Chapter 3: Calamity from Water

  Dinner was eaten outside.

  In Lanhe Town, there is a custom that whenever someone's child gets into high school, they will always hold a grand banquet to celebrate. This is because the town doesn't value education much, so it's rare for someone to get into high school, making it a big deal in the area. As for getting into university, that's an unprecedented historic event. The Ma family has always been low-key and dislikes showing off, so whether it was getting into high school or this time getting into a key university, they didn't hold a banquet.

  At home, they didn't put on a show. As Lanhe Wuhu, who was familiar with Ma Yu Xuan as a good friend, naturally wanted to invite Ma Yu Xuan out for a meal. With Zhang Junping's order, everyone immediately rushed out in their cars.

  Taihua Restaurant in the suburbs is a popular gathering place for people to dine together. The "Sour Bamboo Shoots Duck", "Stir-fried Stone Whelks", "Braised Pheasant" and "Spicy Chicken" are all famous far and near. On the glass door of the restaurant, four characters "Feng Jian You Ren" (meaning "frugality depends on oneself") are written. The consumption here is not high, with good quality and low price, people come in droves, smoking heavily, completely ignoring the no-smoking signs posted on the wall.

  "Boss! Bring us a farm chicken first, add more chili peppers, if it's not spicy enough, we won't pay!"

  The boss certainly recognized the famous Blue River Five Tigers, hastily handed out a round of cigarettes, and smiled apologetically: "Alright! You guys sit down for a bit, I'll have some fresh farm chicken brought up right away!"

  Watching his boss leave with a nod and a bow, Zhang Chaoliang couldn't resist teasing him a bit, saying with a hint of sarcasm: "Xiao Dong, wherever you go, your favorite thing to order is always chicken!"

  Chen Xiaodong pretended not to understand, took the opener and opened a beer, filled six cups to the brim, raised his glass and said: "Come on! Let's first toast to Xuanxuan, congratulating our Red Star Village genius on being admitted to Sun Yat-sen University!"

  Everyone raised their glasses and congratulated Ma Yuxuan on his success in the imperial examination.

  Ma Yuxuan was somewhat surprised and hastily stood up with his cup, busy saying thank you. Chen Xiaodong took the lead in drinking it all in one gulp, and said generously: "We are all brothers, let's not say polite words, everything is in the wine!"

  "It's all in the wine! Come on, let's see the bottom!" Zhang Junping also drank it all up.

  After three rounds of drinking, Zhang Junping put a handful of peanuts from the small plate into his mouth and crunched them loudly, with a puzzled expression saying: "I still can't figure it out to this day, we're all from the same village, why can Xuanxuan get into a key university, while we couldn't even finish junior high school?"

  Zhang Chaoliang hastily answered on behalf of him, "Doggie, you can't even get jealous! Xuanxuan is a genius, do you know what a genius is? A genius is someone who is born with talent. We read the same books, but Xuanxuan only needs to read it once to remember, while we need to read it ten or twenty times and still can't remember, that's the difference!"

  Chen Xiaodong recalled the scene when he first met Ma Yuxuan, smiling and saying: "I still remember the first time I entered Xuanxuan's home, seeing a wall full of certificates on the wall. At that time, my heart was unbalanced. Everyone is human, why does Xuanxuan have so many certificates, but I don't have one? To be honest, at that time, I really wanted to beat up Xuanxuan!"

  Zhang Jinhua didn't expect such an interesting interlude, and laughed saying: "Luckily you didn't hit him, if you had hurt the brain of our Red Star Village genius, I would have been the first to not let you off!"

  Zhang Junping smiled and said, "But what I admire most is Xuanxuan's self-control. It's said that those who are close to vermilion become red and those who are close to ink become black, but Xuanxuan spends all day with our group of rascals, yet his grades not only haven't declined, but have instead soared. Xuanxuan sleeps in class during the day and goes out with us at night to pick wild fruit and catch rabbits, and he still manages to get first place every time - it's truly amazing!"

  Ma Yuxuan also knew that the rumors were spreading like wildfire, and even he was being demonized. He smiled calmly and said: "There are priorities in learning, and specialties in skills. Everyone's talents are different, after all. I'm good at reading books, but when it comes to racing cars, I couldn't catch up with you guys even if I were to whip the horse. Everyone has their strengths. Speaking of which, I have to thank my brothers for showing me a lot over the years. Otherwise, I would be just a bookworm who only knows how to read books. Now, I position myself as 'half a university student, half a triad member', and I think that's pretty good."

