9 Chapter Eight
Come with me to the factory to tighten screws.
Looking back on her unremarkable life, Liang Mei felt that she had done two things particularly right. The first was becoming a teacher, and the second was throwing rotten eggs into the window of her most hated teacher to celebrate Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, even though she was caught red-handed.
She thought she would get a severe scolding, but the teacher wasn't angry at all. Instead, she took pity on her and cooked her a bowl of noodles, then pushed it in front of her, saying in a way that seemed to invite her into a trap, "You threw this rotten egg yourself, so you eat it yourself."
She ate it while holding back her tears, but the rotten egg wasn't as smelly as she had imagined.
She was only twelve years old that year. No matter how cynical she was, in the eyes of the teacher who had so many tricks up her sleeve that she could choreograph several sets of exercises for recess, she was nothing more than a paper tiger that couldn't bar its teeth or brandish its claws.
Liang Mei grew up in an orphanage. Unlike the other children, she didn't know her own birthday, only that she was born in the winter of 1985.
In 1999, under the teacher's provocation, she surprised everyone by being admitted to Qingyi Normal School—at that time, one of the few secondary normal schools in S Province, also known as a vocational school, which not only had cheap tuition but also guaranteed job placement.
During her three years at the teacher's college, the teacher resorted to the same old tricks. Under her constant guidance, Liang Mei developed beautiful handwriting on the blackboard and a bunch of other unremarkable talents. In the teacher's own words, in the teaching profession, students are not afraid of teachers with formal training; what they fear most is self-taught, academically challenged students who have suddenly come up with wild ideas and want to return to school to teach and nurture students.
This kind of teacher not only defies school leaders but also students, becoming the biggest troublemaker of that year.
After graduating, Liang Mei was successfully assigned back to Fengtan to teach, initially at a junior high school. The teacher still looked down on her, thinking she was hopeless, and she still disliked the teacher. They argued almost every time they met, and she would consider the trip a waste if she didn't make the teacher angry.
Later, with the rise in educational requirements and policy reforms, she, lacking a bachelor's degree and connections, was kicked out of the ranks of junior high school teachers and transferred to Huacheng Elementary School as a homeroom teacher.
The teacher stopped paying attention to her, knowing she was hopeless and incorrigible. If only she had worked harder in those years and completed her correspondence bachelor's degree earlier, she wouldn't have been kicked out so easily. Liang Mei hadn't expected the policy reform to be so swift; it was implemented the year after the document was issued. She had no connections, and she couldn't possibly have the audacity to ask her teacher for help, so she naturally became one of the first to be transferred away under the reform.
That night, when Liang Mei passed through the alley, she was soaked to the bone, as if she had just been pulled out of the water. Her thin skirt clung limply to her legs, and water droplets trickled down onto the bluestone slabs, leaving puddles. She didn't even have the strength to wring out her skirt. Her teeth were frozen, like a malfunctioning printing press, jumping erratically in her mouth. She didn't know whether it was from the cold or from fear.
She initially didn't want to get involved, and had resolved to pretend she didn't see it, even if it was her own students. To hell with them! A bunch of arrogant brats, ungrateful and taking their teachers' efforts for granted—
If it weren't for the fact that her class had the lowest average score in the entire grade during this midterm exam, she wouldn't have been kept behind by the grade leader at this point, giving the other party an opportunity to take advantage of her.
Although she thwarted his plan and smashed several bloody holes in his head with the trophy, splattering blood all over her, she spent a long time washing herself in the bathroom. After cleaning herself up, she collapsed on the floor, exhausted, and cried bitterly before finally calling 120 (emergency services).
She heard Li Yingqiao shouting in the alley that she was going to smash Shi Dapang's head open, and she couldn't move her feet. She had just smashed someone's head open, and she knew that kind of fear all too well. She thought, children don't know their own strength; if she really crippled someone, Li Yingqiao's life would be ruined. So, Liang Mei rushed in.
But she didn't expect that the two children would go to buy her medicine and obediently squat down to apply it to her. Even though they guessed that she wasn't Li Yingqiao who had fallen into the ditch, they didn't chase after her and ask what happened to her. Instead, they loudly told her, "Teacher Liang, see you tomorrow."
