Even though she was there to keep watch on Xu Yu, Tan Yin still couldn’t help but pour her entire attention onto Chu Hang in that moment. It wasn’t until Chu Hang finished playing that she belatedly noticed Xu Yu had already come to stand right beside her.
Xu Yu, too, had naturally been won over by the performance, but after praising it, he couldn’t help but look puzzled. “Chu Hang, why does it feel like you played with so much intensity today? Like you were showing off or something? Every other time I’ve begged and pleaded for you to give me even one demonstration, you’ve always refused — how come today you played so readily? If it weren’t just the two of us in this practice room, I’d think you were trying to show off in front of some girl, using piano-playing as an excuse to pick her up!”
Chu Hang lifted his eyelids. “I’m in a good mood today.”
“Good mood? A good mood made you roast me like that just now?”
Chu Hang’s tone remained perfectly composed: “I love you so much it turns to hate — I suddenly felt disappointed in your lack of progress.” ???
Xu Yu thought it over. “Well, since you’re in such a good mood today, why not play me Liszt’s ‘Nightingale’ too — I’ve never quite gotten the hang of that one either.”
Chu Hang stroked the plump cat, utterly insincere: “Oh, my good mood’s suddenly gone again.”
“…”
After that, Xu Yu practiced a bit more based on Chu Hang’s feedback, while Tan Yin turned her focus back to Xu Yu once more.
When Xu Yu went to the bathroom partway through, Tan Yin immediately got up and followed, waiting outside the bathroom door; when Xu Yu went downstairs to the little convenience store for a drink, Tan Yin followed without a word; when Xu Yu had practiced enough and said goodbye to Chu Hang to leave first, Tan Yin followed right along too…
Though Tan Yin’s main focus today wasn’t Chu Hang, for some reason, every time she followed Xu Yu out and then came back to the practice room, Chu Hang’s expression seemed to sour a bit more. By the time she’d followed Xu Yu out for the very last time, Chu Hang’s face had grown positively long, looking practically like a widow mourning alone in her chambers in middle age…
Could it be that good-looking men were all this temperamental? Tan Yin thought Chu Hang really was unfathomable, impossible to please.
Unfortunately, not long after Tan Yin had followed Xu Yu out again, the thunderstorm began showing signs of stopping. She had no choice but to dash to the bathroom to wait for the rain to pass and return to normal, and in the end she came back completely empty-handed, without any dirt on Xu Yu at all.
But though she hadn’t managed to dig up anything on Xu Yu, at least the thunderstorm stopped just in time — Tan Yin checked the time and found she’d make it just in time for department head Zhu Kangmei’s structural mechanics class.
Jogging the whole way, she made it to class with a full ten minutes to spare. Tan Yin found Jiang Yilu and gave her a quick briefing on the situation.
“Digging up real dirt was never going to be easy. Don’t stress, sis — get what you can, and if you can’t, don’t force it. I’ve come around to thinking we should just be zen about it. Other people’s anger isn’t worth getting sick over!”
Sure enough, the moment she’d said that, Jiang Yilu pulled out her phone: “Oh right, sis, I just saw this new bag on Taobao — what do you think?”
Retail therapy really does cure everything. As a certified shopaholic, no matter how angry Jiang Yilu was, online shopping could instantly heal her. Having shared the bag she’d fallen for, she moved on to share a new women’s clothing shop she’d discovered too.
Tan Yin had no interest in the bag, but a new dress sounded quite fitting — the weather had started warming up recently, and Tan Yin happened to have a bit of spare cash, so it was about time to treat herself to a new dress.
She clicked into the shop Jiang Yilu had sent her and got absorbed in browsing too. “This new dress isn’t bad — the gap between the buyer photos and seller photos isn’t too big either, the reviewer photos look pretty good…”
But before Tan Yin could even finish her sentence, a cold male voice cut her off: “You really are the type who tires of the old for the new in every single area of life, aren’t you.”
Tan Yin looked up to find that, without her noticing when, Chu Hang had sat down in the seat right in front of her. Having said his piece with a stony expression, he ignored Tan Yin entirely and turned coldly back around, leaving her with a view of the back of his head. ???
Tan Yin was utterly baffled — how had she managed to offend Chu Hang this time? She buys a new dress and gets moralized at for it? And besides, so what if she liked new things over old — wasn’t that basic human nature? If girls never bought new clothes and new dresses, how would they ever stimulate domestic demand and drive socialist economic growth? And what did he even mean, “in every single area of life” — where else had she supposedly tired of the old for the new? Completely unreasonable!
Soon, Zhu Kangmei walked into the classroom, and Tan Yin stopped letting her mind wander, quickly putting away her phone and sitting up straight, ready to listen attentively.
