CHAPTER 484: 225. RESTLESS VALENTINE’S DAY (4)_3

In December, after a mock exam, the boy’s scores reached the admission threshold of Nagoya University for the first time. He rushed excitedly to his teacher’s house to share the good news.

There, he saw the elderly person he had rescued.

It turned out that the elderly person was the teacher’s mother.

It turned out that everything the teacher had done for him was to repay a favor. The so-called affection was all fake.

The boy dropped out of school again.

By the end of December, the boy had wasted a month of study time, and the teacher cried and pleaded in front of his door for him to continue his studies.

From the time of the incident, the boy’s father had also quit drinking and found a job. He tried to persuade the boy but was rendered speechless by the boy’s retort, "What right do you have to dictate my life?" and sat there in silence.

On December 31, New Year’s Eve, in the snowy weather, the teacher still came to the boy’s door right after work.

She had already said everything she could, so she could only silently wait there.

When the New Year’s bells rang, the boy stepped out of the house and said to the teacher,

"If the teacher agrees to date me, I will continue studying."

The teacher was startled, but for the boy’s sake, she agreed.

"Akiko," Akiko crouched down to face the engrossed Xiaoquan Aonai, "If Dubian Che threatened you like this, would you accept?"

"Why would Dubian Che do such a thing?" Xiaoquan Aonai pushed her away.

"Just suppose, suppose he did! What would you do?" Akiko leaned in closer, wearing a mischievous smile.

"Well..."

"What then?"

"Stop hypothesizing all the time and just watch the movie!"

The boy resumed his studies, with only one and a half months left until the Nagoya University entrance exam, he had to give it his all.

The boy did indeed do so, but in addition to studying, he carried a vengeful mindset and made other demands: for the teacher to fulfill the duties of a girlfriend.

From touching hands to sniffing the scent of the teacher’s neck and even a scene where the teacher used her hands to help him relieve stress (only upper bodies, ending with the teacher wiping her hands with paper).

The atmosphere became awkward.

Dubian Che looked left and saw that Jiutiao Meijie and Kiyono Lin had already fallen asleep.

The film’s values severely conflicted with their beliefs, and the boy’s inexplicable emotional changes were utterly baffling to them.

Dubian Che looked right again.

Xiaoquan Aonai didn’t know where to focus her gaze.

She looked down one moment, then seemed to remember she was watching a movie and glanced at the screen momentarily, then peeked again to see if Dubian Che was still watching her.

On the movie screen, the boy was in the classroom with the teacher, doing things that seemed painful but also appeared joyful (still no specific scenes, just close-ups of the teacher’s face).

"Tsk tsk tsk," Akiko watched intently, grabbing a handful of cold popcorn and stuffing it into her mouth.

Xiaoquan Aonai, on the other hand, picked up her Coke that had melted ice, blushing while sucking on the straw and swallowing little by little.

At the end of the film, the boy was admitted to Nagoya University, but the teacher voluntarily applied for a transfer to another school and cut off contact with the boy.

Five years later, the teacher returned to her original school.

One day, she went to the place where she used to treat the boy to meals when he was just starting to try hard, at a time when his academic level was only at a ninth-grade level.

In the restaurant, the boy was dining with friends.

She turned around, intending to leave, but the boy, who had become a lawyer, naturally greeted her.

It seemed the boy had forgotten the past and started a new life.

She forced herself to casually finish greeting him, pretending to dislike the restaurant and prepared to leave, but the boy came over, pulled her to the table, and handed her chopsticks.

"Who is this?" the boy’s lawyer friend asked.

"My girlfriend," the boy naturally replied.

"Really?! Haven’t you been single for five years? How come you suddenly have a girlfriend now?" the boy’s friend found it unbelievable.

"You can ask her," the boy said smilingly.

Everyone looked expectantly at the teacher.

Under the camera, the teacher shyly nodded.

Amid a chorus of teasing, the screen began to display the crew list.

"I thought it was a film about studying hard during the college entrance season, but it turned out to be a teacher-student romance," Akiko sighed.

"One year to pass the test for Nagoya University, and in law too, that’s too unreal," Miyazaki Miyuki shook her head.

Xiaoquan Aonai didn’t speak, still sucking on the straw, even though the Coke in her cup had long been finished—Dubian Che glanced at her from time to time.

Until the film ended and the last row of people finally walked out of the cinema.

Most of the girls headed to the restroom.

Dubian Che stayed behind, contemplating the title "365 Days Without Earth’s Rotation," trying to understand its relation to the movie’s content.

Was it about the boy taking a year off? Or the year spent with the teacher?

He couldn’t figure out what the director was thinking.

Dubian Che gave up thinking, stretched his neck, and just as he did, he saw Xiaoquan Aonai coming out of the restroom.

They made eye contact, and Xiaoquan Aonai turned around and walked back into the restroom.

Watching this kind of movie with a teacher was indeed a bit awkward, but not to the point of being this shy, right?

When Akiko asked Xiaoquan Aonai a question, Dubian Che heard it too.

Judging from the situation, if he really did that, the chances Xiaoquan Aonai would agree were high.

However, no matter what happened, he wouldn’t do anything to threaten Xiaoquan Aonai.

Yet, some events more absurd than a movie were indeed about to happen—

in the not too distant future.