TBTTSP - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Zhang Xu Has No Story (10)

Sometimes I'm not that useless. On a rare weekend morning, I even thought about getting up to study.

When I woke up, Li Zhaodi was like an owl, her eyes wide open, reading a book in the dark. I wondered if she was reading with her mind or just pretending. It was pitch-black; she was going to ruin her eyes.

Getting closer, I saw she had a tiny, impractical book light clipped to the page, powered by a button battery. I asked why she didn't just turn on the lamp, and she said she was afraid of wasting electricity.

That made sense. It wasn't my money, after all. Utilities—water, electricity, heating—were three great mountains I couldn't afford to climb. It was all thanks to Shang Yi's grace that Li Zhaodi and I were staying in a hotel in the city. I looked it up online: this hotel cost 680 yuan a night, with an off-season discount to 675. I hugged myself in horror. Later, I found out this hotel belonged to that Big Boss behind Shang Yi. If Shang Yi wanted, she could have put me up in a room that cost seven thousand a night. But I was born with a cheap fate; I'd be grateful for a spot on the floor to sleep on and wouldn't dare waste money like that.

But my desk mate was nearsighted. It was inhumane to let her forge a pair of Fiery Golden Eyes in the dark, so I turned on the light. It was five in the morning.

Ever since I'd "abducted" Li Zhaodi to the city, she'd been studying with a fervor as if she'd never studied before. She was trying to turn the room Shang Yi had bestowed upon me into a second home for us, piled so high with books I had nowhere to step.

Pulling open the curtains, I could see the dim dome of the sky, like a massive, inverted ink-black bowl. A sliver of pale light seeped through a crack in its rim. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the air smelled cold. I watched from the window for a while. A man in the building opposite was smoking. After a few puffs, he stubbed it out. Then I saw a woman over there on the phone, scratching her head, looking like she was dealing with something deeply unpleasant. I didn't dare disturb my desk mate's studies. I couldn't understand the material anyway, so all I could do was make all sorts of noise.

A man knocked and entered, introducing himself as someone sent by Shang Yi. I didn't dare be disrespectful. I poured him tea and sat down with the utmost reverence. He, in turn, kept bowing slightly. We bowed to each other for ages, like a husband and wife at their wedding ceremony, before finally dropping the formalities. He stated his purpose: "I'm here to take you two to register at Pingdu No. 2 Middle School. Please have your documents ready. We'll leave in five minutes."

My desk mate was still reading. I went over and tapped her.

The two of us, carrying our small bags, followed the man to the door. My desk mate grew wary. She tugged my sleeve and said, "Didn't you need to go to the bathroom?"

My brain wasn't working that fast at the time. I paused. "No, I didn't say that."

She shot me a look, practically willing me to understand. It finally clicked. "Oh! Right, I do. Come with me."

The man gave a slight bow and waited for us to leave. In the bathroom, Li Zhaodi flushed the empty toilet and whispered, "Have you seen him before? What if he's a bad guy? Shouldn't you call your godmother and ask?"

Top students are just so meticulous. I didn't think it was a big deal, but I took out my phone and called Shang Yi. The first time, I got a busy signal. The second time, it went through. Her voice on the other end sounded a little stuffy, as if she'd just been crying or had a cold; her voice was a bit nasal.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a man here today—oh, pinstripe suit, gray tie, about my height—who says he's taking me and Li Zhaodi to register at Pingdu No. 2 Middle School. Did you send him? My desk mate thinks we should be careful."

"Good job. You should learn from Zhaodi and think things through more. Hand the phone to that man."

Li Zhaodi looked as proud as if she'd won first place at a sports meet, puffing out her chest. I knew it—a compliment from Shang Yi was enough to make anyone's tail wag. Shang Yi just had a talent for leadership. When she praised someone, they'd get as happy as if they'd won three million in the lottery.

The man took the phone from me as if Shang Yi herself were standing there in person, nodding and bowing incessantly. Since I happened to be standing right in front of him, I felt awkward just receiving his bows. So every time he bowed, I bowed back. The two of us ended up bowing to each other again like a bride and groom.

Li Zhaodi was a sharp one. She carried a small cloth bag containing her family's household registration book and her report cards. The last time, Ugly Boy had used some method to deal with Li Zhaodi's mother, who then obediently handed over the book. I found out later that Ugly Boy had posed as a shady recruiter, telling her he could get Li Zhaodi a job at an Apple phone factory that paid two thousand a month. Once she was settled, he said, he could even get her mother a job there too.

"So who's paying that two thousand?"

"You're actually planning to give it to her?" Ugly Boy looked at me like I was an idiot. He wasn't that old and was quite slender, yet he insisted on reaching out to pat my head. "You can pay it, then. Write me an IOU. Fortunes can change in thirty years. When you've made it big, you can come back and support Sister Shang and me."

I had no intention of doing that, but that didn't mean Li Zhaodi didn't. She was the type who never forgot her benefactors. She had taken a stack of plain white paper and started writing out a pile of IOUs, interest-free, promising to pay everything back in ten years. I did the math. In ten years, she'd only be twenty-two. Was she going to be financially independent by twenty-two? What a lofty goal.

