Mood is a strange thing; even if you don’t say it aloud and keep your face tightly composed, it still quietly slips out through your eyes.
“Ding-ling-ling…!”
The end-of-class bell at Haizhou No. 3 Middle School was an old-fashioned electric bell.
Not some deliberately retro sound played through the broadcast speakers, but the real deal—each floor in the teaching building actually still used these old electric bells.
Rumor had it the bell was older than any of the students present.
The pendulum, driven by electric current, struck the metal plate rapidly, producing a crisp, clear sound.
Then the sound quickly passed through the thick wooden classroom door, reaching the students’ ears almost without any loss—
Just moments ago silent, the students immediately sprang to life. One boy, eager to leave, stood up at the sound, only to get a chalk thrown precisely at his forehead by the physics teacher—ouch!
The physics teacher grumbled, “Do you find my class that boring?”
The boy pretended to be hurt, holding his forehead, but with a mischievous smile said, “Teacher, your class isn’t boring at all, it’s just physics that’s boring.”
Pfft.
Some students burst out laughing, and soon a few more joined in.
The physics teacher of Class 3-6 was a handsome young man, only twenty-seven years old, who had graduated from the Normal University just a few years prior.
Probably because both students and teacher were young, Class 3-6 got along very well with this physics teacher, occasionally getting a little cheeky but happily so.
“All right, discuss the remaining questions in your practice books among yourselves. I’ll go over them tomorrow.”
The young physics teacher closed the practice book and waved his hand grandly. “Now, I declare you all free!”
“Clatter!”
The atmosphere relaxed, the classroom grew noisy with chatting and the sound of desks and chairs bumping around. Compared to the dismissal bell at the end of the school day, there were no calls from the class leader for students to stay behind for duty.
After all, this was the noon dismissal bell, so no one would be asked to stay.
After a short while of noise, the classroom of Class 3-6 fell silent again, leaving only Zi Yan.
He pulled a key from his backpack, the jangling sound breaking the quiet.
Zi Yan headed to the restroom near the classroom, which for now was his own little sanctuary, to wash his face.
Though the physics teacher’s lessons weren’t especially difficult… it was just a coincidence that both Yanli Teacher and the Yuwen Teacher had errands, so they had swapped classes with the physics teacher.
Thus, Class 3-6 was lucky enough to have four whole hours of physics class this morning.
But really, it wasn’t physics’s fault. Anyone would get exhausted sitting through the same subject for four hours straight, right?
Besides, on a rainy day like today, Zi Yan didn’t really need to put on sunscreen—almost no ultraviolet rays could sneak through the thick clouds hanging in the sky.
So after washing his face to freshen up, he didn’t mind that the sunscreen applied earlier was partly washed off.
And it was a good chance to try out the ointment Lin Hua had given him that morning.
Back in the classroom, Zi Yan touched his left cheek, confirming the slightly raised, tiny bump there.
Then he took out the ointment, unscrewed the lid, and squeezed a small amount onto the tip of his left index finger.
The ointment was milky white with a faint fragrance. As he applied it to his cheek, a cool sensation spread, making Zi Yan squint with comfort.
“What about lunch…” Zi Yan leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, glancing out the window.
That morning when he left, Zheng Quan had said he was going to a nearby county for research and wouldn’t have time to take Zi Yan to eat in the company cafeteria.
But before leaving, Zheng Quan had left a green Mao bill on the living room coffee table, weighted down with a teacup, so Zi Yan wouldn’t go hungry just because he didn’t have money.
Still, looking outside now, a fine drizzle was falling over Haizhou. On a gloomy rainy day like this, Zi Yan really didn’t want to go far.
And going to those restaurants near the school meant braving huge crowds of students. Zi Yan wasn’t interested.
After some thought, feeling somewhat helpless, Zi Yan decided to buy a cup of instant noodles from the mini-mart on the first floor of the teaching building to tide himself over.
Luckily, Haizhou No. 3 Middle School provided each classroom with a drinking water dispenser that could heat water.
“Hey?”
At the bench in front of the mini-mart, Zi Yan ran into some familiar faces.
Wei Lai and the girls who always stuck close to her were sitting on the bench eating instant noodles.
Looking closely, their foreheads were damp, a few baby hairs sticking to their skin like they’d just been caught in the rain.
“Eh? Zi Yan?” Wei Lai looked up at the footsteps, surprised to see him coming down from upstairs.
She asked, “Zi Yan, you’re not leaving yet?”
“Yeah.” Zi Yan nodded. “What happened to you all?”
“Blame the physics teacher—” Wei Lai opened her mouth to explain, but a girl sitting beside her cut in with a complaint: “The teacher held us two minutes over, then we missed the step, then step by step, everything went wrong.”
“…?” Zi Yan tilted his head, not quite understanding.
Wei Lai clarified, “Our classroom is on the third floor.”
“So when the physics teacher let us out two minutes late, we got stuck in the crowd on the third floor and couldn’t get down…”
Missed the step, then step by step. Leaving the classroom two minutes late meant being trapped on the third floor.
By the time Wei Lai and the others braved the drizzle and ran to the restaurants across the street, there was no place left anywhere.
Helpless, they had no choice but to return to school and eat instant noodles.
What a tragic day.
Another girl grumbled, “Didn’t the weather forecast say today would be cloudy with zero chance of rain?”
If only they had umbrellas, they wouldn’t be so drenched. But none of Wei Lai’s group had brought one.
The moment this complaint came out, all the girls sitting on the bench lowered their heads gloomily.
“Oh, what do you want, kid?”
At the mini-mart window, the auntie was slurping her instant noodles as she called out to Zi Yan.
