CH 78

Miaomiao sat there and awaited the arrival of Zhou Yuan’s parents and the headteacher. She felt very unusual.

It was late in the night, and no sound could be heard. The silence was deafening. Occasionally, the clacking of passing high heels resounded throughout the corridors.

Miaomiao gulped nervously as she walked silently to the other side of the bed. There were some hospital beds, which were still empty, next to Zhou Yuan’s bed. 

At this time, it was raining heavily outside, and a strong gust of wind blew through the window.

She closed the window, turned around, and saw Zhou Yuan as he sat up in silence.

Miaomiao was taken aback, and her heart nearly stopped.

Zhou Yuan was a little embarrassed, “I’m sorry. I scared you.”

Miaomiao felt even more embarrassed, “It’s alright. I’m glad you woke up. I heard the doctor explain to you that you’re under too much pressure…”

As soon as she finished saying that, Miaomiao felt that it was unbefitting for her to say that since she was merely an elementary school classmate he knew from many years ago. The two of them lacked familiarity with each other, and such an opening statement was incongruous.

She also felt a little strange. Whenever she faced Zhou Yuan, she was so embarrassed that she didn’t know what to say.

She couldn’t tell if it was due to their past acquaintanceship or if it was due to their unpleasant reunion. 

“Thank you for bringing me to the hospital,” Zhou Yuan, breaking the embarrassing atmosphere in the room.

“You’re welcome. I’m the class president; therefore, I’m kind of responsible for my classmates,” Miaomiao replied. Not to mention that he was one of her childhood friends.

Zhou Yuan hummed in assent and said, “Thank you, class president.”

Miaomiao kind of liked it when Zhou Yuan acknowledged her as the class president. The room’s atmosphere was plunged into an air of embarrassment. “I’ll pour you a cup of warm water. Your parents and headteacher should be arriving soon,” Miaomiao chirruped as she looked at the empty water container.

When Miaomiao took the container and went out, she met Father Zhou, who was on his way over.

“Miaomiao?” Father Zhou spoke with uncertainty.

It has been years since he last saw this little girl before him who had blossomed into a high school student.

The headteacher phoned him earlier that the class president Hua Miaomiao had sent Zhou Yuan to the hospital. After the on-duty nurse downstairs for the room number, he came up. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Miaomiao and couldn’t help calling her.

Miaomiao had no memory of this person, but she could still deduce that he was Zhou Yuan’s father.

“Hello, Uncle Zhou.” Miaomiao greeted, “Zhou Yuan is already awake. He is on the IV drip.”

“Miaomiao, thank you for bringing Zhou Yuan to the hospital.”

Father Zhou brought the fruit basket into the room and set it down on the counter. Then he said to his son on the bed, “I still remember you telling me to bring fruit whenever you visit someone in the hospital.”

Zhou Yuan remembered this well. He enunciated those words when Miaomiao’s mother was in the hospital.

Father Zhou asked as he walked up to take a gander at the medical record sheet in front of his bed, “Have you been up late again?”

Zhou Yuan replied curtly, “No.” He was already used to his previous work schedule and rest routine, which made it difficult for him to sleep.

Father Zhou looked at Zhou Yuan’s expression, which conveyed his indifference. The same as before.

Father Zhou didn’t know when Zhou Yuan became like this.

Father Zhou then teased, “By the way, your little wife looks beautiful.”

Zhou Yuan peered up helplessly and responded, “She’s just a little girl; do not say that in front of her.”

Both of them were already dropped into an embarrassing position. This would just serve to aggravate the abashment between them if Miaomiao were to hear those words.

A joke like this no longer had any meaning.

Father Zhou spoke, “Alright, no more joking around. Your teacher said that she’s a reassuring class president who takes good care of her fellow classmates.”

Zhou Yuan: “…” The class president is supposed to be responsible for basically everything, every detail, in their class. Isn’t that reassuring?

Even though Zhou Yuan wasn’t speaking, he was obviously listening and digesting his father’s words. Father Zhou continued, “She acts the same way you did when you were a child. You took care of your classmates back then also. You sometimes got in trouble with the teacher for that.”

Zhou Yuan listened in silence.

When Miaomiao returned, she was about to open the door when she heard voices resonating from inside.

“At the time, you kept saying that you disliked them because they were too childish and clingy and wasted their time on playing around…”

Hua Miaomiao: “…” She suddenly felt her knees aching as she processed those words. She did seem to be very naive and clingy back then…and she loved playing around.

Hua Miaomiao suddenly remembered that she had also invited him to watch a movie over the weekends…

He would definitely believe that I was a naive child who wasted too much time frolicking around for many years.

