I am not Ximen Qing.

Welcoming the new world and forgetting the old—how forgetful we are! And how ruthless nature is! In Nietzsche's praise of the other side of good and evil, Western thought is used to propagate Xuanzang's Heart Sutra: form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Like Schrödinger's cat's death and life, how magical science! All of this is the glorious and honorable mission of Spartacus and ancient Greece, full of vitality and youthful vigor. The classrooms and playgrounds on campus are still in a world of limited understanding, like hermits in the forest, ascetics in their ascetic practices.

The secluded forest, ironically, purified the soul, untouched by the filth and pollution of the outside world. Shangri-La existed like a myth, a source of childhood joy and happiness. At least in the great forest, there existed Nietzschean superhuman beings, pure spiritual will—a final paradise, have you ever thought about it? The Forestry Bureau's eternal glory lay in its annual list of newly honored university students. Zhang Sheng had at least seen photos of Bao Yu, and Wang Lunyu and Wang Zhongyong's sons, as well as the sons and daughters of Lao Cheng, Lao Zhao, and Dr. Wu. These university students on the honor roll had bright futures; those with promising futures were revered as gods by everyone in the bureau.

Let's return to reality from our dreams. The outside world is too tempting. Getting into university means we can confidently go to big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Changchun, Dalian, Qingdao, Nanjing, Xi'an, and Hangzhou. It's all so tempting to go to big cities. Zhang Sheng most wants to go to Beijing, though he doesn't know why. Actually, going to Changchun would be a great achievement too. His uncle and brother Xian are studying in Changchun now, and they often go boating in Nanhu Park. He envies those university students on the honor roll. His father often tells stories of his good friend Ximen Xue's ten years of hard study—you have no dignity if you don't study hard! Zhang Sheng also thinks of his aunt and brother-in-law's ruthlessness and feels a bit insulted. Since Baoyu can get into university, he should be able to pass the exam with flying colors too. See the wonders and benefits of studying! At least he could become a deputy factory director, a workshop director, or a secretary or factory director in a forest farm—at least a cadre. The girls are exceptionally beautiful, like celestial beauties, all married to handsome young men like scholars and went to the big city. They could be like the poet in "Illusions Perdues," or Owen in "Old Goriot," enjoying a life of luxury and extravagance. In this world of dazzling wealth and pleasure, there would be Yingying from "The West Chamber," the dream lover of all lustful men. The key is to encounter someone like Chaoyun Xiaoxiao, or Li Guijie, Han Aiyue, Zhao Xue'e, Song Huilian, Wu Yueniang, Meng Yulou, Pang Chunmei, Li Ping'er, and all sorts of officials in the arts of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, like Fang Guan, Ou Guan, and Kui Guan—these characters from dramas and novels seem to only exist in big cities. Girls in big cities are fashionable and modern.

The Chinese textbooks are full of images of the Yuanmingyuan, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and the dragon throne in the Emperor's Hall of Supreme Harmony. If big cities weren't so alluring, why would the Manchu Eight Banners have desperately flocked to Beijing behind Shanhaiguan Pass? It wasn't until the Shunzhi Emperor that Nurhaci and Huang Taiji finally entered the city and became true urban intellectuals. What difference was there between Nurhaci and a savage primitive back then? Television is full of Nurhaci's great military achievements and Genghis Khan, but never Zhu Yuanzhang.

