Chapter 13: Currying Favor

In just a few short days, Ming You wore two outfits that had belonged to Yan Ningxi. Compared to that tacky skirt from last time, she preferred today’s utterly ordinary clothes and pants. Because they carried a stronger, more intense scent of Yan Ningxi.

Before she even realized it, she had already been soothed.

“Back at school, take your medicine on time. Don’t treat it lightly,” Yan Ningxi reminded her once more as she saw Ming You to the door. She didn’t ask about the train ticket again.

【Same old rule: I’ll report my real-time status to you every day after taking the medicine. That should put your mind at ease, right?】 Ming You typed the message into their WeChat chat box, sent it, and waved her phone.

“Mm.” Yan Ningxi watched as the cold expression on Ming You’s face turned from cloudy to sunny with a soft smile. The most ordinary words “goodbye” got stuck in her throat.

Would they still have any further interactions?

After this holiday ended, everything should return to normal, right?

“Ming You, being disheartened and self-abandoning is the behavior of the weak and incompetent. The path is your own. Only by harboring ambitions and correcting your attitude can you achieve results to show those who love you and the ones you love.”

Yan Ningxi didn’t think she was lecturing a student or a child in her capacity as a teacher. In any case, deep down, Ming You didn’t respect her as an elder or teacher either—at most, she would humor her with a sentence or two.

Yet the response she heard was: “I said it already. There are no such people.”

Yan Ningxi froze in the doorway. Right, the girl had said it before. That night she returned late, when she asked the feverish girl for her family’s phone number.

“Goodbye, Sister Yan.”

…

The sky sprinkled a negligible fine drizzle. A few minutes earlier, Ming You hadn’t taken the umbrella Yan Ningxi offered her.

After the taxi drove a certain distance, when the driver asked where she was going, she reported the location after thinking for a moment.

In the reception hall of a 24-hour pet hospital stood a whole wall of wooden pet boarding display cases. Some had two compartments, some had one layer; some contained cats, others were empty.

“Hello, are you here to buy pet supplies, or to adopt a furry child?”

Ming You didn’t answer the staff member’s question.

She silently scanned the area but didn’t see the Cow-Spotted Kitten she had brought in.

Ming You turned to leave when another girl in a light blue nurse uniform chased out from the back room. “Wait a minute. If I remember correctly, you’re the big sister who brought in a big cat and a small one in the early morning a few days ago, right?”

Seeing the girl say nothing, the nurse pulled out her phone from her pocket. “The little milk kitten was very well-behaved and got adopted yesterday. They named it Milk Ball. Here’s a photo of it with its new owner, plus the photo the owner sent today of it in its new home. Want to take a look?”

The nurse had just raised the screen when she heard the girl say, “No need.”

With that, the person turned and walked away.

The kitten was lucky. It had a home now, and someone to love it. Knowing it wasn’t a fancy breed yet still adopting it—that person probably wouldn’t mistreat it, right?

Walking alone down a sparsely peopled street, Ming You could no longer remember how many rains she had gotten drenched in. Her hair tips clung wetly to her cheeks and back. Only when the chill seeped in from behind did she realize her clothes were nearly soaked through again.

She tossed the handbag containing the dirty clothes into a roadside trash bin and hailed a taxi.

…

The next day, lying idle in the hotel, Ming You scrolled boredly through over ten thousand reviews on a certain site about the theatrical performance of Faraway Rendezvous.

【Jiang Lai: Senior sister, new intel! At the Teachers’ Group Sports Meet, Teacher Yan is joining the relay race.】

【Ming You: When?】

She completely failed to see any athletic talent in Yan Ningxi. Though she wasn’t skinny to the bone, she didn’t look like someone with particularly strong physical fitness either.

【Jiang Lai: Thursday and Friday.】

【Ming You: If it’s convenient, take a video and send it to me.】

【Jiang Lai: Got it, senior sister! [ok]】

Ming You had successfully turned Jiang Lai into her personal intelligence agent. After receiving the latest intel, she sent Yan Ningxi all the check-in photos she had taken of herself taking medicine from morning till night that day.

It was only ten o’clock. Even with evening self-study, class would have ended by now. Without it, it probably wasn’t her bedtime yet either.

【Ming You: Sister Yan, I’ve taken and used today’s medicine and spray on time. Please review.】

Yan Ningxi saw this message right as she returned to the office after evening self-study—He Huan was there too. She glanced at her phone but didn’t reply to Ming You right away.

It was only on the walk back to her apartment that Yan Ningxi replied.

【Acknowledged.】

【Ming You: I always take the initiative to contact you like this. Does it bother you?】

【Yan Ningxi: It’s fine.】

What a polite, casual, utterly commonplace “it’s fine” that betrayed no emotion—the meticulous literature teacher was truly sly. But as long as she didn’t say “yes,” there was room to wedge her way in, wasn’t there?

【Ming You: If there’s anything I’ve done wrong or improperly, please tell me for sure, Sister Yan. Correct it if wrong, encourage if not! [Cute]】

She was getting handier and handier with emojis.

Shameful.

To curry favor with Yan Ningxi, she had already done too many outrageous things.

