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Side Story: Story of a Strange Student
Time: Time: 10.11pm
On the noon of the student’s graduation, students were seen interviewing the teachers, and there was also a huge discussion for necessary preparations in consideration of the next few years.
“The weirdest student I’ve ever had in my class was a student with the surname of Chu.” In a recording, a teacher, whose face was censored, answered the interviewer’s question sincerely, “In my long period of being a teacher, it can be said that there was no one as weird as him. He is incredibly weird, so weird that it makes one feel like crying. Thank God I only had to teach him for three years during his middle school, or else I’ll have to start preparing for mental breakdown.”
‘Then, how exactly is he weird?’
The school campus’ dedicated Newspaper Club members clicked on the recording button, and started the interview.
“He is extremely weird, very weird. Even though I’m not his home-room teacher, I also feel he’s very weird, so weird that it is totally impossible to find another weirder student in history.” Teacher A, who was passing by suddenly came out and said, “There was one time when we were having practical class for chemistry; the materials distributed were very basic, and the students were simply required to pour water in and heat it up, while waiting for the chemical reaction to occur. However, it just had to be that day, when a problem occurred with the tap water of that certain group of students. The inside of the tap had rusted, and rust were mixed with the water that came out from the water tap. As soon as the chemicals were mixed together, it immediately resulted in an explosion with fiery blue fire. The fierce fire exploded together with half of the classroom and equipments.”
The main point is — after the investigation, this incident was said to be caused by the school’s negligence. Not only were they not able to get the students to compensate for the mishap of half of the classroom, they had to pay compensation for both the students’ physical and mental injuries, instead. Plus a large group of parents came to curse and complain.
How would anyone know if a frequently used tap would suddenly start rusting?! What the hell?!
“However, that incident was nothing.” Pushing Teacher A away, Teacher B, who teaches Chinese Language, said to the little reporters with a very heavy tone, “Their classroom was obviously on the fifth floor! And every time, during Chinese Language lessons, weird objects could be seen flying in, for example a basketball… if I ever find out the person responsible for hitting the ball so high up, he is as good as dead! Volley ball, shuttlecock, etcetera. Sometimes even egrets flew in, breaking the window. In the three years of teaching, four windows were broken, even the students were on the verge of naming me ‘Broken Window Teacher’… Sobs. If he didn’t graduate after three years, I’m very afraid UFOs and kamikaze will be the next thing that’ll come flying in. As soon as I hear sounds of glass breaking, I freak out. A few days ago, my psychiatrist told me I have glass phobia, and advised me to stay away from breaking glass to ensure I will not be traumatized all over again.”
Most importantly, he was obviously teaching an indoor subject, so why does the window always break only during his classes? Or was God implying he should retire? Is he not fit to be teaching anymore?
The teacher, whose age was over fifty, suddenly understood the divine message God was trying to tell him, maybe it’s really time for him to get his pension.
“I’m also a victim here.” From the side another, Teacher C, raised her hand. The reporters immediately rushed over and listened attentively to another tragic anecdote, “I’m their music teacher.” The beautiful teacher gave off a fleeting sense of beauty, with a pair of slightly cloudy-eyes, thus giving off a mystifying atmosphere.
“Students who goes out of tune, couldn’t sing well, incompetent in using the musical instruments, these are something I commonly encounter. I’ve even seen students who are tone death. I dare say I’m the most patient amongst all the teachers of that class.” The teacher suddenly stood up, knocking the chair onto the floor with a bang, “BUT! The God of music just had to ridicule me; He just had to give me such a weird student! Ridicule me, oh… It must be because my life was too peaceful and beautiful, even the little angels couldn’t bear it, but why does He have to make fun of me?! Why do They hate me so much?!”
With a bam, the teacher took out a watermelon knife. A few teachers immediately rushed towards her to restrict her from any further action.
The little reporters, who were breaking out in cold sweat, hurriedly rushed out of the teacher’s room, and then stared into the room in fear.
“I’m so sorry, ever since that particular day, during one of her music class, a wild ox suddenly rushed into the room and bashed a piano worth tens of millions, she became mentally unstable. In the next few days, she was scheduled to go to the nursing home for a few days for recuperation.” said a certain teacher, who immediately smiled with embarrassment.
