IPT 9

Chapter 9

 

Shen Qianqian sat in the corner of the wall, dazed and about to fall asleep, but the door was suddenly opened from the outside. He squinted at the backlit figure, and although his mind was still in chaos, he immediately lifted a cardboard shell from his body and sat up slowly.

 

Ten minutes later, Shen Qianqian is at a small table in the cafeteria, with two steaming yams and a bowl of radish soup resting in front of him.

– It’s not a clear pure soup, but there are three large radishes in the soup.

 

Shen Qianqian with a small spoon in his right hand to scoop the radish, and kept feeding the yams into his mouth with his left hand. The temperature in the cafeteria was quite high, and his body temperature was rising, but his body was still shivering from time to time.

 

Chief Chen sat across from the small table and asked, “Is the sweet potato delicious?”

 

“Yes! Yes! Shen Qianqian nodded vigorously, put down the spoon and raised two fingers, eagerly expressing his joy: “Two!”

 

He smiled gratefully at Chief Chen, and said flatteringly, “Chief Chen, you’re good.” Then he craned his neck and said twice: “Will you punish me again tomorrow?” Will you lock me up again?”

Chief Chen sighed: “Sip some hot soup, drink more, don’t talk.”

 

“Okay, I’ll sip the soup.”

 

It was only eight o’clock in the evening after eating when Shen Qianqian went back to the boys’ area on the first floor of the dormitory. He saw the children coming and going in the corridor with basins, and some of them were running to their dormitories screaming, looking like they had just taken a shower.

 

The manager knocked on the wall with a ring ruler, and his voice was loud and majestic: “Everyone go to the bath, and we will check it later, if anyone wants to wash, be three feet away!”

 

Shen Qianqian continued walking into the dormitory and saw that everyone was undressing, Tang Yuanyuan and the others had already taken off their essence and were running out with a small basin.

 

“Shen Qianqian, you’re back?”

“Hurry up and undress, let’s go take a shower, there’s hot water.”

“Shen curled up, hurry up, you’re going to take a hot bath.”

 

Shen Qianqian waited for the few people to rush out of the room and then slowly walked back to his small bed. He turned his head to look at Lin Duozhi, who was sitting on the opposite bed and taking off his pants: “Do you want to wash too?”

Lin Duozhi’s movements were also very slow: “I don’t want to wash , but if I don’t wash , I will be beaten.”

“Hey, I hate bathing the most.”

“The management said that with hot water, you must take a bath.”

Shen Qianqian said sullenly: “Can’t you not come to hot water? Why do you want hot water, how is it better with cold water?

 

He reluctantly took off his cotton coat, took off his scarf, and put it in his pocket. But when he took off his T-shirt, he was stuck by the neckline again and had to ask Lin Duozhi for help.

 

“Lin Duozhi, help me take off my clothes.”

Lin Duozhi, who had already stripped naked, was squatting on the side of the bed: “Wait a minute.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m sniffing my black thing.”

 

Shen Qianqian squatted down, looking under the bed with the clothes on his head. Lin Duozhi stretched out his hand to block him: “You can’t look at it.”

“Haven’t you eaten any of them?”

“I’ll eat slowly in the future.” Lin Duozhi pointed and paused: “I can smell it for now.”

“I only have three left, so I’m going to eat slowly.”

 

The management was knocking on the ruler again, Lin Duozhi hurriedly helped Shen Qianqian takes off his T-shirt, and the two of them trembled while picking up a small basin and rushing to the bath.

 

There is an iron gate in the middle of the passage of the dormitory, which divides the dormitory into a boys’ and girls’ section. The bath room is next to the iron gate, and a wall of almost two meters is built in the huge room, which also divides the bath room into two sides.

 

The boys’ area was steaming, crowded with naked children, Shen Qianqian and Lin Duozhi entered the bathroom, and walked directly to the corner of the door in a bad position. Sure enough, they found the little class students in the same dormitory, and everyone huddled together to wash.

 

Shen Qianqian wanted to flush the water and go back, but the management shouted at the door: “I’ll check later, You must wash before you can go back to the dormitory.”

