LWDC Chapter 57

Chapter 57: I’ll See You Off

Chapter 57: I’ll See You Off

Chapter 57: I’ll See You Off

In the end, Ning Fei agreed to tutor Ji Xingzhe. But only once every other week, and only for two hours each time, which was a world apart from the high-intensity tutoring he gave Lin Shengjia.

——It’s not for the air conditioning… it’s to observe Ji Xingzhe up close!

Actually, within a few minutes of agreeing, Ning Fei regretted it a little. On weekends, he not only had to tutor Lin Shengjia, but also prepare for school classes, constantly update the study plan according to Lin Shengjia’s condition, and even summarize past exam questions and speculate on the direction of the questions. Now, adding Ji Xingzhe’s tutoring would only “add fuel to the fire” to his already limited rest time.

——Observing Ji Xingzhe isn’t that urgent after all… Tsk.

With a bit of depression, Ning Fei prepared to leave. When he went to say goodbye to Ji Xingzhe, Ji Xingzhe didn’t say anything to keep him, but instead offered to “see the teacher off.”

Although this “cuckoo” who occupied the “nest” had always been humble and polite, Ning Fei still sensitively noticed that he seemed to have something to say. Sure enough, just as the two walked out of the villa, the lights dimmed, and the surroundings became quiet, Ji Xingzhe suddenly spoke.

“Teacher Ning… when are you planning to move?”

Hearing this, Ning Fei was a little confused by the teenager’s train of thought: “Why do you ask that?”

“It’s just that you said last time that the place you’re living in now is just a temporary place, so I’m just a little curious.” Ji Xingzhe’s expression was natural, and his tone was like casual chatting, “However, I seem to have noticed that Lin Shengjia has recently started attending English classes seriously. If the teacher moves away, Lin Shengjia should be sad, right? It wouldn’t be good if he gave up on English again.”

Ning Fei said, “You seem to care about Lin Shengjia a lot.”

“…Huh?” Ji Xingzhe blinked, his expression very innocent, “No, it’s just that his English monthly exam score was too shocking, so it left a deep impression on me. It’s not just me, I guess everyone in the class now will immediately think of that shocking 28 points when they mention him. After all, Lin Shengjia should have gotten into our high school through the exam, so how could his English score be so low? Everyone finds it incredible. Teacher Ning, you live close to him, have you asked him what happened?”

Ning Fei vaguely heard the strangeness in his words, and speculated that he might want to express two meanings.

First, to emphasize that Lin Shengjia’s English is very poor, and to question how he got in in the first place, and whether there was something wrong with that as well. Second, if Lin Shengjia’s English got worse for some reason, could it be that something happened to him.

The former was to make Lin Shengjia’s image in Ning Fei’s mind worse; the latter was probably because Ji Xingzhe was worried that Lin Shengjia also knew his background, which led to his poor academic performance.

Ning Fei pretended not to understand, and replied casually, “I haven’t asked him, I just told him to study hard, otherwise I’ll complain to his parents.”

Ji Xingzhe was stunned for a moment: “Does the teacher know his parents?”

“We live close by, so I know them.” Ning Fei glanced at him, “You reminded me, I should visit his house another day. I’ll ask him why his condition has worsened this semester, whether something happened to him or his family that’s distracting him.”

“…!” Ji Xingzhe immediately felt uneasy, “He, uh, wouldn’t, right? Isn’t he still coming to school normally?”

“That’s true, but it’s possible that he’s actually carrying something on his mind, so he’s always distracted. Isn’t that how it is during adolescence?” Ning Fei smiled lightly, “Including you, you definitely have your own secrets that even your friends and family don’t know. Unless it’s completely resolved, it’s always a big rock hanging in your heart, isn’t it?”

Ji Xingzhe: “…”

He suddenly had the feeling of “lifting a rock only to drop it on his own feet.” At this moment, he seemed to be seen through by Ning Fei, even though he knew very well that it wouldn’t be strange for any teacher to say these words.

Ji Xingzhe couldn’t help but think: Do I really still want to approach this teacher and make him estranged from Lin Shengjia?

In the moment of hesitation, the two had already walked to the parking lot at the gate. Ji Xingzhe watched as Ning Fei walked past a row of luxury cars, and finally stopped next to… an inconspicuous motorcycle.

Ji Xingzhe was dumbfounded: “Teacher, you came here on this?”

“Yeah, I just bought it a few days ago.” Ning Fei didn’t feel embarrassed at all, it was just a means of transportation, and besides, this kind of vintage iron lump was actually quite good-looking, “It’s just that one of the headlights occasionally doesn’t work, so I’ll have to fix it later…”

“Then let me see Teacher Ning off.”

The rear window of the black car next to them slowly lowered, and it was actually Duan Yunhong. Ji Xingzhe was confused: “Uncle, what are you doing here?”

“It was too noisy inside, so I came out to get some peace and quiet. I was just about to leave too, so I’ll see your teacher off for you.” Duan Yunhong’s tone was cold, without a hint of caring for his younger relative, “Besides, there’s a section of the road back to the city without streetlights. Teacher Ning is still getting used to this car, so be careful not to fall into the ditch at night.”

These words, combined with his cold tone, were too sarcastic. Ning Fei was used to his style, but Ji Xingzhe next to him broke out in a cold sweat, partly because his cold uncle was so impolite, and partly because he couldn’t understand how these two had suddenly gotten so close.

As the two men spoke face to face, Ji Xingzhe couldn’t help but think of that book, *Pygmalion*.

