CH 26

The space under Old Li’s table was already very small.

The two of them had long arms and legs. So they didn’t know where to place their hands and feet.

Qin Shiwu gave Qin Chu a little push and mouthed: Move over. I’m being squeezed to death by you.

Although Qin Chu came later, he hardly knew what it meant to be the one to arrive first and get served first. He went to the extremes to hold onto the eight words “late-comer lives above” and “no shame at all”.

Not only did Qin Shiwu fail to get a seat under the table, but Qin Chu also occupied the magpie’s nest and kept pushing Qin Shiwu to the side, so one of Qin Shiwu’s legs was squeezed out.

It was suddenly laid in front of Lu Tong’s eyes.

Lu Tong’s hand turning over the form stiffened, and he quietly moved his eyes to the foot under the table.

…… What happened to this leg? A crime scene?

Moreover, this person wasn’t wearing the pants of the provincial no.1 school. In order to keep up with the fashion, he had also changed his wide school pants into a pair of casual pants and pulled them around his ankles several times. It was better to say that he came to school to plant rice than to say that he was here to study.

Lu Tong squatted down, and that leg got back under the table’s open shelf with a “swish”.

He: ……

Soon, the sound of limbs colliding came from under the table’s open shelf. There was also the sound of a body hitting the wood, and the sound of the stool scratching against the ground.

A moment later, Qin Shiwu was defeated by Qin Chu. He was balled up, and Qin Chu kicked him out from under the table’s open shelf with messy hair.

“It hurts like hell!”

Qin Shiwu let out a violent and miserable scream.

Immediately afterward, his scream came to an abrupt end.

Qin Shiwu looked up and met the eyes of Lu Tong perfectly.

“Hello, beautiful. Have you had your lunch yet?”

“……”

“Uh, I’m here to clean up the Political and Educational Office……”

Qin Chu slowly and methodically got out from under the table.

His extremely arrogant attitude made it seem as if he hadn’t come out from under the table but walked down from a concert.

Qin Shiwu glanced at Qin Chu and slowly added, “…… Came to the Political and Educational Office to clean up.”

Lu Tong raised his eyebrows, “Wiping the table’s open shelf for others?”

Qin Shiwu raised the registration forms in his hand, “We were cleaning the windows!”

Lu Tong, “Rich ah. Other people use newspapers to clean the windows, but you’re rich enough to clean the windows with the registration form of someone else’s class.”

Qin Shiwu touched his nose in embarrassment, “A wealthy and influential family. No way. The relatives families are richer.”

The form in Qin Chu’s hand was placed on the table, “Then what are you doing here at the Political and Educational Office?”

Lu Tong, “I’m here to find the registration form for the sports event.”

Qin Shiwu’s dog’s ears twitched, “Registration form? Have you already signed up for the events? Let me just ask you casually. What items did you apply for?”

Lu Tong, “1,500 meters long race.”

Qin Shiwu paused, “You signed up for this?”

Lu Tong nodded.

Qin Chu glanced at him, “Did you report for long-distance running with hypoglycemia?”

Lu Tong looked at him hesitantly, “How do you know that I have low blood sugar?”

Qin Chu: …… Surprisingly, it was true.

He had just heard Qin Shiwu say it for the first time last time when he was climbing over the wall with Qin Shiwu.

This person, Qin Shiwu, seemed so nervous and out of tune. And his speech was incoherent and bogus, always making people unable to tell when it was true and when it was false.

But in the case of Lu Tong’s hypoglycemia, what he said was actually true.

Qin Chu, “Guess.”

Lu Tong, “…… Do you think what you said doesn’t look hard to come by?”

Qin Chu changed the subject, “Why did you want to take the registration form after you had signed up for the project?”

Lu Tong sneered back and spoke directly, “You’re asking me? Why don’t you ask yourself? What are you two doing here? Why did you come here to steal the registration forms after you had signed up for the project?”

Lu Tong’s eyes fell on Qin Chu’s and Qin Shiwu’s hands.

Each of the two was holding a few registration forms, and none of them was from their own class.

Qin Chu: ……

Qin Shiwu: ……

That was certainly not to modify their own registration items.

The father’s and son’s eyes drifted silently to the left and right, but they just didn’t look at Lu Tong.

Lu Tong: …… What’s the matter with the indescribable feeling of chills in the back?

Qin Shiwu cursed Qin Chu fiercely in his heart.

