Era: Rise from the Wilderness

When Li Yunjing arrived at the school gate, he saw Fu Chao and Ding Dong already smoking cigarettes and chatting casually.

"Fu Chao, Ding Dong, here you go!"

He tossed two bottles of soda over, then walked closer and stuffed ice cream into their hands.

"Refreshing, so cool!"

Let's go!

Without any hesitation, the two took the soda and gulped down several large mouthfuls, letting out a satisfied burp.

The afternoon sun made the road surface scorching hot, so the three of them didn't ride bicycles. Anyway, Ma Ji's stir-fry restaurant wasn't far from the school, so they figured they could just walk and take a stroll.

"Give me a cigarette."

After walking a dozen meters from the school gate, Li Yunjing reached out his hand to Fu Chao.

Fu Chao knocked two cigarettes out of the crumpled "Hongmei" cigarette box, put one in his mouth, handed the other to Li Yunjing, and then glanced at Ding Dong: "Want one?"

"Thank you, Mr. Fu!"

Ding Dong chuckled and took it: "I'm a heavy smoker now, I can't live without cigarettes!"

Fu Chao scoffed, pulled out a cheap lighter with a picture of a swimsuit-clad woman printed on it, and struck it with a "snap." The orange flame was almost invisible in the sunlight.

He first put the powder on Li Yun's face, then brought it to his own mouth.

Li Yunjing took a deep breath, the pungent taste of the cheap tobacco rushing into his throat, bringing a familiar, slightly tipsy feeling.

He wasn't actually a smoker, but at that moment, nicotine could soothe his troubled mind a little.

Smoke slowly escaped from his nostrils, merging into the scorching air.

They walked along the uneven cement road towards North Street.

The road was lined with low shops: the foot-operated sewing machines in the tailor shops clattered, the hardware stores were piled with rusty ironware, and the video arcades had posters with crooked handwriting that read "Latest Hong Kong Movies, Playing on a Loop" on the door, with muffled fighting sounds and Cantonese dialogue coming from the speakers.

The air was filled with the greasy aroma of fried food, the cheap smell of hair gel wafting from the barbershop next door, and the faint stench of something rancid coming from the sewer in the corner.

"Li Yunjing, what you just said about the teaching affairs office was really close."

Fu Chao exhaled a crooked smoke ring, which was immediately blown away by the wind. "The 'Black-Faced Yama' actually let you go and even let you lead the team? The sun must have risen in the west."

"He had his eye on the top student in the entire school."

Li Yunjing flicked his cigarette ash, a self-deprecating smile playing on his lips. "If I mess up the sports meet, see how he deals with me."

"What's there to be afraid of!"

Fu Chao didn't care at all, "Those few oddballs in our class can always manage a few jumps if they practice."

"If all else fails..."

He lowered his voice, a mischievous smirk in his eyes, "On the day of the competition, how about 'arranging' a little mishap for the key players from other classes? Diarrhea, loose stools, they'll be guaranteed to have weak legs."

Ding Dong chimed in, "Young Master Fu, you're undermining the spirit of sports."

"Spirit?"

"Can it be eaten as food or used to earn points?"

Fu Chao snorted, "Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."

"Let's take it one step at a time!"

Li Yunjing shook his head: "Let's practice properly first."

His past life experiences taught him that cleverness might bring temporary success, but it is not the right path and can easily backfire.

However, he didn't say it aloud.

The conversation then turned to the upcoming National Day holiday, where schools might only give students three days off, leading to constant complaints; the topic then shifted to the recently aired TV series "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," where people argued for ages about who among the Five Greats was the most powerful.

Before I knew it, "Ma Ji Stir-fry" was right in front of me at the North Street intersection.

"This is it, Old Ma's food is pretty good."

Li Yunjing knew the way well. He took two quick steps and was about to touch the curtain when his gaze inadvertently swept into the shop through the stained gap.

Time seemed to stretch out and stand still at that moment.

Beside the peeling paint of the square table by the window, the figures of three men were like red-hot iron rods, suddenly branded into his retina.

The thin, middle-aged man standing to the side of the door, wearing an inappropriate gray jacket, was none other than Ma Youcai!

The smile on Li Yunjing's face froze instantly, as if his blood had congealed in his veins for a moment, before being ignited by a surge of icy rage.

His outstretched hand froze in mid-air, then he pulled it back even faster, grabbing Fu Chao's wrist as he lifted the curtain.

"Walk!"

His voice was extremely low, yet it carried an undeniable urgency and chill, and his face instantly darkened like the sky before a storm.

Before Fu Chao and Ding Dong could react, he pulled them aside and quickly disappeared into the shadows of the noisy crowd and shops nearby.

Fu Chao and Ding Dong were chatting enthusiastically when Li Yunjing suddenly grabbed their arms and pulled them back out of the entrance of Ma Ji Stir-fry.

"Hey! Old Li, what's up?"

Fu Chao, with a half-smoked cigarette still dangling from his mouth, stumbled as the ash fell onto his faded jeans.

Ding Dong looked equally bewildered, glancing back at the glass door with the faded red paper pasted on it that read "Home-Style Stir-Fry": "Is it full?"

Li Yunjing didn't speak; his face was so gloomy it could drip water.

He led the two of them for another ten meters or so until they turned into a small alleyway, at which point they stopped.

The alley was dimly lit, a stark contrast to the bright and bustling midday outside.

Li Yunjing released his grip, leaned against the mottled brick wall, and took a deep drag on the nearly burnt-out cigarette between his fingers. The red glow of the cigarette butt flickered uncertainly in his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Saw your enemy?"

Seeing that his expression was off, Fu Chao also stopped joking and asked seriously.

Li Yunjing exhaled the last puff of smoke, threw the cigarette butt on the ground, and crushed it out with his toe.

"See that table by the window inside?"

He pointed to the restaurant across the street, his voice low but chilling: "That skinny guy in the gray jacket."

Fu Chao and Ding Dong squinted, peering through the street and the blurry glass.

Ma Ji Stir-Fry Shop is small, with just a few small square tables visible at a glance.

Three men were eating at the table by the window.

The skinny man in the gray jacket that Li Yunjing was talking about was spitting as he spoke.

Opposite him sat two burly men with buzz cuts, short, thick necks, and faint outlines of tattoos on their arms.

"I see him. Who's that skinny guy? Do you know him?"

Ding Dong asked.

"know?"

Li Yunjing sneered, the coldness in his eyes causing his two friends to instinctively tense up. "It's more than just knowing each other."

"That skinny guy is called Ma Youcai. He's the bastard who cheated my dad out of money when he went to Fuxian to buy a second-hand freezer, and my dad and his men gave him a 'lesson'."

Then Li Yunjing recounted the whole story.

"Holy crap, it's so dark?"

Fu Chao's eyebrows shot up. "This bastard dares to show his face? Dares to come to our town for a meal? He's got some nerve!"

"He probably wouldn't dare to do it alone."

Li Yunjing stared at the man opposite him, his gaze landing on the burly man with a buzz cut. "See that guy across from him? He doesn't look like a good guy."

"And that guy with his back to us, we can't see his face, but he's sitting at the same table as Ma Youcai, could he be a stranger?"