Rust II

Perhaps it was because Lin An was still ill, or because of the promise to "start over", Xu Xin did not disappear without a trace after leaving on the grounds of work as before.

He always sends text messages when it is time to eat, and calls when he is about to sleep. Sometimes he just asks a few words, and sometimes he chats casually for a few minutes.This is true for every time period, from leaving on a Friday afternoon, all the way through to weekend nights.

It only took 48 hours for Lin An to get used to it and even look forward to it, from being nervous and apprehensive when he heard the notification tone of his mobile phone at the beginning.

And during these two days and one night of changes, he finally once again thoroughly confirmed that the other party's sudden change was not just his own imagination or speculation these days, it really existed and happened, even compared to his own confession. Before, it becomes more sticky and natural.It is no longer the erratic past two months, nor is it ambiguous and unspeakable that makes people suffer. On the contrary, it is clear, naked, straightforward, making people blush, but also bright, warm, Gentle and peaceful.

Lin An didn't understand where the other party's change came from, and he didn't want to delve into the reason behind the change. He only knew that he would rather choose to stay in the existing tenderness than to wander in the confusion that appeared and disappeared at that time. self-indulgence.

Monday morning came as scheduled, and when the alarm clock rang by the bed, Lin An subconsciously looked at the cell phone next to the pillow.

The sky was not yet bright, and in the hazy light, the reminder light was indeed flickering. He stretched out his hand and pressed the screen to enter the inbox. Xu Xin's name was hung on the top as usual, and the time was displayed as 5 minutes ago, it was from the other party An unread message for .

— Remember to eat breakfast.

Lin An looked at the short five words, put his hand on his forehead, and smiled slightly.

When she walked into the classroom of Class 7 from the back door in the morning, Xu Yuan, who was sitting in the back row, was the first to realize that she widened her eyes in surprise and opened her mouth to shout, "Ms. Lin, you are here!"

When the other students in the class heard it, they turned their heads and looked diagonally behind.Lin Anchong nodded to Xu Yuan, who looked at him expectantly, and then smiled gently at the others, signaling everyone to continue their morning reading.

After that, he continued to stand behind, observing the situation in the class as usual.

Xu Yuan was sitting next to him. After staring at the textbook for a second, she couldn't help but look at him frequently.Lin An noticed it, lowered his head and smiled at her, and asked, "What's wrong?"

When Xu Yuan saw that he had discovered him, she didn't want to hide it anymore, she raised her head upright and scanned his face twice, then pointed to the corner of her mouth, and asked softly, "Is the injury healed? "

Lin An was taken aback for a moment, then remembered the incident outside the fence in X Zhong last Wednesday, and couldn't help but smile again.

Xu Yuan looked at him with a face full of ghosts, and secretly slandered: "I'm still laughing after being beaten, really, I don't know what to be happy about."

After thinking about it, he turned his head a little speechlessly, and stared back at the classical Chinese that was so awkward that he couldn't even read it.

After not thinking about it for two seconds, the voice of the Chinese class representative rang from the other end, "Teacher, this is the home school book just received, and it says that it has not been handed in."

Lin An glanced at the slap-sized piece of paper, and Xu Yuan's name was indeed among them. He nodded and said nothing, "Okay, let's put it on the podium first."

Then when the other party walked away, he turned around again and asked softly to Xu Yuan, who was pretending to be holding the textbook while closing his eyes, "Where's yours? Why didn't you start handing in again today?"

Xu Yuan opened her eyes, glanced behind the desk and said lazily, "Is there anything good to ask, and I didn't sign it."

Lin An looked at her.

Xu Yuan said again: "What are you looking at? It's what it is. My uncle hasn't shown up for almost three or four days." She glanced at him as she spoke, "Really, last Thursday night he suddenly said that the company had something to do, and in the middle of the night he directly He went out, and said he was going on a business trip on Friday, and he hasn't come back yet." After speaking, he pouted and pretended to be helpless: "If you don't believe me, you can call him."

When Lin An heard her mention about Xu Xin's itinerary in the past few days, for some reason, his originally inquiring expression suddenly became a little embarrassed, and he secretly withdrew his gaze from resting on Xu Xin, and coughed inexplicably guilty. Once, and then a concealed "um", and then stopped talking.

Xu Yuan noticed his abnormality, rolled her eyes, and a flash of light suddenly flashed in her mind.

She was already surprised by Xu Xin's special reaction when he heard that the other party was injured last week, and when she asked Ding Hua, who was always talking about running trains, the other party's uncharacteristically secretive attitude, she was even more curious.And at this moment one of the parties was right in front of her eyes, it would be strange if she couldn't resist asking the truth, so she turned her eyes and called him in a low voice: "Hey, Mr. Lin."

