Chapter 23: 23

Chapter 23: Teacher Lin’s Mission

At the time, Yin Chang was on a shoot modeling the latest trends for a fashion magazine.

Even though a light-weight sweater and jacket were commonly worn in autumn, the tight-fitting, white cotton against the pale-grey-mauve colored trench-coat that was cinched at his waist, made Yin Chang look particularly handsome and elegant. At the photographer’s direction, Yin Chang slightly raised his hand, exposing his wrist with a platinum gold watch, and extended his index finger up to gently place it on his thin lips.

“Very good! Perfect!”

When Yin Chang finished taking the set of photos, Lu Lingxuan greeted him. With anxiety, she commented: “Chief Yao just called and said your brother’s in trouble.”

Yin Chang frowned: “What happened?”

Lu Lingxuan replied: “I didn’t hear it very clearly. I am unsure if he was hurt or he hurt someone. President Yao is on a business trip now and can’t return so she asked me to tell you. You should call Teacher Lin after your photo shoot.”

Yin Chang: “Hmm, Give me your phone.”

“Now?” Lu Lingxuan asked with some hesitation. She didn’t want the call to negatively impact the photo shoot either emotionally or in practical terms as there was only twenty minutes left to make a clothing change and finish the shoot for the day.

However, Yin Chang had already extended his hand, palm out, expecting the phone. Lu Lingxuan had to comply and handed her phone to him.

As soon as the phone connected, Teacher Lin told Yin Chang on the phone what had happened. While the teacher reported the events, she sounded as anxious as Yin Chang felt. Shao Junling had bit a classmate.

“Bit? He bit someone?” With his eyes wide open, Yin Chang almost thought he hadn’t heard correctly.

“Yes, on the hand. The bite was quite deep and it drew a little blood.” Teacher Lin did not know how to explain the incident properly. The more she described what occurred the more embarrassed she felt telling it to him. “The student was taken to the doctor for a Tetanus shot.”

Since Yin Chang and Shao Junling have been living in harmony for more than a month, he completely forgot about the past comment from the Teacher at the Welfare Institute who once told him that Shao Junling was prone to biting.

When he heard about the child being taken to a doctor for a tetanus shot, he couldn’t believe it. After a moments silence, he recovered his thoughts and finally found his voice: “Why did Shao Junling bite him?”

“The specific reasons are still under investigation, ” Teacher Lin sighed, “I asked Shao Junling, but he said nothing. I think you’d better take the time to come pick him up.”

All this time, since Yin Chang knew Shao Junling’s background and temperament, he could be patience with his stubbornness. However, his patience would only last for so long if Shao Junling wasn’t able to obey and follow the rules.

The embodiment of gentleness that Yin Chang captured was shattered in a moment. His entire face turned rigid. With a serious tone he replied: “I’ll be over when I finish my work.”

The next set of clothing happened to match his current emotional state. A serious suit of formal black.

When Yin Chang finished his clothing change, the unsuspecting photographer was stunned motionless. He recovered and reacted by quickly picking up his camera and capturing the stern young man in the lens. Standing nearby, Lu Lingxuan muttered: “I have never seen such a natural newcomer who could grasp the needed emotion and change his temperament so quickly from one extreme to the next.”

With tears of joy, Lu Lingxuan cried quietly. It was a natural response okay?

At 5 o’clock in the evening, Yin Chang had no time to eat. He drove from the photo shoot directly to Dee-International school.

When Yin Chang arrived, Teacher Lin had a detailed understanding of the causes and consequences of the incident. The teacher also took the opportunity to tell Yin Chang about the progress of Shao Junling’s school work of the past ten days.

Since Teacher Lin knew of Shao Junling’s background and that he was joining the class in the middle of the term, the teacher wanted to make him feel welcomed. As a result, the teacher told the class ahead of time and carefully prepared a friendly environment for him

“After you left, I took Shao Junling to the class. Although he didn’t speak much, he performed quite well. The students welcomed him and he smiled.”

