Chapter 40: Laughing in the Red Dust
Chapter 40: Laughing in the Red Dust
Su Chunfeng called out calmly, “Shangang, over here.”
“Hey!” Hearing the call, Zhao Shangang quickly turned and strode over. He said with an apologetic look on his face, “Really sorry, I’ve had a lot going on in the county town these past few days, so I came back a bit late. My mom just told me you came looking for me… Huh?” Seeing both of them on their bicycles, Zhao Shangang couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Chunfeng, where are you two heading in the middle of the night?”
“Had some trouble with classmates. I was planning to find you to mediate and avoid a fight, but you weren’t home.” Su Chunfeng smiled. “Just now, we beat them up, so we have to lay low for a bit, right?”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Shangang immediately raised his head with an angry expression. “No problem! You two don’t have to go. I want to see who dares to cause trouble for you! Who do they think they are?”
He was truly loyal and domineering!
He didn’t even ask who Su Chunfeng had beaten up.
Clearly, in the eyes of a fierce young man like Zhao Shangang, in his early twenties, no matter who it was, if they dared not give him face, there was only one solution—beat them all down!
Li Zhichao looked at his idol, thrilled beyond words, unable to speak. At the same time, he admired Su Chunfeng even more inwardly. “He’s really something, talking with Zhao Shangang so calmly! And he didn’t even ask for help; Zhao Shangang just offered to protect them on his own.”
“Now that you’re here, of course we don’t have to leave.” Su Chunfeng chuckled, got off his bicycle, and started pushing it into the dormitory courtyard. As he walked, he said, “Shangang, what happened to the injury on your head?” He noticed the bandage wrapped around Zhao Shangang’s forehead beneath his cotton hat.
“Got into two fights in the county town. No big deal.”
“Oh.” Su Chunfeng nodded. He knew Zhao Shangang had now officially embarked on the dark, tumultuous path destined for him. However, Su Chunfeng didn’t intend to stop him. Pushing his bicycle into the courtyard, he said, “The guy I beat is named Wang Liqiu, from your village. He might bring people to find me soon…”
“Wang Liqiu?” Zhao Shangang thought for a moment, seemingly unable to recall who that was, and said, “No problem, don’t worry about it.”
“Alright, the New Year’s Eve party is happening in the classroom. Zhichao and I need to get back.” Su Chunfeng said while propping up his bicycle, smiling. “But your reputation is too big; it’s better if you don’t go near the classroom, to avoid scaring the classmates. Just wait at the school gate. I think they’ll come soon… Make sure they don’t enter the school; it wouldn’t be good if they disrupted the New Year’s Eve party. Also, don’t let this matter spread… you know.”
Su Chunfeng didn’t want any commotion outside the classroom because if Wang Qimin, who was attending the party inside, saw it… Zhao Shangang helping Su Chunfeng? That would definitely raise questions!
Zhao Shangang laughed. “No problem!”
Li Zhichao couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine. Wow, Su Chunfeng had nerves of steel, actually speaking to Zhao Shangang in an ordering tone.
And Zhao Shangang actually listened to him!
As they walked out of the dormitory courtyard gate, Su Chunfeng suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned his head and smiled at Zhao Shangang, who was already heading toward the school gate, and said, “Shangang, I’m counting on you!”
“Don’t mention it!” Zhao Shangang turned around, his expression serious. “I said, through water and fire, I’ll be your ox or your horse!”
“No, no, no… you really mustn’t say that anymore; it’ll shorten my life. We agreed, we’re friends, right?” Su Chunfeng quickly shook his head and waved his hands, then hurried toward the classroom as if escaping. He whispered to Li Zhichao, “Zhichao, don’t spread the word about my relationship with Zhao Shangang. He cares about his pride; if it gets out, he might turn on us.”
“Uh-huh, I know.” Li Zhichao broke into a cold sweat on his forehead. Just moments ago, he had been thinking about bragging about it back in class.
