Chapter 264 Projection
"The bitter sand that hurt my face was like my father's scolding and my mother's crying. I will never forget it. When I was young, I liked to be alone at the beach, rolling up my pants and walking barefoot on the beach..."

In front of the courtyard gate, there were several teachers leading the team. They looked at Zhang Yunqi who got off the bus humming a song. They had strange expressions on their faces, and they all looked like they wanted to say something but hesitated.

Zhang Yunqi was in a good mood and greeted everyone with a smile.

Chu Jian was standing under a wild jujube tree. When she saw him get off the car, she went straight to him without paying attention to the strange looks from several teachers.

"Did you hit Director Luo?"

"No, how dare I hit him? It would be better if he didn't hit me."

"But I heard him scream."

"No way, he only yelled once, and then I didn't allow him to yell again."

"That's also called."

"There was a cockroach in the car. Director Luo is timid and screamed in fear. Let's go to the auditorium to watch the cultural performance."

Zhang Yunqi pulled Chu Jian, who was full of worries, into the courtyard.

Several teachers immediately rushed to the bus. One older teacher was still muttering, "I remember this student was from Wang Mingzhen's class. He was so rude. I'm going to talk to Wang when I get home."

The auditorium was packed with people. Zhang Yunqi had no idea where Wang Xiaokai and his group were sitting, so after he came in with Chu Jian, he found two stools at the back and sat down. One after another, students came on stage to perform poetry recitation, dancing, and singing. Although it was a forced activity to kill time and to prevent the energetic students from causing trouble, the scene was still quite lively.

There were many people and the auditorium was very stuffy. Halfway through the performance, Zhang Yunqi went out to use the restroom and then ran to the small store where he had been before to buy two bottles of drinks.

On the way back, he unexpectedly met Li Xiaoman, Zhao Chengming and Xu Wen.

After what happened tonight, most people knew that these three people were from wealthy or noble families. Their usual attire at school was not very conspicuous, but their taste was something that ordinary students could not compare with. Now they looked a little disheveled. Zhao Chengming was still handsome, but his white shirt was stained with oil. Li Xiaoman was tall and refined, and her black skirt was stained with mud. The cute Xu Wen's clothes and hair were messy, and she was mumbling something.

Zhang Yunqi was not familiar with them, nor was he the same kind of person as them, so there was no need to greet them. However, when they passed by, Li Xiaoman called him, "Zhang Yunqi."

Zhang Yunqi stopped and asked, "What's the matter?"

Li Xiaoman was silent for a moment and said, "Thank you."

Zhang Yunqi was puzzled: "Thank me for what?"

Li Xiaoman said, "We all know what happened. Wang Xiaokai came to Yufei just now and told us that it was you who contacted the village committee and paid to help us out. Thank you."

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "That's not necessary. I didn't intend to help you out. To be honest, I did this because I didn't want to see ordinary students like me not get a positive response when they reasonably expressed their demands."

Xu Wen was very dissatisfied with Zhang Yunqi's words. She snorted and said, "Reasonable? Then is our request unreasonable? We didn't ask to stay in a hotel. Is having a good family background a sin?"

Zhang Yunqi didn't want to discuss these metaphysical issues: "I think you don't need to talk about the theory of family background. We are all students, at least in school we are all the same. Since we are arranging for everyone to participate in activities, we should be treated equally in terms of food, accommodation and transportation. That's fair."

Zhao Chengming next to him was a little unconvinced: "They keep saying they want fairness, but in my opinion, what they are pursuing is not fairness at all, but self-interest! Put yourself in their shoes, if they are the ones staying in the hotel and we are sleeping in the car, will they refuse? Will they consider our feelings? So in this world where the strong prey on the weak, there is no such thing as fairness. When you bring up fairness as an excuse, it only shows that you are not the beneficiary!"

Zhang Yunqi looked at Zhao Chengming who was speaking confidently, and his opinions seemed reasonable and indeed had some use. But if it were in the past, he would have scolded this guy to death, and taught him what is the intergenerational transmission of resources, what is the monopoly of upward channels, what is the vicious cycle of information scarcity, and what is complacency. If the world is full of the law of the jungle, what is the difference between humans and animals? If even the basic fairness is not discussed? What is the meaning of the college entrance examination? How is the role of the law reflected? Should the murderer pay with his life? However, he is no longer a young man in his early twenties, and he is not interested in the past. What is the point of verbal cannons with these flower buds living in a greenhouse? There are thousands of rivers and thousands of moons.

The world is so big, and what we see and hear is nothing more than a projection of our inner thoughts.

