By the May Day holiday, Shao Wu had already published three papers for Principal Gao, all in provincial-level journals.
School resumed after the holiday on May 3. At noon, Zhu Jingjing came to find Shao Wu for lunch, and he took her to a restaurant outside the school. It was nearly one in the afternoon when they arrived, and there were hardly any customers inside.
Shao Wu said, “Jingjing, for a while, don’t come find me for lunch… and if we run into each other on the road, try not to greet me either.”
Zhu Jingjing stared at him. “Why?”
“People at school are already saying the two of us are dating.”
Zhu Jingjing gave an “Ai” and shook her head. “That’s fine. Let them talk. At least then people will stop trying to introduce me to someone.”
“No. For now, we really have to act like we barely know each other.”
“Huh? Why?”
“There are some things… I can’t explain right now.” Shao Wu smiled at her. “You’ll know when the time comes.”
Shao Wu’s thinking was that once it happened, he probably would not be able to stay at the school. Zhu Jingjing, however, would still have to keep teaching there, so he could not drag her into it.
Two days later, during the long break, Shao Wu went into class and told the students, “Teacher Du and I switched evening self-study periods. Tonight, politics is changing to geography, and Thursday night’s geography period is changing to politics.”
“Ohhh…”
Sure enough, there were always one or two lively boys in the class. One of them grinned and asked, “Why are you switching, Teacher Shao?”
Shao Wu spoke very slowly. “My girlfriend is arriving in Yongchuan Thursday night. I have to go pick her up.”
“Eh?”
“What?!”
“Whoa, Teacher, you have a girlfriend? How come we never heard about this?”
The students, who had been half-asleep only moments earlier, instantly perked up, every pair of eyes more nosy than the last.
“There’s nothing to tell. When you’re in university, you’ll date too,” Shao Wu said.
“Did you get together in university?”
“Mm.” Shao Wu thought, I’m making up the story anyway. “But we were high-school classmates.”
“Aiya, Teacher, you were dating in high school?”
“Not in high school. We got together after university started.” Shao Wu warned them with a smile in his eyes. “And none of you are allowed to date too early either.”
“Teacher, so you’re in a long-distance relationship?”
“Right. She… she works in Chengdu. Okay.” Shao Wu checked his watch. “I have to go teach. Just remember that the evening self-study periods were switched.”
A girl in the front row cupped her face in both hands and called, “Teacher, don’t go. Tell us more…”
A few days later, the Grade 10 teachers gradually all knew that Teacher Shao, who had only joined the school the previous year, had a girlfriend. The two had been high-school classmates, gotten together in university, and had been dating for several years. The girl now worked in Chengdu.
On the way to the cafeteria, Shao Wu ran into Teacher Meng, who had previously wanted to introduce him to someone. Teacher Meng pulled a long face and sounded somewhat displeased. “Xiao Shao, you should’ve said earlier that you had a girlfriend.”
Shao Wu could only give a few awkward laughs. “Sorry for troubling you, Teacher Meng.”
After some time, nobody gossiped about Shao Wu and Zhu Jingjing anymore.
At the beginning of June, Longlong took the gaokao. She had already done exceptionally well by obtaining a qualifying certificate for the Fine Arts program at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As long as she performed normally on the gaokao, there basically would not be a problem. The day before the exam, Shao Wu went to see her. He had planned to chat casually to ease her nerves, but Longlong only laughed and said to him, “Brother Shao Wu, don’t be nervous.”
Seeing her like that put Shao Wu much more at ease. He handed her a Dove chocolate he had just bought. “Eat it if you feel like it.”
“Eh, my brother told me to buy some chocolate too.”
“He didn’t come back?”
“No. He’s away on a business trip.”
“That busy?”
“Mm. I think he’s over in Aba. The signal there isn’t very good either.”
“All right.” Shao Wu looked at Longlong and nodded. “Do your best. After the exam, I’ll take you and Grandma out to eat.”
“OK!”
Longlong walked away laughing and chatting with her best friend, while Shao Wu stayed where he was. It would be a lie to say he was not disappointed. He had thought he might use Longlong’s gaokao as a chance to see Yang Shuyi, but Yang Shuyi had not come back at all. Looking at it another way, though, that was a good thing too. It showed Longlong was in a stable frame of mind, unlike some students who had already become so nervous they jumped at every shadow.
June 7 and 8 were both unbearably muggy. Heavy clouds pressed low, brewing a torrential downpour. Fortunately, the storm held off, and the students did not have to go take their exams in the rain.
