Electronic Nezha

Chapter 3 Car accident
Teacher Wang seemed quite pleased with my breakdown, saying, "Some parents with many ideas don't want their children to show their talents too early—"

I quickly said, "I'm not that kind of parent. I'd love for him to be number one in his grade."

"Yes, I'm relieved to see your attitude, that's why I asked you to come."

I asked with concern, "Then, Teacher Wang, what do you think is Liu Zhenhua's purpose in doing this?"

Teacher Wang adjusted her glasses and said, "I don't know what kids these days are thinking. Maybe they think controlling their scores is a cool thing to do. But there's a limit to how much you can try to be clever. Let's not even talk about No. 1 Middle School. Either they work hard and fight for every point, or they end up not even getting into No. 5 Middle School." Her last sentence really hit me hard. I just said No. 1 Middle School casually, but No. 5 Middle School was my real thought.

I broke out in a cold sweat: "Teacher Wang is right!"

"When you go back, don't scold or hit him. Communicate with him properly and see what he thinks."

"I understand. Don't laugh at me, but although I'm not very educated, I do pay attention to the methods when it comes to Liu Zhenhua's teaching." As the conversation was coming to an end, I placed two boxes of kiwis on my desk. "It's just a small token of my appreciation. Please have a taste."

"That won't do—"

I pressed down hard on the box: "You're making me feel awkward." I smiled apologetically, "There's a fruit stand across from the cold storage at home. Teachers are welcome to come and patronize it. Just consider it an advertisement."

Having clearly seen this many times before, Teacher Wang said calmly, "Thank you then, but this won't happen again."

Just as I was about to leave, Teacher Gao looked up from a pile of homework and said, "Hey you, I have something else to tell you. Liu Zhenhua's gaze towards me during math class was a bit off."

"Huh?" I was stunned. My mind was filled with the line from Zhao Benshan's skit, "Oh my god, there's an unexpected bonus!" Teacher Gao was slightly chubby and had a sparse, strong-looking hairstyle. What did it mean that the way he looked at me was a little strange?

Teacher Gao met my gaze and said, "When I was lecturing, he looked at me like—" Teacher Gao seemed to pause briefly, "...as if I were an idiot."

Teacher Gao's tone was full of frustration and displeasure, otherwise she wouldn't have called me "that person" even though she knew who I was. I could tell that if it weren't for her status, the last word would definitely have been "idiot" instead of "fool".

I was relieved at first, but then I realized that being relieved wasn't right either, and it wouldn't be right to look at the teacher like an idiot, would it?
"Is the child just daydreaming?" That was the only explanation I could come up with.

"He looked at me like that because I wasn't distracted. You should go back and talk to him. Tell him to tell me directly if he has any complaints." Teacher Gao buried her head in the pile of homework again.

I walked dejectedly to the door, and Teacher Wang politely saw me off a few steps, seemingly casually asking, "Why isn't Liu Zhenhua's mother in the parents' group chat?"

"Oh, I divorced his mother, and Liu Zhenhua is with me."

Then I immediately saw a burning passion for gossip ignite in Teacher Wang's eyes.

"I can bring her in if needed."

"Not needed for now." For the sake of the gossip news, Teacher Wang saw me out of the office.

As soon as I stepped out of the teaching building, I heard a "thump" from the soccer field next door. It was the sound of the goalkeeper kicking the ball. I turned my head and saw a ball fly across the halfway point and land between two groups of students, which immediately caused a scramble. It must have been the free time for the classes that had just finished their morning exercises. A few boys received the ball, dribbled, cooperated with each other, and scored a goal.

"Yeah!" the scoring team cheered.

Liu Zhenhua jumped up and down in celebration in the backcourt, raising his arms and shouting "666!" It turned out that their class was physical education.

