Su Jiaobai had initially thought he might have already fallen asleep and wouldn’t reply to her messages that night.
But to her surprise, not long after she sent her two messages, she received a reply from him.
This immediately eased the anxiety in Su Jiaobai’s heart.
His tone was slightly teasing, and even through the screen, she could sense his good mood at the moment.
Su Jiaobai was undoubtedly intelligent. She understood that he valued his son and decided to leverage this point.
[Yes, I’ve been thinking. Junzai is growing up day by day. He’s no longer like when he was little, where all he needed was to be fed, kept warm, and protected from bumps and bruises. Parental companionship is important, but that’s only part of it. I see many people around me who have the means sending their children to bilingual schools around the age of one.]
In front of Gu Xingmo, her only advantage might be her education. Before this, she had often brought up her academic background.
Therefore, when discussing education, Su Jiaobai was somewhat cautious.
Fearing he might think she was indirectly implying he lacked education, Su Jiaobai quickly added: [Let me clarify, I’m not saying this to push Junzai too hard.] Junzai already had a capable father and was born into privilege.
Even if he chose to do nothing his entire life, Gu Xingmo’s current wealth was enough to support several future generations of the Gu family.
However, it wasn’t just about wealthy second-generation heirs not working hard, but about those who worked hard but lacked the ability.
Therefore, she wouldn’t force Junzai to endure the hardships of studying to achieve success through academics. But with their family’s foundation, it was always beneficial to let him explore the outside world, cultivate more hobbies, and learn more things.
[What we didn’t have the conditions for when we were young, Junzai has now, so we should nurture him well. We don’t expect him to achieve great things and bring us glory as parents, but we just hope he won’t have a twisted sense of values and cause trouble.]
[Mr. Gu, what do you think?]
Gu Xingmo was already sitting on the bed, looking at the nearly full screen of text in the chat interface. A faint smile appeared on his lips.
Her long-term considerations undoubtedly resonated deeply with Gu Xingmo, so he replied: [Teacher Su is very thoughtful.]
[I’ll have my assistant inquire about the current situation of various kindergartens in Shanghai and try to select the most suitable one for Junzai. I’ll inform you as soon as I have any news.]
In Gu Xingmo’s view, it would be ideal if they could continue to interact like this in the future.
Since she had extended an olive branch, Gu Xingmo naturally accepted it and wouldn’t let this gesture fall by the wayside.
Su Jiaobai was also satisfied with their conversation that day and concluded: [Thank you, Mr. Gu, for your trouble. I’ll be waiting for your news~ Goodnight~]
After sending this message, a wave of sleepiness washed over her, and Su Jiaobai immediately put down her phone, wrapped herself in the quilt, and went to sleep.
The next morning, she woke up at her usual time. As soon as she opened her phone, a series of WeChat notification sounds rang out.
Upon checking, she saw that Jiang Heng had called her two or three times around 3 AM.
Seeing this, Su Jiaobai’s scalp tingled, and her good mood vanished instantly, replaced by a wave of irritation.
However, she couldn’t avoid this trouble with Jiang Heng; she had to resolve it, and quickly.
So, even though she didn’t want to read what he had sent her, Su Jiaobai had to brace herself and do it.
He had sent more than ten messages on WeChat, but they didn’t contain anything too important. He just asked why she wasn’t contacting him anymore and asked her to call him after she woke up.
Su Jiaobai found it annoying and ignored it for the moment, going to the bathroom to wash up first.
She woke up at 6:30. After washing up, she went downstairs before 7 o’clock.
Downstairs, Liu Ma had just finished preparing breakfast, timing it perfectly.
Su Jiaobai, who had been paying more attention to Gu Xingmo’s whereabouts recently, asked as soon as she came downstairs, “Where is Mr. Gu?”
Liu Ma said, “Mr. Gu left early this morning with his bag, just like yesterday.” She then asked, “Teacher Su, are you looking for Mr. Gu? Should I pass on a message?”
Su Jiaobai smiled and shook her head, “No, thank you.”
Today was the first day of school for the students. Although Su Jiaobai was not the homeroom teacher for the new academic year, as the math teacher for the main subjects, she still had to go to school early to await the students’ arrival.
Su Jiaobai was busy all morning. Since the third year of junior high was a crucial year, many parents came to see Su Jiaobai in the morning to inquire about their children’s progress.
Mathematics was the subject that contributed the most to the score difference among the three main subjects.
Su Jiaobai had a rather engaging conversation with several parents regarding their children’s different situations.
By the time she returned to the office, it was past ten o’clock.
As soon as she returned to her workstation, a female teacher behind her kindly reminded her, “Teacher Su, you should check your phone. It’s been ringing all morning.”
Su Jiaobai hadn’t brought her phone to the classroom. She hadn’t expected Jiang Heng to call her so many times.
“Okay, thank you.” Su Jiaobai thanked her and then took her phone and left.
The entire teaching building was crowded, so Su Jiaobai had to go to the sports field to find a deserted corner to call Jiang Heng.
