Back to Auntie’s School Days - Chapter 40

Jian Hao buried her head deep into the sofa cushions.

She wanted to suffocate herself!

Just as she was about to lose her breath, she pulled herself up. Considering Comrade Jian You had only just recovered her “lost” daughter, Jian Hao knew she couldn’t just die. Though right now, she truly felt the urge to headbutt a block of frozen tofu and end it all.

This impulse didn’t fade even after Guan Xinting arrived.

Facing Guan Xinting, Jian Hao naturally didn’t keep any secrets. She told Guan Xinting that she had actually time-traveled. Guan Xinting’s first reaction was a daze, followed by a look that suggested she was watching a complete idiot.

Two seconds later, Guan Xinting’s eyes turned red. “Oh my god! Holy Mother of Heaven, what have you done? To let such a delicate flower succumb to madness!”

She sobbed, grabbing Jian Hao’s hand. “Let’s go. I’ll take you and Auntie to the Old Street corner.”

That was the location of the Nanqing Municipal Psychiatric Hospital.

Jian Hao looked helplessly at her bedroom door. She was somewhat glad she had dragged Guan Xinting into the bedroom and closed the door. If Jian You had heard that, she really might have teamed up with Guan Xinting to drag her to the hospital.

Jian Hao gave Guan Xinting a sharp tug, pulling her down to sit beside her. “Whether you believe it or not, I have a much more important matter to tell you right now.”

Guan Xinting, always possessing the strongest spirit for gossip, stopped her tears and asked in a shaky, post-crying voice, “What?”

Jian Hao cleared her throat and told Guan Xinting that her mobile browsing history had likely been seen by Tan Yanqing.

Since they were best friends, they shared certain… interests. Jian Hao didn’t even have to describe the content; Guan Xinting understood immediately. Hearing this, Guan Xinting let out a shocked, awkward giggle. As she locked eyes with Jian Hao, she couldn’t hold it back anymore and burst into loud laughter, collapsing onto Jian Hao’s bed.

Jian Hao blushed with shame. “Stop laughing! Tell me what to do, quickly!”

“Serves you right! That’s what you get for running away from home for no reason!”

After getting that dig in, Guan Xinting laughed a few more times before saying, “What else can you do? It’s already been seen! If Auntie Tan doesn’t bring it up, just pretend you don’t know~!”

Seeing that Jian Hao’s expression still hadn’t recovered, she comforted her: “It’s fine. Auntie Tan went through puberty too; she’ll definitely understand. Who doesn’t read a few novels during their teens?” Even if those novels were of the… forbidden variety.

Jian Hao thought to herself: Tan Yanqing didn’t read novels during puberty. She didn’t even watch TV.

“Besides, Tan Yanqing is an elder, someone who’s been through it all. She knows people have desires.” Guan Xinting patted her shoulder. “Relax~”

“The logic is sound, but imagine if your mom saw those things. How would you react? You’d be exactly like me!”

“But my mom wasn’t seen, was she? I don’t run away from home, so no cops will go looking through my phone… Uh… did Auntie see it too?”

“My mom didn’t. She said probably only Auntie Tan knows, because back when I disappeared, it hadn’t reached the time required to file a formal police report. Auntie Tan investigated it herself. No one touched my phone after that.”

Guan Xinting let out an “Oh.” “I’m so curious—when you ran away, why didn’t you take your phone? How did you survive these past few days?”

“A kind-hearted person took me in.”

Guan Xinting’s expression suddenly stiffened. Jian Hao knew nothing good ever came out of that mouth. Sure enough, the next second, Guan Xinting said, “You… were kept as a ‘sugar baby’?”

Jian Hao opened her mouth to argue. But… Tan Yanqing gave her a place to stay, food to eat, bought her clothes, and gave her everything she needed. It really did look a bit like being “kept” by Tan Yanqing. The only difference was that they didn’t have that kind of relationship.

She let out a couple of “Heh-heh” cold laughs.

Guan Xinting laughed once and then turned serious. “So… why did you run away?”

Jian Hao knew no one would believe the truth if she told it, so she didn’t bother. She just gave the standard “runaway” response: “Didn’t want to go to school.”

Guan Xinting sighed. “I thought it was something major.” She reached out and hugged her. “You’ve still got me, you big idiot! Tell me if you’re unhappy next time; don’t just mess around on your own. If you want to run away again, take me with you. Didn’t you say you wanted to go to Yuncheng? Next time, we’ll go to Yuncheng together.”

