Through The Strait Gates Chapter 2

Volume 1: Scallions

Warning: Bullying/violence included in this chapter

Thirteen years ago, the young man who owned the flower shop had no mustache, and Dou Xun was merely a self-centric, arrogant teenager that hated the world and everything in it.

And Xu Xilin, no matter if he was willing to admit it himself or not, was a complete troublemaker back then—

"Tch, go away." Xu Xilin kicked his dog away with the tip of his foot, saved his backpack from the dog's mouth, and stuffed the cigarette box that peeked out of the bag back.

The dog acted like it had smelled something, and howled at him hysterically.

The dog's name was *Dou-dou. Dou-dou was presumably a mix of j.a.panese Spitz, German Shepherd, and Chinese Rural—a mongrel in every meaning.

There's a saying that "people are ordered into 3, 6 and 9 standards, and dogs have their differences on loyalty." Dou-dou was a tramp of a dog--a bully to the weaker ones but a coward in front of the stronger ones, enjoyed provoking who it shouldn't every now and then—especially when he wasn't supposed to.

Xu Xilin was extremely annoyed by it, and wished that he could strangle it to death every day. "Do you care so much that you're everywhere?"

Unfortunately, there was someone that gave it the right to do that.

Once it barked, Grandma shouted from inside the house. "*Xiao-Lin, are you bullying Dou-Dou again?"

"As if I'd dare to," Xu Xilin hauled his backpack onto his back, "I'm heading out for school, Grandma."

"So early?" A middle-aged woman came out of the kitchen, saw what Xu Xilin was wearing, and fussed over him. "Why are you not wearing your down jacket again? What are you wearing inside? Are you wearing autumn clothes inside? Pull down your jacket zipper and let me check."

This was Ms. Du, the housekeeper his family had hired, who had a very, very far away relation with his mom, and if they counted the removed, cousins, all that relative stuff, Xu Xilin would have to call her his aunt.

He grudgingly pulled down the zipper of his jacket, but then pulled it back up swiftly. He turned round and dashed out, yelling, "I'm wearing them, I have stuff at school, gotta go, bye Auntie!"

Ms. Du's eyes were more keen than a needle. She spotted that he only had a short-sleeved T-s.h.i.+rt worn under his jacket, and chased after him, bellowing, "Get back here! You don't even have your autumn pants on, don't you? How dare you clown around on a cold day again—I'm going to tell your mother later!"

Xu Xilin ran as fast as the wind, disappearing out of her voice's reach within seconds.

Jeez, which 16 year old hottie wears autumn pants?

Cla.s.s began on two twenty p.m, but the school required students to arrive before two o'clock. It wasn't even 1:30 p.m yet, so Xu Xilin ran downstairs, checked that there wasn't anyone around, and called a cab, headed to Moon's Half Curve with a pack of *soft Zhonghuas as a gift.

Moon's Half Curve was the local entertainment venue. Though it was considered a legal venue, it still spurred quite a few ravis.h.i.+ng "city-legends", and was on the list of not-allowed places for high school students to visit. Xu Xilin had to pretend that he didn't saw the driver's unspoken condemning gaze on him the whole drive.

Xu Xilin had a *brother named Song Lianyuan. When Song Lianyuan was young, Xu Xilin's mom had helped him and his family out a lot, so on every festival and holiday, he always brought a few gifts and made sure to visit—no matter the weather—and saw himself as half an older brother to Xu Xilin. Xu Xilin didn't had to be so impersonal with his older brother, but this time he didn't only require Song Lianyuan's help, and Xu Xilin couldn't let Song owe someone a favor on his behalf.

(note: not his actual brother, Chinese people just call friends/cousins that help them out and look out for them "older brother")

This time, it was because of his deskmate.

Xu Xilin's deskmate was a boy named Tsai Jing, who was extremely talented, and often published his essays in the newspaper with the help of their writing teacher. He was also very, very nice—he never kept the money he was paid for the essays to himself, and bought drinks for the cla.s.smates that helped him out in bad times. Unfortunately, one thing he also had was an unlucky family—his parents pa.s.sed away early on, and left him to his uncle, who spent his time gambling, drinking, eating and whoring. His uncle's wife had kicked him out and kept the kids, so with no other place to stay at, Tsai Jing had to sc.r.a.pe by staying with his uncle, using holidays and weekends to do a few part-time jobs. A few, short tofu-sized articles, helped by the writing teacher, was also a source of income—mainly serving as pocket money.

