Finally receiving Shang Jie's call, He Lizhen arrived at the school gate with her bag. Shang Jie waved to her from the car, her enthusiasm cutting through the afternoon heat. "Lizhen! Over here—"
"What kind of lousy school is this?" Shang Jie said after He Lizhen got in the car, her eyes scanning the building with undisguised judgment. "The walls are practically crumbling."
He Lizhen said, "It's alright, not that bad."
"Tch." Shang Jie said, "Any good restaurants? Recommend one, I haven't eaten yet, I'm starving."
He Lizhen shook her head, honestly saying, "I don't know..."
"Okay, I knew it." Shang Jie said without surprise, as if she'd expected nothing else. "You didn't even go to a restaurant, did you?"
He Lizhen said, "I just started working recently, I've been very busy."
Shang Jie parked the car on the side of the road, pointed at the navigation for a long time, and finally settled on a commercial area. The two found a barbecue restaurant, and Shang Jie immediately ordered four plates of meat with the confidence of someone truly hungry.
While eating, the two chatted about their recent situations. He Lizhen had something on her mind, which she kept to herself like a stone in her pocket, and didn't eat much.
"Why don't you eat something? Aren't you hungry?" Shang Jie asked, noticing.
"I'm fine." He Lizhen took a sip of water and finally spoke.
"Shang Jie."
"Hmm?"
"You…" He Lizhen looked at her and said, "Have you been there again?"
"Where?" Shang Jie spat out a bone.
He Lizhen said, "The place you took me to last time."
"What place?" Shang Jie frowned, swallowed another piece of meat, and then suddenly realized, her eyes lighting with recognition. "Ah, you mean that bar?"
"Yes."
"Rust Season." Shang Jie finally remembered everything. "I haven't been there. I just got back, so I came straight to you. What's wrong?"
He Lizhen shook her head. "Nothing."
Shang Jie looked into He Lizhen's eyes, chewed a few times, and put down her chopsticks with deliberate care.
"Something's wrong." She concluded simply. "Go ahead."
He Lizhen wasn't trying to hide anything. She told Shang Jie, "I just want to know if Wan… the guy you called out last time, is still working there."
Shang Jie stared at He Lizhen in disbelief, her mouth slightly open. "Goodness, you only remembered him now? Your reaction time is really long."
He Lizhen knew she had misunderstood, and her ears turned red instantly, heat creeping up her neck.
"No, it's not what you think."
Shang Jie gave a knowing smile and said, "It's okay, if you really want to see him, I'll make time to go see him for you."
He Lizhen shook her head and said, "We're talking about two different things, Shang Jie—" She looked up at the other person and said slowly, each word weighted. "That person is my student."
Shang Jie didn't react at first, the words not computing.
"Who? Which one is your student?"
He Lizhen said, "The one you chose, the one you said was... the one who was so energetic..."
Shang Jie chuckled, "You remember that too?"
He Lizhen frowned, "Shang Jie!"
"Okay, okay, let's get down to business." Shang Jie picked up a napkin, wiped her mouth, and said, "How is he your student?"
He Lizhen said, "Of course he's here to teach."
Shang Jie said incredulously, "He's only a senior in high school? My god, he doesn't look like it at all."
He Lizhen said, "He's twenty years old this year, he dropped out of school, and he even repeated a grade."
"No wonder." Shang Jie said, "I knew he didn't look seventeen or eighteen. By the way, what's his name?"
"Wan Kun."
Shang Jie ate another piece of meat, processing. "Then he left a fake name at Xiuji."
He Lizhen sat up slightly and said, "What?"
"When I went back to pay the bill, I looked at the name tags, and I thought..." Shang Jie frowned, reaching for the memory. "It seems like he left a name called 'Li Feng'."
"Li Feng…"
Shang Jie said, "Anyway, it makes sense. In places like that, a lot of people use fake names."
Nightclubs, hostesses, fake names… He Lizhen felt a headache coming on, pressure building behind her eyes.
"You two really have a coincidence," Shang Jie said.
He Lizhen gave a wry smile at this coincidence, which she didn't know whether to be happy or worried about, and said, "I told him not to work in places like that anymore."
Shang Jie chuckled and said knowingly, "Did he listen?"
He Lizhen said, "I don't know…" As she spoke, she glanced at Shang Jie, who said with the certainty of experience, "Want me to take a look for you?"
"Yes."
"No need to look," Shang Jie said, "I guarantee you a million times that he definitely didn't listen."
"Why?"
Shang Jie picked up her chopsticks, tapped them lightly on the edge of the empty plate, and glanced at He Lizhen sideways. He Lizhen felt that she had turned back into that shrewd businesswoman—sharp, calculating.
"I can't explain exactly why, but you have to trust my judgment," Shang Jie raised a delicate eyebrow and said, "That kid has a wild streak; he's hard to keep an eye on."
He Lizhen looked at Shang Jie seriously. "In that case, I'll have to talk to his homeroom teacher."
"That's your problem," Shang Jie said. "But I advise you not to make things worse. His homeroom teacher can't possibly be completely unaware of his situation. Why are you, a language arts teacher, meddling?"
He Lizhen was taken aback, the question hitting like cold water.
Right.
She wasn't even his homeroom teacher; why should she worry about this?
He Lizhen lowered her head, looking at the plate of condiments before her, seeing her distorted reflection in the sauce.
After that, He Lizhen didn't discuss Wan Kun's matter with Shang Jie anymore. She changed the subject a few times and they chatted quite happily. In the evening, she saw Shang Jie off and went home alone, the city lights beginning to flicker on.
