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Garden Middle School is a large institution where many students live on campus and only return home on Saturdays. Most of these boarding students are from the graduating class of the Third Day of the New Year, concentrated in three dormitories, and I have little interaction with them. Among the students in junior high school grades one and two, there are some who live far from home, as well as others like me who study here because of family ties. In our Class 48, we have the most boarders, including Yin Hongsong, Luo Yongzhong, Lu Hui, Deng Huayu, Wang Ruimei, and myself. There is also a nephew of our homeroom teacher, Li Yunzhao, who, although still an elementary school student, often plays and does homework with us after school. Thus, our classroom in Class 48 is always a lively place filled with memories.
Among these classmates, Yin Hongsong is the youngest son of Yin Dazheng, the head of the education group at Garden Middle School. His grades are in the lower middle range and he has a bit of a mischievous streak. Despite his father's position as the highest authority in the school (the education group oversees a junior high school and over a dozen elementary schools), the other kids do not simply let him have his way. The other classmates generally perform better than him and often band together against him. For instance, his hometown is a place called Shiba Tang, which is known for a joke that goes around: "Shiba Tang sells puppies; it doesn't matter if they're relatives or not; three sheng of rice for one." We all call him "Puppy Seller." Once he referred to Deng Huayu as "Chong Gulao," but since we all come from rural backgrounds, we collectively retorted by calling him "Stone Gulao." After graduating from middle school, he returned home to become a farmer.
Lu Hui's father is also a leader in the education group. He lives near Lujia Mountain on Garden Street but stays at school like us to focus on his studies. His academic performance usually places him in the top ten, and he works particularly hard on subjects that require rote memorization. He is also quite skilled with his hands; it is said that he can knit sweaters himself. At that age, very few girls could knit anything more than simple gloves or small items. Shortly after we graduated, his father passed away. However, this misfortune turned into an opportunity for him as he entered the teaching profession without having to endure the hardships of vocational school or university; yet because of this, he has remained just an elementary school teacher.
Luo Yongzhong is actually the most average student among us, which is somewhat linked to his family background. His father is tall and robust and serves as the only physical education teacher at our school. Luo himself is taller than us and seems naturally suited for physical activities rather than academics. He always volunteers for any physical tasks, which earns him good relationships with everyone; when he has academic difficulties, they are willing to help him. However, he ultimately isn't cut out for studying and returned home to farm after middle school graduation. Later on, his brother-in-law became principal at a certain high school and got him a temporary job as a handyman for plumbing and electrical work. Eventually, he opened a small shop selling repair supplies in the county town and has been living fairly comfortably.
Wang Ruimei is the daughter of the director of education and ranks among the top female students academically. Her father went to great lengths to help her bypass middle school directly into vocational school but ultimately did not succeed. A few years after I entered university, she finally got accepted into Shaoyang Normal College. While I was working at the Agricultural Bank of Suining office one time when I went to Wuyang branch to assist with "tuition collection," she happened to be assigned to Suining Second Middle School (located in Wuyang) for her internship. We met again as old classmates; later on, after teaching locally for a few years, she applied to teach at a junior high school in Guangdong.
Deng Huayu is the only one among us who isn't from a teaching family; her father is a leader in Suining County's agricultural bureau. They live in Chenjiawan near the border between Suining and Dongkou counties, which is over ten miles away from school along mountain roads. Her academic performance rivals that of Wang Ruimei's; however, she possesses an innate grace akin to that of a young lady when interacting with others—she has a good temper and gentle disposition along with a rosy round face that endears her to many teachers and classmates. However, since she was from Suining and returned there just before middle school graduation, we lost contact with her thereafter.
Among the boarding students stands out Long Yunshi from Class 51, who comes from Poplar Team—the most remote area of Garden Middle School—located at the foot of a mountain closest to Suining. He consistently ranks first in academics across all grades and even excels in every subject; it’s rare for any other student to achieve such results. In the early 1980s—a time when achievements were measured by grades—we looked up to him with admiration during our youthful years filled with aspirations for heroes. I once wished to learn from him but found myself too lazy by nature to study as diligently as he did; I could only remain his follower.
Upon graduating from middle school, he was the only student directly admitted into vocational school. After four years at Wugang Normal University studying vocational education, he was assigned to teach at an elementary school. Shortly after reforms loosened restrictions on cadre systems, he passed exams to become a police officer and eventually rose to become an instructor at a police station in Dongkou County.
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