Chapter 3 Someone Moved In? Without the obstruction of tall buildings, the dusk on the island can always last for a long time. After the sun sinks below the sea level, night will suddenly fall again. The young boy and girl walked leisurely on the narrow, car-free country road, and passed by the only primary school on the island. The two of them stopped in tacit understanding, stood at the school gate and looked inside. The door was locked. It was almost time for school to start, but the place was still empty. “It really went bankrupt.” Xu Cailing sighed. After this summer vacation, she and Fang Wei will become glorious junior high school students. They still have deep feelings for this elementary school where they have studied for six years. There are no junior high schools or high schools on Pineapple Island. The only school is this elementary school which is as small as it can be. The total number of teachers and students in the school is no more than 20 or 30 people. Yes, you read that right, 20 or 30 people, the entire school. Students from several grades are mixed together in one class.
The teaching mode is roughly 'the teacher lets the second graders do their own exercises first, then teaches the first graders, and then lets the first graders do their own exercises, and then teaches the second graders'. This mode almost does not exist in schools in big cities. Because there were too few students, it was inconvenient to allocate educational resources. Also, the bus frequency to Baitan Island increased. Therefore, when Fang Wei, the last batch of elementary school students, was sent off this year, the only elementary school on Pineapple Island declared bankruptcy. From now on, primary school students on Pineapple Island will need to go to the neighboring Baitan Island to attend classes. Fang Wei and Xu Cailing are no longer primary school students, but they still need to go to the middle school on Baitan Island for classes. This is the only middle school in the town. Fortunately, Baitan Island is not far away. It is the sister island of Pineapple Island. The two islands are very close, like a pair of seagull wings, connected by a bridge across the strait. There are four buses to Baitan Island every day. Of course, you can also choose to ride a bicycle to school. If the weather is good, it will only take 25 minutes to get there. “I guess this place will be rented to someone else to be used as a seafood processing factory in the future.” Fang Wei said as he looked at the closed school. "You also know?" "It can't just be thrown away in vain." Fang Wei was speechless. Not only did he know that this place would be rented to someone else to be used as a seafood processing factory, he also knew that it would be rented by her father in the future! For young people with no resources and no money, studying is always the safest way out, no matter in which era. Fang Wei is very smart. In the words of his elders, he is "a good student". Indeed, in his previous life, he had very good grades in both elementary and junior high school. The main reason is that the environment on the island is limited and there are not many temptations around. Apart from studying, what else can he do at this age? Later, when I was in high school, I moved to a big island with better conditions. Novels, games, and Internet cafes distracted me, and my grades dropped. This is the biggest difficulty for all students from small places - the self-control to stick to their original intentions. Obviously, he did not have this self-control in his previous life. After all, all the hardships he suffered in the big city were due to his laziness when he was young. Of course, there were also reasons such as resources and vision, but people always have to look for problems within themselves before they can make progress. Now that I have the opportunity to start over, self-discipline is what I absolutely must do, regardless of anything else! With the help of self-discipline, his grades have improved significantly compared to his previous life. He ranked first among the freshmen in this year's Baitan Middle School entrance examination, and got full marks in all subjects. Of course, that was only because the maximum score on the test paper was 100... Never mind, the entrance examination from primary school to junior high school is not worth mentioning... The reason I say this is because I have truly experienced the changes and benefits brought about by self-discipline. This completely different state of mind is the most precious and rare thing. A self-disciplined teenager is definitely more valuable than a smart teenager. …… Xu Cailing is not interested in reading, which is her biggest headache, but she is quite interested in all activities other than reading. As they walked, she asked Fang Wei excitedly, "Today is the 29th, and school will start in two days. We will go to Baitan Island for classes. How are you going to get there?" "Take the bus?" Fang Wei asked casually.
