Chapter 229: Over a Hundred People

Hearing her daughter’s invitation, He Shiqin pressed her lips together in a smile and glanced at Wu Chen to gauge his reaction.

She did hope her daughter would grow closer to her teacher. And there was a little pride in it too, the pride of a mother whose girl had so many talents.

“Skateboarding?” Wu Chen murmured with a smile. He lifted his wrist and checked his watch, as though weighing whether he had the time.

“Teacher, come on, come on…” Afraid he would refuse, He Xinxin came straight over and tugged his arm. “Come on, Teacher, it’s not far at all, it’s really close. I’m really good at it…”

There was a hint of a child’s wheedling in the way she pulled at him.

“Xinxin, what do you think you’re doing? Where are your manners?” He Shiqin chided.

She was not angry. She was only afraid Wu Chen might take offense.

“Mom, what did I even do? You’re scolding me again.” He Xinxin pouted at her mother, but she did let go of Wu Chen’s arm. Then she tried again. “Teacher, will you come? It really is close by. Just watch for a little while. I’m really good…”

“All right. I’ll come take a look.” Wu Chen agreed with the air of a man who had no choice.

In truth, he was not the least bit reluctant.

The moment He Xinxin started behaving like this, he knew something was afoot. He understood her far too well. After he had provoked her so badly and still held that recording over her, there was no chance she had simply turned obedient.

Wu Chen also knew precisely what friends He Xinxin had, and exactly what sort of people they were.

“Teacher Wu, if you have things to do, please go ahead. Xinxin’s just fooling around…” He Shiqin said.

“I don’t have anything pressing.” Wu Chen smiled at her and rose to his feet.

Seeing that Wu Chen was willing to go along with Xinxin made He Shiqin happy as well. She wanted her daughter on good terms with her teacher. The better the relationship, the more he could teach her.

They set out.

Wu Chen followed He Xinxin out the door, her backpack on her shoulders and her skateboard in one hand. He Shiqin saw them as far as the doorway before finally stopping there.

In the elevator on the way down—

“Teacher Wu, have you ever tried skateboarding?” He Xinxin asked, turning and tilting her face up at him.

She was only a little over one and a half meters tall, more than a head shorter than he was.

“I have.” Wu Chen looked down at her and smiled.

He really had. During the thousand-year loop. Skateboarding was the forefather of all extreme sports, and he had played at it and trained at it from every angle imaginable.

“You have? Really?” He Xinxin pressed.

She had asked the question herself, yet when he said yes, she still looked doubtful. That was because she had only asked to fill the silence, making conversation for the sake of it.

She wanted his guard down.

“Why would I lie to you?” Wu Chen laughed.

“Then… are you any good?”

“Good enough.”

They kept talking as they went down, and soon they were out of the complex.

“It’s over that way.” He Xinxin pointed, and the two of them followed the sidewalk east.

It really was close. A little over a hundred meters brought them to a large T-intersection, and across it lay Dongpu District’s New Century Park.

They crossed the road and entered through West Gate No. 2.

He Xinxin led Wu Chen along the paths inside, cutting inward by the shortest route.

A few minutes later, she brought him to a separately planned area on the park’s south side: the extreme sports area.

The park was enormous, so it had been carved into many zones. There were broad plazas, fountains and landscaped flowerbeds, basketball and badminton courts, an artificial lake, small bridges, public fitness stations, and more.

It was not yet four in the afternoon.

Visitors were plentiful throughout New Century Park, but there were few people over at the extreme sports area. Only a minority of people were into these sports, after all.

One side of the vast grounds held ramps, stairs, grind rails, and a U-shaped half-pipe.

The other side was a small plaza.

When Wu Chen and He Xinxin arrived, only a dozen or so people were using the whole area. There would likely be more later. It was midsummer, and the daytime heat was fierce, the sun harsh. Only as evening drew near did it begin to cool.

“Xinxin’s here.”

“Xinxin!”

The moment she appeared, people started calling out to her. They were all boys and girls in their teens, the oldest no more than sixteen or seventeen, and every one of them seemed to know her well.