Without waiting for Yan Ningxi’s reply, Ming You showered and sprawled on the bed. On the bedside table sat the outfit she had worn back the day before. Unlike the floral skirt, this set—which Yan Ningxi had worn and washed—simply placed there let her faintly catch Yan Ningxi’s scent even while sleeping.

Tossing and turning, Ming You logged into QQ and left a message for “Teacher He.”

【Ming You: In the past, due to my youthful ignorance, I used the wrong method to express my gratitude, causing Teacher He a lot of trouble. I feel deeply guilty about this. I won’t send you any more messages to disturb your life from now on. Wishing Teacher He happiness and a healthy child soon.】

The former Ming You had always avoided the word “gratitude” in her exchanges with He Huan, not wanting her to think her affection stemmed from gratitude.

The current Ming You could only use gratitude as an excuse, “admitting” that she had misinterpreted their relationship.

She had never judged herself a good person, nor did she believe in the existence of purely virtuous souls insulated from desire. Unless someone enjoyed perfect fortune from birth—from their first cry upon landing to their final groan in death, with every step of their decades-long journey spent carefree in an airtight greenhouse.

In such a case, malice that nested in darkness would naturally have no place to roost.

But she was no flower in a greenhouse.

Her world had no impregnable barrier to halt the rampage of malice either.

Resisting while cornered and weaponless was no wise course. Thus, she discarded her armor, bowed her head in submission to malice, and steeled herself to utterly expel He Huan’s shadow—the persistent intruder haunting her like a ghost—from her territory.

The next morning, Ming You received a reply.

【Teacher He: I’m glad you’ve come around. Ming You, you’re excellent. Study hard, take the broad stage, carve out your own world, become the pride of your parents and teachers—and your own pride. I believe that in the near future, you’ll be the one shining brightly. Wishing you happiness too.】

…

She went to bed at three or four in the morning and slept until noon the next day.

She binged dramas and played games.

She had experienced such decadent days before. This time was worse than ever, thanks to the scald: no bingeing or guzzling whatever she craved.

She had no appetite but still had to pretend she ate three meals a day. Medicine, iced milk, olive oil, nothing but vegetables and porridge.

Staging photos was second nature to her. Practice made perfect, after all—and the hundreds of photos in Space about her college life and the sights she saw weren’t snapped for nothing.

He Huan never initiated contact, and Ming You honored the agreement: no voice messages or calls, only texts.

Updating her Space status wasn’t part of the agreement; it was Ming You’s own idea, so He Huan could see her updates anytime and know how “well-behaved and obedient” she was being at school.

Over these two days, bored out of her mind, she had dug through Yan Ningxi’s Moments.

On average, four posts a month—all school announcements or forwarded public account articles. Probably just fulfilling some political task. She gave up scrolling back to last October.

She ventured out occasionally too, buying several new outfits and pairs of shoes without fussing over price—whatever caught her eye, from four-figure luxuries to cheap dozens of yuan. She attended two or three concerts as well, though she just slept through every one.

Emerging from the theater, she snapped a photo of the massive concert poster, habitually opened Space, added the image, and posted successfully.

【Concert insomnia.】

She walked the riverbank she had once walked with that person, sat on the steps they had sat on together, felt the river breeze they had shared. The scenery felt familiar, but the person was gone.

Hearing the same themed concert again after three years, her state of mind was no longer what it had been. Every piece, every note, mocked her mercilessly—the more she listened, the clearer she became.

Yang Guishu’s call came in. “Yu Yu, why didn’t you tell me you’d hurt your throat? If your counselor hadn’t called to check on your condition, I wouldn’t even know you were sick! Did you get a thorough checkup at the hospital? Quick, tell Mom where you are. If you don’t want to say, just come home. I’ll get you a few more days off from school. We’ll rest up plenty before heading back, okay?”

Utterly unaware of Ming You’s leave of absence, Yang Guishu didn’t utter a single word of reproach. She even covered for her own daughter during the teacher’s inquiry.

Ming You loathed that version of herself who played the good student for He Huan. She loathed school too. And her leave hadn’t even been requested by her personally.

Her roommate, waiting for her return to campus, had called to check in. That’s when she casually mentioned the scald to her tongue. Without that call, without her roommate proactively requesting leave on her behalf, she would now be branded a serious truant.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. If you’re really worried, just transfer some living expenses.” Over these few days back in Huai’an, the balance in her card had plummeted from a five-figure sum starting with 2 to a four-figure one starting with 8.

“Okay, I’ll transfer it right now.” Hearing no major change in her daughter’s voice, Yang Guishu relaxed.

“Thanks. That’s all.” Ming You hung up.

Less than a minute later, a bank SMS arrived: 50,000 yuan deposited. New messages followed in the chat.

【Ms. Yang: Maternal Grandma misses you terribly. Come back anytime; Mom will make you tasty food.】

【Ms. Yang: Let Mom know when you’re back at school.】

【Ms. Yang: No troubles, right? With Mom here, I can handle anything for you. Just stay healthy and happy.】

Ming You replied: 【No trouble caused, no messes either.】

As expected, Yang Guishu sensed her daughter’s coldness even through the phone, but she was accustomed to it. She deleted the words she’d just typed—”Mom didn’t mean it like that”—one by one, and in the end, sent only a cute [Baby So Obedient.gif] sticker.