Chương 9: 09 - The Evils of Kaishi High

"That piece of ***, he acts like he's better than us just because he's at Gaoshou High School," Fatty Fang complained to the group of boys.

"Just ignore that ***, not worth our time," Bufu said as he typing on his Ephone 4.

The group of them was in detention again.

"If those jerks dare to cross into our territory again, I'll make sure they cry next time!" Said Ju De.

Hu Ersan looked at Ju De's small frame.

"Try not to get beaten up next time," said Ersan, although he wondered if that was good advice to give to someone with a slight masochist tendency.

Ersan walked leisurely toward the imposing figure of Fatty Fang, and sat across from Fatty Fang.

"Boss Fang, it doesn't seem like Gaoshou High will give up soon. Should we strike first with their vice boss out?"

"Nah, Gaoshou High is just a small outlying area," said Fatty Fang after cooling down a bit. He enjoyed a good fight, but he didn't make it his mission to stir trouble. "Besides, I have a competition I need to prepare for."

"All right Boss, I'll let the others know to take a break, but still be on the lookout for any miscreants."

"In the meanwhile, let's cheer for Boss Fang making it to the Yide City tournament!" Ju De said while pounding on the desk.

Everyone started to rile up and soon, the classroom turned rowdy. In the rear corner, a tall boy, with his legs resting on the chair in front of him, ignored their tirade and focused on inking three straight lines. The strokes were even and concise, as though it was printed by a machine.

Li Yun's eyes roamed over the bottom edge of the paper scroll and clicked his tongue in irritation when he saw blood. He had used the scroll in the fight, but drawing blood wasn't his intention. The Gaoshou High School's 2nd in command, Deng Sheng, had a mask on so he couldn't see that the guy had a bad tooth.

He gritted his teeth, and continued drawing the diagram from the I, Ching. He was almost there, just a few more strokes left, he reminded himself.

The other students started throwing paper balls at each other. Within minutes, the classroom was littered with crumpled papers.

"You punks! This is detention, not a playground!" The detention monitor scolded them as soon as he walked in.

Fatty Fang and Bufu both shrugged, they never thought of detention as anything more than another hangout spot.

"Lao Bin, it's just paper, not mud, whatcha angry about?" asked Fatty Fang.

Bam!

Wu Bin angrily slammed the desk with a ruler. "You have 30 seconds to clean up. Otherwise, this will all go into your record!"

The delinquents quickly scrounged around to pick up their mess, except for Li Yun, who was still focused on finishing the I, Ching. Wu Bin glared at him as he strode toward the rear corner like a panther seeking a prey.

"Li Yun, you brat, the kid you beat up is still missing his tooth," said Wu Bin. "You better hope his parents don't call the police to press charges."

"Lao Bin, they are not going to contact the police," Li Yun replied.

Li Yun and his gang had beaten up a lot of people before, but none of them had ever caused him any difficulties afterward. Most of the time, it was the other gangs who had initiated the conflict.

In the few instances where they had encountered kids from affluent families, they had Ning Xuxu's assistance. As a favor for protecting her little brother, she had used her family's influence to prevent the more powerful families from coming after them. Even without Ning Xuxu's help, the delinquents, led by the Evils of Kaishi High, were already known as people to avoid.

*****

At the beginning of the senior school year, three hoodlums were stalking Li Yun and Bufu as they were leaving an internet cafe. When the hoodlums approached closer, they saw Li Yun and Bufu's face, and ran off without Li Yun ever knowing what had happened.

"Hey, why did we have to run away from those punks?" asked a rookie hoodlum while breathing heavily. He had run a half a mile into a dark alley after the two other gang members told him to run. "Don't tell me you're afraid of two measly boys."

Dou Yao glared angrily at the rookie.

"Are you ****** stupid!?" Dou Yao barked, getting ready to kick rookie in the shin. "Out of all the punks to steal from, you want us to steal from the Hundun Yun and Taowu Bu?"

"Hey, hey, this kid is new," said mid-level hoodlum, wedging himself between the two and patting Dou Yao's shoulder to calm him down.

