Chapter 31: Past Events
Brother Xiaosheng has always known that other students have deep misunderstandings about him.
No matter how he explained, his classmates regarded him as a "gangster". "Gangster", "gangster" and "social person" were always around him, and he could only feel helpless about it. He was very puzzled. He was not like a real gangster who smoked in groups, and he rarely skipped classes. He studied hard and his grades were good. His only two hobbies were basketball and games. But the rumors were getting more and more credible. Now he seemed to have become the gangster leader recognized by the students of No. 4 Middle School, a terrible gangster, who had no rivals in No. 4 Middle School, the number one boss in the district, Xuanhai Chen Haonan. He could only smile on his face and curse in his heart.
"Brother Xiaosheng." His two junior followers, Shitou and Xiaomang followed him. Speaking of which, he was considered a gang leader and had a relationship with these two people.
Shitou is his neighbor. His father has a bad temper and often beats and scolds Shitou and his mother. Shitou's father is the nightmare of all the children in the neighborhood. The children say that Shitou's father has killed someone and buried the body in the vacant lot behind the community. Shitou's father is an absolute social news aggregation monster. Although Xiaoshengge does not believe this rumor, he has also been uneasy and anxious about Shitou's father living next door. However, he told himself that he is not afraid of him, but worried that Shitou's father will hurt his parents.
One time, Shitou's father beat his wife so hard that it seriously affected Xiaosheng's nighttime routine. Xiaosheng couldn't help but open the door and yelled if the couple could wait until daytime to have their quarrel, but he saw Shitou's father kicking Shitou at the door. Shitou's eyes were red and his forehead was bleeding. His mother was curled up in the corner of the corridor, her cheeks swollen and the skin on her exposed arms was torn. Shitou yelled at his father like a little animal struggling desperately.
The roar exploded in Xiaosheng's mind. Without thinking too much, Xiaosheng picked up a chair and smashed it against Shitou's door. The chair hit the door frame with a sharp clang. Shitou's father glared at him fiercely. Xiaosheng didn't look at him, but turned around and reached out to Shitou's mother who was curled up in the corner.
Father Shitou slapped him: "Mind your own business!"
Without thinking, Xiaosheng grabbed Shitou's wrist, and then spun back, causing the man to scream. This was a self-defense grappling move he had learned from an old man doing morning exercises in the park. He had only learned it for fun, but he didn't expect to be able to perform it so smoothly at this moment.
Time seemed to stand still at that moment. The Shitou family in the corridor became motionless statues.
The man stared at Xiaosheng in disbelief. At this moment, Xiaosheng suddenly realized that he was taller than Shitou's father.
The scary man who had always been regarded as a ferocious beast by the neighborhood children actually showed fear in his eyes.
Later, Shitou became Xiaosheng's follower, his first little follower.
Xiao Mang was bullied by several boys in the class, and Xiao Sheng happened to see those boys pulling Xiao Mang's head into the pool. Xiao Sheng acted elegant and easy-going, and after a friendly physical exchange with those boys, Xiao Mang also became his follower.
After that, more and more people followed him or claimed to be his followers.
In their eyes, Xiaosheng is their big brother and their god. Whatever the big brother says is right, and following the big brother brings honor. As a result, Xiaosheng is always surrounded by a few followers, which makes the rumor that he is the campus Chen Haonan more and more true.
There were even real hooligans from outside the school who came to cause trouble after hearing rumors about him. Brother Xiaosheng discovered that the little boxing and kicking skills he learned from the old man who did morning exercises were not techniques for show. He beat back almost all the people from outside the school who came to cause trouble for him. As a result, his reputation as the top leader of No. 4 Middle School became more and more famous.
Brother Xiaosheng swore to God that he was just an ordinary teenager who loved basketball and playing games, and had no interest in making a name for himself in the underworld, which was not suitable for children.
Unfortunately, his followers are constantly making his strange rumors come true.
Now, Shitou and Xiaomang looked at him innocently.
Brother Xiaosheng said: "Liu Xingquan just came here, and he is still angry."
Shitou scratched his head: "We just want to teach that Young Master Yan a lesson."
