The story starts from when Gong CaiCai went to attend her remedial cla.s.ses.
Ever since she was appointed as the education and activity committee member by the cla.s.s leader, she did not have much improvement in terms of human relations. On the contrary, she started to study harder.
The only reason she has 375 degree contact lenses was because she studied too hard. It had nothing to do with television or computers.
It is a rare case in today’s era of electronic entertainment.
As far as I know, even the physics cla.s.s representative Niu ShiLi cla.s.smate, number one loyal dog gla.s.ses bro, only became nearsighted from watching too much American dramas (especially sci-fi).
She was different from us who only wanted to play around. Gong CaiCai even attended remedial cla.s.ses on Sat.u.r.day. She had to ride tens of stops on the bus since the cla.s.s was a bit far.
Actually, both of Gong CaiCai’s parents can drive. They even have multiple cars in their garage, but there are a couple of reasons why they do not drive her. The first reason was that their building materials business was quite busy, and they had business every day. The second reason was that her parents started from nothing and they looked down on ‘elitist education’. They would not intentionally provide generous circ.u.mstances for their daughter.
Otherwise, someone who was as rich and beautiful as Gong CaiCai would not come to an average school like 28 Middle. Wouldn’t it be better to directly attend QingZi Academy?
On the Sat.u.r.day when we went to watch a movie, Gong CaiCai had a mishap when she was riding the bus on her way back from remedial cla.s.ses.
Because of the sandy winds, her contact lenses came off when she was rubbing her eyes. Then, it was accidentally blown out of the bus window.
Usually, someone would yell at the driver to stop if they dropped something out the window, but Gong CaiCai did not have the guts.
Gong CaiCai initially did not believe it was a serious matter, and it would be fine if she apologized to her parents when she got home. However, misfortunes never come alone. Since this bus did not announce the station (common in small cities), and Gong CaiCai was afraid to ask the driver, she ended up pa.s.sing her stop.
It was 8 pm and the skies were dark. Gong CaiCai was left stranded at the Tu Qiao terminal station in the middle of nowhere. She could not see the roads clearly without her contact lenses, and after finally finding the bus station heading in the opposite direction, the last bus had already left.
Gong CaiCai burst into tears without the least bit of concern.
By the way, Tu Qiao was one of the most chaotic areas of the Xicheng district. Ordinarily, there are a lot of unruly people who gather there, they even have a couple of underground casinos. Li Lao’Er and Zhao GuangTou, who I sent to the hospital a couple days ago, were frequent customers.
Gong CaiCai was fortunate her cries did not attract any hoodlums. Instead, it attracted a nearby off-duty police officer who was riding a bike.
The officer was able to get a gist of what was going on with difficulty due to Gong CaiCai’s crying. He let her ride on the back of his bicycle, and he rode his shoddy bike and sent her home.
Gong CaiCai’s parents got angry when she got home.
Of course, they were not angry at Gong CaiCai (They were happy that she came home safe and sound). They were also not angry at the police officer (He was a selfless model citizen, and he turned down their gifts). They were angry at our school.
Their logic was: If 28 Middle did not have a rule that prohibits cellphones, then their daughter would always carry one with her. If she had a cellphone when she was stranded in Tu Qiao, she could have phoned home for help.
Thus the married couple drove to school amidst their busy schedule and gave a good scolding to teacher Yu who was marking tests during the weekend.
Although he did have a duty as Gong CaiCai’s cla.s.s teacher, he felt wronged while he was being scolded: it’s not like I set the school rules?
As a result, this problem was pa.s.sed to the vice-princ.i.p.al, and he placed great importance on this matter. He met up with the headteacher who lived in his building, and they unanimously agreed that it was good the matter did not get out of hand.
On the night Gong CaiCai got lost, there was a female minor who was raped in Tu Qiao. The victim was a student from another school, it sent an uproar through the city, and TV stations were following closely.
After careful deliberations from the vice-princ.i.p.al, he believed he should not leave 28 Middle’s reputation to luck. In order to prevent a case like Gong CaiCai’s from happening again, and to prevent blame, he made the wisest decision after becoming vice-princ.i.p.al: Remove the ban on cellphones, it was fine as long as it was turned off during cla.s.s.
Actually, the rule was never enforced properly. I did not have complete statistics, but in 2-3 cla.s.s alone, over a third of the students secretly brought their cellphones to school. The upper years were even worse (there were some who used their cellphones to bet on ball games), the vice princ.i.p.al’s decision was basically just taking advantage of the situation for his own benefits.
In any case, everyone was still excited we could openly bring our cellphones to school.
