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Published at 21st of April 2023 05:30:06 AM


Chapter 52

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The warmth of the palm warmed the key, and the small metal shone brightly. Lu Zhiqiao lowered her eyes and stared at it for a while, then cast a puzzled look at Qi Yan.

Afraid that she would return it, Qi Yan grabbed her hand and wrapped it around the key, and said softly, "From now on, you can come in and out as you like, and if it's not convenient for you to go home, you can come to my place." She wanted to say that this is also her home, but she choked on her throat.

She considered this matter for a long time, and it is not a temporary idea, but it seems a little abrupt to say it at the moment.

Won’t Qiao Qiao think that she has another impure purpose?

Her eyes were hot as if they were boiling with strong emotion. Lu Zhiqiao looked at her for a moment, feeling that her eyes were about to be burned, so she lowered her gaze and avoided: "You trust me so much?"

It's not that she’s afraid that she will empty the place, but that there may be some things Qi Yan doesn’t want her to see. If they accidentally bump into each other in the future, both of them will be embarrassed. If there is no private space in a house, there will be no sense of security. After all, a certain distance and boundary must be maintained between people.

Qi Yan curled her lips and said, "Um, I believe you."

Earlier at school, she found Niu Niu reading porn. She was anxious for a while, thinking about a lot of things. She felt very uneasy, and wanted to get an accurate answer from Lu Zhiqiao. But when she is now face to face with her, the words are not that easy to say.

The more she cares, the more cautious she becomes. Every word and sentence she says must be carefully considered. After going back and forth, there is only silence.

Lu Zhiqiao’s thick lashes trembled, but said nothing.

The key corresponds to the lock, which means opening and accepting. She seems to understand the metaphor in a certain way, and a corner of her heart hurts a bit. Qi Yan accepts her without reservation, but she is still trapped in the invisible labyrinth. She feels that she can't get out, so she wants to give up, and wants Qi Yan to stop being nice to her.

Just let her follow the same path and return and stay to her own little corner.

But she didn't know that the original path behind her had disappeared.

"Let’s go back." Qi Yan slowly let go, touched her tear mole, "Take a bath, apply a mask, listen to music, and sleep."

"Um."

Lu Zhiqiao subconsciously closed her eyes, her long eyelashes curled up, and looked at her with a faint smile: "You too."

She turned around after speaking, still holding the key a little tight. When she opened the door, she saw her daughter standing by the door with her neck stretched out, looking sneaky and guilty.

She was in a mess and didn't think much about it.

The mother and daughter went back, and the lively room suddenly turned deserted.

Qi Yan stood behind the bedroom door for a long time, her legs felt a little numb, and the boiling blood in her brain gradually cooled down. She carefully recalled what happened during the day, sorted it out again, and felt that nothing was right.

After returning home in the afternoon, she asked Niu Niu why she read comics in class. The child said that the minor subject was not important, and the teacher didn't care too much about it. She got curious, so she couldn't help reading it. From experience, it is normal for children to have such a state of mind,  what was abnormal was her reaction afterwards.

When she confiscated the mobile phone last year, Niu Niu was afraid of her and panicked.

But today, the child remained calm and pouted at her unconsciously, and she was the one who panicked.

How did this happen?

Qi Yan calmed down, and soon figured it out. The relationship between her and Lu Zhiqiao was getting closer and closer, and she could not help pampering Niu Niu. In addition, the child was too well-behaved and sensible before. Seeing her made her feel distressed. She unknowingly regarded herself as Niu Niu's umbrella and deviated from the original track.

The child has become more and more emboldened. Eventually, the paper will not be able to cover the fire. Her connivance today may really cause the relationship between her and Lu Zhiqiao to return to the original point.

In that person's heart, her daughter is more important after all.

Disappointment suddenly surged, Qi Yan sighed lightly, and decided that it would be better to clarify with Lu Zhiqiao. Not only must she be honest, but must also come up with a feasible solution. If Niu Niu continues to indulge in this way, her studies will be ruined sooner or later, and Lu Zhiqiao is too busy to take care of her daughter. Since she calls herself a "half mother", she should help to some extent.

