16-1
Shortly after Yu Tian was discharged from the hospital, Yu Lele took the CET-4 exam again. Neither Uncle Yu nor her mother mentioned the incident that day; it seemed everyone had unanimously chosen to forgive the boy who caused the accident. Yu Tian was the only one who verbally supported his sister's decision; he even frowned and said to Yu Lele, "Sister, why don't we help her brother pay his tuition?"
But the boy quit his job at the construction company after that, and no one knew where he went. Yu Tian's kind wish had to be abandoned.
It seemed that Yu Lele only realized at this moment that she hadn't kept the boy's address, or even inquired about any other details. She felt a slight regret, but she couldn't say it.
Perhaps it was because of the suddenness of this event that the fragility of life was highlighted in an instant. The exams and future that had previously confused or filled Yu Lele with despair suddenly seemed insignificant. She seemed to suddenly realize that, apart from death, nothing is greater than the sky, and nothing is deeper than despair.
For the first time, she walked into the examination room without any psychological burden, no longer caring about the invigilator's sympathetic gaze, and ignoring the curiosity of her juniors. She simply answered the questions quietly, as if everything around her had nothing to do with her.
It seems like I suddenly realized overnight: as long as I'm alive, life goes on, and I can always get through it. So why let extra worries make me grow old and gray?
Do your best—that's the only way out.
She thought that she had done her best, had no regrets or excuses, and could let go of whatever the outcome might be.
After those things that were weighing you down mysteriously disappeared, the best outcome was being able to concentrate fully and perform with ease in the exam room.
Lian Haiping's tutoring was clearly effective. For the first time, Yu Lele didn't have to draw lots to determine the answers. Although she still felt uncertain when she walked out of the exam room, she knew that this time, no matter what the final result was, it was already a very satisfactory ending.
To express her gratitude to her mentor, Lian Haiping, Yu Lele decided to wait for him at the exam center entrance on the day his postgraduate entrance exam ended, to have dinner together and offer her best wishes. This unexpected turn of events startled Tie Xin, who was taking the exam in the same room as Lian Haiping. When she walked out of the exam center, she could hardly believe her eyes. She rubbed her eyes and nudged Lian Haiping, who was walking next to her, saying, "Hey, why does he look so much like Yu Lele?"
Lian Haiping glanced at Yu Lele across the street, who was playing games on her phone, and smiled: "She does look quite similar."
"You—" Tie Xin looked at Lian Haiping uncertainly, "Is she waiting for you?"
“You should ask her,” Lian Haiping laughed. “I’m also puzzled. When did my apprentice become so conscientious?”
Hearing the noisy commotion at the school gate, Yu Lele looked up and saw Tie Xin and Lian Haiping crossing the road and almost in front of her. She then flashed a big smile at the two of them.
"Lele, are you waiting for him or for me?" Tie Xin asked knowingly.
"I'll be waiting for you." Yu Lele said with a sincere expression.
“Nobody would believe that,” Tie Xin snorted, turned and walked away. “I don’t have the habit of working with Philips. Do as you please.”
Yu Lele smiled as she watched Tie Xin's retreating figure, when suddenly she felt a warmth on her hand. Looking down, she saw Lian Haiping holding her hand: "In the dead of winter, aren't you wearing gloves?"
Yu Lele smiled nonchalantly: "How can you play games while wearing gloves?"
As she spoke, she pulled a pair of furry gloves from her pocket and put them on. Lian Haiping let go of her gloves and teased her, "You really are a time-saver; you haven't forgotten to play games even in this short time."
"This little bit of time?" Yu Lele shrieked, "I arrived an hour early, okay? It's so cold, I waited for you for an hour, Master! Don't you feel even the slightest bit touched?"
Lian Haiping laughed heartily, then his voice gradually lowered: "But I've waited for you for four years, aren't you even a little bit moved?"
Yu Lele choked. This seemed to be the first time Lian Haiping had spoken so clearly, and pretending to be confused now would seem a bit too pretentious. Lian Haiping also felt a little embarrassed, and the atmosphere became very strange. The two walked side by side in silence, no longer speaking.
The Spring Festival came late that year, but school started early. The day when the CET-4 (College English Test Band 4) results were available was exactly the fifth day of school. Yu Lele went to the school's computer center to use the internet, because she'd heard the internet speed there was faster and less likely to disconnect while checking her scores.
Having experienced too many disappointments, Yu Lele couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the score. She rubbed her eyes, then rubbed them again. Next to the big smiley face on the computer screen was a red number: 67.5.
She found it a bit unbelievable, so she refreshed the page and re-entered her admission ticket number, and it was still 67.5!
