Falling in Love with High School English Teacher Sakura (GL Teacher-Student Love) - Chapter 9

Before they knew it, the weekend had arrived—Yue Ran’s day to return home. The week’s elementary school curriculum had been a breeze for him.

Yue Ran was always greeted by his mother’s cheerful and booming voice: “My big boy is back!”

His grandmother would also say upon seeing him, “Our college student has returned from school.” These were the standard greetings Yue Ran heard every time he came home, carrying his family’s hopes that he would one day get into university.

Yue Ran’s mother knew all too well how frail her child had been since infancy—catching colds and fevers every few days. So, every weekend when Yue Ran returned, she would spend hours simmering pork rib and mung bean soup for him. She had heard from someone that this concoction was a miracle tonic for strengthening the body. Later, she even forced Yue Ran to drink goat’s milk, claiming it would boost his constitution. The most outrageous remedy, however, was when she made him swallow snake and ox gallbladders—those ghastly green lumps so bitter they could make anyone gag. Thankfully, Yue Ran was tough enough to survive these ordeals and grew up unscathed.

Just as Yue Ran had expected, Shuoshuo was stunned when he saw the backpack full of marbles and Water Margin cards Yue Ran brought home. The marbles were rare black ones, and Shuoshuo’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, drool almost dripping from his mouth.

Shuoshuo was utterly envious of Yue Ran’s impressive collection. He marveled at how Yue Ran had already gathered cards for 100 of the Water Margin heroes in such a short time—just eight more to complete the full set of 108. In contrast, Shuoshuo only had 20 unique cards, painstakingly collected by trading with classmates and buying countless packs of Little Chef instant noodles. He treasured them like gold.

Yue Ran, of course, couldn’t care less about marbles or cards and casually handed over all the duplicates to Shuoshuo.

Shuoshuo’s bright eyes sparkled as he exclaimed excitedly, “You’re really giving me all of these? Yue Ran, you’re the best!”

Yue Ran found Shuoshuo’s chubby, dumbfounded face hilarious but managed to keep a straight face. “We’re like brothers—just take them!”

Yue Ran’s parents were overjoyed when they saw his latest exam results. Their homeroom teacher, Wang Piaopiao, had required all students to bring their graded papers home for parental signatures. Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined their daughter would rank first in class. They joked that their ancestors must have blessed them for Yue Ran to finally “get it” and start excelling in school.

His mother resolved to brew even more pork rib and mung bean soup, convinced it was the secret behind Yue Ran’s sudden academic breakthrough.

If Yue Ran knew what she was thinking, he wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry—though he did love pork ribs.

During lunch, Yue Ran suddenly heard Shuoshuo’s loud, dramatic wailing from next door. Shuoshuo had always been a crybaby, turning even minor incidents into tearful sagas. If he didn’t cry for two days, he’d make up for it on the third. Yue Ran had long grown immune to his sobs, but he couldn’t help wondering—what was Shuoshuo bawling about this time?

Yue Ran and Shuoshuo had completely opposite personalities. Yue Ran was stubborn to the core—the kind of kid who wouldn’t even cry when beaten by her parents. Shuoshuo, on the other hand, was always whining and crying. Yue Ran found it strange—just that morning, Shuoshuo had been overjoyed when she gave him the glass marbles and cards, so why was he suddenly crying now?

Yue Ran’s mother hurried next door to Shuoshuo’s house to see what was going on.

When she returned, she explained to Yue Ran that Shuoshuo had performed poorly on his exams, and his furious father had taken off his belt and given him a harsh beating on the bottom.

Shuoshuo’s father even used Yue Ran as an example to scold him. The unsuccessful steelworker pointed at Shuoshuo’s nose and shouted angrily, “Look at Yue Ran next door—she’s already started studying seriously and came first in her class! And what about you? All you do all day is play with marbles. Are all these marbles yours? Tell me, what exactly do you do at school if not study? I spend money to send you to school, and this is the score you bring back? I’ll beat you to death!” Growing angrier as he spoke, Shuoshuo’s father whipped out his belt and gave Shuoshuo a proper thrashing on the backside—it was a real beating!

As she ate her meal, Yue Ran silently mourned for Shuoshuo. So his beating had a lot to do with her too. “Sorry about this, buddy,” she thought to herself.

Yue Ran’s and Shuoshuo’s families were neighbors. Yue Ran’s single-story house had a yard and vegetable garden by the roadside, with a small grove of trees across the street. Every household had a single-story home with a chimney. Around mealtime, wisps of smoke would rise from the chimneys, and the aroma of food could be smelled from a mile away.

At night, lying in bed, Yue Ran felt at peace listening to the chirping of crickets and cicadas. Through the window, she could see a deep blue sky dotted with stars. The countryside was so beautiful. When she ran outside, she felt close to the stars in the sky, as if she could reach out and touch them.

Yue Ran thought about the future—a city filled with towering buildings and constant noise, where the sparse stars in the sky were obscured by skyscrapers. This made her cherish the present even more. Right now, she could intimately connect with the insects, flowers, birds, fish, trees, and stones of nature—not asphalt roads, concrete paths, or steel-reinforced buildings. There was also no severe air pollution like there would be in the future.