Chapter 99 Untitled 4
Si Zhui was grading morning homework when the news of the homeroom teacher's temporary leave arrived. The Dean of Studies smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "Teacher Lan, please bear with me today and act as the homeroom teacher for a day."
Si Zhui paused holding the red pen and nodded: "Okay." He stood at the door of the classroom. At 1.7 meters tall, he was taller than many elementary school teachers. The collar of his white shirt was tied neatly, and he looked quite calm - but the fingertips holding the lesson plan were slightly pale.
Halfway through afternoon study session, there was a sudden, loud crash of desks and chairs colliding in the back row. Si Zhui looked up and saw two boys wrestling on the ground, one grabbing the other's hair, the other punching him in the back with a clenched fist. The students around them screamed in fear.
"Stop!" Si Zhui walked over quickly and easily pulled the two apart. He was quite strong, and this time, with a force that even a teenager was unaware of, the two boys stumbled back a few steps, glaring at each other angrily.
"Why are you fighting?" Si Zhui's voice was deep, with a hint of Lan Wangji's seriousness between his brows. When his eyes swept over the two of them, there was an unquestionable seriousness in them.
It turned out to be just because of a pen - the short boy secretly took the limited edition pen from his deskmate, and when he was discovered, he not only refused to return it, but also pushed the other person.
Si Zhui looked at their flushed faces and remembered how Lan Wangji handled conflicts between students: "You must pay for the broken pen. In addition, you need to stay after school and clean the classroom floor. This is punishment for disrupting class discipline."
The smaller boy immediately exploded: "Why?! I don't want to listen to you!"
Another one also stiffened his neck: "You are just a substitute teacher, why should you be in charge of us?"
As they talked, they rushed out of the classroom one after the other. Si Zhui's heart tightened, and he immediately chased after them - the back door of the school faced a busy road, and it was the rush hour after work.
"Stop! It's dangerous!" Si Zhui's voice was filled with urgency, and his pace became faster and faster.
The two boys, however, seemed not to hear and rushed towards the school gate. Just as they were about to rush out of the school gate, a truck came speeding towards them with its horn honking, and Si Zhui's pupils suddenly contracted.
He didn't have time to think about it, and quietly gathered a trace of weak spiritual power at his fingertips - this was the first time he used power after crossing over. It was so weak that it was almost negligible, but it was enough to form an invisible barrier in an instant, slightly slowing down the movements of the two.
Then, he lunged forward, pulling the two boys back with all his might. The immense momentum caused all three to fall to the ground. Si Zhui instinctively held the two children in his arms, while he himself landed heavily on the pile of lime on the side of the road.
With a "crash", white ash splashed everywhere.
The truck passed by them, and the driver stuck his head out and cursed, "You're risking your life!" and quickly disappeared in the traffic.
The two boys were so frightened that they sat on the ground, staring at Sizhui, who was covered in white ash. They forgot to speak for a moment. Sizhui tried to stand up, but found his elbow burning with pain. Looking down, he saw blood oozing from the wound, mixed with lime, and the pain made his fingertips tremble.
The entire scene was captured by the surveillance camera at the school gate. To the average viewer, it was simply a substitute teacher who caught the student rushing out in time and accidentally fell, and the most they could do was sigh, "What a responsible teacher!"
But in the living room of the old house, Wei Wuxian's cup of water clattered to the ground, spilling water everywhere. Lan Wangji stood up abruptly, his fingers turning white from the strain of gripping the remote. On the TV screen, Si Zhui's face, stained with white ash, held a suppressed frown that pierced their eyes like a needle.
“He used his spiritual power!” Wei Wuxian’s voice trembled, half with fear and half with anger. “That brat! Who allowed him to use his spiritual power without permission?”
Lan Wangji remained silent, his gaze fixed on the screen, on Sizhui's bleeding elbow. The chill that enveloped him seemed to freeze the air. He was furious, angry that Sizhui, knowing full well that his spiritual power was unstable after crossing over, had risked using it anyway. He was even more furious at his stupidity, for using himself as a cushion, taking all the bruises and bumps, when he could have simply pulled him back.
“Look at his wound…” Wei WuXian’s voice choked with sobs, “It must be so painful with all that lime mixed in… How could this kid not care about himself?”
Lan Wangji reached out and pulled the emotional Wei Wuxian into his arms. His heart was beating rapidly. The sight of the truck rushing towards him had almost suffocated him. That was their child, the one they had cherished and raised with such care, the one who had experienced life and death before returning to their side. How could they bear to see him get hurt again?
"Don't be angry." Lan Wangji's voice trembled slightly. "As long as he's okay, I'm glad."
"How can I not be angry!" Wei Wuxian punched him, his eyes red, "Wait until he comes back, and see how I'll deal with him!" Although he said that, he couldn't hide the heartache in his voice.
Meanwhile, at school, Sizhui had recovered. He didn't mention punishment again, simply asking the two boys to return to the classroom while he washed his wound under the faucet. The white ash mixed with blood washed away, revealing his elbow, a bloody mess. It was a shocking sight.
Two boys hid in the corner of the corridor, watching his shoulders tremble slightly as he lowered his head to rinse. Suddenly, their eyes reddened and they walked over timidly: "Teacher... I'm sorry..."
Si Zhui looked up, his face still stained with white ash, but his eyes had already regained their composure, with a touch of Wei Wuxian's tolerance, yet also concealing Lan Wangji's seriousness. "It's good that you know you're wrong. Fighting won't solve the problem, and neither will running away." He paused, then added, "About the pen, you two can apologize to each other tomorrow, okay?"
The two boys nodded vigorously, looking at his bleeding wound, tears falling: "Teacher, your hand..."
"It's okay." Si Zhui smiled, his eyes curved, just like the way Wei Wuxian looked when he comforted them, "It's just a minor injury."
But he didn't notice that when he used his spiritual power just now, the faint blue light that flashed across his fingertips was not only seen by the two people in the old house, but also captured by another pair of eyes hidden in the dark.
In a black car on the corner of the street, someone looked at Si Zhui's figure on the surveillance camera, a hint of an ambiguous smile on his lips: "I found him... He's just like that guy Wei Wuxian, stupid enough to make me... miss him."
In another hidden warehouse, several people in black were watching the same scene. One of them said coldly, "To be able to use spiritual power to protect two people in an instant, this child's physique... is very suitable for being a vessel."
As the sun set, Sizhui walked out of the school gate, dragging his injured elbow. The sunset glowed half the sky red. He didn't know that his impulsive behavior not only made the two people at home anxious, but also attracted two sets of malicious glances.
A storm was brewing quietly around the young man. At this moment, Sizhui just wanted to go home quickly and let his father treat his wound - his elbow was really hurting, so much so that he wanted to cry secretly.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
