The buttons were loosened until the third, then the fingers slowly relaxed.
Tao Ling propped up his arms by the cabinet and quietly stood there for a while before taking out a card.
The card shell was pure ink blue, with only a golden four-corner star in the corner. Inside were patterns drawn by Wen Qingying himself. There was a cluster of flowers near the lower right corner. Daisies. Only, the lines weren’t filled in. It was incredibly succinct, yet so pretty that it was hard to believe.
The blank space in the middle held words written in pen:
“Sir, although studying religion can’t let us calmly face the disappearance of life, it also didn’t let us forget. I think that’s also good.
Good night, I hope you can dream of what you want to dream.”
Because the card was somewhat small, the words “Wen Qingying” could only fall right in the middle of the cluster of daisies, almost as if the drawing and the characters were meant to fit together.
Putting the card back into the kraft paper, Tao Ling opened the cabinet and touched the glass vase by the edge.
In the past, Tao Jun was always very busy. He only felt that twenty-four hours were too short, but he would always go to a flower shop, no matter how busy. He bought a lucky bamboo every time. Therefore, there was a large cluster of green at home at the beginning of every year.
Tao Ling often joked that he was greedy for glory, so he did not insert other flowers and only inserted lucky bamboo.
At this time, Tao Jun would throw off his elegant appearance, revealing the wickedness that others couldn’t see. He locked Tao Ling’s neck and knocked on his head, scolding this little bastard for being unable to tell right from wrong.
Cursing and scolding, Tao Jun never said things like “I do it all for you”, so even if Tao Ling was scolded, he was happy.
After all, the brothers were still together.
It’s been too long, these things were from so long ago.
Tao Ling took a breath, and expressionlessly lifted the heavy vase.
Diligent water changing can let the flowers live a long time. He still remembered Wen Qingying’s instructions from when he first bought daisies.
The vase was placed on the bedroom window sill.
After the flowers were inserted, he took a bath. Hot water dripped from his body, and he felt dizzy again, bringing about a sense of light yet continuous drowsiness. Afraid that this slight sleepiness would vanish, Tao Ling quickly made his bed and laid down.
He did fall asleep, but he had chaotic and fragmented dreams all night long.
One moment, he’d dream of watching TV at home with Tao Jun. Tao Jun asked what he wanted to eat later. Then, in another moment, he dreamt of talking to Wen Qingying in the flower shop. Wen Qingying drew a flower on his hand.
He also dreamt of when he hadn’t yet graduated and was writing a dissertation in the library but couldn’t find a certain book. In the blink of an eye, he seemed to be on top of a mountain, blankly looking around, with no one behind him.
In the end, he dreamed of Xia Chaoyang, and Xia Chaoyang asked him where Tao Jun’s cemetery was.
“How could you curse for my ge to die? That’s too much! If it’s about dying, why don’t you die!” Tao Ling in the dream was extremely angry. He shouted until his throat went raw, and he almost couldn’t breathe. He didn’t get to hear Xia Chaoyang’s answer, but heard Tao Jun’s anger instead.
“Tao Ling, is this how you talk to people?” Tao Jun frowned.
Tao Ling was hit by a pang of pain. Opening his eyes, he found that a corner of the book lying by the head of the bed was on his forehead. It had pressed down on him for too long, causing pain. The sky wasn’t bright yet, and he glanced at the clock by the bedside. It was only 5:30.
Even if he laid down again, he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.
He turned on his phone and found that there was a friend request on WeChat. It was from Xia Chaoyang.
After hesitating for a while, Tao Ling pressed approve.
Who knew if Xia Chaoyang didn’t sleep or was already awake, but a message immediately came through: “Tao shidi, you can always come find me if you need any help in the future.”
Tao Ling: “Thank you, Teacher Xia.”
Ever since autumn came, Tao Ling hadn’t been in a good mood, especially on this day.
The student assistant made a mistake on an important document, and the mistake was where Tao Ling had repeatedly said to pay attention. But the result was that not only was the mistake something simple, but the task was actually still handed in on the day of the deadline.
Hearing him say “move” with a cold face, that student was so scared that not a single word was spoken that entire morning.
Near lunch break, the counselor in the office next door came over and said a few words to Teacher Zhang, and began pretending to be inadvertently prodding: “Teacher Tao, the students take care of their studies and work are also very tired. Everyone understands the administrative work. It is easy to make mistakes, but it still requires instructions from a teacher in advance…”
Tao Ling lowered his head to deal with his work, mockingly raised the corner of his mouth, and didn’t answer.
Teacher Zhang coughed out a few words and motioned for her not to say it, and then the counselor smiled, and changed the topic to talk a few words at will, and went out of the office.
