Chapter 18: Who's Listening

 

After school, He Lizhen treated Peng Qian to dinner to cheer her up after the breakup.

"What do you want to eat?" He Lizhen asked.

Peng Qian walked out of the school gate and shouted: "Meat!"

He Lizhen nodded. "Barbecue?"

"Let's go!"

---

The restaurant was Korean-owned — small, not particularly fancy, but the food was authentic and the place was always packed. When He Lizhen and Peng Qian arrived, nearly every table was full. Fortunately there were only two of them, so they managed to find a spot. The seating was cramped; other customers sat to their right, and to their left was a partition just over a meter high.

After they sat down, the waiter brought the menu. He Lizhen handed it to Peng Qian. "You order. What do you want—"

"ROAR—!! Pour it down! Keep pouring—!"

A series of wild, exuberant yells suddenly erupted from behind the partition. He Lizhen paused. The voice sounded familiar. She turned her head, straightened her back slightly, and looked across.

Seven or eight people at the table. He Lizhen recognized them immediately — a gathering of students from Class Six.

One person was standing with his back to her. Wan Kun.

He seemed to be holding a wine glass, and a girl beside him was pouring. The one making noise and egging him on was Wu Yueming. The girl's name was Li Ying — the same one who had brought Wan Kun water during PE class that afternoon.

When the glass was nearly full, Wan Kun started to raise it to his lips, but Li Ying grabbed his arm, looking slightly put out. "We haven't even said our toast yet. What's the rush?"

Wan Kun set the glass down and asked, with a lazy, teasing tone: "What toast?"

Li Ying blushed at his smile. "It's my birthday today! What toast, he says!"

Wan Kun's smile widened. "I wish you get a year older."

"You're so annoying!" Li Ying raised her hand and punched his arm lightly, her cheeks blooming into twin roses, the gesture almost coquettish. Wan Kun frowned and moved the glass out of reach. "Stop messing around. You'll spill it."

"I'll just pour you more."

He Lizhen turned her head back around. Peng Qian had noticed too, whispering: "Class Six?"

He Lizhen nodded.

"I'm really impressed," Peng Qian said. "Everyone was playing so enthusiastically at the sports meet this afternoon, and now they're here celebrating a birthday. Where do they get all that energy?"

He Lizhen wanted to redirect the conversation. "Never mind them. Have you ordered?"

"Yes." Peng Qian handed the menu back to the waiter. After he left, she sighed heavily in her seat.

He Lizhen said: "Don't take it too seriously. It'll pass quickly. As they say—" She thought for a moment. "Out with the old, in with the new."

Peng Qian looked at her, speechless. "Is that how you comfort someone?"

"I'm being very sincere."

The waiter brought over several bottles of beer. He Lizhen was dumbfounded. "You ordered drinks?"

"Yeah. You don't even know I'm drowning my sorrows in alcohol? And you're a Chinese teacher, for goodness' sake."

"Drinking only makes you more sorrowful," He Lizhen said.

"Tsk!" Peng Qian glared. He Lizhen immediately raised her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. You drink."

---

Over at the other side of the partition, Wan Kun downed a glass of wine. Everyone around him applauded, urging Li Ying to pour him another.

Li Ying was a very pretty girl, but she had little interest in studying. She was a bit of a troublemaker — quite famous in the nearby schools, with many suitors. But she already had someone she loved. She was fixated on Wan Kun. Whenever he came to school, she wanted to follow him everywhere, wishing she could attach herself to him permanently. Today was her birthday. She was dressed provocatively, wearing heavy makeup, with thick, thick false eyelashes.

She stood next to Wan Kun and watched him finish his drink.

A boy beside her said: "What are you doing? Hurry up and pour."

"Pour it, pour it!"

Li Ying's face was flushed. She seemed to be pretending embarrassment as she said to Wan Kun: "Are you alright? Can you still drink?"

Wu Yueming, who was eating sunflower seeds on the side, burst out laughing. "Pfft. Don't be ridiculous. Do you know what your Brother Kun's alcohol tolerance is? 'Can you still drink?' — hurry up and pour! If you don't have any sense, who will want you in the future?"

Everyone laughed. Li Ying glared at him. "How do you know no one will want me!"

"Yes, yes, yes. Miss Li, everyone wants you. Hurry up and pour the wine."

One glass after another, Li Ying poured wine for Wan Kun, then poured a glass for herself. "I'll drink this one with you."

A boy teased: "Oh. Just drinking with him? Not something else?"

Li Ying's face turned red again. Wan Kun laughed and kicked the boy lightly. "Stop talking nonsense or I'll kick you to death."

After a few rounds of drinking, the atmosphere at their table grew more and more heated.

Compared to that side, He Lizhen and Peng Qian's table was particularly quiet. No matter how badly she'd been hurt, Peng Qian focused on filling her stomach first. She ate bite by bite, occasionally glancing up to nudge He Lizhen.

"You eat. Why aren't you eating? Trying to save money?"

He Lizhen laughed. "I'm not that poor."

"Then why aren't you eating?"

"I'm not that hungry right now. You eat yours."

"Then I won't worry about you."

"Okay."

Just then, Wan Kun's table started playing some kind of game. Wu Yueming was losing fiercely, yelling and screaming. Peng Qian turned her head to look, then turned back to He Lizhen and whispered: "They can really shout."

