Chapter 14: The Female Academic Star

On stage, after Bai Yao finished singing "So What," she did a cover of Cascada's "Fever." Their newly formed band seemed to lack original songs and mainly performed covers. This version of "Fever" had been rearranged, infusing ferocious metal elements into the electronic base, and with Bai Yao's wild, smoky voice, the live effect was electrifying.

From the very first line that Bai Yao belted out, the audience was swept up by an overwhelming aura of wild, uninhibited release:

"I am not a beauty queen!
I don’t ride in priceless limousines!
I’m just a girl—but don’t call me ‘baby’!
I don’t lose myself in a haze of luxury!
But call me ‘crazy’ all you want—because I don’t care about a thing!
Don’t stop—I want to give it my all!
Look at me, you filthy men, I’ll make the world revolve around me!
Shh, let’s quiet down, and then run with me into the seductive night! Let’s taste what it means to be alive! ..."

Completely different from her repressed, studious image at school, at night Bai Yao seemed determined to burn away every ounce of passion buried in her bones.

Watching Bai Yao’s neck veins bulge and hearing her hoarse, desperate shouts, Huang Guolun’s worldview was nearly turned upside down. He couldn’t imagine that Bai Yao at night could be like this! From the standpoint of a traditional Chinese teacher, a straight-A student by day, transformed into a wild spirit at night—such behavior was truly both shocking and disheartening.

Yet, in his heart, Huang Guolun couldn’t help but admire her: she sang with real power!

He glanced at his watch—it was nearly half past nine. He still had to take Zhao Jing home. After sitting in the bar for a while longer, he decided not to waste any more time. He’d return after dropping Zhao Jing off; if he happened to catch Bai Yao, he wanted to have a good talk with her.

With that thought, he left the Ship Bar, heading to Di’anmen Street to pick up his car. Along the way, he paid no attention to the bursts of music spilling from the other bars. His mind remained caught up in the subversive image of Bai Yao, his emotions unable to settle.

He’d taught at Experimental Middle School for five years, with two or three thousand students passing through his classes, yet very few had left a deep impression on him. Bai Yao was definitely one of them.

Bai Yao was something of a legend at Experimental Middle School—every teacher remembered her vividly. She’d been a top student since junior high, later exempted from entrance exams and directly admitted into the high school division, always ranking among the very best. But what made her truly memorable to teachers wasn’t just her consistent excellence; it was her distinctive, unconventional personality that had stood out since junior high.

Five years ago, when Huang Guolun first started at Experimental Middle School, he taught in the junior section. His first class included Bai Yao, then just starting seventh grade. Back then, her voice hadn’t fully deepened, but it was already tending toward a raspy, smoky timbre. Yet what impressed Huang Guolun most wasn’t her voice, but her signature close-cropped hair.

While all the other girls in her class wore their hair at normal lengths, Bai Yao alone sported a buzz cut even shorter than the boys’, making her stand out immediately. Had she not developed early and possessed a certain delicate charm, people might easily have mistaken her for a boy.

Huang Guolun had always wondered why this girl wore her hair so short. Only after asking around with other teachers did he learn the story—

When Bai Yao first entered junior high, she too had worn her hair at a regular length. Then, a few basketball-loving boys in her class made a bet: whoever dared to show up at school with hair dyed bright red like Hanamichi Sakuragi from the manga would get a hundred yuan from each of them.

Hearing this, Bai Yao approached the boys and declared she was up for the challenge. The boys didn’t believe her, so they took her up on the bet. That very afternoon, Bai Yao left school, cut her hair into a buzz and dyed it the exact shade of Sakuragi’s red.

When she returned to school with a fiery head that afternoon, she shocked everyone—students and teachers alike! In a school as strict as Experimental Middle School, never in its history had a junior high student so brazenly challenged school rules with such an outrageous hair color—let alone a girl!

Unsurprisingly, that same afternoon, the dean’s office called her out, gave her a warning, and ordered her to dye her hair back immediately. Bai Yao wasn't bothered by the warning; before leaving, she simply reminded the boys who’d bet with her not to forget her money the next day.

From then on, Bai Yao became a legendary figure at the school. She later dyed her hair black again, but perhaps out of stubbornness toward the school or with someone else, she kept her hair short ever since—always wearing a buzz cut, never growing it out.

