Under Captain Colin's piercing gaze, the five men had no choice but to cough up their money one by one, blood still streaming from their noses. The least anyone had was five copper coins, and the most had a dozen or so. Zhang Tie stuffed it all into his pocket without hesitation. When it was fatso Barry's turn, he tremblingly pulled nine copper coins from his jacket pocket and placed them in Zhang Tie's hand. A miserable, ingratiating smile appeared on his face. "You win..."
Zhang Tie stared at Barry without saying a word, but a murderous glint was brewing in his eyes. He didn't withdraw his outstretched hand. "Are you sure that's all the money you have on you? Remember, when we made the bet, we said everything. Everything. You understand..." He put extra emphasis on the word "everything." They'd been classmates for years. Didn't he know Barry was the richest of them all, always treating people to meals? How could he possibly have so little money on him?
Barry looked at Zhang Tie, and Zhang Tie glared back at him. The two bloodied men stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds. Zhang Tie's presence grew stronger, his chest puffing out higher and higher. His mouth was already opening when the fat on Barry's face finally twitched twice. The oily sheen on his acne dimmed, too. "Heh... heh... If you hadn't said that, I would've almost forgotten. I've still got a little more..." As he spoke, Barry reached inside the left side of his clothes and fumbled around. At last, reluctantly, he pulled out four gleaming silver coins, then closed his eyes and placed them in Zhang Tie's hand without looking.
At the sight of those four silver coins, Zhang Tie's mouth fell open slightly, too. He'd hit the jackpot! One silver coin was worth a hundred copper coins. He hadn't expected the fatso to have really stolen more of his old man's money...
To Zhang Tie, this was a "fortune," but Captain Colin didn't think much of a few silver coins. As he watched Zhang Tie fleece Barry and the other unlucky fellows, he folded his arms across his chest. One hand rubbed the short, needle-like stubble on his chin, while one eye fixed on Zhang Tie with an inscrutable look. Zhang Tie felt a little uneasy under his gaze.
"Hmm, interesting. What's your name, kid?"
"Zhang Tie!"
"You're pretty tough, aren't you? You actually made a bet like that with them. All right, I'll remember you!" With that, Captain Colin turned and left.
As soon as Captain Colin was gone, everyone there except Zhang Tie dropped to the ground. Their legs felt as weak as noodles boiled for three days. That had been a close call. If Zhang Tie had let one word slip, they would've been done for...
"Big Head, we're even..." Barry sat on the ground and tilted his head back, trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose. "We beat you up, and you beat us up. You took our money, but you also saved us from Captain Colin. When you put it like that, we should be thanking you!"
"No need..." Zhang Tie hurriedly dug toilet paper out of his pants pocket, rolled it into plugs, and stuffed them into his nostrils to stop the bleeding. "We're classmates, after all. A fight is no big deal. We don't have any deep-seated grudge against each other. I didn't want anything bad to happen to you, just like you didn't want anything bad to happen to me earlier!"
With his nostrils plugged, his voice came out all muffled. It felt pretty unpleasant, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"Got any more paper?" Barry held out a chubby hand.
Zhang Lin took all the soft toilet paper from his pants pocket and divided it into clumps for the others. They hurriedly followed his example and plugged their noses. Before long, the six of them in the woods looked at one another and found the sight utterly ridiculous. They remembered a saying: sticking scallions up your nostrils to pretend to be an elephant. Damn, it was spot-on. They all wanted to laugh, but none of them could get a laugh out.
After whispering among themselves for a few moments, fatso Barry and the others solemnly said something to Zhang Tie that he hadn't expected.
"After what happened today, we think you're a pretty good guy. So we've decided to formally invite you to join our organization. We hope you'll think it over..."
"Your organization?" Zhang Tie looked at Barry and the others skeptically. These guys were just a ragtag bunch like him, drifting through life and disappearing into a crowd. They had an organization?
Seeing Zhang Tie's doubtful gaze, Barry and the others did their best to look imposing. Their bruised and swollen faces hardly inspired confidence, but Zhang Tie could tell they were serious.
"Fighting makes friends. We think you're a pretty good guy, so we talked it over and decided to bring you in. Don't underestimate us. Who says a sapling today can't grow into a towering tree tomorrow? Nobody's born a big shot. As long as we stick together, there'll be a place for us in Black Flame City sooner or later!"
