I had originally left my room to ask my colleagues what to teach tomorrow. This school was full of unreliable types, from the princ.i.p.al down to the toilet cleaner. They hadn"t even had me sign an employment contract, and they had sneakily sent my first month"s salary while I was sleeping.

Of course, this was good for me. No contract meant that I could leave the training school at any time without any restrictions.

But having taken the salary advance, even if the school had irregularities, I still had to earn the salary they"d given me. Even if Principle Zhang"s style was lax, I couldn"t be careless.

This was a principle of being a good person.

"I would like to ask what kind of group of students I"ll be teaching tomorrow," I said to Liu Sishun modestly. "Is it an in-service education, postgraduate entrance examination, or civil servant written examination cla.s.s, or what?"

Liu Sishun was surprised. He pushed at his gla.s.ses for a while and said, "None of those."

"Well, what do you usually teach?"

"I just teach the right way to be a gho — person," said Liu Sishun. "You really can say whatever you like. It"ll be fine."

"And this training inst.i.tution can still find students?" I couldn"t help myself. Was this really an MLM scheme? But what kind of MLM scheme could operate like this? You couldn"t develop any downlines.

"Not many students. After all, everyone is cremated these days." Liu Sishun sighed and said with a melancholy expression, "I still remember that during the Republic, there were companions everywhere. It wasn"t lonely at all. But since the founding of the People"s Republic, there have been fewer and fewer colleagues."

I couldn"t understand him at all.

"Might I ask what Teacher Liu does?" I ventured.

"Oh, I like to write strange stories to earn some money on the side. I also work at the school teaching vernacular."

"Oh, a Chinese teacher, and a part-time writer." I nodded. No wonder I didn"t understand what he was saying. It was normal for a novelist to have some unusual ideas. I remembered reading somewhere on the internet that after the founding of the People"s Republic, some creators were limited in writing. Teacher Liu must have been talking about that sort of thing.

"It"s just teaching people to read and speak. It"s not being a Chinese teacher," Liu Sishun said, "You may not know, Teacher Shen, today"s gho — people get worse and worse with each generation. It"s heartbreaking to think about what we were like then. But some of the new gh — newcomers don"t even speak properly. It"s really heart-breaking. What I can do at the training inst.i.tution is just teaching them how to speak. For example, Li Yuanyuan. When she first came, she couldn"t speak a word, so Princ.i.p.al Zhang had her live with me for extra lessons. She"s better now, but she still speaks a little slowly."

At this point, I understood what kind of students this training inst.i.tute was tasked with teaching.

It seemed to be people on the edge of society, like Mr. Saw, who suffered from mental illness due to his short stature, or like Li Yuanyuan, who had special hobbies and problems communicating with others.

For these people, the most important thing was to acquire the skills to integrate into society and to receive psychological counseling. Some subjects that appeared on exams weren"t so important.

And it was no wonder that Princ.i.p.al Zhang had said that I could just say anything. She"d probably hired me because she"d liked my ideological and political education credentials and hoped I could help these students establish a correct world view.

To think of the establishment of such a training school, Princ.i.p.al Zhang really must have been a kind-hearted person. While Teacher Liu, patiently teaching these students to communicate with ordinary people, must also be very kind. I had really wronged him before.

When he"d warned me not to meddle in their business, he must have been worried that I didn"t understand the significance of hurting these sensitive people unintentionally.

I grasped Liu Sishun"s hand, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with apology and sincerity. I said, "I misunderstood you before. Teacher Liu is a moral teacher who cares for his students, an example that I should learn from. This is my first job. I"m really lucky to meet a teacher like Teacher Liu. "

Liu Sishun trembled and said, "If-if you have something to say, just say it, don"t paw at me."

He must have been frightened by my earlier public announcement of my s.e.xual orientation. Teacher Liu looked like he was in his 40s. I supposed it would be hard for him to accept that my s.e.xual orientation was different from other people"s. It was a matter of course that he would be afraid of physical contact.

I let go of Teacher Liu, bowed to him, and said in a loud voice, "I apologize for my rude behavior before."

Teacher Liu trembled again when he heard my operatic intonations.

Maybe it was being alone with me in my bedroom that was stressing him out. By now enough time had pa.s.sed for Li Yuanyuan to have taken a bath, so I opened the door and said, "It"s so late. Teacher Liu should go rest. Going to bed early and getting up early is good for your health."

Liu Sishun saw me open the door and ran out of my room so fast that I could hardly see his legs moving.

It hurt me a little. We were colleagues and would go on being roommates. Because of an impulsive mistake, I had hurt Teacher Liu"s sensitive and fragile heart. I really had been wrong. I had to find a chance to shake hands and make peace some other day.

Liu Sishun rushed out of my room straight into his room. He shut the door tightly, as if to prevent me getting in.

I also planned to go to bed, but heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom. It didn"t sound like the shower.

The door was ajar and the lights were off.

I turned on the lights in the living room and looked into the bathroom by the dim light. Li Yuanyuan was squatting beside the toilet, looking earnestly into it. Her head was almost inside.

