I pondered for a long time and couldn't make up my mind. Then I looked at Bai Lin, and then at the serious police officers. I stared at the number on the screen, my thumb on the confirmation button, but I couldn't make up my mind.
In the military theory class, the teacher said that there are many strange countries and regimes on the earth. When they develop themselves, they like to regard a powerful neighboring country as their imaginary enemy. Since we became enemies at the end of last semester, I have always regarded Mu Chenghe as an enemy, but this enemy is not just my unilateral imagination, and his actions are also trying to move in this direction.
But, who else can I turn to besides him
It is impossible for my cousins to pretend to be university teachers. If my mother finds out, I will be in trouble. Zhao Xiaotang's group of netizens are even more unreliable. Each one is more bizarre and more vulgar than the other. Not only will they fail to perform well, but the most important thing is that they completely insult the image of teachers in our alma mater.
I rubbed my forehead.
What if Mu Chenghe simply ignores me? What if he reports it to the school
At this time, the police uncle asked again: "Have you found the number?"
I smirked: "I'm trying to remember."
Finally, I had no choice but to grit my teeth, close my eyes, and dial Mu Chenghe's number. The ring rang more than ten times, and just when I was desperate, he answered the phone: "Hello..."
The voice that was so outrageous in the classroom, now sounded a little sleepy, but suddenly it sounded like heavenly music to me.
"Teacher Mu." I shouted tremblingly, "I'm Xue Tong."
I can't guarantee that he would remember this name, because he always called me that damn "classmate" or "class representative classmate", so I quickly added the explanation: "I'm from your English department, a junior, a second foreign language, Russian class, and the class representative, Xue Tong." I used five adjectives in front of my name, trying to wake him up from his half-asleep state.
Mu Chenghe asked, "Is there something wrong?" His voice came from the receiver, gradually getting smaller and then louder. It seemed that he sat up from the bed, took the phone away from his mouth, and put it to the other ear.
These three simple words actually made me feel the warmth of my loved ones in this cold and windy night.
“Teacher…” I said to the phone, almost crying with joy.
"What's wrong?" he asked again.
Teacher, you are a good person, and the best person in the world!
I was moved and said: "Teacher, we made a mistake, please come and pick us up."
Just half an hour later, Mu Chenghe drove over, exhausted, carrying his ID card, work permit, and even his teacher's certificate.
One of the policemen saw his ID and his expression suddenly changed. He said, "Oh, you are Mu Chenghe. I've seen you in the newspaper." He looked honored.
So, he got everything done smoothly, picked up Bai Lin and put him in the back seat of the car, and led us out like two stray dogs.
I sat in the passenger seat and fastened my seat belt consciously. Before he could speak, I frowned and lowered my eyes, and took the initiative to apologize: "Teacher, we were wrong, and we will never dare to do it again. After this time, I will change my ways and abide by the school rules and class regulations. I swear, really!" I sincerely repented before he could lecture me, hoping to arouse his kindness and not report Bai Lin and me.
Mu Chenghe turned around and watched me talking to myself with great interest, without saying a word for a long time.
I didn't dare look into his eyes and twisted my fingers guiltily, "Teacher, we were really wrong, you can scold me." As long as you don't hand me over to the college and scold me to death, it's fine.
He suddenly smiled and said, "I've said before that I never lose my temper with children."
I looked up at him, and suddenly felt that the smile on his face was a little sinister and fake. Although these words, used on Mu Chenghe, who was like our savior, were quite unethical.
"How did you get out?" he asked.
"Climb over the wall." I confessed honestly.
"How much did you drink?"
"She drank three or four bottles, and I drank six or seven."
"Haha, you have a good alcohol tolerance." He raised his eyebrows.
I became proud and said, "That's right. My mother has been focusing on cultivating this aspect of me since I was young. She said that girls should drink a lot so that they won't be easily bullied."
"Really?" he asked back.
When I saw his half-smiley eyes, my complacent face suddenly darkened. I am a sinner now and cannot boast.
So, this topic ends here.
"What are you two going to do next? Should I take you back to the dormitory?" he asked as he started the car.
"No! The school will know." If he sent us back, he would definitely not let us climb the wall again. Instead, he would knock on the door of the girls' dormitory and let us go in under the scorching gaze of the dormitory manager.
"What should we do then?"
"Uh..." This really stumped me. When the car passed the south gate of A University, I quickly said, "You can drop us off here and we will wait until dawn."
"Where are you going to put your classmate?" Mu Chenghe looked in the rearview mirror and gestured to the drunk Bai Lin behind him.
I bit my lip and thought for a moment: "There's an Internet cafe right outside the door. Let's go in and sit down."
Mu Chenghe shook his head, obviously disagreeing with my bad idea.
After a while, he said, "I'm worried about leaving you two behind in the middle of the night. Forget it, let's go to my house."
"Where do you live?"
“East Second Ring Road.”
"It's really far." I was still reluctant.
"When you asked me to pick you up just now, why didn't you think that I live so far away?" he said helplessly.
"But we have an intensive reading class early tomorrow morning." I hesitated.
