DCTMOAS Chapter 62
by SuxxiThe dinner conversation had left ripples in Chu Cheng’s heart. Even after returning to the office, he could still feel a faint heat lingering on the skin of his neck.
But as he said himself, work had piled up lately — there just wasn’t time to slack off. So Mr. Chu quickly shifted gears and got down to business.
He picked up the tall stack of composition papers sitting at the corner of his desk and began grading them carefully. Then, following his usual routine, he used the evening self-study period to call in students one by one for face-to-face feedback.
Among all the exam papers, Han Rui’s was by far the most pleasant and satisfying to read.
Her handwriting was elegant, her essay exceptionally written — citing classical references appropriately, using refined yet precise language. It wasn’t just flashy vocabulary thrown together; it showed true mastery of expression.
Just by reading her work, it was clear: this was a well-read, morally grounded, and thoughtful student.
After finishing his corrections, Chu Cheng looked up at the student waiting nearby and said, “Later on, I’d like to print your paper out as a sample for the class — is that okay with you?”
Han Rui nodded, revealing a pair of cute tiger teeth as she smiled. “Of course!”
“You’ve really improved your handwriting lately too — I can see a lot of progress,” Chu Cheng added as he circled a few characters on her paper with a pencil. He then personally demonstrated beside them, “For example, these character structures could be tightened up a bit more.”
Mr. Chu’s handwriting was elegant, the brush strokes full of flowing charm — like a dragon in flight. Just like him: clear, graceful, and naturally transcendent.
Han Rui lowered her head to look carefully, humbly accepting the feedback. “Thank you, teacher. I’ll make sure to pay more attention next time.”
“Mm.” Chu Cheng smiled, handed the composition back to her, and smoothly shifted the topic. “One more thing — I heard from the physics teacher that you’ve been looking very sleepy in class lately. Is everything okay? Are you not feeling well?”
Han Rui didn’t deny the fact that she hadn’t been in good shape lately. She lowered her head and stared at her toes, replying softly, “Maybe I’ve been staying up too late.”
Hearing this, Chu Cheng inwardly thought: Just as I suspected. In truth, today’s chat with Han Rui wasn’t spontaneous.
The girl had been pushing herself too hard in her studies recently, often staying up past midnight. Mr. Yu had been the first to notice something was off, but since Han Rui was Chu Cheng’s class monitor, he left it to the assistant homeroom teacher to look into it.
Chu Cheng leaned back in the teacher’s chair and asked, “I remember you used to be against staying up late and waking up early. What made you suddenly change that habit?”
Back in a previous Chinese class, Chu Cheng had organized a debate on exactly this topic. He still remembered the stance Han Rui had taken.
The girl fell silent. Her bright eyes were clouded with conflicted emotions. She hesitantly asked, “Mr. Chu… do you know about my family situation?”
Chu Cheng nodded truthfully.
During joint homeroom teacher meetings, he and Mr. Yu often discussed student matters. At the start of their sophomore year, Han Rui’s parents had gone through a breakup. Both teachers knew about it.
The girl had been emotionally low at the time and had sought out Yu Siting to talk, crying her heart out. Chu Cheng had even misunderstood the situation back then and anonymously wrote a letter of concern to his senior.
Seeing him nod, Han Rui let out a quiet sigh and began explaining.
After her parents separated, Han Rui had been living with her father. He was often busy with work and couldn’t always take care of her, but he tried to free up his time on holidays to be with her. He respected her opinions and let her make her own choices. Thanks to this freedom, Han Rui — always mature and self-disciplined — was able to study without pressure.
But recently, her grandfather had fallen seriously ill, and her father didn’t have the energy to look after her. So, she was sent to live with her mother again.
Feeling deeply guilty for not being around in the past, Han Rui’s mother went all out — staying by her side 24/7 and handling every little detail of her life. Whether it was breakfast or bottled water, everything was meticulously prepared without the slightest carelessness.
“I just feel like… if I don’t work harder, I’ll be letting her down.” Han Rui confessed. Her mother’s overwhelming care had become a source of immense emotional pressure.
After hearing this, Chu Cheng actually felt somewhat relieved — things weren’t as bad as he had feared. Despite being separated, her parents clearly still loved her deeply.
