Chapter 7: 7

 Chapter 7 - Parallel brain waves

On Lunar New Year’s Eve, the usually quiet village burst into extraordinary life. The clamor of firecrackers, laughing children, and backing dogs made the night noisier than the day. Shen Shao lay in bed and fell asleep listening to the noise outside.

On the morning of the first day of the new year, he made himself a bowl of dumplings. After eating it, he locked the door, visited his mother’s grade, and went back to the county town.

The county town was bustling with activity. The previously-owned house that Shen Shao purchased before contained some used household appliances. Before the renters arrived, he moved the appliances into his current rental apartment. When he turned on the TV he saw it was replaying the Spring Festival Gala from last night. The host was speaking standard Mandarin, reading the names of companies that wished a happy Spring Festival to everyone in the country. The smile on the performer’s face was so perfect you couldn’t have picked out any flaws with a magnifying glass.

From Shen Shao’s perspective it was a show from twenty years ago, but some of the entertainment programs were still exciting. Shen Shao watched TV for a while until he felt a little bored. Then he went to the study to get a book and sat down on the sofa to read. Just as he got to an exciting part, he heard some noise downstairs. When he looked out the window, there was a dragon dance coming down the street. A crowd of people were watching the performance on both sides of the street, laughing, making noise, and clapping their hands. There was a lively, festive atmosphere.

Shen Shao sat by the window and watched for a while. After the dragon dance passed by, he went to the kitchen and warmed up the leftovers he brought from the village and had a meal. His hometown had a custom for the Lunar New Year: at noon on the first day of the year, they couldn’t eat newly prepared food. If they ate leftovers from the previous year, it meant the coming year would have a surplus too.

Shen Shao looked at the new calendar on the wall, then smiled and sighed. It was now 1997.

Those who paid attention to the economy would remember that the world would face a major economic crisis this year. The currency of some countries would drop significantly, and a lot of factories would close down. However, China found a new path in the crisis, and its economy would develop and consolidate further.

As much as Shen Shao wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, sadly, there weren’t many things he could do at the age of twelve. It was like seeing a gold ingot behind a pane of glass. Even if he knew it was there, he couldn’t touch it.

If you can’t think about it, don’t think about it. Shen Shao was living his life over again, and his strongest asset was his attitude. When the new semester began, he pushed the things he couldn’t change to the back of his mind.

Around the same time, domestic magazines began to run articles about how self-reliant the students of the country of Xiaoyang were, how well those children performed in summer camps attended by the children of both nationalities, and how terribly the Chinese children did. Many times when Shen Shao was reading a magazine article, the author lamented in a worried tone about China and its future. Why were the children of those other countries so good, why were our children so bad, what’s wrong with our kids?

Or teachers would share stories about how independent-minded and creative those other children were and how stupid their own students were, as if in another two or three decades, China would usher in a tidal wave of stupid and lazy adults.

Shen Shao wasn’t a fan of these articles. It was true that children from other countries had their advantages, but there was a lot to praise about Chinese children too. More than ten years from now, an Internet celebrity would say a few words on the subject: You can’t praise other people’s children for being honest, and then call the honesty of your own children stupidity; when other people’s children are lively, you call them smart, but when your own children are lively, they’re making trouble.

And in twenty years, the children who received so much criticism from all those experts and professors turned out no worse than anyone else.

In terms of learning, Shen Shao found that studying had become easier and easier. The first year of junior high wasn’t over yet, but he’d already reviewed most of the books for the second year. Thanks to the low stress atmosphere of junior high school, combined with Shen Shao’s life experience, he didn’t attract much jealousy for being in first place, just more praise and admiration.

Shen Shao had some free time from studying, so he applied for two interest classes to learn calligraphy and piano. The classes were held on weekends and holidays.

During this time, not many special interest classes were available, but the teachers were the genuine article, especially the instructor who taught calligraphy. Although his hair was full of silver, he wrote with tremendous skill and vigorous style. Shen Shao was envious when he saw the teacher’s calligraphy. The phrase “cultural treasure” was shining in his mind.

The female teacher who taught piano was a retired instructor from a conservatory of music. She was serious about teaching, but also attentive. The students secretly called her “Madam Exterminator” behind her back, but they were all in awe of her.

For Shen Shao, having this kind of opportunity would have been unthinkable in his previous life. As he grew up, he used to think about how great it would be if he had the money to study seriously and attend his favorite interest classes. But the past was the past. Even if he had money, he couldn’t buy back those years.

Now that he could finally follow his dreams, why not work hard for himself?

Time slipped away, and Shen Shao became a student in the third year of junior high. Because he took care of his health during the past two years and didn’t suffer from malnutrition during an important period of physical development, his height shot up a lot. Not to mention good grades and sports ability, several girls had crushes on him.

