Chapter 15

The abundant sunlight was sliced into pieces by the window, spilling onto the wooden floor and thin air-conditioned blankets.

The room was comfortably warm, and the occasional sounds of pen tips scratching paper and the clicking of keyboards were incredibly soothing, almost like lullabies. So much so that when Wen Ci woke up, she couldn’t resist closing her eyes for a while longer to savor the dream she had last night, before slowly pushing off the blanket and sitting up.

And then she met the gaze of Dou Yiqing, who had turned around after hearing the movement.

Dou Yiqing was sitting at the computer, wearing a plain floral sleepwear, her hair tied up with a headband, dark circles under her eyes, and a weary look on her face. One of her legs was bent and resting on the chair, in stark contrast to the glamorous look she had last night with her curly hair.

Dou Yiqing had a pen stuck in her ear. “I didn’t want to wake you, but you know, I have an open class next week. Some details still need to be fixed.”

Wen Ci didn’t respond. She remained sitting stiffly for a long while, then closed her eyes and slowly lay back down, covering herself with the blanket again.

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t think I’m fully awake yet.” Wen Ci politely waved her off, “Goodbye, Dou Yiqing in my dreams.”

“Goodbye,” Dou Yiqing replied, “But when you wake up, don’t forget to reply to your mom. Wen Ci, you’ve really grown up. You sneaked out last night, didn’t you? Your mom woke up this morning, didn’t see you, and immediately called me. Do you know how hard I worked to cover for you—”

Wen Ci shot up from the bed in a rush!

It wasn’t a dream! She really was at Yiqing’s place!

Seeing her sudden movement, Dou Yiqing froze for a moment. “Don’t worry, I’ve already covered for you. I said you didn’t attend Qin Yun’s birthday because you called me late at night, and when you snuck out, I was already at home. Just act cute when you go back…”

“How did I get here last night?” Wen Ci interrupted her.

“Zhou Wu brought us back.” Dou Yiqing seemed confused. “What, did you black out?”

Wen Ci tightly gripped the blanket, her mouth open but she remained silent.

What was even worse than blacking out was remembering every single detail of what happened when she was drunk.

It wasn’t a dream? How could that be?!

Wen Ci didn’t give up. “Last night… after I got drunk… I didn’t… say anything weird, did I? Did I cause any trouble? I didn’t do anything strange, did I…?”

“Strange things? You mean when you said you were going to sleep at Zhou Wu’s place? Or when I couldn’t pull you out of the car and you asked what you were waiting for, and you said you were waiting for Zhou Wu to hug you? Or when Zhou Wu carried you upstairs and you kept saying ‘thank you, Zhou Wu,’ ‘thank you, Zhou Wu’? Or when I told you to return Zhou Wu’s coat and you refused to let go of it?”

With every word Dou Yiqing said, Wen Ci’s head dropped lower, and by the end, her face was completely buried in the blanket, her neck flushed red.

She just wanted to die.

She wanted to die.

She was so embarrassed.

She was finished.

Seeing her with her head buried like an ostrich, Dou Yiqing laughed. “Now you’re embarrassed? Why didn’t you stop drinking last night? I tried to stop you, but you wouldn’t listen. You’re lucky it was Zhou Wu who helped you; what if it had been someone else, and they took advantage of you when you were drunk, bringing you to a small room and doing who knows what? What would you have done?”

Wen Ci, who had been imagining Zhou Wu taking her to a small room and doing things: “……………”

“But really, you don’t recognize anyone when you’re drunk. People who don’t know you would think you and Zhou Wu are so close,” Dou Yiqing comforted her. “Forget it, we won’t see Zhou Wu often in the future, so the embarrassment is what it is.”

Wen Ci, who wanted to see Zhou Wu often in the future: “……………”

“And Zhou Wu is a good person; he didn’t say anything. Don’t worry, okay?”

Wen Ci’s head was already a mess. She bent down and buried her face in the blanket. “Yi Qing, let me have some peace…”

“Alright,” Dou Yi Qing turned her head back. “You do your thing, and I’ll continue with my work.”

Wen Ci stayed quiet for half an hour, not feeling any better, and decided to get up.

Dou Yi Qing had prepared some disposable toiletries for her. Wen Ci stood in front of the mirror brushing her teeth. As she brushed, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind—

“When you kissed me for the first time, it felt like you were going to crush my teeth.”

Wen Ci collapsed, closing her eyes and staring at the ceiling in despair.

Why did she even put her finger in Zhou Wu’s mouth!!!

She couldn’t think about it anymore. She had to distract herself.

Wen Ci grabbed her phone and saw the time. She froze for a moment.

She had actually slept until 2 PM.

Her phone was overloaded with messages. Wen Ci brushed her teeth while flipping through the unread messages.

Almost all of them were from her mom.

There were many, and each one was long. The words in them seemed to be things Wen Ci had seen a million times.

—

In summary, they were all reproachful. Her mom said she didn’t expect Wen Ci to sneak out, that everything that happened last night was for her good, that they were worried about her when they couldn’t find her, and that she hoped there wouldn’t be a next time and for her to come home early.

For the first time, Wen Ci didn’t reply to her mom’s long message.

The next message was from Qin Yun, sent last night: [Wen Ci, I still haven’t signed your school uniform.]

Wen Ci covered her face and quickly replied: [Sorry, just woke up and saw the message. I drank too much last night and didn’t have time to get it to you. Can we do it next time?]

On the other side, at the boxing gym.

Qin Yun lifted his phone and pressed the voice message button: “Alright. How are you doing now? Why were you so drunk last night? Dou Yi Qing was almost scared to tears.”

“Wen Ci?”

Qin Yun froze, turning to look at the person beside him.

