Chapter Text
August 23
Must say that in all my years at Cloud Recesses, my day has never begun with any scandal involving four distraught teenagers who looked as if they had seen a ghost in their closets. Sizhui knocked on the doors of Jingshi at 6 AM with the most pitiable expression. At once, Wei Ying was hugging him.
“My precious little boy,” he cooed, “tell me who broke your heart? I will see to it that she knows what an ardent lover you are! It must have been a misunderstanding … tell me … come now don’t cry!”
I rubbed Sizhui’s head, who was now bewilderedly looking at Wei Ying. He blushed.
“No, Wei-qianbei …it is not that.” He looked at me with some hesitation, as if finding it difficult to tell me. He sighed. “That is, um, baba, um Senior Wei…someone has slipped..um…dubious drawings under our dormitory doors..um..”
I raised my eyebrow at him. “Dubious drawings?”
There was a loud commotion outside and Jingshi’s doors swung open with a thud.
“Hanguang-jun!” Jingyi screeched too loudly for 6 AM. “Someone has slipped erotica drawings in our rooms!”
An immediate meeting was called before the school hours started. HM Mingjue, angry at having been pulled away from his early morning violin practice, Professor Song, Professor Xiao Xingchen, HM Luo, Wen Qing, Wei Ying, Xiongzhang and I. Stuffed up in the Hanshi, trying to make sense of the erotica pages handed by Sizhui and Jingyi.
“We must ask the miscreant to come forth by himself.” Xiongzhang said darkly and I nodded.
Wei Ying piped up, “But why would they do this, knowing that punishment is certain? We must understand the criminal psyche, ladies and gentlemen,” he said with a frown so deep it could hold soup. “This is no ordinary prank. This—this is premeditated smut!”
Wen Qing was seated at the edge of the conference table, arms folded. “Please do not use the term premeditated smut in a disciplinary meeting, Senior Wei.”
“Apologies,” Wei Ying smiled. “This is N-S-F-W eroticism.”
Xiongzhang sighed into his tea. “In my day, boys read Confucius under the covers.”
“That’s because there were only Confucius scrolls under the covers of Cloud Recesses,” came Jiang Cheng’s irritated voice from the telephone, who had dialed us as soon as he got the news that Jin Ling had been exposed to “images.” Dianxia knows who told him.
Professor Xiao Xingchen adjusted his spectacles. “Well, atleast we must ask everyone to turn in whatever pages they have. And we must ensure this does not happen again.”
Jiang Cheng huffed through the telephone. “In Yunmeng, I would have broken everyone’s legs who was found to be possessing these magazines.”
A school-wide inspection was called after the morning assembly. Each student was told to bring forward any contraband. For some time nothing happened, then slowly some students started trickling forward and surrendered their pages, arguing that they found it under their doormat, pillows, stuffed in their shoes and even taped to their bathroom stalls.
Interesting things started pouring in: pages from the scandalous magazine in question, comic book clippings, a flyer advertising “Shandy for Men: Discover the Secrets of Inner Strength,” and a laminated menu from an establishment called “Peach Blossom Delight.”
Inexplicable.
Wei Ying’s eyes lit up from that. “Ahh…this takes me back to the olden days..!” I looked at him and he immediately quietened, eyes still shining.
By evening, a declaration was drafted by HM Luo, who had been approached by the girls of her school in disappointment. They too wanted to see the erotica. They were angrily lectured and sent back to their classes. The declaration was hung up on the Notice Board near the school’s entrance.
All art supplies are to be locked after hours. Magazines are banned unless stamped with the seal of the Gusu Lan Academic Review Committee. Any student found smuggling non-academic materials shall be subject to copying the Rules 500 times.
“That should be fair,” Professor Xiao agreed. For some reason, the magazine pages he had seized from Xue Yang had hearts drawn all of with a rather suggestive note written in horrible handwriting. Professors Xiao and Song wasted thirty minutes trying to figure out the first word and then gave up.
Nevertheless, Xue Yang was punished with 10 laps around the school.
Wei Ying, quite mysteriously, was not present when finally all dubious items were collected and disposed of. He was found later in the gardens, showing the juniors how to draw a rabbit in profile.
“Educational art,” he winked. “Much safer.”
August 24
“You must be going crazy.” I say to HM Nie Mingjue.
It is actually me who is going mad with shock. After the erotica incident, HM Mingjue requested to see me. He seemed to be troubled by something. On his face was the same expression one makes when they hear him playing violin.
“Wangji,” he pinched the bridge of his nose, “they are growing kids. It is obvious for them to be curious about these things. We must not stifle their curiosity - we must educate them.” He ended.
“They will be educated by their parents.” I replied firmly. “Why us?”
Nie Mingjue smiled. “Not everyone has parents to educate them. Or even parents who will talk with them about such sensitive topics.”
That is true. We are an educational house. Here, we are their parents.
But that didn’t mean HM Mingjue wasn’t crazy for suggesting what he was suggesting. These were growing kids and it was not right to stifle their curious hearts. It could potentially backfire and make them think that all these taboo topics are forbidden.
5 PM. I walked in a class filled with 20 half-scared, half-excited students, anxiously holding their breaths for an impromptu Harmonisation Of Inner Qi session. Or, yes, as Wei Ying ceremoniously claimed -
“-sex education!” He clapped his hands in glee.
Dead silence in the entire classroom. Jingyi looks like wants to kill himself and Sizhui looks already dead. Other kids have turned red in the face.
The class went smoothly. Wei Ying did a horrible attempt to draw a copulation on the board but apart from that, the juniors seemed to take it well enough. There were even a few raised hands - curiosity getting the better of them.
The human brain is so fickle that it allows anything forbidden to manipulate and influence it. This is where the role of us adults comes in - educating the younger generations to understand the context so that they are able to make a better decision between what is right and what is wrong.
“It’s called Missionary, sir.” Said Ouyang Zizhen knowledgeably.