DBTHDCAR Chapter 59

Hearing that, the girls who had been crowding around Ning Xiaobei stepped back like a receding tide.

Ning Xiaobei tilted his chin slightly, casually tossed his ice pop stick into a nearby trash can, and strolled slowly to the front of the line.

“Teacher wants to see me?”

“Well… Ning Xiaobei, you need to go to the office with the teacher. There are some things we need to confirm with you.”

Mr. Gu, their homeroom teacher, was a young guy who had just graduated. This was his first year as a homeroom teacher for the freshmen. And before classes had even officially started, he ran into this mess, he was almost in tears.

“Whatever it is, just say it here. After that, I still have training to get back to.”

Ning Xiaobei gestured behind him with his thumb. “There are five minutes left of break. Teacher, just say it here.”

“But…”

“Just say it, teacher.”

“Well… it’s him. He stole it.”

A boy from the neighboring class stepped forward, pointing his index finger at Ning Xiaobei’s nose, indignant. “He was the last one down. If not him, then who?”

The words caused an uproar.

Students who had been sitting and resting immediately stood up — some panicked, some excited, and some just watching the scene with amused expressions. Ning Xiaobei had stunned everyone with his performance of 《Hotel California》earlier, drawing nearly all the girls’ attention. Naturally, a few boys were already annoyed by him.

“Student, you can’t say that without knowing the facts.”

Mr. Gu quickly turned and pulled the boy’s arm down.

“Teacher, don’t shield your student anymore. Our dorm, plus the one next door, has had a lot of things stolen these past couple of days.”

“That’s right. At first, it was just some spare change. We thought we had misplaced it ourselves, so we didn’t care. But what went missing today is ridiculous.”

“It was him. Everyone had gone out just now. He must have taken advantage of the empty dorms and went from room to room. Any door that wasn’t properly closed, he went in and took stuff.”

The boys from the neighboring classes joined in, pointing fingers, and even some of the boys in Ning Xiaobei’s own class looked at him suspiciously.

“Ah, how could Ning Xiaobei be that kind of person?”

“No way… he seems so honest.”

The girls who had just been fawning over him immediately switched to expressions of shock and disbelief, pointing at him in accusation.

“Bullshit! Who’s my boss? He steal things? Nonsense!”

Fan Xia jumped up in a rage. Ding Zheyang and Chang Leyun quickly grabbed him on either side, keeping him from storming over to the other class’s group.

“What did you lose?”

Ning Xiaobei turned to him, his expression dignified and calm.

“My… my phone is gone.”

The boys looked at him, puzzled by his composed, upright manner.

The children’s gasps grew even louder.

The once-popular Big Brother phones¹bulky, first-generation mobile phones had already fallen out of use, replaced by small cellular phones or early smartphones.

These phones were not only expensive, but making calls also cost a fortune. At this time, only business people and upper-level white-collar workers typically owned one. Most people still carried pagers and would return calls from phone booths.

Ning Xiaobei glanced down at the boy’s shoes. Everyone was wearing the school-issued camouflage uniform, but the shoes were personal. The boy was wearing the latest Adidas running shoes from that summer; definitely a kid from a wealthy family.

“So… what do you want to do?”

Ning Xiaobei spoke calmly.

“Empty your pockets. That’ll prove it’s not you.”

The boy, clearly convinced Ning Xiaobei was the thief, crossed his arms and sneered.

“I heard you’re a big name from No. 1 High School, top of the grade this year, right?”

He laughed contemptuously. “I’m not calling the cops. Just apologize and quit school voluntarily, that’s enough.”

“Go to hell!”

Fan Xia yanked free from Ding Zheyang and launched a flying kick at him, but the nearby instructor quickly pinned him down.

“What kind of students are in Class 4? Didn’t they say the top scorers from the high school entrance exam are all here? Looks like trash to me.”

The surrounding boys from other classes mocked.

“They’re even from the same dorm. That’s just birds of a feather flock together.”

“I heard from Jiang Nan in their dorm that these No. 1 High School students gang up on him. They chase him out, and he’s stuck wandering around the neighboring dorm all day.”

“No way, No. 1 High School is that level? Did they fail there and so came to another school’s high school division?”

Ding Zheyang’s smile slowly faded as he glanced in their direction.

One boy noticed and suddenly felt goosebumps all over, hurriedly clamping down on his blabbering friend.

For a moment, the whole playground fell silent. Even the cicadas in the trees surrounding the field seemed louder, their buzzing overlapping in a nerve-racking rhythm.

“What’s your phone number?”