“Parents express their love in different ways,” Chu Cheng said patiently, “but the weight of it is the same. You don’t have to feel guilty for your mother’s care. Family isn’t a transaction. There’s no need to measure it in gains and losses. If you keep carrying that pressure, you’ll only exhaust yourself.”
Han Rui replied, “But I don’t want her to work so hard because of me. Other parents…”
“They’re all the same, really.” Chu Cheng, though not a parent himself, had come to understand a parent’s far-reaching concern for their child through teaching.
He even brought up how Mr. Yu, as an uncle, put his heart and soul into guiding his niece and nephew — a tale full of well-meaning, if slightly neurotic, affection.
The image of a doting uncle made Han Rui chuckle, easing the tension inside her.
Chu Cheng gently suggested, “Maybe it’s exactly because your mom cares so much about how you feel that she wants to give you the best support. Why not try talking to her the way we’re talking now? Just be honest about how you’ve both been feeling — once things are out in the open, the problem won’t seem so heavy anymore.”
Han Rui nodded, agreeing to slowly adjust.
Chu Cheng believed in her ability to regulate and cope with pressure, and told her he had nothing more for now.
Han Rui politely bowed and was just about to turn and leave when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“What is it?” Chu Cheng asked.
“Teacher.” She met his gaze for a few seconds, then gathered her courage to ask the question that had been circulating among the students lately. “I heard that Ms. You has applied to teach in the first-year classes. Will you… still be teaching us next semester?”
Chu Cheng didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked, “Is that what you all want?”
Han Rui nodded firmly. “Of course!”
Chu Cheng smiled. “Then I’ll stay.”
“Really?” A burst of joy bloomed across the girl’s face, and she couldn’t help but exclaim, “That’s wonderful!”
“I think so too.” Chu Cheng added with a gentle note, “Hope your grandfather recovers soon. Go back to class and send in the next student for me, will you?”
“Okay, thank you, Mr. Chu!” Having received a definite answer, Han Rui left the office in high spirits.
These students used to only seek out Big Bro when they had problems, but now, Chu Cheng had become someone they trusted enough to turn to as well.
All of a sudden, he understood what Mr. Yu had said earlier in the dining hall — that being the first person someone seeks out when they’re troubled is, in itself, a kind of deeply satisfying trust.
Watching his student walk away, finally unburdened, Chu Cheng felt his mood lighten as well. He lowered his head and resumed grading essays.
Two minutes later, someone knocked on the wooden door of the Chinese department office.
Chu Cheng called out, “Come in.”
“Mr. Chu, were you looking for me?” A tall, lean figure slipped through the doorway. Lu Yan strolled in with a slightly lazy gait. Seeing the stack of answer sheets on the desk, he understood at once and said, “Ah, it’s about the essay, huh? Couldn’t you wait until we’re home to go over it with me?”
Even for his own kid, business was business.
Chu Cheng glanced at him sideways. “Don’t expect me to stay after evening study just to tutor you.”
Lu Yan had anticipated that response. He lifted the corners of his mouth and teased with a hum, “But I think I’m coming down with a cold… my nose feels stuffy, I’m about to sneeze.”
Chu Cheng raised an eyebrow. “Not necessarily a cold…” At that moment, he recalled the example he’d just used while talking to Han Rui, and a flicker of guilt crossed his mind.
Lu Yan didn’t catch that. “Huh?”
Chu Cheng cleared his throat to cover it up. “Stop looking around. Hurry up — I still have the next student to see.”
“Mm~” Lu Yan pulled over a small stool and sat to the side, ready to listen to the lecture.
As spring passed and temperatures began to rise, Tingzhou entered a lush, blooming summer.
June was probably the busiest time of the second semester—monthly exams, standardized testing, coordinating with national college entrance exams, teaching research activities, faculty evaluations… All kinds of tasks piled up, leaving Chu Cheng and Yu Siting swamped and dizzy with work.
That afternoon, the two had just returned from a grade-level meeting and were heading back to class. Before they even entered the room, they could already hear a ruckus coming from inside.
No wonder the administration had just lost its temper during the staff meeting. With the weather heating up, the students were indeed growing increasingly restless.
