No Protection Tonight

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Editor: Caelath]

The flat hill was counted as part of our campus. Originally, a running track was supposed to be built on it, but the education officials had to cut funding, so it was abandoned.

Chengbei High wasn"t exactly near our school if you walked down the streets, but if you climbed the walls and went across the empty lot, it would only take a couple minutes. Plus, there were no guard stations near it.

Since the whole incident had pretty much been blown up on the forums, there were a lot of people who had come along to watch the fun.

"Zhuang Feng, I"m rooting for you. The people at Chengbei are all a bunch of b**ches, they stole my girlfriend from me. This"ll be revenge against them."

"Yeah, kill those motherf**kers. They mugged five hundred yuan* from me last time, and I had to eat cup noodles for a month."

*70-80 USD.

I chuckled bitterly at their words. Though our school had a good reason to hate Chengbei, they never dared to stand up against them. If someone were to be bullied, all of them would turn a blind eye simply knowing that He Yu wasn"t easy to deal with.

But now that I"d called him out, they weren"t as scared to back me up as they would have been before. Indeed, all San High needed was a single figure that wasn"t afraid to start s**t with Chengbei.

"F**k, we should go beat up those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds along with Feng-ge." w.a.n.g Xiaopang muttered.

"Ahem, Xiaopang, are you crazy? This isn"t something to joke about, did you not see the forums? He Yu clearly said that he"ll track down anyone who helps him." Liu Sanmao looked at him worriedly and reminded.

w.a.n.g Xiaopang was normally quite pa.s.sive. I was a bit surprised that he would suddenly grow a backbone.

However, he began to lose his confidence from Liu Sanmao"s words. He stuttered, "But, Feng-ge already won that basketball match for us and won back some face for the cla.s.s. How could we just watch this happen from the sidelines?"

"Not bad, Xiaopang. You certainly lived up to the good things I said about you in front of Xiaoya." Liu Jie smiled approvingly, and she patted his shoulder.

"Aha, thanks, Saozi*. I"m not trying to put up an act or anything, I just really feel that Feng-ge is a part of our cla.s.s. Now that he"s in some trouble, wouldn"t we be laughingstocks if we stand by and do nothing?" He was getting excited. I understood what was going on: He secretly liked Lin Xiaoya before, but now that Liu Jie was being his wingwoman, he was finally making some progress.

*WXP is calling L J his "Saozi" because he thinks of ZF as a really good friend, like a "brother". Remember, Saozi = brother/relative"s wife.

Another voice followed after w.a.n.g Xiaopang  made his stand. "Count me in." It was Zhang Yu, from our cla.s.s. Everyone liked to call him Octopus. *

*Zhang Yu"s name, 张羽, sounds like 章鱼, or octopus. It"s a pun.

"Feng-ge, you let me experience what being a man truly felt like. I had never thought that I would be able to partic.i.p.ate in the basketball tournament. Even though you were the outstanding champion, you helped me understand what confidence feels like. Don"t worry, my dad is a lawyer; if He Yu gets out of hand, we can sue him." Octopus promised.

"Yeah, what"s there to be afraid of? It"s just a fight! All we need to do is roll up our sleeves and get the job done!"

"I support Feng-ge, he"s the pillar of our cla.s.s. If he goes down, we"re going to get looked down upon again."

I was a bit moved by their words. I hadn"t transferred here for long, and was a loner for the first few weeks since I didn"t feel like I could connect with them. But with last time"s basketball tournament, our cla.s.s spirit surged like never before. Their skepticism towards me naturally dissipated, too.

Even in light of a calamity, they were willing to stand out and face it together with me. I nodded and said, "Alright, if you want to fight by my side, come with me."

Though there were many voices supporting me, the number of people that actually kept walking were awkwardly meager.

"It"s not gonna end well for you guys that are going." Liu Sanmao sighed. This guy was quite the slippery b**ch. When we won the basketball match last time, the others didn"t show any sign of wanting to split the prize money. But he still tried to joke about splitting it up evenly.

I"m not someone who really likes money. Though I wanted to pay back Saozi as soon as possible, my cla.s.smates" appearance on the court was a sign of their willingness. I tried to have everyone take an equal share, but the others didn"t agree. At last, I took out one thousand for them to divide among themselves.

Because of this, Liu Sanmao started to be biased against me, but since I had become a popular figure in the cla.s.s, he couldn"t really do anything. Now that something big happened, not only did he not stand out, he also tried to dissuade his peers from helping out.