She was just a very polite person. In our local dialect, we'd say she "takes it to heart," meaning that when she's a guest in someone else's home, she always acts like an outsider, treading carefully for fear of making a mistake. She doesn't dare to owe anyone anything. If she owes someone a single grain of rice, she has to pay it back tenfold before she can rest easy. In my opinion, she's like Lin Daiyu—melancholy and living under someone else's roof. I once peeked at my desk mate's notebook and saw it was an account ledger. She recorded every single expense and tallied it up each night, writing out a new IOU.

In ten years, that pile of IOUs would probably fill the entire room. Even if she did become financially independent, she'd go bankrupt just trying to pay it all back.

If Li Zhaodi had half my shamelessness, she would have long since thrown herself into Shang Yi's arms—who was clearly lacking a junior to dote on—and squeezed me right out.

I was an unpopular kid anyway. I'd never been well-liked. Being cared for by Shang Yi for no apparent reason sometimes made me feel like I didn't deserve it. Li Zhaodi was a much better fit. All those IOUs should have had my name on them, but someone like me probably wouldn't amount to anything in ten years and wouldn't be able to pay them back anyway.

And speaking of which, ever since my parents died, it's like Shang Yi automatically took their place and soul-transmigrated into my body. She couldn't possibly stay in my body for ten years, right? We'd become truly inseparable then. Even if she didn't like me, she'd have no other choice.

The gates of Pingdu No. 2 Middle School were four or five times larger than those of the No. 2 Middle in the county. The security guards at the entrance all wore clean uniforms and stood with the air of city people. A wide avenue led from the gate, the ground so clean there wasn't a single scrap of paper, nor were there any messy snack stalls or toy stands. Across the street was a huge training center of some kind, filled with kids studying piano, painting, Go, and robotics. They were all neatly dressed, and they headed over there as soon as school let out. Li Zhaodi and I were from the countryside; we paled in comparison in every way.

We had come up from the underground parking garage on the other side of the street. The man taught us how to identify car logos. I only remembered one crucial principle: don't just rush out and try to stage an accident with any car you see. Some car owners can't afford to pay you, and others you can't afford to provoke.

As soon as we entered, a middle-aged man with his hair parted on the side came to greet us. He shook hands with our guide and then lovingly patted both me and Li Zhaodi on the head. I later learned that the principal himself had received us. He gave Li Zhaodi and me some delicious imported chocolates and served the man good tea. After they exchanged pleasantries, we dazedly handed over our household registration books. Not long after, we were given a set of cardstock folders containing school information, admissions notices, and other important details.

Just a few days ago, I was running wild in my dusty village, and now here I was at Pingdu No. 2 Middle School, a place most people from my town couldn't even dream of. I was holding their materials, eating the nice candy the principal gave me, and walking alongside my desk mate, who didn't have the superpower of being possessed. The man seemed to be trying to curry favor with us, offering to treat us to a big meal.

My desk mate frantically waved her hands, terrified of adding another huge expense to her bill.

At her insistence, we returned to the hotel. The man asked, "What flavor do you want?"

"Pickled Cabbage."

"Pickled Green Bean and Braised Egg."

"You got it." He went to make the instant noodles.

Shang Yi must have been in my body when she found out we were eating instant noodles to save money. She must have asked around to piece together what happened.

With the instant noodles in front of me, I glared at them. "This is what you're eating?"

"What's wrong? It was your idea!" My desk mate, unaware that the universe within me had shifted, shot me an innocent glance and lowered her head to spear the braised egg with her fork. I gritted my teeth for a moment, feeling like I'd swallowed a fly, unable to voice my bitterness. A little while later, she used some method to have a hotel waiter come in with a meal, saying it was all complimentary. My desk mate immediately pocketed two extra bread rolls.

At that moment, I must have seemed incredibly impressive, like a big boss who could summon a free lunch with a wave of her hand. My desk mate would probably see me in a new light from then on.

But she didn't. As long as I wasn't studying, she'd walk all over me. She just thought I wasn't applying myself and got angry every day because of it.

It just goes to show that garbage needs a new core to transform. If Shang Yi's core is a Snapdragon processor, then I'm probably one of those calculators that talks when you press the buttons.

My desk mate wasn't friends with me because of how amazing Zhang Xu was. It was because of the combined halos of Xu Wanqing and Shang Yi—one pragmatic in business, the other graceful and artistic.

Why would you ever think you're the most useful piece of trash in a giant heap? Most of the time, you still feel like you're just another unremarkable piece in the pile. You just got lucky somehow, receiving a strange blessing and the care of others.

I recorded this in my diary. By now, Shang Yi and I were sharing an encrypted cloud notebook. When I wrote that in my diary, Shang Yi replied:

Of course Li Zhaodi is smart and hardworking; she just has bad luck. And of course you think you should just give your luck to her, because that would feel fair to you. It's like when no one loves you, you say, 'Of course no one will ever love me.' Then when someone actually does love you, you push them away again and again. Once they're gone, you feel your judgment was correct: 'See, no one loves me.' Now that good luck has come your way, you insist it doesn't belong to you. When it's gone, you'll say, 'See, I really am someone who doesn't even have luck.' Isn't that a bit too self-defeating?

