Math Teacher, Please Get Lost (GL) - Chapter 35

Wu Junze had already decided to stay, so Gao Tianhong didn’t say much more. On this matter, Wu Junze was more open-minded than him. After all, Junze’s temperament was steadier, while Gao Tianhong was more impulsive, with too many sharp edges that still needed sanding down.

Once Wu Junze was settled, Gao Tianhong was persuaded to go home. Yao Shuhan urged Shu Yan to leave quickly too—this timing was just right for them to get back for lunch and then have class in the afternoon.

Yao Shuhan pushed Shu Yan out the door. Shu Yan paused at the threshold, turned back, and tried to see which room was Yao Shuhan’s.
“Why are you in such a hurry? I’ve never been to your house before. Let me take a look.”

“What’s there to see?” Yao Shuhan tiptoed and propped up her head to block Shu Yan’s view. When Shu Yan tilted her head to peek again, Yao Shuhan moved to block her.
“There’s class this afternoon. Hurry up and go.”

Looking at her, Shu Yan asked, “Where are Uncle and Auntie?”

“They went traveling,” Yao Shuhan replied. She wasn’t lying—her parents really had gone traveling. They just hadn’t planned on coming back.

Shu Yan glanced at her, then pinched her nose. “Let’s go.”

“Ugh—” Yao Shuhan swatted her hand away. “So annoying.” She hurried out and shut the door.

Wu Junze also came out to see them off.

“No need to see us out, Junze. I’ll bring the books over to you tonight,” Yao Shuhan said.

Wu Junze nodded gratefully. “Goodbye, Teacher Yao. Goodbye, Auntie.”

On the staircase, Shu Yan’s mouth twitched. She yanked back the brim of Yao Shuhan’s cap in front of her. “He called me Auntie.”

Yao Shuhan, focused on the steps, was pulled backward and fell into Shu Yan’s arms.

Imitating her, Yao Shuhan pinched Shu Yan’s nose. “Auntie Shu—what, did you want him to call you ‘sister’ instead?”

Shu Yan laughed, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and guided her down the stairs. “Auntie Yao, how about calling me ‘sister’ once, just to try it?”

“Old hag.” Yao Shuhan shook off her hand.

Shu Yan pouted. “I really am older than you. What’s so wrong about you calling me sister once?”

“I did call you. Old hag—that’s even older than sister, isn’t it?”

Shu Yan shook her head, both exasperated and amused.

Aversion therapy: electroshock aversion therapy, drug-induced aversion therapy, imagery aversion therapy.

Electroshock sessions usually lasted about 20–30 minutes… Often, before administering the stimulus, patients were given emetine or apomorphine to induce rapid vomiting… Patients were given verbal cues to associate fantasies with nausea-inducing imagery…

Treatment of perversion.

Treatment of homosexuality.

Smack—

Shu Yan slammed the book shut on the desk, rubbing her brow in frustration. What a bunch of nonsense!

“I really don’t understand how someone as romantic as Yao Shuhan could be so devoted to you. Even aversion therapy she—”

The disdain in Lan Xi’s voice replayed in her mind. Shu Yan was puzzled. Her memory wasn’t usually this good, but somehow this one sentence had burned itself in deeply.

After Yao Shuhan confessed to her back in high school, what had happened to her? Judging from Lan Xi’s words, she must have undergone aversion therapy. But to treat what? Homosexuality? There was no way Yao Shuhan would have voluntarily gone for something like that—something that wasn’t even an illness. So who sent her there? Or rather… who forced her into a psychiatric hospital for aversion therapy?

Shu Yan’s thoughts leapt back to a few days ago, when they went to Yao Shuhan’s house to catch those two brats. She had noticed the kitchen—dust covering the counters, clearly unused for ages. That house hadn’t been lived in for a long time.

And her parents? Really traveling? Traveling where? Traveling so long the kitchen had gathered dust?

And Yao Shuhan was bold enough to let someone live there casually. By the time Wu Junze finished the college entrance exam, that’d be three months gone. Her parents still wouldn’t be home?

Ha. Shu Yan chuckled softly. She really wanted to ask Yao Shuhan—had her parents really gone traveling, or did they just not care about her at all?

She tapped her fingers twice on the desk, put the book away, and erased her browsing history.

When she opened the door and walked out, Yao Shuhan was in the living room pouring milk for Kimchi the cat. Seeing Shu Yan, she asked, “What were you doing shut in there?”

Shu Yan crouched down to pet Kimchi. “You’re the one who locks yourself in your room all the time.”

“I need quiet for writing,” Yao Shuhan replied seriously.

Thinking of the Reader’s Digest by her pillow, Shu Yan said, “I saw your article—in Reader’s.”

Yao Shuhan glanced at her.

“I read it three times. Except for exam passages, it’s the first time I’ve read an all-text piece three times. I only ever read exam questions twice.” Shu Yan stood up, looking straight at Yao Shuhan.

She said earnestly, “But I didn’t understand it.”

“…” Yao Shuhan turned away, then back. “If you don’t get it, you don’t have to say it out loud.”

Shu Yan rubbed her nose.

Writing was something Yao Shuhan was always serious about, and now she looked a little upset. “Shu Yan, do you realize sometimes the way you speak and act can really hurt people? Yes, you didn’t understand it, that’s true. But couldn’t you have phrased it differently?”

Shu Yan also felt her way of speaking wasn’t great, but she didn’t know exactly what was wrong. She had always just said what she thought, rarely caring about other people’s feelings.

In the past, she didn’t care what others thought of her. But now, she cared what Yao Shuhan thought.

