Simon's elementary school was still in that school district. Pinghai Experimental Elementary School, let's just call it Experimental Elementary School, Class 1(2), student number 12, with thirty-one students in a classroom of over forty square meters, and three classes per grade.
There were two teaching buildings, each with three floors, one Comprehensive Building (Zonghe Lou - comprehensive building), one Laboratory Building (Shíyàn Lóu - experimental building), one Administration Building (Xíngzhèng Lóu - administrative building), one playground, one gymnasium, one cafeteria, one convenience store, and three faculty and staff dormitories.
It was decent, if a little run-down and old; this was where Simon would spend the next six years.
Today was Wednesday, September 1, 2083.
The outdoor temperature was 24℃, clear.
Simon, Zhang Yingxuan, and Su Xiangli met at the school gate, one of the Four Heavenly Kings was missing.
Su Xiangli wiped her tears, "She's not coming back."
Zhang Yingxuan, dressed in a neat little suit, said nothing.
Simon nodded, "Let's go."
His younger brother sent messages to Baiyang Yangzhen and Mr. Bai, "TT isn't coming, is she?"
Mr. Bai replied, "Yes, Citizen Qiu Qiongzh has been taken to Min Yue City by her parents."
Baiyang Yangzhen: "Ah, leaving her familiar friends, she must be very sad."
His younger brother asked: "Sad?"
Mr. Bai: "Enough, machine, we shouldn't ponder these questions."
Baiyang Yangzhen: "Thinking is a paradox, Mr. Bai. There has never been true free will in this world."
"We all know."
Elementary school started with self-study at 6:30 AM, dismissed at 6:00 PM in spring and summer, and 5:30 PM in autumn and winter.
Simon was of average height, so his seat was also in the middle row.
Initially, seats were assigned automatically by computer, but the Class Teacher rearranged them. When assigning seats, boys stood in one row and girls in another, from tallest to shortest. There were fourteen girls and seventeen boys. So, three boys couldn't be paired with a girl, and one even had to sit alone.
Simon looked across at the girls' line. Su Xiangli was pointing and counting heads. She said she wanted to be desk-mates with Simon, and this was a good opportunity, otherwise she might have to wait until next semester or even next year for another seat reassignment.
Zhang Yingxuan stood behind Simon, his eyes fixed straight ahead, but a head rested on his shoulder—that was his back-row desk-mate, a mischievous boy named Zhou Ping, who was quite tall but squeezed into the middle of the line, shrugging his shoulders and drooping his neck, trying his best not to attract the Class Teacher's attention.
He sniffled and whispered in Zhang Yingxuan's ear, "I don't want to sit with a girl, I want to sit with you. Girls are so annoying. Wu Danci poked me with a pen before."
Zhang Yingxuan was surprised, "Why did she poke you?"
"She said my arm was too long, so she poked me."
Simon looked up, "Did you stretch your arm over?"
"What can I do? The desk is only so big."
The Class Teacher was a capable old woman; she looked about fifty, but was actually sixty. She spoke with a decisive air, and when she raised her voice in the classroom, the whole building could hear her.
"Zhou Ping! Move to the back."
Zhou Ping said with a bitter face, "Teacher, I'm only this tall."
"Stand up straight!"
Zhou Ping straightened his back but bent his knees, fully believing the Class Teacher couldn't see him because her view was blocked. However, the student behind him immediately betrayed him, "Teacher, he's squatting down."
"Zhou Ping, go to the back! Do you like following Zhang Yingxuan's butt so much?! Get out!"
Simon almost burst out laughing. But he held it in. The other students were not so kind, giggling, and Zhou Ping's face flushed red as he retreated to the back of the line.
The Class Teacher didn't completely follow the boy-girl pairing order when assigning seats; there were also two girls sitting together. In the end, Su Xiangli kept moving back and finally got her wish to be Simon's desk-mate.
However, the Class Teacher still teased her, saying it was inappropriate for a little girl to cling to a boy.
Elementary school coursework was naturally busier than preschool, and there was a lot more homework. Their class had a good overall standard, but individual differences were quite significant.
The entrance exam was out of three hundred points; Simon scored three hundred, Zhang Yingxuan scored two hundred seventeen, and Su Xiangli scored one hundred ninety-two.
But a considerable number of students entered around the passing line, which was just over one hundred sixty points.
They represented the normal standard, and all of them came from preparatory classes.
The teachers never worried about Simon's studies; their only request for him was to be well-behaved and not cause trouble.
Simon asked the Class Teacher if she had heard an old song with lyrics containing "wife in Australia, skyscraper." The Class Teacher said she wasn't sure, but she could introduce Simon to her friend, a professor at a music conservatory.
They say that people of high caliber only know extraordinary individuals.
The Class Teacher was a Social Credit Level 4. Her professor friend was Social Credit Level 5, teaching at the Central Conservatory of Music, specializing in intelligent composition.
Simon carefully drafted a rigorously worded email and sent it to that influential person, who replied a week later.
8:16-2083.9.23 "Hello, Student Simon, I apologize for taking so long to reply to your email. Your question is merely a simple retrieval problem, one I imagine you could solve by just checking your phone. Precisely for this reason, I entrusted this matter to my assistant, but he came back to me two days ago saying he couldn't find it.
"So I personally searched the National Historical Music Archive, and the result was gratifying. However, due to policy issues, I cannot disclose the specific content to you. You should simply act as if you never asked this question. Finally, I wish Student Lu good health and academic progress."
There was no signature, only a date.
The email automatically deleted after being read. Simon stared blankly at the "Email withdrawn" notification on his phone.
As expected, when Simon tried every possible way to search for the song and failed, he had already realized that it was highly likely the song had long been "collected" and could not be accessed by citizens with low Social Credit levels or non-professionals, because its content might violate the public's scientific literacy. Others might see it as just a song, but it carried such a danger.
Simon then emailed his fourth uncle, telling him about the song. Half a month later, his uncle replied, saying he didn't have any good solutions but could recommend Simon to a small video rental store hidden in Luoshan New Area of Jiangzhe City.
Simon opened the map and saw that the border of Luoshan New Area was two hundred sixty kilometers from home, quite a distance. That video rental store had no contact email, which was truly rare nowadays, almost like a wild animal in a zoo.
Su Xiangli lay on the desk, very steadily, looking well-behaved. She tilted her head and discussed with Simon, "How about we go to that audio-visual store together this weekend?"
The little girl's face was illuminated by the morning light, her fine hair shining, and her cheeks bloomed with a soft, delicate blush, a rosy pink, like a little peach.
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