TSIBAMS Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Ye Xing was stunned.

“The sun is just a morning star?”

He repeated what Qi Guang had just said, while pondering something.

Qi Guang snapped his fingers in front of Ye Xing, “Hey! Do you have any questions? Or… did you only understand that one sentence?”

Damn, he hit the nail on the head.

Qi Guang was clearly speaking Chinese, but for a moment, he didn’t understand what he was saying.

Ye Xing glanced at the English original again.

Today was really a dog day.

They were all words he knew, so how come he couldn’t understand them when put together in a sentence?!

“Who is this author? Can’t he speak properly?” Ye Xing didn’t want to directly admit the fact that he was a slacker, especially since standing in front of him was Qi Guang, whom he originally thought was in the same boat, but who had actually left him behind by several canals.

“Would you understand it if he spoke properly?” Qi Guang teased, he paused and then said seriously, “The author is the American writer Rousseau, and he completed this book during the two years and two months he lived alone by Walden Lake.”

Ye Xing couldn’t understand it even more, why would someone spend so long living alone to write a book?

After all, he had only been in this small town for less than a month, and he already missed home terribly.

If he weren’t in a town, but living alone by a lake, wouldn’t that be like living on an isolated island.

It’s truly unbelievable.

“Isn’t he lonely?” Ye Xing frowned slightly.

Qi Guang sighed softly, “I don’t know if he’s lonely, but I think, people with rich inner worlds, are fulfilled no matter where they live.”

Ye Xing nodded thoughtfully, “That’s probably what it means to have an interesting soul.”

“Yeah.”

Ye Xing felt that his summary was spot-on, and it made him feel a little better about the points he’d lost on the reading comprehension part.

He opened his phone camera and took a picture of the English sentence.

While admiring the results, he muttered to himself, “I actually like this author, he’s kind of interesting. What he writes is also interesting.”

Qi Guang made fun of him, “Didn’t you not understand it?”

“I mean, ‘The sun is just a morning star’ is interesting. Although I haven’t read his book, and I don’t know what he’s trying to express, I tried to understand it, and I only came to one conclusion.”

“What conclusion?”

“This person is a natural poet.”

“Pfft!” Qi Guang pursed his lips tightly to keep from laughing too hard, “You just stated the obvious!”

Ye Xing was already used to Qi Guang’s strange sense of humor, and was too lazy to even roll his eyes.

“Then how do you understand it? Oh Great Scholar!”

Qi Guang suppressed the urge to keep laughing, and hung the no-longer-warm towel on the back of the chair.

“Just based on that sentence I just translated, I think what he wants to express should be a kind of idealism – your view and perception of things and the environment, only depends on yourself. For example, objective day and night exist outside of you. Subjective day and night only depend on whether you want day or night. Don’t be easily changed by the environment, even if the energy is as vast as the sun, its essence is still just a star.” Qi Guang said seriously, and then added cautiously, “Of course, it’s another matter whether he himself is an idealist.”

Ye Xing suddenly felt like the person in front of him was a little unfamiliar.

His impression of Qi Guang had always been that of the skateboarding, loud-mouthed kid he first met.

Although they had drunk together, acted like idiots together, and even fought together.

But they were different.

Qi Guang thought about things far more than he did.

Look at him, having lived such a smooth life, with barely any setbacks, simple-minded and active, his name was exactly what Fang Rong intended, so simple.

He really wanted to applaud Qi Guang, but compared to cheering him on, he was better at trash-talking, so he deliberately corrected Qi Guang, “He said morning star! Not star. You’re definitely not a poet.”

Qi Guang didn’t care at all about Ye Xing’s correction, and followed Ye Xing’s cue to retort, “Then what about the people who say that the sun is just a star? Are they geography teachers? Hahahahahaha!”

“Pfft!” Ye Xing was caught off guard by his jab, and couldn’t help but laugh along.

It was fine when one person was laughing, Qi Guang always knew when to stop when faced with the other’s unmoved gaze.

But when two people laughed together, especially for such a stupid reason, it was very hard to stop.

The two laughed louder and louder, looking at each other, and no one could successfully stop first.

Until their waist muscles were aching.

“Are you an idiot? Is it that funny?” Ye Xing was laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

Qi Guang also felt like he was about to pass out from laughing, and retorted weakly, “Aren’t you an idiot for laughing for so long?!”

Just then, Qi Guang’s phone rang. It was a WeChat message from Xu Ge.

-Have you thought of a name for the bar? We need to decide in the next few days.

Qi Guang looked up at Ye Xing, “Do you know how to name a bar?”

“Just randomly pick one, aren’t all bar names supposed to sound pretentious?” Ye Xing answered casually.

“Then how do you make it both pretentious and not obvious that it’s pretentious? And – most importantly – it has to be easy to remember.”

“Huh?” Ye Xing was actually stumped, looking completely clueless.

Although people always said that the movies he watched were pretentious, it just meant he had different tastes than other people.

