Li Shishi looked bewildered and smiled faintly.
The sign was very beautiful after it was drawn, with four elegant and refined traditional Chinese characters on it: Heroes of Liangshan.
Chapter Forty-Five: Bowing Down
The next day, around 9 a.m., I started receiving a lot of strange phone calls. They all had the same purpose: they heard that I had recruited 300 students at once and hoped that I would "share" a few with them.
It's July now, and university recruitment teams are out in force. Many people don't really understand what "recruitment" means. In the late 1990s, self-study exams became popular, and many regular universities set up self-study classes, recruiting a wide range of students, mainly recent high school graduates. Initially, recruitment staff were mostly school administrative personnel, but they were gradually replaced by quick-thinking students. Later, it became a gold rush for unemployed people during a specific period. For each student recruited, depending on their major, they could receive a very generous kickback, sometimes several thousand yuan.
In other words, the major recruiters nowadays are mostly local thugs with some criminal connections. They use coercion and enticement to plunder students. July and August are the peak season for their business, a time of chaos and bloodshed in the "underworld."
It goes without saying that Lai Zi leaked this news, and I suspect that if he weren't busy with this job, he would have devoted himself to education long ago.
It's almost mythical to be able to take in 300 students at once, so it's no wonder that some people are envious.
The first few phone calls were quite polite; they knew how to speak plainly and tried to establish a connection with me, saying they knew our General Manager Hao and so on. To all of them, I was equally polite and made my stance clear, saying that these 300 students were people I had dug out of a rural area to revitalize Chinese martial arts, and that their tuition was completely waived, and so on.
The later callers, whether genuinely capable or simply feeling tricked after the earlier ones hung up and trying to scare me, conveyed the following main points: First, we know where you, surnamed Xiao, live and what you do; second, we don't need all 300 people—we're all in this business, so we should at least give us 150; third, we're definitely taking those 150.
My response to such questions is always: If you're so capable, go and get them yourselves. I'll personally reward you with 500 yuan for each one you manage to take away.
I was telling the truth, but it was misunderstood as a provocation and a challenge. They angrily said: "Where are you, Mr. Xiao?"
I also need to tell them that I'll be picking them up at the train station at 12 o'clock, and that they should look for me there if they need anything.
I arrived at the station at 11:45, and this sign caused me quite a bit of embarrassment along the way. I'm a rather careless person, and I didn't think to cover the words on it with paper or plastic bags. Only after I stepped outside did I realize that people were giving me strange looks. The sign was too big to cover up, and I was holding a piece of paper about half my height with the words "Heroes of Liangshan" written on it, which had been used to store refrigerators. The edges were also uneven, and several times the patrol officers almost stopped me.
When I arrived at the station, I stood outside the platform waiting. As soon as it turned 12, a large number of people started leaving. I quickly held the piece of paper above my head, and people coming out of the station all covered their mouths and chuckled at me. A middle-aged man next to me, also waiting for someone, didn't notice at first, but later, because he was standing so close to me and saw so many people laughing at him, he became uncomfortable. He started checking if his zipper was open, if his hair was messy, and even pressed his face against the metal advertising board to see if he had snot or something on his nose. I couldn't bear it anymore and said to him, "Brother, stop looking, I'm not laughing at you."
The middle-aged man smiled sheepishly, then suddenly noticed the sign in my hand and couldn't help but laugh, saying, "Are you picking someone up or putting on performance art?"
I could only tell him that I and some online friends from out of town had organized a mock Liangshan club. These days, all sorts of strange things happen online, and middle-aged people aren't surprised at all. They asked me, "So, who are you playing?"
I said irritably, "Master Ximen!"
The middle-aged man laughed: "What a fine actress! Did you hire any actresses like Jinlian from among your online clients?"
We chatted like that for a while, and later we found out that the train from Hainan was delayed by an hour. I stood there like an idiot, holding up that unlucky sign, waiting for more than 40 minutes.
Around 1:00 PM, the second wave of people arrived. As they poured out, I felt a little nervous. After all, among these 54 people were some quite famous figures; I'd missed countless trips to the arcade back in the day just to see their stories on TV…
The middle-aged man was there to pick up his wife. He had also come from Hainan. He was in a hurry at first, but now he was actually hoping that his wife would come out last. He was even more eager than I was to see these 54 people.
