Between Us : Chapter 6: Don’t Hug Me

That phrase “what a coincidence,” ever since running into Xu Jue, had slipped out of Chen Qian’s mouth, and then stuck to his cerebral cortex all the way through his deliberately slowed pace up the teaching building, entering the classroom through the back door, and sitting in the last row by the window.

The same floor as six years ago, the same class, even the same seat. The noise around him was like the wild free time between classes, and Chen Qian subconsciously reached for his big water bottle hanging on the hook at the side of his desk, but instead his hand met a net bag holding a basketball.

The blackboard hadn’t been wiped clean, looking like it had been smeared with a mop dipped in water. In a small section on the right was the daily class schedule, and the first two periods were Chen Qian’s favorite English class.

He turned his head. Near the back door there was a message wall covered in sticky notes. Chen Qian was close by, so he casually read a few with good handwriting.

“Ten out of eight multiple choice answers wrong, you’d do better picking all C’s.”

“Nearsighted and can’t see clearly, took out my phone in class to photograph the PowerPoint, before confiscating it can you at least let me copy down the key points.”

“Five whole English reading passages, who are they trying to torture? If you’ve got the guts, have a foreigner do five classical Chinese passages.”

Chen Qian didn’t plan to keep reading, afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold back a laugh.

Every desktop in the classroom had been tidied up cleanly, with the student’s name stuck in the upper left corner so parents could find their child’s seat. The name on Chen Qian’s desk was “Xu Jue.”

Looking closely, Xu Jue’s desktop wasn’t actually clean. Near the chest area there was a small patch with a pile of words written in pencil that you had to lean in close to read. Chen Qian inexplicably recalled that night when he had picked up the vocabulary notebook with the blacked-out letter holes. Whoever zones out while memorizing words is doomed when it comes to dictation.

After all the parents had arrived, the classroom gradually quieted down. Chen Qian’s phone, which he had switched to silent, received a message. Xu Jue had sent him a WeChat: “If the homeroom teacher asks later, just say you’re my uncle.”

The teacher stood at the podium, and the long-winded opening remarks were like the physics lectures that used to make people drowsy. Chen Qian sat at the back pressing his phone to stay awake: “I’m only twenty three, you have an uncle this young?”

Xu Jue: “I don’t even have an uncle, how would I know.”

Chen Qian: “What did you do wrong?”

Xu Jue: “Didn’t do anything wrong.”

Chen Qian: “Then it’s about grades. Your midterm report cards are all laid out on the desks. Did you fill in the wrong question numbers when you were coloring in the English answer sheet?”

The screen showed the other person typing for a long time. Chen Qian was about to press his phone off when Xu Jue sent another message, not about English: “Does this count as doing something wrong? Last month during the sports and arts festival, after my classmate finished rehearsing she went straight to the cafeteria to get food. A guy from another class pressed his knee against her skirt and rubbed her thigh. I couldn’t stand watching so I dragged him out of the line and beat him up.”

Chen Qian’s fingers hovered above the keyboard, not typing a single character for a long time.

Xu Jue added: “It was in full view of everyone. Revealing the truth would only embarrass the girl. I’ll keep my mouth shut and take the punishment, just to stop the situation from blowing up.”

Suddenly the sound of papers rustling filled the room. The parents were taking out pens and paper to record the key points the teacher was projecting. Chen Qian thought everyone was putting on a show, like the sticky note said, just take a photo with your phone and be done with it. But if he was the only one not putting on a show, it would make him look very incompetent.

He reached into his pocket. Jiang Linsheng always had a habit of slipping a fountain pen into his pocket, but he didn’t find one. His hand went in and touched a slightly larger, cold object.

He pulled it out to look, then put it back, gripping it until it warmed up in his palm.

The parent-teacher meeting lasted nearly two hours. By the time it ended, the students in the lecture hall had already finished self-study. Xu Jue grabbed his bag and rushed toward the teaching building, actually feeling uncertain inside.

First, after sending that long message he hadn’t received a reply from Chen Qian, so he didn’t know what the other person’s attitude was or how he would communicate with the homeroom teacher. Second, just like Qiu Yuanfei had said, if you don’t pay there’s no guarantee of reliability, and he worried Chen Qian wouldn’t be able to handle it.

