chapter 15

“Go on eat your noodles,” Kou Chen says, “Look at how frightened that got you, would my dad let me starve to death, my sister also wouldn’t let me starve to death.”

“The way you phrase that*,” Huo Ran picks a small lump of meat up with his chopsticks; being able to find a lump of meat that could be picked up when eating noodles with gravy, was something to be extremely happy about, “There probably isn’t anyone who’d let you starve to death is there.”

[*tl note: had a hard time translating this but found this great explanation: “he does not want to directly deny what you have just said, but he feels your remark is a little inappropriate. he does not support what you say and feels that what you say make him embarrassed. he used this phrase only to indicate some implied intentions, such as he wanted you to realize your remake is improper”. usually there’d be a “look” in front of the phrase, which would make it “look at (the way) you(‘re) phrasing it like this”]

“Then why did me saying I can swipe your card scare you like that,” Kou Chen’s chopsticks suddenly reach over, and with exceedingly quick yet precise technique, picks the small lump of meat that was on the tip of his chopsticks away.

“You…” Huo Ran watches him put the meat into his mouth, “You’re already about to fucking starve to death right now aren’t you?”

“It was a mushroom, not meat,” Kou Chen says.

“Bull-fucking-shit,” Huo Ran says.

“Really,” Kou Chen lowers his head to fish around in his own bowl, picking a small strand of mushroom up to put into his bowl, “I’ll return one back to you, cheapskate.”

“I really, seriously, want to hit you,” Huo Ran watches him.

“But you also feel that you can’t beat me,” Kou Chen says, “So you’ve decided to put up with it.”2

“Get lost,” Huo Ran really had nothing to say to that, throwing his chopsticks down and leaning back in his chair, yet after thinking a bit sort of couldn’t help but want to laugh, and in the end he heaved a sigh, “Ai…”

“Eat quickly Captain,” Kou Chen says, “Take me to training* later.”

[*tl note: original could be interpreted in 2 ways: a) literally bring him to training, b) lead him during training]

Huo Ran takes his chopsticks back up and eats two mouthfuls before pausing again: “Who’d you call earlier to bring people over?”

“The Mafia,” Kou Chen wriggles his eyebrows.

“…Can you be a little more realistic?” Huo Ran struggles to not let himself get used to the boasts Kou Chen comes up with.

“Realistic ones there are,” Kou Chen raises his phone up to look at the time, “They might only be able to come after 2 hours.”

“In the future can you not put up these sorts of baseless fronts anymore please,” that statement had pretty much let Huo Ran realise that the Mafia did not actually exist, “if nobody comes in a bit we’ll be mocked at all the way up to university graduation as well as become the laughing stock of all their class gatherings, and even if people really did come after 2 hours, who’d still be waiting, they’d all have left!”

“Now this you don’t get,” Kou Chen brings the last few strands of noodles in his bowl up to his mouth, “In order to make us into the laughing stock of all their future class gatherings, they would definitely wait.”

Huo Ran doesn’t say anything else, holding his bowl up to aggressively finish the last of his noodles.

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But although Kou Chen had been talking big, his analysis was in fact very accurate.

Finishing the noodles, Liu Yu gathered all the money on the table up and walked over, smacking the stack of money in his hand onto his palm making pa pa noises, “So where are the people you’ve called?”

Huo Ran felt that they were taking Kou Chen’s money probably for the purpose of pissing them off, but as he watched this scene, his heart could only hold these people in utter contempt.

“In the wind in the rain*,” Kou Chen says, “Will wait for you after self-study*.”

[*tl note: these two lines sort of rhyme in cn, but i couldn’t come up with anything similar in en…]

“Kou Chen,” Li JiaYing walks over, “Standing up for someone isn’t this easy, don’t think that just getting in a fist-fight once means you can do something to anyone, there’s still a year, I’ll keep you company if you want to play.”

“No thank you,” Kou Chen says, “My mom doesn’t let me play with baddies.”1

“Don’t bullshit around with him,” Zhou HaiChao at the side looks at Kou Chen after he’d spoken, “Lad, if we don’t see your people today, you’re dead meat.”

After the few of them were done talking tough, they left the noodle store.

As He Hua passes the two of them by, she turns to look at them, wanting to speak, but gets cut off by Kou Chen: “Don’t think too much.”

He Hua lowers her head and leaves.