Lin An adjusted his emotions, looked at her, but saw that the other party stretched out an index finger at the same time, and hooked his hand at him, then bent down and lowered his head with some doubts, but he didn't want to listen to her for a second. Yuan asked in his ear very mysteriously: "Do you know my uncle?"

Lin An tightened his grip on the edge of the table, and suddenly turned his face to look at her.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan giggled, and the other party's reaction undoubtedly confirmed her guess, so she hurriedly asked more: "Well, what's the relationship between you?...Are you friends?"

Lin An just looked at her without saying a word.Xu Yuan's face was full of anticipation, but she waited for a long time without waiting for a word. She couldn't help becoming a little anxious. She didn't expect to ask another question when someone knocked on the front door of the classroom.

"Mr. Lin." Chen Jianliang called to him at the door.

Lin An immediately straightened up as if he had been pardoned, and then turned around.

"Could you please come out?" The other party asked with a smile.

"Okay, wait a minute." Lin An responded.After that, he looked down at Xu Yuan, who was still looking eagerly at him, and quickly walked out from the back door.

Seeing his hurried pace, Chen Jianliang covered the classroom door for him, turned around and looked at him with a smile, "Hey, don't worry." He looked at him again, and said strangely: "Hey, Mr. Lin, your ears Why is it so red, is it cold?"

Lin An smiled a little embarrassedly.

Chen Jianliang looked at him a few more times, and said with concern: "How is it? Are you feeling better? Young people, you should pay more attention at ordinary times."

Lin An nodded, smiled and said, "Thank you, Director."

Chen Jianliang laughed, "You are polite, we are all colleagues." He opened the blue folder in his hand, handed one of the school stamped notices to him, and said seriously: "Okay, then I will Let's not talk nonsense, let's talk about business." He pointed to the line of words on the top of the notice and asked, "Come on, look, Teacher Lin, do you still remember this event planning plan?"

Lin An took the document and looked at it in the direction pointed by the other party, only to see the words "Notice of Opening Day in China X" hanging at the top.He hastily glanced at the content, and looked at Chen Jianliang in surprise.

The other party smiled at him and continued: "This is the activity proposal you submitted before the National Day. The school leaders held a meeting in the past two days and discussed all the suggestions received. In the end, they agreed that it is still yours. The plan is the most feasible and has the greatest impact, so Principal Ge immediately approved it, and asked all grades to actively cooperate in the implementation as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Lin An couldn't help thinking of the scene when Ge Jing talked to him more than ten days ago, and immediately understood, so he didn't show too much surprise.

When Chen Jianliang said this, he paused for a while, and then continued: "At first, the leaders and teachers of our grades planned to hold this activity in order of grades, from low to high, but then we considered... After half a month from our second year of senior high school, we will be busy with dividing classes and subjects, so we decided to bring the open day of the second year of senior high school to the forefront, which is this Saturday."

Now Lin An was a little surprised. He looked at Director Chen and said in surprise, "So fast?"

Chen Jianliang smiled and nodded: "Yes, that's why I came to you early in the morning. The other teachers in our grade have already notified you in the class last Friday. If you are not here, Teacher Jiang will take care of your class. We also slightly modified the content of the event at the meeting. Although the content you mentioned earlier was rich and exciting, we were short on time and didn’t have enough energy to prepare. After discussion, we chose the one that was easiest to execute— —'Interactive teaching' and 'home-school alliance', one morning and one afternoon, combining work and rest, can not only show parents our teaching process, but also entertain."

Lin An nodded.

"How do you feel? Teacher Lin, do you have any better suggestions?"

Lin An shook his head, smiled and said: "No." After a pause, he said: "It's pretty good."

Chen Jialiang laughed, "Of course, you don't know how satisfied Principal Ge is with your proposal, so you have to behave well later."

Lin An nodded, and asked again: "The class that day..."

Chen Jianliang waved his hand and said: "This is casual. After all, it is not a formal official event. We want to participate in elections and the like. Let's show the most authentic and vivid appearance to parents. The main reason is to hope They can learn more about their children from the other side, and what kind of position and level they are in the class. So your class will go on as usual that day, and the progress and content will be as usual, so don’t be too nervous .As for the half-day class schedule, we have already set it up when we hold the discussion meeting, so we will follow the usual Wednesday. We will gather and discuss the specific implementation details again on Friday night. If you think of any problems during this period, At that time, we can bring it up together.”

