Chapter Six: The Pugilistic World

  "Pass!" "Don't carry! Kick it long!"

  "Hey, you think you're Maradona!"

  "Fatty! Knock on the door!"

  "Your feet really stink, are you kicking a ball or kicking people?!"

  It seems that men easily fall in love with football. As the World Cup approaches, a wave of soccer fever has appeared in Yunzhou City. After school every day, I and Yang Can and others always kick up a storm on the school field. I really enjoy kicking the ball while loudly shouting, it's so cool, so manly.

  This World Cup has only two images in my memory, one is Gascoigne hugging Lineker and crying after England lost to Germany on penalties; the other is Matth?us kissing the trophy with a resolute expression. Perhaps only such images can be called eternal.

  One summer afternoon, I and Pangzi were on our way home, discussing whose feet smelled worse, when we suddenly heard a familiar cry "Hey you two little brats! Stop right there!"

  I turned my head in the direction of the voice and looked over, and it was indeed old acquaintances - Horse Face and Shorty. There were three or four big guys with them, all looking at us with a swaggering attitude. Judging from their appearance, they must be here to seek revenge. Now that Horse Face has graduated, I heard he's going to join the army, probably thinking of taking his revenge before leaving, so we won't have anywhere to find him in the future. I was wondering why we hadn't seen them for a while, and it turned out they were waiting here all along.

  "Run!" Before Yang Chan could react to what was happening, I grabbed him and ran. A good man doesn't take advantage of a situation, when the other side has more people, we can only run. I'm just an ordinary person, not Jackie Chan, besides, even Jackie Chan would run when he sees a lot of people!

  The horse-faced guy and others saw that we were going to run away, so they all chased after us, still holding wooden sticks and iron bars in their hands. It seems like today they are ready to "loosen our bones". If they catch up with us, then for a while, neither I nor Fatty will be able to play football again.

  The horse-faced guy's size came in handy at this moment, and he didn't run far before catching up. The fat guy was a bit slower than me and was kicked to the ground by someone, after which the group of people started swinging wooden sticks and iron clubs at him. I had no choice but to stop and turn around, pouncing on one of the big guys who were chasing me, trying to grab the iron club from his hand.

  He reacted quickly, swinging a stick towards my shoulder, scaring me into hastily dodging to the side. I counterattacked by grabbing for the iron rod, but before my hand even reached it, someone behind me landed a solid blow with their stick, leaving me gasping for air. It seems that's what people mean by "sneak attack".

  I didn't turn around, I grabbed the iron rod in front of me and pulled it towards myself with all my might, while kicking him in the crotch at the same time. As he covered his crotch with both hands in pain, I turned around and swung the iron rod that had just fallen into my hands with all my might. They didn't dare to hit people's vital parts, but that doesn't mean I didn't dare to do so. So, the stick smashed towards the person who ambushed me earlier, hitting him on the head and face. Of course, at the same time, I was also being beaten by others with sticks. But I didn't turn around again to entangle with the people behind me, because they were too many, I could only fight to the death with the person in front of me, and consider all the blows on my back as his responsibility. In fact, this is just like doing things in life, one can't serve two masters at once, grasping what's in front of you is enough, if you always think about your surroundings, you won't be able to take advantage of anything.

  Under my crazy iron rod, two little guys were opened by me. I took advantage of their stunned moment and grabbed Yang Can again to escape wildly. The premise that I can knock down the two is that they dare not take drastic measures. If they want to be really furious, then Yang Can and I would have ended up here today.

  We didn't dare go home immediately, afraid that the adults at home would see the footprints on our bodies and the bruises on our faces. So we ran to Liangzi's barber shop. I and Yang Can often came here for haircuts, he was not very old, and after a few visits, we became familiar with him. Of course, we had to come here to clean up our disheveled appearance.

  Liangzi's store had no customers, and he was fiddling with the radio on a chair. As soon as he saw us, he understood and asked with a smile, "Which act are you guys singing? Yezi, don't you also get beaten sometimes? Weren't you quite fierce when you were collecting debts?"

  I didn't stand on ceremony with him either, walked over to the washbasin and washed my face, then sat down beside him and told him what had just happened. "Luckily I'm clever, otherwise today Fatso and I would have been taken for a ride." After finishing speaking, I sighed, "I reckon those two brats will still be causing us trouble tomorrow, I'll bring a knife with me tomorrow and take care of them directly, they've never suffered a loss like this before!"

