Cangmang Asks the Way 1: Guardian of the Lamp

Class teacher Zhang Zhengping was known for his seriousness and meticulousness. Rumors about "misconduct" among the top students in his class deeply troubled him. He didn't blindly believe everything he heard; he privately spoke with several class leaders and students. However, he mostly heard vague information such as "they often discuss things together," "they sometimes walk home together after school," and "they seem to have a good relationship," mixed with "ambiguous" hints deliberately spread by Zhao Xiaohu and others. These fragmented pieces of information, filtered through his inherently wary lens of "gender boundaries," were gradually pieced together into an outline that deviated from the truth. He first approached Tianci, his face stern, his tone harsh: "Cang Tianci, what exactly is going on between you and Lin Wanqing? Why are you gossiping? You're a sports student; you need to know your limits! Training and competitions are important, but moral character is equally important! Don't you know how to avoid suspicion?" He repeatedly emphasized "impact" and "avoid suspicion," his words filled with distrust and pressure.

Facing Lin Wanqing, he spoke with scrutiny and admonition: "Lin Wanqing, you're a girl, and even with good grades, you should know how to respect and love yourself! Don't you bear any responsibility for the rumors spreading like this? Be mindful of your distance when interacting with boys! Especially Cang Tianci; his situation is special. If you get too close, people will inevitably gossip! You need to learn to protect yourself!"

These words were like needles, piercing Lin Wanqing's face until she turned deathly pale, her lips trembling, yet she was powerless to defend herself. To her, the bruises on her wrists beneath her sleeves sounded like the sharpest mockery of the words "self-respect and self-love."

The fuse was lit on a dimly lit evening. After school, Zhang Zhengping hadn't walked far from the school gate when he saw Lin Wanqing, who had difficulty walking, trip on a protruding brick on the sidewalk. She stumbled, and her books and workbooks scattered with a crash! Cang Tianci, who was walking slightly behind her, instinctively rushed forward, grabbed her swaying arm to steady her, then knelt down and deftly picked up her books, brushed off the dust, folded them neatly, and handed them back. Lin Wanqing, still shaken, said softly, "Thank you." Tianci nodded, and released her hand after making sure she was steady. The whole process took only a dozen seconds.

However, from Zhang Zhengping's perspective, he only vaguely saw Cang Tianci rushing forward, his figure almost completely enveloping Lin Wanqing. Their bodies drew closer in the twilight, Lin Wanqing speaking hurriedly with her head down. This dynamic, cropped image, combined with his preconceived notions of "puppy love" built from rumors and his heightened vigilance regarding "close interactions between boys and girls," instantly overlapped perfectly! A sense of "just as I thought" disappointment and anger at "his authority being challenged" gripped him. This became "ironclad proof" of "public shoving" and "inappropriate relationships"! He felt his warnings had been ignored, and the class order and atmosphere he had painstakingly maintained had suffered a substantial blow.

The next afternoon during self-study, he walked into the classroom with a livid face, went straight to Tianci and Lin Wanqing's seats, and slammed his knuckles heavily on the desk: "Cang Tianci, Lin Wanqing, come to my office immediately."

The office door closed, creating a suffocating silence. Zhang Zhengping sat behind his desk, his arms crossed, his sharp eyes behind his glasses scanning the two children standing in front of him.

"Cang Tianci, Lin Wanqing," he began, his voice icy, "I spoke with you separately yesterday, clearly warning you to watch your words and actions and keep your distance! And what happened? Last night after school, right outside the school gate, I saw it with my own eyes! Cang Tianci, you were holding onto Lin Wanqing's arm and wouldn't let go! The two of you were so close! Lin Wanqing, you were looking down, were you shy? Did you ignore my words?" He suddenly raised his voice, his finger slamming on the table. "Now the whole grade is talking about it! The impact is extremely bad! Tell me yourselves, what exactly happened? Huh? Did it have to escalate to the point of notifying your parents and letting everyone know what you did?"

