In Lou Yixuan’s memory, Lin Huayan only had mild nearsightedness. She didn’t need glasses for daily life except when driving.
Hearing the concern laced into her question, Lin Huayan turned her face away awkwardly.
She couldn’t recall exactly when it started—that moment she stopped caring about the sharpness of her vision, the length of her hair, the fit of her clothes, or even… the beauty of her appearance.
It was as if she’d lost all perception of beautiful things, numbly enduring a monotonous routine between home and work.
Day after day, year after year.
“It’s fine,” Lin Huayan replied.
But in truth, it wasn’t fine at all—especially not now.
Lou Yixuan didn’t press further. She followed Lin Huayan to the garage, then to the Security Room.
Just as she finished filling out her ID and vehicle information at the Security Room, her phone rang on the table where she’d set it down.
The caller ID read: Big Baby.
“Sorry, I need to take this call.”
Lou Yixuan grabbed her phone and nodded to Lin Huayan before stepping out of the Security Room to answer.
The South Gate was a side entrance, with two guards on rotation: one patrolling, the other manning the gate.
The one on indoor duty right now was Old Man Zhang, nearing sixty.
“Teacher Lin, that new beauty teacher from your class looks pretty young. Does she have a graduate degree? Fresh out of school?”
Old Man Zhang had been one of the first staff members when Tianmu Middle School was founded, with a solid fifteen years on the job. He was humorous and chatty, on good terms with all the teachers.
These days, with higher barriers to entry for educators, private schools had ramped up their requirements too.
You needed either a high degree or deep experience—one or the other.
After Lou Yixuan stepped out, Lin Huayan shifted her position too, standing by another desk and absently fiddling with the phone she’d just pulled out.
“She’s an art teacher from Haifan Art School, back from studying abroad.” She paused, then added, “Probably.”
Probably a master’s degree, probably studied overseas.
Lin Huayan’s contact with Lou Yixuan had ended in that June after senior year graduation.
Over these eight years and two months, she knew nothing about her.
“Speaking of that new fine arts pilot class your school just started—tough to handle? Someone like…”
Old Man Zhang glanced at the registration form. “Like little Lou here, so young and without much teaching experience. A female teacher like that might get picked on by naughty students. Teacher Lin, look out for her. These kids nowadays… sigh, out of control.”
“Mm.”
Out of control, alright—obsessed with Lou Yixuan.
The call lasted about a minute. Lou Yixuan returned to the Security Room doorway, glancing apologetically at Lin Huayan inside.
“Teacher Lin, my friend is here to pick me up, so I have to go. Thanks so much for today. Next time I come to teach, let me treat you to a meal. If you’ll honor me with it. Lunch or dinner, whatever works for you.”
She deliberately left an opening in her words for Lin Huayan, but Lin Huayan just gripped her phone with an expressionless face, offering no response.
She really saw her as a stranger now.
And someone like Lin Huayan—who could give one-word answers to ten sentences from others, a pure introvert—why would she dine with a stranger she’d just met, someone with nothing to talk about?
“I’ll head out then. See you, Teacher Lin.” Lou Yixuan smiled as if she couldn’t read the room, bid farewell, and hurried away.
So carefree, so decisive.
Not a trace of reluctance or lingering attachment.
Only when that graceful figure receded into the distance, only when the light footsteps faded completely, did Lin Huayan gaze out the window with a desolate expression.
How could she do this?
Meeting without any preparation on her part, then saying goodbye before she was ready.
They hadn’t even added each other on WeChat or exchanged numbers.
So, was it all just a coincidence?
Lou Yixuan wasn’t here for her, so of course she didn’t rush to get her contact info, didn’t need to consider her feelings, and naturally hurried off without a second’s delay to meet her “Big Baby.”
—Teacher Lin, do you call your students “baby” at school?
—No.
—Lots of female teachers do. Close girlfriends too.
—So do you have a… “baby”?
—No, I don’t.
She didn’t back then. But now… she did?
Yes, she did.
Lin Huayan had seen it with her own eyes.
Old Man Zhang lifted his thermos and took a sip of warm water, sighing. “Teacher Lin, look at you. The girl was so enthusiastic about treating you to dinner. Even if you don’t go, at least respond. Putting on airs with a cold face like that? You’ll break her heart. She probably won’t try to get close to you again.”
Get… close?