Huo Ran heaves a sigh.

“You see that,” Kou Chen gives the table a few knocks, “He’s even better than I am at boasting, what’s with ‘if they don’t see my people I’ll be dead meat’, how does he plan to make me die huh?”

“How bout we do this,” Huo Ran furrows his brows and thinks, fishing his phone out, gritting his teeth; if this face is lost then let it be lost, “I’ll call a few middle school classmates over.”

“What for?” Kou Chen looks at him.

“To help you find a few actors for a Mafia gang duh Big Brother!” Huo Ran says.

“Are your middle school classmates from the Mafia?” Kou Chen is laughing as he asks.

“They’re not, but they all look like they aren’t a good bunch,” Huo Ran says, “You think the Mafia is that easy to find? In a lawful society, you think you can just randomly call in a gang of some sort of gangster or thug?”

“Then the crap did you call them for,” Kou Chen says.

“How else are you planning to end this? If You hadn’t acted like you’re all that then wouldn’t shit not have happened?” Huo Ran says, “Do you think I’m happy to do this.”

“Then why are you helping me contact people?” Kou Chen asks again.

“Didn’t you transfer over here from elsewhere?” Huo Ran says, “You’ve been here a grand total of one semester, how many people do you know?”

Kou Chen smiles but says nothing.

Huo Ran watches him, and after a moment he gives a wave of his hand: “Get lost, I don’t care anymore, am I sick why would I bother with you.”

“Thank you,” Kou Chen says.

“What for!” Huo Ran is wary.

“From the time you were arguing against Liang Mulan in the office, saying that I hadn’t stepped on the floorboard on purpose I’d already known,” Kou Chen gives his shoulder a pat, “You’ve enough loyalty.”1

“Enough with you,” Huo Ran says, “I’m already not planning to help you contact people.”

“No need to contact,” Kou Chen says, “Really, don’t worry.”

Returning to the gym, and after a little bit of activity they considered their food digested, Coach Geng then came in and called Huo Ran over to the side, to tell him the plan for the night’s training.

Kou Chen stood on the side-lines of the basketball court, watching Zhou HaiChao and Liu Yu who were standing on the opposite side, if it weren’t for the fact that it was now time for the basketball team’s training, and if it weren’t for the fact that next to him there were still this many people, he felt that he’d probably have long gone over to put these two people down.

Huo Ran chats with Coach Geng for a moment before Coach Geng turns to leave, Huo Ran then walks to the court side-lines, taking his jacket off: “Gather around.”

The members all stopped what they were doing, walking up to him, then roughly arranged themselves into three rows, with Kou Chen also very obediently going over to join the team.

Huo Ran’s gaze sweeps across, lingering a few seconds on the opposite side of the court, but very quickly he retracts it: “First year new members quality training*, shuttle runs, frog jumps.”

“Understood,” a few first years respond.

“Senior members today skill, 5 on 5 attack-defense and quick passes on the outer circle*,” Huo Ran says, “Kou Chen 1 on 1 with me so I can evaluate your skill, third-year members rest.”

[*tl note: looked this up and doesn’t seem to be a basketball term so i just took it literally. similarly with ‘quality training’, it could possibly refer to ‘sport-specific training’ but i’m not sure what that term entails so i didn’t use it]

“Understood,” the members respond, then start their warm-ups to prepare for training.

“What does that mean?” Liu Yu walks over from the other side.

“It means you and Zhou HaiChao are resting today,” Huo Ran answers, “You can go back to the classroom for night self-study, to prepare for entrance exams.”

“This is you abusing your authority for your personal grudge isn’t it?” Zhou HaiChao says.

“I don’t have personal grudges against anybody, I only go against* those stronger than me on the court,” Huo Ran gives him a glance, “Both of you are not.”

[*tl note: also has the meanings of ‘defy’, ‘refuse to obey/concede to’]

Liu Yu starts coming at him.

A few members swiftly come up in between to stop him: “Ai ai ai, what are you doing? We’re in training, don’t be rash.”

“Can’t you all tell that he’s picking on us!” Zhou HaiChao was incredibly dissatisfied, but the members were all big-sized, so with a few of them blocking, the two of them could only shout.

“Coach is at the office, if you have anything to say you can go complain,” Huo Ran claps his hands after he finishes speaking, “Start training! Kou Chen!”

“Here!” Kou Chen immediately answers.