There are many people in this world who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and there are even more people who conquer the world with bare hands; there are many people who hold power to pursue their own selfish interests, and there are even more people who can stick to the bottom line of principles and serve the people; there are many people who are obsessed with money and indulge in pleasure, and there are even more nameless people who work hard in iron cages, on assembly lines, and in the fields to make a living.

Many years ago, Zhang Yunqi was studying in a technical secondary school in Lijin City, the provincial capital of Southern Hunan Province. I remember it was around 95. Lijin City held the World Table Tennis Championships. He and several classmates signed up as volunteers. Before the World Championships started, they went to work. At noon, they squatted on the ground, eating lunch boxes and chatting with a migrant worker who was building the venue while eating chicken legs. He asked him what his last name was, and he said his last name was Gou. I didn't understand at the time, so I asked him: "How do you write it?" He said a little embarrassedly that he couldn't read and didn't know how to write it.

Zhang Yunqi had long forgotten many of the grand narratives of 1995, but strangely, he always remembered this scene, and sometimes wondered, which Gou was it? Later, as he grew older, he slowly figured it out. He couldn't forget this detail, not because he felt sorry for the fate of the migrant worker, but because he saw himself in him: in the river of history, these little people like him are probably nameless people.

But, so what?

What if I don't know how to write Mr. Gou's last name? His sweat has been shed on a brick in this city, so what if he is unknown? The land of China is full of farmers, workers, scientists, soldiers guarding the frontiers, and firefighters rushing to the fire scene who truly created and dominated history. This world is indeed cruel, and there are many unfair places in it, but there will always be something that can prove that we have lived, loved, and struggled sincerely.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yunqi nodded to Zhao Chengming, who was staring at him as if he wanted to debate the word "fairness": "What you said makes sense." Then, holding two bottles of drinks, he waved to them: "It's getting late, goodbye."

At this time, Li Xiaoman stopped him again: "Wait, how much did you pay for this?"

Zhang Yunqi was quite interested in this topic and turned his head: "You want to give me this money back?"

Li Xiaoman was choked and asked, "How much?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "1500."

"So much!" Xu Wen was shocked. How could a high school student easily come up with such a large sum of money? She could hardly believe it and looked Zhang Yunqi up and down: "What does your family do?"

Zhang Yunqi laughed and said, "I sell fish noodles. I opened a small shop opposite the main entrance of the No. 1 Middle School. If you have time, go and try it. It's delicious and cheap. I can even give you a 10% discount."

Xu Wen pouted in anger, then glared at Zhang Yunqi with a ferocious expression: "Who cares, stingy bastard! I'm not so poor that I need you to give me a discount for a bowl of noodles."

"Okay, Wenwen, don't tell him these useless things." Zhao Chengming was upset because Zhang Yunqi didn't respond to his opinion. It was like when you wanted to refute the other party with your own opinion, but the other party didn't bother to debate with you. He said, "Zhang Yunqi, you said you spent 1500 yuan, such a large amount, give us a proof."

Zhang Yunqi glanced at Zhao Chengming and said, "If you want to prove yourself, go to the village committee and the school. I didn't force you to ask for money. If you don't have money or don't want to give, just tell me. I won't force you. I've already done the job. Why are you pretending to be so high and mighty? You didn't even come out to fart when you were blocked in the yard by students and bullied? Of course, if you insist on paying, I don't mind writing you an IOU."

"Okay, then write me an IOU." Li Xiaoman, who spoke little but was powerful, was surprisingly decisive. She pulled Zhao Chengming, whose face was flushed by the criticism, and took out a homework book and pen from her schoolbag. In a few words, she wrote a clear IOU: "Here, I'll pay you back when I get back."

"Yeah, nice handwriting."

Zhang Yunqi took a quick look, put the money in his pocket and walked away.

Xu Wen stared at his back and grumbled, stamping her feet: "This guy is such a philistine!"

The redness on Zhao Chengming's face had not yet faded, and he felt unbalanced: "Xiao Man, there is no need for you to write him an IOU. Even if he solved this problem, he himself admitted that his actions had nothing to do with us. You are too idealistic."

Li Xiaoman looked at Zhang Yunqi's back for a long time before she said, "To be honest, this person is very different. He has rich social experience and practical ability. As for us, we should not flatter ourselves. This is not idealism, but a one-sided understanding based on books. This time, the public outrage is an example. We had good intentions, but it caused such serious consequences. In fact, it could have been avoided. The world is our world, the society is our society, and the country is our country. This is idealism. It's good that No. 1 Middle School in the city can have such a student. Let's go."

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(End of this chapter)