The December north wind howls across the empty playground, as if the whole world owes it money. The air is filled with snowflakes mixed with ice particles, hitting people in the face and knocking them over.
With the low temperatures and the biting north wind, only one figure could be seen on the vast playground of Beixing City No. 1 High School, steadfastly squatting in the middle of the field.
Perhaps to reduce the area of contact with the old north wind, the figure dressed in a heavy black down jacket crouched very low, curling up into a solid ball.
More than five minutes have passed since the class bell rang, but his dear classmates are still nowhere to be seen.
Qin Cheng forced himself not to tremble and waited for another two minutes.
Looking around, there wasn’t a single living thing on the playground except for him squatting there like an idiot.
What else was there to not understand?
Qin Cheng, with trembling hands, took out his phone from his pocket. The moment his warm hand touched the old north wind, they were instantly chilled to the bone. Out of nowhere, a thought popped out of his mind; Pickled pepper chicken feet[mfn]泡椒鳳爪 (pào jiāo fèng zhuǎ): Pickled pepper chicken feet. 
T/N: LMAO This pickled pepper chicken feet may seems abrupt, but it illustrate QC’s goosebumps[/mfn], cool, sour, and spicy, giving you a different summer experience!
The phone was also freezing to death, and the fingerprint unlock feature was completely useless. Qin Cheng entered the password wrong three times before finally getting it right. Scrolling through the contacts was like having Parkinson’s disease; when he reached the last contact in the ‘T’ row, he just dialed it directly.
The other side picked up quickly, with laughter in the background, clearly in a cozy office: “Hey? Where have you been, Ge? I just went to the sports team to look for you, but you weren’t there.”
“Tan Qi’er, you’re done for,” Qin Cheng sniffed, his nose almost freezing, speaking in a hoarse voice as if he had returned to the days when he was the unyielding Qin-ge at the Fifth High School a few years ago. “You’re done for.”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t, my dear Ge, let me explain,” Tan Qi leaned back in his chair, suppressing his laughter, and spoke nonsense with a straight face. “Just think about it, Teacher Zhang teaches math, and you teach PE. How many points does math worth in the college entrance exam? How many points does PE worth? Which is more important? Besides, Teacher Zhang has a heavy teaching load, so I need to give her more time, right? Even if it’s not for this reason, I have to think about the future of our class!”
“You’re talking nonsense, you’re just greedy for other’s body, you’re a shameless person!” Qin Cheng stood up and was about to leave, but his legs had gone numb from the cold, almost causing him to kneel before the vast expanse of heaven and earth.
“You can’t just say whatever you want,” Tan Qi said, leaning against the office window facing the playground, vigorously waving his hands. “Anyone with eyes can see my sincerity towards you over these past twenty years. Just look at how hard I’m waving my arms!”
“Roll,” Qin Cheng raised his middle finger towards the window on the third floor, but after just a second, he retracted it, “What illness do I have this time?”
“I told them that their beloved Teacher Qin ate some grilled cold noodles from outside the school, got gastroenteritis, and had to be on an IV drip for a week,” Tan Qi said seriously. Having been a homeroom teacher for over three years, he had also been telling lies for over three years. He had mastered the art of knowing when their gym teacher was sick and what illness he had to a T. “Don’t you think my reason is like killing two birds with one stone? It not only makes them feel sorry for you but also preventing them from eating the unsanitary grilled cold noodles at the entrance?”
“Did you eat less?” Qin Cheng couldn’t be bothered to scold him anymore. With long strides, he quickly walked into the teaching building. The usually barely functioning heating in the hall felt like a lifeline, warming Teacher Qin’s cold heart.
“Don’t be mad, Ge,” Tan Qi’s little abacus[mfn]小算盤 (xiǎo suàn pán): lit. small abacus; fig. selfish calculations; bean-counting; petty scheme; small calculation; minor plan; trivial calculation.[/mfn] clicked away. “Isn’t Christmas coming up in a couple of days? I want to take Teacher Zhang out for a meal and maybe watch a movie… I don’t usually watch movies, but you and Jian Heng always go, so recommend a romantic one for me.”
