Ning Jie extinguished his cigarette, grabbed his knees to stand up, and glanced toward the entrance of the alley. His face instantly darkened.
There she was—the woman who haunted his dreams—being grabbed tightly by the arm by a man wearing a cotton hat. One look at Lin Yuezhi's expression was enough to tell he was unwelcome.
Was that the fiancé?
Ning Jie had never actually laid eyes on the fellow, but whoever he was didn't matter. Having Lin Yuezhi still here mattered more than anything else.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, acting like a hoodlum in broad daylight?"
Ning Jie shouted angrily, rolling his wrists as he strode toward the alley entrance.
The man let go of Lin Yuezhi and turned around with a displeased look. "Who the fuck are you? Got nothing better to do than stick your nose in other people's business?"
Ignoring him entirely, Ning Jie looked straight at Lin Yuezhi. "Your boyfriend?"
Lin Yuezhi shook her head. For some reason, the way this man was looking at her gave her goosebumps all over.
It wasn't aversion. It gave her an odd illusion—as if this man had known her for a very long time. Moreover, the faint glint of tears in his striking eyes momentarily left her at a loss.
"Good enough."
The corners of Ning Jie's mouth ticked upward, and he suddenly broke into a run.
Before the other man could react, Ning Jie flew into the air and kicked him squarely in the chest.
The guy weighed over a hundred and forty pounds, but he flew two or three meters through the air like a sandbag, crashing heavily into a snowdrift.
Ning Jie stepped in front of Lin Yuezhi to shield her. Dazed for a moment, she stared at his broad back, and her face flushed burning hot.
*What a real man.*
Clutching his chest, the man stumbled stupidly out of the snowdrift, glared murderously at Ning Jie, and said through clenched teeth, "You've got guts! Don't you dare run!"
Ning Jie chuckled. Damn, it had been years since he last heard that line.
"Go on, call your people. Just don't call your old man—I don't feel like beating up an old geezer."
Lin Yuezhi let out a sudden snort of laughter. Crimson-faced, the man stared viciously at both Ning Jie and Lin Yuezhi, pointed a finger at Ning Jie, and cursed, "Fuck your mother! Whoever runs is a grandson!"
With that, the punk bolted into the neighboring alley.
With a worried look, Lin Yuezhi tugged at Ning Jie's sleeve. "You—you better run. All the young punks from the Forest Farm listen to him, you'll get beaten up."
Brawls and street fights were common enough these days. Short of killing someone, nobody bothered calling the police, and even if they did, it wouldn't do much good.
Besides, these guys were all broken into factions—the Forest Farm gang, the railway station gang, the pharmaceutical factory gang. They fought tooth and nail every single day, and nobody could keep up with them.
Looking at Lin Yuezhi's slightly flushed face, Ning Jie felt a sudden wave of dizziness.
Those large eyes, the high bridge of her nose, and the years they had once shared together spun through his mind like a reel of film.
If he had walked away back then, she must have been heartbroken.
Seeing the moisture in Ning Jie's eyes, Lin Yuezhi's heart skipped a beat. She swallowed hard and lowered her head, burning with embarrassment.
"Why—why are you staring at me like that? Run!"
Reaching out, Ning Jie tucked in the ends of Lin Yuezhi's woolen scarf and said softly, "Go on home. I'll be fine."
Turning her head away with a blush, Lin Yuezhi didn't dare meet Ning Jie's eyes. Strangely, she didn't feel a shred of aversion to such an intimate gesture; instead, her heart fluttered with a secret delight.
"I—I'll go call people for you too."
Ning Jie grabbed her arm. Lin Yuezhi struggled a little, her voice sounding like a kitten's: "What are you doing? Let go."
"Be a good girl and go home. I'm fine."
When he let go, Lin Yuezhi cast a fierce, blushing glare at Ning Jie, then scurried off toward home in a panic.