Was his dad really so much of a person whose lips said one thing, but his body language revealed what he really thought when he was young?

The person who had said that they didn’t want to come to the Political and Educational Office was Qin Chu, right? Was this teenager standing inside the Political and Educational Office now a ghost?

If you wanna blame, blame Qin Chu for not coming with me just now.

If they had come together, could he have met Lu Tong?

It’s not that he wouldn’t have met Lu Tong — It was that could he have met Lu Tong at such an awkward time?

Qin Shiwu, “We didn’t steal it. We were just helping the teacher sort it out. Do you want to change the items in the list?”

Lu Tong didn’t give Qin Shiwu a hard time and said smoothly, “I’m helping a classmate change their item.”

“A classmate?” Qin Shiwu asked alertly, “Male or female? A or O? Where do they live? How many people are there in their family? How many apartments do they have?”

Lu Tong was confused by his question and couldn’t help but let out a laugh, “You’re quite an interesting person.”

Qin Chu seldom saw Lu Tong smile, the latter always had an iceberg poker face and always acted as if people owed him 1.8 million dollars when he met them. When he smiled like that, he felt a sense of novelty.

It was a good look.

Director He came back after having food at this time.

Qin Shiwu hurriedly tidied up the battlefield, trying to restore the desk to its original state.

Director He took a glance at Qin Chu and Qin Shiwu and didn’t have a good face, “What are you two doing here?”

He just asked this question but didn’t intend to listen to the two’s answers. He then went straight to the point and looked at Lu Tong, “You came here for the matter of living in school, right?”

Qin Shiwu said to himself, “Living in school?

Lu Tong nodded. Director He then took the lock and opened the drawer and fished out a school dormitory form from it, “Fill out the form and give it to your teacher Zhou. Then go to the student office to inform them, and you can move in tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

Director He glanced at Lu Tong — He was deeply impressed with Lu Tong. After all, this person was a scholar-lord who topped the exams every year and had raised the average level of the whole class just by himself. He had also won many trophies in various Olympiads and physics competitions.

In the eyes of the teachers, caring for good students seemed to be proper and to be expected as a matter of course.

“Why are you suddenly ready to live at school? I heard from Teacher Zhou earlier that he had contacted your parents and they didn’t quite agree with you living at school.”

Lu Tong was willing to accept other people’s views, “I’m preparing for my senior year sprint. It’s convenient to live in the school.”

Director He was pleased that Lu Tong had such a high level of awareness.

Qin Shiwu suddenly jumped up, “Teacher He, I want to live at school too!”

When Director He saw Qin Shiwu, he was furious.

In his eyes, all those who hung out with Qin Chu were no good — Qin Shiwu was by far the one who hung out with Qin Chu the most. So naturally, he became a thorn in Teacher He’s flesh.

It didn’t matter what Qin Shiwu said. Whatever he said was wrong anyway!

“What are you going to do living at school? Are you preparing for your senior year too?”

Qin Shiwu nodded righteously, “Teacher He has a point. The college entrance examination must start with children. Look at me, for example. I have changed considerably and I’m going to turn over a new leaf1 and start a new life2. Through such a tough method of living in school, I will understand the usefulness of learning. Besides, I can’t get out at night with people in the security room watching! Wouldn’t it be better to discipline me!”

Director He listened to his preposterous argument, but it made sense.

There were still a lot of empty beds in the International Department of the school, so Director He didn’t give Qin Shiwu a hard time.

The main reason was that Qin Shiwu had a pleasant voice and a pleasant smile. So even a hard-hearted person like Director He could not help but feel a little compassionate.

“It’s good that you have the heart to change your ways.” He took out another school dormitory form from the drawer.

Qin Shiwu quickly glanced at the door number of Lu Tong’s dormitory: 1201.

Then he filled it in with fire: 1202.

Living next door to Lu Tong, like a pavilion near the water3, wouldn’t it be more convenient for him to keep an eye on those smelly men who were hitting on Lu Tong?

After filling in the form, Qin Shiwu was satisfied with the school dormitory form and scurried out to find Old Zhao to sign it.

Director He was called away halfway by the vice-principal from the headmaster’s office next door, leaving Qin Chu and Lu Tong alone in the Political and Educational Office.

After Lu Tong finished writing the list, he stood up and said, “I won’t be going to Old Zhao’s house this Sunday.”

Qin Chu subconsciously asked, “Why?”

