If the World Had No Daylight - Chapter 6

When Bai Tian got out of the taxi, she still thanked the person inside the car.

Although she was somewhat annoyed with this person, it was also an undeniable fact that the other party had helped her.

Seeing that the person did not respond, Bai Tian hesitated for a moment, then walked to the back of the car and took a photo of the license plate. She said to Ye Wan, “Be careful. Send me a message when you get home.”

She said this for the driver to hear, because the two of them were not close enough to have exchanged phone numbers.

But the person whose face was half-hidden beneath the hood of her sweatshirt seemed not to understand. Looking at Bai Tian, she said, “But I don’t have your phone number.”

Gritting her teeth, Bai Tian reluctantly gave her number.

Only after watching the car drive far away did she hug her schoolbag and push open the iron gate outside the courtyard.

Unsurprisingly, the lights inside the house were on. Bai Tian scratched her cheek and slowly walked in to change her shoes.

The person who had already been home for half an hour sat in the living room, holding a calculator and calculating something. When he heard the sound, he did not even raise his head as he said, “So you still know to come home?”

Bai Tian put on her slippers, hugged her schoolbag, walked over, and sat down.

Bai Laosan ignored her and recalculated with the calculator. He looked at the calculator in puzzlement, somewhat uncertain as he flipped back to the previous page of accounts in his notebook. Just as he was about to calculate it again, the person sitting across from him spoke.

“It’s wrong. You added two extra eighty-six-yuan amounts.”

Somewhat stifled, he put down the calculator and raised his head to look at the person sitting there as if obediently admitting her mistake. His anger rose again.

“Auntie Li next door said you’ve been coming home after ten these days. Are you treating me like I’m dead?”

Bai Tian lowered her head and consciously chose not to provoke her Third Uncle at this critical moment.

The clock hanging on the wall ticked as its second hand moved. In a little while, it would meet the minute hand and hour hand at the number twelve.

What an absolutely unlucky day, Bai Tian thought silently.

“Starting tomorrow, you’ll go straight to the restaurant after school. You’re not allowed to go anywhere else!”

Bai Tian answered without thinking, “Tomorrow won’t work.”

Bai Laosan glared at her. Seeing that he was about to lose his temper, Bai Tian immediately backed down and said quietly, “I have something to do tomorrow. Next week. Starting next week, I’ll go after school.”

“You’re bargaining with me? What business do you have? Going to some illegal internet café or an arcade? Are you deliberately trying to anger me to death?”

Seeing that he was truly angry, Bai Tian had no choice but to tell the truth. “No. I’m working part-time. I’ll get my wages in a few days, and I’ll quit then.”

Bai Laosan froze. After looking at her for a long while, he said, “Why are you working part-time? Have I not fed you or clothed you?”

The hand gripping the strap of her schoolbag tightened. Bai Tian answered somewhat dejectedly, “No.”

After honestly explaining everything about damaging her classmate’s hair clip, Bai Tian sat irritably on the sofa. Looking at his silent figure as he walked into the bedroom, she called out to him after a long while, “I’m going to shower first.”

The water heater in the bathroom was broken again. Bai Tian waited ten minutes for hot water, and by the time she finished showering and came out, it was almost twelve-thirty. As she dried her hair, she returned to her bedroom, preparing to read for a while before sleeping.

She dug an old textbook out of the drawer and read for a few minutes. Then, thinking of something, she opened another drawer.

After searching around, she pulled out the first volume of Fundamentals of Applied Mathematics for Economics and spread it open on her desk.

Bai Tian took a pencil and, looking at the example problem in the book, began calculating on the desktop. After finishing, she compared her answer with the answer key and, rather satisfied, used an eraser to clean the desk. Then she closed the book and put it back.

There was a knock at her bedroom door. Bai Tian hurriedly put the books back into the drawer, then opened a comic.

“Come in,” she replied while looking at the comic.

Bai Laosan stood at the door with a stack of bills in his hand. He placed the money on Bai Tian’s desk and said, “Use this to pay your classmate back. Go quit the restaurant job tomorrow.”

After saying that, he closed the door.

Bai Tian looked at the six brand-new hundred-yuan bills on the desk. Before she realized it, the fingers gripping the comic had pressed hard enough to leave marks on the pages.

She closed the comic, leaned back, and let all the strength in her body sink into the chair.

The phone inside her schoolbag rang once. Bai Tian looked over, then straightened up, grabbed her bag, and dug out her phone.

