Mingqiao froze where he was, watching Lao Jiang display the authority of a grade director, drinking water and walking into the office. He was still mumbling something, but it was unclear what he was saying.
The moment the office door closed, he took out his cell phone and checked the time.
It is 10:00, yes, but the date is the same day.
He was locked in the office when he was getting off work, which was a little after 12 o'clock. Adding the more than two hours he was trapped, it must have been two o'clock in the afternoon. But the current time and date told him that he had "traveled" to more than four hours ago.
"Teacher." Jiang Wen pulled his sleeve, tears still lingering on his upturned face: "Cheng Ran and I were locked in just after the second class."
"What number?" Mingqiao asked immediately.
"Number 2."
Mingqiao showed Jiang Wen the date and time on his phone: "Today is the 2nd."
"But I looked at the clock in the office and I was clearly in there for eleven hours." Jiang Wen said anxiously, "Teacher, I didn't lie."
"The speed of time is wrong." Mingqiao frowned slightly and came to a conclusion.
Jiang Wen's words made him realize more clearly that this was not a nightmare as he thought it was, and that something was wrong with this school.
The clear and melodious bell for class rang out, spreading throughout the entire campus. The students who were still lingering outside the corridor quickly stopped playing and ran back to the classroom.
Mingqiao stood there in a daze, looking at the scene in front of him. His thoughts were now as tangled as a ball of wool, with no beginning or end. He had to sort them out to understand what kind of situation he was in.
Simply put, he was locked in the office by Chiang Kai-shek for no reason and had to deal with some unknown thing.
Then, he got the hint and followed the second of the supplementary rules on the phone: do the questions and send the answers.
He did guess right, that abiding by the rules was the way to get out of trouble, but as he did so, something unexpected happened - his identity changed.
Judging from Chiang Kai-shek's unusual attitude and tone of voice towards him, it was obvious that he had become a student.
Something must have happened quietly, but he didn't notice it.
"Teacher, what are you thinking about?" Jiang Wen was still choking, but he had obviously recovered a little: "Can I help you?"
"Did we do anything wrong? Why did Director Jiang classify me as a student?" Mingqiao pinched his brows and went over the matter in his mind again.
The only thing that may change at the moment is the step where he does the questions and sends the answers.
"Is the answer wrong?" Jiang Wen asked.
"No." Ming Qiao shook his head and said, "The standard answers are printed in black and white on the textbook, and I am sure I will not make any mistakes when copying or sending it."
Mingqiao lowered his head and thought for a while, then asked Jiang Wen: "What do you think is the most essential difference between a teacher and a student?"
"The teacher's responsibility is to teach and educate, and the student's responsibility is to study hard."
"No." Mingqiao said: "Students can also teach others knowledge, and teachers are always learning. In other words, teachers can be students, and students can also be teachers. The two are almost the same and there is no difference."
He was in a dilemma again.
This situation made him feel annoyed. He urgently needed an answer that could convince himself and summarize it to avoid making the same mistake again in the future.
Students, teachers.
What is the very obvious difference between the two? Once this difference is broken, the teacher becomes the student and the student becomes the teacher.
The most obvious place.
Mingqiao's eyes lit up and he looked suddenly at Jiang Wen.
“Why must schools recruit teachers for different subjects?”
Jiang Wen instantly understood what Mingqiao meant.
Because every profession has its own specialization.
"Teacher, you teach history and you can't do chemistry questions. But we students must study all the subjects assigned by the school in order to prepare for the upcoming high school entrance examination."
"Yes."
As a history teacher, no matter how many questions he does, he should do questions related to history. He should learn and do both science and liberal arts. That's because he is a student.
This is probably the key to why he changed from a teacher to a student.
Then how do students become teachers?
Mingqiao came up with the answer almost without thinking: teacher qualification certificate and teacher establishment.
But he has both of these, the only difference is that he has not been in this school for a full year and needs to pass an assessment before he can become a full-time teacher.
Therefore, the key to becoming a teacher is to become a regular teacher.
Mingqiao became discouraged again when he thought of this.
He felt very unlucky. He was about to take the assessment when the school leadership was changed. The old principal was laid off and a new principal was parachuted in. The good reviews he had accumulated from the old principal were useless to the new principal. Whether he could be promoted on time depended on the mood of the new leader.
When he finally got rid of this problem, he unexpectedly found that the silence in the corridor was a little creepy.
Mingqiao looked at the long corridor in front of him and felt a sense of oppression in his heart.
He even began to breathe more lightly out of habit and pay attention to the movements around him. The muscles on his face were tense, adding a touch of seriousness to his somewhat weak expression.
It's too quiet.
When there are classes, you can hear the teacher lecturing, loud or soft.
But not now.
And at some point, the heavy rain outside stopped, and the sky became dark and heavy, covering everyone's head tightly.
This is a dangerous signal.
It was like the eve of a monster's arrival - everyone held their breath in fear, afraid that they would be the next to touch death.
Jiang Wen hid behind him again: "Teacher, I'm scared."
"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Ming Qiao carefully observed his surroundings, straightened his back naturally, and put his hands behind him to protect Jiang Wen.
The bell for the end of get out of class rang at this moment.
The originally quiet time and space was suddenly broken. The narrow corridor was filled with students, jostling and shoving in a mess. Ming Qiao was squeezed by the swarm of people and couldn't move. He turned his head and stared at Jiang Wen worriedly, his arms subconsciously protecting her on both sides. In the end, the two were forced to follow the flow of people and walked out of the teaching building.
However, the students who followed him down disappeared almost instantly, leaving only a few of them.
Even after what happened in the office, Mingqiao was still not used to the strangeness of the school, but he felt that as a teacher he had the responsibility and obligation to find out what was going on in the school and correct this strange phenomenon.
