Chapter 7 Blow Out the Reading Lamp I don't have much strength, but I can still wring out the clothes without them getting wet. There was no washing machine at home, so he had to wash his clothes by hand. Starting from the third grade, he was responsible for washing his own clothes every day. This was his own initiative. Fang Wei shook out the washed clothes one by one and hung them up to hang. The summer nights on the island are not as hot and humid as those in the mainland. The evening breeze is very cool. I turned around and went back into the house, took out the bottle of Coke that had already cooled down in the freezer, opened the pull tab, and with a "swish" sound, a light white mist came out. I tilted my head back and took a sip. The sweet and refreshing Coke went down my throat, and I instantly felt refreshed! Although we haven’t achieved cola freedom yet, it is precisely because of this that the taste seems even more rare. Go back to your bedroom. The layout of the room is also quite simple, with a bed, a window, a mosquito net, a floor fan that makes a clicking sound when it turns, a wooden wardrobe, a desk, and a small table lamp with a pull-cord switch. These are the most basic furnishings in his room. Simple, but neat. Fang Wei put the Coke on the table, bent down, pulled out the two large boxes of books under the desk, took out the books one by one, and read and sorted them out again.
The box on the left contains all his elementary school textbooks, including his usual exercise books and test papers. He protects it very carefully. When you open the textbook, you can see his notes on it. His handwriting is neat and beautiful. His handwriting alone can beat 90% of his peers in seconds. He will try his best to memorize some texts or sentences he likes very much, even if the teacher does not require them to recite them. He will also use pens of different colors to annotate his understanding on the side. Perhaps many people, even teachers, look down on primary school education, thinking that even if they were reborn back to primary school, they would still get full marks on the exams without having to study. But this is actually a logical paradox, thinking that the so-called "knowledge" refers to the content of the exams. Thus, the so-called exam-oriented education came into being, and Fang Wei once believed the same. Few people realize that even in elementary school textbooks, many of the articles and poems are extremely beautiful. These are the essence that has been screened and filtered by countless predecessors, and finally bound into books and sent to the classroom for education. "Soul of Plum Blossom", "Half a Candle", "Golden Fishhook", "Song of the Nightingale", "Bridge", "Pearl Bird", etc. The happiest thing in my childhood was when new books were distributed at the beginning of the school year. I became addicted to smelling the rich aroma of ink on the pages, and on the day the books were distributed, I would read with great gusto the interesting articles in the Chinese or history textbooks. At that time, I just regarded these articles as little stories to spice up the boring life, but I didn't notice the deep meaning between the lines at all. Education itself is advanced, but what lags behind is people’s experience and ability to understand. When I read these textbooks again many years later, I realized that education has finally completed its loop, and the bullet fired many years ago has hit me right in the heart. People who have long left school are unable to empathize with their younger selves. They may even tell their younger brothers and sisters, sons and daughters to study hard and read more books in earnest, only to realize after they have said it that this was exactly what they were like back then. Regardless of grades or future, it was only after going through many things that Fang Wei truly read the book in his hand. This state of mind, which is completely different from his childhood reading, brings him a strong spiritual satisfaction that material things cannot give. The first time you read it, you are a teenager; the second time you read it, it is life. Fang Wei had no idea how many times he had read the texts in his hand, and he could even recite many of the articles in their entirety. But even so, when he held the books in his hands, he still read them with gusto once again. He sat cross-legged on the floor, quietly and slowly turning the pages, forgetting even to notice the passage of time. Finally, I closed the textbook in my hand. Fang Wei reorganized these elementary school textbooks, stacked them neatly in a wooden box, and pushed it back under the desk. He opened another wooden box, which contained junior high school textbooks and books he usually rented from the bookstore in town.
School hasn't started yet, so these junior high school textbooks are naturally not his, but belong to Xu Cailing's sister Xu Caiwei. Sister Caiwei is only a few years older than him. Because of her poor academic performance, she did not get into high school. She stopped studying after finishing junior high school the year before last and chose to work in Shanghai. I heard that she is now working as a waitress in a coffee shop. From the current perspective, the salary and benefits are not bad, and she is quite satisfied with this job. If I could have been admitted to high school and continued my studies, I would probably be in my second year of high school now. Fang Wei had advised her to repeat a year and try again to enter high school, but he failed in the end. This is also the current situation of many young people on the island. Firstly, the cost of studying is very high. Even going to elementary and junior high school requires money. Even many elders think so. Studying is useless. It is enough to have an elementary and junior high school diploma and be able to read. It is better to go out to work early. Unless your grades are really good, otherwise, from the perspective of the economic cycle, the return on investment for studying is too long. How can the people on the small island who have been fishing for generations have such a long-term perspective? Xu Caiwei's junior high school textbooks were preserved very well. I guess she took good care of them, especially the textbooks from the first and second year of junior high school, which had a lot of notes in beautiful handwriting. But by the time she reached the third year of junior high school, the handwriting had become less. Fang Wei could guess that she had probably started thinking about going out to work after graduation during her third year of junior high school. She is a very hard-working girl, but her academic performance is indeed average. This cannot be entirely blamed on her. After all, it is a small island far away from the mainland, and not only is there a lack of material resources, but also educational resources are