When Gao Yi misses his students, his students are also missing him.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, it is the free time for Chinese and Western female mature students. The school building for girls is roughly copied from the current popular design of private schools for girls in the United States, with one room for every 2 or 3 people. Each floor is also equipped with two large living rooms, and the students in each room take turns to be responsible for the decoration and cleaning, which not only cultivates the taste of the students, but also allows these young ladies who have always been industrious to deal with some daily chores, so that they can learn how to be the hostess of the living room, how to make themselves decent and funny, know how to take care of every guest in the living room, how to keep the living room good, so as to further become excellent hostesses of salons and evenings.

The living room furnishings were moved from their homes by the students and placed by hand. The living room of the 10th grade is a combination of Chinese and Western, with two sets of sofas of different materials and styles, arranged at opposite ends of the room. One group is a rattan sofa, consisting of a three-seater sofa with cloth cushions, three rattan chairs and a small round table; The other group is a Western-style spring sofa, which is a rare item in Shanghai at this time, even if it is rare in the homes of foreigners. In fact, most of the furniture of foreigners is purchased locally, just like Chinese, and is basically made of wood or made of bamboo and rattan. If you want to have a piece of furniture with springs, you have to ship it directly from Europe and the United States, so the consulates of some countries recommend that people who are coming to China bring a strong iron bed and a spring mattress.

The entrance to the living room is a black oak dining table topped with a quilted lace tablecloth woven by the girls, a tea set with a tea stove and tray, and a crystal vase with flowers next to it. By the window is a Western-style bookcase with a glass door, and in addition to books and photo albums, there is a lone yellow painted vase. At the foot of the wall opposite the bookcase is a row of low Chinese cabinets, on which rests a marble Venus, a marble fairy, and a pipa.

A Western table clock with a bronze base and a crystal cover is placed separately on an agate-inlaid incense table, next to which hangs a copper engraving, a small oil painting, and two painted Chinese hanging plates. On the opposite wall is a slightly larger engraving, a proverb engraved on a copper plate, and a large mirror with a gold border, while a long strip of ink painting hangs behind a three-seater sofa.

Most of the girls sit around two sets of sofas, with small baskets on the coffee table in front of them. Although students can bring candy and biscuits to school, they must be placed in a unified basket with their names and handed over to the school for unified supervision. Only at 4 p.m. each day at tea time, students can receive their own snack basket to the living room, but it is absolutely forbidden to take it back to the dormitory, and it must be returned as soon as the tea time is over. Therefore, every afternoon tea is the happiest time for girls, everyone can have a tea conversation and relax.

But today, everyone's mind is obviously not on the small snack in front of them, they have just eaten all kinds of hand-made sugars in the experimental class, and the center of the conversation seems to be inseparable from the new chemistry teacher.

"The English he speaks is so beautiful, is that an authentic Oxford accent?"

"Isn't he Scottish? I guess it's a Scottish accent. ”

"I don't think so, can a Scottish accent sound so good? Isn't that a country place? ”

"We're talking about country accents, the American South countryside." It was a girl with high cheekbones who spoke, thin and thin, but full of energy, and she emphasized the words of the southern countryside, as if she had always been resentful of it, "Whether he speaks with an Oxford accent or a Scottish accent, I think it sounds good, and the depth of pronunciation is not forward or backward, oh, it comes from this position." As she spoke, she pinched her thumb and forefinger on her chin, just below her wisdom teeth.

"Well, I think it sounds good, have you noticed that when the next word starts with a vowel and the first word ends with a non-high vowel, he adds an "r" sound between the two words that doesn't exist. For example, when he says "the idea for it", he says "idea for", but when he says "the idea of it", he says "the idear of it". It was Song Ailin who spoke, she took a heavy copy of "British History" in her hand and read it intently without raising her head, as if she only casually heard their conversation before talking casually.

"Alas, he is so good-looking, why did he want to be a gentleman?" Zhu Jinfeng interjected, and as soon as she opened her mouth, the topic was immediately distorted.

"Hey, it's not very good to be a gentleman, teaching and educating people, and I heard that the salary in the United States is very high."

"She, I'm afraid that thinking that people are princes and generals can drive pumpkin carriages and take crystal slippers to pick her up, the identity of Mr. is naturally not enough." The girl with high cheekbones scoffed.

"Isn't it a rat that drives the pumpkin carriage?" Someone suddenly laughed.

