Zhao Xiaotang returned to the topic and continued to educate me: "Don't think that you and Xiaobai are very active in daily life. In fact, you are typical of those who are strong on the outside but weak on the inside. Once you encounter emotional problems, you immediately become soft persimmons. Let's not talk about how much older he is than you, but as a genius species, his cognitive level and social experience are completely not on the same level as yours. If you don't act shy, you will appear innocent and cute. Who knows, he may like this."
Zhao Xiaotang, who is known as a love saint, earnestly taught me the secrets of love. I blinked my eyes, as if I understood, but also as if I didn't.
Just say whatever you want to say
I turned my chair back and faced the screen. Seven or eight minutes had passed since I sent the "no" message, and he didn't continue.
I was afraid that he had left, so I wrote: Teacher Mu
Mu Chenghe: Yes, still here.
Po3a: I remember you said that your father is also a teacher in our school. It must be interesting for the father and son to work in the same unit.
After I sent this message, I didn't see Mu Chenghe's reply for a long time. To avoid a dull moment, I wrote: Have you retired? If you haven't retired, if I meet you at a school meeting, should I call you teacher or dad
As I wrote, I smiled happily and couldn't help imagining the scene of young teacher Mu meeting old teacher Mu. It must be very interesting.
A minute later, Mu Chenghe sent a short message of six words and a punctuation mark: He has passed away.
I felt a little embarrassed for a moment, but then I was glad that I didn't talk about this topic with him face to face. Thinking back to when I first reported to school, I needed to fill in my parents' information and contact information on the enrollment register. When it was my turn, I left the father's column blank. Then the senior in charge of this matter checked it once and pushed the booklet to me impatiently: "Didn't I tell you! Both parents' work units and contact numbers must be written down, and the father's column cannot be left blank!"
I held the pen, paused, and said slowly: "But my father is dead."
The senior student's expression froze for a moment, then he lowered his head, looking very embarrassed. He even said sorry several times, which made me feel even more embarrassed.
In fact, they don’t know that sometimes what we need is not sympathy, but the normal attitude of people around us.
So, I thought about it and didn’t try to faze Mu Chenghe with polite words. Instead, I sent him a smiley face: Our father might be our neighbor in heaven.
He smiled back at me: Yes, it’s hard to say.
After a while, when I was worrying about what to continue chatting, he sent another message.
Mu Chenghe: However, my father has a very strange personality. I don’t know if your father can get along with him.
I immediately found it funny and quickly wrote: Don’t be afraid, my dad has a very good temper and always has endless jokes to tell. He is loved by everyone.
Then, what Mu Chenghe replied was not a line of words, but a phone call.
He was the first to speak on the other end of the phone: "Xue Tong?"
"Um."
"It's late, go to bed," he said.
"Oh, okay." My roommate has always been a night owl. I was so excited talking that I completely forgot if I disturbed his schedule. I added apologetically, "Teacher Mu, I'm sorry to have delayed you."
He paused for a moment before saying, "I'm not talking about myself. I'm telling you to go to bed early. I actually go to bed quite late."
Now, I remembered that he had mentioned before that he had trouble sleeping.
"Do you still suffer from insomnia?"
"It's an old problem," he said.
"Why can't I sleep?" People of my age always complain that they don't get enough sleep and cannot understand the pain of insomnia.
"I always feel like there are a lot of things waiting to be done, so my mind can never calm down." When he said this, his tone was light and his voice could not be heard.
"Really? What's the matter?"
He didn't answer me, but said, "It's too late, you should go to bed."
I could only say goodbye with regret.
On the weekend, Bai Lin hosted a group of classmates and friends for dinner.
From the gender ratio of the participants, it can be seen that Bai Lin is not popular with the opposite sex. Apart from the boys in his class, the only outsider of the opposite sex is Senior Brother Li, and Senior Brother Li was added in at the request of Bai Lin for the purpose of helping me.
During the meal, Bai Lin specially arranged Senior Brother Li to sit next to me. Before she sat down, Bai Lin even flirted with me. People who didn't know the situation thought she wanted to introduce her old lover to me.
I hadn't chatted with Senior Brother Li for more than five sentences when I changed the topic to Mu Chenghe.
However, Senior Brother Li only knew some irrelevant things about Mu Chenghe, which were nothing more than news about his academic affairs, such as he heard that Mu Chenghe was very busy recently and had to go to a small town in the southwest to do wind tunnel tests.
"Wind tunnel?" I wondered.
