Chapter 245: I Really Can't Tell the Difference

"Why are you all here?" Yang Qiming was a little dumbfounded.

The two girls from Lin Dong's group, Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe, sat together.

Beside them was Jiang Nian—wait, why was Jiang Nian here too?

"Hi." Jiang Nian raised a hand in greeting and said casually, "Why are you guys so late? We're already halfway through the meal. You didn't go to the wrong place, did you?"

Hearing this, Yang Qiming and Huang Cailang immediately tensed up.

Shut your mouth!

Do you want to ruin us?

"Ha, of course not, it's just—" Yang Qiming, extremely rarely, got stuck for words.

Even as a powerhouse, by now his brainpower should've been used up.

Seeing that Brother Yang's chakra was completely spent, Huang Cailang immediately set his clever little brain spinning.

"We got lost."

Got lost?

Chen Yunyun was baffled, thinking to herself that this place was only a kilometer straight ahead from the school.

The word "got lost" was really a bit niche—was this still Chinese?

The two of them sat down amid this strange atmosphere and suddenly asked.

"Did you all come together?"

Hearing this, Chen Yunyun felt a little guilty.

"Mm, because our parents were too lazy to come."

She blurred out a lot of information, but also accounted for part of it, directly including Jiang Nian in it.

Anyway, no one would guess that she had brought him in under some kind of identity.

Wang Yuhe said nothing, taking advantage of the moment when Yang Qiming and the others' greetings drew everyone's attention. She quietly turned the glass lazy Susan, happily eating the dishes.

Everyone won, except Old Liu.

After he used a hot towel to sober up, he had originally planned to return to the banquet and continue drinking freely with his friends.

But the moment he thought about being caught drunk by his own student just now, he immediately hesitated.

If he really did go to class in the afternoon reeking of alcohol, or found another teacher to swap classes with, it was foreseeable that his deeds would spread through the class.

That kind of thing! Absolutely not!

After thinking it over, he suddenly felt there was no need to drink the rest of the alcohol.

Before leaving, he planned to say goodbye to Jiang Nian, as a kind of witness.

Let the kid understand that he was a responsible people's teacher.

Drinking was the kind of thing one should stop at a taste—in fact, he was extremely self-disciplined.

Subtext: Don't go making up wild rumors after you get back.

So, he straightened up his appearance and once again recovered the dignified bearing of a people's teacher.

Yang Qiming had just drunk a glass of beer, turned his head, and saw the homeroom teacher. He was completely dumbfounded, wondering if he'd passed out or dropped dead—why was he seeing his life flash before his eyes?

Huang Cailang didn't dare move at all, his chopsticks frozen mid-air.

Chen Yunyun was even more stunned, as if she'd been caught in the act on the spot. And the other party was her homeroom teacher—she was completely frozen.

Wang Yuhe put down her chopsticks, lowered her head, and waited for things to pass. She stared fixedly at the dishes in her bowl—she still wanted to eat.

Old Liu was actually even more panicked.

He had just returned to the banquet, and in the blink of an eye.

One, two, three, four—plus Jiang Nian, five students sitting at one table.

Clearly, when he had just gone to the front desk to get the hot towel, there was only Jiang Nian alone.

How could it be that in the blink of an eye, a bunch of students had appeared at the table?

Old Liu was dumbfounded—he really was drunk.

Is the rice wine back home really this strong now?

Damn.

When they were egging him on to drink, it was all "homemade grain wine, barely any proof, drink up, no harm to the body."

One wipe with a hot towel, and now he's hallucinating.

Convinced.

How could this be "barely any proof"—there's no telling how many degrees this actually is.

"Is something wrong, Teacher?" Jiang Nian stood up and asked.

Old Liu swallowed hard, not daring to admit he'd drunk himself into hallucinating.

The other young people at this table were all eating, yet every one of his students had stopped moving.

Too bizarre—if it wasn't a hallucination, what was it?

If he let it slip in front of Jiang Nian, his lifetime of good reputation would be gone.

For other teachers, it might just be a funny anecdote.

He could even bring it up as an amusing story while chatting in the office, have a good laugh.

But he couldn't—he was too eager to get ahead.

"Jiang Nian, your teacher has class this afternoon." Old Liu was indeed a little unsteady on his feet, and he didn't look at those hallucinations. "I'll head back first, you take your time eating."

He deliberately only used the word "you," to show he wasn't drunk.

"Oh, oh, then let me walk you out, Teacher." Jiang Nian didn't notice anything off.

Maybe Old Liu just favored him?

The people at the table didn't feel anything was off, instinctively assuming this was favoritism.

Otherwise, why out of so many people present, would he only greet Jiang Nian alone?

A dignified homeroom teacher, and before leaving he still has to greet a student?

The world turned upside down.

But if that person was Old Liu, then it would make sense.

"No need, no need." Old Liu waved his hand and refused.

This time it wasn't "no need to say more," it was a genuine refusal.

God knew whether he'd see new hallucinations after stepping out the door; better walk back alone.

"Uh, alright then." Jiang Nian watched Old Liu leave.

After sitting down, half the table finally came alive, as if ice had thawed.

Huang Cailang used the serving chopsticks to pick up a piece of vegetable and put it in his bowl, exhaling a long breath.

"Scared me to death, why did the homeroom teacher come?"

Yang Qiming blinked, and a "WTF" slipped out.

"I thought I was hallucinating?"

"Off-campus, the homeroom teacher shouldn't care that much, right?" Chen Yunyun said this to herself; she felt today was truly one twist after another.

Wang Yuhe looked up, thinking for a moment.

