When I met her again during the winter break, I brought up Wu Di, saying, “When I met Wu Di, I finally understood what it means to feel a heartbeat; this time, my first love has really arrived!” Xu Ling was blunt, “Come on, when isn’t it your first love? According to incomplete statistics, Li Zheng, you’ve had your first love twenty-five times!” I didn’t bother explaining; she was just jealous! The winter break was quite fun; Wu Di took Xu Ling and me to have lots of fun. Initially, I thought Wu Di was shy, blushing at the slightest thing. Later, after getting to know him better, I found out he was timid with girls but bold outside. When we went out, he only wore his uniform, and if there was something we couldn’t handle, he would wave his officer’s ID. Most of the time, the public still respected the soldiers. Occasionally, if someone didn’t, Xu Ling and I would step in to play the bad cop. For a while, we roamed the town, occasionally helping small vendors. I told Wu Di, “You missed the good old days; if it weren’t for liberation, you’d definitely be a righteous bandit, robbing the rich to help the poor.” He blinked, “You’re just saying I’m like a bandit, right? Bandits are just unorganized armed forces; it’s the same thing.” We, Xu Ling and I, found his reactionary remarks quite disdainful, not at all fitting the image of the red and expert soldiers we had in mind. That was how I met Wu Di, not particularly dramatic, but it did fit the cliché of a hero saving the damsel in distress, followed by the damsel giving herself to the hero.
Chapter 2
I thought of Wu Di again ten years later because Xu Ling came to visit. After graduating, she taught for a few years at a school back home, had a falling out with her small man, got divorced, and, not content with the quiet life, decided to come to the bustling capital to stay with me. Speaking of which, I’ve always dreamed of becoming a teacher.
What other profession allows you to ramble on for an entire class, with a room full of listeners not daring to even fart while you forcefully instill your worldview onto them, and they still pay you money for it? Watching my mom command the classroom with such authority, I understood how she held the power of life and death over our household; if my dad dared to disagree, she could lecture him for a solid forty-five minutes without repeating a single sentence! I shared this observation with Xu Ling, encouraging her to stick with her current job. She looked wronged and said, “Do you think kids these days are as dumb as we were back then? They’re already climbing over teachers if they don’t get their way, and you can’t hit or scold them anymore, or the parents will never let it go!” And so, Xu Ling moved into my place.
