Dou Xun was a problematic student with excellent grades, having been asked for his parents to come to school more than once.
At first, his teachers were unaware of what his family"s situation was like. Once they witnessed this child"s actions, they all wished they could force his entire family to come to school and do research on adolescent mental health. After some time, they gained a rough understanding of what was going on, and most of them could only turn a blind eye to it, leaving the issue unsolved.
The last time Dou Xun was asked to get his parents to school at his previous school was because he got into a full-on fight with his cla.s.smates.
The boarding school also had someone that was like Xu Xilin, who always had people surrounding him, who also despised Dou Xun just as Xu Xilin did. The only difference was that the "Xu Xilin" there wasn"t willing to silence the issue like the one here. He, along with his lackeys, wanted to show Dou Xun who the boss was every couple of days.
Dou Xun wasn"t someone that was born to be in a pa.s.sive position and get beat up. He was proud, very so, and was disdainful of any "bosses" with low intelligence. The tension between the two kept rising. And at last, they all jumped over the walls and out of the dorms, striking the first blow in the dead of the quiet night.
Dou Xun had planned this for two days. Using advantages of any sorts he could find, he beat up five of them on his own. He even drew the dorm warden there before they could get reinforcements. Rightful self-defense, his achievements outstanding......Unfortunately they weren"t officially recognized, and his parents were still asked to come to school afterwards.
The teacher called Dou Junliang immediately back then. Dou Junliang pa.s.sed the waste of time to Dou Xun"s grandpa, irritated. Grandpa Dou had coronary artery disease originally, and after hearing what Dou Xun had done, he hurriedly headed to Dou Xun"s school, but had his old illness recur instead.
Dou Xun"s grandma pa.s.sed away early on. The old man sent his grandson to a boarding school, and refused to have a caretaker, living in solitude. As he always seemed to be healthy and well, his children never gave much thought about his health. What no one expected that his old illness recurred just like that, leaving his body undiscovered even when it had lost all warmth.
From that time on, the teacher never dared to ask his parents to come again.
In Sixth High School"s corridors, Dou Xun had his backpack on his shoulders, trailing after Xu Jin in silence. Cla.s.ses had already ended awhile ago, the educational building completely tranquil. The fading sunset had only an edge left in sight. Dou Xun walked without noise, the only sound that could be heard in the corridors Ms. Jin Xu"s heels" clicks.
Xu Jin wasn"t the type of woman that was gentle and affable. Even the back of her head thought more than the average one. Dou Xun wasn"t as comfortable around her as he was around Grandma Xu......She was okay though. No one could be worse than the American nun Zhu Xiaocheng.
Xu Jin suddenly read out a phone number, asking, "Do you memorize this?"
Dou Xun froze, and nodded in a daze.
"This is my number. My phone"s on 24/7," Xu Jin said, "The next time you get in trouble, get the teacher to call this directly—has your mom ever given you a whooping before?"
Dou Xun: "......"
Growing up, it was even hard to see Zhu Xiaocheng once. He actually had never had the honor of being hit before.
"Hold this for me." Xu Jin stuffed her handbag into Dou Xun"s arms.
Dou Xun took it, confused. Just as he took it, Xu Jin whacked at his b.u.t.t with a folder she took from her company.
It didn"t hurt much. Dou Xun was unsure if he should hide away from them, either. He stood there, confused, hit several times while holding the bag. His eyes slightly widened as if he was amazed.
"Do teachers give you homework to hurt you? Are they trying to help you?" Xu Jin asked.
Do Xun silently shook his head, but then nodded after.
"If you think that homework isn"t appropriate for you, then why didn"t you talk to the teacher about it in private? She"s not young, either. Now that she"s openly disrespected in cla.s.s without reb.u.t.ting back, what if some other student does the same thing again in the future? How is she going to do her job? Adults work because they have to feed and support their family and no one has it easy. You teenagers do have it easy though, using your pocket money to go out there and get in trouble, making other people"s jobs harder on purpose...do you think that it"s "cool", huh?"