"Yunyun, help me pick up some fish jerky, thanks." Jiang Nian didn't feel much, he hadn't really eaten his fill earlier, and said so with a shrug.

"Come on, let's keep eating."

The fish jerky from Zhennan was top-notch, fresh and juicy.

Jiang Nian's serving chopsticks clinked against Chen Yunyun's serving chopsticks—absolutely clean serving chopsticks.

The two scooted over, exchanged a glance, and couldn't help but smile.

Good thing they're grown up, otherwise with adults around they'd definitely get scolded.

Old Liu had just walked out of the big hotel when, looking back, he spotted two of his students again in the corridor.

Wu Jun Gu and Ceng You from Jiang Nian's group walked out together.

He couldn't help but shiver, his drunkenness becoming more obvious.

He thought to himself, it's over, the hallucinations are still going strong!

Thinking of this, Old Liu hurried forward without looking back.

Right now he didn't want to think about anything, only wanting to go back to the teacher apartment and lie down for a bit.

Hotel entrance.

Wu Jun Gu was inherently a refined type, a gentle gentleman.

He didn't love to eat and wasn't greedy; before all the dishes were even served, he was already full.

One sweet soup was left unserved, along with fruit and after-meal desserts. He didn't love them, could take them or leave them.

It so happened that Ceng You was a night-owl weakling, coming out for a meal.

One moment saying he was hearing Yang Qiming and Huang Cailang's voices, the next saying he bumped into the homeroom teacher.

Not long after eating, Ceng You also lost his appetite.

The two discussed it and decided to just withdraw.

Wu Jun Gu and Ceng You walked one after the other through the long corridor. Coming out from the screen wall at the entrance, they suddenly saw the midday sunlight.

Ceng You was acting weird, muttering nonstop.

"I really fucking am hallucinating, I really can't tell."

Wu Jun Gu was a bit speechless, but still turned around patiently to comfort his tablemate.

"Don't overthink it, maybe you just stayed up too much. It's also possible Yang Qiming and the others really came, who knows? After the lunch break you can just ask them, right?"

"No, bro, I really saw it." Ceng You had grievances he couldn't express.

Could it really be that Wu Jun Gu's crow mouth jinxed it, and staying up gave him hallucinations? If he just dropped dead, who'd inherit his two power banks?

Give them to Wu Jun Gu, but he doesn't want anything with a soul ring attached.

Tang San could even accept a hundred-thousand-year soul ring!

"Fine, fine, let's say you're right." Wu Jun Gu agreed with him.

"No, I wasn't—" Ceng You still wanted to argue, but his gaze suddenly tightened like a rope. "Over there! The homeroom teacher, it's really the homeroom teacher!"

Hearing this, Wu Jun Gu got a bit curious too.

"Where?"

He turned his head—broad daylight, the streets were deserted at both ends, yet there was no sign of the homeroom teacher.

His gaze turned to Ceng You, and his expression grew serious.

"Ceng You, did you really... really see it just now?"

Under the warm winter sun, Ceng You blinked, fatigue welling up. For a moment he wavered too, holding his head with a pained expression.

"I-I can't tell! I really can't tell."

Wedding banquet.

At the table, only Wang Yuhe and Huang Cailang were still battling.

Everyone had stopped, staring fixedly at the two eating.

Wang Yuhe ate slowly and delicately, essentially chewing carefully and being very picky.

Huang Cailang was like a whirlwind, fatty meat, lean meat, soft-shell turtle, lobster—meat or veg, nothing refused.

Jiang Nian leaned back in his chair playing with his phone, sipping tea leisurely.

Chen Yunyun was the same — except she was chatting with Jiang Nian on her phone.

Yang Qiming was sitting far away and didn't know they were chatting on QQ.

Seeing the table's atmosphere was a bit subdued, he assumed the two were just sitting awkwardly by themselves, playing on their phones.

"Ahem. Where are you two headed later?"

The school gate locked after the lunch break — around twelve forty-five to twelve fifty — and didn't open again until the afternoon.

Jiang Nian didn't answer right away, but looked at Chen Yunyun. Seeing she was thinking too, he said vaguely.

"Dunno. What about you guys?"

"Heh, an internet café wouldn't give us enough time anyway." Yang Qiming grinned, quite boldly. "You know the north gate? There's a spot on the wall over there you can climb over."

"You're going to climb the wall?" Chen Yunyun was stunned.

"Isn't there surveillance there?" Jiang Nian chimed in at just the right moment.

That immediately drew out Yang Qiming's urge to share. Seeing the few men and women in their twenties at the table also looking at him, his sense of satisfaction exploded.

"Nah, that spot's a dead zone — the cameras can't catch it."

After a pause, he kept sharing.

"Climb over from the wall, then drop down slowly. Just walk along the base of the wall for a bit, then dash across with your head down — the cameras won't even know where you came from."

"That wall's so high, isn't that way too dangerous?" Chen Yunyun said, astonished.

"It's not that high — you can get over it barehanded." Yang Qiming bragged a little, but it wasn't a big deal. "What about you guys, climbing in together?"

Hearing that, Chen Yunyun hurriedly waved her hands.

"Yuhe and I aren't really up for it — no strength."

Hearing that, Wang Yuhe, who had been eating, suddenly looked up and said with complete seriousness.

"I can do it!"

Yang Qiming froze awkwardly, ignored her outright, and turned to look at Jiang Nian.

"What about you, Jiang Nian? Climbing or not?"

"Nah." Jiang Nian smiled. "I've never climbed a wall before — probably couldn't make it over."