After she left, Ning Jie lit a cigarette and casually pulled a half-meter-long wooden stick out of a woodpile. A situation like this didn't call for a knife; they were just a bunch of punk kids he didn't take seriously at all.
He was halfway through his cigarette when the sound of hurried footsteps echoed. Looking out into the street, Ning Jie saw a sight to behold: eight or nine young men in their early twenties, all armed with mattock handles, led by the very punk he had just beaten up.
"That's him! Damn it, get him!"
Pointed out by the bruised punk, the group charged forward, brandishing their handles.
Ning Jie took a slight step back to dodge a swinging mattock handle, then drove his right knee upward in a ferocious thrust straight into the leader's chest.
With one down, the piece of firewood in Ning Jie's hand seemed to have eyes. Every time he swung it, another punk went down wailing.
The more he fought, the more exhilarated Ning Jie felt. Being young was great—his reflexes and strength were right where they needed to be.
Taking a blow from a mattock handle across his back, Ning Jie gritted his teeth and kicked away the punk directly in front of him. He spun around with a front kick, immediately followed by a strike with the firewood that cracked right against the guy's head.
"Ah, fuck me!"
Dropping his handle, the punk clutched his head and rolled on the ground. One against nine, and he had taken them all down with hardly any effort after absorbing a couple of blows.
The commotion had drawn a crowd. Plenty of people stood in their courtyards watching the spectacle—they had seen it all before. One day you beat me, the next day I beat you, just like fighting dogs.
Still, this kid was fierce today, taking down nine men all by himself.
When juniors fought, the older generation considered it beneath them to step in. That's how things were in the Northeast: win the fight and you'd get a scolding; lose, and you'd probably get another beating when you got home.
"Ah! I'll fight you..."
Brandishing a kitchen knife, Lin Yuezhi rushed out shouting, but the rest of the sentence died abruptly in her throat.
How long had it been? They were all lying down?
Were these guys really that useless? Nine against one and they couldn't win?
Ning Jie looked with amusement at Lin Yuezhi holding the kitchen knife. Lin Yuezhi felt so awkward she could practically scrape a hole through the thick ice on the Yalu River with her toes.
Red-faced, she hid the kitchen knife behind her back and feigned nonchalance. "Well, you see... I came out to find someone to sharpen my knife."
Instead of teasing her, Ning Jie tossed away the firewood, snatched the kitchen knife from her hand, and said, "A young lady like you shouldn't be waving knives and axes around all day."
Lin Yuezhi muttered under her breath, "It's not like I wanted to, I was just scared you'd get beaten up."
Not catching it, Ning Jie asked, "What did you say?"
"N—nothing." Flustered, Lin Yuezhi hurriedly changed the subject. "Um, want to come to my place for a drink of water?"
"Sure."
Ning Jie had been worrying about how to approach Lin Yuezhi. Sleepy and someone hands you a pillow—her fiancé delivered the target on a silver platter, and now his wife was extending a personal invitation. The rest should be easy.
Clenching his teeth, the bruised punk hauled himself up off the ground, pointed straight at Lin Yuezhi, and snapped, "Lin Yuezhi, if you take him home, I swear I won't let my mom pay for your mother's medical bills!"
Lin Yuezhi's face instantly went pale. She bit her lip as she looked at Ning Jie, completely at a loss for what to do.
Ning Jie frowned. *Well, well, so he really is the damn fiancé.*
"You're just a kid, and already running to bring your parents into it when you lose a fight?"
Ning Jie took a step toward him, and the fiancé stumbled back in a panic, tripping over a mattock handle and crashing ungracefully to the ground.
Ning Jie looked down at him with utter disdain. *That's it? What a joke.*
Seeing Lin Yuezhi on the verge of tears, Ning Jie felt a sharp, sudden pang in his chest. *Why on earth didn't this girl ever tell me she suffered through this in our past life?*
"Don't be afraid. I have money, I'll lend it to you."