There were bound to be many praises and jokes towards Gong CaiCai, who was able to successfully create a good policy.
“You’re the best! You were able to remove the ban on cellphones by crying! You’re the modern Meng Jiang Nu!”
“Shush! Meng Jiang Nu is too ominous! Our Gong CaiCai has a rich appearance, she will definitely find an ideal husband in the future!”
“Speaking of ideal husbands… Why did the officer who sent you home reject gifts as thanks? Did he take a fancy to you?”
Gong CaiCai already felt ashamed that her parents went to scold the teacher in charge of her cla.s.s. Not that she became the focal point of the cla.s.s, she felt everyone was making fun of her, and her sniveling frequency increased again.
The cla.s.s leader was the one who dismissed the audience and consoled her. Gong CaiCai agreed to not quit her position and reluctantly work for a bit longer.
Although the ban was lifted, other than the students who already had cellphones, a lot of students did not have time to buy one yet.
For example, me, Xiao Qin, the cla.s.s leader… Someone like Eunuch Cao who already had a cellphone immediately began to show it off after cla.s.s ended. The guys discussed firmware or games while the girls compared who had the prettiest case.
“Why didn’t you buy a cellphone yet?” I asked Xiao Qin a few days later during a politics cla.s.s.
“Because you didn’t buy one yet! I’m waiting so we can buy a couple’s cellphone, and get a couple’s phone number!” (TN: Phone number with one different digit)
I was determined to buy a cellphone that girls definitely would not like. It would best if it was heavy, complicated, and looks ugly.
After cla.s.s, the cla.s.s leader came over holding a white touch screen phone and asked for my cell number.
“I didn’t buy one yet.” I realized there was a scratch on the cellphone’s casing, it was similar to the one Shu Zhe was using. The cla.s.s leader definitely bought her brother a new phone and she was using his old one.
“You still didn’t buy one? Don’t you like electronics?”
The cla.s.s leader picked up a pen from my desk and wrote a phone number on my empty English exercise book.
“This is my cellphone number.” The cla.s.s leader said as she pointed to the number, “Send me a text once you get a cellphone so I could contact you if there’s any news for committee members.”
“Wait! What did you say? Committee members? What does the committee have to do with me?”
The corners of Shu Sha’s mouth lifted into a mysterious smile, “Did teacher Yu not tell you? You’re the male P.E committee member of 2-3 cla.s.s starting from tomorrow.”
What…! Who agreed to that! Isn’t Xiong YaoYue already doing a great job? Why are you pushing me to do something I do not want to do!?
It’s an abuse of power! Teacher Yu was definitely afraid you would quit your job, that’s why he agreed to your unreasonable request!
Although she mentioned it to me before, why did she suddenly make it true? Does it have anything to do with the fight in they alley? Does she want to tie me up with committee work because she is afraid of me going down the wrong path?
“Can you stop joking around?” I took the pen the cla.s.s leader put down and started drumming, too bad I could not make a good beat.
“When was I joking?” The cla.s.s leader sent a glance back towards me in response. Her gaze was as serious as usual with a hint of mischievousness.
“You’re clearly joking!” I hit the pen hard on the desk and almost broke the cap, “I have bad relations with others, I also get bad grades, who would accept me as the PE committee member?”
“Who would dare refuse?” The cla.s.s leader said as she subconsciously swept her gaze across the room as if she would accept the challenge of any opposition, “You can improve relations, as for grades….”
The cla.s.s leader looked at Xiong YaoYue who was currently trying to take Gong CaiCai’s homework, “Xiao Xiong’s midterm results were worse than yours, she only scored 16 points in English.”
16 points is not bad! It at least broke double digits! My usual English grade is always in the single digits!
“Anyway, the PE teacher and teacher Yu has already agreed that you will be the male PE committee member. I already notified Xiao Xiong, she doesn’t have any objections. It’s not hard to allocate the work, one of you will be in charge of the boys and the other is in charge of the girls.”
“Wait! Why did you not think about my feelings? Even if you control 2-3 cla.s.s, shouldn’t you at least listen to my thoughts?”
“Then are you for or against?” The cla.s.s leader’s tone of voice carried a faint hint of ridicule.
“Against! Of course, I’m against it! How could you make me a committee member without my approval!”
“Your rejection is ineffective!” The cla.s.s leader denied me with a simple statement. She left me, who was still in a shocked state and went to settle the dispute between Gong CaiCai and Xiong YaoYue.
I inexplicably became a committee member, and I inexplicably became one of Shu Sha’s lackeys.