Chapter 22: Remote feeding and the second psychological counseling

At noon, the cafeteria.

Zhai Da shoveled banana-stuffed bitter melon with one hand and held his phone with the other.

"Malnourished" sent him another message.

"I'm eating lunch."

Having roughly understood what this girl meant, Zhai Da replied: "What are you eating?"

After a while.

"Malnourished": Cold noodles.

"Zhai Handsome Guy": Cold noodles have no nutrition, ask the boss lady to add two poached eggs.

This time "Malnourished" replied a bit slowly:

"Added."

"Eat it, you have to finish it."

"Finished."

You don't say... you really don't say.

This feeling of remotely assigning tasks is actually quite something...

The rest of the day passed very peacefully, and the teacher talk he imagined didn't happen. Chu Xiang had indeed made it all up.

However, although he didn't hand in homework, he was very serious in class, especially in Chinese and English. One had a foundation too good to learn effortlessly, and the other had a foundation too poor, but any bit he learned was a huge improvement.

And he finally learned how to spell that correct "beach."

In addition, the "rumor" that Lin Shuyao confessed to Zhai Da and was rejected, because it reached the ears of the authorities, was mastered by the kings of the gossip world, that group of girls, and began to spread rapidly on campus.

From the perspective of reputation, it was a good thing for Zhai Da. He began to shed the identity of a bitter man, achieved class mobility, and became the man chased by the school beauty.

The lick-dog was upgraded to Pan Hong.

But from the perspective of wasting energy, the strange, scrutinizing gazes of classmates during breaks were annoying.

Especially since Lin Shuyao had many lick-dogs, while public opinion reversed, it was estimated that hidden hostility wouldn't be less.

So whenever he saw Wu Yue, he would kick his butt.

During the evening self-study, the math teacher came to occupy the class, and the class wailed. Among all subjects, math was the most tormenting. One big class could make a human brain into a machine.

And Zhai Da had a death-free gold medal, swaggering away alone to the top floor of the teaching building to knock on Teacher Shen Rui's office.

According to the agreement, Zhai Da came to find Teacher Shen Rui for the second time, and it was also the last time.

Although he was very disgusted with the so-called "psychological counseling" at first, they chatted quite happily last time, so today Zhai Da actually had a bit of expectation.

After all, he could legitimately skip evening self-study.

Teacher Shen Rui was still in the posture of working at his desk, his fountain pen constantly writing something. It wasn't clear why a leisurely "ideological and political" teacher had so many things to deal with every day.

Seeing Zhai Da come in, Shen Rui stood up with a smile: "Student Zhai, see you again."

Zhai Da thought he was going to make tea, but didn't expect that after a while, he would pull two bottles of Assam milk tea from the cabinet and hand one to Zhai Da.

"Hot water is gone, but you should like this better."

Zhai Da was surprised: "Office staple?"

Shen Rui made a "shh" gesture: "Don't tell other students, a little personal hobby."

Zhai Da suddenly thought of a cliché copywriter from later generations.

Interesting souls are one in ten thousand.

Shen Rui still didn't come up to care whether Zhai Da's "emotions were normal." This kind of question is observed, not asked. He continued the topic from last time and said:

"I asked my third uncle two days ago. Student Zhai's grandfather did indeed know my mother. Because of the military's needs in the 1960s, the textile factory made precision instruments, and they were coworkers for a period of time."

Zhai Da listened very carefully, but still shook his head regretfully: "Sorry, I have no way to verify."

Shen Rui comforted: "It's okay, if you're not interested in this topic, we can talk about something else."

"No, actually I'm very interested..."

Shen Rui took a sip of Assam and said: "When my uncle heard the name 'Yu Lihua,' he was very excited, saying that he was a technical expert transferred from the Northeast. You know that in that era, industry was basically in the Northeast."

"He was a technical pacesetter that year and even self-studied to get into university. My uncle said the factory even held a celebration and he wore a big red flower, but unfortunately, it seemed he didn't go in the end."

Speaking of this, Zhai Da connected with his own memory and added: "Grandfather took the college entrance exam at 30, but soon because of... that, he went to the Great Northwest and didn't come back for several years.

"By the way, what did your grandfather die of?"

Zhai Da said: "Cancer, several kinds."

Shen Rui was thoughtful, his fingers gently tapping the Assam bottle cap.

Northwest, 1960s...

Actually, Zhai Da was also very vague about many things about his grandfather. He felt he was no exception. Few people can know the experiences of their grandparents' generation like the back of their hand. Knowing their general work and life trajectory is already not bad.

The passion and years of the older generation, for young people, are just the dregs settled in life.

Some might have been told by Yu Xiaoli, but they were hidden in fragments and daily life. For a soul in his thirties, that was already too distant a thing.

Inevitably, Zhai Da thought of that 28-inch bicycle.

Its crossbar was as hard as the spine of its original owner...

Did it mean the thing about getting into university but being sent to the Great Northwest for seven or eight years?

With Zhai Da's grandfather as the topic, the second "psychological counseling" began.

Actually, Zhai Da could roughly guess Shen Rui's train of thought. He wanted to use his grandfather's experience to remind himself:

Short-term setbacks are not the result in the long run, but just a process.

He was afraid that his thinking would go to extremes because of his lack of experience, mistaking the process for the result.

Shen Rui didn't ask Zhai Da what the reason for fainting was at the time. Neither of the two chats asked, whether it was academic pressure or failed confession, it didn't matter, but he raised it to a height to talk about it.

Of course, this person's chat always went off-track, and he even said a lot about his time at school in Jingbei.

And he bluntly stated that for a "child from an ordinary family in a county town or village," the psychological impact brought by big cities is the first hurdle to pass, even if it's a top student.

He also reminded Zhai Da to stay calm after the college entrance exam, no matter what the result is, if he goes to a big city.

Before leaving, Shen Rui said: "According to the school's requirements, the two psychological counseling sessions are over. I maintain my first opinion, actually, you don't need it at all."

After speaking, he smiled and raised his eyebrows: "But it just so happens that you can skip an evening self-study, and I can change my brain."

Zhai Da asked curiously: "Are you very busy with work?"

This was a bit of a beating.

"My work is not busy, it's just a little long-term research."

Does ideological and political work also need research? Shen Rui shouldn't be referring to researching lesson plans...

Social science...

He only knew that university teachers all do scientific research, and even teaching is not the main work. He didn't expect high school teachers could do it too.

Shen Rui said: "Then the psychological counseling is officially over. However, if you have any questions, Student Zhai can still come to knock on my door."

Zhai Da nodded. He always had a feeling.

He would come again. ===== CHAPTER 23 =====