Chapter 57: No One Pierced That Layer of Words
Life, in the end, returned to its normal track.
Chen Mo’s treatment was very successful. There was no major damage to her head or right hand. Perhaps one day, she would be able to return to No. 1 High. Class 4 had placed a video camera at the back of their classroom. Every week, someone would take the class recordings to the hospital, and Xu Yin, taking on the responsibility of the class president, would often copy her own notes to share with Chen Mo.
Campus life was busy but not chaotic.
Weekend tutoring.
In the living room, crowded with more than a dozen people, Tong Yao was handing out the quiz papers from last week. She had written the questions herself, and they were quite difficult, all final-level problems from the college entrance exam on derivatives. But there were a few who had solved them all, such as Xu Yin. The lowest score belonged to Ruan Xi, who had only done the first two parts of each question, and some of them were wrong. The only student from Class 9, a girl named Yan Zhi, also hadn’t done well.
“I’ll hand out the answers. Everyone, take a look at them yourselves first.”
She sat at the front, waiting quietly. This was the advantage of small-class teaching; she could manage to tutor them one by one. In school, it was a last resort to explain a whole set of papers to the entire class. The top students didn’t want to listen to the simple questions, and the poor students couldn’t understand the difficult ones. Teaching according to aptitude was the traditional wisdom passed down from the ancients.
“Teacher Tong.”
Soon, the young girl came up, covering her test paper. On the 90-point paper, a bright red “31” was written in red ink. Most of the points for the final questions were in the third part. Ruan Xi had written a lot, but she hadn’t solved a single one.
This tutoring class was, after all, for the top 100 students in the grade. It was impossible to lower the difficulty just for the young girl.
“Teacher Tong,” Ruan Xi said with a dejected head, “I feel like I can’t even think of the methods in the answers.”
She was enlightened after seeing the answers, but she felt it was useless, just like watching Conan’s case-solving explanation. On her own, she still couldn’t figure out how the culprit committed the crime in the next episode.
“No rush. They’re final-level problems, after all,” Tong Yao said gently. “Try to write out one problem, then a few more. Once you solve one, it will get more and more satisfying. Learn to figure out the teacher’s way of thinking when setting the questions.”
As she said this, Ruan Xi’s thoughts went astray.
Since reading that manga, she was no longer such a pure child.
Just then, a boy came up to ask a question. Ruan Xi’s face turned pale. Her paper was still on Teacher Tong’s desk and would definitely be seen by the boy behind her. She was already the one with the worst grades here and didn’t want to be looked down upon by these experimental class students. Although they might not think so, she still cared about that fragile self-esteem.
In this tutoring class, many people called each other “study gods” or “ace students.” Some people took pleasure in others being inferior to them. She didn’t want her pitiful score to be seen by others and become a source of their superiority.
The boy walked to the other side of the table. The young girl’s heart skipped a beat. She could almost imagine him craning his neck to secretly look at her score. But the next moment, she saw Teacher Tong flip her paper over and press it down with her arm. Teacher Tong’s expression was nonchalant, still smiling as she took the boy’s test paper.
She lowered her head and gently bit her lip. A small action, yet it gently protected her ridiculous yet easily satisfied vanity and dignity. She was sure she was the frog in the warm water. Even though someone had reminded her, “It’s about to heat up,” she was still willing to stay here.
“Which question?”
Tong Yao looked at the boy.
“Teacher Tong, this one…”
The young girl stood on the side. When Teacher Tong was explaining a problem to someone else, she could also listen in. Anyway, she didn’t know how to do any of them. After explaining a step, Teacher Tong would look at her, and she would quickly nod to show that she understood.
After the problem was explained, she returned to her seat, her mind wandering, and she absentmindedly played with her pen.
Really… it’s always easy to get flustered when I’m with Teacher Tong. She looked at the sofa on the side. Last week, Teacher Tong had been lying there, and she had secretly said a lot of sweet nothings. Just thinking about it made her die of embarrassment.
Break time.
A picture book appeared in front of Ruan Xi.
There was a hand on the picture book. The owner of the hand, Yan Zhi, stood looking down at her and asked, “Cel-shading style. How’s your learning these past few days?”
“…I think it’s okay.”
