Chapter 46: By your side
The lights outside the KTV seemed almost blinding. The roadside might not have been all neon and nightlife, but it was certainly a picture of everyday nightlife at the time. There were no rows of identical luxury shops or meticulously decorated shopping malls, mostly just roadside stalls. The smell of meat-stuffed flatbread drifted out of the alleys, and steam rose from bowls of fried tofu and vermicelli soup. Sitting beside the stalls were often middle-aged men fresh from work, their suit jackets in their hands and wearing only shirts, or students in twos and threes.
Antennas stretched every which way between buildings with 1980s facades, and the leisure spots and residential neighborhoods were still bustling. Su Can had barely noticed it in the air-conditioned KTV, but once he came outside, he felt the lingering warmth in the air. Only when the wind blew did he realize his T-shirt was actually soaked with sweat.
He had sounded very assured while confronting the Japanese exchange students inside, but that had only been strategic disdain. Tactically, he still took them very seriously. They had indeed deftly touched on the key issues and sore spots; he could not deny that. But he could not tolerate them using those points to push further and further, making tools of them to establish their authority and reputation.
Li Han, Zhang Xiaoqiao, and Xiao Xu had silently followed beside him all along. They were so composed that no one spoke, feeling that this was the fitting bearing for the four musketeers who had just walked out of the KTV under the stares of a dumbfounded crowd. This was what it meant to be cool. It was a rather nebulous word, one all three might have dismissed in any other setting, but at this