Sometimes when he got to the classroom, he found perfume-scented envelopes covered with little manga characters in his desk drawer. At times, he felt bemused and silently insulted himself as a weird old uncle who seduced innocent little girls.

He accepted the letters but never responded to them, and certainly didn’t publicize or embarrass the girls who wrote them. Although these girls wanted to die of disappointment, not many developed “love leads to hate” feelings for him.

“Shen Shao, how many love letters did you get this month?” Yang HongQiang tsked. He looked over at Shen Shao with envy and jealousy and even a little hate. “I heard the school flower secretly likes you, did you hear about it?”

“No,” Shen Shao said with a smile. He raised the chemistry book in his hand and shook it. “I only know that you borrowed my chemistry homework.”

Yang HongQiang lifted his right hand to his mouth and zipped up his lips. Then he slumped down on the surface of his desk and said, “Why do I keep thinking you’re getting worse and worse?”

“Well, it’s probably because I’m getting less and less fond of you,” Shen Shao said calmly. “Anyone who shares a desk with someone for three years will get tired of them.”

“Your Majesty, why have you forsaken this concubine?” Yang HongQiang covered his acne-spotted face and acted like a resentful woman.

“Watch less 《Empress Wu》, especially when your IQ is lower than the female lead.” Well, Qing palace dramas weren’t popular yet, but all kinds of Tang palace dramas were big.

Yang HongQiang: “…”

Did all those girls with secret crushes on Shen Shao know how poisonous his mouth was?! Did they know?

The schoolwork for year three got heavier and heavier. Originally there were two physical education classes per week, but now one was converted to a mathematics class. The remaining PE class was a rare opportunity to unwind. However, on this particular day Shen Shao’s physical education class didn’t go smoothly. After all, it’s hard to enjoy yourself when a fellow villager from the same grade walks up to you angrily.

The current Shen ZhengYang still had a childish mindset. He wasn’t the capable fellow villager from Shen Shao’s previous life. Instead, he was more like a pissed off cow, but the reason for his anger was unknown.

“Shen Shao, don’t think you’re so great just because of your grades. Stay away from Zhao XiaoXue!”

Shen Shao sighed silently. What kind of TV dramas were kids watching these days? The lines were so old-fashioned, and who was Zhao XiaoXue?

When he saw Shen Shao’s indifferent expression, Shen ZhengYang’s anger escalated. He was so mad his words got a little wild. “You’re just a fatherless, motherless bastard. You think you’re worthy of Zhao XiaoXue? Go look at that shabby house you live in. What’s the use of getting good grades? You can’t even pay for high school tuition! Your uncle begs my dad for food. How can your uncle afford to support you?”

Some of Shen ZhengYang’s friends began to jeer and laugh, as if Shen Shao had lost face in front of his classmates and could no longer hold up his head. They were all from Class 5, which the entire school knew was just an ordinary class. They’d been unhappy with the students in the experimental class for a long time, and now they were stepping on the highest-ranked student in the grade. These fourteen- and fifteen-year-old boys didn’t know the weight of their words. They just wanted to relieve their anger. As for whether they’d inflict serious psychological damage on someone, it never crossed their minds.

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The students of Class 1 felt angry the moment they heard what Class 5 said about Shen Shao. Now that several boys from Class 5 were laughing at him, they couldn’t hold back. Yang HongQiang rushed to the front, pointed at Shen ZhengYang’s nose and said, “Fck you guys! What trash are you talking about? We don’t know anything about Zhao XiaoXue, and neither does Shen Shao. If you want to go crazy like a stray dog, go dig yourself a hole. Don’t go wild here.”

As soon as he said this, the students from Class 1 began to laugh. Even if they didn’t think Yang HongQiang was very funny, they could still make fun of the boys from Class 5.

For the past two years, Shen ZhengYang’s family had rented the village rice mill and hired a few villagers to help with the work. Shen Shao’s uncle was one of them, which was what Shen ZhengYang was referring to when he attacked Shen Shao.

If a normal half-grown boy heard this, he’d probably be angry enough to fight Shen ZhengYang, but Shen Shao didn’t think it was right to behave like a little kid. After the two groups of students began to ridicule each other, he smiled and said unhurriedly, “Thanks for your concern. I’ll find a way to solve the tuition problem myself. As for that Classmate Zhao you mentioned… Sorry, but I really don’t know her.” With that, he showed an apologetic expression.

Maybe Shen Shao was too poised. Shen ZhengYang looked at the boy’s smiling face. The other party was being polite, but Shen ZhengYang felt like a dark fire was smoldering inside him, and there was no way to release it. He looked at the other students and saw a lot of them were staring at him as if they were thinking, “What a nasty, unreasonable jerk”. He felt even more upset.

