Chapter 353 - 156: Indifferent Bystanders

Chapter 353: Chapter 156: Indifferent Bystanders

The campus wasn’t too crowded.

Zhang Shutong watched the withered tree by the school gate as its second to last leaf fell.

"Shutong, did you have something to tell me?" Song turned his head and asked, a curious look on his face. "I noticed you sent the others away as soon as we finished eating. Normally, you all would hang around chatting for ages. What’s going on today?"

Zhang Shutong didn’t answer right away. He noticed that Song’s voice was weak and listless. During lunch, Song Nanshan had barely touched his chopsticks, just picking up a few pieces of bok choy and tofu before putting them down. He hadn’t even used the dipping sauce, saying his doctor had told him to eat something light and that simply boiled vegetables were best.

The man was like that tree in the cold wind: tall, but already withered.

Zhang Shutong quickly shook the unlucky metaphor from his mind and told Song this wasn’t the place to talk, suggesting they go to the library.

Song was still a little confused. "What’s with all the mystery? Why not just call Qiumian and the others over? Can’t we all just chat together there?"

His mind wasn’t as sharp as it used to be. Song had always been a master of social nuances; in the past, he would have sensed there was a hidden reason in the blink of an eye. Now, however, he just raised an eyebrow, his mind concocting some other explanation:

"Oh, I get it. I told you guys not to miss me too much. Why be so sentimental? Your teacher is just taking a little trip. It’s not like I’ll never come back to see you again."

Song chuckled.

"You know, Shutong, to be honest, I’m realizing today that I’m actually quite popular. So many kids don’t want me to leave. People are such sentimental, contradictory creatures, aren’t we? Even though I hoped you wouldn’t be affected by the teacher change—you’re in your last year of middle school, after all, right? It’d be best if you just acted like I never existed and listened to your Teacher Xu from now on. But coming here today, I saw that some kids couldn’t help but cry. If I said that made me happy, I’d sound like a total creep. So, to use an internet phrase, it just makes my heart feel all warm and fuzzy."

He added, smug and satisfied,

"Yep. Warm and fuzzy."

Zhang Shutong nearly stumbled. Watching this man, a guy pushing thirty, repeat the phrase "warm and fuzzy" several times while rubbing his stubbly chin with a blissful, goofy grin on his face just seemed even creepier.

Song Nanshan pulled out a cigarette. His body still hadn’t recovered, and smoking would make him cough violently, so he usually just took a single drag to satisfy the craving. Then he’d just hold it between his fingers, not smoking it, and watch the smoke drift away. The campus was wide open, and Song’s sense of public decency wasn’t exactly perfect.

If the big drainage culvert was Zhang Shutong’s secret base, then the Fox was Song’s. He used to hide out there to smoke. Now that his base was gone, it wasn’t a big deal for a grown man, but it made his retreating figure seem terribly lonely.

"Still, it’s a real shame," Song said, glancing at the school building in the distance. "In the end, I couldn’t walk this road with you all to the finish."

A wisp of smoke, carried on the cold wind, drifted into Zhang Shutong’s face, making him blink instinctively.

All the elementary and middle schools in the city used a "five-four" system. Thanks to this bizarre setup, for a middle school teacher to see a class through from beginning to end, they had to spend one more year than teachers elsewhere.

’Obviously, four years is one year longer than three. But the real point was, how many four-year periods does a person get in their life?’

Song was 28 now. Winding the clock back, that meant he was 24 when they were in their first year. Before 24 came 20, though he hadn’t started working then. Zhang Shutong had occasionally heard him talk about his past work experience in the city, and from that, he could guess that Song’s career had been a nomadic one. He’d moved from the city to the island, and now he was leaving the island. It couldn’t have been an easy thing to let go of. Just thinking about it made Zhang Shutong feel a little sad, but then Song finally seemed to sense that something was off.

"Speaking of which, the reason you wanted to see me... could it be..."

The man stood frozen for a moment, then his brow furrowed, and a look of delighted surprise crossed his face.

"...that everyone secretly prepared a gift for me in the library?"

Zhang Shutong almost suffered an internal injury from holding back his reaction. Talking to some people was mentally taxing, but with his beloved teacher, it was purely heart-straining. His emotions were on a roller coaster. He had no choice but to awkwardly say no. But Song just patted his shoulder and said, "Just kidding. My return was so sudden, you wouldn’t have had time to prepare anything even if you’d wanted to."

The two of them walked slowly toward the library. A lazy afternoon atmosphere began to rise, like the hot pot at lunch just before it started to boil.

The smell of hot pot still clung to Zhang Shutong’s clothes. It would be a long time before it faded completely.

In truth, lunch hadn’t been a very happy affair. It wasn’t the cheerful farewell banquet he had imagined, with everyone clinking glasses. The other students in the class couldn’t bear to see Song go, let alone their small group. Ruoping, for one, was uncharacteristically quiet. She was usually chirping away at gatherings like this, but today she just kept her head down, taking small bites of food. At one point, who knows what she was thinking, she claimed some broth had splashed into her eye and took a tissue to wipe it.

Qingyi was never very talkative at these things. In the past, he would usually sit with Zhang Shutong and whisper about something else, but today they were sitting a bit far apart. So Qingyi just silently refilled Song’s water glass, over and over, until Song had to awkwardly tell him he really couldn’t drink anymore. Qingyi sighed and took the pitcher away, which made Song feel so bad that he gritted his teeth and said, "Go on, go on, pour me another." He drank that glass of plain water with the grim determination of someone chugging liquor.

Among their group, Ruoping and Du Kang were the best at livening things up, but Du Kang wasn’t there today. And so, the mood at the table sank. Gu Qiuyan and Zhang Shutong sat together. They exchanged a few words at first, but then they too fell silent.