CH 2

The boy nearest to him heard this and stood stunned. Then he laughed crazily, as if it was the funniest thing he’d heard all year.

The boys behind him also broke into gales of laughter.

Yan Hang didn’t mind. It was a pretty funny line to say.

But he wasn’t here to joke around.

He raised his hand and whacked the boy across the face.

There was no warning, no hesitation.

“Baobei [1], when you fight, don’t give your opponent any chances, or you’ll be at a disadvantage,” his royal father once told him.

[1] Baobei (宝贝, pronounced baw-oh bay), can be translated into “baby” in English, and while used endearingly, as it is in English, it’s not necessarily romantic in Chinese– it’s a bit more lighthearted, hence the romanisation, since “baby” seems a bit weird for a father to say to a son.

So when the boy fell at his feet, the laughter had yet to subside from his face.

They were all young men. Though the collapse of the laughing boy shocked them, everyone reacted swiftly.

Yan Hang grabbed the wrist of the one attacking him with the half-bottle.

Grab him. Press his joint. Twist.

They didn’t have money for fees or equipment when Dad taught him these moves, so he learnt them directly from him. Experiencing the pain of having his hand yanked behind his back and then pushed, or of his arm being pulled from his body, turned him into a kungfu wunderkind. He picked it up quickly.

He twisted Lowlife Number Two’s arm behind his back and pushed him towards Lowlife Number Three. Number Two wailed at Number Three.

His wail was so miserable, Number Three simply gave him a wide-eyed stare.

Yan Hang let go and kicked Number Two’s lower back. Number Two grabbed Number Three and they tumbled to the ground.

The remaining two came at him together. His dad used to say, if someone runs toward you with open arms like they’re asking for a hug, don’t turn them down.

So Yan Hang didn’t. He launched a fist into the stomach of the one on the right, then blocked the swing from the one on the left and shoved his left shoulder. The two retreated.

Frankly, whenever he fought with talentless hacks like these, Yan Hang felt like a master of the martial arts.

It took less than three minutes to deal with this heap of trash. If they hadn’t kicked his protagonist earlier, he wouldn’t have even raised his legs.

With his two shoulders and two fists, they were almost finished. Now that he used his legs, the boys rose and stood where they were, hoping someone would flee first for them to follow. But they were all thinking the same thing.

They looked like strangers exchanging looks at a cocktail party.

“Whatever,” someone said at long last. “Let’s go.”

It was meant to be a game, since the protagonist never fought back. Now that they had an actual opponent, the bunch of them didn’t feel like fighting anymore.

Yet as they left, the first assailant decided that he couldn’t let himself be embarrassed like that. He added, “Just you wait, I’ll come looking for you.”

“Where’ll you look?” Yan Hang laughed.

The boy stared at him awkwardly.

“How about I give you my address,” Yan Hang said as he rummaged through his pocket. “Got a pen and paper?”

This taunt rekindled the fight in the retreating boys. They pushed up their sleeves, eager to resume.

“What’s goin’ on here!” came a sharp female voice. “You bunch o’ good-for-nothin’s! Didn’t nobody raise you when you came out yer ma’s crack…”

The boys stopped. Their expressions of anger quickly changed into ones of contempt and disgust. Even Yan Hang, who had grown up amongst the dregs of society, was shocked by her words.

He turned and saw an old lady with a head of permed curls and a ghastly pale face.

She looked like she’d put on quite a bit of powder, eyebrows too. Compared to her words, Yan Hang was more terrified of her hideous makeup.

He swore to God that the granny did her makeup without a mirror. Her left eyebrow stretched from the point the right eyebrow should have started to the edge of the left side of her face – it was nothing but an abrupt jet black streak of squiggle. Since the left one took too much space, the right eyebrow started right in the middle of her natural right brow and appeared as just a faint streak.

Such a creepy but distinct look was too much for Yan Hang. All he could fathom in his mind were those… peculiar eyebrows.

“The hell you lookin’ at!? Feeling lucky that you got eyes huh?!” The old lady screeched, glaring at him with her mismatched eyebrows.

Only then did Yan Hang realise the lowlives had long escaped and it was just him and Mr. Protagonist at the scene.