Chen Jianliang had almost finished explaining, raised his hand and looked at his watch, and said, "Okay, there's nothing else to do, do you have class later? Hurry up and get ready. Oh, by the way, don't forget to wake up later After the self-study is over, collect the receipt, and we need to count how many parents can come."

Lin An nodded. After returning to the class, he immediately asked the class monitor to collect the invitation notification receipt.Then, taking advantage of the gap between morning reading, I went through it from beginning to end and made statistics.

Parents are obviously very willing to cooperate with this new form of large-scale "parent meeting". Except for a few parents who personally wrote down the reasons for not being able to attend in the signature column, 90.00% of the parents are basically willing to participate in that column. On the name.Except for one of the more special ones.

Lin An was obviously taken aback when he flipped through the receipt, but then he relaxed again—he handed in whatever was sent, and the whole piece of paper was brand new and blank, and he knew it without asking, it must be It undoubtedly belonged to Xu Yuan.When I thought about the little selfishness I harbored when I wrote this activity plan, I subconsciously looked down the podium, but I didn't want to meet Xu Yuan's eyes that glanced at me from time to time. .

The other party's previous question about the "relationship" between the two came to mind for a while, and he looked away in a hurry, just as the phone in his pocket vibrated slightly, and it seemed that a text message poured in.He tightened his grip on the pen, and after two seconds, he still couldn't bear it and eagerly took it out, clicked on it, and the word Xu Xin flashed out.

--in class?

Lin An looked in Xu Yuan's direction again with some guilty conscience, and saw that the other party seemed to have given up "stalking" for the time being, and was lazily lying on the table. Then he smiled slightly, and replied with a reddish face: "Not yet, I'm watching morning reading.

After a pause, I couldn't help asking: What's wrong?

After two seconds, the other party replied with two words: It's okay.Another two seconds later, another one followed: I'm a little worried about you.

Lin An stared at these two messages, and the curvature of the corner of his mouth became more and more obvious.But he smiled for a while, and forced himself to suppress the smile on his face.

The reading aloud in the class was still going on, and all the young faces were full of serious and serious expressions. Lin An quickly sorted out the receipts on the table and put them in the stacked home-school book and the Chinese language that had just been received. On the practice paper, he picked it up and quickly set foot on the way to the office.

On the way, the pocket of his coat seemed to vibrate twice again, and he noticed that, although he hadn't had time to look at it, there was a slight smile in his eyes again.

Bai Jing met him on the road by chance, and after saying hello, she couldn't help joking with him, "Mr. Lin, you're in a good mood."

Lin An recognized her as Feng Ping's friend, smiled a little embarrassedly, and responded, "Morning."

Bai Jing also smiled back, and the two passed by.However, before taking two steps, Bai Jing couldn't help but turned her head and stared at Lin An's background for a while, then took out her mobile phone and sent a report to Yang Ping with a gossip: Hey, your handsome Lin is here, hurry up Get ready, welcome to drive.After thinking about it, he added one more jokingly: Hehe, he's handsome, he's really, really handsome, his brows are full of joy, after a preliminary diagnosis, it's a good omen, so it's time to start!

When Feng Ping sat in the office and saw these two messages, she almost spit out the tea she had just taken. She closed the dialogue window a little ashamedly, and continued to tap the audit report in her hand as if nothing had happened, but she didn’t want to inadvertently Looking up, he saw Lin An who was about to open the door and come in.

The sun was just right at that time, and the golden morning light passed through the half-open door, half-hiding the people who were about to walk in, and in an instant, it caused a slight sense of dazzlement.

Feng Ping was a little dazed, and she suddenly came back to her senses when other people were joking and joking in the office.

"Hey, Mr. Lin, you're back? Look at Xiao Feng, your eyes are straight."

Feng Ping blushed immediately, and whispered to Jiang Yuefang who was making fun of her: "Mr. Jiang, don't make fun of me..." As she spoke, she couldn't help but look at Lin An with concern, but for some reason, she was about to The words of condolences that were exported were swallowed back when they saw the home and school book held in the other party's hand.

Lin An naturally didn't take the colleague's joke to heart, and after greeting everyone, he sat back in his seat, and then took out his mobile phone from his pocket.On the lit screen, it was indeed a short message from Xu Xin 5 minutes ago. The content was very simple, just a few short words: Has your throat recovered?

He smiled slightly at the screen, and quickly replied: Yes.After waiting, I added a few more words: Don't worry.After returning, I temporarily put the mobile phone aside, opened the home-school book with a smile on my face, and started to review.

Feng Ping sat obliquely behind Lin An, and couldn't help quietly watching each other's every move, every word and deed.

