“…Just confirming with you: will you be a day student or will you live on campus?”
The woman on the other end of the phone spoke gently, with a slight accent. Taking into account that Sheng Renxing might not understand her, she deliberately slowed down.
A fine drizzle tapped against the car window. The tires rolled over the uneven road, bumping and knocking against the car body as though the vehicle might break into a dance at any moment.
The driver drove quietly, occasionally glancing into the rearview mirror, but never daring to make it too obvious.
After all, passengers like this were genuinely rare.
He had been driving through the city center when this boy had stood by the road and waved him down.
The boy had climbed in radiating fury, barked out “Xuancheng,” then pulled a thick stack of cash from his bag and handed it over without even counting it.
The driver had not refused. First, the stack was not thin. Second, the boy’s expression had been so fierce that the driver had felt that if he shook his head, he might immediately get beaten half to death.
Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw the boy leaning against the seat and talking on the phone, his brows pressed low over his eyes, hostility written all over his face.
There was something casually arrogant about him.
The driver recognized that phone. It was the newest model and had not even been out for two months. His son had recently made a huge fuss about wanting one. It was insanely expensive, and the driver had not been able to see what was so special about it. You could not even drop the thing—one knock and it would shatter.
But now, seeing it in this handsome boy’s hand, he suddenly felt a little tempted to buy one for his son after all.
Sheng Renxing met his eyes through the rearview mirror.
The driver immediately yanked his gaze away.
Sheng Renxing: “…”
He stared speechlessly at the brand-new “Harmony Brings Wealth” charm hanging beneath the rearview mirror.
Lifting a hand to touch the stud in his right ear, he said in an emotionless voice, “Aren’t all the dorm beds full? The semester’s already halfway over. You can still make room?”
The other end of the phone: “…”
The woman awkwardly tried to smooth things over. “The student dorms are full. If you want to live on campus, we can free up a room in the teachers’ residence for you. The teachers’ rooms are all singles, with private bathrooms, air-conditioning, everything you’d need.”
“No.” Sheng Renxing refused without a second thought. “I’ll commute.”
“Ah…” The woman paused, then asked uncertainly, “Then your father… Mr. Sheng also wants you to commute?”
“What I want is what my dad wants.” Sheng Renxing’s face stayed blank as he irritably thought, I handled the transfer myself. Who the hell does he think he is?
“All right, then. We’ll place you in Class Three. How does that sound?” The woman added, “Our school uses S-shaped class assignment rather than ranking classes by scores, but the teachers in Class Three are all quite good.”
Even with S-shaped placement, it was not as if every class was truly identical.
Sheng Renxing answered indifferently, “Anything’s fine.”
“Okay. Then when will Student Sheng come to register? We need to arrange things in advance.”
Sheng Renxing looked out at the rain and the unfamiliar streets beyond it. Someone had casually thrown rubbish from a building, bringing disaster down on the head of a pedestrian below. The two sides were shouting at each other across an entire floor. A ring of onlookers had gathered around them and blocked traffic, while angry car horns forcefully drowned out the complaints.
They had already reached Xuancheng.
“Next Monday.”
He hated rainy days. It was going to rain all week. The damp air seemed to hunt down every trace of sunlight, sticky and suffocating.
After he hung up, the driver seized the opening to ask, “We’re in the city now. Where do you want to get off?”
Sheng Renxing locked his phone. Not even a second later, it rang again. He lowered his eyes, gave a soft scoff, and rejected the call.
“That hotel up ahead.” He pointed casually.
“Got it.”
The hotel’s sign was half hidden by a clothing shop in front of it. From a distance, only the characters “…Hotel” could be seen.
Only when the driver pulled closer did Sheng Renxing finally behold its magnificent name: Five-Star Hotel.
And shamelessly enough, the hotel had drawn five stars beside the name itself.
“…”
The driver pulled over. Before he could even make change, Sheng Renxing had already opened the door and got out, tossing back, “Keep it. Thanks for the trouble.”
Watching him cross the road, the driver smacked his lips thoughtfully. Huh. Wouldn’t have guessed it. Pretty polite kid.
Then he happily pulled two hundred yuan from the stack and hid it away before lighting a cigarette. He had not dared smoke the whole trip and had nearly gone crazy from holding back.
Sheng Renxing slung his bag over one shoulder and entered the “Five-Star Hotel,” only to discover that they did not even have a proper front desk.
The girl sitting there had her head lowered and was doing who knew what, displaying absolutely no professional standards. Forget the standard service smile—he could not even see her face.
He walked over and tapped the glass counter.
The girl jumped and shoved her phone away. As though she had just seen the dean, she flashed him a brilliant smile. “Hello! How may I help you?”
The whole sequence flowed like water.
Sheng Renxing: …
“A single room.”
