The moment the candy was in her hands, Chen Qingning unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth, commenting with a mouthful of sugar:
"Not good. Sickeningly sweet."
Yu Bei glanced at her. "There's a trash can under your desk."
"Just saving you face." Chen Qingning chewed the milk candy down in a few quick bites, then took a moment to look at the wrapper. It had the Fujiya mascot printed on it, playfully sticking out its tongue.
"You actually buy such cute candy." Chen Qingning's worldview had been refreshed.
Yu Bei asked with curiosity, "What kind of candy should I buy?"
Chen Qingning brought both hands up to her chin and struck a clumsy Xinjiang dance neck-shifting pose: "Qingning candy, of course."
She swayed left and right with rhythm: "Eat one, think of me once; think of me, eat one."
Yu Bei bent his head over his work.
Chen Qingning returned to her seat and started scrolling through her phone. Before long, Yu Wenlei and Yuan Yue walked in chatting and laughing. Chen Qingning greeted them, then overheard Sister Yu calling out to Yu Bei, asking which day of the week his open class was.
Yu Bei replied, "Thursday."
Yu Wenlei asked again, "Morning or afternoon?"
Yu Bei said, "Afternoon."
"I heard the Peizhi side also wants to use the observation room on Thursday."
"The academic affairs office said they'll coordinate."
Yu Wenlei acknowledged with a sound, pulled out her chair, and sat back down. A moment later, she turned to Yu Bei: "When the teaching research center sends people over, they're definitely going to inspect the office. You're still sitting at this student desk?"
"Tomorrow I'll move back."
Chen Qingning caught the key point and turned around: "You're finally going to be my deskmate again?"
Yu Bei didn't answer her.
Yu Wenlei chuckled a couple of times and teased, "Guess it depends on whether you're willing to make room for Teacher Yu."
Chen Qingning muttered, "It's not like I'm the one kicking him out. If he wants to leave home, what can I do?"
As she spoke, she cleared away the clutter covering the entire desk. Her lipstick rolled onto the floor, and she bent under the desk to pick it up, touching up her makeup while she was at it.
Yu Wenlei noticed and reminded her, "On Wednesday you need to put all this away in the drawer first."
"I know," Chen Qingning brushed aside her falling hair. "I'm very good at putting on a show."
Yu Bei said, "Tone down the outfits too."
Chen Qingning's head ached: "You guys are just like my grandparents."
Realizing she'd inadvertently dismantled her own "Qingning for Yu Sleep" CP, she quickly changed her words: "Why do you all treat me like a kid?"
Yu Wenlei said, "You're not that old either."
Chen Qingning lowered her head to look at her chest and couldn't help but sigh. What could she do? She had no comeback for that.
Back in the dorm that evening, Chen Qingning asked Qu Xiao about the open class, wondering whether she needed to teach it.
Qu Xiao pressed her hand to her forehead: "Of course. There are only so many teachers at this school—not a single one is getting away."
Chen Qingning asked, "What about me?"
"You?" Qu Xiao looked up from behind her notebook.
"Yeah," Chen Qingning carefully wiped her face with a makeup remover pad. "I'm a teacher too. Do I need to teach it?"
Qu Xiao pressed her palms together: "Please spare everyone."
Chen Qingning, with one side of her face lightly made up and the other heavily done, said with conviction: "I led morning exercises today, didn't you see?"
Qu Xiao said, "I saw."
Chen Qingning immediately broke into a delighted smile: "Xiao'er, you were sneaking peeks at me. You have a secret crush on me."
Qu Xiao leaned back in a very straight-woman way: "Don't. It's rare to see you out on your own without clinging to Teacher Yu."
"Where was I clinging to him?" Chen Qingning first tried to argue, then admitted openly: "Fine, I cling to him. I cling to him tightly. I'm his ever-present signature little secretary."
Qu Xiao wanted to speak, but a sigh came first.
Chen Qingning ran to the sink, scooped up water, and splashed it noisily over her face, then rose with a face like a flower drenched in rain: "Am I not qualified to teach a class?"
Qu Xiao gave a dry laugh: "Sis, you've only been here a week."
"And I've improved by leaps and bounds in a week."
Qu Xiao didn't deny that point.
In their special education circle, each child required a different approach. Being too fixated on fixed methods was actually a lazy way out. The rules of regular schools simply didn't work here, and Chen Qingning's unconventional tricks occasionally produced unexpectedly effective results.
She figured Yu Bei probably judged it the same way.
Otherwise, why would he have changed his attitude toward Chen Qingning?
However, that same evening, Yu Bei's assessment of Chen Qingning wavered once again.
At around nine-thirty, he received a string of image messages. He initially thought Chen Qingning had reverted to her old habits, sending over newly learned sign language "for guidance." But when he opened them, he found full-body outfit photos laid flat across a bed.
Teacher Chen: What should I wear on Wednesday and Thursday?
Teacher Chen: Asking sincerely for advice.
Yu Bei responded with his usual composure: Worry about Tuesday first. Have you read the book?
Chen Qingning's reply was utterly unhurried: It's still early. It's not even ten o'clock.