Ruan Xi took out her drawing. “Are the colors a bit monotonous?”
Yan Zhi looked at it and sat down.
“It’s alright. How are things progressing with you and your Teacher Tong?”
Hearing this, Ruan Xi became anxious. Although the living room was quite lively, she was afraid of being overheard, especially since Teacher Tong was looking over with a puzzled expression.
“Lower your voice!”
Yan Zhi shrugged. “Physical contact, have you had any?”
Like a match striking a piece of flint, the young girl’s face instantly burned hot.
“…Yes.”
Yan Zhi narrowed her eyes and leaned in mysteriously.
“What about kissing?”
“N-no…” Ruan Xi stammered. “But… there was a kiss on the forehead.”
Yan Zhi’s eyes deepened. She was like a mischievous boy who liked to matchmake others and tease classmates. Her purpose was not to make others happy, but simply because she found it interesting.
And what could be more interesting than a classmate having a crush on a same-sex teacher?
This wasn’t her giving advice; it was the instigation of a bad friend.
“Let me tell you,” Yan Zhi’s lips curled into a smile. “Eight out of ten women believe in the first kiss, especially a well-behaved girl type like Teacher Tong who looks very conservative.”
“You… you mean…”
Ruan Xi’s breath hitched. Is she suggesting that a little coward like me should force a kiss on Teacher Tong?
The scene of Dio forcefully kissing Erina uncontrollably popped into her mind.
Never mind.
She wanted Teacher Tong to like her willingly.
“It’s okay, I have other methods,” Yan Zhi said, crossing her legs.
“Will it work?”
“It should. Although I’ve never been in a relationship, I’m a love master.”
The two of them chattered away, one daring to learn and the other daring to teach.
When class was over, the night was dark. The students went their separate ways. Tong Yao tidied up her books, looked up, and found that the young girl hadn’t left yet. She was lying on the table, her stomach clutched, looking like she was in pain.
She hurried over, her hands on the table, and bent down to look at the young girl’s face, anxious and worried.
“What’s wrong? Stomach ache?”
The young girl looked up, stammering, very embarrassed.
“…That time of the month is here. It hurts a little.”
Menstrual cramps?
Tong Yao’s brows were still furrowed. She quickly went online to search for what to do about menstrual cramps.
Ruan Xi quietly looked at Teacher Tong’s face—the smile had long been replaced by worry. She felt a pang of guilt. Because of her lie, she had caused trouble for Teacher Tong. Teacher Tong had taught for so long and should have been resting, but she…
Ruan Xi had been like a thin and mischievous monkey since she was a child. She loved to eat cold drinks, but she had never had menstrual cramps.
Tong Yao had never had them either. The first time she got her period, she had even made thorough preparations and was on high alert. Besides being shy, she wasn’t flustered at all. She had even handled it herself without telling Jiang Wu. This was also one of the reasons for Jiang Wu’s disappointment—her daughter’s growth seemed to not need her at all.
In the quiet night, the two girls who had never had menstrual cramps were studying how to relieve this Schrödinger’s menstrual cramp.
“I’ll make you a cup of brown sugar water,” Tong Yao said while looking at her phone.
Ruan Xi wanted to say she would make it herself, but her persona didn’t allow for free movement. She could only watch as Teacher Tong bustled about, and her heart despised this crooked idea even more.
“Oh no, there’s no brown sugar or ginger at home.”
Tong Yao rubbed her temples and murmured, “Will white sugar work?”
The young girl said weakly, “Probably not, right?”
Tong Yao thought so too and asked, “Does it hurt a lot?”
“It’s… okay. I can bear it.”
“I heard that enduring it can lead to gynecological diseases,” Tong Yao didn’t know if she was being an alarmist. “You drink some hot water first. I’ll look for other methods.”
She continued to read, “Rub your hands together until they’re warm, place them on your abdomen, and rub up and down… Ruan Ruan, want to try?”
Ruan Xi was in a dilemma. She was riding a tiger and couldn’t get off. She silently rubbed her hands together.
It was fake anyway, so she didn’t rub them with much effort. After a couple of rubs, she placed them on her stomach. Tong Yao looked worried and sat beside her. Ruan Xi was afraid of being exposed and put on a look of endurance.
