The last two morning periods were physics. Their physics teacher, Wang Deshan, was a little old man in his fifties, an experienced teacher with a good sense of humor. The class liked him quite a lot.
Old Wang wasn't their homeroom teacher, so he didn't have to launch into a long speech before class. He took out a test paper and got straight to the point. "Everyone, look at the third question from the end. This type hasn't appeared on the exam for the past two years, so it's definitely coming up this year. Those ten points are right there for the taking. Take them or leave them..."
After two relaxed, enjoyable physics periods, the bell rang.
Old Wang never ran overtime. He immediately tucked his teaching materials under his arm and dismissed the class. Some students stretched, while others put their heads straight down on their desks to sleep, but most went to take care of lunch first.
Zhixin Middle School had a cafeteria, but students were also allowed to go home for lunch or eat out. Neither Chen Zhu nor Huang Bohan came from a particularly wealthy family, so they usually ate at school.
The school cafeteria's food was predictably mediocre. After shoveling down a few bites, Chen Zhu planned to drag Huang Bohan off campus for a haircut.
Huang Bohan didn't understand. "Once a month is enough for a haircut. Didn't you just get one last week?"
Bohan had no concept of managing his appearance yet. Chen Zhu wasn't surprised; he had been exactly the same before.
Chen Zhu rubbed his thick hair, then opened his palm, revealing a trace of grease that gleamed in the light. "Don't you think this looks awful?"
"Nope!"
Huang Bohan looked completely serious. Plenty of boys in their class looked like that.
"Unbelievable! Just tell me whether you're coming."
Chen Zhu was ready to go get his hair cut alone.
Huang Bohan hesitated coyly. "Then you have to buy me a Coke afterward."
Once outside the school gates, Chen Zhu wasn't picky. He chose a random barbershop, went inside, and asked the stylist, "Do you know the American spiky crop?"
The stylist clearly wasn't keeping up with international trends. He replied stiffly that he had no idea what "front spikes or back spikes" meant.
Students only got a few kinds of haircuts back then:
One was the military-style flattop, square, sharply defined, and perfectly level, making the wearer look thoroughly patriotic;
The second was what Chen Zhu currently had: slightly long, slightly thick hair that usually just got a simple trim;
The third was the rural scene-kid look favored by artsy boys. Stylists loved that one most because styling brought in more money.
Chen Zhu didn't intend to change shops, though. He simply said, "Then thin out the middle and cut the sides short."
With specific instructions, the stylist knew what to do. Huang Bohan initially watched from the side, but eventually grew sleepy and slumped onto the sofa, falling asleep.
When he blearily opened his eyes, Chen Zhu's haircut was almost finished.
Huang Bohan ambled over to the mirror, about to ask the time, when he suddenly froze and rubbed his eyes hard.
Who was that guy in the mirror?
Chen Zhu had fair skin, taking more after his mother, Mao Xiaoqin. But his hair used to be too long, and he had been introverted and lacking in confidence, often walking with his head down. As a result, nobody had noticed that good feature.
Now that he had a neat, short haircut, it showed off not only his fair skin but also his high forehead. When he smiled, his eyes were confident and composed, his teeth clean and white. He was the very picture of a sunny high school boy.
Huang Bohan had never imagined that the deskmate who'd sat beside him for two years could look almost stunning just by lifting his head...
Okay, maybe "stunning" was pushing it. But damn, he really was kind of handsome.
An inexplicable sense of crisis rose in Bohan's heart. We agreed we'd both be nerdy losers who only knew how to study. Now you've suddenly turned handsome. Where does that leave me?
Although Huang Bohan was utterly astonished, Chen Zhu was actually still a little dissatisfied.
For some reason, every haircut seemed to look its best halfway through. Once it was completely finished, it somehow didn't look quite as good anymore.
After they returned to the classroom, Chen Zhu's sudden change in appearance caused no great stir, just as expected.
Students in the advanced class were rarely the loud, attention-seeking sort. Only a few boys he got along with came over to tease him. "Not bad. You look like a different person."
The four afternoon periods were chemistry and Chinese. After March began, Yuecheng's weather gradually turned hot, and occasionally their test papers already felt as though they were sticking to their palms.
That would become more noticeable as time went on, until branches outside the windows grew wild and cicadas cried incessantly. The sweltering youth of this year's graduating class would come to an end on June 7.
The advanced-class teachers remained meticulous in their teaching, but Chen Zhu occasionally drifted off. Sometimes he felt he had fully adjusted to his final year of high school; at other times, he remembered his years drafting official documents at the provincial government compound and serving on rural assignments to alleviate poverty.
When the four periods finally ended, exhaustion was plain on everyone's faces. Huang Bohan closed his textbook and smacked his lips. "That's weird. He didn't come over this afternoon."
"Who?"
Chen Zhu asked.
"Li Jianming."
Huang Bohan gave a goofy laugh. "That guy comes to see Song Shiwei every day. Did he forget today?"
Chen Zhu rolled his eyes. Song Shiwei would have been delighted never to see that clinging pest again.
Huang Bohan seemed to have jinxed it. Only a few minutes into evening self-study, a clatter of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor. Li Jianming arrived at Class 11's doorway, surrounded by several boys.
For some reason, he had made a special effort to dress up today. He had not only combed his hair to look grown-up but also put on an ill-fitting suit. Carrying a cake in his left hand and a bouquet of bright red roses in his right, he called to Song Shiwei from the doorway:
"Weiwei, it's my eighteenth birthday today. I sincerely invite you to celebrate with me!"
