Chapter 1: Back to Parents' Side

  Less than two years into school, Ji Bing felt a bit tired of it, and so did everyone else, with no great interest in reading. In society, the literary and military struggles were raging like wildfire, with constant route struggles, people had no mind to engage in production, only knowing how to grab revolution, go up in line, and the drama of fighting and struggling was performed every day. The school was no exception, with a worker-peasant propaganda team stationed there, guiding and supervising the school's revolutionary work.

  Under the influence of this situation, teachers do not want to teach and students are not motivated to study. During important holidays such as "May Day", "Children's Day" and "National Day", schools also organize student performances to showcase the school's political achievements and ideological struggles.

  When I was in the third grade of elementary school, the music teacher came to our class with a task. The music teacher was a woman in her thirties, medium height, slightly dark skin, wearing glasses and speaking softly. Every time we had music class, my classmates would loudly sing along to the songs.

  She didn't get angry, but just asked why you were so loud, weren't you afraid of hurting your throat? Songs like "I Love Beijing Tiananmen", "On the Golden Mountain in Beijing" and "Let's Row Our Oars" echoed one by one in her beautiful voice and charming piano sound in the simple and dim classroom. This time she came to the class, she was looking for a few students to enrich the school's propaganda team to welcome the school's "June 1st International Children's Day" report performance next month. Her sharp eyes were scanning every student in the class behind her glasses. "You come out," she pointed at the class leader and walked back, "you too." This time it was Daming. Another girl was also picked. She turned around the classroom and finally stopped in front of Qi Bing, looked at Qi Bing for a moment and said: "You come out too."

  The school propaganda team has about 40 students, half of whom are boys and half are girls, all selected separately from each class.

  Ji Bing heard that she was going to learn dance, but she refused to go. The music teacher said it was a political task, and those who were named had to participate, even if they didn't know how to do it, they would just have to learn. Every day after school, Ji Bing had to practice dancing and singing on an empty stomach, sometimes even learning basic dance moves like leg presses, jumps, and steps. These things made Ji Bing dizzy, but Da Ming seemed to enjoy them, jumping around with style.

  The music teacher particularly appreciated the class leader's dance moves, often praising her as a born dancer, with every move, kick and turn being so perfect and captivating.

  Qī Bīng and the class monitor were deskmates, but in the past two years, they probably hadn't exchanged more than 10 sentences. This time in the propaganda team, they actually spoke a few words to each other. Qī Bīng's dance moves were stiff, and the class monitor kept coming over to correct his posture. She'd say things like "you should do it this way" or "you should do it that way". Qī Bīng felt like she was a completely different person, but actually, she seemed quite talkative too, which was strange.

  Every time practice is over, it's already 7 o'clock in the evening. The first few times, Chiying and Daming would rush home together to fill their growling stomachs. Later, they found out that the class monitor was also heading in the same direction, but she arrived home earlier since she lived in an apartment building not far from school. Seeing her walking alone on the road, Chiying said to Daming, "Why don't we walk her home?" Daming raised an eyebrow and teased, "You're feeling sorry for someone else now, huh?" Chiying retorted, "Shut up, she's a girl!"

  After more than a dozen days of training and rehearsal, the propaganda team's programs have basically taken shape, and with a few more rehearsals, they can be officially performed. Due to frequent contact, Ji Bing, Da Ming, and class leader Lin Ning also gradually became familiar with each other and became friends who could talk about anything. Lin Ning sometimes joked that Ji Bing's portrayal of Vietnamese children looked like a minority nationality. Ji Bing participated in the performance of a dance - Asian-African Children's Great Unity. The dance features several representative countries to showcase the great unity of the three continents, as well as the third world children and people, and the magnificent momentum of looking down on the two hegemons, the United States and the Soviet Union.

  As "June 1st" is getting closer and closer, the teacher's requirements for the performance are also getting higher and higher. Everyone is very tired and hungry.

  One day, while they were rehearsing, class monitor Lin Ning suddenly started bleeding from her nose during a big jump move. The blood dripped onto the floor, bright red. The teacher hurriedly told her to stop and rest for a bit. But she said it was nothing and that sometimes she would get nosebleeds unintentionally.

