Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 11: The opening ceremony

Morning and evening study is generally quite relaxed. The teachers come and go, taking a quick look around before leaving. At most, they will show up again just before class ends to grab breakfast at the cafeteria. However, Wang Yumin, the homeroom teacher of one class, is a female teacher, so sometimes she will make a surprise return visit. After she leaves for a while, she sneaks back in and stands outside the last window in the classroom, peeking in to see who is sleeping, who is chatting, and who is reading novels.

This trick still works, but Feng Yiping knows that it will stop working in less than a month. This is because, in general, when the teacher is there, the students will pay more attention and work harder when reading, so their voices will be louder. Usually, once the teacher leaves, there will be fewer students reading and their voices will generally be lower. When you hear the voices of the students reading aloud getting louder again, especially the one near the window, it means that a teacher is coming. Knowing this signal, the trick of turning back will not work, and very few students will be caught again.

The next morning during morning study, after Wang Yumin came, left, came back quietly, and then left again, Feng Yiping deliberately asked Wang Jinzhu, 'Did you ask yesterday? What exactly did those words mean?'

Wang Jinzhu and Huang Jingping blushed. Last night, they took the piece of paper and asked the second-year students in their dormitory. After the lights were turned off, the third-year girls returned, and one of them happened to be carrying a dictionary and was ready to read it under the covers. After a quick search, a few people put their heads together and finally pieced it together roughly. As a result, the biggest room full of girls, all no more than 17 years old, were all a little overwhelmed.

At this time, Wang Guozhen's poetry collection had already become popular throughout the country, and there were a few copies circulating on campus. Shu Ting and their Misty Poets were also selected as model essays in Chinese language classes. In the early 1990s, poetry and poets were still very popular.

Although it is only four short lines, it clearly portrays the infatuation and sadness of a secret admirer. It was not yet the 21st century, and 'love' was not yet a mantra on people's lips. For these middle school girls, love was even more of a taboo word. Moreover, girls have always been more awakened in this regard than boys. They have already fallen in love with someone, and many of them have a vague crush, or a secret admirer.

The forbidden attraction, combined with the empathy of being a secret admirer, made them unconsciously moved by these four short sentences.

These girls at school may not necessarily know what romance is, but which girl doesn't have a romantic dream? In their dreams, someone should write poems like this for them. And now, in reality, there is such a person around them, so how could they not be overwhelmed with emotion?

Wang Jinju and Huang Jingping slept in the bottom bunk of a row of two beds, facing each other head-on. It was hot, so they simply sat up and whispered through the mosquito net, 'Who do you think he wrote it for?' Wang Jinju asked Huang Jingping.

It seemed like there was a reference in this sentence, and Huang Jingping said impatiently, 'How would I know?'

Wang Jinju chuckled in her ear, 'I think it might be for you.'

Huang Jingping, of course, did not agree, and patted Wang Jinju on the arm, "Nonsense, how could it be for me?'

Wang Jinju whispered in her ear, "Don't look at his small eyes, I've seen him sneakily glance at you several times.'

Huang Jingping was a little pleased, but she didn't let him off the hook, saying, 'Really? I didn't know about that. Besides, he could have been secretly ogling you too!'

Well, Feng Yiping thought he was very skilled at this. After all, when walking with his wife on the street, he could also do it without leaving a trace, secretly ogling the pretty girls on the street. Unexpectedly, after slightly relaxing a bit and only looking a few times, Huang Jingping probably didn't even notice, but Wang Jinju next to her did notice.

This reminds us that no matter what we do, we must never let our guard down, and we must demand the very best from ourselves.

Hearing him ask like this, Wang Jinju thought he really didn't know, so she excused herself, saying, 'We don't know either, we can't read it. What's the name of that book? And the author, what's his name, do you know?'

At this point, even Huang Jingping stopped pretending to read and turned to Feng Yiping, 'I don't know. I was taking advantage of the fact that my grandfather was talking to the bookstore clerk to read in a worn-out book. It was all in English, so I only remember a few lines. There was a photo next to it of an old man with a white beard wearing a robe. It looked like an Indian.'

The girls, including Wen Hong, who was listening with her ears pricked, were a little disappointed. Wang Jinju wanted to say something else, but was stopped by Huang Jingping. Wang Jinju tried to go past her, but Huang Jingping reached out and gave her a little nudge, which made her laugh uncontrollably.

The girls' natural gossips nature meant that even those girls who lived nearby and did not board at the school knew about it during morning study. So when they were having breakfast, some girls pointed and stared at Feng Yiping, but most of the girls were disappointed when they saw him.

A skinny little boy, a bit dark, with small eyes and a not-so-small nose. His facial features were okay when viewed together, and he was originally considered kind of handsome, but he had a standard 'toilet seat cover' haircut, was wearing a navy blue shirt and blue pants that looked like they were bought off the rack and sewn together, and was wearing outdated cloth shoes. The whole person looked rustic. Alas, it can be said that hope is as big as the disappointment.

Feng Yiping pretended not to know any of this, and joined the queue, chatting with Xiao Zhijie. They were discussing how to bring back the wet laundry from the evening bath without being caught by the teacher.

In fact, both the adults at home and the teachers at school have a good handle on water, including ponds, reservoirs and rivers. There are several ponds in Feng Yiping's village, and over the years, no child or adult has ever fallen in. Of course, there was a pig that fell in, but it grunted and swam ashore in no time.

