I Woke Up and Found Myself Married to the Dean - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Wen Qingyan is So Cold and Heartless.

Due to a mix of shame, embarrassment, and various other emotions, Si Nanyu kept her head lowered in silence for the entire drive to school.

Wen Qingyan, who usually drove with her eyes fixed strictly on the road, couldn’t help but steal a few glances at her because of this unusual silence.

Fortunately, the drive wasn’t long. Before they got out, a few words reached Wen Qingyan’s lips, and she finally spoke them: “You remember where the office is, right?”

“I don’t,” Si Nanyu’s voice was full of grievance. But when she heard Wen Qingyan ask, her gaze shifted.

She stared at her with watery eyes.

Wen Qingyan paused.

She felt that Si Nanyu looked exactly like Paigu specifically, the way Paigu looked when begging her for chicken jerky.

As expected, a dog takes after its owner.

Si Nanyu was the one who brought Paigu home, so it was normal for them to be alike.

However, since Wen Qingyan was the one who always fed him, she couldn’t help but feel a bit… disappointed.

Disappointed in Paigu, and even more so in Si Nanyu.

As she thought of this, her eyes darkened and her voice dropped: “If you don’t remember, go ask. Isn’t that what you’re best at?”

Si Nanyu sensed something was wrong with her tone and nodded silently: “…Okay.”

The car came to a stop a moment later. Wen Qingyan unlocked the doors and let her out.

She tilted her head and asked: “You’re not going to tell me you can’t open the door again, are you?”

“I can open it.”

To avoid further embarrassment, Si Nanyu had spent the car ride researching how to exit the vehicle. She raised her hand and opened the door smoothly.

After getting out, she didn’t leave immediately. She stood by the car, wanting to say goodbye to Wen Qingyan and ask her…

Why she had been dropped off at the subway station in front of the school instead of the school gate itself.

But Wen Qingyan didn’t give her the chance; she left her with nothing but exhaust fumes.

Using her common sense, Si Nanyu figured it was probably to avoid gossip.

Luckily, Zhennan High School was her alma mater. The subway station was just a bit older than it was ten years ago.

She recognized everything; it was about a ten-minute walk.

But Si Nanyu walked those ten minutes with fear and trepidation.

After all, in her own mind, she was still just an eighteen-year-old high school student who had never worked a day in her life, let alone knew how to be a… teacher.

She walked with her head down in deep thought, following her memory through the school gates. She hadn’t gone far before someone called out to her.

“Teacher Si? You’re so early today.”

The person calling her was a woman, somewhat petite with round cheeks and round eyes.

She was the very cute and pretty type.

But… Si Nanyu didn’t recognize her. She could only offer a slight smile and continue her winding path to find the office.

As a graduate of Zhennan High School, Si Nanyu was fairly familiar with its educational philosophy.

The term “Happy Learning” started with her generation of students.

Si Nanyu had studied piano since she was a child. Initially, it was just to satisfy her father Si Xueyi’s vanity, but later she truly fell in love with music and started exploring everything piano, violin, guitar, drums. If she was interested, she learned it.

However, her mother Qin Hua’s educational philosophy was very different from her father’s. By middle school, Si Nanyu had lived alone with Qin Hua for several years. Back then, she listened to her mother for everything: music was to be a hobby, but academics were the priority. Part of the reason she was sent to Zhennan was that Qin Hua wanted her to excel at both.

But Qin Hua was busy. She found out too late that after several years of experimentation, the school had undergone a major reform during Si Nanyu’s year, establishing special classes specifically for art and sports students.

At that time, Si Nanyu was a bit rebellious. Since she rarely saw her mother, she wouldn’t proactively tell her anything. Thus, Qin Hua only found out the news at a parent-teacher meeting well after the semester had started.

Si Xueyi found out too, and the two had a massive argument.

It was during that period that Si Nanyu met Wen Qingyan.

In a way, Wen Qingyan had saved Si Nanyu, who was drowning in a sea of mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

“Teacher Si.”

Si Nanyu, who had been walking with her head down, looked up at the familiar voice.

She looked at Wen Qingyan and saw her standing with her arms crossed and a cold gaze. Behind her stood a slightly plump, middle-aged female teacher.

The more she looked, the more familiar the woman seemed.

It was… Teacher Yang, the one Wen Qingyan had sent the voice message to this morning.

It was also the music teacher who had taught Si Nanyu: Yang Miao.

“Teacher Yang…”

“Teacher Si, you’re late again today.”

Wen Qingyan cut Si Nanyu off, looking at her watch expressionlessly. Yang Miao looked embarrassed and tried to smooth things over for her: “Teacher Si hasn’t been feeling well, so perhaps…”

Wen Qingyan ignored her and turned to Si Nanyu instead: “Work should look like work.”

“As a teacher of the people, you should be a role model for the students.”

After saying this, she turned and walked away, leaving a gust of wind in her wake.

Yang Miao was frantic. Seeing Wen Qingyan walk away, she stepped up to Si Nanyu and scolded her gently: “Nanyu, it’s only been a month since school started and you’ve already been caught being late by Teacher Wen three times! I bet your teaching bonus for this month is gone!”

“You were only a few minutes late. If only you’d been a bit earlier Teacher Wen only just arrived herself!”

“It’s her first class, and she’s probably in a bad mood, which is why she was so harsh with you.”

