In the still-hot September in Chongqing, a sudden downpour in the morning brought coolness to the city. But when the rain stopped, fallen leaves and puddles of water filled the streets. However, there were still many pedestrians on the road as the elderly, who had been sleeping in their homes, took the children for a walk to get some fresh air.
Besides the noisy street was a quiet middle school.
At this time, a young man in his twenties appeared on the deserted campus road. After reaching the locked school gate, the young man shouted to the nearby gatehouse, “Old Liu, open the gate!”
Old man Liu, the school’s gatekeeper, looked out of the window. When he saw that the one who was shouting was the PE teacher, Xue Chang, he immediately smiled and asked, “Teacher Xue, are you leaving class early?”
“I’ll just go for a walk because the school is too stuffy.” Xue Chang responded sullenly with an irrelevant answer.
Old Liu subconsciously looked at the sky and said, “It shouldn’t be that stuffy since it had just rained.”
Old Liu’s wife pushed him aside, cursing in a low voice, “Damn old man, just open the gate when he asks you to!”
“Hai, hai.” Old Liu hurriedly took the key hanging on the wall, left the gatehouse and walked towards the school gate.
Old Liu’s wife said again, “Teacher Xue, I just bought some fresh pigs’ feet. It’s good to make stewed pig’s feet soup. Would you like some?”
There is a small grocery store next to the room beside the gate, which Old Liu and his wife opened to sell some learning aids, recreational toys, cookies, bread and other miscellaneous small commodities, and even breakfast. Their primary customer is, of course, the school’s students. They later found out that the teachers were often so busy staying until late at night that they often had no time to buy anything to cook. Thus they simply got some vegetables and meat to sell, which was convenient for the teachers but also an extra way to earn money.
Xue Chang’s expression softened, and he simply said, “I’ll come and get them at lunchtime.”
“Okay.”
After Xue Chang left the school, Old Liu closed the gate and walked back to the gatehouse. His wife then pointed in the direction Xue Chang was going and whispered to Old Liu, “Are you an idiot? Didn’t you see that he was angry? He must have quarrelled with another teacher. He is still young yet has quite a temper.”
“Don’t say things like that. Teacher Xue is very kind and polite to us, often taking care of our business and sometimes taking the initiative to smoke and chat with me.” Old Liu then complained about his dissatisfaction, “Unlike the other teachers, whose heads are up in the sky. Alas, it’s the good people who get bullied!”
“Shh, don’t say such stuff! In case others hear it…do you still want to do business here?!” His wife hit Old Liu.
Old Liu sighed, sat back in his chair and put on a dull look again.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Xue Chang had indeed quarrelled with someone this morning, and the reason for it was pretty simple.
As they have to take the examination for admission to high school, the students in the third year of middle school have a very tight schedule. As a result, courses such as music, art and sport have to make way for more core subjects such as Chinese, maths and English. So as long as the class teacher said a word, the main subject would take up the teaching time of these supplementary subjects without compensation.
Xue Chang had taught physical education at this middle school for several years, so he was no longer the same person he had been when he had just graduated. Although he would feel hurt, he would typically cooperate, and since no teacher had notified him two days ago that they would replace his PE lesson today, he went ahead with the lesson as usual. But as soon as the students had gathered on the field, the class teacher came and said that he wanted to change his class to a math class.
Even though he was furious, he still reluctantly agreed.
However, the students wanted to stay on the field, as they had been studying hard every day with mountains of books, so they were eager to have some free time to exercise and relax. Thus they asked their class teacher so they could continue today’s PE class.
But the short and fat teacher in charge of the class kept a poker face and said, ‘Do you still want to play around? Once your high school entrance exams result is poor, don’t come crying…’ and such kind of words.
Xue Chang immediately became angry as he listened from the side, ‘So in your eyes, sport is a terrible thing that wastes time and destroys the children’s future?!’
As soon as his temper rose, Xue Chang immediately interrupted the class teacher’s jabbering and refused to change classes. And no matter how the class teacher dissuaded him, Xue Chang wouldn’t relent.
Amidst the students cheering, the class teacher left angrily.
But soon after, the dean summoned Xue Chang.
In front of the strict dean, Xue Chang finally succumbed.
As he walked out of the school gate, Xue Chang looked at the sign of Chongqing **** Middle School and remembered the disappointed faces of the students he had left in the field. He felt ashamed for breaking their trust, but he couldn’t do anything. With the reform of state-owned enterprises, many companies in Chongqing have gone bankrupt and been restructured, leaving many laid-off workers helpless. So he was already fortunate to have a proper job these years! It’s okay if he offends a class teacher, but offending a dean? If he did that, could he still work in this school?!
The more Xue Chang thought about it, the more annoyed he became, so he kicked a pile of leaves at the school entrance with all his might. But since the rain made the leaves stick to the ground beyond his expectations, he only managed to kick the muddy water in his face instead of kicking the leaves apart.
“Yuck! Yuck!” Xue Chang hurriedly spat out the muddy water in his mouth. Still, that manage to dissipate the anger he felt a lot. ‘Forget it; my arms are no match for my thigh*. Since there is no PE class, I have free time. I’d better take these few days off and stay home to watch the 《Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils》 I just bought.’ (Note: Chinese metaphor means the weak are no match against the strong.)
With that in mind, Xue Chang was in no mood to go shopping. Instead, he turned towards the school gate, intending to buy the pig’s feet and go home to make some stew.
Suddenly, he heard a shout of surprise, “KID, RUN QUICKLY!”
“Stop the bus!! There is a child in front!!!”
Xue Chang suddenly turned around and saw a three-year-old boy running into the middle of the road. Then he saw a bus coming, and although the driver had seen the child and applied the emergency brake, the bus still drove on. Unfortunately, Chongqing is a mountain city, so the city streets are not flat. In addition, the road in front of the school has a slope of more than 45 degrees, and as it had just rained, the road was slippery, so the bus continued to drive slowly towards the child, while the child was scared to death, standing still and crying incessantly.
Without thinking, Xue Chang rushed towards the child, fully displaying the persistent physical exercise he had been doing from middle school to university. He ran across the sidewalk and took a giant stride to jump over the barrier.
‘I’m just in time!…’ Xue Chang became more confident as he saw the child who was coming closer.
Suddenly, he slipped and fell heavily to the ground.
‘Who threw that banana peel!…’ Xue Chang struggled to get up. Then he heard the rumble of the road approaching, which meant the bus was very close to the child as he could even hear the panicked screams of the passengers on the bus.
‘At this moment, it is necessary to take great risks to save people!’ But instead of giving up, Xue Chang roared, put his hands on the ground, leaned his body forward, his right foot on the road and rushed out like an arrow.
Just as the bus was about to hit, Xue Chang managed to push the child to the sidewalk. But then he felt a tremendous force hit his body, sending him flying. Amidst the scream of shock, his consciousness plunged into darkness…