Chapter 8: Reunion on a Sunny Day

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Reunion on a Sunny Day Seeing Xiao Zhijie like this, Feng Yiping was full of joy, but also a little bit of a smile. At this time, Xiao Zhijie didn't have the appearance of a simple-minded person hiding cleverness, but was a completely obese child.

Before lunch, all the students who had been the farthest away had reported for duty, and the 52 of them filled the classroom to capacity. Across the aisle, Feng Yiping's left hand was still sitting next to Huang Jingping, a girl with short, shoulder-length hair, a round face, wearing a white blouse with a ruffled collar, a black pleated knee-length skirt, and a pair of white sandals.

Feng Yiping glanced at her a few times without being noticed. This was the girl he had admired when he was in love for the first time. In an instant, he felt like a scoundrel again. She was still a 13-year-old girl!

There is always such a conflict between the immature body and the mature soul.

Wang Yumin first introduced herself, then moved on to learning, talking about the prospects of studying hard and the differences between junior high school and elementary school. This was her first time as a homeroom teacher, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, she would be with this class until they graduated from junior high school, so she had put in some effort over the past few days and stayed up late writing out her speech.

Next, she directly appointed the class officers. A male student from the town was appointed as the monitor. A tall boy who was obviously a few years older than the rest of the class was appointed as the life committee member, a thin, tall student surnamed Tang was the sports committee member... The girl sitting next to Xiao Zhijie was the learning committee member. Feng Yiping knew that she was the daughter of a vice-principal. The girl in his row of seats by the wall, Wen Hong, was the literature and art committee member.

After the cadres were decided, Wang Yumin took the students to the dormitory to settle in.

It was only when Feng Yiping mentioned the dormitory that he thought about this issue, and he couldn't help but feel some toothache, and for a moment he forgot to get up. Wen Hong stood up with a black travel bag, and Feng Wen also got up with luggage in his arms, preparing to walk out. In fact, his body leaned back and leaned against Wen Hong's body—this kid is precocious. Wen Hong lifted the bag in her hand and slammed it forward, hitting Feng Wen in the back. 'What's going on? If you're not leaving, get out of the way!'

Feng Wen smiled, pushed Feng Yiping as if nothing had happened, and said, 'Hey, let's go, to the dormitory.'

Feng Yiping then came back to his senses. The distance between the two rows was very narrow. If someone sat there, there would probably be a fist-sized gap between their back and the back row. He was sitting on the outside, so if he didn't get up, the two inside wouldn't be able to get out.

He quickly got up and moved aside, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry," to Wen Hong, who was a little angry.

While he was getting his luggage out of the desk, he heard Huang Jingping and her desk mate next door whispering as they packed their luggage, words like 'stupid' and 'dumb' were faintly audible, along with light giggles. With his luggage clamped between his arms, he showed eight teeth in a sheepish grin and gave them a standard 'heh heh' smile, which made them laugh.

The four classrooms to the right of the school building housed two second-grade classes and three first-grade classes, taking up three classrooms. The one left vacant at the back was also used as a dormitory for the third-grade boys.

There were a total of six dormitory rooms on the slope. The two rooms on the far left were for the girls from the whole school, and the remaining four rooms were crammed with more than 200 boys from the first and second grades.

Feng Yiping estimated that each room was about half the size of the first house he bought later, about 40 to 50 square metres, and that there were 50 to 60 people crammed in, so you can imagine the density.

Fortunately, it was a tile-roofed house, and it was quite high, so it didn't feel so oppressive. The beds were of course large wooden bunk beds with two levels, about one and a half metres wide. Instead of two, each level slept four classmates, eight in total! Gee, it was really hard to turn over, so Feng Yiping always slept very quietly afterwards, and it was a habit he got used to during those three years.

Their names were written on the bedposts. He, Xiao Zhijie, and two other classmates shared one bed, so there was of course no room for four people to have four duvets. Two people on one side, two on the other, so he spread his duvet on the bed and covered Xiao Zhigang's. So they often joked to each other's wives later that when they were teenagers they slept in the same bed and shared the same duvet for three years!

It's easy for teenagers to get to know each other. While making the bed, they chatted: 'Xiao Zhijie, right? I'm Feng Yiping, from Fushan Township Elementary School.'

'Oh, Fushan Township, Feng Yiping? You were third in the town comprehensive competition last semester, right?'

Feng Yiping said, "I was sixth, from Hope Elementary School," Xiao Zhijie said.

'Hope Primary School, that's the best primary school in town!' said a classmate in the upper bunk, with his head poking out from the side.

Before Xiao Zhijie could say anything, someone next to him answered, "That's right, not only is the hardware good, the teaching staff are also the best!'

Needless to say, this must also be someone from Hope Primary School, who has been exposed to this kind of vocabulary and can now say it.

The student who started it all said, "Yes, I heard that when the ribbon was cut the year before, there were dozens of cars there.'