 

“Hey……” Shen Qianqian sighed.

 

There are only five pieces of communal soap in the boys’ section, and it is not the turn of the junior class until the large class students have all applied themselves. Shen Qianqian squeezed himself under the faucet to rush into the water, listening to the loud laughter of those senior students.

 

Across half a wall, the girls were also chattering non-stop. They didn’t know how it started, but the seniors on both sides suddenly began to quarrel.

 

“You stinky men, the stench has drifted to our side.”

“Excuse me? How dare you say we stink? How many bald heads did they shave today? I’m afraid there are more than a dozen, a group of lice queens!

“Stinky Men!”

“Lice Queens!”

 

Suddenly, a basin of water came over there, crossed the wall, and poured it on the heads of the nearest few kindergarten boys.

 

“The Lice Queens has done it!”

“Shoot back!”

“Revenge!”

 

The boys in the kindergarten all took small basins to catch water, and splashed them on the opposite side, and the girls on the opposite side did not show weakness. They splashed basins of water one after another.

 

The management didn’t know where to go, and the two sides became more and more courageous. The wall seemed to tear open a waterfall. The middle class students soon joined the fight. The senior class students were responsible for splashing the water and the middle class students used a basin to catch the water and hand it over. There was only a group of students in the small class who were injured by mistake, screaming and hiding in all corners.

 

Shen Qianqian and the others were originally in the corner, but now they were splashed and shrunk their heads facing the wall, wiping the water on their faces with their eyes closed, while shouting indiscriminately: “Spiritual power barrier! Mental Power Barrier!”

 

This battle lasted until the management of the two sides came back, and there were originally people who needed to be punished, but the management was probably understanding that they had not used hot water for a long time. However, they were also more tolerant and only let those senior students stand in a row. They did not reprimand them very harshly, tho.

 

After taking a bath, the students walked out of the bathroom, asked the management to check them again, waved their hands, and then left.

 

Shen Qianqian went without washing his back. He felt that it was too difficult to reach out backwards, but when he saw that the management asked people to turn around to check, he preemptively spoke when it was his turn: “If there is a small class student – it is another small class student, not me – if he does not wash his back, don’t look for me.” 

 

The management looked at Shen Qianqian expressionlessly and stretched out his hand to point to the bathroom: “Go wash again and wash your back.”

 

“Oh.”

 

At night, the lights in Shen Qianqian’s dormitory had been turned off, but the children were still very excited, whispering about the water fight just now.

 

“Originally, there was water to splash on us, so I used a spiritual barrier to block all the water.” Tang Yuanyuan said

“Mental Power Barrier!” Shen Qianqian said with his palms in front of his chest, “I used it too.”

Lin Duozhi pointed to and whispered: “Spiritual power barrier!”

The other children whispered: “Mental power barrier!”

Chen Hongliang whispered: “Spiritual power barrier!” 

 

The voice of the management sounded in the corridor: “Chen Hongliang from dormitory No. 16, no one else has spoken, but you are still making a fuss, roll call once.”

 

Chen Hongliang immediately closed his mouth and said no more.

 

Lin Duozhi suddenly asked, “Shen Qianqian, you didn’t come to the cafeteria for dinner, are you hungry?”

 

“I’m not hungry, I’ve eaten a lot.” Shen Qianqian stretched out his hand to compare, “I ate two yams, it’s two! I also sipped radish soup with three large turnips in it…… You see, such a big turnip!”

 

“Wow, how can you eat two yams, and three large turnips? We all ate only one piece of corn cake in the evening, but it was unpalatable.” Originally lying down, the children had their heads propped up, and their eyes were burning in the darkness.

 

Shen Qianqian fell into deep thought: “Because I’m being punished, those who are punished can eat so much.” 

 

The children in the entire dormitory were silent for a moment, and one of them asked enviously, “Then how can I be locked up?”

“I want to be locked up too.”

“I want to too.”

Chen Hongliang echoed: “I want to too.”

 

“Chen Hongliang from dormitory No. 16, if you don’t sleep yourself, it will affect other students, now get dressed and come out! Stand in the hallway for half an hour!” The voice of management sounded outside again.

