chapter 16.1

How Kou Chen was going to get the money back dollar by dollar, Huo Ran couldn’t seem to be able to do the math.

He also couldn’t quite come to an understanding; with a dollar you couldn’t even take the public bus, you could only buy a stick of hotdog in the cafeteria, so why did he need to get the money back in such an intricate manner.

That handful of money should have consisted of a few thousands in the least, and the third years were very busy, the only chances to meet each day were during the two meals, that’d count as two meetings, if each time he took a dollar back, that makes two dollars each day, so up until these people graduate, he’d only be able to get around 700 dollars back…

And this hadn’t had the holidays during which they wouldn’t be in school included.

However, it was precisely the nearing of a holiday right now, there were still three days, National Day would then arrive, yet during lunchtime they still weren’t bumping into Liu Yu’s group, only seeing the few from the previous ‘fly for Laozi’.

After that night of flying though, these few did in fact quieten down a fair bit; they did realistically experience how it felt to have been sent flying 2-3 metres with a single kick after all.

Although, it couldn’t not be said that Li JiaYing as a lady boss, was still rather capable, because even after losing a few Generals, she’d still been able to have Liu Yu’s duo become replacements.

“The cafeteria dishes are alright,” Kou Chen was seated next to Huo Ran, his plate full of only meat, “It’s just that the area’s a little small, each time we gotta wait half a day.”

“This is already not bad, I heard that in the past the school canteen was open to public, and all the residents from the apartments next door came over here to eat,” Xu Chuan says, “Don’t even mention getting food, even tables were impossible to snatch up, it was only after parents voiced their complaints later on that they made it private.”

Huo Ran doesn’t speak, taking the Coke next to his hand up for a sip.

He didn’t know whether it was because Kou Chen had somewhere to free-load food from so he had nothing to fear, or because the money leftover from the previous semester was a little much, in any case he was evidently not thrifty in the least when it came to food, even having bought everyone a bottle of drink out of habit yet again.

There was also a supermarket plastic bag on the table, which seemed to have a few bottles of drinks in it; this demeanour of his made it seem as though tossing a few thousand dollars out was something worth celebrating.

Today Kou Chen and the others ate their food particularly slowly, taking way more time than usual, Huo Ran had wanted to leave after he’d finished eating, but Xu ZhiFan kept on chatting with Kou Chen, so he could only sit and wait.

“They’re here,” Xu Chuan suddenly speaks.

Huo Ran hearing this, immediately turns to look towards the cafeteria entrance.

Li JiaYing and her personal punching bag He Hua, as well as her newly appointed Generals Liu Yu and Zhou HaiChao.

It was a pity that the additional two girls from the other day hadn’t arrived with them, he didn’t know whether they’d gotten a share of the money.

“Now?” Wei ChaoRen asks.

“In a bit,” Kou Chen says, “They haven’t even gotten their food yet.”

“What are you guys gonna do?” Jiang Lei immediately gets intrigued, after he’d found out the incident in which Kou Chen had smashed people with money*, he’d been waiting for updates.

[*tl note: literal tl here, it sounds a little funny but i didnt want to forgo the imagery]

But this was also something Huo Ran wanted to ask, so he turned to look at Kou Chen.

“Watch then,” Kou Chen says, “The service is now in operation, to unsubscribe please pay the penalty.”

“Service?” Huo Ran was dumbfounded.

Kou Chen doesn’t give further responses, only turning occasionally to give a few looks, and waited until Li JiaYing and her group had found a table to sit at and started to eat, before he threw his chopsticks down: “Let’s go.”

Xu Chuan and Wei ChaoRen stand up along with him, each taking a bottle out of the plastic bag on the table.

“What are you gonna do!” Huo Ran felt a wave of nervousness, is he planning to do a live broadcast of a single-handed skull split in the cafeteria in front of more than half the whole student body!?

Kou Chen still doesn’t make a sound, only waving the bottle in his hand at him, then uncapping it with a ka.

Huo Ran ran his eyes over the bottle, noticing that the contents were full, so it was probably one freshly bought from the supermarket.

Hai Tian Lao Chou (soy sauce).

What the heck?

Kou Chen grips the uncapped Lao Chou, carrying it behind his back, and walks over to Li JiaYing’s table.

