Chapter 7

A tangle of shame and embarrassment left Si Nanyu silent and hanging her head the whole drive to school.

Yet Wen Qingyan, who never let her eyes wander from the road, found herself glancing at Si Nanyu a few extra times precisely because of that silence.

Fortunately the trip to school wasn’t long, so Wen Qingyan couldn’t stare for more than a moment or two. Before Si Nanyu got out of the car, a few words rose to her lips, and in the end she let them out. “You remember where the office is, don’t you?”

“I don’t.” Si Nanyu’s voice was so aggrieved, but at hearing Wen Qingyan ask, something in her eyes still shifted.

She stared at her, eyes glistening.

Wen Qingyan paused.

She thought Si Nanyu looked exactly like Ribs, like the way Ribs begged her for chicken jerky.

So the dog really did take after her owner.

Ribs was the one Si Nanyu had brought home, so it made sense she resembled her.

Except Wen Qingyan was the one who had always done the feeding, and she couldn’t help feeling a little… disappointed.

Disappointed on Ribs’ behalf, but even more so on her own.

Her eyes darkened as the thought settled, and her voice dropped. “If you don’t remember, go ask someone. Aren’t you good at that sort of thing?”

Si Nanyu caught the odd note in her tone and nodded quietly. “…Okay.”

The next second the car pulled to a stop, and Wen Qingyan unlocked the doors to let her out.

Then, tilting her head, she asked, “Or are you still stuck on how to open the door?”

“I can open it.”

To spare herself any more embarrassment, Si Nanyu had spent the ride figuring out how to get out, so now she simply lifted a hand and pushed the door open.

Once outside, she didn’t walk off right away. She stood there, wanting to wave goodbye to Wen Qingyan through the window and maybe ask her something.

Why had she dropped her off at the subway station just in front of the school?

But Wen Qingyan gave her no chance to ask. All she got was a lungful of exhaust.

She racked her brain and concluded it must be to avoid raising suspicion.

Thankfully, Zhennan High School was her alma mater. The subway station had only grown a decade older, and everything was still familiar. The walk from there took about ten minutes.

Those ten minutes, however, Si Nanyu spent walking on eggshells.

After all, as far as she knew, she was just an eighteen-year-old high school student. She had never held a job, let alone knew how to… be a teacher.

Head down in thought all the way, she made it to the school gate on memory alone, and before she’d taken more than a few steps, someone called out to her.

“Teacher Si? You’re early today.”

The one calling her was a girl, on the short side, with chubby cheeks and round eyes.

The cute, pretty type.

But… Si Nanyu didn’t recognize her. All she could do was smile faintly and wind her way toward the office…

As a graduate of Zhennan High School, Si Nanyu knew its teaching philosophy fairly well.

The phrase “happy learning” had started with her class and the ones around it.

Si Nanyu had learned piano since childhood. At first it was purely to feed Si Xueyi’s vanity, but later she genuinely fell in love with music herself, and her studies broadened. Piano and violin, guitar and drums, anything that caught her interest, she tried at least once.

Qin Hua and Si Xueyi, however, had very different ideas about education. By middle school, Si Nanyu had already been living alone with Qin Hua for a few years, and everything then went according to Qin Hua’s wishes: music as a hobby, academics as the priority. Part of why Qin Hua sent her to Zhennan was that she planned to have Si Nanyu pursue both at once.

But Qin Hua was busy. She found out late that the school, after several years of trials, had finally rolled out a sweeping reform in Si Nanyu’s year: a dedicated class for specialty students.

Si Nanyu had been a little rebellious back then. She rarely saw Qin Hua and never bothered to reach out on her own, and so it wasn’t until some parents’ meeting or other after the semester started that she finally learned the news.

Si Xueyi found out too, and the two of them had a huge fight.

It was around that time that Si Nanyu met Wen Qingyan.

In that sense, Wen Qingyan had rescued her from drowning in a sea of math, physics, and chemistry.

“Teacher Si.”

At the familiar voice, Si Nanyu, who had been walking with her head down the whole time, looked up.

She studied the woman before her. Arms folded, eyes icy, with a slightly plump middle-aged teacher trailing behind her…

The more she looked, the more familiar the woman seemed.

It was… Teacher Yang, the one whose voice message Wen Qingyan had played that morning.

Also the music teacher who had once taught Si Nanyu herself. Yang Miao.

“Teacher Yang…”

“Teacher Si, you’re late again today.”

Wen Qingyan cut her off, glancing at her watch without a flicker of expression. Yang Miao looked awkward and hurried to explain on Si Nanyu’s behalf. “Teacher Si isn’t feeling well, she probably just…”

Wen Qingyan paid her no mind, turning instead to Si Nanyu. “When you’re at work, act like it.”

“A People’s Teacher should be a role model for students above all.”

With that she strode off, leaving a gust of wind in her wake.

Yang Miao was beside herself. Seeing Wen Qingyan disappear into the distance, she stepped up to Si Nanyu and chided her gently. “Nanyu, it’s only been a month since the semester started and Teacher Wen has already caught you late three times. I’d say your teaching allowance for this month is gone!”

“You were only a few minutes off. If you’d just left a little earlier, you would have made it. Teacher Wen had barely arrived herself!”

“She had her first period this morning, so she was probably a bit on edge. That’s the only reason she was so harsh with you.”

Yang Miao had a gentle face, and even her scolding came out soft and warm, more wistful for Si Nanyu’s sake than anything. She also offered a little explanation for Wen Qingyan’s mood.

Aside from being Si Nanyu’s former teacher, she now belonged to the same Teaching and Research Group, so naturally she stuck up for her own.