This scene reminded me of my own student days. Although we didn't have rubber tracks or grass on the courts back then, physical education classes were pretty much the same—first, we'd run a few laps around the track, then it was time for activities. The boys would split into two groups to compete, with the same few PE students always being the main players. The others would just chase after the soccer ball for the whole class, sometimes not even getting a kick out of it. After class, they'd be sweaty and smelly, but they still thought they were incredibly cool, like victorious heroes in front of the girls… It seems Liu Zhenhua inherited my talent—that is, he has no talent at all. On the field, he's just there to make up the numbers, a cheerleader. Apart from not causing me much trouble with his studies, he's pretty ordinary in every other aspect.

At this moment, Liu Zhenhua also saw me from afar. He silently crossed his arms, widened his eyes, and made a strange face at me, showing curiosity and shock at my appearance. He probably already had a bad feeling.

I gestured for him not to come over, and then pointed to the school gate, meaning I would wait for him there, because I checked my watch and there were only four or five minutes left before school ended.

I picked up my electric scooter, and the school bell rang. Many parents were already waiting to pick up their children on the roadside. Classes with their last period being PE lined up and dispersed, mingling with the students emerging from the school building. Large numbers of them poured out of the school gate, instantly making the road crowded. The south gate of No. 3 Middle School is located in the middle of our busiest main road. To facilitate crossing, a pedestrian crossing was built in the middle of the guardrail. Every day during school hours, traffic police personally direct traffic, manually stopping vehicles on both sides to allow pedestrians to cross when a large group had gathered—somewhat like an officially organized Chinese-style jaywalking. Today, a female traffic police officer was on duty.

Liu Zhenhua followed a few classmates out of the school gate and headed straight for me. I had already adjusted the direction of the electric bike so that it was facing the sidewalk. He jumped onto the back seat, and the electric bike slumped down.

"What bad things did Wang Aili accuse me of?" His frustrated tone revealed a hint of guilt and an eagerness to explain.

Without turning my head, I said, "Why can't it be a compliment?"

“Wang Aili never praises anyone.” Liu Zhenhua paused in the middle of the sentence, speaking with particular solemnity, as if it were an epic statement, like “The Lannister family always pays their debts.”

"It's nothing serious, let's talk about it when we get back." I hadn't figured out how to tell him yet.

As we were talking, the crowd in front of us surged toward the other side like a swarm of bees. Just as I was about to start moving, the female traffic policewoman raised her arm, indicating that the passage was over.

"Oh dear, we missed a group," I said regretfully.

"Goodbye, Liu Zhenhua!" A melodious voice rang in our ears. The speaker sped past me on a pink mountain bike, dashing onto the road. We could only hear his voice, not see him; he was probably trying to make a last-minute dash. "Screech—"

"boom--"

The sound was piercing, and my view was blocked by the crowd in front of me, but I could already guess what had happened.

"It's Chen Zihan! Chen Zihan has been hit!" someone shouted.

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhenhua got out of the car in surprise and squeezed into the crowd.

"Do you know him?" I asked him.

“My deskmate…” Liu Zhenhua and his classmates squeezed to the front.

I strained to see what was happening. In the middle of the road lay a pink mountain bike, its rear wheel still spinning. A girl lay face up, far from the bike, her hair covering her face, motionless, with a thin trickle of blood flowing from the back of her head. The driver, a middle-aged man, stood beside the bike, stunned.

This accident was a bit complicated, with both parties sharing responsibility. Liu Zhenhua's classmate tried to cross the finish line, while the driver, hoping to get away with it, attempted to speed away before the traffic police had officially given the green light. The car wasn't going too fast, but the problem was that it hit the girl squarely, like a giant throwing her off her bicycle with balanced force. To make matters worse, the girl landed headfirst. Both of them were incredibly unlucky.

The incident immediately plunged the road into chaos. Students, parents, passing drivers, school security guards, and teachers were all in a frenzy, some shouting, some crowding to watch, and others running around. Fortunately, the female traffic police officer remained calm. She ran to Chen Zihan, stopped the well-meaning people who were trying to move her, and while calling for backup on her walkie-talkie, she turned Chen Zihan's head to the side.