  "Half a university student, half a hooligan! This positioning, I think it's okay!" Zhang Junping smiled slightly and then mysteriously said: "Hehe! Tonight we'll take you to Longdian to broaden your horizons!"

  The dishes were served quickly. Everyone was hungry and wolfed down the food, leaving nothing behind after a flurry of eating. After getting drunk and full, they finally paid the bill and left.

  It was already past eight o'clock, but the nightlife in N City had just begun. Under Zhang Junping's leadership, a group of people rushed to the new city KTV in downtown, where it was already crowded with people from all walks of life, and the atmosphere was chaotic and noisy. Fortunately, thanks to Zhang Junping's connections, everyone managed to find a private room at the packed New City KTV.

  As soon as they entered the private room, Zhang Junping immediately switched the sentimental song playing on the disc to a DJ dance track. The music suddenly increased by several dozen decibels, and the five of them made a ruckus, swaying left and right with the beat, their voices already drowned out by the volume.

  "Hurt can't get up, really can't get up, I think you think you think until the sky is dark and the earth is black..."

  Zhang Chaoliang took out a small bag of K powder from his pocket, poured it onto the fruit platter on the table, and then took out a bank card. He skillfully scraped the K powder into a series of regular stripes, pulled out a straw, put it to his nose, shook his head, and sucked hard. In an instant, he had sucked up one of the outermost stripes of K powder completely.

  "Not bad at all, hasn't expired, and the flavor is extremely authentic!" Zhang Chaoliang sucked it in and snorted a few times, thoroughly enjoying himself.

  Everyone was overjoyed when they heard this, and they all followed suit to suck on them. Zhang Junping even sucked on three in a row. After finishing, when listening to the energetic dance music again, he felt as if he was floating on air, like being in a dream, feeling as if he was going to soar into the sky with pleasure.

  Ma Yuxuan looked again, only to see that everyone else had their eyes closed, waving their hands and feet, shaking their heads and swaying from side to side, with a somewhat demonic and chaotic feeling. They were loud and boisterous, completely absorbed in the moment, oblivious to everything around them, including themselves.

  "This is the legendary Soke!" Ma Yu Xuan muttered to himself.

  Zhang Junping shook for a while, seemingly feeling that he still had some consciousness and thought it was not enough to get drunk. He moved to the fruit plate, quickly sucked two more, and smiled at Ma Yuxuan: "Xuan Xuan, you come have two too! It's great! I guarantee you'll be high in space!"

  In fact, the music was too loud and Ma Yuxuan couldn't hear Zhang Junping's words at all, but from his expression, he could roughly guess what he meant. Ma Yuxuan smiled slightly, politely shook his head, picked up a bottle of beer, and slowly savored it by himself. Although he followed Blue River Five Tigers to mix in the circle, he had his own bottom line for being a person and doing things. As someone who was about to become a university student, he clearly knew what could be done and what couldn't be done.

  Zhang Junping also didn't force himself, and jumped into the dance pool, hugging Chen Xiaodong and others, shaking his head and waving his hands, having a great time.

  A large private room, with only five people lost in thought and one person who is wide awake.

  Everyone had a great time, rocking to the point of dizziness, sometimes floating in mid-air and other times back on the ground. The intense excitement in their minds was impossible to put into words. During this time, Zhang Junping vomited twice, probably due to excessive drinking. Ma Yuxuan sat upright with a serious expression, fiddling with his phone, enthusiastically watching the Blue River Five Tigers in the dance pool. Before they knew it, it was already 2 am, and only when New City KTV closed did everyone reluctantly disperse.

  As they emerged onto the street, the cool night breeze blew and everyone gradually regained consciousness. Zhang Junping shook his head, leaned against a small tree by the side of the road, panting heavily: "It's so refreshing! I haven't felt this refreshed in ages!"

  "After shaking for several hours, I'm now both tired and hungry. Why don't we go get some midnight snacks?" Zhang Chaoliang was the most into it, swinging until his whole body ached, no wonder he felt exhausted."