"Yes." Senior Brother Li said mysteriously, "I also heard from a senior who followed Mu Chenghe. He said that their boss might be going to the southwest to do experiments. What kind of experiments can a person like him do in the southwest? It must be a wind tunnel. There is the largest aviation wind tunnel test center in Asia."
"Wind tunnel?" I continued to wonder, "What is a wind tunnel?"
"It's a very important part of aircraft research. Wind tunnel testing can simulate various data on the effects of airflow on objects."
"Our school is so strong, how can teachers go to that kind of place?" I was puzzled.
"How can a school come up with this? It must be a military project." Senior Brother Li corrected me with an admiring tone.
military…
I started to feel a little dizzy.
Could they possibly build a stealth fighter jet? Or a domestically made large aircraft
Just as Senior Brother Li said, there was no news about Mu Chenghe for a period of time, and his MSN avatar was always gray.
Later, I accidentally opened the Yahoo mailbox and found that he had revised my job application letter and sent it back to me that evening.
The temperature is gradually rising.
I took some light clothes from home to school on the weekend, and passed by a cafe on the way from the community to the station. I usually like to look at my own silhouette on the glass when I pass by the window, so I naturally looked inside.
The coffee shop was very big, and according to Bai Lin, it was an American chain brand. Sometimes, you would see some young men and women dressed very fashionably, chatting or fiddling with their laptops. The only time I pushed the door in was not to drink coffee, but to accompany Bai Lin to use the restroom.
Then, at this moment, I saw Song Qiqi at the round table against the glass wall.
Opposite her sat a man.
There were two large white mugs on the table.
Two people are chatting.
I could tell at a glance that Song Qiqi had fallen in love, because when she spoke, the corners of her mouth turned up and her eyes sparkled with joy. She was a little different from the usually studious, silent and modest Song Qiqi.
The light inside was not strong, and the glass was a bit reflective, so I couldn't see the man's appearance clearly. However, now, except for Mu Chenghe, I have no interest in the appearance of any man.
I thought about the last time Zhao Xiaotang mentioned that there was a man who sent Song Qiqi home, it must be this man.
I hid outside and called Song Qiqi as a prank.
"Where are you?" I asked knowingly.
"I..." Song Qiqi picked up my call, glanced at the man on the other end, and said unnaturally, "I'm taking extra lessons with him."
"Pfft, pfft. Qiqi, just lie to me. You are in Starbucks now, with a man in a corduroy suit."
"Where are you?" She stood up awkwardly and looked around with her phone.
I walked outside the glass and smiled at her foolishly.
When she saw me, her eyes widened, then she said a few words to the man and ran out with her handbag.
The man turned his gaze towards me and nodded politely. Now, I didn't know what to do, so I had to imitate Bai Lin's usual servile behavior and raised my right hand to my face and waved it.
I'm not very good at judging the age of the opposite sex. I can only see that he is older than us, probably around the same age as Mu Chenghe, no more than thirty years old.
Song Qiqi came out and grabbed me: "Why are you here?"
"I live nearby. Haven't you been there before?"
"Let's go. Take a car," she said.
"Ah?" I was surprised. "You left?"
"Go back to school with you."
"No way, you guys continue, I'm not here to mess things up."
"It's not what you think." Song Qiqi explained hurriedly.
"How do you know what I'm thinking?" I asked back.
"I..." She stammered, and then her face turned red. Unlike Bai Lin and I, she didn't like to chat with others at all.
On the way back, we sat on the bus and Song Qiqi didn't say a word.
I finally couldn't help asking, "Who is he?"
"My fellow villager."
“Just fellow villagers?”
Song Qiqi nodded.
"You have at least a dozen fellow villagers in our department, but I've never seen you so enthusiastic. You even drank Starbucks. Last time, Zhao Xiaotang said that the man who sent you back to school was also him, right?" I said.
She nodded again.
"Then why were you angry when Zhao Xiaotang mentioned him to us last time?" Zhao Xiaotang is different from us. He was in a cold war with Song Qiqi for a long time because of this, and it was not until this semester that they began to thaw.
Song Qiqi stopped talking again and turned to look out the window.
It was around five in the afternoon on Sunday, which was rush hour for traffic.
People kept getting on and off the bus, and we sat in the corner of the last row. Song Qiqi sat by the window, and I sat next to her. Next to me was a middle-aged woman holding a bag of daily necessities from the supermarket on her knees, and she was loudly reviewing her shopping experience in dialect with her companion in front of her.
After a long time, when I thought Song Qiqi would continue to remain silent about that man, she suddenly spoke.
"His name is Xiao Zheng. He is not only my fellow villager, but also my high school teacher." Song Qiqi said as she turned around.