"Don't act on your own in the future."
"But Liu Xingquan's father lost his job because of Mr. Yan. His father is no longer with us." Shitou gritted his teeth and said, "I just can't stand it. Why is Liu Xingquan being bullied like that?"
"How much do you know? Have you asked Liu Xingquan himself?"
"Liu Xingquan is the kind of person who won't say a word even if he's wronged. Brother, we really can't help it."
"Even if you want to help Liu Xingquan, how can you do such a thing as blackmail?" Are you crazy ?
"We don't want to blackmail him, we just want to scare him."
"Then you were beaten up by that Young Master Yan."
Shitou and Xiaomang lowered their heads in shame.
"I say, please don't mess with Master Yan." Brother Xiaosheng sighed. He recalled an incident with Yan Zhen and couldn't help but sigh again.
With the basketball under his arm, Xiaosheng returned home. His sister was sleeping soundly on the sofa with headphones on. He picked up the blanket and prepared to cover her.
The elder sister turned over restlessly, and the phone slipped to the floor. Xiaosheng picked up the phone and took a look at it, and he was furious.
The screen saver of his sister's phone was that bastard Yan Zhen. Xiaosheng rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not seeing things. His smart and beautiful sister's phone screen saver was actually that Yan Zhen!! Is the world crazy or is his sister crazy?
"What are you doing? Give me back my phone." The sister opened her eyes and stretched out her hand to Brother Xiaosheng.
"Sister, you are already a college student. Why do you put a middle school student as your phone screensaver? Aren't you ashamed?"
"What middle school student? This is Ren Anzhi."
"Is this Ren Anzhi? Isn't Ren Anzhi an adult?"
"This is a photo of Ren Anzhi when he was a student. I thought he was cute, so I saved it on my phone." The elder sister smiled and looked at the phone, "This is my baby Zhizhi..."
"Zhizhi?" Brother Xiaosheng said this nickname while suppressing his nausea. "I thought it was the squeaking of a mouse."
"You sound like you are black. Go away and don't bother me."
Brother Xiaosheng felt that his sister had become abnormal since she became a fan of the star named Ren Anzhi. Regardless of whether it was Yan Zhen or the young version of Ren Anzhi, he now just wanted to smash the screen with that disgusting face.
One day I will tell my sister that there can only be one of Yan Zhen (or Ren Anzhi) and me in the family.
He returned to his room and threw the basketball on the floor. It rolled to the corner.
He stared at the basketball and thought of his past with Yan Zhen. Whenever he thought of this bad thing, he would want to rush over and beat Yan Zhen up right now.
At that time, the school playground was under renovation, and he and a group of students lost their place to play basketball. The open space in the community was occupied by various cars during the day, and at night it was the territory of the aunties who danced in the square.
During that time, Xiaosheng and his friends were like headless flies, looking for a place to play basketball. The basketball courts in other neighborhoods were either occupied by residents of the neighborhood or did not exist at all.
After searching for a long time, they finally found a place.
An indoor basketball court that perfectly matched his dreams.
That day, he and a few friends were strolling on the street. It was evening, and he saw a boy carrying a basketball passing by across the street. Xiaosheng knew the boy, his name was Liu Xingquan. He had always owed Liu Xingquan a favor.
He watched Liu Xingquan turn into a path lined with neatly planted green trees. The basketball net in Liu Xingquan's hand attracted Xiao Shengge's full attention. So he followed him as if possessed by a ghost. Passing a lush green ginkgo tree, Liu Xingquan walked into a very beautiful indoor basketball court.
Xiaosheng's eyes widened. This was the kind of basketball court he dreamed of.
Spacious space, smooth floor, bright lighting and complete facilities.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In the huge basketball court, Liu Xingquan was the only one there.
He squatted slightly, pushed off the ground with his feet, and the ball fell steadily into the frame.
The movements are smooth and crisp.
Considering his age, it can be said that he is very outstanding.
Brother Xiaosheng clapped his hands. Liu Xingquan turned around, looking a little surprised.