She practically walked Si Nanyu to the office herself. The intimate familiarity left Si Nanyu a bit at sea, but she couldn’t deny that thanks to Yang Miao, a great deal of hassle had been spared.

Yang Miao talked plenty along the way, filling her in on the basics.

These days the office mixed all the arts teachers together. Yang Miao served as the Teaching and Research Group Leader and taught Senior Year classes exclusively, and Si Nanyu happened to follow her students up into Senior Year this year. First and second year each had only one music teacher; Senior Year alone had two, because of the Arts Examination.

“Mondays are light on classes. Let’s go watch the choir’s rehearsal this morning.”

Si Nanyu had barely warmed her seat before Yang Miao extended the invitation.

The choir always had its hands full whenever Zhennan High School hosted a big event. School started in September, and by tradition the Fall Sports Meet came at the end of the month, with the School Anniversary Celebration to follow in mid-to-late October.

As a comprehensive arts-focused high school, Zhennan put real effort into this sort of thing.

Student-era Si Nanyu had taken part plenty of times, but in her new role she felt a little lost, so she stood up obediently and beamed at Yang Miao. “Of course, Teacher Yang!”

Yang Miao didn’t respond right away. Instead she glanced left and right, then leaned close and asked in a hushed voice, “Did Teacher Wen scare you?”

“Huh…?” Si Nanyu froze, then realized what she meant and waved her hands frantically. “No, no, not at all!”

Yang Miao clearly didn’t believe her. She pulled her toward the door and only spoke once they were alone. “This isn’t the days when Little Wen used to babysit you. You don’t have to be so scared of her.”

“I’m not…” Si Nanyu protested weakly, though midway through she wasn’t sure she believed herself.

She had to admit, she was a tiny bit… afraid of Wen Qingyan.

So her denial fell flat and only made Yang Miao’s smile bloom wider. Patting her hand, she consoled her, “You know what your Teacher Wen is like, don’t you? You two knew each other way back. When she first joined the school she was a regular Little Prude, and now that she’s Dean of Studies, she has to be even stricter to keep everyone in line.”

At the words “Little Prude,” Si Nanyu’s brow twitched, and she silently argued in her heart: Wen Qingyan is not a Little Prude.

Still, she knew Yang Miao loved to joke around and wasn’t the type to gossip behind people’s backs. Back when Wen Qingyan had first become their Assistant Homeroom Teacher, Yang Miao had teased her to her face with that exact phrase.

Wen Qingyan had been thin-skinned in those days. She’d kept her composure in the moment, but whenever the office emptied out and she was alone, her ears would quietly turn red.

Absolutely adorable!

Not a Little Prude at all!

Or… fine, maybe a cute Little Prude would be acceptable.

After all, Si Nanyu had to admit, thinking it over, that sometimes Wen Qingyan really was rather stiff and old-school.

Her head full of these thoughts about Wen Qingyan, her legs carried her after Yang Miao without her noticing, and only when they neared the auditorium did a chorus of voices wash over them.

And “wash over” was the right word, because this batch of choir members was nowhere near the level of the ones she’d sung with.

Even Yang Miao frowned as she listened, then bluntly complained, “This year’s students are a handful.”

“They’re not like your classes. Back then, everyone came to Zhennan with real talent. Kids these days…”

“Most of them come chasing the school’s comprehensive arts program and the specialty student spots.”

Si Nanyu bit her lip and nodded, terrified of blurting out the same blunt truth herself.

She and Yang Miao were not the same. There was plenty she didn’t know, like how to be a competent teacher, or where her own professional skills stood, but…

She knew perfectly well that Yang Miao’s husband was the Director of Academic Affairs at Zhennan High School.

They were different.

Very different.

Watching the choir rehearse may have been nothing more than a pretext to leave the office, because Yang Miao ended up parading Si Nanyu through half the campus, and by the time they finished wandering, it was nearly lunch.

Yang Miao warmly invited her to eat together.

The cafeteria was just as Si Nanyu remembered it. The menu had changed a little, but not much.

Sadly, her beloved Sweet and Sour Ribs were absent. The only meat dishes left were Yu-Xiang Shredded Pork and Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs.

“We’ll make do. The head chef is on leave these few days. Next week the Sweet and Sour Ribs will be back.”

Yang Miao looked every bit as disappointed as Si Nanyu felt.

After all, the cafeteria’s signature dish was the Sweet and Sour Ribs. Half the school showed up just for it.

“It’s fine, the Lion’s Head Meatballs are good too.”

Si Nanyu wasn’t a picky eater; Sweet and Sour Ribs were simply the dish she loved most, so she ate the meatballs happily enough.

But somewhere along the way, her mind began to drift.

Because from the moment she’d planned to make Sweet and Sour Ribs the night before, her thoughts had kept floating back to Wen Qingyan.

Halfway through the meal, she looked up and asked, “Teacher Wen… doesn’t she come to the cafeteria?”

“Her? She’s always swamped. By the time she shows up it’s usually pretty late… Oh, look, speak of the devil.” Yang Miao tipped her chin toward the space behind Si Nanyu.

Si Nanyu whipped her head around. There was Wen Qingyan, hair pinned up without a strand out of place, dressed in a light gray blouse, heels clicking as she strode past like she owned the wind itself. She gave Yang Miao the smallest of nods and…

and just walked on by.

Si Nanyu blinked, then followed Wen Qingyan’s line of sight and confirmed it. Yes, that was Wen Qingyan.

But how could she be so cold, so heartless? She looked right through her like she wasn’t even there!