Chapter 19: Extra; Memories Chapter Two (Name)

Extra; Memories Chapter Two (Name)

My name is Jiāng Jiāng, the 'Jiang' in 'General'.

I chose my name when I was seven; a classmate sitting in front of me gave me a lot of valuable advice.

In the orphanage, everyone's names were fairly casual; many kids didn't even know their own names, being called things like 'Dazhuang', 'Erqiang', 'Xiaohua', 'Yanzi', and so on.

Taking that front-desk classmate as an example, that would be a bit part.

Compared to that, the name of that front-seat classmate looked different from everyone else's.

Right, that front-seat classmate was called Chén Chén.

To get Chén Chén to pick a nice name for me, Jiāng Jiāng paid the price of a week's worth of copying homework.

Because the name was hard-won, Jiāng Jiāng always emphasizes her name when introducing herself to avoid being called wrong.

"My name is Jiāng Jiāng, the 'Jiang' in 'General'."

The two first met one afternoon after they started school.

At that time, Jiāng Jiāng was not yet called Jiāng Jiāng.

As for what she was called before changing her name to Jiāng Jiāng, that has already been tossed into the trash bin of history.

……

After school, only Jiāng Jiāng remained in the classroom.

Jiāng Jiāng's relationships in the orphanage weren't good; unlike many orphanages in stories, the atmosphere of the orphanage where Jiāng Jiāng stayed was not good either.

The huge orphanage almost every day sees new members join, and every day someone is adopted or taken away for other reasons; the number of those adopted in the orphanage numbers not less than eight hundred, maybe close to a thousand, and while the kids treat each other as friends today, they could be separated tomorrow.

The children who actually stay long-term in the orphanage are divided into many different small groups according to the time they arrived and their age.

The good news is that joining these small groups isn't hard; the bad news is that Jiāng Jiāng hasn't managed to join any.

Normally, six people are on duty, but only Jiāng Jiāng remained in the classroom—this is the result of failing to fit in.

For the seven-year-old, frail Jiāng Jiāng, even lifting a chair onto the desk is no easy task; even so, the whole classroom's cleaning must be done by Jiāng Jiāng alone.

"Only you?"

Jiāng Jiāng looked up, and the person standing at the doorway was none other than that cool male classmate sitting beside her.

"Hmm." Jiāng Jiāng replied cautiously.

Chén Chén is a rather strange person; compared to others, he seems to be a bit nicer to me, but not really good. (Meaning he occasionally talks to me.)

"Why are you the only one?"

Jiāng Jiāng fell silent for a moment, not knowing how to answer such a question.

The boy silently walked to the desk and chair by the door, flipped a stool over, and placed it on the desk.

"What are you doing?"

Jiāng Jiāng looked at the boy doubtfully, not quite understanding his action.

"I'll help you clean, and you help me with homework—how about that?"

Jiāng Jiāng gazed at that cool boy in astonishment; this was the first time Jiāng Jiāng had ever encountered someone who voluntarily offered to help her.

Compared to cleaning, doing homework is obviously much easier for Jiāng Jiāng.

"Okay."

In the classroom, Chén Chén's speed was who-knows-how-many times faster than Jiāng Jiāng's; Chén Chén simply cleared a desk for Jiāng Jiāng to start doing homework.

One person swept amid the whirling dust, another wrote in quiet silence; little Jiāng Jiāng wrote and wrote, occasionally glancing sideways at Chén Chén darting back and forth in the classroom, a faint arc forming on her cheeks, and even she herself didn't know why she felt that way.

I always felt this boy was completely unlike other boys, possessing an inexplicable handsomeness.

Only many years later did Jiāng Jiāng's classmate realize that, in fact, Chén Chén had originally been part of that day's duty roster.

"My name is Chén Chén."

Huh? I always feel this person's name is quite different from everyone else's.

"My name is * * *"

(Some future Jiāng Jiāng: As I said, it's already been thrown into the trash bin of history.)

Well, compared to that, my name is just super ordinary.

"So why are you cleaning all by yourself?"

"Why?" Jiāng Jiāng was somewhat puzzled by Chén Chén's question.

After all, according to the rules, I should be on duty today.

The other assigned students not doing duty is their fault; continuing to clean is me following the rules.

No matter how you look at it, that's the best decision.

For those kids who skip out, the teacher will also punish them later—namely, making them sweep for a day to make it up.