After that, the wild ox mysteriously crashed into the student surnamed Chu before leaving, as if the ox was trying to imply, “I’m da boss”.
However, the thing that puzzled everyone was, the school was obviously in the city, so how on earth did a wild ox get into their classroom? This was really a baffling mystery.
“Do not stop me! I want to kill the ox and use him as a piano!” The teacher was escorted out while screaming.
Upon seeing the danger was gone, the little reporters slowly came back into the room.
“Sigh, you guys are only the subject teacher for that class and had already turned into this mess, then as their home-room teacher, I’m in an even more pitiful state… As if I’m in the depths of hell.” The little reporters turned back to the first interviewee, which was the class’ home-room teacher, “The first time he entered this school, I knew the biggest challenge of my life has finally arrived. Where do you think you can find a student so incredible, that on the first day of orientation, he was crushed by a block of wooden ceiling that came falling down? It’s impossible, right? What you guys have experienced was nothing! On the first day of school, just like that, the ceiling crashed on top of my student’s head, and I had to explain this incident to the parents. Then, I had to start a complaint from the bottom to the top of the contractor’s company.”
Suspicious tears were starting to form at the corners of the teacher’s eyes, “When I thought everything would settle down, the next incident occurred, telling me I was wrong, my life full of suffering had only just began. After three days of being hospitalized, the student came back to school, and on that day, there was a demolition nearby the school. As soon as he stepped into the playground and was heading towards the classroom, the truck from the demolition suddenly had a malfunction for no apparent reason, and just like that, it came crashing through the school’s fence and into the playground! The crash injured a group of students while causing that particular student to fly a certain distance away. Then I had to file a complaint to the contractors, go to the construction site to protest and, give an explanation to the parents…” In the long period of his teaching career, this was the first time he experienced what one would say, a day that felt as long as a year.
“The natural disasters and damaged properties occurred in the classroom so frequently that we were already numbed to it. Slithering poisonous snakes, incoming groups of mad dogs, are something I can handle smoothly after so many times of practice. In just three short years, I suspect I can already go for the fire brigade entry examination.”
Those three years of grinding has increased his mental strength to an exceptional level. He currently has very good connections with different groups of contractors and even some big organizations who are often seen doing charity. There were some people who even asked him if he would quit his job and join their company as a front-line staff who is in charge of disasters.
“In the last important examination, he just had to have food poisoning and thus, did not turn up for the exam. I could feel my heart turning sour. I had to face the media and explain the origin of the food, find the catering company to settle the problem, and then I also had to send the lunch-box for testing. I-I have become so experienced in this kind of matter!” he said with the face of a man who has given up hope.
“Sigh, it’s the same for me.” Interrupting the home-room teacher, everyone shifted their attention across, a Teacher D, who suddenly appeared, heaving a sigh, “I’m the teacher in charge of the school’s infirmary, in four and a half days out of the five days of school, I am most certain to see that student. Sometimes it’s just minor injuries, other times it’s major injuries. The most frightening incident was when there was a construction project ongoing in the school, he accidentally fell down a construction pit. When he was sent here, an iron bar was stuck onto his left shoulder. I was completely freaked out. I was so afraid he would get an infection from the wound, so I immediately sent him to the hospital. Up until now, I’m very confident that in every hospital in this district, there is not one staff who doesn’t know my name. I’m also often invited to “Emergency Treatment for Accidents” study.”
The little reporters had cold sweat all over their head.
* * *
“Oh, I recognize this guy.”
In a group of seniors who were taking graduation photos, one of them volunteered to be interviewed, “I’m in the same grade as him, and he is in the class right next to mine. We spoke to each other a few times before.” Just that their conversations only contained “Excuse me”s.
“He really is an unlucky person; this term “unlucky” is tailor-made just for him. Once, when we were having a basketball match during physical education class, it was said that he had some business to attend, so he had to leave early that day and he passed by the basketball court. It just had to be that time, when one of the students who was doing a slam dunk, held on to the metal hoop, causing the whole basketball hoop to topple sideways. Fortunately, he was fast enough to avoid the crash thus only had bruises. Otherwise, it would have been awesome, should he end up in a similar fate as the floor which had a large hole on it.” Every time he thought of that incident, he always felt it was very miraculous. But the poor school had to pay a huge sum of money to repair the court and the basketball hoop.
