Chapter 43

Part two: The Allure of Business. Chapter 43: A bad name that would not wash away

When Li Zhifang came into the classroom to hold their first class meeting and asked the students to introduce themselves, Zhang Ke still had not come back to his senses.

"Zhang Ke, introduce yourself..."

"Oh." Zhang Ke raised his head and gave his name. "Zhang Ke."

"I know your name is Zhang Ke. Please introduce yourself to the whole class..."

"It's still Zhang Ke. Ke as in 'scrupulously fulfilling one's duties.' I haven't changed my name." Since he was a bad student, he might as well act like one. Zhang Ke put on an innocent look as he watched Li Zhifang's face flush red. The laughter filling the classroom gave him a real sense of having returned to his wild teenage years.

As Tang Jing turned to glare at him, Du Fei raised a fist in warning too. Zhang Ke stretched his mouth into a grin, expressing surprise.

After that lesson, Li Zhifang's eyes often automatically filtered Zhang Ke out: he had fought with upperclassmen as soon as he entered school-or rather, bullied upperclassmen. His words and conduct were frivolous, and he had no regard whatsoever for the school or its teachers. Wasn't he just throwing his weight around because his father was the Municipal Government Secretary-General? Who knew how he had managed to get those high school entrance exam scores? By comparison, Du Fei, also the son of a high-ranking official, was much more disciplined.

That was exactly what Zhang Ke wanted, so he could enjoy some peace. Otherwise, as a good student singled out for special attention by the school and his homeroom teacher, his personal freedom would be severely restricted.

After the class meeting, Li Zhifang called Tang Jing, Du Fei, and the other five class committee members to her office. Once the textbooks were handed out and the subject teachers had shown their faces in the classroom, there would be nothing else to do that day.

Zhang Ke left the classroom and walked to Class 12. If history had not changed course, he should have been sitting in that room. With his chin resting on his hand, he gazed at the familiar faces inside, deeply moved. Having attended different universities and worked in different places, by the time Zhang Ke had been working for six or seven years, the ties between his high school classmates had grown as faint and elusive as white clouds on the horizon. Yet taking another careful look at those familiar faces, he still felt a sense of warmth.

He did not know who spotted him first, but the noisy classroom suddenly fell silent. Everyone looked toward him, and several boys even stood up in challenge. Zhang Ke could not help laughing. He was no longer a student in Class 12. Returning to 1994 did not mean everything went his way. He still had feelings for these people, but they treated him as a stranger.

Really, he should not have made trouble for Li Zhifang in class. Looking back on his life before reloading his save, few teachers had treated him fairly. She would soon be forced to leave No. 1 High School too, wouldn't she?

Chen Feirong's figure had barely appeared in the doorway of the next classroom before she ducked back inside. Could she be avoiding me? Zhang Ke wondered. He walked over and saw Chen Feirong moving inward from the window. Presumably, she had just been watching him through the glass.

"Hi." Zhang Ke leaned on the windowsill and called out to Chen Feirong. Her fair, delicate face was lovely and unworldly, but she looked rather uneasy as she watched him. Zhang Ke smiled. "I'm not going to eat you. There's no need to hide from me, is there?"

"I'm not hiding from you. This is my seat."

Chen Feirong sat down sideways and made a show of picking up a book from her desk, no longer looking at Zhang Ke. Her features were expressive, yet in profile they had the still, frozen beauty of a sculpture: long eyelashes, a straight nose, beautifully shaped lips, rosy and full, and a rounded chin, her creamy, jade-white skin extending all the way beneath her collar, making one unable to resist wanting to see what lay inside.

Although she wore ordinary synthetic-fiber clothes, with neither an appealing color nor pattern, they did nothing to diminish her delicate beauty.

"My name is Zhang Ke." Zhang Ke saw that although Chen Feirong was turning the pages, her long, upturned lashes fluttered in alarm. He had not expected her impression of him to be so bad. "I just wanted you to know my name is Zhang Ke. Ke as in 'scrupulously fulfilling one's duties'..."

At those words, Chen Feirong suddenly covered her face with the book and bent over her desk, her shoulders shaking as though she were quietly sobbing. Zhang Ke was startled. He did not think he had done anything so excessive.

"How can you do this? Just because your family has power and influence, you think you can bully her and insist that Chen Feirong go out with you?" A girl in the row ahead turned and glared fiercely at Zhang Ke, exposing her buck teeth.

