Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 385 is really the last lesson!

There are countless works in literary history that describe the future. Whether optimistic or pessimistic, they always have the hazy filter of fantasy literature.

However, Zhang Chao’s “The Last Lesson” is full of “fantasy” but has no “fantasy color”.

Although there are a lot of "future" life details in the novel, such as video calls that can be made anytime and anywhere, mobile phones replacing wallets, and facial verification, a high-tech that can only be seen in movies, is everywhere and worthless...

But the atmosphere of the whole novel is an almost depressing "sense of reality".

The mix of two completely different styles is extremely harmonious and integrated, presenting a peculiar "realistic futurism" tone.

In this novel, Zhang Chao used his own name as the name of the protagonist, and even transplanted some well-known family backgrounds to him (for example, his father was a teacher), but reading it has a kind of "coldness" that makes people feel cold.

Like a forensic doctor, he calmly dissected the life of the man with the same name, taking out the brain, heart, liver, kidneys... and even the genitals; then he delicately cut open his muscles along the texture to reveal the wrapped blood vessels, bones, and nerves.

But not a drop of blood was shed.

As "Zhang Chao" was "dissected" and "cut open", a certain aspect of society was also "dissected" and "cut open".

The editors of "Harvest" magazine also read another meaning - "The Last Lesson" also dissected the collective anxiety of the "middle class" people in China's big cities from the perspective of the protagonist "Zhang Chao".

It’s not that there is no urban literature in contemporary China. Wang Anyi from Shanghai, Chi Li from Wuhan, and of course Wang Shuo from earlier times, have all written excellent works of urban literature.

However, the urban impressions portrayed by these novelists are often biased towards one corner, mainly depicting the joys and sorrows of the "old cities", while it is difficult to touch upon the drastic changes in the social structure, economic structure and public consciousness of these big cities.

In this regard, China is far behind Europe, America, South America, Japan, and even some countries in West Asia and North Africa (for example, Egypt has Naguib Mahfouz). Of course, this is also related to the fact that China's modern urbanization process started too late and developed too rapidly.

After all, the tradition of urban literature in Europe and America can be traced back a hundred or even two hundred years. Both Dickens in Britain and Balzac in France are masters of describing cities.

The Last Lesson creatively puts forward the concept of "class decline" with extremely sharp writing style.

Following Zhang Chao's experience, the editors saw the mess behind the glamorous lives of those "white-collar" and even "gold-collar" people gathered in Shenzhen.

Cyclical decline or technological obsolescence in the industry, stagnant income and price inflation, high real estate debt (having to pay thousands of dollars a month for a house), and over-reliance on credit to maintain a middle-class lifestyle.

School district housing, quality education, quality medical care, and a family structure that has become extremely fragile due to the "one-child policy"...

This has led to Shenzhen's "middle class" always being in a state of intense anxiety, and this anxiety, specifically in the educational theme expressed in "The Last Lesson", is manifested in the almost crazy "rolling up" for basic education in order to prevent the next generation of "only children" from "falling into the class ladder".

[…At this moment, Zhang Chao has mastered all the techniques to tease parents. At 11: pm, he turned on his computer and started editing today’s “feedback information”——

"Hello, Zi Han's mother:
The get out of class just ended, and now I have time to tell you about Zi Han's study today. Zi Han's performance in class today is as follows -

Today, we are learning the classical Chinese articles "Sun Quan's Persuasion to Study" and "The Oil Seller" in advance for the seventh grade. These two classical Chinese articles are required to be memorized and are very important. Zi Han did not do a good job of pre-class preparation, so his progress is a little slower than other children. But he was more focused in class most of the time, so he managed to complete all the classroom exercises in the end. I can give him four stars! We will learn "Humble House Inscription" and "On the Love of Lotus" and several ancient poems in advance next week. I hope Zi Han can memorize these articles in advance this week. The students of the experimental junior high school have already memorized all the required articles before school starts. If we want to get into a good high school, we must work just as hard..."

The message was very long, with 12 to words. It was almost o'clock when I finished editing it. Zhang Chao clicked "Send" on the "Weibo message", and the next second, "Zi Han's mother"'s phone made a "ding ding" notification sound. When Zi Han's mother saw the "feedback message" that took up the entire phone screen, it was like returning to her school days and seeing the teacher's final comments on the back of her report card...】

"Wow, this Zhang Chao is really good at controlling people's hearts." An editor close to Liu Pengtao couldn't help but comment after watching this clip.

Seeing Xiao Liu's clear eyes that had not been polluted by the warmth of his wife and children, he could not help but explain: "The text message "Zhang Chao" was so perfect from the time it was sent to the content!
First, the time. It was 11:12 pm, almost : pm, and he said he had "just finished class". On the one hand, parents would not blame him, but on the other hand, they would think, "Whose child has extra classes so late? He is too eager" - I just learned this word, is it accurate?

