Simon chatted idly with his classmate Su Xiangli, who wasn't very good at conversing. The class assignment was quickly completed, and the roster and schedule were sent to every child's mobile mailbox.
Chun Ya New Kindergarten has three grades and five classes, with a total of just over eighty students. There are two junior classes, two senior classes, and one preparatory class. Most of the children in the junior classes are four years old, with some being three. After completing one year, they enter either the senior class or the preparatory class based on their performance. The preparatory class has very high requirements, with a curriculum largely similar to elementary school.
Simon's first priority was to check the schedule. It was incredible: 7 AM to 6 PM. Eleven hours, and it's a kindergarten, oh my god.
Education, it seems, really does have to start from childhood. These are all ruthless doll-catching machines.
Simon felt a pang of sympathy, while Su Xiangli beside him was quite calm. After all, she didn't know how joyful kindergartens were at the turn of the century; without comparison, there's no harm.
"Zhengzheng, which class are you in? I'm in the Chun Sun Class!"
Upon hearing "Chun Sun," Simon felt a bit hungry, and when he opened his mouth to speak, he almost couldn't hold back his saliva. "I, um, *slurp*, I'm in Chun Sun too."
Su Xiangli gave a thumbs-up. "What a coincidence! We must be a superhero team."
Simon's scalp tingled. "There are only two junior classes, so it's very possible for us to be in the same class, okay?"
"This is all the flying spaghetti monster's will! Hurruluru!" Su Xiangli raised her hands in an exclamatory gesture, causing the surrounding parents to chuckle.
Simon was on the verge of collapsing. This little girl was only three or four years old, for goodness sake! Why did she even know about the flying spaghetti monster? And she even used a sophisticated word like "will"! Good heavens, children at the end of the 21st century are terrifying!
It was almost nine o'clock now, and classes were about to begin. Parents were saying goodbye to their children, and several kids started crying loudly, making the scene suddenly chaotic and awkward.
"Don't cry, my dear, be a good girl..."
"No crying allowed! I'm recording this, you know. How embarrassing!"
Everyone used their own methods. Adults bent down or squatted, trying to meet the children at eye level, while the crying children kept their eyes tightly shut, their expressions miserable. Their tiny hearts were immersed in fear and sadness.
Their crying looked messy, but it was also very real, which, at least, subtly comforted Simon.
After all was said and done...
At this moment, his younger brother, who was beside him, said he would pick Simon up after school, then reluctantly left. Simon stood there blankly, not saying goodbye to him. On the other side, Su Xiangli earnestly instructed her robot, Baiyang Yangzhen, "After you go home, you must work hard. If the sun is good, take the quilts out to air them, okay!"
"No problem, Lizi, I know. Leave it to me ~" Baiyang Yangzhen's voice was like that of a soft, young woman, lively and gentle.
Adults and children gradually separated. Now, those who remained here, responsible for everything, were the teachers.
A male teacher in his twenties looked up and called out in a low, clear voice, "Chun Sun Class children, follow Teacher Wang, we're going to the classroom!"
"Hummingbird Class children..."
Each class had fewer than twenty students, equipped with one Class Teacher and three life teachers. All were young people, with a minimum social credit level of three. There was a monthly character test and psychological test, and surveillance was ubiquitous within the kindergarten to eliminate any safety hazards.
Simon opened his schedule. Today was Monday, with two classes in the morning and three in the afternoon, in addition to leisure time for lunch, nap, afternoon tea, and games.
He hadn't expected that after several decades, China's social pace would still be so intense. However, when the pursuit of efficiency becomes an instinct, it no longer seems so frantic, especially in the age of intelligence. Tight task arrangements and low-redundancy personnel allocation are saving everyone time.
Classes began right after enrollment. The first class Simon took in school in this life was Chinese Language.
As soon as class started, the differences between people immediately became apparent. Some children were well-behaved, focused, and had strong self-control. Some were dull, and some were restless, all sorts of strange behaviors, making class efficiency very low. If their electronic devices hadn't been installed with teacher-controlled components and rendered unusable, these little ones probably wouldn't have listened to the lesson.
In this situation, Simon watched Teacher Wang, the Chinese Language teacher, wondering what he could do.
Teacher Wang was a tall, thin man with black hair and a white shirt, wearing blue-framed plano glasses. His overly strong scholarly aura made him appear rather melancholy and delicate, but he always smiled. Seeing the poor classroom atmosphere, he selected and played a video on the projector.
The classroom lights dimmed. The children were silent for a moment in the face of darkness, then erupted into even greater noise. Simon covered his ears; the overwhelming sound waves almost destroyed his ability to think.
"Zhengzheng--!" Clear, melodious zither music began, and everyone's attention was immediately drawn to this extraordinary sound.
A holographic projection in the dark classroom, above the rows of desks, showed a zither player in white.
Simon looked up at him, the ethereal projection covered in a faint, soft light, creating a dreamy illusion. The speakers perfectly transmitted the zither music.
This is...
Simon felt an intense, electric emotion surge from his spine. This melody, note by note, was incredibly familiar.
It was "Big Fish & Begonia."
Not beautiful for sorrow, but because the world presents two difficult choices.
Beautiful artistic conceptions are often hazy and melancholic; beauty itself is a kind of sadness.
The children were awestruck and quieted down.
After the Noise disappeared, the presence of the music itself was infinitely magnified, like a curtain that could obscure all one's senses.
Simon looked at Teacher Wang. In the beautiful and sorrowful zither music, the projector's light illuminated his profile. The person hidden behind the plano glasses, his eyes were full of gentle stories.
The scholarly aura was so thick it was stifling. Simon couldn't help but smile.
Su Xiangli sat to his right. She leaned over and poked Simon's ribs with her left hand.
"Ugh, what do you want?" Simon's current body was a bit ticklish. Few children aren't ticklish, and Su Xiangli's fingers were like small green onion segments, not painful when poking, but hitting a soft spot, almost making Simon spring out of his chair.
"Look at Teacher Wang," she whispered.
"What about him?" he lowered his voice.
"Mommy said people who like old songs are treasures."
Simon looked speechless. "You know this song?"
"Uh-huh, I've been learning zither online. My teacher played this song, 'Big Fish,' for us."
"You play zither? Can you make it sound?"
"We use a simulator."
"Oh, right." Simon also realized that contemporary musicians mostly use simulators for composition, which are virtual instruments in a virtual world, essentially music programming software. They are effortless and offer many advantages.
"I can't play it yet, but I'll play it for you later."
Simon replied perfunctorily, "Mhm mhm mhm oh oh..."
Su Xiangli straightened her face. "I'm serious! This is a woman's promise!"
"This is a woman's promise" is a line from a 1940s Chinese film, "Birthday." The protagonist is a 34-year-old single mother. Although the plot is somewhat cliché, the actress who played the mother was highly skilled and full of tension, making countless people sigh and shed tears with that one line, "This is a woman's promise."
Simon coughed, remembering the phrase "a man's intuition" that he used to like to say as a child, and suddenly felt a subtle sense of shame. "You're still a girl, not a woman."
Su Xiangli's eyes widened, like two sesame tangyuan in sugar water, glistening and bright. Her brown irises were like maple syrup, and her black pupils had two reflections, one bright and one dim. The bright one was the person playing the zither in the video, and the dim one was Simon.
"I thought about it, and I think you're right." Su Xiangli pursed her lips. "I'll rephrase it: This is a girl's promise, my Su Xiangli's promise!"
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Greyhounds
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"