It's the students' fault if they are too popular.

She didn't expect Teacher Tong to fall in love with her now, but at least, if she wanted to spend her life with someone one day, there was an option that it should be her.

Seeing that she didn't say anything, Tong Yao thought that the child was still in pain but was afraid to tell her and make her worry, so she pulled out one hand and tried to search again:

"I'll see if there's any other way."

Ruan Qian stared at her blankly, seeing Teacher Tong's frustration at the unreliable method, and feeling Teacher Tong's gaze that was concerned about whether her pain had eased. She closed her eyes and suddenly said:

"Teacher Tong, I lied to you."

Tong Yao was startled and stopped what she was doing.

"I don't have dysmenorrhea." The little girl opened her slightly red eyes and glanced to the side.

Teacher Tong...will he be angry?

No, Teacher Tong dotes on her the most.

Then she heard the man's soft voice:

"Why did you lie to me?"

She was in a trance and almost wanted to tell him about the endless love and admiration in her heart - but she couldn't, the time had not come yet to confess.

Maybe everyone has a crush on someone.

Secret love is bitter and beautiful. I want to confess but I dare not. I look forward to being accepted but I am even more afraid of being rejected.

Ruan Qian often thought, how great it would be if one day she got drunk and confessed her feelings to Teacher Tong, and then Teacher Tong accepted her.

Leave all the worries to your drunk self.

Then, she raised her head, and whispered with hope in her heart:

"Because I want to stay with Teacher Tong for a while longer."

Tong Yao was stunned, the meaning of this sentence was too vague, dependent and soft, like a young animal's first hunt, clumsy, but sincere and unstoppable.

Finally, she smiled:

"You just know how to act like a spoiled brat."

Chapter 58: Live like her

Ruan Qian lingered on the sofa for twenty minutes, and when she left, she looked back every few steps, leaving her fragrance behind.

Tong Yao stared at the sofa that could be considered the scene of the crime. There was still some warmth on it, and she seemed to be able to hear the soft Wu dialect from a few minutes ago. She clenched her palms into fists, recalling this episode in the evening, and finally sighed.

She was not unaware of the emotions hidden in her coquettishness.

Although it was only a little bit, she had caught it by the tail. She could have pulled it out, but she didn't know how to face it after pulling it out, so she let go and let the little guy wander around her.

As a teacher, she knew the most correct way to solve the problem - to point it out clearly, to tell the child directly that there would be no future between them, and to ask the child to focus on studying - but there was a voice in her heart that stopped her and said that that... wasn't good.

She will regret it.

Tong Yao sat on the sofa, covered her face with her hands, and sighed again.

It’s better to wait until the boat reaches the bridge and straightens itself.

-

-

There is an unspoken rule in the school, which is "You can bring your cell phone, but you can't be discovered." Ruan Qian stopped handing in her cell phone last week. At first, she was afraid that the labor camp would find out, but Li Hanqiang, with his grades rising step by step, obviously began to turn a blind eye to some small actions. As long as it didn't touch his bottom line, such as playing in the classroom, everything was OK.

"My rules are like this. If you are not satisfied, you can tell me now and I can modify them. But if you make a mistake in the future and then tell me that my rules are wrong, I'm sorry, but I won't accept it."

The above are famous quotes from Laogai.

Ruan Qian held her cell phone not to play with it, but to be ready to check the news about the new comics competition at any time.

However, before the news about the comics competition arrived, she received a call from her younger brother.

The time is Wednesday at noon.

After school in the morning, she hadn't had lunch yet. As soon as she turned on her cell phone, the phone started ringing - the other party probably called on time, and her interesting note - Ou Doudou - was displayed on the screen.

She answered the phone in a happy mood.

"sister."

The voice on the other end was a little hoarse.

Ruan Qian was stunned. Her brother, who always liked to act cool, rarely used such a weak voice. She found a shade tree and frowned slightly:

"what happened?"

"Can you come to my school?"

Ruan Xiaobei said in a low voice.

"What's wrong with you? What happened?"

"I...might be punished." The boy's voice was filled with self-mockery. "I asked the teacher if we could not tell our mom yet. She lives so far away and can't make it. They asked if you could come."

"……I?"

"I lied to them and told them you were an adult."

"you!"

"Sister...I beg you."

Ruan Qian was both angry and amused, and she had a lot of harsh words in her heart that she wanted to curse at him, but when she thought that she was the only one he could ask for help, she quickly calmed down. They had always had a good relationship since they were young, and her brother, who always claimed to be a man, put aside his dignity and humbly begged her. She felt very upset.

She didn't plan to eat. There were still more than two hours between now and the afternoon class, which should be enough time. She went straight to the dormitory, intending to change into adult clothes, and asked as she walked:

"What did you do to deserve the punishment?"

"…surf the Internet. Go out over the wall at night."

"once?"

"They got caught this time. They're checking the surveillance footage."

The boy's voice was bitter.

"Of course you can," Ruan Qian said softly, "Mom gave you the living expenses so that you could eat better, but you used it to surf the Internet and charge your games, right? Are you still a human being? She'll be heartbroken if she finds out."