He Lizhen told herself to mind her own business, or rather, not to interfere—to maintain professional boundaries.
Actually, she didn't need to do much self-suggestion, because starting the following week, Wan Kun stopped coming to school.
He Lizhen looked at the name that had been blank for three days on the attendance list, and finally just sighed and closed it, the sound of pages meeting like a small defeat.
Her workload gradually increased, and the first test was approaching.
This test was just one of countless tests in the senior year of high school, but it was indeed He Lizhen's first time participating in setting the exam questions. She and Liu Ying worked together to create the questions and plan the test paper. He Lizhen even personally delivered the test paper to the copy room, making several hundred copies, the machine's rhythm becoming meditative.
On the day of the exam, Wan Kun and Wu Yueming did not come. While proctoring the exam, He Lizhen discovered several people cheating, but she did not arrest them. Instead, she went over and tapped on the table to give them a warning—a quiet mercy.
Teacher He Lizhen had mixed feelings. She collected the test papers and returned to her office. Few students had seriously completed the questions she had painstakingly prepared. He Lizhen even found a landscape painting on one of the essay papers—mountains where arguments should be.
"Teacher He." There was a knock on the office door, and Wu Wei entered, carrying a stack of notebooks. "These are weekly journals."
Because He Lizhen really liked this rare student who loved learning, she had made him her class representative.
"Put them down. Thank you for your hard work. How did the test go?"
He Lizhen only asked perfunctorily. She had just seen Wu Wei's test paper; the writing was neat, but it was off-topic. He wrote a lot, but it didn't get to the point.
"I don't think I did very well..." Wu Wei said, somewhat disappointed, his shoulders slumping.
"It's okay," He Lizhen comforted him. "Think more, don't just do mindless practice. Your grades will definitely improve."
"Thank you, teacher."
He Lizhen took the journals and glanced at them. When she saw the flamboyant handwriting on the cover of the first journal entry, she was speechless with surprise—shock freezing her fingers.
Wan Kun?
Wu Wei watched as the Chinese teacher opened the first weekly journal, then, as if seeing a ghost, immediately closed it with a snap. A little puzzled, Wu Wei said, "Well, if Ms. He has nothing else, I'll be going now."
He Lizhen lowered her head and softly hummed in agreement, not trusting her voice.
Wu Wei left.
He Lizhen's fingers trembled as she reopened the journal. On the first page, where it had been blank before, a line of text had appeared—words that changed everything.
"Ms. He," Hu Fei entered, also carrying a stack of test papers, "Have you sorted the Chinese test papers yet?"
"Ah? Ah..." He Lizhen's hand trembled in shock, tearing the page off, crumpling it, and stuffing it into her pocket. "Sorted, sorted, I'll show you now."
Hu Fei said, a little confused, "What do you want to show me? Just put them on Ms. Liu's desk after you've sorted them."
"Okay." He Lizhen lowered her head and handed a copy of the sorted test papers to Liu Ying. Then she left the office without looking back, her movements stiff and unnatural.
Hu Fei turned, watching her departing figure, and frowned.
He Lizhen's pace quickened until she was running, rushing into the toilet, closing the door, and pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket with shaking hands.
On the crumpled paper, a few words were neatly arranged:
"Teacher, I kind of like you."
The surroundings seemed to fall silent, the world narrowing to these five words. Inside the toilet stall, enclosed by four partitions, He Lizhen held the paper, her fingers trembling, blood rushing in her ears.
A few girls entered, chatting and laughing, their voices bright and oblivious. After using the toilet, the water splashed, and the girls waited for each other before leaving together.
He Lizhen stood in the stall, her mind a jumble—thoughts colliding and scattering.
The school bell rang, finally bringing her back to reality like a hand pulling her from water. She tore the paper to shreds and flushed it down the toilet. She watched the scraps disappear into the water, swirling away, before leaving.
She strode towards the office; though her shoes were flat, each step made a distinct sound—purposeful, determined.
Back in her office, she went straight to her desk and sat down. She opened Wan Kun's weekly journal, tearing it off hastily, leaving a small half-sheet of paper on the first page. He Lizhen gritted her teeth and tore off the rest, destroying the evidence, then took out her phone.
He Lizhen remembered Wan Kun's number—had memorized it without meaning to. Her fingers scrolled through the eleven-digit number, typing it in rapidly. She paused, staring at the green dial button for a long time, her thumb hovering, before finally pressing the red one.
Returning her phone to the home screen, He Lizhen opened her text messages and wrote:
"When do you have time? I have something to say to you."
After sending the message, she put her phone in her pocket and began grading papers. At first, she was a little distracted, jumping at every small sound, but her phone didn't ring. Later, engrossed in grading, He Lizhen gradually forgot about the text message, red marks accumulating across pages.
It wasn't until school ended that her phone rang. Wan Kun had replied with a brief message:
"Saturday, 6 PM, Wuming Square."
He Lizhen frowned and replied:
"It doesn't have to be that far. I just have a few words to say."
Wan Kun didn't reply.
He Lizhen went home to cook, leaving her phone on her desk. Even after she finished her day's work and turned off the lights to go to sleep, Wan Kun still hadn't replied—his silence somehow louder than words.
Lying in the dark room, He Lizhen felt that Wan Kun seemed to have the upper hand on some issues—controlling the terms, setting the location.
Even though she was a teacher.
Even though he was a student.
The darkness pressed against her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. Those five words kept reforming in her mind, no matter how many times she'd torn them to pieces.
"Teacher, I kind of like you."
Next
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment