MTB - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Sulking
The red light turned green, and the person across the street had already walked away without a backward glance.
“What’s so interesting to look at?” The woman followed her gaze across the road and saw a girl who was glancing their way, intentionally or not. She looked very young, like a student from the nearby university.
“It’s nice to be young,” the woman couldn’t help but sigh. Noticing that Tang Yuelou was still lost in thought, she chided, “What’s wrong? Look at you, spacing out again.”
“Sorry, it’s nothing. That flowerbed is quite interesting,” Tang Yuelou replied with perfect composure, helping the woman adjust the shoulder of her coat.
The woman looked back again, only to see the bare trees at the park entrance and a garish flowerbed spelling out “Welcome National Day.” The aesthetic couldn’t be called good; one could only say it was very “retro.” She glanced at it once before looking away, thinking she must have misheard. “...What did you say? Say that again?”
“Yezi, don’t listen to her nonsense. She wasn’t looking at the flowerbed, she was looking at a person, right?” Ouyang Zhou, never one to miss a chance to stir up trouble, shouted from behind them.
“Looking at a person? Oh… I get it, I get it.”
“What do you get? Spit it out!”
“I get it too,” the woman’s interest was instantly piqued. She teased with a mischievous smile, “Was that girl across the street your little girlfriend? I noticed she kept looking over here. I was wondering who she was looking at.”
“Yezi, can you give our Teacher Tang a little face?”
“Not bad. Since you ran into her, why not call her over? Let us meet her.”
Her friends chimed in all at once, teasing her. Tang Yuelou smiled. “Next time. The kid is sulking a little.”
“I heard you’re a teacher at her school. Isn’t that an abuse of power? And you’re so much older than her. I bet people are calling you a pervert and a scumbag behind your back,” the woman said, covering her mouth as she laughed teasingly.
“Is that so?” Tang Yuelou lowered her eyes and smiled, not denying it.
She glanced back one more time. On a weekend night, the commercial street was brightly lit and bustling with people, but the figure that had merged into the crowd quickly vanished from sight. And so, the lively street suddenly seemed desolate in her eyes.
It wasn’t until the woman called her name that Tang Yuelou snapped out of her daze and pulled her gaze back.
“Perhaps.”
…
“You’re a psychic. Jiang Jie was asking me about your birthday, your tastes, your hobbies last night… I was getting so annoyed with all the questions. I’m telling you, have you ever considered teaching a class on this?” After class, Guan Yan packed up her laptop, clicking her tongue in amazement. “But this back-and-forth between you two is not normal.”
Yun Yang asked, “How is it not normal?”
“It’s not normal for you. I thought you’d say something like, ‘So many people like me. If I choose one, the others will be so heartbroken.’” Guan Yan imitated her tone, pouting in an affected, pretentious way, which successfully grossed Yun Yang out.
“Do I really talk like that?” She felt a chill and even began to doubt herself.
“I admit there was some exaggeration.”
Yun Yang: “…”
“Jiang Jie is no innocent little flower. Neither of us is pretending to be pure,” she said, draining the last of her iced Americano and tossing the empty cup into the trash. With a slight lift of her lips, her tone was flat. “Right now, we’re just meal buddies—the kind who can be a little flirty. It’s obvious she doesn’t want a relationship either.”
Guan Yan couldn’t help but lament the wickedness of the human heart. Then, remembering something, she leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “So what are you going to do about Teacher Tang?”
Hearing that name now, Yun Yang felt as if the coffee she had just chugged down was about to come back up.
Since that night two days ago, it had been radio silence from Tang Yuelou. No questions, not even a simple greeting. It left Yun Yang with a mix of complicated feelings; after all, she had been waiting for Tang Yuelou to come and explain, so she could hit back with a few sarcastic remarks.
The scene from that night was still vivid in her mind. Yun Yang thought of the delicate strap on the woman’s shoulder and the arm clinging to Tang Yuelou, and couldn’t help but wonder, is that Tang Yuelou’s type?
No, wait. She caught herself instantly. Why should she care about Tang Yuelou’s ideal type?
“Do you know what you look like right now?” Guan Yan asked slyly.
Yun Yang: “What?”
“Like you’re sulking at Teacher Tang and deliberately finding someone else to make her angry!” Guan Yan burst out laughing.
