There was also someone else who was drunk that night-Chen Yunlun. Whether intentionally or not, no one had told him this piece of news. Some perhaps gloated over his misfortune. Some, perhaps worried that he might not be able to take the news, therefore kept it from it.
Anyway, Chen Yulun got drunk, and had a very blissful dream. He even thought in the dream how good it would be if these were the olden times. Languishing in pride, robe adorned with red flowers, traversing the streets on a horse.
The next morning, Chen Yulun awoke. The dream shattered.
Many people had slept at Xu Tingshengâs house the previous night. With there being insufficient rooms, a few boys had spread a mattress across the ground, smoking as they chatted, grabbing a few bottles of wine in the middle of the night and going back to the room to drink.
Fang Yunyao stayed together with Xu Tingshengâs sister, Xu Qiuyi. They were still yet to know that in Xu Qiuyiâs upcoming first year of senior high, Fang Yunyao would be one of her teachers.
A young female teacher giving a lesson up front, a student listening to the lesson knowing of her ambiguous relationship with a former male student who had just graduatedâŚ
Itâs too beautiful, I donât want to think about itâŚ
Tan Qinglin and Song Ni stayed together. Huang Yaming had asked Song Ni to help persuade Tan Qinglin to give up on repeating the year and go directly to university instead.
Huang Yaming woke up at 2am to go to the toilet, tottering as he went.
Still sober, Xu Tingsheng pulled him back, âIt canât be, right? This is my house, and that aside, other than Tan Qinglin, thereâs also Song Ni sleeping there. Are you sure that you want to do such a deed that will anger both humans and divinities alike?â
Huang Yaming felt very wronged, saying that he just wanted to go to the toilet.
Xu Tingsheng didnât believe him, pulling him back and refusing to let him go.
Huang Yaming held his stomach, saying that he really couldnât hold it in anymore.
Not being to hold it in was actually a phrase that could be very easily misunderstood as Xu Tingsheng said, âWill it kill you to hold it in for a day? What if Tan Qinglin cries out? âŚEveryone collectively listens in on the room together?â
Hot tears filled Huang Yamingâs eyes, ââŚIâm talking about urine, I almost canât hold it in.â
Actually having being awake all this time, Fu Cheng told Xu Tingsheng, âIt just happens that I want to go too. Iâll help you look after him.â
âIâll go too then,â Xu Tingsheng said.
The three didnât go to the toilet, instead going to the small hill behind Xu Tingshengâs house and playing a very silly game under the moonlight. Who could pee further, it was at most ten feet that yearâŚit was precisely that year now.
Afterwards, the trio sat on the slope of the hill and chatted.
Xu Tingsheng asked Huang Yaming, âWhat do you and Tan Qingling intend to do?â
Huang Yaming said, âIâm just encouraging her to go for university now. Itâs best if we enter the same one, but if it really isnât possible, weâll study in the same city, then get married after graduation.â
In Xu Tingshengâs previous life, Tan Qingling hadnât even blinked as she had dumped Huang Yaming, in the midst of repeating the year, without a second thought. This time round, many things had changed, such as that with Huang Yaming. Still, Tan Qinglingâs personality wouldnât change. As Xu Tingsheng had thought earlier, there was one thing the power of foresight that came together with rebirth couldnât control-matters of the heart.
Xu Tingsheng said, âIf one day, and Iâm saying if, if one day, you donât really possess any capabilities, just being a completely average guy, and Tan Qingling falls in love with someone who is richer and more capable than you, what would you do?â
Huang Yaming said, âShe wonât.â
Xu Tingsheng could only discard this topic as he turned towards Fu Cheng, asking him, âWhat about you?âŚAlready having said things to that extent just now, after Ms Fang wakes up tomorrow, what are you planning to do?â
Huang Yaming said, âJust directly push her down.â
Fu Cheng said, âIâve been thinking about it ever since then⌠but havenât been able to think of anything. Still, I find that things are pretty good this way. Iâve said whatever I wanted to say, and sheâs heard it all as well. Iâve given her a promise, and also given her freedom. What comes after will be the work of time and destiny.â
Fu Cheng meant that he would wait, while Ms Fang could let nature run its course. However, this format was in itself already flawed. Ms Fangâs age made it such that she could not let nature just run its course. Fu Cheng had lots of time; she did not.
What if they began just like that? This was similarly not fair to Ms Fang. The pressure and fear she would have to bear would be completely incomparable to that bore by Fu Cheng.