"Teacher, will other students experience the same thing?" Jiang Wen's face turned pale and he clutched the corner of Mingqiao's clothes tightly with both hands.
"Very likely." Ming Qiao nodded affirmatively. According to his current understanding, there should be quite a few students or teachers who were locked up in other places in the school for no reason.
If it is confirmed that strange phenomena similar to those in the office are occurring throughout the school, what can he do?
Jiang Wen, who was standing nearby, swayed and almost fell.
Mingqiao quickly helped her up.
He quickly took out a ten-yuan note from his pocket and gave it to Jiang Wen: "Don't follow me. It's 10 a.m. now. Normally you are not allowed to leave the school. Go lie to the security guard and take a taxi home immediately. The school is not safe."
Jiang Wen raised her head and looked at him with tears in her eyes: "Teacher, aren't you going to leave? The manual said that your teacher should take us students and run away quickly."
Ming Qiao was startled. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes became unusually firm and brave: "You are not the only student in this school. I will go find other students."
Seeing Jiang Wen standing there stupidly, Mingqiao pushed her and urged her to run: "Hurry up and run. I'm afraid if you're any later, you really won't be able to leave."
Mingqiao saw with his own eyes Jiang Wen wiping tears as he ran, and he gestured to the security guard at the door for a long time before he stumbled out of the school gate, and then disappeared after a while.
Looking at Jiang Wen's back, Ming Qiao realized more and more clearly what he should do. He had to find a way to save the others. Under the current circumstances, he had to save as many people as possible. The school was not safe, and they all had to start fleeing.
The teaching building behind him was closest to the school gate, making it a perfect last stop for his escape. His first stop was the most remote cafeteria, and then he would run out while rescuing people, gradually advancing to avoid missing anyone.
Mingqiao made up his mind and was about to turn around when he was hit hard on the back. He almost fell down and staggered a few steps before he could barely keep his balance.
"I'm sorry." The man realized that he had bumped into someone, put down the camera in front of him, and smiled apologetically at him: "Hello, I'm Shi Xin, a reporter from Xingchuan Radio and Television Station, and I'm here to do an interview at No. 1 Middle School."
Mingqiao looked at him.
Shi Xin was a bit taller than him, with long, messy hair, thick eyebrows, and a high nose bridge. He wore a knee-length camel-colored windbreaker and hung a professional-looking camera around his neck. Although he was a bit unkempt, Shi Xin looked very pleasing, and Mingqiao's first impression of him was not bad.
It's very much like a reporter.
And he looks like a normal person.
Mingqiao nodded: "Hello, I'm Mingqiao, I teach here."
"Hello, teacher." Shi Xin looked surprised, even a little exaggerated: "You are so young, you look like eighteen."
"Yeah." Mingqiao simply responded: "What are you doing here? Get out of school quickly."
After hearing this, Shi Xin's body suddenly stiffened. He smiled awkwardly, and his facial muscles twitched slightly: "I'm here for an interview, I can't leave yet."
"There's nothing to interview." Ming Qiao said and prepared to leave, walking quickly towards the cafeteria.
"No." Shi Xin caught up with him, his tone a little aggrieved: "I won't take up too much of your time. Can I interview you? Just ask a few questions."
Mingqiao ignored him.
Shi Xin touched his head and said, "Are you going to the cafeteria? I used to study here, and I've wanted to eat at my alma mater for a long time. Can we go together?"
Mingqiao really couldn't get rid of him, so he could only let him follow him. He looked at Shi Xin helplessly and nodded, "Okay, let's go."
The original restaurant of No. 1 Middle School was right next to the playground, but as the school continued to expand its enrollment for several years, the small canteen was not enough to accommodate so many students eating at the same time, so the family building next to the school was demolished and a new three-story restaurant was built. Although the new restaurant is not far from the teaching building, it is separated by a playground and a small forest, and it takes ten minutes to walk to it.
On the way, Xin asked Mingqiao a few simple questions about the school, and Mingqiao answered them one by one. However, Mingqiao didn't know much about the new principal, so he couldn't give him an accurate answer.
Mingqiao was a little uneasy. Apart from saving people in the cafeteria, the best way to verify whether he really became a student was to see if his meal card could still be used. After all, the meal card of No. 1 Middle School was one of the credentials to distinguish between faculty and students.
"Teacher Ming?" Shi Xin called him.
"What's wrong?" Mingqiao tilted his head and looked at him.
Shi Xin simply smiled: "I've called you several times. You look unhappy."
Ming Qiao himself has fair skin, and the dark circles under his eyes are more obvious. He looks very tired, which makes people worry.
"Nothing." Mingqiao lowered his head, pursed his thin lips, and made up an excuse to cover up his embarrassment. He stumbled a little when he lied: "It's work."
"Is the work of a teacher very busy?" Shi Xin said without waiting for Mingqiao to answer, "Take care of yourself."
Mingqiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want to reveal the school's affairs to an outsider, especially a reporter, especially since such things would affect the school's reputation.
They stood not far from the cafeteria without saying a word. Ming Qiao was about to introduce them when he saw a notice with white characters on a red background hanging on the bright yellow wall.
【Notice on restaurant dining management:
This restaurant is the internal canteen of the No. 1 Middle School, which mainly provides dining services for faculty and students. According to the Food Hygiene Regulations of Xingchuan City, the following rules are specially formulated]
In the past, the cafeteria issued notices by writing on two half-person-high blackboards and placing them upright at the door to inform diners what dishes the cafeteria would provide that day, or to inform them that a certain area of the cafeteria was under repair and to remind them not to approach.
There has never been a notice like the one now, which clearly states the rules and is so eye-catching that it cannot be ignored.
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