Chapter 35: Friendship Between Teacher and Student

Xiao Qian’s expression returned to normal, but her tone was somewhat cold as she interrupted Zuo Hongbin’s words. “Teacher Zuo, I really appreciate your kind help over this period. However, as you can see, even the students have misunderstood. So, I hope we can keep our distance from now on to avoid unnecessary gossip at school… After all, I am still a young female teacher. I hope you can understand, okay?”

“This…” Zuo Hongbin gave an awkward laugh. “Yes, yes, I understand.”

“Then please.” Xiao Qian walked to the door and pulled it open.

“Teacher Xiao.” Zuo Hongbin gritted his teeth, feeling a sudden urge to burn his bridges. He spoke with genuine emotion. “To be honest, ever since the first day you came to school, from the very first moment I saw you, I deeply fell in love with you. Over these days, I’ve been unable to eat or drink properly, just thinking about how to make you happy, how to get to know you better, and deepen our feelings. I was hoping that one day…”

Before he could finish, Xiao Qian firmly said, “I’m sorry, there is no possibility between us.”

“I…”

“Please leave!”

Zuo Hongbin had no choice but to step out awkwardly. Standing outside the door, he still refused to give up and said, “Teacher Xiao, I hope you won’t hold a grudge over today’s matter. I believe…”

Bang!

The door closed.

In the sky, snowflakes that had stopped for less than a few minutes began to fall again, swirling and dancing.

Zuo Hongbin stood outside, tilting his face upward, letting the snowflakes land on his face and neck. He felt the cold chill as the snow melted, and his heart burned with furious anger. It all felt like a dream—everything had been going smoothly, their relationship developing quite harmoniously. How did that despicable, wretched student ruin it all with just a few words, making this hard-earned affection vanish like the moon in the water or a flower in a mirror, disappearing without a trace… To pursue her, how much time, effort, and energy had I spent? And, I’ve already spent over a hundred yuan!

Inside the office.

Xiao Qian stomped over to the bed and sat down, reaching out to hug the large white plush bear. She squeezed and pinched it hard with both hands. Although she felt relieved after clearly rejecting Zuo Hongbin, she also resented Su Chunfeng a little. “Even if you really dislike Zuo Hongbin, why did you have to be so direct, so sly and vicious, without considering my face or feelings at all?” At this moment, Xiao Qian had, in her mind, overlooked Su Chunfeng’s age.

Su Chunfeng, who had strolled back to the classroom, paid no attention to having embarrassed Zuo Hongbin earlier, nor was he worried about Zuo Hongbin seeking revenge.

Because Zuo Hongbin was a teacher!

Although this identity gave him a sense of superiority when interacting with students, when facing a student like Su Chunfeng—who had lived two lives and was mature at heart—if a direct conflict arose, the teacher’s identity would become a rope that bound Zuo Hongbin.

What could he dare to do?

Su Chunfeng was now widely recognized as a good student, loved by many teachers!

As Su Chunfeng expected, Zuo Hongbin did not cause trouble for him afterward. He only glared at him fiercely and angrily during P.E. class or when they occasionally crossed paths on campus.

Su Chunfeng largely ignored this.

Occasionally, on a whim, he would smile cheerfully and inexplicably lock eyes with Zuo Hongbin, staring back… How did that rural saying go? “On a rainy day, hitting the kids—since I have nothing else to do anyway.” He kept staring until Zuo Hongbin was seething with rage, yet unable to do anything to Su Chunfeng. Zuo Hongbin could only turn his gaze away angrily, choosing not to glare at Su Chunfeng anymore to avoid further frustration.

As for Xiao Qian, for several days after that incident, she always felt a bit embarrassed and avoided meeting Su Chunfeng’s gaze.

Only after her emotions had calmed down did she call Su Chunfeng to the office again. After earnestly instructing him, she reluctantly put on a strict teacher’s demeanor, half-warning and half-requesting, “Su Chunfeng, you must not spread any of the things you said to Teacher Zuo that day when you came to the teacher’s office.”

In those days, dating was still a rather conservative topic.

Xiao Qian, having just graduated from university, did not want to leave behind any gossip at this school—where she was destined not to stay long—that might harm her reputation.

“Mm.” Su Chunfeng agreed with a look of honesty, simplicity, and even a trace of fear.

His expression and attitude made Xiao Qian, who that day wore only a thin black sweater in the office, burst into laughter, shaking so hard that her ample bosom bounced up and down. She couldn’t resist any longer and lifted her slender jade-like hand to flick Su Chunfeng’s forehead. “You sly, sharp-tongued little rascal, stop pretending to be a good boy in front of me…”

Su Chunfeng grinned foolishly.

With his mature disposition, he couldn’t help but be drawn to the teacher’s bouncing curves. While admiring the view, being flicked on the forehead like a child by this young, beautiful female teacher was quite amusing and felt rather nice.

From that day on, Xiao Qian started paying extra attention to this rather strange student.

In the eyes of most teachers and students at Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School, Su Chunfeng was a good student—honest, helpful, diligent, never late or leaving early, not talkative, and even a bit shy.