Having become a college student, Li Xian's status was too high. He almost never returned to the bureau because his standards had risen, and he looked down on the bureau. Now, in his aunt's heart, Li Xian was everything. It seems his aunt and Lao Chen had peacefully broken up because Lao Chen's business failed, and he went bankrupt. Men, remember this: never be penniless, or Lao Chen will end up like all men. After arriving in Changchun, Li Xian even found a girlfriend at university. His aunt said the girl was madly in love with him and insisted on being his wife. Moreover, the girl's parents were highly educated, spoiling their daughter rotten with two sons. But strangely, the girl immediately calmed down when she saw Li Xian. Like Niu Hong, Li Xian, though he didn't conquer a hellish Helen of Tarzan as his uncle-in-law desired, or become as outstanding as the Faustian hero, at least possessed a masculine spirit that captivated the college student Li Tongtong. It seems Romeo and Juliet weren't fictional; it was real love. Yes, if Li Xian doesn't get into university, with his looks, can he even find the daughter of a local university professor in Changchun? At best, he'll find some mute girl from the Dahe Forest Farm, like a black crow cawing in the night. A university degree is the real talisman in *Dream of the Red Chamber*, the stepping stone to entering the relationships of the four great families. What's this talk of jade halls and golden horses, what's this talk of a bountiful year with heavy snow? Even the Dragon King, whose pearls are like dirt and gold like iron, is so poor he has to borrow from the King of Jinling. Death and fortune are eternal among the four great families of China. Fortune turns, next year it'll be my turn. The yin and yang of the I Ching, the cycle of heaven, life goes on and on.

Living is for nothing else but getting into university. University entrance exams are everything. Scholars rule the world, and the world belongs to scholars. The Jurchen people of Changbai Mountain disappeared, and their Manchu ancestors only gradually acquired the true teachings of Confucius and Mencius after moving to the cities, thus becoming the rulers of all scholars. The twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty were all role models for scholars. Qianlong was like a stone in the story of the Stone, his artistic masterpieces found everywhere in and around Beijing and Jiangnan. His stone inscriptions, carved in ink and stone, are everywhere in the mountains and valleys of Beijing, simply illustrating one point: the benefits of university entrance exams. The Forbidden City is merely another reflection of the Thirteen Classics. One Thousand and One Nights yearns for the destiny depicted therein; only in books can one find true wealth. The only real-life version of this wealth was the Sanxi Hall, exclusively enjoyed by Qianlong. The entire Forbidden City was Qianlong's golden palace.

Just imagine how terrible it would have been. Without the Communist Party's liberation of China, there would have been no widespread education in every household. Ordinary people in China would still be stuck in the Brahmin caste system, without the right to education, and the serfs in the Tibetan hell would never have been freed. Now, the education system here is quite excellent. Children from the mountains can transfer to schools outside the mountains to continue their studies. This is all thanks to the widespread availability of education. This is a great era. With reform and opening up, opportunities abound. Children are no longer like in the past, with no chance to change their fate. Now, as long as they have a thirst for knowledge, their destiny can be changed.

Third Uncle's wife, Third Aunt Li Xiao'e, had a remarkable younger brother. He was like a phoenix, the first phoenix to fly out of the mountains, even before Li Xian. All of Third Aunt's dreams and hopes rested on her younger brother, much like Teacher Han's fondness for boasting about his brother's admission to Fudan University. Similarly, in Third Aunt's world, besides her dislike of Third Uncle, this perpetually drunkard, Third Uncle was her source of courage and a guiding light. He was one of the first doctoral students to study in the United States. After the reform and opening up, a TOEFL craze and a surge in English learning swept the nation. The Western world finally began free trade with China, working together to contain the powerful Soviet Union. A wave of emigration and studying abroad ensued. People no longer blindly believed in university graduates; they learned about postgraduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral studies, and the desire to study in developed Western countries. Japan, Italy, Germany, and Canada became synonymous with studying abroad; being able to study overseas was undoubtedly a major achievement in that era. Third Aunt Li Xiao'e knitted sweaters and trousers day and night, using all sorts of fancy patterns, for her third brother who was studying far away. He embodied all her hopes; this was the fruit of the old tradition of responding to the call for many children, a blessing for all. Every family had a child of hope, and all the children eagerly awaited the college entrance examination in the summer, excluding New Year's Eve. People throughout the district rushed to the honor roll to see whose child had achieved such a feat—getting into university meant the first step towards becoming a god or immortal. Lu Xixing's *Investiture of the Gods* is actually another way of showcasing the unspoken rules of Chinese education, another mythological version of *The Scholars*. The celebration of passing the exam was similar in scale to a wedding banquet—clinking glasses, lively and bustling, no one dared to mock. The post-exam banquet was a grand ceremony celebrating the family's prosperity.