Think about it, what kind of people are the middle-class parents in Shenzhen? Most of them are elites who graduated from the exam-oriented education system. When they see other people's children taking extra classes until 11:, while their own children are already sleeping soundly in bed, how can they feel balanced? "

At this time, another editor took over the conversation: "The content of this message is also very well written - it starts with a light criticism, then a light praise, then compares the performance of students from prestigious schools, and uses the phrase 'getting into a good high school' to raise parents' expectations...

In this way, the impression of "Teacher Zhang Chao" in "Zi Han's mother" is very positive - busy with work, which means he is very skilled; he sends feedback very late, which means he is very responsible; each feedback is several hundred words, which means he is serious and responsible in teaching; he mentions information about famous schools from time to time, which means he is familiar with the local education situation...

This Chunchun has ‘caught’ the parents! It’s really great! "

Although Liu Pengtao has rich reading experience, he lacks life experience, so he did not see the subtlety of this description. After being reminded by the two elder brothers, he realized how "Zhang Chao" manipulated people's hearts. He couldn't help but "feeling scared" and said: "Is it so terrible? Our education in Shanghai doesn't seem to be so 'involuted', right?"

Unconsciously, all editors who have read this novel have begun to use the two words "volume" and "involution" skillfully.

This word is simply magical. It perfectly condenses the state of the modern education model that cannot break through after reaching a certain stage, and turns to internal complexity and refinement, but without substantial progress. It accurately reflects the collective anxiety and inefficient consumption in the current resource competition. The headquarters of "Harvest" magazine is in Shanghai. As the Oriental Magic City that has been prosperous for a hundred years, it has extremely rich educational resources from basic to advanced levels, as well as a system of further education that is different from other places in the country, so the extreme situation described in the novel has not yet appeared.

However, the editors of "Harvest" come from all over the country, so many of them have vaguely felt from their own growth experiences that the predictions about the future in "The Last Lesson" are reasonable.

This kind of future forms a wonderful contrast with the thriving social and economic development environment described in the novel - the rapid growth of income has not extinguished people's inner anxiety, but instead seems to add fuel to the fire.

The next paragraph in The Last Lesson, which describes how "Zi Han's mother" went to work the next day after reading the "Weibo message", is the highlight:

[…The subway turnstiles swallowed up suits and briefcases, and the sound of heels hitting the marble floor was like a series of countdown stopwatches. Lin Xia clenched the strap of her Chanel shoulder bag. The artificial leather was slippery with sweat, and clear fingerprints could be traced on it. The 300-meter-high financial center building above her head, with its spire that could pierce the clouds, was dissolving. She shrank her neck, and her collarbone hit the Tiffany key necklace around her neck. This was the wedding anniversary gift her husband gave her. She knew that her husband originally wanted to give it to a lady whose name she didn't know, but was rejected by the other party, so he could only give it to herself.

But what does it matter?
The phone vibrated in the palm of her hand. There were 99+ unread messages in the "Weibo Parents Group", and the top one was: "Calling all members: The average score of this week's math unit test is 92.7. Students who did not meet the standard are advised to do extra learning outside of class and not hold the class back." The person who spoke was not the teacher, but the head of the class parent committee. The blood-red 89 points on her daughter's test paper suddenly floated in the air, and jagged edges of the numbers grew, cutting Lin Xia's brain. Her fingers unconsciously stroked the change balance displayed on the screen, 12580.36 yuan, just enough for the math teacher in Teacher Zhang Chao's studio to pay for 1 classes - if the salary of the nanny Aunt Zhong was cut. But they can only take small classes, not one-on-one.

The elevator door opened, and twelve similar faces squeezed in, all reflected on the shiny steel surface of the elevator. Foundation could not cover the dark circles under the eyelids, and the cuffs of a certain lady's Gucci jacket were frayed. When the button for the 22nd floor lit up, everyone lowered their heads to check their phones. Lin Xia's screen popped up a mortgage reminder again, and the monthly repayment amount was equivalent to more than half a month's salary for her husband. This number continued to multiply on her retina, turning into the railings of the high school teaching building. She saw a boy in school uniform falling from there in the "Weibo Parents Group", and the test papers in his schoolbag were scattered all over the ground, like white doves in the square.

