Under Clear Skies Chapter 52: Teaching Faculty

Chapter 52: Teaching Faculty

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

It was always difficult to feel energetic during the two p.m.-class, especially when it was raining. This autumn rain had lasted for a week on and off. Nobody knew when the sun would come out.

Tang Heng and Jiang Ya sat in the corner of the second-to-last row. One was sleepy, the other had already fallen asleep. Tang Heng yawned and jabbed Jiang Ya with his elbow.

Jiang Ya’s eyes cracked open. “What?” he mumbled.

“Wake up,” Tang Heng said. “You’re snoring.”

“Fuck, your class is so boring.”

“Because you don’t understand it.”

“Stop the act.” Jiang Ya rolled his eyes. “You’re sleepy as fuck too.”

Tang Heng was caught, so he didn’t answer.

He was indeed sleepy, but it wasn’t because of the content of this class—even though the little 60-year-old man behind the lecture podium was reading the Powerpoint slides like it was the Diamond Sutra.

He was sleepy purely because he’d gotten up too early this morning.

 

Li Yuechi could stay in the school dorm now that classes had started, but his rent wasn’t up yet, so he often stayed in the rented apartment. Li Yuechi hadn’t fully moved back to school until last week when his rent had ended.

Living in the dorm was actually more convenient—after all, it was on campus. But it wasn’t as great for Tang Heng. He couldn’t visit Li Yuechi at any time, nor could he stay there overnight. He even had to call beforehand to set a date. Plus, Li Yuechi had many classes as a first-year grad student and he had to work part-time, so they had even fewer chances to meet up.

Li Yuechi had said he was busy the entire day and had a group meeting at night, so they probably wouldn’t have time to meet. Tang Heng had braced himself and said, Then, let’s eat breakfast together.

See you at the cafeteria at 7:30.

7:30?

Yeah, I have a class at 8. Can you get up so early?

No problem.

 

Getting up early ruined the entire day. That was the saying.

“Never coming again,” Jiang Ya mumbled.

Tang Heng ignored him.

“No pretty girls here either.” Jiang Ya craned his neck, not giving up yet, and looked around. “Seriously none. What’s wrong with your school—”

“Shut up.”

“Be grateful that Daddy is accompanying you in class.”

“Did I beg you to come?”

“What’s that attitude?” Jiang Ya ducked his head down and started complaining, “You don’t come to dinners, don’t reply to texts, leave as soon as the performance is done…”

Tang Heng was already sleepy and his head felt even heavier with Jiang Ya muttering in his ear.       

The little old man moved to the next slide and read monotonously, “Academic thought in the 20th century has always had a certain opposition between language systems and ideologies…” Tang Heng looked over and saw that half of the heads before him had fallen down. Those that hadn’t were being supported by hands—they probably couldn’t last very long. The sky was gloomy outside the window and the rain pitter-pattered continuously. The classroom’s incandescent lights were slightly yellow and dim.

Tang Heng couldn’t stand it anymore. “You watch on,” Jiang Ya said. “I’m gonna sleep.”

Jiang Ya was replying to a text and made the OK gesture at him.

Tang Heng sprawled over the desk and closed his eyes. He was asleep in one second.  

 

There was half an hour before class was over, so he technically shouldn’t sleep too heavily. But perhaps because the little old man’s voice was too sleep-inducing, not only did he sleep heavily, he even had a dream—in his dream, Li Yuechi became the teacher of this class. He held the Principles of Sociology textbook and stood behind the podium, saying coolly, “I’ll begin taking attendance now.” In his dream, Tang Heng thought that this dream was quiet realistic, because that was what Li Yuechi had worn when they’d met this morning—a black t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and he’d just gotten a haircut two days ago, so the sides were shaved cleanly.

Tang Heng couldn’t look away, but he felt a bit jealous too. “Li Yuechi must attract a lot of girls,” he commented sourly to Jiang Ya.

“Psh!” Jiang Ya replied. “Hey, look at his expression. So mean! Are all the teachers in your school this mean?”

“He’s not mean,” Tang Heng shot back. “He’s just serious.”

As soon as he finished, Li Yuechi looked over from the podium. His eyes were cold. Next, he spoke and his voice was cold too. “Students who missed the roll call because they were sleeping will count as ditching class too.”

Tang Heng was taken aback. Just as he was about to open his mouth to refute it, Li Yuechi continued, “Especially you, Tang Heng.”

 

“Hey—Tang Heng! Tang Heng!”

Tang Heng’s eyes flew open and saw Jiang Ya right before him with his curly red hair. The boy was grinning at him, showing two rows of white teeth.

“Roll call!” Jiang Ya said.

“Oh…” Tang Heng wasn’t fully awake yet. He just felt that the classroom lights were even dimmer. Was it going to thunderstorm later?

Jiang Ya cocked his brow at Tang Heng.

Tang Heng: “What?”

Jiang Ya didn’t answer. He just made another face that seemed very pervy.

Tang Heng blanched. He suddenly realized that Jiang Ya’s expression wasn’t targeted at him. Tang Heng slowly turned and saw a black t-shirt—the one in his dream.

Looking up, he met Li Yuechi’s calm gaze.

Tang Heng: “…”

Snickering, Jiang Ya said, “This is Li-laoshi, our TA for this class.”

Tang Heng: “Huh?”

