Whenever Qiao Qingyu had to do something “out of line,” she instinctively considered all possible consequences to find the best way out. However, copying homework for Ming Sheng was a situation where, no matter what she did, the consequences would be beyond her control.
If she flatly refused, rumors about Qiao Baiyu would spread like wildfire, eventually reaching Chaoyang New Village and shattering her parents’ hard-earned peaceful life. Accepting meant spending considerable time each night on this task, inevitably affecting her studies. Reporting to the teacher was risky too; Ming Sheng, who could force top students to drop out, would surely seek revenge and might still reveal Qiao Baiyu’s story.
Qiao Qingyu did not doubt that opposing Ming Sheng would be disastrous. Over the weekend, while Qiao Jinyu was home, she learned from Shunyun First High’s online forum about Ke Hai’s misfortunes in the past week. First, he was slapped by some thugs at the school gate. Then, while cycling home, he deliberately tripped, injuring his right wrist. It would reportedly take three months to fully recover. For a senior high school student, being unable to write for three months was truly terrifying.
“Which class are you in?” asked Chen Ruoyi, Qiao Qingyu’s former class monitor from Shunyun First High and one of her few friends there.
When Qiao Qingyu told her she was in Class 5, Chen Ruoyi exclaimed, “Oh my God! The same class as Ming Sheng!”
She then asked if Qiao Qingyu knew why Ming Sheng was targeting Ke Hai.
After hesitating for several seconds, Qiao Qingyu slowly typed, “Not sure.” Explaining the details would mean revealing everything about that day, which was difficult for her. She felt embarrassed to mention Ke Hai offering her a ride home. Moreover, she admitted to being timid—in her Shunyun classmates’ eyes, she and Ke Hai were strangers, and she could imagine the gossip if she explained the situation.
“Since you’re in his class, be careful not to offend him. You’re new here, so if anything happens, just endure it,” Chen Ruoyi advised without pressing further. “Though I’ve heard he doesn’t bully girls, especially those from No. 2 High School. He protects his classmates, both boys and girls. Oh, right! Since you’re in his class now, maybe you could ask him to stop bothering Senior Ke Hai. He’s gone too far!”
Qiao Qingyu simply replied, “Okay, I got it.”
“Is Huanzhou even hotter than Shunyun?” Chen Ruoyi seemed to be searching for topics. “Have you been to Qinghu Lake? Is it not as impressive as they say?”
“I haven’t had much chance to go out. I just sneaked a look at Qinghu Lake,” Qiao Qingyu responded. “It’s pretty much like what’s described in books.”
“Why don’t you go out?”
“My parents are strict and don’t let me go out alone.”
Chen Ruoyi made a sound of understanding. “Your parents probably don’t want to take you to Qinghu Lake. Anling Cemetery is on North Mountain beside Qinghu. They’d be sad if they went there.”
Her tone, as if she were Qiao Qingyu’s longtime friend, made Qiao Qingyu uncomfortable.
“What’s Anling Cemetery?”
“It’s Huanzhou’s public cemetery. How don’t you know that? Your sister must be buried there, right?”
Having grown accustomed to life in Huanzhou where Qiao Baiyu was never mentioned, Qiao Qingyu felt a sudden aversion to seeing the words “your sister.”
“My sister is buried in the mountains of Nanqiao Village, near our ancestral graves,” Qiao Qingyu replied. She was beginning to dislike Chen Ruoyi’s inexplicable enthusiasm.
“Oh, I see. I was just guessing. Sorry if I got it wrong,” Chen Ruoyi said. “It’s mainly because my dad mentioned the other day that people should be laid to rest where they pass away, so I thought of your sister…”
“I rarely think about her now,” Qiao Qingyu typed, aware of her deliberately hardened heart.
“Since you’re in Ming Sheng’s class, can you get a photo of him?”
“Aren’t there many online?”
“Those are all candid shots without clear frontal views!”
Qiao Qingyu had completely lost interest in the conversation. “No, I can’t,” she replied curtly, simultaneously deciding to defend her innocent family. It was worth sacrificing some of her study time to ensure her family’s peace and tranquility.
As her parents returned home with Qiao Jinsui and his girlfriend, Qiao Qingyu was struggling with Ming Sheng’s English essay. Hearing the door open, she hastily stuffed Ming Sheng’s other homework into her desk drawer before going out to greet them.
