Yingcai jumped out of bed as soon as he heard that and soon found himself in the doorway to Ming Aifen's room. As soon as he looked in, he ducked out again. She was sitting bolt upright in bed, her chest uncovered.
"I'm so sorry to put you out, Teacher Zhang, but I couldn't think of what else to do," Principal Yu said.
Yingcai had no choice but to go back in. Ming Aifen was suffocating; she could breathe out through her nose but not in. Her face was as purple as an aubergine. Principal Yu said he thought there was something blocking her larynx; she had been known to swallow pieces of tile, stone and brick in the past.
Yingcai was shocked at how little this woman thought of her life to want death so badly. Then he thought about it from another perspective. Maybe she really did want to live. Anyone else in the same condition would have killed themselves long ago.
Principal Yu and Yingcai agreed that one of them should hold her while the other hit her back to try to get her to cough up whatever was causing the blockage. Ming Aifen was incontinent and, in all the confusion, nobody had wiped her clean for a long time. Ignoring this, Principal Yu told Yingcai to hit her back. Yingcai lifted his arm, aimed at Ming Aifen, closed his eyes and brought his hand down. Her neck seemed to lengthen; she spat out a small bottle with a retching noise. Yingcai recognised it as the bottle of painkillers he had given to Yu Zhi earlier that evening.
They left her room. Principal Yu dragged Yu Zhi out of the room where the boys slept and slapped him, rebuking him for having been so stupid as to give his mother the bottle. Principal Yu's tone was harsh, but his blow was not. After Yu Zhi apologised, Principal Yu took him back and said to the other boys who had been woken up, "There's nothing to worry about. Teacher Ming has been ill, that's all."
The two teachers stood in the moonlight talking for a while. Principal Yu explained to Yingcai that this sort of thing had happened before but he had never had to ask for anyone's help. Yingcai thought it was odd that he hadn't asked Sun Sihai to help. Principal Yu told him that Sun Sihai's door had been closed and so he thought it might have been a bad time. As soon as he said that, he stressed that Sun Sihai was one of those rare things, a good man. Yingcai told him to relax, that he would never breathe a word to anyone about Sun Sihai's private life. He asked what Deng Youmi was like. Principal Yu said that both Deng Youmi and Sun Sihai were good people, they just had very different personalities.
"I can see you really are a peacemaker," said Yingcai.
Principal Yu looked nervous. "Is that what Station-Head Wan says?"
Yingcai confessed that it was Deng Youmi who'd said it. Principal Yu seemed happy to hear that.
"I would have thought he'd have more to say about me than that."
Yingcai took the opportunity to ask, "Who gave Teacher Ming the Phoenix zither?"
"I'd like to know that too," Principal Yu sighed. "But she would rather die than tell me."
Yingcai didn't believe him. "The two of you have always lived here at school. How can you not know?"
"I used to be in the army, so in the early days before I came here, there was just her and your uncle."
Yingcai decided he was probably telling the truth. After they went their separate ways, he fetched the zither from the playground and brought it back to his room, only to discover that its strings had been cut.