But even sc.r.a.ping by had became a struggle recently: his jacka.s.s of an uncle had recently acquired a tremendous loan.

The people asking for their money back couldn't find the one responsible, so they called up a few gangsters to corner Tsai Jing near Sixth High School every day. The boys in the cla.s.s always made sure at least three or five boys accompanied him after school before of that. But that surely wasn't a long-term solution--Tsai Jing didn't dare to even leave home on weekends, which also meant that he had to give up the job at a McDonald's that he had searched so hard for.

Xu Xilin thought about it, and came to the conclusion that gangster business could only be solved by other gangsters, using his own resources, namely his cousin, the experienced Song.

After the errand, Xu Xilin arrived late at school.

It was less than two weeks after school had began, and the majority of the students still had their minds soaked in *lucky money and the winter vacation. Plus, Sixth High School had lots of non-residential students, which caused their first period of the afternoon to have awful discipline, something that could only be described with the word outrageous.

So the school arranged for teachers to wait for the students at the school entrance every noon. Students who entered the school after the 2p.m. bell rang would be locked outside, had his or hers or whatever's scores taken off, and forced to write a self-reflection. Not only were school catching students that were late, they also were aiming to catch boys with weird clothing, and girls with their hair down. Most girls would prepare a hair band, tie up a loose ponytail right before they pa.s.sed through the school gates, and pull the hair band right after they pa.s.sed "inspection".

"I won't need the receipt, thanks." Xu Xilin grabbed his empty schoolbag and slid out of the car. He narrowed his gaze, and saw that there was already a line of unlucky b.a.s.t.a.r.ds lining in front of the school gates listing their cla.s.s and number.

It would be really, really dumb to walk over straight into their prepared noose right now. While the pot-bellied grade director lectured the caught students, he crept undetected to the west side of the gates. There was no fence there, only an iron fence slightly taller than a human.

Young Mr. Xu's brilliant skills on climbing over a wall was to the point where it was legendary. He reached out his arm, grabbed ahold of the top of the fence, and used it to support his weight while he flipped over it agilely, the bottom of his pant leg not even touching the fence in the slightest bit. He was so nimble that even the wild cats wandering in the school couldn't resist stopping to watch him.

He smoothed out his jacket, and walked across the sports field swaggeringly, waving at the line of people waiting for their points to be taken off from afar. Coincidentally, the grade director turned back at his direction the same moment. Xu Xilin reacted immediately, das.h.i.+ng right away.

The grade director narrowed his eyes at Xu Xilin's back, asking, "What's the problem with that student?"

The unconcerned line of people answered, righteously betraying the traitor that had just swaggered to them. "Climbing--over--the--wall--"

OUTRAGEOUS! WHAT IS ALL THIS! HOW UNORGANIZED AND UNDISCIPLINED!

The grade director stood stumped for a moment, but then bristled with anger, yelling at the top of his lungs: "Get over here! Which cla.s.s are you in!"

Xu Xilin ran like a tornado close to the ground, and thought, "Only a really, really stupid dumba.s.s would do that."

The same moment, the east side of the 2nd Educational Building. Dou Xun had his hands in his pockets, strolling around aimlessly, bored out of his mind. His father and the female teacher that had three tons of perfume sprayed on were touting each other. It annoyed him to an absolutely intolerable extent. He had absolutely no expectations for his future school experience, and he really, really needed to smoke a cigarette right now. So he slipped away discreetly and found a secluded restroom.

When he pa.s.sed through the long corridors, he saw a group of boys wearing gym clothes. Maybe students who had just finished PE cla.s.s. They shared the same thoughts with Dou Xun coincidentally--they were also sharing a pack of cigarettes in a secluded corridor.

One of them craned his neck to glance out the window. He jabbed the person beside him, "Hey, Wu Tao, look at that guy...doesn't that look like your cla.s.s's Xu *Tuanzuo?"