Dou Xun was speechless again--who ever thought that much when they reb.u.t.ted a teacher?
"The teacher meant well, but you didn"t appreciate it and even caused trouble for them." Xu Jin concluded the entire thing in one sentence, "Don"t you agree that you were being a b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"
She did speak with reason. Dou Xun looked down without a sound, and had to admit that he did acted s.h.i.ttily.
"That really p.i.s.sed me off," Xu Jin took her bag from his hands, "I had to get here to be lectured in the middle of a meeting--you have to do a week"s worth of dishes for Ms. Du when we get home."
Dou Xun heard the word "home" and looked up at Xu Jin tentatively. He realized that her makeup was a bit smudged, that she was in such a rush she couldn"t fix it yet. He suddenly felt extremely apologetic.
He always heard from Grandma Xu how busy Xu Jin was. She sometimes even had to work more than a hundred hours per week, and she went on such long business trips that the dog didn"t even recognized her when she came home. But she had to come over just for him being annoying--this absolutely contradicted his original means to "have a silent stay and not give anyone extra trouble".
Dou Xun felt that he should say a "thank you, Aunt Xu," but he realized that that was too pathetic on its own, pathetic to the point of awkwardity. Even staying silent would be better than that.
He thought, "Maybe adding a "Sorry for your trouble" will fix it?"
But that felt off too. Compared to what Xu Jin just said about doing the dishes, this felt too cold-blooded. Inappropriate.
Just as he was debating on which option to use, Dou Xun saw Xu Jin wave at someone far ahead of them. Xu Xillin had arrived.
In the blink of a second......he lost the chance to reply again.
Dou Xun felt like he must"ve had some sort of disorder. The sarcasm in his chest was on call, and he could make people crash to their knees just with a mouth. But when he wanted to say a nicely meant sentence or two, he was always slow, pondering it over and over and over again. Couldn"t even eat s.h.i.t while it"s still hot.
Xu Xilin ran over to them, taking Xu Jin"s handbag for her flatteringly, "Mom, let me take this."
Xu Jin swiped him away. "Get off, you calling me "mom" is giving me gooseb.u.mps--let me guess, you bombed your exam?"
Xu Xilin did bomb the exam, and that was exactly why he had quickly started to flatter her. In a flurry, he unconsciously glanced over his shoulder at Dou Xun.
Dou Xun paused. He knew that Xu Jin wouldn"t have come to the school for no reason, so it was definitely Xu Xilin who notified her. This time, plus the time he helped him back at the 2nd Educational Building restroom, made Dou Xun uncertain of how he should count all this.
But the good thing was that Xu Xilin quickly moved his gaze away, not wanting to acknowledge him.
Calling Xu Jin over was nothing to Xu Xilin. It wasn"t for Dou Xun. Instead, it was for his mom, Zhu Chengzi. Though that American nun did wasn"t something for a bit, she always had been quite nice to Xu Xilin. As she did entrust her kid to their family, so no matter what, they couldn"t be too not thorough with things.
One thing was one thing--that was something Xu Jin had always taught him.
After they were out of the school gates, Xu Jin checked her watch, and realized that it was dinnertime. She called her secretary, telling her to send the meeting record to her afterwards, and turned over to the two kids that were ignoring each other, saying, "I have to work extra hours tonight, so how about this, I"ll take you two to dinner, and you"ll have to take a cab home yourselves--the one that has to scrub the dishes can wait until tomorrow, we"ll push it back by one day."
Hearing this, Xu Xilin instantly tossed the fact that he had bombed this exam at the back of his mind--mother and son took the same liking to junk food, but, sadly, the main conductor of the kitchen was Grandma Xu. Grandma Xu did female roles in Peking opera when she was young, and kept her habit of eating healthily and finely until this day. Eating like that for a long time, a line of manchurian cranes could pop out in your mouth by the blandness.
Xu Xilin: "What are we going to have tonight?"
Xu Jin: "Pizza Hut!"
