Chapter 158: Taking Shelter from the Rain
“Why did it suddenly start raining?”
“Didn’t the weather forecast say there would be no rain?”
After leaving the KTV, the group took shelter under the eaves of a small shop on the pedestrian street. No one brings an umbrella when they go out to a party. This was a snack street, and they had no idea where to buy an umbrella.
They weren’t exactly trapped. After all, if they wanted to go home, they could just call a taxi. It was just that they all felt they hadn’t had enough fun and were hoping the rain would stop. Coincidentally, they hadn’t eaten dinner, so they decided to try the snacks from the various shops while taking shelter.
“McFlurry, second cup half price. Who wants to split with me?”
“Me, me, me!”
Tong Yao watched, eager to try. “It looks delicious. Should we buy one too?”
The young girl said with a grin, “Let’s buy one and share.”
“In your dreams.” Tong Yao rolled her eyes at her and bought one for herself. She then turned to the others and said, “If anyone wants to buy one, I have a half-price opportunity here.”
“Teacher, I’ll buy it!”
“I’ll buy it!”
The response was overwhelming.
The half-price opportunity was taken by someone else. Ruan Xi stood there, stunned. The hurt look in her eyes made Tong Yao feel guilty.
Why am I competing with this child over such a small thing…
And it’s not like I can eat this whole thing by myself and let the young girl watch from the side.
The sound of the rain was noisy and pattering. She bit her lower lip, turned her back to the other students, and secretly scooped out a spoonful, holding it out. “Here.”
The young girl took a bite with an “ah-woo” and then said, “Not enough.”
Her face was full of righteousness.
“Don’t be greedy.”
“Mmm—” the sound was drawn out with dramatic flair. “I want more.”
Tong Yao wasn’t that thick-skinned. Hearing such ambiguous words, her ears turned red. To prevent the young girl from saying something even more shocking and explosive, she scooped out another spoonful and stuffed it into Ruan Xi’s mouth.
“Teacher, are you and Ruan Xi sharing a bowl?” someone noticed and hooted with a grin.
“…I can’t finish it by myself.” Tong Yao had no experience in lying and quickly explained, her explanation full of holes.
“We get it, we get it!”
Tong Yao resigned herself to her fate. A rosy blush appeared on her face, and she used the spoon she had just used to feed the young girl to scoop a bite for herself.
The heavy rain showed no sign of stopping.
Fortunately, the shops were continuous, so everyone ate all the way without getting wet.
“Hello, special offer at the gym…”
“No, thank you.”
Tong Yao was buying milk tea when she suddenly heard a familiar voice nearby. She looked around and was surprised to see a figure in the branch campus school uniform. It was Xia Zhi, trying to hand out flyers to the boys from Class 7, but was rejected by them.
“What are you looking for?” Ruan Xi asked curiously, biting her straw.
“I think it’s a student from my class.” Tong Yao took the milk tea, said thank you, and immediately turned to walk over.
“Gym, 50% off…”
“Little sister, are you from the branch campus of No. 1 High?” Ji Chen recognized the school uniform and was quite interested. “Then we’re all alumni.”
Students from the main campus mostly had a sense of superiority in front of students from the branch campus. After all, students of No. 1 High were synonymous with excellence. Even after graduation, they were happy to show off in front of the younger girls.
“Xia Zhi.”
The girl was stunned. She had no relatives or friends here. Hearing someone call her name, her first reaction was that she was hearing things. She turned around and saw Teacher Tong standing in front of her, her words filled with a mix of concern and worry. “Are you working again?”
Xia Zhi subconsciously hugged the flyers in her arms. “Mmm.”
“By yourself?”
“There are some other students working there too… but I don’t know them.”
“It’s better to find a companion, it’s safer,” Tong Yao said, then held out her hand. “Give me one.”
Xia Zhi was taken aback for a moment.
“What, you don’t dare to give a flyer to your homeroom teacher?” Tong Yao smiled.
