Teacher Hu at Zhou Yu’s desk said: “Having surveillance is good—it saves us teachers some worry.”
“Didn’t your class students protest?” Teacher Su asked.
“No, they just made a dismissive sound and didn’t react much.”
“My class was great—the first day after installation, they covered it with a plastic bag. I heard the entire third-year grade had no reaction. Older students are just different.”
“That’s because they’re all busy preparing for exams,” the grade leader said as she passed by. “Each one completely absorbed in their studies. I was eating in the cafeteria and saw the effort those top third-year students were putting in—I felt ashamed myself.”
“I observed that too,” Zhou Yu agreed. “Those students don’t even get full meals—they only eat buns and steamed rolls, changing up the flavors. One person packs four or five, eating while walking, and after finishing, they go straight to class to continue doing practice problems.”
“This isn’t unusual—happens every year,” Teacher Hu said matter-of-factly. “Any third-year student sitting in the cafeteria with soup, meat, and vegetables, eating leisurely, basically has no hope for the college entrance exam—they’ve given up on themselves.”
“Come eat—time to eat!” The PE teacher passing by in the corridor shouted into the office. “If you go late, there’ll be no meat left!”
“Teacher Xiao Wang, Teacher Xiao Wang…” Zhou Yu hurriedly called out to him. Before she could say anything, Teacher Wang spoke first: “Sister, you’re too late. The math teacher already borrowed my class.”
…
“Both classes this week were borrowed?” Zhou Yu asked.
The PE teacher snapped his fingers. “The other one was borrowed by the homeroom teacher long ago. Reserved a month in advance.”
…
Zhou Yu returned to the office. Teacher Hu quietly advised her, “Next time, reserve a month ahead and cast a wide net—borrow from PE, music, and art teachers. Don’t just ask to borrow—treat them to a meal in the cafeteria.”
…
Zhou Yu wrapped her scarf, put on gloves, and prepared to leave work. Teacher Hu asked her, “Not eating in the cafeteria?”
“Not eating.” After Zhou Yu spoke, she received a WeChat message from Sun Jingcheng saying he’d be staying in the new district tonight after finishing work late.
Zhou Yu didn’t reply. This was already his third day staying in the new district this week. Since that night returning from the new district, the two hadn’t seen each other. She still happily left work and arranged to eat hot pot with eldest sister-in-law. A while ago she’d asked eldest sister-in-law for help and had been saying she’d treat her to a meal in return.
The two ordered a pot, had the dishes served, and ate while chatting at a leisurely pace. Eldest brother had no set work hours, so eldest sister-in-law generally didn’t wait for him. After eating most of their meal, eldest sister-in-law mentioned that a couple nights ago, eldest brother had received a phone call from Sun Jingcheng late at night, asking if it was possible to remove his name from the household registry.
“Your eldest brother said only dead people could be removed. Fourth brother Cheng probably said it in anger, saying to just consider him dead. Later your eldest brother took the phone outside to talk—they talked for half an hour before he came back.” Eldest sister-in-law said carefully: “I thought fourth brother had been drinking too much, but your eldest brother said it was nothing—he doesn’t drink.”
Eldest sister-in-law was habitually cautious. Originally she shouldn’t have said this much—it had the suspicion of prying into people’s private lives. Those with narrow minds would think she was enjoying their misfortune. These past few days she’d been thinking it over and finally decided to say a few words to Zhou Yu. Among the three sisters-in-law, she liked Zhou Yu the most and hoped most that she and fourth brother could live well together. She didn’t want to encounter another difficult sister-in-law like second daughter-in-law.
This year she’d clearly sensed something wasn’t right with these two. Whether a woman in a marriage was doing well or not simply couldn’t be hidden. From her every smile and frown, her eyes and state—it was all obvious. But they were all intelligent people. If someone wanted dignity, and you insisted on stripping it away, that showed you were tactless.
“He’s been working late these past few days, sometimes staying in the new district,” Zhou Yu said. “If you hadn’t mentioned it, I really wouldn’t have known about this.”
“I only mentioned it just now while eating. The subway construction where you are has been going on for a year—no word on when it’ll be finished. Yesterday I went to handle some business and got so turned around.” Eldest sister-in-law continued along with her topic.
“The pandemic caused another work stoppage in the first half of the year. They say it won’t be finished until before May Day next year,” Zhou Yu said.
“So Jingcheng will have to detour for another half year coming home?” eldest sister-in-law asked.
“Right. Usually it’s twenty minutes at most, but now everyone has to detour, traffic is congested—forty minutes is considered fast.”
Eldest sister-in-law seemed to remember something and said to her: “Let me tell you something interesting. Have you noticed that at family dinners, among the men, only fourth brother and Dad never miss one?”
“Second brother’s mouth runs wild—every time in the group chat he says he’ll come, but out of ten times he makes it maybe twice if we’re lucky. Jingfei is the same. Only fourth brother participates every single time without fail.” Eldest sister-in-law said: “Among the four siblings, I’d say fourth brother has the most family responsibility. Those three just pay lip service with no actual action.”
…
“I think eldest brother is very good. It’s just that his work is special—everyone understands when he can’t come.” Zhou Yu thought of something. “During summer vacation, there was one time I saw eldest brother on the street. He was buying flowers, asking what kind of flowers would make a woman happy when she saw them. The florist was quite witty and replied, ‘having money to spend.'” She laughed as she finished.
Eldest sister-in-law also laughed heartily, her expression full of tender affection as she said: “Now that you mention it, I remember. That day he rarely had time off. The two of us took Yanyan out to play. We bickered a couple times on the road and parted unhappily. It wasn’t until evening that he came back clutching a bunch of flower stems…” She gestured with her hands. “A bouquet of flowers with only a few yellow flower centers left.”
“Later he explained to me, saying he’d bought flowers intending to come back and apologize, but on the way he was suddenly called to a task. When he ran back to the bureau, the flowers were upside down in his hand swinging back and forth—all the petals got shaken off.”
After the meal, eldest sister-in-law was picked up by eldest brother. Zhou Yu was too lazy to take a taxi and walked along the roadside toward the subway entrance. Because she was focused on thinking, she didn’t hear the honking behind her. Not until Sun Jingcheng’s car pulled alongside her and he rolled down the window to call out did she notice him with a start.
“Get in the car, I’ll give you a ride.”
“You go ahead with your work. I’ll take the subway.”
“Still angry?”
To prove she wasn’t angry, she got in the car.