Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 133 Unforgettable Teacher's Kindness
“I… voted for Shih-hao.”

Zhengyuan finally said, even subconsciously not daring to look at Meizi.

Shihao laughed heartily, raised his glass, and said, "Good brother! Come on, let's have a drink!"

Jung-won opened his mouth, but before he could respond, Teacher Park suddenly coughed.

Everyone's attention immediately turned to her.

"Teacher, are you alright?" Meizi quickly handed her a glass of water.

Zheng Yuan forced a smile, picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and savored the sweet and sour taste of the raspberry wine.

Then everyone continued chatting about some funny things: Dafeng always managed to hit the ball over the school wall during PE class; Shunxi once forgot her lines and froze on stage during a talent show; Enying cried because she was only elected as the vice class monitor...

Laughter echoed in the courtyard, creating a very warm atmosphere.

"I'm full." Xu Yinqiu suddenly put down her fork and stood up.

She had already eaten every last bite of her share of cake.

"Oh, so fast?" Miko was a little surprised. "Shall we eat some more?"

"No need." Xu Yinqiu's tone was calm but firm. "I want to take a walk around the neighborhood to digest my food."

Miko quickly stood up: "Then I'll stay with you..."

“There’s no need,” Xu Yinqiu interrupted her, her gaze sweeping over Zhengyuan almost imperceptibly. “I can manage on my own.”

Teacher Park smiled and nodded: "Go ahead, be careful."

Xu Yinqiu turned and left the dining table, her figure quickly disappearing outside the courtyard.

Zheng Yuan gazed in the direction she had left, a sense of unease rising within him.

"Here, Zhengyuan, have some more grilled meat!" Meizi enthusiastically wrapped a piece of meat and put it on his plate. "You look too skinny!"

Zhengyuan nodded and smiled at Meizi before lowering his head to continue eating.

At the dining table, Shihao wrapped up another piece of grilled meat and handed it to Teacher Park, his eyes revealing a nostalgic expression.

"Speaking of which, teacher, you really treated everyone the same back then," Shihao said gently, full of respect. "I remember there were a few students in our class who came from poor families, and the teacher always took special care of them."

Minghao nodded and continued the conversation: "Yes, the teacher never gave special treatment to anyone just because their family was rich. Back then, my dad was the president of a company, but the teacher's requirements for me were just as strict as for everyone else."

Soon-hee stuffed a piece of grilled meat into her mouth and mumbled, "Once at school, when we were weighing ourselves, I made fun of Mi-ja, calling her 'Little Pig Girl,' and almost broke the scale. As a result, the teacher called me to the office and scolded me, and made me write a self-criticism, saying that I shouldn't give my classmates nicknames anymore."

She scratched her head sheepishly: "But I realized later that the teacher really meant well for me."

Dafeng then said, "Speaking of this, I remember that sports meet back then. Meizi fell during the relay race and didn't have time to pass the baton to me. At that time, the students from other classes were laughing, but only Teacher Park ran over to help her up."

Zhengyuan also recalled the scene that day: "The teacher squatted by the track, wiping away Meizi's tears while saying, 'Winning or losing the competition is not important; what is important is the spirit of sportsmanship.'"

As Miko mentioned this, her eyes welled up with tears: "That day, the teacher accompanied me all the way to the finish line, and the whole class cheered me on. Although our class came in last place, the teacher said that we were the most united class and that we would definitely be able to get a ranking in the future."

Zhengyuan still clearly remembers that school sports meet, which he also participated in.

Mija wasn't actually that fat back then; Soon-hee was exaggerating. However, she was indeed not very good at sports, especially track and field.

Ms. Park seemed a little embarrassed by what she was being said, and replied, "Oh, there's no need to say that. I just wanted to teach you the basic principles of being a good person; that's what a teacher should do."

Shunxi elegantly wiped the corner of her mouth and interjected, "The teacher not only treats all students equally, but also adheres to principles very strictly. I remember once, a student's parent wanted the teacher to tutor their child and even prepared a red envelope. The teacher refused on the spot, saying that tutoring was fine, but money was absolutely not an option. I remember the teacher saying in class that any student who had a question could go to her office during breaks or after school to get answers, and she was always willing to help."

Zhengyuan recalled that he used to go to Teacher Park's office for tutoring every day after school because he was bad at math.

The teacher always patiently explained things to me, sometimes until dark, and even when it was time to leave work, she would still insist on explaining every problem to Zhengyuan clearly. Sometimes, when it was late, Teacher Park would take Zhengyuan out to eat.

Eun-young suddenly spoke up: "I remember on Teacher's Day, the gifts that Se-ho and I gave were returned by the teacher."

Se-ho smiled sheepishly: "Back then, I was naive and thought that the more expensive the gift, the better it expressed my feelings. I gave her a gold pen, and Eun-young gave her a designer bag."

“As a result, the teacher called us to her office,” Eun-young continued. “At that time, the teacher told us very seriously that as a teacher, she could not accept such expensive gifts from students. The teacher also said that as a teacher, she should not encourage a competitive atmosphere among students.”

Miko gave an awkward smile: "Speaking of which, back then, because our families weren't well-off, we only sent greeting cards. Jung-won, do you remember?"

Jung-won certainly remembered that his mother had carefully made a Teacher's Day card, which he and his mother filled with "Teacher Park, I love you." He had actually been worried that the teacher would think he was stingy because Se-ho and Eun-young's gifts were so expensive, but he was relieved to see the teacher looking very happy when she received the card.