Thinking about it, she took her clothes to take a shower first.

After taking a shower and tidying up, Qi Yan turned off the light in the living room, sat on the bed with her phone in her hand, and opened WeChat.

Through the screen, at least she can relieve some guilt.

She was about to type when she saw Lu Zhiqiao's profile picture next to the little red dot displayed on Moments, so she subconsciously went in to look. As expected, it was a work-related re-post.

Qi Yan hesitated.

That person was worried about work today, she must've been very tired. Used to bearing it alone, and keeping everything in her heart, how could she bother her with the child’s affairs at this time. In case Lu Zhiqiao is in a bad mood and is angry, maybe she will beat the child again...

Thinking of that time a year ago, when Niu Niu was beaten so pitifully, she felt both distressed and terrified.

No.

Qi Yan quit WeChat, opened the memo, prepared a little to organize her words and began to edit the text.

First confess, then admit mistakes, then analyze the cause and direction of the incident, then give a detailed plan to attempt to guide, and finally appease, add emoticons to be cute. She wrote a long paragraph, longer than a high school essay.

She saved the screenshot and will post it tomorrow.

As the night deepened, the lights of every household in the complex went out one after another, and the waning moon climbed up the treetops, casting a ray of desolate and dim silver light. Light rain pattered down the ground, and the city shrouded in night turned damp and hazy.

Qi Yan dreamed of Lu Zhiqiao.

They soaked in the hot spring together, and the steaming water was lingering. Lu Zhiqiao put her hands on the pool platform, and kept catering to Qi Yan behind her, leaping and falling again and again. She closed her eyes, her cheeks were flushed, and she trembled while restraining herself.

Falling overnight.

....

When she woke up, it was already daylight.

Qi Yan has two classes in the morning, Class 2 and Class 3. When there is no class, she goes to the back door of the classroom to inspect every ten minutes. She stares at Niu Niu all morning. That child is obedient and trustworthy, and she does not read other books in class.

She had no class in the afternoon, and was supposed to go back, but because she was worried, she stayed in the office and went on patrol at any time.

The second period was physical education class, Qi Yan forgot it for a while, walked to the back door of the classroom, and found that the door was open, and several rows of empty seats appeared in her vision. She froze for a moment, and went in through the back door, and saw a girl lying on the table in the second row of the group next to the wall, looking weak.

"Zhang Tian?" Qi Yan frowned and walked over, "What's wrong?"

In the silent classroom, the homeroom teacher's voice suddenly sounded, and the girl Zhang Tian was shocked, but she just turned her head, sat up a little, her back was still arched, and she covered her belly with one hand, and said with a sad face, "My stomach hurts…"  

"What about the rest?"

"They went to gym class."

Qi Yan came to her senses immediately, seeing her pale face, frowning slightly, her eyes turned to her abdomen, "Is it a stomachache?"

The little girl shook her head, and said with some embarrassment: "It's that..."

At that moment, Qi Yan thought of "her daughter", and suddenly understood the meaning of the child. The worried expression on her brows and eyes was slightly soft, and she smiled: "Wait for me."

She turned around and went back to the office quickly, took out two heating pads from the drawer, filled a cup of hot water by the water dispenser, and took them to the classroom together.

In fact, there are painkillers in the drawer. She herself suffers from pain sometimes, so she takes medicine to deal with it in case it will affect her class, and the effect is very good. But the student is still young, so she is not sure if she can take one. If there are side effects, she’s afraid to be skinned by this girl’s parents, so she did not dare to take that risk.

"Drink some hot water first." Qi Yan put the cup on the girl's desk, "Be careful it's hot."

Zhang Tian was stunned for a moment, then flattered and whispered: "Thank you, Teacher Qi."

The weather is still very cold, but the water dispenser in the class is broken. It was reported for repair yesterday, but no one came to replace it today. Otherwise, she wouldn't have to go to the office to pour hot water. Qi Yan responded with a smile at the girl, and neatly tore open a piece of a heating pad, her voice became more and more gentle: "Put this on your stomach, lift up your clothes, and keep the innermost one."

