Chapter 32

Ever since Xiao Keran’s incident, the atmosphere at the school had become especially low. Thankfully, her father – whose only loyalty lay in using his daughter’s death for his own gains – finally stopped coming to the school to raise a ruckus. As such, things slowly began to return to normal.

Everything appeared to have reverted to what it once was, the calm waves no longer stirred by the winds. In reality, what had happened could not be erased. The life that had left this world could no longer return.

Tong Qiu sometimes found himself zoning out in the office, Xiao Keran’s suicide note still in his drawer. He was too afraid to touch it again.

He had already put in a request with the school to be relieved of his homeroom teacher duties for next year and would only teach two classes as a lecturer. At first, the director tried to persuade him to change his mind, but after his continued insistence, the director could tell that his mental state needed an adjustment so he eventually relented.

“Is Tong-laoshi daydreaming again?”

When he heard the words, Tong Qiu returned to his senses. When he lifted his head, he saw the teacher whose mouth was as poisonous as his mind. Tong Qiu immediately decided to extract himself from the situation.

He smiled and said, “Does Xue-laoshi not have any classes to teach?”

The teacher was like a constant thorn in his side and was always looking for ways to mock Tong Qiu. The teacher removed his glasses, picked up his mug and said, “I’m done. I have to say, though, when I walked by your class just now, every single student was devoid of life. You shouldn’t put so much pressure on them.”

“I wouldn’t dare. It’s because the entrance exams are getting closer. They don’t have time to mess around during break.” Tong Qiu tidied up his things and decided to return to the classroom to accompany his students during their self-study session. He couldn’t stand being alone with the other teacher any longer.

“That’s what you think, but if there wasn’t so much pressure on them, would that thing have happened?”

“……”

Tong Qiu was already carrying his books in his arms, but when he heard the man’s words, he set the books back down. He stood next to his desk and smiled, “Xue-laoshi, what do you mean?”

“There was no meaning behind it, I’m just giving you a gentle reminder but you don’t seem willing to listen.” Xue-laoshi gazed at him with annoyance. “You youngsters just won’t listen to other people’s advice.”

“It’s not a matter of listening to advice – using Xiao Keran to prove your point isn’t really necessary.”

“I’ve been saying it since the very beginning, kids these days have all been spoiled rotten by their families. The level of their emotional endurance is far too low – you can’t rock the boat too much or else they’ll get back at you by threatening to kill themselves. That’s why you can’t be too strict with them.”

Tong Qiu’s rage had already risen to the top of his head and his eyes were all but letting out smoke. Normally, this teacher liked to talk about idle gossip behind people’s backs. He especially liked to make Tong Qiu the subject of his gossip, and spoke about topics such as Tong Qiu’s sexuality, or his divorce or even his teaching methods. Now that the teacher had brought up the matter of his student that had committed suicide, Tong Qiu couldn’t take it anymore. He had a tempter too, after all.

“Xue-laoshi, I’ve always been respectful towards you. You’ve been teaching here even back when I was still a student. Although you didn’t personally teach me, ever since I started working here I’ve treated you as my teacher.”

Tong Qiu took a deep breath and struggled to stop himself from exploding. “However, don’t you think what you said was a bit too much? You’re a teacher at this school too so you must know the reason that Xiao Keran took her own life. But now you want to blame it on me and blacken my name by saying I was the one who ruined her? And not only am I at fault, but my student is also to blame because she didn’t have the emotional capacity to endure it. Did you even think about what she had to endure? Your normal mockery of me is something I can let go, but don’t drag my students into it. They’ve got nothing to do with you, thank you very much.”

After finishing his speech, Tong Qiu decided that he wouldn’t leave after all. He dropped his books on the desk and sat down again. He flipped open a book and carried on as usual.

Why should he have to run?

It was obvious that the other party should be the one to leave out of sheer awkwardness.

Xue-laoshi was already used to poking his nose in other people’s business and over these past few years, he rarely got called out. The truth was, everyone was simply too lazy to lower themselves to his level. On the contrary, he somehow came to believe that it was because he had gotten in the last word.

