Chapter 8

Seeing Xiao Zhijie in his current state, Feng Yiping felt a mix of joy and amusement. At this moment, Xiao Zhijie didn't have the shrewdness hidden beneath his simple appearance; he was just a chubby, naive child.

Before lunch, the farthest classmate had already reported in. The classroom was packed with 52 students. Across the aisle, to Feng Yiping's left, sat Huang Jingping, a girl with a bob cut, a round face, wearing a white blouse with a ruffled collar, a black pleated skirt that went past her knees, and a pair of white sandals.

Feng Yiping glanced at her a few times without being obvious. She was the girl he had once admired in his early infatuation. Instantly, he felt a bit dirty, thinking, "She's still just a 13-year-old girl!"

A mature soul in a young body always leads to such conflicts.

Wang Yumin introduced herself first, then moved on to talk about the importance of studying, the differences between middle school and elementary school, and the prospects of good study. This was her first time as a homeroom teacher, and if nothing went wrong, she would stay with this class until they graduated from middle school. Therefore, she had spent several nights writing this speech.

Next, she directly appointed the class officers. A male student from the town was appointed as the class president. A tall student, who was clearly a few years older than the others, was appointed as the life committee member. A tall, thin student surnamed Tang was appointed as the sports committee member... The girl sitting next to Xiao Zhijie was appointed as the study committee member, and Feng Yiping knew she was the daughter of a vice-principal. The girl sitting next to him by the wall, Wen Hong, was appointed as the cultural committee member.

After the appointments, Wang Yumin led the students to the dormitory to settle in.

Mentioning the dormitory, Feng Yiping suddenly remembered the issue and felt a bit uncomfortable, momentarily forgetting to stand up. Wen Hong, carrying a black travel bag, stood up, and Feng Wen, holding his luggage, was about to walk out, but his body leaned back, pressing against Wen Hong—this boy was quite precocious. Wen Hong lifted her bag and pushed it forward, hitting Feng Wen's back. "What's going on? If you're not going, move aside!"

Feng Wen laughed and pushed Feng Yiping, "Hey, let's go, to the dormitory."

Feng Yiping finally came to his senses. The space between the rows was very narrow, and with people sitting there, there was only a small gap between the back of the person in front and the person behind. Since he was sitting on the outer side, the two people inside couldn't get out if he didn't stand up.

He quickly stood up and moved aside, "Oh, sorry," he said to Wen Hong, who looked a bit angry.

As he was taking his luggage from the desk, he heard Huang Jingping and her desk mate sorting their luggage and whispering, with words like "stupid" and "dull" and a light chuckle. He held his luggage and smiled with eight teeth, a very standard "hehe" smile, which made them feel a bit embarrassed.

On the right side of the school, four classrooms were used: two for the second grade, one for the third grade, and the remaining one, which was at the back, was converted into a dormitory for the third-grade boys.

The dormitory on the slope had six large rooms in total. The two rooms on the far left were for all the girls in the school, and the remaining four rooms housed over 200 boys from the first and second grades.

Feng Yiping estimated that each room was about half the size of his first apartment, around 40 to 50 square meters, and had to accommodate 50 to 60 people. You can imagine the density.

Fortunately, it was a tile-roofed house, which made it feel less cramped. The beds were large wooden bunk beds, about 1.2 meters wide. Each lower bunk was not for two but for four students, and each upper bunk for four as well—eight students per bed! It was really hard to turn over, so Feng Yiping always slept very neatly, a habit he developed over the three years.

The names were posted on the bedposts. He and Xiao Zhijie, along with two other students, shared a bed. Of course, there wasn't enough space for four people to each have their own blanket. Two people at each end, they shared blankets. Feng Yiping's blanket was on the bed, and he used Xiao Zhijie's blanket. So, they often joked to their wives later, "When we were teenagers, we shared a bed and even slept together for three years!"

Teenagers get along easily. While setting up the beds, they chatted. "Xiao Zhijie, right? I'm Feng Yiping, from Fushan Primary School."

"Oh, Fushan Primary School, Feng Yiping? You were third in the town's comprehensive competition last semester, right!"

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

"Hope Primary School, that's the best primary school in the town!" a student from the upper bunk said, leaning over.

Before Xiao Zhijie could respond, someone else chimed in, "That's right, not only is the hardware the best, but the teachers are the best too!"

Obviously, this student was also from Hope Primary School, and these words came naturally to him.

The student who started the conversation said, "Yes, I heard that when they had the ribbon-cutting ceremony two years ago, there were dozens of cars."