Feng Yiping knew this. At that time, the Project Hope had just started, and this Hope Primary School in the countryside was one of the first few Hope Primary Schools built in the country. When it was put into use the year before, the then First Secretary of the Secretariat of the Communist Youth League Central Committee, and later the Prime Minister, also came in person to the scene and was one of the ribbon-cutters.

Because this was the first Hope Primary School in the county and the province, the central authorities, together with the heads of the relevant departments at the provincial, municipal and county levels, and dozens of cars on the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, were indeed a rare grand occasion in this poor and remote area over the years.

He invited Xiao Zhijie to find Wang Changning on the other side of the dormitory and go down to eat together. Feng Yiping often saw Wang Changning when he went to his grandfather's house, and the two families were also able to become close, so although they didn't speak much before, they could be considered acquainted.

The school cafeteria had three cooks: one who cooked in a small kitchen and was responsible for the teachers' cafeteria, only cooking dishes, and occasionally leftovers, which were also open to students. However, the dish cost a few cents, and very few students went to buy it.

The other two were responsible for all the rice, and luckily only cooked the rice, not the dishes. It was still a clay stove, burning firewood, with a very large pot. It takes skill to cook rice in such a large pot, and it is easy to end up with undercooked rice. However, the rice tasted really good when it was done, especially the golden brown rice crust.

There were only two windows, and luckily they only served the rice, and it was all 4 taels, so it wasn't slow.

In no time at all, the three of them had become quite familiar with each other. They combined the fresh dishes they had brought together: Feng Yiping's was fried tofu, Xiao Zhijie's was egg and loofah, and Wang Changning's was green beans with chilli. Together, they were even better than what they usually ate at home.

After lunch, they said it was nap time, but they had just arrived in a new environment, surrounded by new classmates, and they were all quite excited, chatting away or wandering around the campus and its surroundings.

Feng Yiping suggested that they go for a walk by the river, where it was cooler. When they arrived at the river, the three of them felt very comfortable as they walked barefoot on the snow-white riverbank. Feng Yiping always felt that the quality of the sand here was better than most of the beaches on Hainan Island. You just have to be careful, because every now and then there is a big round pit on the riverbank, with very deep water, left behind by the washing away of iron sand. Every few years, there are always people who are superstitiously confident in their swimming abilities, mostly teenagers about the same age as them, who go into similar pits and never come up again.

They sat down under a willow tree by the river and said, 'Teacher, and also that girl in school and in the class is the prettiest, just like Feng Yiping. Xiao Zhijie also thinks that Huang Jingping is pretty.

There's no way around it, brother. Not only is it someone who listens to you when you're depressed; someone who comforts and consoles you when you're downhearted, and who eventually gives you a shoulder to cry on and says that everything will be okay; someone who silently does their best to help you when you're in trouble; it can also be someone who likes the same girl as you.

Of course, for them at this time, it is far from love or affection. At best, they just find the girl pleasing to the eye and comfortable to be around. It is nowhere near the level of young Werther's feelings for Charlotte in 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'. Even if they vaguely feel that their feelings are like love, they are taught by their parents and teachers to consciously and automatically extinguish this thought immediately. However, when faced with it, they will still reveal some of their feelings.

They then talked about Class 2. Generally speaking, the standard of the girls in Class 2 was lower, except for a girl surnamed Hu whom Xiao Zhijie knew. He hoped that his primary school classmates could be at the level of Wen Hong, and the others were just average.

Feng Yiping felt like laughing. It seems that no matter if you are a teenage boy or a middle-aged man, there is one eternal topic of conversation.

He also remembered the willow tree behind him. Three years later, he knew that he was still more than 20 points short of the score needed to get into the county high school. When he saw his results, he must have been so frustrated that he felt like giving up.

So after leaving school, he sat under the same willow tree for an hour or so. It was probably similar to the state of enlightenment described in later xianxia novels: his mind was clear, he was unattached to external things, and it seemed as if he was thinking of nothing, but also as if he was thinking of everything. It was as if he had entered a state of suspended animation, as if his entire being had gone into a state of suspended animation, as if everything around him had ceased to exist. Perhaps in the next moment, his soul would leave his body, achieving great fulfilment and liberation.

If no one disturbed him, if at the end of the day a villager crossing the river didn't wake him up, he might have just sat there until he turned into a statue.

When he woke up from his daze, he was still in a daze, thinking that he had only been sitting there for a short while. When he looked at the shadow of the willow tree, he realised that it must have been midday when he first sat down, and the shadow of the tree had just covered him as he sat under it. Now the shadow of the willow tree was stretched long on the ground, and he was completely sitting in the hot sun. He was steaming hot, and his head and face were covered in sweat, but he couldn't feel any of it.

That was the only time in his life that he had been in that state.