 

Chen Hongliang was so frightened that he immediately closed his mouth, lay motionless on the bed, and grabbed the bed rail next to him.

 

“Sleep well, don’t talk again.” The management didn’t have to ask him to go out, but only warned him again.

 

Tang Yuanyuan raised his head and stared at him: “Chen Hongliang, maybe if you stand up, the management will let you eat sweet potatoes and radishes.”

 

Chen Hongliang swooped off the quilt, got up, and began to get dressed.

 

When Chen Hongliang went to the corridor to stand up with great hope, several children in the house also stopped chatting and closed their eyes to sleep.

 

“What are you going to think about sleeping tonight? I’m going to think about big drumsticks.” Lin Duozhi’s voice was so soft that only Shen Qianqian could hear it.

 

“I am going to think of big buns.” Shen Qianqian turned over and changed his mind again. “No, I’m going to think about my brother sleeping…… My brother must have also eaten two large yams, as well as a large bun, and is already asleep.”

 

Chu Ya lay on the bed, his eyes staring at the ceiling, and in the quiet room he could only hear the ticking of the second hand of the wall clock. He glanced sideways at the wall clock, it was nine o’clock in the evening, but his father Chu Chengyu had not come home yet.

 

He got up and went out, and while going down the stairs, he tied the belt of his nightgown, and saw his mother still sitting on the sofa in the living room and pulling the thread.

His mother quickly circled the ball of yarn, but the circle of yarn in front of her floated low in the air, as if an invisible person was supporting her.

 

“Hasn’t Dad come back yet?” Chu Ya asked.

“No, maybe today’s meeting is more important.” Qin Qin put down the thread ball in his hand, “Are you hungry? You didn’t eat much for dinner, I’ll go and warm it up for you.”

“I’m not hungry.”

 

Chu Ya walked to the sofa, picked up the loop of wool hanging in the air and propped it on his wrist, shook his arms, and the chair on the side suddenly left the ground and moved behind his legs.

 

Chu Ya sat on the chair without looking, Qin Qin continued to wind the group, and the mother and son spoke to each other without a word.

 

“Can you perceive what your Quantum Beast is now?” Qin Qin asked.

 

Chu Ya shook his head lightly: “Not yet.” 

 

“It’s okay, I only saw my quantum beast when I broke through. I thought about raccoons every day during the differentiation period, and it so happened that my quantum beast was naturally a raccoon. What Quantum Beast do you want? Do you trace its form every day before going to bed?

 

Chu Ya never told his parents what is the quantum beast he wanted, and now he only pursed his lips: “I have traced it every day.”

 

“Your mouth is so tight, but it makes me more and more curious.” Qin Qin said with a smile.

 

“What are you doing?” Chu Ya diverted the topic.

 

Qin Qin glanced at his side: “I’m pouring water for you.”

 

Chu Ya took the water cup floating in the air, thanked the air, and said: “On my way home today, I can see the vague form of other people’s quantum beasts, but I have never seen my mother’s raccoon, nor have I seen my father’s blue tiger.”

 

Qin Qin showed a faint smile: “It won’t be long before you can see them.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

The mother and son fell silent, Qin Qin turned her head to look at the time, and her expression was faintly irritable.

 

“Today must be an important meeting, so I didn’t dare to call your father, but I couldn’t get through to Adjutant Yun and Gu Lin.”

 

“Maybe they’re in the venue too.” Chu Ya comforted.

 

“Yes…… But why am I feeling so anxious? It always feels like something big is going to happen.” Qin Qin rested the woolen ball on his lap: “Why is it so hot in this room? Is it going to rain?”

 

Chu Ya said, “I’ll go and open the window to breathe.”

 

Chu Ya got up and pushed open the window, but he didn’t feel a trace of wind. The air has a moist heat, like sticky glue on the skin, mouth and nose, and it doesn’t feel much better than indoors.

 

Lightning lit up in the sky, illuminating this area brightly. He looked at the flickering planting buildings in the distance and said to Qin Qin: “There is indeed a rainstorm soon.”