Here, near the stadium, there are still quite a few people discussing the daytime match, which seems to have finally caught Baozi's attention.
I don't know how to tell her. I've always felt that keeping this from Baozi isn't a solution, after all, she's going to spend her whole life with me. Even if I don't tell her, given Baozi's outgoing personality, what if some talkative Li Cuilian or that Yang Xiu who loves to reveal secrets comes along?
Seeing that I hesitated for a long time without saying anything, Baozi glanced at me and said, "I knew there was something fishy going on here. Did you give the referee a gift?"
I:"……"
Baozi suddenly asked, somewhat embarrassed, "By the way, Qiangzi, do you have any money?"
Although we've been together for two years, we're not married, and the little money we earn isn't worth saving, so we've always spent our own money.
I asked, "How much do you need? What will it be used for?"
Baozi slowly stirred the vegetable leaves in the bowl with her chopsticks and said, "Teacher Zhang is having a tough time right now. Besides the medical insurance reimbursement from his workplace, he still has a deficit of nearly 20,000 yuan from his hospitalization. Sister Zhang is also short of money. I think we should help as much as we can."
I said, "Don't worry about the money. I just want to ask, why are you and Lao Zhang so close?"
Baozi took a sip of wine and said as if sighing, "I can't really explain it, we're just like family. I remember when we had our sports meet, it was the middle of summer and we were sitting on the playground. Everyone else was buying popsicles but I didn't have any. Teacher Zhang bought a popsicle and secretly slipped it to me, then walked away with his hands behind his back like nothing had happened."
I said, "Hey, this popsicle is worth a lot of money, is it just for this?"
Baozi shook his head and said, "An ice pop costs 5 cents, but a person's heart is priceless. Every student in the class treats Teacher Zhang like their own father. Many students who have settled in other places will rush back to see him during holidays."
I clicked my tongue and said, "That's rare. Ever since our Chinese teacher taught me how to use a dictionary, I've forgotten his last name."
Chapter Thirty-One: Du Fu
We gathered everything at the venue early the next morning; today was the quarterfinals of the singles competition. As expected, none of Duan Tianlang's people showed up, which was considered a forfeit, and Duan Jingzhu automatically advanced.
However, the players still had to go to the assembly, since there were only four matches in total, and all the players were staying on the field. But after a while, Dong Ping and Duan Jingzhu returned with their hands behind their backs. When asked, it turned out that the Red Sun team member who was originally supposed to compete against Dong Ping had also withdrawn, saying that he wanted to focus on preparing for tomorrow's final for the sake of team honor.
When Dong Ping returned, he complained to Zhang Shun and the other two: "Yesterday I told you to drink less, but you kept urging me to drink bowl after bowl. As a result, the kid who competed with me was still throwing up when he woke up this morning. People will think we set a trap on purpose."
Zhang Shun said embarrassedly, "We just got so into a good chat that I didn't know when to stop."
It turns out that the Red Sun team's players were drunk by them.
This gave us two spots in the semifinals, attracting even more attention. But having come this far, I had nothing left to lose, and my goal became simple: to take first place.
Only two matches remained on the field, and they were both finished in less than half an hour. Dong Ping and Duan Jingzhu drew lots again, and surprisingly, they each got another opponent. Duan Jingzhu couldn't contain his excitement and said, "If I win the next match, maybe the 'Sanda King' title will be mine!" Seeing Dong Ping glancing at him sideways, he immediately put on a mournful face and said, "Isn't it enough that it's yours?" The heroes burst into laughter, and Dong Ping also laughed and said, "Since you want to be number one so much, then I promise you, as long as you meet me in the finals, I will deliberately lose to you." Duan Jingzhu's eyes lit up: "You said it yourself."
Wu Yong adjusted his glasses and said, "If you want to win first place in the team competition tomorrow, you need to plan this carefully. It seems that Red Sun is also determined to win this match. I heard from Coach Lin that we are not entirely confident if we fight in the ring."
Lin Chong said worriedly, "If I don't run into Cheng Fengshou, I can be sure of winning a round. But actually, it doesn't make much difference; we'll definitely lose the round with Cheng Fengshou. So it's still one to one."
Zhang Qing said, "I'm in a tough spot too, unless I modify my boxing gloves so I can throw them at the crucial moment."
Yang Zhi interjected, "If I were facing an old adversary, I would still be confident."
Now everyone's attention was focused on Shi Qian, who said softly, "Our opponents don't rely on agility, so I won't be at a disadvantage on the stage." The heroes breathed a sigh of relief: "Doesn't that settle things for the next three rounds?"
