Gěng Hǎiyàn pouted, "Something bought for tens of yuan is sold for a few cents. It would be more valuable if I used it to wrap sunflower seeds to sell!"
Shí Jiànrén heard the resentment in her voice and also sensed the girl's sharp mind. He turned and picked up his bundle, smiling, "See? I told you you're smart. A big bag of sunflower seeds for ten yuan, and if you repackage it in newspaper, you can sell it for twenty or thirty yuan, or even more."
Gěng Mèizi proudly puffed out her chest like a rooster's comb, then deflated a bit, "Then you damn it… you're not staying!"
Shí Jiànrén gave one last piece of advice, "Be kinder. Cleverness is a gift, you were born with it. But kindness is a choice, because you could have chosen not to be kind. One day, you will understand that kindness is harder than cleverness…"
Gěng Mèizi impatiently interrupted, "Why are you always so old-fashioned? You're only a little older than me! Look at the others…"
Actually, the nineteen-year-old, who had been full of life in the mountains, hadn't had time to explain himself when he heard another commotion outside. Yáng Déguāng was being swept in by a large group of young men and women, as imposing as the group that had come for gambling debts earlier. Several of Gěng Hǎiyàn's friends didn't even bother to take off their shoes before jumping onto the bunks to confront him, "Guāng Wázi said you're moving away? How could you do that to our Yànzi?!"
Some were so indignant they even made a move, "Finished eating and wiping your mouth, now you want to run by pulling up your pants?!"
Actually, the men were even more voluble, "Found a way to get rich?"
Yáng Déguāng said with disdain, "Get rich, my ass! He's still going to be a bāngbàng. He's being sly, thinking of going outside… Hey, are you blinded by those female students?!"
He truly had a grudge against Shí Jiànrén!
Now even Gěng Hǎiyàn looked at him with suspicion.
Clearly, no one could understand why he would risk going to an unknown territory when he had already found a way to make money at the pier and had pretty girls who liked him.
One cannot discuss ice with a summer insect. To speak of his ideals or ambitions at this moment would undoubtedly be showing off his intellectual and spiritual superiority. So Shí Jiànrén didn't explain why. He tidied his few belongings and prepared to leave. He had originally planned to sleep another night and leave in the morning, but it was obvious that this difference in thinking would trouble him all night. Many bāngbàng who had seen the gambling debt records, along with their families, had heard the news and came to see this somewhat unconventional peer. Whispers of schadenfreude or doubt began to spread.
He didn't want to be the center of such talk, and clearly, he wouldn't be able to sleep well.
It was Gěng Hǎiyàn who, somewhat unexpectedly, grabbed the small bundle and said she would see Shí Jiànrén off. Yáng Déguāng then glumly led the way, leaving behind a crowd of bewildered neighbors.
Then, the three of them slowly walked up the stairs without streetlights to the bustling pier square. Unlike Yáng Déguāng, who was still trying to persuade his friend to stay, Gěng Mèizi said nothing.
On the pier observation deck, where one could overlook the magnificent river view and the dazzling city nightscape, there were tourists taking photos. Because there were few residences around, there were few locals, and the bāngbàng hidden in the cracks below didn't have the leisure to wander. Thus, the two bāngbàng walking among them seemed out of place.
Soon, they crossed the square and reached the bus stop on the other side. Shí Jiànrén tried not to get caught up in these small emotions. He took back the bundle and patted both their shoulders, "Ā Guāng, take good care of Gěng Mèizi's safety. Gěng Mèizi, take care of Ā Guāng's business. You two are a good partnership. I'm leaving… It's not a farewell; we can see each other anytime."
Yáng Déguāng could only emphasize helplessly, "Really! I'm telling you, don't believe those people outside! They always look down on us…"
Gěng Hǎiyàn suddenly shoved her mobile phone, which she had been clutching, into Shí Jiànrén's hand, "Take this! So we can find you anytime! Here's the charger…"
Shí Jiànrén gently but firmly pushed it back, "This is just a tool, a tool that's useful to you but completely useless to me." With that, he turned and jumped onto the passing mini-bus that was loudly soliciting passengers. Amidst Gěng Mèizi's somewhat hesitant expression, he disappeared into the night with a large puff of black smoke from the bus's exhaust.
Gěng Hǎiyàn stood there for a long time, watching the taillights recede.
