Chapter 4 Road

  "Please line up in front of the main stage, organized by class, and each class teacher will organize your students..." On the playground of Yun Gang No. 1 Middle School, more than 400 students stood densely.

  After three years of hard work, I finally jumped two levels and got into the Cloud Province Steel Factory's Affiliated Middle School. Today is the first day of school, and we new students are being assigned to our classes.

  Our class teacher is a female teacher in her 20s who is taking roll call.

  "Hey buddy, where did you go before?" A fat guy behind me patted me and said "My name is Yang Can, a junior in the iron department, they all call me Fat Guy".

  "Oh, I'm Ye Kai, I used to attend Binhe Road Primary School." I turned my head and smiled at him in response. Since I didn't attend Yun Gang's Subsidiary Primary School, I didn't have a single former classmate.

  It seems that chubby people are born with a kind of affinity, making you feel very comfortable when you're with them, or "down-to-earth". As a result, the two of us started talking more and more.

  "I heard our class teacher teaches math and is quite formidable, last year's first-year students were all afraid of her."

  "Oh" I replied somewhat awkwardly

  Yang Can

  "When the class teacher called out, Yang Can immediately responded. The class teacher was about to continue calling out the next name, but everyone heard a strange cry imitating her 'Hehe, Yang Can', which made everyone laugh and look in the direction of the sound."

  "He's called Qin Fei, we were in the same class before," said Yang Can beside me.

  I listened to Yang Can's words and hadn't carefully observed Qin Fei when I saw the class teacher neatly slap Qin Fei in the face. The slap was so loud that it left Qin Fei and everyone else stunned. These people were all young students who had just graduated from a prestigious school, where teachers used to spoil them and play with them, fearing that if anything happened, parents would complain to the factory district, of course no one dared to physically punish them, they hadn't seen such a scene before.

  I was pinched on the ear by a teacher in my previous life for not answering his question, it seems that Chinese people's traditional nature is very strong. I secretly sighed to myself.

  After being slapped, the class teacher continued to take roll call, leaving Qin Fei stunned and silly, subject to the pointing and snickering of his classmates.

  "See?" Yang Can whispered in my ear.

  "I see, it's different from primary school. I guess environment changes people more than people change the environment." I seemed to be muttering to myself in response.

  "We are Class 4 of Grade 1, our classroom is on the third floor of the North Building. This afternoon we distributed textbooks and had a big cleaning. Now you can all go home."

  "Hey, Ye Kai, which building does your family live in? Let's walk together." Yang Can caught up with me from behind and said "My family lives in Building 22".

  "I didn't notice which building my home is either, it's just opposite the staff club." I replied somewhat dazedly.

  Because Dad was transferred from Yun Gang General Factory to the sales department, the general factory compensated by exchanging the original tube house of our home for a staff welfare house. In order for my sister and me to go to school closer, we moved here as a whole family.

  "Oh, that was No. 55. Not far from my home, my home is just behind the club, and I often sneak in through the fence to watch movies." Yang Can said as he walked "How about I take you to watch a movie tonight? For free, I know a place, we can just sneak in".

  I shook my head and replied "I'm not going. I'll go take a bath at my unit this afternoon, don't know what time I'll be back yet, let's talk about it another day".

  "I'll take you another day, anyway today isn't good to watch, I'll take you to see a better one next time, and there's kissing too", Yang Can whispered in my ear "I've seen it many times before, they're all foreign".

  "Ah" I nodded hard at him, afraid that I would burst out laughing. Big brother! I'm from the 21st century where internet porn is thriving, and you're taking me to watch a kissing scene like it's some kind of underground party...

  This is the first friend I've made since returning to this era, a bit chubby, a bit silly, and even a bit foolish, but being with him feels comfortable, much more so than those wine-and-meat friends from my memories. Although I always try to forget some things, I find myself involuntarily comparing now with "back then". Perhaps I've really forgotten - didn't some philosopher once say that unintentional nostalgia is forgetting?

  "Master, can you give me a buzz cut?"

  After finishing the big cleaning in the afternoon, I came to the barber shop at the door of my home to get a haircut and prepare to take a bath at my father's unit. As soon as I mention taking a bath, it's painful. Not to mention running a long distance, but also having to "soak in the pool" with everyone else. What used to be an enjoyable experience has now become something to endure. Sometimes even in dreams, I think about when there will be water heaters for sale in Yunzhou, and I've even dreamed of a water heater with angel wings flying towards me...

