Chapter 77: Unease

That evening, Ming You followed an online tutorial and made some decent-looking rock sugar snow pear soup, garnished with goji berries and red dates. Yan Ningxi graciously drank two bowls, and she herself had one bowl too.

A little after seven, Yan Ningxi saw an urgent notice in the grade group chat.

【Grade Director: A female student from class XX came back to the dorm drunk in the evening. After her roommates notified the dorm teacher for help, the drunk student slipped away while they weren’t paying attention and hasn’t been found yet. All senior-year teachers at school or nearby tonight, please help look for her.】

【Grade Director: This matter shouldn’t be spread around. Pass it on privately among yourselves and keep it confidential to avoid rumors among other students or parents that could negatively impact the school. Search for the student with full effort while maintaining secrecy.】

【Teacher He: Thanks, everyone. It’s a student from my class, Lin Long. Distinctive features: neck-length short hair, single eyelids. Around 160 cm tall, neither fat nor thin.】

【Teacher He: This kid has a very tense relationship with her family, and her personality is a bit extreme.】

Ming You finished washing the bowls and returned to the bedroom. She saw Yan Ningxi putting on her down jacket for going out and asked, “Want to go for a walk?”

“There’s something at school. I need to go.” She was going to help search for the person.

“Something urgent?” Ming You took a scarf from the closet. “Put on one more scarf.”

Yan Ningxi stood still, letting Ming You wrap the scarf around her. She stared at her face, as if thinking of something, and asked, “When you were in high school and feeling down at school, did you ever… Never mind, nothing. Stay home obediently and wait for me.”

“What do you mean nothing? It’s written all over your face.” Ming You pulled Yan Ningxi’s hair out from under the scarf and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. “Did something happen with a student?”

“Yeah. A girl in Teacher He’s class got drunk and went missing.”

Ming You wasn’t a parent, nor a current student at No. 3 Middle School, nor someone who gossiped or stirred up trouble. Telling her wouldn’t harm the school in any way. So why hide it?

“Missing? You mean she left the school? Is she a good student or a problem student?”

Ming You had entertained the idea of running away during middle school.

In the end, she hadn’t done it because she’d imagined all sorts of grim scenarios after leaving home or school, drawing from melodramatic TV dramas and certain social news stories.

Going hungry and sleeping on the streets were the mildest outcomes. Running into bad guys or criminals, getting beaten, locked up, raped, or killed—that was utter agony.

She sometimes thought darkly and had a history of extreme actions, but she always managed to pull back, thanks to her habit of thinking ahead and considering the worst possibilities.

Pessimism didn’t mean depression. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made it to today.

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference is that good students and problem students think differently. When facing the same troubles, their ways of escaping or solving them differ too.”

“You know a lot?”

Yan Ningxi spoke meaningfully. “That’s true enough. Students know the nooks and crannies of the school better than teachers do. So tell me, what unconventional spots in the school might she go to…”

It was an emergency, so Ming You didn’t overthink Yan Ningxi’s words. She listed a few places she’d “discovered” while wandering alone back then, then watched Yan Ningxi leave.

…

She’d spent the day with Yan Ningxi, so now that she had time, she rolled up her sleeves to clean.

While dusting the bookshelf, she spotted that copy of Faraway Rendezvous, stirring up her emotions.

That day, she hadn’t replied to He Huan’s message, and He Huan hadn’t asked again if she was going. The play performance was days ago now. That weekend, she hadn’t returned to Huai’an, and she had no idea what He Huan had done with the tickets.

As if compelled, she took out the book and sat on the bed’s edge, flipping through it casually.

She’d already finished the whole thing back at the hotel, and the core content was just as she’d told Yan Ningxi: amid comedic interludes, the main theme built a tragedy of lovers who met but missed each other, leaving one sighing in regret.

As she flipped, something fell to the floor.

She picked it up and saw the other side—it was a ticket for the Far Far Away play.

The secondary ticket had been torn off.

Seeing the price and seat number, it matched one from the photo He Huan had sent her. So He Huan had ended up asking Yan Ningxi to go with her? But Yan Ningxi hadn’t mentioned it at all.

For some reason, Ming You suddenly felt a pang of palpitation, an inexplicable tightness in her chest, and growing unease.

Her initial approach to Yan Ningxi had been ill-intentioned, and that couldn’t be changed. But now, she truly had feelings for her.

Though Yan Ningxi hadn’t agreed to be her girlfriend, she’d given her full privileges in body and heart. Ming You believed that given time, she could fully win her over and date her openly.

She cherished these days too much.

The version of herself by Yan Ningxi’s side was a flesh-and-blood “mortal” with joys and sorrows.

To stay “mortal” forever, Yan Ningxi couldn’t know about her emotional entanglement with He Huan. If the truth came out—whether her deception, her manipulation, or He Huan’s “cover-up”—it would be a major hurt to Yan Ningxi.

Such a pure and kind Yan Ningxi shouldn’t be hurt by them.

…

Huai’an No.3 High School was a key school, strict on the surface about phone management: handed in uniformly during class time, picked up after school.

But with five thousand junior and senior high students combined, in the digital age, phones were essential for communication, easy to carry and hide. They couldn’t search everyone body-by-body every day, right?

Good students either didn’t bring phones or, if they did, teachers rarely checked.

Take Jiang Lai, a good student and class rep, in close contact with the homeroom teacher daily—how could He Huan not know she brought her phone to class? So as long as students used them discreetly, teachers basically didn’t crack down.

【Ming You: Jiang?】 She wanted to ask about the situation.

【Jiang Lai: Good evening, senpai!】 She got especially excited upon receiving Ming You’s message.