  Yang Cai might still be shaken by what happened earlier, sitting there in a daze. Liangzi had been smiling while listening to my story, but after hearing this sentence, his face suddenly turned serious and he said to me: "Yezi, you're still young, no one will blame you for fighting, but your hands are too ruthless, if someone dies, you'll be ruined for life." This was said by him, I thought to myself, the two of us combined have more years than you, this I don't understand.

  "You're still young, if you take the wrong path, you'll never be able to turn back for the rest of your life." Liangzi knew I wasn't listening to him and advised me again "Honestly, just go to school, tomorrow I'll help you find Ma Lian, guarantee he won't dare bully you again..."

  "Thanks, Liao Ge, but I'll handle my own affairs. Otherwise, these bastards will think I'm afraid of them." I cut him off and dragged Fatso out.

  Before going home, I found the classmates who played with me and told them to bring their stuff to the school playground tomorrow afternoon to fight against Horse Face. That kid will definitely come again tomorrow, I don't want to be at a disadvantage.

  The next afternoon, I carried two pig-killing knives and sneaked into the playground early to wait for Cui Lei and his gang. I didn't call Yang Can, he was too timid, fighting was a rough job that suited idiots like Cui Lei.

  Before long, Cui Lei, Liu Dong and Ma Guowei also climbed over the wall. Liu Dong and Ma Guowei are just ordinary friends of mine, we usually play football together, but not in the same class, can't even be considered classmates. I'm quite surprised they came. Didn't expect these two kids to be so loyal.

  But what happened next surprised me even more. Until the horse-faced men climbed over the wall and came in, there wasn't a single "comrade" left by our side. "Damn! They always talk big, but when it counts, they all become cowards!" I complained to Cui Lei: "Lei, they have a lot of people, soon we'll be beaten by Ma Lian and the short guy, let's run to Liang Ge's barber shop." "Okay!" Cui Lei nodded with a trembling voice, probably because he saw that we were outnumbered and was getting scared.

  To be honest, I'm scared too. The horse face brought us something we've never seen before today. It's probably a group of young thugs from society. There might be a few black-handed masters among them. If we can't escape, the consequences will definitely be bad.

  The horse-faced men slowly closed in on us, revealing their iron rods. The children of the steel mill had a characteristic way of fighting, because iron rods were easy to find, and every household in this compound had at least two of them. Normally used as tools, they became weapons at critical moments.

  "Steel, kids, stop messing around, you're all making a ruckus, scatter for now!" Just as I was about to take out my knife and start practicing with Horse Face, Liangzi suddenly appeared beside us, with Yang Can panting heavily next to him, no idea if he was scared by the scene or exhausted from climbing over the wall.

  Liángzi walked up to me, put his arm around my shoulder and said to the one called Gāngzi next to Mǎliǎn "Yèzi is my brother, today I'm giving him face, so let's just forget about it. He hit Mǎliǎn before, but Mǎliǎn also brought people to block his way, so neither of them owes the other anything."

  Gangzi seemed to be quite afraid of Liangzi, and hastily smiled and nodded "Emotions are your younger brother, we didn't know earlier, you can rest assured, from now on he is our brother." As he walked to my side and patted my shoulder "Yezi, right? From now on, whoever dares to bully you, just look for me directly, no need to trouble Liangge". After finishing speaking, he took out a cigarette and lit it for Liangzi, exchanged a few polite words, and then hastily led the people away.

  I asked Liangzi with some doubt, "Liangge, who is he? He seems to be quite afraid of you?" Liangzi seemed to remember something, patted my shoulder and said, "Let's go, let's all go back to my place, I'll cook a fish for you guys." After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked forward.

  We followed him back, and Yang Can told me that he had called Lianzi over. I didn't go to find him today, so he guessed that I was going to fight with Ma Lian, and didn't dare tell anyone at home, so he found Lianzi and came over together to help out. It just so happened that Lianzi knew Ma Lian's helper, so the fight couldn't happen after all.

  It wasn't until later that I realized, when the two groups of people agreed on a location and prepared their weapons for a fight, the more people there were, the more subdued the scene became. This was because with more people, both sides would have acquaintances, so the Chinese tradition of "building relationships" came into play, and as a result, nothing ended up happening.

  At dinner, Cui Lei was very enthusiastic towards Liangzi, calling him "Liang Ge" with every sentence, his eyes full of admiration. Liu Dong and Ma Guofu also had the same look in their eyes, which was a stark contrast to how they used to avoid Liangzi before. They wanted to drink with Liangzi together, but he declined, saying they were still young, and drank by himself on the side.