Yáng Déguāng craned his neck to watch, then suddenly seemed to realize, slapping his thigh, "Oh no! A Ren definitely hasn't eaten yet! He left hungry…"
Gěng Hǎiyàn's emotions surged. She turned and kicked him, "You good-for-nothing! Why didn't you just grab him and tie him up, forbid him to leave?!"
Yáng Déguāng didn't dodge, chuckling, "A Ren is…" He couldn't find the words to describe him, "Anyway, I always listen to him. He wouldn't harm me."
Gěng Hǎiyàn cried out in exasperation, "You damn it! Don't you know to dodge! You made me twist my ankle!"
Yáng Déguāng quickly tried to help, regretting it, but Gěng Hǎiyàn slapped him away and forbade him to touch her.
They went back arguing noisily.
And Shí Jiànrén?
His mood was completely different from when he had arrived at the pier by bus. If at that time, Shí Jiànrén was still slightly bewildered by the vast city, unsure of where to start, now he seemed to have left the novice village. He had acquired basic survival skills for the city and was full of exploration and anticipation for the future.
So this unconscionable fellow actually felt much lighter now!
Time without troublesome women was simply too free.
Sitting on the bus, watching the big city's lights flicker, he unexpectedly hummed a little tune. The somewhat taciturn old scholar from the pier, who could barely communicate with those around him, seemed to have disappeared. After all, he was still a nineteen-year-old young man. Traffic was much smoother after dark. In a little over an hour, Shí Jiànrén, whose stomach was indeed rumbling, finally stood on the street outside the Academy of Fine Arts again.
Contrary to what he imagined a university campus exterior should be – elegant and tranquil – the street outside the campus gate at night was unusually noisy and lively. Street vendors, late-night barbecue stalls, and shops were all bustling. The lights were as bright as during the day, a vast difference. Fortunately, he had already experienced the wholesale market with thousands of people crowding everywhere at the pier, so Shí Jiànrén wasn't disoriented. After a brief assessment of the direction, he began to wander in the opposite direction of the campus gate, looking for a place to eat and sleep for the night.
He didn't have much money in his pocket.
35. Chapter 35 035, The Prospects Look Grim
As it turned out, freedom came at a price. This completely independent area was an uncharted map for Shí Jiànrén.
The pier area was centered around the massive vehicle and ship terminals and the wholesale market. Tourists and vendors would congregate in this area during the day, but at night, except for a few tourists with unique interests, the areas where the bāngbàng lived were monotonous and impoverished. After all, the bāngbàng had limited purchasing power. The dance halls and hair salons in the air-raid shelters didn't solely cater to the bāngbàng. Therefore, it was quite deserted at night.
However, this area existed to serve the energetic college students. Walking along the roadside, it was very clear that stalls selling items for young people, such as clothing, shoes, and hats, had people stopping, while stalls selling plastic toys and infant supplies were basically ignored. It was a pity that those stall owners didn't realize why their business was poor, engrossed in knitting or playing cards in groups of two or three.
Of course, the bustling street here was also narrow. From the campus gate, it extended about four to five hundred meters along the road to another market entrance. Beyond both ends, the environment was devoid of foot traffic and shops, further confirming its suburban location.
After a casual stroll to familiarize himself with the terrain, around nine o'clock, most vendors began to pack up. Shí Jiànrén ate a bowl of plain noodles at a roadside stall. He definitely had no money for a hotel or rented accommodation. After looking around, he had originally eyed the hearth outside a restaurant he had seen earlier. In the blink of an eye, a homeless man was already there picking for lice. If it were two months later and the weather was warmer, he wouldn't have to worry about the cold. But in weather like this, even if it didn't rain, the cold dew at night could cause great harm to the body.
The young man, well-versed in health preservation and breathing techniques, carefully swallowed the last strand of noodle and drank the hot noodle soup. After chatting with the roadside stall owner, he learned that restaurants on the roadside typically closed after seven or eight o'clock and there were no opportunities for odd jobs. Only roadside stalls would stay open past midnight before going home.
Wondering if he would have to seek shelter under some eaves on his first night here, Shí Jiànrén carried his ebony staff and, thankfully having eaten his fill, ambled along the gradually quieting street. His eyes scanned the alleys behind the buildings lining the street. Game rooms, internet cafes, art training schools, and shops primarily selling art supplies were businesses he rarely saw around the pier and would be worth investigating later. The most pressing matter now was to find a place to stay… Just then, the young man's ears faintly caught a sound, a whimpering sound?
He walked past two or three alley entrances and, confirming one of them, went in. Following the faint streetlights and uneven stone steps, he turned past two or three irregularly shaped buildings, and the sound became even clearer.
