The last class of the morning.
Ideology and Politics.
Teacher Gao Zhan sat on the podium with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, completely unaware that the dismissal bell had rung. He shamelessly dragged out class while bullshitting away:
"...So this is a matter of public quality. The quality of Chinese citizens still needs to improve. When I attended the county people's congress this year, I proposed installing streetlights on Ginkgo Road. And what happened?"
"The streetlights hadn't even been up for half a year before someone stripped out the wires and sold them as scrap! It's pitch-black there, and accidents happen easily. Just as I expected, someone got run over by a truck last night. He was riding a bicycle, shot out from an alley, and the truck crushed his head right on the spot..."
"Now look at the quality of Americans. No matter how long streetlights stay up there, nobody steals the wires. America has credit scores, and everyone uses credit cards. Once you violate social rules and regulations, your credit score gets deducted, and your credit card won't work anymore..."
The whole class listened attentively, and quite a few students wore yearning expressions.
The beacon of civilization!
Chen Guiliang had been holding back laughter the whole time.
That was the stereotype back then: everything in China was bad, while even a pile of shit abroad smelled sweet.
But he had to admit that China still had countless shortcomings at the time.
Those chaotic and overly rosy descriptions of foreign countries had, in fact, become public pressure pushing the Chinese people to keep improving.
Until one day, the situation began to reverse.
Without realizing it, Gao Zhan had already dragged class out by seven or eight minutes. He had not taught a single bit of proper knowledge, just kept bullshitting nonstop.
After finishing another cigarette, Gao Zhan finally said, "Class dismissed!"
It was like the starting gun at a track meet. A crowd of students fought to rush out of the classroom.
If they did not run fast enough, the cafeteria would have nothing left but scraps.
Chen Guiliang slowly stood up and said to Bian Guanyue, "I asked around during the break. There are three bicycle shops next to each other over on Chongwen Street."
"Thank you," Bian Guanyue said.
Chen Guiliang did not take the initiative to offer to accompany her to buy a bike.
Given Bian Guanyue's personality, she would definitely refuse, and she would probably think Chen Guiliang was meddling.
Chen Guiliang merely reminded her seriously, "If you plan to ride a bicycle to and from school, it's best to go with a classmate. Especially after evening self-study. It's very dangerous for a girl to ride home alone."
Zheng Feng appeared out of nowhere. "There's a stretch of road between school and Back Street that's especially dangerous. The area from the neighboring No. 7 Middle School to West Lake has lots of internet cafés, pool halls, and roller-skating rinks. The streetlights along a huge stretch of the road are broken too. Bad students from No. 7 Middle School and hooligans from outside often wander around those places late at night."
This was a very serious problem.
Public security in the early 2000s was only slightly better than in the nineties.
In Chen Guiliang's memories, there would be a murder case next year on the internet café street near the school.
A laid-off female worker who had found new employment was riding home at night when several punks stopped her to rob her. She only had a little over ten yuan on her, and the punks got angry because it was too little, so they stabbed her to vent their frustration.
They hit her femoral artery, and she died from excessive blood loss!
Bian Guanyue thought it over and felt a little scared. "Then I'd better take the bus."
Zheng Feng hurriedly said, "Classmate Bian, I can protect you. We can ride home together, and we can call a few other boys too. If there are enough of us, the punks won't dare do anything reckless."
"No need. Thank you for the offer," Bian Guanyue said.
Zheng Feng was actually happy about being rejected, because Bian Guanyue had said six words to him.
Not only had the number of words in their conversation increased, but she had even included a thank-you.
Li Jun listened to their conversation from the side and said disdainfully, "What's there to be scared of? My uncle is a cop. If you run into punks in the future, just give them my uncle's name. I guarantee they'll run like hell!"
Bian Guanyue did not respond. She silently picked up her schoolbag and left.
The county town was small, and day students generally went home for lunch.
Of course, that would change in the second semester of Senior 3. During the College Entrance Exam sprint, they would only have half an hour to eat, including the time spent lining up for food.
Zheng Feng quickly caught up and followed behind Bian Guanyue as her self-appointed protector.
Xie Yang came over at some point, staring at Zheng Feng's back with contempt. "He's fucking just a little tagalong."
Chen Guiliang chuckled.
Because he knew that the more Zheng Feng followed her around like that, the more Bian Guanyue would resent him.
