Checking Out The Middle School

Zheng Tan planned to check out the middle school before the sports tournament.

Jiao Yuan's school was not that far from the university, but it still took a while to get there. Zheng Tan planned to leave through the side gate closest to the middle school.

That morning, Zheng Tan headed toward the gate after dropping Youzi off at her elementary school.

The gate was narrow and inconspicuous. Only students knew and used this door. Zheng Tan didn't want to get caught up in a crowd, so he jumped over the fence.

Zheng Tan had never been to Jiao Yuan's school, but he remembered Mama Jiao's daily commuting route and the school's location on the map. It wasn't that far away, so he should be able to find it without any problems.

The streets were busy. It was a different type of busy than downtown. Many of the city's original residents lived around here. Middle-aged women chatted about the groceries with thick Chuhua accents.

There weren't any skyscrapers or fancy cars. The street was bumpy and narrow. Bicycles, scooters, and family sedans co-existed around here. The street was full of life - simple, mundane, yet beautiful life.

The school bus didn't take this route, so Zheng Tan didn't see a Chuhua University bus on the street.

Zheng Tan jumped on a wall to avoid getting caught in the crowd.

On one side of the street were shops, many of them sold breakfast. Zheng Tan could hear the sound of frying dough. Many students and office workers loved having breakfast here. However, Chuhua University was too large and dormitories were on the other side of campus. Sadly, most students could only come here once in a while.

Zheng Tan walked along the street. He couldn't help but sigh in amazement. Every time he left the campus, he saw something different.

A meowing cat interrupted his contemplation.

A kitty around six or seven months old jumped onto the wall and blocked Zheng Tan's way. The kitty eyed Zheng Tan then started to walk. It seemed that this cat was going the same direction as Zheng Tan.

The kitten came out of a building nearby and jumped onto the wall straight away. To cats, walking along the wall was a better option than sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians. They were able to survey the entire area as well as avoid being kicked by people.

As long as they were going the same direction, Zheng Tan didn't mind the kitten. He didn't know it and didn't bother greeting it.

They walked in peace for some distance when Zheng Tan saw a cat ahead of them walking in the opposite direction.

They were meeting on a narrow path, literally.

Was a fight going to ensue?

Zheng Tan decided to observe for awhile. The wall was too narrow to allow two cats to walk on it side by side. Would normal cats choose to fight in this situation, or would one jump off the wall?

Apparently, there was a third option.

To Zheng Tan's surprise, the two cats didn't even slow down. When they were about to bump into each other, the kitten ducked and passed under the other cat. The larger cat cooperated and lifted a paw.

The larger cat talked towards Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan looked at it. They were about the same size and that cat didn't look like it would back down.

Zheng Tan walked forward cautiously, he was worried the other cat might suddenly attack. However, the cat didn't show any hostility.

When they were about ten centimeters away from each other, that cat stopped. It lifted its chin and raised a paw as if to say, 'well, you can duck now'.

Zheng Tan was speechless.

F*ck. He was not ducking under this cat's legs.

He thought about it, then checked out the wall ahead of him. He made some estimates, then jumped.

He jumped over that cat and landed safely back on the wall.

He was getting much better at controlling his jumps now. Although he landed slightly too close to the edge, he managed to stand still. Zheng Tan turned his head and shot the other cat a glance before leaving.

That cat shook its tail and continued on its path as well.

The kitten who was walking ahead of Zheng Tan reached its destination. They were near an old residential neighborhood with lots of trees. The kitten probably had friends living here.

Zheng Tan kept walking. He made sure to check the buildings on either side of the street as he walked. He didn't know which side of the road Jiao Yuan's school was on, so he needed to be careful. The affiliated middle school had a much smaller campus than Chuhua University, so the gate was probably smaller as well. He didn't want to miss it.

He kept walking for another five minutes before he heard people reading.

That meant the school was just ahead.

He heard the students before he saw the school gates. A teacher was leading the reading of some text. Some of the students were just going along because they had to and sounded sleepy. Others were putting in too much effort and absolutely shouting. He also heard the soft voices of young girls. Together, the voices created the music of youth.

Zheng Tan peered through a window on the first floor. A couple of boys were poking their heads out from behind their books to look a girl.

This made Zheng Tan laugh.

Oh, what it was like being young!

Kids now were still untouched by the internet and were relatively innocent.

No student dared to stare out the window. From time to time students caught sight of the black cat on the fence, but would immediately be called upon by the teacher to answer a question.

Zheng Tan kept walking. He wanted to see the gate.

The size of the middle school was nothing compared to Chuhua University and the gate was only the size of a university side gate.

Zheng Tan decided it was not worth his time, so he jumped off the fence and into the school.

He didn't dare walk around campus in plain sight. He didn't know what the rules were and he was worried he would be caught. He walked along the flowerbed and hid behind some bushes.

He checked out the cafeteria, the convenience store, the parking lot, and the track field before going to the classroom building.

It took him about half an hour to get a good idea of the layout of the school.

The classroom building was quite large. He had heard from Mama Jiao and Jiao Yuan that the seventh graders were on the first and second floor. Eighth-grade classrooms were on the third and fourth floor and the highest floors were reserved for the ninth graders. The teachers' offices were on one side of the hall and the washrooms were on the other side. There were staircases in the middle and on either side of the hall.

The school didn't divide students into different classes using test scores. At least not in the seventh and eighth grade.

Zheng Tan remembered Jiao Yuan was in class 1. Xiong Xiong's mother wanted her child to be first in everything, so she managed to have Xiong Xiong and all his friends be put in class 1.

Their classroom should be on the first floor. Zheng Tan found it next to the teachers' office.

There were always people in the hallway, so Zheng Tan went to the back side of the building. He found a window and jumped onto the window sill.

Newspapers were glued to all the windows on the first floor. He guessed it was because there weren't any curtains so the students used newspapers to block the sun. They sometimes left a corner clear so they could look out the window sometimes.

The boy sitting next to the window was not listening to the math teacher lecture. He was instead coloring all the '0's in his textbook. When he was done, he started work on the '4's, the '6's, the '8's and the '9's. He colored them all, then erased all his work and started all over again.

Zheng Tan remembered doing this when he was a student. He also liked to do illustrations in his textbook or add things to the already existing pictures.

However, it had been a while since he last picked up a pen. He typed everything in University. If something had to be handwritten, he would pay someone to do it for him. He couldn't actually remember the last time he wrote anything.

The boy felt someone was staring at him so he looked up at the teacher. He frowned and turned his head to look outside through the uncovered corner of the window. He stared straight into a pair of eyes.

These eyes did not belong to a human.