December in Wen City marked the beginning of winter, with daytime temperatures around ten degrees Celsius and dropping to a few degrees at night.
Due to its proximity to the East China Sea coast, the humidity was heavy, and fog often enveloped the mornings.
Fang Bai had grown accustomed to it; it was better than Rong City, where the sun would disappear for a month or two every winter.
These past two days, Qin Shuyu had called him, reminding him to stay warm and wear more clothes.
Ah, having a girlfriend meant a bit more nagging, but Fang Bai felt very happy; he hadn't heard Qin Shuyu nag in many years.
If not for the expensive long-distance calls, Fang Bai would have wanted to listen to her nag more.
In those days, making long-distance calls required manual connection by a long-distance operator, which was very troublesome; receiving calls cost money, and long-distance calls were a yuan per minute, so talking for a few minutes would cost a worker's daily wage.
Unless it was an emergency, most people wouldn't make such calls, and most didn't even know how to make long-distance calls.
In a few years, long-distance calls would no longer require manual connection, making them much more convenient.
Fang Bai demanded that Qin Shuyu call him at least twice a month, telling her not to save money and to call whenever she wanted.
This morning, Fang Bai put on a thin cotton jacket over a long cotton undershirt.
When he went to school, he always wore more simple clothes to avoid drawing attention.
When his family was poor, Fang Bai and his sister each had only one winter cotton coat, with no second one to change into, and their sweaters were knitted by their mother.
In those days, what woman couldn't knit a sweater? There were even quite a few men who could knit.
Girls at school would even secretly knit during class breaks.
Today was December 6th, Thursday.
Near the end of the second class in the morning, Fang Bai went to school with his backpack.
Upon entering the school gate, he tossed Uncle Wang, the gatekeeper, a cigarette, and Uncle Wang smiled as he took it: "Little Fang, haven't seen you in a few days."
"Are you missing me, or my cigarettes, haha?" Fang Bai joked, then tossed him another cigarette.
"Hmm, both. The weather's getting cold, so take care of yourself," Uncle Wang said, seeing another cigarette. He chuckled and took it with both hands, but his movements weren't very agile, and the cigarette he threw didn't catch and fell to the ground. He immediately picked it up and blew on it, not minding the dirt.
The cigarettes Little Fang handed out now were good ones; he only got to smoke a few of them all year.
Among all the students, only Little Fang was sensible enough to give cigarettes to the gatekeeper.
The school prohibited students from smoking, but some students would still secretly smoke in the restroom before coming out.
These little rascals, the restroom was so smelly, were they smelling smoke or feces? They really didn't know how to enjoy themselves, wasting cigarettes.
If they gave him cigarettes and secretly smoked in the gatehouse, he could pretend not to see them.
Alas, there were too few students like Little Fang who were both good at studying and knew how to conduct themselves.
Fang Bai had just walked up the dozen steps from the sports field to the classroom building when the class bell rang.
During the fifteen-minute break, the broadcast music gently started playing that familiar song, "Childhood."
There were no broadcast calisthenics or eye exercises; everything was done out of self-discipline.
The repeaters' physical education classes were even abolished; their only goal was to get into university and be assigned jobs after graduation.
"Students, come one, come all, take a look;
Passersby, don't miss this opportunity;
All imported high-end brand televisions, quality guaranteed, 80% off the entire stock!
Original price 1680, now not selling for 998, nor for 680… "
When Fang Bai stepped into the classroom, he suddenly heard this advertisement slogan, along with the playful laughter of his classmates, which surprised him slightly.
It reached the school?
It made sense when he thought about it; his family's stall was only a few hundred meters from the school, and students would pass by on their way home on weekends. Hearing something amusing, they'd share it among their classmates.
When classmates in the class saw Fang Bai enter the classroom, many greeted him, mainly because Fang Bai was generous enough to hand out fruit candies to everyone, although that one time caused many classmates to stand during class, which was an accident.
Fang Bai entered through the back door of the classroom. Before he could even put down his backpack, Wang Dakai came over, his face beaming with a silly smile:
"Boss, have you heard this advertising slogan? 'Come and see, come and see, passersby, don't miss it…' It's too funny; I don't know which clown came up with this clownish advertising slogan."
"Never heard it," Fang Bai directly feigned ignorance and shook his head.
It would be a joke if he admitted it, wouldn't it make him a clown?
"Oh, I thought you might have heard of it. A few classmates in class have heard it and said it's the speaker advertisement slogan for the TV seller near the bus station. It's catchy, and you can hear it from far away."