Zhang Tian obeyed.

One was pasted on the lower abdomen, and the other was pasted on the back, keeping the front and back warm. Qi Yan moved calmly and carefully. After pasting, she straightened her clothes, like taking care of a kindergarten baby.

"Remember to tear it off and throw it away after school."

"Okay."

At this time, a slender shadow blocked the light in front of her, and Lu Wei stood at the door of the classroom, staring blankly at the scene in front of her...

She suddenly felt uncomfortable, her small mouth pursed unconsciously, and she called in a muffled voice: "Teacher Qi."

Qi Yan and Zhang Tian turned their heads at the same time, seeing her "daughter", Qi Yan felt inexplicably guilty, but only for a brief moment. She looked as usual, even a little cold: "Free time?"

This time, the little girl was even more uncomfortable, she lazily hummed, went back to her seat to drink water, and then went out without looking back.

Zhang Tian: "???"

Qi Yan: "..."

Concerned about the presence of students, Qi Yan turned to Zhang Tian and smiled nonchalantly, "Then you should rest in the classroom, and if you feel unwell, you can find me in the office."

The girl nodded and smiled back.

After leaving the classroom, Qi Yan looked around, the corridor was empty, and Lu Wei was gone, so she decided to go back to the office. When she was passing by the stairs, she was suddenly stopped by someone. She was startled and turned around to see the little girl who had just run away standing against the wall, with her hands in her school uniform pockets, looking at her with resentment.

"What's wrong?" Her eyes were involuntarily gentle.

Seeing her like this, Lu Wei was startled, and grinned: "Give me back the comic book, please?"

Qi Yan's expression froze: "No."

"Why……"

"It's the same as a mobile phone, ask your parents to get it." She said seriously, her tone was not stiff, but she put on the homeroom teacher's airs.

The rules that have been emphasized many times in the last semester are the same for everyone in the class, especially after the ideological struggle last night, she has become more and more aware that Lu Wei cannot be given any preferential treatment, and she cannot even move her thoughts.

Lu Wei pouted; her baby-fat little face puffed up: "But you promised me not to tell mom."

"So, you tell her yourself."

Qi Yan looked around, but there was no one there, and the sound of reading came from the classroom near the stairs, a little distance away from them, so that no one could hear them talking.

"No." Little Lu Weu pursed her lips, and suddenly hugged her arm coquettishly, "You can return it to me, Teacher Qi...I borrowed it from my classmate, how can I return it..."

"Teacher Qi~"

"You are the best, give it back to me, okay~"

Start acting cute again, hehehe, smile.

Qi Yan stared at her eyes that slightly resembled Lu Zhiqiao's, almost softening her heart for a moment, but soon thinking of the possible consequences in the future, her face turned cold a little bit, and she said in a deep voice, "Let go."

The little girl was stunned, frightened by her gloomy expression, and quickly let go of her hand.

Qi Yan pulled her school uniform sleeves, went straight upstairs, walked to the unoccupied staircase connecting to the roof, and asked her to stand against the wall.  After staring at each other for a long time, she said in a solemn voice, "Lu Wei, let me ask you, where is this?"

"…school."

"Who am I?"

"Um, Teacher Qi."

"Who are you?"

"Lu Wei."

"What is your identity?"

Little Lu Wei had never seen Qi Yan look so serious, she was so aggrieved but she didn't dare to act like a baby anymore, so she honestly said: "...student."

"Since you are a student, you should study hard and abide by the classroom discipline. If you make a mistake, the teacher should criticize you, and other students should do the same..." Qi Yan said a lot, her eyes were as cold as the twelfth lunar month.

Lu Wei's eyes became more and more red, she bit her lip in grievance, and she couldn't hold back for a moment, tears fell down.

There was a "snap" in Qi Yan's head, something broke, and her heart was severely pinched.  She took a deep breath, raised her hand and hurriedly wiped away the child's tears: "Don't cry."

The little girl was surprisingly obedient, she stopped crying when she said she would, and frantically wiped her tears, but her body was still twitching.

She felt so wronged.

