Back to 1988 31

Chapter 31: Yidege Ink

After the midterm exam, the homeroom teacher, Teacher Wang, rearranged the seats according to everyone’s scores, just as she had said.

Mi Yang, having scored first, was placed in the first seat. However, the teacher didn’t put him in the “throne” in the center but in the first seat of the row by the window. Tang Xiao’s grades were good, but he was tall, so he took the initiative to raise his hand and request to sit further back. He ended up in the third row of the window seat, with one person between him and Mi Yang.

Mi Yang’s deskmate was now the little girl who was the class monitor. Perhaps because she had lost the top spot in the class, she attended class and listened to the lectures with particular seriousness every day. With her working so hard, Mi Yang was too embarrassed to slack off.

Tang Xiao would sometimes pass small notes across the row. Occasionally, during self-study class, he would even switch seats with the student in the row in front of him, pushing his desk forward, wishing he could squeeze in between Mi Yang and the class monitor, turning it into a row of three, and whispering to Mi Yang under the pretext of asking math questions.

The class monitor was very angry. “Tang Xiao, do you want your name written down again!”

Tang Xiao rolled his eyes. “I’m talking to Mi Yang, not you. What are you getting so worked up about?”

The class monitor rushed to the blackboard and wrote down Tang Xiao’s and Mi Yang’s names.

Mi Yang: “…”

Mi Yang felt that being stuck between these two unlucky kids was quite a bit of bad luck.

The class monitor was in charge of maintaining order during self-study class. After waiting for a while and observing with narrowed eyes, she quickly erased Mi Yang’s name with the blackboard eraser, leaving only Tang Xiao’s.

It was also Mi Yang’s good luck. Just as his name was erased, the homeroom teacher came in for a look. Seeing Tang Xiao’s name on the blackboard, she frowned. “Tang Xiao, who told you to change seats without permission? Stand for self-study!”

Tang Xiao pouted and went back to his own seat, remaining quiet for most of the class.

As Teacher Wang made her rounds, she deliberately lingered for a while at the class monitor’s and Mi Yang’s desks. She leaned against the window, her gaze mostly on Mi Yang.

The little girl who was the class monitor beside Mi Yang didn’t know. When she saw the teacher come in, her first reaction as a good student was to straighten her back and work hard on her homework, trying to be a well-behaved child. After being watched for a long time, Mi Yang felt a little uncomfortable. He looked up and his gaze met Teacher Wang’s. Although there was no obvious dislike, there was a sense of criticism and dissatisfaction.

Teacher Wang took the homework from Mi Yang’s hand and checked it. There was nothing wrong with it. Seemingly not giving up, she looked at Mi Yang’s hand and frowned. “You write with your left hand? What does that look like? No discipline at all. Switch it over now.”

Mi Yang was taken aback and subconsciously explained, “Teacher, I’ve been using my left hand since I was a child, and I write quite…”

Teacher Wang interrupted him. “Since you were a child? You’re just a child now. Don’t make excuses. Is this habit of using your left hand good or bad? Is the teacher trying to harm you? I think you’ve been reading too many of those newspaper reports that say writing with your left hand makes you smart, right? You believe that kind of fake news too.”

Mi Yang was choked by her words. His brow furrowed and then relaxed, but he still listened to her and switched hands.

Teacher Wang stood there and watched him write a few strokes, then snorted. “That’s right. Practice from the basics. That is a student’s duty.”

Mi Yang opened his mouth but ended up swallowing his words, not talking back to her.

Teacher Wang quickly finished her rounds of the class and, with the clatter of her wedge-heeled leather shoes, went to the teachers’ office next door.

In the office, several teachers were sitting there. Some were preparing lessons, and some were chatting. They were all quite polite when they saw her come in. After all, Teacher Wang was older and had been at the school for many years, so everyone subconsciously respected her.

A young female teacher said with a smile, “Teacher Wang, the newspaper your class ordered has arrived. Here, it’s on your desk.”

