“Teacher, Teacher, I’ve brought a doctor!”

A Hua dragged the white-bearded old man as she rushed in breathlessly, her forehead glistening with sweat.

Ji Huai was cradling his finger, hissing through his teeth, while Lin Heyu stood nearby with crossed arms, an awkward expression on his face.

A Hua looked around, confused, glancing from one to the other.

It was the old doctor who finally broke the silence. Stroking his beard and catching his breath, his sharp eyes fell upon the three people in the room. After pondering for a while, he asked, “Little A Hua, who did you bring me to the schoolhouse to treat?”

The doctor had just come from Old Lady Li’s house next door. Old Lady Li, burdened with a life of hard labor, always suffered from back pain during extreme heat or cold. He had just prescribed her some medicated plasters and hadn’t walked more than a few steps when the village flower girl dragged him to the schoolhouse.

Doctor Li was the village’s barefoot doctor, not particularly skilled but competent enough for common ailments like headaches and fevers. However, as he aged, he had become quite talkative.

From the moment he entered, his mouth hadn’t stopped moving.

“Oh, Master Ji, are you injured?” Doctor Li then looked at Lin Heyu standing silently nearby and asked, “Or is it this rascal who’s hurt?”

When called out, both shook their heads in synchronized embarrassment. Lin Heyu couldn’t bring himself to admit his earlier awkward, almost delirious actions, and Ji Huai was too embarrassed to say he’d been bitten by his student.

Lin Heyu stole a glance at Ji Huai’s slightly flushed face, pursed his lips, feeling both guilty and somewhat distracted.

Only A Hua remained innocent and unaware of the situation. Her clear voice full of confusion, she asked, “Teacher, didn’t you tell me to fetch a doctor earlier? Lin Xiaoniao just went crazy.”

A Hua’s use of “Teacher” made Doctor Li turn to look at her. Frowning, he repeated, “Teacher? A Hua, you’re a girl you shouldn’t call him Teacher. And this schoolhouse is no place for you. This is where boys should be.”

Doctor Li, being more conservative in his thinking, tried to pull A Hua out of the schoolhouse while muttering, “A young girl like you, alone in a room with two grown men what kind of behavior is that? Hurry, let’s go.”

A Hua stumbled a few steps from being pulled. The doctor’s words stirred up her usual timidity and insecurity, but she stood her ground stubbornly, refusing to move further, and turned her pleading eyes toward Ji Huai.

Setting aside the lingering numbness and bite pain in his finger, Ji Huai immediately stepped forward and gently brushed away Doctor Li’s bony, grasping hand from A Hua. He pulled A Hua closer and said with a calm smile, “Doctor, she is my student. She belongs here.”

Doctor Li was dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open without a word. After a long moment, he widened his eyes in disbelief and exclaimed, “You, a Cultivated Talent, actually teaching a girl? You’re a Cultivated Talent! You’re a man!”

His tone was full of disappointment and harsh criticism of what he perceived as a violation of “proper order and ethics.”

Ji Huai’s expression remained unchanged as he stood firmly in front of A Hua, like a resilient bamboo that no wind from any direction could break, towering proudly on high ground.

“Doctor, teaching and nurturing people is my unshirkable responsibility. Men and women should never be set against each other.”

To Doctor Li, Ji Huai’s words were nothing short of shocking and disorderly. He stomped his feet, interrupting Ji Huai, and argued anxiously, flaunting his sense of superiority and limited vocabulary: “A true man, born between heaven and earth ”

“A true man is born beneath the skirts of women.”

Ji Huai’s voice rang with resolute force. With just this single sentence, he provoked Doctor Li to such trembling fury that the old man pointed a shaking finger at him, speechless with rage.

Finally, the tongue-tied Doctor Li choked out, “Scandalous and immoral! Utterly unworthy of a Teacher!” before hastily retreating.

Ji Huai felt a suffocating pressure in his chest. Merely allowing A Hua to study in the Schoolhouse, with Lin Heyu present no less, could be labeled as scandalous and immoral. Such deliberate slander against young girls made it impossible for Ji Huai to remain calm.

The usually bamboo-composed Ji Huai breathed slightly faster. Struggling to contain the turbulent indignation in his chest and his contempt for societal dogma, he stood upright and solemn, making himself the standard – burning his own flesh and blood to shield others from the malicious glare of convention.

“Clap clap clap–”

Suddenly, spirited and powerful applause erupted behind Ji Huai. Turning around, he saw Lin Heyu gazing at him with blazing eyes, the applause coming vigorously from his hands.

Soon, slightly softer clapping joined in. A Hua, her small face tense with emotion, earnestly offered her Teacher applause filled with gratitude and admiration.

“You two…” The fury in Ji Huai’s chest gradually subsided under this applause. His clear gaze fell upon A Hua and Lin Heyu in turn, leaving him momentarily speechless.

In this backward and unequal dynasty, he alone carried modern ideals of equality and openness. He suffered, he struggled, he wanted to change everything, yet he felt as insignificant as dust. Standing at the pinnacle of moral thought, he bitterly observed all the hardships in this village no larger than a palm, feeling profoundly powerless.

In these chaotic times, he alone remained awake.

Awake and determined to use his meager strength to change everything in this village. Starting from where he was reborn, since he had been given this second life here, he should burn with dedication for this body he now occupied.

The road ahead was long and perilous. Alone, he would have to cut through thorns and brambles to blaze a trail.

But now it was different. Ji Huai looked gratefully at the two students standing behind him – who recognized, appreciated, and admired him. A sense of responsibility surged within him. He felt that in this muddied world, there were still people who agreed with his views, his thoughts, his methods. This simple recognition alone was enough to give him courage to confront feudal dogma.