Huo Ran takes a ball and passes it over, walking over to the empty space in between the courts, “Come.”

“Yes!” Kou Chen very happily bounces after him dribbling the ball.

“Take the ball past me,” Huo Ran doesn’t bullshit around, directly and formally starting the training.

“Will they go and complain about you?” Kou Chen dribbles the ball, slanting his body and pressing in on his left.

“They will,” Huo Ran moves swiftly, cutting his path forward off.

“Then what should we do?” Kou Chen moves the ball from behind him to his left side, and just as he was thinking to pass Huo Ran on his right while his centre of gravity was still on his left side, Huo Ran’s right hand had already reached under his arm, the ball getting stolen, then bouncing out.

“What’s there to do, me daring to let them complain means I’ve a way to deal with them,” Huo Ran says, “Go retrieve the ball.”

“What happens if they complain?” Kou Chen was very stubborn, he went to retrieve the ball, then as he dribbled the ball and went in on the offensive he asked once more.

“Coach will listen to me,” with a raise of his hand Huo Ran didn’t even wait for him to get close, before directly stealing the ball over, raising his voice to shout: “Be more serious!”

“Fuck,” Kou Chen is startled by him, taking a step back, but still doesn’t give up, “Why will he listen to you?”

“This captaincy of mine,” Huo Ran sends him a smile, “The coach begged me to take up.”

“…Were you waiting here for me*?” Kou Chen starts laughing.

[*tl note: he’s likely asking if huo ran was waiting for him to get up to this point in his questioning just so he could say that line (which is similar to what kou chen’s said before)]

“So don’t try to show off in front of me,” Huo Ran raises his hands to shoot the ball towards the practice hoop on the wall.

Kou Chen jumps in the same instance the ball leaves his hand, smacking the ball down with a slap.

“Nice,” Huo Ran says.

“Piece of cake, I…” Kou Chen had just said the introduction when Huo Ran cuts him off, “Continue, dribble the ball, when you take it past me, then you can start to boast,” Huo Ran says.

“Your uncle,” Kou Chen swears softly, rushing over with the ball.

Whatever Kou Chen did he was never really serious, if someone asked him to tell them a hobby or an interest he might not be able to think of one within ten seconds, before he’d transferred over, he was also always playing basketball, but he couldn’t really say he liked it, it was mainly that he felt it was rather good for attention-grabbing.2

After all a soccer field was too big, you couldn’t see the players clearly, whereas a basketball court was comparatively better, even if it were running from east end to the west end one could see clearly his handsome face and cool gestures at a glance.

But Huo Ran was not the same, Kou Chen felt that Huo Ran played basketball probably only because he liked it.

Very serious.

It was scariest when skilled people were serious.

All the way up to the end of training, Kou Chen hadn’t many instances in which he’d been successful in bringing the ball out of Huo Ran’s sphere of defense.

After Huo Ran gave the members a rundown of the day’s training he waved his hand: “Disperse then.”

“Ah——” Kou Chen, along with everyone else, worked their arms as they gave a shout, then took his jacket up, fishing the phone that he hadn’t been able to check out.

On the screen there were three missed calls from Kou Xiao.

And a whole bunch of voice messages.

He tapped on the latest one to give it a listen.

“You’re dead! Called you so many times and you never answered, you’re dead!”

He hurriedly gives Old Yang a call, and Old Yang on the other side very quickly picks up: “Hello?”

“Where’s my sister?” Kou Chen asks.1

“Gone to look for a knife to stab you with,” Old Yang says, “What’s up with you, asked to bring people over then wouldn’t answer your phone, she thought something happened to you, she’s just gone over to negotiate with the security guard, saying she wants to go inside to pass you clothes.”

“Has she come in?” Kou Chen asks.

“Just went in,” Old Yang says, “How’s the situation on your side?”

“Let me give her a call then, I was just in training, so I couldn’t check my phone,” Kou Chen glances to the side; Huo Ran was walking over with an expression seemingly full of worry and apprehension.

“Training?” Old Yang is stunned.

“Tell you later,” Kou Chen hangs up after he finishes speaking, looking at Huo Ran.

“In a bit those few will definitely be waiting along the way,” Huo Ran says, “May I ask where Your gang-related buddies are?”

“Let’s go,” Kou Chen dials Kou Xiao’s number as he starts walking out.

