"I've made up my mind—I'm going to the beach during the break!"
"I'd rather visit the grasslands."
"How nice, everyone already has plans for the holiday."
"Teacher Xia, where are you planning to go?"
The girl being addressed was sprawled over her desk, catching up on sleep. Hearing her name, she drowsily opened her eyes, her beautiful face briefly clouded with confusion.
After a moment, she shook off her grogginess, propped her chin on her hands, and said casually, "It's too hot. I’d rather stay home with the AC on."
The summer breeze slipping through the window carried a lingering warmth, gently stirring the ends of her ponytail—a fleeting trace of the wind’s path, as if giving form to the intangible.
Xia Miao was renowned among both students and faculty as the stunningly beautiful teacher. But her appeal wasn’t just skin-deep—rumor had it she came from a wealthy family too. Such a perfect persona was practically an invitation for envy!
A colleague leaned in curiously. "I heard Teacher Xia also graduated from Qionghua University. How does it feel coming back to teach here? Must be surreal."
Xia Miao rubbed her chin and nodded honestly. "It really is. Seeing my former teachers as colleagues now is... strange, in a good way."
Someone chimed in with a laugh, "You new teachers might not know, but Xia Miao was quite the celebrity in her year."
The speaker was an older teacher—one of Xia Miao’s former professors—who still remembered her cohort well.
A younger colleague eagerly joined in. "Teacher Xia must’ve been the campus belle, right? Were there tons of guys chasing after her?"
Teacher Wu, who’d once been a handsome middle-aged man before his hairline staged a dramatic retreat, chuckled. "Of course! At eighteen or nineteen, boys are shallow creatures—pretty faces always caught their eye. I caught more than a few trying to sneak confessions to Xia Miao."
The younger colleague pressed, "So, Teacher Xia never liked any of them back?"
"Nope," Xia Miao answered swiftly, then glanced at her phone, silently willing the clock to hurry up so she could clock out.
The colleague looked baffled. "College boys—plenty of good-looking ones, right? How come none of them caught your eye?"
Teacher Wu grinned. "I asked her the same thing back then. Want to know her answer?"
Everyone leaned in eagerly.
Teacher Wu didn’t keep them waiting. "She said none of them made her heart skip a beat."
Back then, despite the swarm of admirers drawn to her beauty, Xia Miao had remained utterly unmoved—like a monk detached from worldly desires, her heart untouched by any fleeting crush.
At the time, Teacher Wu had taken her reply as a sign of high standards—which he figured was a good thing, since it meant she wouldn’t fall for just any smooth talker.
But considering Xia Miao was still single, he added kindly, "Xia Miao, it’s about time you found someone. If you wait too long, all the good ones will be taken."
Xia Miao knew Teacher Wu meant well, but she really wasn’t in the mood for matchmaking advice. She nodded hastily. "Got it, got it. If I ever get a boyfriend, you’ll be the first to meet him."
Just then, the door swung open.
A security guard marched in, followed by a few boys hanging their heads in shame. The guard huffed, "Teacher Xia, are these your students? Instead of doing something useful, they decided to break into the old teaching building—the one that’s condemned and about to be demolished! They pried open the locks and sneaked in. Lucky I caught them early, or who knows what could’ve happened? If they’d gotten hurt, no one would’ve found them for days!"
Xia Miao’s Literature Class 3 did have a few daredevils. Her temper flared instantly. "You again! What were you thinking, going into a condemned building? Trying to get yourselves killed?"
Her colleagues flinched at the outburst. The contrast between Xia Miao’s usual polished, delicate appearance and her sudden fury always took a moment to process.
She stalked up to a buzz-cut boy, arms crossed, eyes blazing. "Gao Fei, this was your idea, wasn’t it?"
Gao Fei kept his eyes down, muttering, "We just wanted to explore. Didn’t mean to cause trouble."
"So it was you!" Xia Miao was livid. "Why is it always you? Can’t you stay out of trouble for once? Do you need to end up in the hospital before you’ll behave?"
Despite being dwarfed by the tall, well-built boys, Xia Miao had them cowering like scolded puppies, hunched and silent under her reprimand.
Everyone knew that when Teacher Xia was in a good mood, she’d splurge on treats—like renting out an entire amusement park for the class. But cross her, and those perks vanished, making them the most hated students in the room.
Xia Miao’s gaze zeroed in on the plastic bag in Gao Fei’s hand. "And what’s this junk you dug up?"
Gao Fei mumbled, "We found it in the basement storage room."
The old building did have a basement storage area, but it had been sealed off after an incident years ago. Once the whole building was condemned, no one went near it.
Gao Fei, reckless as ever, had somehow managed to break through multiple locks.
Xia Miao snatched the bag and jabbed a finger at the group. "Go write me a reflection essay—now."
The boys shuffled off obediently to fetch paper and pens.
After apologizing to the security guard and seeing him out, Xia Miao returned to find her colleagues buzzing with curiosity.
One of them spoke up. "I heard something happened in that basement storage room ten years ago. Is that true?"
As the longest-serving faculty member present, Teacher Wu became the focus of expectant stares.
Clearing his throat, he admitted, "Yes. A boy died down there. Actually, he was in the same year as Xia Miao."
Xia Miao looked up, startled. "I don’t remember that."
"After the incident, the school buried it deep. Only a few staff knew. No way they’d let students find out."