Instinctively, Ji Xingzhe wanted to prevent his relative from coming into contact with anyone related to Lin Shengjia, so he opened his mouth to stop him: “That won’t be necessary, Uncle. Teacher’s car is still here, and it’ll be hard to get back later. And…”

“What does Teacher Ning think?” Duan Yunhong interrupted Ji Xingzhe’s words, only looking at Ning Fei, “If you trust me, I can have someone come to ride the motorcycle away tomorrow. We’ll fix it up for you and then send it back to your house. What does Teacher Ning think?”

Ning Fei raised an eyebrow.

Ji Xingzhe thought he would refuse, after all, Duan Yunhong seemed too difficult to get along with. However, Ning Fei remained silent for two seconds and took out the car key: “Then I’ll have to trouble CEO Duan?”

“My pleasure.” Duan Yunhong replied expressionlessly, reached out from the car window, took Ning Fei’s motorcycle key, and made room for Ning Fei. Then, to Ji Xingzhe’s stunned surprise, Ning Fei opened the back door and got right in.

As the car door closed, Ning Fei waved goodbye to Ji Xingzhe from the car window: “I’m leaving, bye-bye.”

Ji Xingzhe hadn’t fully reacted yet, so he just subconsciously said goodbye to him. It wasn’t until the black car sped away and disappeared into the night that Ji Xingzhe suddenly came back to his senses.

“Tsk, Lin Shengjia wouldn’t be using Teacher Ning to get close to my family, would he…” The teenager’s face darkened, completely different from his usual image.

“I have to isolate him quickly… How much more disgrace does he have to bring before he’s willing to drop out of school?”

*

On the other hand, the atmosphere in the black car was actually much more harmonious than Ji Xingzhe imagined.

Ning Fei was too lazy to waste words. As soon as the car drove out, he asked, “This driver is…”

The driver replied, “Hello, Teacher Ning, my surname is Huang.”

“I didn’t ask you.” Duan Yunhong glanced at the driver in the rearview mirror, then turned to look at Ning Fei, “He’s my man, he won’t say anything even if he understands. What do you want to say?”

“I want to say that Ji Xingzhe asked me to tutor him once every other week, and I agreed.” Ning Fei leaned back in his seat in a relaxed posture, “He’s quite scheming, even the current Lin Shengjia might not be able to outsmart him.”

“Asked you to tutor him? His grades aren’t bad…” Duan Yunhong thought for a moment, then understood, “What does he want to do to Lin Shengjia by using you?”

“It’s not clear yet, but I roughly sensed that he wants to isolate Lin Shengjia.” Ning Fei replied, “Lin Shengjia has already noticed this, but he thinks highly of himself and doesn’t think he’ll be hurt if he ignores these little tricks. He really underestimates teenagers.”

“It seems like he had a pretty good time in his ‘previous’ student days.” Duan Yunhong said, “The Ji family seems to have good family education, but in reality, they also rely on some means to maintain it. Even if someone in the younger generation causes trouble, as long as they can take care of it, it’s as if it never happened. It’s easy for Ji Xingzhe to mess with a classmate with no background.”

“He also has a group of cronies.” Ning Fei looked out the window and said leisurely, “They spread the news of Lin Shengjia’s 28 points far and wide. Even the class teacher came to me and said that Lin Shengjia has gone bad, and that I should save him if I can, but if I can’t, then forget about it. This prestigious high school has a hidden mechanism, and if a student’s grades are very bad and they have no background, they will be advised to withdraw.”

“He wants to keep Lin Shengjia away from his circle, so that he’ll never be noticed by the Ji family.” Duan Yunhong said, “Actually, it wouldn’t be a problem for Lin Shengjia to transfer to another school. You can still tutor him there.”

“As long as he’s still in Nancheng, Ji Xingzhe won’t be at ease. But it’s not good for Lin Shengjia to go to another place to study, because his parents’ jobs are all in Nancheng, and they wouldn’t be willing to leave.” Ning Fei replied, “However, the Ji family’s willingness to help Ji Xingzhe resolve troubles is actually a double-edged sword. After all, he doesn’t want the Ji family to notice Lin Shengjia. Even he can realize that there’s something wrong with that face. If the Ji family sees it, it’ll be easier to attract attention.”

In fact, in the story of the original Lin Shengjia, the Ji family did notice the specialness of that face during a chance encounter.

“How similar are they?” Duan Yunhong asked, “Should I go take a look?”

“Do you want to run into him by chance, or do you want to come to my house?” Ning Fei turned his head to look at him, “I’ve already said that my house is very poor, there’s no air conditioning, and the bed creaks.”

“As long as it doesn’t collapse.” Duan Yunhong paused, then said meaningfully, “It doesn’t matter if it collapses. It’s not like I haven’t suffered before. There were days when I couldn’t move and could only lie there waiting for rainwater to moisten my throat.”

Ning Fei was a little surprised: “You can tolerate that?” Aren’t you someone who only wants to enjoy life?

Duan Yunhong said concisely, “There’s a reason.”

“Oh—” Ning Fei didn’t ask further, thinking that Duan Yunhong must have suffered before he became successful, and then went to the extreme later. He could understand.

Duan Yunhong asked again, “So, can I come?”

“CEO Duan, can you open your eyes before asking?” Ning Fei glanced at him and smiled softly, “Take a closer look at what I just gave you.”

Duan Yunhong was stunned and immediately took out the car key he had just received. There was a pendant on the key ring. Duan Yunhong originally thought it was just a decoration, but when he turned on the light in the car and observed it carefully, he realized that this pendant seemed to be able to be opened.

Sliding the pendant open along the gap, a silver key that was completely different from the car key was quietly lying inside.

Duan Yunhong couldn’t explain the uneasiness in his heart, but he could still maintain his composure on the surface, and his tone was calm: “This is…?”

Ning Fei replied with a smile, “Guess?”