Yet it harbored the very villains and misdeeds found in stories.

Just as Zhang Pa was about to speak, the bell rang for the end of class. The lesson had ended without him saying a single word.

After thinking it over, he decided there was no need to occupy the students’ break and headed out to the office.

Luo Shengnan was still playing with her phone. When she saw Zhang Pa enter, she greeted him. “Good morning, Teacher Zhang.”

Zhang Pa glanced at her. This girl really was something—still wearing a skirt despite the weather gradually turning colder.

Speaking of skirts, Hu Wanhua had also been wearing one earlier, and a very short one at that. Under her long coat she wore a thin, translucent top, the sort of thing people generally wore in nightclubs. She had ended up in that state because something must have happened.

Because Fatty and the others had thrown their financial support behind Wang Kun, both of Zhang Pa’s scripts had fallen through. His previous book had also reached its conclusion, leaving his daily work suddenly empty. He opened his laptop and a document, then stared at it for half a day without knowing what to write.

The hardest part was always getting started. Writing stories was no exception.

Luo Shengnan walked over and asked, “You’re still writing? What exactly are you writing?”

“I don’t know either,” Zhang Pa replied.

She smiled. “Still keeping it secret?” Then she sat back down on the bed and resumed playing with her phone.

Zhang Pa turned around and asked, “Don’t you have class?”

“I do. In a little while.” Luo Shengnan said, “The school should hire another music teacher. I’m the only one teaching so many classes. I’m exhausted.”

“Third graders don’t even have music lessons.”

“Whether they have lessons is the school’s concern. I still have to write the teaching plans,” Luo Shengnan retorted.

Looking at the beautifully and meticulously dressed teacher, Zhang Pa closed his laptop. He had discovered that whenever he was alone with her, he could not write a single word.

Luo Shengnan spoke again. “Super Girl has started taking applications. Do you think I should give it a try?”

“You... should.” Zhang Pa had wanted to say that the contestants were young women, while she was a female teacher who was already engaged. Wasn’t she a little too old for it? But when the words reached his lips, they became merely, “You should.”

“Me? I’m obviously doing fine.” Luo Shengnan put down her phone. “I’m going to the bathroom.” She opened the door and left.

What did it mean to live an easygoing life? Miss Luo was the true expert.

Zhang Pa sat in the room for a while longer. Only after Luo Shengnan returned did he leave.

After thinking it over, he decided he did not want to stay at school and took his laptop home.

Just after leaving the teaching building, he saw Wang Jiang and several others running out as well. Zhang Pa asked, “Where are you going?”

“The police called and said they wanted to question us,” Wang Jiang replied.

“Question you? Why didn’t they ask us earlier at the police station?”

“The police didn’t expect us to be able to leave either.”

Zhang Pa smiled. “Then let’s go back.”

“You’re going too?”

“I have nothing else to do. I might as well take a look.”

Twenty minutes later, the same people who had just left the police station returned. The officers began questioning them one by one.

Hu Wanhua had been taken away by three young men, and a great many things had happened. Those people had refused to let her leave and had only released her that morning.

Over the past two days, Hu Wanhua had been put through hell. After she was released, she sat by the roadside and cried. It was a kindhearted old woman who called the police, allowing everyone to learn what had happened.

Because Hu Wanhua kept crying, questioning her was extremely difficult. It took considerable effort to determine the truth of the matter. In that respect alone, the police were indeed in a difficult position.

What kind of girl was Hu Wanhua? Put kindly, she was a rebellious teenager with a mind of her own. She refused to listen to anything her parents said, and would argue and curse at them. Put less kindly, she was simply a problem child.

Hu Wanhua often skipped class. She had met an older girl in society, two years her senior, a delinquent teenager who spent every day drifting between internet cafes, karaoke parlors, and nightclubs.

Last Saturday, that girl said a friend was celebrating a birthday. They started drinking at noon and kept playing until nightfall. It was meant to be a grand affair. Hu Wanhua went along.

That afternoon, they had fun in a karaoke room. More than a dozen young men and women gathered together, having the time of their lives.

What happened afterward was the sort of thing that appeared in the news all the time. They had gotten carried away and taken things too far. Many things that should and should not have happened did happen, and a major conflict broke out. That was why they were not released until this morning.

There was no point discussing the past or examining how chaotic Hu Wanhua’s life had been. The incident had happened, and the problem child might not have been all that wronged. Four words described it perfectly: she had brought it upon herself.

If the police had not been called, perhaps Hu Wanhua would eventually have cried herself out and nothing more would have come of it. Unfortunately, the kindhearted old woman had reported the matter.

Once the police began asking questions, the crimes were serious enough to warrant punishment. They therefore had to investigate carefully, report to their superiors, and wait for instructions on what to do next.

When Zhang Pa went in for questioning, the officers were briefing their superior on the case. They did not know what decision would be made, and the officers below certainly could not tell him anything.

It was a miserable sort of affair, but something like it had happened in nearly every city.

The three young men were the key to the case, yet Hu Wanhua did not even know their names. She only remembered where they had eaten and sung on Saturday, and had only a vague recollection of what the three of them looked like. She could not provide any specific details.

Because she was emotionally unstable, the police had not asked her to work with a sketch artist.

Now the person the police wanted to find was the delinquent girl. They had obtained her name and phone number from Hu Wanhua, but her phone was switched off. So they questioned Wang Jiang and the others, asking whether any of them knew the girl and where she might be found.

