Xuemei wished that the 12th never came, or she wished that Mingzhai's customer could not make it to pick up and purchase the item that sat on her desk in fancy packaging. She made sure that she had placed the product in her backpack prior to leaving the residence.
Xuemei also wished that the 10 cardboard boxes with the words 'fragile' slapped on each and every single one could stop blocking the entrance of her home, causing her older brother to exit the house by jumping out of the window from the kitchen.
In other words, her Friday felt like the sickening realisation after sipping lukewarm coca-cola.
"Yo, can I hop into your car for a quick drive?" The older Yue sibling asked, although already making himself comfortable in the passenger's seat. Xuemei felt her mouth twitch in irritation, feeling as though sticking out her pinkie at him wasn't enough to express her anger. Instead, she instantly rummaged through her jacket pockets to find her phone, seemingly dialling a certain phone number that caused her brother to immediately scuttle out of the vehicle.
Yue Xuefeng, 27 years old, was scared of their mother to a high extent. Despite being the oldest sibling between the two, his responsibilities in the household were equivalent to a toddler waiting to be fed and throw a tantrum. He was on vacation after winning second place in e-sports with his team; Xuemei, not having any knowledge about gaming, could not understand how such a profession could earn him so much money.
Their mother was highly supportive of their life decisions, after all.
"Just get in."
Their drive along the way felt like stiffening silence. Xuemei focused on driving whilst Xuefeng cleared up all the miss calls he received last night –– his friends were all night owls with him being the only morning person. Once he was done, he slouched on the seat and glanced at his younger sister with a questioning look.
"Oh, right," he began as he folded his arms. "Mingzhai asked you to help out with a customer, right? Don't you think you should be denying requests at this point? You're a student-teacher, not a genie."
"It's not like I'm aiming to be a teacher or whatever," she instantly replied with a stone face. "I just chose a random job to forget about what happened back in the entertainment industry. Rather, they said I should use my A grades to work in the medical field or something."
"Ew."
"Exactly."
"Well just remember that you can always work with Mingzhai~ she'll highly accept even a food vacuum like you," he snickered before releasing an audible 'yelp' as Xuemei abruptly stopped the car in front of an unknown location. Furrowing his eyebrows, Xuefeng lept out of the car to view his surroundings. "Hey, where is this––"
"A pet store, right where you belong," she poked her tongue out before shutting the door with her arm. Starting up the engine and leaving the man on the streets to fend for himself, she simply smirked as the aggressive shouts faded from her ears along with the wind carrying her hair.
That was one nuisance out of the way.
Once she had arrived at her workplace's parking lot, she discerned a small crowd near the gate full of female students and some of her workmates trying to calm the commotion down. Now, if she were to act like the student-teacher she was, it would mean that every single action and choice she made counted as a risk.
Xuemei tightened her fist and lightly pushed her arm into the air in front of the teachers from a distance.
"You guys can do it, good luck!"
That was a second nuisance out of the way.
The moment Xuemei walked into the classroom after the fifth period in the evening, her footsteps unheard by many due to her flat sneakers, all the students pursed their lips as if they have been automatically zipped shut. She could smell the slight scent of smoke whisking to her nose, causing her to involuntarily turn her head to a specific corner of the room where a student sat.
"Li Chenju xuesheng. Give it to me."
Hearing the student click his tongue at her, his gaze shifted to where the window was.
Xuemei, with a sigh, thought: He's taking advantage of a fictional protagonist's seat.
Instead, she rested all the papers she had on her arms down on the teacher's desk. Twirling her back to the kids, she grabbed a piece of chalk, lifted up the alabaster white sleeves of her jacket, and wrote on the chalkboard aggressively. Giving an emphasis on the full stop at the end, she dropped the piece of chalk and turned back to the rows of students gazing upon the front in curiosity.
"I won't force you to stop," she began, a calm tone behind her voice. "But I'll have you guys all drill this behind your minds as if it will be in every single exam of your life. Lan Jinhai xuesheng, can you read what's on the board?"
A student who was munching on a strawberry pepero stick instantly stood up from his seat, adjusting his glasses and clearing his throat. "M-More than one million people die every year in China due to smoking and tobacco use. In other words, approximately three thousand people die per day."
"I think you all got the gist of what I'm saying, right?" She cocked her head to the side, an expectant look written all over her face. As expected, most of the students nervously nodded and packed all their snacks away. "You are the future. Whatever the results are as a collected whole will drive the society to a new path; if anything, one generation is enough to destroy the world."
With that, the lesson began with an emergency siren ringing across the school building.