But for some children's groups, this is already enough to show their authority.

Chén Chén looked at the girl with red pupils; just from her face, she is very likely to become a great beauty.

The red pupils are probably a mutation caused by the Great Nirvana incident; for other children, they might be a source of exclusion.

Such a cute little girl being bullied by that clueless bunch of brats makes Chén Chén a little annoyed.

But faced with the girl's clear gaze, Chén Chén also didn't know how to answer her question.

This orphanage is far worse than the one Chén Chén had in his previous life; rather than calling it an orphanage, it's more like a Gu Er Shou Rong Zhong Xin.

The orphanage is government-funded, and many of its staff aren't there out of goodwill but just to collect a paycheck.

Like Chén Chén and Jiāng Jiāng, such minorities, the staff mostly choose to laugh it off and ignore them, after all it's just kids playing around; as long as no one gets hurt, for those just collecting a paycheck it makes no difference.

Furthermore, in this world death is practically normal; every year, dozens of children die in the orphanage from various bodily causes while playing in dangerous places, and as long as the quota isn't met, a casual report is enough to get by.

"From now on, follow me."

Perhaps because his heart softened, or perhaps because he just needed a 'tool person' to help with many chores, Chén Chén said that.

"Tag along with you?" Little Jiang Jiang obviously had a limited grasp of many things.

"From now on you don't have to pay protection money; just help me with my homework." Chen Chen switched to a simpler way of speaking to the dazed, cute little girl in front of him.

Little Jiang Jiang casually believed Chen Chen's words, then weighed in her mind whether doing homework or paying protection fees was more worthwhile.

After all, for Little Jiang Jiang, finishing an assignment was no easy feat.

Of course, even then Jiang Jiang had no intention of refusing; at that point she hadn't learned what refusal was.

But for some reason, not refusing Chen Chen felt completely different in her heart than not refusing other children.

From that day on, no one ever came to collect protection money from Jiang Jiang again, and there was no more instance of her being left alone to clean.

Although she didn't quite understand why, Jiang Jiang knew these were all thanks to Chen Chen.

From now on I'll be Chen Chen's lackey, and I'll have a boss.

As she grew a little older, Jiang Jiang gradually came to know some things.

For example, Chen Chen claimed to be the top fighter of Zhu Hai San Yuan, and he could single‑handedly chase off a dozen or so kids who looked much bigger and stronger.

Also, Chen Chen liked to run in the mornings and liked to buy a one‑yuan breakfast from the stall beside the market.

Chen Chen liked to hang upside down from a tree fork, doing sit‑ups while singing, and liked to lie quietly on the rooftop listening to the sun.

Since following Chen Chen, Jiang Jiang's life seemed to have gained many interesting things, and since following Chen Chen, her life seemed to have room only for Chen Chen alone.

The other kids didn't like Jiang Jiang, and they liked Chen Chen even less; the two of them seemed like oddballs in everyone's eyes.

And the more time she spent with Chen Chen, the more Jiang Jiang felt that all the other orphans combined weren't even one‑ten‑thousandth as interesting as Chen Chen.

Mutual rejection meant that thereafter Jiang Jiang never had a chance to make a friend; even if Chen Chen said she should make some friends, it was useless, as she had already grown accustomed to this way of life.

I want to change my name.

Little Jiang Jiang suddenly thought one day.

Why? Chen Chen asked, puzzled.

My current name doesn't sound good. Jiang Jiang replied.

Of course, there were other reasons as well.

Since staying with Chen Chen, Jiang Jiang gradually became different from all the other kids.

But her name remained the same.

Jiang Jiang also wanted, like Chen Chen, to have a name that wasn't just a generic extra.

Of course, Chen Chen didn't know at the time that the girl before him harbored an ambition to defy fate and change her destiny; otherwise he would surely have exclaimed that she was far‑sighted.

Chen Chen merely took it as a novelty for a child, so he timely began telling the girl about King Zhou of Zhou, about Jiang Ziya, and incidentally about many ancient great surnames…

Jiang Jiang, how about that?

The 'jiang' of general.

Chen Chen always said he was too timid, so he wanted to give himself a bolder name.

Chen Chen repeatedly murmured the name Jiang Jiang had chosen for himself, and surprisingly it rolled off the tongue.

Not bad sounding. Chen Chen gave a fair assessment.

Hmm, then from now on I'll be called Jiang Jiang.