Chapter 1. June_June and Yu

The August sun in Guangzhou radiated such warmth that it seemed to blend the lush green of the forests with the golden sunlight. The wandering clouds’ gentle, gray shadows were swept across the hills by the wind's invisible brushes, painting the hills in soft strokes. Qingju He, also known as "June," fondly reminisced about her childhood in her mountainous hometown, Chongqing. Her memories vividly captured endless hills stretching beneath a deep blue sky, their green hues gently merging with the warmth of summer, just like the beautiful scene in front of her eyes.

A voice called out to her sharply, "You there, step forward! Stop swaying and losing focus!"

June then realized she was still in the midst of a self-defense class in her mandatory high school orientation. Her high school organized a five-day retreat at a mountain resort, where PE instructors taught students basic survival skills, long-distance running, martial arts, and self-defense techniques. In most schools across the country, whatever the form their orientation takes, it is an unspoken rule that the orientation also serves to instill discipline in students and ensure that they all obey the school rules.

June, standing under the blazing sun and battling a heatstroke, was clearly not focused on the self-defense instructor's lecture. What was worse, was that she had been chosen as the student assistant for that day’s lessons, owing to her childhood experience in martial arts.

She lost track of the instructor's angry words and collapsed to the ground. By the time she regained consciousness, she was already seated in an air-conditioned room with the school doctors around her.

“Please let me go back. I am the student assistant for today’s self-defense lesson, and my classmates are waiting for me.” June said to the doctors anxiously.

“No dear, you would want to stay here for a little longer. We need to make sure that you are well enough to return to the lesson.” One of the doctors said gently.

“Oh please…it was just a heatstroke. I’m not a weakling.” June said in frustration.

The doctors insisted that she stay until late afternoon, a request she reluctantly followed. When she finally returned to her lesson, she discovered that a boy had been chosen as the new student assistant. He was tall and thin, with waves of hair falling across his forehead, beads of sweat dotting his hair.

Before June could say anything, the instructor said to her, "This boy is the new student assistant. He knows Tai Chi.”

“But why? I was just…”

“I’d be hesitant to choose another girl, in case she collapses like you did." The instructor interrupted her.

June frowned and extremely unwillingly made her way to the back rows, hoping to stay out of the instructor’s sight. Throughout the rest of the afternoon lesson, she constantly fought the urge to grab the new student assistant by the arm, and drag him to where she was standing, and shout to everyone that this was gender discrimination. She couldn’t even pay attention to a word the instructor said, or any demonstrations the boy and the instructor did. She heard her classmates cheering as the boy performed a classic Tai Chi defensive move to block the instructor’s attack, but could only get angrier.

"How I wish I could say it all out loud!” June thought furiously, "Isn’t anyone noticing that this is gender discrimination at its core?”

As the afternoon lesson ended, June thought angrily, “I will definitely find out who on earth this wavy-haired guy is. He is in no position to replace me – he wasn’t even doing Tai Chi in proper forms. Weak amateur! ”

At dinner time, June deliberately sat at the same table as the new student assistant, and observed him closely. To her surprise, he seemed quiet, polite, and even a bit shy. He didn’t say a single word while everyone else complained about why “tomatoes with scrambled eggs have no eggs”, and why “stir-fried chicken with vegetables only has vegetables”. He only quietly passed the dishes around the table to make sure everyone got some of each plate. He stayed behind to help clean up the table after everyone else left, so June stayed too and helped him.

Once they finished cleaning the table, he looked up at her, and June immediately asked him, “Hey, you are the new student assistant, aren’t you?”

"Yes, I remember you. You should have been the student assistant, not me," the boy said with an apologetic tone. "I'm really sorry you had to experience such unfair gender discrimination. It was wrong of the instructor to say that to you. Tomorrow, I’ll speak to him and ask to have you reassigned."

June’s fury vanished instantly. She prepared a ton of sharp words just to question him, only to be met with such an unexpectedly kind response.

“Thank you,” June also said apologetically, “Nice to meet you by the way. I’m Qingju, my name means ‘green tangerines'. I was born when the tangerines in my family orchard were still green, so my parents gave me this name – a rare name, isn’t it? I usually go by June. What’s your name?”

"Your Chinese name is lovely though," the boy said with a smile. "I'm Yuhang Zhang, with 'Yuhang' meaning 'travelling the universe.' It's nice meeting you, too."

The next morning, Yuhang said to the self-defense instructor before the review session, “Instructor, could you kindly swap back the student lead from yesterday? She has better martial arts skills than me.”

The instructor responded coldly, “I did not ask you to speak.”

