Chapter 32

His brain short-circuited for a moment, and Qin Heng's scent filled his nose.

It was aggressive, like a summer sea breeze, carrying a faintly bitter scent of mugwort. It was utterly distinctive.

He unconsciously twitched his nose, but when he tried to catch the scent again, it was gone.

Qin Heng would never wear perfume. It was probably laundry detergent, but what kind of detergent could smell so uniquely pleasant?

Qin Heng stopped while he was ahead and dangled the hook before the little fish. "Are you still ordering bayberry juice? I have enough frozen bayberries to make it for you for another two months."

Chi Ning said, "Order."

He reached for his wallet, just about to take out some money, when Qin Heng said, "I'm not charging you this time. There's something I want to ask you to help me with."

Chi Ning asked, "What is it?"

Qin Heng paused, carefully choosing his words. "If I start studying from now on, how likely am I to get into Gangnan University?"

The evening air was not particularly dry. The lingering heat of autumn had yet to pass, but the cicadas had already fallen silent.

There were barely any students left at school, and the stillness in the air felt somewhat abrupt.

Chi Ning could not understand why Qin Heng had suddenly said this.

Over the past few months, he had more or less figured out Qin Heng's path through life.

He had struggled his way through childhood, supporting himself alongside his best friend. Stumbling all the way into adulthood, he had seized every opportunity that came his way and found someone willing to back him.

It was not some miraculous transformation or meteoric rise. Every bit of capital Qin Heng had was something he had fought for inch by inch.

He was not rotten to the core, but he was by no means a good person either. That was why he was so skilled at packaging himself, able to put on a righteous facade after becoming an adult. He had seen enough to speak eloquently on any subject.

He had nearly fooled Chi Ning into falling for it headfirst.

People like that only pursued profit.

Qin Heng's best option now was to get his high school diploma, then use his godfather Xu Jiahao's overseas connections to attend a university where he would barely need to study. After gilding his résumé, he could return home and launch his career in style, rather than steadily attending school in China.

Seeing him fall silent, Qin Heng's heart sank halfway. "Is it too late?"

Chi Ning said, "It's not too late."

"No. 1 High School" has strong teachers. Even the teachers in charge of the Blue Sky Class are outstanding education graduates from prestigious universities. If you want to study, getting into university won't be a problem."

But whether he could get into Gangnan was another matter.

Qin Heng caught the implication. He stepped closer and asked in a low voice, "I heard you often teach Class One students how to solve problems and give them your notes for free to copy. This time, Class One's students generally improved by more than twenty points."

"They all say it's because of you. If I study with the teachers, I can only get into an ordinary university. But what if I study with you?"

Chi Ning thought, Of course he could.

As long as Qin Heng was not stupid, forget HKU—even S University was somewhere Chi Ning could get him into. Standardized exams were easy enough.

But why should he?

Because Qin Heng had been full of lies in his previous life? Or because in this life, Qin Heng had said, "We're not brothers," and "That's not what I meant"?

Qin Heng studied Chi Ning's expression and cautiously said, "If you're willing to help me, I'll make bayberry juice for you for free. Every year, until you graduate from university."

Money did not move Chi Ning. But bayberry juice—five years' worth of it—was something he had to seriously consider.

Having drunk beverages through two lifetimes, only Qin Heng's tasted the best. What if he refused, Qin Heng got embarrassed and angry, and never made it for him again?

What if he could not buy it even with money?

The moment Chi Ning's expression softened, Qin Heng immediately pressed his advantage.

He tightly gripped Chi Ning's wrist, his thumb brushing the small mole beneath the protruding wrist bone. He lowered his eyes as though yielding.

Chi Ning remembered the first time they met, when Qin Heng had been lying in that alley. There had been a wildness about him, but even more unwillingness hidden beneath his deliberate show of weakness.

Fine. For the bayberry juice.

Chi Ning brushed Qin Heng's hand away.

Qin Heng pressed his lips together, thinking his pitiful act had failed.

To his surprise, the ever-proper Chi Ning chuckled. "I'm strict. If you dare waste my time, I'll beat you up."

His heart thudded against his chest. Qin Heng remembered the light slap Chi Ning had given his cheek a few months ago. Suddenly, getting hit once or twice did not seem so bad.

He lowered his voice. "Teacher Chi."

Chi Ning drew in a sharp breath. "Don't call me that."

Qin Heng let out an oh and called him by his nickname. "Ning?"

Chi Ning halted.

That was even worse than Teacher Chi!

Anger surged from his heart, and wickedness followed close behind. "Bring your placement test papers tomorrow night. We'll find somewhere to give you a lesson."

Teaching him directly at school was not impossible, but Chi Ning was afraid that if Qin Heng openly made himself at home in Class One, Wang Quan would not be able to take it.

Care for your lonely homeroom teacher started with you, me, and everyone else.

Still, this was his first time skipping evening self-study to tutor someone.

Although he had already applied to skip evening self-study, he had not missed a single day since school started. Everyone had simply assumed Chi Ning would remain until classes ended at ten thirty.