Honestly, if Shí Jiànrén hadn't come from the mountains and been familiar with the winding paths of mountain roads, people accustomed to the flat, square grid of the north and south, east and west, would find it very difficult to adapt to Jiāngzhōu, a hilly city. He swayed and supported himself against the wall before seeing a dim yellow light behind a dark corner. Turning once more with the light, he entered a dilapidated main hall. Several incandescent bulbs hung from the old beams. At the far end, there was a small stage about half a person's height, and on it, a performer in a phoenix coronet and robes was singing opera!
Televisions were no longer rare in the countryside and towns nowadays, but if Shí Jiànrén truly understood any form of entertainment, it was opera. His old man's generation was obsessed with opera. Not to mention his old man's half-madness was also related to those famous opera performers back then. So, in the past decade in the mountains, the only entertainment the master and disciple had besides playing chess was listening to the old man hum opera.
However, it was different from the Kunqu and Peking Opera Shí Jiànrén was familiar with. This was clearly local Sichuan opera, with many local accents in the singing, so Shí Jiànrén couldn't understand most of it. But his slightly anxious mood instantly calmed down. He removed the ebony staff from his shoulder, planted it on the ground, leaned his shoulder against the nearby wall, and listened intently to the long, high-pitched transitions.
Of course, this opera troupe hidden in the old house and narrow alley didn't have profound skills. Their costumes were likely decades old, and the backdrop was worn out. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Shí Jiànrén looked past the stage. On the rows of wooden benches for the audience, there were only about five or six scattered elderly people. Behind them, however, seven or eight tables were set up, with quite a few people playing cards and smoking. It looked like a teahouse!
The audience wasn't attentive, and the performers weren't particularly focused. The game being played was a type of long, thin paper card that Shí Jiànrén had never seen before. Apart from a few college students sitting at the edges, mimicking the drawing actions of Yáng Zélín, it was mostly elderly people.
There were many doors on both sides of the dilapidated building, which must have been a conference room originally. So, no one noticed the young man leaning in the dim corner. After more than half an hour, when the protracted opera song ended, the stage lights were turned off. The elderly opera-goers slowly got up and left. The people playing cards, drinking tea, and eating sunflower seeds also dispersed, chatting and laughing. When an old man emerged from behind the stage and fumbled with tidying up tables, chairs, and teacups, Shí Jiànrén saw his chance to participate.
Silently and unobtrusively, he picked up a broom from the corner and began sweeping sunflower seed shells and cigarette butts from the ground. He stacked the benches against the wall. Being young and strong, he worked nimbly. After getting into a rhythm, he saw a rag. He first wiped the debris and cigarette packs from the tables onto the ground, then used the broom in his other hand. It was all done in one go, clearing and tidying up at lightning speed, moving forward like a machine, leaving a clean and orderly scene behind him. The old man was startled by the figure that suddenly appeared from the dark, but after a while, he stood by the benches, leaning on them to watch the young man work. Finally, he sat down and watched the young man's movements.
Shí Jiànrén finally came to this area to sweep. With the rag on his arm, he could hook five enamel teacups with his long fingers spread apart. "Grandpa, where should I put them?" In fact, he had already seen rows of teacups placed on a table by the wall with several thermoses.
But this question indeed prompted a smooth response from the old man, "Over there… Youth is good…" full of the wistfulness of old age for vigor.
Shí Jiànrén placed the teacups there and turned back with the broom and rag, "I'm a bāngbàng working at the Academy of Fine Arts. Can you let me sleep on these benches tonight?"
He concisely stated his intention. The old man smiled, nodded, and stood up, "Do the work first, then be a person. Not many young people understand the rules. This is just a broken room, sleep here… There's a strong draft, so pull a chair to the wall and sleep."
Shí Jiànrén cupped his hands in thanks.
It was good to have tiles overhead and a wall to block the wind.
That night, wrapped in old clothes, Shí Jiànrén slept soundly, despite the long wooden bench being quite uncomfortable.
Early the next morning, he woke to the sound of whimpering again. Outside the window of the dilapidated teahouse, a middle-aged woman, whose figure was still well-maintained, was practicing her vocalizations. Shí Jiànrén, shaking his head vigorously, got up. He looked at the lightening sky; it should be around six or seven o'clock. He rolled over and got up. He tidied his belongings and helped fill several large water pots and teapots with water before heading out with his ebony stick. The middle-aged woman looked at him with some surprise, "Old Man Huang said someone was staying overnight. I didn't expect it to be such a neat and efficient bāngbàng. Will you be back later?"
