BSS - Chapter 97
Chapter 97
Lao Deng's voice was calm, no different from his usual joking tone. But Deng Chuan's heart still skipped a beat, and countless possibilities flashed through her mind. What had gone wrong?
She steadied her breathing, watching as Xu Wei walked over to the hot water and sat down on the edge of the bathtub, her bare feet gently stirring the surface. At the same time, she took a step back to advance, calmly admitting, "Yeah, I'm in Harbin with a friend."
Lao Deng immediately asked, "Which friend?"
The question was simple, but Deng Chuan found it hard to answer. Subconsciously, she didn't want to call Xu Wei just a "friend," nor did she want to say her name so easily. After all, knowing Lao Deng's style, if he put his mind to it, he could easily find out that Xu Wei was her homeroom teacher in her third year of high school. So, Deng Chuan could only say, "An older sister."
"An older sister?" Lao Deng's confused voice dispelled some of Deng Chuan's seriousness and anxiety. "You have an older sister? Your Little Aunt asks you to hang out all the time and you don't go. You, Deng Chuan, would hang out with an older sister every day?"
Deng Chuan hadn't expected Lao Deng to mention her Little Aunt and replied dryly, "Ah."
But the voice on the other end was already pressing on. "Which older sister? Someone I don't know?"
"Yeah," Deng Chuan said hesitantly. "I met her in high school." She realized calling her an "older sister" was a mistake, as Lao Deng would inevitably keep asking. She decided to seize the initiative. "How did you know I was in Harbin?"
"Ah," Lao Deng's voice was quite frank. "This morning at the hotel in Sanya, your mom and I were watching a livestream. I got curious and took a closer look. The person on camera looked a lot like you, but I hadn't heard you say you were going to Harbin. So, I figured I'd ask you at noon."
Deng Chuan let out a huge sigh of relief. "I see."
"Mm," Lao Deng said. "Come clean now, who is this older sister? It's a good thing I'm the one who found out. I haven't told your mom yet."
Deng Chuan was at a loss for words. She leaned against the wall, her head slightly bowed, staring at her toes in silence for a moment.
Lao Deng casually asked from the other end, "The lipstick in your car, does it belong to this older sister too?"
His words were calm, but Deng Chuan was startled. "What lipstick?"
Lao Deng's tone remained nonchalant. "There were some odds and ends in your car. I put them in your room for you."
Deng Chuan felt like a thief caught in the act. The calmer he was, the more guilty she felt. She mumbled, "Oh…"
His usually sharp-tongued daughter was now stammering, which spoke volumes. Deng Chuan knew better than anyone that even though Lao Deng wasn't saying it outright, given his usual way of doing things, her abnormal behavior had already made him take this matter seriously.
As expected, Lao Deng pressed, "Can you come clean now?" Deng Chuan could hear a sense of calm expectation in his voice, as if he was waiting for her to follow his line of thought.
And this tone was not unfamiliar to Deng Chuan.
When she was little, Lao Deng often took Deng Chuan to the park. Their favorite activity wasn't the slide or skating, but lying under a tree watching ants. Even though Tang Lijuan had told them a million times it was bad—dirty and boring—Lao Deng still loved doing it with her. Thinking back, perhaps Deng Chuan's calm disposition had been forged from this.
Lao Deng truly didn't mind the dirt. He would lie down with little Deng Chuan, his arm around his daughter's shoulders, his warm breath tickling her ear as he pointed and explained as if listing family treasures: "Look, this is a soldier ant… See, its jaw is huge, it can chew through a lot of things, so it's also a great fighter. This is a worker ant, all of these are… They're the busiest. See, aren't they all carrying things?" Seeing his daughter nod earnestly, Lao Deng continued:
"The world of ants is just like this. They have a clear division of labor, just like me, Mom, and you, forming a big family. In this family, the queen ant does nothing but lay eggs, and she's served by a group of male ants. The most and hardest work is done by these worker ants; they are the most numerous. If someone invades their home, the soldier ants are responsible for fighting…" Lao Deng looked at his daughter's thoughtful little face and then asked, "Deng Chuan, if Mom, Dad, and you were also ants, which kind of ant would you want to be?"
Little Deng Chuan frowned and thought for a long time, so long that the sky grew dark and Lao Deng drove her home, and she still hadn't figured it out.
The second time Lao Deng asked this question, the perplexed Deng Chuan clearly voiced her confusion: "Dad, why can't I both work and fight outsiders?"
Lao Deng didn't seem surprised by her confusion. He smiled and patted her head. "Because it's a social division of labor. Look, their appearances are all based on this division. The ones that can fight have big jaws, and the ones that can carry things have especially strong forelimbs. If one had both big jaws and was strong, then this family might not exist anymore."
"Why?"
"Because the balance would be broken."
Deng Chuan pressed on, "Dad, what is balance?"
