9. Just think of yourself as someone sent by God
The first week of school was spent on military training. The school's policy was that since classes hadn't officially started yet, evening self-study wasn't required. However, the classrooms were open, so those who wished to stay could arrange their own study schedules.
So, after the first day of military training, at night, all the lights in the classrooms of the first teaching building of Qingshi High School for the first grade were turned on.
Xu Wenqiang, however, never stayed. After each day's military training, she returned to the classroom to drink some water, rest for a bit, and then headed home. She'd cook dinner at home, then take it to the farmers' market to eat with Xu Yanmei. Afterward, she'd help Xu Yanmei sell her wares.
On the third day, just as Xu Wenqiang was about to leave with her schoolbag on her back, Lin Tong called out to her, "Xu Wenqiang, aren't you going to evening study again?"
Since Lin Tong and Xu Wenqiang became deskmates, they had military training during the day and Xu Wenqiang went home at night, so the two of them haven't spoken much to each other until now.
"No more." Xu Wenqiang said.
"You are the only one in our class who doesn't attend evening self-study now," said Lin Tong.
"Really?" Knowing that Lin Tong's reminder was well-intentioned, Xu Wenqiang could only play dumb: "Since you're all here, I'm not missing one. I have things to do back home, so I'm leaving first."
Xu Wenqiang came out of the classroom and ran into her head teacher Fu Dongqing. When Fu Dongqing saw Xu Wenqiang carrying her schoolbag, his expression faded.
Xu Wenqiang knew she was not welcome, so she wanted to slip away after saying hello, but Fu Dongqing stopped her: "Xu Wenqiang, wait a moment."
Xu Wenqiang had no choice but to stop. She thought it was because she didn't attend the evening self-study class, so she smiled carefully and said, "Teacher, I won't attend the evening self-study class because I really have something to do at home-"
"I don't care whether you attend evening self-study or not." Fu Dongqing interrupted Xu Wenqiang, "Teacher Wang came to me and said he wants you to be the math class representative. I want to hear your thoughts."
Xu Wenqiang said without hesitation: "Teacher, I don't have any ideas. I will follow your arrangements."
The issue of math class representatives is the responsibility of teachers Wang Rui and Fu Dongqing. Xu Wenqiang feels that as a student, her idea is "no idea."
Fu Dongqing had been a teacher for so many years, and she believed she couldn't hide her students' thoughts in front of her. Xu Wenqiang, while outstanding in math, ranked last overall and showed no ambition. She didn't hesitate or flinch when she said she had no thoughts, clearly not wanting to fight for them and only wanting to leave. Wang Rui had actually argued with her in front of so many people just to make her the math class representative. What a waste of affection.
"Okay, go now." Fu Dongqing understood what was going on and stopped caring about her.
"Goodbye, teacher." Xu Wenqiang left in a hurry.
Directly across from the first teaching building, across a patch of grass, was the carport for the first grade. Xiao Cheng sat in the classroom and watched Xu Wenqiang walk towards their class's carport.
This morning, his mother told him to go to his grandfather's house for dinner in the evening, so he should go home early and go to the farmers' market.
"Your grandfather praised the seafood we bought last time as being particularly good. This time, buy more and go to that store."
"Can't my dad go?"
"You know, your dad doesn't even know what time he'll get off work."
"But why let me go alone?"
"Xiao Cheng, that farmers' market is so dirty, and the people there are so low-class. Mom really, really... please be considerate of Mom!"
Xiao Cheng felt that what her mother said was right. The farmers' market was indeed dirty and the people in the market were indeed of low quality. In fact, he didn't want to go to that farmers' market even more.
but--
After Xiao Cheng watched Xu Wenqiang push the bike out of the carport and out of the school gate, he put on his schoolbag and left the classroom.
Xu Wenqiang had just walked to the entrance of the farmers' market with her lunch box when someone bumped into her. Her grip loosened and the lunch box fell to the ground, spilling all the food.
"Oh my, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, shredded potatoes with vinegar, why are all the dishes today vegetarian?" Chen Yang said, holding a bun in one hand and holding Yu Yong's shoulder with the other.
"Xu Wenqiang, how about I buy you two pounds of meat from my butcher stall to try your luck?" Yu Yong said from the side.
"I think it's okay."
"I'll ask my mom to give you a cheaper price."
Chen Yang and Yu Yong sang in unison, laughing at the food on the floor and Xu Wenqiang standing in the middle.
Chen Yang hadn't been seen since the start of the school year. Xu Wenqiang had been worried about him for days, worried that he'd start acting up at school and get them both expelled before they even started. Now that he was throwing a tantrum in the market, that didn't matter.
Xu Wenqiang squatted on the ground and picked up the shredded potatoes on the ground and put them into her lunch box.
"Alas, Xu Wenqiang, don't be so pitiful. How can a human eat something that fell on the ground? Only pigs would eat it—"
The rest of Chen Yang's words were cut off by the shredded potatoes that Xu Wenqiang stuffed into her mouth.
"Ptui, pui, pui, pui..." Chen Yang spat out the shredded potatoes, but there was still sand and dirt in his mouth.
Xu Wenqiang handed over the kettle: "Pig, would you like some water?"
"You're a fucking pig! Bah!" Chen Yang said with a disgusted look on his face.
"Xu Wenqiang, you deserve to be punished!" Yu Yong raised his hand and slapped Xu Wenqiang in the face.
"Yu Yong!" Chen Yang roared, "I've told you countless times that this is between her and me. It's not your turn to hit her!"
Yu Yong withdrew his hand angrily and left with a gloomy face.
