BSS - Chapter 113

Chapter 113

Deng Chuan arrived at her dorm and knocked on the door. Hearing a response from inside, she pushed it open.

It was already late. The other three had arrived at the dorm early in the afternoon. After washing up and unpacking, they were sitting on their chairs, chatting.

Seeing her roommates after so many days, Deng Chuan gave a cheerful "Hi" and pushed her suitcase over to her bed.

All three looked over and greeted her one by one.

Deng Chuan replied while wetting a cloth and wiping down her bed and desk area several times.

Once it was mostly dry, she took her clothes out of the suitcase and hung them in the wardrobe one by one. Then she took out her bedsheet and duvet cover, which had already been washed at Xu Wei's house. Young people in love always want to do everything together. Deng Chuan was no exception, and neither was Xu Wei. They enjoyed doing these trivial little things together.

The fabric gave off a familiar scent. Deng Chuan made her bed step by step, then pulled a thin blanket from a vacuum-sealed bag. She had packed it from Xu Wei's bed when she was getting her things together, claiming that she would sleep more soundly with it.

Even if she didn't say it out loud, Xu Wei was quite fond of her little friend's clingy behaviors, these little ways of intentionally or unintentionally asserting her presence. She pinched Deng Chuan's cheek as a form of interest payment and let her take the blanket.

An eye mask, a tablet, a Kindle, a charger, a mite-repellent spray-Deng Chuan placed all these odds and ends on her bed. She was also wearing her Bluetooth earbuds. Xu Wei's voice came through the phone, murmuring goodnight. The lights were probably already out on her end. The sleepiness that traveled through the phone line felt like a tide surging over the sea at dusk, carrying Deng Chuan's heart on its gentle rise and fall.

Late at night, a person ought to be enveloped in such sleepiness.

"Okay," Deng Chuan thought. Her hands paused for a moment as she said softly, "You should sleep. I'll hang up first so I don't disturb you."

Xu Wei's voice was still muffled. "Mhm." She sniffled quietly, and after a moment of silence, she added in a low voice, "I hope the start of your school year goes smoothly."

Deng Chuan couldn't help but press her lips together. She was stunned, spacing out for a while. Only when Xu Wei's breathing on the other end became even did she gently end the call.

The start of the school year was, of course, smooth. Even the weather the next day improved, both in Beijing and back home. Now that Xu Wei was no longer a homeroom teacher this semester, she didn't have to supervise the morning reading session. She could sleep in for an extra half hour, eat breakfast at a leisurely pace, and then drive to school to clock in.

She had no classes for the first two periods in the morning. She finished grading the start-of-term test papers she hadn't gotten to the previous night, then prepped for her lesson for a while. When the bell rang, the class representative for her third-period class came to help her carry her laptop, and she followed him to the classroom.

After the class ended, the representative from the neighboring class came to ask Xu Wei for the answer key to the start-of-term test. The young girl seemed even more eager than Xu Wei, saying she wanted to post the answers first. Xu Wei simply gave her the laptop and went to the office herself to get the answer key and the stack of graded papers.

The moment she stepped into the office, Xu Wei keenly sensed that the atmosphere was off.

Most of the teachers in the office were present, which was rare. When they saw her enter, they all began to sneak glances at her, their gazes scattering. Even though they were teachers, some of them loved to chat and joke around. Humans are gossipy creatures. Xu Wei was beautiful and single, and she had previously lived in the teachers' dormitory, so it was inevitable that she had been the subject of a lot of talk.

Like that Mediterranean man Deng Chuan knew of-he wasn't the only one, nor was he the one with the crudest methods. When Xu Wei wasn't speaking, her expression was cold and she seemed distant. Even so, that couldn't stop the successive waves of people's desire to conquer and gossip about her.

Xu Wei pretended not to notice their gazes, nor was she interested in finding out what was going on.

She walked past the crowd without looking sideways, and then she instantly understood the reason for everyone's stares.

On her desk sat a large bouquet of pink and white roses.

Seeing that Xu Wei had noticed and was a bit stunned, the teachers who had been looking over, intentionally or not, dared to speak to her. "It was just delivered. You weren't here, so we had him put it on your desk… This flower shop is amazing, managing to deliver inside the school."

Xu Wei asked, "How did you know it was for me?"

A male teacher next to her smiled. "Hey, the delivery person said it was for a Miss Xu. In our entire math department office, there's only one Teacher Xu."

As he smiled, he looked at Xu Wei's face, as if trying to find some clue in her expression.

Hearing this, Xu Wei also curved her lips into a faint smile but didn't say much.

Everyone watched her approach. Xu Wei reined in her emotions. Before her was a massive bouquet of purely pink and white roses. The colors were gentle, the stems a vibrant green. There were no other flowers to complement them; they alone captured the attention of everyone present. Dewdrops still clung to the petals, appearing exceptionally pure in the morning light. As Xu Wei got closer, she saw a card tucked into the bouquet's light gray wrapping paper. She opened it.

It read:

Teacher Xu: Have a smooth start to the school year, smooth work, and a smooth life year after year.

The signature was a crooked heart drawn with a marker pen.

The handwriting wasn't very good; Xu Wei knew it was written by someone at the flower shop. But she couldn't help but rub her thumb over the lopsided heart, as if she were exchanging a secret code with someone far away. These were the words Deng Chuan wanted to say to her. Xu Wei couldn't help but imagine her little friend's shimmering, watery eyes.