“What are you doing!” Liu Yu is the first to glare, watching them.

His voice was rather loud too, the students eating and ordering food nearby all looked over.

Pretty good, this was the effect that he wanted, now there wasn’t the need for him to cause a disturbance.

Kou Chen also doesn’t respond, and after exchanging a look with both Xu Chuan and Wei ChaoRen, the three of them brought the bottles in their hands out at the same time, and started pouring without waiting for the few of them to react.

The color of the contents on the plates instantly becomes a homogenous dark brown.

“Ah——” Li JiaYing finally comes back to her senses after they’d emptied the bottles, starting to screech, “Have you all gone crazy!”

“Lao Chou (soy sauce),” Kou Chen says.

“Chen Cu (vinegar),” Wei ChaoRen says.

“Huang Jiu (yellow wine),” Xu Chuan says.

“This is today’s Lunchtime Service,” Kou Chen places the bottle onto the table with a kuang, “There’s more for dinner, as long as you all come, then it will be available for every meal, available if you eat one plate-full, also available if you eat two plates, if you reserve the whole cafeteria, I can even service you directly at the food counter.”

The few of them leap to their feet.

The on-lookers also swiftly got to their positions, squeezing each other in a fight for the most advantageous spots, with people even stepping onto chairs.

“In addition, unsubscription is possible,” Kou Chen says, “An hour before a meal starts, to opt out each plate is a dollar, you can only opt the ones on that day itself out, we don’t accept opting out in advance, don’t accept account transfers, only cash, in exact change.”

“You’ve fucking taken the wrong medicine haven’t you!” Zhou HaiChao roars at him, the vein on his neck had already popped out, and he throws his plate over at him.

Kou Chen had already slanted his body to avoid just as his hand had been raised, the plate of food getting hurled onto the ground.

“I’ve already said, I’ll buy all your meals, for one semester,” Kou Chen gives an icy laugh, “What you’re eating and drinking have been paid for by me, and you took the money pretty fast when you did, at this point you haven’t even fucking divided the loot clearly have you, yet you already dare to rage at the sponsor?”

The on-lookers on the side instantly erupt in hushed whispers.

“Who’d taken your money! You should have a bit of shame!” Liu Yu starts scolding at him with a point of his finger, “It was fucking you yourself who…”

This is why they say you shouldn’t talk too much when defending yourself, and to put the key point at the front, because Liu Yu’s sort of method of expression fit exactly what Kou Chen was aiming for.

He cut Liu Yu off before he finished this lengthy statement: “Didn’t take my money? The noodle store at the entrance does have surveillance cameras, wanna go check?”

“It was fucking you yourself who gave it!” Liu Yu roars the key point.

But it was too late, hearing this, it made it seem like he was acting shamelessly.

The sound of hushed whispers immediately got louder.

“Am I a dumbass,” Kou Chen says, “A good few thousands I gave it to you myself?”

Huo Ran looks at Kou Chen in great admiration, this person had let him see the peak form of fronting.

When I start fronting I even insult myself.

“This counts as robbing already,” the lunch lady at the food counter depressedly starts shouting, “This can’t do! Here is a university-affiliated school! This issue must be reported to your teachers!”

“Who has robbed?!” Zhou HaiChao roars, “Who has robbed?!”

Just as Huo Ran thinks that he was going to get down and fight Kou Chen the next second, Li JiaYing who was physically closest to Kou Chen had beaten him to it and made her move, a hand fanning towards Kou Chen’s face in a slap.

But after all she was a girl, so her movement was a little slow, before her slap landed on Kou Chen’s face, her wrist had already been caught by Kou Chen.

“I’m telling you, it’s okay to touch,” Kou Chen looks at her, “But if it’s hitting my face, no matter male or female, I will retaliate.”

Li JiaYing forcefully tries to retrieve her hand from his grip, but Kou Chen doesn’t let up, as such her left hand also goes for his face in a slap.

Not unexpectedly it gets caught by Kou Chen again.

“I’m really fucking screwing your uncle already,” Kou Chen says, “You wanna play bullies then just fucking play bullies, what’s with making it into some brain-dead idol drama here with me? Next second are you also fucking waiting for Laozi to kabedon you huh? Fighting ah Little Sunflower Li!”

