CH 2

“We didn’t even move our hands! Fuck, does he look injured to you? There were also cameras in the Internet café. Just wait for the police to come and see who was the one to start the fight, and smash people with chairs…” Xu Si cursed while putting away his knife. The person next to him leaned in to whisper a reminder, and it seemed as though he had really seen a police car coming.

The group of guys were a little afraid. After all, several of them had a criminal record. They could not afford to be detained because of a mere boy today, and there was especially no need to implicate Tongque Terrace in this trivial matter. Without much discussion, they turned around and left after exchanging a couple glances.

Seeing their figures disappear, Yu Ran lowered his head and patted the person who had fallen into his arms, “Brother, wake up. They’re all gone so you can get up now.”

Even after he finished speaking, the boy didn’t move a muscle.

“Fuck, you’re not pretending?” Yu Ran squatted on the ground and shook his shoulders hard, “Dude, wake up? Comrade, are you okay? Hey, holy shit, you didn’t really die all of a sudden, did you…”

Yu Ran felt panicky, and hurriedly tested the other person’s breathing and heartbeat. Only after confirming that he was still alive did he breathe a sigh of relief.

He must have had a heatstroke. Yu Ran didn’t know whether the person’s condition was serious, so he simply took out his mobile phone and prepared to call an ambulance.

At this moment, the boy in his arms regained consciousness. Even before he opened his eyes, he said, “No need to call 120.”

Yu Ran put down his mobile phone and helped him up. The two looked at each other and the boy asked, “Was it you who shouted just now?”

Knowing that his loud shout had changed the situation at the scene, Yu Ran shook his head dismissively and said, “Oh, don’t mention it. One should help when seeing…”

The word “injustice” had yet to pop out, when the other boy began to walk straight ahead, no longer paying any attention to Yu Ran.

Yu Ran thought to himself that this person was really addicted to the Internet — even after waking up from heatstroke, he went straight to the Internet café instead of going to the hospital. He had seriously fought with all his might to get the title of PVP champion in the entire district. However, after catching up with him, he saw the boy take out a few pink bills and hand them to the supervisor, apologizing and saying that it was the compensation for the computer chair, before turning around and leaving.

“You’re the first in Mystic Battle’s District Three, right? I saw your picture in the forum during the in-person event.” Yu Ran asked him as he caught up with him.

The boy’s voice didn’t fluctuate: “Is there anything wrong?”

Yu Ran grinned, “What a coincidence, brother. I just PK-ed with you.”

He naturally stretched out his hand to shake hands with the other party.

The boy didn’t give any particular reaction. He simply ignored Yu Ran and walked into the shade without looking at him.

Cicadas were buzzing over their heads. Yu Ran continued: “You suddenly hung up halfway through the fight. I unleashed a few moves, but you just died…”

Hearing “died”, the boy paused, turned his head and stared at Yu Ran with a gloomy expression, and concluded: “So you are saying, you did a sneak attack on me?”

Yu Ran immediately retorted loudly: “What ‘sneak attack’?! How would I know what your situation was like just then… Besides, winning without a fight is the most meaningless thing. I haven’t even complained about you being disrespectful towards your opponent and ruining my gaming experience.”

When the boy didn’t say anything, Yu Ran made a new proposal: “How about this, let’s fight one-on-one again.”

“Not free.”

“Then when will you be free? I can wait for you in the arena anytime.”

“I’m never free,” the boy said, “Since I lost once, I don’t want that account anymore.”

Yu Ran was taken aback by this person’s calm expression.

Then, he couldn’t help but shake his head and applaud. “Wow brother, you’re quite cool,” he exclaimed, “Can I post about this on QQ?”

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The boy took a deep breath impatiently, “If it weren’t for you shouting so suddenly, how could I have fainted like that?”

“Damn, you’re blaming me for that too? You actually dare say that you fainted because of my shout?” Yu Ran sneered, feeling that he was being unreasonable.

His sneer had yet to fade when Yu Ran thought instead, what if the other person had really fainted because of his loud shouting?

As this thought came to his mind, the corners of Yu Ran’s mouth suddenly froze.

— Fuck, could it be that a mysterious power has been awakened in my body?

— Is this finally the day… that I’ve been waiting for?

