Chapter 151: Beidaihe

"Oh, give it a rest! If you could even remotely be described as handsome, then every single man on this bus would look like Guo Kaimin. Your name is Hong Tao, right? Didn't your father ever teach you that little children shouldn't lie?" A bearded teacher in the first two rows turned around and criticized Hong Tao's remark.

"I'm not lying at all! You shouldn't just look at Teacher Liu's receding hairline and think it looks bad. This is what you call a mature kind of charm! Besides, our ancestors had an idiom: 'supreme intelligence.' Let's just interpret it simply from the literal characters; it must mean that a truly smart person has to be bald on top—supreme, you see! Plus, there is medical theory to back this up. Take a soccer field, for example: the patch of grass right in front of the goal is always the most worn out and bald, because that's where human activity is most intense. By the same logic, a bald head means Teacher Liu's brain activity is much more vigorous than an ordinary person's, causing all the blood and nutrients to rush to his brain, leaving the scalp lacking in nourishment, and thus the hair falls out!" Hong Tao was full of such useless, twisted logic. If someone said that in a later era, not a single person would want to listen, but in this day and age, it still had a ready market. At least the whole busload of people listened in a daze, and a few kept nodding, apparently having understood it completely.

"Oh!? You know, he's got a point! It actually makes some sense! Does that mean my baldness is entirely due to a high IQ?" Coach Liu was completely bewildered by this point. He reached up and cautiously touched his smooth, bare scalp, as if afraid of disturbing his own brain activity.

"That's not right either! Following your logic, several of our school's old professors have a full head of white hair—you surely can't say they have a low IQ?" When chatting, especially when bragging, people who take things seriously are the worst. As the saying goes, bragging is allowed, but nitpicking is not. That's the principle, but unfortunately, there are always some stubborn people who insist on taking things literally.

"Well, about that issue... It must be due to differences in human anatomy. White hair is basically equivalent to withered grass. Once the grass is withered, it's really no different from having all of it fall out, right? Teacher Liu!" Hong Tao could always come up with an excuse no matter what.

"Exactly! That's how it is. You're an interesting kid! Wait. Uncle will show you something good, something you've definitely never seen before!" Teacher Liu was very happy. As he spoke, he walked to the front of the bus, pulled a hard paper tube about a meter long out from under his seat, and walked back.

"I possess supernatural powers! Do you believe me? Without even opening this paper tube, I know what's hidden inside it!" Hong Tao knew in his heart what was packed in the tube, because he had seen this very paper tube in his past life. Back then, this cardboard tube even had an extra carrying strap attached to it.

"I don't believe it! Do you guys believe it? Go ahead and guess! What's in here?" Teacher Liu fell into the trap once again. Not only did he refuse to believe it himself, but he also incited the surrounding teachers and their family members not to believe it either.

"Well, I shouldn't have to guess for nothing, right? Exercising supernatural powers takes a lot of energy. How about we make a bet?" Hong Tao started digging another pit for this teacher.

"Fine, name it! What are we betting on? I just don't believe that all the good things in the world are reserved for Teacher Hong alone. His son is smart and has supernatural powers too?" Teacher Liu was somewhat unconvinced. Judging by his tone, he held all sorts of envious and jealous feelings toward Hong Tao's father.

"Let's bet that when we get to the beach, you have to teach all of them how to swim." Hong Tao pointed backward. Aside from Jin Yue, out of the five girls plus Zhang Dajiang, only Jin Yue knew how to swim. The rest were complete landlubbers.

"That's no problem! Bring it on!" Although Teacher Liu was not some ravenous beast driven by lust, he had no particular aversion to teaching young girls how to swim.

"Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, let the various deities quickly manifest their divine presence..." Hong Tao put on the airs of those charlatans outside the Yonghe Temple, mixed with the routine of a street-performer from Tianqiao, muttering incantations while his body swayed continuously.

"Open! ... Inside are a few steel rods, plus a five-pronged steel fork!" After making a thorough fuss, Hong Tao made a grasping motion with both hands, tossed it toward the cardboard tube, opened his eyes wide, and declared the secret held within the paper tube.

"Ah! This... this is downright haunted! I... !?" The other teachers on the bus actually had no idea what was packed inside the cardboard tube; they had simply been curious watching Hong Tao perform a shamanic dance. As for Teacher Liu himself, it wasn't just curiosity—his jaw was practically unhinged as he tremblingly poured the contents out of the cardboard tube.

"Oh my! It really is! I heard there are people with X-ray vision abroad. Could Teacher Hong's son possess eyes like that?" This person was a believer.

"Teacher Liu! You two didn't script this beforehand just to fool the rest of us, did you?" This person was a skeptic.

"Go, Hong Tao! You can do it, Hong Tao!" This was Jin Yue and Dajiang cheering Hong Tao on.

"You bastards, this wasn't scripted! I just got this back from the factory last week; even Teacher Fang hasn't seen it, and Teacher Hong isn't even with the sports teaching and research group—where would he have seen it? Old Fang, have you ever seen this?" Teacher Liu truly lived up to being a P.E. instructor; clumsy with his words, he blurted out curses the moment he got anxious.

