"Mom wants to remarry him." She repeated it, but her eyes became firm, and she continued, "Originally I thought I should put this matter aside and test your opinion first. But now I have to go out of town, and you still have a year before graduation. I am also worried that there is no one I can trust to take care of you."
I stared at her lips moving, and I felt something in my eyes about to burst out. I could only stare at her with my eyes wide open, and then gritted my teeth and said, "I don't agree."
"Tongtong..."
"I said, I don't agree." I raised my voice this time. At the same time, I blinked accidentally and tears slipped out.
"Tongtong..." Mom called me again.
"You wanted to marry him, but you said it was to take care of me. Mom, how could you be so selfish! Dad has only been dead for four years. He is lying here, smiling at us in the photo, and you have forgotten him and want to marry someone else."
"Tongtong, how can you say that mom is selfish?"
"That's right!" I said excitedly, "Have you thought about me? Have you thought about Dad? How sad would he be if he knew? On the other hand, if it was you lying down there and it was Dad standing here talking to me, he would never do this!"
She was slightly angry: "It's because I was thinking of you that I delayed the matter with your Uncle Chen until now! What do you mean Dad would never do this? What do you understand? What do you know? Your dad..." She became more and more angry as she spoke, and the last sentence was also blurted out in anger, but she stopped halfway through the sentence, her expression froze, and her voice stopped abruptly.
"What do you mean I know something?" I wiped the tears from my cheeks and asked her back.
“…Nothing.” She turned away. “What’s past is past. I didn’t intend for you to know.”
"What happened to Dad?"
She sighed and changed the subject: "Since you don't agree, I won't mention remarriage. We'll talk about it later."
Then, no matter how I asked, she refused to mention what she had just let slip.
A week later, my mother went to her new position on time. Before leaving, she withdrew several thousand yuan from my father's pension, bought me a computer, and asked me to move it to school when the semester started.
In the past six months, the family's mortgage has been almost paid off, and with my mother's salary increase, our financial situation has improved slightly. Buying a computer is something I have wanted since I entered college. A few days ago, my mother suddenly brought it up again and immediately took action, which made me feel very uncomfortable.
I don’t know if all single-parent families are like this, but when parents have expectations for their children, they will use material bribes to achieve their goals.
When school started in late August, the biggest thing that greeted us was the huge relocation work. The entire grade had to move from the west district back to the main campus.
We have to vacate all the dormitories before the new students arrive.
The school arranged a school bus to pick up and drop off luggage.
However, looking at the mountain-like thing in the dormitory, it was a difficult task to move it to the station at the entrance, let alone pull it to the entrance of the girls' dormitory.
In the past two days, males were allowed to enter and exit the girls' dormitory freely for the first time, and it was very lively.
A costly and laborious relocation operation actually led to many marriages. The suppressed emotions between the people in the past suddenly burst out, and many people caught the last train of campus romance during their student days.
But our dormitory is deserted.
Apart from Liu Qi and Bai Lin's infatuated Senior Brother Li, there was no third man to help.
Brother Li was admitted as a graduate student in the Department of Physics of our university as he wished this year. After not seeing him for two months, the degree of his glasses has become much darker, making him look more cultured but also thinner.
Bai Lin glanced at him and said, "Come on, with your physique, I don't even want you to be a porter." Then he coaxed Senior Brother Li downstairs.
Zhao Xiaotang teased: "Oh, I feel bad for you. Are you worried that our luggage will crush him to death?"
I politely declined Liu Qi's enthusiastic offer of help.
Finally, Song Qiqi sighed: "Why is our dormitory so unpopular?"
Zhao Xiaotang said: "Who told you and Song Qiqi to find men who are like exiled immortals? You can't rely on any of them."
Bai Lin retorted: "Then Xiaotang, why didn't you find someone you can rely on?"
Zhao Xiaotang replied: "I don't like these little brats in school."
So, I sat back and surfed the Internet without saying a word. All I could hear was Bai Lin and Zhao Xiaotang arguing with each other for a long time, from the qualities of a man to the true meaning of love, and then to the significance of marriage.
As the sun was about to rise, I finally couldn't help but interrupt and ask, "Excuse me, Miss Bai and Miss Zhao, have you two come up with a solution?"
Bai Lin and Zhao Xiaotang glared at me at the same time, as if they were blaming me for interrupting their conversation.
Finally, Zhao Xiaotang said, "Find a moving company."
Four people from the moving company came and moved all our things to the destination quickly and efficiently.
Zhao Xiaotang said arrogantly: "See? This is the true meaning of life."
"Pooh" Bai Lin spat at her.
I went to the cafeteria to get food in the afternoon. Everything in the headquarters was so fresh.
In the West District, we were the oldest group of women, but when we arrived at the headquarters, we suddenly became younger and were surrounded by seniors who were knowledgeable and highly educated.
Bai Lin said with sparkling eyes: "There are opportunities for love everywhere!"
Later, I deliberately took a detour to visit the fluid experiment center, took a glance from a distance, and left in a hurry.
