“Xiao Shao, can we swap classes tomorrow? I’ve got first period in the morning.” Sister Shan’s voice reached the office before she did.
Shao Wu looked up. “Sure. Mine’s third period in the afternoon.”
“Ah, perfect.” Sister Shan tilted her head, looking a little helpless. “Every single day, I swear.”
It was lunchtime, and all the other teachers in the office had gone to the cafeteria. Shao Wu was not hungry yet, and he still had papers left to grade, so he planned to go later. He set down his pen and asked quietly, “Another blind date?”
“Yep. This one’s some business guy. He’s taking the high-speed train to Shenzhen tomorrow afternoon, so tomorrow morning is the only time he has.” Sister Shan gave a derisive little laugh. “My mom’s classmate introduced him, so I have to go. Anyway, that’s what they say every time.”
Four years had passed. By the time Shao Wu returned to his old school as a geography teacher, Sister Shan was still unmarried. In her words, she had already stopped caring about the whole thing, but her parents grew more anxious by the day and kept frantically arranging blind dates for her.
“You’re still young. You don’t get it,” Sister Shan had sighed to Shao Wu at the welcome dinner for newly hired teachers. “Once you get to my age and go on blind dates, every man you meet is there to get married. Nobody has time to date you. You sit down at the restaurant and right away they start asking: How much bride price? Who’s buying the house, who’s buying the car? How soon after the wedding are you having kids?”
Shao Wu comforted her. “Sister Shan, you’re not that old.”
“Over thirty.” She shook her head and mocked herself. “In a little place like Yongchuan, that already makes me an old woman.”
After four years away, even the school he knew so well had changed a great deal. The renovated campus went without saying, but the teachers from those days had changed too: some had left, others had retired. Old Chen, the mathematics teacher, had taken medical retirement because of high blood pressure, while his old homeroom teacher, who taught politics, had been recruited by a junior high school in Chongqing. Sister Shan’s love life had not gone smoothly, but her career had. Four years later, she had already become a grade director. She was now in charge of the senior year and was Shao Wu’s immediate supervisor.
There was a male teacher in the geography department who had joined the school at the same time as Shao Wu. They were both new hires, except that the other man had graduated from a second-tier teachers’ university. Sometimes he would tease Shao Wu with a sour edge to his voice: “Put in a good word for me with the director, will you? Out of all us new hires, you’re about the only one who can actually talk to her.”
Shao Wu said awkwardly, “If you have something you want, you can just go talk to her. She’s pretty easy to approach.”
“Come on, people like us aren’t exactly what the leadership looks twice at. Don’t believe me? Look at this batch of new hires. How many are from Project 985 universities? Just the three of you, right? Geography wasn’t even your actual major and the school still hired you. That tells you they care about credentials.”
Shao Wu had no answer to that, so he silently turned on his computer and started looking for a suitable documentary to show his students. They had begun climate types that week, and the material was fairly difficult.
The male colleague kept muttering, in the tone of someone who thought everyone else was drunk while he alone was sober. “This obsession with academic credentials is way too blind. For teachers, teaching ability matters a lot more than your degree. You can know a mountain of stuff, but if you can’t explain any of it, what good does it do…”
Shao Wu pretended not to hear.
He had expected it, and Sister Shan had let something slip before too: among the teachers who knew the backstory, people were all talking. What was going on with this Shao Wu? His gaokao score had been seven points above Renmin University’s admissions cutoff, yet he had applied to the English department at Chongqing University, a school known primarily for science and engineering. Now he had graduated and somehow returned to his old school to teach. In Yongchuan, generally speaking, students who tested their way out were rarely willing to come back. Home was home, but the city was still too small and too closed-off.
Those “inside details” gradually reached the other new teachers too, so that whenever they expressed envy of Shao Wu’s educational background, there was something hard to read in their eyes as well, half probing and half watching for entertainment.
Shao Wu thought, Whatever.
“Oh, right, I almost forgot.” Sister Shan spoke again. “You know Teacher Meng from the first-year classes? The chemistry teacher? He wants to introduce you to someone.”
Shao Wu said, “…Huh?”
Because he and Zhu Jingjing were only pretending to date, Shao Wu worried he might genuinely hold her back. They had agreed that at school they would continue acting simply as friends, and only when they had to deal with Shao Wu’s parents would they pretend to be a couple. So everyone at school knew Shao Wu was single.
“Teacher Meng asked me to sound you out. The girl’s got great qualifications. Xiamen University for undergrad, and now she works at the tax bureau in Chengdu. Her family’s from Yongchuan, but they’ve already settled in Chengdu… Here, look at her photo.”
Sister Shan handed him her phone. Shao Wu forced himself to say, “All right, let me see.”
On the screen was a slender young woman in a black graduation gown, standing by the sea and smiling brightly. She was not tall, but her features were delicate. She was a pretty girl.
“Teacher Meng says her family’s quite well-off. They’re in business and own several apartments in Chengdu.” Sister Shan smiled. “Think how much pressure that would take off you.”
Shao Wu handed the phone back and racked his brain before finally coming up with, “Wouldn’t it be a bad fit? We don’t even live in the same place…”
“Come on, kid. You’re not seriously planning to stay in Yongchuan your whole life, are you? Of course not. I think this girl sounds great, and the people Teacher Meng introduces are always reliable. If it really works out, you could go develop your career in Chengdu. Wouldn’t that be much better than staying in Yongchuan?”
Chengdu. Chengdu again.
Shao Wu was momentarily speechless and thought, I know Chengdu is great. I know.
In fact, not only did he know Chengdu was great, he knew Chengdu’s weather too. Every single day. He had already switched to a smartphone and could check the weather in different cities whenever he wanted, but he still went to a China Mobile service hall and subscribed to a Weather Service package. Every morning at six-thirty sharp, he received that day’s Chengdu forecast by text message.
Chengdu’s temperature ran slightly higher than Yongchuan’s, and it was often overcast or drizzling. The Weather Service texts had a lively tone. If the temperature dropped on a certain day, for example, they would add a line at the end: Remember to put on another layer! After a month, Shao Wu saved the Weather Service number in his contacts under the name “Yang Shuyi.”
He thought he was ridiculous, but sometimes when he remembered it, the corner of his mouth really would lift into the faintest smile.
“Sister Shan, I really… I’m just not thinking about that kind of thing right now.” Feeling guilty, Shao Wu tapped the Enter key on his keyboard. “Look, I only just started working and I’m already busy all the time. We’d be long-distance too. Better not waste her time, right?”
Sister Shan looked at Shao Wu. A moment later, she answered helplessly, “Fine. I’ll tell Teacher Meng for you.”
“Mm! Thanks, Sister Shan. Next time I see Teacher Meng, I’ll thank him myself.”
“Xiao Shao, are you…”
Shao Wu had only just relaxed inwardly when he immediately tensed again. “What?” He was terrified Sister Shan was about to say, Do you think that girl isn’t pretty enough? I’ve got prettier ones. Want an introduction?
“Did you sign Guo Yulong’s leave slip? Last Saturday.”
“Oh… yes. She said the art studio had invited a teacher over to give them a lesson.” Guo Yulong was Longlong. She was in Sister Shan’s class, and now she was one of Shao Wu’s students too.
Sister Shan nodded. “All right. Got it.”