As strong as I was, I was still shocked by Tan Xiaoming"s malice. Did today"s students all go to such great lengths to disgust their teachers? I wasn"t afraid for myself. I slept so well that I could even nap in a cemetery. But wasn"t Tan Xiaoming afraid? The sacrifice was too great.
"I won"t have a problem, but what about you? What about your family? Won"t your parents be worried about you being out so late at night?" I asked with concern.
Tan Xiaoming"s expression suddenly became very pitiful. He blinked tears out of his eyes. "My parents didn"t want me. I had no place to sleep. I found that there was a bed in the morgue here, and I"ve been sleeping there ever since."
It really was too pitiful.
I thought about it and said to Tan Xiaoming, "Wait a moment."
After that I immediately called Princ.i.p.al Zhang. Lately the time I was able to contact Princ.i.p.al Zhang had stabilized. At night her signal would be better, and it would be relatively easy to contact her.
I left the students to themselves and went out into the corridor to make my call. "h.e.l.lo, Princ.i.p.al Zhang. It"s Shen Jianguo. I have a question about one of the students. His name is Tan Xiaoming. He says he"s homeless. What"s the situation? — Oh. His father was abusive, his mother couldn"t bear it and left. He became the new target of his father"s malice, so he couldn"t stay at home."
So that was it. It was no wonder that Tan Xiaoming had a rebellious streak and seemed malicious. The harm his father had inflicted on him had been too great.
At this moment, I made a difficult decision.
"Princ.i.p.al Zhang, I"d like to ask if there"s another employee who"s going to move into the room Li Yuanyuan used to live in. If not, I want to have Tan Xiaoming live in it. Of course… the rent can be deducted from my salary."
Saying this, my heart lurched. It felt like a corkscrew being driven right into my heart, so painful I couldn"t breathe.
Deduct my salary… Deduct my salary, when I was already so poor…
But Tan Xiaoming"s problem had to be solved. First, find him a place to live. He couldn"t keep living in the morgue. Then, contact his father. If he refused to correct his behavior, then the law would have to protect Tan Xiaoming"s rights and interests.
Although it was better for minors to have unbroken families, with a father like Tan Xiaoming"s, he would be better off without his care.
Fortunately, Princ.i.p.al Zhang was as kind as ever. "He can… live there… bzzt… No need… for you… to pay… bzzt."
Princ.i.p.al Zhang really was the best boss I had ever encountered (though I"d only met this one boss); as long as she didn"t fire me, I would certainly follow her to the end!
After putting down the phone, I walked back to the cla.s.sroom in a happy mood and said to Tan Xiaoming, "You don"t need to live in the morgue anymore. Come back with me tonight. You can live in Apartment 404, Unit 4, Building 4 of the Farther Sh.o.r.e Estate. There are three bedrooms in that apartment. A female colleague moved out recently and left a room vacant. You can move in tonight. The school bus will pick me up at 2 o"clock. I"ll help you move."
Tan Xiaoming must have been too surprised and pleased to control his expression. With a blank face he said, "The room Li Yuanyuan used to live in?"
"Oh, you know her. You should call her Yuanyuan-jie. It"s not polite to call her by her full name like that," I corrected him.
"Hahaha!" Mu Huaitong burst out laughing. The way she laughed was very unique. Instead of pounding on the table, she scratched at the table with her fingernails, making an ear-splitting sound as she laughed.
"Student Mu, do you have any better views to put forward?" I looked at her.
"No, no!" Mu Huaitong waved her hand. "I"m happy for Tan Xiaoming. He finally has a place to live. I"m so happy. Hahahaha!"
I"d known that Mu Huaitong was a nice girl. Even if the way she expressed her emotions was rather unrestrained, her heart was good.
Tan Xiaoming seemed not to want to move. Children with his background could be very wary of strangers. It was normal for him to refuse.
He thought for a long time and said, "I can move there, but Teacher Shen absolutely has to stay with me tonight. If you still want me to be your roommate after tonight, then I... I... I"ll move!"
His last words sounded tearful. He must have been very moved; it was only that adolescents felt awkward expressing emotions.
"No problem. It"s settled. I will accompany you tonight," I promised.
The break went by like this. Soon it was time for the second half of the lesson. According to my lesson plan, I explained to the students what const.i.tuted a correct world view. The next cla.s.s would tell them how to systematically establish one.
Soon it was two o"clock. The students quickly got up and left. They were all on good terms with Tan Xiaoming. Most of them patted him warmly on the shoulder. They must have been happy for him. After all, Xiaoming finally had a place to live.
Only Mu Huaitong and Tian Bowen stayed back to talk to me. Mu Huaitong took my arm as before and said, "Teacher, why don"t I stay with you tonight? Keeping you here like this is really unfair of Tan Xiaoming. It"s finders keepers, and I was obviously here first. How could you go sleep with him?"
"Xiaoming is young. I"m worried about him," I explained to Mu Huaitong. "And you are a girl, how can you sleep in the same place as two men? You should learn to protect yourself."
After soothing Mu Huaitong, I looked at Tian Bowen. "What is it, Student Tian?"