I haven't contacted him since that online chat.
However, he didn't.
After my mother left, she would call me every two or three days, and suddenly we talked more than when we were face to face.
She is not good at communicating with others, and gives people the impression of being a hard-boiled workaholic. But my father is an extremely extroverted person, who is cheerful and makes people laugh wherever he goes.
I never knew which one of them my personality was inherited from, or maybe from neither of them
My mother asked on the phone: "Is there enough money?"
"enough."
"If it's not enough, tell me. Don't go outside to take tutoring classes. The Level 8 exam is coming soon. Study hard."
“Well, I studied very hard.”
"I'll be back on the 7th of next month. Do you want me to bring anything?"
"No, no."
After hanging up the phone, Bai Lin concluded: "I think your relationship has become better since your mom left."
"No. Maybe she wants to convert me."
"Xiaotong."
"What?"
Bai Lin put down the book and looked at me seriously: "Don't you think that the selfish person is not your mother, but you?"
I was stunned for a moment and turned to do the laundry.
In fact, I regretted it the day my mom passed away. I shouldn't have quarreled with her in front of my dad and said something like "I wish she was the one lying on the ground." My dad was away for four years, and she supported me through college alone, took care of my grandma, and worked as hard as ever. Many women of her age in their unit were cared for by their husbands and just earned some pocket money.
My mother gave birth to me when she was very young, and some of her classmates' children were still in high school.
So, for her, life is only halfway through.
I could understand all these reasons, but when they really happened to me, I couldn't accept them for a while. I still couldn't stand the thought of another person coming to my home and completely taking over my father's position.
After observing that Liu Qi never left and bravely helped during the relocation, the other people in our dormitory felt that Liu Qi was a great young man who could cultivate revolutionary friendship with everyone after Bai Lin’s senior brother Li.
So when Senior Brother Li invited everyone to a celebration banquet for his success in the postgraduate entrance examination, Bai Lin insisted on inviting Liu Qi along.
"Brother Liu Qi is my buddy. If you don't invite him, it means you look down on him. If you look down on him, it means you look down on me, Bai Lin!" Bai Lin said harshly.
Senior Brother Li followed Bai Lin's words with mixed feelings.
Zhao Xiaotang agreed with Bai Lin's approach this time. She said earnestly, "Xiaotong, men are creatures that need to be cultivated in many ways. You can't hang yourself on one tree."
There was just one person at the table during the meal, including five of Senior Brother Li’s friends, four from our dormitory, and Liu Qi.
All of Li's classmates knew that he was obsessed with Bai Lin, and they kept making fun of them to create an ambiguous atmosphere. In order to divert everyone's attention from her, Bai Lin kept shifting the topic to me and Liu Qi.
Zhao Xiaotang is like an iceberg beauty, either ignoring people or saying something shocking.
After coming out of the restaurant, everyone prepared to walk through the campus and go to the karaoke bar at the north gate to sing.
Passing by a store on the commercial street, Bai Lin said that the weather was too hot and invited everyone to have ice cream. In order to maintain a glorious and steady image, the boys shook their heads and refused.
As long as there is something delicious, I will never refuse it. So, I hummed a little tune, scooped ice cream from a small spoon and put it into my mouth, while following a group of people walking on the school's tree-lined avenue.
Liu Qi was beside him, followed by Bai Lin and others.
Zhao Xiaotang didn't eat either, and reminded me: "You should at least take care of your image and body shape. All you do all day is eat, eat, eat."
Bai Lin retorted: "We call this freedom and enjoying life."
"Yes!" I turned around and agreed with Bai Lin.
When I turned my head forward, the wind blew the scattered hair by my ears into my mouth, and it mixed with the remaining ice cream at the corners of my mouth.
Liu Qi took out a tissue and handed it to me, saying with a smile, "Look at the way you eat." Then he brushed the hair away from my mouth.
I was holding a spoon in my right hand and an ice cream box in my left hand, and I was slightly stunned.
Bai Lin was the first to see this action, and was immediately delighted. He even imitated Liu Qi's action and said, "Xiaotong, look at the way you eat. You are so adorable."
Senior Brother Li, Song Qiqi and others couldn't help laughing.
Liu Qi also smiled and lowered his head shyly.
I pretended to be angry and shouted to Bai Lin: "Try to learn it again!"
Bai Lin laughed even more wildly: "Hey, Xiaotong, you are shy."
I immediately stepped forward and wanted to grab her and seal her mouth. Unexpectedly, she slipped behind Liu Qi like a loach and said jokingly, "Brother Liu Qi, look, your Xiaotong is angry out of shame."
I tried to catch her, but she pulled Liu Qi in front of her as a shield.
I was not as agile as her, and I was holding an ice cream in my hand, and Liu Qi was in the middle, so I couldn't succeed. I gritted my teeth and said, "I'll catch you after I throw something." Then I turned around and threw the garbage.
I don't want to bump into someone's chest.
A large area of the man's white shirt on his chest was suddenly turned pink by the residue of strawberry ice cream.
