Episode 2 Acquaintance 第二章 相逢相识 Part 0

Winter Break in Year 2015

2015年寒假

Loneliness was what he feared, especially when it came from both reality and his imaginary world. Senselessness had made himself isolated, concentrating on academics and discipline instead of any relationship. He undoubtedly knew that the toxic lifestyle would end his life eventually, therefore he was trying to look for some solutions in the holiday, to heal himself, or to eliminate his life directly. However, the answer to any question couldn’t always be easily found, whether the issue might be addressed was uncertain.

他很害怕感到孤独，尤其是来自现实与虚幻世界的双重孤独感。由此而来的无力感使他孤寂，更加专心于学业和恪守纪律，而不是把心思放在和任何人的关系上。毫无疑问，他当然知道这如毒药般的生活方式会逐渐蚕食他的生命，因此他在试图寻找一些方法，来治愈他自身的创伤，亦或是直接终结他的一切。不过，问题的答案从不是那么简单可以得到，能否处理好这一切仍然是不确定的。

Linqi was depressed about his school life in secondary 1, though there were some inspiring people like Wanli and Yuwen, Liyin’s domination had significantly limited his social interaction with rest of the classmates.

解林棋对他的初一的校园生活感到失落，虽然也遇见了像霍婉理和余温那样激励的人，但李寅的掌控极大地限制了他和剩下的同学们的交流。

When he was unsure about what exactly to do in the winter break, an old but firm voice came out,

正当他仍不确定具体在这冬日假期做什么，一个沧桑却强有力的声音传来，

“Hey, my lovely grandson, pack your bag and get ready for your tuition class I just signed up for you!”

“哈，我的乖孙儿，把书包收拾好，准备出发去我给你报名的补习班啦！”

Being shocked for a moment, linqi thought it would be a suitable way to escape from annoying stuff by immersing himself again in the sea of schoolwork.

被震撼了一瞬，解林棋回过神来认为，也许再次沉浸在学习的海洋之中也不失为一种逃离繁琐事物的合理方式。

“Fine.”

“好的。”

As usual, grandpa Xie had sent him to the tuition class so early that the door here was still locked. Grandpa left after he asked Linqi to go home by bike on his own later. Gazing at the rolling door, the sense of loneliness had again came to stay with him, until he saw a familiar stranger coming to him. His name, Zhang Wenlin, always appeared on the top of the ranking board. Linqi had seen him many times when he went to the canteen with Wensun, but he didn’t have the courage to make a friend with Wenlin. Yet now it might be the best time ever to have an official meeting with him. 

像往常一样，解爷爷依旧很早地就把解林棋送到补习班，甚至连补习班都还没有开门。在嘱咐了解林棋待会儿自己骑自行车回家后，解爷爷离开了。凝视着这关闭的卷帘门，孤独感再次包裹着他，直到他看见一个熟悉的陌生人向他这边走来——其名为张文琳，他的名字总是出现在年级排位榜前几位。当解林棋和文隼去食堂吃饭的时候，他经常看见却总没有勇气和张文琳交朋友。但此刻也许是绝无仅有的，与张文琳正式见面的机会。

“Hello, Zhang Wenlin. I have known you for a long time and it’s my pleasure to meet you there. Almost forgot to introduce, Xie Linqi, my name.” Xie Linqi made it weird as he was using a formal tone.  

“您好，张文琳同学。我之前就对你有所了解，与你在此相遇甚是荣幸。哦，差点忘了介绍自己。我姓解名林棋。”解林棋正式的腔调使得这些话语些许奇怪。

“Hi, Linqi. Good to make you become my friend. I feel honoured to be known by you.” Wenlin, with a smile, replied him with the same tone.

“你好，解林棋。有你这样的人成为我的朋友是极好的。我也感到很荣幸被你知晓。”张文琳回解林棋以微笑和同样正式的腔调。

“How come you reached there so early? My grandpa gets used to doing things in advance, so I came with him quite early.” Linqi was trying finding  some topics to continue the conversations.

“你怎么也来得这么早？我是因为我爷爷习惯提前把事情做好，所以我就跟他来挺早的。”解林棋在试图找到一些话题来和他继续交流。

“My home is quite far from there so I have to come earlier in case I couldn’t catch up the bus.” Wenlin patiently answered. When they tried continuing the communication, an old man came with a key.

