-Guangyuan High School, Grade 11, Class 4, Su Xiaobo.
-Dismissal time is 6:30 PM. Thanks, thanks!
This was the detailed information sent by Su Xiaolan.
Su Xiaolan sent another message:
–I will send Consultant Xie’s license plate number to him. You just need to wait in the car; he should be coming out soon.
…
The name alone sounded like he was related to Su Xiaolan.
By dusk, when the two of them arrived at the school gate, it had just opened. Su Xiaolan had said she would tell her nephew the license plate number of Xie Lin’s car, but the two of them waited a long time without seeing the kid get in. Half an hour later, the school gate was sparsely populated, with only two or three students on cleaning duty running out in a hurry.
A few minutes later, even fewer students emerged from the campus.
Guangyuan High School was a very famous key high school in Huainan City. Even during dismissal, the students walking out of the gate didn’t speak much and appeared orderly. Their vacation time was also very short, and they had resumed classes even before regular high schools opened.
While an average person might be fretting over “Why isn’t that kid coming out yet?” or “What on earth happened?”, Xie Lin and Chi Qing sat in the car, completely unbothered. Xie Lin’s car was far too conspicuous. Passersby looked through the windows to see two unfamiliar men sitting side-by-side. One of them, with a chillingly cold face, was sizing up the world outside the window—a man with an excessively handsome face, his hands tucked into the cuffs of a black sweater, his skin so pale it didn’t look like a living person’s.
The other had one hand resting on the car window while the other was lowered, fiddling with his phone.
Xie Lin sent a text to Su Xiaolan: When did you send the message to your nephew?
Su Xiaolan: About an hour ago.
Xie Lin: Did he reply?
Su Xiaolan: No.
Xie Lin relayed Su Xiaolan’s reply to Chi Qing: “She said no.”
Only then did Chi Qing’s pitch-black, inorganic-looking pupils turn away from the window and land on Xie Lin’s phone screen.
Both their gazes fell upon the two words sent by Su Xiaolan.
Xie Lin’s fingers, loosely resting on the window, tapped the glass lightly: “An hour ago, Officer Su sent the license plate number. That was still during class time, and her nephew didn’t reply. But she wasn’t worried at all. Officer Su knows her nephew must have seen it, so he likely keeps his phone on him at school all the time.”
“Huainan City’s key high schools rarely allow students to use mobile phones during school hours,” Xie Lin said. “Or is this school an exception?”
Chi Qing dismissed the “exception” theory: “It’s not.”
Xie Lin: “Did you go to this school?”
Chi Qing: “In the last half hour, among the students who came out of the gate, those few who were secretly carrying phones all did the same thing—they stood in place for a moment to wait for their phones to boot up. So even if they have to secretly bring phones for daily needs, they don’t dare turn them on inside the school.”
Only after saying this did Chi Qing answer Xie Lin’s question about the school:
“I didn’t go to this school. Getting into this school is quite difficult.”
Xie Lin thought that his partner’s IQ, while not very sharp when it came to dating, didn’t look like someone who couldn’t get into a key high school at all.
“If my score had been ten points lower back then, I might have ended up here,” Chi Qing said honestly. “Getting ten points lower isn’t that easy.”
“…”
Su Xiaolan surely had no idea that her nephew had been subjected to a well-reasoned psychological profile by two consultants from the General Bureau simply because he hadn’t come to the car on time. Based on the few scraps of information she provided, in such a short time, her nephew’s temperament, character, and even his academic performance had already been profiled.
Chi Qing: “Many students walking out are holding test papers.”
Xie Lin: “They just finished their start-of-term exams. Her nephew’s grades likely aren’t even passing, and he likes to play on his phone during school hours… It would be hard for the teachers not to keep him behind for some ‘focused education’.”
The school gate, which carried a sense of age, stood before them. Xie Lin got out of the car and stopped a passing student to ask which building and floor the Grade 11 teachers’ office was on.
