【DTTM Team】 

『 Translator 』— KisekiBuy Me a Coffee ♥

『 Translation Checker 』— MidnightBuy Me a Coffee ★

『 Editor 』— KidyeonBuy Me a Coffee ♠

Chapter 5: Meeting? — Student Liang Ming Hao, you’re staying behind after school today.

?

As she’d stayed up late last night reading novels, Yang Wei took a nap until ten till two, which was when classes started.

She massaged her somewhat numb hand and patted her face; then, she packed up her class materials and left the office. When she reached the classroom for class 5-2, she stopped in front of the door, took a deep breathe, and put a smile on her face before opening the door and stepping into the classroom.

When the class prefect saw her enter, they enthusiastically shouted, “Stand up!”

The students all stood up simultaneously. “Hello, Teacher——”  

“Hello, students.” Yang Wei let everyone finish sitting down before she began her lesson, a smile ever present on her face. “Today, we’ll be learning about shapes. However, before we start, we need to first understand what type of shapes there are.” She picked up a couple differently-shaped fruits from the table in front of her and then began explaining to the class what types of shapes they were.

Seated in the last row, little Liang Ming Hao stealthily took out his phone from his desk and sent a WeChat message to his mother’s brother, 「Our art teacher is teaching stuff that only primary students will listen to again.」

Two minutes later, he received a reply. 「If I remember correctly, you’re a primary school student too.」

Liang Ming Hao: 「I’m a primary school student who’s already learned to sketch for two years.」  

Uncle: 「What I care about more is the fact that you can actually play with your phone during class?」  

「Technically, it’s not allowed…」 Liang Ming Hao had just finished typing this message, but he saw Yang Wei look toward him before he could send it. He instantly stuffed his phone into his bag and smiled at Yang Wei. Yang Wei returned his smile as she continued her lesson.

Once Yang Wei’s gaze had left him, Liang Ming Hao took out his phone again and deleted the line he’d just entered. He then sent his uncle a new message, 「On the other hand, our teacher is very beautiful, like Song Jin.」

Uncle: 「Who’s Song Jin?」  

Liang Ming Hao: 「You actually don’t know who Song Jin is?!」  

Once he’d conveyed his shock through this WeChat message, he looked up and discovered that Yang Wei was standing in front of him.

Yang Wei looked at him, a faint smile on her face. “Student Liang Ming Hao, you can’t play with your phone during class.”

Liang Ming Hao stowed his phone in his bag and then forced a smile as he said to Yang Wei, “I’m sorry, Teacher Yang. I won’t dare to do this again.”

Yang Wei nodded and then turned around to walk back to the podium with a smile. Liang Ming Hao immediately propped open his arts book on his desk and reached for his phone yet again.

“Now that you all understand the diversity and unity of shapes, we will now try to use different shapes to complete a piece of art…” Yang Wei glanced at Liang Ming Hao from her position at the podium as she was speaking. Hehehe, you think that I won’t be able to see you on your phone because of the book standing on your table?!

She inhaled and then continued whilst maintaining her smile, “Before we can create the artwork, we need to make a frame for it with our hands.”

While the rest of the class raised their hands and copied Yang Wei in making a rectangular frame to view a scene, Liang Ming Hao had finally received a reply from his uncle. This time, he’d received a voice message. He frowned, rummaged through his school bag for his earbuds, and then plugged them in once he’d found them.

【I just returned to the country.】  

Liang Ming Hao, being a helpful little angel, considerately searched for a photo of Song Jin for him and attached a comment to it when he sent it. 「She’s the female lead from 《A Soul Haunted by a Painting》 and this generation’s NEET goddess. Right now, it’s highly speculated that the lead actress for 《Youthful Era》 is her.」

Soon afterward, his uncle’s next voice message arrived. However, the moment he opened it, his earbuds were yanked at by someone walking by. As the tug was quite abrupt, the cable was immediately pulled out of his phone. Thus, his uncle’s clear, bright, and sweet-sounding voice resounded throughout the classroom.

【Does your teacher have a nice figure?】

Liang Ming Hao: “…”

He looked up at Yang Wei, who was standing in front of him, and dully curved his lips into a smile. “Hehe, the one he’s referring to is the math meacher, Teacher Luo.”