“No,” the girl shook her head in a flurry. “After handing out the flyer, you have to scan a code and fill out a questionnaire. It’s a bit troublesome…”
Tong Yao: “…”
“Alright then.” She took out her phone, not finding it troublesome, and scanned a code. She filled in the personal information on the questionnaire with fake details. Anyway, all that mattered was helping Xia Zhi complete her task.
“Teacher Tong, is she your student?” The other students came over and also took out their phones. “Then, junior, we’ll take one too.”
Xia Zhi was flattered for a moment. “Okay, you can just scan this QR code.”
“Oh, oh,” Ji Chen said. “Hehe, we were in Teacher Tong’s last class.”
The girl nodded repeatedly and even bowed. “Hello, seniors.”
“Hey, no need, no need.”
In front of the milk tea shop, Yin Jiali said in a low voice, “Ruan Ruan, could she be a love rival?”
Ruan Xi bit her straw tightly and shook her head. “Let’s go get a flyer too.”
She walked up to Xia Zhi and asked for a flyer. Xia Zhi called her “senior.” Facing the little girl who was three years younger than her and working hard, Ruan Xi couldn’t bring herself to see her as a love rival. She smiled gently like a senior and said, “Don’t let your part-time job affect your studies.”
“Mmm… thank you, senior.”
“You should learn from these seniors,” Tong Yao didn’t forget to seize the opportunity to educate her. “This senior got into Tsinghua University, and this senior got into A University.”
Xia Zhi’s mouth fell open in shock, not expecting that the people studying at such prestigious universities were right in front of her. “That’s amazing.”
“Not at all, it’s nothing.” The corners of Ji Chen’s mouth, which were turned up, couldn’t be pulled down. His heart was sent flying. It was a typical case of his expression not matching his words.
After eating and drinking their fill, the rain still hadn’t stopped. A group of boys thought about going to an internet cafe to play, which was met with protests from the girls. After some discussion, they decided to go to a badminton court to play badminton together.
“It’s getting late, Ruan Ruan and I won’t be going,” Tong Yao looked at the time. It wasn’t actually that late, but she had to go back to No. 1 High to get her car and then to her mom’s place to pick up Dongyang, so she was a bit short on time. “You guys have fun.”
“Huh?” the boys cried out in disappointment.
Without the two pretty girls, the party instantly became less appealing.
Although they would soon realize that playing with their bros was also fun.
“Goodbye, Teacher Tong~”
“Bye-bye.”
After saying their goodbyes, only she and Ruan Xi were left under the eaves of the milk tea shop.
And Xia Zhi.
“Are you done handing out the flyers?” Tong Yao asked.
“Mmm,” Xia Zhi said.
The drainage system of the pedestrian street was average, and the rainwater on the road was a bit turbulent. When you stepped on it, the water would fork and rush past, soaking the heels of your shoes and your socks. People with umbrellas passed through the rain. A child was spinning his umbrella for fun, and the water from the umbrella splashed everywhere. Tong Yao was still looking down at her phone when suddenly, the young girl pulled her into her arms. She was a little dazed at first, then she saw two naughty children in raincoats running wild in the rain, using their umbrellas as weapons to attack each other. They were like two sea kings, causing complaints from the people around them.
It was like a typhoon had passed.
“Whose children are they…” she frowned and sighed, looking down at her legs. She was wearing an A-line skirt that reached her knees. Although she had just been pulled over by Ruan Ruan, the dark brown muddy water had still been splashed onto her legs by the naughty children. The feeling of this stain… was very bad.
“It’s okay.” Ruan Xi squatted down and, to Tong Yao’s astonished gaze, took out a tissue.
“What are you doing!” Although she had already realized, Tong Yao still subconsciously asked. Then, Ruan Xi held her ankle and seriously wiped the muddy water from her leg.
“I can just wash it when I get home…” she didn’t dare to struggle too hard.
“It’s very uncomfortable to have mud on your legs.”
“But…” she noticed Xia Zhi’s slightly red face, her eyes secretly glancing at the two of them. She was even more embarrassed. I won’t be mistaken for a perverted teacher who makes her students wipe her legs, will I?
She said in a small voice, “…This is so inappropriate.”