“Of course. One moment.”
…
By the time the procedure was finished, Sheng Renxing had also blocked four numbers from his father’s side.
“Here’s the key card for Room 306. Keep it safe. If there’s any problem, you can call us using the phone in the room.” The receptionist handed him the key, her gaze fixed on Sheng Renxing as she smiled sweetly. “The elevator’s being repaired right now, so you’ll have to take the stairs over there. Would you like me to show you up?”
Sheng Renxing took the key and looked at the elevator beside them, where a sheet of white paper with OUT OF SERVICE written on it had been taped to the door. “No.”
Ignoring the disappointment in her eyes, he turned and left.
He had not taken more than a few steps before his phone vibrated again.
He impatiently prepared to hang up, but when his gaze swept over the name on the screen, he paused and pressed a different button.
The voice on the other end was loud and teasing. “Little Tadpole, you there yet?”
“Fuck off.” He hung up immediately.
A few seconds later, “Big-Head Qiu” called again. “Hey, did you eat dynamite or something? Why’re you so pissed?”
The background on the other end was noisy. Someone jeered, “Brother Qiu, who’s Little Tadpole? That’s disgustingly affectionate!”
“I remember the school beauty from No. 2 High wasn’t called that!”
“Hahahahaha, he changed girlfriends!”
Qiu Huaixin snorted with laughter. “Yeah. Changed her into your Brother Xingxing.”
The other end instantly went silent, as if someone had hit pause.
After a long moment, someone finally spoke. “…Is that Brother Sheng?”
Sheng Renxing frowned. “It’s too noisy over there.”
Qiu Huaixin walked farther away with his phone. His voice came out muffled, as though he had something in his mouth. “Tadpole-ge, you there yet?”
“I’m here.” Sheng Renxing climbed the stone stairs, spinning the key ring around one finger. “But that doesn’t stop me from getting a cab back right now to beat you up.”
“…” Qiu Huaixin courageously gave a little hum, pinched his voice, and sang, “Isn’t Little Tadpole cute? Little tadpole goes looking for Mommy~”
The two traded insults for a while. Only after Qiu Huaixin decided that Sheng Renxing’s mood seemed stable and he was not about to go crazy did he continue, “Trip go smoothly?”
“Mm-hm.” Sheng Renxing reached the third floor and started checking room numbers. “The driver kept looking at me on the way. I’m guessing he fell for me.”
“…I’m guessing he was afraid you were going to rob him! With that head of red hair.”
“Doesn’t it look good?” Sheng Renxing stared into the hallway mirror and expressionlessly ran a hand through his freshly dyed hair.
Someone happened to pass beside him and turned to look.
The moment their eyes met, the person whipped their head away and sped up as though someone had hit fast-forward.
Sheng Renxing: “…”
“You’ll have to cut it again when school starts anyway. Why mess with it for just a few days?”
Sheng Renxing twisted the key and opened the door. “Because I want to! Maybe I’ll dye it green next and send a picture to Sheng Qiong.”
“…” Qiu Huaixin said, “You really are something. Don’t push your dad too far. Careful he doesn’t drive a tank over here to drag you back.”
Sheng Renxing sneered. “He wouldn’t dare come to Xuancheng.”
The lock on the door barely worked. He twisted the key several times without opening it, his movements growing increasingly violent.
“Xuancheng… the environment there doesn’t sound especially modern.” Qiu Huaixin phrased it tactfully, sounding worried. “Can you get used to it?”
After battling the lock for ages, Sheng Renxing finally got the door open. He pushed it with one hand and scoffed. “What could I possibly not get used to?”
Five minutes later, he stood at the front desk and exchanged his key for one to a deluxe suite.
Tapping the key against the counter, Sheng Renxing asked, “Where do people around here buy clothes?”
He had left in such a rush that his bag contained only his wallet and his Air Jordans. He had not even brought a pair of underwear, so he had no choice but to buy everything now.
The receptionist thought for a moment. “I usually go to Qingmao Mall. It’s about a ten-minute walk from here.”
Sheng Renxing nodded.
He walked out of the hotel and stood on the busy street.
The roads here were not built particularly well. The lanes were bumpy and uneven, with huge potholes full of water. Whenever a car drove through one, muddy water splashed a meter into the air.
Sheng Renxing retreated two steps.
Traffic was light at the moment, and he waited quite a while for a taxi.
His own clothes were already being shipped over, so he only planned to buy enough from Qingmao Mall to get him through the next few days.
But after he arrived, he discovered that the place actually carried an astonishingly wide and complete selection of clothing.
He even saw a pair of adides displayed outside one shop, with pume right beside them. A sign in front read: 60 yuan a pair.
Noticing that he had looked twice, the shopkeeper eagerly called out, “Want them? If you do, I’ll let you have a pair for fifty-five.”
