DCTMOAS Chapter 5

Before Chu Cheng could enter the office, Yu Siting happened to push the door open and come out. He was holding a phone to his ear with one hand. When he looked up and saw Chu Cheng walking toward him, his slightly raised eyelids seemed to ask: What is it?

Chu Cheng had originally intended to speak up, but under the other man’s direct gaze, he hesitated and couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

Yu Siting didn’t stop, busy with his own matters, and brushed past him without a word.

Chu Cheng clicked his tongue softly, annoyed at himself for still faltering under Yu Siting’s cold, piercing gaze. But he wasn’t about to let it go just yet—he swiftly turned around and headed back.

By dinnertime, the Chinese department office was already empty. Chu Cheng sat down at his desk, tore a sheet from a notepad, and began scribbling away.

At first, he wrote with strong emotion—his pen rushed across the paper, and his tone carried hints of reproach. But after a couple of paragraphs, he quickly calmed down and crumpled up the page into a ball.

Maybe Yu Siting was simply executing his own method of teaching. Or maybe, as a newcomer, there were still certain circumstances Chu Cheng hadn’t yet grasped.

After a brief moment of reflection, he picked up his pen again. This time, he used more tactful language to express his belief that pushing students too hard too soon was not ideal. But even those carefully worded thoughts ended up as another crumpled ball of paper.

Leaning back against his chair, Chu Cheng sighed in frustration and let his mind drift.

Why was his first real challenge as a teacher figuring out how to gently advise the homeroom teacher?

After much contemplation, he finally pulled himself together and wrote an anonymous suggestion letter.

In the letter, Chu Cheng gently stated the objective things he had observed over the past few days, and expressed the hope that while pursuing academic excellence, Teacher Yu could also be more attentive to the students’ emotional well-being.

When he finished writing, he quietly slipped the letter onto Yu Siting’s desk while the office was still empty.

Because he had missed the cafeteria’s dinner hours, Chu Cheng had to settle for a cup of instant noodles. The scent of tomato and beef still lingered in the air when a knock came at the office door.

Chu Cheng grabbed a napkin to clean up his desk while responding, “Come in.”

“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Chu.” Han Rui entered politely after greeting him. “I forgot about our appointment after school.”

Her voice was as gentle and clear as usual, but her swollen eyes betrayed the fact that she’d been crying for quite a while.

Chu Cheng couldn’t help but look at her with concern. “What happened?”

Han Rui instinctively rubbed her eyes. “It’s nothing.”

“If there’s anything I can help with, you can tell me,” Chu Cheng said softly, his pleasant voice full of reassurance.

But Han Rui shook her head. “Really, it’s nothing. Just something at home. I feel much better after talking with my big brother.”

“You mean… Teacher Yu?” Chu Cheng looked confused. “I saw you coming out of his office earlier, crying really hard.”

Realizing that her breakdown had been witnessed, Han Rui blushed in embarrassment. “Ah… It’s because my big brother’s words were too blunt. I didn’t think I was good enough, and after he comforted me, it all just came out.”

“Hm?” Chu Cheng tilted his head slightly.

Feeling like he didn’t quite believe her, Han Rui hurried to explain, “Actually… even though my big brother seems really strict and rarely jokes around, he can be really kind to us sometimes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t go looking for him to get scolded.”

In just a few simple sentences, she conveyed a genuine mix of affection and frustration—it sounded surprisingly heartfelt.

Chu Cheng was genuinely surprised.

But since the student had already said it was a personal matter, he didn’t press further—especially considering she clearly trusted Teacher Yu more.

“As long as you’re okay. For today’s Chinese homework, just organize your notes and copy down the annotations from the textbook. Your eyes are really swollen—make sure to put something on them when you get home.”

Han Rui nodded firmly. “Thank you for your concern, Mr. Chu. I’ll get going then.”

“Mm.” Chu Cheng watched her leave, then slumped back into his chair, letting his mind drift once again.

While reflecting on himself, he also felt relieved—thank goodness he hadn’t acted on impulse and directly confronted Yu Siting out of prejudice. He couldn’t imagine how that “notoriously difficult” man might’ve humiliated him in return.

On the last workday of the first week of the semester, Chu Cheng, as usual, brewed coffee and prepped lessons after getting up.

Zhou Jin came out of his room yawning. Seeing his junior already hard at work so early, he asked curiously, “Don’t you have the day off today? What are you doing drinking coffee this early?”

“Come on.” Chu Cheng didn’t even look up from his teaching materials. “I may only teach one class right now, but it’s still a core subject worth 150 points. Of course I have lessons.”

“That’s not right.” Zhou Jin walked into the bathroom and began brushing his teeth, continuing the conversation through the door, “I remember your class is in the first period on Fridays. There’s a school opening ceremony this morning—that’s definitely going to take up the time slot.”

Opening ceremony?

Chu Cheng froze. “How come I didn’t know about that? It’s not on the school calendar.”