Their class had homeroom teacher’s Chinese evening self-study tonight, but with He Huan busy searching, she’d sent mock papers for her and the class monitor to proctor.

Lin Long had come back to the dorm drunk and skipped class, so many in the know were whispering about it.

【Ming You: That Lin Long in your class—is it family issues, relationship problems, academic troubles, or social stuff?】 She got straight to the point.

【Jiang Lai: Ah! Senpai, how do you know Lin Long?】

【Ming You: All the grade teachers are out looking, Sister Yan went too. Tell me the inside story?】

【Jiang Lai: Oh oh.】 Senpai at Goddess Yan’s house? Were they living together?!

【Jiang Lai: Lin Long’s dating a guy from another school.】

【Jiang Lai: Rumor has it they’re breaking up lately.】

【Ming You: Puppy love, huh. Is the other school far or near? Is the guy a top student or a slacker?】

【Jiang Lai: Slacker. Lin Long’s grades suck too.】

【Jiang Lai: They have couple tattoos, and both smoke.】

【Jiang Lai: That’s what I heard.】

【Jiang Lai: The guy’s at No. 16 Middle School, closest to No. 3.】

After getting the basics and asking about Lin Long’s appearance, Ming You put on her coat and headed out.

Better to go out for fresh air and maybe get lucky than stew at home with wild thoughts. The school and area already had many teachers searching, so she headed toward No. 16 Middle School, checking two internet cafes and a game hall along the way.

【Jiang Lai: Senpai, Lin Long just turned on her phone and sent a voice message to another girl in class, saying she’s in the alley behind No. 16’s back gate, sprained her ankle, and wants the girl to sneak out after class to pick her up.】

【Jiang Lai: Lin Long doesn’t want teachers to know. The girl’s a friend of mine and asked if she should tell Teacher He.】

【Ming You: Tell her.】

【Jiang Lai: Huh? Okay. But is this betraying a classmate?】

【Ming You: If you know and don’t report, fine if nothing happens, but if it does, who’s responsible?】

【Ming You: Sure, it wouldn’t be you, but you’d regret it.】

【Ming You: Why do you think she only asked your opinion? If Teacher He blames later, punishment aside, her trust in you might be gone.】

【Jiang Lai: Mm-hmm. Got it, thanks senpai.】

【Jiang Lai: Lin Long’s relationship isn’t a secret. Teacher He’s talked to her about it several times.】

…

With the tip, Ming You took a cab to the back gate of No. 16 Middle School.

She walked over a hundred meters along the main road of the old residential area, turned left into an old alley, then another twenty or thirty meters. On the left was an open platform.

The alley was quiet, the streetlights old and dim, like a soon-to-be-demolished stairwell block.

Ming You turned on her phone flashlight and stepped onto the platform. Vaguely, she saw two figures under a big tree—one standing, one sitting.

She called out tentatively, “Lin Long?”

The boy asked warily, “Who?” He stayed under the tree.

Ming You: “I’m here to pick up Lin Long.”

The boy stepped out from the tree’s shadow, tossed his cigarette butt and stamped it out. Skeptical, he asked, “You her classmate?”

Ming You and the boy sized each other up.

The boy had ear-length hair, bangs covering his brows. In the cold winter, he wore only a thin black jacket, height around 175 cm or more.

“Do I look like a teacher? Or her mom?” Ming You held up her phone and approached the one sitting on the flower bed. “Lin Long, you okay?”

Lin Long’s head was buried low. She sat where there were two steps high and low, right arm draped over the higher surface. No reaction even when Ming You called her—either asleep or passed out.

Ming You patted her arm. “Hey, Lin Long, Lin Long?”

“Fuck. Who the hell are you?” The boy cursed, swatting Ming You’s hand away.

“What did you do to her? She’s drunk a ton—how do you know she doesn’t have alcohol poisoning? I advise you: best send her to the hospital right now…”

“Who the fuck told you to meddle!”

The boy spat profanities at every turn, and Ming You felt her own anger rising. But against this hot-tempered delinquent slacker, acting rashly would only make things worse.

Sure, if it came to blows, the boy might not beat her—she’d trained in boxing—but in civilized society, good students talked first.

“Huai’an No.3 High School, senior year, Teacher He’s student, Lin Long. Dating you with couple tattoos, right?” Ming You proved herself further. “I saw her message and came to get her. You don’t want this blown up, don’t want a joint teacher meeting from both schools or punishment? Listen to me: we take her for a checkup first. Didn’t she say her ankle’s sprained?”

“She fell herself. Not my fault. She drank on her own—no responsibility for poisoning.”

The boy pulled another cigarette from his pocket pack, lit it with a lighter.

Looked like he wouldn’t go to the hospital with her.

Ming You conceded a step. “Fine, I’ll take her. Delaying here longer, if something happens, you won’t escape blame. Don’t want the arriving teachers catching you? Better head back to school or home now.”

The boy took deep drags, blowing smoke. He glared viciously at Ming You, seemingly compromising, and pulled out a phone from his jacket pocket with his right hand.

“This is her phone. When she sobers up, tell her not to fucking bother me anymore.”

“Okay, I’ll tell…” Ming You had just taken the phone when footsteps of several people sounded behind her.

The arriving He Huan called out first, “Lin Long?”

“Fuck!” The boy dropped his smoke, brushed past Ming You’s shoulder, and bolted.

He Huan was in front, quick to grab the boy’s clothes. “You’re from No. 16, right? You and Lin Long…”

The boy turned back disgustedly. Seeing her outfit, he pegged her as a teacher, covered his face against the light with one hand, and shoved hard with the other. He Huan couldn’t match his strength, got flung, and crashed into nearby outdoor fitness equipment.

The boy seized the chance to run away. The other person, illuminated by the phone’s light, was Yan Ningxi.