Chapter 5 (3)

  Yu Xiang and another person ran to the next room to find Yu Xiong. Yu Xiong was writing at his desk, saw Yu Xiang coming in, and quickly put things away. Yu Xiang said straight out: "There are two mentally ill people in our dormitory, one who reads books every day is a bookworm, another thinks he's Li Ao, bragging all day, thinking he understands but actually doesn't, how can such people exist in this world!"

  Yu Xiong smiled and said: "Can't take it anymore? The best part is yet to come."

  Yu Xiang Yu Nu Song Ping said, "He thinks he's someone." Having said that, Yu Xiang vented all the bad air in his heart. Unable to win a direct confrontation, but when others turn their backs, it's also delightful to kick them from behind. The difference is that when others kick from behind, people will feel pain, but when Yu Xiang says this, it's as if he's hitting someone through a wall, or rather, it's like when you can't beat someone while they're alive, so you disturb their corpse after they die. In short, this is the pleasure of whipping a corpse.

  Yu Xiang's spiritual whipping was over, and a kind of unbeatable fighting spirit surged up in his heart. He couldn't bear to let go, so he went on to whip the corpse of his ancestor eight generations ago: "He just relied on his dad's company, what a dog relying on human power." After thoroughly whipping him, his heart felt a sense of confusion and emptiness.

  At 8 o'clock in the evening, Yu Xiang didn't dare to sing, a week of military training was really a huge change. Yao Shuqin, who sat behind Yu Xiang, somehow deceived a discipline committee member, specializing in recording discipline. Once someone becomes an official, their waist will straighten up a lot.

  People who don't hold office are like a pack of wild dogs, and official positions are like a chain. Once someone in the pack of wild dogs holds office, they suddenly become a domesticated dog with the capital and status to chase away other wild dogs with a few loud barks. On the surface, Yao Shuqin was calm and composed, but secretly she kept writing down Yu Xiang's name, accusing him of being too loud and boisterous. If we were to compare the strength of wild dogs and domesticated dogs in a one-on-one fight, they should be evenly matched, but wild dogs often can't beat domesticated dogs because domesticated dogs have an owner. Yu Xiang didn't even have the courage to fight back, all he had was the skill of scolding people behind their backs.

  It's been over a week since Yu Xiang arrived at Nan San Middle School, and he already feels like he can't bear this kind of life. There's no one to talk to, and the other dormitories are more lively after lights out than before. The dormitory inspectors seem to have the majesty of the Guangxu Emperor. Occasionally, if things get too out of hand in a certain dormitory, they'll intervene. The school is furious about this, and every night, someone from the political education department comes to supervise. If they catch anyone not following the rules, they make them write a self-criticism. Most students are very good at writing these days, especially those from the 90s who excel at using clichés and empty words. They're not afraid of writing self-criticisms. The political education department publishes the names of students caught breaking the rules every day, which is surprisingly effective. After that, discipline improves significantly, but as soon as the teachers leave, the dormitories erupt in noise again. The school doesn't know this and still praises the students' growing sense of discipline in their weekly summaries. However, the quietest dormitory in the entire school is room 2 of building 205. Yu Xiang has a belly full of words every night, waiting to say them to someone in his dreams. His insomnia is getting worse, and he's lucky if he falls asleep by 11 pm. One day, he almost didn't sleep at all, and the next day, his accumulated sleepiness was like a tiger descending a mountain. People often fall asleep easily after being angry, but this night, Yu Xiang fell asleep unusually early and woke up at dawn the next day. He wanted to wake everyone up, but suddenly felt a desire for revenge and hoped they would all be late.