So she asked, “Then how should I have said it?”

Sighing, Yao Shuhan lowered her eyes. “Just forget I said anything.” She turned to leave.

“Shuhan.” Shu Yan circled an arm around her waist from behind and stroked her hair with the other. “I meant that I only bought that issue of Reader’s because I heard people in the office say your piece was in it.”

Yao Shuhan lowered her head and stayed quiet.

Shu Yan tried to catch her expression but couldn’t, so she kept speaking: “When I see a page full of words, I get dizzy. You know my Chinese skills. I really want to know what you’re thinking, but you never tell me. You always speak halfway. I’m willing to guess at your thoughts, but I can’t always get it right. If every time I guess wrong you get angry and start doubting me—things between us aren’t easy already. Doing this only makes me more lost.”

“I never asked you to guess anything, or figure anything out,” Yao Shuhan smiled faintly, lifted her hand, and caressed Shu Yan’s cheek. “I just said we’d spend three years together. If, three years later, you still like me, then we’ll be together. What’s unclear about that?”

Shu Yan lowered her gaze and held Yao Shuhan’s hand.

Yao Shuhan gently hugged her. “Don’t overthink. I just write casually. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Shu Yan rubbed her nose against Yao Shuhan’s hair. “Then what do we mean, right now?”

Yao Shuhan smiled, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, “I’m giving you time to prepare—so you can properly pursue me.”

A current shot up Shu Yan’s spine to her brainstem, making her mind short-circuit.

Prepare… for what?

Prepare…

A sly grin crept across Shu Yan’s lips as her imagination started churning with indecent scenes—high-definition, complete with tactile sensation…

“Ah!” Pain shot through her waist. Shu Yan yelped. “Why did you pinch me?”

Yao Shuhan jabbed her forehead. “Just look at your lewd face. It says everything about your filthy little mind!”

She turned to head back to her room, but Shu Yan grabbed her wrist. “Teacher Yao, and your inner world is so noble?”

The more she tried to act like she didn’t care, the more cracks showed.

At home, Shu Yan dressed casually, without a bra. Her clothes weren’t thick, and the outline was visible.

“I…” Yao Shuhan noticed Shu Yan staring at her face and quickly looked away. “Anyway, it’s nobler than yours.” She slammed the door shut.

Shu Yan shivered, folded her arms, and went to her own room to put on more clothes.

Damn it. What kind of scam seduction tip had that rotten upperclassman taught her? “Wear less around the house, wear less, wear less.” Less her ass—she was freezing to death!

Lewd? So what. Shu Yan had never claimed to be virtuous anyway. Hmph.

On the weekend, Shu Yan arranged to meet with Lan Xi.

They met at Blue Mountain Café.

For some reason, ever since their last encounter, Lan Xi had been contacting her less and less. After a trip to Pingyao, she hadn’t reached out at all—it was always Shu Yan who had questions and went to her for answers. Usually Shu Yan would just text, but this time she wanted to ask face-to-face.

Since she already had plans with Yao Shuhan, Shu Yan didn’t dare let her know she was meeting Lan Xi alone. If Yao Shuhan found out, it would be impossible to coax her back into a good mood.

So Shu Yan came up with a perfect excuse: she said she was going to do a home visit at a classmate named Zhou Jiajia’s place.

Conveniently, right outside Zhou Jiajia’s home was a Blue Mountain Café.

At nine in the morning, Lan Xi arrived right on time and sat by the window, leisurely flipping through a magazine.

Delayed by traffic, Shu Yan arrived ten minutes late, panting as she rushed in and sat down. Seeing the table empty except for tissues and a vase, she asked, “Why didn’t you order anything?”

Without looking up, Lan Xi said, “Say what you need to say. I’m in a hurry.”

“Hey.” Shu Yan chuckled. “Wasn’t it you who said helping me is helping yourself? Just the other day you were clinging like taffy, and now you’re cutting me loose so fast?”

Lan Xi closed her book. “Because I feel like it.” She gave her a faint smile. “I’m not in a hurry. You are.”

Damn it! What a rotten upperclassman!

Shu Yan nearly tore her hair out. She wished Yao Shuhan could see this—she’d called her shameless, but Lan Xi was a thousand times more shameless!

Snatching the book from her hands, Shu Yan asked directly, “I’ll ask, and you just answer yes or no.”

“Mm-hmm.” Lan Xi lazily twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

“Yao Shuhan underwent aversion therapy.” Shu Yan said it not as a question, but as a statement.

Lan Xi froze.

Shu Yan gestured for her not to rush to deny it. “I know you have a PhD in psychology and worked with the L City Mental Health Center during your studies.” Then she added, “Yang Linlu was my college roommate.”

Just that one sentence, and Lan Xi knew how the dots had been connected. Damn. Betrayed by a teammate—her own cousin, no less.

That day, after checking Yao Shuhan’s records at the mental health center, Lan Xi had contacted Yang Linlu to get a spot for Han Jiangxue at night school. Yang Linlu kept pressing her about Han Jiangxue’s background. Learning that Lan Xi had met her through Yao Shuhan, she’d dug up Yao Shuhan’s information too.

No way to hide it now. Might as well spit it out. Sooner or later Shu Yan would learn the truth anyway. Yao Shuhan keeping it all bottled up wasn’t healthy.

If things went well, she’d be the one who told the truth—the good guy. If it all went bad, she’d still be the one blamed—the bad guy.

Either way, it had to be said.

So she said it: “Yes.”

Shu Yan narrowed her eyes. “Who sent her there?”

Lan Xi sighed. “You know she’s always been alone, don’t you?”