In others’ eyes, Lou Yixuan’s words and actions had already reached the point of “cozying up” to her?
…
The bustling streets flowed ceaselessly, like the city’s pulsing veins, never stopping day or night.
Cars lined up tail-to-tail, forming winding dragons.
One red sedan looped from Tianmu Middle School’s main gate to the South Gate, picked up Lou Yixuan, and hit a red light at the first intersection ahead.
The car stopped, and conversation started: “So, my baby Xuan, how’d it feel reuniting with your Teacher Lin after so long?”
“What feeling? You’ve experienced it yourself.”
“Ah, come on—brushing me off is one thing, but spilling my secrets?”
Lu Lingxuan poked Lou Yixuan’s arm, baring her teeth in mock threat. “Believe it or not, no dinner for you tonight?”
“Oh yeah? Then I’ll have to beg Ya Ning-jie for mercy. See if she’ll feed me.”
The driver who came to pick up Lou Yixuan was the “Big Baby” who’d called her—their inseparable bestie, Lu Lingxuan.
The “Ya Ning-jie” in Lou Yixuan’s mouth was Xu Yaning, Lu Lingxuan’s newlywed wife. They’d gotten their certificate in April.
Lin Huayan had only met the real deal after returning to the country this time, but over the past two years in video calls with Lu Lingxuan, she’d seen her countless times.
“Lou Yixuan, you have no heart!”
“Mm, none.”
They locked eyes and burst into laughter as the light turned green.
The “Big Baby” contact name? That dated back to middle school, at Lu Lingxuan’s insistence.
Lu Lingxuan’s note for Lou Yixuan was the same: “Big Baby.”
—Lou Yixuan, we promised, right? No matter who we befriend or date later, we’re each other’s one and only Big Baby.
Lu Lingxuan was only half a year younger than Lou Yixuan but a grade behind because of the cutoff. Lou Yixuan was the irregular one—her pushy mom had shoved her into elementary school in September before she’d turned six that October.
Their parents were the closest of friends, so the two had been raised together since they were in split-crotch pants. True blue childhood sweethearts, the kind who called each other’s moms “godma.”
Kindergarten and elementary were different schools, but they both made it to Huai’an No. 1 Middle School for junior and senior high.
Lu Lingxuan was the only one who knew Lou Yixuan had been “obsessed” with Lin Huayan for three years.
For a teacher like Lin Huayan—brisk-walking, durable-beauty, aloof ice-queen type—student crushes were par for the course.
When Lou Yixuan first confessed she liked their neighboring class’s homeroom teacher, Lu Lingxuan sneaked off to the high school section to scope her out. That austere, ascetic aura had her hooked too—not just her Lou classmate.
Straight or gay? Hard to say. But definitely hard to chase!
Pursuing Lin Huayan was level 7-8 difficulty for most. For Lou Yixuan? 9-10.
Same-sex, teacher-student, age gap.
So after sympathizing with Lou Yixuan’s springtime flutterings, she’d advised: Face-con, huh? Simp over her looks if you must, but don’t hand over your heart.
But Lou Yixuan ignored her completely and dove in heart-first.
Stubborn as death, hanging herself on Lin Huayan’s tree—nearly lost her life doing it.
“A couple months ago, I bumped into her at the hospital. This month, poof—you pop up right in front of her. What are the odds? Eight years, Xuan—eight whole years out of touch. Think she’ll connect me to you?”
Back in high school, under Lou Yixuan’s repeated warnings, Lu Lingxuan had steered clear of Lin Huayan at school.
Even meeting Lou Yixuan required caution, like sneaking around. She never even visited the off-campus apartment Lou Yixuan rented.
She teased Lou Yixuan as a “scheming girl,” playing the frail, lonely little white flower to draw out Lin Huayan’s maternal instincts and protectiveness.
Had to admit, it worked like a charm.
From sophomore year, she crashed Lin Huayan’s meals. Senior year, she monopolized most of her weekends—tutoring.
Lu Lingxuan almost thought she’d have a math-teacher sister-in-law shielding her by her own senior year.
But…
No result.
Not long after Lou Yixuan’s college entrance exams, Lin Huayan vanished without a trace—and quit Huai’an No. 1 Middle School.
Lu Lingxuan had wanted to dig around for where she’d gone.
