SATURATION CHAPTER 6

Chapter 6: The cut

Translator: Abo Dammen

Sui Cannong's heart skipped a beat.

Wait, what did he mean by "probably won't need it in the future"? How could someone say something like that? Sui Cannong felt the temperature in his hands and feet drop suddenly. He couldn't make sense of the logic behind those words at all.

How could it be that he "won't need it in the future"? Was it because he truly didn’t need it, or because... he felt like he wouldn’t even have a future?

Perhaps because Sui Cannong had been silent for too long, Ji Ling on the other end of the screen seemed a bit confused. He hesitantly called out, "Teacher Sui?"

Sui Cannong responded nervously.

He knew he couldn’t delay any longer, so he clicked the confirm button to accept the ore and hoarsely said, "Thank you."

Ji Ling simply replied, "You're welcome."

After seeing Sui Cannong accept the ore, Ji Ling seemed much more at ease.

He didn’t say much else, just continued to quietly chop trees in Sui Cannong’s virtual home with his butterfly character, as if he had no intention of explaining his earlier words further.

The ore in Sui Cannong’s inventory felt like a mountain of explosives about to ignite. He was on edge.

"Teacher Ji, you’re making me feel a bit awkward," Sui Cannong carefully chose his words. "Do you have any troubles in real life? Or... is there anything I can help you with?"

Sui Cannong noticed Ji Ling’s character paused for a moment while chopping.

But Ji Ling’s response was the same as last time. "No, not really."

This time, Sui Cannong found it hard to believe.

However, he also realized that if he pressed further, his intentions might become too obvious.

So, after a moment of thought, Sui Cannong added, "Actually... everyone has some worries. For example, I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress lately."

Sui Cannong noticed Ji Ling’s character slowed down its chopping. Ji Ling asked, "What’s wrong?"

"Well... I haven’t finalized the science fair topics for three of my classes," Sui Cannong sighed. "The tenth graders are the most troublesome. They insist on doing a project related to hatching eggs, but they don’t want to use chicken eggs. They spent an entire class studying Sui Handsome, trying to figure out how to make it lay eggs."

"The problem is, Sui Handsome is male, and he’s the only one I have. But I can’t just tell them they can’t do this project," Sui Cannong paused, then added belatedly, "Oh, by the way, Sui Handsome is my—"

"Turtle," Ji Ling’s voice came through the phone. "You mentioned it to me before."

Sui Cannong was momentarily stunned. He then remembered that he had indeed mentioned it during their coffee shop meeting, but he hadn’t expected Ji Ling to actually remember.

"I understand," Ji Ling said. "The kids don’t think about the feasibility of their projects first, but we can’t just outright dismiss their ideas."

This really struck a chord with Sui Cannong.

Perhaps because he rarely encountered such a good listener, Sui Cannong found himself getting more and more emotional as he spoke.

"Also, tomorrow, I have to combine two of my classes with Robert’s for an experiment," Sui Cannong continued. "But Robert suddenly has to go for a medical check-up tomorrow, so I’ll be alone with 40 kids. There are even a few in his class whose names I don’t know."

"It’s not that I’m afraid of the trouble, but I’m worried I won’t be able to keep an eye on everyone," Sui Cannong said.

He started chopping at the oak tree in front of him and added, "I usually struggle with just one class during experiments. If some kids mess up tomorrow, such a great opportunity would be wasted..."

Ji Ling was quiet for a moment, then asked, "Can’t it be postponed?"

"It could be, but if we postpone, it’ll have to be pushed to next week," Sui Cannong sighed. "They’ve been asking me for a week when we can do the experiment. The kids have been looking forward to it for days, and they’ve been coming to my classroom every day to water the plants and feed the fish."

After saying all this, Sui Cannong felt a bit embarrassed.

His original intention was to use himself as an example to coax Ji Ling into opening up, but somehow, he ended up venting his own frustrations instead.

"Ah, it’s really nothing serious," Sui Cannong said awkwardly. "So, what about you? Do you—"

"Teacher Sui," Ji Ling suddenly interrupted him.

Sui Cannong was taken aback but quickly responded.

He noticed Ji Ling’s character had stopped chopping and was now standing still.

"Actually, I don’t have any classes during the first period tomorrow morning," Ji Ling said.

Sui Cannong, "Mhm."

Ji Ling, "...Or the second period."

Sui Cannong, "Mhm."

But Ji Ling didn’t say anything more. After a pause, he softly echoed, "Mhm."

Sui Cannong suddenly realized. "...Huh?"

---

This was a bit like putting the cart before the horse, Sui Cannong thought.

Seeing Ji Ling standing at the door of the biology classroom, Sui Cannong felt a momentary daze. He wondered how he had ended up in this situation yesterday. Not only had he failed to get Ji Ling to open up, but he had also somehow roped him into helping out.

Ji Ling was staring at the plants on the windowsill, lost in thought.

He gave off a calm and quiet vibe. Sui Cannong felt that Ji Ling was like a slowly growing potted plant, only able to absorb a specific wavelength of light from the spectrum.

