In a cafe near the residential area of L University. It was around ten o'clock in the morning on the weekend, and there were not many people. It was very quiet.
The cafe has a great environment, with rows of bookshelves and a handicraft area that displays some exquisite and interesting handicrafts, where guests can also make them by themselves.
The flowers used on the round tables are not real flowers, but dried flowers made by the owner himself.
Shi Ci tied her long hair casually, wore a simple sky blue jumpsuit, ordered a cup of mocha, and sat down to browse a Japanese magazine.
After a while, the person she was waiting for arrived.
"Sorry, I'm late," the man smiled apologetically and sat down.
"Nothing, what would you like to drink?" Shi Ci smiled.
“Cappuccino.”
The visitor was a lady with short hair, a round face and glasses. "My child kept arguing with me when I was leaving. Sorry, I have to use the child as an excuse."
After placing the order, Shi Ci smiled and said, "That's okay. The child is three years old?"
"He's almost four years old. He's in the rebellious period of childhood. It's summer vacation now? He can't stay at home." Ye Qingwu smiled and looked at Shi Ci, "Thank you for asking me out. I can breathe a sigh of relief."
Ye Qingwu and Shi Ci were classmates in the same college as undergraduates, but in different majors. After completing their graduate studies at L University, they stayed on as counselors. Her husband also works in the administrative department of L University.
In the past few years since Shi Ci returned to L University to teach, the two have met several times on different occasions, but this is the first time they have met alone.
"I have something to ask you." Shi Ci said, "If you don't know, I would like to ask you to help me find out."
Ye Qingwu was curious, "Oh? Can you tell me about it?"
"I heard from you that you were a counselor at the Foreign Languages College. Which class did you teach?" Shi Ci wanted to confirm again.
The waiter brought Ye Qingwu's cup of cappuccino.
Ye Qingwu said: "Class of xx, I will be a junior at the beginning of the new semester." She picked up the cup and took a sip.
Shi Ci thought to himself that he was not mistaken, and said, "I want to ask you about a student, Tang Zuo. Are you familiar with him?"
Ye Qingwu looked serious, looked at Shi Ci curiously and asked, "Why are you asking about foreign language students?... Um, oh, Shi Hai? I think I heard students say before..."
Shi Ci smiled, "It's not just this reason. I know this kid. Don't worry, I'm not asking for any bad intentions. It's just that I found that she seems to have more than one job. Is her family environment very difficult?"
Ye Qingwu was a little hesitant and puzzled, but still said, "I know this child very well. It has been three years since her freshman year. It's like this. Both her parents are gone, so her life is a little harder."
Shi Ci was stunned for several seconds, picked up the cup, absentmindedly, and put it down again, "They are all gone?"
"Well," Ye Qingwu sighed, "It seems that Tang Zuo's father died unexpectedly when she was in her first year of high school. When she was in her third year of high school, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer. It was almost time for the college entrance examination. This should be the reason why Tang Zuo did not do well in the exam and had to repeat a year."
"I don't know the details. When she registered as a freshman, she was a week late. She called the admissions office and was transferred to the foreign languages department. She said she was going to hold her mother's funeral. Later, she applied for poverty assistance, and I learned a little bit about it."
Shi Ci remained silent.
"I heard that the family sold the house and went into debt to pay for her mother's medical treatment." Ye Qingwu sighed, "This child works too hard. She has to go to school and work part-time. She dares not relax for a moment. She spent the New Year here alone. Last year, I had to take her to my place for a New Year's Eve dinner."
Shi Ci's chest rose and fell, and he let out a breath without leaving a trace.
Ye Qingwu didn't notice that Tang Zuo was the student who impressed her the most among all the students in her class. That girl was very beautiful, spoke very little, was smart, diligent and hardworking. The professors all liked her, and only she, as a counselor, knew about her family background, so they cared about her even more.
Arrange a quieter dormitory for her.
One of the work-study programs is reserved for her.
Introduce her to a good part-time job opportunity.
She did her best to help Tang Zuo.
After a while, Shi Ci said, "So that's how it is. I saw her working at Little Rose and handing out flyers, so I was a little curious."
Ye Qingwu was still confused, "Huh?"
In her memory, Shi Ci has always been a celebrity in the school, both when she was a student and when she was teaching.
She is friendly, but also unapproachable. Because she is too outstanding, others will feel distant from her. Unless she takes the initiative to approach her, most people will not have confidence.
Shi Ci and Tang Zhuo were not related, but he came to her out of curiosity. Ye Qingwu was also curious, "Why are you here to find out?"
Shi Ci paused and lowered his eyes, "I met this little girl and now I know her situation. If I can help, I would like to help a little."
"Yes, I also wanted to help her privately at that time, but she refused." Ye Qingwu sighed.
"You said she was handing out flyers, but that's not the case. Hey, it's actually pretty easy to find tutors for our students at L University. But this kid had an incident before."
Yes, Shi Ci was also wondering about this, especially for English majors. Tutoring institutions or schools need experienced teachers during the winter and summer vacations. It is not easy for students to find such jobs, but it is easy to find tutors. No other school in L City can compete with L University.
"What's up?"
"She was so pretty that when the tutoring center interviewed parents, most of them couldn't get past the hostess because they had some concerns, such as worrying about their husbands or their teenage sons. So she could only take on some elementary school students who needed homework tutoring..." Ye Qingwu shook her head, "But something happened. I remember last summer, she had a job tutoring a high school student. It was a girl. Both her parents were in business and rarely at home. Everything was going well. One day, the father suddenly came back and saw Tang Zuo..."
Shi Ci's temple was throbbing.