“Midnight Horror[mfn]午夜驚魂 (wǔ yè jīng hún): T/N: I can’t find the film in English, but according to Baidu here, this is a thriller produced by Huayi Film and Television Studio and Baoding Zhongshi Culture Co., Ltd., directed by new director Chen Hua. It is a thriller suspense that is linked together by a series of thriller events. The film consists of four stories: “Hotel Ghost”, ” Infant Ghost”, “Ghost Call”, and “Killing”. All of the stories are based on real experiences of friends and netizens. They are more down-to-earth and real. At the same time, the film promotes positive energy and encourages people to be kind and do more good deeds.[/mfn],” Qin Cheng said.
“Fu——my God!” Tan Qi exclaimed, his curse word taking an awkward turn. For a moment, unable to turn back, he said in an old-fashioned translation style: “Midnight? So intense? Oh my god! My goodness! I’m still a minor!”
Qin Cheng was convinced by him. It’s really common for people to turn themselves into fools when they fall in love, and even a love genius is no exception.
After hanging up the phone, Qin Cheng, who was originally heading back to the sports office, paused his steps, turned a corner to the third floor, and headed to the restroom to smoke a cigarette first.
Recently, his craving for cigarettes has been getting a bit out of control, and he can’t resist smoking a pack a day. Jian Heng said he would officially help him quit next week, so he need to make the most of this week and smoke enough to get his fill.
Qin Cheng glanced and saw a student standing in the corner of the bathroom. He was wearing a first-year high school uniform, and with a unique flair, he had written ‘Pride’ on the left shoulder of his uniform and drawn something that looked like either a dragon or a long worm underneath it.
Qin Cheng used his knowledge to judge that he drew a dragon or a long worm over his shoulder. This student might be trying to become the campus big brother.
The things that young people nowadays think about are becoming more and more incomprehensible to him.
The moment the boy saw him, Qin Cheng felt that he took less than a second to deal with the cigarette in his hand.
Skilled worker.
“Teacher Qin,” the boy, upon realizing it was him, visibly relaxed and walked over with a familiar grin, “I thought it was someone else!”
Qin Cheng took out a cigarette from his pocket, put one in his mouth, lit it, took a deep puff, and then slowly exhaled: “You still remember me? I thought you didn’t know I was a teacher.”
“We are so close, and you’ve even taught me a lesson before. Teacher, the running start you taught me last time was amazing,” the boy clearly wasn’t afraid of him. He stepped closer and cheerfully pulled out a pack of Chunghwa cigarettes[mfn]軟中華 (ruǎn zhōng huá): lit. soft china. Chunghwa Is a Chinese cigarettes brand produced by the Shanghai Tobacco Group, a subsidiary of China Tobacco. Chunghwa is marketed as a premium brand, the package design is a bright red color with the Tiananmen and its Huabiao pillars in gold on the front. “Chunghwa”, or Zhonghua, is one of the common names for China. As a result, advertisements usually use the name as a pun, though this practice has been controversial. For example, the slogan “Love Our Chunghwa” could also translate as “Love Our China” and could therefore be used as an advertisement. The cigarettes smell like plums and are reported to have been the preferred cigarette brand of Mao Zedong. The Chunghwa brand can be considered to be a status symbol, and the cigarettes are often given as gifts.[/mfn] from his pocket and handed it over. “Teacher, try this.”
Qin Cheng has been sick every day, barely teaching a few classes this semester. It was almost the end of the semester and the teachers in each class were scrambling to let him rest, so he falls ill every few days.
This student said that he had taught him, but that must have been over a month ago. Even if you take into account holidays, illnesses and so on. It was definitely not that he was irresponsible; it was just that there were only a few classes, and he couldn’t remember hundreds of students.
“Smoking something this good?” Qin Cheng held the cigarette in his mouth, casually picked up a pack of Chunghwa cigarettes and looked it over. The frugal and thrifty Teacher Qin had never seen anything like it; apart from the cigarette that Jian Heng smoked, which smelled remarkably similar to his pheromones, he had never smoked anything this expensive.