Shí Jiànrén smiled politely, "If I can still help out, it would be best to stay here for a few days."
The woman nodded and, in a singing tone, elongated her voice again. Shí Jiànrén couldn't understand what she was saying at all. He turned and walked out of the alley. The street was still quiet at this hour.
The advantage of wandering the streets last night became apparent. After a brief assessment of the sky and time, Shí Jiànrén headed towards the liveliest market he had seen the previous night. Following the habits he had accumulated at the pier, some market stalls would be moving goods in the early morning, and he could earn some porterage fees.
However, his plan fell through within a few minutes. In this area, which was already close to the suburbs, most of the market vendors were farmers who brought their produce in baskets and baskets. A few of the meat stalls sold large quantities of pork, and the owners had vehicles that drove directly to the market, where butchers would deliver the meat to their stalls with small carts.
There was a reason why bāngbàng from the pier rarely went into the city to find work.
Compared to the pier, where manual labor was readily available everywhere, city work was very uncertain.
For two whole months, how could he sustain himself without porterage fees?
Others might have regretted such a rash decision.
But Shí Jiànrén, whose original purpose was not to earn these model fees, certainly didn't think so. He bought a steamed bun made of white flour at the market and squatted by the roadside, chewing slowly and pondering what to do. It wasn't until he suddenly noticed many students coming out of the surrounding houses and alleys, all converging towards the campus gate, that he realized it was time for class. He quickly jumped up and followed.
Although his clothes were still neat and clean, the white cloth and the small bundle hanging from his ebony staff made him look rather out of place among the crowd of students.
Fortunately, his class pass made the security guard, who was about to reprimand the bāngbàng for trying to sneak in, let him pass with a disgruntled look.
36. Chapter 36 036, Those Who Smile Faintly Are Usually Pretending
If the morning's fruitless attempt to find work was unexpected bad news, then as Shí Jiànrén sat in the classroom beginning his day of modeling, he heard even more grim information from the students' idle chatter!
He seemed to have forgotten that there was a weekend break every week, and the students had two days off. His modeling work would only take place five days a week. And even more cruelly, besides painting, these college students also had other cultural courses two days a week. This meant that the actual nine weeks of classes would only be twenty-seven days!
The several thousand yuan he had quickly calculated before was immediately reduced to one thousand six hundred and twenty yuan!
No matter how little the young man in plain clothes cared about money, he felt a toothache now!
Back in the mountains, where did such a concept of a weekend break exist?
Certainly not at the pier!
These college students really lived a comfortable life!
He hadn't expected to be troubled by the basic problem of eating now.
For the entire one to two hours of class, Shí Jiànrén sat motionless in the middle of the drawing board, his mind preoccupied with this issue.
It wasn't until Yáng Zélín called for a break that Shí Jiànrén jumped up, needing to relieve himself. He grabbed his shirt, threw it on, and ran to the restroom at the end of the corridor.
In a university, there were no bells for the start and end of such specialized classes. The time was managed by the class leader or the teacher. Each class lasted about forty to fifty minutes, with about ten minutes for a break. Moreover, Shí Jiànrén had already noticed yesterday that neither the teachers nor the students had a strict sense of time. The teacher had called him for class almost ten o'clock, and it wasn't even noon yet, with both students and teachers leaving early.
So, as he walked out, the sound of the class next door reached his ears: "The book reached its peak in the early Tang Dynasty…"
Since descending the mountain, this was almost the first time Shí Jiànrén had heard familiar, old-fashioned intonation. His heart warmed, and he forgot about going to the restroom. He leaned by the slightly ajar back door of the adjacent classroom, narrowing his eyes, and listened with great enjoyment!
This scene made the students coming out afterward very surprised.
Apart from going to the restroom, students usually came out for a smoke at this time. After class, the professional teachers would go to the office to rest. A few responsible ones would continue to critique students in the classroom. Painting was also somewhat like master-apprentice inheritance, but the teacher instructed twenty to thirty students at a time, providing hands-on teaching. Therefore, since Yáng Zélín was diligently going around the classroom now, students couldn't smoke inside.
Shí Jiànrén stood with his hands clasped behind his back, leaning against the pillar connecting the two classrooms, his eyes squinting intently. When a particularly engaging part was mentioned, he would even shake his head involuntarily!