The people behind me started to mutter in alarm.

"It"s fine. If you guys don"t want to, you can go back. I won"t blame anyone."

It"s much easier to see through people in times like these. I needed to know which people I could trust, and which people were best off to remain as just cla.s.smates.

With my words, two more left my side. There were only four left; Xiaopang, Octopus, and two others.

"Are you not leaving?" I questioned.

"Not at all, boss. I want to be like you, and the worst that can happen is getting beaten up anyways. Xiaoya can even take care of me, then." w.a.n.g Xiaopang chuckled.

The others voiced their a.s.sent, and I nodded in satisfaction. "Thanks for believing in me. You guys don"t need to help me, it"s fine if you stand and wait."

"Eh." They seemed stunned by my order.

"No, boss, I want to fight alongside you!" Somehow, w.a.n.g Xiaopang started to call me something different.

"Yeah, Feng-ge, at least let us have some dignity." Octopus said.

"That"s not what I meant. You guys might not be of much help if you fight. I don"t want to worry any more than I need to." I scratched my head. There was no choice but to be firm and direct.

I didn"t want them to fight in the first place. These guys should really just focus on their studies, and they"d be more of a nuisance than anything in a fight. I only wanted to see who was loyal and who wasn"t.

"Well, this is disappointing."

"Boss, if you didn"t want us to brawl, you could"ve just told us."

I said nothing, but I did acknowledge the fact that they believed in me. I had to live up to their expectations.

With my urging, they didn"t follow me and watched from a distance.

The place was broken down and dirty. Usually, n.o.body came here, but today it was teeming with people.

"Say, who do you think has a better chance of winning?"

"Definitely He Yu, what kind of question is that? He used to be in the army, I heard that the people in there are all hand-picked elites. Fighting him would be like a strawberry in a blender."

"Zhuang Feng is pretty good, but he"s probably nothing against He Yu."

"Hey, hey, why the h.e.l.l are you guys rooting for the other side?"

I saw a small group advancing in the distance. The person in the very front was smoking a cigarette.

"See, the one wearing sungla.s.ses is He Yu."

"He looks like such a douche."

I walked forward. Liu Jie followed me closely, attracting much envious attention.

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"F**k, this guy really ran into some dumb luck. He snagged a baifumei girl!" *

*白富美 (bai fu mei) is a Chinese term for women who are wealthy (usually from family background), have pale skin, and are beautiful.

"I heard that he"s a transfer student. He hasn"t been around for very long."

"What a softie."

"Tch, shut up. You should try winning a basketball tournament by yourself."

"Ouch."

I hadn"t expected to gain a bunch of female fans after the basketball compet.i.tion. It was no wonder that Liu Jie would feel cornered and ask Saozi if she should start wearing special lingerie to keep a firm hold on my heart.

As He Yu arrived, a bunch of people crowded towards him. The two most significant ones were Guo Tao and Li Zhiyuan. Their hatred had been bottled up over the past few weeks, and now that He Yu had arrived, they seized the opportunity to team up and face me.

Their nods and bows towards him attracted a series of murmurs from the onlookers.

"Ah, d.a.m.n it."

"Aren"t these two practically proving that San High is weak by going up there and kissing his a.s.s?"

I walked closer and picked up on their conversation.

"Yu-ge, here, have a cigarette. This little brat is really annoying, we should screw him up once and for all." Guo Tao"s s**tfaced grin couldn"t hide the hatred in his eyes. After I beat the guy up and sent him to the hospital for dumping soup all over Saozi, I was only protected because she pulled some strings with her connections and bribed the princ.i.p.al with twenty thousand. Though it came at a heavy price, I would still do the same if I were to return to that moment.

He Yu blew a smoke ring and drawled, "Punk, how much longer are you going to keep being a coward? You weren"t even in  school when I came for you yesterday, and now you"ve brought a chick to back you up? Are you still breastfeeding or something?"

I squinted my eyes, but I just couldn"t see how He Yu could be as strong as people said. He didn"t even seem to be steady after jumping off a bundle of iron rafters. Maybe the chicks at Chengbei had sucked him dry?

"I brought her here so she can watch you bite the dust." I shook my head.

"Eh." The onlookers gasped. My words didn"t register in their minds at first, because most of them thought that I had given up and only come to get beaten up.