Xiaoshengge walked into the court and started playing basketball with him. Liu Xingquan was at a disadvantage in that he was young and lacked strength and stamina, but his skills and reaction speed really surprised Xiaoshengge. With Liu Xingquan's amazing ball control awareness, he was able to go back and forth with Xiaoshengge for several rounds.
"I didn't expect there's such a nice indoor basketball court here." Xiaosheng was very happy, which meant he and his friends finally had a place to go during their spare time. "Have you been playing basketball here?"
"Um."
Liu Xingquan played for half an hour and then left. "The opening hours of this golf course are from 6:30 to 8:00," he said before leaving.
After that, whenever Xiaosheng got out of school, he would bring his friends to this indoor court to play basketball. They finally had a place to vent their endless energy. It was bright, spacious, and well-equipped, and everyone was satisfied with this basketball court.
Liu Xingquan also often plays ball with them.
One day, Xiaosheng finished playing basketball and walked out of the court with Liu Xingquan. They saw a boy standing under the ginkgo tree waiting for them. When Liu Xingquan saw him, he couldn't help but stop and asked, "Yan Zhen?"
The boy named Yan Zhen looked like a nobleman in a picture album, with black eyes and slightly curly hair. He looked at Xiao Shengge with interest and said, "I've heard of you. You are Xiao Shengge."
This "heard" must be referring to his gangster legend. Xiaosheng smiled.
Liu Xingquan and Yan Zhen left together. Yan Zhen looked back at him before leaving.
A few days later, Liu Xingquan didn't come again. Xiaosheng and a few other friends came to play basketball after school as usual. They were having a great time when a man suddenly rushed in. He yelled at them and told them to get out immediately.
He said that this indoor stadium is not open to the public, has high maintenance costs, and is usually a private place that is only rented out to various enterprises and institutions for activities for a fee. It is not a place for kids like them to run wild.
Xiaosheng and his friends were scolded out of the stadium. One of his friends was so angry that he threw a stone at the man, which made the man furious. He directed several security guards to chase them while cursing and swearing.
Brother Xiaosheng and his friends fled at a very high speed. One of them fell while running, and his knees were bleeding.
They cursed the course manager who suddenly appeared all the way, and lamented the loss of this paradise not long after they started playing.
The next day, Xiaosheng went to the junior high school to find Liu Xingquan and told him that he could no longer go to the indoor sports center because a particularly fierce manager had arrived.
But he didn't find Liu Xingquan. When he walked into the classroom, the students were talking about him in low voices in surprise. They must have been whispering about him being a gangster or something like that.
Yan Zhen was talking to a classmate, apparently discussing the shifts at the campus radio station.
"Excuse me, where is Liu Xingquan?"
"Liu Xingquan asked for leave." Yan Zhen turned around and said. He seemed not surprised at all by Xiao Sheng's visit.
"Oh, then please tell him that he can't go to the stadium." Brother Xiaosheng said.
"Is it because of the manager?"
"Oh? You know it."
"Because Liu Xingquan was also violently driven away by that person, he fell and sprained his foot and has been unable to walk for the past few days."
"What did you say??"
Yan Zhen lowered his eyes, looking very sad about Liu Xingquan's injury. "That administrator was very fierce. He threatened to sue the school for trespassing into a private place."
"This is too much!! We just want to play ball."
"The doctor said he had injured his tendon and he probably won't be able to play basketball anymore."
"What did you say..." Brother Xiaosheng gritted his teeth, anger burning in his heart.
Yan Zhen looked at Xiao Sheng with his dark eyes, as if observing something. His tone was full of sarcasm: "I feel sorry for you too. Your basketball activities can only be postponed because of that person..."
Brother Xiaosheng walked out of the classroom without saying a word.
He knew Liu Xingquan's talent in basketball, and his anger almost made him lose his mind. Liu Xingquan had helped him before, and he hadn't even returned the favor.
He gathered his friends and said to them, "We have to get our place back."
The stadium's management lives in a three-story building next to the stadium. They are just a bunch of assholes, and their way of getting back at the stadium is also very asshole.
