Chapter 4: Under the Lights, She Is Alone
“The key point of this question is Menelaus’ theorem. If you want to self-study for competitions, you need to master these.” In the office, Tong Yao tapped the triangle in the book with the tip of her pen. Beside her, Ji Chen scratched his head, looking a bit confused.
“Do you understand?” she asked.
“Understood… I understand.” Ji Chen forced a smile.
Actually, he didn’t understand. But as a top student, he didn’t want to lose face in front of the teacher, so he decided to stop there. He planned to go back and carefully study the proof process Teacher Tong had written down until he understood it.
“Why didn’t you sign up for a competition class?” Tong Yao asked curiously.
“Ha, starting in the second year of high school is a bit late.” Ji Chen smiled self-deprecatingly. “I just want to give it a try, see if I can get a second prize in the provincial competition. With some luck, maybe I can secure a chance for independent recruitment.”
“Mm, do your best.” Tong Yao tilted her head and smiled.
“By the way, Teacher,” Ji Chen said suddenly, “can I add you on QQ? If our class has any activities, we can invite you along.”
Tong Yao blinked, a hint of teasing in her eyes. “Didn’t you hand your phone over to Teacher Li?”
“How could that be!” The boy waved his hands hurriedly. “Just give me your QQ number, I’ll add you on the weekend.”
Tong Yao raised an eyebrow. “Alright then.”
She neatly wrote down her QQ number on a piece of scratch paper and handed it to the Class 7 monitor.
After Ji Chen left, she stretched. The world was finally quiet.
She wanted to lie on the desk for a while but was afraid she might fall asleep.
“Teacher Tong, you work so hard,” the physics teacher, Teacher Lu, lamented from across the desk. “Ji Chen is diligent and eager to learn, too. That kid, he even asked for your QQ number, haha.”
“Ha… it’s nothing,” Tong Yao tucked her hair behind her ear. “QQ and such, kids just do it for fun.”
As she spoke, a thought occurred to her. She logged into QQ and set her Qzone to “visible only after answering a question.”
She didn’t want her students to see her past. Teachers still needed to maintain a bit of mystery and solemnity.
**
**
“I got Teacher Tong’s QQ number!”
During the break, Ji Chen ran into the classroom like a messenger bearing news of victory.
“Holy crap, Brother Chen is awesome!”
“Let me see!”
A group of boys made a ruckus around Ji Chen’s seat.
Ruan Xi couldn’t sit still.
Teacher Tong… you’re a teacher! How could you give your QQ number to a student!
Ji Chen, that guy with impure motives…
She had completely forgotten about the time their homeroom teacher, Li Hanqiang, wrote his QQ number on the blackboard at the start of the term and she had no desire to add him.
Anyway, she also wanted to know Teacher Tong’s QQ number.
But she wasn’t close with Ji Chen.
Ji Chen was in Class 4 during his first year. He only ended up in Class 7 because he didn’t do well on the placement test for the science and liberal arts division in the second year. In just one summer of make-up classes, he had become the leader among the boys. And she… was probably just a withdrawn and gloomy person in others’ eyes.
She didn’t want to ask Ji Chen for it.
How about… sneaking a peek?
Her body moved faster than her thoughts. Holding her water bottle as if she were going to get water, she passed by Ji Chen’s desk, saw a string of numbers on the scratch paper, and quickly memorized the first four digits.
When she wanted to look again, a boy blocked her view.
She pretended she had forgotten something and walked back. After acting this out several times, she finally saw the next four digits clearly. But the last digit was constantly covered by an arm. After a fleeting glimpse, she couldn’t see it clearly again.
Whatever, I can figure out the last digit by trial and error.
“Jiang Yiming,” Ruan Xi returned to her seat, “lend me your phone.”
The boy beside her let out a “Huh?” but still gave her his phone.
Ruan Xi eventually figured out the number.
It was a QQ account with the ID “Shuten-dōji.”
Ruan Xi guessed this was Teacher Tong because the character “Tong” was in the name. The avatar was a very cute yōkai, and the personal signature read “Harassment will result in an immediate block.” To avoid exposing the fact that her desk mate had brought a phone, she didn’t add the QQ, but clicked into the Qzone to see Teacher Tong’s secrets.
—Access Restricted.
“What is my pet’s name?”
Who could possibly answer that!
Ruan Xi felt a headache coming on. She tried common names like “Little White,” “Yellow,” and “Mimi,” but all failed without exception.
“Hey, Teacher Tong came out,” Jiang Yiming said suddenly.
“Where?!” Ruan Xi’s attention shifted instantly. Sure enough, she saw Tong Yao’s figure in the corridor, like a fluttering butterfly weaving through the long hallway, making countless passersby want to catch her.
“She’s probably going to Class 4 to supervise evening self-study,” Jiang Yiming judged.
Ruan Xi pressed her lips into a straight line.
She had almost forgotten that Teacher Tong also taught Class 4.
Class 7 was just one of the passersby in her life.
And she, herself, was perhaps the most insignificant button on that passerby. Class 4 had good grades and obedient students. Looking at it that way, Class 7 might even be the worst passerby.
Her heart was filled with an emotion she had tasted many times before: discouragement.
**
**
Many people often think that students with poor or average grades like to cozy up to teachers. Actually, that’s not true; students with good grades like to do it too.
Tong Yao, sitting in Class 4, felt this deeply.