“我家里离这里挺远的，所以我需要来早点，免得我错过了公交车。”张文琳耐心地解释道。正当他们试图继续对话，一个老人带着他的钥匙来了。

……

For these days in tuition class, Wenlin and Linqi sat together and explored new topics on the subjects in next semester, especially for mathematics. Their interest in study had made the friendship firm and they did cherish the time they talked about the proof to the congruent triangles and other interesting knowledge. Linqi indeed effectively released his own stress and felt delighted being with friendly people.

在补习班的这些天，张文琳和解林棋在一起探讨着下学期要学习的新内容，尤其是数学。他们对学习的兴趣使得友谊更坚固，以及他们的确珍惜一起讨论知识的过程，比如全等三角形的证明。解林棋充分地释放了他自身的压力，以及在补习班同学的友好中感到惬意。

……

The tuition class stopped for some days due to the Chinese New Year holiday and Linqi’s parents came back from Fu City. On the first morning of the new year, Linqi was requested to stand straight near a woman causally lying on her bed, arrogantly speaking to him,

因为要过年了，补习班停了几天课，解林棋的父母也从芙城回来了。在新年第一天的早晨，解林棋被要求直直地站在一个散漫地躺在床上的女人面前，她傲慢地说道，

“You, a poor student. Even you are one of the top students in your class, you are far from the top in your cohort. Always listen to me and don’t get any duty to distract you from study. Don’t play with classmates who have poor results. Obey what I say, understood?”

“你只是个啥也不是的学生。就算你在你们班名列前茅，你离整个年级的佼佼者还差得远呢。必须听我的，不要在班上有任何职位来让你分心。也别和成绩差的同学们玩。遵守我所说的，知道了吗？”

“Yes.” Linqi answered peacefully, he looked at the ground, ignoring the purposely ugly face on this unfamiliar acquaintance. She didn’t really know what Linqi had experienced in school, yet she was still educating him to show her definite control over Linqi. At this time, Linqi vowed that he would be away from her, he would escape from all these to chase freedom.

“知道了。”解林棋平静地回答道。他低头看着地板，试图无视这个不熟悉的熟人那张故作丑态的脸。她根本不知道解林棋在学校里经历了什么，但她依旧为了展示自己对解林棋绝对的统治而来说教他。此刻，解林棋暗暗发誓他会逃离她，他会逃离这一切，去追寻自由。

……

Though he was extremely despaired due to that lady, his heart was luckily healed by the friends like Wenlin in the tuition class after the new year break. He enjoyed studying and was quite relaxed there. Except for one day, a tuition manager disrespectfully grabbed Wenlin’s practice paper and doubted him drawing randomly and didn’t listened to the teacher.

虽然那位女士让他感觉到非常糟糕，他很快被新年之后补习班的朋友们所治愈。他享受和张文琳一样的人一起学习。和他们在一起，他也感觉到很放松。除了有一天，一个补习班的高管很不尊重地抢走了张文琳手中的试卷并质疑他在乱写乱画，没有认真听讲。

“I was practising!” It was Linqi’s first time to see Wenlin’s anger, shown by the red on his ears. But the manager still blamed him and didn’t listen to Wenlin’s valid appeal. Linqi couldn’t speak out a word, as he realised that the problem of the extent to follow rules was not solved. At least I made some new friends, he thought, part of these problems might have been addressed.

“我刚在做题！”这是解林棋第一次看见张文琳如此愤怒，他的脸很快地红到了耳根尖。但高管依旧在指责他，并没有听张文琳的解释。解林棋一时无言，因为他认识到关于遵守规则的程度这个问题并没有得到解决。至少他认识到了一些新朋友，他心想道，至少他心中的一些问题也许已经得到了解决。

The winter holiday went quickly, so as the leisure time he spent with friends in tuition class. The monkey boys, the mysterious fortune-teller, Wenlin, and many other interesting people in the tuition class had made his holiday meaningful. This experience had made him regain his own confidence, which pushed him to looking forward to the new semester, and new acquaintances.

寒假过得很快，他与补习班同学的欢乐时光亦是如此。吉吉和毛毛，神秘的占卜师，张文琳，以及许多其他有趣的人让他的寒假变得有意义。这般经历让他重新获得了自信，也让他能够开始期待下学期的遭遇，以及新的朋友。