This time however, he had kicked out at an iron plate and stubbed his toes so hard that his forehead had begun to drip with sweat.

Xue-laoshi opened his mouth, almost as if he wanted to say something, but after a glance at Tong Qiu’s shuttered expression, he closed his mouth and pretended to be busy.

Tong Qiu’s mood lifted. He didn’t like arguing with others but when it came to his students, he had to draw a line.

That evening, Tong Qiu received a call from his mother. Ever since the incident at the school, his mother had only called at the very beginning to ask after him a bit but ever since she heard that the school had reached a settlement with the parent, she had breathed a sigh of relief.

“I was scared to death,” Tong Qiu’s mother said. “Your father wouldn’t let me check in on you everyday because he was worried you were too stressed and that you wouldn’t be in a good mood. I was afraid to ask you directly so I had to call xiao-Huo. It’s a good thing he’s by your side – I can rest easy knowing that he’s there.”

Tong Qiu had indeed been with Huo Zhixing rather often these days. No matter when Huo Zhixing got off work, he would immediately report back, almost like clocking in and out of work. At night, Huo Zhixing didn’t go back to his own place either – he always came directly from the police station to Tong Qiu’s home. For a moment, Tong Qiu wondered if he had inadvertently asked Huo Zhixing to live with him while his mind was muddled.

However, it truly was a good thing that Huo Zhixing was here. Because Huo Zhixing was there to keep him company – whether it was to chat a little or to make love from time to time – his state of mind was nearly recovered.

Tong Qiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the way his mother was walking on eggshells when questioning him. “Don’t worry about it, your son’s mental fortitude is pretty strong.”

Mother and son continued chatting and Tong Qiu offered reassurances so that she wouldn’t worry so much.

“I can’t worry about every little thing you encounter anyway,” Tong Qiu’s mother was rather relieved and she gave him one final reminder, “Don’t forget about May 1st. Did you buy your tickets yet? Neither of you are allowed to be absent this year!”

“Don’t worry, Zhixing already adjusted his work schedule and we’ve bought the tickets already. The two of us will set off on the morning of the first and should make it there in time for lunch.”

“Alright then, your father will go pick you two up at the station when the time comes,” said Tong Qiu’s mother. “Yesterday, your grandfather bought a new set of clothes just to meet xiao-Huo. He even asked if xiao-Huo was his granddaughter-in-law or grandson-in-law, and we had a good laugh about it. He’s been looking forward to it every day.”

Tong Qiu smiled, “What’s that old man thinking? I won’t say anything! Why is he only looking forward to meeting Zhixing? Why isn’t he looking forward to seeing me?”

“What’s there to look forward to about seeing you? There’s only so much to look forward to.”

Tong Qiu couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you sure you’re my real mother?!”

After Huo Zhixing left the station, he headed straight to the clinic across the street. Zhao Heyu ran after him and asked, “Shifu, you really don’t need me to go with you?”

Huo Zhixing covered his face and waved a hand, “Go back and take care of things – teach that little brat a good lesson!”

Half an hour earlier, a few students from a vocational school had raised a ruckus. What had begun as a small argument between a few people had escalated into a full-out gang fight. Huo Zhixing had arrived on the scene to take care of it but had suffered a few blows while he wasn’t paying attention.

He had been hit in the shoulders, which wasn’t a big deal – it was just painful – but had also been hit in the face. As a result, half his face had become swollen.

After breaking up the brawl between the brats, a battered Huo Zhixing went over to the clinic. And since it was late at night, he gave the nurse there quite a fright.

The nurse working tonight was the same young woman that had dropped off dumplings for them and as soon as she saw the state that Huo Zhixing was in, she immediately understood that the injuries were suffered while ‘serving the people’.

The nurse took care of his injuries and gave him two boxes of medication and said, “I haven’t seen you in a while so I thought you had transferred departments.”

Huo Zhixing smiled, which made both his face and his head hurt. “How could I? I’m such a hard worker.”