“I too have the exact same feeling as you.” From another side, Student A immediately leaned over and said, “The other time, I was passing by their classroom, I saw a snake slithering inside and bit him. All the students were standing on the table, waiting for their teacher to catch the snake— their home-room teacher is freaking awesome. He can catch everything. The other time he even caught a small crocodile which appeared out of nowhere. Thank God the snake wasn’t poisonous; else it would have been all over.” However, their school should be in the city, so where did all the snakes and crocodile came from?
This was an unsolvable puzzle.
“Speaking of this, those of us who were in the same class as him are really unlucky.” Student B tragically came out and leaned on Student A’s shoulder with a pained look, “Not only the people who sat by the window have to be afraid of the hazardous windows breaking; even during experiments, no one was willing to be in the same group as him as they are afraid of being killed in an explosion. Even while having normal classes, everyone have to pay attention to whether any strange creatures were crawling around on the floor. What’s worse was that we also need to pay attention to the ceiling or fan which might fall on our heads. In just three years of being classmates, we were trained to have a very good reflexes in dodging these dangerous disasters. The last time our school participated in the Junior District Five Joint Dodgeball Tournament, the players from our class had an absolute victory. We really didn’t know if we should cry or laugh.”
Student C shove the student away and snatched the tape recorder from the little reporters, “I’ll tell you guys this! This was nothing compared to the time when I saw him walking on the 1st floor corridor and the tree next to the building suddenly toppled over and crashed onto him. This immediately brought about all the teachers and school staff members, who came running there to save him. The tree was fully uprooted as it fell. In the end, after the tree was planted back on its original place, a ghost story started spreading around the school: “Every student who walked by the tree will be possessed by the tree’s spirit.” In the end no one dared to pass by the tree and the school finally moved the tree to the mountains to be set free.”
Set free? Numerous question marks started appearing inside the little reporters’ head.
“There was also that time where, our class planned to watch a baseball game together and some idiot invited him to come along. And the result was, on that day there were a huge gale, and with just one blow, the huge advertisement board toppled over, and the whole thing came crashing down in our direction. Luckily all of us only suffered minor bruises. We were scared to death.”
“Oh, I remember the same thing happened when we went to the shopping street. Coincidentally, on that day, the stores in the shopping street were celebrating their anniversary. They jointly bought a huge air balloon to be released. While we were all excitedly looking at the spectacle, the air balloon suddenly exploded and even blasted off the roof of one of the buildings. In the end a board fell down, crashed onto him, and a few places in the shopping street started to catch on fire. A few teams of fire brigades, who had to use their utmost effort to extinguish the fire, were dispatched to the shopping street. Fortunately the incident did not cause too much a loss for the shopping street.” At the mention of these few incidents, several students, who did not plan to participate in this discussion, immediately came over and started providing more information of these weird incidents. Everyone started opening their mouths and started prattling endlessly.
“And also, while walking down the stairs he would fall down the stairs. Even while walking in the corridors, he would also fall down. When we went to the pool for Physical Education Class, everyone saw a pale hand dragging him to the bottom of the pool. The teacher was so freaked out, he immediately went to rescue that student. In the end, he was seen stuck at the drain.” It was a miracle he was still alive, else he would have become a scapegoat for the ghost.
But having said that, after the pool incident, there wasn’t anyone spreading any ghost stories?
“I heard that he was also very unlucky while he was with his family. Many of his relatives don’t dare invite him to go out together.”
“One time, just before winter break, our teachers allowed us to come to school for a Steamboat Session. I will never ever forget the tragedy that occurred in the Steamboat Session.” A teary-eyed student started saying, “Every group was supposed to have a cooking pot, in the end their group actually blew up the pot. A hole was burned out of the bottom of the pot. We were supposed to have a Steamboat Session! Not a Bomb Cooking Session! In the end we were prohibited from any more Home-room Activities by the school. The same thing happened when we went to the community for a Barbecue. Everyone was obviously using the same amount of charcoal which was assigned to each group, but he could somehow overdo it and started an actual fire, almost burning the neighboring yard. Fortunately the fire brigade’s action was fast, or else our class would most probably be prohibited from any more barbecue activities. This was so tragic.”
