Chapter 75: Whispering Sweet Nothings
He Zeyu would probably be sentenced to more than a year in prison.
Hearing this news, Tong Yao’s heart was heavy. She felt neither the regret of a bright pearl cast into darkness and self-degradation, nor the satisfaction of a crime being punished and evil getting its just deserts.
17 years old, what does he know?
When he gets out of prison, he’ll be an adult. What will the outside world be like for him then? His grandmother, all alone, what hope does she have to live for?
To this day, she couldn’t forget the stumbling back of that old woman as she left the school.
In early January, the final exams were in their final review stage, and it was also the coldest time of the year. The cold air moved south, making the whole city shrink. It would occasionally snow a little. The severe cold trapped the students in the classrooms. There were few charging ports, and they even had to queue up to heat their electric hot water bags.
Ruan Xi was huddled in her seat, sneezing into her elbows. She had caught a cold. Studying on the balcony at midnight, even with the windows tightly closed, the temperature was much lower than in the dorm. Fortunately, she didn’t have a cold or fever. But this one sneeze hit the heart of her secret admirer. Jiang Yiming was conflicted. He sat in the first row, so it was very convenient for him to grab a socket. His electric hot water bag was also fully charged, ready to be used by Ruan Xi at any time. But, a young boy always had to worry about this and that when talking to a girl he liked. He had to think of several reasons in his heart before he dared to speak carefully. He found that his desk mate was really becoming more and more dazzling. In class, her hand would be raised high. When doing homework, she would brush the long hair from the side of her ear. Confidence, seriousness, these two qualities were beautiful in anyone.
When you look at her, she is always engrossed in her books and the blackboard, revealing a delicate and clean side profile. You don’t dare to look for long. When the teacher calls on you, you first look at her reaction and find that she is also looking at you, and you become so nervous that you can’t even speak.
“Do you want a hot water bag?” Jiang Yiming put the hot water bag on the desk and fanned himself with his palm. “I feel quite hot.”
“Really?”
Ruan Xi was freezing and said suspiciously, “It’s below zero today.”
The electric hot water bag was actually a rather ambiguous tool in school. When you saw the person you liked using the hot water bag you gave them, your little thoughts would always become active, and you would be happy to be a tool person, helping them charge it every day.
“Really, you can use it.”
The front door suddenly opened, and a gust of wind blew in, making the students in the first row freeze. Jiang Yiming’s legs shivered, and he braced himself to continue persuading Ruan Xi to use it.
But he didn’t expect Ruan Xi’s eyes to light up, as if she had seen something. She stood up and patted his back.
“Let me out.”
“Huh? Oh…”
Jiang Yiming stood up. The daily opportunity to let Ruan Xi, who sat on the inside, out was a rare chance to talk. After all, since he had discovered that he liked her, they had spoken less and less, for fear of making a bad impression on her.
He saw Ruan Xi run out. After a while, when she came back, she was holding an electric hot water bag in her arms, brown, fluffy, and looking very warm.
…It also looked very expensive.
“…This is?” Did another boy give it to her?
Jiang Yiming’s heart pounded.
“Teacher Tong gave it to me,” Ruan Xi’s eyes curved into a crescent moon, the tips of her canine teeth showing under her lips. “This one lasts super long, so I don’t have to charge it all the time. Teacher Tong charges it for me every day.”
“…I see.” Jiang Yiming silently took back his own hot water bag.
Everyone knew that Teacher Tong favored Ruan Xi.
If Teacher Tong were a bald, middle-aged man, all sorts of sordid speculations would have probably emerged long ago. But Teacher Tong was a stunning beauty who made all the girls feel ashamed of themselves. No one thought that Teacher Tong’s special liking for a student was for any ulterior motive.
Besides, Teacher Tong’s favoritism was on the basis of being 100% good to everyone, and 200% good to Ruan Xi. At most, everyone would sigh that Ruan Xi was lucky and had a good rapport with Teacher Tong.
Jiang Yiming was sad and alone. Ruan Xi was doing her homework while hugging the hot water bag, her heart full of sweetness.
