BSS - Chapter 83
Chapter 83
With her mouth full of rice, Xu Wei grunted, “Mhm,” and looked up at the camera, waiting for Deng Chuan to continue.
She had just returned from school. Her long hair was tied back, and indoors she wore only a thin white blouse, buttoned all the way to the top. Her skin was porcelain-white and her makeup was light, giving her a prim and cool appearance. But the look in her eyes was exceptionally gentle, and she was holding Zhou Liu in the crook of her arm, making her seem both gentle and radiant.
Deng Chuan stared at her without blinking and emphasized again, “Let’s go on a trip during winter break.”
Xu Wei swallowed the mouthful of rice. “Sure, where do you want to go?”
Deng Chuan leaned against the desk, one hand cupping her face, the other slowly twirling a pen. Her hands were on the larger side, big enough to cover most of her face, hiding the way her cheeks puffed out from the pressure and revealing the sharp contours of her profile. She was sitting slightly askew in her chair, relaxed. A prominent collarbone peeked out from her neckline.
She had the hands and frame of an adult, but her eyes were innocent. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Xu Wei chuckled. “Then think it over.”
The bean sprouts and lettuce were soaked in red chili oil, the meat slices were tempting, and the rice was dazzlingly white. Xu Wei ate in small bites. Zhou Liu wriggled out of the crook of her arm and settled into her lap, his paws kneading rhythmically. His claws hadn’t been trimmed, and when they touched Xu Wei, the sensation made her glance down. She pushed his head gently. “That’s about enough. Stop being clingy. I’m not falling for that.”
On the other end of the call, Deng Chuan said nothing.
She was genuinely and seriously thinking about the trip. She even opened her computer and started searching for suitable winter travel destinations in the country.
Xu Wei heard the clicking of her mouse. “Do you want to go south or north?”
Xu Wei brought a mouthful of rice to her lips, then put it down and said resolutely, “The north.”
She heard Deng Chuan’s stifled laughter and laughed as well. “I can’t help it. I just love the north so much. I have to be a northerner in my next life.”
Deng Chuan scrolled through a webpage and said, “If you like it, we’ll live in the north in the future. You don’t have to wait for your next life.”
Xu Wei smiled and said, “Thank you.” Then she teased, “Are you asking me to quit my job? I have a tenured position, you know. I’d have to pay a penalty for breaking the contract.”
The kid opened her mouth, seemingly not quite understanding what a tenured position was. Xu Wei didn’t explain further, just smiled and prompted her, “Alright, how’s your search coming along?”
“How about we go to the Northeast to see the snow? We can see the ice sculptures in Harbin.”
Xu Wei said nonchalantly, “Sure.”
So, it was tentatively decided they would go to the Northeast. Deng Chuan created a travel category in her phone’s notes app and even asked Xu Wei, “Do you want to ask Sister Yang Jing if she wants to go?”
“She’s not in the country right now,” Xu Wei said.
Deng Chuan nodded. “Oh, okay. I’ll work on the itinerary some more and send it to you later.”
The sound of the mouse clicking on the kid’s end never stopped. Xu Wei finished her meal, portioned out the leftover food to put in the fridge, and cleaned up the messy table. She moved Zhou Liu to the sofa, where he was lying lazily, watching her.
Xu Wei reached out to ruffle the cat’s head, turned off the living room light, and went back to her room. Even in winter, she still had the habit of showering every day. She said a word to the kid, who was intently looking at her computer screen, checking maps and planning the trip, then went into the bathroom to shower.
Zhou Liu followed her footsteps, nudged open the half-closed bedroom door, and jumped onto the bed, lying down by the pillow. This was the spot where Deng Chuan used to sleep, and it seemed it could still smell the scent she had left behind. The tuxedo cat rolled over, rubbing his round head against the sheets again and again.
The first thing Xu Wei saw when she came out was the cat rolling around by her pillow. Her hair was dripping wet, and droplets of water slid down her fair neck. Afraid of getting the sheets wet, she didn’t have time to move Zhou Liu and only said sternly, “No shedding.”
Deng Chuan saw this and chimed in, “Teacher Xu- don’t be so hard on the little kitty. Our Zhou Liu is already very well-behaved.”
Xu Wei shot her a light glare, grabbed the hairdryer from the bedside and started drying her hair, mischievously aiming the hot air at Zhou Liu.
