The formality was conducted with the help of the family attorney, and the contract was signed after half a day. The Huang Family Funds would be the legal person of the company shares, but the shareholder was Huang Xuan, which was the first step into the society for the children of the Huang Family.
Huang Xuan and Yu Liye were happy with the Huang Family’s participation. The old-looking Yu Liye thought it a steady measure, while Huang Xuan was pleased with the returns of Xinye Company, although his bank card had become much “lighter”... after all, Rolin had heard of this company.
Huang Xuan spent a relaxing weekend. His parents had gone to the ancient residence again, which Huang Xuan had been used to. As he packed his bag and went to school, he thought that this might have been the best weekend he had ever had. Who could travel to the early 20th century and come back? Legend had it that the ticket for time-traveling was one-way only.
Sitting in a car driven by Li Qing, humming, Huang Xuan came to Stone City1 Middle School. Since the disassembling of the generators, the money in his bank card had been shrinking regularly. The electrolytic aluminum factory was supposed to be revamped, which in Huang Xuan’s opinion was the factory directors’ job. Huang Xuan didn’t care in the slightest how they would use the budget. The electricity consumption of factory had been rising all the time, which was totally up to Rolin.
Rolin was satisfied with the daily energy supply, around 500,000 kWh, although it was much less than before. Since the current price was only a little more than five jiao2 per kWh, Huang Xuan felt much relaxed and totally different from the previous days.
Seven o’clock in the morning, he arrived at school and started walking toward his classroom after having thanked Li Qing.
Stone City Middle School was a private school with a green campus that was full of lush trees and much more beautiful than many new campuses of universities. Although its teaching quality wasn’t so good, considering Huang Xuan’s school performance, it might be the best choice for him.
However, since the new principal had taken office, Huang Xuan’s school life hadn’t been comfortable.
In the old days, nobody would care about his homework or results as long as he had obeyed the basic school regulations; he just had needed to text his teacher if he had had a party or something like that. Nevertheless, since last year, the principal who had come back from abroad had been trying to build it into the best private school in South China, from which Huang Xuan had suffered a lot.
The principal totally ignored Chinese rules. His main means was humiliation. In the first half of the previous year, the principal, Yang Shantao held an enormous party, at which he had invited all the parents. However, when everybody was having a good time, the results of the top 100 students and the last 50 students of the grade were released in public, which triggered an uproar.
It could be imagined how embarrassed those well-dressed ladies and gentlemen had been when they had known their sons’ terrible grades. Luckily, back then, Huang Xuan’s results had hovered around the 80th to the last of the grade and had been off the principal’s list.
However, since then, Mr. Principal’s party had become a regular event. Besides results, the names of those who didn’t do their homework, fought, or teased girls would also be given out at the party. Traditionally, the students whose names had been announced wouldn’t just drop out.
It had been rumored that it was because the principal had a great CV and an admiring background that he had secured his post. So far, he had been the only candidate for the post of principal, meaning Huang Xuan had to put up with whatever would happen to them without resistance.
“This sucks!” Huang Xuan’s good mood was totally ruined, thinking of the principal. The joy on his face was all gone.
“Huang Xuan!” he heard a loud voice as soon as he had walked into the classroom. Liu Penggang’s voice had been said to be able to surpass an elementary stereo, which was impressive.
Huang Xuan high-fived in the air with Liu Penggang. “I couldn’t find you last week. Don’t you play World of Warcraft anymore? We have ‘downed’ Illidan (the ultimate boss in the game) all by ourselves. Where have you been?” Liu Penggang shouted.
Huang Xuan didn’t know how to respond. Last time when the guild activities had been in the heat, there had been tension between Rolin and him. Although China Mobile had claimed to be ubiquitous, how would it be possible for them to erect signals on other planes? Huang Xuan shook his head and put that ridiculous idea behind. He thumped Liu Penggang and said, “I had to deal with something at home.”
Liu Penggang knew about the anniversary of the Huang Family. He put his left arm on Huang Xuan’s shoulders and said in a voice that he thought was low enough, “I have heard that you beat up your sixth cousin and put him in the hospital, didn’t you?”