Chen Feirong had probably become frightened by Zhao Siming's harassment, which was why she reacted so strongly. Compared with everyone else in Senior Year Class 1, who remained silent, the bucktoothed girl had a rare and admirable sense of justice, even if she had caught him in the crossfire.

Zhang Ke smiled and said to Bucktooth Girl, "My name is Zhang Ke. Interested in being friends?" His words made Chen Feirong, who was crying over her desk, pause, but the bucktoothed girl rolled her eyes at him, clearly uninterested in a "villain" like him.

Zhang Ke figured he still needed to pick another fight with Zhao Siming to make him give up on Chen Feirong completely. Remembering that he was in Senior Year Class 6, Zhang Ke wandered past his classroom a few times but did not see him.

Haizhou No. 1 Middle School, a provincial key school, was different from other second- and third-rate schools. The only students who dared compete for dominance and get into scuffles and fights in public were those with power and influence. Ordinary students had worked hard to get into No. 1 High School and would not dare break school rules lightly. It was among the lowly that men ready to stand up for justice were found; at a second- or third-rate school, Zhang Ke would certainly have gathered a group of fighters around him before daring to act so arrogantly.

Seeing Du Fei, Tang Jing, and the other class committee members entering the classroom with stacks of books-textbooks and study guides for every first-year subject-Zhang Ke turned and went downstairs to avoid being shut in the classroom wasting time. He went to the little shop behind the teaching building and picked up a pack of Yunyan and a lighter.

Apart from cigarettes and alcohol, which were sold to teachers, everything in the school shop cost at least fifty percent more than at convenience stores outside.

The shop, which covered less than twenty square meters, was contracted out anew every year. Zhang Ke thought Wang Yanbin certainly knew how to rake in money. The extra fifty percent the shop charged students probably all flowed into his pockets.

Classes were in session, and the campus was quiet. The September sunshine no longer had the scorching heat of midsummer. Zhang Ke sat on a long stone bench in the shade of a tree, took out a cigarette, and held it between his lips, carefully inhaling the familiar scent of tobacco: faint, soothing to the nerves, and harboring a deep sadness. He lit the cigarette and closed his eyes, pondering everything that had happened over the past month and a half. Although he had returned to 1994, the world was no longer the same. Tang Xueqian had become deputy Party secretary and acting mayor, and his father had become the Municipal Government Secretary-General. Although Tang Jing was fond of lecturing him, deep down she probably depended on him. He was even in a different class at No. 1 High School. From now on, his life would probably be different.

Zhang Ke let the smoke slowly spread through his abdomen, then slowly breathed it out. Sensing someone standing in front of him, he opened his eyes. It was Cao Guangming, director of the Political Education Office, with a grave look in his eyes. Zhang Ke froze, then instinctively flicked out a cigarette with his fingers and offered it to him. Only when he held it before Cao Guangming and saw the immense bewilderment and surprise in his eyes did Zhang Ke snap out of it. What am I doing? He's the director of the Political Education Office! How could I put him on the spot like this?

Zhang Ke's hand stopped there. He did not know whether to withdraw it or urge him to take the cigarette.

Seven or eight students stood behind Cao Guangming, each carrying a tall stack of books. They had been called over to move the new books, and they were all dumbstruck. The top man among the Four Young Masters really was no ordinary fucking character! In the eyes of ordinary students, the director of the Political Education Office was even more terrifying than the principal.

Cao Guangming's nostrils twitched, and his face showed some embarrassment. He remembered what Li Zhifang had said in the office yesterday. At first, he had not believed Zhang Ke would act so outrageously just after entering the school. He had not expected to find himself put on the spot so soon. Remembering the rumors circulating in the city about the Municipal Government Secretary-General hosting a banquet and the mayor toasting him, he accepted the cigarette despite his unpleasant expression and said in a lowered voice, "At your age, you should smoke less." Then he turned and strode away.

The seven or eight students stood stunned for a good while. Only when Cao Guangming stopped ahead and turned to stare at them did they come to their senses. Even after reaching the walkway in front of the teaching building, they kept looking back at Zhang Ke.

Zhang Ke was filled with regret too. After this, there was no way he could go back to being a good student. He tossed the pack of Yunyan, with only two cigarettes gone, into a trash can and made up his mind to quit smoking.