  After waking up early, Yu Xiang had nothing to do, so he went out of the dormitory and was greeted by a refreshing breeze. He decided to take a walk in the garden. The morning at Shi Nan San Zhong was very beautiful, with large areas of forest seeming to wake up from sleep, feeling cool and comfortable. The garden hidden among them could bring even more enjoyment. Yu Xiang walked towards the direction where birds were chirping. On a stone bench by the garden, there was a girl reading English, so Yu Xiang lightened his footsteps, afraid of disturbing her tranquility. Yu Xiang believed that the morning garden was the purest because only at this time, there were no campus lovers or anything like that inside. The proverb "the magic of love is not greater than the temptation of bed" could also be understood in this way - people who are full of sleepiness would rather not talk about romance. After all, sometimes staying in bed was more attractive than getting out of bed.

  The result was that someone ruined the good atmosphere, in the depths of the garden, Yuxiang saw a boy who looked no more than 12 years old waiting for someone. At first, Yuxiang didn't think much about it, but within five minutes, a girl who seemed even younger ran over from afar. The boy glanced at his watch and smiled at her, saying "You're late." The girl spread out her hands and stuck out her tongue, saying "Sorry, I was delayed by some things!" Yuxiang was only a tree away from the two of them, and hearing their conversation seemed especially familiar, like something that had been used to death in romance novels. He thought to himself, could it be that these two also... no way, at such a young age how could they understand what love is? Love should be an unknown thing to them.

  As a result, the two boys and girls are like physicists, who like to challenge unknown fields. The girl blushed: "It's really beautiful here. Why did you ask me to come here?" After finishing, she pulled her hair back, lowered her head and waited.

  The boy hesitated and then said, "I've been feeling really frustrated lately. I think I'm about to make the biggest decision of my life."

  Yu Xiang's face showed even more surprise than the girl, he couldn't believe such words came from a young boy's mouth, it sounded awkward and made him want to laugh, he cleared his throat twice to hint that there was still someone else present, so they shouldn't speak too loudly.

  The two of them turned their heads and found Yu Xiang, but they didn't show any surprise. In their eyes, Yu Xiang's existence was like the air resistance when an object is in free fall, negligible.

  The girl bowed her head for a long time, then suddenly raised her head and said: "Look into my eyes and answer, is it for me?"

  The boy seemed to have exposed his heart's desire of cultivating immortality for thousands of years and said, "I couldn't deceive myself, I was doing it all for you."

  Yu Xiao exerted himself to control his laughter and coughed dryly twice.

  The girl couldn't stand the dry cough ruining the romance and said: "Let's change places."

  The boy said, "Follow your own path, don't care what others say. I have something to tell you."

  The girl's face quickly turned red, and she fiddled with her hem, saying: "Now?"

  The man said: "Now, yes, I can no longer wait!" This sentence was like a critical illness notice, giving the girl a psychological preparation.

  The man said, "Do you know? From the moment I first saw you, I was deeply captivated by you. This is the happiness that heaven has bestowed upon me, and I am unwilling to let go. I have always wanted to say this to you..."

  The girl asked knowingly: "Which sentence?"

  "I like you."

  The girl widened her long-prepared eyes: "But, isn't this too sudden?"

  The man said: "No, not at all, I'd give up everything for you."

  The girl couldn't help it, with a hint of intoxication in her eyes, asked: "Really?"

  The boy said: "Really, it's true, not in a dream. I'd give up everything for you, including my studies."

  The girl looked flustered: "All of this is like something out of a book. What should I do? I'm helpless, I'm lost..."

  Yu Xiang no longer had the slightest desire to smile, thinking about how much harm those sappy TV dramas had caused. Leaving the garden made him feel so disgusted that he didn't even have an appetite for breakfast. There were already several people in the classroom, and the summer homework essays had just been handed out. Yu Xiang's assignment was overly pretentious, with large sections plagiarized from "Guanzhi Bian". The result: when he saw the teacher's comments, he almost choked to death.

  The composition has large sections crossed out with red lines, and the comments read: "Evidence is relatively rich, but it's obvious that they are forced, need to be abandoned."

