CoP CH6

For a moment, Sui Cannong’s heart seemed to halt. 

Hold on, what did he mean when he said that he “I won’t have a need for any more in the future”? What kind of person would ever say something like this? Sui Cannong felt within himself a sudden chill within his limbs. His hands and feet ached with cold sweat suddenly- carrying within them a faint quiver. There could be no explanation that could be applied to such speech. The series of events made no sense. 

What circumstance would a situation warrant a person to say “I won’t have a need for any more in the future”? May it be that these words were genuine, and they were said sincerely because the materials truly did not matter anymore? Or… was this a case of one believing that they had no future at all? Had he been anticipating his own departure from the world? And from life itself?

Because Sui Cannong had been afk for too long; Ji Ling had begun to voice his confusion from the other side of the screen. 

“Mr. Sui?” He called out, tentatively. 

This caused Sui Cannong to snap out of his daze, responding with a short noise of acknowledgement. He was aware that it wasn’t appropriate to deny Ji Ling’s goodwill for any longer. Thus he clicked ‘accept’ on the incoming gift. Ore was immediately deposited into his account. 

In a subdued tone he said a quiet, “thank you.”

Ji Ling responded with, “you’re welcome.” 

Upon confirming that Sui Cannong had collected his gift; Ji Ling was noticeably more at ease. He no longer said anything, instead opting to playing around with his newly gained Petit butterfly. Petit butterfly was moved around by his joystick to continue his silent reading within the garden of Sui Cannong.   

To him, the shiny new ores in his inventory may as well be mountains of explosives. 

“Mr. Ji, when you do so much for me, I feel a bit guilty.” Sui Cannong worded his sentences delicately, “please tell me… is it that… you have any difficulties in your life? Is there any way I could help make things better?”

Sui Cannong noticed that Ji Ling’s in-game avatar had stopped its motions of chopping at a tree. However, Ji Ling’s reply came plainly as it did the last time, 

“No.”

Sui Cannong had his doubts this time. Additionally, he was also aware that his motives would be too obvious if he were to continue to inquire.

He thought about it for a moment, then said, “you know, everyone has worries of their own. I’m no exception. I too have had many troubles recently.” Sui Cannong saw that once again Ji Ling’s chopping had slowed to a stop. Ji Ling asked, “What troubles?” 

“For example…… I’ve yet to decide on science fair topics for any of my three science classes.” Sui Cannong exhaled, full of resignation. “These grade ten children are quite the handful. They insisted on doing a project related to hatching eggs, and they didn’t want to act as eggs themselves. No no, they wanted the real thing. They held Sui Yingjun in their arms and studied for a whole class trying to figure out how to make him lay eggs.”

“The issue is that Sui Yingjun is male, and there’s one of him and three classes worth of students. Despite that, I can’t bring myself to tell everyone that they can’t do that oology lab.” Sui Cannong paused, then added belatedly, “Oh, and for clarification’s sake, Sui Yingjun is my–”

“Your turtle.” Ji Ling’s voice transmitted through the phone, “you’ve mentioned this to me.”

Sui Cannong stilled a moment, he had only now recalled the faintest memory of himself once mentioning it at the cafe the other time. He had not anticipated Ji Ling remembering it. 

“I am aware,” he heard Ji Ling say. “Children tend not to consider whether or not a task is feasible, yet we as teachers must not negate their thoughts before it is explored.” 

The phrase struck a resonant chord deep within Sui Cannong. Perhaps it was because he rarely chanced upon the opportunity of a person who could listen so exceptionally well, but somehow Sui Cannong found himself revealing to Ji Ling his own bucket of torrential lamentation. 

“And tomorrow, I am hosting a joint class with Robert. We had initially planned for our students to perform a lab.” Sui Cannong said, “although it turns out that Robert was due for a doctor’s visit, and now I alone have become responsible for supervising a class of about forty or so students. I am unfamiliar with many of the names of the children in Robert’s class.” He put a hand to his forehead, “I say this not because I mind the additional effort; only that I see myself unable to tend to everyone’s needs. I fear the inevitable of there being students unable to receive personalised guidance.” 

