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墨書 Inktalez
Entering the teaching building of No. 1 High School, a place I had visited many times in my dreams, I walked into Class 45 and noticed that the students had clearly formed two distinct groups. In the front rows sat the current students, who had gained admission to the highest institution in Dongkou County two years ago. They enjoyed a sense of superiority and privilege, having a head start over most of their peers. Despite the heavy academic workload, they remained vibrant and passionate. In the back two or three rows were over a dozen transfer students like myself, coming from various schools outside of No. 1 High School, mostly graduates from Shijiang or Second Middle School. We all bore the heavy burden of preparing for the college entrance examination and worked quietly, rarely participating in class activities. Among us were a few tall current students, including Yang Xiaoqiu, who was humorously nicknamed "Bean Sprout" for being the tallest in the grade.
Having spent more than ten years in school, we quickly fell into a routine of moving between the classroom, dormitory, and cafeteria. As I became familiar with this daily rhythm, my naturally playful and active personality set me apart as an unusual transfer student, and I soon integrated into the circle of current students.
I first joined the "active" group, as several current students who were athletes sat in the back row like me. Within just a few days of school starting, I bonded with them. The athletes had low academic expectations and spent little time on cultural studies; they viewed daily homework as a burden and found frequent exams troublesome since poor grades would disappoint their audience. Naturally, I became their go-to person for copying homework and test answers.
Through my connection with the athletes, I also became a cheerleader for the class basketball team. Almost every afternoon, as long as the weather was clear, I would join Tang Liming, Yang Xiaoqiu, Zeng Kecheng, Xiao Jiangfeng, and others on the playground to watch them compete fiercely on the court while I never actually played.
Rather than saying I joined an "entertaining" group, it was more accurate to say that I helped create one. The classmates divided into two factions; both groups understood each other's dynamics without needing to articulate them explicitly. The expectations from teachers varied for each group. As a transfer student, I enjoyed more freedom while other transfer students were often absorbed in their studies and rarely engaged with anything outside their revision efforts. Thus, they sought out current students as companions for fun.
Zeng Kecheng, who also lived in Xizhong Township, was the first to respond to my initiative. Yang Jun, who lived in a dormitory provided by the county's transportation bureau, offered us a place to gather. Yin Guiping, small yet energetic, often followed along. Along with a few other classmates who joined sporadically but consistently enough to form a group, we established our circle.
After school, we often hid under the riverbank at school to play cards or crossed Pingxi River to catch birds at Huilong State. We squeezed into Yang Jun's small room at the transportation bureau to mess around together. Almost every week, one of us would treat everyone to a hearty dish of fried scraps from a small restaurant not far from school to improve our monotonous meals over consecutive days.
While we were enjoying ourselves immensely, another transfer student managed to slip into our fun circle—She Songsong, whom I had encountered on my first day at school. Unlike most transfer students who were immersed in their studies and rarely left their classrooms, Songsong understood how to balance work and play. Every afternoon he would take half an hour off from his books to wander around the classroom area. What made him stand out even more was his knowledge of an entertainment activity none of us had encountered before—Go.
At that time, Nie Weiping was making headlines in the Sino-Japanese Go competition; however, most of Class 45 only knew about Go but had never seen it played before. Coming from a family of officials, Songsong had learned some basic Go knowledge at some point in his life. During those half hours when he relaxed and chatted with me occasionally about Nie's heroic feats, he sketched an imperfect Go board on his notebook and explained basic rules like capturing stones and ko fights along with simple win-loss judgments.
With this new toy in hand, I quickly introduced it to our fun circle and shared what little knowledge I had just acquired about Go with everyone else. Using my notebook as a makeshift board, I drew various non-standard boards sized 9x9, 11x11, and 15x15 while explaining how to play before immediately transitioning into games as a way to learn and practice.
As we engaged in these theoretical discussions repeatedly, more people joined our circle. Although our actual Go skills were still rudimentary at best, we became increasingly adept at playing Go games and discovered several techniques: Initially using plain paper for drawing boards quickly evolved into using math notebooks with horizontal lines where we only needed to draw vertical lines; soon after we found small children's notebooks where grid lines naturally formed Go boards—even if they measured 15x20 or 12x15.
The pieces representing black and white stones also underwent upgrades; we started by drawing black and white circles but soon replaced them with triangles and circles; initially using pens transitioned into pencils that could be erased for reuse—allowing us to play multiple games on one board until it wore out from erasing.
While we were engrossed in our paper Go games, Songsong consistently played the role of coach; he rarely participated himself since none of us could match his skill level. Only when disputes arose or someone wanted to showcase their skills would he step up to demonstrate his prowess on the board.
Our enthusiasm for Go lasted for two or three months; perhaps it waned due to Nie's later misfortunes affecting everyone's mood or because our lack of foundational skills made it less enjoyable; maybe winter's chill made playing too uncomfortable or perhaps looming college entrance exams crushed our playful spirits—eventually leading paper Go to fade away from Class 45's classroom.
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