Silent Era - Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Ever since that day when Lin Heng fed the school beauty’s hair, she never appeared at the dinner table again.
When only Bai Sihuan and Lin Heng were dining, the table was unusually quiet. Bai Sihuan always ate quietly; it was rare to hear him make even a sound while eating, let alone speak.
Lin Heng was a very picky eater, and if there was something in his lunchbox he didn’t want to eat, he’d just give it to him.
Every time he did this, Bai Sihuan would say “thank you,” as if by a formula.
Perhaps wanting to hear his voice more often, Lin Heng liked to give him small pieces of food at regular intervals. His “thank you” was always punctual and on time.
Later, at the school lunch table, eating seemed less important to Lin Heng than hearing that “thank you.”
On several occasions, Lin Heng unknowingly dumped the contents of his lunch box onto Bai Sihuan’s, then bought a fresh portion for himself.
Once, Bai Sihuan couldn’t finish his meal and vomited. Lin Heng was startled, mentally blaming himself for not understanding his reluctant expression and cursing, “If you can’t eat, then don’t eat. Why are you forcing yourself?”
Bai Sihuan covered his mouth, his face red as the bottom of a steamer pot, and whispered “I’m sorry” several times.
“What’s there to apologize for?” Lin Heng’s anger faltered, his guilt easing him. “…Forget it, let’s go get some water.”
“This table…”
“You don’t have to clean it.”
Lin Huan and Cheng Sutang were busy with work and rarely at home. Lin Siying was studying in the capital, and Lin Xianyan had secretly enrolled in an art class and went out every noon to learn painting.
This palace-like mansion, apart from the housekeeper and servants who cleaned daily, was inhabited only by Lin Heng, Bai Sihuan, and a dog.
One day, Karen ate something bad and was taken to the hospital. The veterinarian said she needed to stay for observation and wouldn’t let Lin Heng take her home.
That night, just as Bai Sihuan had tucked herself into bed, Lin Heng opened the door and entered. Without a word, he climbed onto Bai Sihuan’s bed. “Karen’s not here, and I don’t want to sleep alone. You go over there.”
Before Bai Sihuan could utter a word, Lin Heng had already taken over most of the bed.
Lin Heng surveyed his room, which was even smaller than Old Pei’s, and frowned, asking, “Why is your room so small? The quilt is thin and smells musty.” After sniffing the quilt, Lin Heng’s face was filled with disdain.
Bai Sihuan sat up and said, “Shall I get yours?”
“No need. Just make do. Lie down.”
Bai Sihuan obediently lay down again. He moved to the side, hoping to make Lin Heng sleep more comfortably.
As he moved an inch closer to the bed, Lin Heng said, “Do you want to fall? Come closer.”
Bai Sihuan stiffened slightly, then moved closer to him.
Lin Heng frowned at his skinny frame and reached out to touch him. “It’s not like I don’t give you food, why are you still so thin?”
“Hey…” Bai Sihuan curled up, his body flushed where Lin Heng had touched him, the blush reaching up to his ears.
“What are you yelling for? What’s wrong with a couple of touches?”
Bai Sihuan bit his lip, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.
Perhaps sensing Bai Sihuan’s embarrassment, Lin Heng stopped touching him and instead put his arm around him, yawning and saying, “You don’t have as much flesh on you as Karen. It’s so uncomfortable to hold you.”
Bai Sihuan thought to himself that he was, at most, a temporary replacement while Karen was away.
Karen spent two weeks in the hospital, and Lin Heng slept with Bai Sihuan for the same two months. Bai Sihuan served as a replacement for the other two months.
The day Karen returned from the hospital coincided with the school’s third monthly exam of the semester. Lin Heng came to Bai Sihuan’s class, called him out, and said, “Go help me with the exam.”
Bai Sihuan was stunned: “Huh?”
Lin Heng said, “I don’t want to take the exam. I miss Karen and want to go home to find her.”
“But I have to take the exam too…” Bai Sihuan mustered up the courage to say something slightly defiant.