The rookie was still confused. He had relocated from a different city, and had never heard of Gong Dayun and Sanmiao Bu. He simply saw two high schoolers walking out from an internet cafe, one who looked like a delinquent and one who looked like the typical pretty boy. Even if the delinquent could fight, there were three of them against two.

"Xiao Dun, the number one rule in Yide city, do not mess with the Four Evils of Kaishi High," Bing Tou warned. "They are not the typical high school delinquents. Those four not only rule their own school, but the entire region."

Like in the Chinese mythology, there existed four evils that terrorized the world, Hundun Yun, Taowu Bu, Taotie Fang, and a mysterious existence they called the Qiongqi.

The rookie had heard of situations where high school bosses were strong enough to rule an entire region, but he didn't think it was possible.

"Let me tell you a story," said Bing Tou. "When our boss Qi Sho initiated a war against Kaishi High's territory, we gathered 32 of our best fighters. At that time, Kaishi High only had 12 members. Everyone of us assumed that they were an easy target because of their small number."

"During the battle challenge, we were confident. Boss took the lead and walked up to Hundun Yun to negotiate the territory deal. No one knows what was said, but we could all see fear creeping up on the boss's face."

"Afterward, the boss turned around and told everyone to retreat."

"No way? That was it?" asked the rookie. He suddenly felt disappointed in joining the gang with such a weak boss.

"If you think the boss is weak, think again," said the mid-level hoodlum. "Just ask Dou Yao what happened next."

"I tried to revolt against the boss," said Dou Yao, regretting the whole incident. "I thought I could become the new boss after seeing him retreat. It wasn't difficult to get people on my side. However, the boss and the remaining members beat up everyone who revolted."

Dou Yao knew that their boss Qi Sho had a black belt in karate, but he didn't think Qi Sho with three other of his friends were enough to take on all twelve of them.

That wasn't the end of the story. A month later, Dou Yao recovered and wanted revenge. Knowing that they couldn't target their boss Qi Sho, they sought out Li Yun, the seemingly weaker target whereas Fatty Fang was a known sanda fighter. The result was them all being knocked out.

"No way! How is that even possible?" asked the rookie. This wasn't some sort of television show. "All twelve people against one person?"

The rookie was completely in awe.

Dou Yao nodded with memories bringing them chills.

In reality, the event was much more comical than what the rookie had imagined.

Li Yun mercilessly kicked the attacker between their legs and slashed their throat with his scroll. These were high school kids, not real gangsters, so they all ran away after feeling a bit of pain.

If Dou Yao could have lied about the event, he would, but Li Yun had followed Dou Yao after elbowing his right eye. Dou Yao ran off and was chased down for several miles while screaming for forgiveness. There were too many people witnessing his embarrassing flight. After the event, Dou Yao forced the other eleven members to exaggerate Li Yun's fighting prowess.

*****

The stories such as that and others had spread throughout the region, and Li Yun became known as the Hundun Yun of Kaishi High. His nickname primarily came from his ability to figure out people's weaknesses and secrets.

Stories of the Kaishi High School gang were something the school counselor, Wu Bin, was well aware of.

Wu Bin looked annoyed. "Look brat, can you lay low until the exams are over with? The principal is already stressed out and giving me a hard time about the lack of discipline. Not only that, our school is ranked last for the past three years."

"What does that have to do with me?" Li Yun was annoyed, he just wanted to finish his writing.

"Who do you think is bringing the average down!? Our school reputation is known as the worst school in the area. What university will admit our graduating students? Even little Xuxu will have a difficult time getting into a good school."

Ning Xuxu was the top student at their school.

"What does that have to do with me?" Li Yun repeated.

"Even if you don't care about your classmates, think about your sister!"

"I don't have a sister."

"My sister, who is also your elder cousin! Thank goodness you will be gone by the time she gets to high school…."

Wu Bin continued to talk about his sister, while Li Yun zoned him out to complete the elaborate seal. As soon as the seal was completed, Li Yun triggered something.