Between Us : Chapter 5: So Hard to Deal With

On his way back to the classroom from the restroom, Xu Jue happened to run into his homeroom teacher carrying a roll book back to the office, and she happened to call out to him: “I couldn’t find you in the classroom just now, where were you wandering off to during evening study hall?”

The hallway became the perfect spot for a teacher-student chat. Xu Jue took his hands out of his pockets: “Wasn’t wandering, just spent a while in the restroom.”

“You don’t go during break time, always making trouble during class time. Did you finish the English exam paper?”

He actually still had two reading passages blank, but Xu Jue nodded anyway: “Finished.”

Only then did Bai Suzhen’s expression soften slightly: “I’m telling you, don’t keep squeezing every drop out of English morning reading and evening study time. Look at how lopsided your grades were on this midterm exam again. Chinese, math, and the science comprehensive are all top of the class, but English is stuck hovering around sixty or seventy…”

Xu Jue listened to the lecture with his mind elsewhere, wondering if that kind person who offered to attend the parent-teacher meeting for free would suddenly back out.

Why would anyone be willing to do something for nothing?

“…Xu Jue, are you even listening properly?” Bai Suzhen asked.

“I am listening.” Xu Jue said.

“Fine. Then regarding this matter of you getting into a fight with someone, I need to have a serious talk with your parents. Last time they said they were too busy to come. Who’s coming to your parent-teacher meeting this Friday?”

How did the topic jump to this? Xu Jue was startled and made something up: “My uncle.”

In any case, he couldn’t involve relatives from his mother’s side.

When he got back to the classroom, the bell for the end of class happened to ring. The English class representative was collecting homework at the front. Xu Jue grabbed Wei Xiaoduo’s paper to look at, randomly changed two or three answer choices, and filled them in for himself.

Qiu Yuanfei leaned over and drew Dorami in the corner of Wei Xiaoduo’s paper: “What did the White Lady call you over to talk about?”

“Grades, disciplinary action, calling in parents.” Xu Jue folded up the entire group’s papers and handed them to the class representative in the aisle. “Is your method going to work?”

“Absolutely!” Qiu Yuanfei swore with complete confidence. “Remember my uncle from last semester who came to the parent-teacher meeting for me?”

“Hired from the group chat?”

“Yeah, he took notes and actively sought out teachers to talk with, acted more concerned about me than my own dad. You get what you pay for, two hundred big ones.”

Xu Jue’s hand, which had been spinning his pen, paused: “How much? Two hundred?”

“Any more and I couldn’t afford it. I offered one fifty and nobody even responded.” Qiu Yuanfei still winced thinking back on it. “To hire an actor I didn’t even buy the limited edition skin…”

“But the person I found said they’d help me for free.” Xu Jue dropped this bombshell on him.

Qiu Yuanfei nearly fell off his chair: “Really? Did you ask clearly? Don’t get played… wait, could it be the dean running an undercover operation in the group?”

Xu Jue had his doubts too. After showering back at the motel and lying on the bed, he tapped open the new contact in his list and sent a message: “Forgot to mention just now, the parent-teacher meeting starts at two thirty Friday afternoon, I’ll wait for you at the school gate ten minutes early.”

While waiting for a reply, Xu Jue zoomed in on the other person’s profile picture. It was a black Shiba Inu lying on a windowsill, grinning with its tongue out in the sun. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like the style of a school administrator.

The other side replied quickly: “Okay.”

This person spoke too little. Xu Jue still wasn’t reassured, so he sent a location pin: “There will be a sign at the school’s north gate then, you go in through the parking lot on the left, and you’ll see me under the first tree. Or can you tell me your license plate number? So I can recognize you.”

This time Xu Jue waited nearly half an hour for the reply. The other side sent a string of license plate numbers: “The car is red.”

“Okay,” Xu Jue remembered that Bai Suzhen wanted to have a talk with the parent, “by the way, my homeroom teacher might want to chat with you for a bit, just handle it casually.”

Chen Qian hadn’t expected this high schooler to be so hard to deal with. He had originally planned to take a taxi there, but the other party, probably concerned about saving face, took it upon himself to ask Chen Qian to drive. After sorting out the car situation, now this person was saying the teacher wanted to have a face-to-face talk with the parent!

The parent-teacher meeting wasn’t until the afternoon, but Chen Qian got up early Friday morning and buried himself in his wardrobe searching through clothes. His clothing style tended toward comfortable casual wear, but under the circumstances of meeting with a teacher about his “own child” getting into trouble, dressing too casually would be disrespectful.

The phone rang. Chen Qian only pulled on a cream-colored sweater to answer the call, his two bare legs dangling off the edge of the bed.

Jiang Linsheng had just finished a meeting, loosened his tie, and looked at him through the screen: “Why hasn’t the swelling gone down yet.”

“It went down the day before yesterday, but last night I couldn’t resist eating bullfrog with pickled peppers, so it got inflamed again.” Chen Qian tucked his chin into the high collar of his sweater. “Aren’t you busy, calling me this early to check if I’m still lazing in bed?”

