Playing Hardball

The Rui Study Group pressed on, following a similar routine to visit all six teachers in the dormitory area, then headed down the hill in a grand procession to visit another four teachers living in Xibao Town.

The entire Xibao Town area was stirred up.

Apart from New Year, the place had not been this lively for some time.

With the first string of firecrackers, children began following the Rui Study Group, then young people and adults joined in, trailing along to watch them visit the teachers of Xibao Middle School.

And so, through word of mouth among the onlookers, the names of Xibao Middle School's teachers quickly became familiar.

Liu Guangrong.

Feng Sha.

Zhuang Musheng.

In this age of limited access to information, newspapers and radio were the only public media available to them. Beyond those, people had only gossip and stories for entertainment.

Forums, QQ, WeChat, self-published media-none of them existed in this era. Even televisions were pitifully scarce, and there were very few programs.

Which teachers at the local middle school were better than the others was a good story in itself.

By the end, so many onlookers had gathered that the town government and police station were alerted. Several police officers arrived with handcuffs before they finally managed to break up the procession-like crowd.

Fortunately, the police chief was Yang Rui's uncle by marriage. After giving Yang Rui a brief lecture, he let them go back.

The momentum had been built, and Yang Rui needed to do nothing more. The Rui Study Group members called out to one another and headed back, but the excitement in town was only just beginning.

Quite a few people went to the teachers' homes to say hello. People in the same town were already linked by family ties of one sort or another, so finding an excuse to chat was easy indeed.

Whether they had received a visit or not, the teachers were all delighted.

Discovering that what one did had meaning was exciting in itself. Soldiers could hold high outposts on meager allowances, Chinese scientists could resolutely give up comfortable conditions abroad to return home, and revolutionaries could risk their lives to fight for their ideals...

Money would not be life's only driving force, but doing something meaningful-or rather, giving meaning to what one did-was an essential source of motivation in life.

Yang Rui knew better than anyone what these teachers working in rural towns needed.

In fact, even the teachers who had not been treated to firecrackers and bows watched the scene unfolding before them with smiles.

By the time all the ceremonies were over and they returned to Xibao Middle School, it was evening. Yang Rui had someone fetch ten cans of meat to add to the Rui Study Group's lavish dinner.

Now that he had firmly established the Rui Study Group's image, he no longer worried about what people might say.

More than fifty Rui Study Group members, along with over twenty eager prospective members, occupied a corner of the cafeteria, eating with greasy mouths and high spirits.

So much worth discussing had happened over the past month. For these teenagers, such topics were simply fascinating.

Su Yi had placed Shao Liang against the wall. It was rather stuffy, but Shao Liang still did his best not to attract anyone's attention, keeping to himself as he ate the bowl of noodles allotted to him. So many hot-blooded young students were definitely not people he wanted to provoke.

After a while, Yang Rui came over with his noodles, sat opposite him, and asked, "Any thoughts?"

"You have more meat in your bowl than I do."

Yang Rui looked down at the braised pork in his bowl, picked up a piece, and chewed it happily. "Until you join the Rui Study Group, you're pretty much being treated as a prisoner. You're lucky to get meat broth, and you want meat too?"

"What if I join the Rui Study Group, then?" Shao Liang asked without meaning it. Selling jeans earned him over a hundred yuan a week, with at least six or seven hundred yuan in profit each month. Eating meat was naturally no problem.

If his father had not stubbornly insisted that he study, Shao Liang would have dropped out and gone into business long ago. Still, everything that had happened today had taken him by surprise. He kept finding it rather strange and wanted all the more to hear what Yang Rui thought.

"You can't join the Rui Study Group just because you feel like it. Applying now would be like switching sides in 1949. Meat would still be unlikely, but at least you'd get enough to eat." Yang Rui was in quite a good mood, his voice clear and bright, drawing laughter from several people nearby.

Shao Liang did not get angry at the teasing. "Put that way, wouldn't the outcome be the same whether I switched sides or not?"

"Of course not. But now that you're in my hands, isn't it up to me to decide what you do?" Yang Rui narrowed his eyes. She had also spent some time today considering how to deal with Shao Liang and ultimately decided that playing hardball would be best.

Stories about melting a rebellious teenager's heart with warmth were popular with middle-aged women when made into television dramas, but Yang Rui was not a character in a television drama.

He had plenty to do and was certainly no education expert. He only intended to help Shao Liang because of his promise to Engineer Shao and his wish to help his eldest maternal uncle.

