Chapter Forty-Five: Kneeling Down and Paying Homage

  The next day at 9 o'clock, I started receiving many inexplicable phone calls. Their purpose was also consistent: they heard that I had recruited 300 students at once and hoped that I would "distribute" a few to them.

  It's July now, and the college enrollment teams have started to go around everywhere. Many people don't actually understand what "enrollment" means. In the late 1990s, "self-examination" became popular, and many regular colleges set up self-examination classes with a wide range of recruitment objects, mainly fresh graduates who had just taken the college entrance examination. The enrollment staff were initially school personnel, but later they were gradually replaced by quick-witted students, and eventually it became a gold rush period for social idlers during a specific period. Recruiting one student can get a very generous rebate, ranging from several thousand yuan depending on the major.

  In other words, the current enrollment tyrants are some small-time hooligans who use intimidation and temptation to control student sources. July and August are their peak seasons, and it's a chaotic and bloody scene in the "underworld".

  This news must have been leaked out by Lai Zi, and I guess that if he weren't busy with this, he would have devoted himself to the education industry long ago.

  Once took in 300 students, it's almost a legendary place, no wonder someone is jealous.

  The first few phone calls were relatively polite, knowing how to speak human language, and trying to build a relationship with me, saying they knew our Hao Zong and so on. I also made it clear that my attitude was that these 300 students were dug out from a certain rural area to revitalize China's martial arts, and the tuition fees were all waived.

  Later, several others also didn't know if they really had the ability or if the previous ones who hung up the phone thought they were being fooled and changed people to scare me. The main meaning of these people is roughly as follows:

  1. I know where you, surnamed Xiao, live and what you do;

  2. Those 300 people, we don't all want them, everyone comes out to mix and needs to save face, we opened a mouth and you at least have to give us 150,000 yuan;

  3. This 150,000 yuan is what we are asking for.

  To those who say such things, I respond uniformly: if you have the ability, go and pull me away yourself. If you can pull one person away, I will personally reward you with 500 yuan.

  I spoke from the heart, but was misunderstood as provocation and challenge. They angrily said: Where is Xiao?

  I also need to tell them that I'll be at the train station at 12 o'clock to pick someone up, and if anything comes up, they can find me there.

  I arrived at the station at 11:45, and this sign brought me a lot of embarrassment on the way. I'm a straightforward person, but I didn't expect to use paper or plastic bags to cover up the words on it. It wasn't until I got out the door that I realized people were giving me strange looks. The sign was too big, and there was no way to cover it up. I was holding a half-person-high piece of cardboard with "Liagnshan Good Fellow" written on it, which had been used to package an electric refrigerator. The edges were uneven, and several times the police almost stopped me.

  When I arrived at the station, I stood outside the platform waiting. As soon as it struck 12, a large crowd of people started coming out from inside. I quickly held up my paper slip above my head, and the people rushing out of the station couldn't help but cover their mouths and stifle giggles when they saw me. A middle-aged man standing next to me, also waiting for someone, initially didn't notice anything, but later, because he was standing too close to me and saw many people rushing over to laugh, started to feel unnatural and began checking if his zipper was open, if his hair was messy, and even stuck his face onto the metal advertisement board to check if he had any snot or whatnot. I couldn't bear it anymore, so I said to him: "Big brother, don't look, they're not laughing at you."

  The middle-aged man smiled awkwardly and suddenly saw the sign in my hand, couldn't help but laugh too, saying: "Are you picking someone up or doing performance art?"

  I can only tell him that I and some online friends from other places organized a simulated Liangshan Club. Nowadays, there are all sorts of strange things on the internet, and middle-aged people don't think it's unusual either. He asked me: "Who do you play?"

  I said in an ill temper: "Ximen the great official!"

  Middle-aged man laughed: "Good guy, is there a Golden Lotus among your online friends?"

  We were just chatting away, and later found out that the train from Hainan was delayed by an hour. I had been stupidly standing there holding that unlucky sign for over 40 minutes.

  Around 1 o'clock, the second batch of people arrived, and as they poured out one after another, my mood became a bit tense. After all, among these 54 people, there were also some very prominent figures. To think that in those years, I had even neglected to go to the arcade to watch TV shows about their stories...

  That middle-aged man came to pick up his wife, also from Hainan. He was originally in a hurry, but now he even hopes that his wife will be the last one to come out. He wants to see these 54 people more than I do.

