Diagnosis: Friend [Rebirth] - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Qingqing!”

“Jiang Qing!”

…

“Jiang Qing!”

—!

Someone suddenly shoved her body. Jiang Qing jolted awake, standing up with a start.

Outside the window, the wind blew through the leaves. On the playground, the PE teacher shouted slogans at the top of his lungs. From the next classroom came the sharp voice of another teacher, mixed with the sudden burst of whispers within her own classroom… a torrent of sound poured into Jiang Qing’s ears, her eardrums vibrating slightly as a massive buzzing echoed around her head.

The scene before her eyes gradually sharpened. A three-meter-long blackboard appeared first, followed by a greyish-white multifunctional podium. A scrawny old man wearing a black polo shirt leaned against the podium, his eyes wide with rage. He seemed furious; his hands, covered in chalk dust, were trembling slightly.

Jiang Qing, however, was stunned.

—This is a classroom? Is this… her high school physics teacher?

She swallowed hard, her gaze scanning the room. She saw many familiar faces whose names she couldn’t quite recall. Sweat slid down from her forehead. Jiang Qing tremblingly touched her own legs—the legs were still there. Her hands—her hands were still there.

She wiped her palms across her face in a frantic motion; she didn’t feel any sticky, bright red liquid, only a handful of sweat.

She wasn’t dead.

She suddenly began to laugh. In the wake of surviving a disaster, two round tears landed on her wrist, feeling icy cold.

Was it a dream?

She pinched the flesh on her arm, twisting it bit by bit in a clockwise direction. A clear, solid sensation of pain radiated from her arm. When she let go, a distinct red mark remained on her fair forearm.

It wasn’t a dream. She had really come back to life!

Amidst her joy, someone suddenly grabbed the hem of her shirt. Beside Jiang Qing, a girl with thick, straight bangs looked at her with a nervous and worried expression: “Jiang Qing, are you feeling unwell?”

Jiang Qing recognized her; this was her seatmate, Yang Lei.

Yang Lei looked at her seatmate’s sweating, dazed expression. It was already rare for Jiang Qing to sleep in class, but she had slept so deeply that she couldn’t be nudged awake, which had made Mr. Wang angry. Now that she was finally awake, her face was wooden. After a long while of recovery, she had started looking around neurotically, her face covered in an abnormal, dense sweat.

Seeing her strange behavior, the teacher on the podium softened his dark expression slightly, showing a hint of concern: “Jiang Qing, do you have heatstroke?”

It was almost October, and the weather remained fine. Although the temperature couldn’t compare to summer, standing in the sun for a long time could still pose a risk of heatstroke. But they were indoors!

“Yang Lei, help your seatmate sit down first.”

His book landed on the podium; the old man was about to walk down to check on her when the student suddenly looked up: “I’m sorry, teacher. I wasn’t feeling well just now; I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

He walked forward to look at the student: “Is it serious? Do you want your seatmate to help you to the infirmary?”

Jiang Qing took the tissue her seatmate handed over and wiped the sweat from her face bit by bit. “Thank you, Mr. Wang. I think I just ate something bad at lunch. I’ll be fine after resting for a bit.”

The previously deathly pale face now had some color, and she was no longer sweating. Mr. Wang nodded, turned back to the podium, and continued the lesson.

Twenty minutes later, the bell rang for the end of class. Mr. Wang carried his navy blue handbag into the elevator. After thinking it over, he decided to tell Jian Wenxin about Jiang Qing’s situation in class.

Inside the Grade 11, Class 1 classroom.

One side of the small desk was piled with thick books, while a storage bag hung on the other side. Jiang Qing lay prone on the desk, her cheek pressed against the smooth, cool surface. Her fingers unconsciously picked at the strap of the storage bag.

She was reborn.

It felt like a dream. Ten minutes ago, the memories of the car accident were vivid, and she could even recreate the sensation of the pain. But now, she was acutely aware that her memories were rapidly fading. The memory of the car accident felt as distant as something from a previous life—though it indeed was from a previous life.

The intense sensory stimuli could no longer be recalled; only flat factual statements remained. Of course, some things were still remembered very clearly—for example, Gu Yining’s engagement.

At the thought of the three words “Gu Yining,” Jiang Qing’s heart suddenly twitched. her eyelashes lowered unconsciously, half-veiling her ink-black pupils.

Gu Yining had left a heavy, colorful stroke in Jiang Qing’s youth. Falling in love had felt natural; she had followed her impulsive heart forward with one-sided passion, making it easy to misunderstand many things. After being filtered by time, only heavy regret and dense, prickling pain remained.

That stroke unintentionally added by a youth had become a knife embedded in her heart, easily stabbing her until she was a bloody mess. Much of it was her own doing.

Jiang Qing was a despicable secret admirer; “friendship” was her despicable pass. She deserved to receive pain; she deserved to be lonely.

Heaven had given her a chance to start over, and she had been reborn to a time before she ever met Gu Yining.

Don’t get close to her.

Don’t… fall in love with her.

The bell rang as if to warn her.

Yang Lei saw her seatmate lying on the desk with her back to her. Thinking she hadn’t woken up fully yet, she reached out and shook Jiang Qing’s shoulder: “Jiang Qing, class is starting.”

Jiang Qing suddenly turned her head and gave her a gentle smile. Her teeth, bright and smooth as broken jade, were set within naturally red lips. The girl’s smile was more brilliant than the piercing sunlight outside the window.

During evening self-study, the sounds of rowdiness from other classes echoed in the hallway. Before long, the roar of the Dean of Students pierced through the entire floor. The noise vanished in the next instant, leaving only the patter-patter of footsteps in the corridor.