So everyone laughed, even Song Ailin closed the book in his hand and said with a smile: "Lou Qiaoyun, you don't have a good memory, everyone knows, but why did you even forget this, and I'm afraid it's not appropriate to use Cinderella to beat Zhu Jinfeng." ”

Lou Qiaoyun said disapprerovingly: "I'm just talking casually, everyone knows what it means, why bother so much?" ”

"But could this gentleman have a backer behind him?" She continued, "Our school has never had a male teacher except for Old Man Xu, and it is not easy to be the first male teacher to come in, especially since he is so young and looks not a few years older than us,"

"I'm going to ask Erin, she's the most well-informed of all of us." Someone interjected.

"By the way, Song Ailin, tell me, does he have any backers? You're Mascot, so you know the inside scoop. Lou Qiaoyun turned his head to Song Ailin and said.

Song Ailin entered the women's mature school at the age of five, and Lian Jisheng was personally responsible for the initial education. Lian Jisheng's evaluation of her is the school's "god of good fortune".

"What can I do the inside scoop, isn't it the same as you?" Song Ailin reopened the book and replied lightly. But after a little interval of a second or two, she couldn't help but gossip: "Let's not talk about this gentleman's life experience, I heard that his father just passed away, and he was buried in the righteous grave of ocean sailors on the other side of the Huangpu River, and he himself still owes a lot of debt, but fortunately he can pay off it thanks to this job." ”

"Oh......" The girls collectively sighed, revealing a faint sense of amazement.

"Well, what does it have to do with us whether it is a prince or a beggar? We all have to rely on the words of the matchmaker. Zhu Jinfeng opened her mouth again and said, she usually talks the most, but today she is unusually silent, and even seems to be lacking in interest in raising the bar with her old opponent Lou Qiaoyun. But," she turned her head to Song Ailin, "Ailin, you should be free, what do you think, does this gentleman meet your 'black lacquer bench' requirements?" ”

The word "black lacquer bench" in Shanghainese is very similar to the English pronunciation of "husband", so the female students use "black lacquer bench" instead of husband.

"No matter how good the paint of the bench is, it is only a bench." Song Ailin did not hesitate at all, and shook his head.

"So what do you want? A sofa? Lou Qiaoyun interjected, and she laughed to herself.

"I don't want a sofa anymore, at least I have to make a sofa cover for this sofa, and I need to match it with cushions...... It's too extravagant, I can't afford it. Song Ailin continued to shake his head.

"And what exactly do you want?" Everyone asked her almost in unison.

If it were normal, Song Ailin would definitely not answer this kind of question, but I don't know what's wrong today, her eyes lit up, and she almost blurted out: "Either I won't get married, or if I want to marry, I will marry a big hero, a real big hero who can relieve the people from hanging upside down." After that, she immediately realized that she had talked too much, so she hurriedly said in the direction of the mirror: "Why don't you ask the eldest lady, she should also be free." ”

"Ha," Lou Qiaoyun laughed, "Our eldest lady is asking the magic mirror again, the magic mirror, who is the most beautiful in the magic mirror?" ”

Daisy stood in front of the mirror and stroked her hair, although she did not participate in the conversation, but she heard all the conversation, she also laughed together when everyone laughed together just now, and she also asked together when she asked together, at this time she heard someone turn the topic to her, so she said: "The color of my hair seems to be a little lighter, it is difficult to look dead, and it is the most beautiful, I asked who is the ugliest." ”

When she was a child, her hair was still black, only the color of her eyes was different from that of other children, but she didn't expect that as she got older, the color of her hair became lighter and lighter. Why is it that the hair and eyes of others are completely black? She couldn't help but think of the person she met today, if only her hair and eyes were all black like him, so that there wouldn't be so much estrangement from the people around her.

Although she has not lacked friends since she was a child, she can always keenly feel the difference in the eyes of others, just like among the six people in this room, who really likes her? Zhu Jinfeng should be counted as one, among the others, no matter how affectionate their attitude towards her is, she feels that Lou Qiaoyun is more worthy of being closer.

As for the one who is most estranged from her in her heart, it is undoubtedly Song Ailin, who often shushes her and asks for warmth. But with such people, she has already learned how to get along. Since she was very young, she found that there were always people who were sour about her, a rich girl, on the surface and behind her back. Fortunately, Song Ailin is not like this, according to her secret observations, Song Ailin actually has an attitude towards all of them, only superficial enthusiasm, so she can only think that the other party is like this.