Under the diligent guidance of teachers Yin and Chen Lili, my scores in both Chinese and Math both reached 90 points—unbelievable! Thinking back to the embarrassing moments I made in the spacious classrooms of Daokou Middle School, it was the darkest hour of my life, even more painful than Churchill's. Only Churchill faced a Chinese exam and an essay, while the British fighter faced Hitler's relentless bombing. It's unimaginable! The intensive, test-taking strategy can be quite effective under certain conditions. I have to thank the hundreds, even thousands, of practice papers I did before the exams; this made up for the lack of cultural education I received in the mountains over the past few years. Now I'm a middle school student, with new classmates, a new class, new teachers, and new subjects. English is undoubtedly the most mysterious. My father and third aunt both studied Russian, and my third aunt was the best at it. In this era, I don't know why I abandoned Russian to learn English. Originally, all of humanity shared one language, but human ambition has become too great. Humanity wanted to build the Tower of Babel, to live in heaven instead of the earthly world created by God in seven days. So God, in anger, destroyed the Tower of Babel. He also made humans speak different languages, knowing that humanity's ambition was too great and would destroy the world they had created.

Language is wondrous, and with English, everything is wondrous. Having been exposed to English in the video arcade, everything is unknown, everything is full of anticipation. The Forestry Bureau now has British teachers as instructors, training the teachers' spoken English and listening skills. There's a tall, blond, fair-skinned, blue-eyed old man named David Solomon. Whenever he appears on the streets of the Forestry Bureau, people treat him like a monster. What is love? Is it like Sister Feng, Sister Ping, or Sister Hua? It seems Zhang Sheng wants to have that kind of electrifying gaze that Long Qilin gives Wang Aiyue. He experienced his first flutter of the heart with Jane Eyre sitting in the second row. She was a thin, underdeveloped girl, somewhat resembling Xiangling from *The Story of the Stone*. Her captivating eyes were striking, instantly radiating beauty. She had a typical oval face, not the large, round face of northerners. Zhang Sheng didn't know Jane Eyre wasn't alluring and seductive; even her clothes were extremely plain. He didn't know what that meant. Dante's Divine Comedy was written for a woman, Beatrice, the light in Dante's heart. Perhaps Jane Eyre is Zhang Sheng's North Star; she is Jane Eyre, the Jane Eyre he was born to be. In truth, what's the difference between Ximen Qing meeting Pan Jinlian and Zhang Sheng meeting Cui Yingying, the daughter of Cui Ziguo, in the West Chamber? It's just that one was arranged by Wang Po, and the other by Hongniang. Men's aesthetics don't differentiate between Pan Jinlian and Liu Rushi, Li Xiangjun and Du Liniang, Xi Shi and Yang Guifei, or even Cleopatra and Wu Zetian. It's simply that love is magical, uncontrollable, and sudden. Jane Eyre's unique temperament and aura of beauty attracted his attention. Now, Uncle Li Jingshan's true foresight is revealed: his hope for his son Li Xian is to become Helen's love killer, a lecherous scoundrel. Men must become love killers, lecherous scoundrels. Why did Goethe write about lecherous scoundrels? It's just another form of rebellion for him.

Love is always a tragic love song; where is there such a thing as a cunning woman proposing a hundred and one times? Zhang Sheng is not like Jia Yucun, who has just entered the realm of the mad. The Confucian scholar, who is always roaming the world, leaving his mark everywhere, is not the kind of cunning woman who would stray from the right path and stumble upon success by accident. If one had known that Goethe wrote a devilish love story, then the pain wouldn't have been so frivolous and reckless; love is merely a lewd woman who consumes the spirit and mind. Deep down, all girls exist with a kind of split personality, a balance between love and hate. Lotte is Goethe's summary of his own love, his heartbreaking work after a failed romance. Who is Jane Eyre? He is searching for the true Paris; his outward calm is merely a mask for the raging, fiery passion within him—utterly hypocritical. She is Goethe's Lotte, and also Helen of the lewd Studley. Werther! A young man who shot himself for Lotte's love! How much like Gatsby, both for love. But Greenfield and Daisy will continue their lives; in a woman's mind, love is sometimes just a beautiful dress, a pair of luxurious red shoes. Why did Jane Eyre happen to appear right before Zhang Sheng's eyes? Zhang Sheng is neither Werther nor Faust, nor the Zhang Sheng from *The West Chamber*. It turns out, everyone has a devil within them, like Werther, experiencing the endless troubles of adolescence, the snake stirring within.