Xu Xilin faked being reluctant. "This probably won"t be good......Grandma"s always saying that you"re fat, and doesn"t let you eat these."
"I"m not fat, this is what they call "rich-like"!" Ms. Jin Xu"s brows arched high, "Your Grandma"s one of the leftover evil from the old society, and still believes that women"s waists can"t be over two feet, and anything more than that can only be called "middle", what old-school thoughts are these even! It should be criticized!"
After Ms. Xu Jin finished righteously criticizing, she called Dou Xun, who was s.p.a.cing out at the back, over. "You can"t tell this to Grandma when we get home, do you hear me? If you dare rebel, I"ll make you do a month of dishes."
It was the first time Dou Xun was forced to join a rebelling group like this. After staring at Xu Jin for a while, he finally registered what had just happened, and nodded uncomfortably.
"If this kid"s stubborn and tight wound, that"s fine, but why is he also dull?" Xu Jin thought. "That"s worrisome."
Xu Jin drove the two them to a Pizza Hut. At the entrance, she commanded them to stuff their uniform jackets into their backpacks, since if they didn"t, the jackets would be full of the smell of food and the dog would sniff it out. Then Xu Xilin dashed in headfirst, announcing right away, "I want a three meter three salad bowl!"
Hearing this, the server at the entrance turned purple.
Dou Xun, carrying a backpack close to unable to be zipped shut with an extra jacket in it and a blank expression on his face thought, "This is just too embarra.s.sing."
Knowing that Xu Xilin and Dou Xun weren"t too willing to cooperate with each other, Xu Jin didn"t force them to be at peace hastily. She bought two salad bar bowls, and let them free. "Go, see who can pile their bowl the highest."
Dou Xun held the small bowl in his hands, feeling as if he was back in kindergarten.
Then he looked at Xu Xilin and saw him in the midst of a group of little kids with no difficulty. The kids" heights lined up into a sinusoidal function, and Xu Tuanzuo was the shameless 90°.
"This is just too embarra.s.sing." The complaint was the only thing left in Dou Xun"s mind. And as it churned and rolled around in him, he moved his feet and walked over.
On Monday morning, Dou Xun didn"t go to school early for the free study period as usual. He first memorized vocabulary with Grandma Xu singing in the background, "Beautiful as a flower for you, the years flowing away like water." But he spent little time finishing memorizing the vocab, and as he really had nothing to do, he started to pick text that weren"t that boring from the textbook to memorize. He waited until almost all of his patience was wasted when he finally heard the slightest bit of noise from Xu Xilin"s room next door.
"The slightest bit of noise" was a concerto of six alarm clocks, stretching their necks, screeching at the same time. The ferocity of them were so great they could penetrate soundproof karaoke walls.
Dou Xun then packed his books and went downstairs, regretting his decision to wait for Xu Xilin at the same time. "Isn"t his brain there to be a tray for his face, so why does a tray need so much time to rest?"
Five minutes later, Xu Xilin dashed downstairs hurriedly. Seeing Dou Xun in the kitchen, he was surprised by more than a little bit. He thought, "Why hasn"t he gone off yet? He took the wrong medicine?"
The two of them, sitting at the same table, had an exchange of insults in silence the first thing, making the mood at breakfast weird.
After breakfast, they inevitably met the awkwardity of having to go to school together.
Dou Xun, uncomfortable, prepared himself mentally, thinking, "I"ll just have to see this as taking a dog out for a walk then."
Xu Xilin, on the other hand, had a composed face, thinking, "f.u.c.k, the bad luck star"s here, something bad"s definitely going to happen today."
The two of them left home one behind the other, a meter apart. The one walking at the front didn"t turn back, nor did the one trailing behind him go faster. They went to school together like this, both pretending they didn"t know the other.
Dou Xun felt like he forgot something for the entire way. Not until when he sat on his seat and saw Xu Xilin greeting the giant simpletons in the back did something move a little in his heart.
"Right, I should"ve said a "good morning"," Dou Xun thought.
But it was not early anymore. Before his "morning" could be spoken, it expired. Again.