If being out of sync with others was considered pretentious…

Ye Xing scanned the bookshelf for inspiration, and his eyes finally landed on a particularly eye-catching book amidst all the words – “1984”.

It was a title that clearly didn’t hint at what it was about and was also easy to remember.

He pointed at it and asked Qi Guang, “Have you read that book?”

Qi Guang followed the direction he was pointing, and snorted softly, “I’ve read it, I couldn’t get through it, with my current knowledge and experience, I don’t understand it.”

Ye Xing smiled slyly, and turned to look at Qi Guang.

Qi Guang immediately understood what he meant.

He spent two seconds thinking about it, and then looked at Ye Xing with satisfaction, “I think it’s good.”

Then he picked up his phone and replied to Xu Ge.

“He’s your boss?” Ye Xing asked.

“Yeah.” Qi Guang was typing, without looking up.

“Then…” Ye Xing hesitated for a moment, and felt he still needed to ask, “What about the KTV incident, what are you planning to do?”

Qi Guang pressed the send button and looked up at Ye Xing to answer, “First I’ll find the person, I’ll take care of him.”

“Just like that?”

“What else do you want? Make the issue bigger? That girl almost begged you.”

Ye Xing didn’t know how to respond, “It’s not…”

It wasn’t about making the issue bigger, it just felt wrong.

He couldn’t put his finger on what felt wrong.

Logically, he should feel satisfied after dealing with that pervert, right?

So what was wrong?

Ye Xing was getting a little irritated, he ruffled his hair haphazardly.

He finally understood what felt wrong, it was about what everyone assumed.

He was bullied and felt ashamed so he didn’t dare to call the police and punish the bad guy, wasn’t that exactly like victim blaming?!

Although he had finally built up a little bit of admiration for Qi Guang, his current decisive attitude of choosing not to call the police was too difficult to distinguish from the people who condoned victim blaming.

“Ye Xing, I know what you’re thinking.”

Ye Xing, who was trying to make sense of his thoughts, was interrupted.

“Hmm?”

“Actually, what you said to the senior today made me look at you differently. But after all, this didn’t happen to me, and I can’t bear the psychological burden of calling the police on behalf of the senior. We are all outsiders in this matter. It’s easy for us to make a call and call the police, but do you know how much pressure the girl has to bear after that? Her decision not to call the police was definitely her decision after weighing the options. Is it really good for her if we insist on reporting it for her? However, what I want to say is that I fully agree with your opinion, because if it were me, I would not be afraid, I can achieve hurting the enemy by losing a thousand myself.”

Qi Guang finished speaking, and waited for Ye Xing’s reaction.

Although Qi Guang had praised him and affirmed his ideas, after a big speech, he still hadn’t said anything useful.

Ye Xing didn’t know what to say.

Qi Guang looked away, and lit a cigarette.

After a long while, he opened his mouth as if he had made a decision after much deliberation, “Actually, this incident today wasn’t a very substantial harm, but when I was young, I really experienced people around me being… being raped. I’ve never mentioned it to my friends, but I’ve never been able to forget it.”

Ye Xing was shocked by Qi Guang’s words, he looked up at Qi Guang.

The person in front of him had a trace of sadness on his face, and slowly said, “It was an older sister who lived upstairs from me, she was very fair and beautiful, seven years older than me. In the summer after she graduated from middle school, she went to her friend’s house to play… At noon, her friend went out to buy something, and she stayed to take a nap. There was a thief who had been watching her friend’s house for a long time, and thought that no one was home, so he sneaked in.”

Qi Guang’s hand holding the cigarette began to tremble, he took the last puff and put out the cigarette, “Later…”

He didn’t know how to continue.

Ye Xing also knew what had happened, he sighed deeply, and asked softly, “Did you call the police?”

“No,” Qi Guang closed his eyes, “She didn’t even dare to tell her parents. She lived in fear for a few months, until her parents found out that she was pregnant.”

“Damn!” Ye Xing punched the table.

“Although they didn’t call the police, when her parents took her for an abortion, they were seen by someone, and it spread like wildfire. Soon everyone knew that she was pregnant, and they didn’t know who the father was. Although she didn’t tell anyone the truth, rumors were more difficult to bear than the truth. Some said she was raped, others said she was gang-raped and that’s why they didn’t know who the father was… In the end…”

Qi Guang choked up, unable to speak for a moment, and tears silently slid down the corner of his eyes.

He turned his head to the other side, but he didn’t expect that the tears became more and more intense, and he simply raised his arm to wipe his face.

After drying his tears, he sniffed, and continued.

“One day after school, I went home and saw a crowd of people gathered downstairs. I walked in and saw someone lying on the ground, covered with a white cloth.”

“She jumped from the window at home. At that time, her mother was preparing dinner in the kitchen, and just heard a thud, followed by all kinds of screams. It was said that when her mother looked down from the top of the building, she almost couldn’t control herself and wanted to jump down too.”