After the person left, Mr. Zhang said gently: “Teacher Tao, sometimes the face that should be given is still given. Teacher Yao is the best at reading the situation. Don’t look at what the students do, just looking at her attitude is enough. ”
Fuck giving face, sometimes the face that shouldn’t be given can’t be given.
Ever since entering the office, Tao Ling already knew that he was incompatible with administrative work, but Teacher Zhang usually took care of him. The hands typing on the keyboard stopped, and he turned his head: “Thank you, Teacher Zhang.”
Teacher Zhang still held the warm thermos cup, and leniently smiled.
After going to work in the afternoon, Teacher Zhang hadn’t come back yet, and that student assistant came to hand in the revised documents.
After picking it up and flipping through a few pages, the previous mistakes have been corrected. Tao Ling pushed up his glasses and showed a smile that wasn’t quite a smile: “You’ve worked hard.”
The student stood there silently, as if amidst his own imaginary cicada cries.
This boy was now a third-year research student, and had done part-time jobs in the administrative office for two years. Who knew if he was being arrogant, but Tao Ling had occasionally seen his attitude towards people, and he really had a somewhat flattering attitude.
He glanced at the boy out of the corner of his eyes and saw that he still hadn’t left, then suddenly thought of the counselor’s words in the morning. Tao Ling turned to look at him and said straightforwardly: “It’s reasonable to say that you’ve done this part-time work for a long time, even longer than the time I’ve worked here, so I don’t have any qualifications to scold you. But I also have things that must be said. No matter how good some of your relationships are with certain people, it doesn’t mean you’ll have an unobstructed road in front of you, and people obviously can’t just sit back and do nothing. You’re still a student, your studies are actually the most important aspect. Besides, it’s not too polite to divide people into categories, right?”
The boy’s face flushed, and he looked ashamed. He didn’t dare to refute even if he wanted to, then finally reluctantly nodded: “Yes, thank you, Teacher Tao.”
“You can go, I had to trouble you to work overtime.” Tao Ling retrieved his gaze.
An entire day of gloom reached its peak just before he got off work.
Colleagues from the School of Foreign Languages sent over a link, repeatedly urging that he must keep calm. Tao Ling opened it for a look. It was students posting about him on the school forum. The rough meaning was that he had a cold attitude towards the students, had no enthusiasm for work, and it even further discussed how the temper of this teacher in the administrative post was really, really bad.
Tao Ling thought it was funny, thinking, it’s not that I have a bad attitude towards the students, I just don’t have a good attitude at all towards humans in general.
Starting from the fifth floor1In Chinese forums, comments are all referred to by their level or floor. So the 5th floor would be the 5th comment level, who knew who it was that said: “Don’t you guys think he’s really good looking?”
The next floor’s follow up was: “Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, he seems just like a well-mannered villain. How could upstairs like this type? He looks upright, but his true self could totally be a big S.”
Next next floor: “A cold and arrogant appearance, shortened as coldrrogant.”
The floors suddenly veered off track, and began to discuss the appearances of various teachers within the college. Some people from other colleges weren’t convinced, and began to “present” the teachers from their own college.
Up until the 129th floor, a new account of only level two said unsuccessfully: “Actually, Teacher Tao is really gentle.”
This statement immediately attracted the ridicule of the original poster: “Is upstairs Tao Ling’s water army or Tao Ling himself? Come back here on your main account.”
A person who continued with the post also said: “Upstairs’ upstairs, are you just pretending to be loyal? No one’s even talking about Tao Ling anymore but you suddenly brought this up again. You just made a mockery of the person you’re speaking up for, happy now?”
That new account was anxious to explain: “He really is really good! It’s just that each person’s personality is different, and he doesn’t like to smile or express much. When he does his work, he always takes the student into consideration.”
Tao Ling briefly swiped down a few times, then replied to the colleague’s message: “Students nowadays are bored to this extent.”
The other side asked: “Do you need me to help you clarify?”
Tao Ling: “No need, it doesn’t matter.”
After packing his things and locking the door of the office, the building was empty. Tao Ling staggered around the administrative office of the college and walked to the other end of the building.
He passed by the sign of the religious department for the umpteenth time.
Leaning against the window, he looked away absentmindedly and saw that there were more fresh-cut flowers at the door of the flower shop. They must have been purchased by Wen Qingying today.
But for some reason, the flower stand looks a bit monotonous at first glance.
Taking a closer look, Tao Ling suddenly realized something was wrong. He straightened up, and his phone vibrated.
TL: the slangs and metaphors in this chapter took me way too long to translate orz Thanks for your patience!