Jian Hao’s heart felt like it had been dropped into freshly boiled sugar water—warm and sweet—but she still said, “You’re the big idiot.”

Then Jian You knocked and called them out for dinner.

After eating, Guan Xinting asked if she was going back to school. “Director Gao and the homeroom teacher checked with me several times about your situation. If you don’t go, I’ll have to find them this afternoon to give them an update.”

At the mention of Gao Jing, Jian Hao’s heart suddenly steadied. She said, “I’ll go back tomorrow. You just talk to the homeroom teacher; I’ll go speak to Director Gao myself. Do you have her number? Give it to me.”

In the afternoon, Jian Hao said she wanted to go for a walk. Jian You insisted on accompanying her. Jian Hao didn’t want her along, but she couldn’t win the argument. Just as she was about to give in, the doorbell rang.

The door opened, and Zhu Xinsui walked in, her bag slung over her shoulder and her curls slightly messy. It looked as if she had rushed over the moment she heard the news.

Seeing her, Jian Hao called out, “Auntie Zhu.”

Jian You asked, “Why are you here? Not at work?”

“You said Xiao Hao was back, so I came to see.” Zhu Xinsui was no longer the dull girl of her youth; she had become confident, with a unique kind of charm when she spoke.

She was carrying a cake to coax Jian Hao with. As she handed it to the girl, she heard Jian You complain: “She’s back, but now she’s making a fuss about going out again.”

“Going where?”

Jian Hao: “Nowhere in particular, I just want to walk around by myself. But my mom is so worried that I think I’ll just stay in.”

Zhu Xinsui: “Then why not let your mom go with you?”

Jian Hao: “She has things to do at the shop; they’ve already been calling her.”

Zhu Xinsui said softly, “Then how about I go with you?”

Jian Hao didn’t really want company, but the errand she had to run was urgent, and she desperately wanted an answer. She looked at Jian You.

Jian You hesitated.

Zhu Xinsui smiled. “You don’t trust even me?”

Jian You first glanced at Jian Hao, then glared at Zhu Xinsui, silently blaming her for saying such things in front of the child. But in reality, if she didn’t have a guilty conscience, the words would have sounded perfectly normal—after all, Zhu Xinsui was their neighbor.

“Then let Auntie Zhu go with me. Mom, you go be busy with your stuff,” Jian Hao said.

Jian You’s mind had been entirely focused on finding Jian Hao these past few days, and the pressure from the shop was mounting. She could only rely on Zhu Xinsui now. After giving Zhu Xinsui a series of solemn instructions, she finally agreed to let them leave.

Zhu Xinsui’s car was a white Porsche, quite beautiful. As Jian Hao sat in the passenger seat, Zhu Xinsui’s soft voice reached her.

“Where do you want to go?”

Jian Hao named a location.

Zhu Xinsui was slightly surprised. “What are you going there for?”

“An auntie helped me a lot these past few days. I’m going to thank her.”

Zhu Xinsui nodded. Toward Jian Hao, she was somewhat subservient; if Jian Hao didn’t want to explain, she wouldn’t press. Thus, she didn’t ask about the runaway incident, which made Jian Hao feel much more at ease.

When the car stopped at the destination, Jian Hao said she wanted to go in alone to say thanks. Zhu Xinsui hesitated but agreed, watching Jian Hao enter the police station while she waited outside.

In less than ten minutes, Jian Hao emerged from the station. Zhu Xinsui asked where else she wanted to go, but Jian Hao just said she wanted to go home.

Once back, Jian Hao went to her room and wrapped herself in her blanket. When asked, she just said she was sleepy and fine.

Zhu Xinsui sensed something was wrong and sent a brief message to the group chat they shared.

Tan: 【Which police station did she go to?】

Zhu: 【The one closest to No. 1 High School.】

Jian: 【The one where Sister Han is?】

Zhu: 【Who is this Sister Han you’re talking about…?】

Jian: 【I told you before! The one who helped Jian Lai find her family back then. She’s the station chief now.】

Zhu exited the group chat and sent a private message to Jian You.

Zhu: 【Yanyan is watching.】

Jian: 【Even if I didn’t mention her, Yanyan would have figured it out. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have asked which station.】

Jian: 【So many years have passed. If you ask me, she should have let it go long ago.】

Jian: 【To be honest, I’ve even forgotten what Jian Lai looked like. Do you still remember?】

Zhu: 【Forgotten.】

Zhu: 【But if it were you, I would never forget.】

Jian You didn’t reply to that last line, instead saying: 【How is Tangtang? Are you busy? If not, help me keep an eye on her; I’m coming back right now.】

Tan Yanqing didn’t speak again after that one question. While the two were private messaging, the group chat remained silent.