Yu Ran first froze in place, and then was overjoyed, laughing several times behind the boy’s back in a gleeful manner.

This bizarre and rapid change in his mood caused the other boy to immediately raise his guard and quicken his pace to get away from him.

However, since Yu Ran now thought he had a superpower, he was very smug and started making demands of the boy: “Forget about the game first, let’s talk about how you fainted just now. At least I helped you stop those people, or else you would have been beaten to death by them. So, brother, it’s not too much for you to say ‘thank you’ to me, is it?”

The boy didn’t even bother giving a side glance at Yu Ran. “You caused me to faint suddenly, and you still want me to thank you?”

Yu Ran had only wanted to give him an out. After all, it was easy to get quite irritable in the summer. There was no need for strangers to look for trouble with each other. On top of that, he was no longer an ordinary human being, so he had to be more generous with others.

This was what he thought, but the boy didn’t appreciate it at all, and left without saying a word.

“Don’t you dare get cocky with me, or else I will unleash my ‘conqueror's haki‘ on you again,” Yu Ran said in a low voice.

The boy stopped, staring bewilderedly at the steely-eyed Yu Ran, “‘Conqueror’ what ‘haki’?”

“You want to try my power?” Yu Ran vigorously moved the muscles near the corner of his left lip, and threw an aggressive smile at the boy, not forgetting to let out a “heh”, “It won’t feel too good…”

Looking at Yu Ran’s smile, the boy fell into a defensive state, and he subconsciously stepped back.

“What do you want?” The boy frowned.

“Do you know why you suddenly fainted just now?” Yu Ran raised his youthful and handsome face and tilted his head, “Go into the Internet café and fight me fair and square, and I’ll tell you my secrets.

The boy wasn’t interested in knowing what secrets Yu Ran had on his person, but based on his observations in the past few minutes, he felt that Yu Ran probably had a bit of an IQ problem.

So he only answered the first half of Yu Ran’s question frankly: “I already told you — my fainting, your fault.”

“I admit it was my fault, sorry,” Yu Ran scrunched up his face and said frustratedly, “I can’t help it. I don’t have much control over my ability now either… But you weren’t the only one present just now, how come the others didn’t faint?”

Just as the boy tried to explain the reason, Yu Ran continued: “Maybe you’re just too weak.”

The word “weak” touched the boy’s nerves. He didn’t move his feet, but the hands hanging by the side of his legs were already clenched into fists.

Yu Ran said thoughtfully, “But… even if you hadn’t fainted, you certainly wouldn’t have been able to beat a group of adults with knives all by yourself, right? So judging from the results, I still helped you, didn’t I? ”

“So?” The boy narrowed his eyes.

“PK with me! Let me beat you fairly for once!” As expected, the topic returned.

The boy moved away his gaze, indifferently dropped the words “dream on”, and left without stopping for a second.

“Hey you… C’mon man, at the very least I saved you just now.” This time, Yu Ran didn’t bother to catch up with him. Muttering that “kindness isn’t rewarded”, he went back to the Internet café alone to continue playing computer games.

This year’s summer was fiercer compared to previous years. The temperatures in many parts of the country had exceeded historical extremes. Even the coastal city of Ronggang was stiflingly hot, and the air was filled with the smell of tar as the asphalt roads baked in the hot sun. In the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun between puffs of clouds intertwined into blurry dashes of oil paints, splashing the horizon with its dazzling brilliance.

Yu Ran had satisfactorily completed the task he had undertaken from “°Buerxin”, but he was still struggling with the fact that he had won without a fight, so he only took half of the payment.

[°Buerxin]: Just take it, you deserve it.

[°Buerxin]: You are really awesome, you even made Marija directly delete their account.

Yu Ran was stunned upon hearing the words “delete their account”.

He thought that the boy was just joking. After all, it took a lot of energy to raise an account to such high levels. No one would easily give up their past efforts because of a single failure; it was simply too much of a pity.

Unexpectedly, there was one such person.

Yu Ran no longer continued chatting, and merely sighed at that person’s determination. It just so happened that the computer balance was insufficient, so it was also time for him to go home for dinner.

Yu Ran took Bus No. 861 home. Upon entering the house, he saw his brother crying on the sofa.