Yang Miao was a gentle-looking person, and even her scolding was soft; it was more out of pity for Si Nanyu. She also offered an explanation for Wen Qingyan’s mood.

Besides being Si Nanyu’s former teacher, she and Si Nanyu were now in the same research group, so naturally, she took her side.

Si Nanyu was practically led to the office by her. Although such intimate social interaction made her a bit uncomfortable, she couldn’t deny that thanks to Yang Miao, she had saved a lot of trouble.

Yang Miao was quite talkative and filled her in on all the basic situations.

Currently, the office was shared by various arts teachers. Yang Miao served as the head of the research group and consistently taught the senior year. Si Nanyu just happened to be following the senior year this year as well. The freshman and sophomore years only had one music teacher each; the senior year was the exception because of the art entrance exams.

“There aren’t many classes today since it’s Monday. Let’s go watch the choir rehearsal together this morning.”

Before Si Nanyu could even get settled, Yang Miao issued an invitation.

Whenever Zhennan High School had a major event, the choir was busy. School started in September, and according to tradition, the Autumn Sports Meet was at the end of the month, followed by the School Anniversary in mid-to-late October.

As a multi-disciplinary high school, Zhennan put a lot of effort into these areas.

In her student days, Si Nanyu had participated in many of these, but now that her role had changed, she was still a bit dazed. She stood up obediently and smiled at Yang Miao: “Okay, Teacher Yang!”

Yang Miao didn’t reply but looked around before leaning in and whispering to Si Nanyu: “Did Teacher Wen scare you?”

“Huh…?” Si Nanyu was startled. Realizing what she meant, she waved her hands quickly: “No, no!”

Yang Miao didn’t seem to believe her and pulled her toward the door. Only when they were alone did she say: “Xiao Wen isn’t your teacher anymore. You don’t need to be so afraid of her.”

“I’m not…” Si Nanyu offered another weak protest, but as she spoke, even she didn’t quite believe it.

She had to admit, she was indeed a little bit… afraid of Wen Qingyan.

Since her protest was ineffective, Yang Miao laughed even harder. She patted her hand comfortingly: “Don’t you know your Teacher Wen’s personality by now? You two were close back then. When she first came to the school, she was a little prude. Now that she’s the Dean of Students, she has to be even stricter to maintain order.”

Si Nanyu frowned slightly at the term “little prude” and silently protested in her heart: Wen Qingyan isn’t a prude.

But she also knew Yang Miao liked to joke around. It wasn’t that she was talking behind her back; when Wen Qingyan first became their assistant homeroom teacher, Yang Miao had teased her like that to her face.

Wen Qingyan had been thin-skinned back then. She didn’t react at the time, but when it was just her in the office, her ears would turn red.

It was very cute!

She wasn’t a prude at all!

Or… she could be a cute little prude.

After all, Si Nanyu thought, sometimes Wen Qingyan was truly old-fashioned.

Her mind was filled with thoughts of Wen Qingyan as she followed Yang Miao. As they neared the auditorium, they were met by the sound of the choir.

The reason she thought of it as “noise” was that this batch of choir members was not even half as good as the one she had been in.

Yang Miao frowned as she listened and complained bluntly: “This generation of students is hard to teach.”

“After all, they aren’t like the students from your years who came to Zhennan with genuine talent. Nowadays, kids…”

“Many of them just come for Zhennan’s multi-disciplinary teaching and the art student quotas.”

Si Nanyu bit her lip and nodded, afraid she would speak the blunt truth just like Yang Miao.

She wasn’t the same as Yang Miao. Even if she was unclear about many things like how to be a proper teacher or her own professional level she…

She knew very well that Yang Miao’s husband was the Director of Academic Affairs at Zhennan.

They were different.

Very different.

Watching the choir rehearsal might have just been an excuse to go out, as Yang Miao led Si Nanyu through half the campus until it was almost lunchtime.

Yang Miao warmly invited Si Nanyu to join her for lunch.

The cafeteria was still familiar to Si Nanyu. The dishes had changed, but not by much.

Unfortunately, there were no sweet and sour spare ribs, which she loved. The only meat dishes left were shredded pork with garlic sauce and braised lion’s head meatballs.

“Let’s just make do. The chef is on leave these few days; we’ll have sweet and sour spare ribs next week.”

Like Si Nanyu, Yang Miao looked a bit disappointed.

After all, the specialty of the Zhennan cafeteria was the sweet and sour spare ribs. Many people came specifically for that dish.

“It’s fine, the meatballs are good too.”

Si Nanyu wasn’t actually a picky eater; it was just that she preferred spare ribs. She ate the meatballs happily.

But as she ate, she started to get distracted.

Because her thoughts had drifted to Wen Qingyan ever since she’d thought about sweet and sour spare ribs the night before.

Halfway through her meal, she looked up and asked Yang Miao: “Does Teacher Wen… not come to the cafeteria?”

“Her? She’s quite busy. She usually comes quite late… Look, isn’t she coming now?” Yang Miao gestured with her chin for Si Nanyu to look behind her.

Si Nanyu whipped her head around. Wen Qingyan, with her hair pinned up meticulously and wearing a light gray shirt, was walking briskly in her high heels. She gave Yang Miao a slight nod and then…

And then she just walked past.

Si Nanyu blinked, following Wen Qingyan with her eyes, confirming it was indeed her.

It’s just that Wen Qingyan was so cold and heartless; she acted like she couldn’t even see her!

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