Chapter 535 — A Familiar Campus

Yang Ce found a waiter, paid the bill, and then left the drink shop with Su Ya, heading in the direction of Red Flag Middle School. By then, classes at Red Flag Middle School had already let out, and the students were pouring out of the campus gates.

Yang Ce and Su Ya stood hand in hand at the school gate, gazing at those young, tender faces, and thought of the way they themselves had once been.

"Time flies so fast... In the blink of an eye, we've both grown up!" Su Ya said with a touch of emotion. "Back then, did the two of us count as having a puppy love?"

"I don't know. If it hadn't been for Wu Chiren, we'd probably have been nothing more than fairly good classmates, wouldn't we? But the moment he showed up, it actually made us realize how we felt about each other..." Yang Ce said.

"So does that mean we should thank him?" Su Ya asked with a smile.

"Not exactly. If it hadn't been for him, there wouldn't have been all that trouble afterward either..." Yang Ce shook his head. "Forget it, let's not talk about him. Let's go inside the school and have a look."

Yang Ce took Su Ya's hand, and together they entered the school, weaving among the students coming and going. Many of them were drawn to this handsome man and beautiful woman, Yang Ce and Su Ya. It had to be said that nowadays kids' minds, influenced by the increasingly bold plots in those TV dramas, had matured well ahead of their years.

"Wow, who are those two? How come I've never seen them before?"

"Could they be new teachers? The guy's so handsome, he's got such style!"

"Come on, what kind of taste is that? You're such a lovesick fool! Sunny guys like me are what's popular now. Personally, I think that woman is gorgeous!"

The students gossiped among themselves, but Yang Ce just laughed it off.

The two of them walked on as if no one else was there, over to the flowerbed by the edge of the sports field, and sat down. On the whole field, this flowerbed was the only thing that was the same as before; nothing else could be found that matched the way it used to be.

"Do you remember how we used to sit here often on summer afternoons?" Yang Ce looked up at the students, still sparse on the field, and asked with a trace of leisure.

"Of course I remember. You told me that one day you'd take me traveling around the world. You still haven't made good on that promise!" Su Ya said, the corners of her mouth curved in a smile as she looked at the sky.

"I will. Once I'm back from this mission, I'll take you—just you and no one else." Yang Ce nodded and said with solemn earnestness.

"Just me and no one else? Forget it, I don't want to get scolded by Chen Shutang! And besides, there's Jiajia and Sister Lin too. If we're going, we all go together, or we don't go at all!" Su Ya said.

"Going together is what I'd hoped for too. I'm just afraid it might make you unhappy." Deep down, Yang Ce naturally hoped for that outcome as well—after all, if he only took Su Ya out, what would Chen Shutang think?

Just then, a middle-aged woman wearing glasses happened to pass by. Seeing Yang Ce and Su Ya, she visibly froze—and at that moment, Yang Ce froze as well! This woman was very familiar; he felt as though he had seen her somewhere before. Thinking of how they were right there on campus, Yang Ce immediately realized who she was: Ms. Wang, his former subject teacher. Ms. Wang had taught music. In those days, Su Ya had sung beautifully, so Ms. Wang had always been especially kind to her. She had known about the relationship between Yang Ce and Su Ya too, but she had never made an issue of it. All in all, she was a pretty good teacher!

Su Ya was somewhat surprised as well; she recognized Ms. Wang too.

"Ms. Wang!" Su Ya and Yang Ce rose together from the flowerbed and looked at the middle-aged woman.

Ms. Wang had been on her way to the cafeteria and was passing through when she saw Yang Ce and Su Ya. The two of them clearly did not look like students, so she had assumed they were outsiders and taken a closer look—but she never expected the two of them to look so familiar.

"You are...?" Ms. Wang clearly no longer had much of an impression of Su Ya and Yang Ce. After all, both of them had changed; they had matured a great deal from the childish looks they once had.

"Ms. Wang, I'm Yang Ce, and this is my girlfriend, Su Ya." Yang Ce said. "We were both your students. Do you remember?"

"Ah! Yang Ce, Su Ya!" Hearing those two names, Ms. Wang instantly recalled who they were! Weren't they the ones from that puppy-love incident that had caused such an uproar at school back then? At the time, Ms. Wang had felt some regret about it. She had even gone to see Wu Chiren about it, but as a subject teacher she naturally had no authority like a homeroom teacher's. Her pleading on behalf of Su Ya and Yang Ce had come to nothing: Yang Ce had still been given a demerit and criticized, while Su Ya had transferred away...

Actually, by today's standards, Yang Ce and Su Ya's case did not amount to much. With the progress of the times, people's thinking had opened up a great deal. Many students nowadays showed signs of puppy love too, but as long as it was properly guided, did not affect their studies, and did not lead them to do anything foolish, then teachers could hardly interfere too much.

"Heh heh, Ms. Wang, we were just revisiting our old haunt, reminiscing about the past," Yang Ce said.

"I remember you two now. I never imagined you'd end up together after all. I'm truly happy for you!" Ms. Wang said from the bottom of her heart.

"Yes. I remember how kind Ms. Wang was to Su Ya and me back then," Yang Ce said.

"I remember. Su Ya was such a good little singer. If she'd developed it, she really had the potential to be a star—especially judging by how she looks now. She's every bit as good as those top-tier celebrities!" Ms. Wang said with a touch of regret.

"Heh heh, actually I do work in a music-related field," Su Ya said vaguely, unable to state her identity outright.

"Well, you two carry on. I need to get to the cafeteria. Oh, by the way, your homeroom teacher, Wu Chiren, went to prison..." As Ms. Wang said this, she could not help shaking her head. Truly, evil brings its own retribution. If Wu Chiren hadn't been so obstinate and done all those wicked things back then, he would never have come to such an end!

Wu Chiren's persecution of Yang Ce and Su Ya had been only one of his misdeeds; Ms. Wang had heard quite a few others as well.

"We know," Yang Ce nodded. "Take care, Ms. Wang."

After seeing Ms. Wang off, Yang Ce and Su Ya walked out of the campus together, got into the car at the gate, and drove off in the direction of the seaside.

The weather in early spring was still quite cold at this hour.

There was hardly anyone at the seaside at this moment, only a few couples who happened to pass by. The sea wind was as biting as ever, and the two of them could not help shivering as soon as they got out of the car.

"It's so cold!" Su Ya said instinctively.

"Yeah. Here, put this on?" Yang Ce took off his own coat, turned, and draped it over Su Ya's shoulders.

"You don't have to, do you? You're not wearing much yourself—don't catch a cold," Su Ya said, shaking her head, wanting to refuse.