The TV volume was very loud. Yu Ran walked over and kicked the boy, saying, “Go cry over there, make some room for me,” he sat down and threw a packet of tissues to his brother. “Is the 110-meter hurdle race over?”

Hearing his question, Yu Jin cried even harder, lowering his head and burying his face deep into the palms of his hands to sob.

Coincidentally, the commercial on TV finished showing, and CCTV-5 showed a recap of the race. On the screen, a string of white words on a red background came into Yu Ran’s view: Liu Xiang kissed the fence, bidding farewell to the Olympics.

“Huh — ?” Yu Ran froze, staring intently at the video of the race being replayed on TV. Only after a long time did he finally recover and ask Yu Jin: “Holy shit, really? He can’t make it to the semi-finals? ”

Yu Jin said with reddened eyes, “What’re you saying? His injury hasn’t recovered yet. The host said he is going to retire.”

This explosive news shocked Yu Ran, “Didn’t he win three consecutive championships before…”

“How long ago was that? I was only in third or fourth grade then.”

“Really…” Yu Ran hadn’t perceived the speed of time passing at all. It felt as if it was not too long ago that Liu Xiang had made a comeback to win the National Games. He had originally thought that the video clip of Liu Xiang dashing to the finish line in first place would be repeated countless times on TV today, just like in previous years, constantly repeating and making people’s blood stir with excitement, but the reality unfolded into an unexpected ending.

His mother was cooking, the cooker hood in the kitchen buzzing. The spicy smell of cooked green pepper wafted into the living room, making Yu Ran’s eyes water. Yu Jin was still weeping sincerely for the Olympics, and was ridiculed by Yu Ran, “You’re crying as if Liu Xiang had been close to you.” The little boy even set his ambitions, saying that when he grew up, he would win gold medals for his country too.

Yu Ran asked him, “Which sport can you compete for in the Olympics? You can’t swim; you can’t run — why don’t you sign up for the discus throw?”

Yu Jin thought for a while and said, “But the discus is too heavy, I can’t throw it.”

Yu Ran: “Who said you would be the one throwing it? You be the discus, and let the Olympic athletes throw you straight into the sky so you can daydream.”

Li Guirong came out of the kitchen after cooking, and saw her two sons squabbling on the sofa. She put down the plate and urged them: “Ai ai ai, stop for the night. Wash your hands and come eat quickly. I made cola chicken wings for you today.”

As soon as he heard “chicken wings”, Yu Jin immediately jumped up from the sofa like a carp and ran straight to the bathroom, followed closely by Yu Ran. The two nudged each other frantically with all their strength in front of the sink, and began a new round of hand-to-hand combat.

Yu Ran originally wanted to use his “superpowers” on Yu Jin, but was afraid that his younger brother’s body couldn’t withstand it, so he had no choice but to suppress his power.

When they finished washing their hands and sat at the dinner table, they had already exhausted most of their energy. While panting, they still scrambled to grab the biggest chicken wings with chopsticks. It wasn’t that they were short of food. It was just that the two brothers had been passionate about snatching each other’s favorite things since they were little, and had grown close through squabbles and fights. Li Guirong scolded them, but the two just laughed loudly.

“These days the temperature is around 37 degrees. Remember to bring an umbrella when you go out so that you don’t get sunburned.” Li Guirong filled three bowls of mung bean soup to let it cool, “Every day, the news is full of people fainting from heat stroke. What if they get hit by a car while crossing the street? How dangerous!”

She sighed, “Why don’t you two go for extra classes during the summer vacation. Especially you, Yu Ran. The contents in senior high are much more difficult than junior high. If you continue to play around, you definitely won’t be able to catch up.”

Yu Ran’s chopsticks stopped in the pile of rice for a moment.

Yu Ran wasn’t listening carefully to what she was saying. When she finally asked, “Did you take what I said to heart?”, he merely lowered his head and shoved rice into his mouth, making a few vague “mmm” sounds.

Yu Jin looked up to add: “We’re trying to help you save money.”

“No need. All you two have to do is study hard so that I don’t have to worry,” Li Guirong said, “You two drink more mung bean soup, it will relieve you from the heat.”