  In Chi Bing's eyes, the class monitor always seemed like a sickly beauty, with pale skin, soft but weak words, big yet lifeless eyes, seemingly a paper-thin beauty, as if she would collapse at the slightest touch.

  After the drill, Qi Bing and Da Ming escorted the class leader home as usual. When they reached the downstairs, the class leader said: "Today, please come up and sit for a while, have something to eat." "Really? Hehe." Da Ming glanced at Qi Bing sideways, saying this while following the class leader upstairs.

  The class monitor lives on the fourth floor, and after entering, it's a building where several families live together, with shared toilets and kitchens. The class monitor's mother is at home, and the class monitor introduces them to her mother. Her mother says: "It's you two, I often hear Ningning mention you. You're good kids, thank you for taking care of Ningning." "Auntie, no need to be polite, it's what we should do, classmates," said Qi Bing hurriedly.

  After sitting down, Qi Bing glanced around the room, which was very clean and tidy, with a faint floral scent lingering in the air. The only unusual thing was that there were many medicine boxes and bottles on the desk. Qi Bing whispered to Da Ming: "Who takes so much medicine?" The class monitor seemed to have overheard their conversation and said while handing out water cups: "This is my medicine. It's strange, isn't it? I've been in poor health since I was a child, and I've taken more medicine than food as I grew up, haha." "Really?" Qi Bing exclaimed in surprise.

  After a moment of silence, Ji Bing asked again: "What's the illness? How much longer will it take to recover?" The class monitor said: "I don't know either, it's not a big deal, maybe it'll get better after some time." The class monitor's mother wanted them to stay for dinner, but they declined, saying their family was waiting for them. After some polite conversation, they prepared to leave. The class monitor wouldn't let them go, saying they didn't have to eat dinner, but they had to have some snacks before leaving. They saw no choice but to comply. The class monitor opened a red, square cookie box with floral patterns on it and took out animal-shaped cookies for them to snack on. Ji Bing had never had cookies before and thought they were crispy and fragrant, sweet and crunchy. "Is it delicious?" "Delicious, delicious." Their mouths were full of cookie crumbs. When leaving, the class monitor even stuffed a lot of cookies into their pockets.

  There are only two days left until "June 1st", the school decided to have a dress rehearsal, to test the effect. The programs were performed in order, when Ji Bing and others went on stage, they made the teachers and classmates under the stage laugh together. Especially Da Ming's face was painted black all over, he played an African child, except for the whites of his eyes, everything else was pitch black. Other classmates dressed up as Latin American children, their faces naturally painted dark brown, Ji Bing dressed up as a Vietnamese child, her face color didn't need to be changed.

  As the performance reached its climax, the audience gradually fell silent, and the scene on stage seemed to be a picture of unity and victory for children in the Third World. The audience was also drawn into an atmosphere of shared indignation. Just then, someone on stage fell down, "Ah!" The crowd let out a cry of surprise.

  Ji Bing took a closer look and found it was Class Monitor Lin Ning! She was dressed as a Miao ethnic minority child, wearing silver accessories and a beautiful skirt. Earlier she had been leading the dance, but now she lay on her side on the stage with blood flowing from her nose. The teachers quickly carried her off the stage, whereupon she came to and said it was nothing, that they could continue performing. However, her expression was extremely fatigued. When sending her home that day, Ji Bing and Da Ming clearly felt that Class Monitor was somewhat out of sorts - her face was pale, her expression gloomy, and she walked with no energy. Class Monitor refused their offer to escort her upstairs, so they silently returned home after seeing her go up the stairs.

  The formal performance on "Six One" day was very successful, winning warm applause and cheers from teachers and classmates. Chi Bing saw that the class leader seemed to have been re-injected with vitality, the whole performance was full of spirit, radiant, and perfect in action.

  "After the "June 1st" holiday, Qi Bing found that the class monitor had not come to school for a long time. Daming was assigned by the teacher to act as the deputy class monitor. Qi Bing and Daming didn't know what was going on, so they asked the teacher, who said that the class monitor had gone to receive medical treatment and might be back at school soon. They visited the class monitor's home several times, but the neighbors said he had been away for a long time and there was no one at home. Until the summer vacation started, Lin Ning still hadn't returned."