Lin Wanqing trembled violently, overwhelmed by humiliation, fear, and injustice. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to look directly at Zhang Zhengping, her voice trembling with emotion: "Teacher Zhang! What you saw wasn't the whole story! I almost fell! He just helped me up! Just because I have a bad leg, is accepting even a little normal help from someone considered shameful? You'd rather believe the lies Zhao Xiaohu and his gang made up than believe a single explanation from us?"

Looking at the "stubborn" students before him, Zhang Zhengping was gripped by a profound sense of powerlessness. The rules and teachings he was so proud of seemed utterly ineffective in their presence. This feeling of being out of control was far more terrifying to him than any specific violation of discipline, for someone who considered order as life itself.

"Help me? Pick up the book?" Zhang Zhengping slammed his hand on the table, making the pen holder jump. Driven by his emotions, he blurted out an extremely heavy word that he, as a teacher, should have used with caution: "I think it's 'lack of self-respect'! Lin Wanqing, you're a girl, being pulled like that by a boy, don't you know shame? Don't you know how to push him away immediately? What do you call helping each other? This is giving others a handle to use against you! This is lack of self-respect! This is bringing shame to the class!" The words "lack of self-respect" were like poisoned needles piercing Lin Wanqing's heart. She trembled violently, and the light in her eyes dimmed instantly.

Tianci's chest was churning with a turbulent mix of emotions: resentment, anger, indignation for Lin Wanqing, and disappointment in Zhang Zhengping's biased and misjudgment. He wanted to shout his defense, to reveal the "top student's study method," to denounce Zhao Xiaohu's malice! But the immense pressure and his concern for Lin Wanqing made his throat feel like it was blocked by red-hot iron, causing him to stutter more severely than ever before, his words breaking into incoherent fragments: "Teacher Zhang... she... fell... me... helped... the book... picked it up... that's... all..."

"Enough!" Zhang Zhengping interrupted rudely, convinced it was just an excuse. "Fall down? And I just happened to see it? You need to be that close to pick up the book? You need to pull and shove? Heavens! Don't think that just because you trained in martial arts for a few days at the sports school and won an award, you can ignore school rules and regulations! I think your moral character has really gone wrong! It's deteriorated drastically!"

He abruptly stood up, bracing himself on the table with both hands, leaning forward to create a powerful sense of pressure. "Given your repeated failures to correct your behavior and the extremely negative impact this has had! In order to clean up the classroom atmosphere and to make you truly understand the seriousness of the problem, it is imperative for home and school to work together to thoroughly rectify this!" he announced.

"First, change your seats immediately! You can no longer sit together!"

"Secondly, everyone must write a 1,000-word self-criticism and hand it in to me tomorrow! You must deeply reflect on your wrongdoings and the negative impact they have had on the class!"

"Third, you must be notified! You must come to school before the first period tomorrow morning! I want to speak with you personally! Now, go back and reflect on your actions!"

"Teacher Zhang! You can't..." Tianci's forehead veins bulged with anxiety. His father's hunched back, calloused hands, and those cloudy eyes filled with a humble hope flashed before his eyes. Notify the parents? What would they think? Would that meager hope and pride be utterly crushed? A tremendous fear and a heavy sense of guilt gripped his heart like cold iron clamps. He possessed the strength honed on the sandbag, but he couldn't break through the invisible net woven from prejudice, rules, and the shadows of power. His older brother's question about the "distorted logic of the world" weighed heavily on his spine.

Lin Wanqing felt as if all her strength had been drained away. Her body swayed, her face instantly turning ashen, and the last glimmer of light in her eyes went out completely, leaving only boundless despair and coldness. Notifying the parents… the three words "Lin Jianmin" were like a curse from hell. Her father's gloomy and violent face, his thick hands, his drunken roars, the old and new bruises on his arms… all these terrifying images flooded her mind instantly. Overwhelmed by fear, her whole body went cold, her teeth chattered, and she almost collapsed. To her, this was no ordinary "calling the parents," but an inescapable doomsday judgment.

The office door shut out Zhang Zhengping's still-angry figure, and also shattered the last vestige of peace in the two teenagers' world. A sudden downpour, born of prejudice, rigid rules, and unspoken grievances, had begun. The cold raindrops struck precisely at the two teenagers' most vulnerable dignity, pushing them to the precipice of their respective destinies.