Eun-young's eyes suddenly lit up: "Speaking of Teacher's Day, do you remember how we reconnected with our teachers?" Soon-hee elegantly picked up her teacup: "Yes, it was the Education Association's 'Finding Our Beloved Teachers' event three years ago."

Jung-won also remembers it clearly. In May of that year, in order to celebrate Teachers' Day (in Korea, Teachers' Day is May 15th, unlike in China), the Education Association launched this special event. At that time, the education offices of each city and province set up "Service Window for Finding Your Beloved Teacher," where people who wanted to find the current address of their former teachers could inquire.

Dafeng scratched his head: "I remember I only found out about this news when I received a call from Meizi. At that time, I was still playing in the professional league and was busy training all day. I was so excited when I heard the news. Although Coach Park was my elementary school teacher, he is the teacher who left the deepest impression on me throughout my entire student life. If it weren't for your encouragement back then, I would hardly have become the professional baseball player I am today."

Minghao interjected, "I was on a business trip in Busan at the time, and I was quite happy to receive a call from Mija."

Miko said with a smile, "I happened to be passing by the Education Bureau at that time, and when I saw the promotional poster, I immediately thought of Teacher Park. Although the teacher has always lived here and never moved, we have gradually forgotten the exact address of the teacher's house as we grew up. If it weren't for this event, we wouldn't have been able to come back and find the teacher."

Teacher Park smiled with relief and said, "It's all thanks to this event that I was able to see you all again."

Miko nodded and said, "Teacher, that's why I'm able to come and see you again."

After Yingmin passed away, Meizi stayed here to take care of her teacher's daily life. The two were practically like a biological mother and daughter.

“Thanks to you,” Shihao said sincerely, “if you hadn’t contacted us one by one, we might not have reunited yet, and we might not be able to come here to meet our teacher.”

"At that time, we decided that we would have a gathering every year on the teacher's birthday to see him," Soon-hee recalled. "The first year..."

Then she couldn't continue.

They had just made plans to have a party for her birthday, and only a few months later, Youngmin was murdered.

What should have been a joyous occasion was overshadowed by grief.

In the end, it was only thanks to Miko's insistence that the birthday party was able to continue.

“Until this year,” Meizi quickly changed the subject, no longer mentioning the birthday party three years ago, “I finally found Jiang Jin, Liu Yan and Xu Yinqiu’s contact information through the yearbook.”

Da Feng suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, why hasn't Xu Yinqiu returned yet after so long?"

Minghao glanced at his watch: "It's been almost half an hour, should we go look for it?"

Soon-hee said, "Let her wander around the neighborhood by herself. There aren't many people around, so it should be safe."

Zheng Yuan felt a sense of unease when he thought of the dead rooster.

Is this place really safe?

Moreover, if it were truly safe, how could the murder of Young-min have happened back then?
The students in their class were born in the same year as the teacher's son. The teacher had been abused by her husband after giving birth to a deformed child, who was then forcibly locked in the basement. Later, her husband hanged himself, and she was also blamed by her in-laws. At that time, she wanted to release her son, Yingmin, from the basement, but Yingmin refused.

You see, Ms. Park's husband committed suicide in the basement right in front of Young-min. But Young-min still wanted to stay in the basement; he was afraid to go out and see people because he had an extremely horrifying, deformed face, which he could only hide forever behind a rabbit mask. No matter how much Ms. Park tried to persuade him, he refused to leave the basement, preferring to stay there forever in the basement where his father had died.

Teacher Park would sometimes talk about these things with Jung-won. She often envied families with normal children, but after giving birth to Young-min, her life could only be endured slowly for this child.

The teacher also told him that she had wanted to take Youngmin to have plastic surgery, but the plastic surgeon said that his facial deformity was too severe and the surgery would be too difficult, and suggested that the teacher wait for the plastic surgery technology to develop further in the future.

Teacher Park had been saving money for this, but then she suddenly developed a neurological disorder that left her unable to walk. Under those circumstances, Young-min had no choice but to stay and care for her mother, making it extremely difficult for her to undergo plastic surgery. And then, the child was brutally murdered by someone unknown.

Who could have committed such a heinous crime?

Jung-won gritted his teeth at the thought. Although Young-min looked frightening, Jung-won had never looked down on him and had always treated him as a good friend. Although he had always communicated with Young-min through the basement window.

He lost his mother, and Ms. Park lost her son, so over the years, he has treated her like a mother.

He still has a question about his mother's traffic accident back then.

My mother is not someone who would jaywalk, and it wasn't even dismissal time yet. Why did she suddenly come to the road in front of the school? What made her so anxious that she risked jaywalking, resulting in a traffic accident?
This matter remains a mystery to this day; only the deceased mother knows the answer.

“Teacher,” Zhengyuan suddenly spoke, “thank you for your guidance back then. Without you, I probably wouldn’t have been able to overcome the grief of losing my mother.”

With tears welling up in her eyes, Ms. Park said, "Seeing you all grow up healthy is the greatest happiness for a teacher."

The sea breeze is blowing...

Xu Yinqiu searched the coastline again and again, calling out to Jiang Jin and Liu Yan, dialing their numbers repeatedly, but...

They gained nothing.

"Where...where did they go?" Xu Yinqiu stared at the vast sea before her. "How am I supposed to explain this to the commander? Are they...lost in the Lost Layer?"

(End of this chapter)