After seeing Marilyn and Heidi off, life went back to its old track.
The days proceeded by the book. On weekends he still enjoyed his live-in life with the two girls, and in secret he kept training this body of his.
During that fight at the abandoned cement plant, Jiaming had already discovered that in sheer sensitivity this body outdid him at his own peak.
That was because his previous life had long since piled up training experience—he knew where his strengths lay and how to draw them out—so the training of this body had taken no detours at all and kept the best possible foundation.
At this rate, a few more years and he was confident he could face any dangerous challenge—even Minamoto no Yoritomo Sō, the Japanese known in Pei Luojia as the King of Assassins, who had once been his partner.
He had to admit that when it came to assassins, the Japanese produced far more outstanding ones: Shoshin Munen, Ten'u Masanori, Ritsumei Dōkyoku, Omoriki. Just those few names in his memory, and he wasn't sure of beating a single one. Of course, he had no intention of getting mixed up in Pei Luojia's business this time around either. After Blue died such a pathetic death, Pei Luojia had most likely sent a special-class assassin to investigate, but they would come back empty-handed—that incident could be written off as a pure car accident.
And by Pei Luojia's rules, the first failure was a mistake; the second was unforgivable. That being so, they wouldn't go after Marilyn and her daughter again. Marilyn ought to understand how important her position was, too. As long as these assassins couldn't dig anything up for the time being and got pointed off in another direction, the fun would really begin.
The middle-aged dwarf assassin he had disguised himself as had actually existed: a freak with special abilities. In that previous life of his, many years later, when his body had reached its peak, he had found the man after becoming partners with Minamoto no Yoritomo Sō. In the fight that followed he killed the dwarf but came within a hair of dying himself, and Yoritomo Sō—the King of Assassins—had died shielding him. If Pei Luojia couldn't find the dwarf now, fine; but if they did, the consequences were only too easy to imagine.
Of the two men in Pei Luojia he still had some thoughts about, one was Minamoto no Yoritomo Sō. Cold as ice and a Japanese devil besides, the man had still treated him really well during the time they were partners, and his death later had come down to a tragedy of crossed wires and bad timing.
Now that he knew the whole story, of course he could prevent it—but... I'll see how things go. He had no assassin's heart right now, and he had no friendship with the man yet; if he announced he wanted to help, the likeliest outcome was that the man would simply kill him on the spot.
The other was that twisted militarist, Shoshin Munen, who hated every Chinese without exception.
Back in Pei Luojia, Jiaming had received assassin training from childhood, so notions of nation and blood had always sat lightly on him; but because of that pervert he had suffered a great deal from an early age, and in the end they had built up a serious grudge.
When he stole the secrets and defected from Pei Luojia, he'd had a small showdown with the man and come off slightly the worse for it. It still gets me down, thinking about it. Of course, that was pure idle fancy—past-life business stays in the past.
Unless it was necessary, he had no wish to go up against that life-taking lunatic.
At the end of June, school let out. Through the long summer vacation the three kids spent most of their time at the Liu family villa—games, videos, computers, swimming—living very comfortably indeed.
There was a fine stretch of beach not far from the residential compound, crowded all summer, and Jiaming and the two girls took a tent and camped there for three days, eating barbecue until Shasha came down with internal heat and a toothache that turned the world upside down, at which point they finally called it quits.
It made up for the camping trip they'd planned the year before.
As the school's specially talented students, Lingjing and Shasha entered the National First-Class Youth Martial Arts Tournament in mid-August. Jiaming wasn't a competitor and shouldn't have been allowed to go; in the end Lingjing and Shasha, the team's mainstays, said that if Jiaming wasn't going, neither were they. Most people who knew them knew the three had been inseparable since childhood and never read anything romantic into it, so Jiaming was finally assigned to the cheer squad and traveled with the team all the way to the capital for the competition.
That tournament, though, later landed the three of them in a bit of trouble—no great matter, but not a small one either.
In the Xinghui Middle School team at the time there was a second-year student named Cao Dongfeng. He and Shasha weren't close day to day, but their families were old friends—his father, Cao Jinghao, counted as one of the top men under Shasha's father.
The boy came from an underworld family, had repeated two grades, and was already sixteen though he was just finishing eighth grade. He was big and tall, and since his age had only just reached the tournament's upper limit, the school treated him as one of the martial arts team's star players.
The moment he set eyes on Lingjing he took her for a goddess and sent her two flowers every day.
He was already sixteen, one of the team's main fighters, and backed by an underworld family; even the teachers didn't dare say anything about his behavior. Lingjing, of course, was disgusted beyond words, and Shasha, whenever she saw it, generally gave him a good cursing-out. Then one day between matches he actually invited Lingjing to a quiet corner of the gymnasium, ready to present flowers and confess. Luckily Lingjing had prepared in advance: she called out Jiaming and Shasha, who had followed along behind, then took Jiaming's hand, planted a sweet kiss on his cheek, and announced, "He's my boyfriend!"
