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Chapter 30: Triggered Again
The little troublemaker who had caused the commotion was startled and ran home crying—but he could cry, he could run, so clearly, no harm done.
Within moments, a small crowd of onlookers gathered around the scene, drawn by the chaos like moths to a flame.
“I’m here to help,” Gu Lu told the elderly man, making his intentions clear.
“Me too,” Zhang Yudong chimed in, crouching down to pick up the scattered oranges.
Fan Xiaotian, struck by Zhang Yudong’s initiative, hurried to join in. “Why do I feel like he’s always one step ahead?” he muttered under his breath as he bent down.
Seeing the main group—Gu Lu, Zhang Yudong, and Fan Xiaotian—already hard at work, the other two, Chen Xue and Wang Hongming, quickly followed suit.
Under the watchful eyes of the surrounding crowd, the five of them felt an odd sense of pride swelling in their chests. If they’d been wearing red scarves, those scarves would’ve glowed brighter than ever. Even without them, the act of doing good in public filled them with an inexplicable sense of exhilaration.
Elderly park-goers who had been out for a stroll joined in, gathering the rolling oranges that had scattered like marbles across the ground. Their movements were swift and practiced, thanks in part to years of carrying reusable cloth bags since supermarkets began charging for plastic ones. Those bags now came in handy as they stuffed the oranges inside.
“What are you doing? Don’t you have any decency? If you’re not helping, why are you taking things?” Chen Xue’s sharp eyes caught sight of a middle-aged woman slipping an orange into her bag. Her voice cut through the air like a thunderclap.
The woman, clad in a floral-patterned quilted jacket and a knitted hat, looked anything but harmless at that moment. Her kindly face twisted into something more menacing as she snapped back, “What do you mean, ‘taking things’? These rolled right to my feet—I’m just picking them up! And who are you kids anyway? From No. 94 Middle School?”
Given its proximity to the park, No. 94 Middle School was often the default assumption when people spotted students nearby.
“And what if we are from No. 94?” Chen Xue shot back without missing a beat. “Give the oranges back, or pay for them.”
“Pay? For what? I’ll report all of you to your principal for disrespecting your elders!”
The audacity! Chen Xue didn’t back down, matching the woman’s vitriol word for word. “Are you even an elder worth respecting? You’re nothing but a freeloader. I hope your grandchildren turn out just like you—useless and only interested in taking advantage of others.”
That hit a nerve. The woman lunged toward Chen Xue, claws out, but the elderly tricycle driver quickly stepped between them. “Thank you, young comrades,” he said warmly, addressing the five students. Then, to defuse the situation, he handed over two or three oranges to the irate woman. “Here, take these. Everyone shares.”
The woman huffed, satisfied enough with her spoils, and shuffled off, muttering curses under her breath.
“Damn it, she actually had the gall to make excuses after stealing?” Chen Xue spat.
Chen Xue was the lowest-performing girl in class, largely ignored by teachers. Her personality leaned closer to that of a boy—or rather, she was far more assertive than most boys. Her sharp tongue and penchant for swearing made her intimidating despite her delicate features and beauty mark near the corner of her eye. She should’ve been the kind of girl teenage boys secretly crushed on during their awkward years, but no one dared approach her.
Her intervention worked wonders. Any other opportunistic onlookers quickly dropped their schemes. After all, who wanted to risk a public squabble with a bunch of middle schoolers over a couple of measly fruits? It would’ve been embarrassing.
After about ten minutes of collective effort, Gu Lu and the others managed to gather all the oranges and repack them into the woven baskets. They then helped lift the heavy baskets back onto the tricycle, coordinating their strength with a synchronized count of “One, two, three!”
“Thank you so much, truly,” the elderly man said, deeply moved. He carefully selected over a dozen oranges, wiping each clean with his sleeve before placing them into a plastic bag.
It was clear the man lived frugally; the bag itself was a patchwork of mismatched colors—red, white, black—all wrinkled and reused. “These oranges are grown at our center. Please, take them as a token of gratitude,” he insisted.
Seeing Gu Lu hesitate, the man quickly added, “Don’t worry—they may have fallen, but they’re perfectly clean. They’re sweet, I promise. Try them.”
Unable to resist the earnestness in the man’s gaze, Gu Lu swallowed his refusal along with any thoughts of offering money. “Thank you, Grandpa,” he said instead.
“It is I who should thank you,” the man replied. “If I’d been alone, it would’ve taken me ages to clean this mess.”
The moment Gu Lu accepted the bag of oranges, a familiar sound rang out—a long-dormant notification from his golden system!
[The Modern German Work with the Most Translations][Unparalleled Appreciation][A True Artist]
Finally, after much speculation, the three cryptic labels resolved into a single title—Decisive Moments in History.
Holy crap! The magnum opus of Stefan Zweig, the king of biographical novels? Gu Lu’s pupils dilated in shock.
[Decisive Moments in History]
[Details: This book captures fourteen pivotal moments in world history—the moment Balboa gazed upon the Pacific Ocean, the fall of Constantinople, Handel’s miraculous spiritual revival, the divine inspiration behind La Marseillaise, the decisive minute at Waterloo…]
Gu Lu finally understood why the trigger had activated while discussing the October Revolution.
Among those fourteen moments was the story of Lenin, the son of a shoemaker, boarding a train at Zurich Station bound for Russia.
That train, like a silver bullet, shattered an empire and changed the course of human history.
“How could I forget about this book? But does it really have that many translations?”
His train of thought was interrupted by none other than Wang Hongming.
Wang Hongming smirked. “Hey, we all helped out. You’re not planning to hog all the oranges, are you?”
“Hehe, my grandma always says good deeds bring good karma!” Chen Xue grinned mischievously.
In the end, the five of them divided the oranges equally—three apiece.
After the elderly man pedaled away on his tricycle, Wang Hongming couldn’t wait to dig in. To be fair, the oranges were delicious—juicy, sweet, and easy to peel, which was great since he kept his nails long.
“They’re really good,” Zhang Yudong nodded in agreement.
“Way better than the ones my mom bought yesterday.”
“What’s with saving one? Can’t finish? Let me help you with that.”
“Get lost! I’m saving one for my grandma.”
“That’s thoughtful, but aren’t we forgetting something?”
Everyone turned to look at Gu Lu, who had spoken up. “What?”
“I don’t care how important anything else is today—eating these oranges takes priority,” Zhang Yudong declared firmly.
“We’re late for class,” Gu Lu said flatly, his voice dripping with dread, as though it came straight from the depths of hell.
Panic set in. Between helping the old man and eating oranges, nearly half an hour had slipped away. There was no way they could make it back to school on time—not even by motorized rickshaw.
They squeezed into two rickshaws, six yuan total. Normally, taking a fixed-route minivan would’ve been cheaper—one yuan per person—but they didn’t have time to wait.
The rickshaws sped directly to the school gates, but it was already too late. Math class had started seven or eight minutes ago…
Bursting into the classroom, gasping for breath, the five of them shouted in unison, “I’m sorry, we’re late.”
Ms. Yan, their math teacher, glanced up from the board, her piercing gaze sweeping over Gu Lu and the others like a blade.
Anyone who had ever felt the weight of a teacher’s stare knew the sensation—it was like standing naked while a razor scraped against bare skin.
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