Mother Sun packed the soup for him, and he carried it back to the marital home. Sure enough, Zhou Yu was sulking in bed. He said: “Mom made lamb soup, heat it up when you’re hungry tonight.”
Zhou Yu didn’t make a sound.
“I’m going to Hefei, coming back Thursday.”
“You don’t need to tell me.” Zhou Yu didn’t look at him either, “Just do what you usually do, just go directly.”
……
Sun Jingcheng sensed something in her words, “I tell you wherever I go. Yesterday at your house I said I was going on a business trip.”
Zhou Yu pulled the blanket up higher, not responding to him.
Sun Jingcheng reflected for a while, “Maybe occasionally I don’t tell you, but it’s definitely not intentional…”
“You don’t need to say all this.”
“Then what are you angry about?” Sun Jingcheng asked.
“I’m not angry.”
……
“Fine, you’re right about everything!” Sun Jingcheng didn’t argue with her, “When other people are angry they go shopping, watch movies, eat good food. You’re great—after stirring things up you foolishly come back to sleep.”
“Who did I stir up?” Zhou Yu sat up looking at him.
“You stirred me up!” Sun Jingcheng replied, “I was happy going on a business trip, now my mood is ruined.”
“Then don’t go.”
“I’m definitely going.”
“Go or don’t go, whatever you want!” Zhou Yu got out of bed, using a large hair clip to pin up her hair. She remembered she had to work tomorrow and still had work to finish.
Sun Jingcheng felt much more comfortable. He couldn’t keep things bottled up—he had to say them out loud to feel better. Once resolved, he could focus on other matters with a clear mind. Because of this, he had even changed his ticket to seven in the evening.
It was too early to go to the high-speed rail station now. Unable to sleep, he simply sat down to play piano. One played Liszt while the other worked quietly—they didn’t interfere with each other.
Early the next morning at school, the grade level head called her over, telling her to wait before going back to the office. Zhou Yu asked her, “What happened?”
The grade level head pointed upstairs, “Jiang Yuan’s parents are inside, the vice principal too.”
Zhou Yu didn’t say anything—then she’d wait a bit before going up.
The grade level head led her to the teaching building, “The hospital recommended Jiang Yuan have eye removal surgery.”
“That serious?” Zhou Yu was stunned.
“Yes, only fifteen years old.” The head sighed, “Even younger than my child by several years.”
Zhou Yu hadn’t recovered from the shock when she continued: “The parents want to sue the school for inadequate supervision. In the end it’s probably us teachers who’ll be in trouble.”
Zhou Yu didn’t quite understand this. The head looked at her, “You’re still young, haven’t experienced much. Arranging teachers for morning and evening self-study duty is actually indirectly informing parents that students are being supervised by teachers. Now that something happened to a student, when parents hold someone accountable, the first person is the duty teacher.”
“But I was in another class at the time…”
“Don’t worry.” The head reassured her, “The school naturally knows the specific situation, but they also need to give the parents an explanation. At this time they can only push out the duty teacher.”
Zhou Yu stopped talking.
“This depends on how the parents and school negotiate. If handled well, the duty teacher gets a demerit. If not handled well, if the parents won’t let go of the duty teacher, the situation is hard to say.”
“I’m giving you advance notice so you’re mentally prepared. If the principal sees you tonight and tells you to rest for a few days, don’t take offense.” The head instructed her, “Before the school and parents agree on compensation, don’t show your face.”
“At the affiliated middle school, a student jumped from a building during art class. It really had nothing to do with the teacher, but the parents strongly demanded the teacher be fired. When parents are in the grief and despair of losing a child, there’s no reasoning with them.”
“Okay, understood.” Zhou Yu nodded.
The head sighed lightly, “If it were us, it’d be the same. Raising them with such hardship, just two more years until college entrance exams… Try to understand.”