Yang Wei smiled tightly, grabbed his phone off of his desk, and then walked back to the podium. “Student Liang Ming Hao, you’re staying behind after school today.”

Liang Ming Hao: “…”

Once Yang Wei had finished her lesson, she had everyone begin on the artwork exercise themselves, then glanced at the cell phone sitting on her desk. Unexpectedly, it was the latest model from HoneyPeach (1), and was even newer than her phone. Meanwhile, Liang Ming Hao took out another phone from his school big—it was the simplest of models, a candybar phone (2). He typed out a message and then sent it to his uncle. 「Our teacher wants to meet you after school.」

Uncle: 「Can’t.」  

Liang Ming Hao was in the midst of typing another message when he received a second reply from his uncle. 「I’m guessing your HoneyPeach 10 was just confiscated.」

Liang Ming Hao: “…”

When class ended, Yang Wei gathered up the class materials and carried them close to her chest as she left. The moment she stepped out of the classroom, she dropped the smile she’d kept up and rubbed her cheeks. Smiling was painful…

She ran into Teacher Yao when she entered the office, whose expression became envious when she saw the HoneyPeach phone in Yang Wei’s hand. She commented, “I’m guessing that that’s Liang Ming Hao’s. His family really is wealthy.”

Yang Wei walked over to her chair, sat down, and drank some water in order to rehydrate herself. Teacher Yao walked over next to her and picked up the HoneyPeach phone to study. “What additional features does it have compared to the HoneyPeach 9?”

Yang Wei replied in a deadpan voice, “Fingerprint security. Supposedly it will automatically call the police station if someone other than its owner turns it on.”

Teacher Yao: “…”

She set the phone down, embarrassed, and went back to preparing for her next class.

Now that her classes for the day were done, Yang Wei was seriously debating between just sitting there until work hours had ended or preparing for tomorrow’s lessons in advance.

Afterward, she thought about getting off work.

Yang Wei left the student on duty in charge of keeping on eye on everyone and then led Liang Ming Hao to the office to wait for his guardian.

At the table in the office, Teacher Dai, the literature teacher, was currently in the middle of lecturing a student seated across from her. Yang Wei listened to her go from talking about ‘whether or not you should throw erasers at fellow classmates’ to ‘Mo Yan received a Nobel Prize in literature’ until a guardian came inside, all helter-skelter.

Unfortunately, it was that student’s guardian.

When they saw their despondent, guilty child, he immediately took the initiative to first apologize to Teacher Dai. “Teacher Ka, I’m sorry. My family’s child has caused you trouble once again!”

Pfft! Yang Wei nearly spat out the water she drinking as she barely restrained herself from laughing. Ling Ming Hao however, who was standing next to her, was already gasping for breath from laughing.

Teacher Dai forced down her red face and then corrected the guardian, “My surname is Dai!”

This time, even the child who was guilty moments ago couldn’t help but laugh.

Of course Teacher Dai was surnamed ‘Dai.’ However, the students were worried that she might get stuck every time she tried to go through the doorway to a classroom because of how plump she looked. Thus, they’d given her the nickname ‘Ka Men’ (3). Many of the parents unknowingly believed her surname to be ‘Ka’ after hearing their children call her it every day.

The guardian immediately apologized to Teacher Dai with an embarrassed expression, who proceeded to criticize them on educating their child, before finally allowing said child to return home once she’d assigned them an eight hundred character long self-reflection. As she was tidying up her things in preparation of getting off work, she glanced at Yang Wei. “When I’d just graduated, I also wished to be a young, beautiful, and charming teacher. However, can such a person truly exist? Even if they can, their outside appearance will surely differ from that of their inner reality.”

Teacher Yao, who was also preparing to leave, stealthily approached Yang Wei, and then whispered into her ear, “How come it seems like she’s pointing at the mulberry tree while cursing at the locust tree?” (4)

Yang Wei shrugged and faked ignorance.

Teacher Dai got up to follow Teacher Yao, who’d just picked up her bag and left. However, the moment she turned around, she saw another man open the door and step inside.

The man was quite tall, at least 1.8 meters. He was wearing a well-ironed, white-collared shirt, the collar casually popped open and with no loose threads visible. Soft black hair laid languidly across his forehead, while his enticing, double-lidded eyes held a light smile in them. Teacher Dao instantly felt as if her feminine heart had been struck despite lying dormant for a long time.

