Uneasy daily life

"Yo! Shibamoto-za, back to Soubu High as an extra? That's right! I'm about to start a new creative project... What? The new novel isn't doing well, and you can't find that feeling of epic battles between emperors like you used to? Then go find another feeling! Readers can't stay the same forever, and authors can't stay the same forever either, but this passion for constantly creating and telling stories is the eternal constant amidst constant change! Swordmaster General, go for it with your light novel one more time!"

"Hey! Totsuka Saika! Do you still remember Hachiman Hikigaya, the guy by the tennis court?!"

"That's right! It's me, Bai Ying! I'm giving you a chance to step onto the stage!"

"Give up! I didn't break up with the hero, hehehe~! Not coming back? Really not coming back? Red bean paste? Then I'll tell her about your crush on the hero... Hahaha, the only opponent to my feelings for the hero is time—if we don't keep moving forward, we can't love someone, and we'll unknowingly miss out on other people."

Bai Ying was on the phone, and most of the people were led by him and quickly defeated. The few who were more stubborn were also successfully taken down after a few exchanges.

Shiroi Iroha twirled her pen, clicked her tongue, and muttered, "Okay, maybe he really is the best student council president... Among the graduating class, there were even those who had a crush on Yukinoshita-senpai? But that's normal, Yukinoshita-senpai is so beautiful..."

“Hmm…” Yukino Yukinoshita replied softly, “From an aesthetic point of view, Haku-kun is also very handsome.”

“Indeed.” Iroha Isshiki sighed, frowned and thought for a moment, “It’s really strange. I used to like Shiro-senpai, but now that we meet, that feeling has faded. I’d rather lock this despicable culprit in a dark room and make him work overtime.”

Everyone changes.

Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes were slightly misty: "There was a line in Haku-kun's script. After I read the script, he suddenly asked me if I was scared... At the time, I thought he was saying, 'What if we hadn't met?' 'What if we didn't have so many stories?' 'What if the script was reality?' Would I be scared...?"

"Looking back now, I think I misunderstood. There's a line in Bai Jun's script that says 'I'm afraid'—'I'm probably still afraid, afraid that time will cut away my youth like a knife, and that fate will ebb away, leaving only desolation.'"

Isshiki Iroha seemed thoughtful, as if she had something to say, and perhaps she sighed: "So, how did Yukinoshita-senpai answer?"

"Answer?" Yukino Yukinoshita was taken aback, then smiled and said, "I said—aren't you right here?"

Iroha: "Woof woof woof."

Yukino Yukinoshita: "...Pfft."

"Ah—! To hell with first love, secret crush, and open crush! Overtime, overtime, overtime! As long as I can get through these last few months, I can use the excuse of focusing on exams to dump all the work on the next one! Future student council president! Remember your mission, never forget your original intention, and always remember that it was all Bai Ying who did it!"

With a mournful cry, Isshiki Hatake collapsed onto the desk piled high with documents.

Yukino smiled gently and silently helped Iroha Isshiki lighten her load.

……

Bai Ying didn't contact many people, just enough for one class. Not everyone was in the same class before; it was more like she recruited a few people from each class to make up one class.

The classroom was quite lively at the moment.

"It's been less than half a year since I graduated, but it feels like I haven't seen you for a long time. It's really strange."

"It's alright, but if it's really many years from now, I'm afraid I won't even be able to wear my high school uniform anymore... This one is a bit tight."

"You've gained weight?"

"Ahem, you've been staying home and eating too much since graduation, you do look a bit tanned?"

"After graduation, my parents took me on a trip, saying it would be so much fun. I was really fed up. I just wanted to stay home quietly and enjoy myself for a few days, but as soon as I graduated, I was dragged around everywhere. I'm completely exhausted."

"Are you so tired?"

"It's alright, looking back now I'm actually quite happy."

How was your university experience?

"Going to class, going to class, or fucking going to class."

"High school teachers are all liars!"

It was noisy and bustling.

"Cough cough cough-"

A cough suddenly came from the doorway, and all other sounds immediately disappeared. Everyone in the classroom turned to look.

"Why are you looking at me?" Hiratsuka Shizuka said with a mischievous grin, one hand in her pocket and the other holding an unlit cigarette. "I just coughed a couple of times because my throat was itchy."

"Damn, I got PTSD in high school," one student muttered, rubbing their forehead.

"Teacher Jing, please smoke less! It would be terrible if you got cancer!"

A voice shouted.

Hiratsuka Shizuka swept her gaze across him: "You—Yukinoshita Haruno, come out here! You're almost graduating from university and you're still pretending to be a student. Do you even match the style of the others? Old students should come out and stand with their teacher!"

"No!" Yukinoshita Haruno stubbornly refused.

Angelina, Mai Sakurajima, and Kazuka Toyohama, who made guest appearances, looked at each other. It seemed that the Soubu High School uniform on Yukinoshita Haruno did look a bit off; it was a completely different style.

