Going Against the Wind (Lan Lin)

Chapter 2

Although to this end he had suffered and struggled, searching in many psychological counseling books, yet in the end he still carried a "no way out" attitude and gave up.

This was a secret he had always kept from his parents, and even his good friend Zhong Li didn't know. Ouyang Xiwen worried that one day if he revealed he liked men, this good friend for many years would be scared away. He also didn't have the courage to come out and face societal pressures.

But at this age, it was impossible to have no yearning for love and physical contact, and thinking, "It's okay even if I only experience it once," he went to the most famous local gay bar.

But after going in, he was only at a loss. The music was loud, the lights were dim, it was crowded, the wines were all unfamiliar to him, expensive, and not good.

He originally wanted to find someone who felt somewhat suitable to talk to, but seeing that everyone was only busy touching each other, not many people seemed willing to sit down and talk with him, he could only finish drinking the wine and leave.

After going back, he felt very despondent. Although he had a job and could read books, so his life wasn't too empty, but the longing for someone to accompany him was so real.

How great must it be to have a romantic partner to communicate with...

But he was never someone who was good at communicating, or there was not even a need to say "good at," with respect to communicating, he couldn't even reach an adequate level.

He had already taught at Nan High for over a month, but he couldn't even recognize his own class's students; other than the class president, vice class president, and a few other mischievous students, he felt that others' faces were all unfamiliar.

The students used this point to tease him. During today's English class, he arrived to the classroom early, setting up the image and video data, but when it was almost class time, suddenly someone holding a book quickly ran out the classroom.

He was very surprised then, not thinking that someone would so directly express their dissatisfaction with his teaching, but the others were all completely indifferent, and even the scrupulous class president Zhuo Wenyang didn't speak up to stop him.

What was even worse was, he didn't even know the name of the boy who had up and left, and could only call nervously after him, "That student, that student." In the midst of the distress, another two people got up and left, and then another one left as well.

That kind of situation was extremely awkward, and he didn't even know where to put his hands and feet. Below the podium, there was also low laughter, and he could only force himself to remain calm, taking out the roster to do roll call.

How could he know what was even worse was still to come—after reading through it twice, there was not even one missing, an extremely perfect record that all were in attendance.

He was even suspecting that he was dreaming, not knowing how the students were playing this trick.

He stood stiffly at the podium for a few minutes, his face bright red, then the whole class laughed, "Teacher, those few people weren't in our class."

Even Zhuo Wenyang laughed, "Ouyang Teacher, those were juniors, they mixed in to look at you, now that class has started, of course they had to run back to their classroom."

His colleagues all said he should interact with students more, build good relationships, but he didn't know how to privately interact with this bunch of troublemakers. Even when quizzing students in class, often he would call out "Lin Jing," yet Student A would stand; when calling out Student A, Student B would stand; this trick of serial substitution covered the students who were skipping.