Chapter 10 (1/2)

Chapter 10: What Do I Do Without You

Homeroom teacher Lin Shu Zhen had gotten married over the May holidays. The students gifted her a set of two baby angel dolls, with pale blue wings.

“Toys today are really great, just a tiny doll can cost 150,” Li Yun Wei tsk-ed.

“You get what you pay for,” He Luo replied. “This dolls are not made of rubber, it’s all made of ceramics. Even the red on their cheeks and lips are painted on. The store owner said they won’t fade even after ten years.”

Bai Lian smiled. “Teacher Xiao Lin will only admire it for a couple of years. When she has a real doll [baby], she won’t have time for fake ones.”

“Ay.” Tian Xin who noticed Lin Shu Zhen walking past the field looked surprised. “She was still a virgin last month.”

The girls widened their eyes at Tian Xin. “What are you saying!?”

“Did I say anything wrong?” Tian Xin spread out her hands. “Don’t tell me you all fell asleep during the Health cla.s.s [t/n: think s.e.x education].”

“Oh, go away you.” Li Yun Wei asked, “Have any of you seen Teacher Lin’s husband?”

He Luo remembered what happened in the temple at the beginning of the year. She said, “I’ve met him. Both of them were originally really sweet on each other, but once they saw me, Teacher Lin immediately shoved her boyfriend away.”

“Do you know why?” Tian Xin smiled slyly. “The other day I went to the English department office and overheard the teachers quietly discussing. Teacher Lin’s boyfriend was her high school cla.s.smate. Even though their voices were very low, but I’m someone who underwent professional pitch training!”

“Ah, was that it!” Everyone understood immediately.

“If the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam will be crooked [t/n: the subordinates will imitate their superiors’ vices].”

“No wonder she never emphasised to the students not to partake in puppy romances, she herself is a bad example.” The girls laughed happily at the thought.

“She’s not considered a bad example. Teacher Lin was one of the top students in the English department back then.” He Luo motioned at the back of Teacher Lin with her chin. “Doesn’t she look quite happy now?”

“Aren’t you jealous, aren’t you envious!” Tian Xin teased. “Then hurry up and catch up to her!”

Li Yun Wei said, “He Luo, you and my seatmate are both quite straightforward people. Why is it now so ambiguous between the two of you with unnecessary fears?”

Bai Lian also added, “That’s right. The two of you can help compensate for each other’s weaknesses. When we were in primary school, isn’t there a saying that goes, ‘One help another, one group will be successful’?”

Remembering what they said about helping to compensate for each other’s weaknesses, He Luo asked Zhang Yuan this when they were going home together. “How was your English test yesterday?”

“Not bad. But the questions on the test are printed too small, I had to squint to answer them.” Zhang Yuan turned around, walking backwards, and made a cross-eyed face at her.

“Eh, then why can’t I do the cross-eye?”

He Luo asked.

Zhang Yuan waved two fingers in front of her face. “Use your eyes separately.” As he spoke, he lessened the gap between the two fingers until they were together. “Come, slowly, you’ll reach there eventually.”

“No way, my eyes are all blurry.” After trying for a good amount of time, He Luo gave up. She frowned. “I surrender, I surrender.” She waved her hand. “I really don’t understand. You all must be non-humans. Right, there are even those who can move their ears.”

“That would be me,” Zhang Yuan replied, showing off his talent.

“You must have not evolved properly, you’re still jumping around like a big monkey.” He Luo tried to exercise her facial muscles but her ears firmly refused to move.

“Stop trying,” Zhang Yuan laughed. “Your face is being twisted this and that way, I’m worried that tonight I will be having nightmares of you.”

“Ai, we were originally talking about Englis.h.!.+” He Luo patted her face that had gone rigid. “Which part did you feel you didn’t answer properly?”

“I think I did fairly decent in every part.” Zhang Yuan answered after some thought, “But teacher would definitely think that whatever I answer is no good.” He opened his hands with some feeling of desolation. “It’s as if the truth of liberal arts is beyond my grasp.”

“Liar. You never revised liberal arts or English subjects.”

“Da Jie [big sister], instinct is natural-born.”

“Who told you that? It’s like the instinct for the ball [game], you must practice in order for there to be any progress.” He Luo became serious and continued, “Wasn’t I really terrible at dribbling in the beginning? You kept on breaking my ball.”

“Silly girl, I can still break your ball now.” Zhang Yuan can’t help a smile remembering their days practicing together and He Luo’s satisfied face when she successfully stole the ball from him.

“Then you can only blame yourself for being an inept teacher.” He Luo scrunched her nose.

“Who told you that? You’re the student that I carefully mentored [t/n: he used a proverb saying hands holding hands], the student that I brought into the pa.s.sion personally. Your cultivation is based your own apt.i.tude.”

Hands holding hands? He Luo suddenly recalled something and held onto Zhang Yuan’s bag. “Hey, hang on. Let me ask you…” But as soon as the words reached her lips, she became self-conscious and awkward. “Never mind, I’ll let you live.”

“En, what’s the matter?”

“You… you’re doing it on purpose right.”

“What doing it on purpose?” Zhang Yuan immediately understood what she was getting at but pretended not to, just staring at her with a smile.

“Purposely helping me with the ball dribbling posture.”

“Of course I did it purposely [consciously], it’s not like I’m sleepwalking.”

“You know I’m not asking this!” He Luo lowered her head and kicked the curb. “Aiyo!” Her head accidentally hit the pole roadside and cried out in pain.

“Looks like you’re the one sleepwalking.” Zhang Yuan pulled her to him, laughing. He removed her hands that were pressing on her throbbing forehead. “Don’t rub it anymore, the more you do it, the worse it gets.”

“It really hurts. It’s even bruised.” Her tone sounded a little teary.

“Let me see.” He lifted her bangs away. “It looks okay. It’s only a little dirty in the middle.” Zhang Yuan giggled. “It hasn’t been raining the past two weeks but they really didn’t waste the grey [of the weather], it’s all on your forehead.”

“This is too embarra.s.sing,” He Luo said.

“Let me help you.” Zhang Yuan gently wiped her forehead with the edge of his sleeve.

She remembered seeing, though not from where, that the most ideal height between a couple was when the girl’s nose was parallel to the first b.u.t.ton of the boy’s s.h.i.+rt. This way, when they were hugging, she could put her arms around his shoulder. He Luo observed for a moment and decided that she was short by five centimetres. Standing in front of him, only one hug’s distance away, she had to look up in order to see the neckline of the t-s.h.i.+rt he wore inside his s.h.i.+rt.

“Will you hug her?”

“Of course I will.”

“Will you kiss her?”

“I don’t have the chance at the moment, I will try and fight for it in the future.”

She wondered, Therefore, in this busy crossing, will he hug me? With such a distance, during a kiss, would he be the one bending over or will I be the one lifting my feet? He Luo’s face reddened as she pondered over this. She was too embarra.s.sed to look at him or his sea-blue s.h.i.+rt and white inner t-s.h.i.+rt. Her head sank lower and lower, her eyes on the red and green of the sidewalk.