"My grandmother died three years ago. My grandfather passed away long ago. I've never met him."

  "Ah." Fang Siying gazed thoughtfully at Bai Tingting as she left. She sat back deeply in her chair, still lost in thought, staring at the door where Bai Tingting had disappeared. She was holding a pencil in her hand and unconsciously chewing on the eraser, making a rge dent in it. It wasn't until another female teacher walked by that her thoughts were interrupted.

  "I saw you asking Bai Tingting some questions. Does this child have problems?" The female teacher asked with a smile.

  "Oh," Fang Siying looked up. It was Li Yusheng, the teacher for the fifth-grade Chinese css, a kind and young teacher who had been teaching at Zhengxin for three years. In addition to teaching Chinese, she also served as the homeroom teacher for Bai Tingting's css. "It's nothing," Fang Siying said. "Her math grades aren't good, so I wanted to talk to her. She's a very special child."

  "Yes, very special!" Li Yusheng said, pulling up a chair and sitting down across from Fang Siying. "If you see her essays, you wouldn't believe they're written by an eleven-year-old child."

  "Really? She's a good writer."

  "Extremely good! Her imagination is astonishing!" Li Yusheng shook her head and sighed. "Children with such special talents are the most troublesome. She's always been a problem child for our school. Every year, we have meetings to discuss whether she should be promoted or not. Her math is always terrible, but her Chinese is astonishingly good! But don't let that child fool you. She's a little trickster!"

  "Trick me?" Fang Siying asked, confused. "What do you mean? Does she lie?"

  "Lie?!" Li Yusheng ughed exaggeratedly. "She's a master at lying! You'll slowly find out."

  "How so?" Fang Siying furrowed her brows, still puzzled.

  Li Yusheng leaned in a little closer.

  "You're a new teacher, so you probably don't know her family's story," Li Yusheng said, wearing a mysterious expression. Since the dawn of humanity, women have had an instinct to spread stories.

  "Story?" Fang Siying furrowed her brows even more. "What story?" She stared deeply at Li Yusheng, but the image of the blind man surfaced in her mind.

  "Bai Tingting's father is Bai Peiwen. Do you know him?"

  Fang Siying shook her head.

  "Ah, you really don't know anything, do you?" Li Yusheng said. "Bai Peiwen's wealth is well-known around here. Have you seen those tea pntations outside the school? They're all Bai's! And that's not all. He also has a huge tea-processing factory in Taipei. People around here say that no one can even estimate Bai Peiwen's wealth. He's so rich, he could afford to burn down a big house!"

  "What?" Fang Siying was startled. "You mean burn down a house? Who set the fire?"

  "Did you notice that burned house? It's called Hanyan Vil."

  "Yes."

  "That house used to belong to the Bai family as well. It's said that Ba′ Pei Wen set the fire himself and burned it down!"

  "Bai Peiwen himself?" Fang Siying's brows were tightly knitted. "Why?"

  "Some say it was because the house was haunted, and others say it was because the house reminded Bai Peiwen of his deceased wife, so he decided to burn it down. But after he burned it, he regretted it. Now, he often goes to the ruins, hoping to bring his wife's ghost back.”

  "His wife?" Fang Siying's eyes widened. "You mean his wife is already dead?"

  "His first wife, who was also Bai Tingting's biological mother. This wife is his second marriage."

  "Oh." Fang Siying swallowed hard, her gaze vacant as she stared at Bai Tingting's exercise book on the desk.

  "It′s said that Bai Tingting is not Bai Peiwen′s daughter," Li Yusheng continued, as if intentionally revealing bits of the story to gradually heighten the listener's surprise.

  “What?” Sure enough, Fang Siying quickly raised her head, her mouth hanging open in surprise. “What did you say?”

  “It's like this,” Li Yusheng continued, her tone dropping to a whisper. “I heard that Bai Peiwen's first wife was a very beautiful and shy little thing, but she didn’t come from a good family. She was actually a female worker in Bai Peiwen's factory in Taipei. However, Bai Peiwen fell madly in love with her, ignoring his family's objections and marrying her. Two years ter, they had Bai Tingting, but an accident occurred. Apparently, Bai Peiwen found out that his wife had an affair with one of his subordinates who managed the tea garden. In a fit of rage, he kicked her out of the house.”

  “Who would have thought that his wife threw herself into the river that very night? As for the man who managed the tea garden, Bai Peiwen also drove him away. So, everyone says that Bai Tingting is the daughter of the tea garden manager, not Bai Peiwen's.”

  “Oh!” Fang Siying said with difficulty, “But…”

  She remembered how simir Bai Tingting looked to her father.

  “That’s exactly why,” Li Yusheng continued, unaware of Fang Siying's confusion.

  “Bai Tingting never had her father′s favor. After her stepmother came along, life became even harder for Bai Tingting. Not to mention, Bai Peiwen became blind…”

  “He's been blind for many years?”

  “For at least six or seven years.”

  “How did he go blind?”

  “Not quite sure,” Li Yusheng shook her head. “I heard it happened during the fire, but this is a family full of legends. Any story could be true; who knows how he went blind?”

  “Didn’t the stepmother like Bai Tingting?”

  Li Yusheng smiled subtly.

  “Bai Tingting must have told you that her mother loves her very much, right?” she said. “I won’t say much more. If you′re really interested in this child, you′ll uncover many stories. You′re studying education, researching child psychology, and she’s the perfect subject for research. You should try to get closer to her. Then, Believe,” she smiled slightly, looking at Fang Siying. Everyone at the school knew that Fang Siying came to teach at Zhengxin because she had an “interest” in children, unlike the other teachers who were just here for “work.”

  “She will surprise you greatly! You should give it a try!”

  Li Yusheng stood up, gnced out the window, and noticed that the sun had already set, with twilight spilling in through the window. The other teachers had already left, and the staff room was empty.

  "Oh," she suddenly realized, "we've been talking so long; I really must go now." She quickly grabbed her handbag and said, "Goodbye."

  "Goodbye!" Fang Siying watched her leave. Then, she remained seated, silently staring out the window at the darkening twilight, lost in thought for a long time.