Chapter 12 – The Case of the Nude PhotographTL: Milaryn Edit: IlkonEbi

Beginning of the year 1995, Jianghai City, Xinhua District.

Xinhua District was Jianghai City’s oldest and most prosperous district, but when it came to urban planning, the government officials wanted to move the city’s center to the newer districts. However, it was not a battle won in one day.

People that had been living in Jianghai City for over five years liked to cherish the olden times. When it came to Xinhua District, the dirty main streets would always be busy and it was said to have the largest and oldest Shalankou food market in Jianghai City. It also had a flea market where one could resell old books, home appliances and furniture. On another street, different kinds of local foods and snacks that were Jianghai’s specialties were sold. Even though the large bridge that crossed the river was repaired, people would still frequently use the pontoon bridge^[1]. All this combined was the ‘Jianghai City’ that the citizens considered as most familiar to them.

The crowded streets had been expanded several times. They bustled with the sound of small traders selling and bargaining, sounds of demolition and renovation of the prime areas, as well as busy traffic. There were also bicycle traffic queues when it came to rush hours in the morning and after work. These were the main things that people would get a first impression of when in Xinhua District.

Of course, if one were familiar enough with the location, once they left the main commercial streets, they could see the old residents of the buildings in between the clothes hung up to dry. A quiet old lady sitting in a bamboo chair, the occasional ring of a bicycle bell, a small flower garden full of weeds and a young fig tree that could be seen once one climbed the wall – the distant sound of the hustle and bustle drifted over and one would feel that it was almost like a peaceful paradise.

Of course, in reality it was not that calm and quiet.

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Like every city, such an old and prosperous district would always inevitably coexist and breed things in the dark that could be considered as the city’s vermin. Prostitutes, drugs, firearms, gangs – if one looked at the police files, the crime rate was very high every year.

But, if someone was clean and upright, they could rest assured as they would find that they were oblivious to these things; at most, it would only become after-meal time gossip. Perhaps a young man who had just been shooting up downstairs would greet them familiarly as they passed; or a drug lord in possession of half a kilogram of heroin would, in their opinion, be a good neighbor who they could joke with every day. As to that young man who had just returned from hacking someone to death, he would seem to be a secondary school graduate busy looking for work… until one day, he inexplicably would go missing. When they chatted with other people about it, they would only casually respond with things such as, “Oh, he probably went to Hainan Island to do business.” or something along those lines.

The world was very complicated, but it was also very simple at the same time.

Starlight Secondary School was famous and had the highest graduation rate in Jianghai City. It was also located in this mixed environment of good people and scumbags of the old city district.

Evening time, at a dead-end somewhere near Starlight Secondary School.

“F*ck, sh*t! You’re done this time… Where else can you run…” Sunlight slowly disappeared from the alleyway entrance. Further along the tight alley, five 16-17 year old young men holding staffs had surrounded a 14-15 year old short-haired girl. The girl was holding a baseball bat, limping as she backed away towards the wall of the alleyway – her left leg seemingly seriously injured. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth as she glared at the five of them fiercely. If not for the swell of her chest, most people would have thought she was a handsome young man.

Of the five boys, one of them was a fatty wearing a Starlight school uniform. He spat out a mouthful of blood to the side and cursed at her as he drew nearer, “Liu Huaisha, weren’t you f*cking arrogant earlier? Why aren’t you arrogant now? Sh*t, you either do it yourself or we’ll do it… B*tch…”

“You fatass.” This young girl, Liu Huaisha, continued backing away while she retorted toughly, “If you have balls, fight me on your own!”

“Fight you on my own? Go to hell, isn’t your family part of some gang?” the fatty taunted her, “Keep backing away, let’s f*cking see how long you can keep doing that. I’m telling you, we’re prepared today, I even brought a camera. Today, we’re going to rip all your clothes off and take naked pictures of you. We’ll see how you can be arrogant after that…”

She had been driven into the dead-end of the alleyway and could only grit her teeth as she raised the baseball bat to make a last stand. At that moment, a black shadow appeared at the entrance of the alley.

A few people had passed by the alleyway earlier, but as this shadow still had not moved, it meant that it had purposely stopped and was watching them. When the fatty turned to look, he saw a young person of average height standing there. The fatty was in high school while this child only looked like a middle schooler, and after a few glances, he recognized who the shadow was.

“Oh, it’s only you, Gu Jiaming. What the f*ck do you want? Are you here to help your best friend?”

Ever since school started, this Liu Huaisha was infamous as she had already gotten into multiple fights. Even though the fatty was in the high school sector, he also knew that Liu Huaisha had two best friends – one was the pretty and good girl, Ye Lingjing, the other was Gu Jiaming who was extremely mediocre in every aspect.

Even looking at him now, there was actually nothing outstanding about him. His looks were ordinary and his height could not be compared with Liu Huaisha’s. He wandered into the alley with his school bag and loudly said things like, “You! You’re fighting with people again!” It was like he was ignoring the five other people that were there.

“Go to hell, get lost! I don’t need you here!” Liu Huaisha forced herself to stand up straight as she loudly shouted at him. A young man wielding a metal bat next to the fatty smirked and walked towards Jiaming in big strides, “Did you still wanna join? Come join us.”