“He Smiled?” Yin Chang had known Shao Junling for over a month and he had never seen Shao Junling smile before. The lack of emotional expression made Yin Chang suspected that his facial muscles had never developed properly.

“It’s the kind of faint smile,” Teacher Lin explained and gestured with an example. “As teachers, we learn to watch children’s expressions. We may be more sensitive to the details and actions of our children than the average person. That kind of smile may not be seen by most people, but I can feel it. He was much more relaxed than when he got out of your car.”

Yin Chang thought the teacher of Dee-International was very professional. His tuition wasn’t paid in vain.

But the Teacher continued, “it may be  a result of Shao Junling’s  lack of social experience. No matter how enthusiastic the students were to him, he wouldn’t even answer them.”

Over the course of three days, Teacher Lin felt the class’s enthusiasm for Shao Junling faded. It’s well understood that people were social animals and if Shao Junling’s behavior kept his classmates at an arms-length, he would become isolated sooner rather than later.

In response, Teacher Lin wracked her brain to come up with a new plan. In order to make him feel welcomed, she thought of a creative way to include him. She arranged a task for the class called, ‘be a buddy for the day’. Each child was assigned a day to be with Shao Junling.  At the end of the day, the child would write down their experiences with Shao Junling then give the summary to the teacher.

The elementary school department of Dee-International school had small class sizes with less then two dozen kids in each class. In order to help him improve, the disguised reporting was intended to inform Teacher Lin on how Shao Junling was doing from a kids’ point of view. At the end of the month, the plan was for Shao Junling to select the best buddy and Teacher Lin was going to give a friendship reward.

At the beginning, his classmates were all very active and positive about the prospect. Teacher Lin was really hopeful for Shao Junling to change from his current lonely character to a more sociable one. However, the teacher didn’t expect the implemented task would go awry on the seventh day.

Xue Zi was the child with whom Shao Junling had the altercation with. Although Teacher Lin couldn’t divulge specific details as it was private information of a student, when Yin Chang asked for his background, she did tell Yin Chang that he was a spoiled young boy that was raised with a golden spoon.

Since Teacher Lin had a lot of experience with children, she knew that while he was fierce on the outside, Xue Zi was the type of child that was all bark and no bite. Unlike Shao Junling, who grew up quickly to survive. He was a totally different species.

According to the children’s account of the incident, the two of them were getting along just fine in the morning. Xue Zi had brought one of his own books from home to share with Shao Junling.  They don’t know why they suddenly fought.

Since Shao Junling had always been rather reticent, no one heard him speak. Instead, they heard Xue Zi yelling, “Yes he is! Is so!”

Shao Junling was a first-year student who was behind academically at school. Therefore, even though they were about the same height, he was two years older than Xue Zi. In fact, Xue Zi was heavier than Shao Junling. Even so, Shao Junling was still stronger than him.

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It was reported that Shao Junling first scratched Xue Zi twice and then bit him hard which caused Xue Zi to cry. After the Tetanus injection, his driver came to the school to pick him up to bring him home. Teacher Lin called Xue Zi’s parents to apologize and they naturally expected an explanation.

Fortunately, Xue Zi’s parents were very sensible. Although they were distressed about their son’s injury, they recognized that the children themselves had to work it out. Since Dee-International was a prestigious private school, the parents knew that the student body at the school weren’t the kind of kids that were trouble-makers.

As long as the school facilitated an apology from Shao Junling, Xue Zi’s parents were satisfied with the outcome. Frankly, if Shao Junling was in the wrong, it was necessary for him to ask for forgiveness and seriously apologize to Xue Zi. In addition, coming forward to apologize with proper compensation, if necessary, would greatly ease the relationship, not only between the boys, but between the two families as well.

Yin Chang remembered the time in High School when he and Evan had a conflict with each other over football. Yao Manhuai solved the problem in a similar fashion. Afterwards, they had become good friends.