Teacher Wang walked over, took a sip of tea, and then slowly picked up the newspaper and began to read. She had ordered two newspapers for her class. One was a student newspaper, and the other was more focused on daily life, with many sections for students to submit their work. It would often feature one or two essays by primary and middle school students. An event reported in the newspaper this time quickly caught Teacher Wang’s attention. She read it intently for a while, then sighed with emotion. “Look, it’s just as I thought!”

A male teacher beside her asked, “What’s wrong? Any news?”

In the absence of the internet, television and newspapers were the channels for all news dissemination, and everyone was very interested in the news in the papers.

Teacher Wang opened the newspaper to that page for him to see and said, “See? The ‘little genius’ who was admitted to Tsinghua University at the age of 13 last year was expelled! It’s written in the newspaper. It says that after he went, besides studying, he couldn’t take care of his daily life. What’s worse is that his mother even had to go and live with him, going to the dormitory to help him with his laundry and meals… I said it back then, a child of a certain age should do things of that age! Just because he’s young and has good grades, does that mean everything?”

After the male teacher finished reading, he passed it to the other teachers. Everyone treated it as news, but no one really got emotionally invested. When the teacher returned the newspaper to Teacher Wang, he suddenly said, “Hey, I remember there seems to be a ‘little genius’ who skipped a grade in Teacher Wang’s class. He’s also very smart.”

Teacher Wang snorted coldly. “Even with good grades, he was still expelled from university. Were those junior classes the right thing to do? A 13-year-old admitted to Tsinghua was also expelled. See? It’s in the newspaper!” She shook the newspaper, making it rustle, as if she had received great support, proving herself right.

The other teachers looked at each other and said nothing. If it were them, they would have been delighted to have such a smart child in their class. Not only would their teaching results improve, but it would also be a matter of great pride.

The male teacher smiled and said, “I went to class the other day and saw Mi Yang… that child’s name is Mi Yang, right? I think he’s very sensible, even more well-behaved than the other children.”

Teacher Wang waved her hand, not responding.

She had always felt that Mi Yang’s young age was the biggest problem. Even if a child like this could keep up intellectually, could he keep up with everything else? When he was “not sensible,” he would only cause trouble for the class. Especially the first time she saw Mi Yang, the way he was doted on by his mother made her frown. She still remembered Mi Yang being pushed into the school gate, sitting and eating while watching, without any intention of getting down and walking. The parents were spoiling him too much.

Mi Yang had no idea that just by eating a sesame seed cake that day, he had caused such a strong dislike.

There was an art class in the afternoon. Everyone had brought the Xuan paper and ink they had prepared in advance and were looking forward to this class.

When the tools were taken out for class and the ink was poured into the plastic palettes as the teacher had instructed, the classroom was filled with a rich, inky fragrance. Most of the students had brought Yidege ink. A small number of children had bought large bottles of “stinky ink.” This ink was the cheapest and could be used without worry. It would last for a long time, enough for the entire school year.

Mi Yang had also brought ink, but his was in a small glass bottle, different from the others. This bit of ink had a very light scent, with a faint fragrance of pine soot. If you sniffed carefully, you could also smell borneol and musk. Mi Yang was very careful when he used it. This bit of ink was worth a month of his mother’s salary. The day before yesterday, the young master Bai, having somehow found out the third-grade class schedule, had heard that he would need it for art class and had “stolen” a bit of the old Mr. Bai’s high-quality pine soot Huizhou ink stick from his study.

Mi Yang opened the ink bottle, poured it into the white plastic palette that looked like a five-petaled flower, and, following the teacher’s instructions on the podium, began to wash and moisten his brush, learning to write large characters.

The art teacher was a young graduate from an art academy. Her classes were much more interesting. After teaching the basics, she had everyone draw lots. In groups of five, they pushed their small desks together to complete their calligraphy homework collectively.

This format made the children very happy, especially when drawing lots. The sounds of surprise and regret rose and fell. Surprisingly, the cheers for Mi Yang were the loudest. Perhaps the halo of being first place was still there. Everyone’s eyes were sparkling as they stared, blowing on their hands, mustering all their strength to draw Mi Yang.

