Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

Sunday morning.

Xie Wang stood in front of 1601, conducting his eighteenth self-inspection of his appearance.

He was wearing a black windbreaker over a white hoodie and cargo pants that looked quite proper.

He looked at himself in the hallway mirror. Hmm, very handsome, very presentable. He's a good candidate for the library and an excellent example to pass the mother-in-law's vetting process.

however.

As it turns out, everything is just a paper tiger in the face of absolute bloodline suppression.

Through the heavy security door, Ms. Lin Wanyi's distinctive voice pierced through the steel plate with pinpoint accuracy, striking Xie Wang directly at the top of his head:

"Su! Qing! He! Put on your long johns! You've only been out for a couple of days, and you're already going out causing trouble again?!"

Then came Su Qinghe's weak protest: "Mom... those long johns are so ugly... and they make my legs look thick, it's really hot..."

"Hot? It's only five degrees outside! You're talking to me about the heat?"

Lin Wanyi's voice rose an octave:

"Is having thick legs more important than your life? Or does that kid surnamed Xie enjoy seeing you with rheumatism? Put these on! You're not allowed to leave the house without them!"

Xie Wang, standing outside the door: "..."

Xie Wang touched his nose, feeling as if he had been shot by an arrow.

He silently lit a candle for his future self in his heart: Xie Wang, Xie Wang, in terms of family status, you'll probably only be ranked after rice balls in the future.

"Click".

The door opened.

Su Qinghe walked out with a look of utter despair.

She has gained weight.

Behind her, Ms. Lin Wanyi stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the entryway cabinet.

Good morning, Auntie!

Xie Wang instantly stood up straight, his back ramrod straight, a standard smile on his face:

"I've come to pick up Qinghe...to study. We'll go to the library to cultivate our minds."

"study?"

Lin Wanyi raised an eyebrow, her gaze sweeping over his clearly meticulously dressed attire, before finally letting out a cryptic chuckle:

"Alright, go study. These days, young people have to dress up like they're on a fashion show just to study."

Xie Wang was drenched in sweat.

"Remember to bring her something warm for lunch."

Lin Wanyi's smile faded, and her tone became more serious, "If I find out you took her to eat something unhealthy..."

Lin Wanyi made a throat-slitting gesture.

"I guarantee I'll complete the mission! Give her hot water! Give her hot food! I absolutely won't let her leave the radiator's vicinity!" Xie Wang immediately saluted, his survival instincts kicking in.

Lin Wanyi was amused by his playful antics: "Alright, go play now."

……

Although they claimed to be going to study, the two of them tacitly forgot about the library as soon as they left the residential area.

Today is a rare sunny day.

The two didn't have a specific destination in mind, so they just strolled around the streets side by side.

Xie Wang's hands were in his pockets, while Su Qinghe's hands... were tucked into his sleeves, like Doraemon.

Occasionally, their shoulders would brush together, then naturally separate, and that static-like tingling sensation would creep up their sleeves and into their hearts.

This feeling is wonderful.

I used to feel like I didn't have enough time, and I wished I could split every minute in half.

But now, just wandering aimlessly along the street, watching the old man selling roasted chestnuts wielding his big shovel, watching couples laughing foolishly while holding milk tea, I actually felt—

The romance of wasting time.

Even the wind seemed to soften.

"Want some?" Xie Wang suddenly stopped and pointed to the steaming roasted chestnut stall by the roadside.

Su Qinghe sniffed and nodded very honestly: "Eat."

Xie Wang bought a bag of them; they were still warm, and he held them in his arms like a hand warmer.

He didn't mind the heat; his long, slender fingers deftly peeled open one, blew on it, and brought it to her lips: "Open your mouth. Ah—"

Su Qinghe paused for a moment, looked at the crowd of people coming and going around him, and blushed a little.

But looking into Xie Wang's smiling eyes, she obediently opened her mouth and bit down with a "whoosh".

Sweet, sticky, and soft, the sweetness goes right to your heart.

Xie Wang looked at her chubby cheeks and couldn't resist reaching out his hand, still covered in chestnut shell crumbs, and pinching her cheek.

"Teacher Su, you look just like a hamster right now."

"Um...you're the hamster!" Su Qinghe retorted vaguely.

……

The two ate and walked along the way, and before they knew it, they had wandered deep into the old town.

Around the corner, the gate of an old elementary school suddenly appeared before us.

The red brick walls, the somewhat mottled iron gate, and the school name full of a sense of history—[Jiangcheng No.1 Experimental Primary School].

The two stopped at the same time.

Su Qinghe's eyes widened as he pointed at the school gate, his voice filled with surprise: "Huh? Isn't this No. 1 Elementary School? I... I went to elementary school here!"

Xie Wang dropped the chestnut shell from his hand: "Holy crap? What a coincidence? I'm a little one too."

The air froze for three seconds.

Fate's boomerang struck the two of them.

Su Qinghe turned his head: "Which class are you in?"

Xie Wang recalled: "Class 3, 2014. Back then, our homeroom teacher was a particularly fierce old lady who taught Chinese. Her surname was Wang. She confiscated three of my yo-yos, and she still hasn't returned them to me."