In that instant, I didn't feel particularly happy; instead, I felt like crying.
She recalled an old saying, "After years of hardship, a daughter-in-law finally becomes a mother-in-law." Although it wasn't quite appropriate here, the feeling of finally being reborn filled her with mixed emotions of joy and sorrow, and she was speechless.
Just as Yu Lele was about to savor her feelings, her phone rang. She looked at it and saw that it was a text message from Lian Haiping, with only one line: "Internship assignments have been made. You're going to Experimental Middle School, and Xu Yin and I are going to Chaohua Middle School."
Suddenly, something exploded in Yu Lele's heart. Memories shattered into pieces, falling to the ground.
Is it the Experimental Middle School?
I'll probably never forget those memories from Experimental Middle School in my lifetime, right?
The strict teacher Li Jing, the English class where students were punished by standing, the crippled Class 5 of the second year of junior high school, the friendless teenage years... She could bury those loneliest years of her youth, but she could never forget them.
Of course, she remembered her original intention in choosing a teacher's college: she hoped to become a good teacher, a teacher who could make students feel happy, and she wanted to show them with her actions that they were the best students, and that their healthy minds were more worthy of pride and honor than mere scores and rankings.
For a long time, she had viewed her future teaching career as a predetermined journey, without suspense, only anticipation. She simply never imagined that her expectations, her dreams, would be realized on the campus of the Experimental Middle School!
While Yu Lele was lost in thought, someone patted her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw Lian Haiping, who smiled and said, "I knew you'd be here."
As he spoke, his gaze swept to the computer screen, looking at the 67.5, and he asked incredulously, "Your score?"
Yu Lele finally felt a little smug: "Of course!"
Lian Haiping was somewhat surprised: "You passed..."
Yu Lele gritted her teeth: "Why are you so surprised that I passed?"
Lian Haiping still looked a little surprised: "Finally, you passed!"
Yu Lele ignored Lian Haiping's dazed look. She was suddenly very curious: what would her trip to the Experimental Middle School be like?
Yu Lele had imagined a thousand and one scenarios for reporting for duty, but she never expected that the director of the Academic Affairs Office standing in front of her would actually be Li Jing!
Yu Lele was almost stunned.
Li Jing seemed a little surprised as well. She adjusted her glasses and asked hesitantly, "You are—"
"I am Yu Lele, hello Teacher Li." Yu Lele bowed respectfully.
Li Jing paused for a few seconds, then suddenly clapped her hands: "That's right! Your name is Yu Lele!"
She was a little excited: "My God, you've grown so much! How many years has it been since we last saw each other? Seven or eight years? You didn't talk much back then, but now you're a teacher!"
Li Jing looked at Yu Lele with an eager gaze, so intense that Yu Lele froze on the spot: Was this the same Li Jing who used to look at her coldly and always made her stand as punishment?
“I’ll take you to the first-year high school group for registration.” Li Jing said as she took Yu Lele’s hand and led her outside. Her palm was warm and soft, which made Yu Lele’s heart suddenly warm.
Walking down the corridor, Li Jing still couldn't contain her excitement: "Over the years, I've brought back many of our graduates for internships, but they were all very outgoing students before, and they were very friendly to me when they saw me. Only you, you didn't talk much back then, and you're still so quiet now, but you're going to be a teacher."
She was very curious: "By the way, how did your English grades go? I only know that you went to No. 1 High School, and I haven't seen you since."
Yu Lele blushed: "My English has never been good."
"Did you pass the CET-4?" Li Jing asked Yu Lele.
Yu Lele's face turned even redder: "It just happened a few days ago."
Li Jing was startled: "You only passed your senior year?"
Yu Lele wished she could disappear into a crack in the ground; her face flushed and her heart pounded, and she didn't even dare to lift her head.
Just as I was feeling embarrassed, I suddenly heard Li Jing sigh: "Actually, I always thought you weren't the kind of student who couldn't learn English. I often asked you questions and made you stand as punishment, hoping that you could be more serious and work harder to learn English well. But who would have thought that you still have no interest in this subject?"
"Teacher, how did you know I wasn't interested?" Yu Lele asked cautiously.
Li Jing smiled: "Look at their eyes. If a student doesn't like a course, their eyes will be dull and tired. Actually, I regretted it a little later, because if you don't like it, there's no use in forcing it. It might only make you hate the course even more."
Yu Lele was speechless, not expecting Li Jing to say that.
As they were talking, a girl suddenly ran up from the end of the corridor and bumped into Yu Lele. The girl was startled, looked up and saw Yu Lele, then saw Li Jing standing next to her, and stuck out her tongue in surprise: "Hello, teacher, I...I'm so sorry!"