“You jerks, if you dare touch him…” Liu Huaisha lifted her baseball bat and yelled at them as the fatty smiled tauntingly, “Touch him and what’s gonna happen? You think you’re in your dad’s Sha Zhu Gang territory right now? We’re in Xinhua District! Today we’re gonna get naked pictures of you…”

“Gu Jiaming you dumbass, hurry and run!”

Jiaming already noticed the boy with the metal bat who had headed towards him. He only shook his head and ran forwards, before Huaisha’s shout had finished, he had already savagely pushed a small trash cart that was against the wall and ran towards the group of boys.

The alley was not too narrow, but it also was not wide, so when the small cart was pushed down the alley, it was troublesome to avoid. The boy with the metal bat tried squeezing past the cart, but as it went by him, it dropped bags of trash which caused him to frantically try to avoid it. By the time the small cart had reached the fatty and the other four, there was nearly nothing left on it. Liu Huaisha leaped onto the cart while brandishing her baseball bat as Jiaming did a quick turn and rushed to push the cart to get out of the alley.

The boy with the metal bat clumsily charged towards them, but Liu Huaisha whacked him in the leg with her bat. Letting out a pitiful cry, he fell to the floor while the four behind them were catching up. Jiaming was still only a 13-14 year old kid, so it was difficult for him to push the cart with a person on it and keep an eye on the four behind him at the same time. The fatty, who was the closest, was just about to reach out and grab Jiaming’s school bag when they finally dashed out of the alley.

They sharply swerved around a corner.

Just as the small cart turned, it lost balance for a split second and Jiaming staggered. Originally his left hand had been pushing the cart but then he subconsciously raised it. The fatty who had been rushing up in high speed, planted his face directly onto Jiaming’s raised hand.

Because the fatty had been going too fast, he could not stop himself and slammed right into it. His body flew backwards into another boy behind him and the two of them crashed onto the ground.

The little cart sped away as quickly as possible as they they turned around a corner and another one and another one… They did not stop until they crossed a main road and reached Jianghai City’s sea embankment^[2]. At this point, Jiaming, who was huffing and puffing, squatted on the ground.

“They… they stopped chasing, right…”

“They didn’t, it’s just your escape was very impressive.”

Liu Huaisha took a look around and did not see any pursuers. She clapped him on the shoulder and chuckled. Ever since she knew Jiaming, the one thing that she really admired was his ability to escape.

At the same time, back at the alley, the fatty was still tangled up with the other boys. A blood vessel on his forehead pulsed as his eyes glittered and he glared angrily at the others. Blood continuously dripped down from his nose as he swore, “I… I… AM… GOING… TO… K-KILL HER…”

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“Are you mentally okay, why were you picking fights? They’re high schoolers you know?”

“Who told that fatty to be so arrogant, he wouldn’t let me play baseball and I got angry… Ow! Can you be gentler…”

“Wow, you actually know what pain is? Hope it hurts a lot!”

On a bench at the sea embankment, Jiaming had taken Liu Huaisha’s left shoe and sock off and pushed up her trouser leg. He treated her in a simple manner; he rubbed a salve on her leg and then massaged it in. She winced and slapped him on the shoulder when it hurt, but otherwise, she laid on the bench and nibbled on an apple. It was not the first time the boy had treated her like this.

“You’re not made of steel. Even though you’re using a bat, you can’t single-handedly take on four to five high schoolers. Your family is part of the underground, but so are theirs. If that trash cart didn’t happen to be there, I would have ran away on my own and just let them take pictures of you.”

When she thought about those fellows talk about taking nude photos of her, she hot-headedly thwacked Jiaming on the shoulder and grumbled, “I told you not to come over. The hell, you came over on your own… Hmph, even if photos did get taken of me… I don’t need you to care.”

“Stop moving!” Jiaming said indifferently as he pressed lightly on her wound. She winced and gritted her teeth in pain. Just as she lifted her hand to hit him, Jiaming shoved the bottle of salve into her raised hand and then deftly stole the apple from her other hand, “You have a cut on your mouth, why are you eating an apple? If you don’t want it to scar, put some ointment on it,” that being said, he took a large bite of the apple and finished it off.

“Hmph, tyrant!” Her wounded left leg was in his hands and she could only hold her temper back as she grudgingly smeared some salve on her face. Because she often got injured ever since she was young, she was skillful at applying the ointment. However, it could never compare to how Jiaming applied the medicine because even though it stung, the pain would disappear quickly after he dealt with it.

This must be because he was a professional at it…

Having thought that, she smiled and said, “Jiaming, you should be a doctor in the future. Mama Ye can teach you… Oh yeah, where’s Lingjing?”

“She’ll be here soon, we’ll wait here… As to being a doctor, that sounds like a good choice…” He continued massaging the ointment on her leg, appearing to deeply consider her words as he gazed off into the sunset with a somewhat silly expression. Seeing this, she only snickered at him and said, “I’m just joking.”

Not long after, an adorable girl with two braided pigtails, carrying a school bag, descended from the bridge. She ran up to the two of them and in no time at all, Lingjing and Jiaming both took one arm over their shoulders and hoisted Huaisha up. The three of them then slowly shuffled in the direction of their homes under the warm light of the setting sun.

[1] A floating bridge – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontoon_bridge for reference.

[2] Embankment / levee is an artificial wall that regulates water levels – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee for reference.