The dormitory building was separated by a wall from a construction site, where they said a bathhouse was to be built. Those workers wouldn't start work in the morning or the afternoon, but only after we were all sound asleep, with their heavy machinery shaking the ground like an earthquake. Then, with a bang in the middle of the night, even the dead would be startled awake.
The male students in our building were furious and went downstairs to pick up stones and throw them towards the wall. The workers on the other side were not to be trifled with either; they quickly retaliated by throwing bricks back and shouting obscenities, which I won't repeat here.
The dormitory building next door came to our aid, providing shovels to dig up stones and soil from the school's birch forest. They wrapped them in bedsheets and carried hundreds of pounds of material to us. We were deeply moved; this was true brotherhood. Many students stood at the bottom of the wall and threw things at the construction site. In return, they were hit on the head with bricks, bleeding profusely. The school infirmary's hallway was packed with people. To avoid being hit by bricks, we moved the main battlefield to the fifth and sixth floors of our dormitory building, throwing stones from the windows into the construction site.
Although our throwing power wasn't as great as the workers', we had the high ground. From the fifth and sixth floors, we could easily throw things down at the construction site, while only those with astonishing arm strength could throw back at us. However, the workers on the construction site all possessed incredible arm strength and surprisingly good aim. The windows on the higher floors of our dormitory building were all shattered. Some cowards, wrapped in their quilts, hid under their beds to avoid being killed by bricks flying in from outside. The windows on the lower floors were all taped up to prevent glass shards from injuring people. We learned this trick from a classmate who came from a typhoon-prone area.
The chaotic fight raged all night, and the dormitories and corridors were filled with broken bricks. The construction site also ceased operations, focusing entirely on dealing with us. We suspected they stopped because they ran out of bricks. Many girls, hearing the commotion, also came to our dormitory building to watch. This was quite interesting. When the boys threw things at the other side, their curses were incredibly foul, but when they saw the girls, they actually said, "Please come in," "Please watch your step," and "Please have some water," adding "please" to everything they said. They were certainly fit to be doormen at high-class hotels.
I had no intention of participating in the fight and curled up in a corner with my quilt to sleep. After a while, I felt someone sit on my bed. I opened my eyes to see two beautiful Caucasian women, both wearing white nightgowns that exposed their backs and legs, with pink curlers in their hair. I saw that while I had been dozing, eight girls had already entered our dorm, and the windows were crowded. So, these two were waiting by my bed.
This is how I met Edith Jane and Frances Dominica. They were both two years ahead of me. One was studying hotel management, and the other, like me, was studying mechanical repair. For the next three days, the school was closed to deal with the conflict with the construction site. Edith and Dominica took me to see movies, go shopping and dining, visit arcades, and swim in the park. I didn't know how to swim, so they held me up together, teaching me backstroke, butterfly stroke, and doggy paddle. To be honest, they looked quite stunning in their swimsuits.
Edith and Dominica also took me to visit the air-raid shelters. The local air-raid shelters were immense; with a railway track added, they could accommodate a subway. Now, they had been converted by the locals into underground archways, underground restaurants, and warehouses. Some wild dogs and wild boars roamed in the depths of the shelters, and there were even more rats, as big as cats, that lazily ignored people when they saw them.
Decades ago, Leng An Xing had experienced civil unrest and fought many major wars. Our area was formerly called Changzhou. The Battle of Changzhou was recorded in history textbooks. Over five hundred thousand people charged across the nearby plains, with bullets and artillery shells flying everywhere, and bomber formations covering the sky. After one battle, the ground was littered with corpses, and the bodies looked like melted ice cream, with internal organs and fluids spilled everywhere.
Edith said she was actually illegitimate. During the Battle of Changzhou, her grandmother was a local militia member who was captured and assaulted by enemy soldiers who had entered the city, resulting in Edith's mother. Edith's mother was a hostess at a nightclub and never married. Somehow, she ended up having Edith. Edith said she wanted to marry a decent person and live a normal life, to end the trauma of war. However, all the boyfriends she had found so far were no good.
Dominica came from a wealthy family. Her grandfather was a company commander who attacked Changzhou. Both his legs were shattered by bullets, so he stayed and became a minor local official. This was fortunate because her grandfather's 268th Division later fought at the Flower Defense Line, where large quantities of gas shells were used. Those who went there basically all died, and those who survived suffered from festering wounds and lived like animals. Dominica's grandfather passed his position to her father, and she receives seven thousand yuan in pocket money each month.
I attended classes for a few days, but they were utterly boring. The material taught was too superficial, and the teachers were all just going through the motions. So, I skipped class and played truant. I bought a small electric scooter and took Edith and Dominica around the city. When we got tired, we would spend the night at an internet cafe or rent a room to rest. The upper city was too expensive, so we could only wander the streets and couldn't go into shops. The hygiene of the street food stalls in the lower city was questionable; I always got diarrhea after eating there, but Edith and Dominica were fine and ate heartily.
My roommates also played truant. They said truancy was becoming a trend in the school, and if it continued, there might be more teachers than students. The older students skipped class because they couldn't learn anything at school and thought it was better to apply for factory jobs early. Many senior students were already working in industrial parks as machinists, lathe operators, and electricians. Those who progressed quickly had already become workshop supervisors. The new students skipped class to go out and have fun. The school, being as small as the palm of one's hand, was too boring; the outside world offered much greater opportunities.
My roommates started a business: robbing junior high and elementary school students. There were quite a few junior high and elementary schools nearby, all built during the post-war baby boom. My roommates would intercept junior high students in alleys, make them cry first, then search them and their schoolbags, taking all their money and snacks. Sometimes, out of boredom, they would force bad students to write their homework on the ground, not allowing them to leave until they finished. They also tore out the answers from the back of the workbooks and, after the bad students finished, would compare the answers. For every mistake, they would kick them.
This month's life was roughly like this. Wishing my parents good health and successful careers.
Your son, Jiang Senlin.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng finished reading the monthly letter and exchanged glances, both falling silent.
"Is the school that bad?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"Not just bad," Jiang Ye said. "This atmosphere is too damn terrible."
"Should we transfer our son?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"Let's finish this semester first," Jiang Ye said helplessly. "Let him experience all sorts of schools."
The couple both sat down at the table and began writing a reply to Jiang Senlin.