I was squatting in a pavilion outside the hotel, reading Shang Yi's message to me.

Suddenly, my phone was snatched away. I jumped up in a panic to grab it back. A woman even taller than me, wearing stiletto heels and a wine-red, low-cut cocktail dress, stood before me, reading the screen.

She looked like she'd just thrown a glass of red wine at someone at a party and then run off.

I was already tall, but this woman was a skyscraper… I couldn't get my phone back, so I stomped hard on her foot, snatched the phone, and turned off the screen.

"You're Zhang Xu?" She winced in pain and stumbled back, but she didn't seem angry, just sizing me up with a frown.

"Grandpa's right here." I wouldn't be outdone in attitude. I puffed out my chest. She was probably one of Shang Yi's people, just a bit rude.

"Such a rude little brat."

"Right back at you."

"What are you doing out here alone?" She seemed to think she was making casual conversation, but her eyes were sharp as a hawk's, giving off the vibe that she had ulterior motives and wanted to pry information out of me.

"What are you doing out here? Aren't you cold? The wind's picked up today, they say it's going to rain…"

The words were barely out of my mouth when the downpour began, as if on cue. The wind blew it sideways into the pavilion, drenching the tall woman like a drowned rat.

Luckily for me, she was tall enough to block the wind and rain, so I stayed perfectly dry.

"Don't you know how to hold an umbrella for a lady?" she asked, pointing to the long-handled umbrella I had propped up next to me in the pavilion.

"No."

I was still waiting for my desk mate, who had gone to the bookstore today. I opened the umbrella and held it at an angle, effectively blocking the tall woman out.

I was a lady too. Thanks to her for using her body as my umbrella.

"You're not doing anything right now, can't you just hold the umbrella for me?"

"Whether I hold it for you or not is my choice." I lowered the umbrella even more. She shouldn't be able to get under it.

To my surprise, she actually squeezed in. A wave of cold, damp air clung to my clothes. I scooted over to a pillar and hugged it. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"My name is Xu Min. I'm a friend of Shang Yi's."

Having learned my lesson, I hugged the pillar and used the umbrella to keep a distance between us while I secretly texted Shang Yi to ask who Xu Min was.

Shang Yi's reply was concise: My enemy.

With Shang Yi's blessing, I closed the umbrella, not even letting her have the tip for cover.

But it was a case of killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of my own men. The wind blew in, drenching me as well.

The two of us were just that stubborn, sitting there in the wind and rain, neither of us suggesting we move to the warm hotel lobby.

After a while, Xu Min seemed to be at her limit. "I came to ask you about Shang Yi."

"Aren't you her friend? Why are you asking me about her?"

There was no need to ask, really. Xu Min, perhaps because of her age, started sneezing.

I moved to sit across from her. My healthy body would not be contaminated by her germs.

"Then do you know Xu Wanqing?"

"Huh? Who?" My brain worked for once, and I played dumb.

"Aren't you cold? Can I buy you a cup of coffee?"

"No, thanks. I don't worship foreign things!" I said righteously.

"Then let's get some milk tea."

"No, thanks. I'm burning my calories!"

"Can you just talk to me properly? Shang Yi seems so close to you, saying such gentle things to you."

"No, I refuse your ugly face. Look, you're not young anymore, so your immune system probably isn't great. You're out here with your arms and legs exposed. If you catch a cold, don't say I gave it to you. Stay away from me."

"You're really asking for a beating, aren't you?"

Normally, I wouldn't be so rude to a stranger, but since Shang Yi herself had decreed this was her enemy, I did my best to needle her with all my heart, hoping to contribute to Shang Yi's cause. "Fine, then. You can stay here with me. Whoever goes inside first is a dog. Heaven and Earth can bear witness: Party A, Zhang Xu, and Party B, Xu Min, are sitting here in the rain. If one party catches a cold, the other bears no responsibility. The right of final interpretation belongs to me."

"Fine. If I win, you'll talk to me?"

"No additional clauses. I refuse."

My impervious attitude made Xu Min laugh in exasperation. She spread her arms, leaned back against the wooden bench, and adopted the posture of a rogue who had nothing left to lose. She glared at me for a long time, her hair soaked and plastered to her face, the ends dripping with rain.

She sneezed one after another, as if she'd contracted some incurable disease.

Xu Min said, "I'm telling you, I have asthma. If I cough myself to death here, you won't be able to get away."

"What's that got to do with me?"

This person was so strange. Did she think the world revolved around her? She had asthma, so I had to immediately surrender?

I opened my umbrella, stood up, and walked over to the pavilion on the other side of the hotel entrance to sit down.

Through the curtain of rain, I watched Xu Min's coughing performance for a good while. If she really did cough herself to death here, I swear to God, it would have nothing to do with me.

It was pretty strange, wasn't it? A woman in an evening gown suddenly rushes over to get to know me, to find out about Shang Yi, and then gets into a standoff with me in the rain over who goes inside first?

I closed my umbrella and went inside. I'd just let Xu Min get soaked. After all, the right of final interpretation belonged to me.

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