“My eldest uncle’s family doesn’t have it easy sometimes. I have to thank Uncle FuDong for looking after them.” When it came to playing to an audience, Shen Shao’s skills were far above Shen ZhengYang’s. In two or three sentences, even the students of Class 5 who weren’t happy with the experimental class began to think Shen ZhengYang was making trouble for no reason.

Wasn’t it just that he liked Zhao XiaoXue, while she had a crush on Shen Shao? Shen Shao wasn’t even with Zhao XiaoXue. Why get so mad at him?

A teenager’s social position… was always unstable.

At first the two PE teachers thought the students of the two classes were about to start a fight, but they saw Shen Shao handle it with a few words. They didn’t bother to come over and pretended they hadn’t seen anything, but privately decided to tell the teaching director what happened.

Children these days. How old was that kid, and he was already thinking about finding a girlfriend?

Sure enough, when it was time for evening self-study, Li Lu called Shen Shao to the head teachers’ office. When he got there, Shen Shao saw the head teacher of Class 5 lecturing Shen ZhengYang, who had his head bowed. The teacher of Class 5 saw them come in. Thinking that Shen ZhengYang was the top student in his class, the teacher decided to spare his feelings and stopped talking.

Shen ZhengYang saw Shen Shao walk in. His head dropped even more, but inside he utterly resented Shen Shao.

As for Shen Shao, he was busy lamenting how difficult life was for teachers these days. A lot of paint had flaked off the table, and there were multiple desks in an office less than ten square meters in size. It looked extremely crowded.

Shen ZhengYang’s brain waves were full of anger directed at his nemesis, but Shen Shao didn’t receive them at all.

Maybe it was the legendary generation gap. How could a grown-up uncle, whose mind was pushing thirty, understand a junior high chuuni like Shen ZhengYang?

 

TL Notes:

Parallel brain waves – 平行线上的脑电波 – Brain waves on parallel lines – “Parallel” means something that will never intersect or overlap

dumplings – 汤圆 – tānɡ yuán – (usually stuffed) dumplings made of glutinous rice flour, served in soup

major economic crisis – The 1997 Asian financial crisis began in July 1997 with the collapse of the Thai baht. Investors withdrew their money almost immediately, beginning an international chain reaction that spread throughout most of Southeast Asia and eventually South Korea and Japan. The recovery in 1998–1999 was rapid and worries of a worldwide meltdown subsided. China was affected, but less so than some other economies (Wikipedia)

cultural treasure – 国粹 – “quintessence of Chinese culture” – Refers to the intangible cultural heritage of China. The four main national quintessences of China are considered to be Peking Opera, Chinese martial arts, Chinese calligraphy, and traditional Chinese medicine (Baidu)

Madam Exterminator – from 灭绝师太 – Abbess Miejue – A vicious and murderous character from Jin Yong’s 1961 novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (倚天屠龙记). “Miejue” literally means “destroy and eliminate”. Frequently used as an appellation for female doctoral students in China, who are popularly considered to be unsmiling, rigid, ambitious, and lacking in family values (Wikipedia) … Ouch

school flower – 校花 – a school beauty (female), school beauty queen, campus belle. The male equivalent is “school grass”

Your Majesty – 皇上 – huángshàng – the emperor / Your majesty the emperor / His imperial majesty

forsaken – 始乱终弃 – First he abused her and in the end he gave her up; have illicit intercourse at the beginning and desert her at the end; forsake after having dallied with; discard after having made use of

this concubine – 臣妾 – chénqiè – (literary) I, your servant (self-appellation of a lower-rank female) 

Empress Wu – 武则天 – A TV series which aired on CCTV in 1995 (English title: Wu Zetian). There have been multiple films and TV dramas about the life of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history

plain sailing – 顺利 – plain sailing; smooth going; without a hitch; smoothly

Fck you guys – from “卧槽你M” – When the raw avoids using an actual expletive, the tl will too

What a nasty, unreasonable jerk – 你无情无理取闹 – 无理取闹 means make trouble out of nothing; be deliberately provocative; find fault with sb. for no reason whatsoever; frivolous quibbling

chuuni – 中二 – A Japanese slang term that describes early teens who have grandiose delusions, desperately want to stand out, and have convinced themselves they have hidden knowledge of secret powers (Wikipedia). The Mandarin version is “中二病” “zhōng èr bìng”, “middle two disease”, or “zhōng èr” for short. The Japanese word has an English Wikipedia entry and occurs more frequently in English than the Chinese version

 

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

Xiaoyang – 小阳 – “Little sun/positive/male” country – Might be a reference to Japan

Zhao XiaoXue – 赵小雪

Uncle FuDong – 福冬叔 – Fúdōng shū

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