“Brother Jinsui,” she smiled and called out, then turned to the pretty girl with permed brown hair beside Qiao Jinsui, “Sister-in-law.”
The girl giggled and leaned on Qiao Jinsui’s shoulder. “Your cousin is so sweet! I’m blushing~”
Li Fanghao nodded approvingly at Qiao Qingyu. “Qingqing, you haven’t finished your homework yet, right? Go back and continue. We’ll keep our voices down out here. Come out when you’re done.”
Back in her room, Qiao Qingyu took out her phone and sent the first two sentences of the English essay she had painstakingly written with a dictionary to Ming Sheng—this was her third attempt, as her previous two had been rejected with a simple “No good.”
While waiting, snippets of the adults’ conversation in the living room drifted through the poorly soundproofed old fiberboard door. Qiao Qingyu gathered that Qiao Jinsui had taken time off to travel with his girlfriend, but they were visiting home first and bringing some medicine for Grandpa and Grandma’s neighbor, Aunt Qin.
“I didn’t know Qin was still taking medication,” Li Fanghao said, surprised. “At least Dayong still has a conscience…”
“It’s just for comfort,” Qiao Lusheng continued. “She’s been mentally unstable for years. No medicine can cure a broken heart.”
“These past couple of years, she’d escape if she didn’t take her meds,” Qiao Jinsui sighed. “It’s a good thing Grandpa and Grandma have moved to Mom and Dad’s new house. Once, she ran into their yard in the middle of the night, knocking on windows and looking for rope. It scared Grandma half to death…”
“What are you talking about?” Qiao Jinsui’s girlfriend asked curiously.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a mentally ill woman in my grandparents’ village,” Qiao Jinsui quickly changed the subject, speaking gently. “It’s not related to us, don’t worry~”
“So, Jinsui, is your apartment in Jiangbin almost finished?” Qiao Lusheng asked approvingly. “Will you be able to move in by the end of the year?”
“Pretty much,” Qiao Jinsui replied.
Qiao Lusheng chuckled. “Well done, well done.”
The tone of admiration and heartache was clear, reminding Qiao Qingyu of her underachieving brother, Qiao Jinyu. With the family’s move to Huanzhou and Qiao Jinyu’s enrollment in the Huanzhou Sports School, her parent’s hopes for his academic success had likely faded early on. How could someone who couldn’t even get into high school dream of university? Sure enough, Li Fanghao began criticizing her son:
“If only Xiaoyu had half of Xiaosui’s success. Forget about becoming a civil servant—I’d be thankful if he could just support himself in the future…”
“But Qingqing’s grades are excellent. She even got into Huan No. 2 High School. That’s much better than I was at her age,” Qiao Jinsui said with a smile. “Uncle and Aunt can count on Qingyu in the future.”
“She’s just a girl. Good grades only benefit her. How can we count on her?” Li Fanghao laughed. “Come, have some fruit. Xiaoyun, right? Here…”
Qiao Qingyu couldn’t tell if her mother’s words were out of modesty or sincerity. She felt powerless and resentful, with a strong urge to rush out and prove herself to her parents. What’s so great about being a civil servant? She thought defiantly. I’ll have a better future than Brother Jinsui.
She was still waiting for a reply. Ming Sheng’s English exercise sheet lying before her looked revolting. He had dumped all his homework on her and wouldn’t allow any half-hearted efforts, forcing Qiao Qingyu to spend most of her Sunday meeting his demands. It was such a waste of time on this tedious task.
The clock showed 9:30 PM, and Ming Sheng’s reply still hadn’t come—it had been an hour.
In the living room, Qiao Jinsui and the others were getting ready to leave. Li Fanghao opened the door: “Qingqing, you’re still not done with your homework? Brother Jinsui is leaving. Come out and say goodbye!”
“Qingqing, I brought some fruit for you and Xiaoyu to boost your health…” Qiao Jinsui approached the door. “Oh, so this is how the room is divided…”
“Yes, come in and have a look,” Li Fanghao said, turning back to grab the key. She opened the plywood door. “Xiaoyu sleeps by the window. He’s boarding at school and only comes home on weekends.”
Qiao Jinsui, holding his girlfriend Xiaoyun’s hand, entered the half-room behind the plywood door. As they came out, passing Qiao Qingyu’s desk, his gaze swept the wall and he suddenly froze. Following his suddenly serious look, Xiaoyun also carefully examined the calligraphy hanging on the wall.