Ning Xiaobei smiled instead of getting angry.

“What?”

“Your phone number.”

The boy looked at him in confusion but obediently recited it.

Before he finished, a loud mechanical sound rang out from the crowd of students watching the scene unfold.

“Hello, MOTO~~”

The sound exploded like thunder, scattering the crowd in shock.

Everyone turned toward the source of the sound. Fan Xia was still stubbornly arguing with the instructor but also swiveled his head when he heard it.

“Jiang Nan?”

The iconic Motorola ringtone was coming from Jiang Nan.

He had just been perched on the railing, looking calm and smug while enjoying the spectacle. The moment he heard the ringtone, it was as if someone had lit a fire under him. He leaped up, grabbed his phone from his pocket, tossed it to the ground, and bolted.

“My phone!”

Seeing his brand-new phone smashed into pieces, the battery falling out, the boy let out a wail of despair.

“You little bastard, don’t run!”

Fan Xia didn’t need further explanation. Seizing the moment when the instructor wasn’t looking, he broke free and sprinted after him.

Ning Xiaobei also pulled a phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Ding Zheyang before chasing after the group.

“Whoa, let’s go, let’s see this!”

The kids went wild. Hundreds of them took off after Ning Xiaobei, and the instructors’ whistles couldn’t stop them.

“My phone… it’s ruined…”

The boy who had just been arrogantly strutting around now crouched on the ground, wailing over the shattered pieces of his phone.

Ding Zheyang slipped the Nokia he brought into his pocket, sneered, and overtook him to join the main group.

“Don’t run, you little brat, stop right there!”

Fan Xia raced across the playground, past the empty teaching buildings, nearly grabbing Jiang Nan’s shirt. Seeing he was about to be caught, Jiang Nan abruptly changed direction and sprinted toward the eastern wall.

Fan Xia immediately understood; he was trying to escape.

Yesterday he had already noticed it; under the eastern corner of the wall, there was a pile of junk: old desks retired over the years and broken teaching props. That kid had climbed out over those things last night.

“Stop! Don’t run!”

Fan Xia chased all the way to the wall.

Jiang Nan, having passed this way every day, leapt onto the stacked broken desks and chairs with ease, moving like it was second nature.

Fan Xia refused to be outdone, using both hands and feet to climb up as well.

The pile had been thrown together carelessly in the first place. There was no way it could support the weight of two boys. It wobbled immediately, looking extremely dangerous.

“Fan Xia, get down, don’t chase him!”

Ning Xiaobei had caught up to the base of the wall. Hands on his knees, gasping for breath, he shouted up.

“He won’t get away. Ding Zheyang has already called the police.”

This trap was the brainchild of Ning Xiaobei and Ding Zheyang working together, one overt and one covert, to expose Jiang Nan’s true colors in broad daylight.

“No way, I can’t let anyone bully you!”

Fan Xia replied, his foot slipping on a chair as he climbed, sending it clattering to the ground with a loud clang. The crowd rushing up behind them gasped in unison.

“Fan Xia, get down! Please get down!”

Teacher Gu felt his heart leap into his throat. If anything happened to this student, how could he answer to the parents or the principal?

“You little brat, get down right now.”

Fan Xia steadied himself, found a new foothold, and continued climbing.

Jiang Nan had jumped onto the wall first. He turned to look at the throng of people below, panic breaking out in cold sweat.

“I’m begging you! Don’t chase me! It was me who stole it, just let me go!”

He shouted at Fan Xia with his eyes closed.

Fan Xia gritted his teeth, one hand gripping the corner of a jutting desk, stretching his right hand toward him.

Maybe pushed to the edge, Jiang Nan’s mind unexpectedly filled with a wicked thought.

Looking down at the little dark-skinned boy glaring up at him with righteous anger, Jiang Nan gripped the wall tiles tightly with both hands. He bent his right knee and kicked hard at the desk that Fan Xia was lying on below.

“Waaah!”

The crowd gasped.

Fan Xia suddenly lost his balance, flailing his arms helplessly as his whole body tipped backward.

After the earlier shaking, the pile of broken desks and abandoned teaching props had scattered everywhere. A large brown wooden triangle ruler now stood upright in a precarious position, pointing directly at the left side of Fan Xia’s back, near his heart.

“Oh my God!”

The students below shouted in unison. Chang Leyun closed her eyes in terror.

“Fan Xia!”

Before anyone could react, Ning Xiaobei rammed his shoulder into the ruler, knocking it aside. The sleeve of his shirt tore, and blood immediately gushed out.