Then look at Yukino Yukinoshita, who sits at the same table as Shiro... Hmm, she doesn't seem to have the same style.

"I understand. Everyone has graduated from high school and is no longer a high school student. Of course, there's no need to pretend to be a good student. The mindset is wrong, the spirit is wrong, the temperament is wrong, and the actions are wrong."

Angelina slapped her palm: "Even after Yukino graduated, she still looks like an excellent student when she wears her high school uniform!"

"He really is a high school student; he sits very straight."

"Wow, they actually organized those textbooks that were just there to make up the numbers."

"My schoolbag is also neatly placed, unlike other people who leave theirs lying around."

The others observed carefully and nodded in agreement.

Yukinoshita Yukino: "#!"

She glanced at the white figure—Hurry up! When do we start?!

Bai Ying simply propped her face up with her hand, turning her head to quietly watch her.

"?" Yukino Yukinoshita was a little confused. What are so many people looking at...? Hmm?

Is this me looking at myself? Why is my gaze so nostalgic? Why does the focus seem so distant? Why...?

"Oh! My dear students—!"

Outside the open door, a figure suddenly leaped onto the podium, then politely bowed and placed a hand on his chest: "Today we're going to learn physics..."

"Cut!" Okita suddenly poked his head out from the back door of the classroom. "It's Chinese class! Chinese class! And don't make any exaggerated gestures, just speak normally!"

"No problem! Let's have a regular Chinese language lesson then!"

Associate Professor Ushiromiya flicked his bangs and took out his textbook.

"It's not a Chinese class, it's morning reading! Morning reading!"

"Alright! Students over here, students over there, dear classmates, let's begin our morning reading!"

Wow—amazing! Where did you find this theatrical actor, my brother?!

Director Okita Tadashi, controlling the camera, was scratching his head in frustration. If they continued like this and didn't get into character, it would be troublesome to film, since the extras weren't professional extras, just ordinary students...

Wait a minute! This student is pretending to read aloud while actually daydreaming; this student is whispering to their deskmate while reading aloud; this student is completely unaware that they should be reading aloud; this student is earnestly reciting from their book; this student is reciting while simultaneously glancing at someone else; this student is listlessly bored with dead fish eyes; this student is excitedly speaking loudly, trying to set the pace; this student is mumbling and muddling through their reading; this student is just reciting in a very ordinary way…

To say whether it's realistic enough, it certainly isn't very realistic; but to say whether it's fake, you can always see some real parts.

They are young.

"The brocade zither has fifty strings for no reason, each string and bridge evokes thoughts of bygone years... Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, the Emperor Wang's heart was entrusted to the cuckoo... The moon shines brightly over the sea, pearls seem to weep, the jade of Lantian warms in the sun, smoke rises... This feeling can only be cherished in memory, for at the time it was already a regret..."

In the classroom, the sound of morning reading could be heard continuously.

The homeroom teacher inspected the situation, nodded in satisfaction, and instructed as the class bell rang: "These are the poems for the college entrance examination that you must memorize. You not only need to be able to recite them, but also to understand which line should be filled in which blank. Students who still can't memorize them should work harder. These are easy points. Learn from Xiao Yun. He didn't get a single easy point wrong in the last mock exam in Chinese."

The male lead... Xiao Yun?

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced sideways; the face was still the same, yet it didn't seem like that person...

It's nice to receive praise, but don't get too excited.

I gave an embarrassed smile, unsure if I was being humble enough.

Other students seemed to be whispering among themselves, chuckling, or watching the white figure whose name had been called by the teacher.

During the break after class, the classroom suddenly became a noisy mess, with all sorts of indistinct sounds echoing around.

My deskmate gently pushed the test paper towards me and asked, somewhat puzzled, "Could you take a look at this question for me? Why is it the first sentence?"

“This…” I thought for a moment about the interpretation of the poem, and without looking into her eyes, I pointed to the exam paper and explained, “The whole poem consists of an opening couplet, a second couplet, a third couplet, and a closing couplet. The second and third couplets allude to the stories of Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, Emperor Wang’s cry of a cuckoo, mermaids weeping pearls, and the jade smoke of Lantian. Only the opening and closing couplets contain emotional content, so ‘which line expresses the poet’s grief’ can only be chosen from the opening and closing couplets…”

I took the opportunity to look into her eyes; they were bright and focused, making it hard to look directly into them for too long.

Yukino Yukinoshita nodded gently: "Mm."

"Then there is the difference between the first and last couplets—the first couplet is the author's way of expressing his sorrow for the passing of time and the passing of his beautiful youth through the instrument of the zither, while the last couplet is the author's lament that the past is hard to recall and his feelings of confusion and melancholy are hard to dispel. The difference between the two lines is that one is mourning and the other is melancholy, so the first couplet should be written to express the feeling of mourning."