  Yu Xiang didn't bother to comment, and instead directly scolded Qiong Yao. He scolded her so much that he felt refreshed all over. A few days later, when the assignment was returned, Yu Xiang only waited for Mei to write some comments expressing approval. When the assignment came back, Yu Xiang's heart beat uncontrollably fast. Now he even missed Ma Debao a little, his first time going out to study, and naturally hoped to get recognition from his class teacher. His mind was full of imagination, thinking that Teacher Mei would definitely praise him for his profound and unique insights, sharp and mature writing style. But when he opened the assignment, all he saw was a small hook, and this hook was extremely small and not bold at all; turning to the next page, there was another underdeveloped hook, and only when the two hooks were put together did they form a complete sentence. This method was like the current catering industry's way of making money, using one portion of ingredients to make two portions. There wasn't even a single word of comment near the hook, Yu Xiang felt very angry; it was as if two people were arguing, and one side suddenly fell silent, leaving the other side feeling unfulfilled. Mei had an attitude like the Qing government's towards its enemies, while Yu Xiang didn't have the grandeur of the British Empire, and he admitted to being unlucky. Glancing at Xie Jingyuan's assignment, he saw a big and generous hook, that hook seemed like a leader's annual summary report, lengthy and rambling without end. It filled up an entire page, stretching out as if someone was stretching in bed, making others envy it. This big hook made Yu Xiang's hook seem extremely small, Yu Xiang didn't accept this, took Xie Jingyuan's assignment and looked at it, seeing that he had written about his determination to study hard and build the motherland. Yu Xiang snorted, flipped the assignment over and said: "I've seen these clichés many times before."

  Xie Jingyuan said slowly: "This is not a cliché, this is a manifestation of determination."

  Yu Xiang said with disgust, "Writing or not writing, it's all the same." Qian Rong was bragging, surrounded by a dozen girls who were laughing and leaning forward, Qian Rong became more enthusiastic as he talked: "When I was 12 years old, my dad took me to Beijing, the first person we visited was Xiao Fuxing..." "Wow!" One of the girls who knew Xiao Fuxing exclaimed. Qian Rong continued, "My dad brought my composition, and after reading it, Xiao Fuxing predicted that I would have great achievements in literature."

  "Wow, have you ever published an article?"

  "Publish my article? Ha! Those newspapers don't even have the qualifications to publish my work!" Qian Rong said, belittling all the newspapers in the world as worthless paper. Yu Xiang stood up for his father and listened intently on the side. Qian Rong scolded without restraint, not letting up even when he had already reduced them to nothing: "With my dad's connections with those people inside, publishing an article would be a piece of cake! And my personality is such that I'm destined to be a free spirit, playing it cool and detached from fame and fortune..."

  Yu Xiang splashed cold water and said: "I'm afraid it's not good enough." Unexpectedly, the cold water hadn't even reached Qian Rong's body when a girl blocked it and retorted: "What qualifications do you have to say that!"

  Lin Yuxiang said, "At least I've published an article!" The article Lin Yuxiang wrote was like a bowl of leftover rice that could be reheated at any time to make others drool. Some girls in the crowd remembered and said, "Isn't it him? He mentioned during the introduction that he had published an article." "Right, right, I remember now, Lin Yuxiang."

  Qian Rong hastily asked: "How many words have you published in your article?"

  Yu Xiang was greatly embarrassed and couldn't pat his chest proudly saying he wrote 600 words, instead he pretended to be muddled and said: "I also can't remember how many."

  Qian Rong said, "I'm afraid there's only one article." This casual belittling remark unexpectedly hit the mark. Yu Xiang turned his back and smiled, saying, "Will I? Next week I'll bring my article over." After speaking, he himself felt a little apprehensive.

  Qian Rongdao said: "May I borrow your notebook to read?" He intentionally pronounced the two words "read" in a drowsy and weak tone, as if he hadn't woken up yet.

  Yu Xiang told the truth this time: "I didn't write well."

  Qian Rong took advantage of his unpreparedness, snatched the original and read: "...Jiang Ya's article is a kind of garbage, a kind of misleading, I really don't understand, so many repetitive 'two pairs of eyes four lines of tears' and dull meaningless dialogue... What kind of book is written for what kind of person to read, people who read this kind of book must not be very high-level..."

