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Great Trickster
墨書 Inktalez
Only three hours remain until New Year's Day.
In a soon-to-be-demolished residential building near Wuzhong in Haizhou City, Shanhai Province, the place is already deserted. However, a faint candlelight flickers from one of the rooms.
Four teenagers, around seventeen or eighteen years old, are gathered around a pale-faced boy of the same age. A tall boy with dyed yellow hair sits on a wooden chair left behind in the building, holding a cigarette.
"Kneel down!" the yellow-haired boy suddenly changed from his casual smoking demeanor to a fierce tone.
The pale-faced boy was about to speak when he was kicked in the knee by the others nearby, causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. He shivered in pain but held back his cries.
"Hey, Zhang Yang, I didn't expect you to be so tough. You dare to touch my woman, Li Yifeng? I think you're tired of living!" the yellow-haired boy said.
"Brother Feng..." Zhang Yang was just about to speak when he received a slap from a boy named Dayong beside him. "Damn it, Brother Feng didn't tell you to speak!" Dayong's strike was quick and heavy, clearly showing some skill, and blood oozed from Zhang Yang's mouth.
"Dayong, let him talk. Today we’ll listen to what he has to say," Li Yifeng waved his hand.
"Brother Feng, I do like girls, but no matter how bold I am, I wouldn't dare touch your woman. Yesterday after school, Ding Weiwei's bicycle broke down, and since we both left late, I gave her a ride. I didn’t even let her put her hands around my waist..."
"Slap!" Another crisp sound echoed as Dayong cursed, "What kind of person are you? Are you implying she came on to you?"
Zhang Yang lowered his head and said again, "Brother Feng, you have to believe me."
It turns out these boys are all seniors at Wuzhong High School.
Wuzhong is notorious for its chaos in Haizhou City and has never had a high college admission rate. Later on, the school simply designated two key classes for seniors each year, enrolling students who had a chance of getting into college while leaving the other "troublemakers" to fend for themselves as long as they didn’t cause too much trouble.
In this environment, students appear obedient in front of school staff but have already formed quite a few small gangs. Li Yifeng naturally became the leader of Wuzhong due to his cousin's reputation in Haizhou City and his own tall stature and aggressive nature. Despite his young age, Li Yifeng is ruthless in action, perhaps due to being an adolescent who doesn’t consider the consequences.
Zhang Yang usually presents himself as a small-time thug because no one is there to supervise him.
Zhang Yang's father was originally a police officer and his idol during childhood. However, when Zhang Yang was in elementary school, he was informed that his father died in a mysterious car accident. Less than six months after his father's death, Zhang Yang's mother remarried and left for another city. Before leaving, she left behind their original house and set aside money for Zhang Yang at one thousand yuan per month until he turned eighteen, pushing him into the care of his grandmother.
Fortunately, Zhang Yang had a loving and resilient grandmother who he lived with, and she cared for him deeply. However, when Zhang Yang entered his first year of high school, his elderly grandmother passed away.
Before her death, Zhang Yang's grades were quite good.
After his grandmother's passing, Zhang Yang's focus shifted away from studying. Nevertheless, he was smart enough to maintain average grades. In his free time, he had started hanging out with some delinquents at school, skipping classes, playing games, shooting pool, flirting with pretty girls, and even getting into fights; these activities became his main pursuits.
Yesterday afternoon, when school let out, Zhang Yang left later than usual. As he walked to the bicycle shed, he saw Ding Weiwei sighing next to her bike. Both tires were flat; she had just gone out and the repairman, Old Man Han, was nowhere to be found at the school gate.
Ding Weiwei was tall and beautiful, clever and charming—she was recognized as the school beauty in Wuzhong.
In her second year of high school, Ding Weiwei had been in the same class as Zhang Yang. In her third year, she moved to a key class while Zhang Yang remained in an ordinary one. Zhang Yang knew that Li Yifeng liked her, so although they were acquainted, he preferred to keep his distance and rarely spoke to her.
In fact, Zhang Yang was quite presentable himself—tall and lean but strong-looking. At that time, long hair was in fashion; his hair was black and straight. Although his complexion was pale, it made his long eyebrows appear even darker and shinier. He had a strong nose and defined lips that gave him a somewhat stern look even when he smiled.
Moreover, it seemed that Ding Weiwei had a good impression of him.
He initially intended to pretend he hadn’t seen her and just walk away with his bike. However, Ding Weiwei called out to him for help. While he was riding his bike with Ding Weiwei on it, her arms naturally wrapped around his waist.
Li Yifeng's feelings for Ding Weiwei were one-sided; she was well aware of this and tried to keep her distance as much as possible.
However, this scene happened to be witnessed by Li Yifeng. The next day, he sent someone to deliver a message to Zhang Yang, asking him to meet at 9 PM that night.
"I believe you; how could I not believe you? But I need to teach you a lesson!" Li Yifeng slowly approached Zhang Yang and grabbed a handful of what he thought were flowing locks of hair. At that moment, two of Li Yifeng's friends firmly held Zhang Yang's shoulders while another two pinned down one of his calves each.
"Got it?" Li Yifeng threw a punch that landed squarely on Zhang Yang's forehead, causing blood to gush out. It turned out that Li Yifeng wore a steel ring with a protruding curved blade design; just one hit had broken open Zhang Yang's forehead.
"Got it?" Li Yifeng struck again. At this moment, one of the boys nearby couldn't help but shiver.
"What are you shivering for? Get a paper cup!" Li Yifeng said menacingly. The boy quickly fetched the paper cup that Li Yifeng had used for drinking earlier and held it up in front of Zhang Yang's face.
"Do you remember?"
Again and again... Zhang Yang had lost count of how many times he had been hit, each strike landing almost in the same spot. He gritted his teeth, enduring the pain but dared not resist. He knew he was no match for these people; resisting would only bring him greater harm.
Perhaps Li Yifeng had grown tired as well. Seeing that the paper cup had filled with about half a cup of fresh blood, he finally stopped. Zhang Yang's lips were already bitten and bleeding, and his back was soaked with cold sweat.
"Drink your blood!" Li Yifeng said in a deep voice. "Drink it down, and don't say another word to Ding Weiwei, and this will all be over!"
At this point, Zhang Yang's mind was starting to feel hazy. Trembling, he picked up the paper cup and gulped it down in one go. The heavy metallic taste made him cough, but he ultimately managed to keep it down.
"Thank you, Brother Feng. I will remember your care for me," Zhang Yang said slowly, word by word, before unsteadily getting to his feet and walking downstairs.
"F*** you!" Dayong was about to step forward but was stopped by Li Yifeng. "Dayong, I said it's over! Do you want me to go back on my word? Besides, he's right; I did take care of him and didn't ruin him. He knows how to be sensible, hahahaha..."
Zhang Yang covered his forehead with a scarf and hailed a taxi by the roadside, heading straight for Haizhou City First People's Hospital's emergency department. Because there was little flesh on his forehead and the wound was not long but rather deep in one spot, the doctor did not stitch it up. After cleaning and disinfecting the wound, a large piece of Yunnan Baiyao was applied before it was wrapped in white gauze.
He refused the doctor's request for an IV drip and walked out of the hospital with his head bandaged.
At that moment, the New Year's bells rang out, and colorful fireworks suddenly lit up the night sky.
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