Chapter 161: The Ultimate Duel at the Summit of the Forbidden City

The most popular author of the year 2003.

For Zhang Tan, who was currently basking in the spotlight, it was merely yet another title to add to his list of boasts.

Returning from Mount Hua, Zhang Tan first made a trip to the Hefei Writers Association to finalize his membership formalities for the Anhui Writers Association, where he also learned that the association had recommended him for admission to the Chinese Writers Association. To Zhang Tan, the writers association was little more than a prestigious nominal title, and he hadn't paid it much mind, but climbing higher up the ladder was still a gratifying experience.

Becoming a member of the Chinese Writers Association meant entering the true elite circle of the cultural sphere.

Once his business was concluded, Zhang Tan granted Ma Weiwei and Zhou Nan a two-day vacation, telling them to rest up. He wouldn't need anyone trailing him for the next couple of days, as he intended to spend them leisurely in Hefei.

"Do you need me to drive you around?" Li Yan asked from inside the Luzhou studio.

With a guitar slung across his back, a duckbill cap pulled down low, and a handful of loose change rattling in his pocket, Zhang Tan gave a light wave. "No need. I'll just hop on a bus and wander about. You go ahead and take care of your work."

He had been away from Hefei for nearly half a year.

It had been a bustling six months. Following *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* crew across various locations, enjoying a thorough tour of Mount Hua, frequently fielding interviews with reporters, and making brief appearances on television—his life had been vibrant and full of flavor. Yet, it was always too close to the clamor of publicity, and his rise to fame had been so rapid that it felt somewhat unreal.

Since he had a rare opportunity to return to Hefei, Zhang Tan decided to take some time to properly unwind.

Right at the entrance of the Shanghuayuan residential compound was a bus stop.

He planned to take a bus to the Xinghua Park in the city, find a quiet corner amidst the winter evergreens, strum his guitar, and sing. In his past life, Zhang Tan had bought a mortgage-financed apartment right beside Xinghua Park. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would sit on a park bench, watching the scattered groups of visitors strolling by.

There was also a Ferris wheel inside Xinghua Park, and Zhang Tan used to enjoy taking young women to ride it. When the Ferris wheel reached its highest point, it felt as though the entire city was right beneath your feet.

Xinghua Park also boasted a lake where one could go boating.

Zhang Tan had always harbored a strong fascination for boating; not long ago, his greatest wish had been to rent a boat for fishing on Shuangfeng Lake, located just behind the Yuanyi Golf Course.

It wasn't that he held a particular fondness for that specific spot, but rather a lingering sense of romantic yearning.

What truly moved him was the poetic charm of boating upon a lake where "the breeze blows gently, yet the water remains unruffled."

The Xinghua Park of the present day did not yet have the Joy Island amusement area; it was rumored that planning had only just begun, with formal construction slated for next year. Naturally, there was no Ferris wheel to climb for a view, leaving him with boating as his sole option.

"Want to rent a boat? We have motorboats and automatic ones. Which type would you prefer?"

"One with oars. I want to row it myself."

"Twenty yuan per hour. How many hours do you want to rent it for?"

"Let me leave a hundred-yuan deposit first and we'll go from there."

"Alright, I'll take you to pick out a boat."

After leaving the deposit and selecting a blue wooden rowboat, Zhang Tan rowed out onto the lake.

Since it was still morning, there weren't many people out boating. Occasionally, one could spot two or three people sharing a single vessel.

Zhang Tan sat inside the small boat, gripping the oars and pulling with vigor. Within a moment, he had glided across the small lake toward the distant center. Then, he stowed the oars away and sat back to bask in the sun, the gentle ripples of the lake causing the little boat to sway softly.

It was an immensely comfortable sensation.

He fished out his guitar, sat leisurely in the small boat, strumming idly and humming casual tunes.

It possessed a unique and vibrant joy of its own.

He strummed a random passage and then belted out at the top of his lungs, "Forgive me for this lifetime, untamed, unrestrained, and loving freedom."

Then, adopting a feigned melancholy, he sang, "The rainy season of my seventeenth year, we shared mutual expectations, and we once embraced each other tightly."

