Chapter 45: 18 yuan, thank you
For a small city like Xiahai, the most heart-stopping things in life were not the warplanes patrolling Kosovo's skies or the missiles streaking through them. Nor were they the carrier groups advancing across the ocean, or the prophecies that the world would collapse in 2000, beyond the end of the century.
Life was simply this: after the sun rose over the city each day, families washed up, ate breakfast, then went off to their respective jobs or to face another day of school.
Mistakes at work, strained relationships with colleagues, secret scheming. Unfinished homework, an annoying test handed out by some teacher, two prominent students getting together. These were all events capable of stirring up waves in everyday life.
After Monday's flag-raising ceremony, however, more than half the students at City First Middle School had witnessed that heart-stopping scene in the chilly morning. Many of them certainly did not know Tang Wu, but that did not stop them from sizing up the model students and outstanding student leaders onstage. After all, although City First Middle School had beautiful girls in abundance, a beauty who was also a top student receiving schoolwide recognition possessed both looks and talent. Yet clearly, after heated discussions had established which girl attracted the most attention, before anyone had even finished investigating her measurements, background, and details, she had already been declared taken. The boy next door had beaten them to it.
Some raised their thumbs in admiration; others ground their teeth in resentment, burning with jealousy. There were even quite a few who went home so out of sorts that they lost several rounds of StarCraft.
When Su Can got up that morning, Zeng was already getting milk and eggs ready. After eating, he shouldered his schoolbag and hurried