Chapter 60: Indistinguishable Love
The sisters-in-law of the Tong family were very close.
They all lived in the same city, and it was common for them to have afternoon tea together. And among women, besides complaining about their husbands, all that was left to talk about were their children.
The elder aunt covered her mouth and smiled. “Tong Hua hasn’t found a girlfriend yet? He’s in his late twenties, and you’re not worried.”
Jiang Wu sipped her tea. “What’s there to be worried about? He’s had several girlfriends. I’m worried about Yao Yao. I’ve never seen her have a male friend.”
“But I think your Yao Yao has something going on recently.”
“Really?” Jiang Wu raised an eyebrow. “How come I don’t know.”
“Let me tell you, a few days ago, Jiansheng told me…”
The more Jiang Wu listened, the less calm she became.
“Students these days are amazing. At the university I’m teaching at now, a few of the good-looking new female teachers and counselors have been confessed to several times by students! One pair got together. They call her ‘teacher’ during the day and ‘wife’ at night!” the elder aunt added gossiping.
“Really? This… isn’t it avoiding suspicion?”
“What’s there to avoid? It’s just one class. The more high-profile you are, the less people will gossip. If you’re secretive, everyone will suspect if there’s a quid pro quo.”
Jiang Wu clutched her chest, drank her tea sip by sip to calm down, and said, “Yours is a university, Yao Yao’s is a high school. How can they be the same? And your teacher… in her late twenties, how did she get coaxed by a little boy?”
The elder aunt showed a profound expression. “This you don’t understand. Teachers are all academics. They’ve lived in books for over twenty years. How can they resist an enthusiastic young man? Yao Yao has been focused on her studies since she was little, has no experience in relationships, and is young and beautiful. I think she’s bound to get into trouble sooner or later.”
“Stop, stop…” Jiang Wu raised her hands in surrender. She did hope that her daughter would have some social interaction and preferably fall in love, but if her daughter were to date a teenage boy… which mother could stand that?
“The one you just mentioned, the student Yao Yao pleaded for, what’s his name?”
“It’s…” the elder aunt thought hard. “I can’t remember the name. Yao Yao also said it was a girl. Isn’t this a case of ‘no silver here’? It’s probably a boy. His younger brother’s surname is Ruan.”
Surname Ruan…
Jiang Wu put down her teacup. The specific outline, she seemed to have gradually gotten a clue.
**
As December approached, the weather turned another notch colder.
A light breath could already be seen in the air. Tong Yao walked into the classroom and taught as usual. The teaching equipment had been updated one after another during the National Day holiday. Now there was a screen in the middle of the blackboard that could be used as a computer. The proper name for it was a touchscreen all-in-one machine. It could be used to display PPTs during class and was a blessing for the teachers of No. 1 High.
Tong Yao had thought that the school had spent a lot of money again, but after seeing that it seemed to be her own company’s brand, she understood something.
It seemed that her family hoped she could be more domineering… more free at school.
“Today, we’ll start with conic sections.”
She looked down at the class. The seating had been changed last week. The tables had turned, and the young girl was sitting under the podium, her eyes shining as she looked at her. Since making a mistake, the young girl had been more serious in class, her participation maxed out, as if she wanted to brush up on the favorability she had lost—but in fact, it had never dropped.
And after class, she liked to cling to her even more.
A teacher who didn’t know would have thought that this child had fallen in love with math.
As soon as class was over, Tong Yao returned to her office. Ruan Xi, holding her book, shouted at Jiang Yiming, who was sitting outside, to let her pass, and then eagerly ran after Tong Yao. There was only one chair in front of the desk. Tong Yao sat down, and the young girl could only stand and listen. But the young girl didn’t mind at all, her head down, leaning on the desk to write out formulas. The collar of her school uniform was wide. A normal girl would cover her collar when bending over, but Ruan Xi seemed completely unaware. The cute knot of her undershirt was visible at the back of her neck, and a pure white bandeau could be vaguely seen inside her clothes.
