Chapter 27

Chapter 28: A bright season, a showdown with the crowd (Part One)

It was the height of summer in July, and the days were bright.

All of Xiahai City was bathed in gentle morning sunlight.

Wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, Su Can wheeled out his newly bought bicycle. Across from him, Liu Rui and Xue Yiyang came downstairs one after the other, carrying their bicycles out of the residential building belonging to their parents' work unit.

Liu Rui had bought his bicycle a year earlier. He attended Second Middle School and usually rode to school. His was a racing bike with gears, though it was an obscure brand none of them could name. Xue Yiyang had borrowed his bike from his older female cousin a few days earlier, and she had only agreed after repeatedly warning him not to scratch or damage it.

Xiahai City took its name from an inland lake on its outskirts. Xiahai Lake was the second-largest freshwater lake in the basin, and locals habitually called it the sea. The lake and the surrounding mountains kept Xiahai City warm in winter and cool in summer; these natural conditions also contributed to its later development into a tourist destination. Countless tourist facilities would eventually be built around the lake, but even now their beginnings were already taking shape. Riding around the lake during the holidays, admiring the scenery and eating delicious barbecue, was already part of the most pleasant days Su Can and his close friends spent together.

Cycling around Xiahai in such bright sunshine was immensely enjoyable, so much so that it later became a favorite pastime among the locals after Xiahai City was designated a tourist city. Of course, only then would the bicycle rental market really take off. Cycling around the "sea" became a meaningful part of locals' weekends and gatherings, and bicycle clubs sprang up everywhere. If they wanted to rent bicycles now, though, there were few shops and the prices were steep. It simply was not worth it.

Su Can quietly took note. The bicycle market also held considerable potential and could provide a major opening for expanding his mother's business. If she could lead the trend, making a handsome profit was not out of the question. There was still some time before that happened, however, and he did not know how his mother's business would develop in the meantime. Perhaps by then she would have no need to enter this industry for the money.

"Giant?!" Xue Yiyang rubbed his own silver-plated handlebars, his mouth falling open when he saw the logo on the streamlined frame. At the time, even Xiahai City's largest bicycle showroom did not sell Giant bikes. They could only be found in major cities, and their designs had a distinctly fashionable European and American feel. The entire frame was cutting-edge, with some bold design choices, and looked sleek and attractive. Compared with Xue Yiyang's racing bike, or even Liu Rui's, it was in an entirely different class.

His eldest uncle had kept his word. Since their last visit to the Gloria Hotel, he had intended to get Su Can a bicycle. His youngest uncle, impressed by his eldest uncle's stock-market exploits, had volunteered to take charge of choosing it. With his extensive connections, he had arranged through the owner of an outdoor equipment store in the provincial capital, Rongcheng, to have a new-model Giant racing bike specially brought in and shipped along with a fresh consignment of goods bound for Xiahai. The bike was worth nearly fifteen hundred yuan. His eldest uncle had also privately given Su Can a personal reward of a thousand yuan. Suddenly, life had become much easier for Su Can, who had usually been flat broke every summer vacation.

Even at City First Middle School, few students rode Giants to school. Although a Giant was hardly an expensive item among the well-connected children gathered at No. 1 High School, there really were none for sale in Xiahai City at the time. Even money could not buy one. Su Can's bike therefore left Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui wide-eyed and envious for quite a while.

"You didn't do that well on the exams, did you? How come you're suddenly getting completely different treatment?" The three left the work-unit compound, took to the road, and began their ride around the lake. Su Can shifted gears and pressed down on the pedals, and the whole bike glided forward effortlessly. Even going uphill took him less effort than the other two. With his casual clothes and racing bike, he really did have a sunny, handsome, carefree air, stealing the spotlight from both of them for a moment. A thoroughly disgruntled Liu Rui had to pedal hard to draw alongside him before asking his question.

"Maybe they're relieved because I'll probably have no trouble getting into high school." Su Can had not told them his actual exam results, only that he had done a little better than usual, scoring around five hundred. Xue Yiyang, meanwhile, had achieved an impressive 560, and Liu Rui had scored around 540. Liu Rui's result would get him into City No. 2 High School without trouble, but Xue Yiyang's chances of entering No. 1 High School were uncertain.

In his memory, Xue Yiyang had paid a hefty extra fee to enter No. 1 High School. But with the influence of Su Can's set of internal exam papers, his score had already risen by thirty or forty points. At the very least, he would pay over a thousand yuan less.