“Me, sulking at her? Did you eat too much for breakfast and cut off the blood supply to your brain?” Yun Yang rolled her eyes to the heavens and snorted dismissively. “She can do whatever she wants. What’s it got to do with me?”
“Huh?” Guan Yan was actually a little disappointed. “I still like Teacher Tang. She’s so nice, gentle, and interesting. Even I can pay attention in her class. I don’t even feel like playing on my phone anymore…”
Yun Yang could only offer a smile.
They took the small path behind the academic building and, taking advantage of the early hour when it was less crowded, headed straight for the first cafeteria. Just as they arrived, they saw Tang Yuelou walking out with a takeout container, laughing and chatting with several other teachers from the Chinese Department. Cursing her luck, Yun Yang didn’t even have time to hide before she was called out.
“Isn’t that Yun Yang? Why are you hiding from us? Were you slacking off in class and feeling guilty?” One of the teachers, for whom Yun Yang had been a teaching assistant last semester, recognized her at a glance and joked.
Caught red-handed and called out on the spot, Yun Yang was so embarrassed she became tongue-tied. “Uh, well…”
Tang Yuelou adjusted her glasses, her expression unreadable as she sized Yun Yang up and down. Still smiling, she asked knowingly, “I’d like to know too. What’s there to be so afraid of? The teachers don’t bite.”
If circumstances allowed, Yun Yang would not only have retorted but also slapped that face.
“Maybe she’s just shy. Kids are like that; there’s a generation gap between us,” that teacher joked to the others. Yun Yang wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but when she heard the word “shy,” Tang Yuelou seemed to duck her head and let out a small, irrepressible laugh. That smile, no matter how you looked at it, was deeply meaningful.
The other teachers chimed in with agreement, and Yun Yang could only force a smile. “I’m not shy…”
“Alright, Teacher Li, they’re still hungry. Let’s let them go get food,” Tang Yuelou finally said, breaking the deadlock. She patted Yun Yang’s shoulder. “See you later.”
Then the teachers gracefully departed, leaving Yun Yang standing there, gritting her teeth.
“Alright, they’re gone. Stop looking so ‘reluctant to part,’” Guan Yan said, her shoulders shaking as she held back her laughter. She leaned in and mimicked slyly, “I’d like to know too, what’s there to be so afraid of?”
“Get lost,” Yun Yang jabbed her with an elbow.
She really wanted to know what “see you later” was supposed to mean.
Her afternoon classes ended at three today. After quickly packing up, she went to Dianqing. The shop was as quiet as ever, and Yun Yang spent the afternoon slacking off on the clock until Xiao Chen asked her to go upstairs and tidy up the studio. Finally, she had a legitimate reason to sit on the sofa and mess around.
It was a miracle this small studio hadn’t devolved into a storage room; someone was even assigned to clean it regularly. Yun Yang sorted out a pile of drawings and, unable to suppress her curiosity, began to look through them.
They weren’t all design sketches. There were messy doodles that were clearly the work of an amateur, finely detailed sketches, and even drafts of academic papers with obvious corrections. The range was vast and the styles varied, clearly from different hands.
Some of the papers had yellowed with age but still hadn’t been thrown out. This wasn’t a studio, it was a museum, Yun Yang grumbled to herself.
Some of these were probably Tang Yuelou’s work. The thought that Tang Yuelou had once sat in this very spot—perhaps even in the chair she was sitting in now—chatting with others or doodling on paper, stirred a strange feeling in Yun Yang’s heart. She curiously pictured a younger Tang Yuelou in her mind. When she inadvertently glanced up at the window, she realized she was smiling.
Yun Yang met her own reflection’s gaze for a second, then put down the papers with a blank expression.
Night fell, and it was nearly eight o’clock. Her mind was in a strange state of disarray. She shoved all the miscellaneous items she had gathered into a cabinet, deciding it was best to clock out and go for a walk to clear her head.
Footsteps sounded outside the door. Thinking it was Xiao Chen calling her to leave, she didn’t turn around and said, “Sister Chen, I’m almost done. You can go ahead and clean up. I’ll lock up myself after I finish organizing.”
There was no response.
Puzzled, Yun Yang turned her head. When she saw who it was, her brow furrowed with complicated feelings.
Tang Yuelou was leaning against the doorframe, her expression as calm as ever.
“Talk?”
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