Before he even had the chance to regain his senses to decide his next action, the granny’s attention shifted again.

“Loser!” She pointed at our dear protagonist.

Mr. Protagonist didn’t acknowledge her and stayed silent as he turned and left, swinging his bag over his back.

“Where the hell are ya goin’?!” She roared again and grabbed him by the arm. “I’m talkin’ to you!”

Yet, he continued to stay silent, only stepping away in an attempt to shake her grip.

“Did you get beat up again?!” The lady’s voice was always pretty loud. The streets were usually quite busy around this time of the day, so it didn’t take long for them to attract spectators. But compared to before, she couldn’t care less about how many were watching.

Yan Hang wanted to leave, but since he had declared the kid to be under his protection, it would be a bit too much if he were to run away the moment the granny arrived.

He had no choice but to stand there.

“Useless! I’ll be seeing your teacher about this later! And your principal! What the hell is this?!” The old lady continued, loudly. “They’re gonna regret it until they kneel before me!”

Yan Hang changed his mind immediately and decided to leave.

He vowed he would start protecting him tomorrow.

It was much too excruciating to stand there doing nothing. He turned around and retrieved his phone. A few lines of “…” flew across the screen.

He ended the stream and put his phone back in his pocket.

Before he crossed the street to go home, he glanced back at the protagonist.

Surprisingly, the kid no longer had that calm expression on his face.

Instead, his eyebrows were furrowed.

Yan Hang quickened his pace and hurried home.

However, even after arriving home, he stayed by the window to continue his watch.

The old lady was probably Mr. Protagonist’s grandmother. Seeing how she was able to change the protagonist’s expression so easily, the wiggle-browed lady must be quite the character.

Five minutes later, the old lady’s voice, which had carried indoors from the street, finally disappeared.

The protagonist stood in the same spot. Though he looked a bit miserable, he continued to face Yan Hang, silently staring.

Yan Hang leapt over the window sill and jumped out for the second time.

It was only when he landed that he realised he could’ve walked out the door.

The old lady must’ve scared the wits out of him.

Yan Hang crossed the road slowly. He stopped in front of the protagonist and removed his mask.

Only now could he take a close, proper look at the child.

His height was definitely one of the reasons he was bullied, but he looked quite decent, especially compared to the old granny earlier.

“Looking for me?” Yan Hang asked.

The protagonist glanced at him, silent.

“I meant what I said earlier.” Yan Hang pointed at the building behind him.

“I live over there. You can look for me if you need me.”

The protagonist glanced at him again, smiling, but still silent.

This smile bewildered Yan Hang. Even his dark eyes were smiling, as if nothing had happened — or perhaps, as if all that had happened had no effect on him.

As if his life had always been this way.

“What’s your name?” Yan Hang asked.

Mr. Protagonist looked at him and remained quiet, as if he’d forgotten. Just when Yan Hang was about to say “to hell with protecting you anyway” and leave, he finally wrenched his mouth open and said: “Ch-chu… Chu Yi [2].”

[2] Chū Yī means the first year of lower secondary education. Chu Yi (初一) is pronounced Choo Yee.

“What?” Yan Hang blinked, stunned. The stutter was probably the second reason he was bullied. Maybe the next one was his low IQ. “I asked for your name, not your grade.”

“Ch-chu er,” said the protagonist. Lower secondary, Year Two.

Yan Hang stared at him.

He stared right back.

After a long moment, Yan Hang finally got on his level. He sighed. “I get it. Your name is Chu Yi, you’re in your second year. That right?”

“Mhm.” The protagonist nodded, looking relieved.

“And those idiots earlier, they’re your classmates?” asked Yan Hang.

“Mm.” Chu Yi continued to nod.

“And the old woman?” Yan Hang asked. He didn’t ask why he was bullied – Yan Hang could figure it out himself, and sometimes there was no reason anyway.

“My…” Chu Yi’s face darkened; after a pause he mumbled, “grandmother.”

“Oh,” Yan Hang responded. There was nothing left to say. He waved. “Okay, you head home then. I’m gonna eat.”

“Your n… name.” He was almost ten metres away when Chu Yi unhurriedly spoke. “Your n-name i-i-i…”

“Yan Hang.” Yan Hang turned back and interrupted.

