Chapter 15 The Best Friend's Deepest Grudge
Shen Xingjian really knows how to thank others. It’s bad enough that he’s backstabbed by his friends at work, but he’s also backstabbed by Chili when he’s having a meal!
He frantically took a napkin from the table and blew his nose. The corners of his eyes were red, the tip of his nose was red, and even his ears were red. He looked like someone who had been severely bullied. Even Gao Xing couldn't bear to see him.
"Xu Jiakai...hit you?" she guessed reasonably.
Shen Xingjian paused in blowing his nose and looked up in disbelief: "...Can you please hope for me to be well?"
Gao Xing's eyes were full of sympathy, and he even offered her a tissue: "Then why are you crying like this?"
Shen Xingjian sniffed and wiped away the tears he had just coughed out from the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand: "I didn't cry."
Gao Xing nodded in understanding, and said in a tone like coaxing a child: "Crying is not a shameful thing, you don't have to deny it."
"I really didn't cry!" Shen Xingjian felt like he was talking to a cow, and emphasized loudly.
"Okay, okay, you didn't cry." Gao Xing sighed softly in his heart, shook his head and turned to go upstairs, ready to give him some space to digest it alone.
Shen Xingjian was completely speechless. He picked up the chili peppers on the plate with his chopsticks and waved them behind her angrily: "I already said I'm not crying! I'm spicy! Spicy!!"
After being teased by Gao Xing, whether intentionally or deliberately, the depression in Shen Xingjian's heart dissipated a little unconsciously. After returning to the room, he looked at the lush trees outside the window and fell into a long memory.
I met Xu Jiakai ten years ago, when Shen Xingjian was in the first grade of junior high school. It was the first morning after the National Day holiday, and Shen Xingjian was riding his bicycle to school, carrying his schoolbag slung over his shoulder.
Just across the street from Mingjinghu Middle School is another middle school: Jingnan No. 32 Middle School. Despite their proximity, the two schools have vastly different academic ethos. Unlike Mingjinghu Middle School, known as the cradle of Peking University and Tsinghua University, Jingnan No. 32 Middle School is a mixed bag, considered the worst middle school in the Mingjinghu District.
That morning, Shen Xingjian was waiting for the traffic light at the intersection when he accidentally saw several boys in the uniform of No. 32 Middle School hooking their necks and dragging another boy into an alley near the construction site.
At first, he didn't want to follow, but then he thought of the rumors in the school that some hooligans from No. 32 Middle School had a fight at the construction site not long ago and almost beat someone to death. Shen Xingjian didn't want to meddle in other people's business, but he couldn't turn a blind eye to the illegal and criminal behavior in front of him.
Behind the iron gate, on the dusty ruins of the construction site, the boy was forced into a corner by thugs, his hands tightly grasping the corners of his school uniform.
"Have you guys finished your homework?" The gangster in the lead lit a cigarette, looking so nonchalant that he didn't even look like a student.
The boy huddled together, lowered his head, took out five homework assignments from his backpack, and handed them to them carefully.
The leading thug dusted off the ashes of his cigarette, took out a book, licked his cheek while shaking his head, and suddenly kicked the boy in the stomach.
"Damn it! The handwriting is so neat, it's obvious it wasn't mine. Did you do that on purpose?"
The boy fell to the ground with a groan after being kicked, but he didn't dare to resist. He just pursed his lips, covered his stomach and dared not speak.
Seeing this, the thug next to him whispered a reminder: "Brother Long, we're almost late. We're still on probation. If we get caught by Cao Yangou again, we'll be in big trouble..."
Cao Yangou is the principal of No. 32 Middle School. His surname is Cao and he used to be a physical education teacher. He is tough and specializes in dealing with all kinds of troublemakers in the school, so the gangsters call him Cao Yangou.
"What a piece of shit Cao eunuch is! Why would I be afraid of him?"
Although the thug said harsh words, his body was honest. He threw away his cigarette butt, spat a mouthful of phlegm, and pointed at the boy on the ground as a warning: "If you don't do it well next time, I'll knock out those two big teeth of yours!"