June did not see Yuhang at lunch, so she cleaned up her table alone. In the afternoon, Yuhang came back to the self-defense review session with a grin. June’s jaws dropped as she heard the lead instructor’s announcement.

"Attention, everyone. On the final showcase day, when you will present what you learned in front of the school principals, each class must have one male and one female student leading the martial arts and self-defense performances."

June saw the frown on their instructor’s face. He turned around and, clearly unwillingly, said to June, “Well, well, you’ve been reselected. You two will lead together, then.”

Yuhang smiled at her and gave a gentle nod. June was so shocked that she forgot how tired she was. It wasn’t until the break that she realized her feet were already sore. Their high school brought them herbal tea during the break. It is a Cantonese tradition to drink herbal tea to help cope with the summer heat. June took a sip of the tea, sat down and grimaced at the bitterness.

Yuhang asked her, “Are you not used to Cantonese herbal tea?”

“No, not at all.” June said, “I’m not Cantonese. This is too bitter for me.”

"It’s made from beneficial herbs and is good for your health, though," Yuhang said. "I’m not Cantonese either, my parents came from the northwest. I just used to take much more bitter Chinese herbal medicine as a child, so this doesn't even seem bitter to me."

“How on earth did you convince the lead instructor to say that?” June asked.

“Oh, I just told him that my middle school is the best in the city, ” Yuhang smiled and said, “and in my middle school’s new students’ week, every class had a male and female lead for Tai Chi performance on the showcase day.”

“Which middle school did you go to?”

“I randomly mentioned a top middle school to sound more credible,” Yuhang said, “I actually wasn’t even back in China back then, I was in Maryland. I came back to Guangzhou halfway through seventh grade.”

“You what?” June asked in surprise, “You went to school in the States?”

Yuhang nodded and said, "I had a tough time catching up on everything and couldn't write half of the Chinese characters in my Chinese exam back then."

June was still in shock. She slowly said, “Interesting, and wow, you are very smart for saying that to him.”

“Well I just couldn’t stand seeing gender inequality, that’s all.” Yuhang said, sitting down beside her. In June's memory, that afternoon felt long and exhausting, but she didn't want it to slip away.

None of the students would have expected what happened the next day. That was the day before the showcase, and the high school assigned some administrators to check their hairstyles and ensure they aligned with the school rules. They even brought barbers along, ready to shave the students’ hair.

It has long been known that many schools in Guangzhou have strict rules regarding students' hairstyles. Some of these are top schools, while others are lesser-known. Many unfortunate students end up at these schools, either because they scored too high or too low in the high school entrance exam.

June is fortunate enough to have achieved a good score, but unfortunate enough to be accidentally assigned to her current high school, which has strict rules. Her high school mandates that all girls' hair be no longer than the bottom of their ears, while all boys must keep their hair short and neat. No student is allowed to dye or curl their hair. One of the school administrators, with her long hair dyed purple, walked around arrogantly with her chin held high and stopped beside June.

“Your hair doesn't comply with the school rules; it will be shaved.” She said coldly.

“My hair is short enough though – it doesn’t even reach the bottom of my ears.” June replied, surprised.

"There's nothing wrong with the length of your hair, but with its texture," the purple-haired school administrator said, her voice so clear that everyone could hear. "Your hair looks too puffy, and this is not how a well-behaved student, especially a girl, should present herself. It doesn’t look like the proper hair of a student, but more like that of the unkempt girls who drop out of school and roam the streets."

“But I was born with this hair texture, there is nothing I can do about it. Besides, I have read the school rules no at least ten times, and I’m 200 percent sure they say nothing about hair texture." June explained in despair. She was already frustrated with the instructor for making gender-discriminatory remarks, and now she is hearing even worse things from a female teacher. Why, just why would people hate women so much, as to criticize them all the time, including women themselves? She thought angrily, staring at the purple-haired administrator in front of her. In comparison, and quite ironically, the school administrator’s appearance resembles more of an “unkempt high school dropout that roams the streets” than her own.

Before she could come up with a response, the purple-haired woman yelled at the top of her lungs, “Someone come here and take this student to the barber. She dares to talk back, and will get her hair shaved first.”

June heard a calm, familiar voice from not far away. “Article 37 of the Constitution says that a Chinese citizen’s personal freedom shall not be violated, and since their hair is a part of their body, it is protected under this principle. Lawyers have been suggesting that mandatory haircut requirements in schools essentially violate the law. You are simply relying on the fact that no one here has a lawyer, and that your actions have no media exposure. Plus, since there is nothing about puffy hair texture in the school rules, you are just making up an excuse to shave students’ hair and scare them into submission.”