It really was… the kind of underwear a child would wear.
Tong Yao coughed. Although she was uncomfortable, she still said it.
“Ruan Ruan… cover your clothes properly.”
This world was very strange. Showing a lot didn’t necessarily mean it was indecent. You could stare at a beautiful woman’s bikini on the beach, and it didn’t matter if you wore the kind of underwear that could only be seen when you pulled your butt apart, but you couldn’t loot at a young girl’s little underwear inside her collar.
If Ms. Gu hadn’t taught Ruan Ruan this sense of self-protection… Tong Yao felt she had a duty to teach her.
Ruan Xi was taken aback for a moment, gave a small “oh,” and puffed out her cheeks as she covered her collar.
It seems the seduction failed. Teacher Tong is too proper.
But… at least Teacher Tong still looked here, right?
“Teacher Tong,” her toes tapped lightly on the floor. “After tutoring on Saturday night, can you be my model?”
Like a simple invitation from the girl next door, Tong Yao inexplicably felt like she was being set up. Her intuition told her that things wouldn’t be as she imagined, but…
“…Okay,” she said slowly.
No matter what, it was just being a model, right?
Her own thoughts were a bit too scattered.
“You promised!”
Getting an affirmative answer, Ruan Xi left happily. She hummed a song, the process replaying in her mind several times, like a young man who had gotten a goddess to agree to a date.
**
Saturday night.
After tutoring, the students either went home or back to their dorms. Only Ruan Xi slowly took out her sketchbook from her bag. Tong Yao was a little dazed at first, until she remembered her agreement with the young girl. She instantly felt weak.
“…Ruan Ruan, aren’t you going back to your dorm yet?” she pretended to tidy up the podium.
“Teacher Tong, what are you talking about?” the young girl pouted. “Didn’t you promise to be my model?”
Sure enough, there was no escape.
Tong Yao looked up, a look of sudden realization on her face.
“Ah, I forgot if you hadn’t mentioned it.”
As she spoke, she was a little embarrassed. “Are we drawing now?”
The young girl opened her sketchbook, held it with both hands, covering the lower half of her face, and said shyly, “Mhm…”
“Um, also, Teacher Tong… can you wear stockings and a short skirt?”
If there were a background, at this moment, Tong Yao’s background would have turned gray.
“…Huh?”
“I want to see Teacher Tong in stockings and a short skirt,” the young girl said, her face red, but she repeated it very seriously, shamelessly, and righteously, as if she wasn’t making some explosive declaration, but asking a proper question in class.
Tong Yao’s face was stiff—she didn’t even know what expression to make. This child… what’s wrong with her, how can she be so disrespectful? Although she wasn’t much older than her, she was her teacher, after all. How could a student say to a teacher, “Teacher, I want to see you in a short skirt”? Was she, the teacher, out of touch with the times?
“Is that not okay?”
Before she could respond, the young girl said with disappointment. She lowered her head and explained in a small voice, “I just want to draw a beautiful anime girl with Teacher Tong as the prototype.”
“Teacher Tong…”
The young girl said pitifully, making Tong Yao even start to wonder if her own expression was too harsh. A battle raged in her mind. Actually… she didn’t hate short skirts that much, but for the young girl to suggest it, she felt that her authority as a teacher had been offended—if a student asked her to wear a short skirt and she did, how embarrassing would that be? But if a student begged her softly to wear it, it seemed… not impossible.
“Alright,” she said awkwardly. “I’ll go in and change.”
She had a few sets of JK uniforms in her closet, but she had never worn them for anyone to see.
She walked into the bedroom. Before closing the door, she heard the young girl add shyly, “White stockings would be best.”
She slammed the door with a “bang,” feeling a little choked up for some reason.
In the living room, the young girl fell onto the sofa, covering her face and giggling, kicking her legs nonstop.
—Teacher Tong agreed.