After they left, the boy got up from the ground, dusted himself off, picked up his schoolbag, and prepared to leave. As he walked out, he happened to see Shen Xingjian parked outside the iron gate on his bicycle.
That boy was Xu Jiakai, and this was the first time Shen Xingjian met him.
Their second meeting was at a morning tea shop in front of the school. While the cafeteria at Mingjinghu Middle School was clean and nutritious, some students still loved the street vendors. Every noon, a large number of students would head to the snack street in front of the school for a bite to eat.
Chen Xingjian was a frequent patron of that dim sum shop, and the owner was already very familiar with him. Seeing him coming, a smile wrinkled his honest face: "You're here? Same old thing, shrimp dumplings, siu mai, and radish cake?"
This is a husband-and-wife shop. The owner cooks and serves the food, while the wife does the cashier and odd jobs. The shop is not big, but the business has always been good. Although the owner has a broken hand, he works efficiently and does not look disabled at all.
Shen Xingjian made an “OK” gesture and found a random seat to sit down.
The store was a bit noisy, and Shen Xingjian felt it was too noisy, so he took out his headphones and prepared to put them on. At this moment, a boy came over and put a few steamers on his table as a routine.
"Your meal is ready," he said.
Shen Xingjian recognized him as the boy who was bullied by the gangsters at the iron gate of the construction site that day. When their eyes met, Xu Jiakai also recognized Shen Xingjian and immediately turned around and left.
The school is a small society, and those little hooligans don't dare to bully anyone. They often choose those with intellectual disabilities, physical defects, or cowardly personalities, or those with obvious handles as prey, and bully the weak.
Xu Jiakai looked submissive, and his family ran a small business near the school gate, so he naturally became the target of bullying by the gangsters.
During the summer vacation last semester, Aunt Zhang said that she had a son who was about the same age as Shen Xingjian, with good grades. After completing the settlement procedures, she would bring him to Jingnan to study. I think it must be him.
Shen Xingjian suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. Uncle Xu and Aunt Zhang worked so hard to settle down in southern Beijing and brought their child from their hometown, hoping that he would receive a better education, but in the end he could only go to such a school and suffer such bullying.
After leaving the morning tea shop, Shen Xingjian rode his bike, hesitating whether to tell Uncle Xu and Aunt Zhang about Xu Jiakai being bullied by the gangsters. When he passed by the gate of No. 32 Middle School, he happened to see the gangsters whizzing past in groups of three or five on electric bikes.
Not far ahead, Xu Jiakai was walking properly on the side of the road. When the gangsters passed by on their bikes, they deliberately slowed down their speed and then kicked him for no reason.
He staggered and nearly fell onto the road.
The hooligans saw how funny he was trying to keep his balance, laughed out loud, and walked away.
Shen Xingjian couldn’t bear it any longer, so he sped up and rode on it, braking suddenly beside Xu Jiakai.
"You just let them bully you like this?"
Xu Jiakai looked up at him, his eyes full of vigilance and alertness, but he still said nothing and walked forward.
Shen Xingjian caught up on his bike: “Do Uncle Xu and Aunt Zhang know you are like this?”
Xu Jiakai stopped in his tracks and stared at him angrily for a long time before saying coldly, "Then tell me, what can I do?"
Should he fight them? He was outnumbered. Should he report it to the teacher? There weren't many such incidents at No. 32 Middle School. Could the teacher handle it once, but not every time? Should he report it to his parents? His parents had already worked hard enough to support his education, and he had several younger brothers and sisters. Would he cause more trouble for them?
At that time, Shen Xingjian was at an age of high spirits. He told him: "Do you think that enduring it will be useful? The more you give in, the more aggressive they will become. To deal with such people, you have to be more ruthless than them!"
Three days later, on Friday afternoon, Xu Jiakai followed Shen Xingjian's instructions and simply refused to help the gangsters continue with their homework, and they pulled him by the collar and dragged him to a construction site near the school.
"Xu Jiakai, you've become so bold. Do you dare to disobey me?" The leading thug imitated the gangsters in Hong Kong movies and blew smoke rings into his face.
