County No. 2 Middle School

They parted at the entrance to the old alley. Qin An watched Sun Sun's slender figure gradually disappear around the corner of a house, then turned and ran toward No. 2 Middle School...

Fengyu County No. 2 Middle School had originally been called Luhai Middle School. It had once been a renowned revolutionary base, known as "Luhai, home to dragons and serpents," and a number of prominent generals and commanders of the War of Resistance Against Japan had come from there...

But the school now commonly called County No. 2 Middle School had long since lost that confidence. The enrollment area assigned to it by the county Education Commission was described throughout the education system as "the fools of Tangpu Town, the thugs of Qingshan Town, and the dimwits of Yinshui Town"...

Tangpu Town had the lowest standard of education, and its students' grades were despairingly poor. Qingshan Town had a fierce, belligerent populace and produced an abundance of hoodlums and layabouts. Calling the children of Yinshui Town "dimwits" was even more insulting, implying problems with both their intelligence and their emotional intelligence...

There was naturally some exaggeration in this description, but it also showed just how disappointing No. 2 Middle School's enrollment area was...

Li Xinlan attended No. 2 Middle School's newly established experimental class, which brought together the top sixty students in her year. They had a separate teaching building and were completely isolated from the students in the regular classes, effectively forming a school within a school. In Qin An's memory, this approach had been quite effective. At least, from when he entered the experimental class at No. 2 Middle School to when he graduated in his final year, the number of students in these experimental classes whose college entrance exam scores reached the cutoff for key universities had come to rival County No. 1 Middle School...

Qin An waited outside the experimental classes' teaching building and saw quite a few familiar faces who would later become his teachers, including one face he loathed...

Xie Xiongli, the Chinese teacher in his thirties who would become the homeroom teacher of Class 156 at No. 2 Middle School in their final year, had forcibly transferred several students he disliked, who were good at science subjects, into humanities classes. He had pressured a student who caused no trouble and was merely passionate about reading romance novels into withdrawing. When the school organized its final intensive revision sessions before the college entrance exam, he had sent Qin An home, declaring that Qin An could get into a junior college at best, that intensive revision would make no difference, and that he should not interfere with the others' studies... On that point, he and Liao Yu did have something in common...

"Son of bitch..." Qin An greeted Xie Xiongli with a beaming smile. To Qin An, someone who changed other people's lives based solely on his personal likes and dislikes was utterly lacking in professional ethics. Xie Xiongli seemed to feel that, as a teacher, he had no need to care whether his actions could easily alter, or even destroy, someone's future and destiny. Or perhaps he simply enjoyed the thrill of manipulating the course of other people's lives...

Among the teachers Qin An had encountered throughout his school years, he did not even feel much animosity toward Liao Yu, but he despised Xie Xiongli for this...

Xie Xiongli looked at Qin An in bewilderment. He had no idea what Qin An was saying. Before the internet took off, the American television series circulated in China had all been dubbed into Mandarin, and a Chinese teacher would not have encountered slang commonly used in Western films...

"What class are you in?" Xie Xiongli frowned, unable to remember who Qin An was even after thinking for a while...

"Son of bitch..." Qin An chuckled, looking a little vacant and foolish...

Bewildered and somewhat annoyed, Xie Xiongli thought, Could this kid be an idiot? He silently cursed him as a "moron," then turned away, ignored Qin An, and walked off...

"Son of bitch..." Qin An happily craned his neck and waved enthusiastically, as though saying goodbye to a dear friend...

"What are you doing?"

Pushing her bicycle, Li Xinlan actually felt a little pleased to see Qin An, but what he was saying was rather baffling. Something about, "Respected Grandma Xie, please don't blame me. Your son is simply too hateful, too much of a disgrace, and does you no credit. If you have to blame someone, blame him for getting you cursed along with him..."

"Nothing... Oh, right, I have a great idea. From now on, I'll take you to school in the morning, then ride your bicycle to my school. In the afternoon, I'll ride over to your school and pick you up to go home. How's that? It's settled, then..." Qin An casually took hold of Li Xinlan's handlebars and pushed the bicycle out through the school gates. With the enormous flow of students leaving No. 2 Middle School, riding bicycles on school grounds was forbidden...