If Lingjing hadn't had a partner, Jiaming might have had to weigh the consequences of letting that rumor get out. But he knew by now that Lingjing and Shasha were a couple, and out of friendship he made the perfect cover for their twisted romance, so the two of them immediately put on a honey-sweet act. Shasha, never one to let things stay peaceful, ran over afterward, grabbed Jiaming, and said, "He's my boyfriend too!"
Cao Dongfeng looked like he'd swallowed a turd.
And the two girls before him—Lingjing lovely and refined, and Shasha no slouch either: quick-tempered, sure, but long-limbed and well-built, hair tied in a ponytail, the kind of fresh, healthy look that pulled in sky-high second glances on the street—while this ordinary... no, this sleazy little man, half a head shorter than either of them, had bagged both!
Cao Dongfeng had seen plenty of rich men keep concubines and sugar babies—he had two girlfriends himself—but here, right in front of him, he felt an instant urge to kill!
Unforgivable. These two girls knew about each other, and they were this friendly with each other besides! The rumor around campus that the three of them lived together on weekends was actually true...
He came from the underworld and acted on whatever came into his head; but when he squared up to throw punches, the two girls were ready as well, and they put Jiaming behind them.
"If it looks bad, run," Lingjing said.
"No need. The two of us can handle him," Shasha said soothingly.
The feud was born there. Who'd have thought this man could be sleazy, lecherous, cowardly, useless and short, and on top of all that a kept man—and he was such a kept man that both girls looked blissful about it. Cao Dongfeng knew he couldn't beat the two of them and slunk away in defeat. From then on, daily sarcasm and death-ray glares were Jiaming's lot.
Jiaming, naturally, never took him seriously; he only concentrated on playing the role of the cowardly, useless kept boyfriend, because he knew the sleazier he acted, the angrier the other man got.
On the other side, Shasha knew Lingjing liked Jiaming, so the two girls immediately arranged any number of little scenes. For instance, whenever there were few people around and Cao Dongfeng could be counted on to see Jiaming and Lingjing together, Lingjing would kiss Jiaming on the cheek. It never crossed Jiaming's mind that she was using official business for private gratification; he'd put an arm around her waist and the two of them would look blissfully happy.
At ordinary matches, Jiaming, as cheer squad member and general gopher, was always eager as could be: handing out towels, handing out tea, even pounding backs and giving massages. It was kindness to all concerned, but a man like that mostly just gets looked down on, and Cao Dongfeng lost no chance to mock him for having no manliness about him. Since the sarcasm had no name to pin on him, Jiaming simply pretended not to understand and kept happily pounding away at someone's back.
And whenever Lingjing had a match, Shasha would playfully fling two big pom-poms at him and make him fulfill his cheerleading duties. Jiaming would wave the two big colored balls around and clown about until he became one of the sights of the arena. Cao Dongfeng despised him for it, in his heart and out loud.
Yet whenever Lingjing came off the floor after a match, she would ignore her own exhaustion entirely and first take a towel to wipe Jiaming's sweat, asking whether he was tired out.
To Cao Dongfeng, watching from the side, the behavior of these two girls and one boy came down to flirting on one hand and tender solicitude on the other. His eyes went bloodshot with envy and hatred and he ground his teeth, while Jiaming and the girls ran off to some dark corner and doubled over laughing.
Unfortunately the tournament ended too soon. The Xinghui Middle School team took second place, Cao Dongfeng went home with a bellyful of rage, and Lingjing's official-business-for-private-use hadn't yet naturally progressed from cheek kisses to lip kisses—once they were back it reset to square one, a source of deep regret to her. As for Jiaming, he had tasted the wicked pleasure of toying with a kid, and his mood was quite cheerful.
After school started in September, the three entered eighth grade. Cao Dongfeng tried a few times at school to make trouble for Jiaming, but either Jiaming avoided him or he picked times when all three were together. Lingjing he might dare to go after, but Shasha's father he did not dare provoke. In October there was a small clash, though it never came to actual physical contact.
The King of Fighters '95 had just come out around then and arcade games were all the rage, so the three half-grown kids went to play now and then. That day after school they ducked into an arcade on the way home.
Lingjing liked the flying-shooter games but died very fast and stood there screaming by herself, while Shasha and Jiaming dueled at '95—a game all about execution was no challenge at all for Jiaming, but his opponent was Shasha, and to keep her from blowing her top he let her win again and again.
After a few wins Shasha was in a wonderful mood and decided to hand the machine over to poor classmate Jiaming for his enjoyment, and ran off to be Lingjing's escort.
Once Shasha had gone, Jiaming found the game boring too, but he still had to put on an interested face, fingers clumsy on the buttons, all set to steer the characters through three rounds of mutual annihilation. He was in the middle of it when Cao Dongfeng pushed aside the cloth curtain with four or five little thugs and walked in.
Hmm, those Japanese names—I just strung them together because they sounded good, I made them up. There probably aren't any Japanese names like that, and I never bothered to look anything up, so just read them as they are. The last one, Omoriki, actually came from watching Japanese H-anime back in the day, when the toilet door always had "Otemizu" (御手洗) written on it, and I thought it rolled off the tongue nicely. Heh. A stroke of genius like that finally got put to use—a wish fulfilled, and very satisfying.