Chapter 37: Budding
“Hello?” In the corner of the stairwell, the girl leaned against the wall. Outside was the noise of the first-year students. She held the phone, her voice trembling slightly. “Mom.”
“Who is this?” The person on the other end clearly took a moment to react. “Little Xi?”
“It’s me,” Ruan Xi bit her lower lip. “This is a classmate’s phone.”
“What’s wrong, sweetie? Is something the matter? Calling Mom all of a sudden, are you short on money?”
Hearing that voice, Ruan Xi suddenly wanted to cry.
She wasn’t strong at all. Being alone and far from home, she would often wonder why she had come to No. 1 High. Would it have been better to be an average student in Xiangnan? Would studying here guarantee a successful future? But all she seemed to experience were various kinds of failures.
“Mom… I didn’t do well on the exam,” she sniffled, not wanting her crying to be heard, and wiped her tears with her sleeve. “I want to come home…”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.
“Little Xi, it’s okay if you didn’t do well… We’ll work harder next time. Mom believes in you. You were so outstanding before.
“Your brother didn’t do well either. Grades aren’t the most important thing. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
“No one is blaming you. Don’t cry. One exam is nothing… Do you want Mom to come see you? I can take you to your favorite buffet.”
Ruan Xi choked out a sob. Thinking of the travel expenses and the cost of food and accommodation, as well as the delay in her mother’s work, she calmed down. Wiping her tears, she said in a low voice, “…No need. Mom, you should focus on your work.”
“Sweetie, is the pressure there very high? If… you really want to come back here for high school…”
Ruan Xi shook her head and said softly, “Mom, no need. It’s… actually pretty good here. I had insomnia before the exam and was very nervous, but… I really did try.”
“Mhm, Mom believes you.”
The call lasted for eight minutes. Estimating that the bell for class was about to ring, Ruan Xi hung up.
Failing an exam itself was not an unacceptable thing.
What was hidden within, what Ruan Xi couldn’t accept, was her mother’s sadness and Teacher Tong’s disappointment. The hardships at home, Teacher Tong’s patient tutoring—they had crushed her during the exam, making it hard for her to breathe.
I’m useless.
She looked up the stairs and then froze, staring at Tong Yao, who was standing at the top of the stairs, having been there for who knows how long. She subconsciously hid the phone behind her back.
“Ruan Ruan?” Tong Yao was holding a USB drive; she had been on her way to print something. She looked at Ruan Xi, having heard the latter half of the conversation, and her heart ached even more for this young girl. “Hiding here to cry?”
Ruan Xi turned her face away, the corners of her eyes still red. She stammered, “N-no.”
The bell for class rang at the perfect time.
“Teacher Tong, I…”
“What class is next?” Tong Yao suddenly asked.
“M-music class.”
Ruan Xi said in a small voice.
“Want to go for a walk with me? To clear your head?” Tong Yao took out her phone and smiled. “I’ll help you ask for leave from Teacher Lu.”
**
On the vast sports field, the autumn wind rustled. The leaves on the trees had turned from green to yellow, but the artificial turf on the field was as vibrant as ever.
Music class, as always, had no human rights.
“Have you been avoiding me these past few days?”
Tong Yao’s tone was teasing.
“N-no…” The young girl was afraid she would misunderstand and explained timidly with her head down, “I just felt… I had no face to see Teacher Tong…”
“Why no face?” Tong Yao stopped. “You think I’ll be angry or disappointed because you did poorly on the exam?”
The young girl didn’t speak, staring at the floor, but her meaning was clear.
“Grades are important,” Tong Yao saw a bench by the track and walked over to sit down. “But it’s not good to take them too seriously. You think your family will be disappointed if you don’t do well, and that it would be easier for me to only teach good students?”
She sat and looked at the young girl’s face, reached out, and tapped her on the forehead. “Ruan Ruan, it’s a very happy thing to make someone else’s future better. Caring for others makes you feel warm too. I don’t think teaching you is a troublesome thing at all.”
The soft touch on her forehead made Ruan Xi freeze. She looked at Teacher Tong, and a sudden panic washed over her, making her words jumble.
“Teacher Tong… I…”
“I know, you’re still nervous about the exam, right?”
Tong Yao tilted her head, signaling for the young girl to sit beside her.
“Nervousness is indeed not that easy to overcome.”
Her tone changed. “But, let me give you a piece of advice—
“You feel pressure because you know you have a chance to succeed.”
Only two kinds of people don’t get nervous: those who are completely confident, which are extremely rare, and those who know nothing.
After all, ignorance is bliss.
“It’s not that you can’t do it, you’re just too nervous.”
She said seriously.
“The teacher believes in you.”
Ruan Xi stared at her blankly. For a moment, some emotion surged in her heart, filling her with courage and confidence.