“Y-y-yan…” Chu Yi nodded.

“Hang. Yan Hang.”

Chu Yi smiled.

“See ya.” Yan Hang turned and kept walking.

By the time Chu Yi reached home, his grandmother was already back, hugging their sixteen-year-old dog on the couch and watching TV.

Mum was back too, darkly cooking in the kitchen.

“Wash the vegetables,” she said without looking up when he walked in.

“Mm.” Chu Yi put his bag down.

“Piece o’ shit. Never thinks nothin’, don’t do jack unless you ask him to,” said Nana.

Chu Yi quietly walked into the kitchen and began to wash the vegetables.

“Real piece o’ shit!” Outside the kitchen, his grandmother raised her voice.

“Got beaten up today! I was gonna tell the school but he didn’t let me! Shit!”

“He’s ashamed because you’ll make a scene,” said Mum.

“So what if I do.” Nana walked to the kitchen door, dog in arms. “So what if I do! Nobody messes with me when I make a scene, aight!”

“Go watch TV!” Mum raised her voice back.

Chu Yi stared wordlessly at the vegetables in his hands. He washed them swiftly and placed them on the countertop, then left the kitchen and went to his room.

He didn’t actually have his own room. It was just a sofa bed and a basic cloth wardrobe in the corner of his grandparents’ bedroom.

He wanted to do his homework in the living room since his desk was there, but he wasn’t too keen since his grandmother was in there too.

“Ain’t you doing your homework today?!” she yelled from the living room.

Chu Yi didn’t reply, he just quietly walked into the living room and sat down. Pulling a book from his bag and switching the desk lamp on, he slumped onto the table and began to write.

But his full-bodied performance didn’t shut his grandmother up.

“Don’t think I can’t tell, you ingrate! Hidin’ from me! You wanna go to your dad’s parents, go ahead!” She lit a cigarette and took two puffs. “We feed you, we take care of you, but you wanna go work on someone else’s farm. Thankless wretch!”

His paternal grandfather didn’t own fields for farming. He only had a few pots of vegetables planted on the balcony. Chu Yi liked that little veggie garden. He would help water it all the time, and his grandmother didn’t like it.

But an ingrate… guess she wasn’t wrong. He was closer to his dad’s parents.

To Nana, he’s nothing but an ingrate.

“Dinner time!” Mum walked out from the kitchen and sat down on the sofa.

Chu Yi put down his pen and went to set up the table. He didn’t sit down to eat until after helping his mum and Nana with their servings of rice.

“Is his dad still out?” Nana asked.

“He said the crew’s still busy.” replied Mum.

“He’s just a driver. Quit trying to sound like a secretary,” Nana mumbled with a cigarette between her lips.

“Don’t smoke during dinner!” Chu Yi’s mom raised her voice.

“Buy me a strip of cigarettes after you finish eating,” Nana pressed the cigarette onto the table, putting it out [3].

[3] One strip of cigarettes is equivalent to 10 packets, or 200 cigarettes.

She was asking Chu Yi to do it, so he nodded. He grabbed the ashtray, picked up the cigarette head, and cleaned the ashes away. He tried to get rid of the burn mark on the table by rubbing it with his finger. It didn’t work.

The table wasn’t the only furniture that had burn marks on it. Any sort of flat surface in this house – on the coffee table, the armrest, you name it – had burn marks from Nana’s cigarettes.

“You shouldn’t smoke so much. That’s how you’ll die.” Mum commented.

“It’s my own money. I know you’ve lost your job, so I’m using my pension!”

Nana snatched her fabric bag, took out a 100RMB note and slammed it in front of Chu Yi. “Take it and buy me some smokes!”

Chu Yi took the money and stood up.

“After dinner.” His mum stopped him.

“Eat.” Nana picked up some food with her chopsticks and threw it onto the ground for the dog.

Chu Yi sat down again and continued to eat in silence.

“Er Ping forced me to go shopping with them today,” Mum stated as she nibbled on her food, “it was so annoying.”

“Where did you go?” Questioned Nana.

