76 Although perseverance and success are not the same thing

Zhang Pa stood at the front of the classroom, reluctant to return, his face clouded with worry. He remained silent for quite a while. From below, Yu Yuan called out, “Teacher, did you just get your heart broken or did something bad happen?”

Zhang Pa replied, “I'm fine. It's you all who are in trouble.”

Yu Yuan pressed further, “What kind of trouble? Is someone coming to cause us problems again?”

Zhang Pa nodded.

Yun Zheng shouted, “Who is it? We’ll take them down, no matter who they are!” The whole class chimed in, echoing the sentiment.

Pointing to his own nose, Zhang Pa said, “Me.”

“You what…” Yun Zheng started, then his eyes went wide. “You’re going to make things hard for us?”

“More or less,” Zhang Pa answered, his voice heavy with sorrow. “I have something rather sad to tell you all, so brace yourselves.”

“What is it?” a student called out.

With a sigh, Zhang Pa announced, “From today onward, I am your Chinese teacher.”

The students didn’t react at first. Someone yelled, “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Good?” Zhang Pa shook his head. “Normally, I wouldn’t care whether your grades were good or bad, but that’s no longer the case. A Chinese teacher can’t just be idle—my teaching will now be judged by your grades. Understand?”

Hearing this, the five troublemakers’ faces fell in unison. Damn, now we’re in for it!

But the rest of the class couldn’t quite grasp what it meant. Grades? What do grades have to do with me?

Looking over the sea of confused faces, Zhang Pa shook his head. “Today is a good day. Enjoy yourselves while you can.” With that, he left the classroom.

What was going on? Many students were at a loss, whispering amongst themselves. Yun Zheng stood up with a dark look and stepped onto the platform. “A dark reign is about to begin. If you don’t want to fall into darkness, you’d better...” He planned to rally the class—if not outright succeed, at least Zhang Pa wouldn’t be able to oppress them completely.

But halfway through, he noticed movement by the door and turned his head. Immediately he changed his tune, “...you’d better study hard, just like me. Study hard!” With that, he returned to his seat.

Zhang Pa had come back to fetch his laptop. Entering with a stern face, he said, “What’s this? Planning a rebellion?”

Yun Zheng shook his head. “No, no, I was just helping you stir up some enthusiasm.”

With a cold snort, Zhang Pa said, “Since you’re not happy, let me help you.” He walked to the board and wrote a number: 60.

Pointing at the number, he said, “Sixty points. That’s your target. I’ll be teaching first-year Chinese for a month, and at the end, there’ll be a test. If you don’t reach sixty, I’ll be very pleased.”

Yun Zheng yelled, “That’s not fair! You’re taking revenge!”

Zhang Pa smiled, “What’s fairness? What does it mean to be fair?”

“Why are you only targeting me?” Yun Zheng demanded.

Zhang Pa smiled again. “You want fairness? Are you sure?”

Yun Zheng insisted he was sure.

Zhang Pa raised his voice, “All right, I’ll give you fairness. I’ll give it to everyone. I don’t care about other subjects, but for the Chinese monthly exam, anyone who doesn’t get sixty will get the pleasure of my private tutoring.”

The class erupted in chaos.

“It was Yun Zheng who asked for fairness, and I’ve given it to you all,” Zhang Pa declared.

Thus, Yun Zheng became the scapegoat. Yu Yuan stood up and shouted, “Yun, let’s settle this after class!” Wang Jiang and Li Shan didn’t care much, but since they too had their own little followings, those followers were visibly angry, yelling and clamoring—either way, Yun Zheng was in for it.

The English teacher entered for the next class and was startled by the commotion. What on earth was happening?

Zhang Pa slapped the podium. “Quiet! I’ll give you all a day to think about how to deal with me. Remember, just a little more patience and you’ll get your barbecue. Even if you don’t care, what if other classmates do? So, you must come to class.” He flashed the students a smile, grabbed his laptop bag, and left.

Bad news takes time to digest, so Zhang Pa gave the students a day. Cheerful, he rode his bicycle back to Hexinyuan Community.

Two large dogs were sprawled at the entrance. Fatty and Old Meng were outside smoking, while Sissy and Turtle were gaming inside.

Upon seeing Zhang Pa approach, Fatty yelled, “Get rid of them quickly, or I’ll go crazy!”

Zhang Pa asked, “Did they bite you?”

“No, but it’s pretty much the same—they won’t let us in. Open the door and they bare their teeth.”

“What did you do?” Zhang Pa inquired.

Fatty shook his head. “We didn’t do anything.”

Old Meng cursed, “Damn, what does this have to do with me? That bastard Da Wu brought two bags of dog meat, and Fatty’s group ate it. After that, the dogs went mad.”

Zhang Pa was surprised. “They can smell dog meat?”

“It’s not about smelling it! Lao Liu and his gang waved the packaging at the dogs, telling them they were eating dog meat, and threatened that if they misbehaved, they’d be next. Said the meat was delicious too. Damn it, I don’t even eat dog meat! Just because I was smoking outside, I was locked out and can’t get back in.” Old Meng was filled with regret. “My ranked match! Damn.”