A colleague asked again, "Teacher Xu, you seem so calm. It's from a student, right?"

The male colleague standing nearby glanced at the words on the card. The short, twelve-character message didn't live up to their expectations at all. He chimed in, somewhat disappointed, "It must be a student."

Xu Wei heard them but didn't reply. She just smiled, tightened her fingers, and placed the card back. She moved the flowers to the side of her desk, then grabbed the answer key and test papers and hurried out the door again.

A breeze slipped in through the office door, which hadn't been closed tightly, rustling the kraft paper wrapped around the bouquet.

The door closed behind Xu Wei.

Deng Chuan had many things to take care of at the start of the school year. The alarm and the plans she had set the night before flashed through her mind the moment she opened her eyes.

Even so, when she got up that morning, she still ordered that bouquet for Xu Wei. There was no particular reason for it. It was just that when she woke up, the weather outside was beautiful, which lifted her spirits. A flower shop she followed on her Moments feed had posted new, fresh flowers-beautiful roses. Deng Chuan had liked them at first sight.

So, of course, she had to send her favorite flowers to her favorite person.

There was no particular reason for the twelve words Deng Chuan had included in the message, either. Just as naturally as she wanted to send her flowers, the words came to her. She wrote them down with the pure hope that they would make Xu Wei a little happier.

She placed the order smoothly. Because she was a frequent customer, the shop owner knew her well and promised to deliver the flowers to Miss Xu perfectly and beautifully. This led to the heroic feat of the delivery person getting past the high school security gate and delivering the flowers to the teachers' office.

In short, everything, both expected and unexpected by Deng Chuan, went smoothly, as refreshing as the weather on their first day apart.

After registering and picking up her textbooks, Deng Chuan received a message from Xu Wei. Teacher Xu was very reserved, typing: The flowers are beautiful.

Deng Chuan replied with a sticker of a small cat rolling on the ground, trying to be cute, and then sent: Glad you like them.

Xu Wei seemed to be busy, as the chat paused for a while. As Deng Chuan waited for someone to help her carry the books up to the dorm, she couldn't help but wonder what Xu Wei was feeling when she received the flowers, what kind of expression she had on her face right now, and if the people around her saw the flowers, would they know that from now on, Xu Wei had a little lover like her to send them?

There was nothing she could do. They were too far apart, and Deng Chuan couldn't stop these wild thoughts from occupying her mind. The companionship between people was such a precious thing, making the feeling of missing someone all the more heart-wrenching. Since Deng Chuan couldn't hold Xu Wei's hand, she could only cling to her secretly in her heart, wanting to place her in the deepest part of it.

Xu Wei's reply arrived along with Deng Chuan's soaring, heart-aching thoughts: You've been so good today, what reward do you want?

Deng Chuan replied almost without hesitation: I want you to love me.

But Xu Wei said: Little Friend, that's a given condition. It's not in the category of rewards.

Whether it was a joke or heartfelt, Xu Wei gave Deng Chuan time to think carefully about what reward she wanted. She even, uncharacteristically, said something very suggestive, extremely suggestive, truly and utterly suggestive: "Within my abilities… anything is possible."

It was time for lunch. Deng Chuan finished distributing the books and had to go to a welcome meal with her dorm mates, so the chat ended there.

In the afternoon, her counselor found Deng Chuan to deal with some paperwork. After that was resolved, she was roped into helping organize student files in the office. She was busy until evening before she had a chance to look at her phone.

The counselor looked at her and smiled knowingly. "In a relationship?"

Deng Chuan wasn't socially awkward and had always been poised when interacting with her elders, but at that moment, the question made her ears burn. She was no different from any other young person caught in the throes of a new romance and being teased by a teacher.

The counselor gossiped with her for a few more sentences, nearly making Deng Chuan want to flee in embarrassment. Seeing that it was getting late, she finally waved her hand and let her go.

As Deng Chuan left the office, she eagerly called Xu Wei.

Xu Wei had just gotten home from work. She had bought a simple bento box from the convenience store downstairs for dinner. Accompanied by Zhou Liu's meows as she opened the door, she sat down at the dining table.

The two of them chatted sweetly for a long time. The little friend was especially clingy today, pestering Xu Wei until she was a little flustered. "Are you saying these things in your dorm room?"

Xu Wei shooed her off to take a shower, then soothed her by saying they could video chat again before bed. Only then did she manage to coax the girl away.

After hanging up, the house instantly became quiet.

Fortunately, Zhou Liu was still underfoot, so Xu Wei didn't feel too lonely. After her shower, she patted essence onto her face while picking up the clothes on the floor that needed to be washed.

As if suddenly remembering something, she walked to the bed and picked up the jacket draped over the back of the chair.

It was Deng Chuan's jacket. Recalling what she had said, Xu Wei reached into the pockets. Sure enough, a crumpled plane ticket, shopping receipts, tissues, and lip balm were all jumbled together in one pocket.

Xu Wei reached into the other pocket.

To her surprise, there was only a small, hard piece of paper inside.

She took it out and saw that it was a crushed, pink, origami rose.

It wasn't folded very well, all crooked and misshapen. She didn't know if someone had given it to her or if she had folded it herself.

Xu Wei held it between her fingers, looking at it as carefully as if it were a real rose.

As she looked at it, Xu Wei suddenly remembered what her colleagues in the office had said.

It's not a student, she thought.

It's my little lover.

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