"I'll take you back, okay?" he asked forbearingly.
"That's fine!"
Now, I have no worries.
It was early winter, and the night wind was bone-chillingly cold. The car was warmed up by the heater, and he left the skylight a little open, and could vaguely feel some fresh air blowing in, which was a bit refreshing.
He drove very attentively along the way. I wonder if he secretly regretted that he had the bad luck to teach a student like me.
During this period, some traffic lights stopped and turned into flashing yellow lights.
When they were at the intersection of the Third Ring Road, the traffic light turned red again, so Mu Chenghe stopped and waited patiently. He held the steering wheel with his right hand, rested his chin on the edge of the window with his left elbow, and looked at the cars speeding by in front of him.
While his attention was elsewhere, I stole a glance at his face.
I didn't pay much attention to it just now, but now I realize that he is wearing a pair of black thin-framed glasses. I didn't expect that he is also nearsighted, and he probably didn't have time to wear contact lenses when he received my call and rushed over.
His eyes are double brow, so they look small but deep. My mother always says that big eyes are charming and small eyes are enchanting. I don't know whose soul he wanted to enchant when he was born.
The eyes are light brown.
The nose bridge is very straight.
If you were to find an interesting feature in his facial features, it would be his mouth. The corners of his mouth seemed to be naturally slightly upturned, and when he pursed his lips slightly, he looked as if he was smiling even without any expression.
According to the aesthetic standards of Xiaobai's fellow villagers, Mu Chenghe should be considered a very good-looking person. However, I still think my dad is more handsome.
The traffic lights alternate between green and green.
The car started moving again, and he retracted his attention and glanced around. His eyes met mine through the mirror, and our eyes met for a moment. He was frank, but I was embarrassed because I had been secretly studying his appearance for a long time, and I quickly turned my head away.
"What are you thinking about?" he said.
"It turns out that in the middle of the night, some traffic lights will turn into flashing yellow lights. How interesting." I tried to make up a story. "I am an old resident of City A, but I never noticed it before."
He smiled and didn't respond.
I then said, "But why was the light red again just now?"
"Don't you notice that traffic at an intersection with a red light is busier than at an intersection with a yellow light?"
When he said this, I thought about it carefully and really felt the same way: "So that's how it is."
"It seems that you lack observation skills." He joked, "Rodin said: Beauty is everywhere. What our eyes lack is not beauty, but discovery."
My mother is very strict and will never let me hang out until 11 o'clock when the buses stop running. So even though I have lived here for many years, I rarely hang out at 2 or 3 in the morning.
After hearing what he said, I really started to observe the streets at midnight.
The area, which is usually very busy during the day, is now unusually quiet. Apart from a few night-time security guards milling around, there is almost no one around. There are some homeless people sleeping on the street.
Because there are very few vehicles on the road, some types of vehicles that cannot enter the city during the day speed around recklessly, passing by in a flash. The huge roar is particularly harsh in the silent night.
On some streets, sanitation workers were already out sweeping the streets. The orange street lights stretched their shadows very long, giving off a sense of hardship.
There were also workers replacing potted green plants in the square.
When I passed an intersection on North Street, I saw the huge sign "Lei's BBQ" and couldn't help but smile. I pointed and said to Mu Chenghe, "When I was in elementary school, that barbecue restaurant used to be a roadside stall. The chicken wings grilled by the old lady were especially delicious, but every time we took too long on the way home from school, we would be scolded by our mother, so we always liked to rush her. As a result, the old lady would always yell at us angrily: 'Why are you so impatient, kids? This kind of food is only delicious if it is grilled slowly.'"
He couldn't help but smile: "You look like a local?"
I nodded, "Yes." After answering, I hesitated and changed my words, "But it's not."
"How is it and not?"
"I came to City A with my family when I was eleven years old, and my accent is not very different when I speak the dialect. People from other places think I am a local, and locals think I am an outsider." I murmured, suddenly feeling sad.
But he laughed: "You are so young, don't you have a sense of belonging?" with some contempt.
There is really no point in talking if we don't agree!
I frowned, turned away and stopped talking to him.
After a while, he suddenly said, "I have lived in many places, and in the end I can't even tell where is my hometown. But I don't have the feeling like you do."
I was originally angry, but I couldn't help but turn around and ask, "Why?"
"I've always been a bit of an oddball in other people's eyes since I was a kid, so I've gotten used to it."
"Alien? What's the difference?" I wondered.
He raised his eyes slightly, but did not answer.
I was really curious now, and carefully looked him up and down and then up and down twice. His limbs were intact, his features were regular, he had not been disfigured, his five senses were all intact, and judging by the sensitivity he had in seeing traffic lights, he couldn't be color blind.
I really didn't find anything strange.
After careful consideration, I asked tentatively, "Are you... mentally ill?"
Mu Chenghe looked at me deeply, narrowed his eyes, and said with a fake smile: "You really deserve to be the class representative I taught you."
The sarcasm is evident in his words.
In fact, what I wanted to ask most was not about the brain, but something else. But I was too embarrassed to say it out loud, and I was afraid of hurting his self-esteem. I was so considerate, but in return I was ridiculed by him.