“Ohhh~” Zhou Jin’s reply was muffled by the sound of brushing teeth, “Maybe they forgot to mark it, but it’s the school’s usual routine. Unless there’s extreme weather, the opening ceremony is always held on the first Friday of the term. No need for a separate announcement. I figured someone would’ve mentioned it to you.”

This school’s endless list of unwritten rules showed no concern for the survival of new teachers.

Chu Cheng looked at his lesson notes with a complicated expression. This completely ruined his weekend homework and quiz schedule.

Zhou Jin returned to the living room, neat and tidy, and glanced at his dazed roommate. He chuckled and offered, “Want me to share the campus assistant mini app with you? All these customary events are posted there.”

Chu Cheng forced out a dry smile. “Mm~ Better late than never.”

At half past seven, Chu Cheng arrived at school right on time.

Sure enough, the plastic track field—usually deserted at this hour—was already packed with students. Long tables and bottles of water had been arranged on the podium.

The school uniforms at No. 10 High weren’t separated by grade. Everyone wore the same simple polo shirts, sports pants, and jackets, with the only distinction being color—navy for boys and maroon for girls. With the entire student body seated in neat rows, the view was actually quite impressive.

“Good morning, Mr. Chu.”

“Hello, Teacher!”

“Morning, Mr. Chu!”

As Chu Cheng walked toward the teachers’ seating area at the back, he received quite a few greetings along the way.

He replied with a polite smile while secretly poking fun at himself—some people may appear glamorous on the outside, but the truth was, he hadn’t even taught a full class yet.

“Mr. Chu,” someone called out from the crowd—Han Rui. “I was just looking for you. I still have a few homework assignments from yesterday that haven’t been collected yet. I’ll gather them all and send them to the Chinese Department together.”

Chu Cheng responded, “No rush. I won’t be covering them today anyway.”

“Ah, right…” Han Rui paused in thought for a moment. “There’s a self-study session this afternoon. Do you want to use it for a make-up class?”

“Would that be okay?” A gleam flickered in Chu Cheng’s eyes. “If no other teacher has plans for it, I’d like to go over some classical Chinese vocabulary for about 20 minutes.”

“No problem, I’ll save the time slot for you.” The girl blinked confidently, looking clever and cute.

The ceremony was about to begin. On the stage, a couple of “testing, testing” sounds came from the microphone.

Chu Cheng didn’t say more. He smiled, gave her a thumbs-up, and found a quiet, inconspicuous spot to sit down.

The weather today was neither cold nor hot, but sitting for too long still made one feel bored. Especially for someone like Chu Cheng, who wasn’t in the running for any annual awards—his only job was to sit and listen, with nothing else to do.

Having not taught long, Chu Cheng didn’t know many colleagues. To him, the most familiar name coming through the speakers was Yu Siting. And that name kept being mentioned—he seemed to be nominated for every single teacher award.

Well, no surprise—his class’s grades were far ahead of everyone else’s.

After quietly marveling at that, Chu Cheng pulled out his phone to pass the time. At the top of his message list was a mini program link that Brother Zhou had sent earlier that morning. He tapped on it absentmindedly, already familiar with its convenient features, when he suddenly noticed a label on the homepage: “Top-Rated Teachers Voting Poll.”

And Yu Siting’s name stood prominently at the top.

Unofficial rankings? That meant the list was entirely based on public voting?

Chu Cheng stared at the tiny footnote text at the bottom of the screen, falling into thought.

Easygoing teachers often got along well with students. But the hardest thing… was being both strict and popular.

After the opening ceremony, there were also various subject group meetings to summarize the semester’s work. Chu Cheng felt like his entire morning had been more or less pointless. After lunch, he simply laid his head down on the office desk for a nap. In the middle of his doze, he vaguely heard a bell ring, followed by the sound of a door opening.

Chu Cheng didn’t pay much attention. He shifted his position on the cushion, planning to continue sleeping, but someone shook his arm.

“Mr. Chu, wake up! Time for class!”

“Come on, wake up!”

“Huh?” Still drowsy, Chu Cheng opened his eyes to find a group of students gathered around his desk. Among them were class monitor Han Rui, PE rep Bai Xiaolong from Class 7, and two or three others whose names he couldn’t quite recall.

The PE rep urged again, “Teacher, it’s time for our class.”

Chu Cheng was still groggy. He pulled off the coat draped over him and glanced at his watch.

It was the midday reading period. Slotted between lunch break and the first class of the afternoon, it was meant to help students wake up and get focused.

“It’s still so early…”

“If you don’t go now, you’ll miss your chance!”

A group of students seemed very anxious. Working in perfect coordination, two of them directly pulled Chu Cheng out of his chair, while the other two grabbed his teaching materials and phone, then bolted off.

Huh?

Before Chu Cheng could react, he was already being hauled out of the office. He hurriedly said, “Wait, at least let me wash my face first—”

“There’s no time to explain, sir. Just come with us!”

Two tall boys forcibly dragged the 185cm-tall Chu Cheng down the stairs.