Sure enough, Bai Jing was right. Lin An was in a good mood, and this kind of good mood seemed to be different from anything she had ever seen on the other party before.

It is like a ray of light, meticulously and silently enveloping people from head to toe, so even, as if even those pens and books he has inadvertently held are stained with some kind of mystery and blur. tenderness.

Strange to say, Feng Ping didn't know why she was able to draw such a conclusion from the other party's extraordinary behavior, but she couldn't help but feel faintly disappointed by this discovery. The rumors about the other party that I learned from Bai Jingchu made me feel even more sad.

So Feng Ping spent the whole morning in this inexplicable depression.But Lin An's state is completely different from hers, it seems that the illness that took temporary leave last week washed away all the haze and dirt in his life.He still spoke softly, and still greeted everyone with a smile, but invisibly, people felt a certain power that had never been felt in him before.

Driven by this force, even the time seems to be much faster than in the past, unknowingly, a day has passed silently.

Before leaving get off work, Jiang Yuefang stopped him suddenly, saying that last Friday the teachers of the language group in the two offices had a discussion and decided to have a meal together after work this week, chat casually, and exchange ideas about each other on the open day. Prepared course content, so as not to conflict with each other, ask him if he wants to be together.Since it was related to work, Lin An would not refuse, so he packed up casually and left with everyone.

A few people settled down in a fairly elegant small restaurant near Central X, sat around a table in a lively manner, ordered some small dishes and some drinks, and then began to discuss the opening day in a few days. .Between you and me, it took less than 20 minutes for Jiang Yuefang to talk about the same thing. After that, it took less than 10 minutes to raise some opinions and make some adjustments. The teaching content of the entire language group was basically the same. It's settled.

The food and wine on the table hadn't moved much, and it was still early, so naturally the few people wouldn't just leave like this, so after a few jokes, the topic naturally turned to other directions, such as talking about children if there were children, Those who don't have children can casually chat about the hot news of the moment, occasionally interspersed with one or two jokes or one or two interesting things, which is quite enjoyable.

Most of the people in the language group are old colleagues and old acquaintances. They have worked together in X for so many years, and they know each other more or less in private. In addition, they are all from C City at the same time, so they chatted. It is also relatively fun and warm.On the other hand, Lin An and Feng Ping, who have just been in X Middle School for less than half a year, seem a bit restrained and shy against the backdrop of several "veteran ministers". The decoration was the same, and he sat in his seat very quietly.

Lin An was fine, he always gave people the impression of being quiet and introverted, plus he didn't talk much when he was in the office, so no one thought it was strange that he was quiet and taciturn at the dinner party, but Feng Ping was different , She treats people warmly on weekdays, she is proactive in everything, full of vigor and energy, and Jiang Yuefang often whispers to others, saying that she is the most clever and worry-free "apprentice" she has taught in recent years.

However, today this girl changed from her previous lively temperament, she became extraordinarily quiet and quiet, she said very little, and she was a little absent-minded all day long.Jiang Yuefang looked at her from time to time, but she couldn't help but feel even more surprised to see that even when she was facing her close friend Bai Jing, she was listless and inactive.

Like her, Bai Jing was also aware of Feng Ping's abnormality.She and Feng Pingben were college alumni, and now they joined X Middle School as an intern and became colleagues. Their friendship was a little deeper than before. Except for working hours, the two were basically inseparable.Therefore, Bai Jing actually knows what Feng Ping is thinking in her heart better than anyone else.Although the other party didn't say anything, and always tried to refute every time she was teased or asked about it, Bai Jing knew that Feng Ping had a good impression of that teacher Lin who had just been transferred in, and every time the two chatted in private The other party, the other party's carefree and boyish temperament will change instantly, like a squirming little sheep.

Therefore, taking advantage of the gap between the two of them going out to the bathroom together during the dinner, Bai Jing asked: "Why, I changed places with you on purpose and let you sit next to your handsome Lin, aren't you happy?"

Feng Ping was not in a hurry to defend her teasing this time, but shook her head sadly, and after a while, she couldn't help asking: "You...are what you said half a month ago true? "

"Which?"

"Just... that is, he is, is... likes...men..."

Bai Jing didn't expect that she really took this matter to heart, no wonder she didn't mention Lin An much less often after that.

"Didn't you not believe it at the time... You also blamed me for chewing my tongue, why did you suddenly care about it?"

Feng Ping didn't speak.

Bai Jing glanced at her secretly, thought for a while, and said, "I don't know if it's true or not... But don't you think it's strange? Teacher Lin is so good-looking, and the No. [-] Middle School in County X where X Middle School was transferred to is not bad." , such a man with a good appearance and a good job is still not married yet..." He changed the subject and asked, "Hey, do you know how old he is?"