The exact same calm, knowing smile appeared on Lao Deng's lips. "Didn't your Little Aunt give you a small scale? Go see for yourself what balance is."
By the time Deng Chuan truly understood what Lao Deng meant, she was able to smoothly give him the answer he wanted to hear: "Dad, I want to be a soldier ant."
Back then, Lao Deng hadn't been promoted yet and had a lot of time to spend with them at home. He sat by the sofa and asked Deng Chuan with a leisurely smile, "Why?"
Deng Chuan had clearly given it very serious thought. "First, soldier ants are good at fighting, so they can maintain balance. Second, if a soldier ant wanted to run away from home one day, because it's good at fighting, it could at least survive."
"Right." Lao Deng clapped his hands excitedly, startling his daughter. "That's the right way of thinking. Remember… maintaining balance is important, but your own ability is the foundation for your place in the world. Think about it, the ant's world is just its small colony, but Deng Chuan, we are human. The world we face is much vaster. So, in the current environment, being a worker ant is a dead end. You have to be an outstanding soldier ant, sharpen your own weapons…" Lao Deng grabbed Deng Chuan's hand, posing it. "…that is the path to success!"
Tang Lijuan shot him an annoyed look and freed Deng Chuan's hand from his. "Alright, that's enough. She doesn't understand."
Lao Deng adopted the air of a sage, pretentiously lowering his eyes and falling silent.
Now, Deng Chuan was the one lowering her eyes and not speaking.
Her mind was a battlefield. She couldn't quite make out what Lao Deng was asking on the other end of the line, but her sharp intuition told her:
Lao Deng must have guessed something from some small detail they weren't aware of. He was waiting for Deng Chuan to confirm his judgment, to prove his guess was right. But Deng Chuan also knew that once she voiced the result of his guess, his attitude would immediately become completely different.
Her mind was a mess because of it. Deng Chuan tried to guess Lao Deng's reaction, but she didn't know what kind of reaction she should give to satisfy him, to make him lower his guard and stop tricking her step by step—
With a soft splash, before Deng Chuan could react, a wave of warm, damp fragrance washed over her, like a strand of hair held in the palm to be blow-dried. Xu Wei's water-beaded fingers deftly took the phone from her hand. "Hello."
As she spoke, she walked out, her bare feet leaving a trail of prints on the tile floor.
Xu Wei took the phone and gave Deng Chuan a fleeting glance. In her slow-to-react state, Deng Chuan couldn't decipher the emotion in that look. She could only stand there dumbly, listening to the voice that reached her ears.
Xu Wei was speaking, using that voice she always used in public—a little cold, with the soft lilt of a southern accent, and a transparent intelligence. She sounded like a preserved flower under a glass dome, every detail visible, bright and beautiful.
"Yes, I was Deng Chuan's homeroom teacher in her third year of high school. We have a good relationship, so we decided to go on a trip together… I'm sorry to have worried you."
Deng Chuan finally started to move.
With Xu Wei's tactful handling, Lao Deng's ambiguous phone call seemed to become a minor misstep of Deng Chuan sneaking off on a trip without telling her parents. She was Deng Chuan's teacher, and they had arranged to travel together. What was wrong with that?
Of course, perhaps only Lao Deng knew the true mystery behind the call. All Deng Chuan knew was that they had narrowly passed a test.
After the pleasantries were over and Xu Wei and Lao Deng seemed to have hung up on happy terms, Deng Chuan walked up behind Xu Wei. Xu Wei stood with one hand resting on the arm holding the phone, her arms crossed, looking out the window at the high, azure sky. Her silhouette was exceptionally slender. Deng Chuan hugged her from behind and could feel Xu Wei's hand touch the back of her own, letting out an extremely faint sigh.
The sigh wasn't obvious, just a light flutter in Xu Wei's chest, but Deng Chuan felt its vibration and couldn't help but sigh softly herself.
Xu Wei squeezed her hand. "What are you sighing for? Look at you, so spineless."
She tossed the phone aside and turned to face Deng Chuan, her tone very serious. "What were you thinking just now? Why didn't you dare tell your dad the truth?"
Deng Chuan slightly averted her gaze, her voice low, as if squeezed from her throat. "I didn't want to say it, and I didn't want to lie."
Xu Wei found this a little amusing. "Who asked you to lie?" She chuckled softly and moved closer to Deng Chuan's lips, her voice becoming extremely slow yet gentle. The glass dome was lifted, revealing not a preserved flower, but a truly fresh and dewy rose—it was Xu Wei's approaching, parting lips. "Has it been so long that you've forgotten? - Deng Chuan, I was indeed your teacher once. There's no need to avoid it or feel burdened. You can say it out loud. Yes, my lover was once my student, so what? Our love is not dirty. We have a clear conscience. We are pure, open, and honorable. No one can say this is wrong-"
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