Chapter 23: The Great Era and Paper Airplanes

  The next day, as soon as he arrived at school, Ren Yi surrounded Wen Qian and looked him up and down, making admiring noises. Wen Qian smiled and clasped his hands together, saying: "Thank you, Sword Flat brother, please, what advice do you have?"

  "Alright, alright! But from today on, please call me Shen Zhou Jie Yi Xiao Qiu Shui!"

  "Oh, Wen Ruo understands, this one is infatuated with Wen Ruo again. 'Hm, Autumn Water brother... or should I call you Xiao brother, isn't it tough losing 50 bucks?"

  Ren Yi was defeated by Mu Shan, this time he lost his entire stake. Upon hearing the news, he was as if mourning for his own death: "Alas, heaven is old and has feelings too, but people won't give you money just because you're young. Considering I helped you call the police yesterday, let me treat you to an ice cream."

  "Ah, it's you!"

  Yesterday, a group fight started. Ren Yi was afraid that Wen Ze would be at a disadvantage, so he immediately ran to the instructor's office to tell Hua Xi Que about it. He could do this despite being afraid of Mu Shan and others, which is quite admirable. However, if he knew that Mu Shan and Hua Xi Que were both looking for him to take revenge, I wonder if he would think that the price of an ice cream was a bit too high...

  The second class in the afternoon was a politics lesson. Because it was approaching the weekend, the classmates were overly excited and the teacher failed to control the classroom discipline several times before storming out in anger. The classroom immediately became chaotic, with a few people folding paper airplanes and throwing them from one corner of the room to the other. Others followed suit, playing and causing trouble, until the entire classroom was filled with paper airplanes flying overhead, dazzling everyone's eyes. Wen Ze sat at his desk, idly drawing circles, thinking about where he would go with Li Shengli over the next two rest days, and whether their funds would be too tight. A plane suddenly dived down and hit him right on the forehead. Wen Ze sullenly searched around, and Meng Ke from a few rows in front saw him looking over, stuck out his tongue, and quickly turned around like a thief.

  Wen Qian shook her head, this was a pink letter paper folded into an airplane, delicate and neat, with the edges pressed flat, showing the girl's meticulous thoughts. Holding the plane in her hand, her mind drifted to Li Siqing again, on the 15th of junior high school opening, she had to remember to accompany her to Minghua for registration, and wonder if there was still living expenses...

  The classroom suddenly fell silent, and the soft footsteps of Ye Yuting came from the corridor, and the watchtower at the door issued a red warning in time. In just a few days, this beautiful and moving head teacher had already been deeply loved by the students, from love to respect, from respect to fear, knowing that she had arrived, everyone immediately busied themselves hiding the paper airplanes on the floor and desk, but the time was too tight, and many were still scattered on the podium and passageway.

  Lost in deep thought, Wen Qian was unaware of all this. When Ye Yuting walked onto the stage, her bright and majestic eyes slowly swept over the messy paper planes on the ground, finally focusing on Wen Qian's hands.

  Everyone's gaze followed the teacher over, and faint snickering could be heard from the crowd.

  "Get up, it's warm."

  Wen Cheng suddenly woke up with a start, his eyes somewhat dazed, still holding the paper airplane in his hand. "Pfft", someone couldn't help but burst out laughing, instantly triggering a wave of laughter from everyone.

  Wen Cheng suddenly realized that he had been caught off guard, got up from the ground and said: "Teacher Ye, I want to say that this plane was smashed on my head by someone else... You definitely won't believe it..."

  Ye Yuting didn't stop the increasingly loud laughter in the class either, smiling and saying: "And then?"

  "Then, I think I'd better tell the truth. The reason I folded this paper airplane is because I suddenly remembered a poem..." Wen Cang was forced to improvise, hoping that Ye Laoshi was a female literature enthusiast who would let him off easy.

  Of course, in this era, the number of female virgins should be much higher than that of girls of the same age in later generations. So, taking Ye Yuting's figure as a constant and her face as a variable, establishing a probability model, Wen Xiang has a 70% chance that she is absolutely a literary young woman.

  Unexpectedly, Ye Laoshi had a beautiful and elegant face, but didn't give any face at all: "Oh, what poem? Recite it for me to hear."

  Wow! Wen Ze made a quick gesture with her middle finger under the desk, her mind racing, and just as she was about to freeze up, she saw the paper airplane in her hand, reminding her of a classic TV series and a classic poem.

  "Paper airplane, paper airplane, gently flying paper airplane. I really want to ride on you and take me to that high place, fly to a utopia. Paper airplane, paper airplane, gently flying paper airplane. It's so beautiful, seemingly aimless in flight, yet always landing. It always has its mission, just like this paper airplane, gently knocking on my heart, taking away my sorrow."

  The warm and gentle tone was great, intentionally lowering it brought a bit of huskiness and thickness. In the quiet classroom, with a slightly sorrowful tone, he read out this poem, and immediately heard a low cry: "Ah, it's a paper airplane."

  "This is Ji Su's voice."

