TSIBAMS Chapter 102
by VolareLu Yueyang wasn’t fazed at all after being released. She even shared her five-day boring yet leisurely experience with her students in class – drinking tea, chatting, watching TV, and doing some cleaning on the side.
She remained unfazed even when she received a disciplinary notice from the school.
“If I hadn’t tried my best to speak up for you, your position as a teacher would have been long gone!” Director Lu slammed his stainless steel thermos on the table, instantly silencing all the teachers in the office.
“Dad…” Lu Yueyang started to say but changed her tone, “Director, you really don’t need to…”
“Don’t need what?” Director Lu glared at her, “Look at you, do you still look like a teacher should? Taking students to a bar, and hanging out with those shady people! I’m ashamed!”
“Shuai Xiaoyun is not my student, and she has already graduated,” Lu Yueyang stood straight, hands in her hoodie pockets, casually glancing around. Each teacher was buried in their lesson plans at their desks, but it didn’t stop them from keeping their ears peeled for the drama.
“You still have excuses? Since the school was established, no teacher has ever been arrested for fighting, look at you, how are you going to face your students?” Director Lu became increasingly agitated, standing up and pointing his finger at her, “What kind of example are you setting for the students?”
“I know I’m not qualified and shouldn’t hold onto the position of homeroom teacher. This is actually a good opportunity, you don’t need to defend me anymore. I’ve decided, after I finish with this class, I will resign and then take the police exam,” Lu Yueyang said.
Director Lu was momentarily speechless.
He had intended to diminish her arrogance in public, but he didn’t expect to be outmaneuvered.
He stared straight at Lu Yueyang, who calmly returned his gaze with indifference.
“Did you become emotionally attached to being detained for a few days for fighting?” He was exasperated and embarrassed, “Do you think someone like you who has committed a crime will still be accepted?”
“According to the Police Law, administrative detention is only an administrative penalty, and it does not affect my eligibility to take the police exam,” Lu Yueyang said with a straight face.
The office fell into an unsettling silence.
Qi Guang waited outside the door for a long time. Finally, losing his patience, he crumpled the unsigned leave note in his hand and threw it into the trash can. He went straight downstairs towards the usual escape route for skipping class.
The nurse on duty at the clinic was new. She sized Qi Guang up and down, “Are you the high school student with acute gastroenteritis?”
“Yes,” Qi Guang took off his jacket and lay down on a bed by the door.
“This is your third bottle today. After the drip, you can go back to school with peace of mind,” the nurse said while preparing the saline solution for the IV drip in the open pharmacy area, “Looking at your build, you don’t look like you have gastroenteritis.”
“Don’t make fun of me,” Qi Guang said, a sarcastic smile playing at the corner of his lips, “I’ve lost five or six pounds in these three days.”
“How are you feeling today?”
“Much better. Before, I was vomiting and had diarrhea, going to the bathroom dozens of times a day. Now it’s mostly normal.”
“Take some more medicine when you go back today. Young people recover quickly. You’ll be fully recovered in a few days,” the nurse said as she pushed the cart over. She hung up the saline solution, tied the tourniquet around Qi Guang’s wrist, and raised the needle, “Make a fist.”
Qi Guang clenched his fist and turned his head away.
“Don’t abuse your body just because you’re young. Avoid junk food, and don’t think gastroenteritis is just a minor ailment. It can be life-threatening if it’s severe,” the nurse patiently educated him while skillfully inserting the needle into Qi Guang’s hand.
Qi Guang frowned slightly, “I didn’t eat junk food.”
“Eating cold and spicy foods, medications that irritate the digestive system, as well as binge drinking, seafood allergies… do any of these apply to you?” The nurse looked up, adding, “Of course, extreme stress and anxiety can also cause it, as it’s the body’s defense system’s stress response.”
Qi Guang stared silently at the saline bottle above him, watching the drops fall rhythmically, his pupils moving slightly with them.
“I know you senior high school students are under a lot of pressure, with exams coming up, right? What is there to be so nervous about, your health is the most important thing, understand?” the nurse finished, sighing meaningfully.
“I understand, thank you, doctor,” Ye Xing nodded and left the doctor’s office.
Fang Rong’s surgery was a success, and she would be able to go home after staying in the hospital for three weeks. Ye Xing had also transferred back to his previous school. The hospital was not far from school, so he would visit her at the hospital during lunch and after school.
He was carrying food suitable for postoperative patients, as instructed by the doctor, and pushed open the door to the ward, “Mom, it’s time to eat.”
Fang Rong, who was watching TV, looked up and looked at him with a comforting smile, her eyes following him as he approached, “You’re out of school quite early today.”
“Yeah,” Ye Xing put up the small table on the bed, took out a bowl of porridge and some side dishes from the thermos, and handed her some tissues, “The teacher didn’t hold us back today.”
“Have you eaten?”
“I ate something on the way.”
Ye Xing held a spoon with his right hand, took a spoonful of porridge to test the temperature, then took another spoonful and brought it to Fang Rong’s mouth. He held his left hand slightly under her chin to prevent her from getting her clothes dirty.
Fang Rong looked around at the two beds next to her, feeling a little embarrassed.
As expected, the old lady on the left said, “You’re so lucky! Your son comes to look after you every day after school! Unlike my ungrateful child, who can’t even be bothered to call!”
“Oh, don’t even talk about my rascal, he doesn’t even visit as much as his future wife!” the old lady on the right chimed in.
Fang Rong waved her hand, “Your sons are successful in their careers! They’re busy making money! They definitely don’t have time! You can’t compare!”
