Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 7: The start of the school year

On the morning of 1 September, the whole family got up early, had a hasty breakfast, and Feng Yiping and his father set off for school.

Both men had heavy burdens.

Feng Zhenchang carried a load on his shoulders, with a desk on one end, inside which were neatly folded quilts and mosquito nets, and 30 catties of rice on the other end – Feng Yiping's monthly ration.

Feng Yiping carried a school bag on his back, with paper and pens inside, as well as old textbooks borrowed from older students in the same village. Since he could not afford to pay the tuition fees, he would not be able to receive the books at least for today, so he had to plan ahead. He also has an enamel bowl and a metal spoon, which are his eating utensils.

He is also busy with other things. On one side is a plastic basin, and on the other a mesh bag.

In the mesh bag are two canned pickles, which are his side dishes for the week, and a small bottle of fried tofu with chili, which will last for about two meals if he is careful.

He lived in a boarding school from the fifth grade of primary school, then three years of junior high school, and three years of technical secondary school, a total of eight years. During the eight years, except for the summer and winter vacations each year, he basically used pickled vegetables to go with his meals. The pickled vegetables have been deeply engraved in his bones and imprinted in his taste buds. So that, every year when he went home for the New Year, the thing he wanted most was the pickled vegetables his mother had pickled, because you couldn't buy that taste outside. Sometimes his mother would say to him, 'What's so good about that stuff? You've been eating it for eight years, and you still haven't had enough?'

While they were eating, Feng Hongbing left, and the father and son walked straight to the village entrance to join the other two families. One was in the same grade as him and was still in the same class, called Feng Wen. In fact, his grades were average, and his father also carried the burden.

The other one, Feng Haitao, was about to enter the third year of junior high school, and Feng Yiping borrowed his textbooks. He doesn't need to carry his desk, but it's not easy for him either. He carries a school bag and a big bag. Because from the second year of junior high school, there is a monthly holiday, he can only go home once a month. He needs to bring a lot of pickled vegetables and change of clothes.

It's almost the same way to his grandfather's house, except that Feng Yiping looks at the scenery from the mountain, turns north, climbs over another mountain, passes through a village, and then crosses a river barefoot. When he gets to the other side, he sees the road, and on the other side of the road is the town middle school.

For children in the countryside, school is a special place. At the moment, it is the only way for them to escape the fate of their parents, who have spent their entire lives working the land. The parents also hope for the same thing. From the first day at school, they will tell the teacher, 'We'll leave our child in your care. If he doesn't listen and doesn't study hard, you can hit him and scold him as much as you like.'

You can see that you are not the only one who can scold and hit, you are even put before the scolding. 20 years later, no sensible teacher would dare to physically punish students, let alone if the parents endorse this.

Therefore, teachers not only pass on knowledge to them, but also have the right to physically punish them, just like their parents. So, to a certain extent, in the eyes of children, teachers have more authority than parents, and this is also recognised by parents.

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Therefore, for children, school at this time is a place with a sacred meaning. It is the same house, the same people, but there seems to be something different and awe-inspiring about it.

After starting work, when he returned home, the road had been extended to the village, and he could take a car directly back. But every time he passed by, he wanted to take another look at this place that was like a sacred place in his childhood, but he was never able to take a good look.

His hometown had changed a lot since then, and he didn't recognise many places. The school had also changed a lot. The school gate was no longer directly opposite the road, and there was a tall fence around the whole area, so you couldn't even see the school buildings from the outside. Where the school gate used to be, there was now a high wall instead. Hey, this is supposed to be the place, right? Why is it just a wall? While he was hesitating and reminiscing, in the blink of an eye, the school, which had been like a sacred place in his childhood, was left far behind.

The middle school was sandwiched between two small hills, with its back against the other hill and its front door facing the road. There was a grey brick wall on either side of the door, enclosing the gap between the two hills. This was actually just a symbolic gesture, because the school only had a section of wall here, and everywhere else was open. Apart from this front door, you could actually enter the school from all directions.

When I got ashore, I saw a rectangular two-storey building, which was the only building on the school campus. It was the teachers' dormitory and also where they worked.

At that time, in front of the building, on the playground behind the school gate, there were quite a few students reporting for duty, along with their parents. Most of them were carrying their belongings on their shoulders or in their hands. Only a few parents who lived by the road rode their bicycles, and there were also a dozen teachers bustling about.

The most lively place was an office on the left at the bottom of the building, where the life teachers lived. Two teachers were busy there. In front of the door, there was a scale placed on the ground, and parents were gathered around, weighing the rice on the scale and then going to the window to pay the corresponding few yuan – because the only thing weighed was the rice, and to turn it into rice, firewood was needed, which the school did not collect, only the money, and then it was exchanged for mahjong-sized, red and green meal tickets. The red ones were two taels, and porridge and steamed buns were eaten for breakfast; the green ones were four taels, for lunch and dinner.

The general layout of the school was like this: the playground was just inside the school gate, and a few steps up, in the centre of the platform, was the two-storey building; to the left and right of the building were four tile-roofed houses each, which were the classrooms; behind the building, on the slope, was another row of tile-roofed houses side by side, which were the dormitories; on the left side of the school on the left side of the school, there is a water tower; below the hill, there is a pond, and by the pond are a few houses, which are the kitchens; to the right of them are the classrooms; on the small hill to the right, there is a single-family courtyard, where the principal and vice-principal live and work.

Feng Haitao helped out on the playground. He and Feng Wen carried the desks to the classroom of the first grade class one. The classroom was on the left, with the first two rooms being the third grade classroom, the middle room being the first grade class two, and their class being in the last room.