The man looked at Teacher Dai and pondered for two seconds. An enchanting smile then graced his face. “You must be Teacher Ka. Hello.”

“Pft, hahaha!” Liang Ming Hao’s laughter was even more irremediable than before this time, which caused Yang Wei to slip and giggle as well.

At that moment, the outside breeze blew in through the window and lightly tugged at Yang Wei’s flaxen hair, causing it to flutter in the sunlight.

The man in the doorway became absent-minded for a split second when he saw this.

Teacher Dao, finally at the end of her wits, suddenly screamed, “This old woman’s surname is Dai!”

The room fell silent as Teacher Dai furiously pushed the man aside and left. Yang Wei coughed dryly and stood up from her seat as she said, “You’re Liang Ming Hao’s…father?”

The man’s lips curved into a warm smile as he walked up to her. “I’m Hao Hao’s uncle, Fang Cheng Ran. His parents are currently abroad on a business trip, so I’m taking care of him for the time being.”

Liang Ming Hao’s head shot up to look at him, but he didn’t say anything.

“Oh, so it’s like that.” Yang Wei pensively nodded. Regardless of how beautiful his voice was, or how his intonation seemed to have no hesitancy, it was definitely the same voice that had come out of Liang Ming Hao’s phone earlier. She laughed gently in her heart as she said to Fang Cheng Ran, “Hell, Mr. Fang. My surname is Yang, and I’m the substitute teacher for class 5-2.”

“Hello, Teacher Yang.” Fang Cheng Ran flashed Yang Wei a smile and then extended his right hand, which Yang Wei symbolically grasped in a handshake.

Liang Ming Hao buried his head in his arms. He didn’t know what to think. Meanwhile, Yang Wei slid the HoneyPeach phone across the table and explained to Fang Cheng Ran, “School policy forbids cell phones from being brought into the classroom, but some consideration has been made for those whose guardians worry about them getting into an accident at school and being unable to contact them. As a result, we’ve implemented a relatively loose policy. However, that doesn’t mean that a student can be on their phone during class. Even though it’s only an art class, his sort of attitude towards learning isn’t proper.”

Fang Cheng Ran nodded and heavily approved of her words. “Teacher Yang’s words are right. I will definitely lecture him carefully when I return.”

Yang Wei smiled and then said to him, “Especially the people who talk to him, and who were discussing conversations topics that were in very poor taste.”

Fang Cheng Ran: “…”

He lowered his head to look Liang Ming Hao in the eye and then solemnly asked, “Who were you texting?”

Liang Ming Hao answered, “Uncle.”

Fang Cheng Ran continued to look at him, a dagger now hidden in his smile, before lifting his head up and saying to Yang Wei, “It must’ve been his older uncle. That person has never been socially acceptable, hehe.”

Yang Wei also chuckled. “Even though he’s exempted this time, if he’s caught playing on his phone in-class again, it will be confiscated until the end of the semester before it’s returned by him. Furthermore, for you to allow a student to bring such a precious phone to school…if he lost it, that would be very troublesome.”

“I understand. I’ll only permit him to use his candybar phone from now. I’m very sorry for causing Teacher Yang any trouble.” Fang Cheng Ran’s smile seemed warmer than the sunshine outside. Liang Ming Hao’s lips curved downward as he scoffed in his heart.

“Alright, then we’ll just leave it at this for today.” Yang Wei checked the time. It was nearly five o’clock, and she wanted to get off work early too.

Fang Cheng Ran said goodbye and then pulled Liang Ming Hao out of the door. However, after taking two steps, he turned around to ask, “Teacher Yao, might I be presumptuous to ask, is your full name Yang Wei?”

?

Author’s Note:

A male love interest appears on stage 🙂


Footnotes:

  1. (蜜桃) mìtáo; there’s not actually a phone brand called HoneyPeach or Mitao, but there is one called ‘Plum,’ which this may be a parody of.
  2. Also known as a flip phone
  3. Which literally translates to doorstopper…
  4. Idiom =  scolding something else indirectly, or making oblique accusations

Translator’s Note: I hope you guys are enjoying the novel!

Also, if you haven’t already, join us at the Truly Precious Universe Discord Server, where you can chat with fellow fans and the translation teams o/ (I also post random teases or spoiler facts if you’re curious)

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