The teaching building was bustling with activity. Parents surrounded the various subject teachers asking about their children’s specific situations. Bai Suzhen had spoken the most during the meeting, and after it ended she only invited Chen Qian to the balcony area for some peace and quiet. Originally she had worried this parent was too young and would shield the child, but after a few words his modest and gentle manner dispelled her concerns: “Overall, the disciplinary action and dormitory expulsion are warnings from the school to the student. Good behavior can be considered for revocation.”

Bai Suzhen caught sight of a figure running up the stairs out of the corner of her eye: “Xu Jue, perfect timing, come give your uncle, and me, a verbal promise. Before when I asked you, you either stayed silent or just nodded perfunctorily.”

Xu Jue grabbed the strap of his backpack on his right shoulder and ran up to the two of them. He instinctively felt Chen Qian was on his side, so he stepped back to stand beside Chen Qian: “Promise what?”

“Promise what, promise that from now on you won’t get into fights with people over little things like stopping someone from cutting in line.” Bai Suzhen was frustrated with his refusal to improve. “School isn’t just a place for learning, it’s also a place for building character. You stopped someone from cutting in line, then turned around and beat the person up. Isn’t that picking up justice and throwing away reason?”

Chen Qian glanced at Xu Jue. When he turned his body, his shoulder bumped against the other person’s chest, and he discovered that Xu Jue’s entire body was tensed up.

Looking at his expression again, his lips were pressed tightly together. Although his eyes were lowered in an appearance of listening to the lecture, Chen Qian was so close to him that he could easily read his defiance.

Chen Qian swept one hand behind him, loosening Xu Jue’s clenched fist. He didn’t know who he was standing up for: “Teacher, there’s nothing wrong with Xu Jue’s character. He’s just young, and his way of handling problems isn’t very mature yet.”

Bai Suzhen wasn’t entirely satisfied with this answer: “School education and family education complement each other. Parents also need to pay attention to their child’s mental development, and not let negative tendencies form due to neglect in discipline.”

Chen Qian knew she had already been tactful enough, not openly pinning the word violence on Xu Jue’s head, but she had also implied it clearly enough. The “parents” in her words didn’t refer to him as this “uncle,” but to Xu Jue’s parents who hadn’t attended in person today.

“Alright, I’ll talk to his parents when I get back.” Chen Qian smiled and gave Xu Jue a look.

Chen Qian’s eyes were too beautiful. When he gave a look, his lids lifted and lowered, and Xu Jue for some reason suddenly recalled those black silk underwear he couldn’t return. There was clearly no connection between the two, yet his face burned.

Bai Suzhen thought he was feeling ashamed, so she finally let the topic go and moved on to talking about his lopsided grades. She taught English, and it was embarrassing to have this top student in her own class excel at everything except English, which was at rock bottom.

On this point Chen Qian didn’t beat around the bush: “He zones out when memorizing words, I’ll push him more when we get back.”

As she was getting off work, Bai Suzhen stared at Chen Qian’s face and asked: “I keep feeling like you look familiar, did you also study at Xianzhong before?”

Chen Qian shook his head: “You must be mistaken.”

Finally the small talk ended. Other families had collected their children and gone home for the weekend. Chen Qian stood outside the classroom with his hands in his pockets, watching the orange sunset light fill the desks and floor, watching the students on duty wipe the blackboard clean and write next Monday’s class schedule, and watching students playing in the hallway, someone posting a new honor roll on the bulletin board at the far end.

“Waiting for me?” Xu Jue finished packing his bag and came out, handing Chen Qian a bottle of soda. “Want some? You took this job for free, I feel bad.”

“I don’t like drinking soda, let’s get something else.” Chen Qian walked downstairs with Xu Jue. “Just how badly did you beat that person up? Your homeroom teacher was almost getting into social commentary territory.”

“Just the look of someone who did something wrong in other people’s eyes,” Xu Jue unscrewed the soda and drank it himself, “broken nose, and a loose tooth.”

“You took boxing lessons or something, you can fight this well.”

“The gym near my home pushes student memberships every winter and summer break, I snuck into a few boxing classes.”

Chen Qian hesitated: “That girl, what happened to her afterwards?”

“Who?” Xu Jue took two seconds to react, “Oh, the one in front of me in class. She’s fine, she lets me copy her homework even more readily than before.”

The motorcycle was parked next to the biology garden downstairs. Chen Qian walked over: “That’s good.”