Longlong successfully finished high school. On June 9, Shao Wu treated Longlong and Grandma to a meal to celebrate the end of the gaokao and the beginning of the longest summer vacation of the girl’s life. During the meal, Longlong asked, “Brother Shao Wu, where did you go have fun after your gaokao?”
Have fun where? Back then he had not had the slightest thought of having fun. He had spent the entire summer racking his brains to explain to his parents and relatives why he had given up Renmin University.
Shao Wu smiled. “Nowhere really. I just stayed home.”
“Ahh…” Longlong pouted. “Wasn’t that boring?”
“What, are you planning to go somewhere?”
“My brother told Grandma and me to go to Chengdu. He said he’ll come pick us up at the end of the month after he finishes his business trip.”
“Chengdu… that’s nice. You’re done with the exams, so go relax properly.”
So fast. Longlong had actually finished the gaokao already. If Shao Wu did not see her around school so often, he always felt as though she were still an elementary-school kid.
Time slipped by without leaving a trace. So his and Yang Shuyi’s high-school days were already five years in the past.
Five years ago, or to be precise, six years ago. How many people still remembered what had happened then?
On June 19, Shao Wu got up early and went to the office.
“Eh,” said the physics teacher from the neighboring class when he saw him. “Don’t you have no classes today?”
“I still haven’t finished the monthly-exam summary.” Shao Wu smiled. “I came in to work overtime.”
After exchanging a few pleasantries, the physics teacher went to class, leaving Shao Wu alone in the office. Shao Wu stood and began clearing out his desk and bookcase. First he put his personal belongings into a cardboard box: a pen holder a student had given him, the thermos the school had issued, a pack of Hearttex tissues, half a box of Nescafé… Then came various documents, which went into another box: rankings from the four monthly exams that semester, the summer teacher duty roster, next week’s in-class geography test… There was a lot, but fortunately he had been deliberately sorting things out for a week already, so now all he had to do was put them into boxes.
Finally, Shao Wu arranged the teaching materials and textbooks issued by the school neatly on the bookshelf.
The first morning class was halfway through. Walking along the corridor connecting the teaching buildings, he could hear teachers’ voices rising and falling from classrooms all around. Although it was morning and the sun was out, low clouds still pressed down, making the air unbearably muggy. By the time Shao Wu walked from the office back to the dorm, he was drenched in sweat, his half-damp T-shirt clinging to his back.
This was the Yongchuan summer he knew all too well. Year after year, some buildings were demolished and some people left, but summer itself was always the same.
Shao Wu suddenly wanted a bowl of lianggao with plenty of tart, sweet raisins.
Unfortunately, there was no time. He had decided to finish what he needed to do before noon.
Shao Wu returned to the dorm, took off his T-shirt, and changed into a neat white dress shirt. Facing the mirror, he carefully tucked the hem into the waistband of his jeans.
Then he opened a drawer and took out the pale-gray stainless-steel box. It was brand new and fitted with a combination lock. He put it into his backpack, went downstairs, and hailed a taxi.
“Driver, take me to the Municipal Education Commission.”
“Sure.”
By then the morning rush was over, and traffic flowed smoothly. In less than twenty minutes, the taxi stopped in front of the Municipal Education Commission.
Shao Wu lowered his head to look for change. The driver made small talk. “Teacher, here for a meeting?”
“Not a meeting.” Shao Wu handed him the money and smiled. “Just handling something.”
“Oh…”
Shao Wu got out, and the driver turned the steering wheel to leave. He thought the young teacher was a little strange. The man had said nothing the entire ride and had clutched his backpack tightly, as though it contained a box of gold bars. But what kind of gold bars would a teacher coming to the Education Commission have in his bag? Probably just documents.
The driver thought idly about it as he drove away from the Municipal Education Commission.
If he had paid just a little more attention and looked through the rearview mirror, he would have seen the young teacher with the backpack walk straight into the Letters and Visits Office beside the commission’s main gate.
Elio’s Notes: A Letters and Visits Office (信访室) handles petitions, complaints, and reports submitted by citizens to government bodies. Shao Wu is deliberately making a formal, traceable complaint rather than an anonymous accusation.
“Hello,” Shao Wu said calmly to the staff member at the Letters and Visits Office. “I want to file a formal complaint under my real name against Vice Principal Gao Shenguo of Yongchuan No. 2 High School.”