The hairdryer roared, accompanied by the blast of hot air. Combined with the unpleasant memories it carried, it was simply the most terrifying thing in a little cat’s world.
Zhou Liu was most afraid of baths, and also of the hairdryer after baths. He fled in a panic, shrinking back to the farthest windowsill to watch her warily.
Bringing the hairdryer back, Xu Wei slowly curved her lips into a smile for the camera.
She was still incredibly beautiful when she smiled. Meeting her smile, Deng Chuan clearly felt her heart begin to swell uncontrollably like a vast ocean, and the tips of her ears grew hot. Faced with such beauty, she glanced at the pitiful-looking Zhou Liu and helplessly touched her forehead.
Under Deng Chuan’s gaze, Xu Wei finished drying her hair, took out the test papers she had brought home from work to grade, and uncapped her red pen. “The teacher has to grade homework now. The little kid can go play by herself for a while.”
As she flipped through the papers one by one, the smile on Xu Wei’s lips gradually faded. Her face was taut, her brow slightly furrowed, but the red pen in her hand didn’t stop moving.
Although she wasn’t a homeroom teacher this year, she taught math to three second-year high school classes, so her work was just as busy. Seeing her start to work, Deng Chuan didn’t disturb her anymore and focused on finishing the preliminary travel plan. Then she flipped through her textbooks.
Tomorrow was the weekend, and the atmosphere in the dorm was relaxed. Li Mingtang finished her game and her potato chips, got up to wash her hands, and upon returning to her seat, glanced at Deng Chuan’s screen, which was displaying Harbin’s Ice and Snow World. She leaned over curiously. “Wow- is that the Northeast? Are you going there?”
Deng Chuan looked up at her. Before she could remind her that she was on a video call, Li Mingtang had already casually placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned in.
Deng Chuan blocked the screen slightly and whispered a reminder, “I’m on a video call.”
Li Mingtang was a little embarrassed. “Sorry, sorry.” Guessing it was the pretty older sister on the other side of the screen, she grew curious again and peeked at the screen Deng Chuan was covering. “It’s fine, I don’t mind. You can continue.”
She stepped back a little. Hearing the voice, Xu Wei also looked up.
Hearing that she didn’t mind, Deng Chuan moved her hand away, and Li Mingtang’s gaze met Xu Wei’s.
Before Deng Chuan could react, she had already started greeting Xu Wei, “Hi, Sister!”
The tip of Xu Wei’s pen paused, and she gave Li Mingtang a faint smile. “Hello.”
Li Mingtang praised her cheerfully and loudly, “Sister, you’re so pretty!” Her voice attracted the attention of Xie Yao and Zhou Zhi. The next moment, Xie Yao also leaned in. “Hi, Sister!”
They chattered enthusiastically, one after another. Deng Chuan was pushed to the side. Afraid Xu Wei would feel awkward, she wanted to end this segment quickly. But Xu Wei, unexpectedly, chatted with them quite well. She listened as Xie Yao praised how well-matched she and Deng Chuan were, and then listened as Li Mingtang reported on Deng Chuan’s daily activities at school. Within three sentences, she had won over the three kids, who all promised to take good care of Deng Chuan and keep an eye on her.
Deng Chuan finally managed to join their conversation. “Okay, okay. That’s about enough. - Of course I’ll behave, I’m very well-behaved!”
Li Mingtang patted her righteously. “We’ll supervise you closely! Don’t you worry, Sister!”
The three of them left, satisfied. Deng Chuan leaned back in front of the camera and saw Xu Wei’s smile fade as she turned back to the test papers. She lowered her head, then raised it again to look at the stunned kid. “Are you stupefied?”
Deng Chuan gave her a silly grin.
Xu Wei shook her head and lowered her head to look at the papers again. After a moment, she muttered in dissatisfaction, “The scores this time are terrible.”
Her voice was very low, likely in the category of talking to herself. Hearing this, Deng Chuan didn’t know how to comfort her and said tentatively, “It’s okay. Maybe the test was too hard.”
Xu Wei looked up at her. “I wrote the test.”
There was a hint of gloomy grievance in her eyes, which made Deng Chuan unable to resist a smile. “Teacher Xu is too strict. On the tests you wrote before, I was the only one who got a perfect score.”
