Chapter 379 The First Half of a Cicada's Life

王金山是1993年8月24日来的江川市一中。当时他背着一卷破被褥，脚踏补丁叠补丁的解放鞋，被针线缝住的裤兜里，藏有母亲不知道攒了多久的58块6毛3分钱。

That day, he was 16 years, 5 months and 3 days old.

That day, he went to Jiangchuan alone, carrying the rustic flavor of a poor farmer's son of that era.

If his still short life could be regarded as a journey, then August 1993, 8 was the watershed of this journey.

During the previous 16 years, 5 months and 3 days of the journey, despite family difficulties - his father was buried while working in a private mine when he was 10 years old, and he has a mother, a grandmother with cataracts, and an 8-year-old sister - life was really not easy. But this young man was motivated and hardworking, full of the stubbornness and enterprising spirit unique to children from poor rural families. In the small world of Longwan Town, he was like a dragon playing in the water.

On August 1993, 8, he was admitted to Jiangchuan No. 24 Middle School with excellent results. For the first time, he saw this "big world" that he had never seen before.

It was a beautiful place, with tall buildings standing everywhere and crisscrossing cement roads. The Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School, which had a history of nearly a hundred years and where he would be living for the next three years, was an eye-opener for him. The school gate was tall and majestic, the former Soviet-style teaching building was simple and elegant, the campus was bright and clean with green trees, and the girls, wearing fashionable clothes that he had only seen on TV, were holding books in their arms, dressed neatly and prettyly, full of bookish air, and as delicate as flowers.

Everything is so beautiful.

Wang Jinshan's heart is full of anticipation for his dream to come true.

At that time, he was still very confident. He thought that he would still excel in every aspect like he did in Longwan Town, and would soon be surrounded by boys and favored by girls.

However, reality soon gave him a cold shower.

When I was studying in Longwan Town, most of my classmates came from families of similar conditions. Their families were basically the same, their thinking was simple, and there was little comparison in any aspect. We just played and studied together.

After entering high school, Wang Jinshan soon felt that he was inferior to others in every way. Not to mention food and clothing, even the academic performance that he was proud of was not up to par in the city's No. 1 Middle School which was full of top students. At this time, the young man's self-awareness had begun to slowly awaken, and he began to understand what self-esteem was.

He was already seventeen years old, with a sensitive and shy heart beating in his chest. If he was in the small world of Longwan Town, everything would be fine. However, when he came to Jiangchuan City, as his horizons broadened, he first personally experienced the huge gap between people and the great damage that poverty brought to self-esteem.

Many times during those days, he longed to be like those boys in the city, wearing decent clothes and standing in front of female classmates, buying fashionable drinks to please the girls, and going to restaurants outside the school with the boys to eat stir-fried dishes every day!
This was not only for the sake of satisfying his greed, but also for living with dignity. He did not expect to have the wealthy conditions like Zhang Yunqi, who spent money like water and had all the beautiful girls in the world surrounding him. He just hoped to be like most of the students in the No. 1 Middle School in the city and he would be satisfied.

But this is absolutely impossible!

In the No. 1 Middle School, he was just a poor student who was looked down upon by everyone. He wore patched clothes and could not even eat enough plain cabbage every day. Every time he called home because his living expenses were insufficient, the thing he feared the most was his mother's sigh. Not only that, he had to accept Chunlan's help from time to time!
One day, he was taking a nap in the dormitory. He did nothing wrong, but when he got down from the upper bunk, he accidentally made a loud noise and woke up a roommate, who then slapped him.

The slap was okay. Although it was loud, it didn't hurt. What hurt was the two words that guy said to him in a contemptuous tone:

"Peasants!"

Wang Jinshan walked away without saying a word, with his head lowered.

From that day on, he devoted himself to study.

At that time, Wang Jinshan had no opportunity or qualification to come into contact with the colorful world outside the school. The discrimination and temptation he suffered were limited to the ivory tower. Therefore, he was a simple boy who kept reminding himself that as long as he studied hard, he would have a good future.

He actually did it. Although he did not have good study conditions, he was extremely talented. In just half a year, he went from being in the middle of the class to being in the top three, which attracted the attention of his classmates.

He earned the self-esteem that a young man needs with his achievements!
However, excessive self-esteem leads to arrogance, and he soon became arrogant. He didn't know when it started, but he felt bored staying in the dormitory on weekends and started playing games outside with his classmates in the city.

He really didn't have the experience to resist these temptations.

Psychologically, does he like playing games? He likes it, but he hates it more. He even feels regretful every time he comes out of the game hall! However, he has become addicted and is getting deeper and deeper into it. At night, he can't help but want to go to the game hall.

Trapped in a vortex, day after day, unable to extricate oneself.

What drove him to do all this was initially just novelty, the pleasure that he had never experienced in real life and could get without any effort, his self-esteem, and the strong dignity of a young man.

However, in real life, there are too many things and people that are more novel and more pleasurable than games.

For example, women!

There was a waitress in the Tenglong Game Hall who was a little older than Wang Jinshan, about 18 to 19 years old. She was probably a dropout after graduating from junior high school and became a social worker. Her name was Peng Li. She was the girl in the emerald green dress that Wang Xiaokai met on the second floor stairwell when he went to look for Chunlan.