"Yeah, I don't think the slogan itself is much, but I heard the person shouting the slogan, oh, he's the real clown," a male classmate sitting in front of Fang Bai on his left said admiringly, "Not selling for 998, nor for 680, only 368… Oh my, that's classic."
"No way, is it really that good?"
Fang Bai frowned slightly, a little unconvinced.
"Funny and hilarious!"
"Fang Bai, you definitely haven't heard that clown's words! Otherwise, you'd definitely be impressed by him."
Wang Dakai hadn't been there, and hearing his classmates describe it so mysteriously, he also wanted to go. He asked for Fang Bai's opinion: "Boss, I plan to go listen this weekend to see if it's really that mysterious. It's on the way home anyway. Boss, want to go listen together?"
Fang Bai directly refused, unable to help but curse: "Uh, I'll go!"
Wang Dakai's eyes widened, and he chuckled: "Boss, really going together?"
"I'm going my ass, no!"
"Oh, I thought you were going. Alas, what a pity."
"Go for what? Reviewing is more important."
Damn, if he went, wouldn't he be exposed?
After putting down his backpack, he used the excuse of going to the restroom.
While peeing, a student next to him was still reciting his advertisement slogan, with great emotion, and seeing the students next to him laugh, he performed even more enthusiastically.
This made Fang Bai unable to help but say to him:
"Classmate, is it really necessary to memorize the advertising slogan so diligently?"
"The New Year's Eve party is coming soon! Our class plans to perform a skit, and we found the hawker's advertising lines very interesting. They've even spread throughout the school, so we plan to leverage them. Our skit will definitely be a hit, aren't we clever?"
"This, what's so good about it?"
"You're not allowed to talk about people like that! Although I don't know who designed that advertising slogan, I feel he is a great advertising master."
Fang Bai was speechless, feeling that this student was a bit chuunibyou.
He shook himself and quickly left the stinking student restroom.
When he came out, he found no faucets nearby, so he had to walk a dozen steps and wipe his hands on the classroom wall.
After wiping, he saw that there were many other hand-wiping marks on the wall.
How many hands have been on this?
Alas, the school facilities are so backward.
They don't even bother to install a faucet.
Fang Bai walked a bit further and finally found a faucet, where he washed off the urea traces.
But he had to admit, being young was truly wonderful; it just flew out without him even realizing it.
Perhaps he had been looking at too many math problems recently; he suddenly thought of a parabola.
Right-opening parabola: y^2 = 2px
The height at a certain point Y is a positive value, and X is the landing distance.
A trip to the restroom reinforced his formula memory.
Not long after returning to the classroom, many classmates were still discussing the advertisement slogan and even agreed to go listen together.
Now, Fang Bai prayed that this group of students wouldn't recognize his voice.
But then he thought, never mind; if they recognize it, they recognize it. Making money is more important, and perhaps this group of students would help promote it to their families.
Fang Bai felt somewhat bored during one class, and after class, he sought out a teacher to answer some questions.
Two days later, Saturday.
The repeater class finished their morning lessons and had the afternoon off.
Most students had to go home to get quilts and clothes; many had already endured a week without them.
Some boarding students also stayed at school on weekends, enjoying a rare day and a half of holiday.
Wang Dakai invited four or five classmates to go listen to that mysterious advertisement slogan before heading home separately.
When they were still some distance from the stall, they heard the advertisement slogan.
The stall was surrounded by many people, and quite a few students came over out of curiosity.
Wang Dakai listened once and immediately felt something was off:
"Huh, this voice, it sounds a bit like Boss's?"
"Da Ge Zi, I also think it sounds like Fang Bai's voice. Fang Bai has given speeches on the podium, and this intonation really sounds like him."
"Listen more carefully, I don't think it is," Wang Dakai had told Fang Bai that the person shouting those words was a clown. If it really was him...
Then wouldn't I be cursing him to his face?
Holy cow, a subordinate cursing his boss to his face?
Thinking of this, Wang Dakai wanted to find a hole to crawl into.
It definitely couldn't be Boss talking.
He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he felt it was almost certainly Fang Bai; his voice was too unique and easy to remember.
"It's definitely Fang Bai, I bet."
"I think so too. Next time, let the classmates in class come and listen; everyone will definitely think it's Fang Bai's voice, then it'll be fun."
"I think, maybe not," Wang Dakai changed his tune and denied it.
"Da Ge Zi, we all heard it, and you, who are closest to Fang Bai, can't hear it? I suspect there's something wrong with your ears."
"Exactly, most likely it is."
"…" Wang Dakai was speechless; he really wanted to slap himself.