Chapter 65: A Stormy Encounter

On the podium, she pursed her lips, revealing a triumphant smile, and said, “You’re finally getting it!”

I couldn’t be bothered to respond to her.

She stepped down from the podium. Just as she was about to open the door, she saw the heavy rain outside the corridor window and hesitated. After a moment, she retreated, a hint of guilt in her demeanor. After a moment of thought, she asked, “Um… could I possibly borrow your umbrella for a day…?”

I didn’t turn my head. I simply said, “Come and get it yourself.”

She pondered for a moment, then slowly walked over from the doorway. Standing beside me, she bent down and searched for a bit, then unhooked the umbrella from the side of my desk.

I stared out at the torrential rain, my mind blank. I felt no worry about how I would get home later, only an inexplicable sense of calm.

She looked at me, raising the umbrella in her hand. “Thanks a lot,” she said.

I didn’t utter a sound, yet she lingered. After a long moment, she spoke again: “Actually, Chen Feng and his gang are truly despicable. They always pick on you. If I see them next time, I’ll definitely give them a piece of my mind…”

I said softly, “There’s no need. Just go home quickly. The rain will get heavier soon.”

She looked at me for a while longer, then scratched her head and left the classroom.

I was the only one left in the classroom.

I sat for a while longer, staring blankly at the heavy rain outside the window. Remembering that it was my turn for cleaning duty, I stood up and walked towards the podium.

The classroom’s dimness was suddenly pierced by a blue flash. The rain outside intensified abruptly, rattling against the windowpanes as if hail were falling. A moment later, deafening thunder boomed.

The classroom grew even darker. I walked to the podium, picked up the blackboard eraser, and began wiping the board.

Fortunately, that old geezer wasn’t tall. Though his writing on the blackboard was flamboyant and sprawling, my towering height meant I wouldn’t need a stool to reach it. However, this blackboard had seen extensive use, its lifespan likely dating back to the classroom’s very opening. Its surface was incredibly rough, making some chalk marks stubbornly difficult to erase, leaving faint traces no matter how much I scrubbed.

After a while, I put the eraser back in its place, then rinsed the rag and used it to wipe the blackboard.

Thunderclaps followed one after another outside the window. Occasionally, a faint blue light would illuminate the classroom, immediately followed by the roar of thunder. Today’s rain was indeed heavy, and having slept with the window open, my head ached terribly. If I were to walk home in this rain, I’d surely catch a severe cold by tomorrow.

The blackboard was finally clean. I rinsed the rag one more time and tucked it into the teacher’s desk.

My head felt heavy and muddled. I vaguely felt as though I needed to tidy some things, and that I had forgotten something else, like today’s homework. Having slept through until after school, I naturally had no idea what the day’s assignments were.

But my head ached too much. I didn’t want to deal with anything; I just wanted to go home and sleep.

The corridor was eerily quiet. I held onto the handrail, descending the stairs one step at a time.

By the time I reached the first floor of the teaching building, it had been over an hour since school let out. Yet, a few boys were still gathered by the entrance. Seeing me come down, they all turned their heads to look.

I didn’t bother to see who they were. Just as I finished descending the steps, someone suddenly called out, “Lu Ren?”

The voice sounded vaguely familiar. I looked up to see the same plump face. He looked at me with some surprise, then chuckled to the boys beside him, “I was just wondering how the hell I’d get home, and this kid comes down… Hey, do you have an umbrella?”

A throbbing pain coursed through my head. I forced myself to shake it, saying, “I don’t have one either.”

Chen Feng looked me up and down, seeing that I truly hadn’t brought an umbrella. He nodded in disappointment, then suddenly remembered something and exclaimed, leaning closer to me, “Look, with this heavy rain, we can’t go home. How about… we find a restaurant for a meal or something? You treat today, and next time…”

A wave of extreme fatigue washed over me. I patted my pockets, pulled out my wallet, and extracted a hundred-yuan bill. I slapped it against his chest. “Take it. Just take it…”

The group of boys cheered.

Chen Feng was surprised by my sudden generosity but still grinned, trying to sling his arm around my shoulder and utter pleasantries. “Damn, you’re a true friend! Just wait ’til next time; I’ll definitely treat you…”

I slapped away the hand he tried to put on my shoulder and walked straight into the rain. “Get lost,” I said.

As I stepped into the rain, the downpour lashed at my face. My vision was like a car’s windshield, and rainwater streamed down my hair, gradually dripping into my eyes, stinging slightly. The sounds behind me fell silent. After a moment, Chen Feng’s voice drifted softly from behind: “‘Damn, what’s wrong with this kid?'”

I didn’t know what was wrong with me either.

Perhaps my mind was simply broken.

Soaked by the heavy rain, I didn’t feel cold; instead, I felt a strange warmth.

There wasn’t a single pedestrian on the road. Occasionally, one would appear, frantically clutching a backpack, sprinting towards the shelter of an awning.

Initially, I walked with a hurried pace. But then, realizing my clothes were completely drenched, I ceased rushing. I simply strolled leisurely in the rain.

