第十四章 桃园结义 (Chapter Fourteen: The Oath of the Peach Garden)

After Tianci entered higher primary school, just a summer vacation had passed, but his standing was much higher now. He could simply ignore those little kids in lower primary school. He knew everything about the school. He was on equal footing with those who owned watches. The teacher, though an old acquaintance, told them at the first class: "You're upper primary students now. Don't make the teacher worry anymore. You must know how to behave yourselves." Hearing this, Tianci took a good look at himself-he had indeed grown taller, and he was wearing leather shoes! He must learn to conduct himself with self-respect. Besides, this teacher was kind to everyone; he could see merit in each student, and he said that Tianci was thoughtful. That made Tianci blush and his feet feel light. He decided to study hard. When it was his turn to recite, he made full use of his imagination and fancy terms. Though they were neither correct nor useful, both the teacher and classmates acknowledged his eloquence and ideas. He often borrowed storybooks from the library, became the class's storytelling king, and thus made several friends.

But these friends were real friends-they shared food and drink, visited each other's homes, and had sworn brotherhood by the picture of the "Oath of the Peach Garden". There were five of them, with Tianci as the third. He loved being called "Third Brother" and imagined himself as Zhang Fei. Big Brother's father served in the county yamen. Tianci went to pay his respects to Big Brother and saw that an official's household wasn't at all what his mother had described. Big Brother's home was dirty and messy, so much so that he couldn't figure out how Big Brother's uniform always stayed so white. Big Brother's mother smoked cigarettes all day, played mahjong for small stakes, and the floor was covered in melon seed shells. Tianci didn't like dirt and disorder, but he didn't dare deny the legitimacy of that life, because after all, Big Brother's mother was an official's wife, and Big Brother himself would become an official one day. At any rate, the sworn brothers were close and told each other about their families. Big Brother's father got plenty of "extra money", so his mother had money to gamble. Second Brother's father was the manager of a pawnshop, so Second Brother always smelled of camphor. Tianci had to tell them about his own family too. He started asking his mother: how many businesses did Father have, how many houses, how much money. He doubled everything his mother said: Father had a dozen shops, a dozen houses, more money than could be counted. He imagined that he and Father had counted money for a whole day and night, even Sihu helping, and they still couldn't finish! He told the brothers that, though he knew it wasn't entirely honest, yet it felt oddly pleasant. He had "bluffed" the brothers. Naturally, they didn't fall behind. The richer his father, the more impressive their fathers became. Big Brother's father even won over a thousand dollars in one night! By then, everyone's imagination was fixed on money, and they wanted to show it off. Big Brother treated everyone to candy today; tomorrow, Second Brother eagerly promised to treat everyone to wafers-five pieces each!

But within two months, everyone began to find this annoying. Big Brother somehow took a strong dislike to Second Brother. Just then, Second Brother told Fourth Brother: "Don't you dare tell anyone! Yesterday, Big Brother's mother pawned a watch at our shop, and it wasn't even a good one! Don't you tell!" Fourth Brother meant to keep it secret, but his heart itched, so he told Big Brother. Big Brother and Second Brother came to blows, dragging up all the past treats they'd given each other: "Who the hell ate whose gum?" "Yeah! And who the hell used whose craft paper?" Tianci couldn't stand it and wanted to mediate, but both older brothers found him even more irritating: "What's it to you? bowlegs!" So the five brothers all "called it quits", spat on their palms and said, "We're through!" - "Through?" "That's right! Whoever talks to the other is a grandson!"

After the five brothers broke up, they began to form and break alliances to oppose each other. Some teachers manipulated behind the scenes, getting certain students to unite with the teacher as the leader. When parents heard whom their sons had broken with or joined, they also wanted a say: "Don't be friends with Shen Ding. His family sells rice, and we sell rice too. It's a family feud! Hear me?" In this rivalry, Tianci fully used his imagination: allying with whom could defeat whom. He came up with vicious schemes based on formations like the "Wooden Sheep Array", thinking about how to use tipping boards and hidden arrows, where to set traps, and how to sneak through the wilderness at night to gather intelligence. He thought of far more than he actually did, but he felt he had done quite a bit; sometimes thinking it was the same as doing. When he imagined spying on who had formed a new alliance with whom, he would make up a report: He and so-and-so had planted a bomb on the playground, or he had invited so-and-so to set up the Heavenly Gate Formation. This scared him, but he would tell others from beginning to end, making the class atmosphere tense all the time, and the teacher scolded him for "talking nonsense!" He also learned to assess people's worth: There were a few classmates who were always down on their luck, like ghosts forever trailing behind others. They had nothing to say, and if they said something, nobody listened. They were always the "underlings" because their fathers were not impressive. Whose father had less money, that one had to step back. In Tianci's imagination, he never set up formations or ambushes for them.

But before long, he changed his mind again. He read "Cases of Judge Shi" on his own, not just from what Sihu told him. He learned to "eliminate the wicked and help the good, act as a chivalrous knight". This stirred his imagination even more. A rich guy who chooses to help the poor-that's a kind heart. But a kind heart is far less exciting than martial arts: a saber, a dart on a rope, flying legs! A man with those skills could kill anyone he thought was bad and write a poem on the wall in blood! He found the class's shifting alliances boring. Killing a few, or at least slicing off a few noses, would be worthwhile. But he had little hope. His legs could never become flying legs! Nanny Ji had already branded him: "You're like a woodpecker-strong beak, weak body!" The school had martial arts class, but he could only do taiji, waving his hands in circles. A flying kick or a split-no way. The martial arts teacher said he had once been a bodyguard, with a single saber, traveling all over, and had fought with the "Southern Tyrant". The "Southern Tyrant" chopped at him, he dodged, and with a left kick, sent the saber flying! The teacher could really act as a chivalrous knight-look at those legs! Tianci could only console himself in his imagination. He thought of using soft skill, taiji, to act as a knight: when meeting a bully who chopped down with a saber, he would draw a circle with his right hand, shift his weight back, the saber would miss, then he would lean forward, using the bully's own force, and silently press him into a corner, unable to move. Yes, taiji might work. His legs were slow, but he was soft! He worked out several sets of moves and was eager to try them out. It would be best to try them on Eight-Edge Head, who was naturally weak. He drew a circle with his right hand, and Eight-Edge Head slapped him on the left cheek. Tianci pretended to laugh, still shifting weight back: "You hit me? I wasn't ready. If I had been, you couldn't even touch a hair on me!" He said this, but in his heart he was already scared. He didn't dare think about taiji anymore, and obediently went back to the classroom.