4. The Miracle Uncle

"Hey! Where are you going?" Wen Mingjuan hurriedly grabbed the corner of his shirt, looking every bit as if she feared he might make a run for it.

"Can't I even brush my teeth and wash my face?" Gao Weizhao turned back and looked coldly at Wen Mingjuan. Though he still wore that same frosty, off-putting demeanor, Wen Mingjuan caught a flicker of something wounded in his eyes. "I'll come right out once I'm done — I'm not going to the ends of the earth. Stop clinging to me."

So that flicker of hurt had been about this — perhaps for an underworld boss, having a woman cling desperately to his shirt was a humiliating thing; word getting out might make things awkward for him.

But study him however she liked, Gao Weizhao looked nothing like underworld riffraff. That face, with its air of Zhu Ziqing-like refinement, looked far more like a well-read scholar.

Ugh! There she went, overthinking it again.

Maybe he was mixed up with the underworld, but whether he was actually a boss remained very much in question.

Still, Gao Weizhao's efficiency and capability left the entire school gaping in astonishment. Before the school day was even over, an ear-splitting screech of car brakes echoed across the otherwise quiet campus, and two men in flip-flops, cheeks bulging with betel nut, hauled Chen Hongjia out of the car, swaggering around outside the school gate as if no one else existed.

At the sight of those two men, not a single staff member dared to step within arm's reach.

"Is everybody dead or something?" The two thuggish-looking men, having apparently had enough of being "ignored," finally exploded.

"The hell — who the hell is Wen Mingjuan, the teacher?" one of them barked, tossing in a crude reference to someone's mother for good measure, mangling the word "teacher" (老師, lǎoshī) into something closer to "crispy" (酥, sū).

Wen Mingjuan hated it more than anything when people mispronounced "teacher" that way, but unfortunately, a fairly large chunk of Taiwan's population did exactly that. Surrounded by her colleagues, Wen Mingjuan had no choice but to steel herself and answer the "summons."

"What's going on here?" The rather frightening-looking man looked as though he badly wanted to give her a beating, but seemed to be holding back out of some restraint. At this point, worked up as he was, he mixed Mandarin and Taiwanese indiscriminately: "We hauled this dead kid all the way back here for you, and this is the sorry attitude you people show us?"

"So sorry, so sorry, thank you both so much." Wen Mingjuan was terrified inside, but as Chen Hongjia's homeroom teacher, no matter how scared she was, she had to pretend otherwise. She stepped forward and took hold of Chen Hongjia, only then noticing the bruises mottling his face, blue and purple.

"Teach... er" Chen Hongjia finally broke down and burst into tears.

"It's alright now! There, there, your teacher's here." Wen Mingjuan pulled him into her arms to comfort him.

"The hell's wrong with you! What are you crying for? You—" The one who'd been yelling loudest a moment ago looked ready to curse some more, but his buddy smacked him hard on the head.

"You looking to die?" He landed a second smack for good measure. "Keep cursing and see if Brother Wei doesn't kick your ass. Even Brother Wei gives Teacher Wen — crispy — face, and you dare curse at her?"

Good heavens! Not only had he mangled "teacher" into "crispy," he'd even mangled "face" (面子, miànzi) into something like "face-ancestor" (面祖). Wen Mingjuan felt thoroughly offended but couldn't let it show.

"I wasn't cursing her, I was cursing that dead kid."

"Same difference!"

"S-sorry about that." No sooner had he spoken than the man who'd just been swearing up a storm did a complete hundred-eighty-degree turn in his attitude toward Wen Mingjuan.

She'd clearly heard them say "Brother Wei" — that had to be Gao Weizhao. Back at the Tainan train station, that plainclothes officer had addressed him the exact same way.

What a remarkably resourceful man, this Gao Weizhao.

Wen Mingjuan had no idea what method Gao Weizhao had used to retrieve Chen Hongjia in such a short time, but she was now fully convinced that Gao Weizhao really was some kind of gang boss — even if not the top boss, then at least a second or third in command.

A gang leader this refined-looking and young completely upended everything Wen Mingjuan had ever imagined a "gangster" to be.

"Excuse me..." Wen Mingjuan asked timidly. "Where's Mr. Gao? Why did the two of you have to make this trip specially?"

"You mean Brother Wei?" The more perceptive of the two answered her. "We never even saw him in person. Specially, you say? Even if it took ten trips, we'd still go. When it comes to Brother Wei's word, who'd dare not listen?"

Wen Mingjuan listened, utterly bewildered, unable to fathom what exactly Gao Weizhao had done to these men. He hadn't even shown up in person, and yet the child had been safely retrieved? That was practically miraculous.

After perfunctorily seeing off the two men, who looked like harbingers of doom, the discipline officer got in touch with Chen Hongjia's parents, telling them to come quickly and take him home to settle his nerves, maybe eat some pig's feet noodles to wash off the bad luck.

"Don't go wandering into gambling dens out of curiosity again, understand?" Wen Mingjuan admonished him earnestly before he left.

Chen Hongjia nodded, too shaken to speak. His parents thanked her over and over, practically bowing down to her.

"I didn't really do anything." Wen Mingjuan, unable to bear such an extravagant show of gratitude, quickly explained: "It was Tao Muwei's uncle who helped. If you want to thank someone, thank him."

Immediately, she saw a flash of astonishment cross both their faces.

"It's a long story." Wen Mingjuan wasn't sure where to even begin, and besides, going into too much detail might expose Gao Weizhao's "gangster status." Though she suspected the principal and discipline officer already had some inkling, out of a sense of protectiveness toward her "benefactor," she didn't want to make the matter any bigger than it already was. Perhaps Gao Weizhao didn't mind people knowing he was a gang leader, but Wen Mingjuan didn't want to be the one whose mouth let it slip.