“Where else? They’re only interested in shops like Louis Vuitton.” She wasn’t amused. “They’re rubbing it in my face on purpose. I told them I didn’t want to go, but they forced me anyway.”

“They’ve got nothing but a few more pennies than we do! They’re acting like they’re the fuckin’ royal family!” Nana spat, “won’t be long until they spend it all!”

Chu Yi stuffed his face with food, desperate to get out of the house as soon as possible.

“She said she bought a gift for Chu Yi too. Told her I could give it to him, but she said she’d do it herself,” Mum continued. “God knows what she’s plotting.”

“Finding satisfaction from other people’s kids because she can’t have one probably.” Nana sounded quite delighted as she said that. “Trust me, with that fat ass of hers, she ain’t gonna have no kid.”

Chu Yi finished his bowl of rice, took a few sips of the soup, and left the house with Nana’s money.

It was a bit chilly outside, but he found it comfortable. Even his breathing evened out.

This was why he would always go out for a run after he finished his homework every night. Nine of the ten streep lamps would be faulty, and Chu Yi liked the sense of security the darkness gave him.

He was outside early today, so there were still quite a few people walking about. He walked close to the edges of the wall to avoid being seen.

It was a bit of a challenge since he had to buy cigarettes. Luckily, he was the only customer in the store when he arrived.

“For your grandmother?” the shop owner asked.

“Yeah.” Chu Yi handed him the money.

The shop owner took the money and went to grab the cigarettes for him.

“Your grandmother hasn’t changed a single bit. One brand, twenty years.”

“Dedicated.” Chu Yi nodded.

The shop owner smiled as he put the cigarettes in a bag for him. Chu Yi took the bag and kept sticking to the walls as he made his way home.

Up until he reached the riverbank.

You could call it a river, but it was too narrow. Several stone benches were built around the bank, but rarely would anyone come here. It was too cold during winter, and too smelly during other seasons.

Chu Yi would only see one person every twenty times he visited.

For him, it was the perfect place.

He came here often. There was a tree hollow here that was his, and his only for the past ten years.

It was a genuine tree hollow.

There was a pagoda tree next to the river with a hole in its trunk.

When he was little, he had to step on a root to reach it; now he had to bend over to fit his face into the hole. Over the years, Chu Yi had spoken many of his little secrets and hopes into the tree.

The little secrets were mostly forgotten; the hopes never came true.

Perhaps it was because of the rancid river water.

Chu Yi looked around. Seeing no one, he bent down and tucked his head into the tree hole, closing his eyes.

Since few people ever passed by, and the tree hole faced a wall, it was fairly clean. There were no strange odours, just the fragrance of wood.

“I d-don’t want to g-go to school,” Chu Yi said in a soft and slow voice. “I want to g-go elsewhere, t-to work o-or t-travel, but…”

He sighed. “Mum wants me t-to go to u-ni-ver-si-ty.”

“I’ll f-fail, for s-sure.” He picked gently at the bark. “I don’t even l-l-like… studying.”

Usually, Chu Yi would rant like this for several minutes, and then he would feel much better.

Today was the same. Having said his piece, he straightened up and stretched.

He was half stretched, arms raised, when he froze.

There was someone next to him.

They wore a tracksuit and running shoes, with a mask covering their face.

It was the guy who beat up Li Zihao today, the one who promised to protect him.

Yan Hang.

“You…” Yan Hang looked at Chu Yi, unsure of what to say. He was in the middle of his run when the sight of a butt sticking out of a tree stopped him in his tracks. It turned out to be Chu Yi.

“Put your arms down,” Yan Hang said. “I don’t have a knife.”

Chu Yi put his arms down.

“You…” Yan Hang looked at him again, still not knowing what to say. The circle imprinted on Chu Yi’s face tickled him, and he fought back a laugh.

At last he walked over to the tree trunk and found a large hole in it.

“You dug this?” Yan Hang turned to ask Chu Yi. “Fits your face pretty well.”

“No,” replied Chu Yi, “I just h-have one of th-those faces.”

“Fits every hole, eh,” said Yan Hang.

“Mhm.” Chu Yi nodded.

This time, Yan Hang didn’t hold his laughter in. He patted the trunk. “You’ve got a lot of secrets in here, huh?”