"I need...what? An ambulance is on its way!" The female traffic police officer hadn't expected someone to call an ambulance. She shouted to her male colleague who was running towards her from the opposite direction, "Help me restore traffic and get ready to make way for the ambulance!"

The male traffic policeman responded and began directing traffic.

The female traffic policewoman pressed on Chen Zihan's head wound, looked up, and said, "I need something to stop the bleeding—"

Liu Zhenhua had already handed over his school uniform.

Without saying anything more, the female traffic police officer continued to press her school uniform down on Chen Zihan's head.

"You! Move your car to the side," the male traffic policeman said to the still-dazed driver who had caused the accident.

The middle-aged man stammered, "The responsibility hasn't been determined yet..."

I was so angry I yelled, "You idiot, what time is it?"

The male traffic policeman gave me a thumbs-up with his eyes, then glared fiercely at the driver who caused the accident.

Only then did the person move the car.

The advantage of main roads is that they are close to everything. The ambulance arrived quickly, and Chen Zihan was lifted onto a stretcher and sped away.

The onlookers gradually dispersed, and Liu Zhenhua and I looked at each other in bewilderment. He got back into the back seat, and we drove home in silence.

The place Liu Zhenhua and I lived in used to be his grandparents' home. It was in an old, run-down apartment complex, less than 80 square meters, on the fifth floor, with no elevator. For years, garbage was simply thrown down the hallway into the garbage chute below. Any large bamboo basket or cardboard box would block the passage. In the summer, adding watermelon rinds and rotten vegetable leaves would create an unbearable smell after fermentation. Moreover, the layout was illogical. The two bedrooms on the sunny side were overwhelming, making the living room cramped and narrow—you could say it was just a slightly wider passageway. Occasionally, when we invited friends over for dinner, we had to move the table into the bedroom. The only advantage of this apartment was that it was in the school district of the No. 5 Middle School in the city, so when Liu Zhenhua started elementary school, I transferred his household registration there, while his grandparents moved into our 160-square-meter apartment.

After what happened at noon, I decided to postpone my plan to talk to Liu Zhenhua. Although he didn't show any particular emotion, he was clearly in low spirits. The water in the pot boiled, and as I took some frozen noodles from the freezer, I casually asked, "How's Chen Zihan's studies?"

"Not bad, better than me."

How many students ranked in this semester?

"More than 50."

I didn't react for a moment: "In the class?"

Liu Zhenhua said, "Grade."

My hand trembled, and I accidentally added too much noodles. "So, he's only slightly better than you?" After saying that, I immediately felt a pang of self-reproach. I hadn't paid much attention to Liu Zhenhua usually. Even the most oblivious parent would know who their child's deskmate is at school. Even if I'm slow to catch on, I did grasp one thing: in his mind, being ranked 50th in the grade was only slightly better than him. Did this kid have no concept of rankings, or was he just incredibly carefree? He could control his math scores; could it be the same in other subjects? Could it be that his actual ability is close to Chen Zihan's?

Just as I was indulging in my wildest fantasies and was about to conjure up an urban fantasy novel, Liu Zhenhua casually remarked, "Oh, it's much better than mine."

True skill appears clumsy, resolving issues perfectly.

This is a long chapter, 3000 words, updated today. If you find the chapters too long and tiring to read, you can also update 2000 words per chapter 3 times a day—I'm not kidding, please think about it carefully and give me your answer.

In the past, after finishing each chapter, I would always have some random thoughts I wanted to share with everyone. Now, after five years of absence, I feel a bit apprehensive about returning home. I have so much to say, but I don't know where to begin. Fortunately, this book is going to be a long one, and we will have a long time together in the future, so let's take it slow.

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(End of this chapter)