“Not bad,” the boy said with a feigned nonchalance and coolness, but his lack of experience couldn’t hide the smugness in his eyes. “After all, we’re all in the same line of work. What they pulled out is more expensive than yours. How embarrassing.”
“Oh ho,” Qin Cheng chuckled, “there’s such a saying?”
Back then, when he smoked five-yuan-a-pack cigarettes, no one dared to say ‘disgraceful’ to him. Now, this group of younger students, who are not very mature, but they have a lot of demands.
The boy nodded seriously, his face full of solemnity, which almost made Qin Cheng laugh out loud, but he managed to hold it in.
You can’t use a condescending, know-it-all attitude to mock students; instead, you should guide them and not look down on them. This is the quality of a people’s teacher. Although he teach physical education, he’s still a teacher.
“Thank you, I’ll confiscate it.” Qin Cheng casually tossed the entire pack of cigarettes, and like that bottle of cola from years ago, it traced a perfect parabolic arc before landing in the nearby trash can.
“Ah? Teacher, what are you doing?” The boy, looking pained, couldn’t hold back any longer, “This is money!”
“As the Master of the Dao, I’ll tell you,” Qin Cheng looked at him, his expression still quite amiable, “When I was your age, I won people over with virtue, and it was more effective than a Chunghwa cigarette.”
The boy was taken aback for a moment, clearly not having reacted to the phrase ‘Master of the Dao’.
“PE teachers are also teachers,” Qin Cheng said as he put down his cigarette. “Besides, our PE teachers are all reserve moral education teachers, so consider this as practice. Next time you see me, you better straighten up your attitude.”
The boy finally understood and, still a bit unconvinced, said: “I heard it from the last class.”
“You only hear them say how good I am, right?” Qin Cheng stubbed out his cigarette, chuckled, and glanced at him. “Go back and ask again, which of the classes I teach dares to skip my PE classes?”
The boy shuddered, suddenly remembering the last words the seniors had said to him: If you don’t want to die in Teacher Qin’s class, don’t skip it. If he happens to be in the same class as Teacher Tan, and you’re unlucky enough to be in Teacher Tan’s class, you’d better not skip any of the six subjects.
“Go back to class,” Qin Cheng poked him on the forehead. “Being tough has nothing to do with whether you have money or not. Being good at fighting is useless if you can’t study well. Right now, you’re just a student, so focus on your studies. Fists are meant for dealing with idiots, not for showing off.”
The boy with the shoulder-length hair seemed lost in thought, said goodbye to the teacher, and ran outside. Qin Cheng wasn’t sure if he was running out to skip class or to attend class.
Anyway, since there’s nothing to do tomorrow, let’s check the surveillance room. This batch of students still doesn’t understand Teacher Qin’s character.
After finishing his cigarette, Qin Cheng didn’t return to the sports division but directly turned around and entered the Chinese division. When he pushed open the door, Tan Qi was sitting at his desk discussing tomorrow’s class meeting with a male teacher across from him, and the discussion was quite intense.
“Then, we need to give the students some freedom. Early love, to put it simply, is just little kids holding hands, controlling——” Halfway through his sentence, Tan Qi’s 24k dog eyes[mfn]24k狗眼 (24K gǒu yǎn): T/N: Most likely means 24k鈦合金狗眼 (24K tài hé jīn gǒu yǎn), lit. 24k titanium alloy dog eyes; used to describe the visual impact brought by strange things. Titanium Alloy Dog Eye is derived from 氪金狗眼 (kè jīn gǒu yǎn), lit. Krypton Gold Dog Eye; Krypton Gold refers to the game props of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Krypton Gold is the most precious metal in the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Collecting Krypton Gold requires a certain amount of luck and the price is incredibly expensive. Therefore, Krypton Gold Dog Eye refers to an extremely high-level ‘Dog Eye’. Titanium Alloy Dog Eye is easier to understand and accept for non-WOW players. Netizens use this phrase to mock themselves after seeing various brain-dead phenomena and various frustrations, and the descriptions of various materials imply the shocking, incomprehensible, and brain-dead degree of the event. In fact, there are no such types of dog eyes in WOW.[/mfn] caught sight of his Qin-ge, and he immediately stood up, pulling a chair over while talking, smiling enthusiastically, “Hey, Ge, Teacher Qin, you’ve worked hard. The wind outside didn’t blow you away, did it?”