Miaomiao conjectured that the father and son had much more to talk about, so she returned to the room, where she boiled the water, with the jug. 

Miaomiao pulled out her cell phone and saw that she had an unread message on her QQ account, which read, “Hua Miaomiao, you have a black heart! Why did you take our class’ quota?!”

The person sent the message through their class group, which their headteacher had created by combining both classes.

Miaomiao remembered this girl. Last year, she discovered that the adjacent class had borrowed five places from her class. At that time, she had a pdf file and could not transfer it with her mobile phone. The computer in the classroom couldn’t connect to the Internet either. Miaomiao found out about it by chance when she went to an Internet cafe.

Miaomiao was prepared to speak with the headteacher about this matter, but she realized that there was a problem. She had no evidence to support her claim. 

The classes were equally divided. One class was like a community of people with similar interests. It would have been stupid if someone had admitted to money laundering or the immoral embezzlement of funds that were meant for the impoverished students.

The money was deposited into the accounts of five classmates. If they confessed, then they would lose the money. Students, who profited from this embezzlement, would never admit to it.

There were deep-seated grievances between the two classes, and the students of each class would definitely band together if some conflict occurred.

In other words, if she did something wrong, and the president from their adjacent class pointed it out, then her classmates would just sweep her mistakes under the rug and hide her mistakes under a veil of secrecy.

Miaomiao had been waiting to apply for scholarship subsidies since last year, but asking for two spots from the adjoining class wasn’t planned beforehand.

She never expected a response from a student from the adjacent classroom.

Miaomiao replied, “Firstly, we have twelve students who have applied. Seven of them hold the appropriate certifications, while the application forms of the other five have been reviewed by our headteacher. Your class president just so happened to be in the office when I spoke with our headteacher, so she offered me two spots from your class since she had borrowed five spots from our class last year.”

“I also have the appropriate certificates, so why should I give up my place to you?” the girl replied after a while.

Miaomiao gazed at the darkling sky from the window before replying, “There are seven people in our class with certificates. Are there nine people in your class?”

At that time, Li Jiao took out the application forms of four classmates. Miaomiao did not peruse it scrupulously back then, but at that time, she believed that Li Jiao didn’t have the authority to take out the applications of the students who had low-income guarantees and poor household certificates, right?

Miaomiao closed her eyes when she realized why the other party was so angry with her.

Li Jiao had to have told her that she couldn’t apply for a poverty subsidy this year because Miaomiao had taken the girl’s spot.

Miaomiao didn’t explicitly state that, but she just hinted at it and left the girl to think about it.

The relationship between the two classes wasn’t good, so it wasn’t a good thing to be too direct. If she directly told her that her class president has lied to her, then the girl would probably fervently reject her claim.

Miaomiao indirectly hinted at two things. Firstly, she only asked for two spots, but she didn’t specify whose spots she wanted. Secondly, students who possessed the certificates could definitely apply. 

Miaomiao eventually snapped out her musings and thought that Zhou Yuan and his father, who were in the ward, should’ve already sorted through everything by now, so she returned to Zhou Yuan’s room.

When Miaomiao returned to the room, the doctor had just emerged. 

He should’ve finished conversing with Father Zhou.

When Miaomiao entered, a wave of embarrassment washed over due to the atmosphere between the two of them.

Miaomiao poured water into two cups and gave them to Zhou Yuan and his father.

After downing his cup of water, Father Zhou said, “Miaomiao, it’s been a hard day for you. I’ll bring you home.”

Miaomiao responded, “It’s all right. The hospital isn’t far from the school. I’ll sleep in the school dormitory.” She had a bed reserved for her in the dormitory, and she occasionally slept in it.

“Then I’ll send you back to school.”

After all, it was late in the night, and the thought of her going out on her own somewhat frightened him.

Miaomiao peered at Zhou Yuan. Coincidentally, he just so happened to peer back at her as well. Their gazes met, and Zhou Yuan said, “It’s been a rough day for you, class president.”

“No problem. Then you have a good rest.”

When they reached the ground floor, Father Zhou couldn’t help but say, “When you were little, you guys were very close.”

Miaomiao nodded, “I give him my thanks for caring for me at that time.”

“That…” Father Zhou was hesitant with his request, but he still asked, “Could you take care of him from now on?”

“What?” Miaomiao was confused.

“Don’t misunderstand. I just think that it would be good if you were to include him in any future activities that you do at school. Also, talk to him when there isn’t anything to do from now on.”

Although Miaomiao hesitated, she still asked, “What happened to him?”

“He has been under a mountain of stress lately, so his mood isn’t very good.”

