Math Teacher, Please Get Lost (GL) - Chapter 4

“Teacher Yao, I want to eat this.” Shu Yan’s eyes were fixed on the little compartments of broth filled with meatballs, vegetables, and tofu. She reached out to poke a wooden skewer sticking out above the soup and then looked pitifully at Yao Shuhan, her fox-like eyes watery, as if someone had bullied her.

“If you want to eat, buy it yourself.” Yao Shuhan said impatiently. Didn’t this girl still have evening self-study tonight? Why was she dawdling like this, wasn’t she afraid of being late?

Han Jiangxue grinned. “Sister, are you a friend of Shuhan-jie? Shuhan-jie often comes to buy from me. My oden is really tasty, you should try some too.”

Shu Yan perked up instantly. “Oh? You said she often comes? Then I’ll have the same as her.”

“Alright. That’s five yuan. Do you want it spicy?”

“No. I want to drink the soup, I don’t like chili.” Shu Yan thought for a moment and replied.

“Ah, that’s exactly what Shuhan-jie always says too.” Han Jiangxue laughed.

Shu Yan raised an eyebrow, her gaze landing on Yao Shuhan, who was staring off down the street and deliberately not looking their way. “Oh? Really…”

She narrowed her eyes out of habit, looking just like a sly little fox, as if scheming some mischief in her belly.

“Here you go, Sister.”

“Hey, girl,” Shu Yan leaned casually against the little food cart, the corner of her lips quirking upward as she winked her right eye, “could you do me a favor?”

“Huh?” Han Jiangxue opened her mouth wide in puzzlement.

Yao Shuhan followed Shu Yan into the hotel. After swiping the key card and stepping inside, Shuhan felt her foot land on something. Looking down, she saw two stiff little cards.

Shu Yan went in, pulled open the curtains, and began tidying her things.

Shuhan crouched down to pick up the cards. Her cleanliness obsession flared again—since when was Shu Yan this messy, throwing garbage all over the floor?

But when her eyes registered the content, Shuhan’s face flushed crimson. Her hand trembled as she clutched the cards and marched over to Shu Yan. “Shu Yan, what is this?!”

“Hm?” Shu Yan glanced up at the little cards plastered with half-naked photos of women, then calmly went back to folding clothes. “Hotel services.”

Damn it, how could she say it so nonchalantly?

Had she actually called for those “services”?!

Shuhan was fuming. She jabbed the card with her finger. “You’ve been keeping this kind of thing all along?”

Expressionless, Shu Yan folded a shirt and pressed it neatly into the suitcase. “Too lazy to throw them out. Boring nights, I can flip through them.”

“Heh. Flip through? You’re not even a man. What are you looking at?” Shuhan bent down, holding the suitcase lid shut, staring straight at her.

Shu Yan straightened, arms crossed. “Admiring pretty women, of course. Why shouldn’t I look? Besides…” Her gaze swept up and down Shuhan deliberately. “I can make comparisons.”

“……” Yao Shuhan was speechless. She nodded stiffly, then turned on her heel and walked out. “Fine. Keep packing.”

A while later, Shu Yan rolled out her suitcase. “Teacher Yao, let’s go~”

Shuhan ignored her and strode toward the elevator.

Shu Yan hurried after her. “Hey, Teacher Yao, didn’t someone once say they’d help me carry my luggage?”

Shuhan spun around sharply. “Do you need me to carry something?!”

Shu Yan dropped the handle, lifted both hands in surrender, and grinned. “No no no, don’t need it.”

Shuhan shot her a fierce glare.

Shu Yan pulled the case alongside and bent slightly toward her, whispering, “Actually, the hotel also has paid channels at night.”

A bolt of lightning seemed to strike Yao Shuhan’s brain. Heat rushed from her ears up her face. She jabbed a finger at Shu Yan and shouted, “Shu Yan, are you out of your mind?!”

“Eh~ Teacher Yao,” Shu Yan caught her little hand, gently stroking it as she pressed the pointing finger back down. “You’re a Chinese teacher, how can you use such vulgar words?” She winked again.

Shuhan yanked her hand away, stepped into the elevator, and pressed the button. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

Shu Yan slipped inside immediately, slinging an arm over Shuhan’s shoulder. “Don’t be like that, Teacher Yao. I was wrong. I’m apologizing.”

Silence.

“Teacher Yao, I’m sorry, look, I already apologized.”

Still silence.

“Teacher Yao, you’re a national studies talent, the goddess admired by all the young male teachers—you can’t be this petty.”

“Shu Yan, can you shut up?”

“Reporting to Teacher Yao, I cannot. From a biological perspective, the throat and nasal cavity are connected. Even if I shut my mouth, I can still breathe through my nose. You can’t take away my right to breathe, otherwise I’ll die.”

“……”

“Hey Teacher Yao, why aren’t you talking again?”

“……”

“Hey Teacher Yao, I just realized, you look really beautiful when you keep a cold face. Have those male teachers who chase after you seen it? Should I take a picture?”

Rolling her eyes heavenward, Shuhan walked out of the hotel. Shu Yan stuck to her like sticky rice candy, impossible to shake off, her mouth firing like a machine gun, completely forgetting their earlier “three rules.”

“Shu Yan, the first of our three rules was: if it’s not necessary, you’re not allowed to talk to me!”

“Reporting to Teacher Yao, we’re not in the apartment now, so the three rules don’t apply! Hehe, I just love talking to you. Even if you don’t reply, I’ll keep talking.”

