"What's wrong?"
The man's deep voice brought her back to her senses.
"You... When did you come back?"
"Is there something?"
"Um, a little." The normally fearless Song Anjiu was embarrassed for the first time and finally plucked up the courage to speak, "I have a parent-teacher meeting tomorrow."
"Hmm?"
Song Anjiu felt some anger. Wasn't it clear enough already?
"Can you come to the parent-teacher meeting for me!" She said each word through clenched teeth, as if it was an insult.
Her newlywed husband was silent for a long time on the phone, seemingly really taken aback by her request to help at a parent-teacher meeting.
Going to a parent-teacher meeting wasn't anything out of the ordinary, what was unusual was that this would be his first time not for his own son, but for his wife.
After a long pause, he replied, "Okay."
He actually... agreed?
She had made the call out of desperation, with hardly any hope to begin with.
"What time?" he asked.
"Ah?"
"What time is the meeting?"
"Oh, tomorrow afternoon at two."
"Got it."
Right after that, she heard him instruct his assistant to book a flight on the other end of the phone.
"..."
"Anything else?"
"No, that's all."
"See you at the school tomorrow."
"Mm."
Song Anjiu hung up the phone in a daze, feeling somewhat grateful. He had not only agreed but hadn't asked her why she didn't ask her parents to attend the meeting, in fact, he didn't ask any extra questions.
Suddenly feeling anxious, she hadn't told him that it wasn't just about attending a parent-teacher meeting, she had also caused some trouble...
That night, Song Anjiu suffered from insomnia.
*
The next day at two o'clock in the afternoon, Song Anjiu arrived at the school and waited at the entrance.
Today's parent-teacher meeting was mainly about discussing college application preferences with the parents. If it wasn't because she had hit someone, she wouldn't have needed to ask any parent to come.
The parents arrived one after another, looking disdainfully at her disheveled attire and frowning in disgust.
"How could Shengjin have such a student?"
"She can't be from Shengjin! Maybe she's from Ming Hui next door?"
"Maybe!"
"Who said that, she is a Shengjin student, famously at the bottom of the class, she's repeated senior year twice already!"
"Ah? Really? How can Shengjin accept such students! Don't let them lead our kids astray!"
"Exactly..."
Song Anjiu leaned awkwardly against the gate, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, completely ignoring their comments.
As the meeting began, the crowd of parents at the entrance thinned, with only an occasional one dashing in.
Time slowly passed, and before she knew it, an hour had gone by.
Halfway through, Song Anjiu tried calling him, but the call went straight to voicemail.
He was probably still on the plane.
Two hours, three hours...
In the end, he still hadn't shown up by the time the parent-teacher meeting was over.
The light of waiting dimmed like the extinguishing of her cigarette, and her anxious heart also completely calmed down.
She must have been crazy to believe the words of a stranger...
In the end, she was approached by the homeroom teacher, "Finally found you, come with me to the principal's office."