Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Good Times
After the spring equinox, the temperature rose significantly, and the wind no longer felt cold and piercing. There was a slight warmth in the cold, and soon, no one could stand wearing cotton clothes anymore.
Before they knew it, the world gradually turned green. The willows sprouted new buds, the weeds stubbornly poked their heads out of the ground, the wheat in the fields began to joint, and the rape blossoms also bloomed in all their glory.
But the good weather didn't last long. With a spring rain, the temperature suddenly dropped, as if it had suddenly returned to winter.
Mei Qiuping often told Feng Yiping the saying, 'August and September are confusing months for clothing.' In view of this, Feng Yiping, as a person who is afraid of the cold, had prepared in advance and left his down jacket and sweater in his dorm room. Those classmates who couldn't wait to show off their style had long ago left their cumbersome winter clothes at home. For them, these chilly spring days were not so wonderful.
After this period of low temperatures, the brightest and mildest period of the year arrived. In the fields and on the farmlands, the grass grew long and the birds sang; along the roads in the mountains, all kinds of wild flowers bloomed in competition with one another... The spring was radiant and beautiful.
Of course, sitting in the classroom, you couldn't really feel the beauty of spring. Fortunately, the teachers were also more open-minded at this time, and often reminded everyone after class not to always stay in the classroom, but to go out for a walk when you had time to refresh your mind.
So, the riverbank in front of the school was a great place for students to hang out in their spare time. Walking on the soft earthen bank, closing your eyes, smelling the fragrance of spring, feeling the warm breeze from the willows, you feel intoxicated.
Then I bend a piece of willow, wave it around, pick a wildflower, hold it close to my nose, watch the bees buzzing around collecting nectar, and the butterflies fluttering and dancing among the flowers. A little weariness quickly fades away.
In front of them, a group of girls were walking back, arm in arm, laughing all the way. It was a beautiful spring day, and the girls were beaming with happiness. As he watched this scene, Feng Yiping, feeling a little mischievous, hummed a few bars of Gao An's 'Flowers and Flowing Water': 'See the spring sunshine, it's already bright; The branches are full of noise; The petals are so pretty; My sister is even more shy.'
Xiao Zhijie was secretly ogling the girl across the way and overheard him ask casually, 'What is this song? It's pretty good.'
Wang Changning was whistling, which required some skill. He selected a moderate-sized, straight willow branch, cut the middle section off, carefully rubbed it in his hands, and finally separated the heartwood from the bark to obtain a complete piece of willow bark, which was a whistle.
After he had made one, he tried it out in his mouth, 'Yeah, what song is it? It's like I've never heard it before,'
Feng Yiping thought to himself, "What a pain in the ass. He mumbled, "It's not a song, it's just something I felt like singing!'
'Just something you felt like singing?'
Hearing this, the two of them instantly looked back and forth like bloodhounds at the girls on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, the girls in the class today were more united than ever, and the group on the other side included most of the girls in the class, so the two of them really couldn't find the point.
The girls on the other side were getting closer and closer. Although they still wanted to look, they felt embarrassed, or pretended to be embarrassed, so they both turned their heads and looked away.
Wang Changning smiled meaningfully at Xiao Zhijie and said, 'Oh, I know, spring is here!'
Xiao Zhijie shook his head and laughed and said to Feng Yiping, 'Yes, spring is here. Some people...,'
The girl across from them was getting closer and closer. Outside the classroom, the girls, who felt they had the numbers on their side, were not as quiet as they were in the classroom. The aggressive ones, like Wang Jinju, had already started shouting, 'Xiao Zhijie, what were you guys looking at?' She probably wanted to add something lewd, but was too embarrassed to say it.
There were more than ten of them on the other side, and only three pitiful ones on their side. Their momentum was already at a disadvantage, and when they heard Wang Jinju ask, Xiao Zhijie, who was already a little guilty, became red in the face, but could not say a word.
There were no girls in Class 2, so Wang Changning pretended to be unconcerned and even turned his back to look across the river. Feng Yiping hooked their shoulders with both hands and smiled at the girls, saying, 'They two think the flowers are very beautiful.'
Xiao Zhijie said, 'Yes, yes, the flowers are very beautiful, we were just looking at them.'
Feng Yiping added, "But they feel that you are even more beautiful than the flowers, so they couldn't help but keep looking at you." After saying this, he pushed the two guys forward, and he himself took a few steps down the riverbank and jumped onto the riverbank.
Although these words were what the female classmates wanted to hear and liked to hear, they still felt offended and pretended to gather around. Wang Changning was very alert, and he jumped off the riverbank right after him.
Xiao Zhijie was probably a little drunk, and he was smiling and ready to talk to the girls. Suddenly, he noticed that the two of them were running away. He was shocked and turned around and ran backwards, saying, 'Feng Yiping was talking about himself, not me.'
He ran a good distance before jumping off the riverbank. The girls, of course, didn't really want to do anything to them, and just teased them because there were so many of them. They felt like they had won the encounter, and were probably quite happy, laughing and looking back while they laughed.
Xiao Zhijie chased after them and punched each of them in the face. 'I've finally seen your true colours, you're both heartless,' he said, pointing at Feng Yiping. 'Especially you, Feng Yiping, not only are you heartless, you're also treacherous, betraying your friends. In the past, you would have been the traitor Pu Zhigao who betrayed his comrades.'
The county TV station has been showing the TV series Red Rock these past two days, and before lights-out many students would gather in the principals' courtyard to watch for a while. The characters in the series were inevitably being quoted all kinds of things these days.
Feng Yiping said to him with a smile, 'It's you who's enjoying yourself too much. If you were locked up in the torture chamber, you wouldn't need any torture chairs or pepper spray, just a beauty trap and you'd confess to everything.'
Just when things were at their most comfortable, Story Magazine finally published a novella by Feng Yiping, and he received another 400 yuan in royalties. Another story, a novel about migrant workers that combined the essence of several movies and TV dramas, was once again accepted by Harvest, this time with the longest length and the highest royalties, 2,600 yuan.
This made many classmates who were originally unconvinced have nothing more to say. There were definitely many people with all kinds of thoughts, waiting for Feng Yiping's luck to run out or his talent to be depleted. Of course, Feng Yiping could not let them have their way.
Feng Yiping was aware of some people's thoughts, but he continued to submit his work, not caring about what these people thought, wanting to refute or prove anything. He simply needed the money.
During this period, many students submitted their work to various magazines, but the vast majority received no response. Even the little joke that came from Feng Yiping's hand and was sent to the Story Club by Liu Fei was not adopted. Perhaps at this time, topics related to the other side of the strait were still relatively sensitive. Only one second-year student published a little joke in the Story Club and received a five-dollar writing fee.
As the temperature steadily rose, the clothes on the body became less and less, and gradually, it was no longer necessary to wear a jacket. What followed was that during the afternoon classes, more and more students felt lethargic.
The weather really changes quickly. The day before, you wore long-sleeved clothes in the daytime, but in the morning and evening you might need to add a jacket. Today, the weather can no longer be described as warm, but hot, and a T-shirt is most suitable. The happiest were the female students, who coincidentally wore skirts of all colours, and when they walked, it was as if they were butterflies dancing.
Last Saturday, everyone welcomed Labour Day. Now that Labour Day does not come with a long weekend, in fact, all the Labour Days that Feng Yiping spent at school only meant one thing, and that was that from that day on, he could take a nap without shame.