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墨書 Inktalez
The benches at Gongzhuan had not yet warmed up, and the students found it hard to sit still. In this new environment, with ample time on their hands, they were eager to explore the world outside the school gates.
On the first Saturday after classes began, the collective labor tasks were completed in the morning, and there were not many political and situational 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 managed to secure a seat.
Where to go? During my week at school, although I hadn’t yet ventured into Shaoyang—the "largest city" I had never seen since birth—I learned from my fellow villagers and classmates that there were quite a few "familiar faces" here: over ten of my high school classmates from Third Middle School and Yizhong had entered various universities in Shaoyang over the past two years. Besides Gongzhuan, there were also Normal College, Hunan University Shaoyang Branch, Electric University, and Wei School which had set up a college program. Although Shaoyang's vocational schools no longer admitted high school graduates, several technical schools like Yi Technical School, Second Technical School, and Commercial Technical School still had some old classmates from town mixed in. Since I was unfamiliar with Shaoyang, I decided to visit these schools first.
Determined to visit my brother schools, I chose to start with the farthest one—Hunan University Shaoyang Branch—since our bus's last stop was there. After squeezing onto the bus, I didn’t have to worry about missing my stop; I could leisurely enjoy the scenery along the way.
Shaoyang lived up to its name as a "big city." After departing from the school gate, the bus rolled over a narrow cinder road for about a hundred meters before entering the smooth and wide National Highway 320. We passed by fish fry farms and Zijiang Bridge before quickly entering a bustling urban area. On the right side were five- or six-story buildings with beautiful red brick flat roofs. Strangely enough, on the left side, the 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 began to line up neatly like soldiers on both sides of the road. Ahead loomed what was said to be Shaoyang's tallest building—the department store—and People's Square, which attracted crowds.
The school bus maneuvered between the square and department store before turning right onto a relatively spacious street. We arrived at Dongfeng Road, where we saw what was said to be Shaoyang's most expensive Dongfeng Hotel along with a row of signs for various institutions like Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. The vehicle moved smoothly but suddenly slowed down; just ahead was a bridge where a steady stream of hurried pedestrians occupied most of the street. Informed classmates told me that this was home to Shaoyang's famous Qiaotou Market, where one could buy a wide variety of clothes, shoes, and daily necessities at much lower prices than in stores, attracting many visitors.
The flow of people continued unabated as our wheels kept rolling; Dongguan Bridge (later renamed Qinglong Bridge) was left behind while Hongqi Road was beneath us. There seemed to be even more businesses and shops than on Dongfeng Road; however, this road was longer and appeared less crowded. Just as I marveled at the city's prosperity, buildings began to shrink in height on either side of us, and pedestrian traffic thinned out—a true city center seemed to be receding from us.
Indeed, a row of buildings blocked our path ahead; as we turned left, we saw a sign for a bus stop on the wall. Several buses were either arriving or departing there. Our school bus paid no mind to this scenery and sped up again; by now we had been traveling for four or five minutes since leaving school. After dropping us off at our destination, Master Deng would need to pick up another group of students back to school.
The bus traveled along an increasingly widening road where buildings became sparser; sometimes we wouldn’t see a tall building or cluster of houses for two or three hundred meters. The yellow earth peeking through wild grass caught our eyes frequently; occasional potholes jolted students around in their seats amidst laughter and shouts. About a hundred meters from the road on our left stood over ten houses next to a small archway marking Hunan University Shaoyang Branch.
After getting off, we turned onto a dirt road lined with weeds and pockmarked in the middle. After walking ten steps or so, we came across a low wall made of red bricks with a large hole dug into it; unlike Gongzhuan there was no one guarding it at the entrance as I followed the crowd inside.
Looking up, I saw that the buildings were still quite far away; before us lay an expanse of yellow earth filled with dust. Nearby was a patchy dirt field adorned with weeds where two rectangular iron gates stood at either end. Though it wasn’t quite what one would imagine as a standard soccer field, it was twice as large as Gongzhuan’s field; occasionally groups of boys could be seen running around or dribbling a ball. A bit further away appeared what seemed like a mix between classrooms and student dormitories; groups of three or five students moved together—some carrying books while others held bowls—suggesting that mealtime hadn’t yet begun here.
After mingling among them for information, I learned that most students here specialized in thermal power or standardization while those classmates I had heard about mostly studied biology or agricultural integration—those fields were several hundred meters away from here.
Following along a hillside path on our left side with Yin Xian Nan and others beside me, we walked along several meters of dirt road where various vegetables were being cultivated by farmers along both sides; occasionally patches of rice bowed in greeting nearby. As we passed by a simple Stone Arch Bridge, a large yellow dog bolted out from an adjacent farmhouse barking incessantly at a girl dressed in floral attire who timidly ran over to Yin Xian Nan’s side 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 were nestled among them; students crowded around in an open space as mealtime approached quickly. In that open area, Yin Xian Nan and I spotted several familiar faces—our mutual high school classmate Liao Bingyan came over and led us into the cafeteria where we enjoyed meals similar to those at Gongzhuan.
After dinner, accompanied by Liao Bingyan’s company, I managed to find several high school classmates one after another—some gathered in dorms chatting while others took leisurely strolls by themselves in nearby woods. Flipping through my diary from October 1989 revealed names: Hu Yiyan and Xie Jun who joined Yizhong together; Liao Bingyan and Zeng Zhao Deng who attended Third Middle School’s Class Three—all studying biology with an emphasis on teacher training that allowed them to graduate after just two years. There was also Yin Yuhua—a fair-skinned boy with what seemed like a girl’s name—who was my uncle’s cousin studying agricultural integration; back then many rural students disliked continuing anything related to "agriculture," but this major became their only option due to less-than-ideal exam results. Fortunately for them there was still talk that studying agriculture made it easier for one to become an official later on.
Interestingly enough among these classmates studying biology later became teachers—but none taught biology itself; Yin Yuhua and another classmate Zeng Guangwei who attended vocational school in Shaoyang eventually became officials—Yin Yuhua became a director in Dongkou County while Zeng Guangwei headed up some secondary institution within Shaoyang’s Agricultural Bureau.
In Yin Yuhua’s dormitory we chatted 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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