As soon as the heroes walked out, I recognized them immediately. The fat, bloated guy at the front was obviously rich; he was fair-skinned and quite handsome upon closer inspection. Behind him was Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind, one of the most recognizable figures from Liangshan. With his short hair, large black beard, and somewhat gruff demeanor, he looked like a director. Next to Li Kui walked a girl with almond-shaped eyes, an MP3 player strapped to her jeans, humming as she walked; she didn't seem to be with them.
Then a tall man walked out, holding an empty Coke can. As he exited the station, he squeezed the can flat with force and made a gesture as if to throw it at a trash can. At the same time, several elderly men and women who had been lurking around the train station ran towards us while putting on red armbands. Before I could even call out to him, he had already made his move.
The can shot into the trash can like a meteor. I had just breathed a sigh of relief when it emerged from the other end. In the blink of an eye, as I sighed, the can flew for a few more seconds and disappeared into a second trash can, which was more than ten meters away from the first one.
The middle-aged man and I, who were waiting for his wife, were both stunned. Ignoring Lu Junyi, I went over and grabbed the man's hand, asking, "Who are you?"
The man smiled slightly: "No problem, Zhang Qing, the Featherless Arrow."
I often hear the name Zhang Qing, but he doesn't seem to be the most famous.
The handsome, chubby man, who was not young, was indeed Lu Junyi. He smiled and grabbed my hand, saying, "You must be Xiaoqiang?" I quickly replied politely, "Lu... Lu..." Lu Junyi smiled and said, "Call me brother."
I put a hand on his shoulder, looked around at the crowd behind us, and asked, "Where is my brother Lin Chong?"
Suddenly, the almond-shaped-eyed beauty grabbed me and said in the tone of an older sister bullying a younger brother, "I knew those Heavenly Gang looked down on us Earthly Fiends, hmm—" She held me under her ribs, pinched my scalp with her fist, tripped me up, and threw me there.
My head was burning with pain. I dared not underestimate this woman this time—she had me clamped down so tightly I couldn't move an inch. Seeing this beautiful woman with her high breasts and slender waist, and her beautiful almond-shaped eyes exuding a thousand kinds of majesty when she spoke and laughed, the thought of that lustful bastard Wang Ying climbing on top of her and plowing her made me incredibly itchy—a top-quality mature woman!
Just then, a gentle-looking man with a leopard-like head and piercing eyes stepped out from the crowd. He pulled me up and chuckled, "Third Sister likes to joke around, don't mind her." I grabbed his shoulder and said in a tearful voice, "Brother Lin, you must teach me the Lin Family Spear technique!"
I say this because I know that Hu Sanniang was ultimately defeated by Lin Chong.
The guy who was waiting with me exclaimed, "It's so similar, it's like a real person coming back to life!"
Apart from these few people, I didn't even have time to ask who the others were. These guys, carrying their travel bags, either chatted or looked around after leaving the platform, and no one paid any attention to me anymore, as if I were some paid tour guide they had hired.
Damn it, I didn't expect them to "bow down" or "worship" me immediately, nor did I expect them to grab me and call me "Brother Xiaoqiang" the moment they saw me. But did they have to be so cold? Even the legendary fiery-hearted Li Kui ignored me.
Lu Junyi introduced me to a refined-looking middle-aged man wearing glasses: "This is Brother Wu Yong."
"Hello, Brother Wu Yong. What's your glasses prescription?"
Wu Yong adjusted his glasses and said with a smile, "It adds up to 1,500."
At this moment, a man with a layer of water on his face did chest expansion exercises and asked me, "You don't have a sea here, right?" Lu Junyi introduced me: "Zhang Shun, the White Streak in the Waves, and the two behind him are Ruan Xiaoer and Ruan Xiaowu."
I've always admired people who can swim. You know, people are born and raised on land, so how can they run into the water and splash around—and still not die?
When I was a teenager, I practiced swimming intensively for a few days, and I went to play on a local lake with a bunch of hooligans. Every day after playing there, my stomach would be bulging. Later, although I was the only one who didn't learn to swim, none of them could outdrink me when it came to beer.
Judging from the bluish-green skin of Zhang Shun and the Ruan brothers, they're almost like amphibians. They probably can't live without water. They should go to the swimming pool and get monthly passes.
Chapter Forty-Six: We Are the People
Li Kui habitually rubbed his lower back—where he used to clip his axe—and said to me, "Hey, where are we going now?" I don't like dealing with people who used to work in detention centers; they're too rude!
I asked Lu Junyi, "What do you think, Boss Lu?"
Hu Sanniang asked, "Where is the most fun place around here?"
Zhang Qing said, "Let's eat first."