Sui Cannong called out, "Teacher Ji."

"Good morning," he said. "I’m really sorry for troubling you."

Ji Ling turned to look at him and shook his head. "It’s no trouble."

---

For students, lab classes were a playground, but for teachers, they were more like a living hell.

Sui Cannong organized the two classes of students into the lab next door and divided them into groups. The lab was noisy and chaotic. He turned around and saw Ji Ling, head down, adjusting his lab coat.

His hair was soft, and whether it was due to the white fabric or the indoor lighting, Sui Cannong noticed that the skin on the back of his neck looked particularly pale.

Sui Cannong snapped out of his thoughts and paused for a moment before calling for the students to quiet down.

The experiment was simple: using purple cabbage as a pH indicator to observe color changes. It was a basic science experiment.

Although the steps weren’t complicated, one part involved boiling the purple cabbage, which required an open flame and hot water. Sui Cannong couldn’t afford to be careless.

Sui Cannong pointed out a few boys to Ji Ling.

"These guys are the ones to watch out for—absolute nightmare material," Sui Cannong said. "They like to wander around, especially near the girls. I don’t know what they’re up to, but they’re usually the ones causing trouble. Could you keep an eye on them for me?"

Ji Ling nodded. "No problem."

Each of them took charge of half the classroom, and the overall efficiency improved significantly.

Ten minutes later, the boiled purple cabbage emitted a sweet, vegetal aroma, and most groups were well into the experiment.

Sui Cannong finally relaxed.

He smiled at Ji Ling and said, "You know, it actually smells pretty good."

Ji Ling looked at Sui Cannong’s face for a long time without speaking.

After a while, Sui Cannong noticed that Ji Ling seemed to stiffly turn his face away. After a moment of silence, Ji Ling said, "Mhm, it smells like hot pot."

That was an interesting comparison. Sui Cannong chuckled and agreed.

However, Sui Cannong’s predictions were never wrong.

Five minutes later, three boys stormed up to Sui Cannong, holding a handful of purple cabbage leaves, ready for their first round of negotiations: "Teacher Sui, this leaf is ruined. There’s a huge crack in it."

The blond boy leading the group complained indignantly, "And why did Lisa’s group get three big leaves while we got these small, wilted ones?"

Teenagers’ competitive spirits and desire to compare always manifested in the strangest ways. Sui Cannong felt a headache coming on.

Although the crack in the vegetable wouldn’t affect the experiment, Sui Cannong glanced at the leaves in the boy’s hand and noticed they did look a bit stale.

He remembered there was still half a head of purple cabbage left in the next classroom, in case other groups needed more later.

"Hold on," Sui Cannong said. "Focus on your own experiment. Start heating the water, and I’ll go get more purple cabbage."

Before leaving the lab, Sui Cannong saw Ji Ling walk over to a group of girls. He pointed to one girl’s loose hair, suggesting she tie it up.

With Ji Ling keeping an eye on things, Sui Cannong felt reassured and went to the next room to fetch the remaining purple cabbage.

Sui Cannong decided to pre-cut the cabbage into equal portions to avoid any more disputes over size.

Two minutes later, he heard a clear sound of something breaking from the lab next door.

Sui Cannong’s heart was as calm as still water.

He was used to it by now. He quickly turned around and headed back to the lab, feeling like a lotus flower serenely blooming on the surface of a lake.

During every lab class, at least one or two beakers or test tubes met their demise. It was an unavoidable fate. Normally, the students who caused the accidents would just laugh it off.

But when Sui Cannong returned to the lab with the cut cabbage, he found the atmosphere eerily quiet.

A sense of foreboding washed over him.

In the center of the lab, he saw a shattered beaker, water spilled everywhere, and a circle of students who looked utterly stunned.

Sui Cannong felt something was off and asked the person next to him, "What happened?"

"That beaker just exploded," a girl said, trembling. "It was Martin’s group. They forgot to use the wire gauze."

Sui Cannong looked up and saw that Ji Ling had been standing close to the exploded beaker.

Ji Ling was in a protective stance, shielding several girls behind him. It seemed that when the beaker shattered, he had immediately stepped in front of them.

"Teacher Ji, your hand..." another girl whispered.

Only then did Sui Cannong notice that, likely because he had been helping students earlier, Ji Ling’s sleeves were slightly rolled up.

His wrist was slender and delicate, but at that moment, a trail of bright red blood was winding down his forearm, dripping onto the white lab bench.

Ji Ling seemed momentarily stunned, but he didn’t say anything. He slowly turned his wrist and found a cut on his forearm.

Sui Cannong saw Ji Ling lower his eyes, staring blankly at the blood flowing from the wound.

Then Ji Ling looked up and saw Sui Cannong standing at the door.

For a moment, Sui Cannong thought he saw a flicker of panic in Ji Ling’s eyes.

—And then Sui Cannong noticed Ji Ling take a small step back, instinctively hiding his injured hand behind him.