The boy with the buzzcut, Wu Tao, stuck his head out of the window, right in time to watch Xu Xilin dash past them. Perhaps it was because Xu Xilin felt his gaze on him, so Xu Xilin glanced up, and blew a kiss to the people upstairs. Then he ran straight into the educational building on the side.

After quite a while, the round-shaped grade director finally came, screeching, "Halt--"

The secretly smoking group of troublemakers burst out in laughter. "Dope, dude."

After Dou Xun witnessed the entire gigantic, ridiculous joke of an event, he thought, "Do they not have enough brain that they have to make up for it with yelling? So f.u.c.king annoying."

He stuffed his earbuds in unconcernedly, and went into the tiny restroom at the end of the corridor. He locked the door on the last stall, lazily pulling out his cigarette with Linkin Park blasting in his ears.

After he was done, he flicked the ash off himself, and was ready to leave. But just as he pushed the stall's door open, a staccato of footsteps sounded from the outside. A crash sounded, and a guy flew inside sideways, his back hitting right on the heater. The guy didn't even scream. A short groan came out of his mouth, and his limbs twitched a few times weakly. He fell so hard that he couldn't climb back up.

The guy had Sixth High School's white uniform on. He had a sickly yellow complexion, was thin, and the corners of his clothes were yellowy, the results of having been washed too many times. Clutched in his hands was a tattered cloth school bag.

The boys that were just clamoring outside walked in. Three, with one of them as their leader. The guy named "Wu Tao" crossed his arms, and kept a lookout for them, leaning against the bathroom door.

Dou Xun's eyes narrowed, his footsteps stopping.

The leader knelt down, tilted his head, and observed the boy writhing on the ground. Then he pulled the boy up by his hair, and slapped his face, asking, "Us brothers haven't treated you badly, have we?"

The guy trembled so hard that he couldn't speak.

The leader hit the guy's face a few more times, every time harder than the last, basically slapping him at the end. "We haven't tricked you, or offended you, right? So tell me why us brothers, after only two rounds of cards, not even ten minutes, was told off to the old jacka.s.s dorm keeper? Huh?"

The guy that was picked up craned his neck with all his strength, trying to relieve the pain in his scalp, the tendons in his neck rising up on the skin. "No...it...wasn't...me!"

The leader scoffed, and smashed his face onto the heater's vent clutching his hair for about four or five times. "Oh, it wasn't you, so who was it? Me?"

Wu Tao, who was standing at the door, suddenly cut him off in a cold tone. "Cla.s.s's about to start, get it over with."

The sentence was like an command. The guys that were previously watching aside surrounded him, stepping on him one by one, asking him "Was it you?" every once in a while. After a while, the guy finally couldn't take it anymore, and admitted incoherently. The perpetrators finally finished, ending their "interrogation".

"It's okay as you admit it, don't worry, we'll make sure to take care of you later on--we're leaving."

Once they finished talking, the bell rung, and the young perpetrators left with a hustle. After quite a while, the beaten up guy finally crawled up weakly. He touched his face, and felt the nosebleed there. His back hunched, he walked over to the faucet. Twisting the faucet open, a tiny stream of water came out, and he carefully rubbed the sleeve of his uniform that was pressed on the ground. His hands shook.

Then he sniffled his nose--not because he had cried, but because his nose was still bleeding.

He pressed the wet corners of his clothes flat, and walked out, numb.

After it had been quiet for a while outside, Do Xun walked out of the tiny stall. He glanced at the nosebleed on the floor, and brushed the already dried bead of blood aside with his shoe.

"City's key high school, non-unified exams school?" He laughed coldly at the comet-like trail of blood on the ground. "Bulls.h.i.+t."

Translator's Note#1:

1. Dou-dou: Beans in Chinese

2. Xiao-Lin: meaning little-Lin

3. Deskmate: The cla.s.smate who sits next to you and has his/her desk joined with you/shares the same desk with you

4. Soft Zhonghua: a brand/type of cigarettes (zhonghua's the brand, soft is the type)

5. Lucky money: pocket money received on Chinese New Year)

6. Tuanzuo: the leader of a group, originally used in the KMT army to call someone that is one's direct superior

Translator's Note#2:

To all the gorgeous people reading this, Merry Christmas! Wish you all a warm, merry Christmas Eve!

surprise, surprise~