He began to chip idly away at the tree in front of him, and in his mutterings he said, “I am unused to hosting labs for entire classes. What if, what if these children fumble their way through the lab tomorrow; such a wonderful opportunity would surely be wasted……” 

“Is it not possible to postpone the lab?” Ji Ling asked. 

“Sure I could, but if I really were to do so, it would result in the event being delayed all the way till next week.” Sui Cannong sighed, “these kids, they’ve been asking for a hands-on experiment since last week. It’s impossible to miss their enthusiasm during the past couple of days. I have been constantly graced with their eager offers asking me if they could help me water the plants and feed the fish.”

After he said so much, Sui Cannong felt somewhat ashamed of himself. He originally intended to use himself as an example for Ji Ling to follow and open up about the way he truly felt. Yet from an unknown moment, Sui Cannong had begun to honestly speak about himself. 

“Ah, well I’m not saying this is anything major, it’s really nothing much.” Sui Cannong was a little flushed from shame, “then what about you, you–” 

“Mr. Sui.” Ji Ling’s interruption came suddenly. 

Sui Cannong was taken aback for a moment, then turned his attention back. He saw Ji Ling’s game character suddenly stop chopping trees and standing there motionless.

“I actually have a spare block in tomorrow’s morning class,” said Ji Ling. 

Sui Cannong: “Uh-huh.”

Ji Ling: “……and I am free during the second period as well.”

Sui Cannong: “Mn mn.”

Ji Ling did not continue speaking. He paused, and followed Sui Cannong, himself making a ‘mn’ sound to the man sitting across from him. 

It took several seconds for Sui Cannong suddenly realise something, 

“…… Eh?”

–

This is an example of putting the cart before the horse, thought Sui Cannong. 

He was looking at Ji Ling who was now standing at the doorway of his classroom feeling as if he were dreaming. He was thinking about how a series of events incited by yesterday’s conversation led to their current circumstances. He thought about how he was unsuccessful in prompting Ji Ling to reveal even the smallest clue about himself, and how he ended up roping him into working for him instead. 

Currently Ji Ling could be seen scrutinising the plants growing on the windowsill of Sui Cannong’s classroom.

Ji Ling gave off the natural impression of tranquillity and serenity, and Sui Cannong felt as if Ji Ling were a leisurely growing plant; one that would only absorb a tiny sector of the light spectrum. 

Sui Cannong called out, “Mr. Ji.” 

“Good morning,” he said, “sorry for the trouble.”

Ji Ling turned around and looked at him, shook his head, and said, “It’s quite alright.” 

Lab days were equivalent to heaven to the students, but for teachers it was earthly purgatory. 

Sui Cannong led the two classes to the lab next door. He split them into groups. The room was filled with chatter while he turned to see Ji Ling adjusting his lab coat with his head lowered. The tips of Ji Ling’s hair were softly curled, and it was unclear if it was because he was wearing white, or if it was due to the lighting of the room, but Sui Cannong thought the skin on the back of his neck appeared exceptionally fair. 

Sui Cannong refocused his thoughts, stopped, then started once again by quieting the noisy students for their attention. It was a very simple experiment. It was a quick lab which used purple cabbage as an indicator to detect ph. The goal was for the students to make qualitative observations of ph levels based on chemical colour changes after acids or bases are added to the cabbage juice. 

Although the steps were not difficult, there was a step in the process that required rinsing the purple cabbage with boiling water, and so Sui Cannong could not allow his attention to lapse from his students.

Sui Cannong pointed out a few boys to Ji Ling.

“These are the kids that must be supervised especially closely. Each and every one of them are tiny little nightmares,” said Sui Cannong. “The bandwidth of activities they participate in is relatively varied. They tend to hang around those girls. What their intentions are I am not sure, however they usually are good at getting themselves into trouble. Please help me keep an eye on them.”

Ji Ling nodded. 

“No problem.” 