The students looked up at Li Jianming, then at Song Shiwei. The previously quiet classroom immediately broke into a hubbub.
"Well, damn!"
So this was what he'd been waiting for, Chen Zhu thought. He stayed away all day, then showed up with his big move. Let's see how our school beauty handles this.
Song Shiwei remained just as she always was. She didn't even look up, keeping her head down over her exercises.
At that moment, it seemed that hers was the only pen scratching across paper in the entire classroom. Everyone else was watching the spectacle.
Seeing Song Shiwei remain so cold, especially in front of all his buddies, Li Jianming felt embarrassed. His lips moved, and he called to her again. "Weiwei, could you just have one piece of cake? It would make this the happiest coming-of-age celebration..."
Smack!
Song Shiwei abruptly put down her pen and cut him off coldly. "Don't call me Weiwei!"
"I..."
A fleeting flash of anger crossed Li Jianming's face, then gave way to an expression of frightened dismay.
This guy really can act, Chen Zhu thought.
The high school students in the classroom had no such insight into people. They were emotional, kind, and innocent-idiotic. Most thought Song Shiwei was being rather heartless. It was his eighteenth birthday, after all. What harm could one piece of cake do?
But it never occurred to them that, given Li Jianming's character, accepting a piece of cake now might lead to who knew what more outrageous demands later.
From the back row, Chen Zhu couldn't see Song Shiwei's expression, but he could sense how tightly she held her face. She probably found this way of pursuing her intensely repulsive.
Thinking about it, she really was in a helpless situation. She had just been minding her own business at school when a delinquent suddenly latched onto her.
Chen Zhu thought for a moment, then quietly asked Huang Bohan, "Which class officer is in charge of tonight's self-study? Discipline's gone completely out the window."
To lighten their workload, the teachers usually assigned class officers to maintain order during evening self-study. Huang Bohan checked the date. "It's Friday. The academic representative, Kang Liangsong, should be in charge."
Chen Zhu asked again, "Will he do anything about it?"
"Unlikely!"
Chewing his fingernail, Huang Bohan answered honestly. "The whole class knows Kang Liangsong likes Song Shiwei. He definitely wants to do something, but maybe he's afraid of trouble. Anyway, he's never stepped forward."
Chen Zhu nodded slightly in understanding.
Top students were greenhouse flowers, cherished by their parents and teachers. Outside their studies, they had never weathered any storms.
Standing up for Song Shiwei at a time like this meant confronting Li Jianming, one of the school's notorious troublemakers. Not everyone had that kind of courage.
Hadn't he himself been exactly the same back then?
Seventeen years ago, even if Chen Zhu had disliked someone like Li Jianming, he would only have sat silently at his desk with his head down, no different from Kang Liangsong.
That wasn't cowardice. With too little experience of society, they didn't know what consequences or harm stepping forward might bring. Their natural instinct to seek advantage and avoid danger simply led them to remain silent.
But Chen Zhu had been reborn now.
He could openly greet Yu Xian;
And he could do things he had once dared to do only in his imagination!
"Bohan."
Chen Zhu suddenly said, "What do you think if I go over and drive Li Jianming away?"
"You?"
Huang Bohan's first reaction was, "What's any of this got to do with you?"
"Nothing."
Chen Zhu's tone was calm and candid. "I just don't like watching him harass the girls in our class every day, acting like us boys don't even exist."
Meanwhile, the buddies Li Jianming had brought were still laughing and egging things on. "Come on, sis-in-law, just have a piece of cake. Sis-in-law, just have a piece..."
Huang Bohan was actually a boy with a strong sense of justice. Their brazen attitude did make him angry, but he soon began to shrink back again. "I heard Li Jianming knows quite a few people outside school."
Chen Zhu smiled. "They're just a bunch of lowlifes."
Chen Zhu had served as an official on a village poverty-alleviation assignment. As the saying went, harsh lands bred unruly people. While dealing with a grave-relocation issue back then, he had once been surrounded by villagers from a local clan wielding knives and clubs.
In the heat of the moment, those villagers really would have attacked. Compared with them, these school delinquents weren't worth a damn.
Huang Bohan didn't know why his best friend had suddenly become so bold. But Chen Zhu's confident, fearless manner stirred courage in him too. He swallowed and asked, "How are you planning to drive him off?"
Chen Zhu considered it. "By avoiding a confrontation as much as possible, of course. Oh, right, do I hold any position in the class?"
As an official within the system, Chen Zhu understood better than anyone the importance of having legitimate grounds to act. If an ordinary nobody stepped forward, a single "Who gives you the right to interfere?" could shut him down.
But it seemed he had never been a class officer throughout his school years. That was normal enough, really. Why would a teacher entrust an introverted, meek student with helping manage the class?
Huang Bohan confirmed this, pursing his lips and adding, "You've only ever been on sweeping duty."
"Was I really that much of a nobody?"
Chen Zhu rubbed his chin for a while, then made to stand up.
"Wait!"
Huang Bohan reached out to stop him. "Would they listen to some kid on cleaning duty?"
"What do you mean, cleaning duty? That's just your unofficial term."
Chen Zhu rose with easy composure. "The official title is director of the Public Sanitation Management Committee of Senior Year Class 11."
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(End of chapter)
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