Yang Rui really had no inclination to explore Shao Liang's inner thoughts. He merely intended to tutor him.

When the scholars and great Confucian masters of old taught their students, they had not tiptoed around like Westerners, walking on eggshells for fear that one careless move might leave a child psychologically scarred. Chinese people had not begun spoiling their children until the late eighties, at the earliest. Lads Shao Liang's age were tough, every last one of them.

So, under Shao Liang's doubtful gaze, Yang Rui ordered, "Starting tomorrow, you'll study at Xibao Middle School. You've met the teachers. At least they're conscientious and responsible. The Rui Study Group holds lessons at noon and in the afternoon every day, and you'll attend those too. Then, during evening study, you'll finish the homework assigned each day. You can just stay at school. You'll sleep in... Su Yi, do you have any bunks left in your dorm?"

"Yes. If there aren't enough, I'll drag another bunk bed back." Su Yi briskly wiped his mouth and grinned at Shao Liang with ill intent.

A light went on in Shao Liang's mind. "If I don't go home, my dad will definitely worry..."

"I'll call him."

"You can't explain it properly over the phone. Besides, I haven't brought anything..."

"I'll have your dad bring it. Just make do tonight."

"I don't want to study at Xibao Middle School. I still have classmates at my school."

"Then there's nothing to be done." Yang Rui had the air of a pyramid scheme ringleader. As long as you kept people from leaving and made them attend classes, you could brainwash even a university student into an illiterate, not to mention that he had Engineer Shao's authority backing him.

Shao Liang was fairly clever. Seeing this, he set down his bowl and said, "Whatever you say, I'm not going to study. I won't listen in class, and I certainly won't answer the exam questions properly. Even if you let me go, it'll still be a waste of time."

"Not listening in class or answering questions on exams would indeed be a bit of a problem." Yang Rui rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful.

Shao Liang began trying to persuade him instead. "You might as well let me go now..."

"If you won't listen, you can copy things out." Yang Rui suddenly cut him off. "Let's start with English vocabulary. Copy each word a hundred times. Ten words in the morning, ten at noon, and ten at night. Keep that up for a month, and adding several hundred words to your vocabulary won't be a problem. Then copy a dozen or so compositions. Scoring forty or fifty in English probably won't be difficult..."

Shao Liang panicked. "What's the point of copying that stuff? Besides, if I don't answer properly on the exam, you still won't have anything to show for it."

"I'm repaying your father's favor. I don't need anything to show for it." Yang Rui paused, then added, "I'll keep the notebooks you copy the words into. When I show them to your dad, he'll understand."

"I won't copy." Shao Liang brought out his ultimate weapon.

Yang Rui gestured toward Su Yi with his lips. "You two will form a study team. If you don't copy, copy badly, don't copy enough, or write messily, it'll all be Su Yi's fault."

He patted Shao Liang's head. "I suggest you pay attention while you copy. It'll work better that way. Of course, if you don't want to, I won't force you. As long as someone isn't an idiot, copying a word a hundred times will get it into his head."

Shao Liang was dumbfounded. Only after a long while did he say, "Doing this is wasting my chance to make money."

"Working for yourself in 1982? As a minor, too?" Yang Rui glanced at him. "More likely than not, I'm wasting certain law enforcement officers' chance to make money... I think it's safer to put it off for a year or two and finish high school before deciding what to do with your life."

"I don't want to play it safe..." Shao Liang stiffened his neck.

Yang Rui waved a hand. "I'm not your dad. I can't concern myself with all that. Copy vocabulary for two weeks first. Then I'll call your dad over, and you can talk it out yourselves."

Shao Liang shouted angrily, only to be smacked back down by Su Yi.

Yang Rui stretched and inwardly shook his head. He was pessimistic about public safety and the legal system as they stood. People in later years looked at businessmen in the eighties and saw only how easily they made money, without noticing the hostile business environment. Quite apart from business activities having no protection, any leader's sudden brainstorm could turn something legal into something illegal. Many institutions and individuals held unchecked power. State-owned enterprises and administrative departments alike could punish merchants directly. Organized crime went without saying; sometimes a single village had two or three gangs.

Although such chaos offered chances to fish in troubled waters, it also magnified business risks without limit. Making it successfully through the eighties was truly no easy task.

Yang Rui glanced at Shao Liang from a distance, casually took out pen and paper, and began drawing up a new teaching plan. At the same time, he began considering how to incorporate his tutoring course into the school's regular curriculum.