 The two of them were responsible for managing half of the students in the classroom, and the overall efficiency was much higher. Ten minutes later, the boiled purple cabbage exuded the unique sweet aroma of vegetables, and most of the experiments of the groups were on track.

Sui Cannong finally breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled and said to Ji Ling: “Don’t you say, isn’t this scent quite lovely?”

Ji Ling looked at Sui Cannong’s face and didn’t speak for a long time.

After a while, Sui Cannong saw that he seemed to turn his face away stiffly. After a while of silence, he said: “Indeed, its aroma is like that of a hotpot.”

It was a very interesting description, and Sui Cannong was amused. It was true.  

However, Sui Cannong’s predictions would never be wrong.

Five minutes later, three boys stood in front of Sui Cannong with purple cabbage leaves in hand up and ready for negotiation. 

“Mr. Sui, these leaves have been damaged. You see? There’s a giant crack on this leaf.” 

The one leading the boys was a blonde young man. He spoke with barely subdued irritation,

“And why is it that Lisa and her group get to have three large leaves, while we only get small withered ones?” The manifestation of adolescent competitiveness always occurred in the most unusual of places. It was giving Sui Cannong a migraine.

Despite knowing that cracked leaves would not affect experimental results; he examined the pieces of cabbage held within the boy’s hand. They were indeed quite wilted. Sui Cannong remembered that there should be a small half of purple cabbage left, so he put it in the classroom next door for safekeeping.  

“Hold on.” Sui Cannong said, “turn your attention back to your work, you boys go boil your water in the meantime, and I shall fetch the last of the purple cabbage.” 

Before Sui Cannong left the laboratory, he saw Ji Ling walking to a group of girls’ lab tables. He pointed at a girl’s medium-length hair and indicated that it would be better to tie it up with a rubber band. With Ji Ling’s help, Sui Cannong was relieved and went to the next room to find the remaining half of the purple cabbage. He thought for a moment before deciding to slice the cabbage into halves. It would help them at least a little and it could prevent further disruption based on the issue of cabbage sizing. 

Two minutes later, he heard the crisp sound of what seemed like an object breaking next door. 

Sui Cannong paid it no mind. 

He had long been accustomed to it. He turned swifty walking at a brisk tempo in the direction of the lab. He felt as if he were a silently blooming lotus perched atop the stillness of a lake. 

During every lab class, at least one or two beakers and test tubes would be destroyed. This was normal, and could even be called inevitable. Under normal circumstances, the students who got into trouble would just smile and get away with it.

This time however, Sui Cannong was immediately greeted with sickly silence when he entered the lab. With cabbage in hand he was puzzled by the atmosphere. 

A feeling of dread washed over him. 

The first clue was the beaker lying shattered in the centre of the classroom. The nearby students gathered around the scene in a circle with horrified looks on their faces. Sui Cannong sensed something was off. 

“What happened?” he asked the nearby students. 

“That beaker suddenly just exploded,” a female student stuttered. “It was because of Martin and his group. They forgot to use a wire gauze.” 

Sui Cannong lifted his head. He saw Ji Ling standing close to the shattered beaker. Ji Ling was protecting several female students behind him. He should have stood in front of them when the beaker exploded.

“Mr. Ji, your hand…” the other girl said, her tone faint with alarm.

Sui Cannong then noticed that Ji Ling’s sleeves were slightly rolled up, probably because he was helping students before.

His wrist was thin and slender, but at this moment, there was a stream of blood flowing down his forearm and dripping onto the white laboratory table.

Ji Ling seemed to be stunned for a moment, but he didn’t say anything. He just slowly turned his wrist and then found a scratch on his forearm. Sui Cannong saw Ji Ling lower his eyes and stared at the blood flowing from the wound in a daze.

Then he raised his head and saw Sui Cannong standing at the door.

He was unsure if it was an illusion, but at the moment when their eyes met, Sui Cannong felt that Ji Ling’s eyes seemed to have a trace of imperceptible panic.

——Then Sui Cannong saw Ji Ling take a small step back and subconsciously retracted the injured hand behind him.