The call rang for almost fifty seconds before being answered. During those tens of seconds, Su Jiaobai’s last bit of patience was worn out. When the call finally connected, she directed all her pent-up anger at the person on the other end of the phone: “Jiang Heng, is this funny? I already told you not to contact me, not to contact me. Don’t you understand human language? Say something.”
Earlier, the calls had been coming one after another, like death knells. Now that she had called him, he wasn’t speaking?
He was avoiding the conversation by remaining silent, so Su Jiaobai decided to wait him out.
After an unknown period, a man’s voice finally came from the other end of the line.
But it wasn’t Jiang Heng’s voice; it was Gu Xingmo’s: “Do you want to check your phone and see whose call you’re making?”
“Ah?” She immediately picked up her phone and looked. The screen clearly displayed the characters “Gu Xingmo.”
This embarrassing misunderstanding left Su Jiaobai’s mind completely blank.
How should she explain?
However, the man on the other end didn’t give her a chance to explain, and perhaps didn’t want to hear it. He said directly, “I’m a bit busy right now. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up.”
“Okay, sure.” Su Jiaobai was eager to agree and immediately did so.
She even beat him to it and hung up the phone first.
Then, the more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed. She had intended to call Jiang Heng, so why did she accidentally call Gu Xingmo?
She then realized that she hadn’t dialed from her contacts but had directly dialed from the recent calls.
In the recent calls list, Jiang Heng was directly below Gu Xingmo. Yesterday, after the test drive, she had called Gu Xingmo. Fearing she would disturb him, she quickly hung up and decided to send a WeChat message instead.
She guessed that perhaps the sun was too bright at the moment, and she misread it. She intended to dial the one above but ended up touching the one below.
Regardless, this ridiculous misunderstanding had calmed Su Jiaobai down considerably.
Since the incident had already happened, getting anxious and frustrated was useless.
Escaping was also useless; she still had to face what needed to be faced.
She would face Jiang Heng properly and clarify things in person.
No matter what had happened before, she now wanted to return to her family. She had a husband and a son, and she didn’t believe he would continue to pester her after she confessed her actual situation.
Calmed down, Su Jiaobai gradually regained her rationality.
After a few more minutes of silence, having completely adjusted her emotions, Su Jiaobai seriously looked at the phone screen and tapped on “Jiang Heng’s” name, afraid of making another mistake.
On the other end of the line, Jiang Heng answered quickly.
“Jiaobai.” As soon as the call connected, she heard an unfamiliar male voice.
For Jiang Heng, their reunion and subsequent rekindling of their romance had brought them closer. But for Su Jiaobai, her relationship with Jiang Heng was merely a campus romance from the past. A high school campus romance, limited to holding hands and hugging, perhaps at most a kiss.
She didn’t even remember if she and Jiang Heng had actually kissed.
As for that passionate love, her unwavering devotion to Jiang Heng… that was all part of the novel’s plot. For her, it hadn’t happened yet.
Therefore, at this moment, she felt no romantic feelings for Jiang Heng.
No affection, no ambiguity. To her, he was just a high school classmate she hadn’t seen in many years.
“Are you free for lunch?” Su Jiaobai spoke without any emotion. “Let’s find a place to eat together.”
Jiang Heng had only landed in Shanghai at 3 AM. As soon as he got off the plane, he impatiently turned on his phone, wanting to see if she had seen his message about returning to the country and if she had replied.
He could even imagine her excited smiling face upon hearing the news.
In this relationship, he was in the dominant position.
But he was also a little curious. He hadn’t contacted her for about ten days. During these ten days, she hadn’t contacted him either; not only had she not called, but she hadn’t even sent a single message.
He couldn’t help but wonder if she was busy during this time and didn’t have time to pay attention to him. Or perhaps something had happened?
Maybe she was angry that he hadn’t actively sought her out, and was intentionally throwing a tantrum… just waiting for him to initiate contact.
But no matter what, Jiang Heng hadn’t expected that when he excitedly told her he was returning to the country, she would propose breaking up.
At this moment, he panicked.
So, even though it was late at night and he knew she was already asleep, he couldn’t help but make a few calls.
When morning came, knowing that she would definitely be awake according to her usual schedule, he made countless calls throughout the morning.
The moment the call was answered, her tone was distant and cold, as if she truly wanted to sever all ties with him.
He could have dismissed everything that had happened before as a woman playfully acting coy in front of a man, something that could be appeased.
But it was only at this moment, hearing the tone of her voice, that he realized something might have truly happened while he was away from Shanghai.
“Okay.” Despite the turmoil in his heart, Jiang Heng still restrained his emotions, trying to sound steady and calm as he replied, “You decide the location.”
Su Jiaobai: “I’ll be free after 11:30, so let’s meet around 11:40 at a Japanese restaurant near our school. I’ll send you the address later.”
“No need.” Jiang Heng’s previously stern expression relaxed slightly. “I know where it is.” That was their usual meeting spot.