At least someone believed in him, rather than looking at him with strange eyes calling him scandalous and unworthy of being a Teacher.

The appreciation and agreement never faded from Lin Heyu’s eyes. Meeting Ji Huai’s gaze as an equal, he said with heartfelt sincerity, “Ji Huai, you’re truly remarkable. Your words are remarkable too. With the new emperor continuing the old dynasty’s rituals, no one dares speak like this.”

Lin Heyu’s words lightened the atmosphere somewhat. Ji Huai relaxed his previously tense posture. He blinked at Lin Heyu, momentarily becoming that Teacher who loved opposing him, joking with a smile, “What would happen if I did? Would I be beheaded?”

Though meant as jest, Lin Heyu nodded seriously. “If it reached the Emperor’s ears, you probably would be beheaded.”

“…” Ji Huai was rendered speechless, involuntarily shuddering as he asked blankly, “Really?”

Then he remembered – this was ancient times. The Emperor held supreme power and could indeed behead anyone he wished.

Ji Huai belatedly covered his mouth, but there was no trace of fear in his eyes.

The emperor was far away in the heavens how could he possibly govern such a dilapidated village thousands of kilometers away from the Prosperous Capital?

Lin Heyu thought his words had frightened the “pure and kind-hearted” Teacher. He quickly stepped forward, grabbed Ji Huai’s wrist that was covering his mouth, and slowly pulled it down. Lowering his eyes, he dared not meet Ji Huai’s puzzled gaze as he slowly uttered words that felt awkward to say: “Teacher, you don’t have to be afraid. My father is…”

“Is your father Li Gang?” Ji Huai’s mind often wandered, and he blurted out an old, clichéd internet meme without hesitation.

His hand was still held by Lin Heyu, but he ended up laughing at his own corny joke himself. His fox-like eyes narrowed into crescents, and his pearly white teeth occasionally peeked out from beneath his red lips.

Lin Heyu was momentarily dazed again before stammering in reply: “No, my father is the Prime Minis…”

Ji Huai was still laughing uncontrollably, completely unaware of what Lin Heyu had said. His slender wrist remained clasped in Lin Heyu’s broad palm, not released for even a moment. It was only when Ji Huai finally noticed the unfamiliar warmth spreading across his wrist that he belatedly tried to pull away.

Ji Huai: “?”

He felt like he’d been questioning things around Lin Heyu more and more often lately.

Soon, Ji Huai thought he had figured it out, convinced by his own assumptions.

Lin Heyu, standing tall at over six feet, now hung his head with a somewhat submissive and pitiful look. Ji Huai couldn’t bear to see this usually bold child so dejected, and his mind immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Lin Heyu had repeatedly mentioned his father today could it be that he missed him?

Ji Huai inwardly sighed, worried. Had today’s emotional ups and downs harmed the child’s fragile psyche? Lin Heyu had already been acting strangely today…

Huh? Wait.

Suddenly, it dawned on Ji Huai, and he finally understood Lin Heyu’s unusual behavior today.

He must be homesick.

At the thought of home, the sparkle in Ji Huai’s eyes dimmed. Wasn’t he also missing home and his students? His class representative was so diligent he had finally figured out a tricky problem for the top student but hadn’t taught it to her yet. And he hadn’t even prepared study plans for the stragglers in his class…

Everything had happened so suddenly…

Ji Huai sighed wistfully, his eyes slightly red. Standing a bit shorter than Lin Heyu, he couldn’t reach his head, so he patted his shoulder instead, his tone desolate: “I understand, I really do.”

Thus, Lin Heyu was also plunged into confusion. What did Ji Huai understand? He himself didn’t even know where these inexplicable emotions today had come from how could Ji Huai already understand?

Lin Heyu blinked his large eyes and asked sincerely: “Teacher, what do you understand?”

“Of the myriad emotions humans experience, none can escape the essence of ‘affection,'” Ji Huai explained his interpretation of “affection”: “The deeper the affection, the stronger the longing.”

Familial love, romantic love, friendship, and the bond between teacher and student all these emotions, in their various forms, are what bind a person throughout their life.

Poor Lin Heyu was half-illiterate and couldn’t quite grasp the extended meaning in Ji Huai’s words. He only understood the parts he could and stubbornly believed that this was exactly what Ji Huai meant.

Affection

So it was “affection.” Lin Heyu smacked his palm, recalling how his father and mother had come together because of mutual affection. Could this “affection” possibly be…

“Ah ” Lin Heyu let out a strange cry, his face flushing instantly. He widened his eyes, looking utterly flustered.

Did I develop ‘feelings’ for this sharp-tongued but soft-hearted Teacher? And Ji Huai saw right through it? Not only did he acknowledge it, but he didn’t even oppose it?

Lin Heyu suddenly felt enlightened. He tugged at Ji Huai’s sleeve, a rare blush spreading across his sun-tanned skin, and asked in a low voice, “Ji Huai, you don’t object?”

“Hmm?” Ji Huai sounded puzzled and countered, “Object to what? Why should anyone object to such feelings? It’s perfectly normal. Don’t be shy just express it openly.”

Ji Huai looked at Lin Heyu with a teasing glint in his eyes, as if he had discovered another side of him: whenever Lin Heyu missed home, he’d become awkward and hesitant, blushing with embarrassment.

Ah, after all, he’s still just a kid. No matter how tall he grows, he turns bashful the moment he starts missing home.

Ji Huai thought this sincerely.