Wang Jiang and the others knew nothing. They had only seen her a few times and had never spoken to her.

Zhang Pa knew even less. In the end, everyone went home.

Now that he understood what had happened, Zhang Pa grew curious about Wang Jiang. “You knew Hu Wanhua had disappeared?”

“Hu Wanhua comes from a single-parent family. She only has her mother. No matter how late she stayed out or what she did outside, she always went home. When she didn’t come back on Saturday, her mother panicked. She knew my phone number, so she came to ask me. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but when there was still no news the next day, Auntie Hu called me again. That was when I realized something was wrong.”

Hu Wanhua’s mother knew your phone number? Zhang Pa became even more curious. “Were you and Hu Wanhua close?”

“We used to be.”

“What do you mean, ‘used to be’?”

Wang Jiang hesitated before saying, “Don’t laugh at me if I tell you. Back in seventh grade, she and I were dating. During winter vacation that year, we were together, and Auntie Hu found out.”

“What do you mean by ‘together’?” Zhang Pa asked. “You mean you actually...?”

Wang Jiang nodded.

Zhang Pa was utterly stunned. He looked Wang Jiang up and down. All right, so this seventh grader was quite the formidable character.

Wang Jiang continued, “Some things happened afterward, so we broke up. That’s all.”

He was explaining why he had helped Hu Wanhua. Zhang Pa really wanted to ask what sort of extraordinary life these middle-school students had been living, but after thinking it over, he decided against it. What was the point of asking?

If he actually heard some unbelievable story... Then he thought about his own life and decided he might as well find a piece of tofu and bash his head against it.

They were all human beings. How could the gap between people be so enormous?

He sighed. “You people are trying to overtake Japan.”

“Owe Japan? What do you mean?” Wang Jiang asked.

The people of Japan had acquired this sort of experience at a very young age. Some girls supposedly even had it in elementary school. But Zhang Pa obviously could not say that to a student.

“It’s a rhetorical way of expressing my anger. You wouldn’t understand.”

After saying this, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. He hurriedly asked, “What are you planning to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Three men took advantage of Hu Wanhua. What do you intend to do about it?”

Wang Jiang thought for a moment before replying, “If this had happened two years ago, I would definitely have killed them with a knife. A year ago, I would have called a bunch of people and beaten them half to death. But now I’m older and more mature. Everything that happened was brought on by Hu Wanhua herself, so she can bear the consequences.”

After hearing that, Zhang Pa did not know how to respond.

A ninth-grade student was actually putting on airs in front of him? Acting all world-weary and spouting a string of nonsense? Talking about what he would have done two years ago and what he would have done last year?

Zhang Pa rubbed his nose. “Why do I suddenly feel like beating you?”

“Why?” Wang Jiang had no idea what Zhang Pa was thinking.

Zhang Pa clenched his teeth and cursed bitterly, “I’ve wasted my entire life.” Then he raised his voice. “Let’s go back!”

He called out to the other students standing nearby. “Come on.”

It was already well past lunchtime. After spending so long at the police station, they were no longer hungry. Still, Zhang Pa might not have been hungry, but what about the students?

When they reached the street, he looked left and right and spotted a famous restaurant: Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles.

“Are you hungry?” Zhang Pa asked.

“Not too bad,” several of the students replied.

“Come on. I’ll buy you noodles.” Zhang Pa led them across the street, talking as they walked. “Ever since I became a teacher, I haven’t seen a single penny, and I’ve already spent who knows how much treating you all to meals. Let me tell you, remember this well: your first month’s salary after you start working must be offered to me as a token of gratitude... Forget it. Your first month’s salary should go to your parents. Give me the second month’s salary... Damn it, I’m beginning to wonder whether any of you will even manage to work for two months.”

Zhang Pa was furious, muttering, “Am I destined to make nothing but losing investments?”

Wang Jiang and the others said nothing. When there was food in front of you, it was best not to talk too much. Once the food was in your stomach and someone else had paid the bill, there would be plenty of time to speak.

Six students from the class had come. They ordered seven bowls of noodles.

“Damn it, the noodles alone cost fifty?” Zhang Pa complained.

Wang Jiang and the others grinned at him, stubbornly keeping quiet.

“You’ve all become experts at being wicked.” Zhang Pa went to the cold-dish counter and brought back six plates. He piled together peanuts and tofu skin, then ordered a bottle of beer for himself.

Wang Jiang finally could not hold back. “Teacher, are you really going to drink that whole bottle by yourself?”

Zhang Pa looked at him. “Yes.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea.” Wang Jiang pushed a cup in front of him as he spoke.

Zhang Pa glanced at the cup and slowly tilted the bottle, pouring into it. “Just a couple of ounces. Any more and I’ll get drunk.”

“A couple of ounces of beer?” Wang Jiang looked at the cup. “That isn’t even one ounce.”

“Drink it or don’t. If you don’t want it, give it back.”

“I’ll drink it.” Wang Jiang reached out and took the cup back.

Once one had started, the others pushed their cups forward as well.

Zhang Pa had no choice. “Get another bottle.”

“Make it two,” one of the students suggested.

Zhang Pa shook his head without saying anything, which amounted to tacit approval. The student happily went to fetch two more bottles of beer. The six of them divided them up, and everyone ended up having a good time.

Zhang Pa thought to himself: What kind of homeroom teacher am I? I lead my students into fights, take them skipping class, and now I’m drinking with them during school hours...

Fine. I am who I am—a teacher in a class of my own.