Wen Mingjuan flipped through the student contact record book, found the Tao household's phone number, and tried to reach Gao Weizhao. The phone rang for a long time with no answer, and just as she was about to hang up, Gao Weizhao suddenly picked up.

"The hell—!" He cursed again, only this time the unlucky recipient wasn't Tao Muwei, but Wen Mingjuan.

"Could you maybe tone down your language?" Wen Mingjuan corrected him irritably. In all her years, no one had ever cursed at her like that. "Why are you cursing at me for no reason?"

"Why are you bothering me while I'm sleeping?" Gao Weizhao sounded equally irritated.

"How was I supposed to know you were sleeping? You slept this morning, you're sleeping this afternoon — are you going to keep sleeping tonight too?" Perhaps driven half-mad with anger, she started firing back at Gao Weizhao without much coherence.

"Who is this?" Gao Weizhao suddenly asked.

Oh right! After that whole rapid-fire tirade, Wen Mingjuan had forgotten to identify herself.

"It's Wen Mingjuan!" She felt a little sheepish now.

"What do you want this time?" Hearing the name Wen Mingjuan, he seemed to remember she was also one of the "culprits" who'd disturbed his sweet dreams that morning, and sounded rather wary.

"The child's home safe. His parents want to thank you." Wen Mingjuan said.

"No need." He said flatly. "Just don't disturb my sleep again." With that, he hung up immediately.

That damned pervert!

Suffering this "humiliation," fury blazed in Wen Mingjuan's eyes, her expression instantly souring. But when she spun around, she found the entire discipline office staring at her with utter disbelief. It reminded her that she'd completely forgotten about Gao Weizhao's terrifying background, and yet she'd dared to shout at him like that. They were probably in awe of her nerve.

Wen Mingjuan let out a breath and, feigning complete indifference, exchanged a few pleasantries with Chen Hongjia's parents before seeing them off.

"Teacher Wen, you really are a woman who puts men to shame!" Officer Wu gave Wen Mingjuan a thumbs-up in praise.

"What do you mean?"

"Even those two thugs are scared of Mr. Gao. Not only are you not scared, you dared to yell at him?" Officer Tang added.

"As long as you stand upright and act with integrity, what is there to fear?" Wen Mingjuan still put on a righteous, unshaken front. In truth, they had no idea she was worried sick — if he ever lost his temper and did something to her one day, she might not even know how she'd died.

* * *

Around seven that evening, Wen Mingjuan received a call from Tao Muwei.

"Teacher, come out — my uncle wants to treat you to dinner." Tao Muwei's tone sounded rather pleased.

"Are you out of your mind? Why would he treat me to dinner?" Wen Mingjuan recalled how, that afternoon, she'd babbled incoherently while "talking back" to Gao Weizhao — could he be holding a grudge and looking to get back at her?

"I begged and pleaded, even had to physically drag him out of bed. If you don't come, it'll be a real slap in his face."

So he really had slept the whole day until evening? Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Wen Mingjuan muttered under her breath, prompting Tao Muwei to ask what was wrong.

"Nothing." Wen Mingjuan brushed him off, privately thinking Tao Muwei had way too much time on his hands.

"I told my uncle he did you a huge favor saving Chen Hongjia, so you absolutely have to thank him properly."

"Well then... shouldn't I be the one treating him, instead of the other way around?" Wen Mingjuan asked listlessly.

"I told him he's richer than you, and he's the man, so you can be the one who invites, and he pays. OK?"

"Not remotely OK." Wen Mingjuan doused Tao Muwei with a bucket of cold water. "This is ridiculous!"

"Are you coming or not?" Suddenly Gao Weizhao snatched the phone, saying coldly: "If it weren't for the fact that you're Tao Muwei's homeroom teacher, I never treat women to dinner."

"Hey! What are you so smug about? I never asked you to treat me." Hearing his tone, that nameless fire in Wen Mingjuan's chest started rising again. Sure, he'd solved a huge problem for her, but that didn't mean she was about to bow down to him.

"Teacher, don't mind him." Quick as lightning, Tao Muwei snatched the phone back, doing his best to smooth over the conflict between Wen Mingjuan and Gao Weizhao. "He really doesn't mean any harm. I've listened to him talk like this for over ten years — that's just how he is, he doesn't mean it that way."

"Get ready — I know where you live. My uncle will drive over and pick you up in a bit." Tao Muwei said, and immediately hung up.

Tao Muwei never gave her a chance to say no. This student was thoroughly impossible; it was hard to tell anymore who was actually the teacher.

The sound of Wen Mingjuan slamming down the phone must have been quite loud, because it startled Zhang Tingyu into rushing over.

"Are you sick or something? Why are you taking it out on the phone? Who upset you?" Zhang Tingyu was in the middle of washing her hair, and the sight of her — head covered in suds, face full of alarm — made Wen Mingjuan burst out laughing despite herself.

"It's nothing, just that damned pervert on the phone, and Tao Muwei too." she said between laughs.

"Gao Weizhao?" Zhang Tingyu froze. "What did he say to you?"

"Invited me out to dinner, but with a pretty rude attitude." Wen Mingjuan said.

"Are you crazy?" The suds on Zhang Tingyu's head were about to drip everywhere; she hurried back to the bathroom, calling out loudly from inside: "Isn't he supposed to be that pervert? And you're actually going to meet him?"

"Can't be helped." Wen Mingjuan sighed. "At least Tao Muwei will be there. I doubt Gao Weizhao would dare try anything with me around."