The air conditioning in the room
kept switching between hot and cold, and occasionally making a "whooshing" sound.
This was a conference hall on the fifth floor of the Teachers' College, quite spacious, probably holding over three hundred people. Directly in front were two projector screens on either side, and in the middle was a rectangular lectern with a laptop and microphone. A male teacher from a postgraduate entrance exam tutoring class, surnamed Fu, about thirty-five years old, rather thin, but giving off a shrewd and capable impression, was
lecturing on postgraduate English translation. "Translation requires three steps: break, connect, and transform. Breaking means finding the predicate, breaking the sentence, and dividing. This involves six smaller steps, namely..."
I was sitting in row eleven, the third row from the bottom, seat number three. To my right was an empty seat, and to my left was a woman. If I had to describe her in one sentence, I think the teacher's earlier comment would be particularly apt: "She is far away from a woman." Quite robust, compared to me. Before coming to a teacher's college, just thinking about it was exciting, a dazzling array of options... My roommate had been here a few days ago, so I asked him what it was like. His reply was: "The quantity is okay, but the quality is just average." I think maybe his standards are too high, because for an experienced person like him, the average ones don't even look good. After coming here myself, well, that's true.
I wasn't very interested in the translation lessons the teacher was giving. Seeing a long, difficult sentence made my head spin. However, I was deeply attracted by a story he told about his college romance.
The story begins in Professor Fu's junior year. That winter, the weather was unusually cold, though it hadn't snowed yet.
He didn't have classes that evening, so Professor Fu was studying in his dorm. He was an English major, one of only two boys in his class. There were six people in his dorm, the other four were computer science majors, and they had all gone out, leaving him alone, clutching a copy of "One Hundred Years of Solitude."
There was a phone booth downstairs in the dormitory. He looked out the window and saw a girl standing next to it, gripping the receiver and stamping her feet angrily. At first glance, Lao Fu was captivated by the girl's silhouette. She wore a white sweater, paired with a red plaid skirt despite the winter chill, and a long ponytail—a style that was incredibly fashionable for a Chinese person just entering the 21st century.
Suddenly, the girl angrily slammed the phone down on the phone booth. Lao Fu felt a pang of heartache. There was only one landline in the dormitory, and when it was busy, you had to fight for it to call home. If he couldn't get a phone from his roommate, he would usually run to this phone booth downstairs to let his family know he was safe. If this phone broke, it would be a real problem.
Lao Fu quickly grabbed the landline and dialed the number on the phone booth.
After a while, the girl picked up the phone and yelled, "Why are you calling again? I don't want to hear your voice. I'm never talking to you again!"
Old Fu quickly explained, "Student, please don't slam the phone down. Please don't take your anger out on innocent things."
The girl was stunned for a moment, then immediately said, "Who are you? What's it to you?" Then she slammed the phone down on the phone booth again.
Suppressing his anger, Lao Fu dialed the number again. When the girl answered, ignoring her insults, he began to speak: "After José Arcadio Buendía was at least temporarily freed from the torment of his delusions, he quickly and methodically restored order to the town's working life. This peaceful atmosphere was something José Arcadio himself had once destroyed when he released the birds that had loudly announced the time in the early days of Macondo and installed a musical clock in every house. These beautiful wooden clocks were obtained by trading parrots with the Arabs. José Arcadio set them perfectly, and within half an hour, they played several sections of the same waltz, bringing joy to the whole town..."
Indeed, this passage was from the book *One Hundred Years of Solitude* that Lao Fu had read, but he hadn't read it aloud. Instead, he recited it from memory in a calm tone, because he had gradually memorized it after reading it so many times.
At first, the girl would hurl insults like "Are you crazy?!" but she gradually quieted down, no longer interrupting Lao Fu's recitation, like someone peacefully listening to their mother tell a story before bed, only this story was quite long.
Not long after, Lao Li returned.
Lao Fu immediately waved his hand vigorously at him, meaning don't turn on the light, afraid the girl would see him if it did. Then he put his index finger to his lips in a "shh" gesture, telling Lao Li to be quiet. Lao Li didn't understand at first, but after Lao Fu pointed out the window, he looked out and understood, then gave a mischievous smile. At this point, Lao Fu switched to speakerphone, hung up the microphone, and continued telling the story. Lao Li sat down, looking out the window and listening to the long tale.
The roommates returned one after another, and the story had been going on for half an hour. Every time a roommate returned, Lao Li would proactively help Lao Fu intercept them before they gestured to turn on the light. So everyone sat down in front of the phone, silently watching the girl and Lao Fu.
Sometimes, being too clever for one's own good backfires. As the lights in the entire building gradually came on, only Lao Fu's roommates remained lurking in the darkness, silently watching outside the window. Eventually, only the light in that one dorm room remained off. After
a long while, the girl suddenly said, "Turn on the light, it's the only dark room."
Hearing this, the group stared at each other, and to avoid the embarrassment of peeping, Lao Fu quickly moved the phone to the center of the dorm. Just then, the phone beeped with a low balance warning, with ten seconds left before disconnection.
The group sighed deeply. Lao Fu didn't know what to say at this moment. Although his friends all insisted he ask for the girl's name, Lao Fu was too embarrassed to speak. Just
as the call was about to end, a sentence came from the other end, a sentence that surprised and excited everyone, because they all felt there was something to see.
A sweet voice came from the other end: "I'll be waiting for you here in the phone booth tomorrow night."
Just then, the phone went dead with a "beep, beep..." sound.