If that made Zhao Shangang turn on him…
Damn, even if he didn’t attend school here and never passed by Dongwangzhuang Village again in his life, he’d still feel terrified!
Wang Haifei and Zhang Lifei never imagined that just a few minutes earlier, they had been filled with worry and sadness as they said goodbye to Su Chunfeng, their hearts uneasy. Little did they expect that now, Su Chunfeng and Li Zhichao, who were supposed to be running away to lay low, returned to the classroom chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened.
Were they crazy?
After Wang Liqiu fled in a sorry state earlier, he had angrily shouted from the north side of the playground that he would bring people to get revenge on them tonight!
Su Chunfeng sat back down in his original seat. Seeing the worried, speechless expressions on Wang Haifei and Zhang Lifei opposite him, he smiled and nodded, raising his right hand to give an “OK” gesture to calm the two girls.
In the classroom, the students were caught up in the party atmosphere. Encouraged by Li Jichun and the two female teachers, students kept going up to perform. Wang Qimin, however, sat at the teachers’ table by the inner side of the podium, silent, his gaze frequently drifting toward Su Chunfeng, intentionally or not.
Su Chunfeng ignored him.
Soon after a student performed a breakdance, Li Jichun stood up and said, “I suggest our two English teachers each perform something for everyone. How about it?”
“Great!”
The students immediately cheered.
Xu Yunxia didn’t refuse. She stood up confidently, walked to the front, picked up the microphone, gave a few simple New Year’s greetings, and then sang an English song a cappella. Probably only Teacher Xiao Qian among those present understood what she was singing; the others didn’t. Still, even without musical accompaniment, Xu Yunxia, with her naturally good voice, sang beautifully. After she finished, the whole class erupted in applause.
Next, it was Xiao Qian’s turn.
She had already looked through the VCD song discs Li Jichun borrowed along with the home theater system, so she was prepared. Smiling, she stepped forward, picked out a disc, skillfully swapped it in, and selected a song—”Laughing in the Red Dust” by Chen Shuhua.
The familiar melody began…
Xiao Qian was young and beautiful, with a good voice. She sang with emotion and passion, her graceful figure swaying slightly, immediately stirring up excitement among the classmates, who sang along with the rhythm.
After the song ended, the students clamored for Xiao Qian to sing another one.
Xiao Qian happily smiled but politely declined. “Classmates, I’d like to choose a student from the class to come up and sing a song… whoever I pick must come up. Is that okay?”
“Okay!”
The students happily agreed loudly.
Xiao Qian’s beautiful big eyes curved into crescents. Her gaze fell on Su Chunfeng, and she said with a smile, “Su Chunfeng, in the whole class, your academic progress is the fastest, your handwriting is the best, and you often copy lyrics for your classmates. So I think you probably know a lot of songs and sing well too, right? Come up and sing a song for everyone.”
“I don’t sing well.” Su Chunfeng shook his head repeatedly, embarrassed.
“Does everyone want to hear Su Chunfeng sing?” Xiao Qian turned to look at the whole class.
It must be said that the beautiful Teacher Xiao Qian was very good at rousing these youngsters who didn’t quite understand what emotional guidance was. They were all stirred up by her and started clamoring, “Yes!”
“Su Chunfeng, sing one!”
“Come on!”
“Go up…”
Su Chunfeng had no choice. He knew Xiao Qian had planned this for a while, and in this situation, if he insisted on refusing, it would obviously embarrass her. So he awkwardly smiled, stood up, walked to the side of the podium, picked up another microphone, and said modestly, “I don’t sing very well. Don’t laugh at me.”
The classmates burst into laughter.
“What will you sing? I’ll pick one for you…” Xiao Qian had already switched the screen to the song directory.
As Xiao Qian had mentioned earlier, because he often helped classmates copy lyrics, Su Chunfeng knew quite a few songs. But when it came to singing them… whether in his past life or this one, there really weren’t many he could sing. Just then, he happened to see the last song title at the bottom of the directory on the screen—a song he had loved most after rising to fame in the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts in his past life. He scratched his head, smiled, and pointed, “I’ll sing this one. Chen Shuhua’s ‘Laughing in the Red Dust’!”