Her accent was a little strange. Yu Lele looked at her and subconsciously wanted to say, "It's okay." But before she could say it, she heard Li Jing frown and say, "Zhuang Yuewei, as a girl, you shouldn't be acting so crazy. Can't you be a little more dignified?"
“Dignified…” Zhuang Yuewei carefully enunciated the word: “I am dignified, I even wear my school uniform.”
“Zhuang Yuewei, being dignified isn’t something you can achieve just by wearing a school uniform. Being dignified is a kind of temperament; it means that a girl should look generous and polite, and have proper manners,” Li Jing said helplessly. “What kind of dignified behavior is it for you to just blindly stumble around like this?”
"Oh, I understand, thank you, teacher," the girl smiled brightly, "Goodbye, teacher." As she spoke, she walked away quickly, occasionally glancing back mischievously at Li Jing and Yu Lele. Finally reaching the corner of the stairs, she suddenly started running again until she disappeared from sight.
Li Jing shook her head as she watched Zhuang Yuewei's retreating figure, and explained to Yu Lele, "Zhuang Yuewei is a transfer student who just returned from the United States. She's in your class. Her Chinese isn't good, and she's a typical 'banana'—her lifestyle and way of thinking are all Americanized. This kind of student is difficult to teach, so you should be prepared."
“America?” Yu Lele’s heart clenched with a sudden pain. America—that was where Xu Chen was going. She suddenly felt an inexplicable closeness to this girl named Zhuang Yuewei, as if Zhuang Yuewei was the bridge that helped her understand America—on one side of the bridge was herself, and on the other side was Xu Chen.
Just then, the school bell rang. Yu Lele tried her best to suppress her feelings of excitement and sadness as she followed Li Jing into Class 16 of Grade 1. When they saw Li Jing come in, the students stood up and greeted her in unison with "Hello, teacher." In that instant, Yu Lele felt a flood of youthful memories rushing back to her.
It seemed as if I were among them, wearing a dark blue school uniform, standing up, saluting, sitting down...
16-2
At their first meeting, Yu Lele stood on the podium and introduced herself: "Hello everyone, my surname is Yu, and I'm very happy to meet you all. Starting today, I will be your Chinese teacher for four months. I graduated from junior high school here seven years ago, and when I came back seven years later, I found that many buildings and facilities had changed. But I hope that whether seven years or seventeen years have passed, everyone will remember these four months we spent together and remember me as their teacher."
She turned around and wrote a line of letters on the blackboard, smiling at the students: "This is my email address. If you have any questions that you can't discuss in class, you can email me."
Before he could finish speaking, the students below the stage began to jeer in unison: "Teacher, do you have a QQ number?"
Yu Lele smiled and glanced at the students below the stage, then turned and wrote her QQ number on the blackboard. As she looked around at the students writing down her number, she suddenly heard someone shout, "Teacher, do you have a boyfriend?"
Yu Lele was stunned.
The class erupted in laughter, and the girls in the front row pounded their fists on the desks with glee. Amidst all sorts of stares, Yu Lele felt a little flustered, but she had to pretend to be calm: "Not yet, but it will happen in the future."
"Tch..." The boys and girls in the audience were clearly dissatisfied with Yu Lele's answer.
"Teacher, my brother said that you can start dating once you get to college, is that true? But you're about to graduate, why don't you have a boyfriend yet?" One of the girls was determined to get to the bottom of it.
“I think love is about dating the right person at the right time,” Yu Lele thought for a moment and answered seriously, “So, just because I don’t have one now doesn’t mean I won’t have one in the future.”
"Teacher, what do you think about puppy love?" another girl asked.
She answered seriously: "I think if you can take responsibility for each other's future, 16 is not too early. If you are not mature enough to take responsibility for each other's future, then 26 is still too early."
"So, teacher, you support puppy love?" the girl in the first row asked, her eyes wide.
“I support all mature relationships,” she said, gently biting her lower lip, trying to suppress some surging memories and sentimentality. “Relationships during our student days are the most beautiful, and we should all cherish them.”
"Teacher, did you have a crush on anyone when you were in middle school?" The girls were incredibly excited.
"I think I did like them." Yu Lele was starting to feel exhausted from dealing with these students and wanted to stop asking questions, but she couldn't bear to interrupt because she wanted to leave a fresh impression on each other.
"Isn't he handsome?" The crowd below the stage was in high spirits.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Don't you think he's handsome?" Yu Lele smiled as she looked at the students below the stage.