The Scorching Sun - 35

 The photos weren't nearly as unflattering as Fang Zhuo had imagined.

The first one was just a shot of her back.

She wore an oversized coat, the sleeves hanging softly over her hands and swallowing her fingers. The shoulder seams had slipped onto her arms, exposing a stretch of slender white neck. The weight of her backpack carved out the lean lines of her shoulders.

Both she and Ye Yuncheng preferred buying clothes two sizes too large. They could wear them longer that way, and when the weather turned cold, there was room to layer another sweatshirt underneath. It was a habit born of circumstance.

The fluorescent light overhead softened the color of her hair and made her already thin frame look even more delicate.

She was standing there with her head slightly turned, gazing intently at the long shadow on the ground, as if she was looking through it at the person taking the photo.

Fang Zhuo had thought she could tell what the person behind her was doing without turning around.

It turned out the person behind her knew exactly what she was doing too.

Those feelings hidden deep inside, fragmented and difficult to name, was like the final fireflies lingering in the woods before dawn broke across a long night.

Subtle. Quiet. Secret.

Her finger slid across the screen to the next photo.

She had expected her expression at that moment to look blank and dazed. Instead, the candid shot had captured a surprisingly vivid image.

The background was dim and blurred, little more than hazy silhouettes of trees. Only her skin remained bright, pale as moonlight. She was looking directly toward the camera, completely unguarded.

The person inside the photo felt like a stranger to her.

Yan Lie watched her expression from the corner of his eye. Seeing no sign of dislike, he relaxed and grinned. "I took a pretty good picture, right? Out of all the photos ever taken of you, does this make the top three?"

Fang Zhuo looked at it once more, then handed the phone back to Yan Lie. "I've only ever taken ID photos and class photos. So you're number one.”

A trace of warmth still lingered on the back of the phone. Yan Lie closed his hand around it and joked, "Then can I always stay in the top three?"

Fang Zhuo cast him a sidelong look but said nothing. She pulled her English textbook from her bag, spread it open in her hands, and started reading from the vocabulary section at the back.

The teacher on night duty emerged from the dormitory building wrapped tightly in his coat. 

The cold wind immediately made him shiver.

Jogging in place to warm himself up, he began making rounds among the dorm supervisors to confirm attendance records for the boarding students.

Just as he passed the already-closed convenience store, he noticed two students sitting on a wooden bench beside the road.

He knew students this age were full of emotions. After spending so long in a monotonous and high-pressure environment, they often developed attachments on the people around them.

A moment of relaxation could make them lose their judgment and then they would forget what truly mattered.

For example, right now.

The two students sat beneath the warm glow of the streetlights. Despite shivering in the cold wind, they refused to return to the comfort of their dormitories.

Such brazen behavior could only mean one thing. They feared nothing anymore. The thoughts occupying their minds must be extremely dangerous.

This was serious. Very serious.

This unhealthy trend had to be corrected!

The teacher's face darkened. He softened his footsteps as he approached, deliberately circling around to come up from behind them. He wanted to hear just what topic was so important they would rather brave the cold and talk by lamplight than sleep.

To preserve evidence for future counseling sessions, he even took out his phone and turned on the voice recorder.

Yet when he finally reached the shadows beneath the trees, what he heard wasn't flirtatious conversation, but a string of strange pronunciations.

Listening more carefully, he realized the girl was memorizing vocabulary words and making example sentences, while the boy sat beside her correcting her pronunciation word by word.

They were actually studying.

The realization shook him, but he didn't dare believe it immediately.

His excessive faith in students had already taught him many harsh lessons about human nature. He couldn't afford to make the same mistake again.

So maintaining the exact same position, he stood hidden in the darkness for half an hour with remarkable determination. By the time his face had nearly frozen stiff, the two students still hadn't revealed a single flaw in their act.

However, he had discovered one thing: Fang Zhuo's English foundation was really not very good.

She didn't even have a solid grasp of basics like word roots and parts of speech. Frankly, that problem was far more alarming than attitude problem.

Halfway through, he finally snapped.

Halfway through listening, he truly could not hold back any longer. He jumped out and cried in agitation, "In full inversion, the verb goes before the subject. Before the subject! You're in your senior year already. This can't stand!"

The two students turned around in shock. Their expressions shifted from confusion to something far more complicated, and then their mouths twisted in faint disapproval.

Yan Lie said, dragging out his words, "Teacher... were you spying on us?"

The duty teacher coughed awkwardly and immediately changed the subject. "I was just concerned. The lighting out here is terrible. Studying here will ruin your eyes. Next time go to a classroom. Just remember to come back before lights-out. I won't interrupt your studies anymore."

He hurried off, pulled out his phone, and stopped the recording. He glanced back at the two of them once more.

What a simple world.

He was starting to feel like he couldn't understand it anymore.

The next morning, Yan Lie came to find Fang Zhuo and relayed a message from Ye Yuncheng.

Xiao Mu had come back early the night before. Under Ye Yuncheng's guidance, he had practiced making rice balls and produced several decent-looking ones.