The little fatty was one of them. He rubbed his hands together, and after drawing, he carefully opened it. With flushed cheeks, he said, “Mi Yang! Mi Yang is in my group, hahaha!”

A chorus of “wow”s erupted around them. All the children’s eyes were on the little fatty, full of envy.

Mi Yang took his brush, ink, and Xuan paper and walked over to the little fatty’s side. An empty seat had already been cleared for him there. The little fatty said excitedly, “Come, come, Mi Yang, you sit here!”

Tang Xiao stood by, holding a clean brush to his mouth and making a funny face at him, which made Mi Yang laugh.

Their group’s good luck was not over yet. Probably because they thought the little fatty had good luck, they all had him continue to draw for the group members. The little fatty did not disappoint. He next drew the little class monitor, which immediately drew another wave of envious sighs—although the class monitor wrote down people’s names, her grades were really good. She was particularly good in every subject!

The little girl who was the class monitor came over with her things, her little face very serious, clearly prepared to get first place in the group this time.

With the class monitor around, the efficiency indeed improved a lot. She constantly urged the group members to write diligently. If they didn’t write well, she would point it out and have them rewrite it. Their group had three boys and two girls. The other little girl next to the class monitor had a slightly dirty school uniform, and her hair was a bit messy. She spoke in a very low voice. When the class monitor pointed out that her strokes were wrong twice and had her rewrite it, her eyes filled with tears, and she whispered something.

The little girl who was the class monitor didn’t hear clearly, but she had always been upright and was raised in a family with a “who says women are inferior to men” mindset. She couldn’t stand the sight of crying and immediately furrowed her delicate little eyebrows. “No crying!”

The girl was so scared that she didn’t dare to cry. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I, I don’t have any more Xuan paper.”

The little fatty was curious. “The teacher told us to prepare extra. Why didn’t you bring any?”

The girl rubbed her red eyes. “My family ran out.”

The little fatty was about to ask again when Mi Yang stepped on his foot from the side. He gave half of his Xuan paper to the girl and said in a low voice, “You can use mine. I’m almost done. Two sheets are enough.”

The girl was hesitant, but after the class monitor observed, she waved her small hand. “We can’t let classmate Mi Yang give it all. How about this, he gives one sheet, I’ll give one sheet, and Tang Xiao and Yuan Yu, you two can contribute one sheet together. Three sheets are enough for everyone to complete the task.”

She assigned the tasks clearly and led by example, first taking out a sheet and giving it to the girl beside her. The little fatty, Yuan Yu, whose family was in business, had brought a lot of Xuan paper. He cheerfully took out two sheets and said, “This is from me and Brother Xiao. Take it. We’re in the same group, after all!”

The girl’s little face flushed, and she whispered her thanks.

The little class monitor suddenly looked up at her again. “Say it louder!”

The girl immediately said, “Thank you!”

Only then was the little class monitor satisfied. She continued to write her large characters, very seriously.

Their group’s progress was quite smooth. Mi Yang had dabbled in calligraphy and painting as a hobby before, and writing with his left hand wasn’t too bad. The form of the characters was there, more than enough to handle elementary school homework. And the little class monitor had obviously practiced too. Probably because she had been well-taught at home, she wrote with a suspended wrist, and her writing was even a little better than Mi Yang’s left-handed writing. Mi Yang couldn’t help but take a couple more glances.

The other two, Tang Xiao and the little fatty, wrote rather poorly, only managing a passing grade. You could barely recognize the characters. Especially Tang Xiao’s, which at best had upgraded from chicken scratch to formal chicken scratch.

Tang Xiao still had some extra Xuan paper. When the teacher wasn’t looking, he secretly took a sheet to Mi Yang. “Mi Yang, help me.”

Mi Yang pushed the paper back and gave him a look. Tang Xiao immediately understood and switched places with him. The little fatty beside them also watched with sparkling eyes as Mi Yang picked up his brush. He had already laid out a new sheet of Xuan paper on the red grid mat, his face practically screaming “Daddy, save me”!

