If the world had no daytime (GL) - Chapter 6

As she got out of the taxi, Bai Tian still thanked the person inside.

Although she was a bit annoyed with this person, it was undeniable that she had been helped by the other party.

Looking at the unresponsive person, Bai Tian hesitated for a moment, then walked to the back of the car and took a photo of the license plate. She said to her, “Be careful, send me a message when you get home.”

She said this to the driver because the two of them were not close enough to exchange phone numbers.

The person whose half face was hidden in the hoodie seemed to not understand, and looked at Bai Tian and said, “But I don’t have your phone number.”

Gritting her teeth, Bai Tian reluctantly gave out her number.

After watching the car drive far away, she carried her schoolbag and pushed open the iron gate outside the yard.

Not surprisingly, seeing the lights on in the house, Bai Tian scratched her face and walked in slowly to change her shoes.

The person who had been home for half an hour was sitting in the living room, calculating something with a calculator. Hearing the sound, she said without looking up, “You still know how to come back?”

Bai Tian put on her slippers, hugged her schoolbag and went to sit down.

Bai Laosan ignored her, picked up the calculator and recalculated. He looked at the calculator in puzzlement, flipped through the notebook to the previous page of accounts uncertainly, and was about to calculate again when the person sitting opposite him said, “Wrong, you added two 86 yuan extra.”

Putting down the calculator in a huff, he looked up at the person who looked like they were obediently admitting their mistake, and his anger flared up again.

“Aunt Li next door said that you’ve been coming back after ten o’clock every day recently. Do you think I’m dead?”

Bai Tian lowered her head, consciously not wanting to provoke her third uncle at this critical moment.

The clock on the wall ticked away second by second, and in a moment it would join the minute and hour hands, stopping at the number “12”.

It was truly a terribly unlucky day, Bai Tian thought silently.

“Starting tomorrow, you’ll come to the restaurant immediately after school, and you’re not allowed to go anywhere else!”

Without thinking, Bai Tian replied, “I can’t tomorrow.”

Bai Laosan glared at her, looking like he was about to lose his temper, but Bai Tian immediately cowered and whispered, “I have something to do tomorrow. Next week, I’ll go after school starting next week.”

“Are you trying to bargain with me? What do you have to do? Are you going to an internet cafe or a game arcade? Are you trying to make me die of anger?”

Seeing that he was really angry, Bai Tian had to tell the truth, “No, I’m going to do a part-time job. I’ll be able to get my salary in a few days, and then I’ll quit.”

Bai Laosan was stunned, and looked at her for a long time before saying, “Why are you doing a part-time job? Do I lack you to eat or wear?”

Her hand gripping the strap of her schoolbag tightened, and Bai Tian answered dejectedly, “No.”

She recounted the incident of breaking her classmate’s hairpin in detail.

Bai Tian sat on the sofa in frustration, watching the figure that silently walked into the bedroom, and after a while she shouted at him, “I’m going to take a shower first.”

The water heater in the bathroom broke down again, and Bai Tian waited for hot water for ten minutes. When she came out after washing, it was almost 12:30. She wiped her hair while walking back to her bedroom, ready to read for a while before going to sleep.

She found an old textbook from the drawer, read it for a few minutes, and then opened another drawer when she thought of something.

She searched for a while, pulled out the first volume of “Fundamentals of Applied Economic Mathematics”, opened it and spread it out on the desk.

Bai Tian took a pencil, looked at the examples, and calculated on the desk. After she finished calculating, she checked the answer and was somewhat satisfied. She erased the desk clean with an eraser, then closed the book and put it back.

There was a knock on the bedroom door. Bai Tian quickly put all the books back in the drawer, then opened a comic book.

“Come in,” she replied, looking at the comic book.

Bai Laosan stood at the door, holding a wad of banknotes. He put the money on Bai Tian’s desk and said, “Pay your classmate back, and quit your restaurant job tomorrow.”

Then he closed the door.

Bai Tian looked at the six brand-new hundred-yuan bills on the table, and her fingers unconsciously pressed hard on the comic book, leaving scratches on it.

She closed the comic book and leaned back, putting all her strength on the back of the chair.

The phone in her schoolbag rang. Bai Tian looked over, then reached for her schoolbag and flipped out her phone.