Bai Lin never laughed again.
I heard Senior Brother Li call out, "Teacher Mu."
Bai Lin and several other brothers also followed suit.
I looked up, saw Mu Chenghe, and quickly took two steps back.
He asked, "Why are you so happy?"
I don't know whether this question was directed at me or someone else, because he should know more than half of the people here, so I didn't answer him rashly.
Song Qiqi quickly took out a tissue and stuffed it into my hand. I held the thick stack of papers, raised my hand, and paused in the air, not daring to do anything.
At this glance, I found that his shirt was not pure white, but had a light blue tint. But if I looked more closely, it was not pure blue, but rows of fine, blue, vertical stripes.
The ice cream had melted and seeped through the thin fabric onto the skin.
I couldn’t help but think that that kind of sweet feeling must be very uncomfortable.
Senior Brother Li scratched the back of his head sheepishly and explained, "I'm about to report to the Graduate School, so I'd like to treat everyone to a meal."
Mu Chenghe nodded, took the tissue from my hand, and casually wiped the stains in front of him twice.
I don't know when he started walking behind us, whether he saw Liu Qi's intimacy with me, or whether he heard Bai Lin's teasing of Liu Qi and me.
But even if he saw it, what would it matter
Bai Lin said sadly: "Teacher Mu, let Xue Tong wash it for you, or compensate you with one."
I didn't dare look at Mu Chenghe, but I could vaguely feel his eyes sliding over me, then over Liu Qi, and finally over everyone. He squinted his clear eyes and smiled faintly: "No, it's not that precious. Have fun, I'll go to the office."
After saying this, he took a detour and left.
Looking at his receding back, Zhao Xiaotang said infatuatedly: "Is this your legendary teacher Mu?" This was the first time she met Mu Chenghe.
"If it's not him, who else could it be?" Bai Lin said.
"How can this be a human being?" sighed the romantic saint Zhao Xiaotang. "It's clearly the Queen of the Nine Heavens who has come down to earth."
The rest of us nine fell silent.
Finally, Senior Brother Li found a problem: "I remember that Teacher Mu said he was going to the office just now?"
Another brother answered, “Yes.”
Senior Brother Li asked again: "But, he was heading to the library just now, right?"
Bai Lin said, "Teacher Mu should go back to the library to change clothes first, is that not okay?"
We were silent again.
Everything on the main campus is new to us.
The dormitories of the headquarters are different from those in the west district. There is not one large compound for girls, but rather girls' buildings and boys' buildings, which are interspersed with each other in no regular pattern.
The balcony of our dormitory faces the windows of the boys' building of a department opposite, with a distance of about ten meters between them.
All the televisions in the school were of the same brand. Sometimes our remote control would fall into some corner, so we would have to run to the next door to borrow one.
As a result, one time I suddenly found that the TV changed channels by itself without anyone controlling it, and jumped to Tomato TV.
I said, "Could it be that the TV has been used for too long and has cramps?"
Bai Lin shrugged: "Maybe."
Then, I dialed back to Mango TV, and a minute later it became Tomato TV.
Bai Lin also began to feel weird.
"Does it like tomatoes but not mangoes?" I asked Bai Lin, pondering the preferences of our new friend.
Finally, we found out that it was not the TV that was causing the trouble, but the boys from the opposite building. The TV was facing the balcony, which was the boys' building. Their remote control just happened to be able to control our TV.
Later, when we had nothing to do, we used the same method that others used to harm us.
In this pleasant and novel atmosphere of new campus life, the most shocking thing that happened in our dormitory during college happened.
That day was Monday.
We had an intensive reading class early in the morning. Zhao Xiaotang was in the dormitory fixing her hair, and after a long time, she was already late when she arrived at the classroom. The intensive reading teacher was already used to her behavior and didn't even bother to raise her head.
Because of the uniqueness of foreign language education, there are only 20 students in a class. The seats are relatively fixed, so it is easy to tell who is absent.
Another disadvantage is that the turn to answer questions comes very quickly.
Therefore, the four of us like to sit together, with Song Qiqi at the center, so that we can help each other when we are called upon to translate.
Zhao Xiaotang was the last one to enter the classroom.
Ten minutes later, another person appeared at the door, a young unfamiliar woman.
She knocked on the door and asked, "Excuse me, is this the English Department Class 1?"
She asked quite politely, but it didn't seem like there was anything wrong, so the extensive reading teacher answered yes.
After the woman got a definite answer, she glanced at the audience below the podium and said, "I'll look for Song Qiqi."
Song Qiqi looked up in surprise, greeted the teacher, and walked out suspiciously.
The woman saw Song Qiqi in front of her and confirmed, "Are you Song Qiqi?"
Song Qiqi nodded: "It's me, what's the matter?"
Before she finished saying "Ma", the woman raised her palm and slapped Song Qiqi. The sound of "pa pa" echoed crisply in the corridor.
We were sitting in the classroom watching this scene and were all shocked and stunned.