Yong’an Community was built along the river; its layout was long and narrow, bisected by a tributary—on a map, it looked just like a plump peanut.
The North District was home to various small-business owners and wage earners; the community clinic and schools were located there, and public safety was significantly better.
“The South District is a real den of vice—the streets are lined with shops sporting red lanterns,” Sun Mingzhu said, winking at Lin Zhixia. “My grandma never lets me go to the South District after dark. Kids from our North District don’t really mix with the ones from the South; the boys from the two sides are always getting into fights. You don’t fight, do you?”
Sun Mingzhu sized up Lin Zhixia’s fair, smooth skin and slender frame, realizing she had asked a silly question.
Lin Zhixia blinked his large, dark eyes lazily and said, “I know how to use a slingshot.”
Only little kids use slingshots.
Sun Mingzhu felt a twinge of disdain, though she reasoned that a handsome boy like him didn’t need to fight anyway.
Lin Zhixia was at that age where his gender was ambiguous: a delicate, pointed chin, a slightly upturned nose, rosy lips, and a pair of pitch-black, cat-like eyes. A recent growth spurt had made him exceptionally thin, giving him a long, slender neck.
Children who excelled at their studies often possessed a unique aura. Lin Zhixia wasn’t aloof, yet there was a certain nonchalance in his expression that made people want to steal a second glance at him.
Sun Mingzhu led Lin Zhixia through the winding alleys—feeling as though she were parading in a new dress—and garnered attention and envy all along the way. The young girl’s vanity was thoroughly satisfied.
“Mingzhu, is this your classmate? He’s such a handsome boy.”
“This is my new neighbor, Lin Zhixia. He goes to No. 9 Middle School!”
“Oh my, a top student!”
The proprietress of the ‘Palace Cake Shop’ handed the two children a cream cake that had been rejected for sale due to its imperfect appearance.
Lin Zhixia took a bite, licked his lips, and happily narrowed his eyes—looking even more like a cat than ever.
“Lin Zhixia, how did you get that name?” Sun Mingzhu asked. “I was born at the start of summer, in June,” Lin Zhixia said. “When my mother gave birth to me, birds were chirping incessantly in the trees outside the window, as if announcing the good news. Later, while looking through a book of poetry for a name, she came across the line, ‘Lingering orioles mark the season’s turn to summer; spring rains herald a bountiful harvest.'[1]“残莺知夏浅，社雨报年登” comes from the poem 《假中对雨呈县中僚友》 by the Tang Dynasty poet, 韦应物 (Wéi Yìngwù / Wei Yingwu). This poem is recorded in … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3405987_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3405987_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); That’s how she chose the name Zhixia—’Knowing Summer’.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” Sun Mingzhu said enviously. “Your parents are so well-educated. My mom can’t even read all the news headlines on TV.”
“Mingzhu!” A group of kids came running from across the alley. “Brother Chai’s men and Zhang Xiaotian’s guys are meeting at the river mouth for a fight. Word is, one of Zhang Xiaotian’s guys hit on the girlfriend of one of Brother Chai’s men. Want to go watch?”
“Hey!” Sun Mingzhu sprang to her feet, her pigtails swinging excitedly. “Let’s go! Why wouldn’t we? Xiao Xia, hurry up and follow us!”
The children swarmed toward the row of buildings lining the street and ducked into a stairwell.
With a quick dart of his dark eyes, Lin Zhixia popped the rest of the cake into his mouth, wiped his hand on his T-shirt, and followed after Sun Mingzhu and the others.
The children climbed all the way to the top floor and pushed open the door to the rooftop.
On this summer evening, the golden-purple sunset cast its light impartially across the entire Feng city, making the high-rises on the opposite bank glitter while bathing the crumbling brick and tile of the old district in a warm glow.
Here lay a world vastly different from the one below.
A dense expanse of houses stretched out—buildings and rooftops huddled close together. Makeshift sheds and passageways connected the structures on either side of the alley, creating an interconnected rooftop world that was easy to navigate.
Like a troop of monkeys descending a mountain, the children ran and leaped between the buildings with agility and ease, jumping from one rooftop to another and weaving through sheets and duvet covers warmed by the sun.
Though Lin Zhixia looked slender and frail, he could run just as well as the local kids. Unfamiliar with the terrain, he brought up the rear, yet he never fell behind. The widest gap was nearly two meters across—not a distance a young boy could easily leap over.
Lin Zhixia stood at the edge of the roof, looking down.
From three stories up, the unlit alleyway at dusk looked like a bottomless chasm.
“Haha, he can’t make it across!” a kid on the other side giggled.
“Xiao Xia, don’t push yourself,” Sun Mingzhu shouted. “Just go downstairs and come around the long way. We’ll wait for you.”
Lin Zhixia grabbed the collar of his T-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, then stepped back to the far side of the rooftop.
Determination hardened his youthful features; he arched his brows, and a stubborn glint shone in his cat-like eyes.