Half-awake and half-dreaming, Chu Cheng was both surprised and confused.

Since when was Class 7 so passionate about Chinese class? Should I be calling for help right now?

“Reporting in!” the students shouted in unison as they reached the door of Class 7’s classroom, though it wasn’t clear who they were addressing.

Chu Cheng finally regained his freedom of movement and stepped just one foot through the front door—only to meet the eyes of someone already standing at the podium.

Yu Siting stood tall and poised, his sharp jawline highlighted by the afternoon sun—an undeniably handsome sight.

He was holding a stack of math test papers, mid-distribution. His gaze swept calmly over to Chu Cheng, taking in his tired face and the messy hair clearly a result of being dragged around. He paused, then said coolly, “Something wrong?”

Chu Cheng glanced at the blackboard behind him. Sure enough, the second-period math class had also been pushed back because of the opening ceremony.

So… what the heck was going on? Wasn’t this just blatantly stealing another homeroom teacher’s class?

Chu Cheng forced a sheepish smile, just about to excuse himself when the PE rep handed him a stack of textbooks and loudly declared, “Mr. Chu, here are the books you need!”

Chu Cheng: “?”

Don’t mess around—I can’t win against this kid.

Yu Siting’s penetrating gaze was still fixed on him, unreadable but heavy.

Chu Cheng instinctively lowered his head—only to suddenly realize that two buttons on his shirt collar had come undone, revealing collarbones marked with creases from his nap. He hastily buttoned up and tidied his appearance.

“Take out your Chinese textbooks,” Yu Siting finally said, setting aside the papers with a helpless tone.

Chu Cheng had no choice but to tough it out and step up to the podium. As he moved, he even heard a few students whispering excitedly, “Yay!”

But Yu Siting, the man who had just been “usurped,” didn’t leave the classroom. Instead, he sat in the back row quietly flipping through teaching materials.

Even though he didn’t say a word or look up, Chu Cheng felt like the air pressure around that man’s seat was noticeably lower than the rest of the room for the entire period.

He couldn’t tell whether the students were just sluggish that afternoon or deliberately dragging things out to delay the math test. Chu Cheng had planned to cover only 20 minutes of classical Chinese vocabulary—but ended up teaching the entire class.

When the bell rang for class break, Yu Siting picked up his materials and exited through the back door, taking Lu Yan with him.

Chu Cheng quickly assigned some homework and caught up with them, finally reaching them outside the math office.

“Sorry, Mr. Yu, I took up your exam time,” Chu Cheng took the initiative to say.

Yu Siting had been speaking with Lu Yan near the door. At the sound of Chu Cheng’s voice, he turned and paused for two seconds, his brows slightly raised. “You used your break time to help my class catch up—I’m more than happy.”

Standing off to the side, Lu Yan let out a chuckle. “Looks like you don’t exactly leave people with a friendly impression.”

Yu Siting glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out and flicked Lu Yan on the head. His voice was cold: “Wanna say that again?”

Although it was clear he hadn’t put much force into it, the flick wasn’t exactly gentle either. Lu Yan rubbed the back of his head for a good while.

Chu Cheng felt a bit uneasy and cautiously asked, “Aren’t you afraid a parent will come complain if you keep hitting students like that?”

“He won’t,” Yu Siting replied casually. With that, he turned and walked into the office.

Chu Cheng was left full of confusion.

“Because that parent is him,” said Lu Yan, who was standing behind him. Seeing that Chu Cheng still looked puzzled, he added, “Haven’t you heard the rumors? Ever since Mr. Yu started teaching, he’s only ever taken senior-year classes. The one and only time he came down to teach first-years was to take me. He’s my uncle.”

After explaining, Lu Yan forced a smile that didn’t look particularly happy and pointed to the office. “I’ll… head in first.”

Chu Cheng stood there rubbing his temples, starting to question everything.

What the hell? How did he miss that crucial bit of intel when he infiltrated the school to gather info?

“What are you dawdling for? Waiting for me to come drag you in?” After shutting the office door tightly, Yu Siting impatiently urged, “Did you finish the exercises from yesterday? You went home and passed out on the couch like a hibernating bear.”

“I did them,” Lu Yan replied lazily, dragging out his words.

Yu Siting shot him a glare. “Any questions?”

“Let me check the answers first.”

“Mm.” Yu Siting walked over to his desk and started rummaging around. As he sifted through a pile of test papers, a plain envelope caught his eye.

He casually opened it and skimmed through. A flicker of emotion passed over his usually composed face.

Lu Yan waited a moment but didn’t see his uncle move again. Curious, he asked, “What is it? A love letter?”

Yu Siting responded calmly, “A letter of complaint.”

“Huh?” Lu Yan raised an eyebrow. “From who?”

Yu Siting scanned the letter again, noting the upright, authoritative handwriting and the careful choice of words. He let out a sigh. “Some hothead who thinks writing anonymously hides his identity.”

Author’s note:

Lu Yan: But he gave me grapes to eat. He’s actually really nice, you know.