The several students around them heard those words immediately, three of whom were familiar with Huang Xuan and came over. One of them said, “I know about this. Both his sixth and eleventh cousins were put in the hospital. I have heard that they were miserable and almost had surgery, didn’t they?”
Huang Xuan gave Hou Minyue a punch and said, “When did you see they were miserable, Monkey3?” Seeing that the crowd was laughing and jeering, Huang Xuan put up his hands and said, “OK, I give in. It is my treat today. OK?”
“Now you are talking.” Having got what they had wanted, the crowd dispersed, but Liu Penggang was still holding Huang Xuan tightly. “Huang Xuan, do you know what it cost me to ‘down’ Illidan? I bought a computer with a blade server, opened personal service to test Illidan’s attributes and organized the guild to simulate the encounter. I don’t care about the $50,000 I spent, but do you know how many efforts the guild have put in to cultivate a Main Tank? And you just disappeared like that? What do you think I should do with you?”
Huang Xuan felt sorry about it. In the past days, his friends had been addicted to World of Warcraft and spent plenty of time on it. He had volunteered to be a Tank, which was nearly the most important part in raids. However, he hadn’t even called anybody. He was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say.
Liu Penggang felt better to see Huang Xuan acted like that. He patted on Huang Xuan’s shoulder and said, “I will help you explain to the guild. You owe me one for this.”
“I see.” Liu Penggang was 20cm taller and much heavier than Huang Xuan. Having removed his arm off his shoulders with a lot of strength, Huang Xuan exhaled and said, “I’ve been really busy these days and can’t play the game anymore.”
“It’s OK.” Liu Penggang patted him heavily on the shoulder again and said, “Now that Illidan is dead, it isn’t interesting anymore. Monkey hasn’t played the game for days either. I am going to find a new game.”
Huang Xuan was choked with anger. He had apparently been tricked. He was about to fight back when the class study secretary came with a sullen face and said, “Find a new game? Do you even know what I just heard?”
The class study secretary was a member of Huang Xuan’s gang. He had been appointed as the secretary for his good behavior, medium results, good relationship with the other students, and an outstanding family background, which was a key to Huang Xuan’s avoiding homework punishment.
“Bad news again?” asked someone.
“Pooh! Watch your remarks!” Hou Minyue’s face went gloomy. His grades were always the worst.
Wei Mujian looked at Monkey with sympathy and said in a sorrowful tone supported by body language, “Sorry, I can do nothing about it. Our headteacher has just asked our monitor to get the papers. We are going to have a test today.”
“Bullshit!” Monkey jumped up and said, “Who would test the students on the first day of a new semester?” After that, he said to Wei Mujian hopefully, “Mr. Secretary, the parents won’t be informed of the results, will they?”
Huang Xuan covered his own face. Obviously, the principal was trying to use this test to punish someone as a warning to others. How wouldn’t the parents be informed? Most likely, Monkey would be the “someone”.
Wei Mujian extended his hands. At this point, the monitor came in, raising one hand like a boxing champion and said, “My dear classmates, as I have been told, we shall clean our classroom quickly and start the tests at 10 o’clock. Chinese first, then Maths, and finally, English in the afternoon, 90 minutes per test. Parents will be informed! The names of the ones who fail any of the tests will be posted on the big-character poster4, and the students who rank the last five will have to mount the platform.”
The big-character poster was on the tree-lined avenue leading from the school entrance to the campus. The platform was the principal’s own ingenuity. Hearing the monitor’s words, Hou Minyue almost fainted. So did other kids. Huang Xuan was also very worried. His Chinese was OK, but his English was terrible and Maths disastrous. He had thought that with Monkey being the worst, he would be able to luckily escape the punishment. But now, he felt that he was out of luck.
Name being posted on the poster! Imagining his mom’s look when she saw his name on the poster, Huang Xuan felt as if the sky was falling.
Notes:
Stone City: another name for Nanjing.
Jiao: a fractional unit of Chinese currency equal to 1/10 of a yuan.
Monkey: Hou has the same sound as Monkey in Chinese.
Big-character poster: prevalent during the Cultural Revolution in China, 1966-1976.