  "Alright, two mao." I came to my senses and handed him the money, instinctively saying "thank you". The barber didn't reach out to take my money, just staring blankly at me. "Thank you", I waved the money in my hand and repeated. He snapped back to reality, took the money, and was about to say something when someone outside shouted "Liangzi, help Guo Dage carry the rice upstairs".

  "Coming!" The barber hastily responded with a loud voice, then turned his head and politely said to me, before walking out. It's still the simplicity of people at this time, although it's just two cents for a small flat head, but I feel more handsome than those so-called "stylists" who charge over a hundred yuan. Moreover, the barber is more polite, much better than those so-called "hair designers", at least that's what I think.

  The day of the new semester was very dull, my daily activity trajectory is just school, home, school, but life is not a straight line on the coordinate, so it will always be due to some reason that makes your life trajectory become a curve function.

  "Hey, you two little brats, stop right there!" On a sunny afternoon, I was walking with Yang Can on the wide and clean road, when we were greeted by two senior students wearing school uniforms. "Got any money? Hand it over!" one of them asked in a mock-threatening tone. Looking at his expression, I had an urge to laugh, but tried my best to hold back and replied, "It's just a little bit of money, not like you owe us anything, why do you have such a long face?"

  The slightly shorter one who heard my words burst out laughing, making the horse face laugh so hard it turned bright red. The horse face glared at the short one fiercely, and the short one felt embarrassed by his companion's reaction, so he stopped laughing and imitated the horse face's tone of voice: "Shut up, you don't know who we are? Hurry up and hand over the money."

  To be honest, I really don't know who these two people are, but the two in front of me feel very familiar, and it makes me think of those unforgettable days... "Slap" With a crisp slap and the stars flashing in front of my eyes, my memories were interrupted, and my face was swollen...

  Yang Can saw that I was beaten, and shouted "Fuck your mother!" Swinging his school bag at Ma's face, I also reacted, lifting my foot to kick the dwarf. TMD dared to hit me, I've never been hit by anyone for thirty years in two lifetimes, today let these two little brats break the record.

  Fighting is all about being quick and ruthless. Although I'm still young and don't have much strength, relying on my ferocity, a few combinations of punches and kicks sent the short guy tumbling to the ground, beating him until his face was covered in blood, probably with a broken nasal bone. He'll be suffering when the weather changes later.

  Yang Can didn't have my back, still entangled with Horse Face, I picked up a brick from the side of the road and smashed it at Horse Face's head, instantly beating him into covering his head and wailing. Yang Can saw the blood on his head and was stunned, I kicked Horse Face to the ground and said to him: "Don't let me see you again, damn it! Having a horse face is not enough, thinking of scaring people, come out again at night." After finishing, I pulled up Yang Can and left without looking back.

  Walking far away, Yang Can looked at me nervously and asked "They're all bleeding, nothing will happen, right? The police won't look for us, will they?"

  He was scared, after all, he's just a first-year junior high student who hasn't seen such things before. He dared to fight back only because he was standing up for his friend. In five years, with his temperament, he would never dare to be so impulsive again. So I patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, "Yang Can, today they bullied us, but they won't dare tell anyone that we beat them up, because they think of themselves as thugs and it would be embarrassing for them to admit it!"

  "What if we fight on the road and the police see them, what will they do?" Yang Can was still a bit uneasy. "They'll tell the police that we beat them up."

  I looked at him with some helplessness and comforted "You don't understand their way of thinking, they must be showing off as heroes, no one will tell you even if you ask". As we walked to the bottom of my apartment building, Yang Can seemed like he wanted to open his mouth and ask again, but swallowed his words instead and left with unease.

  Still a kid, I have some feelings, and I couldn't help but think of the first time I cut someone with a knife. It was also tense and scary, and after seeing blood, I became stupid and my legs went soft... Sometimes when you look back on life, it's quite ridiculous. In fact, people's courage is not innate, everyone will have a feeling of fear, and after experiencing many storms, it becomes a habit, and you don't know what it means to be afraid anymore.