Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 61 Can I be your class teacher?
The sky is as dark as ink and the night is as cool as water.

Zhang Chao and his parents sat in the small courtyard to enjoy the cool air, eating watermelon, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, and chatting about the future.

"what's your plan?"

"Are you planning on that? Go sign up for a driving school tomorrow and get your driver's license first."

"...You damn kid! I mean, which university do you want to apply to?"

"Oh, I only got about 400 points this time. Which one can I apply for? I'll just apply for a junior college."

"... Lao Zhang, where are the bamboo strips?"

"Well, it's probably Yanda. After all, I have met teachers from Yanda."

"So what is their admission policy?"

"…I don't know either. I'll ask when I apply for college the day after tomorrow."

In 2004, the college entrance examination was still a "blind application" after estimating the scores, so it was sometimes quite dramatic. It was common for high-scoring students to be rejected and for low-scoring students to be selected.

"You said those universities should be reliable..."

"……Maybe……"

The next day, Zhang Chao received a magazine, which was a sample issue of the June bimonthly "Youth Literature". "Your Name" was the cover work and was strongly recommended with an "Editor's Note".

The magazine specially designed a cover picture for the work, which is the scene at the end of the novel where Long and Xi pass each other on the long stairs and then look back at each other.

[So, I turned around, and at almost the same speed, she was also looking at me... Her long hair was wrapped in a knot of the color of the sunset...

Finally we met...

Then we opened our mouths at the same time.

Like children counting down to the beat, our voices were in unison.

I don't know where "Youth Literature" found the painter, but it does have some Japanese style, but unlike Shinkai Makoto's animation, it is closer to Katsura Masakazu of "I'S", and the heroine is drawn fuller.

At this time, the phone at home rang. When I picked it up, it was Lan Ting.

"Shiyu and I are going to the city to buy a cell phone today. Do you want to go?"

"Okay! Let's go!"

Twenty minutes later, the three of them met at the bus station in Changfu. Song Shiyu was wearing a ladylike dress today, revealing her long white arms, which made her look even more slender and slim. Lan Ting was wearing a neat short-sleeved shirt and jeans, and her hair was still in a high ponytail, looking cute and lively.

Zhang Chao joked, "If I walk with you two, I'll become a bumpkin."

Lan Ting also smiled and said, "Are you not satisfied with being appointed as our chief guardian?"

The three of them chatted and laughed, bought tickets and got on the bus. In an hour, they arrived at the city of Fuhai. They then changed to another public bus and arrived at the most famous "Pacific Digital City" in the city.

As usual, loud speakers at the entrance of Digital City played the hit songs of the year:
"I love you
Loving you

Just like a mouse loves rice..."

Zhang Chao first accompanied Lan Ting and Song Shiyu to choose mobile phones in the brand store on the first floor.

Lanting chose a Nokia 7610, which has a leaf-like body, a red and silver frame, a 2.1-inch screen, Symbian 7.0 system, 64MB storage, MP3 player, and a 100-megapixel camera. After bargaining, she got it for 4000 yuan, and also got a pair of headphones.

Song Shiyu spent more than 3000 yuan to buy a Sony Ericsson K700. It runs on the JAVA system, and has a large screen of 1.8 inches, a resolution of 176×220, and 41MB of memory. The camera has a lower pixel count of only 30, but it is equipped with a flash, and the back looks like a digital camera.

After the two of them finished choosing, they asked Zhang Chao which one he liked. However, Zhang Chao did not choose from the big brand stores on the first floor, but took them directly to the parallel import store on the second floor.

Zhang Chao picked a shop whose boss looked pleasing to the eye and went in. Revealing his true colors as a junky guy, he asked directly, "Do you have a Palm Treo 600 or a BlackBerry 8700?"

The boss, who originally thought that they were three half-grown children who were just curious, suddenly perked up and replied, "We have Treo 600, but how can we have BlackBerry 8700? The latest model is 7730." Zhang Chao asked the boss to take it out and have a look.

Treo 600 and BlackBerry 7730 are both business phones that can handle simple documents and have full keyboards. The first phone Zhang Chao bought with his own salary after he started working was BlackBerry 8700.

Now these two mobile phones are not available in China, but the gray market is still very active. Although Dopod's business phones such as D600 have larger screens and can be controlled by pen, the Windows Mobile system did not leave him a good impression, so he did not consider it.

When the boss saw that Zhang Chao was an expert in his field, he stopped being pretentious and took out two mobile phones wrapped in bubble wrap plastic bags from under the counter and placed them in front of Zhang Chao.

Zhang Chao compared them and found that the BlackBerry 7730 has a larger screen, 3.0 inches, and no protruding antenna design. The large antenna on the Treo 600 is too disgusting now.

Zhang Chao asked, "Isn't 7730 a refurbished one?"

The boss immediately cried out, "God have mercy on me, these are all '14 Tianji', from the outside to the inside, they are all original. If I had to replace one of your screws, you would have destroyed my store."

Zhang Chao knew he was not lying. BlackBerry phones were treated as electronic waste and imported into China in large quantities for reassembly, mainly after 2006. Before that, they were relatively niche and imported through parallel import channels.

Finally, the boss asked for 3200, and Zhang Chao bargained down to 2600 and won. The boss held back tears and gritted his teeth, and reluctantly agreed.

After walking out of the store, Zhang Chao realized that Lan Ting and Song Shiyu were looking at him strangely.

Lan Ting asked, "Why did you buy such a big and ugly phone?"

Zhang Chao looked at the "small and exquisite" BlackBerry 7730 in his hand and was speechless.

Song Shiyu asked, "It's not a brand name. Where can you get it repaired if it breaks?"

Zhang Chao was also speechless as he looked at the square BlackBerry 7730 in his hand, which could be thrown like a brick.

Then Zhang Chao spent more than 2 yuan to buy a Toshiba R100 notebook, which was almost as light and thin as the one Lan Ting lent him, but the keystroke depth was deeper, so the typing feel was better.

But Lan Ting felt a little disappointed.

Finally, the three of them went to apply for a mobile phone card together, planning to use it for two months during the summer vacation and then change the card when they went to college in another city.

The big speakers in the digital city are still roaring:

"Our Love

I won't come back after I'm gone

Until now
I can’t let go…”

Zhang Chao didn't get home until after 4 p.m. Before he could even sit down, his mother asked anxiously, "Why did you come back so late? Your principal, Wu, called you two or three times and asked you to go to school right away because something important happened."

"What's the matter?"

"He didn't say. But he asked which university you were going to apply to."

"So what did you say?"

"I'll just do as you say, Yan Da!"

Zhang Chao thought it might be related to admission, so he changed into dry clothes, spent 10 yuan to take a motorcycle taxi, and rushed to the school.

As soon as he arrived at the school gate, he saw Director Zhou waiting for him in the guard room. Seeing him coming, he quickly took him to the small conference room.

As soon as I entered the door, I saw Principal Wu Xingyu chatting happily with two guests.

Seeing Zhang Chao coming in, several people stood up. One of them was a middle-aged man with a pair of squinty eyes and a side parting, with his hair sticking up in all kinds of messy ways. He spoke first:

"This is Zhang Chao, right? I heard from your mother that you are going to Yanda University? Actually, when it comes to the 'writers' class', Yanda University is not that good. Why don't you come to our Yanshi University and I will be your class teacher?"

Zhang Chao looked closely and found that this was Yu Hua from "To Live"!
(End of this chapter)