Barry's words stirred something in Zhang Tie. He'd never guessed these guys had such big ambitions. Compared to them, he'd been far too content to drift along. Seeing that Zhang Tie seemed tempted, Barry continued to work his silver tongue. "We're graduating this year. After graduation, we'll all have eight years of compulsory military service. Who knows what dangers and hardships we might run into? In this day and age, it's too hard to make it on your own. With more brothers to help you out, no matter what happens in the future, you'll always have another way forward. Even in the army, nobody will push you around if you've got plenty of brothers at your side!"
Those final words finally moved Zhang Tie and made him a little curious about their organization. "What's your organization called?"
"The Airplane Brotherhood!" Barry declared proudly.
The Airplane Brotherhood? That was the name of their group? Zhang Tie thought of the way he'd seen them standing in a row by the classroom windows that morning, vigorously working their hands, and the name made him shudder. He'd heard that before the Great Cataclysm, the machines humans invented to fly through the sky were called airplanes. Then, at some point, adding the word "flying" to the name of those machines had turned the practice into a rite of passage for countless awkward adolescent boys. Zhang Tie couldn't understand what that monotonous, tedious, hand-operated, single-cylinder piston motion had to do with those flying machines. The thought of one day standing by the classroom window alongside fatso Barry and a whole row of other guys, all doing the same hand-operated, single-cylinder piston motion toward Teacher Daina, made him feel as if the most sacred place in his heart had been defiled.
"I can join, but you have to agree to one condition!" Zhang Tie told Barry after thinking it over for a few seconds.
"What condition?"
"From now on, you're not allowed to do that same thing to Teacher Daina at school!" As soon as he said it, the fifteen-year-old felt incredibly noble. His heart stirred with excitement. No matter how weak he was now, he could still protect Teacher Daina in his own way.
"No problem. Then it's settled. From today on, you're a member of the Airplane Brotherhood!" Fatso Barry agreed readily. It wasn't the first time they'd done it—in fact, who knew how many guys all over the school did the same thing every day—but after what had happened today, even Barry and the others felt their behavior that morning had been too risky. If Captain Colin had really seen them, they would've been finished. Doing it somewhere other than school was fine anyway. No one at home could stop them. Zhang Tie's condition barely counted as a condition.
And so Zhang Tie joined the Airplane Brotherhood. After gaining a new member, the fatso and the others were in high spirits, seeming to have forgotten their earlier unpleasantness. Zhang Tie had no intention of returning the money in his pocket, either. He'd made up his mind: if fatso Barry tried to make him pay it back in the name of the brotherhood, he'd quit the damn Airplane Brotherhood on the spot. From Barry, Zhang Tie also learned about the brotherhood's membership. Besides himself, Barry, and Doug, its entire membership consisted of the few others present—Shavin, Baghdad, Light, and Sista. They were all familiar classmates. The brotherhood had only one rule for now: everything about it had to be kept secret from outsiders. They couldn't even tell their families. The brotherhood had no leader; everything was decided through discussion and voting.
What Zhang Tie hadn't expected was that the Airplane Brotherhood, despite having been founded only a few months ago, already had ranks. None of the members objected; they all thought the system was fair. Barry naturally held the highest rank. According to Sista and the others, Barry had contributed the most to the brotherhood, so based on contribution, he was currently its only second-level member. A second-level member meant that fatso Barry got two votes when they voted. Third-level members got three votes, and so on. Since Zhang Tie had just joined, he had only one vote, just like everyone else.
As they left the Small Woods, fatso Barry looked at Zhang Tie, hesitated, and said, "Um... that money..."
"Mine!" Zhang Tie covered his pocket and watched fatso Barry warily.
The fatso scratched his head in frustration and gave a wry smile. "Fine, then. Doug can wait two more days..."
The others all wore lecherous grins when they heard Barry say that.
"Doug's out of luck today, hahaha..." Shavin winked. "Poor guy!"
"That fellow's been holding it in for two weeks just for today!" Sista shrugged.
"Let him hold it in a few more days..."
"If he holds it in a few more days, he'll break out in acne!"
"Hahaha..."
Zhang Tie had no idea what they were talking about, but he could sense a lecherous air swirling around their brows as they spoke.
"Heh... heh... you'll find out someday. It's a perk of being in the brotherhood!" Barry said mysteriously.