For the sake of the huge sum of three thousand dollars for his Tyrannosaurus Rex, Lu Tong had been dutifully giving Qin Chu extra lessons every week and never missed a lesson. Although Qin Chu didn’t really listen to the lectures much and was childish as hell to confront Lu Tong every time.

“I have to go to the hospital on Sunday.”

“Hospital?” Qin Chu spoke, “Are you sick?”

Lu Tong shook his head, “It has nothing to do with you.”

In this way, it seemed that he had nothing to do with Qin Chu.

But when Lu Tong said this, it reminded Qin Chu of his attitude when he refused Old Cheng last night.

It was exactly the same as now.

…… It turned out that he was nothing special either.

In Lu Tong’s eyes, he might be the same as Old Cheng.

Even if he had left a temporary mark on Lu Tong’s body.

Thinking of this, Qin Chu’s chest was stuffy, and he felt that the air in the office had never been so bad.

…… Annoying.

Qin Chu turned his head and walked out of the office.

Lu Tong was left very speechless by his inexplicable temper, “What did he do again? I didn’t say a word and he began to display a lady’s temper?”

After he left, Qin Chu didn’t see Lu Tong for a few days.

Qin Shiwu was busy with “moving house” for the past two days. So he pulled Lin Xiaomian to whisper at the front table, planning all the things to be moved in detail. And he didn’t pay much attention to Qin Chu.

Qin Heng sent several text messages urging him to come home. Qin Chu originally did not want to pay attention to his dad. But when school ended on Friday afternoon, Qin Heng’s driver stopped him directly in front of the school.

The driver, Old Yang, got out of the car and opened the door, “Young Master, Mr. Qin asked me to pick you up.”

Qin Chu was stopped by him and brought straight back to the Qin family.

Qin Heng had three properties under his name in city H.

Two of them were the commercial plazas in the city center and one was the Bay Harbour in the Qiantang New District which was near the Qiantang River and was a residential area in an upscale neighborhood. As the big boss, Qin Heng reserved a small villa with the best view in the residential area for him.

Ever since Qu Shaoning had married his father, he had brought Qu Muyao back from abroad and the three of them lived here as a family.

Qin Chu was in the car thinking: Then why should I join in the get-together?

Qin Chu’s mother was British, the youngest daughter of a duke, and had a bit of royal blood in her. His mother was an internationally renowned violinist. She was an aristocratic-born young lady who had been raised in a greenhouse garden and had never seen any men. So Qin Chu judged that his mother had been spoiled by Qin Heng because of her short-sightedness.

The meeting between Qin Heng and the Duke’s youngest daughter was passed on to the media as a great story, and for a long time, the labels on his parents were that of a match made in heaven, a divine couple, elegant and noble. It was not until after his mother’s death and Qin Heng’s remarriage to Qu Shaoning, the daughter of the head of the Ayson Group, that the media turned the wind direction4 and began to slam his dad again for being heartless and ungrateful.

How can one person love another person forever?

When Qin Heng married his mother, he told his mother affectionately in the church that he would love her forever. In the end, it was less than seven years after his mother died, and Qin Heng took a new wife.

It was clear that his father’s “forever” was measured in seconds, and Qin Heng’s “forever” was only seven years.

When Qin Chu thought about it, he only found it funny.

The car door opened and Old Yang took Qin Chu straight to the door of his house.

As soon as Qin Chu arrived home, Auntie Lin, the nanny, came up, “Young master is back.”

Qin Heng’s hand reading the newspaper paused for a moment and he placed the newspaper in the housekeeper’s hand, “You Yu, did you have a good stay at Teacher Zhao’s house?”

Qin Chu’s family was very conventional. His grandfather was an educated youth of the old generation and a writer, with a bit of a wild goose chase5 in his bones. In addition to his own name, Qin Chu also had a name given to him by his grandfather, “You Yu”, which means “A piece of beautiful jade”.

Unfortunately, Qin Chu was beautiful, but only on his face. His behaviour and morals were not very complimentary.

Qin Shiwu was the same as his father. Although people around him call him Qin Shiwu, in fact, he had a formal personal name on his ID card called Qin Shu.

When his stepmother Qu Shaoning saw Qin Chu, she curled her eyes and smiled, “Evan has grown taller again. The last time I saw him, he only reached my shoulder, and now he is taller than me.”

Evan is the English name his mother gave him and to be honest, Qin Chu didn’t like it too much. His mother stubbornly thought she would have a daughter back then and the name was also very sweet. The word translated to: Yi Wan6.