Student Tian must have taken off his make-up during cla.s.s. Now he looked pretty normal. He was wearing a white coat, and the maggots in his mouth were gone. It seemed that before he had made a great sacrifice to give me a welcome ceremony.
"I"m fine," Tian Bowen said, staring at the notebook in my hand. "Teacher, could you give me that notebook?"
"No." I shook my head firmly. "It"s a gift from a friend. I cherish it deeply. If you really like it, I"ll buy one for you tomorrow. "
"Who knows what will happen tomorrow?" Tian Bowen shrugged and left with Mu Huaitong.
There were only two people left in the cla.s.sroom: Tan Xiaoming and me. He said to me enthusiastically, "Teacher, let"s go to bed together!"
"Just a moment," I said. "The driver will be waiting at the door to pick me up. If I don"t come out, he"ll wait until five o"clock. I have to go and tell him that I"ll be staying here tonight so he doesn"t sit up all night. You can wait for me in the morgue."
"No," said Tan Xiaoming stubbornly, "I"ll come with Teacher Shen. What if you run away?"
"I won"t go back on my promise."
It was a pity that Tan Xiaoming still didn"t trust me. He insisted on coming with me to the hospital gates. In the thick fog, the school bus stopped in front of me. The door opened. I stepped up with one foot and said to the driver, "Sir, there"s a student who wants me to stay with him at the hospital tonight, so I won"t be going back."
The driver looked at Tan Xiaoming, who was peeking out from behind me, and, looking serious, said, "Be careful."
"Don"t worry." I smacked my chest.
"I didn"t mean you." The driver pointed his gloved finger and nodded at Tan Xiaoming. "I meant him."
With this sentence the driver drove away in the empty bus, leaving me where I was to ponder.
After seeing everything that had happened with Xia Jin the other night, the driver must have been on his guard against me, thinking I was the sort of beast who would touch a minor. It was too unfair!
I really wanted to take out my phone to explain things to him, but the driver and I hadn"t added each other as friends yet. I had once held out the olive branch of friendship to him, but the driver had refused. He"d said he didn"t particularly want to know me better, and if I had something to say to him I could contact Princ.i.p.al Zhang.
Receiving this kind of unfriendly treatment from a coworker was frankly frustrating. But on the other hand, it was hard work driving a bus at night, so it was normal for his temper to be rather bad. We should try to forgive each other.
After parting with the driver, I followed Tan Xiaoming into the morgue.
On the way, I asked, "Xiao Ming[1], why are you always carrying that bedplate on your back?"
"As long as I have this bedplate, I can exist anywhere," said Tan Xiaoming.
Ah, the child was so insecure. Like a snail with its sh.e.l.l on its back, wherever he went, he would retreat back to his bedplate to sleep.
Tan Xiaoming was two steps ahead of me getting to the morgue. By the time I went in, he had already taken the bedplate off his back.
Without the bedplate, Tan Xiaoming seemed less confident. He pointed to a bed in the corner, made up with dust-coated white sheets.
"I"ll sleep in that bed?"
He nodded and didn"t speak.
"What about you?" I asked.
"I"ll watch you sleep," Tan Xiaoming said, looking at me. "I"ll go sleep after you"ve gotten into bed."
He pointed into a dim corner where there seemed to be a dilapidated bed.
"Where did you put your bedplate?"
"In your bed. See how good I am to you." Tan Xiaoming grinned.
"OK." I nodded. "I"ll remember to bring your bedplate when I help you move tomorrow."
Tan Xiaoming didn"t speak. After watching me climb into the bed, he went into the shadows.
The bed was very damp. I couldn"t get comfortable lying on it. I wanted to talk to Tan Xiaoming, but he was silent in the darkness. I guessed he had gone to sleep.
I suddenly thought of Ning Tiance and felt regretful. I could sleep in the morgue with a student, so why hadn"t I gone to the cemetery last night to keep Xiao Ning company? In the desolate night, Xiao Ning had been all alone in the cemetery, contemplating life. It was so sad.
Thinking of this, I felt an irresistible urge and sent Xiao Ning a message: Are you asleep?
He responded practically the next second: It"s hard to get to sleep sitting on a hard seat.
So he was still on the train. Thirty hours or more on a hard seat — Ning Tiance really had it hard.
I thought about it and said: I"m also not sleeping comfortably. I"m in the morgue, keeping a child company.
My fingers flew over the phone"s keyboard, telling Xiao Ning about Tan Xiaoming.
For a long time, Xiao Ning didn"t answer. Maybe the signal on the train was bad. I was about to fall asleep holding on to my phone when I heard the faint sound of a message notification.
Opening it, I saw it was Xiao Ning.
Send me your location. I"ve gotten off at the nearest station and I"m carpooling back to H City to come to you. That boy is very dangerous. Don"t approach him, and don"t lie in that bed.
While I was wondering about this, I heard a voice coming from the bedplate saying: "Back to back, such a comfort. Back to back, such a comfort."
[1] So, helpfully, the kid"s name is "Xiaoming," (晓明) bright dawn, but a lot of the time he"s called "Xiao Ming," (小明) little Ming, affectionately.