8. Operation Wolf Hunt (Part 1)

The final bell of the school day rang, and Wen Mingjuan walked back to the staff office, tidied up her desk briefly, and gathered a few composition notebooks to take home and grade — when Lin Yitan's voice, calling out from nowhere, startled her badly.

"What is wrong with you? Sneaking around like that, walking without making a sound — trying to scare me to death?" Wen Mingjuan scolded him irritably.

"Sorry about that." Lin Yitan scratched his head, looking apologetic.

"What is it this time?" Wen Mingjuan glared at him.

"Are you free tonight?" Lin Yitan scratched his head again.

"What for?"

"I was thinking... I'd like to take you to a movie." He finally managed to squeeze the sentence out.

"A movie?" Wen Mingjuan stared at him blankly. "What's worth watching at the movies in a backwater town like this?"

"Whether the film's any good isn't the point. What matters is watching it together."

That was actually a fairly decent bit of philosophy — it didn't disgrace his standing as a literature man.

"Sure. I'll take you up on it." Wen Mingjuan said without a second thought.

"Really?" Lin Yitan could hardly believe it. In an entire year, this was the first time Wen Mingjuan had agreed to his invitation so readily.

"You're not messing with me?" Lin Yitan went for a second round of confirmation.

"You're being such a woman about this, so fussy."

"No, I'm just really happy." Lin Yitan, worried she'd get annoyed, hurried to explain.

"What time?" Wen Mingjuan asked, a bit sheepishly.

"After I finish my tutoring session — around seven thirty, is that okay?"

"No problem, let's meet outside the movie theater."

Not that there was much risk of confusion, since this town had exactly one movie theater and no more.

"Great."

Lin Yitan was overjoyed, practically dancing with excitement, humming a tune the whole way out of the office. But when he arrived at the theater entrance at seven thirty, he was stunned to find both Wen Mingjuan and Zhang Tingyu standing there together.

"Teacher Zhang, you're here too?" Lin Yitan greeted Zhang Tingyu, his face falling.

"What kind of thing is that to say? Can't she come? We're not even asking you to pay — we'll buy our own tickets." Before Zhang Tingyu could get a word in, Wen Mingjuan jumped in to speak first.

"Don't be mad, that's not what I meant." Lin Yitan said timidly.

"Good, then." Wen Mingjuan took Zhang Tingyu's hand and said: "Let's go in!"

"Hey! Wait for me." Lin Yitan called after them, hurrying to buy his ticket and follow them inside.

This shabby old theater not only showed outdated films, it didn't even bother with assigned seating. Once you bought your ticket, no matter what number you got, you could sit wherever you pleased. The three of them sat in a row, and less than fifteen minutes into the film, Wen Mingjuan suddenly let out a low groan.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yitan and Zhang Tingyu asked in concerned unison.

"I... my stomach hurts so much." Wen Mingjuan clutched her stomach, her body nearly curling into a ball.

"How did this happen?" Both of them grew tense at once.

"I..." Wen Mingjuan leaned close to whisper in Zhang Tingyu's ear: "It's that time of the month. It hurts."

"Oh, is that it?" Zhang Tingyu, who was already well aware of Wen Mingjuan's usual trouble with this, sympathetically patted her on the back. "Weren't you fine just a minute ago?"

"It's just started acting up now!" Wen Mingjuan let out another couple of soft moans.

Suddenly, Lin Yitan asked blankly, "What are you two talking about?"

"Idiot! You don't even know what period cramps are." Wen Mingjuan scolded him while still clutching her stomach and crying out in pain.

"So what do we do?" Lin Yitan felt thoroughly awkward — this sort of thing was entirely outside his experience.

"I have painkillers at home. I'll take some and rest, and I'll be fine." she said.

"Then let me drive you back?" Zhang Tingyu said.

They'd ridden over together on one scooter for the date.

"No need. Don't let it spoil your evening — you two keep watching. I can still ride the scooter home myself. Just have Teacher Lin drive you home later." Wen Mingjuan kept up her pained expression the whole time.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." Wen Mingjuan nodded.

Taking the keys, bent over and clutching her stomach, Wen Mingjuan walked out of the theater under their concerned watch.

The instant the scooter engine started, she was already humming a tune.

Heh! That fool would never catch on to her clever little scheme. Her acting really wasn't half bad — she'd not only fooled Lin Yitan, but Zhang Tingyu too had unknowingly fallen right into her carefully laid plan.

Looks like these two really were a match made in heaven — even their level of gullibility matched perfectly.

She'd barely enjoyed her triumph for three minutes when, as her scooter passed along the road between the school and the train station, a girl suddenly popped out of nowhere, waving both hands wildly at her, forcing Wen Mingjuan to slam on the brakes immediately.

"Teacher."

"Wei Lizhu?"

Wen Mingjuan blinked in surprise — this girl was from a different class, already a senior, and instead of studying at home or at school, here she was running around out here playing tricks to scare her teacher?

"What are you doing here?" Wen Mingjuan was thoroughly displeased.

"Shh." Wei Lizhu immediately pulled Wen Mingjuan close and pressed her index finger to her lips. "Keep your voice down, teacher. If you talk too loud, you'll ruin our whole plan."

"What plan?" Wen Mingjuan was utterly lost.

"Just come here first." Wei Lizhu pulled Wen Mingjuan by the hand toward the roadside bushes.

A few steps in, Wen Mingjuan got quite a shock. A good number of students had gathered here, all of them keeping dead silent, and with the darkness of the evening, it was very hard to notice them at all.

"You all?" Wen Mingjuan looked closer — a few were her own students, others weren't, but essentially all of them were seniors.

Her mind filled with confusion — what exactly were these kids up to?