The school went even further, criticising the education and calling the parents. After a lecture and a scolding at school, there was inevitably a beating at home, so going to the river to bathe and swim was quite a risky business. Therefore, Feng Yiping, a good boy, never learned to swim. Later, when he started working and had time to learn to swim, he felt that he was in his twenties or thirties, and after all, he grew up by the Yangtze River, so he couldn't swim and felt bad about learning to swim. As a result, he remained a landlubber until he was reborn.

Feng Yiping thought about it and realised that no matter whether he took clean clothes with him when he went out or wet clothes when he came in, it was never safe from the school gate, so he had to think of another way.

He asked Xiao Zhijie, his classmate and the daughter of the vice-principal, how their relationship was. Xiao Zhijie was a little embarrassed, 'My relationship with Zhang Qiuling is OK, we were classmates at the Hope Primary School.'

Feng Yiping then said, 'Can you discuss it with Zhang Qiuling and ask her to keep watch at the entrance to the small courtyard where the headmaster and his family live, and we can sneak in and out from there?'

Xiao Zhijie thought about it for a while and said, "No, that's not possible. She always listens to her teachers. If we tell her we're going to the river to bathe, she'll definitely tell Teacher Wang, and even her father.'

'Then we'll just have to bathe and come back to change, and then go to the pond to wash," Feng Yiping said.

'Yes, it's not a big deal, it's more secure that way.' Xiao Zhijie held a bowl of congee in one hand and a steamed bun in the other. 'Let's go find Wang Changning, the salted vegetables he brings have soy beans in them and are tastier.'

Of the three of them, Xiao Zhijie's family had the best conditions, but his mother's pickling skills were really not very good, and sometimes the pickles she brought were black.

After breakfast, including Feng Yiping, the 12 students in the class who had not paid or had not paid in full their tuition fees also received their books. Two days late, there were a dozen or so books of various sizes, all of which exuded the fragrance of ink. After joining the workforce, no matter how many books they bought in bookstores, they would never be able to experience this fragrance again.

Since the first day of school was Tuesday and classes officially started on Wednesday, they only had classes for three days before Saturday. During morning exercises on Saturday morning, the principal announced that there would be a school-wide meeting after the second period that morning.

When they heard the news, some people cheered, but Feng Yiping felt a little sad. If it was a sunny day, sitting in the playground for an hour would not be easy.

After the second period, after doing the radio exercises, everyone returned to the classroom, brought out the stools, and sat on the playground in the order of the parade. The podium was of course on the platform in front of the building, made up of three desks, with a microphone in the middle. The platform was five steps higher than the playground, and the row of sycamore trees in front of the playground just blocked the sun for them. Between the two sycamore trees on the left and right of the steps, there was a red banner with several large characters pasted on it: 'Liangjiahe Middle School 1992 Summer Opening Ceremony'.

First, of course, the principal gave his speech, in which he first looked back on the previous year's graduating class, saying that three students had been accepted into the county's No. 1 High School, one of whom had scored less than 10 points short of the admission score for the city's No. 1 High School. Many other students had been accepted into the county's open university, nursing school, and vocational secondary school, and their results were still gratifying.

This year's first-year enrolment has been the largest ever, with three classes. I hope that the new students will study hard, strive to get into No. 1 Middle School, go to university in the future, learn more useful knowledge, serve the motherland, and bring glory to their families and schools.

Next, the student union president, a third-year male student, gave a speech. This male student spoke completely off the cuff, and his speech was very well-structured and impressive, just like an official document. He spoke about the international situation and the general situation of the country, and first asked everyone to have a sense of historical mission, carry forward the spirit of ownership, and consciously and voluntarily study hard. Then he highlighted that the main task of the student union this year is to focus on the self-management and integrity of the students, with the goal of achieving self-management during exams, so that there is no need for teachers to monitor the exams and no one will cheat.

To be honest, seeing a peer speak so eloquently on stage had a big impact on the students. Especially since he also had the title of 'chairman' attached to him. At this time, in the minds of most elementary school children, the word 'chairman' had a specific meaning.

Feng Yiping heard some classmates talking about how this chairman was from their village and had big ambitions, saying that he wouldn't even take the job of village chief if they offered it to him. Feng Yiping had heard similar things before, because they had lost touch with their junior high school classmates. At that time, the internet portals were not yet developed, and there were no classmate records or anything like that. This chairman, who was not in the same class, had never been followed up on since then, and Feng Yiping didn't know if he had always stuck to his ideals and gone on to a leadership position higher than village chief. This time, he couldn't help but smile a little, and said to himself, 'Classmate, don't look down on the town chief as a mere official. Many people work hard their whole lives, but in the end, they may not be able to become the head of a town or village. Don't aim too high!'

Next, a girl from the second year, class two, took to the stage to speak on behalf of the new students. Compared to the student union president, this one was much less imposing. She kept looking at the script, her voice was not loud, and her Mandarin was indeed very ordinary. She also spoke words that were appropriate for the occasion. Feng Yiping simply drifted off again, and in the end, he joined in the applause with everyone else.

Finally, the head of the teaching department presided over the summary of the previous semester, announcing the list of outstanding students and awarding prizes to the current second and third year students, that is, the first and second year students from the previous semester.

To the athletes' march, the outstanding students received their awards, large hardcover notebooks, and pens from the principal, while the outstanding students received awards, small soft plastic-covered notebooks, and ballpoint pens. In short, they were of a higher grade than the stationery box and pencils that Feng Yiping received in elementary school.

It took about two periods of time, and Feng Yiping was covered in sweat. As soon as the meeting broke up, the first-year students all ran to their classrooms, put their things away, put their schoolbags on their backs, went to the dormitory to load up their dirty laundry, and then each headed in the direction of home.

As for the second- and third-year students, they had to stay in school and study hard, making progress every day.