Zhou Yu didn’t respond. The two slowly went up the stairs. The head comforted her, saying that in last week’s grade-level test, her class’s English scores were still first and second in the entire grade. She was a young backbone teacher being cultivated by the school and wouldn’t be easily disciplined. Just then they heard students shouting loudly, “Teacher Wang, Teacher Wang—”
The head looked up. Students were leaning over the railing on the fourth floor. She asked: “What’s wrong?”
The students were anxious, hesitating to speak, just urging her to come up quickly. The head jogged up, not forgetting to turn back and tell Zhou Yu that it might be parents causing trouble, not to come up. Zhou Yu was worried and followed up anyway. At the classroom door stood both sets of parents. One parent was cursing and kicked their child far away. Teachers rushed to stop them. The child couldn’t get up for a long time after being kicked.
“You’re really barbaric! What kind of ability is hitting a child!” Jiang Yuan’s parent pointed at the other’s nose, “Don’t put on a show for me, I’m not buying it! We’ll go through legal procedures, take responsibility where due, compensate where due!”
The other party was also domineering, pointing at the child on the ground, saying they had no money, take the person away.
School leaders came one after another, persuading both parties to go to the office. Zhou Yu quietly went downstairs, first waiting in the nurse’s office. Sure enough, shortly after, the director contacted her, asking her to hand over substitute teaching duties to another English teacher, then wait in the principal’s office.
After Sun Jingcheng finished his business in Hefei, he went directly to Mount Huang. Because he planned to watch the sunrise, he simply booked a hotel in the scenic area. After entering the scenic area he didn’t take the cable car, climbing from the foot of the mountain for three or four hours to Bright Summit Peak. Along the way he befriended an elderly uncle, and the two agreed to watch the sunrise together the next morning.
The next day before five in the morning he was already wearing a military coat, climbing to the top to watch the sunrise. The beauty naturally went without saying—sunrise, sea of clouds, rime ice, strange rocks—it was truly like an earthly paradise. Sun Jingcheng immersed himself in quietly experiencing it all. Not until the uncle beside him couldn’t stand the cold anymore did the two go down together. The uncle was proud of the beautiful scenery in his camera, saying it was worth freezing to death!
Only then did Sun Jingcheng remember he had forgotten to take photos. The uncle said it didn’t matter—once he got home he’d send him the photos. The uncle was a local from Hongcun Village and was extremely hospitable, inviting Sun Jingcheng to his home for a meal. Sun Jingcheng couldn’t refuse and followed him walking down the mountain.
On the way down the two were silent, each thinking their own thoughts. Sun Jingcheng thought about Zhou Yu saying he was self-centered, lacking family responsibility. He had actually taken it to heart. He had been used to being self-centered in his early years—wanting to go somewhere, he’d just pack his bag and leave. One place today, another tomorrow. Mother Sun always said he was here one moment, gone the next, not telling family where he was going. If something happened, they wouldn’t even know where he was.
The uncle lived alone. Sun Jingcheng didn’t ask about his family, nor did the other ask about his. The two ate, chatted casually, drank tea, then went to the darkroom together to develop photos. Sun Jingcheng liked this place and stayed an extra day, hanging around with the sketching artists. Unfortunately, his painting skills were really poor. Even though his appearance wasn’t bad, he was still looked down upon by the art students around him.
Sun Jingcheng laughed heartily. Since people looked down on him, he’d paint by himself. First he got a set of painting supplies, set up at what he considered a good angle, and painted looking at the Moon Pond. Look at the Moon Pond, move the brush; look at the Moon Pond, move the brush. After a long time someone passed by, deeply attracted by his painting, and asked what he was painting.
Sun Jingcheng said leisurely, “A duck, I’m painting a duck.” The other person looked at the Moon Pond but couldn’t find the so-called duck. They pointed out that ducks have webbed feet, chickens have four distinct toes forming claws.
Sun Jingcheng didn’t care—then let’s say I’m painting a chicken. The other person was an elderly art teacher who, with a sense of responsibility, said chickens can’t swim in water, they don’t have webbed feet. Sun Jingcheng was indifferent and handed the brush to him.