Li Jun grabbed his schoolbag and left. After being ignored by Bian Guanyue several times, he was already getting discouraged. He planned to switch targets. Ou Yafei from the next class was pretty good, and he had heard that Ou Yafei had just broken up with her boyfriend.
Chen Guiliang and Xie Yang headed to the cafeteria together. Halfway there, the campus broadcast suddenly came on.
A junior girl spoke in a sweet announcer's voice, delivering a hollow yet ornate introduction before quickly getting to the point. "Tao Xue from Class 10, Senior 1 has requested Jay Chou's 'Coward' for Zhang Wei from Class 1, Senior 3. Her message is: Senior Zhang Wei, you'd better not let me catch you!"
Xie Yang asked doubtfully, "Is there someone named Zhang Wei in Class 1?"
Chen Guiliang smiled. "Maybe he transferred here this year."
Before choosing between the arts and sciences tracks, both of them had been in Class 1, so they knew the class very well.
The two went to the cafeteria and quickly finished lunch.
Chen Guiliang neither returned to the classroom nor went to the dormitory for a nap. Instead, he headed toward the school gate.
Xie Yang did not ask what he was doing. He simply followed with both hands in his pockets.
After leaving the school and walking for several more minutes, Chen Guiliang entered a pharmacy.
Xie Yang finally could not help asking, "Buying medicine?"
"Weighing myself."
Chen Guiliang stepped onto the scale, looked at the dial, and said, "I'm already at 114.3 jin. The results are better than expected. I'll try to reach 125 jin in a month."
After saying that, Chen Guiliang turned around, left the pharmacy, and headed straight back to school without doing anything else.
"Fuck!"
"Why the fuck did I follow him here?"
Xie Yang cursed, then hurriedly chased after him.
While they were returning to the dormitory for their nap, a short-haired girl was going from classroom to classroom looking for someone.
"Classmate, do you know a tall, skinny boy?"
"What's his name?"
"Zhang Wei. Um... it might be another name. He said he was from Class 1, Senior 3, but there's no such person in Class 1, Senior 3."
"There are lots of tall, skinny guys. I don't know who you mean."
"The really, really skinny one. A few days ago, he set up a stall by the bulletin board selling books. He has a strong literary foundation and could casually comment on Dream of the Red Chamber. He tricked me into buying books and said I could discuss literature with him anytime, but every name he gave me was fake."
"Not sure. Go ask someone else."
"Ha!"
Chen Guiliang yawned, stretched, and sat up in bed.
That nap had been so satisfying.
Eh, something was wrong.
Chen Guiliang felt below himself and was utterly speechless.
It was just a noon nap, yet he had somehow gotten hard after waking up.
Youth!
"What time is it?" Chen Guiliang asked.
Xie Yang was still sleeping like a log.
Yang Hao from Bed No. 6 replied, "Forty minutes until class."
Chen Guiliang waited for that thing to soften before flipping down from the top bunk. He found that the seam in his pants had torn, so he borrowed a sewing kit from Yang Hao.
Such was the miserable life of a high school student. Even clothes had to be mended personally.
Having not done needlework for twenty years, Chen Guiliang was a little rusty and sewed his pants up crookedly.
He needed to get a girlfriend soon and find a girl to sew his pants for him.
Could Bian Guanyue sew pants?
If she could not, then he would make her practice more.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
After putting on his pants, Chen Guiliang viciously kicked the metal bed frame several times.
Xie Yang jolted awake from his dream and shot upright. "Earthquake?"
"Time for class." Chen Guiliang turned and walked out of the dormitory.
Xie Yang cursed furiously, "You fucking psycho!"
Yang Hao burst out laughing.
Bian Guanyue and Zheng Feng entered the classroom one after the other again.
They did not look like a couple.
They looked more like a rich young lady and her lackey.
Before Bian Guanyue reached her seat, she saw a short-haired girl at Chen Guiliang's desk.
She did not think much of it and assumed the girl was from their class.
"Hello!"
Tao Xue took the initiative to wave hello.
"Hello." Bian Guanyue answered and sat down.
Tao Xue smiled. "Senior School Sister, you're so pretty."
"Thank you," Bian Guanyue said.
Tao Xue asked again, "Senior School Sister, you're Chen Guiliang's deskmate. Is he the kind of person who lies through his teeth?"
