“Ten Kings Riding Horses.” Su Wan placed the black stone down and looked at Li Zu with satisfaction. “How about that? Quite imposing, right?” In the evening study classroom, the reference books on the desk were pushed to the floor, and a slightly smaller Go board was set up. The black stones had already gained an absolute advantage on the board; with just a few more moves, there would be no need to continue the game.

Across the board, Li Zu tilted his head and glanced out at the corridor, where the homeroom teacher was still chatting with his father. He pinched the bridge of his nose and casually made a move on the board.

“Can you show a bit of professional ethics and play properly?” Su Wan turned his face towards him. “It’s no use looking now. I’ll tell you, what you did is going to cost you dearly. Why are you so scared now? Why didn’t you do something earlier?”

Li Zu noticed his father glancing over at him while talking, and he immediately shrank back, a strong sense of foreboding growing in his heart.

“Are you going to play or not?” Su Wan asked impatiently.

Li Zu sighed and shook his head. “Find someone else; I think I need to leave.”

“Hey, leaving now is even worse,” Su Wan said.

“You don’t understand my dad. Look at our homeroom teacher.” He pointed to the homeroom teacher, a young woman with an attractive figure, clearly someone who had just graduated from university and started teaching at the middle school. “She’s a beauty, and my dad can’t resist in front of a woman like that. To maintain his male charm, he’ll definitely blow up in public and take it out on me.”

“Then running away isn’t a solution either.”

“My dad is over fifty. He doesn’t have the energy to stay angry for long. I’ll wait until he cools down. A little alcohol and he won’t care anymore.” Li Zu slung his backpack over his shoulder. “How much money do you have on you? Just give it all to me as interest.”

“Forget it, consider it a brotherly support.” Su Wan took out a few red bills. His family was relatively well-off, so he didn’t care much about money. It was said that Su Wan had over ten thousand yuan available on his card. Li Zu had never seen that much money in his life. Even a few hundred yuan was an extravagant amount for him.

Even though he knew Su Wan was rich, Li Zu still felt a bit touched. He glanced at the corridor; it seemed his dad and the homeroom teacher were wrapping up their conversation. He fist-bumped Su Wan and then crouched down to slip out the back door.

The back door led straight to the stairs, and he dashed around the corner with lightning speed.

The classroom was on the second floor. Once he got down the stairs, he hopped on his bicycle and rode towards the school gate. The moment his head left the bike shed, he thought he heard his father’s furious roar coming from upstairs.

Under the streetlights, Li Zu laughed as he rode, not out of joy for escaping a crisis, but imagining the expression on his homeroom teacher’s face when she saw his dad like that.

There definitely wouldn’t be a next time.

He knew deep down that his father’s angry outbursts were terrifying. After seeing it once, previous homeroom teachers would never dare to call in parents again. From now on, he would be safe in school, no matter what he did.

That morning, when he went to play football, he borrowed a dozen balls and intentionally kicked them into the girls’ dormitory. He kicked the ball over a dozen times, knocking all the clothes hanging outside down to the ground, which infuriated the dorm supervisor, who then brought a group of girls to tie him up and send him to the homeroom teacher.

The class teacher had just started a month ago, and naturally, he had to make an example of someone. However, Li Cu hoped that this teacher would stay a little longer; after all, he wasn’t a bad person, so when he did something wrong, he felt an extra burden.

He suddenly remembered how Zhang Weiwei had been angry at him in the dormitory that morning, wearing a white tank top, her slender, fair arms waving. He sighed to himself; after all, he and she could never be together, so it didn’t matter if she disliked him.

Li Cu’s parents had divorced six months ago, and he didn’t have the same kind of emotional turmoil that other kids might have. In a household where there were daily arguments and things being smashed, where both parents revealed their ugliest sides, the separation felt like a great relief. He had once fantasized about the possibility of his parents reconciling, but eventually, he grew tired of that thought and just wanted it all to be over.

He had no understanding of the reasons behind their divorce. His father was an alcoholic with a bad temper, while his mother was rarely home. Both were equally to blame, but he didn’t care. After the divorce, he was placed with his father, a civil servant, while his mother moved to another city. His father was often busy with social engagements and barely paid attention to him, but Li Cu found that life was even better that way.

When did he start to feel that living alone wasn’t so bad? Perhaps it was because of Zhang Weiwei. The first time he saw her, he knew they were the same kind of person, but unfortunately, they weren’t in the same class, and their interactions were too few. Even during morning exercises, they were separated by several rows.