“Your grades are so good, they won’t do anything to you if you miss an exam.” Lin Heng didn’t give him a chance to refuse, picked up his backpack, and turned to leave. “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
The day after the exam, Bai Sihuan was called to the principal’s office. Lin Heng was in class when he accidentally glimpsed Bai Sihuan from the building across the street walking into the principal’s office. Their math teacher glanced at him and smiled, reminding Lin Heng, “Lin Heng, please pay attention in class. That matter has nothing to do with you.”
That matter has nothing to do with him. Lin Heng thought it was the funniest joke, but Bai Sihuan, being used as a pawn, didn’t even get a chance to hear it.
The surveillance footage from the day of the exam played repetitively on the TV in the principal’s office. Bai Sihuan lowered his head, awaiting his judgment.
Sitting in front of him were two teachers: Bai Sihuan’s homeroom teacher and Lin Heng’s homeroom teacher.
The principal, sitting in the middle, was on the phone with a leader, demanding he get his good grades this year. With a touch of educational elegance and a touch of official and business-like politeness, he spent seven minutes getting the other party to hang up on him.
After the principal ended the call, he glanced at Bai Sihuan, glanced at his regular report card, and spent three minutes poring over the test paper and answer sheet that Bai Sihuan had taken for Lin Heng.
“The school can refrain from disciplinary action,” the principal lit a cigarette and took a leisurely puff. Seeing Bai Sihuan’s surprised expression, he laid out the terms. “Here’s how: Next month, a key high school will hold an independent enrollment exam. You can sign up and give it a try.”
Bai Sihuan’s homeroom teacher exclaimed in surprise, “Principal, he’s only in the eighth grade!”
The principal ignored Bai Sihuan’s homeroom teacher and waved to him, “Alright, you can leave.”
After Bai Sihuan left, the intermittent voices of the three people in the principal’s office could be heard.
The principal said to the two homeroom teachers, “Go and clear out those unsuccessful third-year students’ spots and find a few better eighth-year students to fill them. Come on, don’t you know? There are only a few third-year students with truly good grades this year, and they’re not even up to the standards you need… I think that guy in your class is good too. Let him try too. This kind of opportunity isn’t something everyone gets. A little persuasion will get him there.”
After the principal left, Bai Sihuan remained. Seeing him, the principal was startled, then came up, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “Achieve good results for our school.”
Lin Heng didn’t see Bai Sihuan again that day until after school.
Lin Heng, feeling it was a rare opportunity, approached him to ask, “Did they do anything to you?”
“Nothing,” Bai Sihuan’s response was rather evasive and cold. He was both overtly and covertly reluctant to continue the conversation.
Lin Heng frowned and asked, “Are you blaming me?”
Bai Sihuan shook his head hurriedly: “No.”
“Why are you talking to me like that?”
“The garage is about to close, and I have to go get the car.”
“You’re riding home with me today,” Lin Heng said, reaching for Bai Sihuan’s arm.
Bai Sihuan dodged inconspicuously: “Your mother doesn’t like other people riding home with you. I’m leaving.”
“Bai Sihuan!”
Bai Sihuan pretended not to hear him and trotted off.
The next day, they were silent at the dinner table. The next day, they were silent at the dinner table. The next day, a girl appeared at the dinner table, chatting and laughing with Lin Heng.
Unlike the girls who had come up to him before, this girl was Lin Heng’s own initiative.
I’d heard Lin Heng mention at home that he’d been getting along really well with a girl lately. She had the temper of a fiery kitten, and he really liked her.
Bai Sihuan listened to their laughter, his head lowered even more, and he ate even faster. It seemed like the dinner table was the same whether he was there or not.
It was a rare occasion for Lin Huan and Cheng Sutang to be home together. When his parents were around, Lin Xianyan didn’t dare sneak out to learn painting, and instead spent the entire day with his mother, learning etiquette and manners.
When Cheng Sutang was home, Bai Sihuan avoided her whenever possible. Madam had said that seeing him bothered him, and he followed her advice, learning to leave on his own when he saw her.
One day, Lin Huan was in the study and asked the housekeeper what the family was doing. The housekeeper explained that they were all having afternoon tea in the sunroom, and that the youngest master had brought a female classmate to play. The second young master was hiding in his room and hadn’t come out.
Lin Huan asked Old Pei to call Bai Sihuan to the study.