"Yeah."

"You know, if Teacher Hu were eating here right now, wouldn't it be quite a scene?"

He Lizhen said: "Even without Teacher Hu, we're still here. We're teachers too."

"We?" Peng Qian finished her drink. "We can't do that. I don't teach this class, and you—" She set down her glass and looked at He Lizhen. "Whether you teach them or not makes no difference."

He Lizhen: "..."

Peng Qian finished a bottle of wine. Her face was flushed. She'd almost finished eating, and she held her chopsticks loosely, poking randomly at the grill, sighing every few moments.

He Lizhen said: "Don't sigh. It's all in the past."

"In the past..." Peng Qian's voice dropped. "I wanted to marry him." She only got halfway through before her voice broke into a sob. Her eyes reddened. Tears streamed down her face.

He Lizhen was completely taken aback. She froze. Then she looked for napkins on the table, but Peng Qian had used them all. She looked down and rummaged through her bag — no tissues there either.

"Waiter." He Lizhen called out, but the waiter, about five meters away, was leaning against the counter absorbed in his phone and didn't hear. She raised her voice slightly: "Waiter—!"

But the voices from the next table were so loud that her call was drowned out entirely. Seeing Peng Qian crying harder, He Lizhen stood up and went to the front counter to get napkins herself.

"Teacher He?"

The voice came suddenly. He Lizhen paused.

Wan Kun turned around sharply.

He Lizhen glanced at him, then said to the group of students: "A group meal?"

"Yes." Wu Yueming said. "Teacher He is eating here too?"

"Yes."

Their table was almost finished — empty plates piled high. Several boys, having eaten and drunk their fill, sat on chairs smoking.

He Lizhen looked at them and couldn't help saying: "Don't smoke."

One of the boys said: "We're off campus now, Teacher."

"So what if it's off-campus?" He Lizhen said. "Aren't you still students off-campus?"

"School rules—"

"Stop smoking." Wan Kun, who had been sitting quietly on the inside, suddenly spoke up. Before the others could react, he reached out, took the cigarette from the mouth of the boy next to him, and slammed it onto the table.

The boys were all stunned. Wu Yueming looked at Wan Kun, then turned away and said: "Alright. Stop smoking. Give the teacher some face."

They all put out their cigarettes. He Lizhen said: "You guys keep eating." She returned to her seat.

So Wan Kun had been sitting behind the partition.

He Lizhen handed Peng Qian the napkins she'd brought and whispered: "Don't cry. The students all saw."

"So what if they saw!" Peng Qian was a little drunk. "Who says teachers can't cry?"

A boy behind them turned around to look. He Lizhen's face flushed slightly. She shifted to block Peng Qian from view and whispered: "Are you making a fool of yourself in front of the students? Wipe your nose."

Peng Qian sniffled. "He Lizhen, do you have a boyfriend?"

He Lizhen was taken aback. "Why are you asking that?"

"Just asking. To chat. Otherwise what should we talk about?"

Perhaps because He Lizhen had just appeared, it wasn't as noisy behind the partition as before. He Lizhen was still a little unaccustomed to the quiet. She said: "I'll go ask the waiter to pour you a cup of tea to sober up."

"Don't go!" Peng Qian grabbed her. "There are still two bottles left. Finish them first."

"You're drunk."

"I'm pretending," Peng Qian said. "I'm not drunk!"

He Lizhen: "..."

"Tell me — do you have a boyfriend?" Peng Qian seemed determined to get an answer.

He Lizhen had no choice but to shake her head. "No."

"Then what kind of man do you like?"

"..." He Lizhen said: "You're really drunk."

"No!" Peng Qian insisted. "Quickly tell me. What kind do you like? Do you know what women's conversation is? Confess!"

"—Wan Kun!" Wu Yueming shouted loudly, startling He Lizhen.

Wu Yueming continued: "I'm asking you a question. What are you doing? What are you daydreaming about?"

"...Oh." Wan Kun's low voice came from the other side of the partition. "You guys decide. Anything is fine."

He Lizhen felt this meal was like a rollercoaster ride, going up and down without warning.

One of the boys suggested: "How about we play dice?"

Wu Yueming nodded. "Sure."

"No way!" Li Ying and the two girls next to her objected together. "What are we supposed to do if you play that? It's so boring."

Wu Yueming said: "Then what do you want to play?"

Li Ying said: "Anyway, not dice."

"..." Wu Yueming smiled. "Okay. You're the birthday girl, so you decide what to play."

Li Ying turned to confer with the other two girls for a moment, then secretly glanced at Wan Kun, who had been leaning against the partition without saying a word.

"Truth or Dare," Li Ying announced.

"Aren't you girls annoying?" Wu Yueming said. "Always doing the same thing."

"Are you going to play or not? If not, you can leave. We'll play without you." Li Ying rolled her eyes at Wu Yueming. "And we don't even want to take you anyway."

"Oh."

"Lizhen? He Lizhen!"

"...Huh?"

Peng Qian tapped the table impatiently. "Hurry up and tell me. I'm about to fall asleep."

He Lizhen was a little dazed. "T-tell you what?"

Peng Qian smiled mysteriously. "What type of man do you like?"

---

On the other side of the partition, Wan Kun held a lighter in his hand, his head resting lightly against the wall. The lighter spun slowly between his fingers.

Then it stopped.