But Lou Yixuan said eerily calmly: Just leave it, Lingxuan. Don’t ask about her, don’t disturb her life. Some things… you can’t force them, no matter how many tries or how hard you work. Especially feelings. For her, I’ve accepted fate. No more forcing it.
Then Lou Yixuan went dead inside, left the country with her mom to reunite with her dad, who was posted overseas for work.
Lu Lingxuan aced her exams and got into Hengyuan University.
But the exam god doesn’t favor one forever. She didn’t make the cut for grad school there.
She came back to Huai’an Polytechnic University for her master’s, got her degree just this summer—still warm in her hands.
And it was July this year that she ran into Lin Huayan at the hospital during a checkup.
—T-Teacher Lin? It’s really you!
—Who are you?
—Oh, uh, I was… a student at No. 1 Middle School. You taught the grade above mine. Teaching Building, upstairs-downstairs, more students than teachers. You wouldn’t know me, but hard not to know you.
—Mm, hi.
—You here at the hospital… sick?
—Minor issue. No big deal.
—Oh, good. Uh, Teacher Lin, I don’t think I saw you my senior year. Not teaching at No. 1 anymore?
—Mm.
—Then now…
—Tianmu Middle School. Personal reasons—I quit and went there. Still am.
—Oh oh, Tianmu—that rumored top private high school in Huai’an?
—Yes.
—Nice, that’s great. Teaching’s teaching, wherever.
Lu Lingxuan mulled it over for ages, tossing and turning sleepless that night.
Finally, she spilled the wild tale to her wife behind her bestie’s back—including the old entanglements between the bestie and the older woman.
The two wives analyzed it thoroughly and decided to “leak” Lin Huayan’s job at Tianmu Middle School to Lou Yixuan.
Over eight years abroad, Lou Yixuan hadn’t dated anyone—not guys, not girls.
Maybe, deep down, the root was “Lin Huayan.”
So, married or single, whatever Lou Yixuan truly felt— at least give her the choice to see Lin Huayan one more time.
Some bonds, some feelings… aren’t impossible to force or impossible to let go. They just need—one more meeting.
Like her and her wife: their sticky-sweet life today came from “meeting again.”
Maybe their childhood sweethearts’ romantic detours would turn out eerily similar?
After all, she’d come from behind to win her love-at-first-sight senior sis after trials and tribulations. Why couldn’t Lou Yixuan’s three-year crush bear fruit?
Eight years on—same-sex marriage legal domestically, same-sex births abroad. What’s impossible in this world?
After their little spat in the car, Lou Yixuan propped her head and stared out the window.
The youthful energy and sparkle drained from her the moment she stepped out of Tianmu Middle School’s gate, replaced by a melancholy even the blazing sun couldn’t chase away.
She sat there quietly, like a soulless doll—exquisite shell, nothing more.
She didn’t answer Lu Lingxuan’s question, didn’t turn her head.
Just asked, voice heavy with sorrow: “Lingxuan, does Ya Ning-jie have any white hairs?”
At eighteen, thanks to Cen Qiongying’s favor, Ji Mingxin—who had started school two years later than her peers—skipped straight from her first year of high school to the second.
At nineteen, she asked Cen Qiongying, “What can I give you?”
Cen Qiongying replied, “Win top scorer for me.”
“Okay,” she answered with confidence and resolve. It was the first time in over a decade that she smiled from the heart.
Ji Mingxin became the first top scorer in the history of Tianmu Middle School’s college entrance exams—and also the first student to be embroiled in rumors with Tianmu Education Group President Cen Qiongying.
To be Cen Qiongying’s bedmate, to be her pride—Ji Mingxin was unfazed by a thousand arrows piercing her heart.
At twenty, she finally kissed the moon she had coveted for so long. Their lips and tongues entwined, saliva mingling in an exquisite bliss beyond words.
But the price was her lover’s cold detachment: “Sleep separately tonight. Don’t cross the line.”
Cen Qiongying came to her for warmth less and less.
And she grew more and more panicked.
On the day she broke down, lost it completely, and demanded, “How can you love me?”, Cen Qiongying took her to the cemetery.
One glance, and she almost thought the face on the tombstone was her own. But the name engraved there was utterly unfamiliar: Mu Xiaoyu.
The tomb’s erectors included the parents—and one more: Wife: Cen Qiongying.
Erected… sixteen years ago.
