Su Qingmeng is the youngest math teacher at H City's No. 1 High School. In her second year on the job, she became a homeroom teacher who could handle everything on her own. In her third year, the Chinese teacher who had originally been her teaching partner retired.
The new Chinese teacher was her junior from the same school. She sat across from Su Qingmeng and lived right across the hall. Su Qingmeng thought they would work together as fellow alumnae and try to win next year's Outstanding Class award, but she never expected her junior's heart wouldn't be entirely in sync with hers.
Xu Xinghe, who had developed other ideas, also hadn't expected Su Qingmeng to be so unromantic. She talked about the moon, and Su Qingmeng replied with parabolas. She talked about the stars, and Su Qingmeng said they were movable points on a parabola.
She tried to say... but couldn't think of anything else. She'd already quoted every passage in the required Chinese textbooks that could be used to continue the conversation. If this went on, she'd have to flirt with Su Qingmeng by quoting the elective texts on governing one's family, ruling the country, and bringing peace to the world.
It was another ordinary day of being crushed by Teacher Su's lack of romance when a student came to ask Xu Xinghe a question.
“Teacher, in Romeo and Juliet, is using the moon to represent love a bit of a stretch?”
Xu Xinghe tried to rally her spirits. “Anything marked ‘excerpt’ isn't required. It won't be on the exam, so reviewing other material is more worthwhile.”
That night, as they walked back to the dorms beneath the lovely moonlight, Xu Xinghe pointed at the moon, planning to recite a verse from The Jade Steps in a blatantly unsubtle hint.
But Su Qingmeng suddenly took her fingertips, completely unlike herself, and recited the text word for word.
“Don't swear by the moon. It changes constantly, waxing and waning every month. If you swear by it, your love may be just as fickle.”
Xu Xinghe's playful expression suddenly turned serious. “But I'll always stand on the side that shines a light on you.”
Only much later did Xu Xinghe finally realize what had happened that day. She asked,
“Why did you think I was going to confess?”
“I don't know. But I hoped you would, and you didn't disappoint me.”
An unromantic high school homeroom teacher X a sweet, slightly scatterbrained intern teacher
The lack of romance is an act. The scatterbrained part is real.
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