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墨書 Inktalez
The benches of Gongzhuan had not yet warmed up, and the students found it hard to sit still. In this new environment, with ample free time, they were eager to explore the world outside the school gates.
On the first Saturday after classes began, the collective labor task was completed in the morning, and there were not many political education courses. I arrived early at the small playground, waiting for the school bus to start. As if to match everyone's mood, two school buses arrived half an hour earlier than usual beside the girls' dormitory. Master Deng cheerfully opened the doors, and students surged forward like a tide. I found myself swept into the bus and miraculously secured a seat.
Where to go? Although I had not ventured into Shaoyang, the "largest city" I had never seen before, during my week at school, I learned from fellow villagers and classmates that there were quite a few "familiar faces" here: over ten of my high school classmates from San Zhong and Yi Zhong had entered various universities in Shaoyang over the past two years. Besides Gongzhuan, there were Normal College, Hunan University Shaoyang Branch, Electric University, and Wei School which had set up a junior college program. Although Shaoyang's vocational schools no longer admitted high school graduates, several technical schools like Yi Technical School and Er Tech also had some old classmates from town mingling among them. Since I was unfamiliar with Shaoyang, I decided to visit these schools first.
Determined to visit brother schools, I chose to go to Hunan University Shaoyang Branch first, which was the farthest away. Conveniently, our bus's last stop was at this university. Once on board, I didn’t have to worry about missing my stop; I could leisurely enjoy the city scenery along the way.
Shaoyang lived up to its name as a "big city." After departing from the school gate and rolling over about a hundred meters of narrow cinder road, we entered the smooth and wide asphalt National Highway 320. We passed by fish fry farms and Zijiang Bridge before quickly entering a bustling urban area. On the right side were several five- or six-story buildings with beautiful red brick flat roofs. Strangely enough, on the left side, many houses were much shorter—two or three stories were common, with single-story tile-roofed houses scattered everywhere. It wasn’t until we passed by the West Bus Station that buildings lined up neatly like soldiers on both sides of the road. In front of us loomed what was said to be Shaoyang's tallest structure—the department store—and People's Square, which attracted crowds.
The school bus passed between the square and department store before turning right onto a relatively wide street. We saw what was rumored to be Shaoyang's most expensive Dongfeng Hotel along with a row of unit signs including Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. The vehicle moved smoothly but suddenly slowed down as we approached a bridge ahead where a steady stream of people occupied most of the street. Informed classmates told me that this was the famous Qiaotou Market in Shaoyang where one could buy a wide variety of clothes, shoes, and daily necessities at much lower prices than in stores; hence it attracted many visitors.
The flow of people continued unabated while our wheels kept rolling forward. Dongguan Bridge (later renamed Qinglong Bridge) was left behind as we traveled down Hongqi Road where units and shops seemed even more abundant than on Dongfeng Road; however, this road was longer and felt less crowded. Just as I marveled at the prosperity of this big city, buildings on both sides began to dwindle in height and pedestrian traffic thinned out; it seemed we were moving away from the true city center.
Indeed, a row of buildings blocked our path ahead as our vehicle turned left. We could see a bus stop sign on the wall with numerous buses either arriving or departing inside. Our school bus paid no heed to this scenery beside us and accelerated onward; counting from our departure from school until now—with all its stops—it had already been forty or fifty minutes since we set off. After dropping us off at our destination, Master Deng still needed to pick up another group back to school.
The bus drove along an increasingly widening road where buildings became sparser; sometimes there would be stretches of two or three hundred meters without any tall structures or clusters of houses. The yellow earth peeking through wild grass caught our eyes now and then; occasional potholes jolted students in their seats with laughter and shouts echoing throughout. About a hundred meters away from the road on our left appeared more than ten houses alongside a small archway standing less than ten meters from the roadside—Hunan University Shaoyang Branch had arrived.
After disembarking, we turned onto a dirt path flanked by weeds and pockmarked in places. After walking for about ten steps, we encountered a large hole in a low red brick wall that lacked any guards like those at Gongzhuan; I followed the crowd inside.
Looking up, I saw that the buildings were still quite distant—before us lay an expanse of dusty land dotted with weeds; nearby was a dirt patch adorned with grass where two rectangular iron gates stood at either end. Although it wasn’t exactly what one would imagine as a standard soccer field, it was twice as large as Gongzhuan’s field where groups of boys occasionally ran around kicking balls. A bit further away appeared what seemed like a hybrid of teaching buildings and student dormitories; students often moved in groups of three or five—some carrying books while others held bowls—suggesting mealtime wasn’t quite upon them yet. It seemed studying here was easier than back home.
I mingled with the crowd to inquire about their majors; it turned out most concentrated on thermal power or standardization studies while those classmates I had heard about mostly studied biology or agricultural comprehensive studies—those fields were still several hundred meters away from here.
Following along a mountain path on our left side with Yin Xian Nan and others, we walked along several meters wide dirt roads lined with various vegetables cultivated by farmers; occasionally we spotted patches of rice bending in greeting beside us. As we passed by a simple Stone Arch Bridge, a large yellow dog dashed out from a nearby farmhouse barking incessantly at a girl dressed in floral attire who timidly stepped closer to Yin Xian Nan as if she had become his shadow.
Finally climbing over a small slope brought us to an area near some small woods where several two- or three-story brick houses nestled among trees; students filled an open space where mealtime was about to commence soon. Inside that open area, Yin Xian Nan and I spotted several familiar faces—our mutual high school classmate Liao Bingyan approached us and led us into the cafeteria where we enjoyed meals similar to those at Gongzhuan.
After dinner, accompanied by Liao Bingyan, I managed to find several high school classmates—some gathered in dorms chatting while others took one-on-one walks along wooded paths. Flipping through my diary from October 1989 revealed names such as Hu Yiyan and Xie Jun who transferred into Yi Zhong with me; Liao Bingyan and Zeng Zhao Deng who studied in San Zhong’s third class—all seemingly majoring in biology aimed at teacher training programs that required only two years for graduation. There was also Yin Yuhua—a fair-skinned boy with a girl’s name who happened to be my uncle’s cousin studying agricultural comprehensive studies; back then many rural students disliked continuing anything related to agriculture but this major became their only choice due to less-than-ideal college entrance exam scores—however there was still talk that studying agriculture made it easier for them to enter government positions which gave them hope for better futures. Interestingly enough among these classmates who studied biology later became teachers but none taught biology itself; Yin Yuhua along with another classmate Zeng Guangwei who attended vocational school later became officials—Yin Yuhua became a director in Dongkou County while Zeng Guangwei headed some secondary institution within Shaoyang’s Agricultural Bureau.
In Yin Yuhua’s dormitory we talked late into the night by candlelight while inhaling scents unchanged for thousands of years from rural life on city outskirts until I gradually drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
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