The final exams, everyone was striving.
“If you do well on the final exams, you can have a good new year when you get back. You’ll have face when your relatives ask you,” Labor Reform said, patting the blackboard. “I don’t need to remind you of the importance of the final exam results, right? In the future, when you apply for independent admission, summer camps, the school’s quotas are all based on your comprehensive scores in your second and third years of high school!”
But no matter what, the affairs of the third year of high school were still somewhat distant for them. Only a few people kept it firmly in mind.
Independent admission, summer camps, reduced score admission.
Ruan Xi noted these down in her memo.
A good university is the first stepping stone in life, as conspicuous as a gold-stamped business card. She was already in the top two hundred of the grade. With No. 1 High’s past performance, she was actually already in the top three thousand in the province. If she kept it up, there were already many universities she could choose from, but it was still not enough.
She felt it was not enough.
Teacher Tong… had been the provincial top scorer back then.
If she went to an ordinary key university, in the eyes of Teacher Tong’s family, she would have already faded into the crowd.
She still had to work hard.
**
This was the last weekend of the first semester of the second year of high school.
The thick winter break homework had already been handed out, and some people had already started doing it. After the weekend, there would be two days of exams, and then they could pack their bags and go home.
To use a classic phrase, “After this battle, I’m going home.”
On Sunday night, the classroom was full of people, quiet, the loudest sound being the turning of pages. The exams were tomorrow. Many people didn’t know what to review today. They felt that problems could be found everywhere, and they were panicking.
After the evening self-study session, Tong Yao left the classroom and was caught up by the young girl.
“Teacher Tong!”
“What’s wrong?” Tong Yao smiled.
“These two days are the exams. At night…” The young girl swallowed and said in a small voice, “Can I sleep at your place?”
Afraid of being overheard by others, they were very close. Ruan Xi’s heart was pounding like a drum, and she quickly added, “I can’t sleep in the dorm…”
Tong Yao hesitated for a moment. She had said before that the young girl could come to her place to sleep during the exams, but their relationship was different now, just like how a boy can’t enter the women’s bathhouse after he’s grown up—she lowered her head and bit her lip.
“This…”
She looked up and saw Ruan Xi’s clear, moist eyes, and her shy and expectant expression. The words of refusal that came to her mouth changed.
“…Sure.”
Sure.
At ten at night, Tong Yao was lying on the sofa. Recalling her words, she slammed her forehead against the pillow.
How did I become so spineless, so easily swayed?
The doorbell rang at this moment. She went to open the door. Sure enough, the young girl at the door was smiling at her with her schoolbag on her back. Wearing slippers, she was noticeably shorter. Tong Yao sensitively took a few steps back and returned to the sofa—how did the painter of Napoleon’s portrait solve the emperor’s height embarrassment? That’s right, he had His Majesty Napoleon sit.
“You’re here so early?” she opened her computer and buried her head in her work.
“Mhm, the teacher told us to rest early, so we don’t have the fourth evening self-study session,” the young girl put down her schoolbag and knelt on the soft cushion beside Tong Yao, her voice soft and warm. “What is Teacher Tong doing?”
Tong Yao found that they were now very much like a young couple. She was the hardworking husband, and Ruan Ruan was the wife snuggling up to her.
Her face flushed, and she said in a low voice, “I’m busy.”
“Do you need my help?”
“What can you help with?” she said with amusement. “The final exams are tomorrow. You should rest well today. Aren’t you prone to insomnia before exams? Then you should go to bed early.”
“Oh…” The young girl’s face fell. “But I want to talk to Teacher Tong for a while longer.”
Such words made Tong Yao’s heart melt like a milk tablet dropped in water, slowly dissolving, her whole body filled with a fragrant sweetness.
A land of tenderness, a hero’s tomb.
From then on, the king did not hold court early.
She suppressed the flutter in her heart and coaxed softly, “Be good, go to sleep. Do well on the exams, and the teacher will give you a reward.”
“After the exams… I’ll be home,” Ruan Xi said softly.
She moved a little closer in dejection and gently hugged Tong Yao’s arm. “I’m going back to Xiangnan. I won’t be able to see Teacher Tong for a month.”
Tong Yao’s hand, which was on the laptop keyboard, paused.
“You… have such a long holiday?”
She hadn’t realized until now that they would be separated for so long. For a semester, she had seen the young girl almost every day, and it had become a habit, a habit of Ruan Ruan’s company, her spoiled acts, her joy, her frustrations. If the young girl hadn’t said it, she really wouldn’t have realized the impending separation.
“Will Teacher Tong miss me?” Amidst the rustling sounds, the young girl slipped under her arm, lay on her lap, and looked up at her.
Tong Yao froze. She hadn’t expected the little one’s boldness, although it wasn’t the first time… Her face was burning hot, and her voice was a little unsteady.
“…I will.”
“Then can I call Teacher Tong?”
“Of course you can,” Tong Yao blinked. “It’s just a month, it’ll pass quickly.”
“Mhm,” Ruan Xi said. “I’ll think of Teacher Tong every day.”
Tong Yao turned her head. The young girl’s overly direct expression made her too shy to make eye contact. This child… really doesn’t know how to be reserved. She sighed in her heart and continued to look at the document. In the computer was Tong Hua’s proposal for a game.
She would occasionally answer the young girl’s questions while reading the game’s concept. Isn’t this just League of Legends from my previous life? she thought to herself.
This idea had been rejected by Tong Sicheng before. After all, the Tong family was in the real estate business, and they didn’t want their eldest son to start a business. But Tong Hua, whether he was possessed by QiFan or was angered, actually wanted to make such a game and even wanted to consult his sister who had proposed the idea.
“Teacher Tong, I’ll be able to wear high heels in the future too.”
A voice came from below.
“You’re not allowed.”
“Teacher Tong, what if I grow taller during the winter break?”
Tong Yao said with a straight face, “You’re not allowed to grow taller.”
If you grow any taller, you won’t be my little girl anymore.
The two looked at each other and then laughed together. Tong Yao smoothed Ruan Xi’s braid, held it in her hand, and said, “Just kidding. Eat well at home, exercise more, you know? Don’t lose weight when you come back.”
The young girl’s face was wreathed in smiles. “I know!”
Ruan Xi turned over on Tong Yao’s lap and then propped herself up. Tong Yao thought she was going to sleep and moved a little. Who knew that after the young girl propped herself up, she stared at her, their faces extremely close. She was like she was being kabedon-ed on the sofa, with nowhere to escape.
Ruan Xi got closer and closer, almost touching. Tong Yao froze. From the pair of dark eyes in front of her, she could almost see her own panic. Her legs subconsciously shrank back onto the sofa, but it was useless. The young girl tilted her head up, and finally, their lips brushed. Her whole body seemed to have been paused. She knew she shouldn’t, but she still couldn’t resist the desire at the bottom of her heart.
Warm and soft.
All Ruan Xi could feel was this real touch. The moment they touched, her mind went blank, and she was acting purely on instinct. The hot, sweet taste made her instantly sink, her thoughts melting between their lips and teeth, even her body burning.
It was a dreamlike feeling. Teacher Tong’s indulgence made her invade layer by layer. Finally, she pried open her teeth and found the other’s entangled softness. She didn’t want to stop, just wanted to absorb the other’s sweetness, until one of them was almost out of breath, and they separated by a short distance.
Tong Yao’s chest heaved violently. She breathed in the air, and even the air seemed to have an ambiguous taste. She looked at the young girl on her, her face flushed red, her eyes hazy. She turned her face away, her earlobes red enough to drip blood. She wanted to say something, but found it hard to speak.
“Alright… go to sleep.”
Finally, she said in a small voice.
The young girl got up with a red face and silently went to wash up. Tong Yao leaned against the sofa, touched her lips, her mind a mess.
“Teacher Tong… I’m going to bed,” Ruan Xi, having washed up, stood at the door of the room, looking at her with expectant eyes.
She couldn’t help but purse her delicate lips, not daring to look, and said, “Good… goodnight.”