Distressed over the conflict, Teacher Lin continued to explain: “We still don’t know exactly why they fought. I think they quarreled over something specific and he might have been provoked otherwise, Shao Junling would have done it to the other kids in the class before. If Shao Junling was made to apologize over something that he didn’t do wrong, then I think he’d get upset.”

Yin Chang’s eyebrows raised in thought. What Teacher Lin speculated wasn’t unreasonable, but Shao Junling biting another student was a fact. A verbal debate that escalated into a disagreement was one thing; causing physical harm was another matter.

“So, what should we do now?” Yin Chang asked.

Teacher Lin sighed: “You’re here.  Maybe you should see Shao Junling first and talk to him yourself. Actually, since I haven’t known Shao Junling for all that long, perhaps, he doesn’t trust me enough to tell me what had happened. However, you’re his brother. Your standing with him is different from me. Surely, he would tell you what happened.”

Yin Chang smiled bitterly. After he brought Shao Junling back from the orphanage, they probably only spoke about one-hundred sentences together. Out of the hundred sentences, ninety percent of them were Yin Chang’s.

Teacher Lin stood up to lead Yin Chang into the classroom next door.

As if he knew he had made a mistake, when Shao Junling saw Yin Chang, his first reaction was to shrink himself to make himself smaller. However, unlike his body language, his eyes did not convey any sense of guilt at all. Instead, he seemed to be happy?

It didn’t matter to Yin Chang that he couldn’t figure out the contradiction properly. The fact was, Shao Junling didn’t have an expression of wrongdoing.

“I heard you bit someone?” He looked at Shao Junling sternly. Even though he felt relieved when he saw the boy didn’t have any wounds on him, he remained firm, “How could you?”

While listening to Yin Chang’s obvious reproachable tone, Shao Junling slowly pursed his lips in stubbornness.

As Teacher Lin looked on from the side, she knew the correct moment to remind Yin Chang: “Your brother has something to ask.”

Yin Chang stared at Shao Junling for a moment before asking him what had happened during the day to cause him to bite Xue Zi. Silent, Shao Junling kept his eyes down. After a few more questions, Yin Chang knew that it was useless to ask more. If not for Teacher Lin’s presence, he really wanted to interrogate Shao Junling, throttle him, and force him to admit his wrongdoing.

“Teacher Lin, forget it…… I think it will be better to wait for Yao Manhuai to come back from her business trip,” Yin Chang said, shaking his head with dismay. “I’d better go with her to formally apologize to his parents.”

He wanted to resolve the issue by himself, but suddenly felt like his eighteen-year-old self wasn’t going to be taken seriously.

Teacher Lin said helplessly: “Well, I’ll see what I can do on my end.”

In the end, Yin Chang couldn’t just do nothing. He approached Shao Junling and squatted down. Squinting, he reached out to squeeze his cheeks together and threatened: “Remember what happened with your nails? What will we do now, now that you have bit someone?”

Shao Junling: “…!!!”

__________

The author has something to say:【Vignette】

On Shao Junling’s first day of school, the children warmly welcomed him.

He sized-up the whole class on the first day — No one hit him. Easy 

Teacher Lin: Let’s make a game called “Shao Junling’s buddy for a day”, shall we?

Children (a naive face): Good!

On the first day, a girl was enthusiastically beside Shao Junling….

Shao Junling: Annoying (=_=)

The next day, a boy was enthusiastically beside Shao Junling….

Shao Junling: Very annoying (=_=)

……

On the seventh day, Xue Zi asked (to show off): Do you know who I am?

Shao Junling: What? Don’t mess with me. I’ve been in a bad mood recently. (╰_╯)

Xue Zi asked: Come on~ (flirting with danger)

Shao Junling: Aooo. (╰w╯)

Xue Zi cried: Whaaa! Teacher he bit me! (兀口兀)

Shao Junling: I warned you, but you didn’t believe me. (* ￣︿￣)

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