Zhang Pa was curious. “So you all ate outside… no, inside, and got kicked out by the dogs?”

“Yeah.” Fatty cursed, “Hurry up and get rid of them.”

Zhang Pa laughed, “Comfort you? Serves you right!” He entered the house, dropped his laptop bag, and crouched to hug the two big dogs. “Don’t mind those idiots. Just ignore them.”

The dogs were large and sturdy, and he could only hug their necks. They looked a little aggrieved, rubbing their heads against him. Zhang Pa patted them gently. “It’s all right. We’ll just live our lives and ignore the rest.” He stood and called, “Come on,” heading to his room.

The dogs glanced at the unlucky group outside, lowered their heads, and followed Zhang Pa in.

Fatty and the others were finally freed. Old Meng rushed straight to his computer to check his ranking. “Damn it, Lao Liu, you owe me!”

Lao Liu protested, “Hey, I’m the one who’s hurt here too, you know?”

“I don’t care!” Old Meng angrily shut off his game and opened a risqué movie instead.

He did it on purpose, blasting the sound. Sissy was furious. “Are you crazy? Put on headphones!”

Old Meng grumpily disconnected the Bluetooth, thought for a moment, then turned off the movie and went to find Zhang Pa. “Let’s shoot a film.”

Zhang Pa was sitting on the floor, dazed, leaning against his bed with the dogs beside him. His laptop bag was tossed on the bed, and facing him was his expensive guitar.

Hearing Old Meng, Zhang Pa made a sound of assent, pulled over a chair, grabbed his laptop, set it on the chair, and started working on the floor.

“You, and Another You” was the title. The main characters were the two big dogs and the protagonist—a story about the life of an autistic young man.

The plot was somewhat cliché: a frail boy, bullied since childhood, one day encountered two puppies being tormented and beaten. Hearing their pitiful, weak whimpers, he risked everything to save them, took a beating himself, and brought the two small creatures home.

Time passed, and the boy grew up, as did the puppies. But it wasn’t just the boy and the dogs who changed—the world changed too. Laws in the city changed; the government no longer allowed dog ownership without paying fees. Later, regulations became even stricter—large dogs were forbidden in the city.

The story spanned more than a decade. The boy became a youth, the puppies became old dogs.

For the sake of others, it was understandable—owning dogs could inconvenience people: barking, disturbing rest, and so on.

For the sake of the dogs, the protagonist moved house over and over, apologized over and over. Luckily, the dogs never bit anyone, but even so, neighbors constantly complained, cursed, reported them.

He and his dogs dodged city inspectors and police time after time, running everywhere, running desperately.

Each time they escaped, the protagonist rewarded the dogs with treats.

Until now, when the city launched another dog purge, this time with extreme severity—no exceptions allowed. And this time, the big dogs ran out of luck and were caught.

The story began and ended the same way: the dogs running, running, running. At the start, they ran from the police; at the end, the running existed only in the protagonist’s mind.

Between these two flights was the protagonist’s desperate struggle to save his companions.

To save the dogs, he begged and pleaded in vain—even knelt, but it was useless. An autistic man, for the sake of his friends, forced himself to interact with people, tried desperately to prove the dogs were harmless...

None of it worked. You have to follow the rules. The rules now forbade large dogs in the city, and no matter how pitiful the case, it was still against the law. The police were right: what if the dogs bit someone? What if they scared a child? To you, the dogs are companions, but to others, their loved ones might get hurt. People matter more than dogs.

Zhang Pa wasn’t sure why he suddenly wanted to write a story like this—maybe it was because Fatty and his friends had eaten dog meat and taunted the big dogs?

The story was short and, in terms of meaning, held little depth. It reflected nothing, nor could it. Was he supposed to question the policies and laws?

The only thread he could draw was the protagonist’s autism, a call for society to care about people like him.

But what use was it? In the end, the dogs died. Many dogs were locked in cages, while the protagonist knelt outside, begging the police, but no one listened.

Seeing their owner humiliated, the two big dogs suddenly went mad, ramming their heads against the cage—once, twice—and their lives ended, collapsing inside the cage, clinging to life, their eyes filled with reluctant longing for their owner.

The dogs were old, unfit for hardship. Just a couple of blows were fatal.

The protagonist wailed in agony, dragging himself to the cage, reaching through the bars...

Later, he fainted. In his dreams, the two big dogs ran and ran. The story ended.

The story was simple, with only one main character. The trouble was the span of years, requiring child actors and puppies.

Zhang Pa planned to use animation for the early years, a simple montage to show their growth. But thinking ahead, he realized many scenes would be difficult to shoot—so many dogs in cages, the two big dogs smashing themselves against the bars...

Writing the story made him cry. When it was done and he tried to figure out how to film it, he realized there were countless obstacles... He had wanted to do something for the two big dogs, but in the end, it seemed he couldn’t.

The story itself was full of helplessness. The protagonist needed regular hospital visits and couldn’t take the big dogs to live in the countryside. Yet the city had no place for them. This inexplicable conflict made the story sensitive.

So sensitive that no one could say for sure what was right or wrong—yet everyone knew, deep down, it was all wrong...