"What kind of great idea is that...? I don't want that..." Li Xinlan's little face flushed. If he took her to and from school, what would that make the two of them?

At the school gates, Qin An saw Secretary Tang's car parked there, with Junzi at the wheel. He seemed to be there just to have a look, with no official business to attend to; otherwise, he would not have had Junzi drive...

Qin An was hesitating over whether to go and say hello, since they were not particularly well acquainted, when Secretary Tang leaned his head out and waved him over...

"Uncle Tang! Out inspecting the people's living conditions?" Qin An pushed the bicycle over and greeted him easily...

Li Xinlan had her hand resting on the bicycle frame. Since Qin An walked over with the bicycle in his hands, she had no choice but to follow, curiously studying the "Uncle Tang" Qin An had addressed. There were not many people in Qingshan Town who could drive a Santana...

"What do you mean, inspecting the people's living conditions? Is this your little girlfriend?" Secretary Tang pointed at Li Xinlan and chuckled...

Li Xinlan turned her head away, her neck and the roots of her ears turning bloodred. From the look of her, she would have crawled into a crack if there had been one...

Qin An offered no explanation, but neither would he retaliate by teasing him about Sister-in-law Qi...

"Come along to the restaurant for a meal. We'll take you home afterward..." Secretary Tang invited them...

Qin An could hardly turn him down. He also knew that the restaurant was Sister-in-law Qi's. It seemed Secretary Tang intended to use him as a shield. Otherwise, as an unmarried official, his frequent solo visits to support the business of a single woman like Sister-in-law Qi would always give people an excuse to invent gossip...

Qin An tossed the bicycle into the trunk and, without giving Li Xinlan a chance to object, pulled her into the car. When Li Xinlan became flustered, she could not make up her mind. Only after Qin An had pulled her inside did she realize it was inappropriate for her to come along, but Junzi had already started the car...

Sister-in-law Qi's name was Qi Mei, and she was very youthful and pretty. Seeing Li Xinlan, she assumed she was one of the older and younger girlfriends Qin An had mentioned and cheerfully brought two cans of Jianlibao for Qin An and Li Xinlan. Li Xinlan sat there in awkward unease, wanting to explain that she and Qin An were not in that sort of relationship, but she could not bring herself to speak, afraid that the more she explained, the less anyone would believe her...

"Aren't you in junior middle school? You came specially to pick her up after school? You certainly know how to look after someone..." The shy, uneasy Li Xinlan did not put Qi Mei on her guard, and she naturally sat down on the stool beside Secretary Tang...

"Lately, some little hoodlum has been using taking Xinlan to school as an excuse to harass her every day. I'm protecting a flower, aren't I...?" Qin An opened Li Xinlan's can and put in a straw, looking every bit the attentive suitor...

"Oh? She's older than you? Not bad..." Qi Mei's eyes lit up, and she involuntarily glanced at Secretary Tang...

Qin An noticed and understood that Qi Mei was most likely a little older than Secretary Tang as well...

"You should ask Junzi about this. You're not at the same school, after all, and you can't keep watch over her every day..." Secretary Tang smiled faintly, understanding what was on Qi Mei's mind. As he looked at Li Xinlan and Qin An, there was an added warmth in his manner...

Qin An turned to glance at Junzi, who stood to one side. Junzi still wore the same languid look of someone who did not want to say much, but when their eyes met, he nodded. Naturally, he knew Secretary Tang meant for him to help Qin An resolve this little problem...

"This really puts me in a bind. If we drive that little hoodlum away, I won't have an excuse to take her to school every day. What am I supposed to do then? Uncle Tang, you'll have to teach me..." Qin An chuckled...

"You need teaching? Such a little schemer..." Qi Mei affectionately poked Qin An with a finger, her eyes and brows full of smiles...

Qi Mei's love could be called an anguished one. Leaving aside whether it would ever come to anything, even the chance to make it public was remote. What woman did not hope to be openly together with the person she loved? Yet Qi Mei could only conceal it in every possible way. Now, in front of Qin An, she could make up a little for that regret, so naturally she did not treat him like a stranger...