“Hmph,” Xu Wei said. “If I’d known, I would have deducted a few more points. So you wouldn’t get a perfect score.”
She was quiet for a long while. She stacked the papers neatly, tapping them on the desk to align them. “Grading these has put me in a bad mood. I’m done.”
Xu Wei seemed to be in a genuinely bad mood, so Deng Chuan stopped teasing her and began to coax her in a soft, gentle voice. “It’s okay… Just talk to them properly tomorrow. Don’t stew in your anger, right?”
“I had my slow moments before, too, but you never scolded me or got angry. If you explain it well, the ones who listen seriously will understand, right?”
Xu Wei gave her a look that was both annoyed and amused. “How can you comfort me while also praising yourself?”
In the gentle lamplight, her eyes looked exceptionally vivid. Deng Chuan looked at her, tilted her head, and smiled without speaking.
Xu Wei silently calmed herself for a long moment. She had indeed lost some control of her emotions, but she was even more unwilling to show those emotions in front of Deng Chuan, so she could only digest them herself.
- The scores really were too low this time, even if it was just a small weekly quiz. But the success rate on key problem types she had emphasized countless times was unacceptably low. She didn’t understand whose fault it was. The exam was feedback on her teaching, especially since she had written the test herself. It wasn’t the first time she’d received poor feedback, nor the first time her composure had been shaken. But it was this repeated loss of emotional control that made her feel defeated: whether it was her work or her emotions, it seemed nothing about her had changed.
What added to her sense of defeat was that the person on the other end of the call was growing up so fast.
Xu Wei had been to Beijing, to her university, met her roommates, walked the paths she usually walked, and seen the people she spent her days with. They all had the same spirited faces. Deng Chuan would become even better- this was a fact Xu Wei had always firmly believed in and eagerly anticipated.
But she also realized that a life like Deng Chuan’s was now very, very far from her own. Xu Wei admitted with some frustration that she no longer possessed the collegiate air that Deng Chuan had- the air of someone who was absorbing knowledge and growing every day, every moment. All she had was complicated work, poor feedback, uncontrollable emotions, a daily two-point commute between school and home, and only a cat to keep her company.
It seemed she had sunk into the life of a mundane adult.
Xu Wei sighed softly. Reason told her she couldn’t keep thinking like this. This line of thought was baseless and self-deprecating, as fragile as waterlogged paper, easily torn with a poke-something the proud woman she used to be would never have tolerated.
She dimmed the bedside lamp and hugged Zhou Liu, who had jumped into her lap at some point. She spoke to the kid on the other end of the call, who had been quietly keeping her company, “Okay, I’m going to sleep now. You must be tired today, too. Go to bed early.”
Her tone was very, very light, as if it could be carried away by a gust of wind.
During the time Xu Wei was composing herself, Deng Chuan had been watching her on the other end of the call. The distance between them existed between two small screens, a perfect illustration of being so close, yet so far. But Deng Chuan remembered clearly that they had embraced just that morning. Less than a full day had passed, and she was already starting to miss her.
Xu Wei was like a princess living in a high tower. Deng Chuan’s longing was like a vine, growing wild and rampant around the tower, and sooner or later, it would bring the princess down.
Hearing Xu Wei’s words, Deng Chuan forced herself to calm down. She studied Xu Wei carefully, seeing that she seemed to have regained her composure and was holding Zhou Liu, ready to wash up and go to bed. She said in a warm and gentle voice, “Okay. You get some rest.”
Deng Chuan watched Xu Wei nod, her expression calm as she got up and walked toward the bathroom. Her eyes narrowed in thought, and she couldn’t help but speak again. “Don’t overthink it. The bad scores definitely aren’t your fault alone. You’re too tired today. Think about it again tomorrow.”
Xu Wei nodded, indicating she understood.
She closed the bathroom door, and the video screen suddenly went empty.
Deng Chuan paused for a long while, until Xu Wei had finished washing up and was lying in bed under the covers, before she called out to her in a low voice, “Teacher Xu.”
Xu Wei glanced at her. Deng Chuan’s eyes had always been very dark, but at this moment, those familiar eyes were filled with a depth she couldn’t quite grasp. “...No matter what, you’re the best teacher in my heart.”
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