"Fool, go! Go and hug that little girl."

"You damn bastard, shut up!"

Oh, what a pity for childhood, so pure and clear, like the spring water flowing gently down the mountain cliff, each sip sweet and refreshing. Jane Eyre is that clear spring water; how I long to become a white, transparent fish, existing in the clear spring of her life, in her embrace, in her dreams, everything belonging to her, including her thoughts, spirit, and body. If only this were Baoyu's school, but alas, this era is no longer the time of the aristocracy and the poetic love of Nalan Xingde. Nalan Xingde seems to have a familiar shadow of Baoyu, the genius son of the Grand Secretary of the Mingzhu and the Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall.

Perhaps his love resides in Houhai, Shichahai, or the Twin Pagodas Temple in Zizhuyuan Park. It seems that being able to study in a town, moving from the forest to the town, is both a coincidence and an inevitability. This is also thanks to the workers' previous diligence and hard work. The logging tasks in the Changbai Mountains' forest planning area have been completed; the only remaining option is afforestation. Simply because of the deeply rooted, centuries-old tradition of education, sitting in the classroom is both a source of confusion and the joy of being in love. Jane Eyre is omnipresent; it's not something the eyes can escape. Her smile possesses the flamboyant beauty of Bai Juyi, the delicate beauty of Lin Daiyu's face, thin eyelids, a slightly yellowish complexion, the malnutrition of adolescence, a frail beauty born of illness, her excessive thinness concealing a beauty about to burst forth. The birth and sublimation of Jane Eyre's beauty is not what he immediately desired, because love and romantic love are selfish; at least for now, no other boy has discovered Wang Aiyue's sensual beauty like Long Qilin has. Jane Eyre is a flower of love that can be quietly hidden, a way of idly distracting one's attention from love.

Looking out the window into the distance, I could see my second aunt's flat-roofed house on the large platform, with a vegetable garden enclosed by a wooden fence in front—quite a luxurious residence. Jun-ge's big house occupies the best location and orientation; becoming a factory director has its perks! The house is beautifully built, with the layout of a grand mansion. Now Jun-ge can draw blueprints well and lead a construction team to build skyscrapers. The celebratory banquets with my second, third, and youngest uncles, along with Li Xian and Bao-yu—the graduation banquet, the banquet for passing the imperial examinations, the lavish dog meat feast—were all well-deserved. It's not that people in the north don't want to build courtyard houses; it's just that the weather is too cold, unlike in Beijing's city walls near Shanhaiguan, where the cultural tradition of hutongs is cherished. Beijing has so many hutongs, and its hutong culture has gradually formed over several dynasties. Like Peking Opera, hutongs are the essence of Beijing, its charm and flavor.

My third uncle, Zhang Sizhe, even returned to the bureau once and made a special trip to Zhang Sirui's grave to burn a lot of paper money. My second aunt's family was responsible for all the reception duties. Not long after returning to Beijing, my third uncle passed away, and the connection with his relatives in Beijing was severed. However, this left a deep impression on my second aunt. Since my third uncle could settle down and thrive in Beijing, then my college student Baoyu could also settle down and thrive in Beijing. This was my second aunt's secret. Secrets are secret, aren't they?

Ah Hu, this bench dog who must have done something terrible in his past life, his howling barks can be heard all over the Big Terrace Mountain. He's the most pathetic bench dog in the world. Why does this dog keep occupying his mind? If a dog never has the freedom to mate, then the owner is too inhumane. Now, who knows who Ah Hu's owner is? This poor male dog who has never mated with a female dog is a complete failure in life!