It was a message from an unfamiliar number.

[I’m home.]

Bai Tian looked at the message and pressed the delete key. After a long while, she closed the phone without doing anything.

The next morning, Bai Tian was not surprised at all to find that she had overslept.

Heavy-headed and light-footed, she climbed out of bed, found a packet of cold medicine and took it, then went to the kitchen to heat up breakfast and eat it.

After glancing at the time, Bai Tian simply did not even put on her school uniform. She picked up her phone and keys and went out.

The restaurant had not yet opened for business. She found the manager and apologetically resigned. Fortunately, enough staff had already been hired by then. Seeing that Bai Tian was so young and already out working, the manager softened and did not withhold even a single cent of her wages.

Bai Tian thanked her repeatedly and left the restaurant.

Holding the still-warm wages, she once again stepped into that silver, glittering jewelry store.

Almost impatient to repay this debt, Bai Tian did not even return home. She went straight to school in her casual clothes.

Perhaps Bai Tian’s run of bad luck had finally reached its end. Today, Old Baldy Li had gone to another school to observe classes and was not at school, allowing Bai Tian to luckily escape disaster. By the time she arrived at the classroom, it was already lunchtime. After looking around and not seeing the person she was searching for, she simply stopped a class committee member and asked, “Have you seen the class monitor?”

The boy wearing glasses thought for a moment before answering, “She probably went to the laboratory building. She said she was going to find the chemistry teacher to get some test papers.”

Bai Tian said thank you and headed toward the laboratory building with the gift bag.

The chemistry laboratory was on the fourth floor. She had almost never gone there before. After finally climbing up to the fourth floor, she had some trouble figuring out the direction. She wandered around for quite a while before successfully reaching the place.

The classroom door was closed. Bai Tian looked around outside in confusion, only to discover that the curtains had also been drawn.

Had she already left?

Holding the bag, she thought for a moment, then helplessly prepared to return the way she came.

But as she passed the classroom door again, faint sounds came from inside. Bai Tian stopped and listened carefully, vaguely hearing the sound of crying. The scene she had run into not long ago suddenly replayed in her mind. Her heart sank, and she slowly approached the door.

Before she could raise her hand to knock, the person inside pushed the door open and came out.

The tear-streaked person met Bai Tian’s eyes. Then she quickly brushed past her and jogged away.

Bai Tian stood frozen in place. She turned her head and looked at the other person inside the classroom.

The person leaning beside the iron stand accepted Bai Tian’s gaze expressionlessly. She remained silent, looking as though she had no intention of explaining this strange scene at all.

Bai Tian looked at her in incomprehension. The gift bag in her hand was squeezed so hard it lost its shape.

“What did you do to her?”

After running into these things again and again, even though Bai Tian did not want to interfere, she could not remain indifferent. She was only a high school student too. Seeing a classmate being hurt right in front of her, how could she pretend she had not seen it?

The person inside the classroom ignored her. She raised her hand, pulled out a tissue from the side, and wiped her fingers. Bai Tian keenly caught sight of specks of red on the tissue, like bloodstains.

She walked into the classroom, closed the door, and locked it.

There seemed to be a strange smell in the sealed classroom, but it was mixed with the scent of chemical reagents, making it impossible for Bai Tian to distinguish what exactly that abnormal smell was.

“Ye Wan, I saw everything.” It was the first time Bai Tian had called her name. She could not even maintain a disguised calm on her face.

“Including last time. It was this girl too, right?”

Her memory was very good. She would not easily forget a face she had seen once, let alone under such special circumstances.

Bai Tian stepped forward and stood in front of Ye Wan. Because of their height difference, she had to raise her head to look at the other person, but this did not make her seem weak. Because at this moment, Bai Tian was genuinely angry.

The person leaning beside the iron stand met her eyes. Her expression was faint, as if she had no intention of talking at all.

This appearance made Bai Tian recall the day she first saw Ye Wan outside school. Back then, Ye Wan, dressed in a black hoodie, had looked on with this same expression as bloody bullying unfolded before her eyes.

And she herself had been the one directing it.

“You’ve gone too far.”

Looking at Ye Wan’s unmoved appearance, Bai Tian only felt cold all over.

“If there’s a next time, I will definitely report you.”

She gritted her teeth and said this, threw the bag in her hand onto the iron stand, then turned without looking back, opened the classroom door, and quickly left.

