Dad’s class this morning lasts the whole morning, a total of two and a half hours.
After class, Sheng Tang and Dad went to the canteen.
After eating, the father and daughter walked around the school.
They also ran into Dad’s student—Senior Brother Dazhou Zhou Xueqi, who is now also a lecturer at the Geological University.
"Tangtang is here? You don’t have classes today?" Senior Brother Dazhou had a particularly good relationship with Sheng Tang’s dad, all of his university expenses were funded by Sheng Tang’s dad.
"I took the day off, Senior Brother," Sheng Tang smiled.
Zhou Xueqi smiled and turned to leave.
Sheng Tang and her dad strolled for a while, and then she asked, "Dad, who was the person who came last night?"
Dad was taken aback.
He was very surprised by this question.
"Oh....." Dad adjusted his glasses, looking quite unnatural, "He, uh, is a friend of mine."
"What friend?" Sheng Tang was curious, "Why didn’t you let me meet him?"
"What!?" Dad pretended to laugh, but there was a moment of tension in his expression, "It’s not that I didn’t want you to meet him, wasn’t it because your brother was asking to go for barbecue?"
Sheng Tang replied with an elongated "Oh".
Dad thought of how close the siblings were, and that Sheng Zong had seen the person last night, maybe he had said something.
Such a grown daughter, he couldn’t treat her like a fool, afraid she would think more and more.
Dad was covering up and tried to call a cab to send her home.
Sheng Tang still wanted to ask.
Dad seemed to be holding it in.
He struggled for a while, looking into Sheng Tang’s eyes, seemingly unable to bear it: "He is my former senior, he took care of me a lot in school...."
Sheng Tang suddenly thought of that photo—the one she and her brother found up in the attic.
In the photo, there were four people, with a man and a woman standing very close, they seemed to be quite close to her parents, but later she never saw them visit.
Dad’s friends sometimes came to their home, Sheng Tang had met a few, but none of them were the two in the photo.
Grandma seemed very wary of that photo, she crumpled it up in front of Sheng Tang and stuffed it into her pocket.
"It’s not that I didn’t want you to meet him, just thought you wouldn’t be comfortable with a stranger at home," Dad said.
"What’s his name?" Sheng Tang suddenly asked.
Dad froze for a moment.
"His name is Xu Bingzhi," Dad said.
Sheng Tang felt this was the real name, because Dad answered so quickly, it wouldn’t be easy to make up a name or mistake it with someone else’s.
"Oh." Sheng Tang smiled, "I thought something had happened at home."
Dad seemed relieved.
"What could possibly happen?" Dad said.
Sheng Tang thought getting a name was a significant victory.
She felt she had gained a lot today.
She spent the whole day at the university, went to the library in the afternoon to read, and helped her mom sort bookshelves.
In the evening, her parents took her out for dinner, and the family of three went home afterwards.
Dad didn’t want to trouble Mom, so he didn’t mention Sheng Tang’s questions.
And Sheng Tang, after returning home, searched for Xu Bingzhi online.
She didn’t know exactly which characters to use for his name, so she searched for a long time but found nothing.
She thought of Song Chen.
She called Song Chen, asking him to help look up Xu Bingzhi, who was also at the Geological University back then, probably a year ahead of her dad.
"It’d be great if you can find a photo. Brother Song, I really owe you one for this, if you ever need help with anything, I’ll definitely do my best," said Sheng Tang.
Song Chen laughed, "Tangtang, don’t be so polite with me. But looking up someone from the past might take a bit longer. I’ll get back to you in a couple of days."
Sheng Tang agreed.