Short, Light, Free Chapter 172: People and Money I

Chapter 172: People and Money I

My na is Chalk, and yesterday, I received the news that soone at ho was critically ill.

I was familiar with the number but I couldn’t recall who it belonged to.

The person on the other end claid to be a doctor and he requested that I went over as soon as possible to Number 1 People’s Hospital to sign so docunts.

After a brief period of shock, I rembered that this number belonged to Granny.

I ca from a single parent family and was raised by my grandparents until I was about five years old.

I hold almost no mories of the ti before I was seven.

Grandfather died early and Granny had never been in good health.

I was sent to and fro between kindergarten and school.

There wasn’t any issue during kindergarten, but in elentary school, full-ti care beca difficult.

Whenever I got a new form teacher, Granny would make a call to discuss care arrangents for .

I don’t know what they talked about but Granny had a way of getting things done.

From what I knew, she was ill and unable to take care of , and if no one took over her role, I would be all on my own.

Nevertheless, I went to classes with my classmates in the day and stayed in the classroom to do my assignnts after school.

My teacher would send ho after work; it was sothing Granny made sure every form teachers did.

I had a total of three form teachers, from elentary to middle school graduation.

Two were language teachers while the other was a sports teacher.

I spent a decent amount of ti in their houses.

I finally beca independent in senior high and stayed in the dormitory.

Most people spent the majority of their ti at ho or, at least, more than in school, isn’t it?

I, on the other hand, spent most of my ti in school, and as little ti at ho as in the school’s toilet.

My grades weren’t bad since I was trapped in such an environnt and had nothing much to do other than to study.

With my form teacher as my temporary guardian, it was no wonder that language beca my best subject. I did pretty well for others as well but that took more effort.

I had the most fun in my third year of junior high, however, when the sports teacher beca my form teacher.

There were no dorms in junior high.

My sports teacher was Mr. Pang, and everyone called him Dahai.

Pang Dahai was his full na, and unlike the other two teachers, he had no family of his own.

He was a bachelor and possessed all traits of a bachelor.

His single room dormitory beca our house.

He wasn’t initially agreeable, but after so thought, he brought a double-decker bed into the house and moved the single one away.

We moved in and he chose the bottom bunk.

I discovered, upon growing up, that a good teacher had to do the necessary preparations for classes.

I also noted that sports teachers had no such requirents.

Dahai’s lessons consisted of free ti and an examination.

After an examination, he would have us do whatever we want.

I was different.

Initially, I stayed in class after school to do so work. However, later on, I would just go over to Teacher’s house.

None of my classmates understood why I stayed in class since I often gave them excuses.

Fortunately, assignnts in junior high were plenty so it would be night ti by ti I was done.

I would go back and watch TV with Teacher Pang.

I first smoked and drank in the dorm, although the sll of smoke was sothing I couldn’t bear.

Alcohol, on the other hand, was good stuff.

During junior high, I had no idea what other students were like.

Whenever exams were approaching, I would find it difficult to sleep, as if there was sothing bothering deep down.

I had no parents and only Dahai knew that.

“Cheers ” He would smile and take two bottles of beer out.

It helped, but Dahai emphasized that I mustn’t tell anyone about the things he taught .

He hid his alcohol in his room despite the fact that teachers seldom inspected a fellow teacher’s room.

Nevertheless, he hid them well.

I rembered drinking white wine in his house for the first ti. That thing was too strong.

From then on, I started associating the sll of white wine with that of the disinfectant spray in hospitals.

Teacher Pang wasn’t a heavy drinker but he enjoyed sipping on it while watching TV and snacking.

Because of him, I beca motivated to beco a sports teacher.

I started growing taller and eventually fatter.

In my third year, I was 1.8 ter and 108 kg.

Teacher Pang moved to the top bunk of our bed, in fear that I would cause the whole bed to collapse.

After the switch, he also forced to run rounds frequently.

I have no idea why but I stopped growing taller after leaving Dahai.

Teacher Pang was the kind of man who could maintain his weight despite eating a lot.

As I’ve ntioned, I stayed in school a lot to finish up my school work.

The students who were suspicious about it finally found out that I was living with Teacher Pang.

Private discussions exploded.

I was never given pocket money so having money at hand was a surreal experience.

I charged five dollars per student to change their P.E. grades.

Teacher Pang wrote the students’ grades down in pencil, so I simply erase them and replace the respective grades when he was asleep.

I opened this business to my classmates at first, but it quickly expanded to the whole school.

In the third year, we had three sports teachers to look after 30 classes.

I had probably altered the grades of a third of Teacher Pang’s students without getting discovered, fortunately.

Thinking back to the third year makes smile foolishly even to this day.

I had no mobile phone back then and I only got my first one with my own money during the sumr break of senior high.

As such, I did not keep Teacher Pang’s contact number. I had no QQ account then so I lost contact with all my classmates and Dahai.

I did revisit the school to look for him, but he was no longer there.

From senior high to university life, I wasn’t any different from other students.

However, the bad habits I had learned in Dahai’s dorm followed through my remaining school life. I even passed them onto other students.

Upon university graduation, I found a decent job and stayed in the office’s dorm.

I received practically no news from ho.

As I’ve ntioned, I lost Dahai’s contact, but the day after we separated, Dahai left Granny’s number with .

I was supposed to pass it to the next form teacher. He handed it to , saying that I would be the only one with her number from then on.

I morized the number, which beca the only mory that I attached to Granny.

Because I deactivated the malware, my phone would retrieve information from the address book.

As such, I developed the habit of not saving numbers and morizing them instead.

The doctor hung up the phone and I looked at the number on the screen.

mories, covered in dust, started surfacing in my head.