Peng Li has a round face, is small in stature, and is pretty and lovely.

Wang Jinshan often came to the game hall to play games. Peng Li had a crush on this handsome boy and often talked to him when he was playing games. After a while, they became familiar with each other. Gradually, the two of them started to walk together, eat at roadside stalls, visit nearby parks, hold hands, and go to Peng Li's place to play. Until one night, Peng Li opened up a new world for him! Peng Li is different from Zhang Chunlan.

When Wang Jinshan is with Chunlan now, he feels an uncontrollable inferiority complex.

Chunlan was a nice person, but she had a strong personality, and some of her words often made him feel ashamed! It was even more impossible for her to allow him to indulge in pleasure. In addition, Chunlan's family was very wealthy, and Wang Jinshan was really suffering. But being with Peng Li was very different, and his self-esteem could be greatly satisfied.

However, being addicted to games and falling in love early have costs.

Wang Jinshan's family was so poor that it was difficult to support him in school and to feed him, so how could they afford to support him in playing games and dating? Even if Wang Jinshan wanted to find all kinds of excuses to cheat his family out of money like other classmates who were addicted to playing games, it was never realistic.

All those expenses were paid for by Peng Li.

Peng Li was just a waitress with a very low salary, a bit like the female network administrator in later Internet cafes, but she not only liked Wang Jinshan, but also had a natural sense of inferiority in front of this tall and handsome man who was a student from a key high school. It can be said that she was completely trapped in him and obeyed Wang Jinshan in everything. I don't know where she got the money from, but she covered all the expenses for the two of them playing games, eating, having fun, and renting a room.

Until one day, the truth came out and Peng Li was caught stealing money in the Tenglong Game Hall where she worked!
As for how Wang Jinshan stole the money, he didn't know. It was said that he stole it many times and stole more than a thousand yuan in total to support the two of them for fun.

The boss of Tenglong Game Hall is called Brother Jun. He used to be in jail for eight years. Now he has opened several large game halls in the area from Nanhu to Yuxian, and has recruited many desperate thugs from the jail to work for him.

The consequences of stealing money from such a person can be imagined.

The person in charge of Tenglong Game Hall is called Hong Sanbo. He has two people working under him. They just came out. They are called Dao Ge and Heizi.

These two people, these two beasts, opened up the most painful and desperate period in Wang Jinshan's life. They tortured him in every possible way, physical abuse was just commonplace, and mental torture made him even more desperate.

Wang Jinshan did not dare to make such a thing public. Once it got out, his life would be ruined. Dropping out of school was not a big deal. His mother and grandmother would be stabbed in the back and would never be able to hold their heads up. Brother Dao would never let him go.

During that time, his girlfriend Peng Li had become a piece of meat, lying on a two-meter-long and one-and-a-half-meter-wide chopping board every night, and many people came to patronize her with money.

Wang Jinshan had also been there. Brother Dao took him there, made him kneel on the ground, and watched with his own eyes. He was told when the money was paid back and when it would end.

It's not just paying back the stolen money, it's paying back ten times the stolen money!
Wang Jinshan was on the verge of collapse and had no choice but to look for Chunlan.

During that time, Wang Jinshan tried every means to get close to Chunlan and try to win back her heart. He and Chunlan were old classmates for many years. Chunlan was indeed a good girl and he really didn't want to hurt her, but he was desperate and only Chunlan could save him.

He has a hope in his heart, or the only hope left in despair! Chunlan has a brother named Zhang Yunqi, a wealthy entrepreneur. As long as he gets the money from Chunlan and returns it to Tenglong, everything will be back on track for him, and there is still hope for his life to turn around!

However, the plan that he had thought about over and over for countless nights fell through not long after it was put into action. When he borrowed the first 600 yuan, Chunlan saw through his lie and was unwilling to lend him the money.

Wang Jinshan completely collapsed!
The nightmare is still going on...

Until one night, Wang Jinshan, who had been tortured like a walking corpse and had no sense of pain, came out of the Tenglong Game Hall, returned to the school, and went directly to the eighth floor of the first teaching building.

He looked down, but it was too dark and too high. He couldn't see the ground and it was bottomless. However, his numb heart did not feel any fear and he only wanted to be free.

In the howling wind, Wang Jinshan climbed up the guardrail!
However, just as he was about to jump down, a series of noises came from the sky.

He looked up and saw through his scarlet eyes the sky full of fireworks floating above the No. 1 Middle School in the city.

Under the fireworks, with countless gazes watching, Wang Jinshan saw Zhang Yunqi holding a cake in her hands. That girl, who was as beautiful as a fairy, the girl in the dreams of countless boys in the No. 1 Middle School in the city - when they first met, she buried her head in his arms.

At that moment, it seemed that everyone in the entire football field was making sounds of envy.

Wang Jinshan made no sound.

But this scene seemed like a luxury to him even in his dreams!

He walked down from the guardrail, returned along the same route, and came to a room in the Tenglong Game Hall. He said to a man with a scruffy beard and a scar on his face, "I can't pay you back, even if you kill me. But if you release Peng Li, I can give you a way to make a fortune and let you live a life without worries about food and clothing! Do you dare to go?"

******
Pls. There is one more chapter tonight early in the morning.

(End of this chapter)