June turned around, and saw that it was Yuhang speaking.

That infuriated the purple-haired woman, and she started screaming, “What does it have to do with you? You are a boy, and you are speaking up for a girl? Shut up right now! Someone come take this girl to the stage over there, and let everyone watch her hair being shaved!”

The self-defense instructor, still angry at Yuhang and June, immediately rushed over and grabbed June by the arm, trying to pull her towards the stage not far away. Yuhang rushed towards them, using his martial arts skills, which June had thought were "amateur", grabbed the instructor’s wrists, pushed him aside, and held him firmly. “I take back my thoughts,” June thought in amazement, “in no way is this amateur.”

“You could have let the student walk up to the stage herself. Don’t grab her like that, it’s rude.” He said calmly to the purple-hair.

“Now you,” purple-hair’s voice started trembling in anger, “will have your hair shaved first.”

“My pleasure, madam.” Yuhang responded sarcastically, releasing the instructor. The instructor rubbed his wrists in pain, and glared at Yuhang fiercely.

Yuhang kept smiling when got his hair fully shaved. Purple-hair walked onto the stage, picked up a microphone, and announced to the one thousand new students this year, “Anyone who curls their hair, will be shaved exactly like that.”

“Unfortunately you guessed it wrong. I was born with wavy hair.” Yuhang picked up the microphone she just put down, and said with a smile, “There are Chinese people with wavy hair. We are even in large numbers given the Chinese population.”

“How you dare!” purple-hair snatched the microphone from Yuhang, “Now all the girls with unreasonable hair should come to the stage and get all your hair completely shaved. This has been done every year, and I’m quite surprised that you haven’t heard it from your upperclassmen and prepared for it.”

June walked up the stage and sat in front of a barber in despair. She kept looking at Yuhang, who was also looking back at her with empathy. Yuhang’s hair was completely gone, and looked as bold as one could possibly be. June’s hair felt lighter and lighter, and when the barber told her to stand up, she knew that her hair had been completely shaved. She walked back down the stage like a soulless robot, and saw drops of tears on other girls’ faces. Not only had the school destroyed the students' hair, but it had also destroyed their confidence and dignity.

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Before, June had only read in the news that in some faraway province, certain schools would go as far as shaving students’ heads, forcing them to study non-stop, and covering up incidents caused by mental health decline. She once thought those were fake news, but not anymore. Not all schools are like that, the high school that her middle school was affiliated with isn’t like that. Most schools in the country aren’t like that. However, if one is unfortunate enough to end up in one of such schools, one has no escape – they might escape to another school, but will never escape the trauma it caused.

Because Yuhang dared to stand up to the purple-hair, all of his classmates, June included, were forced to stay up past midnight practicing self-defense moves as a punishment. When they were finally dismissed and most of their classmates had left, a group of big boys cornered Yuhang and started beating him. June quickly hid behind the bushes, watching in fear. Once the boys had gone, she walked out from behind the bushes and extended her hand to help Yuhang up.

Yuhang was rubbing his arms in pain, but still managed to thank June with a smile. “June, I thought by getting myself into such a prestigious high school, I would at least see civilized people. I was terribly wrong.”

“I am so, so sorry to see this.” June said, “Karma will eventually hunt them down, Yuhang. But Yuhang, how can you still smile like that? Aren’t you sad that we all look bold as eggs now?”

Yuhang stopped smiling and said in a serious tone, “June, you should not pity yourself for what they did to you. The purple-haired woman doesn’t even know what herself was doing – she was acting like a machine, enforcing the rules without a second thought. I would pity her, because she doesn’t even realize that she’s no different from a slave.”

Before June said goodnight to Yuhang, he added, “If you are forced to shoot someone with a gun, you can lift the gun up by an inch – though you are not allowed to quit, you are allowed to miss.”

That was very philosophical. June lay on the bed, thinking about Yuhang’s words, unable to fall asleep. She came to this cursed high school alone, leaving all of her old friends, including Shuran Wu, whom she had known for nearly 12 years. She wanted to call him to talk it all out, but no one was allowed to bring their phone to the retreat. It took June a long time to finally fall asleep, but she still woke up at the break of dawn. She walked to the balcony and gazed at the mist rising gently over the mountains. She signed, “When I get back home, I will call Shuran and get dinner with him.”

For everyone, the last day of orientation ended in a depressing mood. Yuhang was no longer allowed to appear in the performance, so a random student was selected to replace him, and led the performance alongside June. When June and her classmates said “Thank you!” at the end, only their voices remained, no traces of emotions were found.