A Book Dedicated to Our Youth - Tong Hua

Chapter 9: A Brand New Simple Life

Chapter 9: A Brand New Simple Life

1. The Start of First Year*
*[First year of high school]

In the past, my favourite movie star was Brad Pitt. It had nothing to do with his acting skills, it was only because of his handsome face, perfect body and an unrestrained personality that bewitched me.
Nowadays, my favourite movie star is Kate Winston. It has nothing to do with her acting skills, it was only because in the show business circle that went crazy for beauty, she still admitted that she had flab on her belly and and that her breasts sagged due to breastfeeding.
She loved her imperfect self with confidence.
How to love yourself with confidence is a question even more profound than how to love someone else.

*[Quick reminder that the school names are usually in numbers eg. No. 1 High school, being No. 6 doesn't necessarily mean the school is 6th in the city.]

The class name sheet for the first year new students was out. Altogether, there were nine classes, and each class had fifty or so students.

Guan He and Zhang Jun were divided into Class (4), I was divided into Class (5) with Shen Yuan Zhe and Tong Yun Zhu.

Our class monitor was naturally Chen Yuan Zhe and our arts monitor, Tong Yun Zhu. Class (4)'s arts monitor was Guan He and their class monitor was actually...Zhang Jun.

When I heard this news, I really froze for a bit but when I thought about it some more, I felt it was actually quite suitable for him. Zhang Jun's probation points were cancelled before the high school entrance exams and his results for that was quite good. Added to the fact that he had experience being a class monitor, choosing him was pretty normal.

The high school department had three buildings, each building had four levels and each level had three classrooms. Every year level had their own building and because there were only nine classes in the first years, the fourth floor was completely empty.

Class (4) and (5) were both on second floor meaning that not only was Zhang Jun one class away from me, we were only separated by a wall. I can't really express what kind of feeling I have being so close to him. On one side, I felt an irrational secret happiness but on the other side, I wanted to hide far, far away.

As No.1 High School was the top high school in the province and had an exceptional reputation, apart from us students who got in through exams, there were a group of specially enrolled students.

This group was special. Some of their families were very rich and they paid their way in, some were very powerful and with one phone call, the headmaster let them in and others got in because they had a special talent such as dancing, singing and sports that bought the school reputation.Thus, in the top school, not all the students were good at studying.

Class (4) had the best teaching staff of the year level and the few that came in through power were all in Class (4). The student that attracted the most attention was the vice governor's only son. As his last name is Jia, everyone called him Prince Jia. He was considered as not studious nor skilled but he wasn't considered as a rich playboy either. I heard his father was very stern so he was very obedient and never stirred up trouble. He was also very respectful to the teachers but no matter how he tried, his grades never rose.

Our Class (5) was the worst class in the year. According to the gossip from students, none of the teachers were good. The maths teacher was infamous in the high school for being sloppy, the English teacher was a female university graduate who had just been allocated to the school, and she would blush when she talked. Our biology teacher was a fat man who would make himself dizzy just by talking about the topics. Our homeroom teacher was an inexperienced politics teachers.