The rickety bus and lousy county road that terrified Bian Guanyue were commonplace in Chen Guiliang's student days.
Back when he was in middle school, Chen Guiliang couldn't even afford to ride a rickety bus.
After more than two hours of bumping along, Chen Guiliang returned to school, as if he had arrived in another world.
China in 2003 was naturally divided into countless different worlds.
For farmers, a poor, rundown little county town was already paradise.
"Country bumpkin" had even become an insult. Even ordinary lower-class city residents could use it to curse people with complete peace of mind.
Chen Guiliang got off at the school gate and first went to a roadside pharmacy to weigh himself.
117.6 jin!
His weight-gain plan was progressing very smoothly. He ate his fill of meat and vegetables at every meal, gaining an average of 0.7 jin a day.
It was like he had been eating pig feed.
The hollows in his cheeks had visibly filled out.
He happily returned to the dorm, where only Xu Haibo and Yang Hao were present.
Chen Guiliang asked, "The others haven't come back yet?"
Xu Haibo said, "They went to play basketball. Only Xie Show-off was acting all sneaky. I bet he slipped off to an internet café."
"That bastard definitely cheated and didn't eat shit," Chen Guiliang cursed with a laugh.
Xu Haibo said, "There was a parent-teacher meeting today. Your parent didn't show up again, and Teacher Liu got angry on the spot. She even criticized Bian Guanyue's parent, saying Bian Guanyue shouldn't have skipped class with you."
"I took leave," Chen Guiliang corrected him.
Xu Haibo reminded him, "You still haven't made up your leave slip."
Chen Guiliang stopped arguing. He took out the first-year high school textbooks he had brought from home and sat in the dorm reviewing seriously.
Even concepts like sin, tan, and cos had become vague to him. He had to make up the basics bit by bit.
By dinnertime, Xie Yang still hadn't appeared. He had probably really snuck off to the internet café.
Chen Guiliang carried his first-year high school math book with him, went to the cafeteria for dinner, then headed to the classroom for evening self-study.
Before long, Bian Guanyue and Zheng Feng entered the classroom one after the other.
Bian Guanyue entered expressionlessly, but when she reached Chen Guiliang's side, she took the initiative to greet him.
Chen Guiliang lowered his voice and said in a deep tone, "I am Qin Shi Huang."
Bian Guanyue actually had a low laugh threshold. The moment she heard that, she couldn't hold it in. Remembering their phone call two nights ago, she asked with a hint of a smile, "Are you giving me the money now?"
Chen Guiliang said, "Proceed according to plan."
Bian Guanyue pulled out ten yuan. "This is all I have."
Chen Guiliang said, "The great sea admits all rivers, choosing not even the smallest stream."
"Where's Qin Shi Huang's token?" Bian Guanyue asked.
Chen Guiliang took out the pebble and solemnly spouted nonsense. "The He Shi Bi Jade was made into the Imperial Jade Seal back then, but some scraps remained. This jade is one of them. Guard it carefully. When I open the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum, recruit an army, and rebuild the Great Qin Empire, you may use this token to claim the title of Empress!"
"Then I'll wait," Bian Guanyue said, pressing her lips together to suppress a laugh.
Chen Guiliang gave away the pebble as a gift and actually accepted Bian Guanyue's startup capital.
He hadn't spent a single damn cent chasing a girl, yet he had somehow made ten yuan instead.
Bian Guanyue played with the pebble in her hand.
The lousy stone was about the size of a quail egg. It was white all over and really did resemble jade, with a blue streak running through the middle.
It was quite pretty.
Bian Guanyue put the stone away in her pencil case.
Zheng Feng stood nearby watching the whole time, unable to understand what they were talking about.
What the hell was Qin Shi Huang?
And rebuild the Great Qin Empire? Make Bian Guanyue Empress?
Bian Guanyue had actually accepted that lousy stone, and she had been smiling the whole time. She had never smiled at me!
What exactly happened when you two went to the city to fix the computer?
You hadn't seen each other for just two days over the weekend. How had everything changed?
Zheng Feng looked at Chen Guiliang, then at Bian Guanyue, feeling as though he had already been eliminated.
"Want to listen to music?" Bian Guanyue took out her MP3 player.
"Sure."
Chen Guiliang checked which side was which and put one earbud in.
Under Zheng Feng's dumbfounded stare, Bian Guanyue picked up the other earbud and put it in. These two were actually sharing a pair of earbuds, and they acted like it was completely natural?