The success had encouraged him tremendously. He repeatedly declared that he wanted to start selling as soon as possible.

It was the first time he had ever shown such enthusiasm toward work. Ye Yuncheng didn't have the heart to discourage him. Anyway, all the tools and paperwork were already in order. Any day could serve as the opening.

So the two of them had gone to the market early that morning to buy ingredients. After preparing everything, they opened for business around noon.

Fang Zhuo still decided to go take a look.

She wasn't sure whether this unusual partnership could withstand the challenges of the real world. Nor did she know what kind of results their first attempt would yield.

Too many unknowns made her uneasy.

As her self-appointed laborer, Yan Lie naturally accompanied her. He even brought his homework along so he could waste time productively if there was nothing to do.

 

When they arrived at the location, there was already a customer waiting in front of the stall. But Ye Yuncheng wasn't there. Only Xiao Mu was present.

Compared to the disheveled state he'd been in the last time they met, Xiao Mu looked much neater now.

He was wearing a white cotton jacket, even the cuffs scrubbed spotlessly clean and folded up. Underneath was an oversized T-shirt printed with cartoon characters.

Despite the thin outfit, he seemed entirely unaffected by the January cold.

Xiao Mu had his head down, focused intently on his work. Even the arrival of Fang Zhuo and Yan Lie failed to distract him.

The two simply stood on opposite sides of the cart and watched.

The customer had ordered several extra toppings.

Because Xiao Mu was extremely generous with portions, the rice ball had become so overstuffed that he still couldn't wrap it closed after several attempts.

This situation hadn't been covered in his training.

Growing increasingly anxious, Xiao Mu shifted his feet repeatedly, glanced at the customer, then bending back down to wrestling with the rice ball.

The look in his eyes, pleading and aggrieved, made the customer's scalp prickle. He desperately wanted to say, "Maybe forget it." But after comparing their physiques, he decided against it.

Seeing that Xiao Mu's efforts were going nowhere, Fang Zhuo step forward. "Xiao Mu, if it won't wrap, add a little more rice and make it bigger. Or just pack it into a round shape."

Xiao Mu wasn't yet able to hold a normal conversation with Fang Zhuo, but he listened. Following her suggestion, he finally managed to shape the rice ball into something passable.

He sealed the edges carefully with paper, slipped it into a bag, and handed it to the customer without a word. Then he removed his gloves and immediately cleaned the work surface with a fresh towel, faithfully observing the cleanliness rules Ye Yuncheng had taught him.

The customer hadn't expected to receive such a heavy, solid bag. After waiting for a while without anyone asking for payment, he laughed helplessly. "How much is it? Is the boss daydreaming?"

Fang Zhuo had no idea how Ye Yuncheng had priced everything. She turned toward Xiao Mu and repeated the question beside his ear.

Pulled out of his self-reflection, Xiao Mu pointed at the ingredient trays. "This one fifty cents. This one fifty cents..."

Fang Zhuo quickly calculated the total. "Ten yuan fifty. Thank you."

"So cheap." The customer smiled. "Your pricing is way too honest."

Xiao Mu thought he was being praised. Awkwardly, he said, "It doesn't look good."

"You wrapped it really well! Xiao Mu, you're so clever with your hands.” Yan Lie immediately encouraged him. "Can you make one for me too? I haven't had lunch yet."

"How can you skip lunch?" Xiao Mu raised his head, his expression turning serious. "You can't skip lunch! I'll make one right now. Zhuozhuo, do you want one too?"

The customer kept casting sidelong glances over, perhaps finally noticed that Xiao Mu was different from most people. He fumbled in his pockets for a long moment before belatedly realizing he hadn't brought any cash at all. Embarrassed, he asked, "Can I use Alipay?"

"We need cash!" Xiao Mu said nervously. "You have to pay!"

Yan Lie took out his phone. "It's fine. Scan mine."

Just after the payment went through, Ye Yuncheng returned.

He put a bag into the drawer and said with a smile, "I just went to the bank to get some small change. You're here."

"How's business?" Fang Zhuo asked.

Ye Yuncheng nodded. "Pretty good. We're almost sold out. I'll need to buy more cucumbers and cook another batch of rice soon. We'll stay open longer tonight. People working nearby said they'd stop by after work."

Although it hadn't been his original intention, he had to admit that when passersby noticed his physical disability, they would proactively come over to patronize his business.

He didn't feel upset about it. It was other people's goodwill, and he accepted it as such. The only way he could repay it was by selling food that was fresh and clean.

"Good job today, Xiao Mu." Ye Yuncheng patted his shoulder. "Did everything go smoothly just now?"

A faint sheen of sweat covered Xiao Mu's nose. He said quietly, "I was nervous."

Yan Lie laughed, "I'll make a sign for the front. Something like: Don't put too many fillings in one rice ball or it won't wrap properly."

Xiao Mu nodded vigorously. Yan Lie went to a nearby stationery store to buy poster board.

"You two watch the stall for a bit," Ye Yuncheng said. "I'll go buy supplies."

There was visible fatigue on his face.

Yet his spirits had never seemed higher.

He couldn't sit still for even a moment.

---

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