Among my close friends,
Huihui became a Chinese teacher,
Jiajia became an English teacher,
and I became a cafeteria auntie.
We all have beautiful futures.
(I)
Who knows what year and month,
Shentong Middle School was founded.
“For a great goal,
let all students under heaven have books to read!”
the principal said at the ground-breaking ceremony.
For this goal that’s set in some unknown year and month yet shines brilliantly,
the school recruited a batch of pretty good teachers from all over,
and selected a batch of pretty solid students from within the city.
(II)
Minjun is the security guard at Shentong Middle School.
Because the security office is right next to the four golden characters “Shentong Middle School” at the entrance,
many students equated his overflowing smile with “Shentong Middle School.”
To the point that many graduated alumni returning for commencement
always ask: “Where did our smiley security guard go?”
The school doesn’t actually have safety issues,
so as a strong security guard,
Minjun often needs to do various odd jobs.
Like carrying projectors at art evenings,
organizing water-rocket competitions on the playground for the science club,
posing as an oil painting model at the art festival, and so on.
Because of his good personality, everyone also likes to tease him.
Like “Where are your little bear cookies?”
“The cafeteria auntie seems to really like you!”
“You’re so handsome why don’t you go become an idol trainee~”
Every time someone teases Minjun like this,
he just smiles and does what a security guard should do.
(III)
Shentong Middle School’s politics teacher is Bingbing,
he’s also the head of the politics department.
At forty-something, Bingbing has an inner self completely unlike his steady appearance.
Although every time when preparing lessons he seriously educates the younger teachers,
when he himself teaches he often steps on watermelon rinds — slipping wherever he can,
especially when he’s teaching law.
After the meeting exam, in the class going over the test paper, he finished evaluating the philosophy and society parts in three minutes,
and the remaining forty-two minutes were all on law problems.
Students also like listening to him teach,
and some students have heard through the grapevine that he and Luo Xiang were once classmates for a while.
But one thing is that he likes to run over class time,
and the dean of academic affairs can’t do anything about him.
He always has this line ready:
“Now running over class time delays you ten minutes, but if you listen seriously, you’ll benefit for life!”
Quite the earnest mouth.
(IV)
Since the original geography teacher Haihan got into Oxford for grad school,
last year the school hired a new graduate as an intern.
The new intern teacher came from Sichuan, named Mengqin,
on her first day at the grade office she brought a pack of rabbit heads for each person,
even the security guard at the door got a share.
Mengqin has one obvious flaw,
and one obvious strength.
The flaw is though she graduated from the geography department,
she’s not very familiar with Chinese geography,
once in class after asking “Is Liaoning’s capital Jilin?” the whole class burst into laughter.
This means after she came, teacher Haihan became busier:
not only helping students catch up but also helping Mengqin catch up.
The strength is even more obvious,
wherever she is, there’s no shortage of laughter.
Everyone likes her a lot.
After she came to Shentong Middle School,
in each semester’s anonymous “your favorite teacher” vote,
Mengqin always stays in the top three.
Though this might also be because teacher Mengqin never runs over class time.
Probably maybe because she wants to go eat earlier.
(V)
Shentong Middle School originally had a small footprint.
Later after expansion it had its own cafeteria.
After moving campuses, the cafeteria was rebuilt several times.
Although the cafeteria changed locations a few times,
the cafeteria auntie never changed,
always the one students called “chubby Auntie Buda.”
Auntie Buda is the kind of person with a sharp mouth and a tofu heart.
Every time a student comes right at the cafeteria’s closing time,
Auntie Buda would say “no more food, no more food, come earlier next time”
while taking out another already-put-away rice bin to serve them.
Auntie Buda’s most enjoyed time
is after the “naughty kids” finish eating,
she also serves herself a bowl,
sits in a corner of the cafeteria,
chats and gossips with colleagues from other school logistics departments.
But lately she’s been agonizing over whether to bring her own lunch,
because the kitchen uses heavy oil and salt,
she both wants to eat lighter herself,
yet doesn’t want the trouble of making food every day.
(VI)
The ages-old topic about cafeteria aunties
is their exquisite control over the rice ladle.
Often one scoop a fulfilling marriage,
one shake a worldly farewell.
When everyone was complaining the cafeteria portions kept getting smaller,
security guard Minjun didn’t think so:
“Not really, I feel like the portions are still pretty big?”
Later when chatting during the logistics dept lunch,
Auntie Buda gave an enigmatic smile,
revealing the secret with her Nike-swoosh-like upturned mouth corners.
Turns out Auntie Buda learned
Minjun actually went out to work right after high school,
this year’s early-year pandemic almost broke his cash flow in Wenzhou,
Minjun had been eating steamed buns for several months.
So Auntie Buda would, when Minjun came to eat,
secretly add a bit more food,
an extra portion of rice, a bigger lion’s head meatball.
The logistics manager Xiaojun listened and sighed:
“Even though there are no big matters in school,
if you do small matters with true heart,
you can still make a big impact!”
The financial manager Guankou (Xiaojun’s nemesis) immediately commented mercilessly:
“Chen Xiaojun, you’re talking nonsense again!”
(VII)
Actually the school has many other trivial little matters,
like art teacher Chongyin who loves painting and held-back student Jilong who loves photography sparking flames,
like Zhiqiang the General Technology teacher who’s a sub-subject teacher but stays at school longer than the homeroom teachers,
also class monitor Nail-driver and vice monitor Belt-wearer’s mutual roasting.
But after all this little article only tells a few stories of the school,
it’s not a complete school history.
Even a complete school history
is only past glory.
The school’s future
still relies on every student, every teacher to write it.
Who knows what year and month,
Shentong Middle School was founded.
(End)