Following that, he switched to a whimsical tone: "Mom and dad go to work, I go to kindergarten; I don't cry, and I don't make a fuss. I greet the teacher warmly."

A breeze brushed across his face, lifting his spirits high.

He simply stood up, placing both feet on opposite edges of the boat, hugging his guitar, and strumming rapidly: "You are my little, little apple, no matter how much I love you it's never too much. Your little red face warms my heart, lighting the fire of my life, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire."

Singing like this was carefree and unrestrained; there was no need to worry about hitting the wrong notes, nor any concern about playing a false chord on the guitar.

At any rate, on this bright and sunny morning, it felt wonderfully refreshing.

However, past ten o'clock in the morning, the fun began to fade as Xinghua Park grew increasingly crowded. More people took to the boats, crisscrossing the small lake surface and shouting back and forth.

Zhang Tan's enthusiasm had long since passed, so he simply put away his guitar and rowed the boat back to the shore.

...

After spending the entire day wandering around Hefei, Zhang Tan had Li Yan drive him to Shuangdun Middle School as evening approached.

He entered the school quietly.

Wearing his duckbill cap and a black face mask, with only his eyes exposed, his arrival at the school happened to coincide with the afternoon dismissal. Dodging the crowds, Zhang Tan strolled leisurely toward Cao Yuchuan's dormitory.

Cao Yuchuan, who was holding his lunchbox and preparing to go grab some food, recognized him at a single glance: "Detective?"

That shout immediately blew Zhang Tan's cover.

Consequently, everyone else in the dormitory raised their heads and stared at Zhang Tan in astonishment: "Detective, you're back?"

Zhang Tan pulled down his face mask and gave a grandiose wave of his hand: "Comrades, you've worked hard."

Cao Yuchuan rushed over and dealt Zhang Tan a punch to the shoulder: "Look at you strutting around now! We all thought you'd completely forgotten about us."

Zhang Tan returned the punch in kind: "Our dorm didn't even have a telephone, so I couldn't reach you guys even if I wanted to, and none of you called me either."

"Detective, how have you been living it up? You're looking more and more handsome."

"Tsk tsk, I happened to catch sight of a newspaper in the teacher's office last time, and there you were. How on earth did you end up in the *People's Daily*?"

"Has *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* finished filming yet? Everyone's guessing whether you made an appearance in it too."

"Did you see Zhou Taiping? Is she as pretty in person?"

"Did you get her autograph?"

"How has life been treating you in Beijing?"

His former classmates fired questions thick and fast. Soon, students from the neighboring dormitories caught wind of the news and rushed over, sparking another round of lively greetings.

"Don't any of you go to the cafeteria. I've booked two tables at the Tianyuan Restaurant, and we'll all go hang out together," Zhang Tan said with a smile, before turning to Cao Yuchuan. "Cao Yuchuan, round up the guys from the soccer team and a few of the familiar girls."

"Got it, I'll go call them, and Zhou Yu will come with me."

With that, Zhang Tan led his dormmates off toward Tianyuan Restaurant first. There were very few boys in Senior Three, Class Four, and even if all of them went, it only amounted to seven or eight people. The main issue was that several students had headed straight for the cafeteria after school without returning to the dorms at all. With the college entrance examinations looming, everyone was studying much harder, so eating at the cafeteria and heading straight back to the classroom was standard routine.

Since Zhang Tan was somewhat of a celebrity now, he kept a very low profile at school—he had merely dropped by the dormitory to chat, announced the dinner invitation, and then left the school grounds to wait at Tianyuan Restaurant.

Before long, Cao Yuchuan and Zhou Yu had gathered everyone together.

Most of the soccer team members were present. Zhu Dandan, Tao Jing, and Gao Jie had also come; as for the other girls, they hadn't joined. In truth, throughout Zhang Tan's high school life following his rebirth, he had only grown relatively close to these three female classmates, while maintaining merely nodding acquaintances with the rest.

"Hey, beauties!" Zhang Tan ignored the members of the soccer team entirely, opened his arms wide toward the three girls, and attempted to pull them into an embrace.

"Detective, is it really you back? Old Cao said so, but I didn't quite believe it, thought they were just joking." Gao Jie, the mathematics prodigy, beamed widely and gave Zhang Tan a light hug, looking slightly embarrassed.