Miaomiao: “…” He always seemed fine to me.

Father Zhou continued expounding to Miaomiao,”He was in business, and someone, who he trusted, had betrayed and deceived him. He grew up in a very happy, carefree environment and had never experienced deceit like that before. He always dreamt about being the person who would change the world, but he never realized how much corruption and backstabbing goes on in the real world. Furthermore, he did try to tell some people about this, but their indifference and insouciance dismayed him; if a problem didn’t affect them directly, they either didn’t believe it, didn’t care, or ignored it and pretended that it never happened, and then they went about their own happy, carefree lives. He has no one that he could fully trust or rely on.”          

His explication stunned Miaomiao.

No wonder why he speaks so little nowadays. 

Father Zhou continued to explicate, “It’s not that you should take extra care of him. I just want you to play or talk with him. He has always remembered you and still regards you as his best friend. After he left, he was always surrounded by adults, but he was still a child. Despite the maturity of his mind, he has no friends.”

Miaomiao conjured up an image of a child going to college and surrounded by a bunch of adults.

He must have had a hard time.

“As the class president, I have to help new classmates adjust to our class life.”

Miaomiao dwelled on it.

Including him into the lives of his peers and classmates…currently, we’re concerned about being successful with our midterms and receiving good grades.

Her roommate was a little surprised to see Miaomiao returning to her dormitory to sleep, “Class president, you told me that you were heading home to sleep, or was I mistaken?”

“Zhou Yuan is sick. I brought him to the hospital,” Miaomiao maundered as she grabbed the cup, which contained her toothbrush, and headed outside to brush her teeth and wash her face.

In a few minutes, the lights will be turned off.

Her thoughts still swirled around her new dilemma. She had to find a way to help her newest classmate adjust to his new surroundings.

The lights were already off when she returned to the room.

Everyone was still awake, and they conversed with each other. The dormitory was large, and eight people lived there, seven of her classmates in addition to her.

“He doesn’t enjoy speaking much. He’s been here for so long, but he seems to only talk to the class president.”

“And he sleeps in class.”

“You haven’t realized it yet? He sleeps in class all day, and yet he attends the same class as us. Do you know what this means? He has a high IQ!”

Miaomiao already inferred that these girls were talking about Zhou Yuan from those few sentences.

“Class president. What do you think of Zhou Yuan?”

“Class president. Did you ask Zhou Yuan if he has a girlfriend?”

“Well…”

“Well…don’t know what to say.” Miaomiao really didn’t know what to say.

“Class president, he looks quite handsome, don’t you agree?”

“Class president would just say ‘no’ again. She’ll just say that they’re too young to be in a relationship. I went to the same middle school as the class president, and she was very popular back then.”

“Little Three, you have such valuable information, but you never told us this!”

Miaomiao interjected, “The warden is coming. Go to sleep.”

“I’m guarding the door. The warden hasn’t arrived yet. Come on, continue speaking!”

“The class president also took up the mantle of class president back then. During our first year of middle school, many second-year boys confessed to her. Even the school grass* confessed to her, but the class president rejected them all nonchalantly as if she didn’t have a care in the world.”

“Ohohohoh!”

“Ohohohoh!”

“That’s why we were able to enroll in the same class.” Miaomiao then delineated, the caution evident in her voice, “Aren’t you aware that you’re not supposed to fall in love at such an early age?” 

Although the school forbade early love, there were a few students who kept their relationships under wraps so that the school wouldn’t find out about them. In Miaomiao’s class alone, there were two pairs of students who hid their relationships behind a shroud of ambiguity and secrecy. Miaomiao also kept this secret from the school. It was better to turn a blind eye to such things.

“Who’s more handsome? Zhou Yuan or that other boy?”

“Zhou Yuan. I feel that Zhou Yuan is much more mature.”

Miaomiao: “…”

“The warden is here!” the girl at the door whispered.

The bedroom suddenly fell into silence.

Miaomiao was in her bed, covered in a quilt. She stared up at the ceiling. The question that everyone had asked her just now floated in her mind.

What kind of person is Zhou Yuan?

She stared at the ceiling for a little while longer before slowly drifting off to sleep.

Miaomiao felt as if she was running through a field. The colorful flowers and plants parted before her as she continued her advance. Exhaustion had overtaken Miaomiao, yet it seemed as if she couldn’t stop.  

Suddenly, she espied Zhou Yuan, who stood not too far away. Then, he transformed into a child-like version of himself and said with a cold expression, “You’re so naive, childish, and clingy!”

