Chapter 69: Not one of us
After two months away, No. 27 Middle School still had its duty team standing ready at the gates. Behind his glasses, the Director of Education narrowed his small, sharp eyes and meticulously scrutinized the students entering the school.
The group walking ahead was none other than Sun Man and some of her closest friends. No. 17 Middle School did not make uniforms compulsory, so on this first day of term, the grounds and the streets outside were a sea of color, filled with students wearing all sorts of autumn clothes.
Autumn had arrived overnight. As though keeping pace with the season, the rows of paulownia trees outside the school sent their leaves spiraling down.
Sun Man and the other students could all hear the low murmurs of groups of three or five, whether they were getting off buses together, walking through the neighborhood, or taking the paths toward the classroom buildings. These voices summed up the holiday and all the novel things that had happened within their respective circles.
In the past, these discussions would invariably have been about trips taken during the holidays, abroad or within the country; some embarrassing thing someone from a certain class had done at a holiday gathering; the dark horses who had emerged in their class or year when last term's final report cards were handed out; which students from the previous senior year had stayed to repeat; or what formidable new transfer students had arrived. But generally speaking, after the surprises transfer student Su Can had brought No. 27 Middle School during the first half of the previous term, all the other transfers paled in comparison and collectively had nothing left to say.
A few more transfer students like Su Can, and No. 27 Middle School probably