The new rule went up on the first Monday of term, printed on yellow paper and taped beside every classroom door. No phones during school hours. Teachers had asked for it for years; the evidence from the staff room was overwhelming, if unscientific: students who kept phones in their pockets kept one hand in their pockets too. Lu Ming, who enforced the rules, was given a drawer for confiscated devices and a key.
新规定在开学第一个星期一贴出来，黄纸黑字，每个教室门边一张。上课时间不许用手机。老师们要这条规定要了好几年；教工室里的证据压倒一切，虽然并不科学：手机揣在兜里的学生，总有一只手也揣在兜里。负责执行规定的陆明分到一个抽屉，用来装没收的设备，还有一把钥匙。
On Wednesday, a mother came to the office with a letter from a hospital. Her son, Bai Yu, wore a sensor on his arm that sent a reading to his phone; without the phone, the sensor was only a piece of plastic. The letter asked that he be allowed to keep the device on silent and check it discreetly. Lu Ming read the letter twice. Then she read the yellow paper on the door.
星期三，一位母亲拿着医院的证明来到办公室。她儿子白宇手臂上贴着一个传感器，会把读数发到他的手机上；没有手机，传感器只是一片塑料。证明请求允许他把设备带在身上，静音，不引人注意地查看。陆明把证明读了两遍。然后她读门上那张黄纸。
"I believe you," she said, and she did. "But if I make an exception for him, I will have thirty parents in this office by Friday with letters of their own." The mother nodded slowly, as though she had expected this sentence and had been dreading it anyway. "He is not asking to be special," she said. "He is asking to be safe."
“我相信你，”她说，她确实相信。“但如果我为他破例，星期五之前会有三十个家长拿着自己的证明站在这间办公室。”母亲慢慢点头，像是早就料到这句话，却还是害怕听到。“他不是要求被特殊对待，”她说，“他是要求安全。”
That night Lu Ming tried to write a policy that would cover the case without covering everything. She drafted a list: medical devices, hearing aids, translation tools for new students, watches that were really phones. Each item opened a door she could not close. A watch that was really a phone was also a phone; a translation tool was also a screen; a medical device, in the hands of a clever student, could be a small computer.
那天晚上，陆明试着写一条既能覆盖这个情况、又不会覆盖一切的规定。她起草了一份清单：医疗设备、助听器、新生的翻译工具、其实是手机的手表。每加一项，就打开一扇她关不上的门。其实是手机的手表也是手机；翻译工具也是屏幕；医疗设备到了聪明的学生手里，也可以是一台小电脑。
On Friday, during the monthly exam, an alarm sounded from the third row. It was a low, insistent beep, and Bai Yu was already reaching for his bag before anyone told him to. Lu Ming watched thirty students turn to look. She watched the invigilator hesitate. Then she walked to the desk, picked up the bag, and carried it to the corridor, where the boy could check it without an audience.
星期五，月考时，第三排响起一声提示音。低而执拗的哔声，白宇在任何人开口之前就已经伸手去拿书包。陆明看着三十个学生转过头来。她看着监考老师犹豫。然后她走到桌前，拿起书包，拎到走廊上，让那个男孩可以在没有观众的地方查看。
He came back after four minutes and finished the exam. His score was average. Later, in the corridor, he said, "You could have taken it away." "I did," she said. "For four minutes." He looked at her, and she realised that the rule had never been about the phone. It had been about the fear of what a phone might hide.
他四分钟后回来，把考试做完。分数一般。后来在走廊里，他说：“你本可以把手机拿走。”“我拿了，”她说，“四分钟。”他看着她，她意识到，这条规定从来不是关于手机的。它是关于害怕手机可能藏着什么。
The revised policy was one page and contained no list of devices. It said that a student with a documented need, confirmed by the school nurse and a clinician, could carry a device under a written plan: silent, used only at agreed times, visible to staff. Everyone else left phones in the lockers by the door. Lu Ming argued for the word "documented" for a week, because it was the only word that kept the door from opening for everyone.
修订后的规定只有一页，里面没有设备清单。它写着：有经校医和临床医生确认的、有据可查的需要的学生，可以按一份书面方案携带设备——静音，只在约定时间使用，对教职员可见。其他人把手机放进门口的柜子。陆明为“有据可查”这个词争了一个星期，因为这是唯一一个不让门对所有人敞开的词。
It was not a popular policy. Some teachers thought it was a loophole; some parents thought it was a bureaucracy; Bai Yu thought it was embarrassing to have a plan with his name on it. But on the day the yellow papers came down, his mother stopped Lu Ming in the corridor and said, "Thank you for not making him choose between his safety and his school."
这不是一条受欢迎的规定。有些老师觉得它是漏洞；有些家长觉得它是官僚程序；白宇觉得，有一份写着自己名字的方案很丢人。但黄纸摘下来那天，他母亲在走廊上拦住陆明，说：“谢谢你没有让他必须在安全和学校之间做选择。”
Lu Ming kept one copy of the old yellow paper in her drawer, next to the key. She did not keep it as a trophy. She kept it because it reminded her how easy it was to write a rule that was fair in general and cruel in particular, and how much work it took to write one that was neither.
陆明把一张旧的黄纸留在抽屉里，挨着那把钥匙。她留下它不是为了当战利品。她留下它，是因为它提醒她：写一条在总体上公平、在具体处残忍的规定是多么容易；而写一条两者都不是的规定，又要花多少功夫。