The student he had stopped pushed up his thick-rimmed glasses, reciting vocabulary words while walking. He held a wordbook and said: “Go straight in, Building 3. Which class in Grade 11 specifically? Class 4… there are three classes on the first floor, so Class 4 should be on the second floor.”
The two had to register with the security guard before entering the school to collect their person.
For two people who had graduated many years ago and hadn’t stepped into a school in a long time, the campus environment felt both strange and familiar. As they walked into the teaching building, they passed one youthful, green face after another.
Most people in Building 3 had already left.
The teachers’ office was at the very end of each floor, and the door was slightly ajar.
Chi Qing didn’t forget to put on his black gloves before entering. Xie Lin waited until he was ready before knocking slowly and leisurely.
The scene in the office was exactly as they had imagined. A female teacher stood with a cold face, and beside her stood a boy in a school uniform. The boy wasn’t tall, and his eyes looked very much like Su Xiaolan’s. Although he was being scolded, his eyes kept wandering elsewhere; clearly, the suffocating pressure of being lectured made him want to shift his attention.
Judging by the atmosphere, the first round of education had likely just finished. The female teacher was in a “charging” state, emitting cold pressure and manufacturing the tension of the conversation.
In this atmosphere, the office was extremely quiet.
This caused the faint “creak” of the door when Xie Lin pushed it open to become quite prominent.
Su Xiaobo’s eyes were already drifting around, and they drifted to the door at the sound. Standing there was a strange man he didn’t recognize. After knocking, the man smiled and stated his purpose directly: “Sorry to disturb you after school hours. This child’s heart isn’t in his studies, and his start-of-term exam results aren’t ideal. It’s thanks to you that you keep reminding him.”
Xie Lin started with a practiced, polite opening.
The female teacher stared at him blankly, having listened to a string of flattering words. Moreover, the visitor knew Su Xiaobo’s situation like the back of his hand, and the criticisms he made were spot on. By taking the initiative, he made it impossible for her to continue hammering those points, and she even forgot to ask how this person knew Su Xiaobo had failed his exam.
Two or three minutes later, under Xie Lin’s guidance, the female teacher could only go along with what he said. Before long, her expression softened: “Fine, it’s getting late now. Go back early, and remember to do today’s homework seriously.”
After the teacher finished speaking, she brought up another matter: “Also…”
Chi Qing was getting impatient waiting on the side and spoke up: “The phone.”
“Playing on your phone at school is indeed unacceptable,” the female teacher said, looking at the person in the black gloves. “Make sure you discipline him well when you get home.”
The female teacher: “…?”
The teacher hadn’t said anything yet, but these two people, who appeared to be Su Xiaobo’s guardians, had said it all for her.
Su Xiaobo was also very surprised.
He had been secretly eyeing these two from the side, and only just realized that these were likely the people sent to pick him up today.
But…
Even his aunt didn’t know he had an exam today, let alone that he had failed it.
Su Xiaobo retreated from the teachers’ office as if he had survived a disaster, following closely behind them. He asked with self-familiarity: “Are you guys sent by my aunt to pick me up?”
Chi Qing didn’t give him a pleasant look. One hand on top of the other, he meticulously adjusted the details of his gloves: “What did you score on your Chinese exam?”
Su Xiaobo: “56 this time.”
Chi Qing: “No wonder you can’t tell the difference between picking someone up and ‘supporting’ them.”
Su Xiaobo: “…?”
On the way back, perhaps fearing that what he did today would reach Su Xiaolan’s ears, Su Xiaobo tried to speak well of himself the whole way: “Big brothers, just treat grades with a normal mind. It’s impossible for everyone to be number one; someone has to be in the bottom few, right? The fact that I can withstand the pressure that others can’t—isn’t that a kind of courage?”
Xie Lin was driving: “Don’t call me brother.”
Su Xiaobo: “Why?”
Xie Lin: “Because I’m only willing to be called ‘brother’ by a certain someone. Others aren’t allowed to call me that.”