Zhou Wu, shirtless, was taking off his boxing gloves. He had just finished a session, and his body, with its well-defined muscles, was covered in sweat. When he heard the voice message from Qin Yun, he suddenly turned his head and asked.

Qin Yun replied, “Yeah. Looks like she was really drunk last night, finally waking up now.”

After he spoke, Qin Yun’s phone chimed again. Zhou Wu lowered his eyes to check it.

[Wen Ci: I’m fine, really sorry about last night, I caused trouble on your birthday.]

“Eh, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it, just treat me to a meal next time. By the way, Wen Ci, are you at Dou Yi Qing’s house? Ask her why she’s not replying to my messages.”

Zhou Wu picked up his own phone and checked.

No messages. The last message between him and Wen Ci was the two hundred yuan he had returned to her in the morning.

Zhou Wu furrowed his brows, staring at the chat box for a moment without reason.

They didn’t usually keep in touch, but he felt like they should say something now.

As he was thinking, a line appeared at the top of the screen: “The other party is typing.”

Zhou Wu waited for about five minutes. The prompt finally disappeared. His phone was still silent, but Qin Yun’s phone rang.

Probably because Qin Yun had been sending voice messages, Wen Ci finally replied: “She’s writing lesson plans. She might reply later.”

Her voice sounded hoarse and weak—probably from the alcohol.

“Alright, I just sent another message. It’s not that she’s ignoring me, it’s that she’s blocked me. You tell her to finish the lesson plan, and then un-block me.”

After chatting with Wen Ci for a bit, Qin Yun felt the person beside him wasn’t moving, so he sent a voice message, confused: “Dude, why aren’t you going to take a shower? We’re all waiting for you to go to the racetrack. Who are you chatting with?”

It seemed like he wasn’t going to get a reply. Zhou Wu scoffed, threw his phone onto the table, grabbed a towel, and headed for the bathroom: “No one.”

Wen Ci changed clothes at Dou Yi Qing’s house before returning home.

When she got home, she listened to her mom’s scolding for almost an hour. However, her mom didn’t know that she had jumped out of the window; she just thought Wen Ci had sneaked out while they were sleeping, so her words weren’t too harsh.

Wen Ci had felt like she had done something terribly wrong when she jumped out of the window—nervous, impulsive, and thrilling. But after sleeping the whole night, she suddenly felt it wasn’t such a big deal.

Maybe because her family didn’t scold her much, or maybe because she had done so many outrageous things in one night, this particular act seemed insignificant.

Back in her room, Wen Ci opened her bag and saw Zhou Wu’s jacket. She couldn’t help but bury her face in her hands.

Because of her family, Wen Ci had always been very dignified in her actions and words since she was young. She had never really embarrassed herself.

She never expected that when she finally let go, she would do something so big.

And still in front of Zhou Wu.

Wen Ci never thought she’d one day be glad that she and Zhou Wu didn’t meet frequently. According to their usual routine, their next meeting would be in half a month or even longer. She hoped Zhou Wu would have forgotten about last night by then.

Wen Ci stood still for a moment before putting Zhou Wu’s jacket back into her bag, planning to send it to the dry cleaners after school tomorrow.

—-

The next day, during lunch break.

She had a class in the first period after lunch, so Wen Ci didn’t go home and took a nap in the office.

She was woken up when the teachers were about to leave for lunch.

“Sorry, Teacher Wen, did we wake you up?” Teacher Li froze when she saw her state and said, “Look, everyone, our office is so hot that even Teacher Wen can’t stand it.”

At that moment, Wen Ci had a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, her cheeks were slightly flushed—she looked like she was overheated.

Teacher Li said, “Teacher Wen, here’s the little fan you borrowed from me earlier. Take it back with you. Do you want me to bring you lunch?”

Wen Ci didn’t want to explain that she wasn’t hot, but rather embarrassed.

She had dreamt of Zhou Wu again.

In the dream, it was when she had returned to Dou Yi Qing’s house that night. Zhou Wu placed her on the bed and was about to leave when she grabbed his hand and, looking into his questioning eyes, asked: “Are you going to wear that while doing it?”

It’s hopeless.

The more she tried to forget, the clearer it became.

Wen Ci was falling apart inside, but she still had to force a smile on her face as she took the small fan. “It’s fine, I’m not really hungry, thank you.”

Several teachers left together, and the office fell into silence. Wen Ci turned on the fan, closed her eyes, and held it to her face, cooling her head and trying to blow away the difficult, unspeakable memories.

Her phone rang, and Wen Ci felt her mind go blank. She closed her eyes and answered without looking at the caller ID. “Hello.”

There was a brief silence on the other end before Zhou Wu’s voice, carried by a cool breeze, came through. “Hello.”

Thud. The small fan fell to the floor.

Wen Ci snapped out of it, frantically picking it up, and the slight warmth she had managed to shake off returned in full force. “Zhou Wu? Is there… something wrong?”

“Are you free tonight?”

Just a few minutes ago, Wen Ci had been reliving her embarrassing moment in her dream, and she wasn’t mentally prepared to face Zhou Wu at all.

Before her brain could respond, her mouth was already running away from her: “Tonight? Tonight? I… I can’t, I have something to do tonight. The teachers in the office invited me to dinner.”

Zhou Wu was silent for two seconds. “Tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow night… tomorrow night… um… there’s a family dinner.”

“The day after tomorrow.” Without waiting for Wen Ci to come up with an answer, Zhou Wu said lazily, “—You’re not free the day after tomorrow either, right?”

“Yeah.” Wen Ci rubbed her nose. “Sorry, I… I’ll contact you later, okay?”

On the other end of the line, Zhou Wu seemed to laugh softly. Wen Ci, in the midst of her scrambled lie, didn’t catch it clearly.

“Okay. Teacher Wen.”