“Not bad,” Qin Cheng nodded to the other teacher as a greeting, sat down in Tan Qi’s chair, and said, “A couple of hot pot meals can help me recover.”
The Chinese teacher next to him is a gentle and quiet male omega named Han Yang, with a particularly gentle voice. He’s been watching their banter for years and can’t help but laugh every time: “Teacher Qin specializes in defeating Teacher Tan.”
Tan Qi waved his hand dramatically, “He’s been my nemesis for over twenty years. Teacher Qin is like my elder brother. If it weren’t for our enlightenment and turning over a new leaf together, we would both be key subjects of observation by the Jinhua City Public Security Bureau right now.”
Qin Cheng found it quite amusing when he said that. He had to be be worthy of the name of teacher at school, after all, and he barely managed to hold back from saying ‘idiot’.
After a while, he said: “I just checked the schedule, we have a PE class on Christmas afternoon.”
Tan Qi immediately chimed in: “Let’s go with PE! Our PE teacher is both handsome and healthy, he definitely won’t get sick on Christmas Day!”
Qin Cheng nodded in satisfaction, and then continued: “When I rode my bike here this morning, I picked up a movie flyer. The writing on it was particularly exquisite.”
Tan Qi’s eyes widened: “Particularly exquisite?”
Qin Cheng nodded earnestly: “I haven’t seen that movie yet, but based on my years of movie-watching experience, just looking at that promotional slogan moved me to tears. It definitely deserves a perfect score. And besides, I saw that the great director is returning to the screen after many years with a representative work. It can’t be bad.”
“Big director?” Tan Qi felt relieved, “That’s good, this wave is stable. Ge, do you have money in WeChat? I’ll transfer it to you via Alipay.”
“Yes, the seats are reserved for couples?” Qin Cheng cheerfully took out his phone, “Ge treat you well, right?”
“What are you saying Ge?” Tan Qi looked at the ticket page and grinned foolishly, as if he had just watched the movie, “You’re my real Ge.”
Qin Cheng laughed for half the day without saying a word.
[dropdown title=”List of Idiom in Extra 4.1″]
形同虛設 (xíng tóng xū shè): ineffectual; futile; with the setup or appearance but without the intended utility; set up but useless; to exist in name only; empty shell; be a mere formality; be nominal; although it exists in form, it is ineffective.一箭雙鵰 (yī jiàn shuāng diāo): lit. one arrow, two golden eagles (idiom); to kill two birds with one stone; to do one task and finish two or more goals; shoot two hawks with one arrow.
比比皆是 (bǐ bǐ jiē shì): can be found everywhere; many; ubiquitous; common; widespread; prevalent; describing something that is extremely common.
高高在上 (gāo gāo zài shàng): set up on high (idiom); (originally) high aloft; (now commonly) setting oneself high above the masses; not in touch with the common people or reality; aloof and remote; From the Classic of Poetry, poem 288 (《詩經·周頌·敬之》): 敬之敬之，天維顯思，命不易哉。 無曰高高在上，陟降厥士，日監在茲。, Let me be reverent, let me be reverent, [in attending to my duties]; [The way of] Heaven is evident, And its appointment is not easily [preserved]. Let me not say that It is high aloft above me. It ascends and descends about our doings; It daily inspects us wherever we are.
以德服人 (yǐ dé fú rén): to convince people by virtue; win people by virtue; overcome people with virtue; compel submission by kindness; overcome people with virtue; to use good virtue to make the people submit and obey the ruler.
熱情洋溢 (rè qíng yáng yì): brimming with enthusiasm (idiom); ebullient; full of warmth; glow/overflow with enthusiasm; be permeated/brimming with warm feelings; be brimful/full of enthusiasm; with great fervour; passionate emotions are fully revealed.
[/dropdown]Check out my completed & current project at my carrd. If you like my translation, you can buy me coffee at Ko-fi~ Thank you.