"We're planning to give that flasher a proper beating. He's really out of line, showing up every single day lately causing trouble. This can't keep going on — the girls are all too scared to stay for evening self-study at school anymore." one of the boys said.

"You're all lurking around out here just to catch a flasher?" Wen Mingjuan asked.

"We're not lurking. How else are you supposed to catch a flasher — parade around with drums and gongs?" the student shot back. "How would he ever dare come out then?"

"Fair point, I suppose!" Wen Mingjuan nodded. "But how exactly are you planning to do this? Is there any danger involved?"

"Relax! We're not even scared, so what are you scared of?" Wei Lizhu said, thumping her chest.

That was exactly the issue, wasn't it? Usually it was the things kids weren't afraid of that terrified adults to death — Wen Mingjuan grumbled to herself inwardly.

"Besides, Tao Muwei said he'd bring his uncle to help us catch the pervert. With Uncle here, we'll definitely be able to take that shameless piece of trash down." the student said, his face beaming.

"You... what did you say?" Hearing the mention of Gao Weizhao, Wen Mingjuan shivered. "What does this have to do with Tao Muwei and his uncle? Do you all know Mr. Gao?"

"We don't know him. But the story of how he heroically rescued Chen Hongjia has already spread across the entire school. If he's willing to help, we're sure to succeed." the student said, growing more excited by the moment.

But wait... wasn't Gao Weizhao himself that pervert? How could he possibly come catch a pervert?

Wen Mingjuan felt thoroughly bewildered inside, but this wasn't something she could very well say out loud — she could only mull it over silently in her own mind.

"Teacher, what are you thinking about?"

"Oh! Nothing." Wen Mingjuan looked at Wei Lizhu and asked, puzzled: "Why did you flag me down just now, anyway? Don't tell me you want me to help catch the pervert too? No, I'm not Tao Muwei's uncle — I'm just a delicate, gentle young lady, without the strength to truss up a chicken."

"Enough already." Wei Lizhu burst out giggling. "Teacher, could you switch up your lines a little? You keep using the same one."

"Exactly." the people beside her chimed in agreement.

"So what exactly do you want me to do?" Wen Mingjuan was starting to grow anxious. What she was really worried about was that the students might suggest she act as bait — Gao Weizhao's skills were so formidable, wouldn't that be sending a sheep straight into the tiger's mouth, practically guaranteed death?

"Don't panic just yet." The student swallowed and continued: "In principle, we've divided the girls into six shifts, two to three per shift, and each shift walks back and forth along this stretch of road once. The boys are split into a few groups, lying in ambush on both sides of the road, ready to strike at any moment."

"And what does that have to do with me?" Wen Mingjuan asked.

"I recognized your scooter just now, so I decided to flag you down. We're short on girls, and we really need your support." Wei Lizhu cut back in.

"Even if you're not exactly graceful, you're still a decent-looking young beauty, at least." Perhaps the student was simply tired of living and had no idea how to read the room, because he continued right on: "So please, teacher, do us a favor. Why don't you and Wei Lizhu team up for one shift?"

What was wrong with kids these days? Nobody seemed to know who was actually the teacher anymore — not just Tao Muwei, but seemingly everyone was cut from the same cloth?

Asking a respectable teacher to play along with this kind of game with them?

Wen Mingjuan felt deeply resistant to the idea inside, but did her best not to let it show. Who could blame them, though — given how close in age she was to them, in the students' eyes she was more like an older sister than a teacher, which was exactly why they always treated her with such casual disregard for hierarchy.

"Where's Tao Muwei?" Wen Mingjuan asked helplessly.

"He went home to drag his uncle over." the student answered.

"Uncle? Why are you all calling him 'Uncle' too?" Wen Mingjuan said, unconvinced.

"It's friendlier that way! Tao Muwei's uncle is our uncle too, right?"

"Right!" A chorus of agreement rose up from all around.

If Tao Muwei managed to forcibly drag Gao Weizhao here, and since he'd be too occupied to go around scaring girls himself, then tonight would surely end in nothing — but if he showed up in his true form as the pervert, then everyone here would be in serious danger.

Wen Mingjuan's mind was in some disarray; she desperately wanted to put a stop to this, but she couldn't very well say so outright, and could only go along with agreeing to their plan for now.

Apparently this pervert tended to appear sometime after eight thirty. By eight fifteen, the whole group was ready and set, poised to strike. The first shift's two girls had already taken up their whistles and were walking along the road from the school gate.

"Why's Tao Muwei taking so long?" Suddenly, a few of the boys started muttering.

"Mr. Gao might not necessarily come to help you all." Wen Mingjuan said.

"That's fine too! If Uncle won't help, we can manage on our own — we've got eighteen guys total against one pervert, more than enough." someone answered.

If that pervert happened to be Gao Weizhao, even thirty guys showing up wouldn't be enough.

Wen Mingjuan muttered this to herself in her mind.

"Hey!" Wen Mingjuan looked over at one of the boys. "If I remember correctly, you're quite the expert on star signs, aren't you?"

"Yeah!" the student said.

"They say Geminis often have dual personalities, right?"

"That's right!"

"So in other words, if this pervert happened to be a Gemini, it's possible that during the day he's completely respectable and dignified, but once night falls, he transforms into something lewd, base, and thoroughly perverse?"

"You're thinking way too hard about this. Why bother guessing his star sign for no reason?" the student said, sounding faintly puzzled.

At the student's remark, Wen Mingjuan realized she'd very nearly let slip something about Gao Weizhao without meaning to. Thankfully, no one seemed to suspect anything.

Still, she genuinely suspected Gao Weizhao had to be a Gemini — how else could he display such wildly contradictory sides of himself?

Hmm! Next chance she got, she really needed to check the birthdate on his ID card.