Structural mechanics was Tan Yin’s weak subject; she’d spent a great deal of time after class doing practice problems, and from her initial state of complete confusion, she’d now reached a point where she could follow along fairly comfortably with Zhu Kangmei’s lectures.
After finishing a topic, Zhu Kangmei cleared his throat and pulled out the papers from the last pop quiz. “Come up when I call your name to collect your paper. You all are truly the worst class I’ve ever taught — just look at the state of these papers.”
“Zhang Yongwei, 54 points, were you doing this with your eyes closed? Congratulations, you’ve claimed dead last in the entire grade — well earned.”
“Han Haibo, 55 points, you two are really sweating it out competing for last place in the class together, aren’t you — work a little harder next time, last place could still be all yours.”
…
Zhu Kangmei was quite the character — every time pop quiz results came out, he’d put on a whole performance, reading off names starting from last place all the way up to first, calling each student up to the front to collect their paper in front of everyone. For those with poor grades, he never failed to add a few biting remarks, deliberately making them squirm with embarrassment, all in the supposed name of “knowing shame leads to courage.”
“Zhao Changwen, 89 points, steady performance, not bad, third place.”
“Tan Yin, 90 points, second place.”
“Chu Hang, 98 points, undisputed first place.”
…
When reading off the good scores, Zhu Kangmei’s expression was generally quite relaxed, and he didn’t rack his brain trying to come up with snarky remarks either. But the moment he finished reading Chu Hang’s paper, this duck-faced professor suddenly frowned, sensing something wasn’t quite right.
He pulled out Tan Yin’s paper. “Tan Yin? Second place?”
Not just Zhu Kangmei — even Chu Hang, walking up to the front behind Tan Yin to collect his own paper, glanced over at her.
Zhu Kangmei clearly didn’t believe it. He set Chu Hang’s paper aside, held onto Tan Yin’s, and scrutinized it carefully, frowning, worried he might have made a grading error in a moment of carelessness — but unfortunately, no matter how long he searched, he couldn’t find a single flaw.
Just as Tan Yin was expecting Zhu Kangmei to hand back her paper with high praise and a newfound respect for her, she heard him say instead —
“Tan Yin, did you cheat?” ???
Cheat, my foot!
And because of Zhu Kangmei’s leading remark, combined with Tan Yin’s admittedly mediocre track record in this subject, quite a few classmates now wore looks of complicated, knowing suspicion.
This was infuriating enough to make Tan Yin want to explode: “Teacher Zhu, accusing someone requires evidence — you’re calling me a cheater with no proof at all, isn’t that grossly unfair to me? Are struggling students not even allowed to rise up and catch up through hard work?”
Zhu Kangmei pushed up his glasses, his voice utterly self-assured: “I’m basing this on your consistent past performance. After all, improving this much in such a short time is somewhat suspicious.”
“Wasn’t there a study-support pairing group formed recently? I’m Chu Hang’s assigned mentee — a great teacher produces an outstanding student, that’s all.”
Zhu Kangmei frowned and looked at Chu Hang. “Chu Hang, is that right?”
Chu Hang pressed his lips together. “I did tutor her for a while, but not for very long. The improvement in her grades should be the result of her own effort.”
Tan Yin couldn’t help but shoot Chu Hang a furious glare right then — did he think she’d be grateful for his noble gesture of not taking credit? This was hardly the moment to be humble about credit — this was the moment to prove her innocence, okay?!
Fortunately, since Chu Hang was now involved, Zhu Kangmei’s attitude did a complete hundred-eighty-degree turn: “Alright then, after class, Tan Yin, you and Chu Hang come to my office together. Chu Hang, I trust you, so I’ll have you supervise and come up with a few problems for Tan Yin to solve — if Tan Yin can solve them, I’ll validate her pop quiz score.”
Though Tan Yin was seething inside, she knew she was in no position to argue under someone else’s roof, so she could only swallow her anger and sit back down. Through the rest of the class, she was so fired up she couldn’t focus at all — and, as if to make matters worse, the sky outside grew dark with clouds again, brewing yet another thunderstorm.
Fortunately, this storm held off until Zhu Kangmei finished his lecture — right at lunchtime. The moment class ended, everyone else scattered like startled birds, and soon the classroom was down to just four or five people.
Zhu Kangmei, gathering his teaching materials without looking up, said: “Alright, Tan Yin, Chu Hang, come with me to my office.”
Tan Yin, naturally eager to clear her name immediately, was just about to speak when lightning flashed outside the window, followed by rumbling thunder…
Tan Yin instantly went invisible…
Jiang Yilu, who’d been standing right beside Tan Yin, immediately realized Tan Yin’s sudden disappearance meant she’d gone invisible, and she stammered out an explanation on the spot: “Um… Teacher Zhu, Tan Yin, Tan Yin’s stomach wasn’t feeling well, she went to the bathroom!”