Feng Ping was a little taken aback, "I don't know..."

Bai Jing rolled her eyes to the sky, and said speechlessly: "I really admire you, but you don't even know the basic information of your crush. I heard from Lao Zhang in our office, handsome Lin, this is the number." With his right hand, he made a three and then a two, "Ms. Yan in our office is one year older than him. That child has already gone to kindergarten, but he is still single. It's normal for someone to talk behind his back...but to be honest In other words, from the outside, Mr. Lin is really good, with a gentle personality and politeness. It is not uncommon for you to like him, but... Sometimes a person who is too good will be more likely to appear out of line and attract criticism. Ordinary people are more convincing, for example, I... the more I think about it, the more I feel that he is indeed..."

"Don't say it." Feng Ping hurriedly interrupted the remaining three words in the other party's mouth, as if once those words were spoken, some rumors about that person would be confirmed.She paused, then forced a smile, and forcefully defended herself: "I, I won't believe it...Maybe Teacher Lin has a girlfriend? It's just that she's not married yet, and she didn't let everyone know... "

Bai Jing couldn't help but chuckled, teasing her and asking: "Yo, then do you hope that he has a girlfriend to maintain his perfect image in your heart, or do you hope that he doesn't, and you still have a little chance?"

Feng Ping was blocked by her and couldn't speak for a while, but fortunately, the two of them had just returned to the door of the private room, so they ignored Bai Jing's sharp question and went straight in.

After sitting next to Lin An, Feng Ping's psychology became even more complicated. She couldn't help but secretly pay attention to the other party's actions, and then couldn't help making various guesses and speculations about him.Until Lin An suddenly answered a phone call.

Feng Ping took the opportunity to look at him openly, but was slightly stunned by the gentle smile in the other's eyes.

The person on the other end of the phone seemed to have said something, Lin An looked up a little embarrassedly and glanced at his colleagues, put down the phone slightly, smiled apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, I'll take a call outside." He stood up, turned around and walked out of the store.

It was nearly 7:[-], and the street lamps on the side of the street were already on. They lined up in two rows and reflected in the gray night, like two dragons flying across the sky.

Lin An stood by the side of the road, and the barbecue and fruit stalls on the opposite side were noisy and busy. Xu Xin's voice was mixed with the noise of the market, and came clearly from the other end.

"Still at get off work?"

Lin An looked at the stones beside the green plants at his feet, and replied with a smile, "It's off, I'm eating with my colleagues."

The voice on the other side immediately took on an inexplicable meaning, "...colleague?"

Lin An could almost immediately imagine the expression on the other party's face at the moment: the eyebrows were slightly raised, the mouth was slightly hooked, the face seemed displeased, but there seemed to be a mockery in the eyes.He blushed, and followed up with an explanation: "School, the school is going to hold an event, and we want to discuss it internally, so we made an appointment to have dinner together tonight..."

The other side was silent for two seconds after listening, and then, as if he could see the distressed and flustered expression of the person on this end, he couldn't help but smiled, and half-relieved, "Don't be nervous." Lin An's face became hot again.Xu Xin then asked, "What activity?"

Lin An outlined the arrangements for the open day, and finally asked with some expectation: "Are you...are you free?"

The other end was quiet again, and asked, "Do you want me to go?"

Lin An's eyes hanging down on the ground flickered, and after a little hesitation, he still chose to follow his heart and let out a soft "hmm".

So the other party's smile became more and more obvious.

The October wind already brought a hint of coolness, Lin An stood a little blankly at the intersection, but felt that his whole body was like the slightly hot mobile phone held in his hand, and there was a vague warmth from the inside out. meaning.

He raised his head in a little panic and looked towards the endless traffic ahead, but before he could calm down the restlessness in his heart, Xu Xin asked him again: "When will the party end?"

"Quick, quick."

"En." The other party agreed, and then asked: "Where is it, do you want me to pick you up?"

Lin An was taken aback for a moment, and in the next second, his heart beat wildly again. He couldn't help but blurted out joyfully, "...You, have you returned to City C?"

There was another chuckle from the other end: "So happy?"

Lin Anne, the heat that just faded from her face swept through her body again with this ridicule.

"Just arrived." Xu Xin stopped teasing him and replied in a serious tone.After a pause, he lowered his voice and said, "Turning around Bo'ai Road... I suddenly want to see you."

Lin An was completely stuck in place, and the temperature on his face became even hotter. It took him a long time to ask softly, "...where are you now?"

A laugh came from the receiver.

"The gate of Cui Fang Yuan."