I can't help but think of the sad words about spring and autumn - I would like to entrust my heart to the bright moon, but the moon only shines on the ditch.
It's such a tragedy!
When the car arrived downstairs of Mu Chenghe's house, Bai Lin finally woke up halfway. Even in this half-awake state, she was still able to greet Mu Chenghe in a very fawning manner, which showed how good this girl was at flattering him.
This time, I didn’t dare ask Mu Chenghe to take action, so I helped Bai Lin into his house.
Mu Chenghe's house is not very spacious.
This is a one-bedroom house, but each room is large enough. The living room and bedroom both face the river. It can be regarded as a rare river view house in the A city area.
"This house is very expensive, right? How much is it per square meter?" I asked in a mercenary way.
I didn't expect this person to have such a wealthy family.
He put down the key and went to wash his hands while saying, "The house belongs to your teacher Chen. If he doesn't come back, I will take care of it for him."
"I see.
I didn't expect that they were such good friends. No wonder I had been substituting for Chen Ting's classes for so long.
Bai Lin and I slept in the bedroom, while Mu Chenghe slept on the sofa with a pillow and quilt.
Bai Lin fell asleep on the bed with the remaining alcohol in his body.
After all the tossing and turning just now, I seemed to have missed my biological clock and couldn't fall asleep. I was originally lying on my back, but I turned over and lay on my side, with my face touching the white pillowcase.
The pillow I was resting my head on happened to be Mu Chenghe's.
He probably left in a hurry after answering my call, and didn't even have time to make the bed. So when we entered the room, we saw that the quilt was still freshly made, one pillow was thrown on one side of the bed, and the other was wrinkled, which showed that he had just slept.
At this moment, I seemed to smell a scent, faint and almost imperceptible, which was left by Mu Chenghe.
That time, when he was teaching me pronunciation very closely, I also smelled it from him.
what is it then
I took a deep breath and savored it again.
It smells like pine or rosin.
When I was very young, my father worked as a carpenter and helped people make furniture. Those unpainted wooden products had this smell. Some people don't like it, but I always think it smells good.
Chen Ting once said in class that Russians like birch trees very much. However, the most common and useful trees in the vast Siberian forests are pine trees—Larix sylvestris, Larch, White Pine, Pinus truncatum, Pinus serrulata, Pinus foetida, Pinus sibirica, etc.
When I think about it this way, I feel that Mu Chenghe himself is like a pine tree from Russia.
Some teachers would lean their hands on the podium during class, but he didn't. He always stood in front of the blackboard with one hand holding the textbook and the other hand in his trouser pocket, which made others feel that he was very idle. But his entire spine was very straight, and he looked like a pine tree in the snow, green and strong.
Thinking like this, accompanied by the ticking of the clock hanging on the wall, it's like counting sheep, very hypnotic.
I don't know how long it took, but Bai Lin turned over and put his arm on my stomach, waking me up from my sleep. I thought it was already dawn, but when I looked at the clock in the dark, only an hour had passed.
I suddenly remembered that Bai Lin and I had left our phones in our coats, which were hanging at the entrance. If I didn't set the alarm, I wouldn't be able to sleep well for the rest of the day.
I thought about it for a moment and decided to get the phone, so I got up from the bed, stood on tiptoe and gently opened the door.
I thought the living room would be dark, but to my surprise, Mu Chenghe was not asleep.
Mu Chenghe sat on the sofa with a notebook on his lap.
The light blue fluorescence from the screen reflected on his face, making the outlines clear.
Mu Chenghe, still wearing his glasses, was staring at the screen intently. His fingers were moving rapidly on the keyboard, making tiny ticking sounds with rhythm and beat.
He frowned, with a thoughtful look on his face that was rarely seen in normal days. It seemed as if he was not the same person as the Mu Chenghe who stood on the podium or in the office with high spirits.
I saw him free one hand, leave the keyboard, pick up a pen and write something on the white paper next to him, then stop and tap the keyboard with his other hand. He did this series of actions skillfully and smoothly, but it always seemed a bit strange to me.
As for what's strange about it, I can't tell.
I wanted to sneak over to see what he was doing, but he noticed me after I took a few steps.
He turned his head and saw me: "Are you awake? Or still awake?"
When I looked at him from the front, I actually felt that Mu Chenghe looked more childish and peaceful than usual with the glasses on his nose.
"I came out to get the alarm on my phone because I was afraid I would oversleep." I explained obediently.
He looked at me again, then put the computer on the coffee table and turned on the desk lamp next to the armrest of the sofa. I don't know if he was afraid that I would knock on the door in the dark.
I quickly found my phone in my pocket, and when I walked around him, he was taking off his glasses and pinching his nose with two fingers. There was a pile of books next to him, all of which were original books in the language of birds. Some of them, I took a look at the cover of the two books on the top, both of which had the word Аэродинамика. I only knew it was Russian, but we usually only learned common words, so I didn't understand what they meant.
"Can't you sleep?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I'm particular about my bed, and I don't sleep well."