Feng Yiping knew this. The Hope Project had just started, and this Hope Primary School in the town was one of the first few in the country. Two years ago, when it was put into use, the then Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, who later became the Premier, personally attended the ceremony and cut the ribbon.

Since it was the first Hope Primary School in the county and the province, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by officials from the central government, as well as provincial, city, and county levels, with dozens of cars, a rare sight in this poor area.

He invited Xiao Zhijie and found Wang Changning on the other side of the dormitory, and they went down to eat together. Feng Yiping often saw Wang Changning at his grandfather's house, and the two families were related, so although they hadn't talked much before, they were familiar with each other.

The school canteen had three cooks. One was responsible for the teachers' canteen, cooking only dishes, and occasionally, the leftover dishes were available to students, but few students bought them as they cost a few cents per dish.

The other two were responsible for cooking the rice. Fortunately, they only cooked rice, not dishes. They used a traditional stove with firewood and a large pot. Cooking such a large pot of rice required skill, as it was easy to end up with half-cooked rice. However, when cooked well, the rice tasted great, especially the golden crispy rice at the bottom of the pot. Of course, this was usually not for them.

There were only two windows, but since they only served rice and it was always 4 liang (about 200 grams), it wasn't slow.

In a short time, the three of them had become quite familiar. They pooled their fresh dishes: Feng Yiping had fried tofu, Xiao Zhijie had stir-fried eggs with loofah, and Wang Changning had stir-fried green beans with chili. Together, it was better than what they usually ate at home.

After lunch, it was nap time, but in a new environment with new classmates, everyone was excited and chatted or wandered around the school. The teachers didn't care much today.

Feng Yiping suggested, "Let's go to the river, it's cooler there." At the river, the three of them walked barefoot on the white sand, feeling very comfortable. Feng Yiping always thought the quality of the sand here was better than most beaches in Hainan. However, they had to be careful, as there were large, deep holes in the sand, left from iron sand mining. Every few years, someone, usually a teenager around their age, would go into one of these holes and never come out.

They sat under a willow tree by the river and talked about teachers, the school, and which girl in the class was the prettiest. Like Feng Yiping, Xiao Zhijie also thought Huang Jingping was nice.

There's no way around it; brothers are not only there to listen to your troubles when you're down, to comfort and support you, and to help you in times of need, but they might also like the same girl.

Of course, at this age, they were far from talking about love. At most, they found a girl pleasant to look at and felt comfortable around her, far from the intensity of "The Sorrows of Young Werther." Even if they vaguely felt it was love, the constant advice from parents and teachers made them quickly suppress such thoughts. However, they couldn't help but show some of it when they were together.

They then talked about the second class. Overall, the girls in the second class were not as good, except for a girl surnamed Hu, whom Xiao Zhijie knew from Hope Primary School, who was on par with Wen Hong. The others were average.

Feng Yiping found it amusing that, whether it was teenage boys or grown men, this topic was always a constant.

He remembered the willow tree behind them. Three years later, when he found out he was 20 points short of the county high school admission score, he was devastated. He sat under this tree for about an hour, in a state similar to the enlightenment described in later fantasy novels—his mind was clear, and he felt detached from the world, as if he had entered a state of suspended animation. Everything around him seemed to disappear, and his soul might have left his body at any moment.

If no one had disturbed him, if a villager crossing the river hadn't woken him up, he might have sat there until he turned to stone.

When he came to, he was still dazed, thinking he had only sat for a short while. Looking at the shadow of the willow tree, he realized it had been hours. When he first sat down, it was noon, and the shadow of the tree covered him. Now, the shadow was long, and he was sitting in the full sun, sweating profusely, but he hadn't felt it.

Such a state only happened once in his life.

From the moment he learned his score, he was in shock. The dream of going to high school, then university, and finding a good job, which his parents had always hoped for and he had often fantasized about, was cruelly shattered. The future was foggy, and he saw no way out. For the next few days, he was in a daze, and his temper was particularly bad until his parents enrolled him in the most expensive class at the county vocational school.

Now, sitting here again, thinking about the past, he felt quite emotional.

Unconsciously, time passed, and the school bell rang. Feng Yiping patted the willow tree and silently said, "This will never happen again!"

He put on his shoes and ran to the gate with the other two.

Wang Yumin was standing under a sycamore tree on the playground, holding a small shovel. Seeing them come in, she waved them over. Feng Yiping pushed Wang Changning to go back to the second class and ran over with Xiao Zhijie.

After two months