“Riding the wind and breaking the waves, I shall cross the sea with my cloud-like sail,” she read softly.
“Qingqing certainly has ambition,” Qiao Jinsui turned to Qiao Qingyu with a hasty smile, pulling Xiaoyun towards the exit. However, Xiaoyun leaned in to look at the square deep red seal in the bottom right corner, squinting as she continued to read aloud: “Written by Qiao Baiyu… Who’s Qiao Baiyu?”
She looked at Qiao Jinsui, but he turned to Li Fanghao, seemingly avoiding the question or seeking help, an awkward smile on his lips.
“Well, Baiyu…” Li Fanghao’s voice was dry, her face showing confusion. “Baiyu, Jinsui probably hasn’t told you yet, Baiyu is…”
“My sister,” Qiao Qingyu interjected.
Everyone turned to look at her, including Qiao Lusheng who had just squeezed into the room.
“Your sister?” Xiaoyun’s mouth gaped in surprise. “You have a sister? A biological sister? Where is she?”
“Yes, she’s biological,” Li Fanghao quickly shot Qiao Qingyu a reproachful look. “Our eldest, Qingqing was six when… she had a tough life. A few years ago, she had some stomach problems. We encountered a dishonest hospital, and they couldn’t cure what should have been a minor illness. She passed away.”
Xiaoyun let out a soft “Ah,” and everyone seemed to freeze.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know…” Xiaoyun explained in a quiet, regretful voice. “Since Jinsui never mentioned it, I always thought Uncle and Aunt only had Qingqing and Xiaoyu… If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have asked…”
“It’s alright, it’s all in the past,” Qiao Lusheng nodded understandingly. “You’re practically family now, you would have found out sooner or later…”
Unlike Qiao Lusheng who quickly grasped the situation, the gravity didn’t leave Li Fanghao’s face even after Qiao Jinsui and the others had left. While cleaning up the coffee table, Qiao Qingyu thoughtfully went to help, but Li Fanghao ordered, “Sit down.”
Just as she sat on the sofa, her phone began vibrating continuously on the desk in her room. Disregarding Li Fanghao’s ominous expression, Qiao Qingyu leaped up and rushed into the room, quickly pressing the reject button.
As she turned around, Li Fanghao stood furiously at the door. “Who’s calling you this late?”
Qiao Qingyu’s first instinct was to say “an unknown number,” as she hadn’t saved any male classmates’ numbers to avoid Li Fanghao’s suspicions. But her phone still contained text messages discussing homework with Ming Sheng, so she couldn’t tell such an obvious lie.
“Let me see.”
As Li Fanghao reached out, the phone vibrated again. It was still Ming Sheng. Qiao Qingyu decisively pressed reject and obediently handed over the phone, having prepared an explanation.
“It’s just a classmate,” she explained earnestly. “He attended a foreign language school for middle school and has excellent grades, especially in English. I asked him some questions this afternoon. He didn’t reply to my English essay questions earlier, probably because it was too complex for text. He might want to explain over the phone…”
“A male classmate?” Li Fanghao frowned, opening the phone’s inbox.
Qiao Qingyu gave a soft “Mm” in response.
Li Fanghao scrolled through the messages: “What’s his name? Why didn’t you save his number? It’s fine to discuss studies properly, why act like you have something to hide?”
Qiao Qingyu nodded in agreement: “I was planning to tell you about this classmate before saving his number, but with Jinsui and the others visiting, I didn’t get the chance… Oh, his name is Ming Sheng, ‘Ming’ as in tomorrow, ‘Sheng’ as in flourish…”
“Aren’t there any good female students in your class? Why ask a male classmate?” Li Fanghao interrupted sharply. “Huh?”
Qiao Qingyu pressed her lips together, silent.
“What have I always taught you is most important for a girl? Tell me.”
Qiao Qingyu gritted her teeth: “Self-respect and propriety.”
“Your grades are just average in your class at No. 2 High. There must be plenty of girls with better grades. Why ignore the female classmates and specifically ask this boy? What’s the meaning of this? How did you get his number? Did you memorize it?”
Indeed, she had memorized it. Ming Sheng had given it to her face-to-face yesterday when she went to school to collect his homework—it was so simple and smooth that she remembered it after hearing it once. Qiao Qingyu had no way to explain. She stood silently, eyes lowered, feeling choked up and breathing rapidly in short bursts.