"Hm?" Bian Guanyue did not understand.
Tao Xue said, "A few days ago, he tricked me into buying Dream of the Red Chamber, and he also tricked everyone in our dorm into buying a bunch of magazines. He said his name was Zhang Wei and that he had been president of the literary club. But I asked around, and the literary club never had a president named Zhang Wei!"
Bian Guanyue's curiosity was piqued. "How much money did he cheat you out of?"
"More than ten yuan," Tao Xue said, then added, "It doesn't really count as cheating us out of money. He just tricked us into buying his books. But his books are actually very good, and they have his reading notes and annotations in them. I read them, and those annotations were especially well written."
"Since you weren't cheated out of money, why are you looking for him?" Bian Guanyue asked.
Tao Xue said excitedly, "He deceived my feelings! He said he was good friends with Guo Xiaosi and told me I could discuss literature with him anytime. But even his name was fake. I wanted to ask him for Guo Xiaosi's QQ number!"
"Then take your time waiting," Bian Guanyue said, losing interest.
Zheng Feng had been eavesdropping from diagonally in front of them. He turned around and said, "He definitely doesn't know Guo Xiaosi."
Tao Xue said indignantly, "Liar!"
While they were talking, Chen Guiliang had already walked over.
He did not panic upon seeing Tao Xue. Instead, he calmly said, "Junior School Sister, you look beautiful today. Did you get your hair done?"
"You think this hairstyle looks good too?"
Tao Xue had come to demand an explanation, but those words immediately made her happy again. "We had a day off today because the classrooms were cleared for the Senior 2 exams. When I got my hair done this morning, I specifically picked this style. I heard it's very popular in Korea."
Chen Guiliang praised her. "This hairstyle suits you perfectly. It's fresh, yet it also has a literary air."
"That's what I think too!"
After only a few sentences, Tao Xue was no longer angry. Instead, she thought Chen Guiliang had excellent taste and began chattering away about amusing things on her own initiative.
Bian Guanyue, who had been reading with her head lowered, looked up at Chen Guiliang, then at the smug Tao Xue. It felt like a little white rabbit had met a big bad wolf.
She had been led around by the nose the entire time.
The topic soon shifted to literature. Tao Xue said, "Last night, I read Wang Xiaobo's 'A Maverick Pig,' and I really related to it. I felt like I was a pig too, but not as brave as Wang Xiaobo's pig."
Chen Guiliang spoke about such things effortlessly. "It's normal that you related to it. The core idea of this essay is 'anti-discipline.' The French philosopher Michel Foucault believed that 'discipline' originally referred to prisons controlling prisoners. He then compared institutions such as schools and hospitals to prisons, believing that the prison model had permeated every corner of modern society. Now that you're in school, you're one of those being disciplined..."
The more Tao Xue listened, the more astonished she became. "Senior, you know so much!"
Chen Guiliang smiled. "I'm also a maverick pig. I'm still on probation from school. You can ask around and find out what I've done at school over the past two years."
Tao Xue said admiringly, "I asked around already. Senior's experiences are especially exciting. You even posted big-character posters outside the principal's office, using rancid cafeteria soup to paste them up."
"Don't learn from me," Chen Guiliang warned. "When you grow up a little more, you'll understand that the discipline imposed by school may be a kind of happiness you will never find again in this lifetime."
Tao Xue asked, "Why would it be happiness?"
Chen Guiliang said, "Because this kind of discipline comes from goodwill, and it's far too gentle. It will be difficult to encounter such goodwill and gentleness again in the future. People in society can really eat you alive."
Tao Xue did not quite understand, but that did not stop her from thinking Chen Guiliang was impressive.
They chatted until class was about to begin. Tao Xue cheerfully waved goodbye. "'Senior Zhang Wei,' I had a great time today. I'll come talk literature with you again next time."
Whew!
Chen Guiliang let out a long breath. He had finally gotten rid of that junior girl.
Literary girls were not to be trifled with. There was always something a little wrong with their heads.
Chen Guiliang was a literary youth himself. He knew his own kind far, far, far too well.
Bian Guanyue suddenly asked, "Who is Michel Foucault?"
Chen Guiliang said, "A homosexual who died of AIDS, as well as a veteran mental patient."
Bian Guanyue: "..."
Before you continue