So when Li Qiuhe took the difficult question types his classmates had summarized for the day and wanted Chi Ning to explain them, what he saw was the academic god's utterly empty seat.

Vice class monitor Li Qiuhe looked bewildered. "Where's God Chi?"

The study representative was equally confused. "I don't know."

"Then let's wait. There are still three hours before evening self-study ends anyway."

After waiting for an hour, Class One's top students finally realized something was wrong.

The study representative said, "Something's off. Hurry and see whether Chi Ning's bag is still here."

"It's not good to rummage through someone else's bag, right? Fine, I won't rummage through it. I'll just take a look." Li Qiuhe backed away and craned his neck for a glance.

Inside Chi Ning's desk, two rows of textbooks were arranged neatly. Forget his bag—even his pens were gone.

God Chi had run off!

Li Qiuhe looked at the questions in his hand, then at Chi Ning's completely empty seat. He let out an anguished groan. "Comrades, I have a bad feeling about this. Could students from another class be competing with us for God Chi?"

Had someone discovered the secret behind Class One's sharp rise in average scores?

Class One's class monitor had already been recommended for admission to A University. Li Qiuhe felt that the burden of guarding God Chi had fallen onto his shoulders.

Tomorrow after school, he would stick to God Chi like glue and use every trick he had to keep him!

—

"Achoo—"

In a private room at Gangnan's Tea River Lounge, Chi Ning suddenly sneezed. Reflexively, he said, "Who's plotting against me?"

Qin Heng guiltily rubbed the back of his neck and raised a hand to place the vanilla ice cream Chi Ning had ordered within his reach.

Chi Ning pushed it away. "I'm not eating."

He pulled out a middle school all-subject practice workbook from his bag and spread it out before Qin Heng. "Do the first chapter of the math section."

Qin Heng said, "Okay, Ning—"

"What should you call me now?" Chi Ning glared. Before his expression could even turn cold, Qin Heng immediately corrected himself. "Okay, Teacher Chi."

Chi Ning thought, That's more like it.

For a moment, Qin Heng's mind was filled with only four words: He's so cute.

Chi Ning's looks did not actually have much to do with being cute. When he put on a cold face, he even had quite an imposing air; one look was enough to tell that he was a good student. Yet the boy truly was handsome and beautiful, blessed with naturally good looks. If he changed into a basketball jersey and stood on the court, he would still attract girls.

But Chi Ning never left anyone room to misunderstand. Thinking it over, everyone at No. 1 High School had simply assumed that Chi Ning definitely liked boys.

His personality was not particularly soft either. He was gentle but prickly, had a bit of a temper, and held grudges fiercely.

But Qin Heng simply found him cute.

He was cute when he was calm, cute when he held grudges, and cute when he silently threw a tantrum.

After Qin Heng finished the questions Chi Ning had assigned, he turned around and discovered that Chi Ning's reading material for passing the time was "The Secrets of the DNA Double Helix—Human Genetic Programming."

Qin Heng: ...

Great. He did not want to rest at all now.

He conscientiously checked his answers, corrected his mistakes with a red pen, circled the questions he could not understand, and placed them before Chi Ning. Then he turned sideways and leaned close, their thighs almost touching. "Teacher, can you teach me?"

Chi Ning placed his book facedown on the table. Just as he pulled the workbook over, a woman's hysterical shout came from next door. "Wasn't Mom doing this for you?!"

Chi Ning raised his hand, intending to close the window.

Tea River Lounge was Xu Jiahao's business, a self-service members-only tea restaurant that charged by private room. Every room had an outward-facing, upward-opening ventilation window. Closing it blocked out most of the noise.

His hand had already reached the window latch when a familiar voice rang out next door.

"Mom, I know where the line is. You shouldn't have had someone publish that article."

Shen Minyi?

Then the person who had spoken earlier was Madam Shen?

Chi Ning immediately released the latch, gave up on closing the window, moved to the other side of the private room, and made a shushing gesture at Qin Heng before quietly pressing his ear to the wall.

Madam Shen was putting on a fierce front despite being inwardly weak. Her voice was loud enough to hear clearly without even pressing against the wall. "Your idea of knowing where the line is means giving the national competition medal to Chi Ning? Running off to fight a hooligan over him?"

Shen Minyi remained fairly calm. "You need to understand that I haven't liked Chi Ning for just a day or two. Sexual orientation is innate. In the future, I'll marry a young lady from a prominent family and have children, as you wish. But after all these years of working so hard for you, keeping the young master of a fallen family around to look at isn't too much to ask."

"Father has five wives. You're only one of them."

Madam Shen let out a scream. A glass hit the floor, followed by the sudden sound of shattering.

Chi Ning was startled.

Then it was as though he had swallowed an entire toad alive, and nausea rose in his throat.

"You monster!" Madam Shen said in a trembling voice. "How could I have given birth to something like you?"

Shen Minyi gave a high, scornful laugh.

"Then you should ask yourself why you married Dad in the first place! Inferior genes are more easily inherited than superior ones. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for marrying a..."

He could not continue. He only said, "You can't possibly not know how much President Shen likes playing with little boys, can you?"