The jagged edges of the wooden ruler dug into his flesh, but at that moment, he felt nothing at all.

With his bloodied arm raised high, Ning Xiaobei positioned himself under Fan Xia before he could hit the ground. He cupped Fan Xia’s head in his arms and used his own body to cushion the fall.

Thud.

The two of them hit the ground together.

Yellow dust swirled around them as they rolled, finally smashing heavily into the large tree at the corner of the wall.

Blood streamed from Ning Xiaobei’s head, dripping onto the dirt below.

Until the very last moment before losing consciousness, he held Fan Xia tightly against his chest, protecting him.

The Buddhist beads on his left wrist scattered, the sandalwood beads clattering across the ground.

Ding Zheyang and Chang Leyun raised their hands and rushed forward, screaming and crying.

“Help! Someone help!”

“Save them!”

In another world, a certain person who had long been unconscious slowly opened his eyes.

He drew in a deep breath, and immediately his lungs felt like a bellows with a hole in it, whooshing painfully. Trying to take another breath sent a stabbing pain through his chest. Fan Xia let out a low groan of anguish.

Smelling the antiseptic in the air, Fan Xia rolled his eyes and finally realized where he was.

This wasn’t a bar, it was a hospital room.

“Ning…Xiaobei…”

The first thought that flashed through his mind was Ning Xiaobei.

He called out in panic, remembering the moment he’d collapsed after being stabbed. Xiaobei had seemed hurt too.

Xiaobei… where’s Xiaobei? Is he okay?

He struggled to sit up halfway. Usually, his body was so agile, but now it felt borrowed, foreign, and it made him feel a sudden wave of frustration. Fan Xia instinctively wanted to curse, but realized that his hand was being held tightly. The palm was cool — a familiar feeling.

“Xiaobei…”

Fan Xia turned his head, staring blankly at the figure leaning beside his bed.

He stared at him, taking in every detail. The fragile, jade-like face, the lips so pale they seemed nearly colorless, and the blindingly white bandage wrapped around his head.

He remembered.

The two men he had encountered in the bar that day were fugitives the city had been actively hunting for months. The local and municipal police had staked out their homes and parents’ houses, but never found a trace. Who would have thought that by sheer chance, they’d run into them in that bar?

The moment the men saw his police badge, they didn’t hesitate and ran.

Fan Xia grabbed the slower one by the arm while ordering the bar owner to call the police immediately.

In the chaos, Ning Xiaobei woke up.

When one of the fugitives tried to smash a bottle down on Fan Xia’s head, Xiaobei shoved him away, but his own head took the full impact.

Fan Xia turned to see bright red blood streaming down Xiaobei’s head, like a red plum blossoming in the midst of pure white snow.

The bar patrons screamed and scattered like startled birds and beasts.

Fan Xia was furious, feeling as if his blood itself was on fire. They actually dared to hurt him — they actually dared!

The two wanted fugitives, seeing blood drawn, no longer held back. One drew a butterfly knife from his waist, while the other grabbed an empty bottle from a nearby table. They pulled in a female patron who hadn’t escaped in time, intending to use her as a hostage to threaten Fan Xia.

If Ning Xiaobei had been fully awake at that moment, even without joining Fan Xia in fighting back, he at least wouldn’t have made things worse. But already half-drunk and with a recent blow to his head, he quickly became the second hostage. In his struggle, he was struck on the head again.

After a chaotic scuffle, Fan Xia collapsed into a pool of blood, and Ning Xiaobei fainted as well. Luckily, just as the two fugitives tried to escape, the police, alerted by the earlier call, arrived, capturing them on the spot and rushing them to the hospital for emergency treatment.

It was all because of him; he had dragged Xiaobei into suffering.

Fan Xia tenderly clasped Ning Xiaobei’s hand again, holding it against his cheek.

“Pfft…”

His expression of solemn concern broke in the next second, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

He didn’t know which nurse had bandaged Ning Xiaobei’s head, but she had made him look round-headed like Ikkyu-san, and, hidden from Xiaobei’s view, had tied a neat, adorable bow on the bandage.

It no longer looked like Ikkyu-san; it resembled a lollipop he ate in childhood instead.

For a man almost in his forties, this was too ridiculous not to laugh at.

The moment he laughed, though, his injury was tugged at, and he coughed repeatedly.

Awakened by the commotion, Ning Xiaobei lifted his head, his eyes still hazy, and smiled with relief.

“You’re finally awake…”

………………

Author’s Note:

Martial Arts Movie

====================

• 1
  bulky, first-generation mobile phones