“Didn’t catch you lazing in bed, but caught something else.” Jiang Linsheng spotted the pile of clothes messily stacked on Chen Qian’s bed. “Got a date?”

“No date, but I have to go out this afternoon.” The camera moved downward, and Chen Qian mischievously let Jiang Linsheng see his two bare legs. “Haven’t picked pants yet, want to help me decide?”

Click, Jiang Linsheng’s side of the screen went dark. He had probably blocked the camera with a folder, leaving only a deep voice from off-screen: “No date is good. Haven’t seen you in days, come have lunch with me at noon.”

Chen Qian didn’t stick around in front of the camera either, picked out a pair of black straight-leg pants and put them on: “This time you’re not allowed to order me sea crabs again.”

In just three or four days, the piles of snow swept up on the streets had all melted. The weather was so nice it was especially suitable for going out, and traffic had swelled several times compared to the previous days.

Before going to Jiang Linsheng’s company, Chen Qian first took a taxi to Wandeng Li. During the day it was relatively quiet here, and the people you usually saw were college students with no classes, taking advantage of the sunny weather to come here for photos.

Turning left at the south gate was a quiet bar called “Murmur.” The decor wasn’t particularly unique, and the space wasn’t as big as other places, but Chen Qian quite liked slipping over here to pass the time when he had nothing to do.

But he had business today, so he couldn’t stay long. Pushing the door open, he called out to the bartender behind the counter: “Good afternoon sis, I’m here to pick up the car keys.”

Wu An was already thirty-two, but her figure and face were well-maintained. She wore the fluffy black long curls that Hong Kong actresses loved most in the nineties, always thickly applied with bold and fiery red lipstick, and when she smiled she was absolutely captivating: “Sit for a bit, I’ll go upstairs and get them for you.”

Chen Qian didn’t sit: “The moment I sit you’ll take the chance to make me try your new creations, and I won’t be able to drive later.”

“You’re so annoying, my husband’s on a business trip and you won’t even keep me company.”

Wu An had quite a few husbands in the verbal sense. Chen Qian didn’t know which one she had switched to now, so he said: “I’ll come sit when I return the keys tonight.”

“Aren’t you working tonight, how do you have time to come by?”

“Going back to work next week, I haven’t ended my leave yet.” While talking, Chen Qian spotted a set of keys hanging on a bottle decoration. He took them down and hooked them on his finger. “Didn’t you say they were upstairs?”

“So much to do, I forgot.” Wu An focused on cutting ice cubes. “Which shop did you go to play at last night?”

“Didn’t go anywhere to play, stayed home watching movies.” Chen Qian checked the time. “I’m leaving, I’ll return the keys tonight.”

“Hey!” Wu An couldn’t stop him. She tilted her head watching that slender figure walk out the door, then murmured as she lowered her head to continue cutting ice cubes. “Stupid little brother, running off with your partner to have fun at another shop and won’t even admit it.”

Chen Qian didn’t hear her after going out. Wu An’s car was parked right outside, embraced by the deep winter sunlight into a gorgeous splash of red, looking particularly cool.

He hadn’t driven in a long time. Chen Qian circled around Wandeng Li once to make sure his condition wouldn’t embarrass that little classmate in front of everyone, then sped toward Jiang Linsheng’s company.

Even though Jiang Linsheng’s office was heated to the point of being stifling, Chen Qian had come all the way through the cold wind, so as soon as he entered he first cupped the steaming coffee on the other person’s desk to warm his hands, and even brought it to his lips for a sip to moisten his dry lips.

After Jiang Linsheng finished replying to the email in his hands, he looked up to see Chen Qian tilting his head back and licking his lip bead that had been burned by the coffee, a bit silly and a bit cute.

“Why did you switch to a plastic stud?” Jiang Linsheng came around from behind the desk and leaned against the table edge alongside Chen Qian, but left a foot of distance between them.

Chen Qian actively moved closer, reducing the distance to zero: “Going back to Xianzhong this afternoon, so I specifically switched to a transparent stud that’s not easy to notice, so the teachers at Xianzhong won’t think I’m not behaving.”

Jiang Linsheng was deeply surprised: “A place of broken heart, why go back?”

“Because there are too many regrets. If I don’t convince myself to fill in some of the gaps, every time I think of it my heart gets so restless I can’t sleep peacefully.” Chen Qian lowered his eyelids, puffed his cheeks and blew away the steam along the cup’s rim. “Linsheng, actually I know every time you drive me you deliberately take routes that avoid the area around Xianzhong, thinking that if I don’t see it I won’t be troubled.”

“But in reality, I locked all my textbooks from back then in my bookcase and couldn’t bear to sell them. When I see Xianzhong students waiting for the bus with their backpacks on the street, I can’t help feeling jealous. When I dream of scenes from my school days and wake up, I stay dazed for a long time.”

The more you avoid, the more anxious you become. At his age, he no longer had the qualification to put on a school uniform and sit in a classroom listening to lectures again. After hesitating repeatedly, he finally decided to follow his heart and give himself a chance, to walk once more along that campus path he hadn’t had time to look back at when he left.

