Chapter 24: The birth of a charlatan
The man sitting on the ground against the wall was disheveled, yet he still pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from an inner pocket. They were good cigarettes, too-Soft Yun, the sort students never got to smoke. A few remained in the pack. Watching him pinch one out with trembling fingers, Su Can felt a little amused.
The guy seemed to come from a fairly comfortable family, but he had most likely stolen this pack from his father and smoked part of it. Kids like him probably received a little more pocket money than ordinary students, but still could not afford cigarettes this good, much less dare smoke them openly. Even Liu Rui and Xue Yiyang would swipe a few from their fathers when a craving struck. Material comforts really were scarce.
He tossed a cigarette toward Su Can, but his shaking hand sent it onto the ground. Su Can smiled, picked it up, brushed off the dust, and sniffed it gently, remaining where he stood.
Thinking Su Can could not bear to smoke it, the young man grew even smugger. "Good stuff, huh? You don't get to smoke these!" Even by the standards of the time, Su Can's clothes looked decidedly plain.
"Can you walk? Go get checked at the hospital. Don't let this leave you with any lasting damage."
The other boy clearly had not expected Su Can to speak so dispassionately after witnessing a beating that would have left an ordinary person weak at the knees.
He shifted. His body hurt badly, but he was all right. He had been in plenty of fights since childhood and could take a beating. Besides, the attackers had not dared strike his vital areas. Though they had swung their clubs viciously, his thick