The coffee machine in the tea room sprayed brown mucus. The chatter of colleagues pierced into the eardrums like fragments: "Sister Wang sent her son to the International Department of Shenzhen Foreign Language School... She mortgaged the property certificate as an asset certificate..." "My old and dilapidated primary school district house has been on the market for three months... The agent said that the price may fall below the guidance price after the new policy comes out..." The bitter taste of American coffee mixed with the wind from the central air conditioner condensed into a mass in Lin Xia's throat. The pop-up window on the phone popped up another piece of social news: "Daxing Technology Company has trained a large number of outstanding engineers and entrepreneurial talents for the society, allowing them to graduate when they are 40 years old and most mature in ability, and at the same time giving these outstanding talents back to the society..." She counted that she still had two years to reach the terrifying number of "40". The cold sweat on her back soaked her shirt. The fabric was close to her back, and the touch felt like a snake spitting out its tongue crawling up along her spine. ...】

"Mobile phones, mobile phones, mobile phones... all mobile phones. Are mobile phones so important?" Liu Pengtao said involuntarily, "I think mobile phones are just for making calls and playing Snake occasionally. Judging from what he wrote, we won't be able to live without mobile phones in the future."

"What does it mean to give back to society through employees? How can one 'graduate' at the age of 40?" An editor did not understand for a moment.

Another editor laughed and said, "It's just to persuade people to quit. What's the point? And they're talking about 'graduation' and 'giving back to society'. Isn't that just like taking off your pants and farting?"

Other editors echoed this: "Isn't 40 the prime of life? Why would you fire experienced and skilled employees and replace them with rookies?"

"Yes, Zhang Chao's fiction here is not reasonable enough! He may have gone too far in creating the anxiety of future society. If you said he would do this at the age of 50, I would believe it, but 40 is too early!"

"Yes, a 40-year-old employee has settled down and bought a house. He still has to pay the mortgage and send his children to school. He is just allowed to 'graduate' like this. Isn't this a crime?"

"Capitalists can't be so inhumane, right? Aren't you afraid that your baby won't have an anus?"

"Haha, how do you know? She's rich, and she can go to the hospital and ask the doctor to take out an anus if she gives birth without one."

"Anyway, it's unreasonable to eliminate people at the age of 40 for no reason."

"That's what fiction is. It's normal to be a little absurd in order to deconstruct the inner fabric of modern society. In Metamorphosis, a man even turns into a beetle!"

While the discussion in the editorial office outside was in full swing, in the editor-in-chief's office, Cheng Yongxin and Bi Feiyu were almost reaching the end of the novel.

In the subsequent plot of the novel, "Zhang Chao" not only becomes a "gold medal teacher" who can charge 2000 yuan per class, but also starts his own education and training institution and becomes a boss.

In order to evade supervision, he rented two houses in a residential building and turned the living room and bedroom into small classrooms. He not only taught classes himself, but also invited many teachers of other subjects to teach classes.

One evening, when he came back from dinner, he saw a large crowd of people gathered downstairs of the two houses he rented. He looked up and saw thick smoke coming out of one of the upper floors, with flashes of fire from time to time.

A group of children ranging from seven or eight to fifteen or sixteen years old were crowded on the balcony, and there was more than one child's face squeezed into the gap between each railing.

"Zhang Chao" remembered that when he went out, he locked the doors of the two houses to prevent students from running around.

【Zhang Chao felt that his soul was pulled out of his body at this moment, floating in the air, as if he wanted to rush into the thick black smoke, or rush out of the thick clouds on the roof and escape from this city. His feet took root, and all the sounds in his ears seemed to come from a very far place, empty and dry. He knew what to do at this time, but he also knew that it was useless to do anything at this time. At this time, he saw a young man in a white shirt in the crowd who was also looking up, but he was not looking at the burning floor, but at the blue sky behind the clouds.

Zhang Chao, 23 years old, tall, good-looking, wearing glasses, loves to smile, but not very talkative, and can write articles. He likes to wear white shirts because they look clean and neat; he puts a red pen on the chest pocket of his shirt, which is a habit left to him by his father, so that he can correct students at any time; he rides a bicycle to school every day, gets off the bicycle in a chic manner at the school gate, and then takes the newspaper he subscribes to from the guard room. Students like him, and sometimes they jump on the back seat of his bicycle and let him take them to the bottom of the teaching building. He has never refused. 】

"Is that all?" Cheng Yongxin turned to the back of the manuscript with a lingering look, but it was blank, with nothing on it.

"Of course it's over, that's why it's called 'The Last Lesson'." Bi Feiyu said, "Think about it, his organization caught fire, doesn't that become his 'last lesson'?"

Cheng Yongxin thought for a moment and said, "Isn't this the 'last lesson' of the tutoring industry? Zhang Chao is really ruthless."

Both of them recalled the "Blue Speed ​​Internet Cafe" incident in 2002, which almost killed off the emerging Internet cafe industry.

(End of this chapter)