Although she said “can’t compare,” her face still lit up with a smile.
“Mom, eat first, or it will get cold,” Ye Xing reminded her.
“Okay! I can do it myself, you sit next to me and do your own thing.” Fang Rong took the spoon from his hand and put it back in the bowl, stirred the lukewarm porridge, and fed a spoonful to her mouth.
Ye Xing saw that she looked energetic and fine, so he didn’t insist on feeding her. He got up and sat on the chair by the bed, taking out his notebook to study.
This action again earned him praise from the old women in the ward.
Fang Rong was surprised and overjoyed, “My son has really grown up, and I’m not as worried about him anymore!”
“It’s almost the final exam, just some last-minute cramming,” Ye Xing said, his head lowered.
Fang Rong couldn’t hide the pride in her eyes and leaned over to touch his head, “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
When she took back her gaze and accidentally glanced at the contents of the notebook, she was stunned.
This neat handwriting and orderly arrangement was definitely not Ye Xing’s.
“Is this a borrowed notebook?”
“A classmate helped me organize it before.”
Ye Xing was focused on reciting the key points in his mind, not realizing that the atmosphere above his head had gradually frozen.
1984 was still barely operating, and the reason it was barely operating was because the previous events had spread in various bizarre versions, causing business to plummet. Xu Ge was also in no mood to run the place, and after giving the keys to the bartender, he had barely shown his face.
After leaving the clinic, Qi Guang made a detour to the bar. Looking at the deserted 1984, he sighed.
He threw the cotton pad that had been applied to stop his bleeding into a roadside trash can and walked through the door. He didn’t expect there to be fewer people inside than outside.
“Where’s Xu Ge?” Qi Guang sat down next to the bar.
“Don’t know, hasn’t shown up in three days,” the bartender said, sitting inside the bar, focused on playing a game on his phone.
The bartender, who used to be busy with fancy mixing and throwing ice, and didn’t even have time to flirt with girls, had fallen to this state, it was truly a sad sight.
Qi Guang gazed at the unlit stage in a daze. The place that used to make people forever young and forever emotional was now shrouded in darkness.
At this moment, an unfamiliar voice sounded from above, directed at the bartender, “Table eight, two glasses of Starry Tears, one Dry Martini.”
Qi Guang looked up and made eye contact with him.
The man wasn’t tall, and had a very ordinary look, with gentle and non-aggressive eyes. Although he didn’t have a face you would remember at first glance, Qi Guang, a person with trouble remembering names, surprisingly recalled two words in his mind – Little Ma.
“You must be Qi Guang?” unexpectedly the person spoke first.
“Uh…”
The man extended his hand, “I’m Little Ma, I’ve heard a lot about you!”
“Hello,” Qi Guang wasn’t used to such a formal handshake, but out of politeness, he lightly returned the gesture.
Little Ma sized him up, seemingly not like a stranger, “You really are as handsome as they say! I hear the boss and the others mention you all the time, I didn’t expect to meet you until now.”
Listening to his words, he must be someone who was with Xu Ge and the others all the time. The strange thing was, he had never met this person, nor had Xu Ge ever mentioned him.
This made Qi Guang curiously look at him again.
He could confirm that he wasn’t one of Xu Ge’s group of loud, boisterous brothers who were constantly getting into trouble with the law.
This person was quite young, looking about the same age as himself.
“I work here,” Little Ma introduced himself.
This sentence almost made Qi Guang think he had entered the wrong bar. He couldn’t help but look around. Apart from fewer people than usual, it was still the same 1984!
Was this a parallel universe?
The movie 《The Comet That Night》 he had watched with Ye Xing was like this, with the same group of people living in different spaces, and when these spaces intersected, the person in front of you may not be the person you always knew.
Qi Guang sighed softly.
If only it were a parallel space, when he went home and opened the door, the timeline would revert to its original order, Ye Xing wouldn’t have left, Bai Shu wouldn’t have been detained, and Xu Ge would still be running 1984 with great success…
Little Ma didn’t seem surprised by his spaced-out look, “Qi Guang, I know the bar is a mess right now. Brother Bai has been locked up and Brother Xu has also given up, but it’s precisely because of this that we cannot fall!”
This positive speech made Qi Guang feel a mixture of sadness and joy.
He looked up at him, “When did you start working here?”
“A few months ago.”
“What times do you work?”
Little Ma was a little confused by his curiosity, but patiently answered, “Monday to Saturday.”
“The weekend is the busiest time,” Qi Guang frowned.
“I said the same thing, but Brother Xu insisted that I rest on Sundays…Actually, I don’t need a day off at all, the bar isn’t open in the morning, I have enough time to rest, plus I just graduated from high school, and I don’t plan to continue studying, I have nothing to do anyway,” Little Ma said, sighing, and placed the mixed drinks on the tray before turning and leaving.
Ever since the school required evening self-study, Qi Guang was almost only free on Sundays to help out here, but Xu Ge would still give him money every time as usual, and the amount was the same as before.
He had joked with Xu Ge several times, telling him not to be so obvious about providing aid, but each time he just laughed it off.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t been suspicious about how Bai Shu and Xu Ge could manage to be so busy at 1984 when he wasn’t there, but he hadn’t expected that he had been kept in the dark all this time.
They were carefully avoiding the two of them meeting, and creating the illusion that “we need you so much”.
He had been using this clumsy way to protect his self-esteem.
Qi Guang was stunned for a long time, before quietly getting up and leaving.