"Did you forget what I said? If you make a mistake, you have to take responsibility. You can read novels and comics, but you can't read them during class time, and you must know how to moderate them. If your grades slipped because of this, and your mother asked, what are you going to tell her?"  Can you bear to see your mom sad?

"Niu Niu, do you know how hard your mother works?"

"The house you live in was bought by your mother with a loan from the bank. She has to pay back more than 30,000 yuan to the bank every month, and you take piano lessons, a few hundred yuan per lesson, the clothes and shoes you wear, and the food you eat.  Snacks, all your expenses are all borne by your mother alone."

"The last time your mother was bitten by a snake and almost died, do you remember how you felt? What would you do if she was gone, huh?"

Qi Yan doesn't like to preach, and she also knows that it is useless to tell children about the hardships of adults, because children don't understand at all, but they will feel that they are born to owe someone, and they will have resistance. But when she thought of Lu Zhiqiao bearing all this alone, her heart ached and bled, she couldn't control it, she felt like dancing on the tip of a knife if she didn't say a word.

It's also a gamble, a bet that the mother and daughter who depend on each other understand each other's importance.

Out of emotion and reason, Qi Yan can only speak for this sake, not daring to be too fierce, let alone put too much psychological burden on the child. Because she clearly remembered that Lu Zhiqiao said that if there was anything wrong with her daughter, she would go with her.

The little girl cried again.

That kind of deep fear was seared into her bones as early as a very young age, and now just reminiscing about the pain over and over again.

"Teacher Qi, I don't want to woo woo woo..." She cried and hugged Qi Yan.

The novels and comics were so fresh, they suddenly flooded into her small world and attracted her full attention. It was hard for her to resist the temptation, even though she had tried her best to restrain herself, at most she would not read them during Chinese, Mathematics and English classes.

There was a strange force that swayed her.

Qi Yan still felt distressed, but she didn't give her too much comfort. She just wiped her tears over and over again and said, "You don't read those in class, okay?"

"Um, I didn't read it today." Lu Wei raised her teary eyes reluctantly.

"Keep it up."

"Okay."

Qi Yan sighed and smiled in relief, she still believed in her intuition. This child didn't tell her mother about the big grievances she suffered at school, was very tolerant, and a lot more. Thinking about it from another angle, Lu Wei is young and has poor self-control, and she doesn't want her mother to worry, so she sneaks around.

In the end, it comes down to the fear of loss.

There is a rope tied to her heart, and the other end is tightly connected to Lu Zhiqiao. The mother and daughter are each other's Achilles' heel, and they also rely on each other.

"Lu Wei."

"Um?"

"All students are the same. In school, you have no privileges, understand?" Qi Yan looked at Lu Wei seriously, and said word by word.

The little girl raised her red and swollen eyes and nodded in a daze.

….

The night is dark, the light rain is gradually increasing, and the sky is like a sea full of water, which can't be twisted.

At around nine o'clock, Lu Zhiqiao drove out of the basement of the brightly lit office building and headed home against the rain. She worked a lot of overtime today, was busy all day, and didn’t have time to eat. She finally fixed the things that her subordinates messed up. At the moment, she was exhausted, tired and hungry, and she just wanted to go back and eat something casually, take a bath and sleep  .

When she arrived at the complex, she parked the car and took the elevator upstairs.

As the number slowly increased, her daughter's face flashed in her mind, then she took out her phone and read the message Qi Yan sent her in the afternoon again.

Screenshots of five memos, the pictures are full of square words.

There is full caution between the lines, and she vaguely felt a bit sad and helpless. She didn't know when it started, Qi Yan also changed, it was an inexplicable change, vaguely known, but not real.

It seems that it is because of her.

--Ding

The elevator door opened, and Lu Zhiqiao put away her phone. When she went out, she paused. She looked back at 902. She hesitated a moment, then turned around and walked to the door.

She raised her hand and was about to knock on the door, but remembered that she had the key. She retracted her hand then took out the key from her bag.

And carefully open the door.

Lu Zhiqiao leaned in, and saw a huge projector screen in her sight, on which two naked women were hugging, kissing, and playing...




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