Through The Strait Gates Chapter 8
8: d.a.m.ned Entanglement
Wu Tao, using someone's else's name to act, was caught in the middle of it by that someone. He was embarra.s.sed, unable to speak, his tongue frozen in awkward silence.
The air in the restroom froze, too. The few people that just hit somebody stared at each other, none of them uttering a word. Wu Tao waved his hands, gesturing for them to stay put. He walked forward alone, and slung an arm on Xu Xilin's shoulder, speaking in a humble, low voice, "Let's talk about this outside."
Xu Xilin crossed his arms and refused. "No need for that. We can settle this here."
"Dude, this was for you, don't you think that you're acting inappropriately?" Li Buozhi b.u.t.ted in from behind.
"My nostrils aren't wide open, do I look like I need you to help me *let out air?" Xu Xilin arched his brows and looked at him, "Was I talking to you?"
*let out air: payback
Li Buozhi was not expecting him to be so brutal, and immediately flipped his lid. He almost changed the target of his anger immediately, but was held back by people beside him.
If they actually escalated this into a fight in the spot, they did have an advantage in numbers, and Xu Xilin was alone—it was clear that Xu Xilin wasn't on the same boat with him yet. Who was more likely to win was evident.
But everyone wasn't planning on having a fight, because although it would be severely satisfying to have a full-on fight, how would they take care of things after?
Xu Xilin wasn't some pathetic little s.h.i.t everyone disdained. Once he was back in cla.s.s, a few words would bring all the boys, who made up half the cla.s.s, on his side. Li Buozhi might not care, but Wu Tao still had to stay in Cla.s.s 1.
Xu Xilin told Wu Tao, "Anyways, you take care of this yourself."
Wu Tao marched in the same spot for a while, the color of his face switching between vibrant reds and green, and then did do as Xu Xilin said.
He turned back and gestured at Li Buozhi and the others, "Let's go."
Li Buozhi's neck stiffened. "You......"
Wu Tao raised his voice. "We'll talk about this afterwards! We have to leave!"
Breathing out roughly several times, Li Buozhi glared viciously at Dou Xun. Then he walked away with his also reluctant companions.
There was only a Dou Xun left in the restroom staring at Xu Xilin, who had just broke into the restroom, his expression indefinite. Xu Xilin bent down to pick up the basketball, and glanced at him, thinking, "Deserves it, he lacks a good beating in his *elements."
*elements: In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be cla.s.sified into the Wu Xing, or the Five Elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. In this case, it means the Five Elements in the human makeup.
Then he dribbled away without a word.
Because of this accident, playing basketball was out of the equation. Xu Xilin dug around in his pockets, and felt the 500 dollars his mom just gave him. Xu Xilin, who had just gained a new amount of pocket money, turned around and headed to the school's grocery. He bought a bag of iced drinks and brought them to the court, distributing them to the people in them. Afterwards, he saved one for Tsai Jing--Tsai Jing never hang out with them on Monday's PE cla.s.s. He had a night shift on Mondays, and had to utilize the time for homework.
Dou Xun had already returned to the cla.s.sroom earlier on--the wooden stick had left a bruise on his arm, and it throbbed every time he moved it.
After the bell rang, he saw Xu Xilin and the gang come back, causing a ruckus on the way. They encountered Qilixiang face to face right when they came in, and were all reprimanded by her--she didn't directly point out anyone--immediately, "You're about to be twelfth grade students, but some of you don't know to be more hardworking, more honest, and realize the situation you are in right now! All you know is to fool around! Does basketball help you out? Does practice make you into Jordan......"
The sweaty group of people sneaked back into their own seats silently, taking our their books for show, and started to "work hard".
The heater in the cla.s.sroom was still on, so Xu Xilin also took his jacket off and hung it on the back of his chair. He had only a short-sleeved polo shirt on the inside, and from Dou Xun's angle, he could see the two marks stretched out by a pair of shoulder blades.
"Xu Xilin's home must have a woman that care about him very much," Dou Xun thought. "Maybe it's his mom, or a grandmother. His clothing usually seems casual, but when he wears it outside, he's the shining one. It makes him seem chic and temperament......as long as he doesn't roll a layer of smelly sweat and mud on him on the courts, or squirm around in his seat like a huge monkey."