Song Qing, being the accountant, was very perceptive about permutations and combinations. He waved his hand and said, "No, we must consider the worst-case scenario. Brother Lin Chong can certainly get a point, but that's assuming he doesn't face Cheng Fengshou. If Brother Yang Zhi faces Cheng Fengshou, and we also consider Brother Zhang Qing facing his original opponent, we've already lost two rounds. That makes it 2-2. What about the last round?"
Wu Yong, however, was more astute: "Your calculation is incorrect. Right now, our points come from Coach Lin, Yang Zhi, and Shi Qian. If Cheng Fengshou can defeat any one of these three, we will only get two points."
It took Zhang Qing a while to understand, and he jumped up and said, "What do you mean? It's like I've become a burden!"
I patted him on the shoulder in frustration and said, "Well, you're still better than me. I was completely ignored."
The heroes said in unison, "You deserve to be ignored."
At this moment, the strategist Zhu Wu said, "I watched all of Hongri's matches. I noticed that Cheng Fengshou usually goes out first or third. According to the strategy of Tian Ji's horse racing, we just need to..." He originally wanted to say to put Zhang Qing first, but when he saw Zhang Qing glaring at him, he quickly and rationally shut his mouth.
I sighed and said, "Alright, alright, I'll be the inferior horse. Put me first." Zhang Qing said disdainfully, "It would be better if it were true."
I quickly changed my mind: "Let's put the third one in." But then I thought that no matter whether it was the first or the third, I had to go on stage, and I couldn't escape this beating.
At this moment, Li Bai, who had been in a daze all along, finally uttered the most insightful sentence he had made so far in his guest appearance in the book. He nudged Shi Qian and said, "Aren't you good at stealing? Why don't you just steal their appearance list tonight?"
Shi Qian exclaimed in surprise, "I never thought of this method! How did you come up with it?"
Li Bai chuckled: "Even thieves can be elegant, like Nie Yinniang, Kongkong'er, and the master thief Chu Liuxiang..."
Lu Junyi said, "It's best not to use this method. Firstly, it would be a loss of Guangda, and secondly, we are friends with Hongri, so it might not be appropriate to do this."
I actually quite support Li Bai's ideas; this shows that sometimes unconventional scholars can be more wicked than bandits. However, if Li Bai had been a law-abiding moralist, he wouldn't have been able to write so many magnificent poems—though I haven't read many of them.
I saw that it was still early, and it wasn't easy to get everyone together, plus we'd have less and less time together in the future, so I said, "Let's do something. How about I treat you all to 'A Better Tomorrow'?"
Duan Jingzhu curled his lip and said, "The one starring Tony Leung Ka-fai, right? I've seen it. Xu Jinjiang looks like a simpleton."
I:"……"
To my surprise, Lin Chong suddenly said, "While everyone is here, let's go see Old Zhang. After all, he's still our headmaster." The heroes agreed.
Because there were too many people to hail a taxi, we decided to stroll around. When we arrived at the hospital entrance, the other people, seeing us with elderly people and young children, assumed we were there to settle a lawsuit with the hospital and started gossiping. I also felt it wasn't appropriate to go up like this, so I told the main group to stay downstairs while Lu Junyi and a few others went up, and asked them to watch my gestures from the windows and visit in batches.
We went into the corridor, and I found out which ward we needed. Inside, I saw that Old Zhang was being cared for by his son-in-law, a refined and clean-cut government official. There were two other old men in the same ward, but they seemed to be recovering quickly; they were sitting on their beds, swinging their arms and doing some exercises.
Old Zhang was fully conscious today, but the incision on his chest made things very difficult for him, and he wasn't as energetic as before. He smiled at me when he saw me. When he saw Lu Junyi and the others, I nodded slightly to him. Old Zhang said to his son-in-law, "Xiao Xie, could you go out for a bit? I have something to discuss with Director Xiao." The two old men in the same ward tactfully left as well. Old Zhang straightened up, and Lu Junyi quickly helped him sit up against the blankets, saying, "Take care, brother."
Old Zhang looked at me with a questioning gaze, and I whispered, "This is Brother Lu Junyi."
Old Zhang grabbed Lu Junyi's hand, shook it twice excitedly, and said, "We shouldn't have accepted the amnesty!"
I was utterly speechless. I had wondered what Old Zhang, who knew the inside story, would say to the Liangshan heroes, but he started with this. What's rare is that, as an intellectual, he also harbored a deep-seated hatred for the surrender, just like my neighbor's second brother.
Lu Junyi was so embarrassed that he didn't know what to say when Old Zhang patted his hand again: "It's good that you've been recruited. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. If you hadn't come, Xiaoqiang wouldn't have won the competition. We should thank you for this."