The night was quietly approaching, and the continuous broadcast of Olympics news on TV added more excitement to this home. When all the lights in the neighborhood were dimmed, only the monotonous cries of grasshoppers were left in the dark night. Like countless other ordinary days in the past, Yu Ran unknowingly enjoyed another bit of ordinary but tenacious happiness today. Occasionally being sad and feeling regret over things that were irrelevant, but more often than not, laughing endlessly at trivial pleasures.

According to the calendar, today was the beginning of autumn, and the textbooks always associated autumn with words such as “cool” and “chilly”. It was easy to overlook that there was the character . When Yu Ran saw “beginning of autumn”, he subconsciously thought that the weather would get colder, but he knew that when he opened his eyes tomorrow morning, he would still be greeted by the scorching sun. So he deeply believed that autumn was a season full of confusion. It came silently while people were still immersed in summer and by the time they realized, most of 2012 was already over.

Curled up quietly in the embrace of the night, Yu Ran drifted off to sleep with hostility towards autumn.

In late August, the sky was clear and cloudless.

On this day, Chengjun Middle School held the opening ceremony for freshmen. Yu Ran entered the school early and saw a large bronze horse statue situated at the entrance. It had a strong and beautiful body, with three feet up in the air as though it was leaping into the sky.

There was a large crowd in front of the bulletin board. Yu Ran easily squeezed his way through and made it to the front row using his advantageous height. He browsed the class list posted there, and finally found his name in the list for senior year one, class one.

The banner “Welcome New Students” was hanging in front of the school building. As soon as he entered the building and took a turn, he found his class. After signing his name with the homeroom teacher, Yu Ran walked to the window seat and sat down. The surrounding classmates were chatting enthusiastically, but when such a tall and handsome new face suddenly appeared in front of them, it was hard not to be distracted.

The boy wearing glasses in the seat in front of him raised his hand in greeting: “Hi.”

Yu Ran said “Hello, hello” and reflexively reached out to give him a high five.

“My name is Fang Zhao,” the boy turned his upper body towards Yu Ran, “Are you Chu Mian?”

“Who?” Yu Ran shook his head, “No.”

“Oh you’re not? I guessed wrong then,” the girl in the seat on the right looked slightly disappointed, but looking at Yu Ran’s face, she quickly refreshed her spirits again, “Did you sign an agreement to enter?”

Yu Ran asked back, “What agreement?”

Fang Zhao explained: “If your score is high enough, and you put Chengjun as your first choice school, you’ll get a scholarship worth a few ten thousands.”

After listening to him, Yu Ran was visibly stunned for a moment before immediately shifting into a more stable posture so as to express his astonishment: “Holy shit, this is the experimental class?!”

“Yeah, class one,” Fang Zhao pushed his glasses up, “Dude, you didn’t come to the wrong class, did you?”

Yu Ran also hesitated a bit, but he had already looked through the list of all ten classes on the bulletin board just now, and there was no one with the same name as himself in the whole year. So he told Fang Zhao his senior high school entrance examination results, and the other party said: “It’s about there. I heard that the minimum score in the experimental class is even a couple of points lower.”

“Wow, I’m really awesome…” Yu Ran couldn’t help laughing at this twist of fate, and immediately took out his mobile phone to text his mother about the good news.

Fang Zhao and the others started chatting about a new topic: “Hey, do you guys think it’s Chu Mian or Cui He who is the top student coming in?”

“Which one is Cui He? I only know Chu Mian.” “She’s from Ronggang No. 1 Middle School. I saw her during the military training in junior high school. She is definitely a school flower.” “What’s going on this year? There are so many top students who didn’t do well in the exam. Aren’t they supposed to be on scholarship?”

Yu Ran wanted to get acquainted with his new classmates quickly, and immediately participated in their discussion excitedly after sending the text message. At this moment, someone said, “If I’m not wrong, there shouldn’t be anyone who is more ‘powerful’ than these two in the whole year, right? One graduated from Ronggang Overseas Affiliated School, and the other was from Ronggang No. 1 Middle School. Somehow, they were both admitted to Chengjun.”

Yu Ran answered naturally, “There is someone who is even more powerful.”

Fang Zhao pushed his glasses up: “Who?”

Following his example, Yu Ran pushed up the air on the bridge of his nose, and introduced himself solemnly: “Yu Ran, graduate of No. 44 Middle School.”