  Throughout the summer vacation, Qi Bing felt anxious and helpless at the same time. He went to the class monitor's home several times to investigate, but the door was always locked with a lock. This lock seemed to lock up Qi Bing's heart knot, making him unable to let go. Because he wanted an answer that never came. Although they were deskmates, they rarely spoke, but this did not hinder communication between them.

  Qī Bīng liked to use a small knife to carve patterns on the desk, following the wood grain, carving out the designs he wanted. The class monitor would always stop him first with his hand and then warn him with his eyes. Qī Bīng would awkwardly smile and only then stop. Once class started and he felt bored and didn't want to listen, he would unconsciously take out the small knife and carve again, of course, it was always the class monitor who stopped him. So, Qī Bīng's masterpieces never had a chance to succeed that day.

  Ji Bing's family was not well-off, so every morning they would have a simple meal at home, usually leftover rice porridge made from last night's dinner. Occasionally on weekends, his mom would make something a bit better for breakfast, like scrambled eggs and noodles.

  When in Huanglin Town, my grandfather's family also ate like this, but my grandmother would use some lard, the flavor was thicker. Qi Bing especially liked to eat the town's Chongdang Shao Bing, the shape of the pancake was a bit like the farmer's commonly used Chongdang, with two pointed ends and a thicker middle. Then there were those round steamed buns, made from glutinous rice flour, soft and fluffy when entering the mouth, sweet in flavor.

  Of course these early points, Grandpa's house just let them occasionally fight a tooth festival, it is difficult to often eat up.

  After going to school, Qi Bing found that some of his classmates always ate breakfast outside. Like hot dry noodles, oil cakes, chopped buns, cha siu bao, fried dough sticks and tofu skin etc., many of which he had never seen before. Seeing his classmates eating with relish, Qi Bing felt a bit inferior. He also wanted to eat such breakfast, thinking in his heart.

  After going home, whispered to dad and mom, dad and mom initially refused, but in the end they couldn't withstand Ji Bing's persistence, and had to agree. The condition is that he can only eat out twice a week, and other times still have to eat at home.

  In these breakfasts, Chi Bing especially likes to eat hot dry noodles and oil cakes. The chewy noodles, the fragrant sesame sauce, and the crispy pickled radish cubes, mixed together, are really appetizing and can't stop eating. There is also that oil cake, which is his favorite. A large oil cake is spread with some sesame seeds, fried well, then cut into small pieces with a knife, and eaten in the mouth, it's crispy and fragrant.

  For a time, Qi Bing liked comic books and, due to his fondness for them, he even saved up the money from his breakfast to buy books. Because he didn't eat breakfast, when he saw other classmates eating fragrant food, Qi Bing felt even more hungry, swallowing saliva directly. During class, he appeared listless and lacking in energy, and even stopped his hobby of carving on the desk.

  His abnormal behavior naturally caught the attention of the class leader at the same table.

  One day, Qi Bing unexpectedly found a piece of paper-wrapped oil cake on the table. Qi Bing felt curious and looked at the class monitor, who also looked back at him and nodded towards the oil cake. Qi Bing felt embarrassed and didn't want to take the oil cake. The class monitor wrote a note: "Eat it after class." After eating the class monitor's breakfast several times, Qi Bing thought he should do something for the class monitor, so he thought of his treasured possession - a flip book. Qi Bing brought out the flip book to show the class monitor. He usually didn't let others see it and cherished it very much.

  Later, during the Da Ming era, he would occasionally tease him: "Can't you save some for me to eat?" Qi Bing always smiled and said: "That's not possible, you don't have a share." Da Ming retorted: "You're so stingy!" Although they said that, sometimes Qi Bing still secretly went with Da Ming to the wall edge, sharing the breakfast that was slightly warm from the class monitor's hands. Later, Qi Bing wrote a note to the class monitor: You don't need to bring it anymore, I've eaten every day's breakfast. The class monitor also replied with a note: Alright. Remember, you must eat breakfast, don't go hungry.

  Ji Bing regarded Class Monitor as a good friend and buddy. It's been a long time since Class Monitor hasn't shown up, which really makes Ji Bing miss and worry about him.