Investment Life

Chapter 2 Part 2

When the classroom quieted down again, Teacher Han looked at the students sitting beneath the podium who were as well-behaved as quails. Her squinting eyes swept over the last row, and she very impolitely said, "The final exams are coming up soon, I won't waste my breath talking about it. Only, there are some people here who are always acting like rat dung in a pot [1], just scram if you don't want to learn. Wasting away your days, arriving late and leaving early, fighting and making trouble, the classroom has been filled with disorder [2]. If you don't want to go to high school then fine, if you're not suited for that kind of environment then no one's forcing you, just don't get in the way of others."

A few eyes secretly swept over and sneaked a peek, but Chen Yuanming didn't show any reaction and opened the English textbook in front of him.

Teacher Han snorted coldly and threw her lesson plan onto the desk. "Homework check! Chen Yuanming, recite the text that was taught from the last lesson."

Chen Yuanming stood up after his name was called. The classroom couldn't be considered big, with nine desks in each row, and a total of seven and a half rows. There were a full 65 people who were all stuffed into the tiny classroom, like planting potatoes [3]. Due to the poor home conditions of the past two years, Chen Yuanming's height was still a little behind the average height of the class. For some of the subjects, he could still achieve an acceptable grade, but now he's standing in the back of the classroom, accompanying those who were the very last in the class and spending their days wasting away their lives... [4]

Chen Yuanming clenched his fists and looked expressionlessly at the teacher on the podium.

"What, you can't recite the text? All your energy is wasted on fighting and sleeping..." Teacher Han opened her mouth and wanted to start scolding, but was suddenly interrupted by a sentence in English. The teenager began to recite. The pronunciation wasn't particularly standard, and the speed with which he was reciting wasn't fast, but there was no error or omission in the content being recited. Word by word, sentence by sentence, clear and loud, it was as if he was mocking her for her unreasonable scolding.

The classroom fell dead silent. Teacher Han's face turned ashen [5], and she glared at the boy standing at the back of the classroom. The text only had a few hundred words, and it soon came to an end. After he finished reciting, Chen Yuanming didn't immediately sit down, but let his eyes skim over some of the people sitting in the row in front of him.

"I've finished reciting. Should the other delinquent students also be given the same treatment, Teacher Han?"

The people in the row in front buried their heads in their textbooks, not daring to say anything. The corner of Teacher Han's mouth twitched, and she shouted loudly, "Sit down! It's time to start class!"

The sound of book pages being flipped rang throughout the classroom. Chen Yuanming showed a self-deprecating smile and sat back down. The wound on his head was still sore, and he smoothed the curled corner of his book with his hand. In the past two days, he had his head stitched, and it was also a very chaotic time, but the things that he had learnt from the experience changed him. Now the junior high school [6] textbook, for any of the subjects, even including English towards which he felt the most partial, was ridiculously simple for him. At the same time, the change didn't stop there. All the questions that had puzzled and pained him for the longest time in the past finally had an answer now.

Chen Yuanming raised his head and looked towards the front of the classroom. In the first three rows, the left and right sides all seated the daughters of factory managers and the sons of the city leaders, along with the top-scoring students who were given the best benefits. The middle rows seated the regular teachers' children and ordinary, well-off students, who had average grades and sat in average seats. The last two rows seated the stubborn and incurable transferees from some of the other classes, who had spent money and used connections, but their schoolwork and personality all were messed up. They were the ones stuffed into the corners, letting themselves rot away.

In this special little society here, there were only four types of people: those who were wealthy, those who were powerful, those who had connections, and those who were top students and were truly outstanding. While he didn't fall into any of those categories. He was nothing more than a rooster who had accidentally joined a crowd of monkeys by mistake [7].

What a simple answer, but in his previous, original muddled memories, his younger self never understood it. In his family, the education that he had received from an early age never was enough for him to discover this secret that everyone else already knew well. His parents regarded his teacher's words as a golden rule and only knew how to only scold and reprimand him, constantly being disappointed with his "stubbornness" ...

The sound of a neat recitation floated past his ear. Chen Yuanming lowered his head and looked at his pair of frostbite-stricken hands that were placed on the desk. Suddenly, his fear and confusion from the past few days disappeared, and instead it became something entirely different. He began to accept the older, more capable, but already dead self that he had envisioned in his mind. If this is a chance to start a new beginning, then why not give it a try?

Chen Yuanming laughed silently and tightened his fists.

Footnotes:

Rat dung in a pot: Something that no one likes or needs.Disorder: Translates literally as "dirty air".Planting potatoes: All the students were stuffed into a small classroom, it's similar to how potatoes are planted very closely together in the fields (I think)?The very last in the class: Original was "those who were hanging from the rears of cars", meaning someone who is lagging behind, in last place, or a hindrance.Ashen: Could also be translated as "livid", but I wasn't sure which word to use.Junior high school: Just thought I should mention, in China, junior high school is grades 7-9, and high school (secondary school) is grades 10-12.A rooster who had accidentally joined a group of monkeys by mistake: Someone who doesn't fit in with the rest, like a black sheep of the herd.