She wasn't quite accustomed to such an enthusiastic greeting style.

Zhu Dandan embraced Zhang Tan with poised grace and chuckled, "Detective, it looks like you've grown taller again."

Tao Jing chimed in, "Your hair has grown longer too."

After finishing his hugs with the three girls, Zhang Tan smiled and said, "I'm currently one meter seventy-seven tall, and I'm not sure if I'll grow any more. I'm planning to get an X-ray in a few days to see if my epiphyses have calcified yet. If they haven't, who knows, I might still shoot up a bit. As for the hairstyle, I've been appearing on television more and more frequently lately, and my old cut looked too much like an escaped convict's, so I grew it out and switched to a short-layered crop."

Gao Jie covered her mouth with her hand and giggled, "Mm-hm, you're getting more handsome by the day."

Zhang Tan raised an eyebrow. "Naturally."

"Hey, hey, hey, Detective, aren't you a bit too biased toward girls and neglectful of your buddies? We've been standing right in front of you for ages, and all you've done is talk to the women." Wang Long squinted his small eyes just like before, wearing a smiling expression.

Zhu Ran threw his arms wide open. "Don't we brothers get a hug?"

Rolling his eyes, Zhang Tan retorted, "Forget it, I have zero desire to hug any guys. Everyone hurry up and sit down. There are quite a few of us, so I've opened two tables—just sit wherever you like."

They all took their seats.

Chatting commenced.

While waiting for the dishes to arrive, the old classmates bombarded Zhang Tan with questions about his life during this period.

Cao Yuchuan asked, "How's life in Beijing? What do you busy yourself with all day long? We keep seeing you in the newspapers."

"It's nothing much, really. I just occasionally tag along with *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* crew, or deal with a reporter stopping by for a quick interview, but most of the time I'm just writing novels. How should I put it? It's not as leisurely as the days back at Shuangdun Middle School; it feels a lot more restless."

Liu Weitao, the former goalkeeper, said with a look of envy, "Tagging along with a film crew? I'm so jealous of you. Doesn't that mean you get to see celebrities every single day?"

As an insider, Zhang Tan's view of celebrities was actually rather poor. In the internet age, too many scandals and unflattering behaviors of stars had been dragged into the light, so he remarked, "What's so special about celebrities? They're no different from ordinary people—they just look glamorous in front of the camera, and once the makeup comes off, they're the exact same as anyone else."

"You might be used to seeing celebrities, but we certainly haven't. When are you coming back next time? How about bringing us some autographs?"

"Aren't you guys making things difficult for me? My status within the film crew is transcendent," Zhang Tan boasted. "Can I just go around casually begging people for autographs? That would totally lower my standing, right?"

Zhang Tan was merely joking and blowing hot air.

However, heard through the ears of his classmates, it sounded entirely natural: "True, what kind of status do you hold now? A major author! Of course you're different from those stars."

Realizing that this joke hadn't quite had the intended effect, Zhang Tan waved a hand dismissively. "Status schmatus. I'm just someone who happens to write novels. Strip away that label, and the only real difference is that I'm just a tiny bit more handsome than you guys... As for the autographs, I'll see if I can find an opportunity. Getting signatures from Li Jixiong and Zhou Taiping should be no problem, but the others will be tricky—many of them have already finished their scenes and left the crew."

"I just want Li Jixiong's!"

"I only want Zhou Taiping's."

"Can you get Song Yingying's?"

Zhang Tan nodded, indicating he had noted them down, and added, "Actually, there is someone's autograph I can hand over to you right this instant."

The three girls instantly perged up and eagerly asked, "Whose?"

Zhang Tan smiled with reserved dignity. "Far away on the horizon, yet right before your eyes."

"Pfft."

Gao Jie immediately pouted in mock disappointment. "We won't need your precious calligraphy. I've still got several books of mine featuring the 'comic strips' you drew."

Zhang Tan looked bewildered. "I drew in your books? Comic strips, no less? Am I really that idle?"

"You certainly were! You covered both corners of my math textbook with dozens of pages of stick figures fighting each other, and you even claimed it was a decisive battle at the Forbidden City!"