On Deng Zhengzheng's first day at Stone Women's Middle School, she received a deck of cards featuring a group of scholars from the Republic of China era. And so...
A scientist carrying vital military supplies dodges enemy agents while writing lesson plans.
A historian helping move cultural relics south through a storm of bullets writes lesson plans along the way.
A left-wing cultural movement leader imprisoned for her beliefs cries out for the salvation of the nation while writing lesson plans.
A pilot who traded her pen for a gun finishes a mission, then writes lesson plans beside her plane on a barren hillside.
A diplomat's wife stationed abroad prepares supplies for the war against Japan while writing lesson plans.
They finish their lesson plans and wait to be summoned, to go to an era where countless peaceful desks can be set up, and teach a class.
*
Deng Zhengzheng draws an SSR card, and the person on it might be her former online friend. Her feelings are complicated.
You said you wanted to stay in America to do research. The distance was too great, and we weren't right for each other. I understood.
But how did you end up becoming a dean of students?
-
Xie Sishen: Harvard graduate, elite returnee, physics prodigy, rising star in science, and a future Nobel Prize in Physics candidate.
He sent his resume to the Affiliated High School of Normal University and became the youngest dean of students in the school's history.
This kicked off another round of online debate about research careers versus the salaries and educational resources at elite high schools.
No one knew that after spending a year embroiled in an academic plagiarism scandal, he had changed.
After losing the online friend he had known for years, with whom he had gradually fallen in love,
he had become a creep.
From fragments in their remaining chat history, he discovered that Deng Zhengzheng had gone to teach at the Affiliated High School of Normal University.
[Because the heroine chose Xie Sishen, he got the chance to become the hero and put his talents to use. Let us thank Ms. Chang for her generous gift.]
The heroine's name comes from my favorite blessing: "May I be strong and upright, may I always hold my head high." Every Women's Day, I post this greeting on my social media.
"Extra Scene"
With only a few months left until National Day,
the students and teachers of Stone Women's High School work together so they can watch the military parade with the "teachers" from the Republic of China era, claim the System's rewards, and raise their points.
They renovate the athletic field, carry the library books by hand, and establish clubs.
The principal once again tucks her battered briefcase under her arm and runs to the education bureau every day to apply for projects and find sponsors. The school builds a laboratory, an athletic field, a library, an astronomy room, and a computer room...
On every awards podium,
provincial swimming champions, gold medalists in mathematics, physics, and chemistry competitions, national English speech contest champions, national youth literature contest champions, and a robotics team competing on the international stage... They all come from a poor, remote town called Stone Town.
At last, the women from a hundred years ago see this grand ceremony.
Someone in prison closes her eyes in contentment. Someone boards a ship for a foreign land to continue her studies. Someone rises again from the snow and ice and keeps walking...
The women from a hundred years ago and those from a hundred years later briefly cross paths, then continue to shine in their own times.
Their lives go on.
*
Later, the cards gradually faded, the disasters haunting Stone High School came to an end, and the girls passed their university entrance exams and left town for college.
One class of students after another came through, and the number of teachers grew. They no longer needed the cards, and Stone Women's High School graduated from the global ranking of secondary schools.
Many years later, two Olympic champions, the fifth woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, a nationally recognized entrepreneur, the chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation, a provincial governor, an outstanding young person devoted to grassroots work, a war correspondent who won the Pulitzer Prize, and an artist dedicated to preserving traditional handicrafts all mentioned Stone Middle School in their interviews. In this poorest of places, they had been the richest in spirit.
"We must strive to be strong, so we do not fail the teachings of those who came before us."
This story is also known as Women's Passionate High School.
Their youth was full of poverty, insignificance, and resentment.
They were the dust in a house, the weeds in a village.
Until one day, the gods entrusted them with the task of saving the world.
And so the stars of the entire world shone for them.
Written on July 19, 2025
Theme: We must strive to be strong, so we do not fail the teachings of those who came before us.