This definitely wasn't their first time.
Good heavens!
Zheng Feng began questioning his life.
After a while, Wang Siyu came for self-study.
As she set down her backpack, she saw the bizarre scene as well and quietly asked Zheng Feng, "What's going on with them?"
"Don't disturb my self-study!" Zheng Feng snapped irritably.
Wang Siyu pursed her lips, thinking, Why are you taking your anger out on me? If you've got the guts, go pick a fight with Chen Guiliang.
Li Jun entered the classroom holding a basketball, reeking of sweat again.
He had spent the past two days pursuing Ou Yafei from the class next door, but he had already been scared into giving up halfway—Ou Yafei's father had beaten up her ex-boyfriend.
It had started because that ex-boyfriend couldn't accept the breakup and spread dirty rumors, claiming Ou Yafei had gotten an abortion for him over the summer.
How did Li Jun know?
Because Ou Yafei's ex-boyfriend was one of the guys on their school basketball team!
During the parent-teacher meeting that day, they had gone to play basketball at the closed-down Chengbei Elementary School. That school was next to No. 2 Middle School and had long since been merged away with no students left. In a few years, it would become No. 2 Middle School's junior high division.
After Ou Yafei's father finished the parent-teacher meeting, he went straight to the Chengbei Elementary School basketball court and beat his daughter's ex-boyfriend black and blue in public.
Li Jun had witnessed the whole thing. The more he thought about it, the more scared he became, deciding that Bian Guanyue suited him better after all.
Li Jun eagerly walked to Bian Guanyue's desk. "Bian Guanyue, a milk tea shop opened in the county town. Do you know bubble tea? It came from Taiwan. Let me tell you, business is insanely good. On opening day, tons of people lined up."
It was already 2003, and this lousy county town had only just gotten its first milk tea shop.
And it would be another two years before its first fast-food restaurant appeared. Back then, all the rich people in the county drove to line up at Dicos, causing localized traffic jams for several days in a row.
Bian Guanyue turned a deaf ear and kept her head down, working on problems.
Li Jun asked again, "Have you ever had bubble tea? I lined up for forty minutes yesterday before I finally got a cup. It was really good, worthy of being a drink from Taiwan. I'll bring you one tomorrow at noon."
Bian Guanyue continued doing problems.
Li Jun finally noticed something was off. He saw Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue sharing a pair of earbuds.
He didn't think much of it. It was normal for male and female classmates to listen to music together. He often shared earbuds with girls too, though most of them weren't his girlfriends. He had only formally dated one girl in his second year of high school.
But at that moment, he was jealous and furious.
Bian Guanyue was supposed to be his deskmate, and he should have been the one listening to music with her!
"Well, well, Chen the Hero. Your sleeves are torn, and you can't bear to buy new clothes?"
Li Jun switched back into trash-talk mode. "Can't afford them? Want me to lend you money?"
If this had been the student-era Chen Guiliang, Li Jun mocking his poverty would have earned an immediate curse in return, possibly ending in a fight.
But Chen Guiliang, with a forty-year-old soul inside his body, merely looked up with a smile. "Yeah, I can't afford clothes. Thanks for your concern, classmate Li Jun. Are you really willing to lend me money to buy clothes?"
"What?" Li Jun thought he had misheard.
Chen Guiliang's response was completely beyond his expectations.
Chen Guiliang even held out his hand. "I'm so poor I can barely afford food. I've wanted to buy some clothes for ages. Could classmate Li Jun lend me two hundred yuan?"
Li Jun immediately recalled how he had been cheated out of a hundred yuan over changing seats during evening self-study. He instinctively took two steps back and sneered, "I'm not your dad. What the hell do I care what clothes you wear?"
Chen Guiliang smiled. "If you don't have money, why the hell are you talking? I thought you were going to show filial respect to your dad. Raising such a big son for nothing, I should've shot you into a toilet bowl with one twitch back then."
"Say that again, motherfucker!"
Li Jun rushed forward and grabbed Chen Guiliang by the collar.
He was pretty strong, but unfortunately he didn't tear the clothes. Otherwise, Chen Guiliang would have had an excuse to extort money.
"Li Jun, don't bully your classmate!" Bian Guanyue immediately stopped him.
She wasn't actually afraid Chen Guiliang would get beaten, because she knew he was formidable. But Chen Guiliang was currently on probation, and another fight would definitely get him expelled.
