LWDC Chapter 62

Chapter 62 – Probing

Chapter 62 – Probing

Chapter 62 – Probing

The teacher and student walked out of the teacher’s office building together, and Ning Fei finally took his hand off Lin Shengjia’s shoulder.

“Pfft, you were so awesome just now!” Lin Shengjia couldn’t help but laugh, giving Ning Fei a thumbs up. “Director Ma and Principal Li’s faces turned green with anger. It was amazing! I really wish I had your eloquence!”

“That’s it? If I wasn’t playing the teacher persona right now, I could have just started cursing at them directly, cursing them until they were fuming and couldn’t even retort.” Ning Fei responded calmly, “It’s you I’m worried about. It’ll take a few more days for this matter to be completely resolved, you have to hang in there. Don’t mind any petty tricks people around you might pull.”

“I know. These kids’ tricks are nothing to me.” Lin Shengjia spread his hands. “Besides, the kids in key high schools these days aren’t as resourceful as we were back then. The things I’ve seen, heard, and experienced were endless… Besides, Ji Xingzhe can’t go too far, he has to worry about going too far and attracting the Ji family’s attention to me, so he won’t do anything too outrageous.”

Ning Fei said, “I thought you didn’t want to study before because they were isolating you in small cliques.”

“Them? It was okay before, not to that extent. It’s more obvious now, but they haven’t really done anything openly. Just encouraging others not to talk to me, kids’ games.” Lin Shengjia said, “I gave up because my grades were really hard to improve. Who doesn’t want to be a top student? Now with you, there’s some hope for English. But my Chinese is still not good enough, and my science is unstable…”

Ning Fei said, “I can help you solve everything.”

Lin Shengjia was surprised: “Really? Are you that versatile?”

“As long as you listen and cooperate.” Ning Fei replied indifferently, “Also, remember to tell me about things like what happened today. This time, we were reported together, so I blocked it. In the future, if you are slandered or accused, or even if you are caught doing something bad, remember to tell me. I will try my best to help you out.”

Lin Shengjia raised an eyebrow: “You’ll help me even if I do bad things? I thought you would educate me into a perfect child.”

“The goal doesn’t include moral standards. As long as you get into a prestigious university, why should I care so much?” Ning Fei said, “I am your comrade-in-arms, not a moral model.”

“‘Comrade-in-arms’…” This kind of ambiguous but self-serving statement left Lin Shengjia at a loss for words. Ning Fei was indeed very strict with him, without any sentimentality, but he was also unambiguous when helping him. Lin Shengjia had been struggling in society for more than ten years in his previous life, and he had never met such a person.

—You dislike him, but you also trust him, knowing that you can entrust your back to him. This complex emotion itself is very…”annoying.”

Just as they were approaching the teaching building, Lin Shengjia suppressed his feelings and waved his hand. “I’m going back to the classroom to get my bag. My family isn’t going to my grandma’s house tonight, are you coming for dinner? We can have extra tutoring tonight.”

The second year of high school at this school hasn’t started weekend tutoring yet, and there are no evening self-study sessions on Friday nights.

“I’m not going, I have an appointment, but I can send you home.” Ning Fei shook his phone and said, “Go get your bag, I’ll wait for you.”

“You’re being suspected because our relationship is too close, and you’re still not avoiding suspicion at all, really…” Lin Shengjia muttered, but he really did hurry back to get his bag.

Ning Fei stood where he was and continued to reply to messages: [Waiting for the kid to get his bag and leave, will send him home first.]

Duan Yunhong: [Do you really think you’re a caring teacher? Can’t he even go home by himself?]

Ning Fei: [What’s wrong with sending him? He’s feeling wronged because of what your nephew did.]

Duan Yunhong: [Are you talking about Lin Shengjia or yourself?]

Ning Fei: [Both, especially me. Think about how to compensate me, Little Uncle.]

“Teacher Ning!”

A voice called out, and Ning Fei looked up to see Ji Xingzhe approaching. Further away, Ji Xingzhe’s group of childhood friends were still gathered together, seemingly chatting, but their eyes were occasionally glancing in this direction. Ning Fei immediately sensed that Ji Xingzhe had come prepared, and without saying anything, he stood still, waiting to see what he was going to say.

Sure enough, when Ji Xingzhe got closer, he couldn’t help but ask after being silently stared at by Ning Fei for a few seconds: “Teacher, were you and Lin Shengjia just called away? Was there something going on?”

This almost self-incriminating way of asking questions almost made Ning Fei laugh. It could only be said that Ji Xingzhe was still a teenager at heart. Although he had many ideas, he still couldn’t hold back his temper.

“Nothing.” Ning Fei deliberately didn’t respond directly, and instead asked, “Are you looking for me for something?”

“Uh…” Ji Xingzhe hesitated for a moment, but finally opened his mouth, “This weekend, Teacher Ning doesn’t need to come to tutor me.”

“Okay, I understand.” Ning Fei looked as calm as water, seemingly not surprised at all, and didn’t ask why. “Then we’ll make it up next week?”

“Next week… won’t be necessary either.”

“Then, the week after next…”

“It’s not necessary for the time being!” Ji Xingzhe couldn’t help but interrupt him, his mouth opening as if he was about to say something, but after a second, he changed his words, “If it resumes, I will notify the teacher again. If there is no notification, then it is not necessary.”