  These words offended everyone, and the girls scolded her so much that she couldn't keep up with it. One by one, they piled on: "What makes you say that about Qiong Yao? You're just standing high above everyone else!" "What are you being so proud of? Qiong Yao's books are so good, can you write something better?"

  "It's not written well, so you blame others!"... Yu Xiang was like rescuing a patient who was bleeding all over the body, blocking one place and bursting out another, exhausting himself, unable to explain clearly, and finally declaring the patient dead: "Fine, fine, I admit I was wrong." But this sentence still carried obvious resentment, which was seen through by the girl at a glance: "What 'fine', you're just not convinced!"

  "Alright, I give up, I was just rambling on, is that enough?"

  Qian Rong added one more shot and said, "It's about time you admitted it."

  Lin Yuxiang was speechless, reminiscing about the days when he was favored by Ma Debao. He thought that in junior high school, he was indeed carefree and participated in countless competitions, big and small. Although he ultimately only served as a foil to others, he honed his competitive experience. When he arrived at Municipal South Third Middle School, Mei Shou did not appreciate him, which was tolerable. However, Qian Rong, that kid, still had the leftover courage of Yongzheng, daring to cross him and refusing to back down, wanting to reestablish his prestige. Prestige is not like a flagpole, once it falls, it can be propped up again; the best way to establish prestige is to humble oneself and participate in the student union's organization, obtaining a position and gaining fame. Municipal South Third Middle School was organizing a Quality Education Week, advocating for returning extracurricular time to students. In previous years, this was done by establishing interest groups, but these groups were not for cultivating students' interests, but rather for cultivating teachers' interests. Students could not choose which group to join; they were assigned by teachers, and students felt the pain of arranged marriages - clearly disliking their partner, yet having to be with them. This year, Municipal South Third Middle School went further, allowing free registration. Lin Yuxiang targeted three organizations: the Literature Club, the Journalism Team, and the Broadcasting Station, and immediately put his plan into action. On Saturday morning, each organization held recruitment sessions. Lin Yuxiang washed his face and said he would use the "Handsome Man Strategy" from the Thirty-Six Stratagems. When he arrived at the Hu Shi Building entrance, he saw that all the students were signing up, so he confidently walked towards the Literature Club registration point. However, when he saw the person in charge, he was greatly disappointed - a half-bald old teacher was responsible for screening, and the teacher looked like he had not experienced human emotions. Lin Yuxiang was unable to use his strategy, so he could only rely on his own abilities. Chinese literature seemed to have the ability to age people prematurely, with two accompanying examiners whose combined ages could go see the Tiger Gate sale of opium. The selection process was quite novel - ten people sat around a table discussing their impressions of famous Chinese authors' works. Lin Yuxiang was assigned to the second table, so he quietly observed the first table's fierce competition. The examiner's eyes were narrowed, as if selecting crickets, seeing who fought the most fiercely and choosing that person. In the end, the last person to speak, who went off-topic by a thousand miles, won out. A female student cried foul, but the examiner pointed to the table and said, "Opportunities are right in front of you! You must strive for them."

  He raised his hand and waved it a few times, as if his hand was "opportunity", saying: "In the future, it will be a market economy, and we must have a competitive consciousness from an early age." The winning cricket in the back smiled complacently.

  The second topic was the discussion of "Dream of Red Mansions". Yuxiang had not read the original book, only a simplified version with only 700-800 words. He felt blank and had no impression at all. A girl next to him stood up and said: "This is China's first novel that treats women as human beings! Just for this point, it should have a place in Chinese literary history!" The implication was that "Dream of Red Mansions" did not have a position in Chinese literary history yet.