“Kou Chen you’re dead!” Kou Xiao picks up, “Where are you!”

“You guys just wait downstairs on the right side after turning the corner of that straight path you come in on, I’m almost there,” Kou Chen says.

Huo Ran next to him turns his head in shock.

“Walk straight turn the corner downstairs on the right,” Kou Xiao is directionally-challenged, this statement was repeated for the person next to her, “Okay then, just so we’re clear, we’re not starting a fist-fight okay, we’re in school.”

“When have I ever let you make any moves on my behalf!” Kou Chen says.

“Bullshit when you were getting chased down in elementary didn’t I use slippers to smack that bunch of kids!” Kou Xiao says.

“…Wait for me!” Kou Chen sighs.

The third years’ classroom building wasn’t far from the gymnasium, walking over it took two minutes to reach, and just as the few people standing under the tree came into view from afar, the bell signalling the end of night self-study timely sounded.1

“Those are the people you called over?” Huo Ran beside him asks.

“Mn,” Kou Chen nods, conveniently doing a head count as his gaze swept across, excluding Kou Xiao there were four males, but Kou Xiao’s fighting prowess was almost equivalent to half a male, this shrew.

“If I’m not seeing wrong…” Huo Ran eyes the people on that side, “There’s a girl?”

“Don’t look down on women,” Kou Chen says, “If Li JiaYing wants to make any moves, there has to be a girl to send her packing.”

“…If I’m not seeing wrong again,” Huo Ran turns his head, “That’s your sister isn’t it!”

Kou Chen’s gaze stays on the front, but after walking a few steps in a serious manner he couldn’t keep it together, a laugh escaping: “Your eyesight’s pretty good huh.”

“Are you crazy calling your sister over?” Huo Ran says, “Who are those men? Your older brothers?”

“Gang-related buddies,” Kou Chen says, “Be a little more serious.”

Kou Xiao stood under a tree at the corner, watching the people that were coming out of the classroom building, the teachers came out first, and it was behind them that were listless students.

When Kou Chen had given her the call he hadn’t told her what it had been for, but looking at it now, it was likely some sort of conflict with students from third year.

“Probably those few, right?” the big mouth* beside her asks, “Those few that are walking over, they keep looking this way, is it because they know your brother called people over?”

[*tl note: pretty sure she means it literally here, but ‘big mouth’ could also mean ‘loud/blabbermouth’]

“Probably,” Kou Xiao hugs her arms, watching the girl in the lead of those walking over, “How unexpected, don’t university-affiliated high schools focus on the key point which is studying, why’s there still such an arrogant little lady?”

“When there’re many honest students, it’s easier to gain a reputation*,” Big Mouth says.

[*tl note: gain rep as in to become a boss/leader of a (school) gang]

“Makes sense,” Kou Xiao says.

The girl kept walking up to a metre or two’s distance from where they were, before she stops, glaring at them along with the few boys next to her.

“Where’re you from?” one boy starts, “What are you doing here!”

Kou Xiao and her group doesn’t speak, rather in-sync as they maintained their silence, all keeping their eyes trained on these students, and only after enough time had been stretched out, did she say one word: “Scram.”

The atmosphere immediately, as though someone had set off a police alarm, became tense.

“Go call security,” the girl in the lead says.

“That’s right, call security, at the same time spill all those other crappy little things you’ve done,” Big Mouth also didn’t know exactly what had happened, but was certain that there was an unspeakable portion included, so there were definitely no problems tossing a statement like this out.

“You are the people Kou Chen called aren’t you?” one of the boys had finally come to a realisation.

“You’ve arrived huh!” Kou Chen greets that side from a few metres away.

Other than Kou Xiao, he didn’t recognise any of the others that had come, they all looked to be rather societal, but it wasn’t the ordinary gangster or hoodlum kind of aura.

As expected of his sister Kou Little Shrew, the appearance and aura of the people she’d called, were all very fitting.

“What did ya call us here for,” one of the brothers turns his head, speaking as though they were very familiar, “I was drinking halfway y’know.”

“Don’t know,” Kou Chen raises his chin to indicate Liu Yu’s group of people, “They got me to call.”

“What?” Zhou HaiChao looks at him a little shocked.

“Weren’t you the one who said,” Kou Chen smiles, “If you don’t see my people today, I’ll be dead meat.”

