My dad is the Party secretary

The math exam was followed by the lunch break. Wang Guohua casually asked Yang Rui a couple of questions, then excitedly described how it had felt to answer the questions before looking forward to reviewing other types of problems. He had only begun studying seriously in the last three or four years, most of which he had spent catching up on earlier schoolwork. Time had been tight and the results poor. He had never answered questions with anything approaching this kind of ease, and his high spirits were plain to see.

Wang Guohua talked happily all the way from the classroom to the cafeteria, from getting their food to eating it, and Yang Rui listened patiently throughout. Focusing on idle chatter was better than focusing on dry steamed buns.

Eating nothing but steamed buns without any side dishes for several days running was definitely not a diet modern people would want to attempt, yet most of the students ate with relish. Only after entering senior high school had they enjoyed an ample supply of white-flour buns in the cafeteria. Before that, they had needed to eat them alongside coarse-grain foods such as cornmeal buns.

Wang Guohua was enjoying himself, but not everyone was as patient as Yang Rui.

Before Yang Rui had finished his first bun, a returning student beside them with a face full of acne slapped the table in annoyance and snapped, "Hey, you. It was just a placement test. What are you so happy about? If you're so capable, why are you here repeating a year?"

The college entrance exam had only just ended, and Wang Guohua was still very sensitive about it. Without even turning his head, he retorted, "What, did you get in? You're already in the New Fourth Army, aren't you? What are you throwing your weight around for?"

Those words hit harder. Not only the returning students sharing the acne-faced student's table but quite a few nearby were provoked as well. A dozen or so rose in a mass, forming a semicircle that did a fair job of blocking the sunlight.

Some were already pointing fingers in his face and cursing:

"What did you say, brat?"

"Don't want to stay at Township Middle School anymore, huh?"

College admission rates were very low at the time, and students who repeated several years were everywhere. Those who got in after two or three years were therefore called the "People's Liberation Army," meaning liberation would soon arrive for them; they were the fortunate ones. The "New Fourth Army" had fought in the war against Japan, so liberation was still an indefinite distance away.

Some returning students here had been taking the entrance exam since 1978 or 1977. There were even students who had spent several years as sent-down youths and were still repeating now. Repeated failure had left them bitter and insecure, and their displeasure at hearing a fresh-faced newcomer mock them so loudly was easy to imagine.

Seeing that he had angered the crowd, Wang Guohua licked his lips and said nothing more.

Most of the returning students merely cursed, but two who shared the acne-faced student's table squeezed forward amid the confusion, clenching their fists and intending to give Wang Guohua a hard blow.

Chinese society in the 1980s was by no means as simple and kind as later accounts claimed. The impending crackdown was prompted precisely by public order nearing collapse. At the time, street thugs and hooligans were so brazen that ordinary people did not dare go out at night. Moreover, besides professional hoodlums and unemployed youths, many young people with jobs occasionally took up the role as well. Drunkenly robbing old men or groping women's breasts amid a commotion was commonplace. Things were somewhat better at school, but young men in their twenties were still bound to be hotheaded and eager to fight.

Yang Rui had, after all, seen plenty of the world. Spotting the two men with clenched fists, he immediately rose, pulled Wang Guohua back, and shielded him.

He was betting that the Yang Family's name would intimidate them.

Xizhaizi Township bordered Xibao Town. The latter had somewhat busier streets but was considerably smaller in area and population. With two generations of township Party secretaries and male relatives entrenched throughout the surrounding area, the Yang Family were thoroughly established local powers. Although Yang Rui's father and grandfather had held themselves to strict standards throughout their lives, their methods were extremely forceful. They had fought people, brought people down, and bullied people, leaving enough stories for the locals to boast about all day.

Beating Wang Guohua was a minor matter. Beating Yang Rui could be a minor matter-or a major one.

Township Middle School was a tiny place, and the students all boarded there. Everyone recognized the few officials' children, so the two returning students with clenched fists stopped immediately and looked behind them.

The acne-faced boy gave a surprised grunt and shuffled over to the pair in his cloth shoes, looking every inch a hoodlum. He pointed at Yang Rui, then at Wang Guohua, and said, "Well, Yang Rui, look at you. You dare challenge me, Yan San? Are you itching for a beating too? Move aside, or I'll beat you along with him."

Yan San was the "outlaw name" he had given himself. His real name, Hu Yanshan, was not grand enough.

Naturally, he was an official's son too. His father headed Xibao Town's power supply station. Because he always had spare cash and was willing to spend it making friends, he had plenty of influence on the local streets and was something of a little tyrant at Township Middle School.

The power supply station was one of the so-called "electricity tigers and water kings of hell." It answered to its vertical administrative hierarchy rather than the local township authorities. In those days, it was a department with considerable power: it could cut anyone's electricity at will, and the words "equipment problems" could leave you celebrating New Year by kerosene lamp. It had ample confidence even when dealing with township and town governments.

Though Yan San had not gone so far as to bully Yang Rui before, he had never thought much of this dull, bookish boy.

But the present Yang Rui was no longer that weak, almost timid fellow. His aimless years after graduation and the hardships of starting a business had tempered him. Naturally, he would not quietly step aside as the other boy expected.