Everyone has a reverse scale in their heart that cannot be touched.

For example, mother to Ruan Qian.

How sad would a mother be if she knew that her proud child had been lying to her, giving up on herself and living in a daze, asking for leave humbly, and then coming thousands of miles to accept this fact?

She just wanted to go over and wake up the self-depraved Ruan Xiaobei.

"Sister, that's not the case..."

"Wait until I get there. I'll be there soon."

She hung up the phone and searched through the boxes in her dorm to find the right clothes. She didn't care that she was just pursuing maturity and ended up with a weird outfit.

Dormitory students are not allowed to leave the school.

But Ruan Qian is an exception.

She showed the work badge that Teacher Tong gave her, and the guard thought she was helping the teacher out on errands, so he let her out.

There was no student union checking school uniforms at the school gate at noon, so the whole journey was smooth.

The little girl felt guilty. Teacher Tong gave her this work badge out of trust, but she used it to do something opportunistic.

Dozens of minutes later, the bus took her to her brother's junior high school.

She had been here several times and was familiar with the road. The sound of reading in the third-year junior high school teaching building was loud and clear, but at this moment it made her feel upset.

Standing at the door of the student affairs office, she knocked and pushed the door open.

There was a medium-sized coffee table in the middle of the room, with sofas on both sides. On one side sat the serious-looking teacher, and on the other side sat his younger brother Ruan Xiaobei with his head lowered.

She calmed down and said to the teacher:

"Hello."

The teacher nodded:

"Hello, are you Ruan Xiaobei's sister? Are you working now?"

"College Students."

She lied.

She sat next to her brother, and Ruan Xiaobei buried his head even lower, not daring to look at her.

"Since everyone is here, let's get started." The teacher took a sip of water and put the cup on the coffee table. "Here's what happened. Ruan Xiaobei was caught by the security guard when he was climbing over the wall at night. He confessed to staying up all night in the Internet cafe. We watched the recent surveillance and found that he climbed over the wall very frequently, basically two to three days a week, and there were people in the dormitory who covered for him. The school has always severely punished students like this, and we decided to give him a disciplinary punishment of probation."

Ruan Qian's expression froze. During her freshman year in high school, she was caught by Director Zhang when she went to an Internet cafe to sign up for a comics competition on a weekend. She was criticized through a notice at the time, which was not a big deal. However, she knew the meaning of the four words "staying in school on probation." Going further up, it meant "transferring the learning environment," commonly known as expulsion from school.

"Teacher...is this too harsh?" She bit her lip. "He is in the third year of junior high school now. It is very important for him to go to higher education. Can you give him another chance?"

The teacher said calmly: "I have already given him the chance."

"what chance?"

Ruan Qian was stunned and looked at Ruan Xiaobei. Ruan Xiaobei turned his face away and kept silent.

"He won't tell me. Fine, I'll tell you." The teacher sneered. "There are no illegal internet cafes around our school. They all require ID cards. The high school department is in the teaching building next door. He must have borrowed the ID cards of those senior students. He won't tell me when I ask him. Some of the people who often climbed over the wall with him ran away. I couldn't recognize them in the surveillance video. He won't tell me when I ask him."

Most of the surveillance cameras on campus are unreliable, have low resolution, and cannot recognize people at night.

There was a brief silence in the room.

Ruan Qian glanced at Ruan Xiaobei and slowly said, "If he tells...what will the punishment be?"

The teacher said: "As long as you have a good attitude and record a demerit, the matter will be over."

Make up for one's crime with merit.

As long as you report the accomplices, you can get a lighter sentence.

Ruan Qian knew that this was a difficult decision, but for her mother and for this family... She clenched her fists and whispered:

"Xiaobei..."

"I won't tell you." Ruan Xiaobei raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, "I won't betray anyone."

He seemed to be taking an oath, so firm that he didn't seem like a junior high school student.

The teacher was not surprised. This kind of conversation had happened many times before. He stared at the boy in front of him and continued to ask:

"Who is the one climbing over the wall with you?"

"do not know."

"Whose ID card is it?"

"Pick it up."

"Where did you pick it up, and where is it now?"

"forget."

The teacher smiled and spread his hands:

"Look, there's nothing to say about this."

Not all correct answers are the most appropriate answers.

Ruan Qian looked at the teacher in front of her and suddenly realized this.

The world is never as gentle as you imagine. Sometimes it forces you to make cruel choices and then throws you into regret or failure. Reality is not boiling a frog in warm water. Reality is that the water suddenly boils and then someone covers the pot.

"Teacher," she said, "I think education should not allow children to report and betray their friends."

Ruan Xiaobei opened his eyes wide and looked at his sister in disbelief.

"Friends? He calls them friends? They are birds of a feather, in cahoots with each other!" The teacher sneered.

Ruan Qian remained calm and continued:

"If his friends here can be like Xiaobei, I think they can be called reliable friends."

If going to an Internet cafe means being a bad kid, then bad kids also have bad friends, and bad friends are also friends. Friendship is not just between so-called good people, it is the bond formed after people have shared experiences.

"It's funny. If his friend committed murder or arson, wouldn't he report it?" The teacher was a little angry.