CH 2

Kevin really didn’t expect to meet Xin Qianyu here. Even less expected was that the interviewer in the kindergarten was him.

The thoughts in Kevin’s mind were chaotic, and he pondered again. Right, Xin Qianyu said that he teaches English, so it’s not surprising that he is a kindergarten teacher. 

It was just that Kevin originally looked down on this type of person who couldn’t do anything but teach English after coming back from studying abroad. He only regarded these people as “bastards”. But he didn’t expect this “bastard” to sit in the position of the interviewer and look at him with a distant expression.

Besides Xin Qianyu, there were two other interviewers. But because Xin Qianyu was sitting in the middle, such a seating arrangement already implied that Xin Qianyu was the one who had the most right to speak.

Kevin regretted his rudeness towards Xin Qianyu at dinner the day before.

At present, Xin Qianyu treated Kevin’s family of three impartially and conducted a routine interview. Kevin also behaved normally and did not deliberately try to get friendly. Kevin’s reasoning was that besides Xin Qianyu, there were two other interviewers there. Even if they were really familiar with each other, they couldn’t show it. 

It wasn’t good for Kevin to converse directly with Xin Qianyu at the kindergarten. So he waited until he was back in his office before looking for Su Zhong and offering to treat Xin Qianyu to a meal.

Su Zhong said, he had to ask Xin Qianyu if he was willing.

Xin Qianyu deliberately made Kevin unhappy as well. He stood him up twice before being late for the third meal appointment. He said apologetically, “Sorry I’m late. There were some issues at school.”

Kevin suspected that Xin Qianyu was deliberately putting on an act, and this was indeed the case. But Kevin didn’t have a choice.

He was quite aggrieved: he was a dignified financial elite who prided himself on being a “petty bourgeoisie“, being ordered about by an unremarkable teacher.

But considering his child’s place in school, Kevin had to lower his status, smile in an appeasing manner at Xin Qianyu, engage in some small talk, and even say that he was worried about his child’s studies. Xin Qianyu said, “Your child is very smart, so don’t worry about him.”

Kevin was extremely upset when he heard this ambiguous sentence: did it mean, “Your child is very smart, don’t worry, our kindergarten will accept him”, or “Your child is very smart, don’t worry, it will be the same at other kindergartens”?

Kevin’s anxious look made Xin Qianyu quite pleased. 

But Xin Qianyu had a very deceptive face. His eyes were clear and looked very kind and honest. There wasn’t the slightest amount of gloating in them.

After all, Xin Qianyu used that face by pretending to be weak to win the favor of Su Zhong.

Kevin took out the precious gift that he had prepared to give Xin Qianyu, but Xin Qianyu naturally refused to accept it. What a joke. If he accepted the gift, wasn’t he giving up the upper hand?

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Xin Qianyu spoke again. “But according to what you said, since few of the teachers in our kindergarten are from Ivy Leagues, I’m afraid they don’t deserve to be his teachers.”

When Kevin heard this, his back stiffened immediately. As expected! As expected! I knew that Xin Qianyu was not a nice person! Goodness, this sissy can really act; pretending to be refined, while holding a grudge and scheming against me! 

But Kevin didn’t dare to yell at him directly, so he had to laugh and soften his tone. “Are you joking? Who doesn’t know that the teachers in your kindergarten are first-rate? Take for example your alma mater, they are the strongest in education. They say ‘every industry has its specialty’. As a teacher, it’s great to have a good major, and even those who graduated from Harvard cannot match.”

It was really cheesy, and Xin Qianyu laughed when he heard it.

Xin Qianyu made some aimless conversation, then let Kevin off.

To be honest, he and Kevin did not have a deep hatred. At least not to such an extent that he would obstruct a child’s education due to a moment of anger. 

Besides, if Xin Qianyu created an obstruction at this time, publicly, it would be allowing personal affairs to influence work, and privately, it was even worse. After all, Kevin’s son was about to enter his kindergarten, and Kevin had to be polite to him in the future. If he really kicked the child out of the kindergarten, it would make Kevin even more unscrupulous and cause him more suffering.

Kevin’s switch from arrogance to deference towards Xin Qianyu was very funny.

Xin Qianyu didn’t embarrass him, and just deliberately bantered with him a little.

It was just that Xin Qianyu refused to accept Kevin’s gift, which made Kevin uneasy for several days. It wasn’t until the kindergarten sent an admission notice to Kevin’s child that Kevin put his mind completely at ease. In the future, he would no longer dare to mock and ridicule Xin Qianyu. 

Kevin, Rui Lei, and Jones were some colleagues who were closer to Su Zhong in the company. Rui Lei and Jones were both polite, and now Kevin had to be polite as well. On the surface, they could get along quite well with Xin Qianyu. But deep down, they still felt that Xin Qianyu was not worthy of Su Zhong.