Helpless, Shuhan looked at Shu Yan’s annoyingly smug face. The more she looked, the more she resembled one of those sparrows squawking nonstop around the cafeteria’s slop bucket—can’t chase away, can’t scold away, only grows louder when resisted.

Damn it, I really want to smack her dead!

So annoying!

Back at the teachers’ apartment, Shuhan prepared the guest room for Shu Yan, pulling down fresh cotton bedding to make up the bed.

Shu Yan eyed the set of sheets with cloud patterns and pouted. “I like Pikachu better.”

Shuhan froze, lifting a corner of the sheet. “I’ll order you a set online.”

“Really?!” Shu Yan bounced over, eyes sparkling.

Shuhan’s face darkened immediately. “Fake.” She tossed the pillow into Shu Yan’s arms. “Put it on yourself.” Then she went to pour herself a glass of water. Inwardly she cursed: Shu Yan is getting more and more shameless. How did I ever fall for her back then?

Sigh…

Mug in hand, she went back to her room, sat down at her computer, and opened Taobao anyway. She ordered one Pikachu and one Charmander bedding set, rubbing her eyes—nearly nine o’clock already.

“Shu Yan.” She walked to the guest room door. Shu Yan was stuffing clothes into the closet and turned around. “Yeah?”

“Don’t you have evening self-study tonight?”

Shu Yan arched an eyebrow. “How do you know?”

Uh oh. No way could Shuhan admit she had marked down every class Shu Yan taught on her own schedule…

“Ahem. I just glanced at my class schedule, saw one evening self-study period belonged to you.” Shuhan looked aside.

Shu Yan kept shoving clothes into the closet. “Oh, I asked Zhao Kaiqi to hand out test papers. Start-of-term diagnostic exam.”

Zhao Kaiqi was the math class rep in Shuhan’s class. Tall, skinny, near-sighted, face full of pimples.

Thinking of Zhao’s acne-ridden forehead, Shuhan frowned. “An exam on the very first day? Aren’t you afraid they’ll cheat without you watching?”

“I told Zhao Kaiqi to tell them I installed a camera. Full monitoring. Anyone caught will have to buy candy for the whole class.”

Shuhan’s eyes widened. “……” Then asked, “And they believed it?”

Shu Yan shut the closet with a grin. “Of course. Because I really did install a camera.”

“Huh?”

“A video camera. Broken, though.”

……

See? People don’t change. Wheat stalks don’t grow sorghum, winter melons don’t bear watermelons. Shu Yan was never a “good bird” to begin with. Whichever forest she flew into, that forest was doomed. As a child, she tormented her classmates; grown up, she torments her students. She ought to be turned into a rat so everyone on the street could chase her down with sticks!

Good thing I’m not her student. Shuhan sighed, grabbed her pajamas, and headed for a shower.

The teachers’ apartment originally belonged to her mother—120 square meters with a loft, one master bedroom and one guest room upstairs, another guest room downstairs. Usually she rented the guest rooms out, but now that two teachers lived here, she couldn’t rent to students anymore.

Her mother used to teach politics at Yingcai High before moving to the Education Bureau. Her father was a professor of Chinese literature at the city’s Language University. Shuhan’s love of literature came mostly from him.

Her grandfather once taught at a private school, her grandmother was a rich young lady, and her maternal grandparents were educated as well. A scholarly family, in other words. Shuhan had been the pampered, obedient child, never wronged or humiliated—until Shu Yan trampled her young heart twelve years ago, leaving her with her very first taste of shame and pain. She hated Shu Yan deeply.

But time wears everything down. However bitter, however painful—years smooth it all out.

That is, unless she had to meet that person again.

Standing under the shower, head bowed as water slid down her smooth stomach, Shuhan was lost in thought when suddenly the bathroom door opened. She had forgotten to lock it!

“Uh…” Shu Yan stood awkwardly, pointing at her stomach. “Um, you’re not fat, don’t worry.”

Shuhan froze for a second, then realized—snatching up the bath sponge, she hurled it. “Get out!”

With a bang, Shu Yan was shoved out, the lock snapping shut behind her.

“Teacher Yao! I didn’t mean it! The door wasn’t locked, I thought you were just washing your hands!” Shu Yan’s voice rang from outside.

Hah, washing hands? As if! With water splashing that loud, how could she mistake it for hand-washing? What planet was she from?

Damn it! How dare she comment on someone else’s body like that, without the slightest bit of respect!

Brat!

Scoundrel!

And peeking at someone bathing… She was practically a pervert!

“Teacher Yao, listen, your figure is amazing, really! I’ve never seen a woman with such a body before! Your skin is so fair, your waist so slender, your hips so round, your chest so full, the shape so perfect—”

“Shu Yan, shut that filthy mouth of yours!”

“Teacher Yao, you’re the language teacher, you shouldn’t swear. If those male teachers who admire you heard, it would shatter their goddess image of you. They’d be heartbroken…”

“Shut up!”

“Teacher Yao, if you tell me to shut up, how can I explain? And if I don’t explain, how will you forgive me? We’re going to be living together for a long time, if we don’t get along from day one, that’s terrible, isn’t it…”

“……”

“Teacher Yao, don’t be angry. I’m apologizing. Say something, please…”

“……”

Inside the bathroom, Shuhan pressed her burning face against the cold tile, her chest pounding wildly. Cry or laugh—she couldn’t do either. She felt utterly miserable.

Shu Yan, have you really forgotten what happened twelve years ago?

Shu Yan, do you know how much courage it takes me each time to face you?

Shu Yan, you’re such a terrible person!

I hate you the most!