if you could teach how to bark."
Just as he finished his sentence, the guy farthest in the corner had pounced on him, yelling, "You motherf.u.c.ker!"
The guy grabbed the mop in the corner, and smashed it right in Dou Xun's head's direction. Dou Xun raised his arm to block the blow, taking the blow on it. He backhandedly grabbed the mop, grabbing the guy's short hair while he was busy trying to wrestle the mop over.
To be able to handsomely beat up a whole group of people in a group fight was impossible unless you were at the level of a master character in a Wuxia novel or special armed police. Of course, Dou Xun wasn't at that level, but he undoubtedly was experienced at group fights--he clutched the mop guy's hair in one hand, and retreated to a corner, a relatively narrow place so that he wouldn't be facing enemies from both sides. Then he tightened his muscles, taking the blows, concentrating on punching the one clutched in his hands. Beating him into death.
No techniques were involved in high school fights whatsoever. Who was ruthless and unafraid, who won.
Who was the first to be scared and became the first coward, who was d.a.m.ned.
The mop boy's scalp was teared out a layer of hair with b.l.o.o.d.y roots by Dou Xun, so painful he was close to tearing. Plus, Dou Xun played dirty, and hit any place that was soft and fragile. The restroom that almost no one ever came was instantly filled with howls of pain.
"Grab him! Don't just stay there!" Li Buozhi shouted, blue veins popping up on his forehead. Dou Xun kicked a bin in the corner with one foot, and a full basket of used tissue paper rolled out of the flipped bin, clinging one by one unto to Li Buozhi's white shoes.
"f.u.c.k you!"
Li Buozhi angrily picked up the mop thrown aside a moment ago, and separated the rag and the wooden pole with one stomp. Then he immediately swiped down on Dou Xun with the stick, Dou Xun blocking the blow with one hand and it sliding off of his elbow. It brushed through his scalp. A buzz went through Do Xun's scalp, and he released his clutch involuntarily.
Having taken a hit, Dou Xun's anger immediately rose, thinking, "I'm going to kill him!"
Then he couldn't care about any group fight "principles", and pounced, ready to fight Li Buozhi to the death.
The unlucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d that was just beaten up a minute ago was dropped on the ground, his voice close to crying, "Beat him up! Beat him up!"
Wu Tao's mind snapped back to the moment immediately, directing his lackeys to restrain Dou Xun.
Right at the moment, the latched door was kicked by someone from the outside. A single one didn't kick the door open, so a second one followed.
The latch was a tiny thin piece of metal, the screws already rusty. It gave up after two or three violent kicks--the door gaped wide open, and an old basketball rolled in.
Xu Xilin stood at the open door, his expression dark. He ignored everyone else, and only spoke to Wu Tao, "Is what you're doing right now decent, Wu Tao?"
Notes:
oh great I'm basically doing updates