Chen Yang looked at the clear slap mark on Xu Wenqiang's face and said coldly, "I'm responsible for that slap."
Xu Wenqiang felt only irony. "Chen Yang, you think I owe you something, so it's only natural for you to hit me. But since I don't owe Yu Yong anything, he has no right to hit me. Could it be that in your eyes, only 'hitting someone' is harmful, and colluding with evildoers and abetting their cruelty isn't harmful?"
Chen Yang didn't say anything. The grinding of the sand in his mouth against his teeth was constantly ravaging his tooth roots, and the pain in his tooth roots even caused his eyes to start to ache.
"Get out of here!" Chen Yang felt annoyed. He pushed Xu Wenqiang away and walked forward.
Xu Wenqiang chased after him.
"Chen Yang, I have something to say!"
"Are you done yet?"
"It's not over yet!" Xu Wenqiang stood in front of Chen Yang and said patiently, "Chen Yang, if you want to cause trouble for me, beat me up or scold me, I'll fight you to the end. But, when we get to school, can you please let me go?"
"Let you go?" Chen Yang spat a mouthful of sand onto the ground as if he had heard something funny. "Letting you go, what's the point?"
"Are you deaf? I'm talking about school!" Xu Wenqiang said angrily, "Qingshi No. 1 Middle School is not Qingshi Middle School. At Qingshi Middle School, even if you came over and slapped me twice during class, it would be a common thing. But at Qingshi No. 1 Middle School, if you cursed me on the street, I'd probably get people pointing fingers. Qingshi No. 1 Middle School is a school for students like Su Xiaoshan, not us. We're outliers when we get there. If outliers don't want to be kicked out, they can only play dead, you know?"
The slap marks on Xu Wenqiang's face had turned red, and Chen Yang's eyes had also turned bloodshot.
On the night before school started, Su Xiaoshan knocked on his door and called him out. It had been many years since Su Xiaoshan had looked him in the eye.
A few years ago, this area of flats had been equipped with a few streetlights, but they kept breaking down. Under the flickering lights at his doorstep, Su Xiaoshan was like a vengeful demon, stabbing him in the face with his words.
"Chen Yang, you, me, and Xu Wenqiang, the three of us grew up in the farmers' market. Yu Yong's family only came to the market to set up a stall later. He's nothing to me. I won't talk about our childhood. Anyway, none of us can deny it and we can't forget it."
"Over the years, no matter how you and Xu Wenqiang messed around, I didn't care. I knew that no matter which one I helped, the other would blame me. And I also had to think about myself. If I kept getting involved in your mess, I would be dragged into it. So, I have always stayed away from you. I originally thought that we would go our separate ways. However, no one expected Xu Wenqiang to be admitted to No. 1 Middle School."
"Xu Wenqiang is not innocent in your mother's matter. If you can't let it go, then don't let it go. If you want to torment Xu Wenqiang, then go ahead and torment her. But, just one thing, in school, at least inside the gate of Qingshi No. 1 Middle School, you must let her go."
"Let her go?" After hearing the last sentence, Chen Yang felt like his blood was about to run out.
"Su Xiaoshan, who do you think you are? What qualifications do you have to ask me to let her go? Don't you want to treat everyone equally? You've been pretending to be dead for so many years, why don't you want to do it anymore and come to seek justice for Xu Wenqiang?"
Su Xiaoshan was silent for a while, and finally said, "Just think of it as me being partial, thinking of it as me siding with Xu Wenqiang."
Chen Yang's eyes were red as she looked at Xu Wenqiang and said harshly, "Xu Wenqiang, I'm telling you, I can pretend I don't know you at school, but once you leave the school gate, you'll never be able to get rid of me!"
Xu Wenqiang was a little confused when she saw Chen Yang agree so easily. But when she realized what was going on, she raised her pinky finger and said, "Pink!"
"Are you sick?" Chen Yang walked away cursing.
Xu Wenqiang watched Chen Yang walk away, and suddenly she felt completely drained of energy. She'd spent a whole day standing on the playground during military training, then hurried home to cook dinner. Her last remaining breath was taken away by Chen Yang at the farmers' market...Xu Wenqiang decided to sit down and rest for a while.
But as soon as she sat down, she looked at the food on the floor and remembered something: what should she and Xu Yanmei eat tonight?
After scratching her head and thinking for a while, she finally decided to eat instant noodles. Having decided what to eat, Xu Wenqiang felt better. She was worried that Xu Yanmei would get impatient and start cursing again, so she decided to get up quickly. But then, she realized her feet were numb.
Xu Wenqiang looked around with a mournful expression, hoping to find someone to help her. Then she saw a stranger standing not far away. He looked kind, but in reality, he wasn't very kind. She didn't know how long he'd been watching her, or how much he'd seen.
"Classmate, can you give me a hand?" Xu Wenqiang said to the man with an apologetic smile.
Xiao Cheng walked over and looked at the food on the floor and Xu Wenqiang lying on the ground with disgust, feeling that this scene seemed familiar.
The last time, he watched her fighting with someone, looking as if she didn't care about her life or death, and was finally knocked to the ground.
This time, he saw that she had taken advantage of him a little, and she still looked as if she didn't care about life or death, stuffing her mouth with food covered in dirt and sand, but in the end she still fell to the ground.
"Even if we can't win, we have to fight." I remember she said this herself.
In that case, he'd better stand further away, and he didn't want to get involved.
"You asked me to help you last time, why do I need you to help me again this time?" Xiao Cheng looked down at Xu Wenqiang.
Xiao Cheng looked reluctant, but still reached out and pulled Xu Wenqiang up.
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