Tomorrow, will she even have a tomorrow?
If Qian Dongchang dies, she will have no tomorrow.
Liang Mei originally planned to go to the school to submit her resignation the next day and then call the police. But after calming down, she realized that she had no evidence, there were no surveillance cameras in the office, and Qian Dongchang was more seriously injured than her. Calling the police would most likely result in Qian Dongchang turning the tables on her.
Just as she hesitated, she saw Qian Dongchang, whose head was wrapped in gauze, standing on the podium teaching his students as if nothing had happened. Even more absurdly, because he taught despite his illness, the school even awarded him the title of honorary teacher with great fanfare, and the Fengtan Daily published his story, which brought tears to people's eyes. The students addressed him with the respectful title of "Teacher Qian".
So Liang Mei changed her mind. She didn't resign immediately and stayed at Huacheng Elementary School for almost another year.
It wasn't until the year Li Yingqiao and her classmates graduated that she learned the school leaders owed Li Shuli her salary. She then used the evidence she had collected over the year to sue Qian Dongchang and the school.
The lawsuit lasted nearly two years, and she won. The school paid compensation, and Qian Dongchang was dismissed. Of course, she was also constantly harassed for various reasons, but she lost her job not because of her lawsuit against the school. Moreover, no primary school in Fengtan was willing to hire her again.
She didn't plan to become a teacher again. After receiving the compensation from the school, she immediately sent the money to Li Shuli and planned to leave Fengtan. Li Shuli moved very thoroughly, and she guessed that Li Yingqiao should be at Xiancheng No. 2 Middle School, so she asked her teacher to inquire at the school and finally found out their current address.
The moment the door opened, she changed her mind again; she decided to be a teacher one last time.
Li Yingqiao's life shouldn't end here.
**
In the private room of the state-run restaurant, it was so quiet that the only sound was the howling of the cold wind seeping in through the cracks in the window. It was early February of 2012, not long after the start of the second semester of junior high school. Fengtan had no heating, and Li Yingqiao wasn't even wearing a down jacket. She was only wearing a thick sweatshirt. It wasn't that Li Shuli wouldn't buy her one; even if she did, she wouldn't wear it. She didn't like to bundle herself up like a winter melon.
However, the state-run hotel was the tallest building in Fengtan at the time, and Li Yingqiao had never heard the wind howl so fiercely before, like a hurricane-like beast gnawing at the doors and windows with a pitiful roar. She, who had never felt the cold of Fengtan before, felt incredibly cold for the first time.
This is probably what they mean by "the higher you climb, the colder it gets."
She turned to look at Yu Jinyang, her old friend whom she hadn't seen for two years. He was not only wearing a huge black down jacket, but also a scarf around his neck and a baseball cap on his head. He probably even had hand warmers on his body. It was clear that Aunt Tang Xiang didn't want him to feel cold at all.
"Sigh." Li Yingqiao sighed inexplicably.
Yu Jinyang, who had been eating quietly since entering the room, was unusually quiet. Finally, he turned his head and glanced at her indifferently. Then he silently took off his hat and scarf and threw them on the empty chair next to him. He knew what she was complaining about. She had complained since childhood that he wore too many clothes and that he was wrapped up like a winter melon in winter.
After throwing away his hat and scarf, Yu Jinyang didn't speak to her and continued to eat slowly and deliberately with his head down.
As soon as Liang Mei entered, she ordered a whole bunch of dishes, then went to the door to smoke after barely eating a couple of bites. Only the two most polite junior high students remained in the private room. Li Yingqiao leaned back in her chair, staring at Yu Jinyang's head as he drank soup for a long time, before finally losing her temper and slapping him: "Meow meow, what are you pretending to be so polite for!"
"Ding-dong—"
Yu Jinyang dropped his spoon into the bowl, his hand still hovering loosely over the rim: "..."
He glanced back at her, his eyes indifferent, but what he said made Li Yingqiao want to strangle him: "Li Yingqiao, you're my idol, can you please stop touching me like that?"
Li Yingqiao's eyes suddenly widened as she stared at him: "Who composed that folk song? It wasn't you, was it?"
Yu Jinyang leaned back in his chair, sitting next to her. Looking at the food on the table that was getting cold, he glanced at the door but didn't see any sign that Liang Mei was coming back. He looked at Li Yingqiao and said, "It's not me. I don't have time for that."