They took advantage of the manager's absence to fill his door lock with sawdust and paper scraps.
After a day, the manager changed the door lock to a new one. Whenever Xiaosheng's friends appeared near the court, the manager would run out and jump and curse.
Xiaosheng thought they should find a more effective way to retaliate. At noon, the school broadcast a few supernatural stories during lunch break. Xiaosheng was eating his lunch while listening to the radio. Suddenly, he had an idea.
Xiao Mang provided the red pigments at home, and he mixed them with water to make a bucket of red water. At night, they secretly came to the house where the manager lived and pressed a few red handprints on the corridor opposite the door. Xiao Sheng took the whistle he bought from the garden party and blew it a few times in the bushes. The whistle sounded sharp and shrill, and it sounded quite like a woman's scream.
After doing these things, they evacuated quickly.
The next day, they came to the caretaker's room again at night. The red handprints on the ground had been wiped clean. This time they pressed a few more red handprints, facing the caretaker's door, a little closer than the day before.
On the third day, the story of a missing girl began to spread in this neighborhood. Many years ago, a girl named Ding from No. 4 Middle School suddenly disappeared, and her life or death is still unknown. Several students said that she had become a female ghost and they were looking for a scapegoat. Someone once saw a junior high school girl wandering the street in the middle of the night.
On the fifth night, Xiaosheng and his team came to the manager's room again. This time they were ready to put their fingerprints on his door. When they arrived, they saw that the manager's door was wide open and most of the things had been moved out.
The managers were scared off faster than they thought.
It was night, the shadows of the trees were swaying, and the wind was whistling. Brother Xiaosheng and the others looked at the shaking door and the red handprints on the ground, and they felt a chill in their hearts.
The next day, Liu Xingquan returned to school. Xiaosheng met Liu Xingquan after school and saw that Liu Xingquan was walking lightly and did not look injured at all. He went up to congratulate Liu Xingquan on his good recovery.
"What are you talking about? I'm not hurt at all." Liu Xingquan replied.
"??? Then why did you ask for leave?"
"My dad's company arranged a trip as a benefit, and I went along."
“…”
Brother Xiaosheng turned around angrily. He wanted to find Yan Zhen to ask for clarification. He found Yan Zhen in the teaching building. Yan Zhen was leaning on the railing beside the stairs, revealing a face looking down at him.
"Tell me clearly, what's going on?" Brother Xiaosheng yelled.
Yan Zhen smiled, and looked at Xiao Sheng with his dark eyes for a long time. Then he said, "You can go to the stadium freely from now on."
"What are you talking about? That's a private golf course. Once this manager leaves, a new one will come."
"I said you can go free from now on."
"You still haven't answered my question."
“Because it’s my family’s private sports center.”
“…”
"I've always wanted this sports center to be open to kids from the surrounding area. Now it can finally be opened."
"Your?? What's up with that stadium manager?"
"He's my grandfather's relative. My grandfather asked my father to take care of him. My father gave him the court to manage. He only thinks about how to make money from the court and won't open it to students from the surrounding areas. My grandfather takes good care of him, and it would be troublesome if he was replaced directly."
"…So you deliberately let me chase people away?"
Yan Zhen replied innocently: "What are you talking about, Brother Xiaosheng."
“…”
Xiaosheng glared at him, then suddenly came to his senses, "Wait, are you on duty at the campus radio station this month? Even those supernatural stories were broadcast by you on purpose. What about the red handprint? You are really amazing!"
Yan Zhen walked down the stairs. He didn't answer him.
"Grandpa likes that relative very much. I can't let my father just drive him away." Yan Zhen said, "If he wants to leave on his own, then there will be no problem."
“…”
Yan Zhen tilted his head, his eyes shining like black jade. He said, "I'm sorry that I used Liu Xingquan as an excuse. But the person I want to thank the most is you. You can go there to play freely in the future. You can bring more people in the future."
Brother Xiaosheng wanted to say something but stopped himself, his breath stuck in his throat for a long time. He just felt like a wooden chicken, being played with by others.
Finally he opened his mouth and said: "Yan Zhen!! I fuck you!!”