Chen Qian had drunk most of the coffee, but Jiang Linsheng noticed that Chen Qian’s two hands holding the cup were trembling slightly.

He touched the back of Chen Qian’s hand with the back of his own, then pulled off his suit jacket draped over the chair back and spread it over Chen Qian: “Your hands still haven’t warmed up after being inside this long, I’ll have my assistant bring up the hand warmer from the car.”

“No need,” Chen Qian grabbed Jiang Linsheng’s arm, “this is caused by psychological factors. Just thinking about going back, I’m nervous as hell.”

Jiang Linsheng was amused by his word choice, reached up to straighten his collar, and asked: “Going back in what capacity?”

“Not a very honorable one, pretending to be someone else’s parent.” Chen Qian set down the cup and walked to the bookcase. The glass door reflected his figure. Jiang Linsheng’s suit was a bit loose on him, but it actually reduced some of the stiffness, and the high-necked sweater underneath projected a steady calm without losing casual comfort.

“Linsheng,” Chen Qian had finished exploiting his boyfriend’s coffee and now was eyeing his clothes, “can I borrow this jacket for now?”

Friday was originally a day that middle school students rarely looked forward to, not having to rush to do homework in the evening, going home first to warm up their electronic devices.

But the good day for the Xianzhong second-year students was ruined by the parent-teacher meeting. Large numbers of students were moved to the lecture hall for self-study, making room in the classrooms for parents to respectfully listen to their children’s school performance over the past semester, whether glorious or shameful, all pronounced by the teacher standing at the podium.

With nobody supervising self-study, Xu Jue dropped his bag to save a seat and left. Qiu Yuanfei saw this and followed, asking: “Did you find someone to keep watch?”

“Keep watch for what?”

“Such a good opportunity, not going to Warp Star for a couple of rounds?”

Warp Star was the name of an internet cafe near the school. When Qiu Yuanfei got locked out of his home computer he would go there for a couple of hours, and even the net cafe attendant girl knew him.

Xu Jue shook out the phone hidden in his sleeve and checked it. “Uncle” still hadn’t replied to his message, maybe he was on the way: “Going to Warp Star at a time like this, if your dad catches you he’ll knock your head crooked.”

“I saw you walking this way and thought you were going out.” Having reached the school gate, Qiu Yuanfei felt uncomfortable if he didn’t dash outside at least once. “Then I’ll go to the snack shop and buy Wei Xiaoduo a soda. Last time she caught me doodling on her paper and actually demanded I make amends with a gift.”

Qiu Yuanfei slipped out against the flow of people. Xu Jue stood under the first tree at the parking lot entrance, tall and conspicuous, looking like he was giving directions to parents.

A red Mercedes stopped in front of him. After the driver’s side window rolled down, a woman leaned out to ask him: “Student, are there still spaces inside?”

Xu Jue glanced sideways at the license plate number, it didn’t match: “Yes, go on in.”

Not long after came an Ora Black Cat with pink Hello Kitty decals: “Student, my car is small, can I park directly under the teaching building?”

Seeing several red cars in a row all driven by women, Xu Jue started to suspect his uncle’s gender: “No, please move in a bit, someone’s honking behind you.”

Qiu Yuanfei came back in red sneakers. Xu Jue already had red aesthetic fatigue: “Is that group chat of yours really reliable, or is it just living up to its name?”

“So you were waiting for your uncle,” Qiu Yuanfei kept him company waiting, “I paid money so mine’s definitely reliable. I can’t guarantee yours was free. Turns out for this kind of thing you really do get what you pay for, my registered uncle didn’t need me to specially come pick him up.”

“Wasn’t it you who said we have to watch out for school leadership undercover, and if something seems off we should turn and run?”

After counting several more cars, seeing there were only ten minutes until the parent-teacher meeting started, Xu Jue slapped Qiu Yuanfei on the back: “Let’s go, back to self-study.”

But Qiu Yuanfei wouldn’t budge, his eyes fixed straight ahead: “Holy crap, that bike is pretty cool.”

The pretty cool red Kawasaki roared around from the school gate, nimbly weaving through two crowded lanes of traffic, then slowed down and stopped in front of them, engine off.

Heavy motorcycles typically had sharp and smooth lines, but the first thing Xu Jue noticed was the leg braced on the ground, the leg shape outlined by straight-leg pants looking slender, the ankle circumference somewhat familiar but hidden in small leather boots so the true size couldn’t be measured by eye.

Xu Jue wanted to say there probably weren’t any parking spaces left, but motorcycles didn’t take up much space and could park directly under the teaching building.

But the words on the tip of his tongue were abruptly swallowed back when he caught sight of the familiar license plate number. Xu Jue froze for two seconds, and finally remembered to look up at his “uncle’s” true face.

He saw the person raise a hand and push up the helmet visor, revealing a pair of beautiful fox eyes. He had looked at them when snow was falling, and he had gazed at them under a room full of bright lights.

“What a coincidence.” The other person said.