After Falling in Love with the Scum Alpha’s Beautiful Original Wife at First Sight - Chapter 6

When Xu Qingzhi went to work in the morning, there was still no movement at all from Shen Baiyi in the guest bedroom.

She vaguely knew that Shen Baiyi had come back around midnight. She had no idea where exactly their department always went for their gatherings, but every time, Shen Baiyi almost always came home this late.

This morning, Xu Qingzhi needed to inspect the school’s morning reading sessions, so she had to go to work even earlier than usual.

Last night, she had sent Shen Baiyi a message asking what she wanted to eat that morning, but Shen Baiyi had never replied.

Xu Qingzhi could only casually cook some rock sugar, mung bean, and lily bulb porridge, steam a plate of shrimp dumplings, and pan-fry a few beef buns. Afraid Shen Baiyi might find those too greasy, she also warmed some milk, boiled two eggs, and toasted two slices of bread. That way, after Shen Baiyi woke up, she could eat whatever she wanted.

Xu Qingzhi herself did not have much of an appetite. She forced herself to drink a little less than half a bowl of porridge, then left for school.

The high school where Xu Qingzhi worked had been around for quite some years. Outside the school was a street full of snack stalls, with a history nearly as long as the school itself. Before the sky had even brightened, it was already bustling. The aroma and steam of food drifted from one end of the street to the other on the cold wind. Almost every stall had four or five students gathered around it.

During winter, Xu Qingzhi often took the bus to work. She had to get off at an intersection near the school and walk the rest of the way. As she walked along, the sky was dim and pale. Her body, which had just gone cold, was warmed again by the snack street. She quickened her steps into the school. As soon as she entered the office building, someone called out to her from behind—

“Teacher Xu, good morning.”

Xu Qingzhi turned around. The person who had called out to her was Teacher Meng, who shared the same office as her. Teacher Meng was in her early thirties and had just returned to work after maternity leave. She was warm and enthusiastic toward everyone she met, and she was very popular among both teachers and students.

Xu Qingzhi smiled back. “Teacher Meng, good morning.”

“Teacher Xu, I just saw you walking over from outside the school. It’s so cold today. Why didn’t you drive to work?”

“Oh, I actually came by bus. I only walked this short stretch from the intersection to the school,” Xu Qingzhi explained.

Teacher Meng said, “I see. I thought you had walked all the way to work in this cold weather. I was wondering whether your body could take it.” She then asked with concern, “Your throat doesn’t sound quite right either. You must have caught a cold.”

Xu Qingzhi smiled. “Just a small cold. It’ll be fine if I drink more hot water.”

“That’s good. But you must take care of yourself.” Teacher Meng walked side by side with Xu Qingzhi as they headed into the office building. While talking, she casually lifted her forearm, then suddenly cried out, “Oh no! How did I accidentally take my husband’s briefcase out of the car too? Look at my brain. How did he not notice either? I don’t know where he’s driven to by now.”

Teacher Meng hurriedly turned around and was about to chase after him outside. Xu Qingzhi froze for a moment, then quickly reminded her, “Teacher Meng, call him first and ask him to come back quickly.”

Teacher Meng looked suddenly enlightened again. She waved at Xu Qingzhi while taking out her phone and walking outside.

Xu Qingzhi could not help laughing. After Teacher Meng gave birth, she would occasionally make little mistakes like this. Xu Qingzhi had seen it many times and was already used to her being like this.

She was just about to walk toward the office when a thought suddenly flashed through her mind like a drop of water falling into the sea.

Teacher Meng was truly happy. Every day, she could be picked up and dropped off by the person she loved.

—

Morning reading lasted thirty minutes, and Xu Qingzhi had to inspect fifteen classes.

Xu Qingzhi had transferred to the very high school where she now worked during her senior year. After going in circles, she had never expected to return to this place a few years later.

Because of that, Xu Qingzhi deeply understood that morning reading in winter was the hardest to endure.

The students had just struggled out of their warm blankets, then returned once again to the cozy classrooms for morning reading. After reading for only a few minutes, their eyelids would begin fighting each other and they would grow drowsy. Once one person fell asleep, they could bring down a whole crowd with them.

Xu Qingzhi inspected several classes in succession. Every time she pushed the door open and looked in, the first thing she saw was a dense sea of the backs of heads.

A little girl sitting by the door was nodding off. Perhaps the cold wind that came in when Xu Qingzhi opened the door froze her awake, because she suddenly lifted her head and met Xu Qingzhi’s eyes. In an instant, she hurriedly flipped through the textbook in front of her and lowered her head to start memorizing vocabulary.

