Rumors

An Nuan did not speak to Liu Chang'an, and Gao Dewei was the type who would never initiate a conversation. Liu Chang'an, feeling no boredom, simply took out a modern literature reading comprehension workbook and began to work through it.

Ancient literature possesses its own elegance and aesthetic, while modern literature has its own era-specific characteristics and reading pleasures. Liu Chang'an felt he had explored too little of modern literature; after all, there was never a shortage of literati in any era, and with a larger base, the number of masterpieces produced was relatively higher.

Taking advantage of Liu Chang'an's apparent focus on his studies, An Nuan carefully reviewed the chat history between Liu Chang'an and her mother once more.

An Nuan's mother had no idea of Liu Chang'an's true age, actually mistaking him for a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties... Just looking at the content and tone of the chats, it was impossible to connect a person who frequently mentioned Li Lingyu, Cai Guoqing, Mao Ning, and Yang Yuying, and even rambled on about eighties and nineties phenomena like blood-chicken therapy, swinging-arm therapy, information pots, cosmic energy, qigong for crop yields, and qigong for earthquake prediction or cancer treatment, with a high school student.

Should she tell her mother? An Nuan hesitated. If her mother really found out that the person she was chatting with so happily was actually her daughter's deskmate, and that this deskmate also knew her mother was pretending to be a young girl, her mother would likely be mortified and might even storm the school to confront Liu Chang'an.

Better to wait until after the college entrance exam. In any case, Liu Chang'an didn't chat with her mother every day, just the occasional idle banter.

Class began, and An Nuan felt somewhat distracted. Sunlight and tree shadows fell through the window, sparse and scattered. The walls and floors of the old classroom always felt grimy, completely different from the bright, clean, freshly painted classrooms seen on television. Yet, at this moment, An Nuan felt a sense of reality; life was likely just this mundane, without so much fresh ambiguity or warm shyness. The three years of high school were coming to an end, the young girl thought with a touch of melancholy—she hadn't even been in a relationship yet.

She always felt that university romances were too realistic, lacking the raw, fresh feeling of middle or high school. An Nuan glanced at Liu Chang'an beside her, feeling inexplicably sorrowful.

"Give it back!" An Nuan slapped her phone heavily onto Liu Chang'an's book.

Liu Chang'an took the phone off the desk and tucked it into his drawer. The school was strict about students using phones, though the rules had relaxed quite a bit recently.

The Chinese class representative handed out the test papers from last week. An Nuan checked her score and was reasonably satisfied, then quickly glanced at Liu Chang'an's. His score was a little lower than hers. Watching him flip through the pages, she saw the reading comprehension section covered in red crosses, with a teacher's note left in the margin: "Do not improvise!"

An Nuan couldn't help but gloat, mocking him, "Hehe, look at you, so fond of doing reading comprehension, seems like it's no use at all."

"Have you ever heard of the Art of Dragon Slaying?" Liu Chang'an asked, closing his paper.

An Nuan's long eyelashes fluttered as she nodded. "Zhu Pingman learned the art of dragon slaying from Zhili Yi, spending a thousand gold pieces, mastering the skill in three years, only to find there were no dragons to slay."

"The Art of Dragon Slaying is not without its uses; we can also use it to describe the importance of mastering certain skills." Liu Chang'an pointed to the reading comprehension questions. "This is the Art of Dragon Slaying."

"If you said political economy was the Art of Dragon Slaying, I could understand, since it's not really used in daily life. But reading comprehension? That's just ridiculous." From seventh grade through high school, reading comprehension was the most boring and baffling subject An Nuan had ever encountered.

"I saw the news a while ago about a propaganda department meeting. Someone said that the West isn't incapable of mass work; rather, they are very good at it. Where does this manifest? For example, if we pick a random American or ordinary Western European, they all know 'democracy' and 'freedom' and call our country a dictatorship, but they can't explain the concepts of democracy and freedom or the foundations of our political system. If you debate them, they just repeat 'democracy, freedom, dictatorship' over and over." Liu Chang'an paused. "Because they aren't good at doing reading comprehension."

An Nuan couldn't help but laugh out loud. Where was this even going? Thinking of Liu Chang'an chatting with her mother, this guy really could ramble on about anything.

