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墨書 Inktalez
Living on campus meant I had to stay at school six days a week. After classes ended around three or four in the afternoon, most of my classmates would head home, but I couldn't. While it was still light outside, I could wander around the spacious areas near Garden Middle School. However, once night fell, there was nowhere else to go. My father's office as the principal was less than ten square meters, and he needed to work, leaving me little room to linger. It felt as if the classroom was the only place I truly belonged.
Fortunately, there were quite a few students from Class 48 who also stayed on campus. We all gathered in the classroom; although there were no teachers supervising us, we gradually formed a small group for Evening Study Sessions. During the day, we had to stay in class under the watchful eyes of our teachers, which was unavoidable. But at night, we could manage our time freely. Our teachers weren't the type to overload us with homework; for students like me who were doing reasonably well academically, it took less than half an hour to finish our assignments. Yin Hongsong and Luo Yongzhong often came to me for "reference" on their completed work, which didn't take much time either. Deng Huayu and Wang Ruimei were meticulous girls who took their time with their assignments but still managed to finish within an hour. Thus, during those two or three hours of Evening Study Session, we often found ourselves engaged in other activities.
The first thing that consumed our time and energy was "creating light." Perhaps due to limited electricity resources or inadequate lighting equipment—our classroom wasn't a priority for the school—power outages occurred frequently. When that happened, we needed candles. However, the school hadn't thought to provide us with candles, so we had to buy them from a small shop outside. It seemed that girls were more afraid of the dark or perhaps needed candlelight more for completing their assignments; thus, they took on the task of purchasing candles almost entirely.
With candles in hand, lighting one would only illuminate a small area—enough for at most three people to do their homework. The two girls seemed unwilling to take advantage of each other; those little points of light would always appear in the classroom as expected. Yin Hongsong was a bit mischievous; she would borrow light from Deng Huayu one moment and then from Wang Ruimei the next. Rather than doing homework, it felt more like playtime. Luo Yongzhong was more earnest; he consistently borrowed light from Wang Ruimei at first but eventually began sitting near Deng Huayu after someone might have said something. I remained somewhat childlike in my nature and harbored a vague desire for closeness with girls but was taught by traditional education to keep my distance from them. Most of the time, I sat at the edge of the glow, quietly pondering something or holding an extracurricular book, reading quickly under the dim light.
Even when there was electricity, the only large bulb in the classroom played tricks on us—it flickered on and off unpredictably. We didn't have enough knowledge of physics; our exposure to electric light only began after arriving at Garden Middle School, so we couldn't figure out what was going on.
However, experience taught us how to deal with this troublesome bulb—by shaking it. Whenever it suddenly went out, our first instinct was to approach it and stand on a desk (the bulb hung too high), gently shaking it with our hands until it lit up again.
At first, we were terrified of being electrocuted while doing this due to our fear of electricity. Eventually, we found it cumbersome and devised a new method: instead of climbing onto desks, we could simply blow hard at it; nine times out of ten that would also bring it back to life.
Of course, whether shaking or blowing didn’t require any effort from the girls; Yin Hongsong and I mostly watched as Luo Yongzhong became our natural labor force—everyone else just had to keep their eyes open and wait.
Next came "building a fortress." This fortress was different from the one vividly depicted by Qian Zhongshu; it wasn't like those constructed by everyone today in every street and mountain area—it was made up of our desks and chairs arranged around the Electric Light bulb.
Since there was only one bulb in the classroom and our usual seating arrangements were scattered across different spots, during Evening Study Sessions we had to move others' desks and chairs away from underneath it and bring our own closer together to form a "fortress."
Living on campus meant we left our books and assignments on our desks; moving furniture wasn't simple. First, we had to organize our belongings—either carrying them over to someone else's desk or carefully lifting desks laden with books together.
Once under the bulb, arranging desks and chairs felt like engaging in a smoke-free battle; unlike when lighting candles, this time both girls surprisingly worked in unison—they always managed to move their desks into optimal positions for light before we remembered to shift ours.
However, just a few days later, this situation was ruthlessly disrupted by nature itself. After several days of rain, part of the hillside behind the school collapsed and blocked drainage channels. Our classroom happened to be located at a corner right next to that hillside; rainwater slowly seeped in without anywhere else to go, flooding the room with murky yellow water. The two girls were hesitant to move their desks out of fear of dirtying their shoes or pants and worried about their books getting soaked; they could only seek help from us boys. Surprisingly, Luo Yongzhong did not agree immediately when they pleaded for assistance; seeing that we boys could finally claim a good spot made him hesitate—but Yin Hongsong switched sides midway and helped Wang Ruimei move her desk instead.
Another timeless activity was "chatting," which could be described using trendy language that later swept across the nation—just talking. Regardless of whether assignments were completed or if light had arrived or if our fortress had been built successfully, everyone always found gaps in time to engage in conversations about anything under the sun. There were no fixed topics or designated speakers; sometimes two people would whisper quietly while at other times groups of three or five would discuss loudly—the differences between customs in deep mountains versus rolling hills emerged naturally along with contrasting thought processes between boys and girls or between those who relied on intellect versus those who excelled physically—all shared openly without reservation.
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