Li Yuechi picked up the roster and said emotionlessly, “Let me repeat myself. Those who miss roll call because they were asleep will count as ditching the class.”

“Oh,” Tang Heng uttered and he heard low chuckles from the other students.

Li Yuechi turned around and returned to the podium. No wonder I dreamed of him taking attendance, Tang Heng thought. But the TA usually see the student list beforehand, right? In other words, Li Yuechi already knew that Tang Heng would be in this class but didn’t tell him?

Li Yuechi didn’t even wake him up before he took attendance. Did he have to be so formal? And he said that sleeping counted as ditching class… Whatever. It was just a roll call. So what if he ditched the class? It was already a pot of gold to be in the same class as Li Yuechi.

Tang Heng thought of this while looking up at Li Yuechi. Their eyes met in the air for an instant. The next second, Li Yuechi looked away.

“Tang Heng,” he suddenly called out his name.

“Huh?” What, were there extra punishments for sleeping in class?

The other students started snickering again. While Tang Heng was confused, he heard Li Yuechi say, “Lu Jun.”

“Here.”

“Lin Tiantian.”

“Here!”

Tang Heng: “…”

 

After the roll call, the little old man assigned the homework and announced that class was over. The students trickled out of the classroom, but Tang Heng sat in his seat without moving. He watched as Li Yuechi turned off the multimedia in the classroom and gave the USB to the little old man. They exchanged a few sentences and he walked the man out of the classroom—then he doubled back and walked straight toward Tang Heng.

Jiang Ya whistled. “You two are intense.”

“Fuck off,” Tang Heng said.

Jiang Ya got up and patted his pants. “Sure thing, Daddy will go wait for you outside.”

 

Only Tang Heng and Li Yuechi remained in the classroom. The surroundings suddenly became quiet. Tang Heng looked over at the door and confirmed that there was nobody around before he took Li Yuechi’s hand. “How come you’re being the TA?” he asked, not able to hold his laughter back.

“To check if you’re paying attention in class,” Li Yuechi said.

Tang Heng was a bit embarrassed. “Ah, today was an accident…”

“Woke up too early this morning?”

“No!” Tang Heng denied hurriedly. “I slept too late last night. There was a performance, you know.”

“Mn.”

“It ended at midnight and then I went to eat with them at Wansong Park…” Tang Heng couldn’t help but touch Li Yuechi’s arm again. “So, you’ll be the TA for this class from now on?”

Li Yuechi grabbed Tang Heng’s wandering hand. “Yeah, Teacher Tang arranged it for me this morning. You won’t be able to sleep anymore.”

“How can I sleep with you here?”

Li Yuechi chuckled without saying anything.

“If you told me, I wouldn’t have slept just now. And one less ditched class too…” Tang Heng didn’t care at all, but facing Li Yuechi, he couldn’t help but whine, “Xuezhang, you’re so strict.”

“Liu-laoshi made the rule,” Li Yuechi said innocently. “Not my fault.”

“Oh, fine.”

Li Yuechi paused for a few seconds and said in a low voice, “Won’t make an exception next time.”

“Hm?”

“I called your name twice.”

Tang Heng snatched the roster from Li Yuechi’s hands and found that for his name, Li Yuechi had only put a mark under Present. The school’s roster had four columns: Present, Absent, Excused, and Other. Tang Heng had been sleeping the first time Li Yuechi called his name and missed it, so Li Yuechi should’ve marked him as absent. The second time, he’d been awake, so Li Yuechi should’ve crossed out the absent and marked him as present.

But the Absent column was nice and clean, without a single mark.

Understanding everything, Tang Heng said smugly, “Xuezhang, you’re abusing your power.”

Li Yuechi lowered his eyes instead of looking at him, seeming a bit guilty. “No more exceptions,” he said again.

Tang Heng had the urge to kiss him, but they were in the classroom and people could come in at any time. He touched his own chin and suppressed the urge.

“Xuezhang, did you know that TAs count as teaching faculty too?”

“Oh?” Li Yuechi said.

“So, technically, you’re not allowed to date students.”

“Oh.”

“…”

Tang Heng blanched. Being able to see Li Yuechi but not touch him was making Tang Heng itch inside, so he wanted to tease a little, but Li Yuechi wasn’t playing along at all. He didn’t know if Li Yuechi was doing it purposely or not.

Li Yuechi glanced at his phone. “I gotta go,” he said. “I have to tutor later.”

Tang Heng stared pitifully at him. “Fine.”

Li Yuechi hummed in response and turned to leave, but the roster suddenly fell from his arms to the ground with a thud. He was standing, while Tang Heng was sitting, so Tang Heng bent over to pick it up without thinking. Almost at the same time, Li Yuechi half-squatted and held the back of Tang Heng’s neck in his palm.

The desk blocked most of the light and they seemed to enter a different dark, shadowy world. They were too close—all that remained in Tang Heng’s vision was Li Yuechi’s face. So attractive, Tang Heng thought absentmindedly.

The next second, Li Yuechi tilted forward slightly and kissed Tang Heng on the lips.

It was a flash of a kiss. Their lips brushed lightly and Tang Heng’s cheeks started burning. It took a few seconds after Li Yuechi straightened up before he got up dumbly as well.

“Let’s go?” Li Yuechi said.

Tang Heng cleared his throat. “That’s it?” he asked dramatically.   

Li Yuechi’s lips curved as he said seriously, “I’m teaching faculty, after all.”