It was just something that wasn’t said out loud. Xin Qianyu could act like he didn’t know and all would be well on the surface. This was how grown-ups interacted socially: with a sense of propriety.

However, there was a kind of social interaction in the world that had no sense of propriety, and that was “ta ma de interaction”. This wasn’t a swear word, but “his mom’s” in the literal sense.

This referred specifically to Su Zhong’s mom. 

That day, Xin Qianyu was alone at home. When he heard the doorbell ring, he wondered who it was and opened the door, finding that it was a middle-aged woman. That woman was Su Zhong’s mother, Lin Chunhong.

She gazed at Xin Qianyu with a critical eye and obvious dissatisfaction showed in her eyes. Xin Qianyu thought to himself, You feel that as a man, I should be marked down, but I feel that Su Zhong, having a mother like you, should also be marked down. But the helpless Su Zhong had already scored 9999 points in Xin Qianyu’s heart. No matter how much was marked down, it could never be less than 100 points.

When Su Zhong returned home and saw Lin Chunhong, he was also very surprised and said, “Why did you come over without a word?”

Lin Chunhong said angrily, “Do I have to make an appointment to go to my son’s house?” 

Su Zhong replied, “That would be best.”

Lin Chunhong was so angry, but she couldn’t do anything to her beloved son and was very sullen. “Aunt Qiao and Aunt Fang can go to their sons’ house anytime they want. They even have the key and can open the door themselves!”

Su Zhong said, “Oh.”

Lin Chunhong only felt like she had , and after a pause, said, “All of them already have grandchildren…” 

When Lin Chunhong said this, Xin Qianyu was also there, sitting next to Su Zhong. Lin Chunhong did not care to avoid the topic, and said in a straightforward manner, “You should still have a child.”

If it were someone else, Xin Qianyu would have attacked her directly. If you like children so much, why don’t you give birth to one yourself? The country doesn’t prevent you from giving birth to a second child, so Auntie, hurry up and give birth. It will be too late in a few years due to menopause.

But in front of Su Zhong, Xin Qianyu had to maintain a gentle and polite image, so he lowered his head and didn’t speak.

Su Zhong didn’t speak either. 

Lin Chunhong couldn’t bear the silence and continued to ask, “Haven’t you thought about having a baby?”

Su Zhong replied, “No.”

Lin Chunhong’s eyes widened, her face full of disapproval. “It’s great to have a baby! Why not have one?”

Su Zhong said, “I am a man. You asking me to birth a child, this is something beyond my ability.” 

Lin Chunhong’s face suddenly changed between red and white, and she was temporarily speechless. She glanced at Xin Qianyu, very dissatisfied. But she knew she couldn’t say to a person’s face that they were no good, so she smiled and said, “Xiaoyu is quite a good kid, gentle, sensible, and classy…”

After a bunch of compliments, Lin Chunhong finally said: “It would be nice if you were a woman.”

Xin Qianyu wanted to say: It would be nice if you were a mute.

But he couldn’t say that. This was Su Zhong’s mother, and he couldn’t hate her. 

Speaking of which, Xin Qianyu was more respectful and tolerant of Su Zhong’s mother than his own.

Xin Qianyu always kept his fangs retracted in front of Su Zhong, pretended to be well-behaved, and looked at Su Zhong with a helpless expression. Su Zhong’s face was calm, and he said, “I’m gay. If Xiaoyu were a woman, we wouldn’t be able to have a relationship.”

Lin Chunhong really had nothing to say.

Xin Qianyu saw that Lin Chunhong couldn’t be happy, so he was happy. He smirked and thought to himself, my Zhong Ge is so cute. 

Some people say that if you think a man is handsome, that means you like him. But if you think he is cute, then you are hopelessly in love with him.

Xin Qianyu viewed Su Zhong like this. He had already passed the stage of “Why is this man so handsome? I must get him”, and entered the hopeless and unstoppable stage of “My Zhong Ge is so cute in everything he does”.

Xin Qianyu remembered this feeling of pink bubbles filling his heart, and said to Zhu Pu in his spare time, “I may be with Su Zhong forever.”

Zhu Pu scoffed. “Impossible.” 

Xin Qianyu frowned. “Why?”

Zhu Pu said, “You can’t possibly pretend for a lifetime.”

From the beginning, Xin Qianyu pretended to be simple, naive, well-behaved, and even poor in front of Su Zhong, saying that he couldn’t afford to rent a house, thus moving into Su Zhong’s home and finally becoming a cohabiting lover.

Xin Qianyu had lied a lot to Su Zhong. For example, he was not a pauper who could not afford to rent a house. He was not a submissive , and he was not even an English kindergarten teacher.