It can’t be…
"At first it was nothing, but later he came home more and more often, and then one day when Tang Zuo arrived at his house, his daughter was not there..."
Ye Qingwu saw that Shi Ci's face was not right, and hurriedly said: "Nothing happened. Fortunately, Tang Zuo was alert and did not enter the house, but he was touched several times..."
Shi Ci gritted his teeth and asked, "Didn't you call the police?"
"She reported it, and I didn't know all these details until I went there. We argued on the scene and finally detained the man for a few days."
"After this incident, Tang Zuo rarely looked for tutors. When she did, she only looked for tutors for her elementary school students, and she also asked her mother to be there."
Ye Qingwu said: "Tang Zhao also asked me to go to the tutoring center to explain the situation and use her as an example to ask them not to accept orders from this parent in the future to prevent other students from being harmed."
"Of course I have to consider her and cannot reveal her name."
"I also informed the counselors of other colleges and reminded the students that at least this family is on the blacklist of our university."
Ye Qingwu finally sighed: "This child is so kind, so strong, and so lovable."
Ye Qingwu drank as she spoke, and her cup of cappuccino was almost empty, while Shi Ci's cup was still full.
There were crisp laughter coming from outside the window. The cafe had a small courtyard with bright flowers and several young girls were playing on the swing.
Most of the people who appeared in this vicinity were students from L University.
Shi Ci wondered if the bird was wearing a thick bear suit and handing out flyers again...
Tang Zuo was packing up in the dormitory at this time, preparing to go out later.
Zhang Zinan said sternly, "You still want to hand out flyers?"
"No need for that today. In the afternoon, you can just stand in the supermarket and sell your products." Tang Zhao smiled.
Zhang Zinan: "You have to go to Little Rose tomorrow, so why not go in the afternoon? You have to rest!"
Tang Zuo said to her: "It's okay, I can be back around six o'clock."
Zhang Zinan frowned and thought, and finally said: "How much money do you still need? Otherwise, Fang Xiuqi and I can pool our money together." She looked at Tang Zuo with concern: "Don't worry, Old Fang doesn't know anything about you. His money is all with me. I can just tell him that I want to invest."
Tang Zhuo walked up to her and said softly, "Thank you."
Zhang Zinan: "We are friends, if you have something to say just tell me!" she said with a bit of dissatisfaction.
This dormitory is basically just the two of them. In daily life, Tang Zuo takes care of her a lot. She also knows that Tang Zuo values her very much, and she feels the same way. Zhang Zinan didn't know about this at first. At the end of last semester, Tang Zuo kept receiving phone calls. The aunties on the line were either crying or scolding, very loudly. She then realized that it was Tang Zuo's aunt who called to ask her for money, and she also knew that Tang Zuo owed her uncle's family 40,000 yuan.
"I understand." Tang Zhuo was half a head shorter than Zhang Zinan. She looked up at Zhang Zinan, then suddenly raised her hand to touch her head and smiled faintly, "I'll ask if there's anything I need."
Tang Zuo rarely showed his emotions, and now he smiled at her and touched her head. Zhang Zinan was stunned for several seconds. She came to her senses and said to Tang Zuo who was walking to the door: "You said it!"
Tang Zuo wore an apron with the brand name printed on it and stood in the aisle of the supermarket soliciting customers.
This is just a part-time job on the weekend. I made 200 yuan for handing out flyers yesterday, and 50 yuan for half a day today. If the sales results are good, I might make a little more.
Tang Zuo knew that he had a big appetite, so the way to save money was to order more white rice, drink more soup (the soup in the cafeteria was free) or ask the auntie who served the food to pour more juice on the rice so that he could eat it as a dish.
In this case, 250 yuan would be enough for her food expenses for half a month.
So far, she has transferred about 15,000 yuan to her uncle. At the end of the summer vacation, her two-month salary at "Little Rose" should be almost 10,000 yuan, thanks to the commission from the bottle of wine ordered by Shi Ci.
So there is still 15,000 yuan short of 40,000 yuan.
It will take some time before scholarships and grants for next semester are available.
Tang Zhao sighed. She needed money everywhere. She had to take out a loan for the new semester's tuition. She didn't know when she could pay it back. Fortunately, she had obtained the certificates for both the junior college entrance examination and the third-level examination, so she could save the registration fee.
If she could pay back the money she owed to her uncle's family, at least she would feel less stressed and could concentrate on her studies.
While thinking about these things, Tang Zuo was selling milk to people passing by.
Maybe because of her pleasing appearance, the sales results were quite good.
Tang Zhuo thought about yesterday when she met Shi Ci again. She didn't know whether Professor Shi recognized her or not. It was unlikely, but she bought so many cartons of milk, which reminded her of the last time at Little Rose when she ordered a bottle of extremely expensive wine without blinking an eye.
Is it my own illusion
She felt that Shi Ci was really taking care of her.
I don’t know why it’s such a coincidence that I always meet Shi Ci.
Tang Zhao is an only child. When she was young, she heard from her parents that her mother had been pregnant with a child before her, but she had a miscarriage before the baby was three months old. So she might have had an older brother or sister.
Tang Zuo didn't feel anything at first, but during the days when she accompanied her mother to seek medical treatment, she was shuttled between school and hospital, between L City and Bei City. Being tired was not the most terrible thing. What she feared most was that every time the doctor asked her to go, when he needed her to make a decision, when he needed her to sign a family notification form, there was someone waiting outside the operating room.
At that time, she also thought how nice it would be if she had a brother or sister who could accompany her.
It was a very distant, fleeting wish, without any real image.
That day, Tang Zuo thought of Shi Ci from time to time.
Even when she was practicing listening before going to bed at night, she was distracted for the first time.