Ah, special people did have their own particular obsessions. No wonder Princ.i.p.al Zhang had arranged for Li Yuanyuan to clean the toilets.

I pushed open the bathroom door. Considering propriety in dealings between men and women, I didn"t go in, but stood at the door and said, "It"s late. You should go to bed."

Li Yuanyuan saw me standing by the door and shuffled away from me, clutching her hair.

She didn"t seem to understand what I was saying. Her eyes turned stiffly, and she looked at the toilet… and at the plunger beside it.

"You should go back to your room and go to bed," I advised as gently as I could.

"I want… to sleep here…" Li Yuanyuan put her head on the toilet water tank and closed her eyes quietly.

I couldn"t understand her obsession with the toilet, but if she really slept here it would be awkward getting up to go to the bathroom at night.

"Do you like the bathroom, or just the toilet?" I was trying to communicate with her.

Li Yuanyuan thought for a moment, then pointed to the toilet. "This."

"Well, I"ll buy you a clean toilet tomorrow and put it in your room so that you can see it before you go to bed every day, OK?"

Li Yuanyuan"s response time a little slow. After more than ten minutes, she nodded stiffly, stood up and stared at me and said, "It"s a deal."

"Yes, it"s settled. I"ll give it to you as a gift." I mean what I say.

"No take backs, or else..." she said. She looked at my strong-looking arms and shook her head. "There"s no or else."

After that, she stood up and left the bathroom as if floating. She went into the room where Mr. Saw had lived before and closed the door.

At least she had left. I wiped away my sweat and went to the bathroom very uncomfortably. After washing my hands, I went back to my room to sleep.

I slept until it was light. I opened the curtains and sunned myself. I stretched and did a set of body-building exercises.

Teacher Liu and Li Yuanyuan"s doors were open, and they were gone. I had been too deeply asleep to hear them go. Next time I"d have to get up in time to wish them well on their way.

Through the doors, I saw their two rooms each had a single bed and a desk. The sheets and quilts were all white, and the two rooms were almost identical.

The only difference was that Teacher Liu had a book on his desk, while Li Yuanyuan had a messy short wig on her bed.

This was quite in line with their personalities.

I had made a promise to Li Yuanyuan and couldn"t go back on my word. After I went out for breakfast, I went to the bathroom fixture shop and picked up a toilet that was exactly the same as the one in 404.

If the good Princ.i.p.al Zhang learned of this afterwards, she could reimburse me, I thought, full of expectation.

I bought two more lights, one for the living room and one for my room.

When they heard that the lights were for Apartment 404, Unit 4, Building 4, Farther Sh.o.r.e Estate, the lighting technicians all refused to go. One also advised me, "Young man, you can"t live in that place just because the rent is cheap. It"s haunted. My relatives rent 403. I heard that the toilet at 404 flushes all the time in the middle of the night, and there"s always the sound of a chainsaw sawing things. It"s very frightening!"

He must have been talking about Mr. Saw and Li Yuanyuan. Without coming into contact with them, who could imagine the reality?

They were just some eccentric tenants, but hearsay had turned them into ghost stories. It was probably always like that.

I couldn"t say anything to the lighting technician. Seeing that he really didn"t want to go, I asked about the installation method, planning to install them myself.

He was very embarra.s.sed and gave me a discount. I didn"t blame him for not helping me with the lights.

After carrying the toilet home over my shoulder, I put it into Li Yuanyuan"s room. The first gift I"d ever given to a girl in my life, and it was a toilet. It was ridiculous to think about.

Following the instructions that the technician had taught me, I installed the lights smoothly. It was afternoon by the time I finished all the work. I had to start thinking about what lesson I would teach in the evening.

In fact, I"d already had some thoughts. Since Princ.i.p.al Zhang hoped that I could help her students establish a correct world view, it was naturally a good approach to start from the cultivation of thought.

I pulled the textbook "University Students" Ideological and Moral Cultivation" from my bookcase. This was a textbook approved by the Ministry of Education, the most suitable textbook for students who were about to enter society, which could help them establish the three most basic outlooks. Of course it was also the most suitable book for the students in the training school.

I spent an afternoon preparing. I consulted an introduction dealing with the psychology of special groups, to make appropriate changes to the curriculum.

I went to sleep at eight o"clock in the evening and woke up at 23:30. Not long after I went downstairs, the school bus with the license plate number of "444" stopped at the gate of the community.

When I got on the bus, I was astonished. A seat had been painted green. There was a note on it that said "Teacher Shen Jianguo"s Seat, No Other Pa.s.sengers." It was like a pregnant woman"s seat on the bus.

I was speechless. There were no other pa.s.sengers on the bus. I was the only one. Why did I have to have this special seat made for me? The other seats were red; mine was the only green one. It was really embarra.s.sing.

The driver saw me standing still and said, "Sit down, it"s especially for you."

What could I say? It was kindly meant. I could accept being treated like a pregnant women and sit down.