Jian Hao stayed in bed until Jian You returned from the shop. Jian You went in to ask a few questions, and seeing nothing unusual, she left again.

With a click of the door closing, Jian Hao turned from her side to lie flat, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Before going to the police station, Jian Hao had called Gao Jing to let her know she was safe. After a long, earnest lecture from Gao Jing, she asked: “Director Gao, I heard my mom say that back when you taught her class in senior year, there was an amnesiac person who joined the class for a while?”

Gao Jing asked, “Why do you ask?”

Jian Hao: “I just heard my mom mention it and was curious if it was true.”

“Yes.”

Jian Hao’s hand tightened around her phone. “And what happened to her afterward?”

“One day she just stopped coming to school. I assume she recovered her memory and went back to study in her original place. We never saw her again.”

Jian Hao’s throat bobbed as she swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat. “Was… was her name Jian Lai?”

Gao Jing said, “That was the name.”

“…”

If the conversation with Gao Jing left Jian Hao with doubts, then after she went to the police station, saw Han Juan’s photo on the wall, and confirmed the events of that year with her, the certainty was absolute.

There was no parallel world.

She had traveled to the past, stayed there for two months, and traveled back. Everything was real.

Which meant that the person who had “ghosted” Auntie Tan was truly her.

Why was she so sure? Because after she left Han Juan’s office, she heard another officer ask Han Juan about the case through the door.

Han Juan said this:

“Sigh… it’s hard for me to forget that case! That girl disappeared so suddenly. Another girl her age came to report it. See, the missing girl had already filed a report herself saying she had amnesia and asked for help finding her family. Before we could find them, she came in herself to withdraw the case, saying she’d remembered everything. I assumed she disappeared because she went home on her own, but since someone reported it, we couldn’t just ignore it…

Since then, that girl would come to the station every day after school to ask for news. She’d stand right there under that elm tree at the entrance, through wind or rain, never missing a day. It lasted until she finished her exams and went to university; only then did she stop coming.

And the girl who vanished? We searched everywhere and found nothing. We even reported it to the municipal level, but still nothing. Before long, it became a cold case.

I always remembered the girl who filed the report. A few years back, I ran into her at a meeting at the Municipal Bureau. She’d become a police officer. After some small talk, I found out she’d joined the police academy just so she could find that missing girl…”

Recalling Han Juan’s words once more, Jian Hao felt as if molten iron were being poured into her heart, burning her spirit until it was utterly extinguished.

When the heart dies, the person’s vitality scatters.

Even though Jian You said she could have a long break, Jian Hao shouldered her backpack and went to school the very next day. For two weeks straight, both teachers and students said she had become a different person.

She went from a mediocre student who either read novels or slept in class to a diligent student who listened intently and whose grades were steadily rising.

That was the good change.

The bad change was that she had transformed from a cheerful, sun-like girl who mingled with everyone into a wooden, humorless person. She still smiled, but it felt as if nothing could pique her interest anymore; her eyes held only her studies.

The change was so alarming that Jian You, fearing something would go wrong, asked Guan Xinting to keep an eye on her.

On this day, school let out early. Guan Xinting linked her arm with Jian Hao’s and asked if she wanted to see a new movie. Predictably, Jian Hao refused.

Guan Xinting urged, “If you keep studying, your brain will stop working. You need to relax. If you don’t want a movie, there’s a concert nearby. Let’s go to that!”

Jian Hao suddenly stopped walking.

Guan Xinting thought Jian Hao was angry with her and was about to coax her, but she realized Jian Hao was staring fixedly in a certain direction.

She followed the gaze.

In the bone-chilling wind of November, amidst the bustling school gate, a red Hongqi H5 was parked by the roadside. Tan Yanqing was wearing a brown fleece jacket, black slim-fit jeans, and brown Martin boots. She stood by the car with one hand in her pocket. Even with her long, straight hair tied casually behind her head in a lazy, effortless way, the fact that her expression was colder than the weather made her seem unapproachable.

Many people only dared to steal secret glances at her.

Tan Yanqing ignored the stares. Her misty, blue-gray gaze pierced through the crowd and landed directly on them.

To be precise, it landed on Jian Hao.