…… It was too degrading to Qin Chu’s status as a school bully.

Qu Muyao was playing with her mobile phone with her chin propped up. When she saw Qin Chu enter the door, she didn’t raise her head, and gave a perfunctory look, “Brother.”

Qu Shaoning was quite concerned about Qin Chu and asked, “Did you receive the flowers that Yao Yao brought you last time. I chose them together with your father. Did you like them?”

Qin Chu recalled the bouquet of flowers that had fallen to the ground and returned its soul to Mother Earth.

Qu Muyao’s movement also stiffened for a moment.

“Thank you, Auntie. I received it.”

He didn’t say he liked it.

Qin Heng asked him, “I heard from Teacher Zhao that your grades weren’t good and that she found you a tutor. Did you guys get along well? You didn’t bully him, right?”

Qin Chu, “I’m too lazy to bully him.”

Thinking of Lu Tong’s cold, icy face, Qin Chu curled his mouth.

— — Tempered and hard. What is there to bully?

Auntie Lin said, “Everyone is waiting for you to eat. Sir and Madam, hurry up and eat. The food will get cold in a while.”

Qin Heng had planned to talk to Qin Chu again, but thinking that he hadn’t eaten, he then relented and let the nanny serve the meal first.

— The meal was a happy one.

Although Qu Shaoning was a stepmother, but in the end, reality is different from fiction and there was no plot of a vicious stepmother. She was born into a wealthy family and she was a veritable celebrity aristocrat in Hong Kong City. She was raised as a celebrity from a young age, so she naturally had a gentle temper and an extremely silly and sweet personality. After marrying Qin Heng, she was even more obedient to her husband and did what a stepmother should do for Qin Chu, her cheap son.

There was no snatching of the family fortune, nor was there any abuse of her stepson. The reunited family were mutually respectful to each other like four strangers.

Although Qin Chu dipped his head in disapproval of Qin Heng taking a wife, he did not hate Qu Shaoning.

Just because he didn’t hate her didn’t mean he had to spend a lot of time with her.

Qin Chu made an excuse to run to his room after he finished eating, and Qu Muyao immediately put down her chopsticks after he left, “I’ve finished eating.”

Qu Shaoning was surprised, “Just this little bit?”

Qu Muyao, “I’m on a diet. Don’t worry about me. Mum, have you finished the formalities for my transfer?”

Qu Shaoning nodded, “I’ve informed the headmaster, and you will be able to report to school on Monday.”

Qin Heng said, “After you go to the same school as your brother, remember to keep an eye on his studies. If his grades were half as high as yours, I wouldn’t have to worry so much.”

Qu Muyao nodded perfunctorily, not caring about his cheap brother at all.

Qu Shaoning said, “Right. Evan still doesn’t know that you’re going to be in the same class as him. So remember to go and talk to him.”

Qu Muyao had just that intention, and after hastily agreeing to do so, she went upstairs to look for Qin Chu’s trouble.

Just as Qin Chu reached the bedroom, Qu Muyao was leaning against his doorway.

Qin Chu took her for an air person and ignored her.

Qu Muyao rolled her eyes and suddenly spoke with a smile again, “Hey, Qin Chu. That omega pheromone on you, it’s faded a lot. It’s not like you’ve been dumped, right?”

Qin Chu said coldly, “Get out if you have nothing to do.”

Qu Muyao said, “Of course there’s something that matters. I just came to inform you that we are going to be in the same class soon.”

Qin Chu looked at her, “What are you up to again?”

Qu Muyao smiled and said, “I’m not up to anything. That omega you have your eye on, is it Lu Tong from the second year of senior class?”

Qin Chu stood still, “You’re investigating me?”

Qu Muyao, “He has your pheromones on him. Is it necessary to inquire? It’s not like I don’t have a nose. However, you look like you don’t like him.”

Qin Chu said, “None of your business.”

Qu Muyao licked her back teeth and smiled cheekily, “Since you don’t like him, give him to me?”

to reform and start afresh (idiom)

to make a fresh start

fig. using one’s proximity to the powerful to obtain favor

the way the wind is blowing / fig. trends (esp. unpredictable ones) / how things are developing / course of events

lit. to penetrate into a bull’s horn (idiom); fig. to waste time on an insoluble or insignificant problem / to bash one’s head against a brick wall / a wild goose chase / a blind alley / to split hairs

graceful