He Xinxin waved back.

“Teacher, have a look around first. I’m going over there to put on my gear.” She said it quickly and hurried toward the steps at the edge of the small plaza, where she sat down and began strapping on her pads.

“Xinxin, is that him? He’s actually pretty handsome.”

A girl of sixteen or seventeen, hair dyed blond and her face made up, rode her skateboard over to the steps, swung around, and dropped down right beside He Xinxin. She tilted her head and asked in a low voice, her eyes sizing Wu Chen up.

Wu Chen had noticed her the moment he arrived.

He also knew exactly who she was.

Tang Shanshan, seventeen, a second-year senior-high student at the Affiliated Middle School of Modu University, and the undisputed “big sister” of the school. Pretty, unremarkable grades, and a rich second-generation kid.

He Xinxin currently attended the junior-high division of the same school.

The whole school knew Tang Shanshan was “her big sister.” In fact the two shared no relation of any kind, but He Xinxin was under Tang Shanshan’s wing, and nobody at school dared mess with her.

Much of Tang Shanshan’s standing at school came from her boyfriend. He had graduated from senior high that year and was about to start university, yet the name “Brother Daqi” was known not only in every school around, but outside the school circles as well.

“Yeah, that’s him…” He Xinxin whispered, then asked, “Sister Shanshan, is Brother Daqi coming?”

“Of course. I told him. The second he heard someone dared bully our Xinxin, he lost his temper.” Tang Shanshan kept her voice low. “He’s bringing people. He’ll be here soon. We just have to wait a bit.”

The two of them whispered together a while longer.

Once her gear was on, He Xinxin stepped onto her board and rolled first over to Wu Chen. “Teacher, want to try it?” she asked with a smile, nudging the board toward his feet.

Wu Chen shook his head.

“Didn’t you say you knew how? Were you just bragging?” He Xinxin teased.

“Dress slacks. Not convenient.” Wu Chen smiled. “Go on. I’ll watch.”

“Then I’m off…”

She did not press him. She pushed off and rolled away.

For the next ten-odd minutes she attempted nothing difficult, just skated back and forth across the small plaza, running through a few basic moves. Now and then she rolled close to Wu Chen to show off some elementary trick.

In truth, she was afraid he might suddenly leave.

He had watched her, hadn’t he? What if he simply went?

She had to stretch it out.

Soon it was past four, and evening began to draw in.

VROOOM—

The roar of engines erupted inside the park. Very close.

Wu Chen turned his head.

On the pedestrian path, a red Ferrari came out from beside the grove, ran straight along the path, and rolled directly onto the small plaza.

It was not alone. There were more than a dozen cars.

The lead car was a red Ferrari LaFerrari. Behind it, nothing but sports cars: Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Porsches, Audi R8s. Every one of them a supercar. Even the cheapest of the lot had to cost one or two million yuan.

It had the exact feel of a rich kids’ supercar meet.

More than a dozen cars fanned out across half the plaza. A few swung their tails and spun their tires, kicking up wisps of blue smoke.

Arrogant did not begin to cover it.

And once the cars stopped, people began appearing from every direction around the grounds: from beside the trees, from the mouths of the smaller paths, from the pedestrian entrance the cars had just come through.

A great many people.

All of them young. Many looked like high-school students, but plenty looked like young street types, with hair dyed every color imaginable—white, yellow, and more—some with earrings, some with tattoos.

At a glance there might have been over a hundred.

And a great many of them carried baseball bats.

People climbed out of every sports car too, men and women, eighteen or nineteen or in their early twenties.

The one who got out of the red Ferrari was a very tall, very thin young man with an earring. His features were ordinary, but his presence was considerable. The unmistakable air of a spoiled rich kid.

Tang Shanshan rode her board over to the red Ferrari and stopped beside it. She tilted her head to murmur into the young man’s ear, then raised a hand and pointed at Wu Chen.

And with that gesture—

In that moment, nearly every eye turned toward the man in the suit standing there with one hand in his pocket.

A hundred and more of them began converging on Wu Chen at once.