"The design of reading comprehension questions is meant to teach you to think: why did the author write this? What was his motivation? Did his living environment, family, or childhood experiences influence what he expressed? Are his word choices and embellishments guiding your emotions? What was the current event background when he wrote this? Did he want to achieve a specific goal? Who is the target audience? Is he speaking for a specific interest group?" Liu Chang'an pointed to the seemingly rigid and bizarre questions. "If everyone could master this and apply it, do you think it would be so easy for certain organizations or subversives to brainwash people through media? Is this not the Art of Dragon Slaying?"

An Nuan couldn't help but nod. After doing these questions for so many years, she had never thought about it this way.

"When I chat with your mother on WeChat, she often forwards articles from her social media feed. Think about it: if you mastered the various methods of reading comprehension, how could those articles meant to spread misinformation or brainwash you have any effect? Why do Western media outlets have such a strong influence? Because their readers aren't good at reading comprehension; too many people don't know how to analyze an author's stance, linguistic environment, or writing motivation." Liu Chang'an said with great regret, "It's a pity. We have the Art of Dragon Slaying taught to us from a young age, yet few believe it's useful. They can't apply it, so when they see rumors or brainwashing articles, they still think they've had an 'aha!' moment, feeling enlightened."

"You're still chatting with my mother on WeChat!" An Nuan caught the main point, staring at Liu Chang'an in disbelief.

Liu Chang'an carefully moved his phone to another pocket and then pressed his leg over it.

"Give me the phone!" An Nuan could only glare, because his pocket was in the front, near his thighs, and she would have to lean over and reach down to grab it—the movement would be too conspicuous.

"Do you understand the right to privacy?" Liu Chang'an refused. Seeing her eyes darting around, looking ready to pounce, he pointed to Gao Dewei nearby. "Don't disturb Gao Dewei's studying."

An Nuan thought about it; she could just sneak a look at her mother's phone when she got home. Since Liu Chang'an wouldn't admit he was An Nuan's deskmate, he naturally wouldn't warn her mother that her daughter might sneak a peek at her phone.

"Are you planning to go home and sneak a look at your mom's phone?" Liu Chang'an asked, watching the now-quiet An Nuan with suspicion.

An Nuan remained silent.

After school, their classmate Bai Hui came to invite An Nuan and Liu Chang'an to go singing at a KTV.

"It's just a small class get-together." Bai Hui was the organizer. "Since we have a day off tomorrow, even the boarding students can leave campus, but most are going home. There are less than twenty of us going, so we can just book a large room."

"Gao Dewei, are you going?" An Nuan asked Gao Dewei across Liu Chang'an.

"I'm not going. I have a tutoring session with Teacher Liu tonight. He said he could explain some details to me. I'll take notes and bring them to you the day after tomorrow." Gao Dewei shook his head. Teacher Liu was a relative of his family and didn't teach their class, but every teacher had their own little secrets to share regarding the college entrance exam.

"Alright, stay safe," Liu Chang'an said to Gao Dewei. Gao Dewei was the type of good student who thought about solving problems even while walking.

"I can't go either. My mom won't let me out at night," An Nuan said regretfully. "If I'm not home by eight, I'm in trouble."

After saying this, An Nuan looked at Liu Chang'an. With her and Gao Dewei not going, would it look inappropriate if he went?

"I'm fine with it," Liu Chang'an told Bai Hui.

Bai Hui gave Liu Chang'an a beautiful smile before heading off to find other classmates.

"Rumor has it you like Bai Hui. Seems it's true," An Nuan said nonchalantly.

"Rumor has it you like Chen Changxiu. Seems that's true too," Liu Chang'an said with a smile.

An Nuan felt like she was going to be infuriated by Liu Chang'an. In reality, even though they were all classmates, some people in the class were closer than others. An Nuan and Bai Hui weren't exactly on bad terms, but they certainly weren't the type to hang out together.

In their freshman year, An Nuan was already somewhat famous from middle school at the Affiliated High School and was naturally the most eye-catching girl in class. Bai Hui, however, was the lively, socially active type who could get along with many classmates. She loved organizing or participating in all the school's activities. Perhaps due to the subtle, underlying competition between girls, Bai Hui and An Nuan—the two most beautiful and prominent girls in the class—had never really interacted much from the start.

An Nuan remembered that in their freshman year, Liu Chang'an was quite reticent. Once, he had even fallen down the stairs because he was staring at Bai Hui in a daze. She felt a bit of melancholy; he was so dense, how could Bai Hui ever like someone like him?

The current Liu Chang'an was certainly no longer dense, but it was still unlikely that Bai Hui would like him, An Nuan thought with regret for Liu Chang'an, because Bai Hui was the type of girl who was very materialistic and realistic.