Chapter 29

Chapter 30: A radiant season, a showdown with the contenders (part two)

The girls were stunned for a while before they could not help smiling, their smiles full of springtime warmth. Under those smiles, however, Su Can did not know what to do. If Xue Yiyang's earlier teasing, when he mistakenly thought Su Can wanted to pursue Chen Lingshan, had made him want to kick his ass, this bold bluntness was enough to make Su Can punch him square in the face.

Su Can was an eye-catching figure who had suddenly entered the picture. First, he was rich, and his family background seemed good. He was also clever enough to get the better of boys like Li Ai and Zhang Xi, who usually threw their weight around at school. On top of that, he had a sunny disposition, the sort of boy who gave people a warm feeling at first sight. All this had aroused the girls' curiosity and interest.

"Have we met before?" Chen Lingshan asked with a smile.

Su Can nodded, a trace of bitterness and helplessness passing through him. Before his father's workplace had pooled funds to build housing and they had moved away, they had lived in a small dormitory unit allocated by his mother's trading company. It measured less than thirty square meters and was a semi-basement, its windows right beside the outdoor parking lot, where there was a lot of dust. It had been converted from one of the trading company's accounting offices after that office relocated, and his family had squeezed into that space.

Chen Lingshan's father was the deputy general manager of that trading company, something Su Can had only learned later. In elementary school, although Chen Lingshan attended the same school as him, they were not in the same class. Countless boys had crushes on her. Every day, Su Can went to school hoping to catch a glimpse of her, but whenever he did, he grew so frightened that he wished he could run far away.

Later, at his mother's trading company, Su Can had happened to see Chen Lingshan accompanying her father on an inspection of the company. Wearing a white floral-print Bohemian dress, she had looked as lovely as a princess. She stepped out of the car and was surrounded by people praising and flattering her. His own mother stood behind the company executives, without even a chance to poke her head forward and offer a compliment.

Back then, Su Can had worn a frayed sweater handed down by his older male cousin and a pair of white mesh sneakers that were clearly a size too large-not torn, but very old. Playing with a little local-breed dog, he had crouched at this end of the parking lot and gazed at the princess in the distance, so transfixed that the little dog beside him had whined and kept licking his face as if competing for his attention.

Perhaps Su Can would never forget the look the princess-like Chen Lingshan had given him when she glanced his way by chance. Her eyes swept over him from head to toe, her brows deeply furrowed, revealing disgust and even an urge to avert her gaze as quickly as possible. Imagine a girl raised in privileged surroundings confronted with a grubby little boy in dusty, worn clothes, tussling with a dirty puppy, perhaps with snot hanging from his nose, staring longingly at her as though she were a heavenly beauty. Her first impulse, too, would be to look away.

Su Can did not blame her, because it was an instinctive response, just as people instinctively avoided things that were unclean, filthy, or beyond their understanding.

"You're Uncle Su's son, right? I think we met when we were little, when your dad was discussing business with mine!"

Whether beautiful girls generally had poor memories or there was a small gap in Chen Lingshan's recollection, her claim that they seemed to have met before turned out to mean she had mistaken Su Can for someone else.

But that made sense. People had an instinct for self-protection. If, one afternoon many years ago, you had appeared in a magnificent dress, while a grubby boy and a dog crouched nearby, both drooling as they stared at you, unless it had been excessively shocking, any ordinary person would subconsciously forget that discordant scene.

Su Can did not explain. Perhaps letting one of those beautiful misunderstandings that so often occurred in life unfold was far better than telling Chen Lingshan who he was and forcing her to recall a corner of her memory she would rather not revisit.

After all, Su Can had never expected to stay in contact with Chen Lingshan. She was the princess of his first love, but life was often no fairy tale. Perhaps God had shown him special favor by letting him be reborn, but that did not mean he had to make up for the regrets of his first love.

Some regrets were beautiful, even if they hurt-the lovely princess dress, the exquisite face above it, and that slight frown as she looked at him.

Chen Lingshan's remark sounded casual, but those listening read meaning into it. The girls around her all knew her father was a deputy general manager at a trading company. And in the picture they had constructed, Su Can's father actually discussed business with that deputy general manager. Needless to say, the two must be on the same level. At the very least, Su Can's family must be wealthy, which made everything fall neatly into place.

Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui, however, stared at Su Can in astonishment. They could not understand when Su Can's father, Su Licheng, had had any dealings with Chen Lingshan's father.

Everyone ate the seaside barbecue and chatted about anything and everything. Before his rebirth, Su Can had not been eloquent or cut out for diplomacy, but faced with a group of middle school students from 1998, the knowledge he had acquired in the information explosion of his later life far exceeded the horizons of everyone in this era.

Many listened with animated expressions. For the first time, Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui felt Su Can had stolen their thunder, yet they were also deeply intrigued by his recent transformation.

The girls naturally maintained their reserve and did not deliberately pry into Su Can's family background, but inwardly they were very envious of Chen Lingshan. Having a boy like this secretly in love with her was undoubtedly something that would make many girls' hearts flutter.

What was more, this boy's sudden appearance might well bring an end to the legend of Chen Lingshan's single status.

Chen Lingshan's lovely eyes drifted toward Su Can from time to time. Steady, reserved, with deep eyes-although he was not very tall yet, his bearing gave people a strong sense of security. Was this boy my Prince Charming?

Everything should have unfolded like a fairy tale or a wish-fulfillment novel, bathed in dazzling light descending from the heavens, then following a path lined with camphor trees toward a distant place strewn with the golden ginkgo leaves of happiness.

Except that, when everyone took their places around a large table laden with sumptuous food, a remark from Xue Yiyang's class monitor, Wang Xuebing, who wore thick glasses, ushered in the downfall of this fairy tale.

"Oh, right, Xue Yiyang, how come I've never seen this friend of yours at No. 1 High School before? Where does he go to school? Did you grow up together? Is he a friend from Rongcheng, the provincial capital?"

Su Can was now clearly the focus of everyone's attention, his background unknown and his origins seemingly extraordinary. Even Zhang Xi and the others were watching his every move with appraising eyes. The No. 1 High School circle respected people with clout. If Su Can had a wealthy family behind him, Li Ai would have to be wary, whatever else happened. That was why, despite being put in his place, he had held back and quietly observed.

There were plenty of uncertainties in the No. 1 High School circle. A new transfer student might turn out to be the child of some wealthy businessman from Beijing or Guangzhou, while an ordinarily inconspicuous nobody might have family connections to some secretary-general in the city government. Having spent so long in this environment and hanging around Zhang Xi, Li Ai also understood the wisdom of holding back and quietly observing the situation. While Su Can chatted with everyone earlier, Li Ai had appeared to be keeping to his own group with Zhang Xi and the others, but in fact, most of their attention had remained on Su Can.

Hearing that Su Can had a crush on Chen Lingshan had surprised and astonished them, but class monitor Wang Xuebing had been the first to feel uncomfortable. Many people openly liked Chen Lingshan, and quite a few did so secretly. He, at least, counted as a member of the underground contingent. Yet neither Li Ai's group nor the others with an interest in her could work out Su Can's background, so now he could not resist taking the initiative to ask and strike up a conversation.

Unable to figure out Su Can's origins, Wang Xuebing kept his tone relaxed, doing his best not to convey hostility, and immediately positioned him as someone from the provincial capital, Rongcheng. Everyone eagerly awaited the answer. Judging by Su Can's appearance, he ought to be a big-city boy, and quite a few girls felt even more jealous of Chen Lingshan.

Although the No. 1 High School circle was large, it naturally paled in comparison with Rongcheng, the provincial capital. Subconsciously, they considered their own side a rung lower.

"Su Can? We grew up together. Does he look like he's from Rongcheng to you?" Xue Yiyang, who got along well with class monitor Wang Xuebing, rolled his eyes at him.

"I go to City No. 3 Middle School," Su Can added with a smile.

The group fell silent in an instant. The girls' smiles froze, and several easygoing boys nearby looked awkward. Amid the shafts of light slanting down through the camphor trees overhead, the corners of Li Ai's and Zhang Xi's mouths curled up strangely.

Was there a distance between heaven and hell? Presumably there was. A school where wealthy children gathered, academic results were generally outstanding, and most students were of above-average caliber-in everyone's eyes, that was City First Middle School.

Low-caliber students, academic results at the bottom of the city, constant fights and brawls, a third-rate school where third-rate students congregated-in everyone's eyes, that was No. 3 Middle School.

Such a distance was enough for heaven to look down upon hell.