Sheng Renxing was about to refuse when the shopkeeper continued, “They’ll look just as handsome on you as those ones on your feet.”
Sheng Renxing: “…”
He looked down at the limited-edition collaborative dad sneakers he had snatched from someone else, then turned and walked away.
No eye for quality!
On the way back, he wanted to take a taxi. Once inside, he said he was going to Five-Star Hotel.
The driver said, “Huh? Which one? We’ve got several five-star hotels around here!”
Sheng Renxing: “…”
He opened his mouth to explain that the hotel was literally called Five-Star, but somehow could not force the words out. In the end, he simply got out and decided to walk back.
As luck would have it, his damned navigation app refused to take ordinary roads and led him through turn after turn into a maze of narrow alleys.
Sheng Renxing: “…”
He rotated his phone sideways and upright again and still could not figure out how the hell he was supposed to get out.
By now it was already dark. He had no idea what was wrong with this district, but there were very few streetlights, and every alley entrance looked exactly the same.
Dim light fell over a rubbish bin in the corner. On the dirty white wall someone had scrawled FUCK YOUR MOTHER in blood-red paint. There were stains whose colors and shapes could no longer be made out, all of it perfectly suited to the cramped, damp alley.
A pile of rubbish accumulated outside the bin suddenly wriggled. A rat’s head poked out, round black eyes staring at him without blinking.
Sheng Renxing stood where he was for a long moment, then suddenly kicked the wall beside him as hard as he could, venting his frustration.
The rat startled, turned, and scurried away.
Fuck. Not one damn thing had gone right!
He threw the bags of clothing he was carrying onto the ground, took a lighter from his pocket, and lit himself a cigarette.
Nicotine really could ease a person’s emotions, whether they were good or bad.
After smoking one where he stood, he slowly forced his temper back down and stopped wanting to smash something.
Sheng Renxing pushed his hair back and somehow even managed to see a certain post-apocalyptic aesthetic in the heap of rubbish.
Rubbish art. Artistic rubbish.
He raised his phone and took a picture of the pile of “art” in front of him.
His phone was not muted. The shutter made a crisp click that sounded especially sharp in the quiet night.
Like a drumbeat before an overture, it immediately received an answer from farther away.
Sheng Renxing: “?”
From the alley to his front-left came a jumble of noises, like an argument or a fight. There seemed to be quite a few people involved.
Sheng Renxing tossed his cigarette butt toward the rubbish bin like he was shooting a three-pointer, picked up the clothing bags from the ground, and had absolutely no intention of going to investigate.
None of his damn business.
He was just about to leave.
He had not gone two steps when the noise behind him suddenly grew louder. The light in a second-floor window directly in front of him went out with a snap.
Practiced and silent.
Sheng Renxing only had time to turn around before he saw someone running straight toward him—a… male high-school student?
The blue-and-white school uniform jacket was especially conspicuous in these dark, primitive alleys. As he ran, the jacket billowed with the wind as though it might take flight.
Then came the group behind him.
Every one of them carried a weapon, chasing him with savage expressions and shouted threats.
Were all the high-school students around here this wild?
The boy clearly saw him too. The instant their eyes met, they both froze.
That pause was enough for the people behind the boy to catch up.
The two sides stopped in front of Sheng Renxing and faced off.
Sheng Renxing: “…”
He looked back at the alley where he was standing. So… had he accidentally blocked this guy’s escape route?
There were five people on the other side, yet they seemed wary of something and did not attack immediately. The boy stood sideways to Sheng Renxing. In the dim surroundings, all Sheng Renxing could make out was the silhouette the light carved around him.
He was lean and straight-backed, silent.
His shadow seemed on the verge of melting into the darkness.
One of the men opposite glanced at Sheng Renxing. “Xing Ye, you even brought backup?!”
The boy was breathing slightly hard, but his tone was flat. “Don’t need it.”
Sheng Renxing gave an internal whistle. Pretty arrogant.
The men opposite were not nearly as calm. One of them raised a hand and pointed at Xing Ye. “I’m giving you one last chance. I suggest you think carefully!”
Xing Ye lowered his head slightly as if he had not heard.
The man shifted his finger toward Sheng Renxing. “You! Stay right there. Hear me?”
Sheng Renxing: “?”
He watched the man’s gaze slide from the large and small bags in his hands all the way to the phone he was holding.
There was nothing subtle about that look.
“…” Were they planning to make a little side money while they were busy fighting?
Sheng Renxing almost laughed.
Then he really did.
He casually dropped the clothes in his hands onto the ground. While everyone was looking at him, he suddenly exploded into motion and kicked the man who had been pointing at him straight to the ground.
“If you’re going to fight, then fight. Why so much bullshit?”