Finishing this he gives Li JiaYing a vicious backward shove, and she sits right back into her chair.

Perhaps it was a battle strategy, because in the same instance in which Li JiaYing succeeds in attracting Kou Chen and everyone else’s attention, Liu Yu sends a kick at Kou Chen’s waist from behind.

As Huo Ran sends a strike at Liu Yu’s leg he felt that he was possibly the only person whose mind had wandered and wasn’t looking at Li JiaYing.

As Liu Yu’s kick approached Kou Chen’s waist, he uses his leg to kick Liu Yu’s out of the way, and since the force of Liu Yu’s hadn’t been in time to deliver, he ended up kicking the table that had been nailed into the floor into slanting.

In this sort of atmosphere, as long as one person had made a move, and the audience’s exclamations were added on, the effect was pretty much equivalent to a call to charge.

Kou Chen’s reaction was very quick, not even giving himself the fraction of a second to judge the situation clearly, before directly sending his foot towards Liu Yu’s chest, and Liu Yu sprawls onto the ground.

Following that Zhou HaiChao lunges towards Huo Ran.

This was definitely using one’s position to avenge a personal grudge, not actually going for Kou Chen?

Huo Ran went up to him and went directly for his face with his fist.

The Xu ZhiFan who usually didn’t let him start trouble didn’t stop him today, when the opposing “Fly for Laozi” boy squad who had retired into the second-line all instantly returned to their positions and lunged at Kou Chen, their Humanities Class 1 Bully Handler 7-man Group immediately all joined in this sudden and unexpected cafeteria scuffle.

Exchanging blows, shadows crossing over each other, all wearing the school uniform, other than knowing that the audience had formed a circle around them, it was almost impossible to differentiate clearly one person from another.

The scene was incredibly stimulating.

Even Hu Yi had let his fist loose, extremely valiantly, Huo Ran felt that he might have taken a certain someone to be his scumbag father.

Letting out and venting anger for a bit was also good.

The cafeteria space was small, tables and chairs were arranged in a very packed manner, and in addition it was lunch time so students were everywhere, their battle skills thus couldn’t really be properly showcased, after Kou Chen sends Zhou HaiChao out of the cafeteria door with a kick, the battlefield swiftly moves to the empty space outside the door.

This time everyone saw clearly Kou Chen’s kick.

A grab onto the table and upward jump, then as he goes airborne a kick, and following that Zhou HaiChao was like a puppet who’d had his strings tugged into making him do a mad dash, flying out.

There were no sound effects, the image silent yet startling.

Even Huo Ran felt his own stomach hurting along.

“Stop fighting already! Stop fighting already!” one of Li JiaYing’s best friends screams, “What do you want to do!”

What we want to do?

Huo Ran felt this was a little laughable.

He tilted his head to avoid Tall Boy’s fist, slanting his body and bending his waist to tackle him at his ribs from bottom up, Tall Boy then jumps up along with him because of the pain, his face an expression of agony when he falls on to the ground.

Actually, at this point there already weren’t any new moves.

Just don’t go down and it’s fine.

If someone goes down then go up to them to kick.

Just don’t retreat and it’s fine.

If someone retreats then go up to them to pound.

Other than these it was just a mess.

But the ones that had the upper hand were the Bully Handler 7-man Group, they had one person more than the opponent, and Kou Chen’s fighting prowess was simply too great, in his surroundings even those who wanted to stop the fight hadn’t dared to approach.

When he grabs Liu Yu and smashes him against the nearby wall, Huo Ran finally understands why Kou Chen’s dad had said that he’d cut him up to make into sausages if he fought again.

Liu Yu’s back slams onto the wall with a bang.

When Kou Chen raises his hand planning to smash his face in, Xu ZhiFan rushes up and hugs his arm, fiercely wrestling him backwards.

The voices of the security guards a short distance away could already be heard, if they arrived then they couldn’t make any more moves, no matter how they fought, they couldn’t let the security see with their own eyes, otherwise whoever they saw would definitely become the target* of this scuffle.

[*tl note: im not quite sure why she used the word ‘target’ here, its a little odd but it could be ‘target for blame’ (for starting trouble)]

“What are you doing! What are you doing over here! All of you stop!” a few security guards ran over, pushing them apart from each other.