Yu Bei put down his phone and went to the wall to warm up. Having spent years hunched over a desk as a teacher, he'd maintained a fitness routine to keep his neck, shoulders, lower back, and spine from giving out prematurely. Aside from his regular morning runs, his dorm was also equipped with some simple home exercise gear.
He'd just picked up the kettlebell when his phone on the desk buzzed again, refusing to stop.
He paused for a moment, then decided to let it be. Half an hour later, drenched in sweat, he returned to the desk and saw that it was Yu Nan who had called via video.
He immediately called back.
The siblings' schedules were misaligned. Yu Nan hung up on his call and explained in text: My roommate fell asleep. Another time.
Yu Bei replied with an "Mm," then typed out a line: How's school been lately?
Yu Nan replied: Great.
He then asked: "And my brother?"
Yu Bei's lips curved slightly upward: "Also doing well."
He should have asked more, but Yu Bei hesitated. His thumb hovered over the keyboard for a moment before he exited the chat and transferred two thousand yuan to his sister.
As if only this way could his concern flow smoothly downstream: "For your spring outing."
Yu Nan sent back a cute cat meme with a laughing face: "It's still early—it's only March. Dad just transferred my living expenses yesterday."
Yu Bei: "Okay."
Watching his sister return the transfer, his chest rose and fell once: "Rest early, good night."
A matching cat sleeping sticker popped up. Yu Bei stared at it for a moment, then exited the chat interface.
After finishing his shower, Yu Bei closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair, gazing at the wall.
Yu Bei's dorm room was barely decorated. The only splash of color was the corkboard in front of his desk. The corkboard had been purchased from IKEA's physical store, used to pin up some of the greeting cards, little drawings, and notes his students had given him. On a regular basis, Yu Bei would dust it off and check it; when corners curled up, he would press them back down firmly. Over two years, it had become densely covered.
He found the postcard Yu Nan had sent him, carefully removed the pushpin, and held it in his hand, flipping it over.
This was sent when Yu Nan first entered university. At the time, Yu Bei had just arrived in Baihe, with affairs numerous and tangled. His sister had gone to the most famous bookstore in the neighboring province and carefully selected this card—a golden avenue of plane trees—with the reminder to "eat well and don't get sick."
Yu Bei pinned the postcard back in place, opened his mother's WeChat, typed a few times, then cleared and exited.
Just as he was about to turn off the screen, a little girl avatar with a sulky face popped up: "Why is it all letters??"
Teacher Chen: [Image]
Teacher Chen: [Image]
Teacher Chen: [Image]
…
Chen Qingning had actually photographed the first ten pages of the sign language dictionary one by one, complaining that he was overqualified for the task: "I can already make sentences, so why do I need to learn 26 letters?"
Yu Bei borrowed her logic: "You can already make sentences, so why can't you learn 26 letters?"
Chen Qingning protested: "What's the use?"
Yu Bei: "So you can call people by name."
Chen Qingning: "Call who?"
Yu Bei: "The students."
He asked: "You recognize all seven students in the class?"
Chen Qingning: "Of course I do."
Yu Bei took the opportunity to test her: "What's the name of the boy in the third seat of the first row?"
Chen Qingning talked nonsense: "I can't tell my left from my right."
Yu Bei's lips twitched slightly: "Every student has their own name initials. Ge Lingxi, GLX. Sometimes you need to call her that way."
Chen Qingning: "Can't I just walk up next to them and call them?"
Yu Bei quoted her "can't tell left from right" remark: "Can you even tell who's who?"
Chen Qingning was quick-tongued: "I sit in the back every day. All I see is your handsome face and the backs of the students' heads. How am I supposed to remember?"
Yu Bei glanced at the digital clock, opened his computer, and packaged the student files of the upper-level hearing-impaired class to send to her, appropriately lightening her load: "Before school ends tomorrow afternoon, memorize each person's face and name, and type the initials of their names correctly."
Chen Qingning replied with a sticker of a gun pointing at a temple with the caption "shoot here."
Yu Bei copied her earlier "no tears before the coffin" remark: "It's still early—it's not even ten o'clock yet."
Unexpectedly, the girl sent back a voice message—twelve seconds of infectious, unbroken laughter, seemingly ending with tears of laughter: "Brother Yu, you're so funny and so lovable."
Yu Bei listened to it again in disbelief.
He confirmed her lung capacity was terrifyingly strong.
Before bed, he received another belated rebuke from Chen Qingning: "Why didn't you help me pick out an outfit?"
She even had her reasoning: "You're the most boring and safest dresser I've ever met."
Yu Bei decisively turned off his phone.
The next day, Chen Qingning led the morning exercises again, and this time, Yu Bei observed on-site.
He stood silently to the side, letting Chen Qingning pull the boy at the front of the line out to lead the exercises.
The boy was flushed red from being pulled, repeatedly trying to withdraw his arm.
He wanted to sign, but his left hand was enthusiastically held, so he could only bow and nod.
He was the shortest student in the class, named Zhang Qihang, and also the youngest, only thirteen years old.