Ye Xing was so surprised that he couldn’t say a word, and just stared blankly as Qi Guang finished speaking.

The person in front of him was now sobbing with his face buried in his arms.

Ye Xing hugged him and patted him on the back.

Ye Xing didn’t know how much Qi Guang had gone through, although he hadn’t been through enough hardships to make him strong, and still seemed carefree every day.

But he was always capable of surprising him.

Qi Guang kept his head buried and didn’t cry for too long, he hated crying in front of people, and also hated peeling himself like an orange to show others the layers within him.

But the person in front of him was impulsive, easily angered, and simple like a child. Qi Guang himself didn’t know why he always unknowingly lowered his guard.

Ye Xing saw him raise his head, and pretended to be very relaxed as he said, “I was still thinking about how to comfort you.”

Qi Guang didn’t pick up on his cue, “Don’t act like you’ve seen the world.”

“I won’t argue with you for the sake of your sadness today.” Ye Xing said.

Qi Guang was not very willing to mention this older sister, and was even less willing for others to comfort him.

“Actually, I’ve never mentioned this to anyone, and it’s been so long… The people who can’t let it go the most should be her parents, and the friend she went to visit. Do you know who that friend was? You’d probably be even more surprised to hear this. It’s your current homeroom teacher, Lu Yueyang.”

“Holy shit??” Ye Xing opened his eyes wide.

That Lu Yueyang with the short hair, who looked cooler than guys, and smoked on the balcony every day?

The world is so small.

When Ye Xing thought of Lu Yueyang’s appearance, he didn’t feel so surprised anymore.

That woman herself was surprising enough.

Qi Guang looked at Ye Xing, watching his expression change from shock to gradually becoming calm, and continued, “She blamed herself immensely, and was in mental breakdown for a while, she took a year off from school before returning. Because the perpetrator has never been found, she worked hard to get into the police academy, determined to become a police officer, but…”

“But her father – who is also our grade director – didn’t agree, right?” Ye Xing guessed, “So, she was forced to come back and become a teacher, after all, all parents want their children to be stable as teachers, not police officers, which is a high-risk profession, especially since she’s a girl.”

“That’s right, at that time, Director Lu did everything he could to get her back, he was close to lying on a hospital bed pretending to be dying. But although he managed to trick her back, Lu Yueyang’s mind wasn’t at school, she smoked every day and deliberately played tricks to provoke Director Lu, all to get the school to fire her.” Qi Guang said, and suddenly wanted to smoke again, but after searching through his pockets, all he could find was an empty lighter.

Ye Xing looked at him and couldn’t help but complain, “Smoke less, don’t stink up the books in the study.”

“Your mouth stinks more.” Qi Guang was twirling the lighter in his right hand, “I realize that your mouth is really annoying.”

“Thank you for the compliment!” Ye Xing replied.

“You’re welcome!” Qi Guang quickly responded to the unnecessary praise.

Ye Xing rolled his eyes in his heart for the Nth time.

His understanding of Lu Yueyang had changed a bit, although this homeroom teacher seemed unreliable, and was far from the traditional image of a teacher, he didn’t hate her.

Ye Xing was terrible at English, and used to be scolded by teachers every day. The more the teacher scolded, the more he hated English, and then the worse his grades got, causing the teacher to scold him more, an endless cycle.

But this Lu Yueyang, although she was fierce, what surprised Ye Xing was that even though his homework was always copied, exactly the same as the person in front of him, if Lu Yueyang turned a blind eye, it would be okay, but she didn’t, she still praised Ye Xing every day, praising his hard work and serious attitude.

This was definitely intentional!

It made Ye Xing not dare to sleep in her class anymore, and he would honestly memorize vocabulary during morning reading.

Come to think of it, it was actually a little annoying.

But he couldn’t bring himself to hate Lu Yueyang, maybe it was because it was rare to see a woman with such a strong aura.

“What are you thinking about?” Qi Guang asked Ye Xing, who was in a daze.

“Nothing,” Ye Xing shook his head, “I just think that, this Lu Yueyang, although she doesn’t seem to do her job properly, she actually hasn’t slackened on her work.”

Of course Qi Guang knew, Lu Yueyang was also his English teacher.

But before she became Qi Guang’s English teacher, they had known each other for a long time.

When they were kids, Lu Yueyang often came to look for the older sister who lived upstairs from Qi Guang to do homework, Qi Guang was very naughty at that time, and every time they were doing homework, he would secretly hide their slippers, making them look everywhere for them.

But after that incident happened, Qi Guang and Lu Yueyang never saw each other again.

Maybe it was because the link between the two of them – the older sister who had the accident – left them with too many heavy memories.

Regarding Lu Yueyang’s later life, various rumors reached Qi Guang’s ears one after another, and then pieced together to form a complete experience.

In short, after so many years, they met in the same class, one was a teacher, the other was a student, and both tacitly didn’t mention the things from the past.

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