“Does it still hurt a lot?”
Tong Yao took the young girl’s hand and frowned. “Why are your hands so cold?”
Ruan Xi panicked.
“M-maybe… I-I’m not wearing enough.”
Tong Yao held the young girl’s hand, thinking to herself that it was as cold as if she hadn’t rubbed them at all.
Ruan Xi looked at Tong Yao’s hesitant appearance, swallowed, and said in a small voice the solution that had simultaneously appeared in both their minds, “Teacher Tong… can you help me warm them up?”
**
Tong Yao’s expression almost froze.
Those ambiguous pink bubbles didn’t let her go. They seized the opportunity and bubbled up from her heart again, creating ripples in the lake of her heart.
Don’t have them, don’t think about them!
The bottom line of her professional ethics screamed wildly.
“You lie down on the sofa first,” she said with her head down, trying her best to clear her mind as she rubbed her hands together.
Ruan Xi’s face was completely red. She hadn’t expected to say such bold words, and she certainly hadn’t expected Teacher Tong to agree.
She obediently lay down. Under her almost oversized school uniform, her body looked even smaller.
Tong Yao sighed inwardly. This child is so shy, how can I not overthink it?
Her own face was also burning. She gently lifted the young girl’s jacket and the clothes underneath, put her hand in, and the young girl’s body was frighteningly hot. Her budding body was like a delicate flower, her abdomen flat, with no belly. This was a wondrous place. Any further up or down was an untouchable secret garden.
What did Baidu say? Rub until warm and then rub up and down? She pursed her lips, not daring to look at the young girl’s face. Her hand moved gently. Ruan Xi’s body tensed, her stomach contracting, and she let out a soft cry.
“Mhm…”
Tong Yao immediately didn’t dare to move.
If anyone saw this, who would listen to her explanation?
“Does it still hurt a lot?”
She pushed aside distracting thoughts and asked.
Ruan Xi froze. What should she say? If she said it hurt, that would be an even worse deception that would make Teacher Tong worry. If she said it didn’t hurt, then she would have to leave Teacher Tong’s touch.
Does Teacher Tong have romantic feelings for me?
She was terrified that the answer was no, so she would do anything to… seduce her.
She didn’t expect Teacher Tong to fall in love with her right now, but at least, if one day she wanted to spend her life with someone, she wanted to be an option.
Seeing that she wasn’t speaking, Tong Yao thought that the child was still in pain but was afraid to say it and make her worry. She took out one hand and was about to search again.
“Let me see if there are any other methods.”
Ruan Xi stared at her blankly, watching Teacher Tong’s frustration over the unreliable method, feeling Teacher Tong’s gaze on her, concerned about whether her pain had subsided. She closed her eyes and suddenly said, “Teacher Tong, I was lying to you.”
Tong Yao was taken aback and stopped her hand.
“I don’t have menstrual cramps,” the young girl opened her slightly red eyes and glanced to the side.
Will Teacher Tong be angry?
No, Teacher Tong dotes on her the most.
Then, she heard that person’s gentle voice, “Why did you lie to me?”
She was in a daze for a moment, almost wanting to pour out the infinite love and admiration in her heart—but she couldn’t, it wasn’t time to confess yet.
Perhaps everyone has had a secret crush.
A secret crush, bitter and beautiful. Wanting to confess, but not daring to. Expecting acceptance, but fearing rejection even more.
Ruan Xi often thought, if one day she got drunk and confessed to Teacher Tong, and then Teacher Tong accepted, how wonderful would that be?
She would leave all her worries and fears to her drunk self.
Then, she looked up, her expression a mix of subtlety and hope, and said softly, “Because I wanted to spend more time with Teacher Tong.”
Tong Yao was taken aback for a moment. The meaning of this sentence was too vague, dependent and soft, yet also like a young beast’s first hunt, clumsy, but sincere and fearless.
Finally, she smiled.
“You’re just acting spoiled.”
**
Author’s Note
PS:
To be precise, this is a switch… but Tong Yao is the bottom-leaning one ( ?ω?) The young girl, when she’s on top, specializes in the area below the neck and above the knees.
Ruan Xi: Teacher Tong’s first kiss wasn’t with someone else, it was with me, Ruan Xi