This was a dead knot.
Finally, the topic fell to Xu Tingsheng, Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng being extremely curious about his âlove at first sightâ.
Xu Tingsheng said, âSheâs called Xiang Ning.â
âCan we meet her?â
âAfter some timeâs passedâŚno, in a few years.â
âŚâŚ
After the release of the university entrance examination results, schools would usually conduct a seminar regarding the filling up of the graduatesâ aspiration forms, guiding them on such.
After Xu Tingshengâs group had finished eating breakfast, they swaggered mightily to the school gates.
The large red banners were hung directly down from the tenth grade building closest to the school gates. On one of them was written: Warmly congratulating Student Xu Tingshengâs glorious achievements. Top scholar for Humanities in Libei County, ranked overall third for Humanities in Jiannan City, first in Jianhai Province for Combined Humanities and also awarded the Award of Bravery in Libei County.
âWhatâs that Award of Bravery all about?â Xu Tingsheng was completely stumped.
Possessing superb alcohol tolerance, Vice Principal Lou seemed not to have been drunk the previous night at all as he came over in great strides, laughing heartily, âWe got a commendation for you for that matter with SARS. How about it?â
ââŚThank you, Vice Principal,â Xu Tingsheng had originally thought that that had already been the end of things, that thatâŚviolent action of his was not worth giving mention to at all.
They all raised their heads and gazed at the banner.
It was not just them. Including the tenth and eleventh grade students and the graduates and their parents who had come back to attend the seminar, a few thousand people gazed upon the large red banner that drifted with the wind, discussing it animatedly.
âSplendor shines on the familyâs doorâ. Suddenly thinking of this idiom, Xu Tingsheng felt pretty good.
At this moment, under everyoneâs gazes, that banner regarding Xu Tingsheng suddenly grew taut, then drifted down from the rooftop with a ripping sound.
The wind was not big, and the other banners were all fine. Therefore, it must have been pulled off by someone.
A figure stood on the rooftop, an end of the banner in his hands.
Vice Principal Lou exploded, leading people in rushing up towards him.
Chen Yulun.
One could not actually be charged for this kind of thing. Moreover, Chen Yulun was himself also a student who had attained glory for Libei. The school could not possibly charge him just over this matter.
Xu Tingsheng whispered something into Vice Principal Louâs ear before striding over towards Chen Yulun.
âYouâve ruined me,â Chen Yulun said.
âThatâs just a misunderstanding. You still have a result of 592 marks and a good university,â Xu Tingsheng said, âHave you thought about Song Ni? âŚSheâs truly the one who has been ruined by you.â
Chen Yulun was rendered speechless.
âHer yearning towards a blissful relationship, her university entrance examinations, her future prospects and fate, her life, her psychological stateâŚthey were virtually all ruined by you. Therefore, I wonât sympathise with you.â
âWhat do you want?â
âI donât need to do anything. The two of us standing here talking with so many others watching on-itâs already been a while, right? âŚI believe that this will be an eternal shadow cast over your heart.â
Xu Tingsheng was very cruel to be breaking someone through their mind like this. However, as he recalled Song Niâs fate in his previous life, an originally obedient and quiet little girl trying to end everything through suicide, then leaving silently, very possibly going away with a permanent disabilityâŚeven if it was just what she had experienced in this life, it was already sufficient for Xu Tingsheng to ruthlessly harden his resolve.
âThis will be an eternal shadow cast over your heart.â
âThis will be an eternal shadow cast over you heart.â
As Chen Yulun stood opposite Xu Tingsheng, while the latter was already no longer speaking, he seemed to be able to hear countless voices, those thousands of voices all buzzing within his ears:
âThat fake top scholar.â
âWhat a narrow heart.â
âRipping the bannerâŚhas he gone crazy?â
âŚâŚ
As Xu Tingsheng walked back amidst Huang Yaming and the others, many on the distant classroom buildings were waving to him, âSenior Xu Tingsheng.â
This senior was feeling shy. Actually, the seminar on aspirations was completely meaningless for him. He knew much more than the specialists, even many schools did. He could be precise and firm in his resolve. The reason he had returned was to get his aspiration form.
Xu Tingshengâs group sat in Old Zhouâs office for half an hour, obtaining the aspiration form. Afterwards, Huang Yaming and the others went to attend the seminar, while Xu Tingsheng instead returned to his classroom alone.