It was probably because Ruan Xi’s attitude was too serious, like a collector maintaining his treasure, that she was so embarrassed. After it was done, she gently pulled back her leg. It was indeed much cleaner, but the price was her own face.
She looked at Xia Zhi, thinking that this child was not the type to gossip. Just as she was about to call a car to go home, she remembered that Xia Zhi probably didn’t have money for a taxi, so she asked, “We’re going back to the school. You can come with us.”
But Xia Zhi said, “Thank you, Teacher, but I have to go get my pay, so I won’t be going with you.”
For jobs like handing out flyers, the wages were mostly paid daily.
“Where are you going to get it? You’re not even 16, you’re a child laborer, right?”
“It’s just at the gym on the third floor,” Xia Zhi bit her lip, not answering the second question.
“Ruan Ruan, I’ll go with her for a bit. She’s so young, I’m worried,” Tong Yao said, throwing her milk tea cup into the trash can.
“I’ll go with you,” Ruan Xi smiled.
They went upstairs.
Ruan Xi sized up the junior who was talking with the manager behind the glass door, curled her lips at Tong Yao, and said softly, “Teacher Tong is very concerned about her.”
“Her family situation is not very good, it seems a bit complicated, and she’s my class president…” Tong Yao said halfway, then suddenly realized. “Are you jealous?”
“Mmm,” Ruan Xi said, face to face, taking a step closer. “You have to kiss me to make it better.”
What an old trick, Tong Yao chuckled and said, “I’ll kiss you when we get home.”
“No, kiss me here.” Ruan Xi moved a few steps into the stairwell. The bustling commercial street had a dark stairwell. Not a single shop was willing to pay to install a light bulb in it. She tilted her head and beckoned with her finger. “Come on.”
Tong Yao was bewitched.
They hid in the darkness, their lips touched, briefly separated, and then they kissed deeply and passionately. She held the young girl’s waist, and the young girl also held her, and then…
“Ugh,” the young girl let out a muffled groan as Tong Yao’s knee hit her stomach.
The two separated. Tong Yao’s face was flushed red. She held down her skirt, protecting the forbidden area that had just been invaded.
“You have a problem,” she said in shame and anger.
“I couldn’t help it,” the young girl confessed.
She still wanted to settle the score with the young girl, but a quarrel suddenly broke out from the gym next door.
“But he said before that it was paid daily!”
“What he said doesn’t count. What I say counts. It’s settled on the 7th.”
“I have class on the evening of the 7th!”
“What does that have to do with me? If you work for these few days, I’ll pay you on the 7th. If you don’t, then leave.”
When Tong Yao walked into the gym, she frowned as she heard the last few sentences. The manager thought she was a customer and, leaving Xia Zhi, greeted her with a smile. “Beauty, here to work out?”
“I’m looking for her,” she pointed to Xia Zhi, her tone calm. “I’m her homeroom teacher.”
The manager’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Didn’t you say it was paid daily?” she called Xia Zhi to her side and looked at the manager. “Why did you change it? Are you bullying a child?”
“Not at all…” the manager said with a fawning smile. The person in front of him was dressed in a way that suggested wealth and status, and he didn’t want to offend her. “It was just not explained clearly at the beginning. We settle the payment after seven days of work. A business’s reputation is so important, how could we bully a child? It’s not like we’d cheat her for this little bit of money.”
Xia Zhi was trembling with anger. Tong Yao held her down and smiled. “It’s your problem that it wasn’t explained clearly. It’s not too much to ask for today’s pay, is it?”
The manager’s face was ugly. The two sides were at a stalemate, but in the end, he chose to settle the payment.
A total of five hours, 100 yuan.
Many things become simple once an adult intervenes. Many small evils only dare to show their fangs to children and outsiders.
“Didn’t I tell you to find a teacher if you run into problems?” Tong Yao patted the girl’s head. “Don’t work here tomorrow. I know a shop that’s pretty easy, and the pay is good too. Go there.”
Xia Zhi held the hard-earned money, nodded, and felt like crying.
She had long known the dangers of society.
But the kind side of life, she was only just beginning to know.