“Don’t become like your sister!” Li Fanghao suddenly roared as if mad. “Do you hear me?”
Qiao Qingyu’s shoulders trembled in fright, her nose instantly stinging with emotion.
“Look at your sister, people still gossip about her even after she’s dead!” Li Fanghao’s voice turned into a hysterical sob. “It’s because she wasn’t clear-headed! She didn’t respect herself! She deserves to be restless even after death! And now our whole family can’t live in peace! Do you want to end up like her?”
Qiao Qingyu looked up in shock—after staying silent for over two years, her mother’s first words were accusations and resentment towards her sister.
“If you do this again,” Li Fanghao held back tears, her lips quivering, “if you get close to male classmates like this again, I’ll break your legs, do you understand?”
“I understand,” Qiao Qingyu mumbled. Her mother’s sudden breakdown scared her; she would agree to anything Li Fanghao said now.
Seeing that Qiao Qingyu had taken her words to heart, Li Fanghao gradually relaxed. She took two steps forward and sat on the edge of Qiao Qingyu’s single bed.
“That calligraphy,” she looked at Qiao Qingyu, her hand still clutching the phone as she pointed casually at the wall, “take it down now.”
Qiao Qingyu nodded without a word, stood on tiptoe, and stretched to remove the framed calligraphy. They say that objects evoke memories of people; her parents would be tormented every time they entered her room. She had selfishly insisted on bringing this calligraphy to Huanzhou in the name of “remembrance,” disregarding her parents’ feelings.
She turned the frame over and placed it on her desk. Turning back, she saw Li Fanghao’s lost and helpless expression, which worried her. She cautiously called out, “Mom?”
“Your sister had such a tough life…” Li Fanghao murmured as if talking to herself. “She’s gone, yet people still gossip about her, and even her family finds her shameful…”
“Don’t think like that, Mom,” Qiao Qingyu sat beside her, gently stroking Li Fanghao’s hand. “Sister passed away with a clear conscience. Those rumors—we should just ignore them. The more we care, the more people will believe they’re true…”
She was comforting herself as much as she was comforting Li Fanghao. Ming Sheng had said Qiao Baiyu had “willingly degraded herself” and contracted “AIDS,” which was the cause of death that outsiders eagerly discussed. But this wasn’t true. Qiao Qingyu clearly remembered when Qiao Lusheng received the first call from the hospital, he had distinctly repeated five words: “Acute appendicitis?”
She was a witness to the truth. Qiao Baiyu might have been indiscreet, but she certainly wasn’t impure.
Qiao Qingyu understood her parents’ vulnerability to the outside rumors: they were honest and principled people who unexpectedly ended up with such a troublesome daughter. She also understood that her parents faced a more complex world and thus bore greater pressure. However, she felt they cared too much about others’ opinions.
But wasn’t she guilty of the same? To escape the rumors, she had resorted to the undignified act of doing her classmate’s homework.
Qiao Qingyu recalled Ming Sheng’s confident expression when he mentioned Qiao Baiyu. “I’ll be enslaved forever,” an alarm sounded in her mind, “if I keep caring about this. The same applies to Mom and Dad.”
This thought suddenly infused her with courage, making her believe she could stand proudly before Ming Sheng and firmly tell him the true cause of Qiao Baiyu’s death. Qiao Qingyu decided to do this tomorrow.
Just then, the phone in Li Fanghao’s hand vibrated once, displaying a message from Ming Sheng’s number.
Li Fanghao seemed to suddenly awaken, her face tense as she opened the message.
Four words: “Give me a call.”
Before Qiao Qingyu could react, Li Fanghao dialed back. The call was quickly answered, and a lazy “Qiao Qingyu” came from the other end.
“Are you Ming Sheng?” Li Fanghao spoke coldly.
Ming Sheng was as stunned as Qiao Qingyu. After a few seconds, he adopted a more proper tone: “May I ask who this is?”
“I’m Qiao Qingyu’s mother,” Li Fanghao said sternly, making Qiao Qingyu’s hair stand on end. “My daughter has gone to bed. There should be limits to your study discussions. Don’t call my daughter so late in the future.”
Silence fell on the other end. After a while, a faint “I understand, Auntie. Sorry for the disturbance” could be heard through the receiver.
It was polite enough, but Qiao Qingyu knew she was in trouble.