Age of Legends

Chapter 2 The Pit You Can't Escape

When he got up from the bed, he was no longer wearing the leather shoes and formal clothes he had worn due to a hangover. Instead, he was wearing washed-out jeans and a slightly wrinkled shirt lying on the edge of the bed. The open door connected the hallway to the dining room, and he could hear the cursing voice of Huang Huifen who had temporarily left.

Zhang Chen got dressed and stood up, looking at himself in front of the mirror in the middle of the wardrobe. After confirming the date on the calendar, he could hardly believe that this was his 17-year-old self, Zhang Chen at the beginning of the millennium.

The face in the mirror was fresh yet familiar, even with a strange uncanny valley effect.

Zhang Chen once thought that an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization was playing a joke on him, similar to the final plot in Spielberg's "Artificial Intelligence". However, if it is really the year 2000 now, that movie should not be released until next year.

Zhang Chen walked out quickly and saw the steaming hot and sour noodle soup on the table. He smelled the homely aroma of scallions that engraved his soul.

Huang Huifen, who had been collecting clothes from the balcony overnight and drying them, came over again, cursing, "What are you daydreaming about? I see that you can't finish your meal today and can't make it to class. If you're late, I'll just throw the clothes hanger in my hand at you!"

Such an inverted abstraction with rich emotions and complete logical chain seems to be something that only Huang Huifen, my real mother, can say. This extraterrestrial civilization has spent a lot of money to observe me!

In fact, at this moment, Zhang Chen should have a lot of things he wanted to say.

For example, a more literary one: Huang Huifen, long time no see.

A more passionate one: Mom, I miss you so much!

Those who see through the world: If this is a dream, then let it last a little longer and don’t wake up.

But looking at the clothes drying rack made of No. 1 iron wire in Huang Huifen's hand, Zhang Chen blurted out, "Mom, you haven't hit me for a long time."

After being stunned for a second, Huang Huifen looked around, put the clothes in her hand on a stool, rolled up her sleeves and swung the iron, "It seems that you haven't learned your lesson from the beating the day before yesterday. If you're still not convinced, I'll make you unconvinced———"

After the sound of breaking wind and screaming of pain, Zhang Chen sat on the table and ate noodles with big mouthfuls. It was not known whether he felt aggrieved or moved. In short, he had an expression of both convinced and unconvinced, with tears welling up in his eyes.

Oh no, Mom. How can I empathize with the emotions of reuniting after being separated by death?

The arms under his shirt were already covered with new red lines. He didn't expect that when he was reborn and saw Huang Huifen again, what he felt was not the warm embrace from his old mother, but... pain, too much pain.

However, Huang Huifen suddenly jumped up just now and did not swing lightning whips or light beams to kill him. It seemed that it was not the extraterrestrial civilization that Zhang Chen suspected, who created a bionic person to deceive herself. It seemed that there was a high probability that she was reborn.

After slurping a meal of noodles and figuring out the current situation, Zhang Chen picked up his backpack and left.

The situation is stronger than people, so it is better to adapt to local customs.

Zhang Chen's home is on the second floor. When he opened the door and walked out, what came into view was the half wall of sunlight shining on the railing of the stairs leading to the ground floor.

Zhang Chen pressed his pounding heart and walked down until he walked into the light and shadow. What he saw were rows of neatly arranged six-story buildings, all with brand new wall paint.

Yes, this is the dormitory area of NanGuang Company where Zhang Chen's family lives. All the houses are collectively funded by the company. After the Spring Festival in 98, Zhang Chen's family moved into a new house after jumping over a fire pot. It has only been two years so everything is brand new and does not look old after many years.

In recent years, collective housing provided by units has been on the rise. The buildings that were approved for construction a few years ago have sprung up like mushrooms in the past two years, springing up on the land of various units.

Later, there was indeed a surge in prices, although in the end they became old and dilapidated in the trend of buying houses for living and not for speculation, and there are plans to demolish and rebuild them, so it can be said that they caught the bonus.

This area is full of state-owned enterprises. The modern white-walled building next door is Rongcheng People's Broadcasting and Television Station, with a flying saucer-shaped TV tower as its landmark. Many local celebrities come from here. Because of the geographical factors, Zhang Chen has seen many local TV celebrities before.

Next to it are the trade district, the Cultural Bureau, the old department store... Later on, they all underwent earth-shaking changes. Some became core shopping malls, some were completely transformed, and some became old and dilapidated buildings in the urban area. But now, these buildings are all young.

What unfolded before Zhang Chen was a dazed world and era where a legend was about to unfold.

……

After rushing to Yude High School, Zhang Chen arrived at Class 2-5 when the bell rang for the first class in the morning.

The classroom was already full. The head teacher Zhou Ming looked at him sideways. Seeing that Zhang Chen was about to step in, he immediately stopped him, "Stand up!"