From the moment he found out his score, he was in a daze. The dream his parents had always hoped for, and which he had fantasised about countless times, of going to high school, going to university, and then getting a good job, was mercilessly shattered! For the next few days, he was in a daze, and his temper was particularly bad. It wasn't until later that his parents enrolled him in the most expensive class at the county technical secondary school that he began to feel better.

At this moment, Feng Yiping was sitting here again, thinking about the past, not to say the future of the past. He felt quite sentimental for a moment.

Unconsciously, time passed, and the bell for class rang from the school. Feng Yiping patted the willow tree behind him and said silently in his heart, 'This kind of situation will never happen again!'

He put on his shoes and ran towards the gate with the two of them.

Wang Yumin was standing under a sycamore tree in front of the playground, holding a small shovel in her hand. She waved to let them pass when she saw them come in. Feng Yiping nudged Wang Changning, telling him to go back to Class 2, and he and Xiao Zhijie ran over.

Two months of summer vacation had passed. Although the third graders had also been kept in school for extra lessons during the summer vacation, the playground had not been used much, so now many parts of it were overgrown with weeds.

In one corner of the playground, a dozen boys from the same class were crouching on the ground weeding. They obediently took small shovels from their homeroom teacher and, seeing the short ones, pulled them out by hand, while the long ones they dug up with the shovels. Half a period passed, and they finally completed the task. They had dug out small pits in the playground, and the weeds were completely extinct.

Well, they were covered in sweat, which was unavoidable.

There was nowhere to take a shower, either, as the school didn't have the hardware for a shower room, so they had to use a basin to draw water from outside the kitchen, and then go back to the dormitory to wipe themselves off a bit.

In the afternoon, there were no formal classes yet, and no teachers were watching. Everyone was studying in their classrooms by themselves, with many chatting in a low voice, while others were sleeping on their desks.

The classroom was filled with the fragrance of new books. Those who had paid the tuition fees had already received their textbooks, but the rest, including Feng Yiping, had not yet received them. It was estimated that they would not be distributed until tomorrow.

Feng Wen also hadn't received any new books, but was now leafing through a 16-kaisai book. Feng Yiping knew that it was the new History textbook, and that it must be inside Wen Hong's possession.

Feng Wen gloated, 'Got caught leaving school and had to go weed the lawn?'

Feng Yiping took out Feng Haitao's old textbook and replied, "Yeah, it's a bad start!'

'Pfft!" Laughter came from both sides.

The four afternoon classes passed in a flash, and Feng Yiping even borrowed Wen Hong's English textbook and flipped through it. He now found it very easy. First-year English was very basic, and although he had returned many of the textbooks he had studied in vocational school for three years, he had still retained some. Coupled with the fact that he had watched so many American dramas and Hollywood blockbusters online, he had picked up some English over the years. The main thing was that he later travelled with his family to Southeast Asia many times. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he found a girl from the university and received re-education with his wife together. For four hours a week for three months, he made up for his deficiencies. Of course, his pronunciation was not accurate, but it was no problem for him to handle some communication during the trip. Therefore, at least now, these simple conversations in the first grade textbook are completely fine.

At dinner, the three of them still gathered together and cleaned up the remaining fresh food.

After dinner, there was still nearly an hour before study hall started, so Feng Yiping asked Xiao Zhijie and Wang Changning to go to the dormitory to get towels, which they slipped into their waists. They still walked towards the river, but not to see the scenery, but to take a shower.

Feng Wen saw their bulging waists and followed them. Sёarch* The Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

They walked out of the school gate and followed the river downstream. After about a mile, there was a bend, where the trees along the riverbank were thick and could effectively block views of the outside world. In fact, they would bathe here every summer night for the next two years, but on this first day, Feng Yiping had already brought them here.

The four of them were young men, and after dinner, with no one else around, they quickly stripped down to their skivvies and dog-paddled in the shallow river. Feng Yiping was a true dog-paddler; he had never been able to swim.

Luckily, no teachers were waiting for them when they returned to school this time.

On the first night of junior high school, Feng Yiping, 12, was unable to sleep. After the lights were turned off at 9:40, his classmates fell asleep one after the other, listening to the buzzing of the mosquitoes outside the mosquito net; the squeaking sound of the bed caused by rolling over; the snoring that came and went; the teeth grinding sound from the other side of the bed; and the occasional indistinct words of sleep talk from the corner...

Feng Yiping not only has the bad habit of being bed-sensitive, but is also particularly sensitive to sounds when he sleeps. When he sleeps, he cannot leave his watch or alarm clock in the bedroom. Not only does he hear the ticking of the alarm clock, but he can also hear the sound of the second hand of the watch on the bedside table as it moves. How can he sleep in this situation!

He hadn't lived in a dormitory for many years, let alone slept in a bed where he couldn't even roll over. So he just listened to the sonata of the bedroom, stared out the window, and in the bright moonlight, the bushes swayed randomly with the sound of insects chirping, along with the occasional breeze.

He watched for most of the night, until the sound of a cock crowing in the distance lulled him to sleep.