It was a message from an unknown number.

[I’m home.]

Bai Tian looked at the message and pressed the delete button, but after a long time, she didn’t do anything and closed her phone.

The next morning, Bai Tian was not surprised to oversleep.

She got out of bed feeling dizzy and heavy, found some cold medicine and ate a pack, then went to the kitchen to heat up her breakfast.

Glancing at the time, Bai Tian didn’t even bother to change into her school uniform. She picked up her phone and keys and went out.

The restaurant had not yet opened for business. She found the manager and apologized for resigning. Fortunately, there were enough people hired at this time, and the manager felt a little soft-hearted seeing her so young working part-time, so he did not deduct any of her wages.

Bai Tian thanked him repeatedly and left the restaurant.

Holding the warm wages, she stepped into the shiny jewelry store again.

Almost eager to pay off this debt, Bai Tian didn’t even go home and went directly to school in her casual clothes.

Perhaps Bai Tian’s bad luck had run out. Today, Old Bald Li went to another school to listen to a lecture and was not in school, so Bai Tian luckily escaped a disaster. When she arrived at the classroom, it was already lunchtime. She searched around but couldn’t find anyone, so she stopped a class committee member and asked, “Have you seen the class monitor?”

The bespectacled boy thought for a moment and replied, “She should be in the experimental building. She said she wanted to get the test paper from the chemistry teacher.”

Bai Tian said thank you and carried the gift bag towards the experimental building.

The chemistry laboratory was on the fourth floor. She had hardly been there a few times. After finally climbing to the fourth floor, she couldn’t find her way for a long time, and it took her a long time to finally reach the right place.

The classroom door was closed, and Bai Tian looked around outside in puzzlement, only to find that the curtains were also drawn.

Could she have already left?

She carried the bag and thought for a moment, her face full of helplessness as she prepared to return the way she came.

As she passed the classroom door again, a faint sound came from inside. Bai Tian stopped and listened carefully, vaguely hearing crying. The scene she had just witnessed not long ago suddenly reappeared in her mind. Her heart sank, and she slowly approached the door.

Before she could reach out to knock, the person inside pushed the door open and came out.

The person with tears all over her face met Bai Tian’s eyes, then quickly brushed past her and ran away.

Bai Tian stood there dumbfounded and turned to look at the other person in the classroom.

The person leaning against the iron rack accepted Bai Tian’s gaze expressionlessly. She was silent and didn’t seem inclined to explain anything about this strange scene.

Bai Tian looked at her incomprehensibly, and the gift bag in her hand was squeezed so hard that it changed shape.

“What did you do to her?”

Having witnessed these things again and again, even if she didn’t want to get involved, Bai Tian couldn’t remain indifferent. She was just a high school student too. How could she pretend not to see when she saw her classmate being hurt in front of her?

The person in the classroom ignored her, reached out and pulled out a tissue from the side, wiping her fingers. Bai Tian keenly caught a glimpse of the tiny red spots on the tissue, like bloodstains.

She walked into the classroom, closed the door, and locked it.

There seemed to be a strange smell in the airtight classroom, but mixed with the smell of chemicals, Bai Tian couldn’t tell what the unusual smell was.

“Ye Wan, I saw everything,” Bai Tian called her name for the first time, and her face couldn’t even put on a pretense of calmness.

“Including the last time, it was this girl, right?”

Her memory was very good. She wouldn’t easily forget a face she had seen once, especially in such a special situation.

Bai Tian walked forward and stood in front of Ye Wan. Their height difference forced her to look up at the other, but it didn’t make her seem weak, because at this moment, Bai Tian was truly angry.

The person leaning against the iron rack met her gaze, her expression indifferent, as if she had no intention of conversing.

This appearance reminded Bai Tian of the first time she saw her outside the school. Ye Wan, who was wearing a black hoodie back then, had also looked at the bloody bullying unfolding in front of her with the same expression.

And she herself was the mastermind.

“You’re going too far”

Seeing her unmoved, Bai Tian felt a chill run through her body.

“If there’s a next time, I’ll definitely report you.”

She gritted her teeth and said this, threw the bag in her hand on the iron rack, and then turned and left the classroom quickly without looking back.

