Section 29 Left Ear (29)

  That day was the day of burial. The sky floated with the last light snow of spring.

  I told the blacks: "Let Jiang Jiao go, it has nothing to do with her!"

  "It's none of her business what I say," said the black man. "You slap yourself ten times first, and then I'll decide whether to let her go or not, how about that?"

  "I said: 'Ten? So many?'"

  "Shut up!" He kicked me in the knee and I fell to one knee, clutching it in pain.

  The black man drew a knife and scratched my face, saying: "This face is not bad, it can deceive little girls, indeed. But I'd like to ask the high-achieving student, have you ever thought about the consequences after deceiving?"

  Just then, the sound of police cars came from afar and drew near.

  The black man drew back his knife: "What have you done?"

  I struggled to get up and calmly said: "I've called the police."

  "Don't forget, your phone is in my hands!" The black man said, "If I'm not happy, I'll hand it over to Brother Ba La."

  "So what?" I said, "It doesn't prove anything."

  The black man rushed at me with a knife. I countered and took the knife away from him. This big, useless thing had grown a body of horizontal flesh. I placed the knife on the black man's neck and forced them to release Jiang Jiao.

  "Don't let go!" The black man shouted with red eyes. "Worst comes to worst, we all die together!"

  "You have a great future ahead of you, don't mess it up." I said to those vocational school kids. "Leave before the police arrive!"

  Four or five little kids, you look at me, I look at you, chose themselves at the critical moment and immediately scattered. One of them even hastily untied Jiang Jiao before leaving. After being freed, Jiang Jiao crouched in a corner, unable to get up for half a day.

  I let go of the black man: "You'd better hurry up and leave too."

  He looked at me incredulously.

  "If you don't leave now, it will be too late!"

  "This account is not settled, I will settle with you sooner or later!" The black man gritted his teeth and spat out these words, then ran away.

  I walked over and helped Jiang Jiao up, her pale face asking me: "Did you really call the police?"

  "Is it usable?" I said.

  But I still want to thank that passing police car.

  That time, Jiang Jiao was so scared that I accompanied her for three days and three nights before she had the courage to walk back into the school gate again.

  Of course now it's safe here. Jiang's father's money was the most useful thing, the black man wasn't harmed and he left this place, and it's said that he will never come back again.

  It's better if you don't come back.

  In just half a year, many things have completely changed. They've disappeared, vanished. The most painful thing is that the things that have disappeared will never be seen again, will never come back, but still leave behind a thin and sharp needle, stuck in your heart, unable to be pulled out. It wants you to hurt, so you must hurt, absolutely awesome.

  "Come to my home," Jiang Jiao asked me in a low voice, "I'll let Aunt Wang make you scrambled eggs and fried rice. Today is my birthday, and we also bought cake at home. How can it be okay if you don't go celebrate with me?"

  She always does this clever little trick, step by step to get what she wants. Although I'm not happy about it, my hungry stomach surrendered to myself.

  "Okay," I said.

  Jiang Jiao raised his face and looked at me: "You're finished, Cockroach."

  "What's wrong?"

  "You've said 'okay' three times tonight with me, I found out that you can only say 'okay', nothing else."

  "Oh." I said.

  "Hey, it's my birthday, can you please pay attention?"

  "Oh. Okay." I said. It was a weekend. I was selling mobile phones at a counter in a shopping mall.

  School is about to start, and there are a lot of people buying mobile phones. I've been standing for so long that my feet are numb, and talking so much that my mouth is dry. By 6 o'clock in the evening, the sales performance was still pretty good, with a total of eight units sold.

  The manager smiled at me and said: "Good-looking guys are easy to deal with, you see, your customers are all girls."

  At that moment, I saw her again, the girl I met on Nan Shan that day. She was wearing a white skirt and buying something at the stationery counter. The boy standing next to her was my classmate, You Ta. That kid is a genius, skipping from high school sophomore to junior year, he seems to be born for studying, this time he got the first place in the whole city again, about 30 points higher than me who ranked fifth.

  Three minutes later, they walked towards me together. She was carrying a bag with just-purchased notebooks and pens, and when they were halfway here, I saw Yu try to take the bag from her, but she firmly refused.

  When they saw me, both of them were somewhat surprised. Jump up! ~~~~~~????..