Xu Jue said: “Didn’t you just promise the teacher you’d push me on English? How come you don’t even oppose me copying homework?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Chen Qian didn’t want to say more. He took the helmet off the handlebars and put it on his own head, handing another one to Xu Jue: “Coming with me?”

Xu Jue had half pulled out his bus card: “What do you mean?”

“If you’re going to put on a show, put on the whole show. I’ll take you home.”

Xu Jue had wanted to say no need, but then he spotted Bai Suzhen walking out from the distant stairway with her bag on her arm. He stuffed his bus card back in, took the helmet and put it on: “Then let me treat you to something else instead.”

The motorcycle seat was narrow. Xu Jue squeezed in behind Chen Qian, and to avoid leaning back he scooted forward a bit.

Chen Qian’s entire back was being roasted by the broad chest of the young man behind him. He gripped the handlebars tight, and speaking through the helmet sounded a bit muffled: “Put your hands wherever, just don’t hug me.”

The Kawasaki glided along the campus road. Xu Jue grabbed a corner of Chen Qian’s jacket, feeling that the shoulders pressed against him were trembling slightly, whether from the bike shaking or the person shaking.

Once they had ridden out the school gate, Chen Qian gathered what he had seen from the corner of his eye into his memory, knowing he probably wouldn’t have another chance to step foot in this place.

The bike began to speed up. Xu Jue was bounced around several times in the back seat: “Slow down, you’re acting like you’re afraid I’ll change my mind about treating you to something.”

“Exactly, I’m afraid. So what.” Chen Qian grabbed one of Xu Jue’s hands and pressed it onto the fuel tank in front of him. “My riding skills are mediocre, hold on tight so you don’t fall off.”

Xu Jue got scared and quickly pressed his other hand down too: “I promise I’m not tricking you, can you not speed during rush hour?”

The light had just turned green up ahead. Chen Qian twisted the throttle and shot out, leaving the traffic officer’s whistle far behind.

The biting cold wind scraped past their shoulders. After nightfall the street lamps all opened their eyes, casting the shadows of buildings onto passersby.

Xu Jue discovered that Chen Qian’s riding skills were far from mediocre, they were absolutely top notch. The rush hour traffic jam was nothing more than a low difficulty winding road in front of Chen Qian.

Chen Qian’s thin back arched slightly against his chest, his shoulder blades pressing against the position of Xu Jue’s heart. Xu Jue felt his own heartbeat pounding too rapidly against the other person’s back, probably the tension from his initial distrust of Chen Qian’s riding skills that hadn’t eased up yet.

“I don’t think I’ve asked your name yet,” Xu Jue’s hands were going a bit numb from pressing on the fuel tank, but he didn’t let go, “we’ve met three times, you’ve even got my report card figured out, asking your name isn’t too much is it?”

“You even figured out how to get to my home.” Chen Qian’s voice was distorted a bit by the evening wind, “Chen Qian, the Qian from condemnation.”

“Chen Qian,” Xu Jue was practically lying on the other person’s back from this position, “with so many milk tea shops on the street, none of them caught your eye?”

Chen Qian didn’t answer. He slowed the bike and entered through the south gate of Wandeng Li, turned left and stopped in front of “Murmur.”

Wandeng Li was much livelier than during the day. With the decorative lights of all the shops turned on, quiet or booming music blended together above this block.

Outside, cars were parked haphazardly with no order. Under the trees you couldn’t make out the outlines of people’s figures, but you could see the occasional flickering orange cigarette tip, far less beautiful than the color that had filled the classroom at sunset.

Chen Qian took off his helmet and rubbed his eyes: “I was speeding too hard just now, the wind stung my eyes.”

Xu Jue kept a straight face, glancing at the visor on Chen Qian’s helmet that hadn’t been pushed down. After Chen Qian finished rubbing his eyes, he said: “Last time I even recommended Wandeng Li to you, didn’t expect you to already know your way around so well.”

“Not really, actually I only regularly go to one or two places.” Chen Qian led him forward, “Watch your step, don’t step on glass bottles.”

Xu Jue hesitated at the door: “I’m not going to run into school administrators here am I.”

“School administrators doesn’t come to this place,” Chen Qian pushed open the door, “didn’t you say you’d treat me to something else? Come in.”