More people came to ask questions, and many of them asked high-level questions. Sometimes, even she had trouble wrapping her head around them. The discipline in both classes wasn’t bad, but she actually felt a bit more comfortable teaching Class 7.
Dealing with top students burned too many brain cells.
After all, she wasn’t an old teacher with decades of experience. She still thought about many problems in a university way and hadn’t fully converted her thinking to high school problems yet.
This was also why she had to spend a long time preparing lessons.
The last person to ask a question was the monitor of Class 4, Xu Yin. She was a pretty girl with a neat bob cut, possessing a purity and cuteness unique to high school girls.
Tong Yao seemed to have discovered a trend: in the science stream, the better the class’s grades, the more likely girls were to serve as class officers.
Was it because the girls in the lower classes weren’t assertive enough?
Unlike this Xu Yin… after explaining a few problems back and forth, they became familiar with each other.
“Teacher, do you have a boyfriend?” After the explanation in the corridor, just before entering the classroom, Xu Yin suddenly asked with a mischievous smile.
“Why do you care about that?” Tong Yao laughed involuntarily. “No.”
In her heart, she added, And I won’t have one in this lifetime.
Xu Yin just continued smiling and said, “Thank you, Teacher.”
Kids these days are such gossips, Tong Yao thought.
**
**
10:00 PM.
The third evening self-study session ended, and students could choose to leave school. The fourth session was voluntary, often resulting in brightly lit experimental classes and empty parallel classes where the tea had gone cold. Since only one or two teachers patrolled the corridors, discipline was entirely dependent on self-awareness.
Tong Yao came out of Class 4. As expected, on the other end, in the corridors of Classes 7, 8, and 9, boys were already playing soccer with their backpacks on. She turned her head helplessly and went downstairs.
Finally off work.
Right now, she just wanted to face-plant onto her bed and sleep until dawn.
When she reached the first floor, she saw a familiar back.
Ruan Xi.
The girl was carrying her backpack, walking alone under the dim streetlights like a fallen, withered leaf. Ahead of her, several girls from Class 7 were walking together, but Ruan Xi kept her head down, every step seemingly hiding a heavy heart.
In a trance, they had already walked far away.
Tong Yao snapped back to reality and continued walking toward the school gate.
I should pay more attention to her, she thought.
She didn’t want any child to go astray. As a teacher, her profession was to guide them; to be a model of virtue for others to learn from.
Stepping out of the school gate—
A somewhat dazzling car stopped in front of her, its headlights seemingly flashing with the brilliance of money.
“Brother,” Tong Yao looked around and sighed. “I didn’t ask you to pick me up.”
It was a bit luxurious, a bit ostentatious, and didn’t quite fit her image as a teacher of the people. Who knew what kind of rumors would spread if students saw this?
“How can I be at ease with you going home alone so late?” Tong Hua honked the horn. “Mom told me to pick you up. Get in~”
Tong Yao didn’t say anything more and deftly sat in the back seat. Indeed, it was so late that ride-shares weren’t very safe either.
“How is being a teacher?”
“It’s okay.”
“No male teachers harassing you, right?”
“No.” Though there are female students.
“Heh, my sister is a teacher. Is our family going to become a scholarly family? Any leaders giving you a hard time?”
“Excessive interference. Please just drive safely.”
When she got home, Tong Yao dived into her bedroom. Resisting the urge to fall asleep immediately, she took a shower, which woke her up considerably. There were a few new messages on her phone.
[“Yin Yin Yin” requests to add you as a friend]
Note: Teacher Tong, I am Xu Yin QAQ
Tong Yao clicked accept.
—Male depravity; unable to refuse a request from a beautiful girl.
Xu Yin: “Goodnight, Teacher Tong!”
Tong Yao: “Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell your homeroom teacher you didn’t hand in your phone? /SinisterSmile”
Xu Yin: “Teacher, don’t… I beg you!”
It was already 11:30 PM.
Tong Yao found a comfortable position and replied:
“Go to sleep early.”
Xu Yin: “Hehe, Teacher, be beautiful tomorrow too!”
**
**
Ruan Xi was wrapped in her blanket. She had gone to bed at 10:30, but she still hadn’t fallen asleep.
Her roommates were chatting, and it was a bit noisy.
At first, they were considerate of her sleeping, but gradually, their voices became louder and louder, no different from normal speaking volume, with occasional bursts of laughter.
“Teacher Tong’s bag looks like a Hermès. I saw the same one online; it’s insanely expensive.”
“Eh, Teacher Tong looks like she comes from a rich family.”
“Maybe her boyfriend is rich.”
“Teacher Tong doesn’t seem to have a boyfriend. If I were her boyfriend, I definitely wouldn’t let her be a teacher. Seeing each other only for a little while at night, how troublesome.”
“Maybe it’s a knockoff.”
“To be a teacher at 18, does she have connections?”
“If you were smart, you could be a professor at 18. A genius like Teacher Tong would be snatched up anywhere, okay?”
Ruan Xi silently listened to the varied perspectives of life within the dorm room.
Many people seemed to enjoy judging outstanding and conspicuous individuals.
She curled up facing the wall, hiding in her own world.
Teacher Tong Yao.
—Just like someone from a fairy tale.
**
**
Translator’s Notes
Shuten-dōji: A mythical demon leader in Japanese folklore. Often depicted in games (like Onmyoji) as a handsome character.
JK: Japanese slang for Joshi Kousei (High School Girl), referring to the style or vibe.
