Chapter 14 The Disappearing Teacher Before dawn, my brother took me to the dining table and opened the first-grade textbook to teach me how to read my first pinyin. In front of the dim oil lamp, I pronounced the awkward a, o, e, while my brother patiently taught me again and again, and my mother looked at us with satisfaction in the kitchen. At breakfast, I once again broke my breakfast record by stuffing two bowls of both meat and vegetable food into my mouth. After the meal, I went out with my brother. The road to school was bumpy, up and down, and winding. Every time I walked for a while, my brother would stop and wait for me. While walking and stopping, many children who were going to school also came out from their homes and formed a road for the students to go to school. Everyone was happy and chatting, but I was the only one who was nervous. In the classroom, almost all the students were there, and I quickly sat down in my seat. I heard the laughter of several girls and the shouting of several boys. I couldn't hear what they said clearly, but the words "witch girl, Bai Tian" were very clear... I forced myself to calm down. After a while, the class bell rang and I took a deep breath. Suddenly, a young male teacher with dark skin, faded gray clothes and half-worn Liberation shoes came in. He walked up to the podium and introduced himself: "My last name is Li. I am your substitute teacher from the mountain primary school. Because Teacher Wang has family matters, I will not be teaching for the time being." Teacher Li stood in front of the desk and scanned the classroom with a very stern look. The students looked at each other in silence. "Now, let's get to know everyone first, Wu Lanlan, Chen Chao, Yang Baitian..." After calling the roll, Teacher Li began the class. I didn't dare to relax the whole time, and wrote down all the new knowledge one by one. During the self-study period, Teacher Li walked around the classroom, reviewing everyone's reading situation. When he walked to my desk, he stopped, suddenly bent down and asked softly: "Are you Baitian from Shijiawan?" I looked at him guiltily, and immediately lowered my head to look at the book, and my heart couldn't help but beat wildly again. I can't be so unlucky that the new teacher can also target me. When the bell rang, everyone was excited. Unexpectedly, Teacher Li turned around and said, "Bai Tian, come to my office." My hand, stretched out lazily, froze in mid-air... "The teacher is calling you, go quickly." Zhang Jiang, the boy sitting next to me, looked at me with a smile.
"Haha, that witch is going to be tricked." Several classmates also started to make a noise. I stood up, glared at them, and went to the teacher's office tremblingly. "Bai Tian girl, you're here? Please sit down." Teacher Li put down the textbook and walked over. I didn't sit, I just looked at him quietly. "Haha, don't be afraid. You don't know me, but I know your father. Uncle Seven often comes to my house to play. When I was in school, Uncle Seven was very nice to me, which is why I was admitted to high school." Teacher Li smiled at me. I looked at him nervously: "Well, if I can't do my homework, will you hit me?" "Have you ever been beaten?" Teacher Li's youthful face was full of astonishment. I would not admit it, I just blinked and asked curiously: "Then, will Teacher Wang come back?" "Are you eager to know? She might come tomorrow," he said with a smile. When I heard that, I was completely stunned. "Oh, the little girl is also afraid of the teacher. Well, she probably won't come again, okay?" He raised his eyebrows at me, picked up the book next to him, and motioned me to sit down. I sat down carefully. I don't know if it was because of the nervousness in the teacher's office or the excitement of hearing that Teacher Wang would not come again, but I didn't sit firmly and fell to the ground. "Haha, Baitian, you are exactly the same as when you were a kid. Come here, I will teach you to learn today's lesson again." Teacher Li picked me up from the ground with a smile, gently placed me on his lap, and then urged me to study word by word. I still remember how happy it felt to sit on the teacher's lap, how rare it was to have such a thing. His pleasant soapberry fragrance, his serious and youthful face, the black pen held in his slightly rough and bony fingers... all of them were like a wisp of spring breeze blowing a seed of happiness in my ignorant childhood, which took root and sprouted. When I returned to the classroom, my classmates all looked at me strangely, whispering to each other, wondering how I could come back intact. Alas, I didn't expect that in the first two days of school, I would experience the extremes of life. After yesterday's twisting of the ear by Teacher Wang, who wanted to kill me, and today's gentle teaching of homework by Teacher Li... I couldn't tell whether it was a dream or reality. As soon as school was over, I was the first one to rush out, pulling my brother's hand to go home. "Hey, hey, silly sister, what's wrong with you today?" My brother was pulled all over the place by me. "Hey, Brother Baitian, um, Xiaotian said that your sister is a fool." Lanlan, who had hardly said a word, suddenly came over, pinching the hem of her pretty clothes. Her goose-shaped face was rosy and she even had earrings on her ears. She looked at her brother shyly. "What? Which bastard dares to say that about my sister?" My brother lifted his clothes and threw them over his shoulders, and stuffed his schoolbag into my arms. "Brother, what are you doing? I want to go home." I didn't want to stay in this school any longer, and my brother's action made me very anxious. "Look, Xiaotian is over there under the apricot tree. Let's go find him." Lanlan excitedly grabbed her brother's hand and ran over.
Under the apricot tree, Xiaotian, who was playing with a few boys, was kicked to the ground by my brother. Before he could get up, he was stepped on again by my brother. Zhang Jiang, who was on the side, was about to come up and grab my brother's belt, but my brother turned around and kicked him in the knee. He groaned in pain. "Open your eyes, all of you. If anyone dares to touch my sister or say anything inhumane, I will kill him. If you are not satisfied, you can go to your teacher, and your father and mother can come to me. I will not change my surname or name, and it will be Yang Ziyu." After saying that, he took my hand and was about to leave. "Hey, Bai, Brother Bai Tian, I..." Lan Lan called softly. "Oh, by the way, don't bother this classmate in the future. Thank you, Baitian." Her brother smiled at her coolly. "My name is Du Lanlan." Lanlan looked at my brother with a red face, a little shy and more uneasy. My brother looked at her in confusion: "Oh, Lanlan, right?" Lanlan tangle her clothes with her little fingers, suddenly stomped her foot, said, "Oh, okay, see you tomorrow", then turned and ran away. "Girl, why is Lanlan in your class so weird?" The brother scratched his head. (End of this chapter)