Yang Lei emerged from the restroom trembling, coming face-to-face with the Dean’s fuming face. Her hands moved unconsciously to the sides of her legs as she gave a slight bow and whispered: “Hello, teacher.”

The Dean didn’t notice her, merely replying, “Hello, student,” before hurrying downstairs to rush to another battlefield.

Yang Lei breathed a sigh of relief and jogged back to class.

Grade 11, Class 1 was at the far left of this floor, right next to the boys’ restroom and furthest from the girls’ restroom. As Yang Lei hurried into the classroom, out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone turning from the stairwell into the corridor. The person was about to enter the classroom but stopped when she saw Yang Lei running over.

Yang Lei slowed her pace and walked formally to the woman’s side, whispering: “Hello, Ms. Jian.”

Jian Wenxin nodded slightly. “Go and call Jiang Qing out.”

Yang Lei nodded and entered the classroom. As she sat down, she was still patting her chest and murmuring: “Scared me to death, scared me to death.”

Who knew that the first time she brought a phone to self-study, she would run into the Dean and the homeroom teacher! What terrible luck! Fortunately, she hadn’t dared to play with it directly during self-study and had smartly squatted in the restroom for half an hour. She felt the phone in her pocket, experiencing a solid sense of security.

Jiang Qing looked up from her books. Seeing her seatmate’s distressed expression, she guessed correctly: “Ran into a teacher?”

“More than that, Ms. Jian was there too.” Yang Lei glanced at the back door. “Ms. Jian is calling you out; she has something to discuss with you.”

Jiang Qing walked out of the classroom.

The woman in the corridor smiled at her, gestured with her chin, and turned toward the stairwell. Jiang Qing followed her in silence.

The light in the stairwell was dim. Amidst the click-clack of footsteps, Jiang Qing heard a “click,” and then the surroundings lit up. Jian Wenxin stood at the landing a few steps below. Behind her, a window was half-open, letting in a breeze. Jian Wenxin waved to her gently.

Jiang Qing’s eyes felt a sudden sting. She lowered her head and walked toward her.

More than ten years had passed, and though she had been helped by various teachers and elders—with only a scattered few still in contact—the one Jiang Qing was most grateful for was Jian Wenxin.

Jian Wenxin had graduated from a prestigious university and entered Anhe No. 2 High School to teach immediately upon graduation. She was an excellent teacher, and with the prestige of her alma mater, the school valued her highly. She became the homeroom teacher of the “Rocket Class” (accelerated class) at a young age, and she lived up to expectations, sending out batches of outstanding students.

A few months before the car accident, Jiang Qing had returned to the school, and Jian Wenxin had made time in her busy schedule to see her. Jian Wenxin had aged quite a bit, with a few white hairs poking out abruptly. The vigor of her youth had been softened much by time, and her speech had an elegance settled by the years.

Jian Wenxin was married with a cute daughter. Her husband was also very good, and her life was happy and fulfilled—this fulfillment showed in the fact that she had gained a little weight, though her posture remained graceful.

Back then, Jian Wenxin had looked at her pale face, reached out to pinch her cheek, and laughed: “How are you getting thinner and thinner? You mustn’t lose any more weight; set a good example as a senior student.”

Jian Wenxin asked about her relationship status. She was very surprised to learn that Jiang Qing was still single. Jiang Qing had just smiled and said nothing. The two strolled through the school, reminiscing about the old days. The school had undergone several rounds of expansion and hardly looked like it used to; only the Honor Roll board next to the steps facing the main gate remained as ragged as ever.

Jian Wenxin had pointed at the boys on the board and patted her shoulder: “They aren’t as excellent as you were back then. Each generation truly is worse than the last.”

Back then? Jiang Qing couldn’t remember the her of “back then.”

Now, through an accident, the young Jian Wenxin had appeared before her again, often wearing a worried expression.

Just like now, the woman asked Jiang Qing with concern: “Mr. Wang said your state in class today wasn’t right. What happened?”

Jiang Qing approached her with her head down: “I ate something bad at lunch and felt a bit unwell.”

Jian Wenxin asked again: “Nothing else happened, right?”

Jiang Qing shook her head.

“It’s good that nothing’s wrong.” Jian Wenxin pulled two pieces of paper from her bag. “This is a poverty student subsidy project set up by the province. If the application is successful, there’s a three-thousand-yuan grant, paid in a lump sum. It needs to be taken back to your village to be stamped.”

She bit off the pen cap and started marking the paper. “These are the proofs you need to prepare. Try to get as many as you can. I’ll go back with you this Saturday, and you can give the collected documents to me next Monday.”

Handing the papers to Jiang Qing, Jian Wenxin zipped her handbag: “I’ll mention it again at the class meeting tomorrow. Since your situation is special, I wanted to tell you first so you can make arrangements for Saturday.”

“Ms. Jian.”

As she put the pen back in her bag, Jian Wenxin heard the girl call her name softly. “What is it?”

Jiang Qing carefully looked at the required materials: “I can go back and handle it myself. You should rest well this weekend.”

“Hmm?” Jian Wenxin frowned. “Is your home… alright?”

“It’s fine.” The girl looked up and smiled at her, her eyes curving. “Ms. Jian went with me last time, so the villagers know. To save face, they won’t dare to do anything.”

Jian Wenxin stared at her for a moment, then suddenly chuckled and reached out to rub the top of her head: “Alright. Don’t let yourself be bullied. Call me if anything happens.”

Jiang Qing nodded vigorously.