Su Qinghe's mouth formed an "O" shape, and she pointed to herself:

"I'm from Class 4, Grade 14!"

Class 4.

Class 3.

In other words, during their childhood when they never crossed paths, they were separated by a wall, yet they heard the same school bell, did morning exercises on the same playground, and might even have lined up in front of the same toilet... for a full six years?!

"etc!"

Su Qinghe suddenly remembered something, her eyes sparkling as if she had discovered a new continent:

"Was your math teacher's last name Huang? Did he have a receding hairline and a penchant for tapping the blackboard with a pointer? His wig would get crooked when he got excited?"

Xie Wang smiled instantly:

"Yes! Old Huang! Master Huang! He once got so excited during class that his wig fell right off the floor, and the whole class laughed for half the period!"

"Hahaha, yes, yes, yes!" Su Qinghe laughed so hard he bent over. "We've heard about it too! The whole school was talking about it! So that was your class!"

Fate is truly a mysterious thing.

It turns out that long before they even knew each other, the gears of fate had already meshed on Wong Tai Sin's wig.

"Shall we go in and take a look?" Xie Wang suggested.

It was the weekend, and the school gate was ajar. The old man guarding the gate was sitting in the reception room listening to opera with headphones on, completely ignoring the two students who looked like they were returning to their alma mater for nostalgia.

The two sneaked inside like thieves.

The playground has been renovated and turned into a synthetic track, but the elephant slide in that corner is still there.

That concrete elephant, with its long trunk dragging on the ground, was a common butt killer for their generation. In summer, it burned their butts; in winter, it froze them; and if their pants were thin, it would even wear holes in them.

"I used to love playing hide-and-seek under this slide."

Su Qinghe walked over and touched the peeling paint on the elephant's trunk, his eyes gentle:

"Back then, I thought this elephant was huge, like a monster. Now it looks...why is it so small? Has it shrunk?"

Xie Wang stood behind her, watching her back:

"Because it hasn't changed, it's just that you've grown up, or maybe you've gained weight, since you weren't wearing long johns back then."

"Xie Wang!!!" Su Qinghe was furious and turned around to hit him.

Xie Wang smiled, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her in front of him.

He leaned against the cement elephant's thick legs, looking down at the sulking Su Qinghe:

"Oh, Teacher Su."

"What?" Su Qinghe glared at him irritably.

"Since you're back at your alma mater," Xie Wang raised an eyebrow.

"Can I see some photos of you when you were little?"

Su Qinghe was taken aback: "Why are you looking at me when I was a child?"

"Just curious," Xie Wang said matter-of-factly, gently tugging at the tassels on her scarf.

"I want to see what our aloof and academically gifted teacher, Ms. Su, was like when she was a child."

He grinned mischievously and leaned close to her ear:

"Was he always this fierce? The kind who often made the boy at the next table cry? Or is it...?"

"Is she a crybaby?"

"You're the crybaby! Your whole family are crybabies!"

Su Qinghe instantly bristled. In order to maintain her shining image of being "outstanding since childhood," she immediately pulled out her phone:

"I've been a class leader since I was little! I excelled in all aspects—morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and practically! I was so impressive! Let me show you what a real 'other people's child' looks like!"

Su Qinghe was in a good mood today, so he didn't hesitate and took out his phone: "My mom just sent me the old family photo album a couple of days ago. It's all in the cloud drive."

She opened the photo album, muttering as she flipped through it, "Where is it... that folder... I think it's called Precious Memories..."

Slide your finger.

However, it might be because it was too cold and my hands were shaking.

Instead of opening the album full of childlike innocence, she accidentally clicked on the one next to it... named [X].

next second.

The screen lights up.

The air suddenly became quiet.

One by one... Xie Wang.

Moreover, they were all taken from a candid perspective.

Xie Wang's profile as he sleeps with his head resting on his desk.

The moment Xie Wang shoots a basketball on the playground.

Xie Wang's Adam's apple bobbing as he drinks water.

There was even Xie Wang's arrogant back view when he was being punished by standing.

There's another picture of Xie Wang just waking up, his hair a mess like a bird's nest, looking completely bewildered.

It was several pages long.

Xie Wang: "..."

Su Qinghe: "………………"

At that moment, Su Qinghe's brain went blank.

After realizing what was happening, she let out a scream similar to a kettle boiling over:

"Aaaaaah!!! No, this isn't it! This is...this is a virus! You're mistaken! This phone is possessed!"

Her face turned as red as a ripe tomato, and she wished she could dig out a three-bedroom apartment with her toes on the spot, move that cement elephant inside as furniture, and live there forever.

She frantically swiped back across the screen, trying to destroy the evidence.

However, a large hand suddenly reached out and firmly pressed down on her flustered fingers.

Xie Wang looked at her with a half-smile:

"Teacher Su..."

"So you have a habit of collecting my photos?"

Su Qinghe bit her lip, took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and her trembling fingers scrolled to the real childhood photo album.

"Look at this! No talking! No laughing!"

She tapped the screen rapidly and found the "Precious Memories" album.

"Open your dog eyes and see clearly!"

