This Is Actually My Student's Voice

Oubei No. 1 Middle School, Office 104 — this was the office of Fang Bai's repeating class homeroom teacher, Zhan Feng.

The office had four English teachers in total: Chen Qiao, Zhan Feng, Luo Xiaoyun, and one other male teacher.

All three female teachers were around thirty, married, and had kids.

On Saturday mornings, the repeating students had half a day of class; in the afternoon, they were off. Students back then weren't as overworked as later generations, not even losing their weekends.

The teachers were off duty too. The three women planned to gather in the office at three in the afternoon, then head to the Oubei Bus Station to check out the color TVs.

If they happened to find that the TVs hadn't sold out yet and one caught their eye, they intended to buy one.

Where else could you find such a dirt-cheap color TV?

Women were born to love shopping, and female teachers in the '90s were no different.

At two in the afternoon, the three teachers had already arrived at the office, but they hadn't left yet — they were still grading student assignments.

By three in the afternoon, they walked out of the school and soon reached the bus station area, where they noticed a stall not far off, surrounded by over a hundred onlookers inside and out.

Some passersby glanced and moved on, others lingered for a closer look, and a few were genuinely drawn in, their desire to buy sparked.

The three of them quickened their pace, following the crowd toward the stall.

"Wow, there are still this many people today. That's the TV stall over there," Chen Qiao said excitedly.

"Yeah, it's so lively."

"More lookers than buyers. Even with a discount, the TVs aren't cheap."

Dozens of meters from the stall, they could already hear the catchy loop from the loudspeaker: "Don't pass it by, don't miss the chance..."

Chen Qiao couldn't help but laugh and ask her two colleagues:

"Who recorded that voice? It sounds hilarious."

Zhan Feng listened to the loudspeaker once, and it repeated again — it was clearly on a loop.

But she had to admit, the scripted lines were pretty clever, smooth to the ear.

After hearing it a second time, though, she felt a bit puzzled:

"Huh, that voice sounds kind of familiar to me, but I can't place who it is."

"Teacher Zhan, now that you mention it, I think it sounds familiar too — really like your student Fang Bai's voice."

Reminded by her colleague, Zhan Feng thought back to Fang Bai's voice.

And sure enough, it really did sound like him.

She remembered Fang Bai giving a speech at the podium — passionate, bold, inspiring, his voice rich and magnetic.

This sales pitch now was just as passionate and magnetic, with an extra touch of hypnotic charm that got under your skin.

She felt like he could probably even pull off a comedy skit.

No, definitely could!

"He said he could get a discount price, so it looks like Fang Bai recorded the ad for the stall owner and has some kind of deal with them."

"That's possible. We'll ask in a bit."

The three chatted as they walked and soon reached the stall.

Chen Qiao pushed through the crowd first, and the others saw various TV models displayed on the stall.

In the middle of the stall, a large-screen TV was on demo, with a clear picture and vibrant colors.

Quite a few customers were carefully examining the picture quality and features, occasionally chatting with the staff.

Even though the TV prices were rock-bottom, there were still more lookers than askers. Most people gathered there mainly because of the big color TV in the center and that catchy broadcast script that got stuck in your head.

The three of them observed first, listening to how the staff introduced the products.

Among them, only Chen Qiao and Zhan Feng were serious about buying a TV, both targeting a 14-inch color TV. They'd discussed it with their families the night before and had brought the money with them that morning.

Not long after, a 21-inch color TV was sold on the spot for 1,100 yuan. The customer happily carried it off and hailed a cab on the roadside to take it home.

Seeing that customer pull out over a thousand yuan in cash, the onlookers couldn't help but envy him.

Of course, they envied the stall owner even more.

The stall owner had a large backpack, counted the money, and stuffed it inside. From the bulging bag, it was easy to guess it held a fair amount of cash.

A sales staff member announced that 65 TVs had been put out today, 30 had already been sold, and the remaining 35 would be snapped up soon. If you wanted to buy, you'd better hurry. If you didn't have enough cash, you could wait until the day after tomorrow for the third stall appearance, but the stock might not be as plentiful as today.

Chen Qiao had her eye on a Panasonic 14-inch color TV priced at 368 yuan. Curious, she asked the salesperson if the price could go any lower.

The salesperson said they'd sold hundreds of TVs at a fixed price — it was already the lowest.

Chen Qiao probed a sales staff member: "We're teachers from Oubei No. 1 Middle School. Our student Fang Bai told us there'd be a discount. Is that true?"

After saying it, she felt a bit awkward — if it turned out to be false, it'd be really embarrassing.

But she was riding on Zhan Feng's coattails, so she figured she'd ask herself.

"Oh, is that so? May I ask what your name is, teacher?" the salesperson, Li Meng, asked. Fang Bai had briefed them about this — they just couldn't mention he was the stall owner.

"My name is Chen Qiao. This colleague next to me is Zhan Feng. She wants to buy a 14-inch color TV too."

"Hold on a moment, let me check with our boss."

After a short while, Li Meng replied to Chen Qiao, "Hello, our boss said that to thank Teacher Ou Bei for his hard work with the students, Teacher Chen can get a 10% discount, and Teacher Zhan can get a 20% discount."

Chen Qiao, Zhan Feng, and the other person exchanged glances and smiled—it was true after all, Fang Bai hadn't led them on!

Suddenly, they felt a deep admiration and gratitude toward Fang Bai.

With a 10% discount, buying a 368-yuan TV would save 36.8 yuan—that was a significant amount.

And for Zhan Feng, she saved a full 73.6 yuan.

Though Chen Qiao envied Zhan Feng, there was nothing she could do about it; Fang Bai was her student, and the discount was something he'd secured for them—they were just benefiting from his help.

Without much hesitation, the two each picked out a 14-inch color TV. After checking that the sets were in good condition, they paid promptly.

Although their salaries as teachers weren't high, they had no major expenses and some savings at home, so spending two or three hundred yuan on a TV was no problem.

With the TVs in hand, Zhan Feng and Chen Qiao were overjoyed. Buying a TV worth over a thousand yuan for just two or three hundred—once they brought it home, their families would surely be thrilled.

At four in the afternoon, Fang Bai was feeling a bit tired from reading. He went downstairs to check on everyone's repair work, offered some guidance, and then headed to the stall to see how sales were going. He was a bit worried about another customer conflict like last time.

As he expected, sales were still booming.

With nothing else to do, he helped out for half an hour before his mother pushed him back, saying he didn't need to help and should go back to his books—even if he was slick with his sales pitch.

Fang Bai figured that with his mother handling the money, his father would have an easier time, and with plenty of staff on site, his help wasn't really needed. So he turned around and headed back to his rental to study.

What he didn't notice was that a classmate had come by to watch the commotion and happened to see Fang Bai selling TVs. It shocked him: This guy usually skips class, and he's here working a job?

What puzzled him was how familiar Fang Bai seemed with the staff and the boss.

It looked like he'd been working here for a long time, getting chummy with everyone.

So that's why he was so good at public speaking—he must be used to selling stuff for people.

No wonder he was so smooth-tongued.

Heh, he'd originally thought Fang Bai had some connection with the Principal.

But as it turned out, he was probably just faking sick notes to skip class and work, no different from a street punk.

What this classmate didn't know was that if he'd gotten closer to Fang Bai, he might have overheard how Fang Bai greeted the boss, and he wouldn't have jumped to such a big misunderstanding.

But afraid that Fang Bai might recognize him, he deliberately avoided Fang Bai's gaze. With the crowd noisy and chaotic, Fang Bai truly didn't notice him.