There was no better news than this.
At noon, Ruan Xi had posted on a forum, consulting the vast number of netizens. She claimed to be a male student, whose goddess teacher had given her an ID card to eat for free at the teachers’ cafeteria, comforted and helped her in various ways, and had even kissed her on the forehead. She asked if the goddess teacher liked her. The netizens’ unanimous answer was:
“How could such a teacher exist.”
“Wake up, how many dishes did you have to drink like this.”
“Whose pee is yellow, wake him up.”
Ruan Xi was unmoved and replied: “The goddess is about to wear stockings and a short skirt for me to see.”
Soon, it drew another round of ridicule from the netizens.
Just as she turned off her phone, the bedroom door opened.
Ruan Xi looked up, then quickly became dazed.
Like Queen Elsa in Frozen, after changing her magnificent dress into a gown of ice and snow, she went from being beautifully restrained to breathtakingly captivating. Teacher Tong’s legs were straight and slender, and the white stockings with a hint of pink made her heart pound. Her small suit had changed from an office lady style to a school style, and with Teacher Tong’s overly young face… she didn’t look like a teacher at all.
Tong Yao was wearing a pair of cotton slippers. Seeing the young girl’s transfixed gaze, she had the illusion and unease of being stared at by a pervert. She took a few awkward steps, trying to break the embarrassment, and asked, “…What pose do you want me to do?”
Ruan Xi’s head shrank back. She mechanically looked at the sofa beside her and stammered, “Sit on the sofa… put your legs up, slightly bent.”
It was a very common pose.
Tong Yao silently struck the pose. The young girl studied it for a while, her face turning red. From this position, she could see all the way up to the base of her legs. She sat down, her whole body hot, and began to draw, both seriously and shyly.
Silence was the living room tonight.
Tong Yao found that being a model for the young girl was quite a relaxing job. She could lean against the sofa and take a nap, and she even had the leisure to observe the little painter opposite her.
And it wasn’t without its rewards.
She found that Ruan Ruan was a little heroic when she was serious, like a swordswoman in an old movie, wearing a bamboo hat and carrying a sword on her back. She usually looked small because she was wearing high heels, and the young girl was well-behaved, in a school uniform, and even had a cute braid.
After putting on the JK uniform, her own mentality seemed to have become younger.
“Teacher Tong,” Ruan Xi stopped her pen and suddenly said, “Xiaobei’s punishment was canceled. Was it you…”
She didn’t finish, interrupting her own question, and looked at Tong Yao with expectant eyes. Tong Yao also looked at her, blinked, and didn’t deny it.
“Teacher Tong,” the young girl suddenly sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Did I save the world in my past life?”
Tong Yao was amused by her cuteness and smiled. “Focus on your drawing.”
The young girl didn’t listen to her. After drawing for a while, she was relentless.
“Teacher Tong.”
“What?”
“In the future…” Ruan Xi hid her face behind her sketchbook and asked softly, “will you have a boyfriend?”
Tong Yao was stunned for a moment, then said, “No.”
“Really not?” The young girl’s voice trembled slightly.
“No.”
As soon as Tong Yao said it, she regretted it.
She saw the brilliant light in the young girl’s eyes—some feelings were personally watered by her, bit by bit. She shouldn’t have let it go. The young girl was a child, but she was not. She couldn’t lead a student down the wrong path because of her own selfish desires. And how long could a child’s tender and fragile feelings last? She admitted that her own feelings had begun to change, but it hadn’t reached an irreversible point. Even if Ruan Ruan liked her, was that love?
She was still so distrustful of others’ feelings. She thought, perhaps it wouldn’t be long before Ruan Ruan would discover that her feelings were just admiration and longing for a teacher, not love. At that time, this feeling would naturally not bother anyone.
But what if… it really was a pure and unadulterated love?
**
Author’s Note
PS: Yao Yao is easily awkward, so she can’t be the top ( ?? ` )