The nurse laughed and gave him a cold compress wrapped in a towel and said, “Put some ice on it.”

“It’s fine, I’ll do it myself when I get home.”

“Take it anyway.” The nurse gave it to him. “Your face would scare anyone walking on the streets. If it weren’t for your uniform, they’d think you were a gangster.”

Huo Zhixing thanked her and took the cold compress.

“You can ask Zhao Heyu from your team to return the towel tomorrow.” The nurse waved a hand, indicating that he was free to go.

Huo Zhixing asked, “Zhao Heyu?”

“Yes, tell him to come.”

As she spoke, the nurse didn’t meet his eyes. Her head was lowered but her face was still visibly red.

It eventually dawned on him, but he wasn’t sure if that thick-skulled Zhao Heyu would catch on. “Sounds good, thanks again.”

He pressed the ice against his face and pondered as he stood on the side of the street. It was probably better if he didn’t go to Tong Qiu’s place tonight. Showing up in the middle of the night with a face like this was sure to make Tong-laoshi lose sleep and worry himself to death. While it was fine for Tong Qiu to worry about him, he couldn’t let it stop Tong-laoshi from getting a good night’s sleep.

He fished out his phone and sent Tong Qiu a random excuse. Tong Qiu’s reply was almost instant, and he said ‘alright then, be careful on the way back’.

Huo Zhixing replied with a ‘go sleep. good night’ and then went back to the station. The brat that had accidentally hit him snuck a glance, and was so terrified that he shuffled off to the side.

After he finished dealing with the whole mess, Huo Zhixing got off work. It had been almost a week since he had gone back to his own place.

It was the middle of the night when Huo Zhixing got home. After taking his medicine and using the cold compress, he felt that the pain had subsided a bit. He glanced at his swollen face in the mirror and felt that, not only did his face hurt but his head was beginning to hurt as well – he wasn’t sure if he could recover in only a week and didn’t want to look like this when he went to visit Tong Qiu’s family.

When he finally fell asleep, it was already the dead of night. He figured Tong Qiu was already asleep, so he sent Tong Qiu a message saying that his wretched old self had taken a beating today. Afterwards, he set his alarm for the next morning.

Huo Zhixing slept poorly – both his face and his shoulders hurt. His aching shoulders were because of the injury from being hit by a bullet. For a while, he couldn’t even lift anything that was heavy and after being hit by a stick today, it was unbearable.

He got up again after sleeping a little. Gritting his teeth, he fixed himself something to eat and ate some medicine after finishing his food. He took the towel that the nurse had given him and set off for work.

At around 6:30, Huo Zhixing got a call from Tong Qiu.

“What happened to you?” Tong Qiu’s tone was a little frantic. “How did you get hit while you were on duty?”

Huo Zhixing feigned surprise and said, “how did you know?”

“……bro, you were the one that messaged me!”

“Oh, I must have sent it by mistake,” Huo Zhixing said. “It’s fine, it was just a bunch of giant babies who didn’t know what they were doing, don’t worry about it.”

“How could I not worry about it! Are you okay? Did you go to the hospital?”

With a grin on his swollen face, Huo Zhixing walked through the front entrance of the station. When he saw Zhao Heyu make his way towards him, he covered Zhao Heyu’s face with the towel that the nurse had given him, and then continued his conversation with Tong Qiu. “I went last night, it wasn’t a big deal. My face is just swollen, kind of like Second Shixiong. I look too ugly, recently…”

“Where are you? I’ll come see you.”

Huo Zhixing’s smile was near radiant but he kept his voice as calm as before. “I just got to the station. It’s nothing, really, so don’t trouble yourself.”

“Alright then, I got it.”

Tong Qiu quickly hung up, quickly got ready and quickly headed out.

Zhao Heyu held the towel in his hand and stared dumbly at his shifu. “Morning, shifu. Why is it that you’re in such a good mood even though you’re all beat up?”

Was it possible that his shifu was actually a masochist?

Of course, Zhao Heyu didn’t dare say it out loud.