Li Jun grew even angrier and demanded without any self-awareness, "You're actually taking his side?"
Bian Guanyue said righteously, "If you fight, I can be a witness. I'll testify that you provoked him first and made the first move."
Zheng Feng watched the show with a grin.
Though he didn't like Chen Guiliang, he actually disliked Li Jun even more and hoped Chen Guiliang would beat Li Jun badly.
Feeling the grip on his sleeve tighten, Chen Guiliang raised his voice and shouted, "Li Jun is hitting me! Li Jun is hitting me!"
Every student in the classroom turned to look.
Xie Yang had just returned from the internet café. Without even asking what was going on, he charged over in two strides and launched a flying kick. "Fuck, you dare hit my brother!"
When something happened, this guy really went for it.
Xu Haibo and the guys from Dorm 302 also rushed over to back them up, though they only dared to talk tough and not actually fight.
Class monitor Li Rui shouted, "Don't fight! Don't fight!"
Several other class officers also spoke up to stop them.
Li Jun was nearly knocked over by Xie Yang's kick, and the two quickly became entangled.
Chen Guiliang shouted for them not to fight while pretending to pull them apart. But using Xie Yang to block everyone's view, he drove a vicious punch into Li Jun's waist.
A kidney strike.
Li Jun instantly doubled over in pain, unable to even speak. Chen Guiliang took the chance to separate him from Xie Yang.
Xie Yang pointed at Li Jun and cursed, "I'll beat you to death, you bastard!"
Chen Guiliang secretly sighed. He hadn't planned to fight tonight and had wanted to use the incident to extort some money, but Xie Yang had come to help.
It was purely an accident.
Xie Yang stylishly flicked his hair, patted his chest, and said to Chen Guiliang, "You're on probation. If you fight again, you'll get expelled. Leave the fighting to me from now on. At worst, I'll get a major demerit!"
Chen Guiliang thought, Bro, with those words from you, I'll make sure you have braised pork for life.
Xu Haibo also stood nearby cheering. "Xie Show-off is a real one!"
Class monitor Li Rui ran over to help Li Jun up. "Are you hurt?"
Li Jun wasn't exactly bright. Instead of taking the chance to make a fuss about going to the hospital, he endured the pain to save face, got to his feet, and acted like nothing had happened. "Hurt? I'm on the school basketball team! Ten more of them couldn't hurt me. I could take a hundred of them by myself."
"Come on, then. Let's go another round," Xie Yang provoked.
Aside from Yang Hao, who was relatively timid, all the guys from Dorm 302 gathered around.
They didn't dare fight, but they could at least help build momentum.
The seven of them directly surrounded Li Jun.
Seeing that formation, Li Jun didn't even dare curse loudly. No one knew what he muttered under his breath as he nervously shoved Xu Haibo aside and returned to his seat, still grumbling and swearing.
Class monitor Li Rui let out a breath of relief and hurriedly called, "Evening self-study is about to begin. Go back, all of you, back to your seats."
Chen Guiliang clasped his hands toward his Dorm 302 brothers. "Lunch is on me tomorrow. We'll have stir-fry outside the school gate!"
"Sounds good, haha." Everyone laughed and dispersed.
Yang Hao furtively returned to his seat. He hadn't gone over to help just now and felt he hadn't been loyal enough, while also fearing that his roommates might exclude him because of it.
In the blink of an eye, the classroom was peaceful again.
Bian Guanyue handed Chen Guiliang the earbud he had taken out and asked with concern, "Are you really short on money?"
"I'm doing okay," Chen Guiliang said.
Afraid of hurting his pride, Bian Guanyue cautiously said, "I can lend you money to buy clothes. The weather is getting colder... Don't overthink it. I don't mean anything else by it, and I'm not looking down on you. It's just... well, you took me to get my computer fixed. Classmates should help each other."
When a beautiful girl said something like that, it could easily make an impoverished teenage boy feel embarrassed.
The high school-era Chen Guiliang would definitely have refused outright to protect his pitiful self-respect.
But the current Chen Guiliang seized the opportunity and said with a grin, "I'm not very good at picking clothes. Everything I buy looks ugly. How about we go to the shops together this weekend? You can help me choose the styles and colors."
Bian Guanyue was willing to lend him money, but she didn't want to go shopping with him, afraid others would misunderstand.
She hesitated for a while. Unable to bring herself to refuse, she finally agreed. "All right."
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