When asked by classmates, she’d say she kept it short to save money—whenever it grew out, she’d just have her grandfather shave it close with clippers, saving her both heat and hassle, and, most importantly, the cost of a barber.

Some teachers once insisted she grow her hair out like other girls, but Bai Yao flatly refused. She’d challenge them back: “Why can boys wear buzz cuts, but girls can’t?”

The teachers would answer: “Because boys and girls are different! Boys can go shirtless—can you?”

Without a word, Bai Yao would begin to strip in the office, determined to prove with her actions that she could, and would, do the same. She frightened the teachers so much that from then on, no one ever argued with her about her hair again.

Such an unyielding student only made it into Experimental High’s senior section without exams for one reason: her academic brilliance. Throughout three years of junior high, Bai Yao topped every exam, scoring almost full marks in every subject, always leaving the runner-up far behind.

With a student so outstanding, teachers were bound to turn a blind eye to matters of little consequence. Apart from the hair incident, Bai Yao never received another disciplinary warning through junior high, so the school decided to make an exception and grant her direct admission to high school. Had they not, she would have been snatched up by the prestigious Fourth High—admitting a talent like her was almost a guarantee of sending a student to Tsinghua or Peking University, maybe even producing a future top scorer on the national exam.

Still, in high school, Bai Yao’s grades slipped a little—she was no longer the unrivaled champion she’d been in junior high.

In junior high, she was always the top scorer; in high school, she rarely took first place, but she never fell out of the top ten—a bona fide academic star. He still remembered a joke from the previous semester: when their math papers were handed out, Bai Yao scored 140. Her deskmate, impressed, asked how one could get 140 in math. Bai Yao pondered seriously and replied, “Just skip two fill-in-the-blank questions.” Her deskmate was so devastated that, to this day, it still stings.

Tonight, seeing Bai Yao singing in a bar, Huang Guolun couldn’t help but wonder: was Bai Yao’s slight decline in grades a result of her newfound nightlife? Though, as a top student, a few lost places wouldn’t jeopardize her college prospects—she’d still get into Tsinghua or Peking with ease. But the real worry was whether her grades would continue to slip under the strain of late nights, eventually spiraling out of control. That would be a tragedy.

As far as Huang Guolun knew, Bai Yao’s family was struggling. Her parents died when she was very young, and she was raised by her grandfather, who had been labeled a “black class” in his youth, persecuted, never holding a proper job, surviving on welfare. One could imagine how difficult things were at home.

Back in seventh grade, Bai Yao had taken the hair-dyeing bet not for fun, but to win a few hundred yuan to buy a few more warm meals for herself and her grandfather. Was she now singing at night for the same reason—to make ends meet?

If Bai Yao had no choice but to sing at night for money, then Huang Guolun felt he ought to help this remarkable student, to keep these distractions from affecting her studies. Even if she’d chosen this life for other reasons, he still wanted to talk to her. After all, he was her teacher—and he owed his new outlook on life to that lunchbox of hers. Now that Bai Yao was in trouble, he couldn’t just ignore it.

Even if Bai Yao found him meddlesome, he had to get to the bottom of things.

Troubled, he returned to Salome Café, almost ten o’clock by then. He’d been gone for nearly an hour. Wang Peng and Jiang Lili had long since paid and left. Only Zhao Jing remained, staring out the window in boredom, waiting for Huang Guolun to return.

The bell over the door jingled as Huang Guolun finally stepped inside. Zhao Jing put on her snowy white coat, wrapped a bright red scarf around her neck, and stormed over, demanding, “Did you park in Di’anmen or all the way in Tongzhou? What took you so long to get the car?”

Huang Guolun didn’t argue with the spoiled girl, deflecting her questions with a few casual words. Then he helped her check that everything in the café was turned off before they locked up and left.

They got in the car and headed toward Pearl River Imperial View.

Listening to late-night radio and breathing in the faint fragrance of his car, Zhao Jing’s earlier weariness and irritation faded away. Eagerly, she began chatting with Huang Guolun, “Mr. Huang, you were amazing tonight. I think my sister might have a bit of a crush on you. What do you think of her? Is there a chance you two could take things further? If there is, I could play matchmaker for you both.”