Zhu Kangmei hadn’t been looking up just then, so naturally he had no idea whether Tan Yin had even been in the classroom before. The other few students were all too absorbed in their phones to notice either — except Chu Hang. Given the angle he’d been standing at, he should have been able to see her!
Tan Yin’s heart pounded anxiously as she silently prayed not to be mistaken for some paranormal phenomenon — but she saw that Chu Hang’s face showed not the slightest hint of surprise. He looked utterly composed, as if he genuinely hadn’t noticed Tan Yin at all, and he raised no objection whatsoever to Jiang Yilu’s explanation.
Tan Yin patted her chest in relief, then couldn’t help but give Jiang Yilu a mental thumbs-up. Impressed by Jiang Yilu’s quick thinking in that moment, Tan Yin decided she really should work harder to dig up some dirt on Xu Yu for her. Since she was invisible now anyway, there wasn’t anything more she could do here — she might as well go find Xu Yu directly.
Except, where was Xu Yu?
That question actually stumped Tan Yin — but as it turned out, life has a funny way of working out, and just as she was pondering this, Xu Yu conveniently showed up on his own.
“Chu Hang, want to shoot some hoops after we eat?”
Standing in the classroom doorway with a basketball tucked under his arm, who else could it be but Xu Yu?
Chu Hang pressed his lips together. “You go ahead. The department head needs to talk to me about something.”
“Alright then, it’s raining outside, so I’ll be at the indoor court in the gym. See you at the court later! We’ve got a match against Gongda today, don’t forget!”
Xu Yu, ignoring Jiang Yilu’s glare entirely, even had the nerve to shoot her a provocative grin before leaving: “The air’s pretty stuffy on a thundery day, huh — I saw you struggling to breathe and rolling your eyes over there. Jiang Yilu, take some advice from me, go to the hospital and get some oxygen.”
“…”
Jiang Yilu’s features naturally contorted with rage, but all she could do was glare at Xu Yu’s retreating back and seethe helplessly.
Tan Yin felt a deep sense of solidarity with her. She narrowed her eyes, forming a finger gun and aiming it at Xu Yu. “Xu Yu, from this moment on, I, Tan Yin, have my eye on you. Wherever you go, there I’ll be too — I’m watching you…”
Having said that, she was just about to step forward and follow Xu Yu, when she heard Chu Hang give a light cough. He looked up at Zhu Kangmei. “Teacher Zhu, I think Tan Yin probably couldn’t solve the problems and fled the scene to avoid getting exposed in front of everyone. She’s been in the bathroom this long — I doubt she’s coming back. Since my friend just invited me to play basketball, and she’s clearly not coming, can I go?”
This guy — wasn’t silence supposed to be his golden rule? What was with him suddenly saying all this today? “Fled the scene” — was he trying to be some little schemer now? Or was it since that elevator groping incident, he was terrified of being alone with Zhu Kangmei and getting felt up again?
Jiang Yilu, naturally, jumped to defend Tan Yin: “Tan Yin isn’t that kind of person, she’ll definitely show up, she… she agreed to have lunch with me later…” She glanced at Zhu Kangmei’s suspicious expression, looked out the window at the thunderstorm that didn’t seem like it would last too long, and gritted her teeth. “Why don’t we go wait for Tan Yin in your office, Teacher Zhu — she’ll definitely come! Don’t slander her as a cheater — she really does study hard back in the dorm!”
With Jiang Yilu putting herself on the line like this, Tan Yin figured she’d better adjust her plan to stake out Xu Yu. She shot Chu Hang an indignant look: “Chu Hang, just you wait — I’m not going to go find Xu Yu right now, I’m going to follow you instead. The moment the rain stops, I’m going to appear and beat that smug face of yours black and blue. I’ll make you and Zhu Kangmei both kneel down and call me Daddy.”
“Sure.” Chu Hang glanced at Jiang Yilu and, surprisingly, actually agreed to her request. And whether it was her imagination or not, Tan Yin felt that as he turned to leave with Zhu Kangmei, the corner of his mouth carried the faintest trace of a smile.
Even as Tan Yin followed Zhu Kangmei, Jiang Yilu, and Chu Hang into the elevator, she was still fuming — Zhu Kangmei was no good, and neither was Chu Hang, both of them slandering her as a cheater — this was simply unbearable!
As the elevator rose, Tan Yin surveyed the positions of everyone inside, and her mischievous instincts began stirring once more.
This time, Chu Hang had apparently learned his lesson, and stationed himself directly at the back of the elevator, pressed against the wall — no chance for anyone to grope him this time. Jiang Yilu stood beside Chu Hang, also leaning against the elevator wall, tucked into a corner, while Zhu Kangmei stood in front of the two of them, once again looking down at his phone.
