Chapter Nine
When the dismissal bell rang at four fifty, Lin Ji was the first to rush out of the classroom, followed by over thirty little elementary school students, all rushing out the door together. The teacher shook his head helplessly and said, “Post the homework in the group, will you?”
On the playground, the little students dove in like happy fish into a pond, flocking to the sports department to collect or snatch various sports equipment. Few people grabbed soccer balls, but basketballs were quickly snatched up. Before long, someone complained, “Teacher! Class One took too many balls.”
“Who are you accusing? Who took too many?”
In an instant, there was a flurry of voices, and the PE teacher was left with a headache, shouting a few times: “Lin Ji! Lin Ji!”
“I’m coming.”
“Come here and distribute the balls.”
“Okay.”
Before long, the arguing on site had quieted down significantly. As a fourth grader, Lin Ji had even the fifth and sixth graders obediently under her control. She remembered almost everyone’s name, and when someone was unreasonable, she raised an eyebrow and said, “If you keep this up, we won’t play with you, Lin Xiude.”
Even the remaining little students would obediently comply, even if they were taller than her.
After dispensing the balls, Lin Ji went to collect a face mask, a sponge sword, and some guards, and then ran off to learn sword fighting with a traditional martial arts teacher.
The fencing teacher really liked this sporty girl and called her up to demonstrate to the students: “As I said before, when crossing swords, you cannot give up the center line; Lin Ji, keep my sword down.”
“Yes, teacher.”
“Good, but we can suddenly withdraw strength.” The fencing teacher suddenly slackened his sword, causing Lin Ji’s sword to droop. He then struck Lin Ji’s sword, aiming for her face, and the whole process was fluid and swift.
But Lin Ji firmly held her sword horizontally, blocking the fencing teacher’s sponge sword with the strong blade.
The fencing teacher couldn’t help but exclaim, “Good!”
The students behind her cheered, “Sister Ji is awesome!”
Lin Ji giggled.
In the distance, under the shade of a willow tree, a chubby little boy loosened his red scarf and gazed at Lin Ji, who was practicing swordplay with the teacher, moving swiftly, her white legs beneath her short skirt swaying like willow leaves in the wind.
The chubby boy looked at her pitifully, hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and counted the stack of cash in his backpack, before standing up and walking towards the school gate, finally glancing longingly back at Lin Ji and sneaking off to a wall outside the school.
Even though this era had drone delivery flying in the sky and self-driving electric vehicles on the roads, the campus filled with cameras always had its blind spots, just like school bullying, which always found a way to persist.
He climbed over the wall and stepped outside, dragging his backpack along the road as if he were being punished. The nearby streets to the school gate were filled with “health stores,” the most numerous being various snack shops where wealthy students would go to upgrade their meals. There were also shops filled with all kinds of stationery, toys, and comic novels—most comics were self-paid photocopies by the shop owners.
Originally, there was a game shop with a glass door where the owner played various games with a joystick. Only elementary school students with more pocket money could walk into that store under the gazes of admiration. But after a few parental complaints, that shop seemingly sprouted legs and disappeared.
The chubby boy painfully lost his chance to show off; he used to go there to spend money whenever he had time during lunch.
Unknowingly, he had reached the mouth of an alley. Behind the alley, there was an electric scooter leaned against the wall, with foam boxes filled with various unsanitary offal.
After the chubby boy ate two skewers of braised pig lungs and half a braised potato, he remembered today’s task.
“Hey, little fatty, eating pretty well, huh?” An arm draped over his shoulder, almost choking the chubby boy.
The chubby boy startled, looking up to see several middle school students had surrounded him, exuding a rogue aura.
He was so scared he could hardly speak.
The leader snatched his last skewer of pig lung and said, “Do you understand? How long have we been waiting here?”
The chubby boy’s face went pale and he stuttered, “Two, two minutes?”
Someone pushed his head from behind. “We’ve been waiting for two hours!”
“Ugh!” The leader threw the skewer to the ground. “Do you think I’m joking? What did I tell you yesterday?”
“Uh, you said, said to call me…” The chubby boy trembled, speaking in broken phrases, “I’ll give you money.”
The confidence of the group of middle school delinquents grew bolder.
“It’s a loan,” the leader said. “You made us wait so long, didn’t you buy us something to eat? Want to die, huh?”
Under the threat, the chubby boy hurriedly “invited” them to eat those braised meats that wouldn’t make them sick, letting them choose freely. The four middle school delinquents were quite rude, spending a total of one hundred yuan of the chubby boy’s money.
While eating, they led the chubby boy to a secluded alley behind the internet café.
Seeing them eat non-stop, the chubby boy felt inexplicably at ease; they seemed to have become a bit more polite. It seemed Lin Ji had said that one is softer when eating and receiving gifts from someone. Although he didn’t know what it meant, it felt like after treating someone, they would at least be a bit courteous.
Surely, there would be no problems today.
He thought as he walked into the empty alley.
The leader bit off the last two pieces of pig lung on the skewer, kicked the chubby boy to the ground, and threw the skewer at him.
“You tell me, what happens if you make us wait so long?”
“I, I’ll give you all my money.” The chubby boy sat on the ground, holding back his tears.
“Do you dare to cry?” Someone picked up a rock, threatening, “Cry and I’ll hit your head.”
The chubby boy opened his backpack, trembling as he pulled out a wad of red bills, saying, “This is my New Year’s money… I’ll lend it all to you.”
“Lend? You have the nerve to say ‘lend’?”
The leader snatched it away, counting the money, his eyebrows almost shooting up.
“Wow, you’re rich.”
“Share a little with me,” the other three said, their faces filled with greed.
Sitting on the ground, the chubby boy felt that the four middle school delinquents towered over him like beasts, trembling as he said, “That’s all for you.”
“Good, we’ll let you go this time.”
The chubby boy felt half of his fear had lifted, but his legs turned weak as he stood up. Suddenly, the leader cursed viciously and lifted his foot to kick the chubby boy in the stomach, knocking him down.
“Damn you!” The leader viciously pulled out a roll of money from his pocket. “Are you trying to trick me?”
“I… I didn’t.”
“Tell me, why did you hide this roll of money?” The rogue leader said as he slapped the roll of money against the chubby boy’s face, “Huh?!”
The chubby boy trembled all over, his fat quivering, saying, “I… I wanted to treat Lin Ji to something, so I took a little money.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a familiar voice rang out from the alley’s entrance.
“Little Fat?”
The chubby boy turned his head and, from under the rogue leader’s legs, saw Lin Ji riding her bicycle with a bag of beer in the back seat.
The chubby boy shouted, “Lin Ji, run!”
The rogue leader whistled at the pretty and adorable Lin Ji, saying, “Is that the little brat?”
Lin Ji hit the brakes, stopped, pointed at the four delinquents, and shouted, “Are you four bullying Little Fat here?”
The delinquents laughed and approached Lin Ji, “Want to join us?”
Without a word, Lin Ji pressed down the pedal hard, and sped away.
“She runs really fast.”
The rogue leader exclaimed as he returned after chasing her to the alley’s entrance, “Fat Pig! Stand up and clean your clothes. If anyone asks, just say we were playing. Got it?”
“Got it, I understand.”
For some reason, upon seeing Lin Ji run so fast, the chubby boy’s tears streamed down relentlessly.
“Why are you crying?” The rogue leader slapped his face, “If you cry again, I’ll hit you.”
“I understand… I understand.”