They never understood, why did it happen, when everyone was using the same charcoal to start the fire? The moment he started fanning the charcoal, it exploded and wouldn’t cease burning. What was worse was, the wind blew the burning charcoal onto a pile of weeds. The barbecue immediately turned into a fire fighting scene, allowing them to learn some fire-fighting skills.
“Once, while we were having classes, halfway through, there was a sudden earthquake. In the end, nothing happened in the other classes. It only happened in our class. While the instructor was guiding us for an evacuation, the door suddenly fell down and crashed onto him. The outcome of this small earthquake was, everyone did not received even one scratch except for him, who was the only one sent to the hospital in bloodied tatters.”
“Oh right, if you guys want to get even more information, you can try and look for a student who has a closer relation to him.” Directing the little reporters, one of the students said, “That student is definitely luckier. Both of them are complete opposites. He has not experience any form of back luck from being near him. When a chemical explosion happened, the guy was standing right beside him, but he was totally fine.”
Such a person actually exists?
The reporters started eyeing one another, their curiosity were obviously aroused.
* * *
“I have nothing to say to you guys.”
The rumoured lucky student, who was later found by the little reporters told them, “Ming Yang is just a little less luckier than others. There is no need to cause such a fuss over it. If he was really so unlucky, he should have gone to heaven long ago, right?” He just could not understand how it had spread into this outrageous rumour, when it was no big deal.
Right, this was their reason of interviewing him.
The little reporters are all crying out in their hearts, they heard tales of his bad luck from morning until afternoon, and it has yet to finish. How come this person was still alive? A normal human would have died long ago, right?! How come he is still not dead?
Unless, he has already died and resurrected into a zombie?
“However, my dear juniors, weren’t you supposed to interview the teachers and not the students?” Scratching his head, the lucky student found another problem and asked. If he remembered correctly, the school reporters were supposed to interview the teachers for the special issue section and not the students.
As soon as he pointed that out, all the little reporters paled and immediately started rummaging their bags, which were filled with interview recordings of the legend of the unlucky student. There was only one recording which actually has the content of interviewing the teachers.
We’re done for!
Due to the attraction of such a bizarre case, they totally forgot they still had many teachers to interview. If the school knew about this, they will most probably have their budget and the right to interview to be cut off.
“Excuse us, senior. We need to leave already.” while saying that, they rushed off. So, just like this, the little reporters’ journey was forcefully interrupted.
* * *
“What were those juniors doing?”
Holding onto a form, Chu Ming Yang, who was heading in that direction, saw a bunch of people rushing to leave the place, as though there was a ghost chasing them at the back.
Lately, the juniors were really weird.
“I have no idea. Maybe they still had something to do.” The lucky student shrugged and replied, “Oh right, want to go eat at Jing Ming Street after school today? By bike.” He had been contemplating about this for a long time. It was nice he had nothing on after school today and wanted to relax.
“Again? Didn’t we go there just a few days back?” The day they went there, he got his backside smacked by the signboard installer, and until now, his backside was still bruised. The truth was, he really wanted to go, but compared to the ratio of him getting hit by the signboard again, he’d rather treasure his own personal safety. After all, he wanted to successfully finish attending his graduation ceremony…
“I want to drink pearl milk tea.” He missed the taste of the sweet beverage, while drinking he could also order a small desert. The beverage and dessert are a match made in heaven.
“Drink again, but don’t drink too much.” Nowadays, the news are reporting about the side effects of those beverage, and according to his bad luck, the next victim would most probably be him. For his own personal safety, he didn’t give up trying to convince his classmate.
“Just felt like drinking it. Let’s go, let’s go, I’ll treat.” Dragging the other person’s arm, the lucky student forcefully said, “It’s decided then, let me think for a bit, after drinking, want to go for a movie to celebrate our upcoming graduation? It would be better if you call and inform your mom first, right?” And the one sided planning commenced.
“…” He was speechless, really speechless.
“Oh right, do you think action or adventure movies are better? I heard there was a rather good thriller movie just released a few days ago. After eating we will go for movies.”
“I’ll just let you decide.” What else could he do?