Su Qinghe opened the first photo, shoved the phone almost into Xie Wang's face, and looked incredibly proud:

"Look! This is the school's sixth-grade arts performance! I'm the lead singer! Center position! Do you even know what a typhoon is? What charisma is?"

on the screen.

A little girl, about six or seven years old, appeared wearing a white tutu.

She had two pigtails sticking straight up, a red dot on her forehead that was a hallmark of that era, and her lips were painted bright red. She was holding a microphone and singing with all her might.

Because she used so much force, her cheeks puffed out, and her face was as round as a freshly steamed custard bun, so cute that you wanted to swallow her whole.

"puff--"

Xie Wang couldn't help but burst out laughing.

He stretched out his finger and poked at the round face on the screen:

"Wow, Ms. Su, you must have had pretty good food when you were a kid?"

"Thank you, my ass!" Su Qinghe slapped his hand away in embarrassment and indignation. "That's called baby fat!"

She angrily swiped through the photos: "Look at this one! This is from the second-grade sports meet! I won first place in the sprint! This photo was taken on the podium!"

This photo was taken on the playground.

The background is the elephant slide behind them and the sandpit next to it.

In the photo, Xiao Suqinghe has a gold medal around her neck and a bright red certificate in her hand, making a silly peace sign at the camera.

Sunlight shone on her radiant smile, revealing a missing front tooth; her carefree spirit could be felt even through the screen.

Xie Wang looked at the carefree little girl in the photo, and the smile in his eyes gradually softened.

"So you had a lisp when you were little..."

One of the photos was taken on the playground.

The background is the sandpit next to this elephant slide.

Little Su Qinghe was squatting by the sandpit, playing in the sand with a small plastic shovel in his hand, intently building a sandcastle.

however.

Xie Wang's gaze did not fall on the cute little girl, but suddenly froze.

He pointed to the top left corner of the photo, to that inconspicuous background:

"etc."

"This person... why does he look so familiar?"

Su Qinghe was taken aback, then leaned closer and zoomed in on the picture.

In the corner of the photo, a little boy wearing an oversized school uniform sits alone on a horizontal bar.

He didn't look at the crowd playing in the sand.

He had his head down, seemingly lost in thought.

In his hand... he was also holding a Rubik's Cube.

Although the little boy's face was somewhat blurry, his posture and the sense of loneliness that kept strangers at bay were still vivid in my mind.

Xie Wang was silent for two seconds, then pointed at the little boy, his tone complex and tinged with disbelief:

"This looks like...it's me."

Su Qinghe suddenly looked up at him, then looked down at the photo.

That point in time.

That hairstyle.

That Rubik's Cube.

That strange kid who always liked to be alone.

It's really him.

"So..." Su Qinghe murmured to himself, his fingertips gently stroking the blurry little boy on the screen, "We've met before."

Before you knew me, and before I knew you.

We are already on the same negative.

Xie Wang looked at the photo and seemed to recall himself back then. Because of the changes in his family, he was always gloomy and didn't like to talk to people.

So, the light was right behind me all along.

The winter sun pierced through the dust of ten years, gently falling beside the mottled elephant slide, finally pulling the lonely silhouette huddled in the shadows in the photo into the warm sunlight where she was now.

"What a coincidence," Xie Wang said in a low voice.

Su Qinghe saved the photo, then looked up at him with sparkling eyes:

"What about yours? I want to see photos of you when you were little."

Upon hearing this, Xie Wang's eyes dimmed slightly.

He turned his head away somewhat awkwardly, looking at the teaching building in the distance, trying to keep his tone relaxed:

"I don't have any photos of myself from when I was a child anymore."

That was a dark past he didn't want to touch, a blank that could never be filled.

Su Qinghe was stunned.

Looking at the tall young man before her, she suddenly understood his loneliness.

My heart felt like it had been violently clenched by something.

There were no words of comfort.

She simply exited the photo album and opened her phone's camera.

"Click."

A crisp shutter clicked.

Xie Wang turned around in surprise, only to meet the camera that Su Qinghe was holding up.

In the picture, the boy stands in the winter sun, with the elephant slide full of memories behind him. The wind blows the wisps of hair on his forehead, and his eyes are surprised and tender.

Su Qinghe looked at him on the screen, shook her phone, and flashed a bright smile:

"It's okay."

She stepped forward, grabbed his hand, and their fingers intertwined:

"The old photos are gone, and that's it."

"From today onwards, I will take every single one of your photos."

"I was absent from your past, but your future..." Su Qinghe stood on tiptoe, bringing her face close to his, as if making a vow:

"I'm the exclusive sponsor, and I'm going to take 10,000 photos of you. You won't be able to back out later."

------------

Posting this chapter on New Year's Eve is probably the best arrangement.

Wishing all my darlings that in the new year, you will all meet that special someone you can exclusively sponsor.

Wishing everyone:

Fireworks illuminate the stars, and all wishes come true.

I have a good partner by my side, fine wine in my glass, and money in my account.

Happy Lunar New Year's Eve, my darlings!

(Xie Wang: Remember to wear long johns, don't worry my mother-in-law. Also, bring me home for the New Year too!)