Lin Zhixia sprinted forward, kicked off the roof’s edge, and launched himself into the air.
His oversized white T-shirt billowed out as his slender, supple body extended; like an agile white cat, the young boy cleared the daunting gap and landed on the opposite side.
He touched down on the facing roof and immediately rolled to steady himself.
The other children erupted in wild cheers.
“Not bad, Lin Zhixia!” Sun Mingzhu said, pulling him to his feet. “I had no idea you had moves like that. We can let you hang out with us from now on!”
Lin Zhixia had scraped his elbow against the ground, breaking the skin and drawing a few beads of blood.
He wiped it with his T-shirt and smiled, completely unbothered.
The group of children cut diagonally across most of the North District, and soon, the shimmering waters of the Jinhe River came into view.
At the mouth of the Jinhe River lay a triangular open space—a cultural plaza for the Yong’an Community and a legendary battleground where the youths of the North and South Districts settled their scores.
The children claimed a prime spot on a rooftop overlooking the plaza, settling in to watch the clash of titans from above.
Sun Mingzhu acted as the commentator, explaining the situation to Lin Zhixia—identifying which side belonged to Brother Chai and which to Zhang Xiaotian—recalling the details more clearly than the contents of her own school textbooks. Before moving into the city, Lin Zhixia had lived in the peri-urban area north of Feng City; she had seen so many group brawls that the sight held no novelty for her.
The fights in Yong’an were nothing special either—just two groups of young men swarming each other, punching noses and kicking bellies with completely undisciplined, flailing blows.
Lin Zhixia even saw someone biting an opponent’s ear—hadn’t the guy eaten enough?
If there was any difference, it was that the fighters were all unarmed, making the brawl surprisingly civilized. He wondered if that was just the local rule for city fights.
Sun Mingzhu explained, “The boss of the South District decreed that no weapons are allowed in Yong’an—no knives, clubs, or bricks—because things get too hard to clean up if it gets out of hand. So, don’t let their ferocity fool you; usually, nobody ends up seriously hurt…”
Just as she said this, a young man’s actions contradicted her commentary.
He suddenly snatched a brick—the kind used to prop up flowerpots—from a nearby planter and slammed it onto his opponent’s head.
The opponent’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
That single brick-strike completely turned the tide of the battle.
Zhang Xiaotian’s crew dragged their injured comrade to safety while launching a furious counterattack, relentlessly pursuing and pummeling Brother Chai’s men.
Seeing the situation go south, the leader of Brother Chai’s group shielded the brick-wielder behind him and began a fighting retreat.
“The guy who threw the brick is the brother-in-law of Brother Chai’s second-in-command,” Sun Mingzhu sneered. “By the rules, he’s supposed to be handed over for Zhang Xiaotian’s side to deal with.”
Brother Chai’s side clearly had no intention of handing him over.
Just as the standoff reached an impasse, a figure from Zhang Xiaotian’s side charged forward, shooting into the crowd like an arrow.
Wherever he passed, people were sent sprawling, and a chorus of shouts and screams erupted.
Before Lin Zhixia and the others could get a clear look, the figure had already retreated from the crowd.
It was a lean youth dressed in black—tall and gaunt with exceptionally long limbs; from a distance, he looked like a stick figure.
In one hand, the youth gripped a steel pipe; with the other, he was dragging the ‘brother-in-la’” along with savage force, looking for all the world like a wolf that had just caught its prey. Yet, this adolescent boy—barely more than a youth—commanded a five-meter radius around himself that no one dared to breach.
In full view of the crowd, the boy in black dragged a young man—who stood a head taller than him—to the riverbank. He then sprang into the air, planted a foot on the man’s chest, and executed a spinning 180-degree kick, slamming the instep of his foot right into the man’s face.
The young man didn’t even have time to cry out before he was kicked straight into the Jinhe River!
Although called a river, the Jinhe was little more than a foul-smelling drainage ditch during the dry season. Now, in the rainy season, murky torrents were surging toward the main river.
The young man thrashed wildly in the muddy sludge, wailing for his parents. Brother Chai’s men scrambled to find a way to rescue him.
Meanwhile, the boy simply stood on the bank, exuding an air of aloof detachment.
Lin Zhixia was slightly nearsighted; standing far away and backlit by the sun, the boy was little more than a silhouette to her. He could only make out a pair of thick, dark, sword-like brows and deep-set eyes, though his skin appeared remarkably fair.
“Holy crap!” Sun Mingzhu whispered. “He’s got a death wish!”
Her exclamation voiced exactly what the children on the rooftop were thinking.
The boy in black bent down to pick up a steel pipe, then suddenly turned his head to look toward the rooftop.
The children recoiled in unison, as if scorched by fire.
“Quick, let’s go!” Sun Mingzhu tugged at Lin Zhixia. “Sheng Lang is acting crazy again. We can’t let him notice us!”
In the ensuing panic, Lin Zhixia caught only a fleeting glimpse of a hazy emerald green before he was dragged away in a daze.
References[+]