Ning Fei still looked at him calmly: “Understood.”

Ji Xingzhe felt increasingly at a loss, stared at by his gaze. He didn’t understand why Ning Fei didn’t ask the reason, why he didn’t plan to communicate with the parents, which caused many of the pre-set answers that Ji Xingzhe and his group of childhood friends had prepared to be useless. But on second thought, he felt that perhaps Ning Fei’s leaking of test questions had already been settled, and he was too ashamed to continue tutoring.

Thinking of this, Ji Xingzhe also felt a little more at ease, and nodded: “Then I’ll go, goodbye teacher.”

He seemed to think that he had saved Ning Fei’s face and was a very graceful performance, his expression vaguely proud. However, as soon as he turned around, Ning Fei said from behind: “Classmate Ji, I only told you about the fact that I live across from Lin Shengjia.”

“…!” Ji Xingzhe didn’t react at first, but after walking out two steps, he suddenly realized the meaning of these words, and couldn’t help but stop.

He shouldn’t have turned back, but his body turned back to look at Ning Fei before his brain’s reason could.

Ning Fei smiled at him: “And Lin Shengjia hasn’t made any friends in the new class, he won’t tell anyone about this.”

Saying that, Ning Fei walked towards Ji Xingzhe, patted him on the shoulder in Ji Xingzhe’s increasingly flustered eyes, and laughed: “Have a good weekend, Classmate Ji.”

Ji Xingzhe just stared blankly as Ning Fei walked past him and walked towards the school gate. On the way, he met up with Lin Shengjia, who had come down from the teaching building. The two of them didn’t seem to care at all about what discussions would be triggered by walking side by side like this, and walked out while chatting.

Ji Xingzhe’s several childhood friends hurried over, and Zhu Yuting took the lead in asking: “Xiao Zhe, what are you doing standing here? Did Teacher Ning scold you?”

“No, no…” Ji Xingzhe’s mind was confused, he looked at Zhu Yuting, “Tingting, let me ask you, how did you know that Lin Shengjia and Teacher Ning live close to each other?”

“You said it!” Zhu Yuting blinked her eyes, “Didn’t you say that Teacher Ning also knows Lin Shengjia’s parents?”

“Me? But, that’s what he…” Ji Xingzhe couldn’t help but say, “Teacher Ning must think that I reported him now!”

“Just let him think so.” The real reporter was actually Zhu Yuting, she replied indifferently, “Is there a difference between what I said and what you said?”

“This was originally his mistake, what does it have to do with whether you said it or not?” Qin Ran, a senior in the third year of high school, looked like an old brother who wanted to control the situation, “If he wants to retaliate against you because of this, then it’s not just a matter of moral corruption and lack of professional ethics, it’s illegal.”

“Yes!” Zhu Yuting continued, “He’s already made a mistake, I don’t know how the school is going to deal with him. I think, you should ask your family to talk to the school and expel him. Anyway, you also said that your family won’t let him tutor you anymore, doesn’t that mean that it has been found out that he did leak the test questions and cheat? And that Lin Shengjia, he cheated and he doesn’t repent, I hate him so much, it’s best to expel them together!”

Ji Xingzhe was actually a little guilty, but the conversation had reached this point, and he couldn’t say anything else, so he could only pretend to be calm: “Forget it, let’s wait for the school’s punishment, we shouldn’t interfere anymore.”

“You’re just too kind, Xiao Zhe!” Zhu Yuting said as she looked towards the school gate, and then she was stunned for a moment, “Wait, am I seeing things? Teacher Ning and Lin Shengjia, how did they get into a black car? Isn’t Teacher Ning’s car that broken motorcycle?”

Everyone turned their heads to look, and saw that on the opposite side of the road at the school gate, Ning Fei and Lin Shengjia did get into the front and back seats of a car respectively. From this angle and distance, they couldn’t see the license plate, but after all, not many families could afford a car, and Ji Xingzhe always felt that the car looked a bit familiar.

Just as he was hesitating, the car drove away.

“I don’t know what rich person he’s tricked again…” Zhu Yuting muttered a few words, turned back and said, “Forget it, let’s go. By the way, since Xiao Zhe doesn’t need to be tutored this weekend, let’s go to your house to play? Did your family reward you with a new imported game? Mine hasn’t arrived yet, it’s so annoying, let’s go to your house to play first?”

“…Okay, you can all come.” Ji Xingzhe tried to adjust his mood and showed a smile, “But my brother and my mom will also be at home that day, don’t be too noisy, it wouldn’t be good to disturb their rest.”

“I know, I’ll just play in the game room, I won’t disturb Brother Yuechi, will I?” Zhu Yuting said with a grin, “Is everyone going? Is Qin Ran going too?”

Qin Ran responded coldly: “I’m not going to join in the fun with you kids.”

“What, you’re only one grade older than us, what are you pretending to be? I think you and Brother Yuechi don’t get along, you’ve been overshadowed by him since you were little haha!” Zhu Yuting said happily, “Xiao Zhe’s games were all bought by Brother Yuechi, so good, your family really spoils you. My brother ignores me, is he really my brother…”

“Haha, it’s okay…” Ji Xingzhe replied absentmindedly, followed by a smile, vaguely with a bit of forced smile.