Yu Bei rarely called him by his full name. Instead, he always signed "Little Boat." Every child had a more affectionate, endearing nickname in his repertoire.
He could have told Chen Qingning all this, but the upper-level hearing-impaired class was a group, Ge Lingxi was an individual, and the third seat in the first row was a seat.
Only a name—a person's full name—could open the door to true seeing and connection.
When the music started, Yu Bei parted his lips and asked: "Why didn't you call his name?"
Chen Qingning glanced at him sideways: "He's right in front of me."
Yu Bei said nothing more.
Chen Qingning considered herself in her element, making rapid progress. As school was about to end, she strode past Yu Bei, seized the small desk first, and rummaged through it top and bottom.
Yu Bei didn't stop her, standing by the desk and looking down from above: "What are you doing? Go back to your own spot."
Chen Qingning pushed and pulled the drawer slightly: "Looking for my reward for today."
Yu Bei said: "It's gone."
Chen Qingning didn't believe it: "How is that possible? You only had one left?"
Yu Bei didn't answer directly, only saying: "Get up."
Chen Qingning stayed seated stubbornly: "Are you moving the desk away today?"
Yu Bei hummed in affirmation: "After I pack up, I'm going on a home visit."
Chen Qingning was puzzled: "Aren't you going to test what I've learned?"
Yu Bei said: "I already tested you this morning."
Chen Qingning stopped short, realization dawning belatedly: "You didn't even tell me in advance."
Yu Bei said, "Knowing you, if you'd actually learned it, you'd have shown off to the whole class."
Chen Qingning pouted. "How could I possibly do it in one night?"
"Is it that hard?" Yu Bei raised his hand and typed out all the letters in rapid succession. "Most letters have their own pictographic patterns. Did you even look for them?"
His fingers and arm moved with slight urgency and force.
Chen Qingning tilted her face up, observing Yu Bei's expression—a face so plain it barely showed any emotion. But she could feel it.
That ordinary hand, with no tone, no voice, could still convey disappointment and temper.
Yu Bei thought he'd been a bit impulsive.
He shouldn't have acted this way. Having expectations of Chen Qingning had already strayed from his original intentions.
He said no more, dragged the desk aside, and began tidying up along the aisle.
Chen Qingning watched him the whole time with bright, sharp eyes, glancing sidelong as he methodically organized his things. Confirming that there really wasn't a single candy to be found in the drawer, she proactively struck up conversation: "The candy you gave me wasn't expired, was it?"
Yu Bei carried his materials back to his old desk. "Freshly weighed after the New Year."
Chen Qingning pursed her lips. "What about the rest?"
"Gave them to the students. Some are in the dorm."
"You're giving me what's left over from other people?"
Yu Bei didn't want to clarify anymore. Chen Qingning's train of thought was like the irregular white threads on a tangerine. He neatly tidied up his desk, tucking Chen Qingning's miscellaneous trinkets into the second drawer. He even felt something wrinkled, about the size of a fingernail, at the corner of the desk.
He held it out on his palm and asked Chen Qingning, "What's this? Still useful?"
Chen Qingning looked closely. "Oh, my dried-out contact lens."
Yu Bei had nothing to say.
He wiped down the desk as a finishing touch, while the girl still stood motionless in her spot. The slanting sunlight streamed in, casting her shadow onto the wall beside him.
Out of the corner of his eye, the shadow's hand suddenly moved a few times.
Yu Bei glanced over—it was Chen Qingning raising both hands high, making a "six" gesture with palms facing outward, then switching to thumbs tucked in with four fingers together.
The first was Y;
The second was B.
She was spelling his name.
"Yu Bei."
"Yu Bei."
"Yu Bei!"
Seeing that he noticed but didn't turn around, the hand shadow on the wall began to flail in a frenzy—six six six six six, palm palm palm palm palm!
Yu Bei let out a silent laugh.
He tossed the wet wipe into the wastebasket by the desk leg and turned back around.
The girl's flailing arms hadn't yet had time to retract. Her face was cold, but her head was dusted with golden fuzz from the setting sun: "Last night I took the book to bed to read, and somehow I fell asleep."
"But it's not like I didn't learn anything at all," she continued, demonstrating "Y, B." "See, your name I'm already very fluent in."
Yu Bei looked straight at her. "Keep practicing."
He pushed the timeline back. "Friday's homeroom class—you're teaching it."
The heavy task landed on her head without warning, and Chen Qingning was stunned. "Huh?"
Yu Bei said, "Give me your topic by Wednesday."
"So sudden?"
"Is it that sudden?"
"Yeah."
"Then cancel it?"
Chen Qingning slammed on the brakes. "No, I want to do it!" Her fighting spirit surged. "Friday, I'll absolutely blow your mind."
Yu Bei stacked the materials he needed to take. Before leaving, something suddenly occurred to him. He paused at the doorframe and turned back. "Set three."
Just then, Yu Wenlei returned. She gazed at Yu Bei's retreating figure from afar, then looked at the room in confusion. "What set three?"
Chen Qingning broke into a huge grin, shaking her head as she followed out. "A little secret code between me and Teacher Yu."