Xiao Qian was taken aback for a moment, then nodded. “Alright.” She pressed the play button on the remote, and with a bit of mischief and curiosity, she set the audio channel to the left channel.
Only the music melody and subtitles appeared, with no original singer’s voice.
The other students and teachers in the class showed a bit of curiosity—they had never heard the song “Laughing in the Red Dust.” Due to the situation at the time, the martial arts film “The East Is Red: Swordsman” had entered the mainland but hadn’t spread widely. In the area of Jinzhou County, Pingyang City, especially in the more remote and backward countryside, very few people had seen this movie. Even if the movie had been shown in some village occasionally, who could remember this song after watching it just once?
The cheerful melody began, and the classroom fell silent.
Seeing the left channel indicator on the screen, Su Chunfeng gave Xiao Qian a look of resentment and helplessness, but he didn’t dwell on it. As the lyric subtitles appeared, he closed his eyes slightly, listening to the familiar melody. Filled with nostalgia and a touch of sadness from his memories, he began singing with emotion:
The red dust is laughable,
Obsession is the most boring,
Looking down on everything is fine too.
This life isn’t over,
But my heart is already untroubled,
Just wanting to trade for half a lifetime of freedom.
When awake, smile at people,
In dreams, forget it all…
…
At the school gate, under the dim light.
Wearing a leather coat and a cotton hat, with a cigarette in his mouth, Zhao Shangang stood before Wang Liqiu in front of over a dozen young men who looked around seventeen or eighteen, nineteen years old. Calm and unhurried, he waved his hand, slapping Wang Liqiu’s face again and again:
“Got some nerve?”
“A mouse carrying a gun, fierce only at home… Do you know what shame is?”
“If you’ve got what it takes, go out and mess around, fight with outsiders!”
“If I find out you’re pretending again, I’ll break your legs and make you crawl around carrying them every day. Believe me?”
“And you little brats, a whole group coming to the school to bully younger middle schoolers. Have you no shame?”
“I’m telling you.” Zhao Shangang gave Wang Liqiu’s already swollen, bloodied face another hard slap, then scanned the crowd, domineeringly shouting, “And all of you, remember this! From now on, nobody is allowed to mess with Su Chunfeng. He’s my brother, Zhao Shangang’s brother! Got it?”
“Got it, got it.”
The group muttered in fear, trembling all over.
“Also, my relationship with Su Chunfeng—nobody is allowed to blab about it. If I find out, I’ll drag you to a ditch by the road and bury you alive!”
…
In Class 14’s classroom.
All the students and teachers were immersed in Su Chunfeng’s emotional singing. They felt the beautiful, cheerful yet faintly sad and weathered melody, listened to the lyrics full of carefree joy as if leaving the mortal world and soaring to the clouds, and watched Su Chunfeng raise his head, singing with more passion, his voice rising high and intense. Beneath his tightly furrowed brows, his closed eyes shed two strings of glistening tears:
The wind is cold, but I don’t want to flee,
Flowers are beautiful, but I don’t want them,
Let me drift.
The sky is high, the heart is small,
Not asking how many causes and effects there are,
Getting drunk alone.
Cry today, laugh tomorrow,
Not asking if anyone understands,
Proud all over.
Singing the song, dancing the dance,
The long night passes without knowing the dawn,
Seeking happiness…
…
Outside the school gate.
Zhao Shangang strode away with a grim face.
The remaining group of young men, around seventeen or eighteen, nineteen years old, surrounded Wang Liqiu, Zhang Hai, and Xu Zhijun, knocked them to the ground, loudly cursing and fiercely beating them to vent their earlier fear and anger at Wang Liqiu and his friends for provoking someone they shouldn’t have and dragging them into Zhao Shangang’s wrath.