Dou Xun watched him being alone in his seat, spinning a pen sometimes or scratching his hair. Sometimes he filled in all the round alphabets in his English books with a black pen, and sometimes he carved a carrot on his eraser with a paper cutter......
In conclusion, although Mr. Xu's spirit was still playing around, his body was already trapped within the wooden desk and chair. He was afraid to make too much ruckus under Qilixiang's surveillance, and was also afraid to interrupt the fiercely working Tsai Jing, so he had to fool around alone. He had already spent more than ten minutes to cool down completely when he finally used the tiny rest of the self-study period to do math homework.
Dou Xun glanced down at his watch, and realized that he had watched Xu Xilin's homework "foreplay" from the start to the end, so sure of the details that he was almost to the point where he could write an observation report on the spot.
"Am I too bored?" Dou Xun thought, and looked down, quickly scanning over the paper Qilixiang just pa.s.sed out. He found out that it was all questions he had seen before, and folded it and tossed it aside, uninterested. Then he glanced at Xu Xilin again, seeing the green heart on Xu Tuanzuo, the one on his thumb that he had failed to sc.r.a.pe off for half the day.
"That's a weird interest." Dou Xun thought.
Dou Xun spent half of his mind on the homework he was working on, and spent the other half on what just happened in the bathroom--he didn't know why Xu Xilin burst inside to stop Wu Tao and the others, but looking only from the outcome, Dou Xun realized that he might've just owed Xu Xilin a favor.
He was always more than enough skilled when it came to confronting malice, but he wasn't good at handling "kindness".
Dou Xun pondered over it for an entire self-study period, and decided to talk to Xu Xilin after cla.s.s. Not too friendly, just to show that he'd remembered what happened to day, and he'll help back next time.
But after cla.s.s, right when Dou Xun was still slowly weaving his words, he saw Xu Xilin, who had stayed to be the helper of the day, put on his jacket, stop Wu Tao at the door.
"I spoke too harshly a while ago," Xu Xilin clapped Wu Tao's back, "I hope you didn't mind that."
A period of time more than an hour was enough for Wu Tao to get out of his furious mindset and think how he should end this well. As Xu Xilin had offered an olive branch first, Wu Tao took it naturally. "Nah, I didn't."
"We're close to being in twelfth grade," Xu Xilin said, "I'd rather have a thing less than one more, I hope you understand that."
Wu Tao nodded wordlessly. "It's our cla.s.s's turn to carry the flag in next week's flag ceremony, want me to count you in?"
"Um, sure," Xu Xilin replied.
And they put an end to the PE cla.s.s incident on friendly terms.
Dou Xun, watching them get on good terms again in a few sentences, hardened his expression. He tossed the words he had prepared for a whole cla.s.s at the back of his mind, turning around and leaving.
Finishing his helper's job while fooling around, Xu Xilin originally wanted to hangout at the McDonald's Tsai Jing worked at to kill time, but what he didn't expect was that the empress dowager called him to inform that Zhu Xiaocheng was taking her kid over tonight, and that he was to immediately return home to welcome the guests. So he had to say goodbye to his pack of friends, having to get home extra early.
Since there were guests coming over for dinner, Ms. Du had started busying around early in the kitchen, and Dou-dou was locked in the bas.e.m.e.nt beforehand.
Xu Xilin went to the bas.e.m.e.nt just for the sake of making faces at the chained up Dou-dou, jumping around. He p.i.s.sed of Dou-dou so much that it began to howl, it wishing that it could sharpen its teeth and taste some blood.
"Mom, wasn't Chengzi doing well reading her prayers in America? Why did she decide to come back for a divorce all of a sudden?"
Xu Jin was helping Ms. Du peel potatoes in the kitchen a while ago, but she was too clumsy, the potatoes rolling around and falling onto the ground. So she was kicked out of the kitchen, and had to hang out with her slacking son. She answered bluntly, "Oh, her nouveau riche has taken a liking to a foxy b.i.t.c.h, and it's gotten out of control. He's desperate to give her a t.i.tle, and needs her to give up her throne for a better one on it. That G.o.dmother of yours read quite a few years of prayers and she sees everything as "void" now. She says that she's long saw past the material world, and she has no attachments to that man whatsoever. This time she's back home just to fight, and she wants that man to leave the money and f.u.c.k off."