Yu Siting deliberately slowed his steps as he walked along the corridor, carefully picking out which voices in the chaotic mix belonged to whom.
After a few seconds of silence, he turned to Chu Cheng and warned, “You might want to cover your ears in a minute.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Chu Cheng didn’t catch the implication, assuming Yu Siting was just joking about the class being noisy, so he didn’t take it seriously.
The two walked into the classroom side by side. Chu Cheng habitually headed toward the back office desk, but before he could take a step, a loud thump echoed from the podium—someone had slammed a book.
The students weren’t the only ones startled; even Chu Cheng, who wasn’t mentally prepared, flinched in shock and turned to look.
The next second, the stern voice of Big Bro Yu rang out across the classroom.
Moments ago, Yu Siting had still been soft-spoken and gentle in his reminders. But now, he had fully stepped into his authoritative homeroom teacher mode—his eyes dark and commanding like a deep lake, his tone sharp and imposing, carrying a powerful pressure.
Each of his sentences carried no direct accusations, but somehow every student felt personally called out. The room fell silent instantly—no one dared meet his gaze.
Chu Cheng hadn’t even recovered enough to start taking notes before this live demonstration of classroom management had already wrapped up.
Then Yu Siting briskly conveyed the main points from the school meeting, wasting no words. Just a few sentences were enough to make the students sit up and take it seriously.
Soon after, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Keeping his stern expression, Yu Siting reached in to check the message. When he saw it, his furrowed brows relaxed a little.
[Chu Cheng: That was amazing…]
Yu Siting looked up toward the back of the classroom.
There, seated at the office desk, was a starstruck figure watching intently with arms propped on the table, fully immersed in what could only be described as “spectator mode.” The admiration in Chu Cheng’s expression practically screamed: Coach, I want to learn this too.
“This is a self-study period, right?” Yu Siting’s voice still carried a low, magnetic rumble, laced with a barely restrained irritation from his earlier reprimand.
“…Yes,” came a scattered, cautious reply from the students, none daring to provoke him further.
“Do half a physics paper. I’ll go over it later.” Yu Siting casually pulled out a test set from the box under the podium and handed it to the class rep.
The classroom quickly fell into disciplined silence, broken only by the occasional click of pens and the rustle of turning pages.
Bzzz—
Chu Cheng’s phone vibrated on the desk.
[Yu Siting: You’ll have to wait for the next batch. You’ve lost your chance.]
[Chu Cheng: Huh?]
Chu Cheng quickly typed a confused reply, expecting a sarcastic remark in return, but what he got was serious advice.
[Yu Siting: I mean, it’s too late.]
[Yu Siting: You can’t keep thinking that being nice most of the time and only stern when it’s about rules will work. So far, you’ve already handed out too many smiles to take them back.]
Chu Cheng was momentarily at a loss for words. With no solid rebuttal, he could only make a weak promise:
[Then I won’t smile anymore… Can you help me rebuild my image?]
Yu Siting glanced over at him from the podium and resumed typing.
[What if you can’t keep a straight face?]
Chu Cheng clenched his jaw.
[Deduct pay.]
[Yu Siting: Come on, your salary isn’t even enough.]
[Chu Cheng: It’s enough! That’s settled then.]
Chu Cheng immediately wiped the smile off his face and stared at the head teacher with forced seriousness.
[Yu Siting: Smiling at me doesn’t count.]
Upon reading that message, Chu Cheng’s lips involuntarily curled up again, his bright, clear eyes crinkling in a radiant, healing smile.
“Mr. Chu.” A student’s voice happened to ring out.
“Hm?” Chu Cheng turned toward the voice, unable to hide the smile in time.
The student met his eyes and paused, unsure what had happened to make their usually composed vice homeroom teacher look so cheerful.
Another message popped up on Chu Cheng’s phone screen:
[Yu Siting: Minus one hundred.]
[Chu Cheng: …]
The fined party froze on the spot.
Seriously? That’s straight-up robbery!
Author’s Note:
Yu Siting: I told him it wouldn’t be enough to deduct. He didn’t believe me. So when his salary gets confiscated and there’s no more soy sauce or chili left in the fridge, it won’t be my fault.