The person standing in place watched her back disappear into the corridor. After a long while, she reached out and picked up the crumpled dark-blue gift bag.

Inside was a delicate, small box. It was very light, but its price was not cheap.

Slender fingers opened the box, and a pair of finely crafted crystal hair clips appeared before her eyes, glimmering faintly in the dim classroom.

“How cute.”

The careless words fell softly. It was unknown whether she was speaking about the hair clips or something else.

The next morning, the girls in Class A discovered that the crystal hair clips that had been missing from the class monitor’s hair for a long time had returned. They withdrew their admiring gazes somewhat enviously and comforted themselves with the thought, “No matter how pretty something is, the person wearing it has to be pretty too.” Only then did they finally dispel the idea of buying the same ones.

The monthly exam was imminent. In the entire teachers’ office, only Old Baldy Li remained calm and composed, leisurely carrying his teacup downstairs every day to exercise.

“Teacher Liu, you can’t take a herniated disc lightly. You have to move around more. Don’t sit all the time.”

The chemistry teacher let the fat old man pull him along and nag at him for ages with a worried expression. Only when the class bell rang was he finally released.

He carried a thick kraft-paper envelope back to the office. Taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, he complained to the newly arrived female teacher, “Teacher Li too, honestly. He’s already so old, yet he still won’t retire and still insists on teaching the top class.”

The female teacher smiled. “I think Teacher Li is still very healthy. Having him stay at the school is a blessing for the students.”

Teacher Liu pursed his lips and said nothing more.

He took the new test papers out of the kraft-paper envelope, separated them into several stacks on his desk, and began preparing for class.

Half an hour later, before the class bell had even rung, someone knocked on the office door and called out a report.

Teacher Liu answered, “Come in.”

“Teacher Liu, I’m here to pick up today’s test papers.”

He raised his head. After seeing who had come, he immediately smiled, picked up the papers on the desk, and handed them to her. Casually, he asked, “Class hasn’t ended yet. Why are you here to get the papers already?”

Ye Wan smiled back and politely answered, “Teacher Li let us have self-study.”

He clicked his tongue inwardly, though none of it showed on his face. He reached out, patted her shoulder, and said with a smile, “Take them and do them properly. We’ll go over this paper in class tomorrow.”

After that hand withdrew, Ye Wan held the papers and turned around. She had only taken two steps when she seemed to remember something. She turned back and asked, “Oh, right, Teacher Liu. Were you in the laboratory building at noon yesterday?”

Teacher Liu looked over in surprise and asked, “No. Why?”

Ye Wan looked at him and said somewhat embarrassedly, “Then the student from Class C must have seen wrong. He said you were in the laboratory building, so I went there to find you for the papers, but I couldn’t find you.”

He laughed. “If you’re looking for me in the future, just come to the office. When I don’t have class, I don’t go to the laboratory building.”

Ye Wan nodded and walked out of the office holding the papers.

The smile on her face vanished. When the bell rang, she once again put on a gentle expression.

When Bai Tian woke up, the classroom was already empty.

Still bleary-eyed, she took out her phone and checked the time, then grabbed her schoolbag and prepared to leave.

Perhaps it was an aftereffect of her cold, but these past two days, she had been growing sleepier and sleepier. Yet no matter how long she slept, she had no energy. Today, she had even slept until after school.

There were three senior high teaching buildings. Now only the farthest one, where the third-year students were, still had lights on. Everywhere else had long since quieted down, empty and without a single figure.

Bai Tian yawned, picked up her schoolbag, and slowly went downstairs. When she passed the corner near the entrance to Class C, a voice faintly came over. It even sounded somewhat familiar.

“…You’re the one who hurt yourself!”

She stopped. Her sluggish brain was still processing whose voice that was when another person’s voice rang out. “I had no choice. I really had no choice. I’m begging you. Just treat it as…”

Bai Tian quickly walked over and pushed open the door to Class C.

The girl with reddened eyes from crying was startled. She turned to look at Bai Tian, who had suddenly barged in, and seemed to freeze, losing all reaction.

The person standing beside her looked over. After seeing Bai Tian’s face clearly, she revealed an impatient expression and warned coldly, “This has nothing to do with you. Don’t get involved.”

Bai Tian’s temples throbbed in waves. She knew it was from anger.

“I only told you yesterday at noon that if there was a next time…”

“Bai Tian, I’ll say it again. This has nothing to do with you.” Ye Wan looked at her, her gaze revealing an unprecedented sharp edge.