  A boy opposite her stood up and said: "You're wrong, classmate! We are here to discuss the artistic value of this book, not its status." Yuxiang felt he had to say something, so he stood up and shared his limited knowledge: "'Dream of Red Mansions' was written by Cao Xueqin in the beginning, but later it was written by Gao E..." Nine people listened intently, expecting him to have some profound insight. But Yuxiang didn't have any deep thoughts; he felt like a person who had jumped off a cliff and had no way back.

  He said: "I think this book was all written by Cao Xueqin, there's no such thing as Gao E." To his surprise, this statement turned out to be successful. Not only did it sound good, but he also became the center of attention. The boy opposite him stood up and said: "I think this classmate is absolutely right!" The girl didn't agree, she stood up again, slammed her hand on the table like Khrushchev, and said: "But facts prove that the writing style of the first 80 chapters and the last 44 chapters are different. How could Cao Xueqin have written two different styles?"

  She sat down after destroying public property, smiled at Yuxiang, who analyzed her smile as half mocking and half admiring. He felt a chill in his heart. The teacher said: "Okay, classmates, you've discussed very passionately!" Then he kept the boy and girl behind, while Yuxiang was considered their mentor, but no one chose him. He cursed silently and went to take the journalist exam.

  Luckily, the journalist exam didn't require speaking; they only needed to write an article describing the scenery of Shenzhen No. 3 Middle School. The examinees all had a tendency to make a big deal out of small things, writing for half an hour without finishing. Yuxiang wrote a brief introduction to Shenzhen No. 3 Middle School and handed in his paper first. He thought he would definitely pass this time because news reports required conciseness and relevance.

  The most people reported to the TV station, and the person in front of the queue laughed and said: "In a place like this, the TV station is like a beauty pageant, whoever is beautiful goes up; The radio station is like a ghost selection, no matter how ugly you are, you have it." The people who reported to the TV station in the queue burst out laughing; Those who reported to the radio were self-deprecating, and they really regarded themselves as ghosts. They felt that the people from the TV station had invaded their rights as ghosts and hurt their self-esteem. A few good-looking ghosts as image spokespersons said: "You guys who rely on your looks for a living, look like what profession...". The metaphor was not spoken, indicating that if there is any insult, it's also what you think of yourselves. Those who reported to the TV station didn't dare speak up, not because they didn't want to, but because there were too many people from the radio station, and it wasn't worth offending them.

  Yu Xiang is doing both human and ghost, no matter which side wins, he won't be at a loss, so he can watch with ease. The registration point in front obviously discovered someone of Yu Xiang's nature and said: "Everyone listen up, one person cannot sign up for two projects, if you want to sign up for the TV station's editor, everyone should go sign up for the reporter team first, we will select from within." Yu Xiang was momentarily unable to decide which one to sign up for, logically speaking, being a ghost has more power, but the competition is too fierce, afraid of not being selected; wanted to go to the TV station to be a student news anchor, suddenly saw Qian Rong also signing up for the TV station, to show that they are on different paths, he resolutely stayed at the radio station.

  The examination room was in a secret chamber, first asking for the name, and waiting for the other party to answer. Those who did not have a sweet voice were rejected on the spot. Lin Yuxiang was lucky and passed the first test. The second question: "Is your eloquence good?"

  Lin Yuxiang humbly said: "Generally." This humility is like a discount in a shopping mall, no matter how low the discount is, he still makes a profit.

  "What specifically?"

  Lin Yuxiang said with a smile: "After the lights are turned off at night, everyone in the dormitory listens to me tell historical stories." This lie has three layers of profound meaning. Firstly, Lin Yuxiang's eloquence is excellent, and everyone in the dormitory listens to him speak; secondly, he is rich in historical knowledge; thirdly, if he doesn't perform well in the oral test later, he can say that it's not nighttime yet, which means Lin Yuxiang's eloquence is like a foot in winter, wrapped tightly during the day and only revealed at night.

  The questioner nodded a few times: "So what's your motivation for signing up for the broadcasting station?"

  "Prove yourself."

  "Alright, then let's talk about your insights on life."