Chu Hang’s backside was off-limits this time — so why not try something new instead? Tan Yin carefully maneuvered herself behind Zhu Kangmei. Today’s positioning meant Zhu Kangmei couldn’t grope Chu Hang — but a person has to learn to be flexible, and Chu Hang could just as easily grope Zhu Kangmei instead!
No time to waste — Tan Yin reached out her hand, ready to swiftly grope Zhu Kangmei’s backside. She chose a tricky angle, one where, though Jiang Yilu was also technically standing behind Zhu Kangmei, given her current position there was no way she could reach it — meaning the prime suspect would have to be Chu Hang.
Just as Tan Yin was eagerly anticipating the scene of Chu Hang’s public execution about to unfold —
Chu Hang, who’d had his earbuds in the whole time, looking utterly detached from the world around him, suddenly, right at the very instant before Tan Yin’s hand reached Zhu Kangmei’s backside, executed some slick maneuver — before Tan Yin could even register it, he’d already slipped from behind Zhu Kangmei to directly in front of him… ???
And while Tan Yin stood there dumbfounded, her hand, unable to pull back in time, sailed straight toward Zhu Kangmei’s backside regardless…
And now that the intended culprit, Chu Hang, had positioned himself in front of Zhu Kangmei, it no longer mattered whether Jiang Yilu’s arms were long enough to reach him or not, or whether her position allowed her to reach Zhu Kangmei’s backside at all — because the only person standing behind Zhu Kangmei now was her.
Tan Yin watched, practically in despair, as this human tragedy unfolded before her eyes.
The moment her hand made contact with Zhu Kangmei’s backside, he indeed tensed up as if electrocuted, then turned around with excruciating, almost indescribable slowness, glaring fixedly at the person standing behind him: Jiang Yilu.
Jiang Yilu, utterly oblivious to the danger, was at that moment also looking down at her phone.
“Jiang Yilu!”
It wasn’t until Zhu Kangmei’s voice rang out, trembling with fury, that Jiang Yilu, bewildered, finally looked up.
“How can you stay so calm after doing what you just did!”
Jiang Yilu was baffled. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You didn’t do anything?!” In all his years of teaching, Zhu Kangmei had clearly never encountered a female student bold enough to grope his behind — for a moment, beyond fury, he even found himself at a loss for words. He struggled for a long moment before finally forcing out, red-faced: “Though I’m well aware that I’m quite competitive academically, as a person, and even in appearance, and that it’s only natural people would admire me — Jiang Yilu, I hope you understand that I am already married.”
Jiang Yilu: ?
Zhu Kangmei sighed, seeming to soften his tone somewhat, and forced himself to remain composed. “Well, how about this — I’ll assume this was a moment of impulsiveness on your part, and not intentional. The teacher won’t pursue it further. I imagine you’re still single? Let me introduce you to a few promising young men — you really should broaden your horizons, you know, you don’t necessarily have to look within the architecture department. I heard from Professor Zhang in the law school that their student Xu Yu is quite good, and still single too…” Having said this, Zhu Kangmei glanced at Chu Hang and added, somewhat apologetically, “Chu Hang, Jiang Yilu and I have some matters to discuss, and since Tan Yin seems to have gone off somewhere anyway, why don’t you go eat and take care of your own business — we’ll arrange another time for Tan Yin’s matter.”
Faced with Zhu Kangmei’s sudden decision, Chu Hang didn’t ask a single question — he even nodded obediently, almost like an understanding little mistress trying not to cause trouble: “Alright, Teacher Zhu, I’ll be off then.”
The elevator had just arrived at that moment, and Chu Hang walked straight out, turned, and left, leaving only a bewildered Jiang Yilu to follow Zhu Kangmei into his office.
…
Tan Yin felt her heart practically bleeding — talk about trying to steal a chicken and losing the rice instead. She hadn’t managed to get back at Chu Hang, and instead she’d thrown Jiang Yilu under the bus!
She watched Jiang Yilu’s retreating figure, feeling a deep, tragic sense of guilt inside. Sister, I’m so sorry! You have to hold on!
Tan Yin didn’t even need to imagine it to know that Jiang Yilu was probably about to face a raging storm of her own. She couldn’t bear to watch the scene unfold — gritting her teeth, she quickly followed Chu Hang into the elevator instead.
Turning grief into strength — Jiang Yilu, I won’t let your sacrifice be in vain! Tan Yin thought. I’m going straight to go dig up dirt on Xu Yu for you now! Sister, rest in peace and smile from beyond!
But while Jiang Yilu’s face looked utterly pitiful, Chu Hang’s face looked positively radiant — even as he tried hard to keep a straight face, the corners of his eyes and brows betrayed a carefully restrained delight.
What on earth could have made him this happy? Or maybe “happy” wasn’t quite the right word — Tan Yin couldn’t shake the feeling that this delight of Chu Hang’s looked, somehow, a little bit sinister.