The window was low, probably designed so the staff inside could sit while selling.
Zi Yan walked up and bent down politely. “Could I have one cup of Kang Shi Fu Braised Beef Noodles?”
“You’re so formal, why say ‘could I’? Just say it plain.”
The auntie laughed, putting her chopsticks on the noodle cup edge, then grabbed a red Kang Shi Fu Braised Beef Noodles cup for Zi Yan.
“Five yuan. But you’ll have to wait a bit—the hot water isn’t ready yet.”
Zi Yan handed over the green Mao bill, pocketed the change, and shook his head, “No need for hot water here. The classroom’s drinking water dispenser has hot water.”
At that moment, Zi Yan’s words had just fallen when Wei Lai and the others suddenly all stood up from the bench and looked at him.
Wei Lai pointed upstairs, “Zi Yan, our classroom door isn’t locked, is it?”
“Yeah, it’s not locked. Why?” Zi Yan carried his noodles and headed upstairs.
Wei Lai: “…”
If the classroom wasn’t locked, why were they camping out at the mini-mart in the rain? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to eat their noodles inside?
——————
“Did Wei Lai and the others end up taking their noodles back to the classroom to eat?” Zheng Quan smiled and asked.
“Nope,” Zi Yan said. “They pretty much finished their noodles right there at the mini-mart before heading back.”
It was getting late, and Zheng Quan was chatting with the restless Zi Yan to help him fall asleep.
Honestly, lying on opposite sides of the bed, leaning against the headboard chatting like this… it really reminded Zheng Quan of over a decade ago, when he and Lina had just confirmed their relationship.
But back then, she was his lover; now, she was his child. Either way, they were the most important people to Zheng Quan.
As long as they were happy, it didn’t matter how long he kept company.
Zheng Quan picked up the crumpled ointment tube, studying it carefully.
He saw the October 1 Production Date printed on it and paused briefly before a faint smile tugged at his lips.
He thought of how Lin Hua had glanced at him slyly and chuckled inwardly.
“Did Lin Hua come to see you after giving you the ointment?”
“Lin Hua, huh…” Zi Yan murmured.
Haizhou No. 3 Middle School had four classes in the morning and four in the afternoon.
The first class of the afternoon for Class 3-6 was Physical Education.
Although the PE teacher hadn’t claimed any ailments this time to skip class by swapping with teachers of Chinese, Math, English, or Physics, Haizhou No. 3 Middle School had an unwritten rule: if it rained during PE, the class was automatically canceled and students stayed in the classroom for self-study.
But what exactly counted as rain in Haizhou’s weather?
The sky was overcast, and the drizzle had stopped, but not entirely—it had turned into tiny rain threads drifting in the wind.
To the students, that meant the rain had stopped, so PE was on.
Two minutes before class, Wei Lai grabbed a basketball and dashed out ahead.
The classroom quickly became empty again, leaving only Zi Yan inside.
A few minutes later, the physics teacher arrived, carrying a stack of graded papers, only to find the classroom empty and locked.
He gave up and decided to continue going over the problems later.
Where had Zi Yan gone?
“Shhh…”
The sound of paper rubbing together was surprisingly clear.
On the fourth floor of the teaching building, in the library, Zi Yan had taken out a book and was reading.
Times like PE were when Zi Yan usually did his homework.
If homework was done, he’d come to the library to read and pass the time.
But actually, students at Haizhou No. 3 Middle School rarely came to the library to read.
Most of the books here lay quietly, neatly arranged on shelves, long forgotten and covered in sticky dust on their spines.
Zi Yan was reading an English novel quietly.
“Can you understand it?”
Without Zi Yan realizing it, Yanli Teacher had entered the library and spoke softly behind him.
“Ah, Teacher He.” Zi Yan quickly stood and bowed. “About PE class…”
“No worries, I’m turning a blind eye,” Yanli Teacher smiled.
Indeed, without the homeroom teacher’s permission, a single word would be enough to pull back all the wild horses running free across the campus.
At that moment, a noise came from the reading room in the southeast corner of the library, just across a reading wall from Zi Yan.
A loud, clear “timi” was heard.
“Deskmate, do you think hiding here is really safe?”
“Only relatively safe… I mean, you can’t go play on the playground, right? It’s so open anyone standing in the teaching building can see you. It’s like being a live target for big sister Yanli.”
Well, a reading wall couldn’t block sound, so the voices of Lin Hua and his deskmate sounded like they were talking right back-to-back with Zi Yan.
Zi Yan: “…”
Yanli Teacher: “…”
Ah, poor Lin Hua.
……
“Hahaha,” Zheng Quan laughed. “So then, did Lin Hua’s phone get confiscated?”
“Whew… whew…”
This time Zi Yan didn’t continue chatting with Zheng Quan but quietly started to snore softly.
It seemed he had finally succumbed to sleep, sinking into a deep slumber.
“…”
Zheng Quan quietly got out of bed, came over, and squatted down, quietly watching Zi Yan’s delicate face bathed in the glow of the desk lamp.
Zi Yan’s expression was peaceful and serene, with a holy aura.
The corners of his lips curved up slightly, probably dreaming some happy dream.
Things that could make Zi Yan happy…
Zheng Quan picked up the pattern paper by Zi Yan’s pillow, sighed, and placed it carefully on the desk.
Paper like this, if the boy rolled over and pressed on it while sleeping, would surely wake him up uncomfortable, right?
Zheng Quan couldn’t bear to let anything disturb his child’s happiness again.
“Fashion Design… huh?”
Zheng Quan gently kissed Zi Yan’s forehead, pulled the blanket over him with care.
“Son, please forgive your father…”