quite insufficient. A large part of the resources depends on the students' own self-study ability. Like other teenage girls of this era, Xu Caiwei also likes to copy some lyrics, sad quotes, etc. in the corners of textbooks or notebooks. Sometimes when she is upset, she will playfully scribble some incomprehensible scribbles in them... While flipping through Sister Caiwei's textbooks, he peeped into the girl's youth trajectory, which was also a rare and interesting thing for the other party. Of course, the reason why he borrowed Sister Caiwei's junior high school textbooks was to prepare for his future junior high school career. During these days of summer vacation, Fang Wei had already read most of the textbooks for the first and second grades of junior high school. When borrowing books from Sister Caiwei that day, Xu Cailing was complaining that her sister was partial to her and didn't leave any books for her! Sister Caiwei said, didn't I leave the bicycle for you? Besides, if I give it to Awei, Awei will go to see it. If I leave it to you, will you go to see it? Xu Cailing stammered and said something like "I will work hard in junior high school", "Don't look down on others", "I will definitely make you look at me with new eyes" If a few more years pass, I guess she would once again say "Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west, don't bully a young girl because she is poor." Sister Caiwei said, when you want to read or study, just go to Awei and get the book. So, the whole summer vacation passed, and Xu Cailing never mentioned the book except to find Fang Wei to practice surfing... Fang Wei did not force her to be like himself. After all, Xu Cailing was just a little kid. She would not be able to understand or experience any profound principles if you talked to her at her age. The best way was to lead by example. With the arrival of puberty, young boys and girls are most easily influenced by the environment around them. Having a childhood sweetheart like her will subtly influence her. When she is older and more sensible, there will always be changes. Fang Wei sorted out his junior high school textbooks. Those that he needed to read recently were placed on the desk, and those that he didn't need to read for the time being were neatly put back into the box. Maybe Sister Caiwei never thought of taking these books back after giving them to him, but these are her youth after all, and she should always cherish them. Fang Wei pulled out a chair and sat down, then opened his notebook, turned to a clean blank page, picked up a pen, and began to make a schedule for the new semester. If there is any key change in personality before and after rebirth, it should be self-discipline. Compared with his peers, Fang Wei's level of self-discipline is outrageous. Self-discipline is different from discipline. Self-discipline is to set rules for yourself and strictly abide by them; And abiding by discipline means following the rules set by others; Fang Wei didn't have the confidence that he could keep this state of mind forever, so at the beginning of every new semester, he would make a schedule for himself that he had to follow. The schedule not only includes plans for study, but also some plans for daily life. For example, this year's schedule includes an additional plan for exercise. For example, running two kilometers every morning.
In fact, he had wanted to do the exercise plan for a long time, but he was too young before. After all, during the growth and development period, there are not many benefits to doing too much exercise too early and too heavily. Running is a great way to exercise. It not only exercises your cardiopulmonary system and endurance, but is also very helpful in improving your willpower. Of course, ball sports like basketball are also good, but you can never participate in weightlifting, as it will be a fatal blow to your height! ! Now his height is only 162cm. Although he doesn't want to admit it, the stupid girl next door has grown to 163cm and is now a little taller than him. In the past two years, the little girl has been growing taller as if she had taken hormones, but I have not made any progress. I can only say that physiologically, the development cycles of boys and girls are indeed different. But it was still very discouraging! He now had doubts whether he could really grow to meters like in his previous life. After finishing the schedule carefully, Fang Wei tore off the page of paper and pasted it in a conspicuous place on the wall. Although I already have these plans in my mind, writing them down stroke by stroke is more action-oriented. Fang Wei drank the Coke in the bottle in one gulp, then picked up the unfinished book on the table. It is Fortress Besieged written by Mr. Qian Zhongshu. ——People inside the city want to escape, and people outside the city want to rush in. Whether it’s marriage or career, most of the wishes in life are like this. He rented the book from the bookstore in town. Buying books seems too luxurious these days. Renting books is a very affordable way to read. Moreover, there are restrictions on the rental price and time, which can motivate him to finish reading the book. In my previous life, I could hardly read these traditional literary books. I found them boring and depressing. But now he is watching with great interest. The conditions on the island are limited, and there are almost no temptations around. There are no mobile phones, no internet, and no brightly lit commercial streets. Of course, those are all objective factors from the outside world. The most important thing is the state of mind at the moment, which allows him to immerse himself in the world of the book quite attentively. Fang Wei felt like a sapling scattered in the wilderness, madly taking root deep into the earth, greedily absorbing nutrients from the world. At this age, he was dormant, developing and learning. When reading, he liked to sit on the windowsill, with his back against the wall, legs bent, holding the book in his arms, reading quietly and immersedly. Without the hustle and bustle of a big city, the island at night has only the faint sound of waves in the distance, the soft sound of the wind, and the croaking of frogs and the chirping of insects in the mountains. The moonlight from the window would fall on him, outlining his lowered profile; It also shines on the beach, and the timid sand crabs will take advantage of this quiet time to crawl out from the moist sand to fight or look for food; Seabirds are sleeping in their nests, and tree frogs are singing in the cracks of rocks; July had entered the room at some point, nimbly jumped onto the windowsill, and lay down at his feet; "Meow~~" The cat looked up, and the boy gently turned another page of the book in his hand. Blow out the reading lamp, and the whole body is filled with moonlight. (End of this chapter)