"Wow, she really is past the material world." Xu Xilin lamented.
"She really is." Xu Jin said. "Hey, look, the dog's ticked off so easily it's actually pretty fun, you annoy it some more."
The mother and son sat one in front of the other on the bas.e.m.e.nt's steps, playing with the dog. In Dou-dou's embarra.s.sed to death howls, Xu Xilin asked, "Who will their kid stay with, then?"
"Usually it's with the mother, but considering what Zhu XIaocheng is like......it's hard to say--but I've heard that his dad isn't much better either." Xu Jin replied.
Based on Zhu Xiaocheng's sobs and whines in the phone, Xu Jin got ahold of the basics of what was going on.
So, what happened was that as Zhu Xiaocheng refused to return home, their upstart found it hard to screw around dragging a kid, so he tossed the kid back for his parents back in his hometown to raise. Then Grandpa and Grandma pa.s.sed away consecutively, and the upstart never considered taking the kid back to take care of him, leaving him back in a boarding school back in his hometown. A gift was given to the teacher every year, the kid was transferred a decent amount of money every month, and he considered his responsibility as father done.
Up to this time, when they were going for a divorce, was the forgotten child remembered simultaneously.
The upstart wanted to use the kid as an attack, to accuse Zhu Xiaocheng of not fulfilling her duties as mother and wife; Zhu Xiaocheng also wanted the kid, but as leverage to sc.r.a.pe another hefty layer of fat off the upstart.
The two of them, both with their own plots, somehow "clicked with each other", taking their forgotten only child back from the country.
From this perspective, these two were really an absurd pair made in the heavens.
Xu Jing slapped Xu Xilin in the back, expressionless, "Ugh, it's going to be so annoying, one b.a.s.t.a.r.d like you isn't enough, but there's going to be one more."
Xu Jin didn't like adolescents all that much. She could barely manage to tolerate one that was born from her, yet Zhu Xiaocheng had to stuff another extra one in her care.
"Then why did you agree?" Xu XIlin retorted.
"I never agreed to anything!" Xu Jin complained, lowering her voice. "It's all your grandma, she blurted a 'yes' too fast, Zhu Chengzi cries and she complies to anything. Don't know whose mother she actually is."
Talking about Grandma Xu, she arrived. A few light steps sounded behind them, and then Grandma Xu spoke with a soft southern accent, "Ahh, what are you two doing here? Don't bully the poor dog just because you two have nothing to do. *Xiao-hui, you're a mom, why are you not acting like it..."
*Xiao-hui: Xu Jin. Xiao means little.
"Xiao-hui" and "Xiao-lin" fled in separate ways with Granny impending, scattering at a single event.
Xu Xilin, fiddling around, had English Listening on as background music in his room, unable to understand Ms. Xu's anger out of annoyance.
Having to spend time with middle and old aged women all day, he had to endure Grandma's '*yiyiyaya'-ing vocal practice pouring in his ears when he opened his eyes in the morning. Walking from the bedroom to the living room, his other ear had to endure Ms. Du's nagging. All that made Xu XIlin extra excited for a companion to come live with them the same age as him. A male one would be better, and he wouldn't mind a girl--as long as she was pretty, he'd even tolerate jumping rope with her.
*yiyiyaya: I give up on translating this aaaaaaaa(it's just a sound)
In Xu Xilin's antic.i.p.ation, Zhu Xiaocheng finally arrived, late.
When he heard the doorbell ring, Xu Xilin tossed his English Listening book on the bed, dashing out the door, ready to welcome the guests, "Chengzi!"
A middle-aged beauty poked out of the foyer, and waved at him warmly. "Come here, little hottie, let G.o.dmother take a look at you."
Xu Xilin ran down the stair, skipping steps, his gaze accidentally resting on the tall boy behind Zhu Xiaocheng.
Then the smile on his face looked like it had gone through a blizzard of -195.8 degree liquid nitrogen, frozen hard, his heart doing a backflip--
Xu Xilin and Dou Xun stared at each other in the foyer for a moment. Their separate flipping hearts knocked into each other, and then fell on the ground, bouncing up two shares of "oh f.u.c.k——".
The two pieces, both of them solid enough to make a "clink" on the ground, each impaled a chest.