Chi Qing had been wearing an expression of “don’t chat with me, I don’t know you” the whole time, but his expression loosened for two seconds upon hearing this, feeling that this “certain someone” seemed to be very pointed.
He turned his head to look at Xie Lin, catching the peripheral glance Xie Lin cast him—seemingly looking at the “rearview mirror,” but intentionally or not, glancing his way.
Su Xiaobo didn’t understand that this was a private conversation between a couple.
He thought, Fine, if you won’t let me call you that, I won’t, so he changed his tone: “Uncles.”
“Actually, I’m not the worst. There’s someone who got a 54 in Chinese.”
Xie Lin: “Oh, did he fill in the answer sheet wrong?”
Su Xiaobo choked: “How did you know?”
Chi Qing’s desire to ignore him escalated, but he decided to say whatever was on his mind; if a topic could be ended in one sentence, he wouldn’t say a second. So, changing his silence, he took over Xie Lin’s words: “After all, finding two students in a key city high school who scored below 60 in Chinese isn’t an easy task.”
Su Xiaobo shut his mouth.
After another while.
“Uncle, don’t you think all roads lead to Rome? You don’t necessarily have to rely on academic grades.”
Chi Qing started to miss the cat at home.
Compared to this nephew of Su Xiaolan’s, that cat could be described as well-behaved and cute.
Chi Qing: “All roads leading to Rome is correct, but with your level of culture, you probably don’t even know where Rome is.”
“…”
Having run into walls repeatedly with Chi Qing, Su Xiaobo wisely stopped trying to chat with the strange brother in gloves and turned to the other one, who looked significantly easier to get along with.
In the office just now, the other one’s attitude had been very gentle, and with a few words, he had soothed the “Extinction Master” (the teacher). This one should be easier to talk to.
“Uncle,” Su Xiaobo said, “he insulted me for having no culture.”
However, this person who looked so easy to talk to threw a bucket of cold water on him: “Kid, if you want to file a complaint, you’ve found the wrong person. The gentleman beside me—whatever he says, I think is right.”
Su Xiaobo: “…”
“I really don’t like studying,” Su Xiaobo said, leaning back and sighing, “High school is too hard, completely different from junior high. I used to be a ‘chicken head’ (top dog), now I’m a ‘phoenix tail’ (bottom of the barrel). Shouldn’t people feel happy while they’re alive? I feel like studying is hard to make me happy. Can you guys…” Don’t tell my aunt.
As he spoke, he looked out the window, feeling like life was hopeless.
The scenery outside, in his eyes, was bleak…
The grey sky, the dilapidated streets…
By now, the car had traveled for a while, passing another high school. A school of similar scale to Guangyuan was located to the right of the intersection.
…
Ah.
There’s this annoying school again…
Su Xiaobo looked at that school and couldn’t help but feel a wave of sadness.
He peered into the distance toward that school and happened to see a small grove surrounded by iron fences at the back of the campus. A large red-and-black kite was hanging from a tree.
“The students in this school still have time to fly kites…” Su Xiaobo said, “When will our school organize a kite-flying event?”
“Though this kite looks a bit too…”
Before Su Xiaobo could finish his sentence, the car gave a sudden jolt and slammed on the brakes.
He leaned forward, his schoolbag on his back, his chest pressed tightly against the back of the front seat: “Too… too big—why did you stop?”
Because of Su Xiaobo’s unintentional remark, and because they had just hit a red light, Xie Lin slowed down and glanced at the school. One look—
The grove was bare, with sparse green buds that were almost invisible. In such a bare grove, anything hanging in the trees was immediately noticeable. The “kite” in the tree seemed to have two tails, dangling “in the wind” because it wasn’t hanging stably.
However, taking a closer look, one would soon realize those were not “tails” at all.
“That probably isn’t a kite,” Xie Lin said after slamming on the brakes. “That’s a person, red and black… it’s the school uniform they’re wearing.”
