Beating someone up

Qin An exchanged a few words with Junzi over the phone, then hung up...

Zhu Wenliang was still pondering what Qin An had said on the phone had to do with "I can't go where they're eating" when Qin An thanked him and ran out of his office...

Qin An was in the habit of running. Perhaps many people had never consciously considered that the unrestrained exuberance of youth lay in just such differences in their strides. Even people in their twenties, in their prime, did not have quite so much energy to squander as recklessly as teenagers did...

He kept watch from the corridor, only timing his departure from school once he saw Junzi approaching in the distance. It was still well before dismissal, and there were few people at the school gate. Anything that happened would draw little attention...

Junzi had gotten into trouble with the law, and Secretary Tang had gotten him out. Who knew whether Secretary Tang and Qi Mei had developed feelings because of that connection, or whether Secretary Tang had gotten Junzi out because of his relationship with Qi Mei...

None of that concerned Qin An. Junzi had served in the military. Before becoming Secretary Tang's driver, he had been a tough character in Qingshan Town. He had not formed a gang, but he could still settle plenty of problems for people. His fighting skills spoke for themselves. Someone like Zhu Hongzhi had not thought much of Junzi, but would not provoke him either. Now that Zhu Hongzhi was behind bars, Junzi had grown even more low-key. He knew he had to stay out of trouble while working for Secretary Tang, but dealing with these petty problems of Qin An's posed no difficulty at all...

With Junzi approaching behind him, Qin An took on something of the swagger of someone borrowing another man's power. He strode straight behind the wall, head held high. He actually felt as though he and Junzi were the ones cornering the other five...

Tu Gang was smoking with four high school students. They stared in astonishment as Qin An approached from the front...

They probably had not expected Qin An to discover them lying in wait here, much less dare to walk over...

"Heh, Qin, you've got some nerve!" Tu Gang tossed away his cigarette, sneered, and stood up from the rear rack of his mountain bike...

"Got it fixed?" Qin An cast a sidelong glance at his mountain bike's tires...

"Tu Gang, this kid's pretty cocky. No wonder you wanted to teach him a lesson..."

"Just looking at him makes me want to punch him!"

The four high school students stood up too, surrounding Qin An...

"From now on... stay out of things between me and Li Xinlan, and we'll call it even. Otherwise, you've seen for yourself-I can get people to beat you so badly your own mother won't recognize you whenever I want!" Tu Gang tapped Qin An's chest with his finger, then jabbed hard enough to push him back several steps. With every advantage on his side here, he was indescribably full of himself...

Unconcerned, Qin An brushed his chest, took out a hundred-yuan note bearing Mao's portrait, and waved it before the high school students. "You lot, take the money and go have fun somewhere else. Don't go copying people and hanging around school gates to ambush someone when you've got nothing to do. Is it that much fun?"

A hundred yuan. Looking at the note, they exchanged glances, their eyes lighting up with desire. An ordinary worker's monthly income was only a few hundred at the time, after all. A hundred yuan was no small sum to them. Tu Gang had only promised to take them to the arcade for a while in return for coming along...

"He told you to go have fun somewhere else. Didn't you hear him?" Junzi's gloomy voice rang out...

"Brother Jun!"

They turned around and saw Junzi, their faces stiffening. Sheepishly, they took Qin An's money and ran off without even looking at Tu Gang...

They were all final-year high school students. Exposed to the mixed crowd at No. 2 Middle School, they knew that Junzi was one of the town's tough characters. Someone from the streets like him was not a person students like them could afford to get involved with...

They were only casual friends with Tu Gang anyway, and could not quite bring themselves to stoop to becoming the obedient lackeys of a first-year student below them. Running away now left them with no dilemma over loyalty...

"What I hate most is people dragging my mother into things..." Taking advantage of the moment when Tu Gang was distracted, staring at Junzi in astonishment, Qin An suddenly swung a fist into his nose. Sneak attacks came easily to him...

"You dare hit me!" Qin An was quite strong, and had practically jumped into the punch. It sent Tu Gang staggering. His lips tasted something metallic-he was actually bleeding...

"Brother Jun, hold him down for me. I'll do the hitting!"

Junzi did not hesitate. He twisted Tu Gang's arms behind his back, drove a knee into him, and pinned him to the ground...

Qin An showed even less restraint. He tore off a strip of Tu Gang's shirt and stuffed it into his mouth, then kicked him hard in the cleft of his buttocks, as though afraid he might fail to give him an anal fissure...

Fists and feet rained down. Qin An aimed for the fleshy parts of Tu Gang's body. He had no intention of seriously injuring him, though a bruised and swollen face was unavoidable...

Watching Qin An beat him with such ferocity and glee, even Junzi was dumbfounded. Only when Qin An stopped to catch his breath and called it quits did he laugh and say, "Aren't you bullying him a bit too much? Making him take a beating without even letting him fight back..."

"What else can I do? Could I beat him without your help?"

Tu Gang had not yet done anything heinous, but Qin An would not feel guilty over this either. If he had not stopped Tu Gang from pestering Li Xinlan, what would have become of her?

In Qin An's memories, his greatest regret was that he had either missed his chance with or lost the people who mattered most in his life. Given another chance, whenever those sorrowful, dark events in his memories might happen and change someone's life, he would do everything he could to prevent them, without worrying about whether they really would happen again...

He was beating Tu Gang because Tu Gang might affect Li Xinlan. At first hearing, that seemed rather unreasonable, condemning someone for something that had not happened...

But if he waited until Tu Gang had already affected Li Xinlan, turning that innocent young girl gloomy, would beating him then still mean anything?

That was Qin An's logic. Perhaps only someone who had been given another chance would consider that logic right. The reason he beat Tu Gang so viciously was precisely that the possible consequences were serious, so the punishment he dealt him was correspondingly severe...

"Come on, let's take him home..." Qin An motioned for Junzi to release Tu Gang...

"Isn't that going too far?" Beating someone up, then having the attackers escort their victim home was hardly an act of kindness. It showed utter contempt. Even Junzi felt that Qin An was leaving absolutely no room to maneuver...

"You think this is over? I beat Tu Gang up. Won't he find someone to get me back? Can you follow me around every day, Brother Jun? So we need to settle this once and for all..."

Qin An and Junzi dragged Tu Gang out from the corner of the wall. By then, he was dazed with fear. He had never expected Qin An to be so ruthless!

Coming out from the corner, Qin An saw Zhao Weiguo...

Zhao Weiguo had seen Qin An surrounded by Tu Gang and the others and hidden to one side, gloating as he waited to watch Qin An get beaten up. Instead, Tu Gang had been the one beaten. The ferocity with which Qin An had attacked, as though unafraid of beating someone to death, left Zhao Weiguo standing there with his legs weak...

"What are you staring at? Never seen someone get beaten up?" Qin An patted Zhao Weiguo's cheek, then reached back to haul Tu Gang along, paying no mind to the fright he had given this model student's tender young soul...