Xu Qingzhi caught sight of a jacket still covering the girl’s legs under the desk, so she gently closed the classroom door behind her.

She walked one round around the class. By the time she finished, the sound of reading had changed from the original mosquito-like buzzing into something clear and loud. Xu Qingzhi had just been about to open the door and go to the next class when a loud bang suddenly came from behind her.

Xu Qingzhi turned around. A boy was awkwardly climbing up from the floor. It seemed he had tripped over the strap of a schoolbag that someone had left on the ground, which was why he had suddenly fallen.

He was still holding a thermos cup in his hand. Because of the trip, most of the water in the cup had spilled onto the floor, and some of the hot water had even splashed onto his hand, scalding a red patch onto his skin.

But he had no time to care about his scalded hand. He hurriedly placed the cup on the desk of the girl sitting by the door, lowered his head to avoid Xu Qingzhi’s gaze, then fled back to an empty seat in the back row and sat down, trying to cover up his embarrassment by holding a book in front of his face.

Some students who liked watching excitement stood up from the back row and craned their necks to look at the mess in front. Then they immediately burst into undisguised laughter.

Only when the classmates laughed did the girl by the door react. Her face instantly flushed red. She lowered her head and stared fixedly at the textbook spread open in front of her, her whole body stiff.

Xu Qingzhi had also gone through their age before. With one glance, she knew exactly what this group of children was laughing about.

She gave a light cough, and the noisy voices in the classroom instantly quieted down.

“Morning reading means you should read properly. Don’t chat, and don’t do anything unrelated to morning reading. The students on duty, come over and clean this up. Everyone else, continue reading.”

Aside from that small incident in this class, the remaining classes were fairly well-behaved.

After Xu Qingzhi finished inspecting all the classes, she returned to the office.

Teacher Meng was already sitting behind her desk. On her desk sat a small transparent electric stew pot. As soon as she saw Xu Qingzhi return, she fished out a roasted sweet potato from the pot and stuffed it into Xu Qingzhi’s hand.

“Teacher Xu, here, have a roasted sweet potato.”

Even though she had already been colleagues with Teacher Meng for a while, Xu Qingzhi still felt flattered by this kind of warm, generous, and selfless sharing.

“Teacher Meng, thank you, but I already ate breakfast this morning. I’m not hungry right now…”

Teacher Meng said, “Eat it, eat it. Don’t refuse. I specially saved the smallest one for you. You can finish it in a few bites. It won’t make you too full.”

“Even if you don’t eat it now, you can hold it to warm your hands.” Teacher Meng smiled. “You went to inspect morning reading just now, right? That job freezes you the most. Hurry and take it.”

Xu Qingzhi could not refuse, so she could only hold the small roasted sweet potato. She looked up and saw that the other teachers in the office were also holding sweet potatoes Teacher Meng had given them. Only then did her heart settle much more.

There was a thirty-minute break between morning reading and the first class so students could eat breakfast.

Xu Qingzhi’s school was a key high school in Huai Kang City, and its first-tier university admission rate was very high. Because of this, every year, a considerable number of students whose school registrations were elsewhere specially came here to study as temporary students. For the sake of this large group of boarding students, the school deliberately arranged breakfast time between morning reading and the first class.

There was still some time before class. The teachers in the office graded the homework they had just collected while chatting and laughing.

“Teacher Meng, why is this roasted sweet potato you gave me so sweet? It’s much sweeter than the ones I buy outside the school!” one teacher suddenly exclaimed.

Hearing this, Teacher Meng smiled proudly. “My husband brought them back from his hometown. Because I like eating them, we kept a lot at home. If you want some, I’ll bring you a few tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll thank you in advance.”

Xu Qingzhi sat in her seat with her head lowered, grading the students’ exercise books. When she heard them chatting, she instinctively looked up.

The small roasted sweet potato in her hand kept steadily giving off warmth into her palm. Xu Qingzhi pressed her lips together, then withdrew her gaze again.

During morning reading, there had been the hot water that had been accidentally knocked over. And now, there was the roasted sweet potato Teacher Meng had pushed into her hands.

The two scenes alternated before her eyes, flashing faster and faster.

Xu Qingzhi did not know what was wrong with her. She suddenly felt as if something in a corner of her heart was beating irregularly, even making the depths of her throat burn with pain.

…She had clearly taken medicine this morning, so why did she still feel uncomfortable?