  "Do you know I was released from a labor reform team?" Liangzi looked at me and asked, "Do you know how I got in there?"

  We all shook our heads. We knew that Lianzi was a labor reform prisoner, but we weren't really clear about what he had done to get in there. Even after knowing him for so long, we hadn't dared to ask.

  Liangzi ignored us, took a sip of wine by herself, as if recalling something: My dad used to be a steel factory worker too, my family used to live in the old building No. 3, I also studied at Tieyi Primary and Secondary School, just like you guys. Back then, schools didn't care much about students, so every day we'd run around with our classmates, daring to do anything, having a great time, living life fast and happy. In my third year of junior high, I met a hoodlum named Er Biao. At that time, no one's family was rich, Er Biao took me to steal iron blocks to sell for money, buy cigarettes to smoke, buy wine to drink... back then the cigarettes I smoked were even better than my dad's. Later on, I got to know Si Baozi who hung out with Er Biao, and also Xiao Mozi, aka Gangzi, who was Steelzi's older brother. We formed a gang in the factory compound, causing trouble, swindling money from younger kids, bullying girls, thinking we were all that...

  Later, my dad found out about my behavior at the time and gave me a good beating, but I didn't change. I continued to hang out with them everywhere, causing trouble. After graduating from junior high school, I hung out with them for over a year. At that time, we had stolen from warehouses, robbed people on the street, and even stabbed someone. We were learning from the heroes of Liangshan and thought we were big shots.

  At that time, my dad couldn't control me anymore and was afraid I'd get into trouble, so he wanted me to join the army, thinking the troops would educate me well. Actually, I also quite wanted to join the army, feeling that wearing a military uniform was pretty cool, so I agreed. The day before joining the army, Four Fatty came to find me, saying he had been beaten up and asked us to help him take revenge.

  The one who beat him was the "Little Overlord" of Sweet Water Well, I and Er Biao, and Xiao Mozi brought our own slingshots, at night we ambushed him at the entrance of Little Overlord's alley and sent him to the hospital where he died. The uncle of "Little Overlord" was a policeman, so he had us all arrested, I was convicted as the main culprit and sent to labor reform, Er Biao and the others were sentenced to labor reeducation because they were accessories and also underage.

  People in the big circle are not easy to get along with. At that time, I was young and almost got tortured to death several times inside. Later, I met a man named Baocheng who had great strength and was physically strong. No one dared to bully him in the big circle. I followed him and benefited from his presence, and later no one bullied me either.

  Later, I went to Xinjiang with Baocheng. We were voluntary, and at that time going to Xinjiang could reduce our sentence. Baocheng and I worked hard, wanting to earn more points so we could be released early. Since I was put into labor reform, I had never dared to write a letter to my father. I didn't know what to say. My father also never came to visit me. He couldn't bear the shame of having this son.

  In the second year after I arrived in Xinjiang, my father had an accident at the factory and passed away soon after. I wanted to come out and kowtow before his spirit, but the prison wouldn't allow it. Later, I cried alone under the quilt for several days. It was only then that I realized I was wrong, so wrong that I didn't even have the chance to mourn my father's death...

  Liangzi's story ended, Cui Lei and the others were a bit stunned. Liangzi stretched out his hand to touch his eyes and asked me "Do you know why I told you guys about my stuff?"

  "Maybe we two brothers are more familiar with each other." I tried to relax my emotions and replied to him, actually I knew that this was a person who had walked through a dark path giving kind advice to help a kid not choose the wrong way at the crossroads.

  Liàngzi didn't say yes or no, he brought his wine cup to my face and indicated for me to drink it. Then looking at the empty wine cup in front of me, he said: "Yèzi, thank you, brother."

  I kind of understand what he means now. As a released prisoner, he can't hold his head up high in this place, so he has no friends. It's not that he doesn't want to communicate with others, but because others won't give him the chance due to his "historical issues". When he cuts hair for neighbors, he charges less; when he does chores for them, he puts in extra effort, yet can't even get a thank you in return. I understand now why he was taken aback when I said thanks the first time we met. Also understand why every time I come to chat with him, he asks what business is so pressing that it can't be put off.

  The neighbors nearby didn't think much of an ex-labor camp prisoner, and in the factory compound, no child dared to loudly call out his name. Even Yang Can, who often came with me, was cautious when chatting with him. This wasn't the post-2000 era where existence equals reason; this was just the late 1980s, when ordinary people were starting to shift from following rules to daring to take action.