“They started it first!” Half Tall points at them, wiping the corner of his mouth.

It was obvious that he hadn’t been slapped into bleeding, so serious suspicions that it was saliva.

Huo Ran scans the surroundings, these third years were in a rather terrible state, the corner of Liu Yu’s eye was already very swollen, and Tall Boy’s shirt had been torn into two halves, whoever had done it unknown.

“These people for no apparent reason started pouring soy sauce into our food!” Li JiaYing timely appears, “Everyone saw it then, we all have no idea why! What exactly do you all want to do?!”

“What we want to do!?” Huo Ran hadn’t wanted to speak at this sort of time, but simply couldn’t hold back, looking at her, “Have you asked yourselves this question when you are bullying people? Have you asked yourselves this question when you hit people on the sly? Have you asked yourselves this question when you refuse to let classmates eat? What do you want to do?”

Li JiaYing’s expression instantly becomes rather unsightly, and Huo Ran points at Tall Boy’s group: “When they came running to our classroom to arrange a fight why didn’t you ask them what they want to do?”

“What’s this got to do with me!” Li JiaYing starts shouting, “Don’t pin* everything on me!”

[*tl note: the word used 扣 (kòu) means ‘to invert (a bowl/cup) upside down on something’, note this for the next couple lines]

“Whether or not it’s got to do with you it’s still something to do with you, if I want to pin it then I will! Don’t mention pinning an issue, if I fucking want to pin a lump of shit then it’s also one line, “I’m willing”! If I want to hit you then I’ll hit you! If I don’t want to let you all eat then I won’t let you eat!” Huo Ran says, “You bunch also should stop putting up this innocent victim look asking ‘why’ and ‘what are you doing’, if you ask too much I’m afraid your own people won’t be able to stop themselves from spilling! In front of people that don’t dare to fight back you’re all tyrants, switch to people that won’t have it you act like you’re the victims?”

“Don’t fucking think you’re the only one with a mouth,” Zhou HaiChao points at him, “It was you people that started this, even if we get in some sort of trouble, don’t think you’ll get off scot-free!”

“Don’t worry, what I’ve done I’ll confess, what you all have done I’ll also help you confess!” Kou Chen says.

“Sure, worst come to worst one demerit point each, who’s afraid of whom?” Half Tall says.

“You’re all afraid of us though,” Xu ZhiFan says, “Really getting the demerit, we still have 2 years to work it off, but you lot don’t have much time left, better think thrice.”

“You all also…” Liu Yu says.

“Childish,” Huo Ran cuts him off impatiently, “Whether I get a demerit or not I don’t care, what I’m getting it for I’m aware, what you’re getting it for you’re also aware, don’t mention how you all become pussies within seconds after leaving through the school gate, just switching schools you’d all have to walk with your heads down! In this world the most despicable are things like you, your fists rains hits on the elderly home in the southern mountains, feet step on the kindergartens in the north, and you still take yourselves to be some sort of figure? Trash!”

“What’s wrong! What’s going on here” the Disciplinary Director’s voice sounded from behind them.

When Kou Chen turns his head, he also sees Old Yuan who was running in front the Disciplinary Director.

“I just knew it was you guys,” Old Yuan rushes over first, his voice suppressed, “All of you keep your mouths shut, in front of the Director absolutely do not think to indulge yourself to say something to your disadvantage.”

“Yes, Lawyer Yuan,” Kou Chen says.

“Who’s involved!” the Disciplinary Director was extremely angry, “All of you follow me to the office! Don’t even think of getting away!”

“Them!” Liu Yu came over quickly, his finger a series of points, “The 7 of them!”

“What about on your side?” Old Yuan asks.

“Count me in!” Liu Yu at this moment actually seemed to have become enthusiastic.

“Point for us,” Old Yuan gives Kou Chen’s shoulder a pat.

“1 2 3 4 5 6,” Kou Chen immediately also gives a series of points at the opposing side very cooperatively, but he didn’t point at Li JiaYing, after all she hadn’t been part of the fight, when the issue gets clarified later on though, she’d naturally be unable to get away.