But Xiao Qian had personally witnessed Su Chunfeng’s sly, sharp-tongued, and mean side.

Moreover, she had seen how this little guy could switch in an instant from a pure, naive, and simple expression to one of wild irreverence, along with that strange look of cool pride and maturity.

Thus, Xiao Qian, whose mindset was gradually maturing but not yet entirely free from a girl’s youthful simplicity, always held a playful and curious attitude. She wanted to try to make Su Chunfeng change his expression again, to peel off the disguise worn by this fair-skinned, quite handsome little troublemaker—she would deliberately give Su Chunfeng difficult questions during class, stand with her arms crossed beside his desk during self-study period, leisurely watching him to make him uncomfortable, call him to the office after school to help fetch water or move things, and assign him challenging English problems under the pretext of helping him study—questions that were definitely not part of the middle school curriculum.

She would also often tease Su Chunfeng and chat with him for a while…

Yet no matter what she did, Su Chunfeng always maintained that honest, simple appearance. Often, when he couldn’t solve a problem or was teased by Xiao Qian, his fair little face would turn bright red with embarrassment.

Every time this happened, Xiao Qian couldn’t resist flicking Su Chunfeng’s forehead, or pinching his cheeks or ears.

And Su Chunfeng would bare his teeth, grinning foolishly with a wronged expression, enjoying the beautiful teacher’s playful torment while internally complaining in confusion, “This big girl Xiao Qian, does she have a habit of torturing pure, fair-skinned, handsome little boys? It’s just that I have a good temper, am honest, and a true gentleman doesn’t fight with women—I’m letting her off!”

The more she couldn’t uncover Su Chunfeng’s disguise, the more curious Xiao Qian became…

So, back and forth, this pair of teacher and student gradually grew from familiarity to develop a beautiful friendship somewhat akin to an unlikely bond between different ages, and it seemed to run rather deep.

Su Chunfeng certainly didn’t reject this; instead, he enjoyed it immensely—after all, being with the young and beautiful Teacher Xiao Qian, pretending to be honest and simple, holding a teasing attitude toward this big girl, deliberately letting her tease and play with him… was much better than helplessly straddling a huge psychological generation gap in class or the dormitory, hanging out with those half-grown kids and talking nonsense.

Of course, except for his interactions with Wang Haifei.

However, such a familiar and pure friendship between him and Xiao Qian inevitably drew dislike from Zuo Hongbin, who was still shamelessly seizing every opportunity to please Xiao Qian.

Fortunately, due to Su Chunfeng’s age, this dislike did not escalate into jealousy over favor.

Otherwise, Su Chunfeng would really have to worry about what crazy, terrifying, and cruel things a person might do when love turned to hatred.

In the blink of an eye, New Year’s Day was approaching…

The good student Su Chunfeng, excellent in both character and academics, received a pile of New Year’s cards!

In those days, it was popular among students to give simple postcards printed with pretty patterns. Better ones were greeting cards that could be opened, and even better were those that, when opened, folded out into simple three-dimensional patterns… There were also higher-grade ones that played music when opened. But hardly anyone gave those because they were expensive—one yuan and fifty fen per card!

You have to understand, students exchanged greeting cards with each other. The cheapest, lowest-grade postcard cost ten fen each. With over seventy students in the class, even if you didn’t give many, say one-third of them?

That’s all money!

Could you feel good about giving only ten-fen cards to everyone?

If someone gave you a nice card, could you return a cheap one?

Not to mention giving cards to every teacher. Clearly, those were one-way gifts with no return, but at the very least, they had to be slightly higher in grade, right?

Well, eighty fen each!

Faced with a pile of New Year’s cards, Su Chunfeng was torn between laughter and tears.

Fortunately, his family’s financial situation was comfortable now, and spending thirty or twenty yuan wasn’t a big deal. If he honestly asked his parents for money, they would naturally give it to him.

In his previous life during middle school, every New Year’s, giving greeting cards was an extremely headache-inducing matter. If he didn’t give any, he’d feel inferior among his classmates. If he did give, he didn’t dare ask his parents for money using that as a reason, so he had to make up lies to beg for a little cash. But now, looking back, Su Chunfeng knew that if he had been honest back then, even if his parents were unwilling, they probably could have understood their child’s behavior and reluctantly given the money.

There was absolutely no need to deceive his parents!

After evening self-study ended, Su Chunfeng sat in the classroom, thinking about bits and pieces from his past life. Filled with emotion and guilt, he wrote generic, unoriginal well-wishes like “May all your wishes come true,” “Progress in your studies,” and “Always wear a smile” on a pile of newly bought greeting cards.

At that moment, Zhang Lifei came bouncing in from outside and sat down beside the desk.

Since winter began, Zhang Lifei had been living at the school.

Su Chunfeng didn’t pay much attention, busily writing “well-wishes” with swift, flowing strokes.

Zhang Lifei tilted her head, quietly watching with great admiration and appreciation, her eyes holding a trace of adoration, as Su Chunfeng wrote line after line of beautiful fountain pen script on each pretty New Year’s card.