When the new semester began, Shao Wu became the English class representative for Humanities Class 1. Their English teacher was Liu Shan, a recent university graduate whom the students called Sister Shan.
During the break, Shao Wu carried the stack of exercise books he had just collected into Sister Shan’s office.
“Yang Shuyi again.” Liu Shan frowned. “What is going on with him?”
“He said he forgot to bring it…”
“Who does he think he’s fooling? He forgets his homework every single day. How come he doesn’t forget himself somewhere?” Liu Shan sighed. “Do this. Tell him to rewrite it at school today. I’m supervising evening self-study tonight anyway, so have him bring it directly to me.”
Shao Wu nodded. “Mm, okay.”
“Oh, right!” Liu Shan’s voice brightened. “Here, take this.”
She pulled a red gauze pouch from her drawer. A large “Double Happiness” character was embroidered on it. “Teacher Zhang Han is getting married… You eat these. I’m trying to lose weight.”
“Oh, thank you, Sister Shan!” Shao Wu accepted the wedding sweets.
Elio’s Notes: 囍 is the “Double Happiness” character, traditionally associated with Chinese weddings. Wedding sweets or candies are commonly distributed to share the couple’s happiness with relatives, friends, and colleagues.
Shao Wu was fair and clean-cut, did well in school, and behaved himself. He was the sort of student teachers naturally liked. Every time he went to the office to deliver homework, one teacher or another would stuff some little snack into his hands.
Shao Wu tucked the wedding sweets into his uniform pocket. At the classroom door, he took a deep breath before walking inside.
“Uh, Shen Qi,” Shao Wu asked, “where’s Yang Shuyi?”
“The homeroom teacher hauled him away just now.” Shen Qi shrugged. “Didn’t do his math paper.”
Shao Wu: “…”
Shen Qi was Yang Shuyi’s deskmate, a music-track student studying vocal performance. She was a cheerful, outgoing girl, and being seated beside someone as quiet as Yang Shuyi had obviously been suffocating her; right now, she was enthusiastically chatting with the girl sitting in front of her. A thick wall of books stood upright on Shen Qi’s desk: textbooks, exercise books, and two books on music theory, making the whole desk look crowded. In fact, most students’ desks were like that, including Shao Wu’s. They had too many books to fit inside the desk compartments, so they had no choice but to stack them on top.
Yang Shuyi’s desk, however, was nearly empty. His history textbook lay open across it, its pages perfectly clean, without a single note written anywhere.
Shao Wu had no choice but to return to his seat. After taking a few steps, he glanced back and saw a crumpled plastic bag inside Yang Shuyi’s desk compartment, half open, with two steamed buns inside.
The wedding sweets remained in Shao Wu’s pocket. He had never taken them out.
The second class that morning was politics. Their homeroom teacher arrived, but Yang Shuyi’s seat was still empty.
Forty-five minutes had never passed so slowly. At last, Dong Ming said, “We’ll stop here for today.” Shao Wu immediately grabbed his exercise book and followed him into the office.
“Sir,” Shao Wu said softly, “there’s a question I wanted to ask you.”
“Oh? Which one?” Dong Ming picked up his mug and gulped down a couple mouthfuls of tea. Then he glanced over his shoulder. “Are you finished yet?”
The person sitting behind him was Yang Shuyi. Dong Ming shared an office with the homeroom teacher of neighboring Science Class 7, and Yang Shuyi was currently sitting in that teacher’s chair, gripping a pen with a glaringly white test paper spread out before him.
“…Not yet,” Yang Shuyi replied quietly without looking at Shao Wu.
“Then keep working. You can go back to class when you finish.” Dong Ming turned back. “Shao Wu, which question?”
“Oh. This one.” Shao Wu pointed at a multiple-choice question at random.
It did not take long for Dong Ming to explain it, and Shao Wu had no choice but to close his exercise book and leave. Then Dong Ming suddenly called after him, “Hey, is your next class with Teacher Cui?”
“Yes.”
“He has something to do this morning, so we switched things around. You’ll have self-study next period, and geography during the afternoon self-study period. Go tell everyone for me.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Good grief, I’ve got another meeting. Why are there so many meetings every single day?” Dong Ming glanced at his watch, grabbed his mug, and hurried away.
Suddenly, only Shao Wu and Yang Shuyi remained in the office.
Yang Shuyi sat with his head lowered, gripping his pen without moving, obviously with no idea what to do with the paper in front of him.
Shao Wu knew he should go back to the classroom, but the wedding sweets Sister Shan had given him were still sitting in his pocket, strangely heavy as they tugged downward.
“…Yang Shuyi.” Shao Wu stepped closer and asked in a very soft voice, “Are you hungry?”