A Book Dedicated to Our Youth - Tong Hua

Chapter 4: Seemingly A Stormy Road

Chapter 4: Seemingly A Stormy Road

Sorry for the late post!!!

1. How the Highest Quality Is Learnt

We raise our chins and peer at the world with provoking stares, looking as if we're strong and stubborn but hidden inside is fear and confusion.
Adults, we understand your longing for us to become outstanding but please understand: it's not a cold and sharp carving knife that can carve out a beautiful statue, but a pair of eyes that can appreciate beauty, a heart that's filled with love and a pair of warm hands that can carve a beautiful statue.

Winter break was over and the new semester was about to start. I sighed, my comfortable days were going to end.

My conflict with Treasure Bowl started again with the new year and went up a few notches too. Punishing me to go stand outside was now a piece of cake and it didn't affect my mood at all. I became familiar with the people from Class (2) and Class (3) and would often chat with them during the 10 minutes between classes. My social circle suddenly expanded to a new scope and my thick face also increased to a new level.

I deeply knew that the more comfortable my life was, the worse Treasure Bowl's mood would be so, to anger him, I relaxed and let myself live my days satisfyingly. I enjoyed the spring breeze, looked at the falling flowers...Isn't it a pleasure! Just facing our corridor was a small classic architectural garden with a pavilion and terrace, everything was there.

Once after class, Ceng Hong smoked while chatting with me who was standing outside for punishment, "Aren't you tired out standing outside yet? Say you admit you're wrong and you can go and sit back in the classroom, people don't know what exactly you're thinking inside."

I arrogantly replied, "Fighting with the sky is a delight; fighting with the ground is a delight; fighting with people is a delight."

The bell for class rang. Ceng Hong flicked the cigarette out of the window and patted my shoulder as if telling me to look out for myself, then went back into the classroom.

Treasure Bowl saw that punishing me to stand outside no longer tormented me so he ordered me to invite my parents to come. In the short space of a month, he had asked my parents to come three times but finding that there was no result, he started to understand that getting co operation from the parents was a failure.

However, through punishing me to stand outside, he observed that I still cared a lot about how people saw me. He started calling me to stand outside his office because there were more students and teachers walking past so it was no longer just students from Classes (1), (2) and (3). I had just adapted to standing outside the corridor so facing this new environment, I was clearly not very used to it and once again suffered the torment, lowering my head as if my neck hang a criminal sign. But gradually, with the increasing number of times I was punished this way, my head slowly rose up, my posture became more and more comfortable, my expression became more and more relaxed and my smile became brighter and brighter. Treasure Bowl discovered that I had once again stubbornly resisted his torment and once again adapted to the natural selection. He hated me so much his teeth itched but in that time frame, he couldn't think of a better way to torment me.

—

I had mentioned before that the middle school department's building was structured like a 'Z', it's just that the middle was straight. To the left of the 'Z' was a small classical garden, to the right side was a sports field which had eight cement table tennis tables and a basketball court. Class (1), (2) and (3) were considered the top horizontal line of the 'Z' and couldn't see the sports field but the teachers' offices were in the middle of the vertical part of the 'Z' and faced the sports court so the table tennis tables could be seen. When I stopped lowering my head out of shame and learnt to appreciate the landscape around me, I discovered a once familiar figure near the table tennis tables— the child prodigy Chen Jin.