  It started with a few people whispering to each other, and those who didn't understand asked what it was. Then, a girl with good memory explained it to them. Before long, the whole class became lively. Ye Yuting stood on the podium, looking a bit stunned. As an English teacher, she naturally knew what poem this was, but she hadn't expected that Wen Cheng, who seemed to have no literary flair at all, would recite this poem with such deep feeling and infectious power.

  The mainland broadcast of the classic Hong Kong drama "The Bund" has just ended, and Lau Ching-wan's scene of reciting "Paper Plane" in English on a high platform at an amusement park has moved countless audiences overnight. Although it is unknown who started it, one by one, two by three, to finally the whole class applauded together.

  This is a praise of Wen Tianxiang's wisdom and a confirmation of his discerning eye for poetry.

  Ye Yuting recovered from her initial surprise and smiled: "The paper airplane was because of this poem, it's still passable. But you disrupted the class order and got our politics teacher to tattle on me. You can't just get away with that, unless...” Ye Yuting's eyes flashed with cunning, “you recite it again in English."

  It's even more unjust than the old lady in Nanjing, isn't it? I'm not the one who disrupted the class order. However, Ye Yuting is an English teacher, and Wen Jian didn't even have the courage to refuse her request.

  "Paper plane, how soft and light you are. Hope to ride you in the air, up to the high clouds fair, reach abode of heavenly realm……"

  Familiar English words jumped out one by one with a cheerful rhythm, which is a different kind of beauty from Chinese rhyme. Many classmates couldn't appreciate its brilliance, but that didn't stop them from applauding enthusiastically and cheering loudly. At this age, what they lacked the least was people to tease and playful hearts.

  Wen Ze's English was average in college, so it wouldn't be exaggerated to make Ye Yuting think he had a London accent, but it couldn't be denied that his fluent tone was much better than the current high school students. Teacher Ye was a little surprised and also a bit worried, wondering if this kid had used all his intelligence on these small clevernesses, otherwise how could his grades be at the bottom of the class?

  Wen Ze carefully observed Ye Laoshi's expression, knowing that she had calmed down. With a cheerful face, he bowed to the four directions, implying gratitude for their support. Ye Yuting couldn't do anything about it, and the paper airplane incident was dropped. Ji Su quietly turned her head to glance over, her expression complex, wondering what she was thinking.

  It's not easy to wait for the end of class, Wen Cheng has an urgent need to go to the toilet, but one after another classmates come over to thank him for his heroic act of taking the blame alone, he modestly responded with a few words and was about to leave from the back door when Meng Ke blocked his way in front of his seat.

  "Give me a paper airplane!" Meng Ke smiled brightly, extending her left hand in front of Wen Qian.

  Wen Qian only then discovered that Meng Ke's hands were extremely beautiful, with five fingers tightly together, slender and symmetrical, the white skin almost invisible finger joints marks, fingertips smooth and delicate, full of beauty.

  "Airplane? I don't have a paper airplane, but I'm good at playing airplane." That's why this uncle is called an uncle - because of the lewd factor that isn't controlled by his brain, and he doesn't know when it will be released.

  "You're all talk, without anti-aircraft guns, what planes can you shoot down?" Meng Ke wasn't as beautiful as Ji Su, but her gentle and amiable demeanor gave people a refreshing feeling, like a spring breeze. Especially when she said these few words, her expression was cute and lovely, quite captivating.

  Wen Qiang burst out laughing, this era's girls are just so adorable, they're clueless about dirty things and aren't like the female wolves of later generations who can spout off-color jokes that could get you killed. He pulled out a paper airplane from his drawer and handed it over, no longer joking around, saying: "It was because of this plane that I got called out by Teacher Ye for criticism, my fragile heart suffered serious damage, what do you think I should do?"

  It was interesting to hear him say that. Meng Ke looked around and saw no one, then smiled and said: "Alright, I'll introduce you to Ji Su... heh."

  She knew they didn't quite see eye-to-eye, so she said this on purpose to tease Wen Cheng.

  "No, absolutely not, I've been inferior since childhood..." Before he could finish speaking, Ren Yi came back from outside and said: "Aren't you in a hurry to use the restroom? Why are you still here?"

  "Ah!" Wen Qian suddenly realized that she was about to suffocate, let out a loud cry and turned around to run wildly away. Meng Ke stared blankly at all of this, then burst out laughing. Returning to her seat, she tossed the plane to Ji Su and complained: "You threw the plane and hit someone, but I'm the one who has to take the blame, humph!"

  If Wen Ze heard this, he would definitely be so scared that he wouldn't even dare to make paper airplanes. Would Ji Su, an excellent and elegant student who is always well-behaved, also participate in making paper airplanes and disrupting class discipline?

  "Good Meng'er, well-behaved Meng'er, am I not embarrassed? Anyway, you're familiar with him, it's just a matter of lifting a hand for a sister..."

  "Stop!" Meng Ke grabbed the hand on her waist and told Ji Su about the warm and silly look from earlier. Ji Su, who usually sneered at such things, didn't feel annoyed this time and leaned in with Meng Ke to eat and laugh together.