He Yu seemed surprised, too. Before he could say anything, his underlings started to chatter.

"Brat, what did you just say to my boss?"

"I"ll f*** you up in mere minutes!"

He Yu waved his hand, and they stopped talking immediately. "Punk, did you go to Liu Jie"s dad? When are you going to stop being a chicken?"

It was obvious that he was worried about Mr. Liu. After all, he drove a million-yuan luxury car. With his status, dealing with He Yu wouldn"t pose the slightest problem.

"I"ll use your head to sweep the ground." I shrugged.

"Whoa, this guy is just asking for it."

"He"s just straight up taunting him now."

"I"d like to see just how much longer he can keep up the act."

The nearby students buzzed with excitement. He Yu"s face darkened, and he clenched his fist. "Hmph, well I"m f***ing curious to see which one of us will end up in the dirt!" He charged towards me, but I didn"t move.

Liu Jie looked a little worried. "Hey, Feng, don"t s.p.a.ce out."

"It"s alright, I"m here. No one"s gonna hurt you." I took her hand and realized it was moist with sweat.

The nearby students all thought that I must"ve been scared stiff. When He Yu came in range, I flicked my foot. Globs of mud splattered on his face, making it look like he had p.o.o.p smeared all over his cheeks.

A wave of laughter swept throughout the crowd, echoing off the hill.

"Is this all you can take?" I asked him tauntingly.

He Yu tried to wipe some of the sludge off, and spat some of it out of his mouth. When he regained his composure, he swore at me. "You motherf***er, f***ing playing dirty with me?"

I kicked another glob at him. He Yu tried to dodge, but it landed square on his face again. "Keep that mouth clean, or I"ll stuff you full of mud!"

"F***, come at me yourself if you have any b.a.l.l.s. Or do you even have any?" He Yu shouted.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" I chuckled at him.

"What, you scared?" He straightened his back. An underling ran over to hand him a napkin, and he dabbed at his face messily.

"Mm, I am scared." I nodded.

He Yu let out a sigh. "If you apologize to me now, I can consider letting you go."

"Oh, sorry. What I meant was, I"m scared of destroying that ego of yours." My words appalled the crowd.

"Zhuang Feng"s crazy, does he really think that he can fight He Yu after a few tricks?"

"Yeah, I heard that He Yu"s really good at martial arts. He can even take on several people at once."

He Yu"s teeth chattered with anger. "Punk, n.o.body who acts like this in front of me gets a happy ending. Let"s settle this like real men!"

"As you wish." I waggled my hand. He Yu"s pace quickened, and he lunged towards me again.

His fist grew larger and larger in my perspective. In a split second, I threw my own strike with the energy of an unbound horse.

A simple counter was the easiest and most direct solution to fights like these. With the satisfying sound of knuckle against flesh, He Yu was sprung backwards into a ditch.

"Ooohh." A gasp swept throughout the audience. If they thought I was talking trash earlier, they certainly changed their minds and knew it was the opposite at that moment.

About ten seconds later, the silence finally broke.

"What the h.e.l.l, am I dreaming or something?"

"F***, wasn"t He Yu supposed to be really good at military combat? He couldn"t even take one hit."

"Are you guys dumb? Did you forget that you"re a part of San High?"

"Aha, our San High has finally grown some real backbone!"

He Yu"s underlings, Guo Tao, and the others were totally confused.

"Should we, uh… get revenge for Boss?"

"Revenge your a.s.s, if our boss can"t even win, what difference would we make?"

He Yu climbed back up with great difficulty. He had dirt all over his clothes, and he hesitated before walking slowly towards me.

"Do you still want to fight?" I asked.

He Yu quickly shook his head. "No, no. Dge*, let me serve under you from now on."

*Dge is "big brother". This is a masculine informal term used for family, but it can also be used for someone who is simply older than you. Of course, it can also be for someone who you think is figuratively "above" you, as this situation exemplifies.

The onlookers were shocked, and each of their jaws dropped to the floor.

"Whoa, are the tables finally going to turn for San High?"

"Feng, you"re too cool, I love you~"

"What a wimp. He"s nothing in front of my Feng-ge."

He Yu"s face turned crimson, and he turned to face them. They stepped back and shut up instantly.

He turned towards me again. "Dge, just accept my proposal."

"Nah, you"re too weak. You"re not fit to be my underling." I waved my hand.