The class teacher, Wang Yumin, with her hair loose, wearing a blue and white polka dot dress and white high heels, was standing at the podium, directing the early arrivals to set up the desks. The students sitting down below were either looking around with curiosity, or talking to their neighbours or other familiar classmates.

Seeing them two carrying the table in, they asked for their names. Feng Yiping answered with his head held high. At this time, Feng Yiping was shorter than Wang Yumin, but he remembered very clearly that by the time they reached the third year of junior high school, he was almost a head taller than Wang Yumin.

When she knew it was Feng Yiping, Wang Yumin still looked at him twice. Feng Yiping graduated from elementary school with the top score in his grade, and ranked fifth in the township. Of course Wang Yumin welcomed such a student being assigned to her class. Wang Yumin arranged for the two of them to move their desks to the fifth row against the wall, right next to the second window.

The entire classroom was laid out in a 2-2-3 pattern, with three large rows and seven columns, divided by two aisles in the middle. The innermost three columns were occupied by a girl with short hair and an oval face, who was sitting in the window seat of the fifth row in front of them. Upon seeing the girl, Feng Wen whispered to Feng Yiping, 'I'll sit in the middle, okay!'

Feng Yiping laughed and said, 'No problem.'

After Feng Yiping's desk was also carried in, Feng Wen struck up a conversation with his female classmate. What's your name? Which elementary school did you go to? The female classmate just said her surname was Wen and then ignored Feng Wen. She looked down at a novel on the desk and flipped through the pages. Feng Yiping saw the cover and it looked like a pirated romance novel.

People came and went in the classroom, and parents came in to talk to Wang Yumin. Before long, Feng Zhenchang and Feng Wen's father also came in. When the two of them went up, the two fathers were saying things of a similar content to what they had said before: you can discipline the child as you see fit, hit and scold as you like, and so on.

However, these words now just show an attitude. Junior high school teachers all graduated from the relevant subject, and their teaching methods are different from those of primary school teachers. Besides, from now on, Feng Yiping and the others will no longer celebrate Children's Day, but Youth Day. Their self-esteem is getting stronger day by day, and the teachers always have to consider their feelings. So, scolding, maybe, probably, possibly, no, definitely, will happen, but beating will not.

Finally, Feng Zhenchang talked about the situation at home again. Because of the difficult circumstances, the tuition fees could not be collected at once, so they could only wait until they had collected enough to pay. Wang Yumin also spoke very well, and it was probably not the first time she had said this: 'My family is also from the countryside, and I know it is not easy there. This year's tuition fees are the highest in years, and it's okay if you can't collect them all at once, you can pay them later.'

After talking to Wang Yumin, Feng Yiping followed his father outside the classroom. His father handed him a meal ticket and said, 'My uncle is across the street. I'll show you the way.'

This uncle was actually a relative on his mother's side who had married his mother's cousin. It wasn't exactly a distant relative.

Uncle Lin Kaiming worked for the government and worked at the rural agricultural machinery station. He originally lived in the village across the river. In the past two years, everyone in the village has experienced the convenience of the highway. Some of the wealthy people have built houses next to the school, and gradually, a small village has formed. Uncle Lin's family also built a two-storey building here last year, and they were among the first in the area to build a house.

When Feng Yiping and the others arrived, Lin Kaiming had just left, having also dropped off his youngest son at primary school. Feng Zhenchang spoke with his aunt, who was there with her daughter Lin Hui, while Lin Hui chatted with Feng Yiping.

Lin Hui was a year older than Feng Yiping and was also starting junior high school this year, and she happened to be in the same class as Feng Yiping. She had already completed the necessary paperwork and collected her books early.

Lin Hui is considered pretty, dresses fashionably, and is generous and polite in her dealings with others. Of course, she also conforms to the general convention that pretty girls generally do poorly in school.

Because of her family relationship with Feng Yiping, she has been asking him for cheat sheets for the past three years of junior high school. I remember that in the final exam of the second semester of the first year, I wasn't paying attention and overdid it and copied too much, and as a result, I actually got eighth place. When Wang Yumin proposed a special commendation, there was laughter in the classroom, and the classmates who laughed all knew what was going on.

Auntie wants to stay for lunch, but Feng Zhenchang repeatedly declines, saying that it is still early, that it is not yet lunchtime, and that he has things to do if he rushes back in the afternoon. Feng Yiping also has to go back to the school to set up the dormitory, so he says his goodbyes and leaves.

Lin Hui, of course, stays at home. What she means is that it doesn't matter if they go to the school tomorrow.

They exchanged a few words of advice, which boiled down to studying hard, listening to the teacher, and being a good friend to your classmates. Then they met up with Feng Wen's father and they all went home, walking quickly so that they could still do the things they had planned for the afternoon.

When they entered the classroom, they saw Xiao Zhijie's father, Xiao Jianping, talking to Wang Yumin. In the middle of the third row, the chubby Xiao Zhijie was slouching over his desk. He didn't look like the surly, meaty man he would become later in life. He still had some baby fat, and he was very cute.

Haha, this is one of his two best friends and brothers for life. The world is always full of wonders. Some people related by blood may end up as strangers or even enemies, while complete strangers may become close friends and even lifelong confidants and brothers.

Feng Yiping will have two such people in the future: one is Xiao Zhijie, who still has some baby fat, and the other is Wang Changning, who should be in the next class. Feng Yiping is very grateful and content to have such two friends in his life.