In the early autumn nine years ago, 18-year-old Ethan Yin and his mother Lydia Lin went south to City N, more than a thousand kilometers away from the capital.
The journey was long. When Ethan Yin got off the train, he was still stunned by the completely different atmosphere of this city from the capital. Lydia Lin had already inquired about the route and led him to take the crowded Metro Line 1, urging him: "Hurry up, the landlord will go to bed if you are late."
The city is in a stage of rapid development and alternation between the old and the new. Such old buildings crawling and curled up among the towering high-rise buildings can be seen everywhere, and even many supporting shops are preserved around them.
After getting off the subway and walking, while dragging his luggage through the narrow alley in front of the building, Ethan Yin saw that one of the shops still had its lights on. There was no sign, but on one wall inside were several cheongsams with Jiangnan characteristics hanging. It was a ready-made clothing store.
After crossing the bumpy concrete road, the so-called "new home" is a small two-bedroom apartment in the first old building in front of you.
As soon as he stepped in, he stepped on a beige floor tile that was mostly broken. Ethan Yin looked down and touched it with his toes. The broken tiles made a slight clicking sound.
Picking up the suitcase, Ethan Yin walked around the broken ground and walked into the room Lydia Lin pointed out without saying a word. He opened the suitcase and began to put away the things he brought.
The room was poorly soundproofed and the door was closed. The sound of Lydia Lin and the landlord bargaining outside reached Ethan Yin's ears word for word.
"Is the area 67 square meters? It looks like less than 50 square meters."
"It's written in black and white in the contract. There's not much common area in this old building. Why should I make a fuss about it?"
"What's up with the floor tiles? Where are the facilities you promised?"
"What's missing from the refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine? Floor tiles are not part of the supporting facilities in the contract."
"Then the sink and toilet..."
"Well, just make do with it. If it doesn't work, ask someone to fix it. The rent is already very low considering you are new here. If you want to live here, please sign a deposit and pay three times the rent. If you don't want to rent it, please do as you please."
...
The voice lowered, and Ethan Yin knew that Lydia Lin had compromised.
I stood up and looked around. A wooden bed against the wall, a wooden table that could barely serve as a desk, and a miniature double-door wardrobe next to it made up this simple bedroom.
Fortunately, Ethan Yin had very little luggage. He stuffed his clothes into the closet and piled his books on the corner of the table, so there was nothing much to pack.
The old electric water heater had been humming for a long time but the green light hadn't come on yet. Ethan Yin didn't want to wait, so he quickly wiped himself with running water.
Finally, he could no longer smell the sweat from the long-distance train ride, but Ethan Yin, lying on the bed, still couldn't fall asleep.
He lay flat on the unfamiliar bed, smelling the musty odor of the old walls and staring at the mottled yellow ceiling until his eyes became sore and he slowly closed his eyes.
The next day was cloudy. Ethan Yin got up at six o'clock as usual. He opened the door and went out. Lydia Lin had already brought the steaming pot to the table.
"Get up half an hour earlier next time." Lydia Lin said as she served herself noodles. "I forgot to tell you yesterday that the morning reading class for high school sophomores in this school is scheduled earlier."
The words "second year of high school" made Ethan Yin dazed for a moment. Normally, he should be in the third year of high school this year. He quickly remembered that this was his mother's arrangement. Because the textbooks and knowledge taught in N City and the capital were very different, Lydia Lin was worried that he could not keep up, so she simply asked him to repeat the second year of high school.
This decision was also made without discussing it with anyone. Ethan Yin only found out about it when he got on the train yesterday. His student status had already been transferred and his name had been registered. Now that everything was settled, it was too late to say anything.
Ethan Yin nodded in agreement and sat down to eat.
After finishing her meal and putting on her schoolbag, Lydia Lin poked her head out of the kitchen again: "Do you remember how to get to school?"
Ethan Yin bowed and changed his shoes: "Remember."
Lydia Lin wiped her hands and was about to come out to see him off.
The layout of the house was unreasonable, and the sliding door to the kitchen was narrow. When she came out, her shoulder accidentally bumped into the door frame. Lydia Lin made a dissatisfied "tsk" sound for the third time today.
"Go to the new school and get along well with your classmates." Lydia Lin reminded Ethan Yin before he left the house, "The smaller the school, the more low-key it should be. It's not easy to get you here. Don't make your mother worry."
After tying his shoelaces, Ethan Yin straightened up and whispered "Yeah" before the door closed.
N City No. 15 Middle School is a little-known name, and sounds like an ordinary Beta high school.
In this world, in addition to the gender distinction that is present at birth, humans will also develop a second gender after entering puberty.
