After a day of rain, the following day was as hot as a dog.
Li Mu's parents had breakfast and went to work using a taxi. Even after his parents left, Li Mu's phone didn't stop ringing under the constant calls of his classmates until 9:00 am.
Some people asked to call how he did on his college examination exam, and others asked questions about the science exam because they weren't able to wait a few more days and wanted to evaluate their scores. They called Li Mu as he was a reliable source of information regarding science. Another one of his friends also called him to go to an internet cafe later that night.
The name of his friend was Zhao Kang. He was Li Mu's childhood friend as he lived in the same district he did because almost all of the people who lived here were workers from the Xiling Coal Mine. Zhao Kang's parents were no exceptions.
Li Mu and Zhao Kang started playing together when they were in diapers. They were in the same class in elementary school, but although they weren't in the same classes from middle school to high school, they still remained good friends.
However, Zhao Kang didn't do well in his college entrance exams in his past life. Zhao Kang thought he could've passed for the undergraduate course, but he didn't expect that he fell twenty marks short. He wanted to go to a second-tier college instead, but his parents held too high hopes for him. So for that year, they made him study. His heart full of pride and insistent on rebelling, he had a big fight with his parents on the second semester of college which ultimately led to him running away from home.
Li Mu, who was in college at the time, tried to work things out between Zhao Kang and his parents, but it ended up to be a fruitless venture due to his friend's bad temper. Not to mention Li Mu, but he also refused to pick up when his parents called him. It was only once every few months that he would call Li Mu to prove that he was still alive.
Every Chinese New Years, a landline call from a new different part of the country would be made to Li Mu, saying the same few words of wishing him a happy new year.
The call would end, and when Li Mu would call back, no one would pick back up again.
Li Mu knew that it was Zhao Kang who called him. He held that habit for over years, but he didn't know anything about Kang Zhao's life over the ten years. Li Mu didn't even know if he was living a good or bad life, but he still felt unhappy at how Kang Zhao's fate turned out.
Whenever Li Mu thought about him, he couldn't help but sigh.
Zhao Kang wanted to go to the internet cafe at night, and Li Mu's mind was filled with the prospect of making money from Stone Age, so things worked out.
"By the way, did your parents go to work? If they already went to work, we can eat lunch together and go to the internet cafe after."
"Okay, let's eat KFC today. I'll treat you!"
In early 2001, Haizhou welcomed its first KFC. The popularity of the new fast food restaurant astonished people in the future. The line would start from inside the restaurant and end along the sidewalk. Although its popularity declined over time for the older generation, many young people still went to eat there.
Li Mu couldn't help but nag, "Why do you want to eat unhealthy food at KFC? We can just find another restaurant that's healthier and cheaper to eat."
"Cut!" Zhao Kang said dismissively, "KFC has the best burgers! I, Zhao Kang, can't bear to only eat there once a month. I'm treating you and you still don't want to come?"
Li Mu no longer insisted.
"Sure, I'll go to your house in a bit."
As soon as Li Mu ended the call, the landline rang again.
"Hello?"
"Is this Li Mu?"
It was a woman's voice- beautiful and appealing.
"Sister Wan?"
"Your ears are so sharp! Where's your house? This sister wants to visit."
Li Mu laughed and mocked, "My parents aren't home. Is it appropriate for you, a girl, to come to my house?"
"What's wrong with that?" Chen Wan grumbled. "Little boy, isn't it appropriate for your sister to come see you?"
Little boy...
Li Mu used his right thumb to pull down his pants along with his underwear, looked down, and muttered to himself, "I'm still young, but my power has developed this much already."
After telling her his address, Chen Wan said, "Wait there. I'll get there on a bike."
Li Mu teased, "You're not going to drive?"
"**** you! Just wait for me at the front of your house!"
Chen Wan hung up the call, and Li Mu walked to the front of his house, closing the door behind him. His home was on the first floor of a five-story brick house. On the courtyard, there were three bungalows.
His parents had built up a courtyard wall, had installed a cement floor, and built three more rooms there. It was a project that cost a hefty sum of 30,000 yuan, and it ended up looking worse than what they paid for. However, there was a bright side to it. It was a great place for hanging up and drying laundry.
Li Mu picked up a plain white cotton shirt and put it on. Compared with fancy clothes, Li Mu preferred a more simple style. Unlike his mother, he couldn't stand shirts that were filled with graphics and colors.
In his last life, he was a lover of music from all genres. By emulating musicians like Michael Jackson and people from Nirvana, he learned how to play guitar and ended up with a rather nice singing voice. On top of that, he was tall, thin, white, and handsome. He didn't make girls fall in love with him wherever he went, but he was at least popular with them.