"I have seen this paper tube, but what's inside it—I genuinely had no idea. The moment he brought it back, he locked it up in his cabinet... Hong Tao, why don't you try guessing what's hidden in this bag of mine?" That Teacher Fang turned out to be a P.E. teacher as well. He vouched for Teacher Liu, but still remained skeptical of any supernatural powers, so he pulled out his own canvas bag, intending to let Hong Tao demonstrate once more.

"I'm still young, so I can only use my power once a day. We'll talk about it another time!" Only a fool would try it a second time! Hong Tao used a very simple excuse to brush off the second test.

"That's true! That's true! Your body hasn't fully developed yet, you shouldn't use it too often. Hey, hey, hey, don't bully the kid! Teacher Hong asked me to help look after his son, so I'm his guardian now." Teacher Liu seemed to believe it completely and immediately started protecting Hong Tao like a pet, categorically rejecting all requests for X-ray vision from the teachers' family members.

"Hong Tao! When did you get this ability? Why haven't you ever used it before?" The group of girls sitting in the back had also watched in utter astonishment. It turned out that a mysterious figure had been hiding right in their midst, and they hadn't even known it! Han Xue was the first one who couldn't hold back, leaning over to quietly ask Hong Tao.

"How do you know I haven't used it? Not only can this ability see right through paper tubes, it can also see through clothes... Hehehe... Scared yet?" Hong Tao deliberately batted his eyelashes.

"త్‌... Shameless!" Han Xue subconsciously crossed her arms over her chest to protect herself, then muttered a soft scolding.

With Hong Tao on the bus, nobody had to complain about the long journey; just listening to him and the teachers trade barbs kept everyone entertained the entire way. At this time, the Beijing-Harbin Expressway did not yet exist. Traveling from Beijing to Beidaihe required driving along provincial roads, departing from Beijing a little past 7:00 AM and arriving at nearly 5:00 PM. The place where they stayed was called the Beidaihe Sanatorium for Chinese Coal Miners. Of course, you shouldn't judge it solely by its name; at that time, the proportion of actual workers who could come here was very small, and the guests were generally cadres.

This sanatorium was in a great location, just a few hundred meters north of the Laohushi Scenic Area. Standing at the main gate of the sanatorium, one could see the distant ocean. In fact, while passing through Changli, everyone had already caught sight of the sea through the bus windows. Half the people on the bus had crowded over to the right-hand windows at that moment—these were all first-timers, including Jin Yue, Dajiang, and Han Xue.

"Is the big crab and ginseng you mentioned caught right from there?" Dajiang remained obsessed with food. He had little interest in the blue seas and clear skies, but the various sizes of cars along the way had made his neck nearly twist out of its socket.

"Yeah, we can catch them ourselves once we get there!" Hong Tao answered with absolute certainty. At this time, Beidaihe, including the Bohai Gulf, was still a major production area for seafood. By the late 1990s, there would be nothing left here.

"Will those crabs pinch our feet?!" Jin Yue's concern was safety, which was clearly a level higher than Dajiang's.

"How dare they?! Whoever gets pinched, we'll steam it and eat it up!" Hong Tao patted his chest again. This he could guarantee—definitely not!

"Have you ever been here?" True to being in her early twenties, Han Xue finally raised a substantial question.

"My dad told me about it! And there are photos too; I've seen them!" When faced with this question, Hong Tao could no longer sound quite so firm.

"Pfft! I've seen America's ocean too... on TV!" Han Xue felt she had finally won a round, glanced disdainfully at Hong Tao, and then turned her head away to greedily gaze at the distant, layered waves of the sea.

Arranging accommodations, unpacking luggage, eating dinner, and then the sky gradually grew dark. The night wind by the seaside was very strong, and the temperature dropped, making it unsuitable for swimming. Everyone just had to endure it, though Hong Tao couldn't. He pulled a kite-string spool out of his bag and headed straight for the beach with Jin Yue and a bunch of girls. Teacher Liu had no choice but to tag along as well; being a guardian wasn't easy, even if it was only temporary.

"What is this thing you've got? Is it for fishing?" Teacher Liu had already assembled his five-pronged heaven-supporting fork, hoisting it over his shoulder. Coupled with his large frame and bald head, he looked just like a patrolling underwater demon.

"Yup, let's have a contest. Let's see whether you spear more fish or I catch more fish with my line!" Hong Tao issued a challenge once more.

"Pfft! I might lose to you when it comes to supernatural powers, but when it comes to catching fish, you're definitely no match. You grew up in the city; when I was a child in the countryside, I could sharpen a bamboo pole and spear fish with it!" Teacher Liu still refused to admit defeat.

"Don't talk about whether we can or can't yet—we'll only know after we compete! Come on, Dajiang, help me dig for bugs! Han Xue, don't run off yet, watch over Jin Yue!" Knowing that Liu wouldn't yield, Hong Tao didn't waste any breath. He took Dajiang toward the beach and left Jin Yue in Han Xue's care. Those few girls had already run cheering toward the beach under the night sky, not even bothering to take off their shoes—they would just wait for blisters to form on their feet on the walk back later.

"Where are there bugs?" Although Dajiang wasn't very bright and was rather timid, he was only afraid of people, not bugs. To him, any bug was just something that could be killed with a single stomp. (To be continued...)