Miaomiao suddenly jolted awake, only to discover that it was merely a dream. She recalled the phantasmagoria of images that she saw in her dream, and she felt like laughing.

That’s funny yet unusual. Why did I have this dream all of a sudden?

The next morning, Miaomiao went to her classroom earlier than usual. She found Zhou Yuan already there.

Miaomiao greeted him, “Good morning, Zhouzhou.”

After uttering those words, a feeling of surprise overtook Miaomiao.

I accidentally called him Zhouzhou.

Those two words rolled off her lips as if those words were entrenched within her due to her saying them so many times.

Those two words also caused Zhou Yuan to freeze for a moment. Just like Miaomiao, Zhou Yuan also recalled such scenes from their past.

“Good morning,” Zhou Yuan responded.

Miaomiao sat down and asked, “By the way, did you finish your homework yesterday?”

As Miaomiao took out her exercise book, she said, “my answer differs from the reference answer. The reference answer is the final answer. I don’t know where I went wrong.”

He felt as if he had gone back in time to when he was child as soon as he heard Miaomiao’s enunciation of those phrases. He would go to school and finish his homework during the mornings; then, Miaomiao would come and compare her answers with his.

As Zhou Yuan leaned over, he looked at her problem-solving methodology and realized that he didn’t know enough about chemistry.

He began his college education by studying finance straight away. Along with his finance courses, he also took English, linear algebra, probability theory, advanced mathematics, and statistics.

He immersed himself in some books that were about biochemistry and physics by himself, and therefore he also understood some stuff about those subjects.

Zhou Yuan perused the question. He took out his chemistry textbook, checked the corresponding chapter, and then he flipped through the front.

Afterward, he looked at Miaomiao’s exercise book to check how she solved the problems. Then, he pointed out her mistake by delineating, “The divalent element that’s suggested here should be ‘c’; therefore, the answer is methanol. You should recalculate the result to make sure that it’s correct.”

Miaomiao was already dumbfounded, “How did you do that?”

He just quickly flipped through his book right now, how does he know all this?

Within his heart, Zhou Yuan felt a tinge of joy as he caught a glimpse of her expression. It was the first time she had shown such an expression since their reunion.

Miaomiao recalculated her answer, but her answer this time matched the one in the one in the textbook’s reference.

Miaomiao couldn’t help but peer at Zhou Yuan again, “Big Boss**!”

Zhou Yuan was amused by this nickname. “If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me.”

“I can tell that you’re going to regret your suggestion later,” Miaomiao said.

Zhou Yuan’s eyebrows twitched, and he teased her, “I’m starting to regret it now.”

“Words spoken are like water spilled***.” Miaomiao shrugged as she spoke.

“Not necessarily. Even if you had purchased insurance, you still have time to reverse your decision.”

“Just like QQ and WeChat, where we can withdraw our messages within two minutes?”

They looked at each other and laughed. It was as if the awkward atmosphere between them had completely vanished.

Miaomiao realized that Zhou Yuan had begun listening to the lectures in their class.

As he attended class, he exuded an aura befitting of some big shot who arrived at a meeting.

This train of thought amused Miaomiao. As Zhou Yuan turned his head, he saw her laughing all by herself.

“What are you laughing at?” Zhou Yuan asked her in a muffled voice.

Miaomiao handed him a piece of paper. She wrote on it, “Don’t you think the teacher is a little bit too nervous? You play the part of a teacher better than our teacher does.”

The teacher was obviously nervous. Afterall, Zhou Yuan was a doctoral student!

He didn’t mind it when Zhou Yuan didn’t listen to his lectures. Now that he had his undivided attention, whenever the teacher looked at Zhou Yuan, it felt as if he had said something wrong.

Zhou Yuan didn’t behave like a high-schooler. He looked like someone who came to assess the teacher’s teaching abilities and prowess.

Zhou Yuan wrote something on the piece of paper before handing it back to her.

Miaomiao then saw his eloquent handwriting on it, “If I were to be your teacher, I would definitely reward you with two red flowers.”

Memories were truly magical things. An image of two red flowers suddenly flashed into Miaomiao’s mind.

Miaomiao blushed and wrote on the piece of paper, “Will you also give little red flowers to your students whenever they pass notes during class time?”

Soon, he wrote back, “If I did, would that mean that I’m an excellent teacher who loves and cares for his students?”

Miaomiao: “…” Uncle, didn’t you say that your son was in a bad mood?

*School grass – The most handsome boy on the campus.

** Big Boss –  It’s an internet term to describe a person who is very good in a certain aspect.

***Words spoken are like water spilled – This metaphor means that the once spoken words cannot be taken back as the once spilled water cannot be taken back.