But she also felt ashamed.
Nervousness had become her excuse, but she didn’t dare to tell Teacher Tong how much energy she had put into drawing.
For a month, she had barely had a good night’s sleep, convinced that she could do it. After one exam, that conviction was shaken, but Teacher Tong’s words had firmed it up again.
She could still persevere.
She wanted to become a student that Teacher Tong would be proud of.
She sat next to Teacher Tong. The wind seemed to blow through the teacher’s long hair, dancing between them.
“Hey, why are you crying again?”
Tong Yao took out a tissue and dabbed it at the corner of her eye.
Am I crying again?
Ruan Xi blinked. A wet and hot streak ran down her face.
It seemed she had always been a child who cried easily.
But she always held it in.
After meeting Teacher Tong, she always couldn’t help it.
But she had cried enough. She wouldn’t cry anymore.
“Actually, you’ve improved. Your grade ranking has gone up by seventy or eighty places,” Tong Yao smiled. “Your math score went from failing to over a hundred. That’s amazing. Do you want a reward?”
“That’s because the entrance test was too hard…” the young girl retorted coquettishly, but the thought of a reward made her heart stir.
I did poorly, so it’s embarrassing to ask for a reward.
But if I don’t… I’ll regret it.
—Ruan Xi, can’t you have some backbone? Do you dare to say you’ll ask for it after you do well?!
She slumped and shyly uttered a single word:
“Yes…”
**
Returned to school on Monday night of the National Day week, took exams for two days, waited for two days, coaxed the young girl yesterday, and today was already Saturday.
After school in the afternoon, Ruan Xi didn’t even copy down the homework from the blackboard and ran straight out the door.
“Ruan Ruan, want to have dinner together?” Yin Jiali called out.
“No, I have something to do!”
The young girl’s steps were hurried.
She ran to the school gate and saw a green lotus in the crowd.
That person was wearing a beige coat and a small hat, giving her a faint smile. It was as if she was wearing gentleness itself. Not wanting to make that person wait a moment longer, she ran over, shouting, “Teacher Tong!”
“Ruan Ruan.”
Tong Yao glanced at the time, made a fist, and pointed behind her with her thumb. “Get in the car.”
Ruan Xi was dazed.
Behind Teacher Tong was a car.
She didn’t recognize the brand, but it was a bit wider than other cars and should be more expensive.
Even though she was only two years older than her, Teacher Tong seemed to be capable of anything.
“Sit next to me,” Tong Yao said, getting into the driver’s seat.
Ruan Xi remembered her experience in Tong Hua’s car that day.
And…
“Do you girls have a rule about only girlfriends sitting in the passenger seat?”
Tong Hua’s words from that day echoed in her ears.
That… teacher-student… yuri.
Her brain felt like it was on fire.
**
The reward Teacher Tong had promised her was a movie.
The cinema was crowded. It was Ruan Xi’s first time in this large shopping mall, and she almost got lost.
They were going to see a newly released, well-reviewed movie, and Ruan Xi was standing in front of the poster—
Flying Colors.
“Let’s go, Ruan Ruan,” Tong Yao called out from a distance, having gotten two tickets.
Ruan Xi responded and ran over quickly.
A story about a girl at the bottom who starts working hard in her second year of high school and eventually gets into Keio University.
She understood the lesson Teacher Tong wanted to teach her.
The cinema was not very crowded; about half the seats were filled.
Tong Yao found a comfortable position and half-lay down. She had seen this movie in her previous life, so she wasn’t very interested. In this life, it had been released earlier, and the female lead was played by a different actress who wasn’t as pretty as the previous one, which made her even sleepier.
“Sayaka, people should have dreams, right? What’s your dream?”
“That kind of thing… I don’t have one.”
“You must have one, right? How about getting into Keio University? Let’s go with that!”
“Hey, really?!”
Kudo Sayaka, studied hard for two years, failed, got discouraged, thought about giving up and self-destructing, had a stomachache in the exam room, and was once in despair.
But she had a good mother and a good teacher.
I have them too.
An unprecedented sense of resonance appeared in the young girl’s heart.
At the end of the movie, Sayaka walked through the gates of Keio University.
Ruan Xi turned her head. The person beside her had her eyes closed, and she didn’t know if she was awake or asleep.
Teacher Tong…
She swallowed and moved closer and closer.
Perhaps thinking of the plot of a certain manga, her flushed face was frighteningly hot.
“Is it over?”
Tong Yao opened her eyes. She hadn’t been sleeping, just lying down.
Then she saw the young girl right in front of her.
“…Ruan Ruan?” Her voice was soft and husky from sleep. “What’s wrong?”
The young girl shot back into her seat like lightning, so ashamed she wanted to disappear.
“I-I wanted to wake you up…”
