Chapter 584: The Class Teacher
This county is tiny.
When Lin Nan first came to this city for middle school, the entire place had only five bus routes. Nowadays, while they’ve added quite a few more, most of them snake out into the suburbs and rural areas.
In other words, five bus routes are more than enough to cover the whole county.
Now, during the summer break, a flood of students returning home led Lin Nan, along with her Aunt and Mother, to casually pick a hot pot restaurant to sit down. It didn’t take long for her to spot a familiar face from middle school, her brow furrowing in recognition.
Fortunately, it had been so long that this classmate completely failed to recognize Lin Nan or Chen Yao.
Usually during the winter and summer breaks, her parents were still working, so she had the freedom to be a homebody, indulging in her introverted ways. Unless Chen Yao dragged her out, she could easily spend the entire holiday inside, only venturing out to collect takeout or toss out the trash.
But not now.
Whether at Chen Yao’s house or her grandfather’s, neither the Aunt nor Grandfather were going to let her be a hermit.
“Nan Nan, what are you planning to do during the summer?” Aunt beamed, tossing a slice of meat into Lin Nan’s bowl. “Are you really considering being a tutor?”
“Uh-huh,” Lin Nan nodded.
“I asked around, they say you need a teaching certificate. You don’t have one yet, do you?”
Of course, Lin Nan knew about the teaching certificate! The reason why none of the companies she applied to had shown interest in her was primarily due to her lack of one.
Back in her freshman year, she was more interested in having fun. If she had known it would come to this, she would have gone and gotten certified then.
Most certificates become pretty useless after graduation, but when you actually need one and realize you don’t have it, that’s when things get awkward.
She temporarily set her worries about internship aside and smiled up at Aunt. “Then I’ll just stay home to take care of my parrot! It’s still a baby and needs looking after.”
Aunt’s face froze: “Sounds nice.”
“Parrot?” Mother hadn’t even realized Lin Nan had a bird.
Immediately, Lin Nan got excited, whipping out her phone to show Mother a picture of her parrot, Lemon. “Isn’t it adorable?”
Mother’s first reaction was, “Is it going to poop everywhere?”
“I’ll just clean up whatever it leaves behind.” Lin Nan replied.
At first, she was quite annoyed with Lemon’s habit of pooping wherever, but after many clean-ups, it didn’t bother her as much.
It didn’t even smell, just a quick swipe with a tissue and it was spotless—no messy aftermath!
However, recently, Lemon seemed to have developed a new habit. Instead of pooping anywhere, now every time the bird trapped its b*tt above the heating box, meaning after several days the box was spotless while the area in front of it resembled a mini bird park.
As they enjoyed hot pot, Chen Yao was like a ghost at the table, sitting alone, munching and playing on his phone, not joining in on the conversation.
Aunt soon caught sight of him and smacked his wrist with her chopsticks: “We came out to eat, and you’re glued to your phone!”
Chen Yao jumped, responding without hesitation: “You weren’t talking to me—what else am I supposed to do?”
Before Aunt could retort, he whipped around to Lin Nan and proposed, “Why don’t we move Lemon to the living room? The AC is always on in the bedroom, and taking it out from the heating box when feeding it can give it a cold from the temperature difference.”
That actually sounded somewhat reasonable?
Lin Nan pondered for a moment.
But Aunt promptly shot it down: “If you’re worried about it catching a cold, then don’t turn on the AC. I can’t have the AC on in the living room?”
The AC in Aunt’s living room was hardly used because the standing unit sucked up a ton of power; it typically only got turned on during mealtimes.
Chen Yao tried to argue back, but Aunt was quick, giving him a light smack on the head.
He was completely flabbergasted—was it not possible to just have a civil conversation? Must she resort to physical tactics?
Aunt was happily chitchatting with Lin Nan’s Mother, “He’s just been spoiled by never getting scolded. No worries, I’ll whip him into shape before he marries Nan Nan!”
“Mom, if you keep hitting me, who’s going to take care of you when you’re old?”
“You’re just asking for it!”
The two of them resumed their playful bickering, while Lin Nan and her Mother just laughed, feeling a bit envious of Chen Yao’s relationship with his mom.
As for Lin Nan and her Mother? Let’s just say they weren’t the playful type. They barely saw each other back then, and while their relationship had eased up a bit now, it still had its barriers.
The affectionate exchanges between the mother and son escalated, prompting Lin Nan’s Mother to divert the topic: “So, Chen Yao, what are your plans for the summer?”
“Just hanging out with Lin Nan, I guess?”
“Hanging out with Lin Nan? Does she want you around? You’d better get out and lose some weight! If you don’t shed ten pounds in over a month, I’ll kick you out!”
What a chaotic hot pot meal, and by the time they wrapped things up, it was already one in the afternoon.
Aunt and Mother rushed off for hairdos and foot massages, leaving Lin Nan with nothing to do. So, she opted to leisurely stroll with Chen Yao under the blazing sun.
As they walked down the street, Chen Yao complained, “Ever since you arrived, my mom seems to have an issue with everything I do.”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t annoy her constantly…”
“Am I the one annoying her? She’s always nitpicking!” Chen Yao grumbled, reminiscing about the days when he could mess around with his phone while eating without getting scolded.
He reached out, taking Lin Nan’s hand, sighing deeply about how tragic his life was destined to be, though thankfully, Lin Nan’s Mother had a decent impression of him and would come to his rescue sometimes.
Not long after leaving the restaurant, Chen Yao’s palms and forehead were already sweating.
Noticing his beads of sweat, Lin Nan sighed and pulled a pack of tissues from her small bag. “Want to wipe your sweat?”
“Are you going to wipe it for me?” Chen Yao bent down slightly to meet her.
Taking a tissue, Lin Nan smiled gently, dabbing at his sweat and teasing him, “How is it that you become more childish since we got together? You even need my help to wipe your sweat?”
“Well, now that I have a girlfriend, I can’t do everything myself, right?”
The summer had brought more twenty-somethings to the streets of the small county town, as middle and high school students strolled in their uniforms towards school.
Seeing these students caused Chen Yao to suddenly remember his high school class teacher.
“Some old classmates mentioned having a reunion now that the pandemic has settled, and they want to see the class teacher,” Chen Yao pulled out his phone to check the high school group, and sure enough, someone had suggested the reunion.
“Not my thing, count me out,” Lin Nan replied, having no desire to rekindle those old connections.
Too exhausting.
Chen Yao glanced down at Lin Nan: “What about visiting the class teacher? You used to get along well.”
Oh, right, and didn’t the class teacher just get divorced recently?
Thinking back about the laid-back teacher who had genuinely cared, Lin Nan contemplated for a while before asking, “He’s not on break yet, is he?”
“Should we just swing by the school? It could be a nostalgic trip.”
“Sure, you go ahead. I’ll just hang back and watch from a distance.”
She thought of how much that class teacher had looked out for her back then.
With her parents never showing up for parent-teacher meetings, the teacher always understood her situation, often sneakily buying fruits to entice her into eating. Sometimes he would swing by her home after school just to check on her.
In short, throughout her school years, he had been the most responsible teacher she had ever encountered, and certainly her favorite.
