Chapter 38

Yu Na returned home and had just lied down when Xiao Chen took the initiative to send her a message—

Xiao Chen: 【Can I come later tomorrow?】

Yu Na was stunned for two seconds, then replied: 【Around what time?】

Xiao Chen: 【Hard to say, something came up temporarily】

Yu Na: 【Then if you can't make it I'll have to do the home visit】

Yu Na: 【Qiao Rui won't be able to escape...】

Upon seeing the message, Yu Na chuckled.

She replied: 【Actually it's not that serious】

Xiao Chen: 【I have no more hopes for him anyway】

Yu Na: 【Didn't you ask how Qiao Rui did on the test?】

Xiao Chen:【No】

Yu Na: 【Actually I could tell you】

Xiao Chen:【No need, my blood pressure hasn't been very stable these past two days.】

Yu Na: "......"

...As it turned out, Xiao Chen really didn't show up for the grade meeting.

However, there wasn't much substantive information shared at the grade meeting anyway, just speeches by the principal and school leadership. The smaller classroom meetings were where updates could be provided about individual students.

After the grade meeting ended, the parents went to their child's respective classroom.

Class monitor Hao Lei sat at the door taking down the parents' information.

Yu Na stood at the doorway with her hands behind her back, welcoming the parents.

After most had arrived, she bowed her head and asked Hao Lei: "Is anyone still not here yet?"

Hao Lei glanced at the form and said, "Teacher, only Qiao Rui's parents haven't arrived yet."

Yu Na nodded. "Okay, I see. You can go back first."

"Alright."

This was Yu Na's first time holding a parent-teacher conference. She had just formally started when a tall silhouette suddenly appeared by the window.

She noticed the arrival from the corner of her eye.

Dressed all in black, he peeked in through the window as if to confirm something.

In that instant, their eyes collided across the window pane. Yu Na's heart suddenly thumped loudly.

When she opened the classroom door, she saw Xiao Chen only holding a pen, casually slouched outside.

Xiao Chen apologized courteously: "Sorry Teacher Yu, I'm late."

Yu Na: "......"

"It's fine," she said, bringing the sign-in sheet from the podium and placing it on the desk outside the classroom. "Go ahead and fill in your information first."

"Okay."

Xiao Chen found Qiao Rui's name and signed his own name and phone number afterwards.

After signing in, when he handed the pen back to Yu Na, he inadvertently brushed her fingers—icy cold, and even a bit clammy.

Although the weather had turned cool, it shouldn't have been that exaggerated.

Just before Xiao Chen entered the classroom, he lightly dropped a sentence by her ear: "So nervous?"

Only the two of them could hear these words, carrying some obscure ridicule.

Since it was Yu Na's first time holding a parent-teacher meeting, she was already nervous to begin with. Being teased like this by him made her even more nervous.

She didn't remember him ever liking to tease her this much before.

Annoying.

There was a score sheet posted on the white wall beside the blackboard, with each student's grades for all subjects listed clearly, along with their class ranking.

Xiao Chen went straight to finding the last place student, intending to look from the bottom up. But he didn't expect to spot Qiao Rui's name right away in last place.

Seeing Qiao Rui's name, Xiao Chen helplessly covered his forehead.

Yu Na couldn't help laughing at this subtle movement. She forcibly suppressed the urge to smile.

She pursed her lips and pointed to the last row of seats, "Qiao Rui sits over there."

Once inside the classroom, Xiao Chen stopped teasing her.

The two of them had always tacitly maintained only a student-parent and teacher relationship at school.

No one could have guessed their past history.

Xiao Chen had long given up hope for Qiao Rui's grades, but still felt discouraged after seeing the last place ranking with his own eyes.

Because there was a huge gap between his score and the second-to-last place student's score.

Now all the parents knew he had come to the meeting for this dead last student.

As Xiao Chen walked toward's Qiao Rui's desk, some parents shot him peculiar glances, making him very uncomfortable.

Xiao Chen really wanted to ask Qiao Rui's mom—why did you stick me with this embarrassing thing?

Yu Na summarized the midterm grades overall, gave pointed praise to a few students with good scores, as well as to students who were usually active in class. This included students who had participated in the sports meet.

She advocated encouraging education. She praised everyone she could praise.

For students with problems, she spoke to them privately instead of calling them out by name.

After the head teacher finished speaking, it was each subject teacher's turn to summarize their subject's grades. When that finished, Yu Na came back inside and said, "Parents who have questions can come ask me. Parents without questions can leave first."

Upon hearing this, many parents surrounded Yu Na, inquiring about their children's studies.

Yu Na patiently answered their questions one by one.

She had put a lot of effort into this job, working hard to understand her students' academic situations as best as she could.

So when answering parents' questions, she handled it smoothly—not only telling them about their child's performance, but also analyzing the issues and providing optimal guidance recommendations.

Aside from the parents surrounding Yu Na, everyone else had already left.

With them blocking her line of sight, it wasn't until after seeing the parents off that Yu Na noticed someone sitting quietly in the corner of the last row.

He sat casually, leaning back in his chair with one leg sticking straight out.

His slouched student-like sitting posture was no different than the actual students.

He held a ballpoint pen in his hand, absently clicking it with a "tick" sound, seeming a bit weary.

Yet he didn't appear to have any intention of leaving.

There were only two people left in the entire classroom.

Her and him.

"Qiao Rui gege—"

Xiao Chen's pen-clicking suddenly stopped. He raised his eyes, too tired to keep up the act with her. "Speak properly, thanks."

"......"

Yu Na went back to normal. "Why haven't you left yet?"

Xiao Chen: "Didn't you say to come ask you questions if there were any?"

"Oh, then why didn't you ask earlier?"

He put away his pen with a light cough, feeling embarrassed. "Ashamed to."

"......"

Yu Na couldn't hold back her laugh this time. She consoled him earnestly as if pacifying a child: "Actually, studies aren't a person's only path in life. Qiao Rui has high emotional intelligence, he won't end up too badly in the future either."

Xiao Chen asked very seriously: "Next parent-teacher meeting, can you take him off the roster? I can come but don't let the others know I'm any student's parent."

"......I can't authorize that." Yu Na curved her lips, shaking her head ruthlessly.

Xiao Chen: "Then next time I'll send my assistant to stand in my place for this embarrassment."

"......"

Yu Na went to the office to take out the stack of English test papers and brought them back to the classroom, placing the thick pile on the podium. She found Qiao Rui's test and roughly glanced through it. "Actually Qiao Rui still has room for improvement. He's very smart. You're good at math right? If you have time you can tutor him more. As for English, if I'm free I can also tutor him."

"Me?" Xiao Chen said, "I can occasionally, but sometimes I'm busy and don't have that much time."

Originally his view on grades was rather open, but after witnessing Qiao Rui's report card with his own eyes, he still felt a headache coming. With those terrible grades, Qiao Rui probably couldn't even test into college. Coming to school was meaningless for him.

Seeing Xiao Chen's worried expression, Yu Na's heart twisted.

She didn't know what she was thinking when she suddenly raised her hand, stood on her tiptoes, and gently smoothed out the wrinkles between his brows with her thumb, her touch feather-light as she softened his taut brows. Her voice was gentle and coaxing like soothing a child: "Don't frown, it'll cause wrinkles."

This sudden move brought their faces intimately close, their breathing intertwining in the narrow space between them.

A strange mood permeated the empty classroom.