The person standing there watched her figure disappear into the corridor, and after a while, reached out and picked up the crumpled dark blue gift bag.

A delicate and small box was inside, very light but not cheap.

Her slender fingers opened the box, and a pair of exquisitely crafted crystal hairpin appeared before her eyes, shimmering slightly in the dim classroom.

“So cute”

The casual words fell softly, but it was unclear whether she was referring to the hairpin or something else.

The next morning, the girls in Class A discovered that the crystal hairpin that had disappeared from the class monitor’s head for a long time had returned. They cast envious glances and comforted themselves by saying, “No matter how beautiful something is, it still depends on the person wearing it being beautiful,” and finally gave up the idea of buying the same one.

The monthly exam was imminent, and in the entire teachers’ office, only Old Bald Li was very relaxed, leisurely holding a teacup and exercising downstairs all day.

“Teacher Liu, your lumbar disc herniation cannot be underestimated. You need to move around more and don’t sit all the time.”

The chemistry teacher frowned and listened to the fat old man chatter for a long time, and was only let go when the school bell rang.

He carried a thick brown paper bag back to the office and, taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, complained to the new female teacher, “Teacher Li is also like this, he’s so old and still doesn’t retire, he still has to teach the top class.”

The female teacher smiled, “I think Teacher Li is still very healthy. It’s a blessing for the students to have him stay at the school.”

Teacher Liu pursed his lips and didn’t say anything more.

He took out the new test papers from the brown paper bag, divided them into several parts and placed them on the desk, and then began to prepare the lesson.

Half an hour later, before the bell rang, someone knocked on the office door and reported.

Teacher Liu replied, “Come in.”

“Teacher Liu, I’m here to get today’s test paper.”

He looked up, saw who it was, and immediately smiled, picked up the papers on the desk and handed them to her, casually asking, “Why are you here to get the paper before class is over?”

Ye Wan smiled back and politely replied, “Teacher Li asked us to study by ourselves.”

He smacked his lips, but didn’t show it on his face, reached out and patted her shoulder, and said with a smile, “Take it and do it well, I’ll go over this paper in class tomorrow.”

When the hand was taken away, Ye Wan turned around with the paper and had just taken two steps when she seemed to remember something and turned back to ask, “By the way, Teacher Liu, were you in the experimental building yesterday afternoon?”

Teacher Liu looked over in surprise and asked, “No, why?”

Ye Wan looked at him, a little embarrassed, and said, “Maybe it was a classmate from Class C who saw it wrong. He said you were in the experimental building, so I went to find you to get the paper, but I couldn’t find you.”

He laughed, “In the future, just come to the office to find me. I won’t go to the experimental building when I’m not teaching.”

Ye Wan nodded and walked out of the office with the paper.

The smile on her face faded, and when the school bell rang, she put on a gentle expression again.

When Bai Tian woke up, the classroom was already empty.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and checked the time on her phone, then took out her schoolbag and prepared to leave.

Maybe it was because of a lingering cold, she had been increasingly sleepy these past two days, and no matter how long she slept, she still felt listless. Today, she even slept until after school.

There were three teaching buildings in the senior high school. Now only the farthest one, where the third-year students were, was still lit up. The other places were already quiet and empty, with no one in sight.

Bai Tian yawned, carrying her schoolbag and slowly walked downstairs. As she passed the corner of Class C’s door, a voice faintly came, and it sounded familiar.

“…You did this to yourself!”

She stopped, her somewhat dull brain still reacting to whose voice it was, and another voice sounded, “I can’t do anything, I really can’t do anything, please, just treat it as…”

Bai Tian quickened her pace and pushed open the door of Class C.

The girl with red, swollen eyes was startled and turned to look at Bai Tian who had suddenly barged in, looking stunned as if she had lost her reaction.

The person standing beside her looked over, saw Bai Tian’s face, and showed an impatient expression, coldly warning, “It’s none of your business, don’t meddle.”

Bai Tian’s temples throbbed. She knew this was from anger.

“I told you yesterday afternoon, if there’s another time…”

“Bai Tian, I’ll say it again, it’s none of your business.” Ye Wan looked at her, her eyes filled with an unprecedented sharpness.

