Chapter 107: A Very, Very Long Story
In the end, there was no other choice, Big Brother, so I told these two a very, very long story.
“Once upon a time, there was an ordinary young man in the mortal world. When he was young, he was excellent in both character and studies, and was deeply liked by his parents and teachers. At home, he listened to his parents, and at school, he listened to his teachers. He was even exceptionally intelligent, unlike ordinary people. By the time he was in the third grade of primary school, he was already using material only taught in the fifth and sixth grades to answer math exam questions. Because of this, the grading teacher added an extra ten points for this young man. He became the only person in the history of the entire school to achieve a score of 108 out of a perfect 100 in math.
By rights, if this were today, such a child would surely be nurtured with care and valued by parents and schools.
But in the countryside environment of that time, the young man only received praise from his homeroom teacher and was rewarded with a few notebooks for assignments.
In the fourth grade, when class cadres were being selected, this young man should have been appointed as the study committee member. However, because the teacher favored another child who was more eloquent, the position of study committee member was given to someone else. The teacher also deliberately asked the young man in front of the entire class if he also didn’t want to take the position. Being timid, and not wanting to contradict the teacher, the young man insincerely said yes.
Later, when it came to a class-wide vote for team leader, according to the votes, this young man was second and should have been selected as the vice-team leader. Similarly, the teacher used the same reasoning to give the vice-team leader position to another person because that child’s mother was also a teacher at the school.
After these two incidents, the young man began to dislike studying a bit. But with his talent, he didn’t need to study much to achieve excellent grades.
Therefore, in the fifth and sixth grades, the young man would often feign illness to go home and play. However, his academic grades remained at the forefront.
In junior high, the young man wished for a new start and to study hard to make up for the time he wasted playing in those two years. But fate did not go as he wished.
At that time, the school not only had local students but also many from other places who came to study there. There were also some who didn’t study and caused trouble at school.
Actually, these things were not of much concern to this young man. But there was one person in his class who would curse and bully classmates regardless of who they were.
After being bullied a few times, the timid young man couldn’t focus in class. He was afraid of what would happen if he encountered this student who bullied him again after class or after school.
After a few classes, a phrase the young man had never heard before arose in his heart: “The good are bullied, the good horses are ridden. If you don’t want others to bully you, then you bully others!”
Although the young man had no idea where this phrase came from, he truly agreed with it. From then on, the young man began to abandon his studies and engage in street life, using his connections to deal with the student who bullied him.
After the person who bullied him was dealt with, that person did a complete 180-degree turn. From previously cursing him whenever they saw him, they became proactive in showing kindness and being subservient.
The young man secretly rejoiced, thinking, “You bullied me, didn’t you? From now on, I’ll keep bullying you!” Then he started asking this person for money whenever he had the chance. His personality, originally timid, began to shift in another direction little by little. In this environment, the young man became the person he once hated the most.
From being bullied to bullying others, the only solace was that he never bullied children who were once like him, and he would deliberately protect them, nor would he allow others around him to bully them.
Thus, during his three years of junior high, he learned to smoke, learned to drink, learned to fight, but didn’t learn how to get a girlfriend. If you say he was foolish, he wasn’t really. He watched plenty of educational films. If you say he wasn’t foolish, everyone around him was in love, while he was a maverick, prioritizing loyalty over romance.
After junior high, as expected, the young man did not continue his studies. He didn’t even participate in the high school entrance exams. In his own words, “I just slept, fought, and bullied people. After fighting and sleeping and bullying people, what the hell would I even test for? It’s not even worth the exam fee.”
After graduation, the young man was idle. He dyed his hair, got his ear pierced, and carried a mobile phone that his mother had spent six or seven hundred yuan on. He wandered around internet cafes and other places near the school all day. Sometimes, when he ran out of money for cigarettes, he would search the surrounding dormitories.
The young man always had a beautiful wish: to one day meet a great Big Brother and follow him to achieve something.
However, his parents were unaware of this. Seeing him idle, they were very worried and wanted him to learn a trade so that he would have a skill to support himself and his family in the future.
The young man listened to their advice. He liked art since he was young and wanted to find a school to study it. But his parents thought learning art was useless and the tuition was very expensive, and it would be difficult to find a job after graduation, so they did not agree.
They always told the young man, “Look at so-and-so’s child, they learned welding for a few months and can now earn so much money a month.”
“Look at so-and-so’s child who learned bricklaying for two years, and now earns several hundred yuan a day.”
The young man was forced and could no longer stand their persistent persuasion. In the end, with no other choice, he agreed and was sent to a place to learn car repair.
At that time, the young man lived by the entrance of the car repair shop. At night, the door was not tightly closed, and countless mosquitoes made it difficult for the young man to sleep. In just one night, not counting his body or face, just his two arms, excluding his hands, he was bitten thirty-nine times. But even in this harsh environment, the young man persevered.
Every day he would wake up early to arrange the things he needed in front of the door, and in the evening, he would stay with his master until late at night. Sometimes, even when his master told him to go to sleep first, he wouldn’t. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, nor was he talking nonsense about learning diligently. It was because the car repair area was only a few meters away from where he lived. When his master was chatting endlessly with the car owner and the car engine occasionally roared a couple of times, he simply couldn’t sleep.
Then, if his master saw him yawning the next day, he would smile and say, “See? I told you to sleep early, but you didn’t listen, did you? Haha.”
The young man was speechless and could only force a smile.
After a month and a half, the young man went home. He brought it up himself, saying he didn’t want to learn anymore. In reality, that wasn’t the reason. The reason was that his master was addicted to alcohol. Once his partner wasn’t home, he wouldn’t cook. He would buy two bottles of beer and peanuts for his meal. Even when his partner was home, there was no breakfast. By the time they woke up, it was noon, and they would just grab something quick to eat. Dinner wouldn’t be until after six or seven o’clock, and even then, they’d be busy until midnight with no food.
The young man’s already thin body became even more gaunt. When the young man looked in the mirror, he could see his sunken eye sockets, and his bloodshot eyes were surrounded by a dark aura. Those who knew understood it was caused by lack of sleep and hunger, but those who didn’t might have thought he was drained by a zombie! Cough, cough, cough…