Alarm bells instantly rang in Bai Tian’s heart. She advised herself that it would be better to stop here, because this Ye Wan before her was the real Ye Wan. Being lulled for too long by her disguise and forgetting how dangerous she was had already been a serious mistake. Only by cutting her losses in time could Bai Tian avoid provoking even greater trouble.

However, the boy covered in blood once again flashed through her mind, even his pained expression terrifyingly vivid.

Bai Tian took a deep breath, looked at the girl who still had not wiped away her tears, pointed at her, and asked, “What exactly did she do to offend you? Why do you keep bullying her again and again? Even if you’re the principal’s daughter, that doesn’t mean you can act lawlessly, does it?”

The girl being pointed at froze, as if she had not come back to her senses.

Ye Wan’s impatience had already reached its limit. She no longer looked at Bai Tian and pulled the girl, about to leave the classroom.

Bai Tian quickly stepped forward and grabbed the girl’s other hand.

Their gazes met, tit for tat. Neither was willing to give way.

“Um… this classmate, I think you may have misunderstood something…”

The girl being pulled between the two of them hesitantly broke the deadlock. Looking at Bai Tian, she slowly said, “Ye Wan didn’t bully me…”

Bai Tian looked warily at the expressionless person and replied, “Don’t be afraid of her. I’ll help you.”

“…No. She really didn’t bully me. You misunderstood.”

The girl forcefully broke free from both their hands, wiped the tears from her face, gathered her courage, and said, “She was only trying to help me.”

Bai Tian was somewhat confused. “But I already saw her bullying you twice in the laboratory building. The injuries on your face, the bloodstains on your body, and…”

Looking at the girl’s increasingly pale face, Bai Tian shut her mouth.

She finally calmed down, and what followed was regret.

Probably, perhaps, she really had misunderstood something.

As she swiftly analyzed the scenes she had witnessed several times in her mind, Bai Tian realized the blind spot caused by her own preconceived assumptions.

She truly had never personally seen Ye Wan bullying this girl. She had merely judged things on her own based on appearances, then convicted Ye Wan of the crime.

Bai Tian remained silent for a long time before raising her head again.

“I’m sorry. I misunderstood you. I truly apologize.”

Bai Tian looked awkwardly at the person who showed no expression and sincerely apologized for her own blindness.

She should not have judged a person based only on one thing she had glimpsed outside school. It had been too self-righteous, and too foolish.

Perhaps what had happened in the alley that day also had hidden circumstances.

Bai Tian thought uncertainly.

But the person who heard the apology only said lightly, “Doesn’t matter.”

Then she took the girl’s hand and left the classroom.

Bai Tian stayed in place for a long while, then let out a long sigh and gloomily carried her schoolbag out of the school.

The sky was already dark. She stood at the bus stop waiting for the bus and sent her Third Uncle a message saying she would arrive soon.

After staring at her phone’s message inbox for a long while, Bai Tian opened the conversation with that unfamiliar number and typed out a sentence, sending it over.

Even by the time she returned home with her Third Uncle that night, Bai Tian had not received a reply.

She thought that she deserved this too. If it had been her being wrongfully accused like that, without any distinction between right and wrong, she would also have been furious.

But she had to bear the mistakes she made herself. Bai Tian did not like avoiding problems. Sitting on her bed, she thought about it and decided to write the other person an apology letter to sincerely express her regret.

The next morning, Bai Tian arrived at school on time with the envelope in her pocket, but she did not see her deskmate anywhere.

The classroom was noisily discussing something. She yawned, lay down, closed her eyes to rest, and did not listen.

All the way until lunchtime, Ye Wan still had not appeared in the classroom.

Liu Ran sat in the corner of the cafeteria, eating beef rice noodles in huge mouthfuls. He said to the listless Bai Tian, “Boss, Boss, do you know why Teacher Liu was taken away by the police?”

Bai Tian froze and asked blankly, “Taken away by the police?”

Liu Ran widened his eyes at her and asked in disbelief, “You don’t know? Everyone saw it this morning. Two police officers came to the school and took Teacher Liu away directly.”

Bai Tian shook her head. “Why? Did Teacher Liu commit a crime?”

Liu Ran glanced around, then mysteriously leaned closer and whispered:

“I heard he was anonymously reported.”

“What was he reported for?”

“Sexually assaulting female students.”