An alarm bell rang instantly in her heart, and Bai Tian advised herself that it was better to stop here, because the Ye Wan in front of her was the real Ye Wan. It was a serious mistake to be numbed by her disguise for so long and forget how dangerous she was. She could only cut her losses in time to avoid getting into bigger trouble.

However, the boy covered in blood popped up in her mind again, his expression of pain was terrifying.

Bai Tian took a deep breath and looked at the girl who hadn’t dried her tears yet, pointing at her and asking, “What exactly did she do to offend you? Why do you have to bully her again and again? Even if you’re the principal’s daughter, it doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”

The girl who was pointed at was stunned, as if she hadn’t come back to her senses.

And Ye Wan’s impatience had reached its limit. She no longer looked at Bai Tian, and pulled the girl to leave the classroom.

Bai Tian quickly walked forward and grabbed the girl’s other hand.

The two looked at each other, their eyes locked, neither willing to give in.

“That… this classmate, you seem to have misunderstood something…”

The girl, caught in the middle of the two, hesitated to break the deadlock. Looking at Bai Tian, she slowly said, “Ye Wan didn’t bully me…”

Bai Tian looked at the expressionless person warily and replied, “Don’t be afraid of her, I’ll help you.”

“…No, she really didn’t bully me, you misunderstood.”

The girl forcefully broke free from the hands of the two, wiped the tears from her face, and mustered up the courage to say, “She just wanted to help me.”

Bai Tian was a little puzzled, “But I’ve seen her bully you twice in the experimental building, the wounds on your face, the blood on your body, and…”

Seeing the girl’s face turning paler and paler, Bai Tian closed her mouth.

She finally calmed down, and then felt annoyed.

Perhaps, maybe, she had really misunderstood something.

She quickly analyzed the scenes she had seen several times in her mind, and realized the blind spot caused by her preconceptions.

— She had never actually seen Ye Wan bully this girl with her own eyes. She had simply made a judgment based on those superficial things, and then convicted Ye Wan.*l

Bai Tian was silent for a long time and raised her head again.

“I’m sorry, I misunderstood you. I apologize.”

Bai Tian looked at the expressionless person with some embarrassment, sincerely apologizing for her blindness.

She shouldn’t have judged a person based on something she had seen in a hurry outside the school. She was too arrogant and too foolish.

Perhaps, there was also a hidden story behind what happened in the alley.

Bai Tian thought uncertainly.

The person who heard the apology simply said lightly, “It doesn’t matter.”

Then, she took the girl’s hand and left the classroom.

Bai Tian stayed where she was for a long time, sighed, and walked out of the school with her schoolbag in a dejected mood.

It was already dark, and she stood at the bus stop waiting for the bus. She sent a message to her third uncle saying that she would be home soon.

Looking at the message box on her phone for a long time, Bai Tian opened the dialog box of that unknown number and typed a sentence to send.

Until she returned home with her third uncle at night, Bai Tian did not receive a reply.

She thought, she deserved it too. If she were wrongly accused like this, she would be furious too.

But she had to bear the consequences of her own mistakes. Bai Tian didn’t like to avoid problems. She sat on the bed and thought for a while, and decided to write an apology letter to the other party, sincerely expressing her apology.

The next morning, Bai Tian arrived at school on time with the envelope, but she didn’t see her deskmate.

The classroom was noisy, discussing something. She yawned, lay down and closed her eyes, not listening.

Until lunchtime, Ye Wan didn’t appear in the classroom.

Liu Ran sat in a corner of the cafeteria, eating beef noodle soup in large mouthfuls, and said to the listless Bai Tian, “Boss, boss, do you know why Teacher Liu was taken away by the police?”

Bai Tian was stunned and asked blankly, “Taken away by the police?”

Liu Ran opened his eyes wide and asked incredulously, “You don’t know? Everyone saw it this morning. Two policemen came to the school and took Teacher Liu away directly.”

Bai Tian shook her head, “Why? Did Teacher Liu do something wrong?”

Liu Ran glanced around, leaned over mysteriously and whispered, “I heard that he was anonymously reported.”

“Reported him for what?”

“Sexual assault of a female student.”

T/N: Oh, could it be that the girl from before is the victim?.