"Really? They seem to mean almost the same thing." She frowned slightly, looking somewhat troubled. "When the teacher was lecturing, it seemed like both sentences meant the same thing, right? They both expressed the poet's feelings of reminiscing, remembrance, and self-pity."

"The teacher was probably talking about the emotions expressed in the whole poem."

I explained carefully: "When doing the questions, you must first read the question carefully. If the question stem contains words like 'mourning,' 'brocade zither,' and 'reminiscing about the past,' then it is the first couplet. If it uses allusions, then it is the second and third couplets. If it contains words like 'reminiscing and melancholy,' then it is the last couplet."

She fell into thought and asked, "The second and third sentences are all classical allusions, and we only need to fill in one sentence in the blank. So which sentence should we fill in?"

"This... let me think, I think I wrote it back then."

I pondered for a moment, then turned to the chapter on "The Brocade Zither" in the textbook, searching through the lines of handwriting: "Hmm—the second line uses the allusions of Zhuangzi's dream of a butterfly and Emperor Wang's cry of a cuckoo to express the impermanence of human destiny and the feeling of regret. The third line uses the allusions of mermaids weeping pearls and blue sky jade smoke to express those beautiful and hazy emotions in life... The second line expresses sadness, and the third line expresses beauty."

"Sadness, beauty, sadness, beauty, sadness, beauty..."

She muttered to herself as she wrote it down, casually complaining, "Both sentences use allusions, so why is there a difference? Can't they be simpler and more direct during exams?"

I shrugged: "There's nothing I can do, that's just how the teacher sets the questions."

"Let's not talk about exams, it's annoying to even mention them." She tossed aside the topic she didn't want to discuss. "Which university are you planning to apply to?"

"Huh? I don't even know which universities there are."

"How could Tsinghua and Peking University not know?"

"I can't pass the exam, no matter how hard I try!"

I suddenly felt a sense of familiarity and couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you ask me where I wanted to go for the college entrance exam when you were in junior high?"

"Yes, you said your parents wanted you to take the entrance exam for the top high school, but you wanted to transfer from your current junior high school." She smiled slightly. "I thought you were going to transfer schools after graduating from junior high."

"yes……"

is it?

I suddenly realized I couldn't remember some things very clearly. What was the scene like? Was it that she wanted to go to high school with me, or was it something she mentioned casually during a chat about planning to go to the high school affiliated with our school? I can't remember the specifics of the conversation, or whether it was during lunch break or a break between classes, or even who started the topic...

All I remember is that she was leaning on the railing in the corridor, swinging back and forth with one hand, her restlessness concealing her excitement.

By the way, when she was about to graduate from junior high school, she wrote herself a postcard that was half farewell and half inquiry.

"Ah—the poems are quite interesting to read, but doing the exercises is so annoying."

She voiced a common complaint: "Why were all the ancients so emotional? When they were emotional, they loved to write poems, lyrics, and essays, which were so difficult to memorize that it was unbearable."

"Don't we also have to struggle with writing essays?" I chimed in, hoping to chat a little longer. "It feels like writing poetry and lyrics is much easier than writing essays."

"Oh? You can write poetry?"

She was surprised: "Let me see?"

Bai Ying felt embarrassed and hurriedly picked up a pen, pretending to have something to do.

"I'm writing it, I'm writing it. I'll show it to you when it's finished."

Can I write poetry? Yes? Probably.

Anyway, poetry is just like that; you just need to write it according to the tones and rhymes.

As high school drew to a close, in addition to reading extracurricular books, I also developed a hobby of writing random poems.

Graduating from high school and going to university is a farewell. Now that the theme is set, all that's left is the genre. You can find that kind of thing online when you get home.

A five-character quatrain? Too few characters, I don't like it.

Seven-character quatrains? Not enough, I'm not satisfied.

Regulated verse? It requires parallelism, tonal patterns, and rhyme schemes, and each poem has eight lines.

That's difficult! This is the one!

Writing poetry isn't difficult at all. Parallelism is simply adjectives to adjectives, verbs to verbs, and classifiers to classifiers. It's much simpler than English, which also has a variety of words. And when it comes to things like parting, you just add words like sorrow, wine, and autumn, and that's it.

What about drinking a pot of turbid wine to drown parting sorrows, what about half a curtain of past events and autumn winds of sorrow, what about the ancient road under the setting sun and green willows, what about the waning moon and the silent twilight sky? You can fill in whatever comes to mind, and after you've finished, change the words that don't match the tones to synonyms that do...

After writing it, I bought a few postcards from the convenience store, tried my best to correct my crooked handwriting, and copied the poem onto them.

I have everything ready.

Then he secretly put it in her desk, with a flustered, embarrassed, and smug feeling as if he had stolen something.

I don't know when she found out, but I was happy when she talked about it with a smile.