Li Yingqiao scanned him from head to toe. He was decked out in designer clothes; it seemed Uncle Yu was getting richer and richer. She'd heard that last year he opened a wooden toy city in Fengtan, a magnificent and opulent castle straight out of a fairytale, a veritable "Disneyland" of Fengtan. Many students from No. 2 Middle School would queue up there every weekend to check it out, and tickets were incredibly hard to come by.
“You’re still practicing street dance? But Yu Miaomiao, you don’t seem to have grown much taller!” Li Yingqiao slapped his head against hers.
Yu Jinyang hadn't heard anyone call him that in the past two years, so he was still a little unaccustomed to it. He looked at Li Yingqiao's exaggeratedly tilted trajectory in the air and couldn't help but twitch his lips. "Keep your little tricks to yourself. I'm at least five centimeters taller than you now."
"Pah! Stand up and let's have a contest! Come on, get up." Li Yingqiao was unconvinced and reached out to grab his arm.
Her down jacket rustled as she pulled it, but Yu Jinyang was too lazy to argue with her. He leaned back in his chair and looked at her, completely unmoved. He changed the subject and asked, "Do you know why Teacher Liang wanted to see you this time?"
Li Yingqiao exclaimed "Ah!" and sat down again, returning to the main topic. Sitting upright, she looked at him and said truthfully, "I don't know, but she helped us get back the wages the school owed my mother. Teacher Liang is a good person; she certainly wouldn't sell me out. Besides, just now at the door, she said she invited a friend I haven't seen in a long time and asked if I wanted to meet her. I could guess it was you with my toes!"
"Meow meow, it's so nice to see you!" she said shamelessly again.
"Really? Then why did you hit me right away?" Yu Jinyang sneered. He was too used to her tactic of giving him a slap and then a candy. She always said the sweetest words but used the most ruthless blows, just so she could beat him up even more recklessly next time. "Li Yingqiao, if you can't control your hands next time, just chop them off, okay?"
"Huh?" Li Yingqiao was taken aback. "There won't be a next time. My mom doesn't let me run around, so I basically can't get out. This time, it was Teacher Liang who brought me out."
Yu Jinyang asked, "Then how can I give you the experimental test papers and mock exams later? Are you going to take the exam for Tanzhong High School?"
Li Yingqiao was even more baffled: "Who said I wanted to take the entrance exam for Tanzhong?"
Yu Jinyang was about to say, "Teacher Liang called me and told me, otherwise why would I be here? Do you have nothing better to do?" when Liang Mei just pushed the door open and came in. Seeing the two children staring at each other, Li Yingqiao's words slipped out from under the door. She closed the door, pulled out a chair, and said in an unquestionable tone, "I said it."
Li Yingqiao politely declined: "...No, Teacher Liang, I've never liked studying since I was a child."
Liang Mei asked, "Who loved learning from a young age?"
Li Yingqiao glanced at the person next to her: "He loves it."
Yu Jinyang glanced at her sideways, too lazy to argue: "Just consider it love."
Liang Mei then asked, "I just asked you what kind of person you want to become. Have you thought it through?"
Li Yingqiao reacted quickly, saying, "I haven't thought it through, but I know what kind of person I don't want to become."
Liang Mei said, "For example?"
Li Yingqiao glanced at the guy next to her again. "I don't want to become like him. He's like a donkey all day long, either studying or attending meetings, or going to competition classes, or hobby classes to learn all sorts of talents. I feel tired just watching him. I don't know who he'll be serving after graduating from university, with all this busyness."
"..."
"Meow Meow, don't work yourself so hard. Why bother with Tanzhong High School? Come with me to the factory and tighten screws. I have a classmate from No. 2 High School who earns a thousand a month by applying screen protectors to students at the school gate! I'll be your upline, and I'll definitely help you get rich."
Liang Mei: "..."
Yu Jinyang: "…………"
[Author's Note]
Qiaoqiao: Ugh, why take that roundabout route?
I'm fifteen minutes late, so I'm kneeling here [with upright rabbit ears] to give out red envelopes to everyone~
100 [Stand-up eared rabbit heads]
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