Seeing Bai Sihuan come into the study, looking timid and out of place in old clothes that didn’t fit in with the room, Lin Huan forgot to give him a few thousand yuan out of his own pocket, so he could go out and buy some more clothes when he had time.
Afterwards, he patted the back of his hand and said earnestly, “Your Aunt Cheng is usually sharp-tongued but kind-hearted. Don’t avoid her because of that; it’ll make her feel uncomfortable. From now on, smile more often when you see her and say hello. After a while, she’ll naturally think you’re a good person.”
After saying this, Lin Huan handed him a bag of freshly roasted Lushan Cloud Mist tea. “Take this tea to your Aunt Cheng, and remember to say a few nice things to her. Go.”
Bai Sihuan brought the tea to the sunroom. It was a rather inopportune moment. Cheng Sutang had a Western-style afternoon tea today, with a pot of coffee and a four-layer English pastry on the table.
Cheng Sutang sipped coffee and chatted with the housekeeper. Lin Xianyan sat beside her, listening. Before she finished her coffee and dessert, Lin Xianyan didn’t dare touch anything on the table.
Lin Heng and the classmate with the temper of a fiery kitten were teasing Karen near the flower basket. Bai Sihuan quickly walked over to Cheng Sutang, called her “Auntie Cheng,” and handed her the tea leaves, saying they were from her father.
Cheng Sutang glanced at the Western-style tea on the table, then at the tea leaves in Bai Sihuan’s hand. Her eyes were cold and disdainful. She didn’t take them, and she said nothing.
Bai Sihuan stood there stiffly, at a loss.
At this moment, the classmate, tired of playing around, sat on the ground, and said to Lin Heng, “Your dog doesn’t bite. I like dogs that bite.”
“Who said it doesn’t bite? Karen, go bite it!” Lin Heng pointed at Bai Sihuan.
Karen obeyed the command and immediately rushed over, biting Bai Sihuan’s leg. Bai Sihuan screamed in fear, and the tea leaves in his hand fell out, all over Cheng Sutang.
Karen held onto Bai Sihuan’s calf and refused to let go. Cheng Sutang rolled her eyes and asked the housekeeper to come and help her pick the tea leaves off her body.
Bai Sihuan fought back tears and wanted to call for help from those around him, but seeing their expressions, he swallowed his words.
Lin Xianyan ran over and patted Karen’s back, asking her to let go, but Karen held on tight, bleeding from Bai Sihuan’s trouser leg, and she still refused to let go.
The female classmate laughed and said, “Your dog is too obedient. I still don’t like it. My dog never listens to me. It won’t bite when I tell it to, and it bites everywhere when I tell it not to.”
Lin Heng snorted and said, “Only you would like a disobedient dog. If my dog didn’t listen to me, I would have kicked it out long ago. Karen, come back.”
Karen let go of Bai Sihuan and ran back to Lin Heng, tongue hanging out.
Lin Xianyan rolled up Bai Sihuan’s trouser legs and saw two neat rows of teeth marks and oozing bl00d. Furious, he stood up and cursed, “Ah Heng, you’re going too far, aren’t you?”
Before Lin Heng could say anything, Cheng Sutang, who had just finished picking out the tea leaves on her back, yelled back, “Why are you scolding your brother? You’ve eaten so much food at the Lin family for nothing, and now you’re turning your elbows outward!”
Lin Xianyan, who had never rebelled against his mother, finally couldn’t stand her indulgence and protection. “He was clearly wrong for letting the dog bite people, so can’t I teach him a lesson?”
Before Lin Xianyan could finish his words, Cheng Sutang had already thrown a cup of coffee at him.
Bai Sihuan quickly pulled Lin Xianyan back, splashing the scalding coffee directly into his face.
Silence fell, the only sound being the dripping sound of coffee.
Bai Sihuan’s face, down to his collarbone, flushed red as if scalded by boiling water. Only he knew the depth of the pain, but until now, he had simply swallowed it all.
The female classmate was thrilled by the spectacle and, smiling, pulled Lin Heng to share a few thoughts.
Lin Heng shook her hand off, took a step forward, and opened his mouth to say something when Lin Xianyan, without hesitation, grabbed Bai Sihuan’s hand and walked out: “Let’s go.”