"I have repeatedly told you to arrive early for self-study and treat it the same as for classes. Now is the most critical time for you. You will take the college entrance examination next year. You still don't pay attention to it and are still so carefree and undisciplined. Zhang Chen, you will stand outside the door during this class today and set an example. Don't come in!"

After the last ring, Zhang Chen leaned against the corner of the wall, looking listless. He thought, no, others were reborn in a stable and steady manner, but why did he hit a wall all the way, from Huang Huifen to Zhou Ming, the excitement of seeing his mother resurrected was mixed with the feeling of the impermanence of life, why was it so twisted? Was the main theme of his rebirth abstract?
Fortunately, Zhang Chen was not the only one who was late. There were two or three others who were late later. Just when Zhang Chen thought that at least two brothers would come and chat to kill time, they just reported at the door, and Zhou Ming nodded and went in.

Alas, no.

Zhou Ming, didn't you say to draw attention and catch typical cases? The others behind are not typical, only I am typical, and your typical case is still on the list? I am considered to have made it?

Is it so abstract?
Oh, yes. Those two students were from government agencies, and their families were either directors or vice presidents. No wonder Zhou Ming didn't say a word.

I don’t want to get old anymore.

His high school teacher Zhou Ming was famous for treating students differently based on the amount of gifts they received. These days, teachers have a bigger law than anyone else.

"My rules are rules!"

As long as it does not cause public outrage, no one will pursue minor moral issues, which is completely different from later generations.

At the beginning of high school, Zhang Chen was placed in the last few rows of a classroom of 55 people because he did not show "filial piety" when entering school.

After several painless "knockings", Huang Huifen realized that this was the result of not giving a gift. She suddenly had an idea and thought of a way that was both meaningful and showed her sincerity. So she went out before dawn and queued for three or four hours at the post office. In the end, she bought a few sets of that year's Hong Kong Olympic commemorative stamps, and then stuffed them into a cowhide envelope for some reason.

So it is conceivable that when Zhang Chen's head teacher took the not-so-thin cowhide envelope from his hand, he walked to the office with light and somewhat excited steps after class, and then came back to the classroom and directly scolded Zhang Chen and another student for not writing their homework in a standard way, and made them copy it ten times as a punishment.

From then on, he was hostile to Zhang Chen throughout his entire high school career.

Zhang Chen stood at the door bored, thinking to himself, "Mom, oh mom, even if I were reborn I can't escape the trap you dug."

……

The son pays for the mother's debt, the previous generation dug a hole and the next generation pays for it... Standing there, Zhang Chen's thoughts diverged, and he began to summarize the grievances he had suffered in the past.

I once had some resentment towards Huang Huifen. I always felt that my mother was unreliable, took everything seriously, and had an inexplicable sense of belief, but she just wanted to be incompatible with society in her own way.

It's like when there was an English teacher in junior high school who was perfunctory in class but hinted to classmates to ask her for paid tutoring on weekends. This touched Huang Huifen's sore spot. She did not sign up for the class, but tutored Zhang Chen herself after school. As a result, Zhang Chen's spoken English pronunciation was seriously unstandard and he was laughed at by his classmates.

These things came to his mind at one time. The "trouble" and "embarrassment" that Huang Huifen had brought to him, the shadow of Zhang Chen in the past, even after graduating from college and working, could not be shaken off. The relationship between him and Huang Huifen was cold and alienated, and he rarely went home once a year, until... the news that she was ill came.

All those experiences of "cheating his child" that made him feel helpless back then reappeared in his mind, but today, in front of the reborn Zhang Chen, he didn't feel as bothered by them as before.

What did she do wrong?
She did not choose to go to the Education Bureau to report her English teacher because the teacher was pregnant at the time. Perhaps this report would cause her to lose her job, so Huang Huifen dealt with it in her own way.

After she realized that Zhang Chen was not taken seriously in his high school class because her family did not send any gifts, she chose to queue for three hours before dawn to buy a souvenir that she thought was very meaningful. In her opinion, this was something she queued in the cold wind in the early morning, which showed her sincerity.

But Zhou Ming couldn't see this at all. Can you say she was wrong?

She really doesn't understand the ways of the world and she really doesn't understand that for Zhou Ming, giving him money is the most direct way to solve the problem rather than giving him these commemorative stamps that may be thrown away after being handed over.

But is she wrong?

Many years later, Zhang Chen, who had returned, was finally able to give her an answer.

In the sunshine, Zhang Chen raised his head, facing the gilded morning light, and said, "Mom, how could I be so sinful to have you!"

But... you're not wrong.

Then he straightened his back slightly, as if he had enjoyed enough of the warm sunlight, turned around, reached out and pushed open the iron door of the classroom that was making a buzzing sound.

The sound of Zhou Ming's lecture and the rustling sounds in the classroom suddenly stopped.

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Catch-up reading is very important. Don’t forget to read every day. I’ll leave my young seedlings to you all~
(End of this chapter)