During his time at college, he played guitar and sang, eventually leading him to having a taste of the forbidden fruit.
As soon as he thought about it, Li Mu couldn't wait to experience his university days once again.
Because the beauty was coming to visit, Li Mu went to the bathroom to fix himself up a bit. Looking at the dismal reflection in the mirror, Li Mu couldn't stand it any longer.
One problem was his dull and ordinary bowl cut on the top of his head. It made his whole person seem awkward, but the worst thing was the mustache that was starting to grow. It was a common thing found among adolescents, but his parents didn't allow him to shave because they said the more he shaved, the thicker and uglier it would get.
Little did they know that in a few years, girls would go crazy about men with thick beards on their face.
Li Mu said nothing, but took his dad's razor and shaved it all off. After that, he felt clean looked a bit more pleasant to himself.
"I'm going to cut my hair!"
Li Mu made up his mind and called Chen Wan back to find him at the barber shop near the community gate. Along with ten yuan, he took the rest of his savings and went out in flip-flops and oversized pants.
When he entered the barber shop, he asked the barber with the exotic hair, "Excuse me, could you give me a messy quiff?"
The exotic-haired barber responded in turn.
"Brother, what is a messy quiff?"
In that era, boys could rarely find a hairstyle that fit them so many boys wore their hair flat. Those who were slightly more fashionable grew their hair out longer, but in turn, their hair turned shinier.
Li Mu got the messy quiff haircut because of a girl's suggestion before he went to college. After he got his haircut, Li Mu knew that the standard for testing for handsome guys was whether or not if they had short hair. The messy quiff became more popular over time because it could be modified in many ways to suit different people's faces.
It especially got popular after Edison Chen got that haircut. His hair was short on both sides of his head, but the hair on his crown would stay a medium length, which would then be held up with hair gel. Although the haircut seemed like a lot of work to maintain, the key point was that the haircut highlighted the main features of a male face. Edison Chen kept his haircut for over sixteen years and never got old on him.
The most important thing was that the hairstyle had its own natural attributes and gave off bad boy vibes, which made it very appealing to girls.
Although Li Mu wasn't handsome as Edison Chen, he was still very handsome compared to the average population.
After listening to Li Mu's explanation, the exotic-haired barber looked at him with a bit of sympathy on his face as he thought Li Mu was old-fashioned and foolish.
He deliberately flung the long hair covering his eyes and proudly said, "Dude, the trend now is to keep your hair long. I'll fix your haircut and give you slanted bangs. You just have to let it grow for two months and you'll grow even more handsome!"
Li Mu quietly watched him and jokingly asked, "If I listen to you, how much you pay me?"
"What?"
Those words killed the grin on the exotic-haired barber's face.
"I'm doing this for you, you know? If you get a haircut like me, picking up girls in an internet cafe would be easy as pie!"
Li Mu looked at him sideways.
"I don't want to go to an internet cafe to pick up girls."
"Where else can you go to pick up girls then?" the barber asked with a puzzled expression.
"I'm going to do it in college." Li Mu hurriedly urged him. "Hurry up and cut it the way I told you. If you don't do a good job, I won't give you money and I'll tell some of my friends from the Xiling Coal Mine to rough you up."
The exotic-haired barber was immediately nervous. Although he knew Li Mu was joking, he didn't want to offend anyone from the coal mine. He knew that whenever they went to fight, they would fight in large groups.
Although the exotic-haired barber lacked in aesthetic taste, he did have some skill as a barber. In ten minutes, a messy quiff haircut began to show under Li Mu's guidance. The hair on the top of his head was trimmed, while the sides were cut short. After that, a blow-dryer was used to sweep the hair opposite of the natural way it would grow to add some volume. And after the barber used a bit of hair gel for the finishing texture, Li Mu's haircut was finished.
The exotic-haired barber looked at Li Mu in the mirror and it stunned him.
Li Mu now had a presence different from other people. Before, he was a dull and average boy, but now he become one of the rich and influential people the exotic-haired barber would often see in films from Hong Kong.
Li Mu stood up, satisfied with his haircut and asked, "Is there any more hair gel? Add a bottle and I'll pay for that too."
The exotic-haired barber quickly took a bottle of hair gel out and said, "The hair cut is free, but the hair gel is ten yuan."
Li Mu was speechless. He thought the barber was quite interesting that he gave him a free haircut, but Li Mu still handed over ten yuan saying, "Change please."