Alpha is the best among them. The advantages engraved in their genes make them strong and smart. After entering the society, they generally occupy important leadership and decision-making positions. Omega is a group that is universally considered to be in need of special protection due to its excellent reproductive ability and uncontrollable period. Beta, which accounts for more than 70% of the population, seems mediocre. They are everywhere, but they don't stand out anywhere.
Schools established for the second gender came into being. Alphas received elite education since childhood, Omegas were isolated and protected by high walls, and Betas were left to their own devices. It would be good if they could become talented, but if they couldn't, they would just live a conventional life as one of the countless people. Standing out was never their goal in life.
So the Beta High School that can be seen everywhere in front of us has a facade that is almost the same as the one in the capital. There are two iron doors between two square pillars. In front of the door, there is a fenced-off space for students to park their vehicles. At this time, there are only a few bicycles parked inside, which shows that the number of students in school is less than half.
Lydia Lin was obviously overthinking about the time. Ethan Yin, who was used to attending this kind of school, had a more intuitive understanding of them.
On Ethan Yin’s first day of school, he didn’t have a school uniform to wear. As he walked through the playground toward the teaching building, several students looked at him strangely.
"Classmate." Someone called him, "Classmate, which class are you from? Why aren't you wearing your school uniform at the opening ceremony today?"
The person who called him jogged from behind to the front. Ethan Yin stopped, glanced at the "Duty Student" badge on the boy's chest, and asked, "How do we get to Class 2 (3)?"
The short and thin boy pushed his glasses up on his nose and said, "Ah? Class 2 (3) is on the third floor of Building 2, the second building from south to north."
Ethan Yin thanked him and walked away. The boy caught up with him belatedly and said, "Classmate, hey classmate, are you going to look for someone, or..."
"Transfer student." Ethan Yin strode forward as if no one was around. "From Class 2 (3)."
About twenty minutes later, the fifty-plus seats in the classroom were basically full. A middle-aged man with half of his hair bald walked into the classroom and tapped the podium with the textbook in his hand. The sparse sounds of reading stopped there.
"New semester, new atmosphere. Look at you all, you guys are all still sleepy!" The middle-aged man spoke in a typical class teacher's tone of disappointment. "Do you want me to talk to the math teacher and ask him not to teach the first two classes so that you can get enough sleep?"
A few weak "no"s were mixed with a few "yes, yes, yes", and the head teacher slammed the textbook again: "Wake up, everyone. I'll be watching outside during the class later. If anyone is dozing off, I'll pull him to stand side by side with the principal under the national flag during the break!"
The students in the audience responded lazily again, and a few of them sat up straight with difficulty. This "intimidation" seemed to have some effect.
The new class schedule was posted on the bulletin board, and the class monitor was asked to take a few students to get new books. The head teacher was about to leave with the battered chemistry textbook tucked under his arm when the male class monitor wearing black-framed glasses suddenly stood up and said, "Teacher, we haven't introduced the new students to everyone yet."
As soon as these words were spoken, a group of students who had been lying on the tables like dead fish sat up one after another, looking around inside and outside the classroom, asking the class monitor where the new student was.
The monitor pointed to the last row and said, "He came early, let him sit there first."
After being reminded, the head teacher finally remembered this incident and walked back to the podium to open the roster: "The new student is Yin...Yin Zhan, right? Then let's invite the new student to come up to the stage and introduce himself."
Ethan Yin stood up and walked from the aisle to the podium.
Under the gaze of more than fifty pairs of eyes, he calmly wrote his name on the blackboard with chalk, and turned back to face everyone with a cold expression: "My name is Ethan Yin, please take care of me in the future."
He said polite and courteous words and did things that were indeed thoughtful.
Everyone watched him return to his seat in the last row, and turned to look at the blackboard. The two characters "尹谌" written in a flamboyant style had pinyin marks above them, especially the character "谌", which was as big as a bowl.
Amid the snickers of his classmates, the head teacher cleared his throat awkwardly, put his book away and left.
"Mr. Sun was my homeroom teacher in the first year of high school. He was a very nice person." After the first class, the class monitor Max Qi was ordered to adjust Ethan Yin's seat. "Maybe there are not many transfer students here, plus there are a lot of things to do at the beginning of the school year, so he was so busy that he forgot."
It was about Teacher Sun forgetting that there was a new transfer student in the class and not even being able to pronounce the student's name. Ethan Yin didn't take it seriously at first, and just said "hmm" after hearing what the monitor said.
Max Qi jumped from the fourth group to the first group, then slowly moved back, looking a little embarrassed: "There are not many empty seats in the class, and you are tall, I'm afraid there is no better seat..."
Ethan Yin understood what he meant: "I'll sit here."
Max Qi was the student on duty to enforce discipline in the playground in the morning. Seeing that Ethan Yin was still very tall when he sat down and couldn't even stretch his legs under the desk, he enviously said, "Student Yin is really tall, he doesn't look like a Beta at all."