“Yo,” that big brother starts cracking up, walking up to Zhou HaiChao, giving his shoulder a few pats, “Students these days are really capable huh, daring to talk this big.”

“Take your hand off!” Zhou HaiChao roars.

“Zip it!” Big Brother doesn’t wait for his words to settle, grabbing his shirt collar, “Wear a pair of sunglasses and you really take yourself to be part of a Society? Pig*!”

[*tl note: he actually says 佩奇 [pèi qí] which is apparently a reference to the series Peppa Pig and this is another way of calling someone a ‘pig’]

This big brother’s voice was a little hoarse, but his voice was packed with power, just by hearing you could tell he was the sort that could crush walnuts with one hand, and not the paper-shell ones too.

Zhou HaiChao instantly went quiet.

“Now,” Big Brother says, “I’ll be waiting for you at your school entrance, if I don’t see you within half an hour, you’re fucking dead meat, if you’re done dying today you’ll die tomorrow, I’ll let you die all the way up to graduation!”3

After saying this Big Brother flicks his hand, and the group of people all turn to walk towards the entrance.

As Kou Xiao walks in front of Li JiaYing she gives her a sweeping glance: “Who’re you glaring at?”

Li JiaYing was obviously disgruntled, giving a humph, but still moves her gaze away.

“Let’s go, to have supper,” Kou Chen nudges Huo Ran with his arm.

Huo Ran gives Li JiaYing and the others that were still standing where they were another glance, before turning to leave with Kou Chen.

Kou Xiao and the few in front were walking very quickly, without turning back to speak to them too, but Kou Chen was walking unhurriedly as though he was taking a stroll.

“Are we eating supper with them?” Huo Ran asks.

“Nah, they’re leaving already,” Kou Chen says, “Let’s eat, noodles with gravy.”

“…I’m begging you, eat something else,” Huo Ran says.

“Then you pick a place, since the cafeteria doesn’t open today,” Kou Chen says.

“Are your sister and the others just leaving already? Didn’t they say they’ll wait for Zhou HaiChao to go out?” Huo Ran asks.

“No wait,” Kou Chen looks at him, “Are you silly, how could they possibly go out?”

“Ah?” Huo Ran was momentarily at a loss.

“Didn’t you see how they were, if they’d really dared to go, they’d have long followed behind already okay,” Kou Chen’s hand indicates towards the back, “Let’s bet, they’re already not where they were, and if you were to go to the wall next to the ghost building right now, you can probably catch them climbing out over the wall.”

Huo Ran doesn’t speak, turning to look back, “Fuck.”

There really wasn’t anyone behind them anymore.

“You’re really such a good student, no experience at all,” Kou Chen sighs.

“I’m also… not some sort of good student,” Huo Ran says, his grades were always just average in class, and this was in a Humanities class, if it were a Science class, he could probably move back ten spots.

“I’m not talking about grades, your grades aren’t that much better than mine,” Kou Chen says.

“Compared to yours they still are better by a fair bit,” Huo Ran says.

“You’ve lost to me twice now okay,” Kou Chen says.

“What?” Huo Ran didn’t get it.

“Once in the ghost building,” Kou Chen says, “Once more just now, save them all up first.”1

Huo Ran felt a little powerless, but at the moment his attention was still on the people that his sister Kou Xiao had brought, so he didn’t argue.

“Who exactly were those people?” he asks.

“Don’t know,” Kou Chen thinks a bit, “Probably the waiters or chefs from her hotel.”1

“What?” Huo Ran comes to a stop.

“My guess,” Kou Chen says, “She’s pretty popular, in the past she’d even called a web cafe manager, technician, district security squad…”1

Huo Ran has his mouth half-open but is unable to speak.

“It’s not like they were really going to fight anyways, usually as long as they can scare people off it works,” Kou Chen says, “For real fights there’s no need to call people.”

Judging by the way they front, Kou Chen and Kou Xiao were definitely biological siblings, the kind of biological siblings that, even if they’d been scattered in a vast sea of people and separated a thousand miles, could still end up finding each other.

Huo Ran watches Kou Xiao’s restaurant’s gang-related buddies disappear behind the school gates, then turns to ask Kou Chen: “All that money of yours, you’re giving it to Liu Yu and the others just like that?”

“Just wait,” Kou Chen narrows his eyes, “Watch how I’ll get it all back dollar by dollar.”