  After the plan was set, everyone came to the big stall at the edge of Qingyun Bridge, ordered a few small dishes, and lay down lazily, one after another took out cigarette boxes, and another round of smoke and fog.

  The night had grown deeper, and the number of pedestrians on the street was decreasing. In a large restaurant, apart from a group of people, there were only two young men and women sitting at a neighboring table, their behavior was intimate, seemingly a couple. The girl was exceptionally beautiful, lovely and charming. The man's suit was straight, holding the latest iPhone 4S in his hand, next to which an Audi Q7 was parked, its grandeur evident at first glance, indicating that they were not ordinary people.

  In a small city like N City, driving a luxury car worth over 10 million, this young man is obviously either rich or noble.

  Chen Xiaodong and Ma Yuxuan sat side by side, following his gaze, clearly saw the girl's face, immediately understood, raised an eyebrow and smiled: "Hehe, Xuanxuan, took a liking to that little girl?"

  Ma Yuxuan knew he was an old hand in the flower circle, and his own little thoughts would definitely not be hidden from him. He smiled slightly and said: "There's nothing to look at or not look at, I just think that girl is pretty good, if I had to give her a score out of 10, I'd say she's around 6 points!"

  Although he deliberately lowered his voice, the girl seemed to have heard it and turned her head to stare at Ma Yu Xuan, her eyes wide with anger. Ma Yu Xuan saw that things were not going well, hastily shifted his gaze away, picked up his tea cup and drank noisily, using this to cover up the unease in his heart.

  Chen Xiaodong was not so honest, his eyes brazenly swept along the girl's slender and curvaceous body from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top, saying with a smirk: "Her looks are not bad, just a bit small-chested. Don't look at how high she is, actually there's sponge padding inside."

  Ma Yu Xuan was shocked and puzzled: "Really? You can see that too?"

  Zhang Jinhua chuckled and took over, saying: "Of course we can tell! Not to mention Xiaodong, who's an old hand at this sort of thing, even I can tell. Xuanxuan, you're still too young. As the saying goes, men in their teens like to look at a woman's face; men in their twenties like to look at her breasts; men in their thirties like to look at her butt. Kid, we may not be as good at studying as you are, but when it comes to playing with women, even if you practice for another ten years, you'll still have to admit defeat."

  Everyone burst out laughing together, instantly making the atmosphere even more lively.

  The daipaidong was originally small, with only a few meters between two tables. Zhang Jinhua's voice was loud and he spoke freely, so the young couple next to them could hear him even if they were deaf. The man suddenly became furious, his face turned red as he shouted: "A group of country bumpkins, poor devils! What are you looking at? You don't have money but still want to learn how to play with women like others do? Damn it, a toad wants to eat swan meat!"

  Zhang Jinhua is a man who has always been tyrannical and domineering. He wouldn't bother you if he didn't want to, so it's already a blessing for your family that he hasn't come after you yet. But now someone dares to provoke him on the street? How can this anger be swallowed? Suddenly standing up with great fury, coldly laughing: "You're just a nobody! I looked at your woman because I was giving you face, don't give me attitude if you don't want to lose face!"

  As he spoke, his right hand had already picked up the beer bottle on the table, took a big step forward and smashed it violently towards the Audi man's head.

  Wow!

  The beer bottle shattered with a loud crash, the man let out a dull hum, his head was smashed and blood splattered everywhere, he fell to the ground motionless. The whole thing happened too suddenly, the man obviously didn't expect Zhang Jinhua to be so quick to act, by the time he reacted, it was already too late.

  Zhang Chaoliang and Zhang Jinhua fought side by side for a long time, they had an understanding of each other's moves. Almost at the same time, they picked up their stools and gave the Audi man a severe beating as he fell to the ground and couldn't get up.

  That enchanting woman was frightened to the point of losing her composure, her slender body trembling with fear. She wanted to pick up her iPhone to call for help, but she couldn't even hold it steady. All that could be heard was a loud crash as the phone smashed to the ground, its screen shattering into pieces.

  Two men beat him violently, and soon the Audi man was beaten to the point where even his mother wouldn't recognize him. Zhang Jinhua still wasn't satisfied, so he picked up a bench and smashed it against the Audi Q7 parked by the road, shattering the glass. Only then did he spit on the ground, call out to the crowd, jump on his motorcycle, and speed away.