Shen Xingjian said that he only needed to lead the people to the vicinity of the construction site, and he would handle the rest. Now Xu Jiakai had already led the people here, but he was nowhere to be seen. Xu Jiakai couldn't help but sweat on his back. If Shen Xingjian played tricks on him, these gang of thugs would definitely not let him go.
"What? You want to die?"
Seeing that Xu Jiakai couldn't make a sound even after being beaten with eight sticks, the gangster grabbed his jaw and the fiery red tobacco moved closer and closer, burning the air around Xu Jiakai's lips. Fear spread from the bottom of his heart, and he struggled desperately, but to no avail.
Just as he was despairing, with a "bang", the gangster's hand was suddenly hit by something, and the ashes flew up and landed lightly on Xu Jiakai's face.
"Fuck!" The gangster covered his hands and yelled angrily.
“Sorry, I missed the target~” Shen Xingjian rode on his bicycle, put down his slingshot, and threw away the fruits of several other camphor trees in his palm, saying indifferently.
The gangster turned around with his eyes wide open, about to attack, but when he saw the school uniform on the person coming, he unconsciously calmed down a bit.
Although the gangster didn't want to conflict with the people from Mingjing Lake, the other party was already riding on his head. If he was afraid without fighting, how could he hold his head up in front of his younger brothers in the future?
Seeing that the other party was alone, the gangster acted like a ruthless person and pointed at Shen Xingjian’s nose: “This matter has nothing to do with you. I advise you not to meddle in other people’s business. If you kneel down and kowtow to me now, I won’t bother with you!”
Shen Xingjian snorted lightly and said lazily: “I kowtow to you? Aren’t you afraid of shortening your life?”
The negotiation failed, and the thug licked his cheek in frustration. He was about to throw a punch when the roar of motorcycles came. Dust rose up, and in just a few seconds, three or four heavy motorcycles poured into the iron gate of the construction site.
"Who is so arrogant that he dares to make my brother kowtow?"
The speaker was the burly man in the lead, who was riding a dark red motorcycle. He was about 185cm tall and weighed 200kg. The muscular muscles on his body looked like he could kill a cow with one punch.
The little hooligans had never seen such a scene before, and they immediately became scared. The timid ones even sobbed and cried.
Although these little hooligans didn't behave like students at all, they were only fourteen or fifteen years old. When the strong man and the other adults in their early twenties stood there, it was a complete dimensionality reduction attack.
They were here to act, not to bully the kids. Seeing the atmosphere was almost heated, they pointed at Xu Jiakai and said in a resounding voice, "I'm protecting him. Show some respect to him next time you see him, otherwise..."
He didn't even have to finish his lines; the hooligans immediately slid to their knees, hunched their bodies and nodded rapidly.
"Go away."
Upon hearing the "imperial edict", the gangsters acted as if they had been pardoned and hurriedly lined up to flee towards the iron gate.
When the leading gangster passed by Shen Xingjian, he suddenly raised his foot, which scared the gangster so much that he tripped and fell flat on his face.
Seeing this, Shen Xingjian smiled and retracted his fake move, saying sarcastically, “I heard that you like to kick people on a bike, so I’ll try, do you mind?”
The little gangster didn't dare to say he minded and ran away in a hurry.
After the gangsters left, the strong men turned the car around, signaled to Shen Xingjian, and then dispersed.
After the conflict subsided, Shen Xingjian walked over to Xu Jiakai, picked up the schoolbag that the hooligans had thrown aside on the ground, dusted it off and handed it to him: “They probably won’t dare to bother you again in the future.”
They have been friends since then.
Later, Xu Jiakai was admitted to the high school department of Mingjinghu Middle School with excellent grades and became a deskmate with Shen Xingjian until... that accident happened.
To this day, when recalling the tragic scene of that day, Shen Xingjian still can't stop trembling all over, and the feeling of death sweeps over him again and again.
His legs were destroyed in that accident. Even though he really regarded Xu Jiakai as his best friend, he really couldn't help but resent him.
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