Recently, Simon hadn't seen Zhou Ping. Aside from the occasional visit to the dorm, it was rare to see him. He seemed to be gradually distancing himself from everyone.
Everyone was actually familiar with his situation, after all, in the calm, unchanging days, the commotion Zhou Ping caused was quite significant.
In today's serious campus environment, the cost of a student defying school rules is very high. Zhang Yingxuan going to an internet cafe wasn't necessarily wrong, because generally speaking, minors accessing the internet are restricted by youth mode, with almost no exceptions. However, there was a loophole with the simulation pod, and the whole country knew about it. In the second year of junior high, the school urgently stipulated that students were not allowed to illegally use simulation pods outside of school.
Zhou Ping was caught red-handed. A group of Class Teachers personally went to various large internet cafes in Luoshan District to find students. Through the outer cover of the simulation pod, the people inside could be seen very clearly. Zhou Ping said that he deliberately wore a mask every time, but that day, halfway through playing a game, he felt hungry and thirsty, slurped a cup of instant noodles, and drank a bottle of energy drink. Afterward, he lay straight back into the simulation pod, forgetting to put his mask back on.
It's often said that when you're unlucky, even drinking cold water can get stuck in your teeth. They didn't check earlier or later, but precisely at that time.
These were all told by Zhou Ping himself. In the eyes of his few friends, he had become a scoundrel. He usually acted diligent in class, but as soon as school was over, he would always curse at the teachers, especially the Class Teacher. He already intensely disliked that old woman; her rudeness, foolishness, meanness, snobbery, and hypocrisy all made Zhou Ping feel disgusted and fearful.
Especially, this Teacher Wei, who looked grotesque and dressed in a rustic way, Zhou Ping always loved to mock her in private using a 'translation-style' tone.
"Oh, my goodness, this damned old woman, seeing her face, which looks like mud run over by a truck wheel, makes me feel like my eyes are polluted! I really wish I could kick her butt with my boots, oh, you stupid groundhog!" Zhou Ping's expression was exaggerated, and his pretentious tone was utterly comical. When everyone heard him say this, they couldn't help but feel the joy of watching a comedy, and they all burst into laughter.
What many people didn't know was that Zhou Ping was able to stay in school largely due to the Class Teacher, Teacher Wei's, guarantee.
He wasn't the only one pulled out of the internet cafe that day; there were two others from the same school. They had both been asked to leave, only Zhou Ping remained in school.
Others thought it was because Zhou Ping's family had strong connections, but it wasn't.
During the week he was suspended, Zhou Ping called the Class Teacher every day, begging for forgiveness and admitting his mistakes. He felt this was a humiliation, feeling that he was becoming the adult he most detested, bowing and scraping, feigning compliance.
Hypocrisy, Zhou Ping hated hypocrisy. Adults were always like this, spouting grand principles they couldn't even follow themselves, day after day like soulless walking corpses, with nothing but work and study, finding no entertainment whatsoever.
Zhou Ping asked his father why he always looked so tired. His father didn't answer immediately, just looked thoughtful, then told his son very seriously, "Study hard, play less, don't use up all your happiness too early."
Zhou Ping just wanted to laugh. How could happiness be used up? Isn't happiness generated every day? As long as a person is alive, there is happiness to pursue.
"Now you love to play, but later you'll get tired of it. When your horizons broaden, you won't like games anymore," his father said with certainty.
Zhou Ping's parents didn't like playing games, didn't like listening to music, and even due to the rigidity of their work, weren't very keen on studying. They never spent lavishly, never bought luxury goods, never traveled. Their lives were a straight line, commuting between work and home. Their only relaxation was scrolling through videos and giggling for a while.
They seemed like some kind of enlightened monks, caring about nothing, except they were both very concerned about Zhou Ping's studies. Relatively speaking, his mother's demands on him were stricter than his father's, always forcing him to concentrate on studying, while his father was more easygoing, responsible for stopping his mother when she resorted to domestic violence.
A family built up from fragmented daily routines. It was very common, very ordinary, or rather, just ordinary people.
Zhou Ping had no grand ideals in his heart. His usual hard work in studying was to create an image of having turned over a new leaf. He was striving to be able to go to internet cafes to play games.
His good friend Zhang Yingxuan was also obsessed with simulation games, but that was back in the first and second years of junior high. Seeing his buddy betray the great cause of gaming, Zhou Ping angrily demanded his reasons.
What did Zhang Yingxuan say? He said he was tired of it, and he wanted to study hard.
Zhou Ping couldn't understand why anyone would get tired of playing games.
Zhang Yingxuan told him it wasn't that he didn't like games, nor that he was afraid to go to an internet cafe; it was just that he no longer had that passion. He was now more willing to read books—classics, essay collections, novels, and the like. He could comfortably spend a whole morning lying in bed. For the little free time on Saturday, going all the way to an internet cafe wasn't as good as simply enjoying the pleasure of reading in the dorm.
It was then that Zhou Ping began to understand why adult entertainment was so scarce. In fact, it was still because the cost of entertainment was too high.
Not only were the common people busy with life, but even those with high social credit were busy with life. They needed high-intensity study to maintain their social credit level, often working harder than those at the bottom.
When is an adult's life ever easy?
Entertainment is for those who have given up, are numb and decadent, and lack ambition.
Zhou Ping felt that they simply didn't love it enough; only by truly loving it could one maintain happiness. Being tired, or giving up, were just excuses. If one couldn't sincerely pursue happiness, then one didn't deserve to have it.
Zhang Yingxuan asked him, "Why do you like games? They're all fake."
Zhou Ping felt his dignity insulted in that instant, but he didn't want to speak harshly to his friend, so he remained silent.
Then, the youth mode was updated, and the loophole in the simulation pod was fixed. Zhou Ping would not be able to play simulation games again in the few years before the college entrance examination.
That day, he sadly declared that his youth was over.
Sure enough, his grades plummeted. In a flash, by the time everyone came to their senses, he had already been dropped from the top class and was just drifting along in the next-tier elite class.
With the high school entrance exam approaching, Zhang Yingxuan went to persuade Zhou Ping again.
"Damn it, study! If you don't study now, it'll be too late!"
"It's boring, I'm tired," Zhou Ping said listlessly, lying on the sofa in the living room.
"You don't read books now, you don't do homework, and you can't play games. All day long you just sleep. Can you even fall asleep?"
Zhou Ping yawned, "Of course I can. Want me to show you?"
Zhang Yingxuan covered his face, took a deep breath, and adjusted his mindset. He rubbed his hands together to form a sincere expression. "Brother, I'm begging you, study a bit. If you can't even get into an undergraduate program later, then getting social credit will be difficult. If your social credit isn't high, you won't be able to play games. Endure it for now; no one will stop you from playing games once you're in college."
Zhou Ping met his gaze for a long moment.
He let out a scoff.
"Boring."
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