  The good guys came out and I recognized them immediately. The chubby guy in the front who looked like he was floating on air must be a rich man, with his pale complexion and handsome looks upon closer inspection. Behind him was Black Whirlwind Li Kui, one of the most recognizable members of the Liangshan brand, due to his short hair and large dark-rimmed glasses. If it weren't for his somewhat rough demeanor, he would look like a director. Next to Li Kui walked an almond-eyed girl with an MP3 player clipped to her cowboy pants, humming as she walked, looking like she wasn't part of their group.

  Then a tall man came out from behind, holding an empty Coke can. As soon as he left the station, he crushed the can with one hand and made a throwing motion towards a trash can. At the same time, several old men and women who were lurking around the train station put on red armbands and ran towards him. Before I could shout at him, he had already taken action.

  That can flew into the trash can like a meteor, and just as I let out a sigh of relief, it came out from the other end. In the blink of an eye, that can flew for a few seconds again and entered another trash can tens of meters away from the first one.

  I was stunned along with that middle-aged man who was waiting for his wife, I didn't care about Lu Junyi, and went over to grab the man's hand and said: "Who are you?"

  The man smiled slightly: "Good words, no need for Zhang Qing's feathered arrows."

  Zhang Qing's name is often heard, but it doesn't seem to be the most famous one.

  That not-so-young handsome chubby guy was indeed Lu Junyi. He smiled and held my hand, saying: "You're Xiaoqiang, right?" I hastily replied: "Lu... Lu..." Lu Junyi laughed and said: "Call me brother."

  I put one hand on his shoulder and looked back at the crowd, asking: "Where is my brother Lin Chong?"

  That apricot kernel-eyed beauty suddenly hugged me, using the tone of an older sister bullying a younger brother: "I knew it, they're so arrogant, looking down on us locals, huh——" She sandwiched me under her armpit and twisted my scalp with her fist, then tossed me aside after finishing one twist.

  My head is burning with pain, I dare not underestimate this woman again - she has me pinned down and I can't move. Seeing this beauty with her high chest and slender waist, a pair of beautiful apricot kernel eyes that exude a thousand kinds of majesty in speech and laughter, thinking of that unsatisfied guy Wang Ying crawling on top of her makes me itch severely - what a top-notch mature woman!

  At this time, a gentle man with a leopard head and ring eyes walked out of the crowd, pulled me up, and chuckled: "San Niang likes to play jokes on people, don't mind." I grabbed his shoulder and said with a sobbing voice: "Lin Gege, you must teach me Linjia Gun!"

  I say this because I know that Flute Maiden was killed by Lin Chong back then.

  "That guy who was waiting with me exclaimed: 'It's so alike, too alike, it's just like the real person has come back to life.'"

  Apart from these few people, I didn't have time to ask the others who they were. These good fellows carried their luggage, left the platform or chatted idly, and surprisingly no one paid attention to me again, as if I was a local guide they had hired with their money.

  Damn it, I didn't expect them to "kowtow" immediately, nor did I expect them to warmly hold my hand and call me "Little Qiang Gege" as soon as they saw me. But do you have to be so cold? Even the legendary passionate Li Kui doesn't even bother with me.

  Lu Junyi introduced a bespectacled elegant middle-aged man to me: "This is Brother Wu Yong."

  "Wu Yong, brother, how are you? What's your glasses' degree?"

  Wu Yong adjusted his glasses and said with a smile: "That comes to 1,500."

  At this time, a man with a layer of water vapor on his face was doing chest-expanding exercises and asked me: "You guys are not from the seaside, right?" Lu Junyi introduced to me: "The white strip in the wave is Zhang Shun, and the two behind him are Ruan Xia'er and Ruan Xiaowu."

  I've always admired people who can swim. You say humans are born and raised on land, how can they run into the water and splash around without dying?

  When I was in my teens, I spent a few days concentrating on practicing swimming with a big group of young hooligans at the inner lake near our place. Every day after playing, my belly would be bulging, and later although I was the only one who didn't learn how to swim, none of them could drink more beer than me.

  Look at Zhang Shun and Ruan Jia brothers, their skin is blue and green, almost catching up with amphibians. I guess they can't live without water, so they should go to the swimming pool to buy a monthly ticket.

  Please provide the text you want me to translate. I will return the translation in English language.

  From tomorrow on, two updates a day. Today's second update will be posted after midnight. Everyone can go to sleep after reading this chapter. Tomorrow, Xiaohua enters desperate mode.