The little class monitor looked up at them, her brow furrowed, engaged in a strong internal struggle over whether to report her own team.

The girl on the side, however, had relaxed her brow and was covering her mouth, laughing secretly.

Mi Yang had switched places and also switched brush and ink, starting to write with Tang Xiao’s. He wasn’t aiming for perfection, just stability. In any case, however he wrote, it would be better than Tang Xiao’s chicken-scratch-like characters.

Tang Xiao sat in Mi Yang’s place, pretending to write, and also took a look at the characters Mi Yang had written. He only thought they were neat and beautiful and couldn’t see any other details. But after looking for a while, he did notice a slight difference and said, curious, “Hey, Mi Yang, your ink seems a little different from ours.”

The little fatty was nosy and leaned over to look. “How is it different? Isn’t it also very black?”

Tang Xiao touched it. It was dark black but had no luster. He was puzzled. “It is very black, but it’s not shiny.”

Mi Yang glanced at it. “This is ink I brought from home. Um, it’s the kind for painting, best for landscapes and such. This kind is just like that, not shiny.”

The fatty asked curiously, “What’s this called? Is it better than our ink?”

“It’s just a little ink ground from an ink stick,” Mi Yang said vaguely as he wrote. “It’s not necessarily better. Look at our teacher’s large characters and little swallow paintings, written with Yidege ink. They’re very shiny on the paper. I think they look very nice.”

The little fatty and Tang Xiao both glanced at the teacher’s demonstration painting on the podium and thought he made a lot of sense, because the characters written were really beautiful.

The little class monitor also couldn’t help but look up with curiosity.

In fact, Mi Yang’s pine soot Huizhou ink was more suitable for writing, but since the children were in the practice stage, they all used Yidege ink. He also didn’t want to stand out too much and wanted to blend in.

The girl beside him also looked up with envy. She had brought a large bottle of stinky ink and was a little envious of the small bottles of Yidege ink everyone else was using.

But even among Yidege ink, there were differences.

In the group of five at the table in front of them, one male student was using a gold bottle, which was particularly small and looked more expensive. He poured a full palette for himself, then went to pour a little for the student next to him, saying proudly, “My aunt brought this for me from the provincial capital. It’s very fragrant, try it! It also looks very nice when you write with it…”

He said it so proudly and was so busy showing off his ink to the other students that he bumped into Mi Yang’s side. Because they were back to back and couldn’t see each other, the bump was particularly hard. If Mi Yang hadn’t lifted his brush quickly, this piece of work would have been ruined. Mi Yang had just breathed a sigh of relief and was about to carefully write the last character when he was bumped again. This time, the brush was knocked sideways, and it poked a hole in the Xuan paper.

Mi Yang: “…”

Class monitor: “…”

Without a word, Tang Xiao went forward and gave the other person a shove. “Are you trying to die!”

The person didn’t react at first, but soon stuck his neck out. “Tang Xiao, why are you cursing at me?”

Tang Xiao was strong. He pulled him over and pointed at the ruined homework. “Look for yourself. You just bumped into him once, twice. Are you done? You ruined this homework. Are you going to pay for it?”

The male student’s face flushed, but he couldn’t break free from Tang Xiao’s hand. Looking at Mi Yang, who was still holding his brush, he said, “I didn’t do it on purpose. Besides, why, why are you always on this little kid’s side!”

Tang Xiao: “Nonsense, this is my homework!”

Tang Xiao was righteous. Seeing that the other person was still not apologizing, he went up and taught him a lesson. When he started fighting, the little fatty beside him didn’t hesitate either. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and charged forward with a “wa-ya-ya,” looking every bit the little follower! The three of them started fighting in the class—actually, it was a one-sided lesson. Tang Xiao was tall and was very good at bullying people.

The male student, after being hit a couple of times, also got angry. When he waved his hand, he knocked over a desk, which in turn knocked over a large bottle of stinky ink. The girl beside them let out a “ya” with a sob in her voice.

The little class monitor was quick. She grabbed all the remaining intact homework from their group and raised her voice, shouting, “Stop fighting! Or I’ll go—tell the teacher—!!”