“All of you follow me!” the Director roars, “Other students all return to the classroom! Those who haven’t finished eating go eat! Which class is on cleanliness duty today?! Go tidy up!”

Huo Ran has been considered obedient since he was growing up, although his temper was quick at times, he’d never started trouble on such a large scale, at most he had to stand as punishment or call in a parent stuff like that, but getting dragged to the office by a Disciplinary Director that was burning in anger, this was in fact, his first time.

But he didn’t actually feel anxiety, only feeling at ease from his head down to his feet.

Exceptionally refreshing.

Exceptionally anger-relieving.

“Huo Ran,” Kou Chen behind him calls out to him softly.

“Mn?” Huo Ran turns back.

“Badass,” Kou Chen says.

“What should we say later?” Jiang Lei at the side asks quietly, “Do we need to match statements?”

“Let’s just say it as it is,” Xu ZhiFan says, “Since it’s not actually some evil deed, even if using violence to deal with violence isn’t right, it’s not like we were the cause.”

“Okay,” Wei ChaoRen nods, “We were ridding people of evil.”

“I’m not that high-level, ridding people of evil came along with it,” Kou Chen says, “I just wanted to hit them.”

“Don’t say it like that later,” Xu Chuan looks at him, “You need to say people with your kind of justice can’t stand these sorts of issues.”

“…Okay then,” Kou Chen breaks into a smile, then suddenly wrinkles his brows, “My dad’s gonna beat me to death.”

“If we have to call in a parent, you can call your sister in can’t you,” Xu Chuan says, “Sisters count as family members don’t they?”

“You think she doesn’t hit as hard as my dad?” Kou Chen says, “My dad doesn’t even use weapons, when my sister loses her temper even the dog house she might lift to smash onto me!”

The area of the disciplinary office was a little small, with around ten people squeezing into it at once, it was instantly rather packed, and Tall Boy’s group of four and Liu Yu’s duo weren’t from the same class, so with the Director and three form teachers in addition, there was immediately the sort of feeling that they might get into yet another fight whenever due to being in excessively close proximity.

“Find yourselves a place to sit, squatting is also fine,” the Director says, “First tell us what exactly was going on!”

“There’s nothing to say really,” Kou Chen starts, “Just couldn’t stand the way they bully.”

“Who’ve we bullied?” Liu Yu glares at him.

“If you don’t know, you can go ask your boss Li JiaYing,” Kou Chen says, “Aren’t all of you her followers, where she points is where you hit, devoted to your duty and work, loving your post.”

“Li JiaYing?” Teacher Lü at the side was a little hesitant.

“Is she from your class?” the Director asks.

“Yes, the English class representative,” Teacher Lü says, “A female student whose grades are really not bad…”

“Her bullying is also really not bad,” Huo Ran says.

Teacher Lü looks at him with their brows furrowed.

“Just randomly grab a few students from your class to ask,” Xu ZhiFan asks,” I really don’t believe that nobody knows that she doesn’t let He Hua eat.”

“What?” Teacher Lü is taken aback.

“Don’t just open your mouth and say it!” Half Tall roars.

“I’ve already finished saying it,” Xu ZhiFan says.

“Don’t argue! Do you still want to argue when you’re in here already! Do you also want to continue fighting!” the Director raises their voice, waving their hand with their brows furrowed, “Separate them, let each of them explain.”

The closed door to the Director’s office sounds with a knock.

The Director goes over to open the door: “This student, is anything the matter?”

“Hello Director, I’m from Year 2 Humanities Class 3,” a female voice floats in from outside, “My name is Lu Huan.”

“Fuck?” in the room Kou Chen, Huo Ran and the others all let out quiet exclamations at the same time.

“Be civilised!” Old Yuan glares at all of them.

“I’m here to testify,” Lu Huan says, “I’ve also found a few classmates, we’re all willing to testify for Classmate Kou Chen and the others.”

Huo Ran turns to look at Kou Chen: “Holy fuck?”

“Still swearing?!” Old Yuan gives Huo Ran’s shoulder a slap, walking to the door, “Lu Huan is the class monitress of Teacher Liang’s class.”

“To testify that they’d fought?” the Director asks.

“To testify for why they fought, I know the reason,” Lu Huan says, “Kou Chen and the others were upholding justice.”