He rubbed his nose and smiled. "I really am itching for a beating. Why don't you throw me a punch and satisfy the craving?"

"Ha!" The students gathered to watch the show burst into laughter. Some pulled over stools and squatted on them with buns in hand, ready to eat while watching a bloody, dusty fight.

The acne-faced boy who called himself Yan San was rather taken aback. Rubbing his chin, he smiled. "You've grown a temper, huh? Fine, I'll give you your first taste."

With that, he rolled up his sleeves as though preparing for a major fight.

As far as he remembered, that gesture alone should have been enough to make Yang Rui back down.

Several classmates who knew Yang Rui saw that a real fight was about to break out and hurried forward to stand between them and make peace.

Unfortunately, today's Yang Rui easily saw through Yan San's hesitation. He parted the people in front of him with both hands, then cupped his hands in greeting. "Everyone, I really do want Yan San to give me a taste today. Don't hold him back."

Those standing in front of him were bewildered. Cao Baoming, the tallest and biggest of them, held Yang Rui back with one hand and blocked Yan San with the other. "Don't fight, don't fight. Both of you give a little. Give a little..."

Yan San slapped Cao Baoming's hand away and pointed viciously at Yang Rui. "I'm going to beat you today. What are you going to do about it?"

Yang Rui calmly pushed Cao Baoming aside as well and stepped without hesitation in front of Yan San. "I'm letting you hit me. If you can draw blood, I won't say another word. I'll turn around and leave, and you can beat Wang Guohua however you like."

Yan San blinked, not quite understanding what was happening. Wang Guohua, Cao Baoming, and the others looked equally astonished.

"If you dare lay a hand on me today, I'll go straight to the county for an injury examination." Yang Rui's tone was even. "My second aunt's husband heads the Xibao Town police station, and my eldest cousin is on the County Criminal Police Brigade. I can tell you they'll definitely establish an injury. Then it becomes a criminal case."

Yan San scoffed. "I thought you had some real ability. You're just going to call your parents."

Yang Rui smiled. "Calling your parents is child's play. Going to prison isn't. When the time comes, I'll personally come to the interrogation room and serve you a few courses. I'm rather curious how your power-station-chief father will fish you out of the clutches of Public Security, Procuratorate, and Courts."

Vertical hierarchies had their advantages, and local authorities had their own power. The head of a power supply station might not need to ask favors, but when trouble arose, he would have no one to turn to even if he asked.

Looking into Yang Rui's icy eyes, Yan San suddenly felt a little dazed.

This wasn't how it was supposed to work!

He had thought he was playing a game of settling scores freely in the outlaw world. How had it suddenly turned into sinister political infighting?

But Yang Rui gave him no time to think. Looking around, he said, "If you need to eat, eat. If you need to sleep, sleep. Stop standing around. Having me remember your names won't do you any good."

The students watching exchanged glances and quietly dispersed.

Soon, apart from Hu Yanshan, only a few people on Yang Rui's side remained standing. Everyone else either returned to their seats or went straight back to the dormitories as though nothing had happened.

Although the top township official was now called the township Party secretary, his power was no different from that of the former commune secretary. From land and housing construction to raising pigs and farming, nothing in the township lay beyond his authority. As the saying went, "The commune secretary is a local emperor; the brigade Party secretary is a local tyrant." Under the right circumstances, these were officials who could cost people their lives. In the countryside, their words carried more weight than those of the provincial Party secretary.

The oldest students in the repeat-year class were twenty-three or twenty-four, and even the youngest were seventeen or eighteen. Though not necessarily worldly, they knew better than to bring trouble upon their families.

Yang Rui's threat was real, and no one wanted to invite that trouble.

Yan San stood dumbfounded for a long while, not knowing what to say.

He had some disreputable friends on the streets, but even the toughest of them, an ex-convict, would not dare challenge the police.

His father wielded considerable power, and people everywhere flattered him, but he was nowhere near powerful enough to control everything.

The indistinct glances from all around made Yan San even more uneasy.

He knew he could not let the stalemate continue. Putting on a roguish smile, he pointed at Yang Rui from a distance and said, "Fine, you win," then turned and left.

Wang Guohua watched until he had left the cafeteria courtyard before turning to Yang Rui in surprise. "I never thought being the Party secretary's son made you anything special before. You seem different today."

"He was trying to hit me. I wasn't trying to bully him. Once something like this is brought out into the open, of course the person who throws the first punch loses out." Yang Rui smiled and let out a breath, then drew the classmates who had stepped forward earlier down into their seats. "Let's eat first, then get some sleep. We still have three exams this afternoon. After the exams, if you have any questions, you can sit in on my study group."

The others nodded cheerfully, none of them taking it too seriously.

The tall, burly Cao Baoming, however, asked curiously, "When you said you'd send Yan San to prison, you were bluffing, right?"

"Maybe." Yang Rui's gaze drifted. As a biology graduate student who had once put hundreds of white mice to death, dissected dozens of white rabbits, and needlessly harmed countless lives, he did have something of a ruthless streak.