The art teacher had gone out and was not in the class. The little girl who was the class monitor protected the homework and, like a little crab, tried to open the door to find the teacher. Just as she touched the doorknob, the door was opened from the outside. The homeroom teacher, Teacher Wang, walked in with a dark face. “What’s going on! What a mess! Go outside and listen. This is the noisiest class on the whole floor. Is this acceptable!”

The whole class slowly quieted down, but there were still some whispers.

Teacher Wang walked towards the overturned desk with a dark face. It was indeed a disaster area. One desk was overturned, and many books from inside had fallen out. Two glass marbles had also rolled out, but they were now stained black by the spilled ink and gave off a foul smell.

A girl with pigtails was squatting there, wiping with a cloth. She would wipe a couple of times, then wipe her tears, crying softly.

Teacher Wang looked around and saw the three boys, including Tang Xiao, whose school uniforms were torn and were breathing heavily. Then she looked at Mi Yang, who was standing against the wall, having rescued a few books—he probably wasn’t innocent either, with a large patch of ink on his sleeve. Teacher Wang’s brow furrowed even more. She said sternly, “What on earth is going on here?!”

The little class monitor squeezed over with the homework and raised her hand to answer, “Report, teacher! It was Sun Qian who was walking around during class and first bumped into Mi Yang, ruining the calligraphy homework Mi Yang was writing. Tang Xiao then argued with Sun Qian for a couple of sentences, and then they…”

Teacher Wang waved her hand, not waiting to hear the end. She immediately turned to the boys with a dark face and asked, “Sun Qian ruined Mi Yang’s homework. Why did Tang Xiao start the fight?”

The few boys who had been fighting all fell silent. Even Sun Qian, who had been beaten, didn’t say anything. Fighting was one thing, copying homework was another. Their “江湖恩怨”(jiānghú ēnyuàn – code of honor) didn’t involve copying homework, so they all kept their mouths shut in a tacit agreement.

Teacher Wang, however, became even angrier. She looked at the three fighting boys, then at Mi Yang, and after a long while, she laughed. “Good, you’re really capable. Fighting at such a young age, and even covering for each other. Do you want to be juvenile delinquents?!”

Mi Yang felt that her words were too harsh. He stepped forward to explain, “Teacher, it’s not like that. We just had a little friction.”

The little girl who was the class monitor also bit her lip beside him, her black and white eyes wide as she looked at Teacher Wang. She also wanted to plead for her classmates.

Teacher Wang snorted coldly. “A little friction? I’ve seen it all. Your parents sent you here to be educated. If you make a mistake, you have to be punished!” She looked around and said, “I don’t know who else was involved. How about this, anyone with a large patch of ink on them, go out and stand in the hallway as punishment!”

Many people around them were implicated. Mi Yang and Tang Xiao and the other two stood in the first row, standing at attention against the wall.

The little class monitor, in her effort to protect the homework, had also gotten a large patch of ink on her clothes and was mercilessly sent to the hallway by Teacher Wang. She bit her lip, puffed out her cheeks, and her eyes were also red.

Mi Yang glanced at the class monitor and comforted her in a low voice, “It’s fine. Isn’t there still one person from our group in the classroom? It’s not a total wipeout.”

Before he could finish, a “wah” of crying was heard. The girl with the pigtails also came out, crying, her eyes as red as a rabbit’s, tears streaming down her face.

The little fatty was surprised. “Why were you sent out too? Didn’t Old Lady Wang take pity on you and let you sit in the classroom?”

The girl rubbed her eyes and cried, “Teacher Wang said, said my crying was too annoying, and told me to come out and cry.”

The little class monitor said, puffed out, “Teacher Wang is not fair at all.”

Well, with a row of them standing against the wall, even the little class monitor had defected.

Translator’s Notes

1. 江湖恩怨 (jiānghú ēnyuàn): A term from wuxia (martial arts) novels, referring to the complex web of gratitude and grudges, friendships and enmities, within the martial arts world. Here, it’s used humorously to describe the “code of honor” among the children regarding copying homework.