The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously. Ethan Yin pulled his legs inward and said calmly, "I started school later, and I am one year older than all of you."
"That's also very high. I dare say there is no one taller than you in the senior year."
Ethan Yin remembered his mother's words and was about to say something else when the boy in the front row turned around and joined the conversation: "Are you talking about how to grow taller? In addition to drinking milk, are there any other ways to grow above the Beta average height line?"
He is a boy with a shaved head and single eyelids. During the morning reading class, he enthusiastically exchanged names with Ethan Yin and said that his name is Ryan He, he is 17 years old and an Aries.
Max Qi: "I want to know too. Why don't you ask classmate Yin?"
Ryan He turned to Ethan Yin, his eyes full of expectation: "Brother Yin..."
Ethan Yin didn't like being called that, it reminded him of another person who called him brother.
There was a hint of gloom in his eyes, but Ethan Yin tried his best to restrain it and not let it show on his face.
He has to get used to living with a mask.
Moving the newly distributed pile of books to the middle of the table, separating Ryan He's hands from the edge of his table, Ethan Yin said perfunctorily: "It's hereditary."
The opening ceremony was scheduled during the break after the second class. Because Ethan Yin did not have a school uniform, his homeroom teacher was afraid that he would stand in the line and affect the overall harmony, so he asked him to stay in the classroom.
This was exactly what Ethan Yin wanted. He was afraid of noise and didn't like crowded places. This large classroom with more than 50 people was crowded when it was full, but now that he was the only one left, the spaciousness made him feel comfortable.
I went to bed late yesterday, and my head is still groggy now. Ethan Yin has slept for 1.5 math classes. While he was still conscious, he opened the math book and circled a few examples based on the key points the teacher had talked about in that half class. He closed the book and was about to lie down and sleep for a while, when the exciting music suddenly exploded in his ears.
"March of the Athletes", it's time for the team to do exercises.
Ethan Yin rubbed his hair irritably, pushed the chair away and stood up.
In the morning, under the guidance of the enthusiastic monitor Max Qi, he had already figured out the structure of the building. He walked around the corridor between the two buildings, bought a bottle of mineral water at the canteen, unscrewed the cap and took a sip, when he was caught by the head of the grade who jumped out from nowhere and asked, "Which class are you from? Why didn't you go to the opening ceremony?"
He explained that he had to stay in the classroom because he didn't have a school uniform, and the head teacher, who had high cheekbones and a mean look, was forced to look up at him: "Are you really a sophomore?"
Ethan Yin knew very well how conspicuous his height was among a group of Betas, so he simply told the head teacher the name of his class and asked her to confirm it. After turning around under the suspicious gaze, he took up the hood of his coat and put it on his head.
He didn't like attracting attention at all, and hated being stared at even more. The Betas always looked at him with surprise, as if they had discovered a different species.
He finished the water in a few gulps, crushed the empty bottle and threw it into the trash can, then Ethan Yin went to the bathroom.
This school is full of Betas, even the teachers, and the toilets are only divided into male and female toilets. So when Ethan Yin saw the door of the men's toilet was closed, even though he felt strange, he didn't think too much about it. He pushed the door open with force.
Hearing a strange snapping sound and seeing the broom handle that was used to hold the door at his feet break into two pieces, Ethan Yin realized that what was considered a "casual push" for him might not be the same for others.
The people inside obviously didn't expect someone to break in. They didn't have time to pick up the things thrown on the ground and covered their faces reflexively.
Ethan Yin looked at the tissues scattered everywhere, then looked at the person huddled in the corner with his back to him, and he began to guess something.
But it had nothing to do with him.
Ethan Yin went into the inner cubicle, turned on the water and came out to wash his hands. He saw the man squatting on the ground picking up the garbage. From this angle, he could only see a thin, white neck.
There was an entire wall of mirrors in front of the sink. Ethan Yin turned on the faucet and the moment he looked up, his eyes unexpectedly collided with someone who was also looking at the mirror.
The man's hair was disheveled and his face was smeared with something, which made it gray and yellow in patches, blurring his facial lines and making his nose and mouth almost blended together.
His eyes were clear and bright. He glared at Ethan Yin and then looked away, as if feeling guilty.
Ethan Yin did not take off his hood. As he was standing with his back to the light, most of his face was hidden in the darkness. Coupled with his tall stature, his presence in the small space became particularly strong.
Even though he was just washing his hands and had no intention of prying into other people's privacy.
"What are you looking at?" The boy, whose face color was completely out of sync with his neck, raised the tissue in his hand, spoke in a rough and fierce tone, but his eyes avoided him and he didn't dare to look at the mirror, "Have you never seen Beta remove her makeup?"
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