To get home from school, I had to walk through a secluded alley. Towering buildings rose on all sides, forming a long, rectangular enclosure.

I walked slowly, turning a corner, and then I stopped.

In the alley, more than a dozen people stood, holding umbrellas.

They brandished gleaming machetes, looking perfectly at ease, some squatting, some standing. A few had tattoos on their arms, depicting a winding, delicate dragon.

At the other end of the alley, a man with streaked gray hair gasped for breath, confronting them.

His originally fair face was now ghastly pale. A long, bloody scar, diluted by the heavy rain, stretched across what had been a perfectly normal eye. Blood seeped through his black T-shirt, revealing a shocking, deep gash.

His other eye gleamed with a piercing light, like a star in the night.

I stared blankly at the dozen gleaming machetes.

At that moment, both groups noticed me. Among the dozen people confronting Bai Hailong, the leader chuckled and slowly stood up. “Well, well, you have backup, huh?”

It was then that I realized these people were targeting me—each of them holding a knife, like henchmen in a gangster movie.

At the other end, Bai Hailong gasped for breath, his gaze fixed on me.

I wasn’t a hooligan; I was just a student.

A chill crawled from my spine to my scalp, and I felt my legs begin to tremble.

I wasn’t with him.

Facing a dozen machetes, the words caught in my throat. My throat felt dry, and I wanted to turn and run, yet my body remained firmly rooted to the spot, unmoving.

Bai Hailong stood there, taking a couple of ragged breaths. He also smiled. “Why are you here? School’s out?”

A long gash from a machete marred his chest, blood seeping from it. As the rain struck his body, dripping down his clothes onto his pants, it turned a faint red.

For a moment, I didn’t know what to say.

I took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing my trembling, and said, “You’re fighting again? Haven’t you written enough self-criticisms?”

He smiled, then looked back at the dozen people at the front of the alley.

“Brother,” he said, “I have to save my brothers.”

Before I could speak, the dozen people at the front of the alley seemed to have grown tired of waiting. They all stood up, hefting their knives. The tattooed leader chuckled. “Stop chatting! You even dared to curse Old Toad. Your friend’s got guts. There were five more just now, right? What, you took them all down?”

Bai Hailong grinned and spat. “Were they trying to beat me up? I thought they were giving me a massage.”

The man laughed heartily, weighing the knife in his hand, and glanced at the scar on Bai Hailong’s chest. “Alright, you wait. I’ll give you a full-body massage.”

Though a smile played on Bai Hailong’s face, he whispered to me, “Go home. What’s a good student doing getting involved in this?”

In that moment, from his lips, ‘good student’ suddenly sounded like a derogatory term.

I thought of that old geezer who made me print test papers all morning, the fat guy who constantly demanded money from me, and the woman who borrowed my umbrella. I thought of myself on cleaning duty in the empty classroom. I thought of, ‘good student.’

At that moment, he turned his face slightly, a smile on his lips. I could only see the side of his face marked by the knife wound.

My legs trembled, but I remained rooted to the spot, unmoving.

At the end of the alley, ten people began to advance. They had discarded their umbrellas and now clutched gleaming machetes.

Bai Hailong smiled and took two steps forward.

The ten men suddenly roared curses, raised their knives, and charged forward fiercely.

In the heavy rain, his white hair billowed like a crouching leopard. With a swift step, he instantly closed the distance between them. The man in front of him cursed and swung his knife. Bai Hailong dodged the blade aimed at his head and slammed a powerful punch into the man’s jaw.

The man crashed to the ground like a malfunctioning robot.

I recoiled a step.

At that moment, another man roared and lunged, delivering a kick.

Bai Hailong took a heavy blow to his waist. His body stumbled forward, but he quickly regained his footing, roaring as he spun around and delivered a punch directly to the man’s nose.

Blood gushed out like a faucet, instantly diluted by the heavy rain. The man let out a miserable shriek.

Bai Hailong turned his head, rain mixed with blood dripping from his face. He roared, “Go home!”

Another blade sliced past his shoulder. Bai Hailong hastily dodged sideways, and a piece of his T-shirt’s shoulder fabric was instantly cut away, leaving only a small strip connected. His shoulder turned crimson, and after a moment, blood began to seep out, indicating the skin had been cut.

He let out a roar, kicking the man in the chest, sending the hooligan sprawling backward.

In the downpour, he was like an enraged lion, but his stamina was clearly failing, and his movements began to slow. The man with the dragon tattoo on his arm, likely aware of Bai Hailong’s prowess, had been only striking opportunistically from the side. Now, seeing his stamina wane and his movements slow, the man smiled. He swung his arm in a wide arc, smashing a punch into Bai Hailong’s face, sending him stumbling.

Bai Hailong fell sideways to the ground, and the man seized the opportunity, kicking him hard in the stomach.

He gritted his teeth, clutching his stomach, curled into a fetal position.

I watched it all, dumbfounded, my feet feeling as if they weren’t my own.

I was like air.

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