"Ah, riding the bus is so boring! Sometimes I always feel like you are an old man. It's okay to like boring fishing, but everything is boring!" "Then you still like to play with me." "Pooh." Xu Cailing wrinkled her delicate nose, looking disgusted. Well, she admitted that although the boring Fang Wei was boring no matter what he did, the feeling when she was with him was different. Even though he often acted like an old man, he didn't lecture her like a father. For example, during the summer vacation, she always dragged Fang Wei to go surfing with her. It was probably because when he was around, she felt inexplicably at ease... Seeing that Fang Wei couldn't come up with any interesting answers, she babble on her own: "Why don't we ride our bikes to school together in the future? It's not far anyway. My sister used to ride a bike to school too!" Fang Wei naturally didn't want to take the bus. Although it was called a bus, it was actually completely different from the image of buses in later generations. It was actually just a shuttle bus in the shape of a van. It would stop when you waved, and would slowly drive around the island, passing through the intersections of three villages, picking up people to go to the pier or to Baitan Island. There are four trips every day, and the ticket price is one dollar, but there is no air conditioning in the car. At this time of summer, the car is quite stuffy. Even if the windows are open, there is an unpleasant smell in the car. Many people on the small island do not get motion sickness when riding on a boat, but they will get motion sickness when they smell the bad smell on the bus. Therefore, apart from people working or going to school, there are not many people taking the bus, and most of the time it is the second choice for travel. After all, it was already 2000, not a very poor era. Every household at least had bicycles, and motorcycles were the mainstream means of transportation. As for private cars, there were none. Even years later, there were almost no private cars on the island. It was not because people had no money, but because, apart from the main roads, most of the rural roads were extremely narrow, and private cars were not allowed to enter the island. I won’t mention Fang Wei, but Xu Cailing has never ridden in a private car since she was a child. Perhaps many people in big cities have never ridden in a boat. This is probably the different world we live in. Seeing Fang Wei didn't say anything, Xu Cailing thought he didn't want to ride his bike, so she begged him in a nice voice: "Okay? It would be nice to ride a bike to school together. We'll have company. Otherwise, wouldn't it be boring to death on the road alone?" Seeing that he was still thinking, she continued, "As long as you ride a bike with me, I will wait for you to go to school in the future! And I'll wait for you after school too! Even if you want to stay behind to clean up, I'll wait for you to join me!" Fang Wei finally spoke, and asked with a smile: "You have a bicycle?" "Yes! My sister's bicycle is my bicycle. I have inherited it in full!" “But I don’t have a bicycle.” "...Yes." "My dad usually uses the motorcycle, and my mom rides the bicycle when she goes to work. We don't have any bicycles at home." Xu Cailing fell silent. After a while, her eyes lit up again and she spoke in a very righteous voice: "How about this! I'll drive you to school from now on! You just sit in the back of my car!" "You? You're giving me a ride?" "What? How about you give me a ride?" Fang Wei looked at the height and body types of the two men and decided not to take on this hard labor. He agreed, "Okay, then you give me a ride. Remember to wait for me at my doorstep at 6:30 every morning. Don't be late." "…I'll beat you up, you're talking like I'm the driver!" The girl waved her fist viciously and gave him a slight warning, but didn't bother with him anymore. He seemed to be in a very happy mood and started to plan: "Then I will install the two pedals when I get home. Hey, remember to bring me your air pump later. Mine seems to have broken a few days ago..." "Okay, okay..." Fang Wei nodded in response, but his eyes were attracted by the busy family not far away. The island is very small. Even though there are three villages, the population is really small. Not to mention people from the same village, even if people from other villages cannot call each other's names, at least they are familiar with each other.
This area belongs to Shayang Village. Fang Wei rarely comes here. At this moment, he saw a family at the end of the village busy moving things from a small truck, including some luggage, furniture, etc. It seemed that they were almost done. The old man of the household was smoking with the driver, and his expression looked a little sad. "Are they moving?" Xu Cailing also noticed it and asked curiously. "It looks like it is." "This is really new. It seems like this is the first time I've seen someone move house. This is Uncle Liu's house, right? Are they moving out or is someone moving in?" "Do you know this one?" He was surprised. He didn't know him, but his face was familiar. His father's generation must have known him. Although the population on the island is small, the relationship is relatively close, and many of them are related. "I don't know him either, but my dad told me that Uncle Liu from this family was his elementary school classmate." "Then he must be my dad's elementary school classmate." Fang Wei nodded. "…you talk as if there are other schools on our island." "It doesn't look like they're moving out, so someone must have moved in." Fang Wei saw the pickup truck driver get in the car and leave, and Uncle Liu went into the house holding the last cardboard box. "Ah? We have someone willing to move in?" "Why not? Maybe many people are leaving now, but in the future many people may be willing to come in." "What?" "…The scenery is beautiful." "That's it!" People who live in the scenery usually cannot see the scenery. The millennium era has not only changed the mainland, but also changed here. More and more young people on the island choose to go abroad to study or work. For a remote little island, it is somewhat novel to see people moving in. Of course, this topic did not last too long for the two of them. As they continued walking forward, a village that was more familiar than Shayang Village appeared before them. As the sky gradually darkened, the rising smoke was carried away by the evening breeze and drifted farther and farther away... (Thanks to the 16109th of last month, RUY, Mifan's Rice, Xueshazhiheitong, and Youyun's leader. The bosses are generous! The bosses are making a fortune! Thank you for the support!) (End of this chapter)
