Translator: – – Editor: – –
“It’s what you promised me – be my girlfriend once you have entered university!” Yang Ming smiled.
“I… I only said that I would give you a chance. Stop putting words in my mouth! Okay. Let’s stop talking. Tomorrow, you must come to school, or else I will revoke your chance. I am hanging up!” Chen Mengyan felt that her heart was almost jumping out of her throat. She no longer dared to chit chat with this guy and immediately disconnected the phone. She patted her small chest and let out a sigh as she saw that her parents didn’t notice her at all. She then quietly returned to her room.
At this moment, in the living room, Father Chen and Mother Chen exchanged a look and took out a small device from their ears.
“Darling, both of us are committing a crime!” Father Chen shook his head and explained, “According to Protection of Minors Act, Article 69, both of us are breaching the privacy of our child!”
“Damn, Little Yan is having a relationship so early. Why are you still in the mood to talk about these things? She’s almost eighteen years old and going to be an adult soon! And what crime? I am her mother. So what if we eavesdrop on her conversation! She was a piece of meat that had fallen off from me [1], what privacy is there to preserve?!” Mother Chen snapped.
Father Chen shook his head. Mother Chen’s attitude reflected the thinking of many parents at present. In their eyes, their children don’t deserve any form of privacy. Even an upright official would find it difficult to settle a family quarrel. Even though Father Chen didn’t support what Mother Chen did, he didn’t go against it when Mother Chen suggested listening in on their daughter’s conversation.
“Puppy love? I don’t think so? Didn’t Little Yan say something about entering the university first? This means that she is a really responsible child. What else is there to worry about?” Father Chen gestured and said calmly.
“But, what if it affects her studies? Why don’t you go to Little Yan’s school tomorrow and discuss it with her class teacher?” Mother Chen said with a worried heart.
“No! I cannot go, and you also cannot go! There are two more months until the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. If you were to mess it up and cause our child to be in some sort of defensive mood, it would be terrible! At the present situation, these two children just had some affection towards each other, but nothing was happening yet. How would that affect her studies!” Father Chen shook his head, “Moreover, in these past few months, Little Yan’s results haven’t really declined!”
“You are right. I think I was a bit too impulsive and I’m glad that you reminded me!” Mother Chen nodded her head and said, “Oh yeah, who was the guy who gave Little Yan a call?”
“Weren’t you listening? He didn’t say it in the phone call so how would I know? Do you think I am Detective Rengjie?” Father Chen gave out a helpless expression and he pointed at the television show that was airing now, <Amazing Detective Di Renjie 3> [2].
“Ai, I am just worried because Little Yan is a girl and she may suffer some losses!” Mother Chen was concerned.
“Haha, you should remember what her father does. Who dares to bully our house’s Little Yan!” Father Chen smiled.
“Ai ya, alright, you say don’t bully then I won’t bully. Eh, where’s your hand touching? Little Yan is not asleep yet!” Mother Yan hurriedly pushed Father Yan aside, “Hmph, you just know how to bully me…”
Yang Ming hung up the call and was feeling really good in his heart. Once he turned around, he noticed that his mom was standing behind him. Suddenly shocked, he asked, “Mom… why are you here? Appearing and disappearing so mysteriously!”
“What’s wrong with me standing here?” Mother Yang stared at Yang Ming and asked, “What? Are you are afraid of me overhearing your conversation?”
“Not really, how could that be?” Yang Ming smiled awkwardly. “I’ll go back to my room to study.”
“Alright, go. I am just considering whether to change my mind about finding another daughter-in-law for the Yang family.” Mother Yang said with a light tone.
“Ah!” Yang Ming’s extended right leg almost stepped on his left foot. “Mom… I…” Yang Ming knew that his mom heard the entire phone conversation.
“Hurry up and go study. If you can’t enter university, how else are you going to get me my daughter-in-law?!” Mother Yang waved her hand signaling him to stop explaining to her.
“I understand! Thank you for your understanding!” Yang Ming speedily gave a kiss on Mother Yang’s face. “Mom, I love you!” Yang Ming was very grateful that he had an open-minded mom. Actually, what he didn’t know was that he had an open-minded father!
“This child!” Mother Yang shook her head. Then turned around to speak to Father Yang who was watching television. “Old Yang, why didn’t you let me criticize him?”
“Big Ming’s results were visible to both of us so why should we criticize him?” At this moment Father Yang paused for a while and then he sighed, “Wasn’t the incident five years ago a strong enough impact for Yang Ming? Do we still want to give him another impact like that?”
Mother Yang paused for a while, then she understood what Father Yang meant. Mother Yang remembered the picture that was still on Yang Ming’s bookshelf. The person in the picture was Su Ya.
The next day, Yang Ming came very early to school and saw Wang Zhitao’s chauffeur drop him off at school.
“Hey! Yang Ming!” Wang Zhitao greeted Yang Ming as if they were two old buddies who hadn’t met each other in a while.
Yang Ming looked at Wang Zhitao who was being extremely friendly to him and was confused. What? What’s actually happening?
“I thought we were brothers? You can’t recognize me now?” Wang Zhitao tapped Yang Ming’s shoulder and said, “I thought you couldn’t come today!”
This guy definitely didn’t have good intentions. Two sentences in and it was exposed. The guy was insulting him! Yang Ming said coldly, “Yup, aren’t you surprised?”
“Yeah, I’m a bit surprised. Hahaha!” Wang Zhitao laughed.
“Are you admitting it?” Yang Ming pressed on.
“Admit? What are you saying?” Wang Zhitao looked at Yang Ming while looking puzzled. “What’s there for me to admit?”
“Didn’t you say it yourself? You were surprised?” Yang Ming sneered.
“I am surprised, yeah! You drank so much that day. I thought you had to sleep for seven days and seven nights!” Wang Zhitao nodded and asked, “But what’s this got to do with me admitting or not admitting anything?”
“What did you do after I was drunk?” Yang Ming asked suddenly.
“Me? I didn’t do anything. I saw how you were so drunk that I couldn’t wake you up, so I just paid for the bill and asked the waiter to get you a room to rest. Then I left first! Are you saying… that the waiter was cheating you and said I didn’t pay the bill?” said Wang Zhitao loudly as he slapped his thigh.
What is going on? Yang Ming observed Wang Zhitao and his actions and words didn’t seem like he was faking it! Could it be that what happened that day wasn’t done by him, but by another person?
Yesterday, Yang Ming was still baffled as to why Wang Zhitao hadn’t exposed his story. Seeing how Wang Zhitao behaved today, could it be that the culprit wasn’t really him? But that wasn’t really possible. Yang Ming felt that it must be Wang Zhitao! Other than Wang Zhitao, there was no other person who he had a beef with.
Chapter Notes:
[1] It’s a common phrase for Chinese to say that children were part of themselves, part of their meat. It may sound gross in our translation, but in Chinese, it sounds pretty digestible.
[2] Amazing Detective Di Renjie 3