The other two privately thought that made sense. Su Can's family did not set their expectations as high as theirs did. With his score, getting into No. 3 Middle School would be no problem, so naturally he had nothing left to worry about. Their own starting points were higher, and they had set their sights on No. 1 or No. 2 High School. Seeing Su Can take his leisure so much for granted, they actually began to feel a little sorry for him.

Su Can had not told them his real score partly because he did not want to publicize it. His grades had ranked in the lower-middle range among the children in the work-unit compound, and this sudden leap was enough to leave even its best students chasing after him. It was simply too unusual. Another reason was that he wanted to teach Xue Yiyang a lesson. Their bet still stood, and he could hardly wait to see the boy make a fool of himself.

The scenery along the lakeside road was beautiful, with broad stretches of rice fields and lush green broad bean seedlings. A breeze from the inland "sea," carrying a faint fishy scent along with the fragrance of grass, blew into their faces.

He had returned eleven years into the past, before the scenic redevelopment of Xiahai Lake that he remembered from later years. Yet everything before him already stirred an intense sense of nostalgia. In the years to come, he would rush from place to place trying to make a living, rarely having the chance to pause like this and return to his hometown to take in all these refreshing sights. Even if he did return, he probably would not have such a relaxed, unburdened frame of mind.

Feeling how young his body was, yet how limited its stamina remained, Su Can had already drawn up a plan to exercise over the vacation. He intended to use the thousand yuan his eldest uncle had given him for a planned fitness regimen. At sixteen, he was in his peak growing years. He certainly did not want to be shorter than before after being reborn. At least for now, he was the shortest of the three, next to Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui.

Halfway around the lake, they reached the opposite shore. The area's prosperity at the time came from its many fishing villages and farmhouse restaurants, as well as a government-funded recreation plaza called Moon Bay Point. Several small, distinctive hotels had also been built beside the lake, making this an entertainment destination in Xiahai City. Many visitors from elsewhere preferred these small lakeside villa-style hotels and farm stays to accommodations in the city itself.

Later, the city government catered to those tastes. With 2.5 billion yuan in special funding for developing the tourist city, it vigorously built holiday resorts around the lake, and tourism flourished.

As it stood now, Moon Bay Point was among the earliest recreation plazas built. A fountain stood at its center, with numerous farmhouse restaurants scattered around it. The largest hotel occupied the lakeshore. Its owner supposedly had connections with some senior figures in the city and had secured the site through them. The local specialty barbecue was especially famous, even becoming one of Xiahai's major brands later on.

The three had ridden here precisely for that barbecue meal. After cycling for so long, they were tired and hungry. Being able to enjoy a feast of grilled fish steaks and fillets at this midway stop, dipped in a specially prepared chili seasoning, meant every bite was wonderfully savory, fresh, and sweet.

Come to think of it, Su Can had not eaten his hometown's specialty barbecue in a long time. He was almost drooling with anticipation.

But as they entered the plaza at the Royal Residence, Xue Yiyang froze. The Royal Residence's hotel business occupied the lakeshore, with a five-story main building. Beside it, wooden decking formed a barbecue and beer plaza, dotted with sets of two or three beach chairs, a table, and a sun umbrella.

At that moment, those little clusters of tables and chairs were bustling with boys and girls around their own age. Their clothes were fashionable for the time, sporty and casual, with Li-Ning, Nike, or Adidas sneakers on their feet. Some played cards at the tables while others ate barbecue. The bicycle shelter was packed, so it seemed this group, like the three of them, had ridden out together for a gathering.

"Oh, who's that? Isn't that Xue Yiyang!" Someone rose from a seat at three tables pushed together, where more than a dozen people were sitting, and walked toward the three of them. He wore a half-smile and deliberately spoke loudly.

Xue Yiyang's expression changed slightly. These people all attended No. 1 High School, though they came from different classes. The school's social circles were extensive. Some of them had known each other since the government-run kindergarten, or even primary school. Once they reached junior and senior high, they continued to socialize in the same circles, and as those connections branched out and intertwined, the circles grew.

This group had evidently also arranged to cycle around the lake together today, and they had happened to run into them. The speaker was Li Ai, a classmate of Xue Yiyang's. He was one of the troublemakers among the class's cliques of well-connected children and was quite overbearing. Xue Yiyang had clashed with him in their second year of junior high, and the two had held a grudge against each other ever since. Li Ai had enjoyed a good run at cards today, drunk plenty of beer, and been egged on by the people around him. With the cool lake breeze added to the mix, he had become thoroughly full of himself. When he saw Su Can and the other two, he suddenly found himself something to do.