MTLY | Chapter 10

◎Fine, let him be a bastard then.◎

Tonight, Song Tinghuan did not go home with Jiang Yu. Her excuse was that the monthly exam had just ended and the teacher needed to make up lessons, so it was unclear what time school would let out.

Yes, she had lied to Jiang Yu.

At seven-thirty, Song Tinghuan finally shuffled into the Jiang family villa. It was Friday, and Meng Shutang had a social engagement, so she told her and Jiang Yu to figure out dinner themselves.

Song Tinghuan stood in the entryway changing shoes, head lowered.

Footsteps sounded from the side of the kitchen. She looked up and saw Jiang Yu coming out with a can of Sprite in his hand. He was wearing a gray hoodie and black lounge pants, and the whole person had a cool, stern air about him.

Thinking of her own very real 75 points, Song Tinghuan looked away.

She did not know how to tell Song Mingcheng about this.

For this monthly exam, all the subject teachers had required parents to sign the test papers. Song Mingcheng was far away in Lingcheng, so she could only go to Meng Shutang. But this score, not to mention how embarrassing it was, if Meng Shutang told Song Mingcheng, Song Mingcheng would definitely worry.

Song Tinghuan had talked to Song Mingcheng twice on the phone. Even though his tone was relaxed, she still sensitively caught the oddness in it.

Song Mingcheng was already very tired. Song Tinghuan did not want him to keep worrying about her business.

Song Tinghuan carried that worry all the way up, her soft pink lips pressed together, and did not say a single word to Jiang Yu the whole time.

Jiang Yu stood in the middle of the living room, took a sip of his drink, and glanced at the girl dragging herself up the stairs like a wilted rabbit.

Song Tinghuan shut herself in her room and thought for most of the night, but still had no clue.

By nine-thirty, she went downstairs to heat up some milk.

Jiang Yu was curled up on the sofa playing a game. Li Yiliang had gotten brutally beaten up again last night, and now he was clinging to Jiang Yu, determined to win back some face.

“Dad! Dad! Ahhhhhhh!”

Li Yiliang’s shriek came through the earphones. “Yu-ge, you’re my real father!”

Jiang Yu could not be bothered with him. Then, a dejected figure appeared in his line of sight. He did not even look at her as he slowly walked toward the kitchen.

Ever since coming back tonight, this girl had looked like she had lost her soul.

“Dad? What are you doing?” Li Yiliang suddenly shouted. Jiang Yu glanced at the screen, at himself standing dazed by the roadside, and pulled off one earbud. “Something came up. You play first.”

Li Yiliang: “??? You fucking bastard, get your ass back here!”

Jiang Yu had already reached the kitchen door. He saw Song Tinghuan take a carton of milk from the fridge, looking like her mind was somewhere else, and directly open the microwave.

Suddenly, the carton in her hand was taken away. Song Tinghuan turned around and looked at Jiang Yu beside her, puzzled.

Jiang Yu said, “What are you spacing out for?”

Song Tinghuan wanted to say she was not spacing out, she was just thinking. But Jiang Yu had already turned his back to her and poured the milk into a glass with a gurgling sound. When he turned back, the look in his eyes seemed to say, You have a record.

Song Tinghuan had no strength to argue. Last time, she really had almost blown up the kitchen.

The air seemed to slow. The kitchen fell silent, with only a faint glow inside the microwave, lighting up the tray as it rotated steadily.

Song Tinghuan was a little dazed. Her gaze seemed fixed on the microwave, but under her long lashes, her eyes had no focus.

Jiang Yu asked, “Did you bomb the exam?”

The monthly exam at Qinde had all three high school grades taking it together. Jiang Yu was far too familiar with that expression on Song Tinghuan’s face.

Being directly told she had “bombed the exam” was still a bit embarrassing for Song Tinghuan, but she only nodded and gave a soft “Mm.”

Ding.

Jiang Yu took the milk out of the microwave. “It’s just one exam. What can it prove?”

Song Tinghuan fell silent.

One exam really did not prove anything. She was only a freshman in high school, and in the next two years, she would have to go through countless exams. But she was still very upset, upset about how bad she had done.

Looking at the boy’s lean back, Song Tinghuan suddenly spoke up and stopped him.

“Jiang Yu, you…”

Jiang Yu turned his head slightly and raised a brow.

Song Tinghuan lowered her eyes. There was a ring of milky white foam around her mouth, and her voice was still very small. “Can you… sign it for me?”

*

Jiang Yu’s room.

When Song Tinghuan walked in with her stack of test papers, she heard Li Yiliang’s shameless, aggrieved voice coming from the receiver. “No way, anyway you have to make it up to me. If you don’t, even if I choke to death eating barbecue, I won’t let you off…”

Make it up? Make up what? How?

Song Tinghuan stood awkwardly in place. She could not quite imagine how someone as big and tough as Li Yiliang, a 185-centimeter black and solid-looking guy, could say something so whiny to Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu ignored him and casually scrolled through WeChat.

Song Tinghuan really had not meant to look at Jiang Yu’s phone, but the screen was full of a long, rambling wall of text, and the first line she saw was: Jiang Yu, I really like you.

Her eyes drifted to the top of the screen. The contact note was: 85 heart fsy

85?

He would not actually number girls, would he?

Li Yiliang’s nagging had not ended yet. Jiang Yu simply put the phone down on the desk and held out his hand toward Song Tinghuan.

Song Tinghuan embarrassedly handed over the test papers. Jiang Yu unfolded them and, at first glance, saw the math paper. He paused for a moment, then curved his lips.

That smile looked incredibly irritating in Song Tinghuan’s eyes.

She had deliberately put the math paper on top. With such a “trash example” in front, the ones behind would look… maybe not so bad.

Jiang Yu did not say anything. He flipped through page by page, writing the words “Seen” in the upper right corner of each paper, as if he were not signing test papers but reviewing memorials.

Song Tinghuan noticed that Jiang Yu’s handwriting was beautiful.

Smooth and flowing, strong and well-shaped, clearly something he had practiced since he was little.

Song Tinghuan had practiced calligraphy since she was young too, but hers was gentler and smaller.

After the stack of test papers was signed, Jiang Yu’s gaze landed again on the math paper at the top. Beside him, Li Yiliang was still rambling on the receiver.

Song Tinghuan did not really pay attention to what Li Yiliang was saying. She nervously watched Jiang Yu.

“Don’t use this formula,” Jiang Yu suddenly said. His voice was low and cool as he tapped a problem on the paper with his long fingers.

Li Yiliang said, “What the hell?”

Jiang Yu said, “Use substitution with equivalent quantities.”

Song Tinghuan had not expected Jiang Yu to explain the problem to her. When Qin Shuxia had taught this question in class today, she had not really understood it.

Now, looking again and following Jiang Yu’s “equivalent substitution” approach, Song Tinghuan felt like it all suddenly became clear.

Sure enough, a second-year high school student doing a first-year paper really was a dimensionality reduction attack.

A girl’s voice suddenly sounded through the receiver. “Jiang Yu, are you home?”

Song Tinghuan: “?”

“Jiang Yu, I know you’re still angry with me. What happened last time was my fault. I shouldn’t have said those things to you. But I didn’t lose my temper at you, I was just acting cute. Really, Jiang Yu, don’t ignore me, okay?”

Song Tinghuan listened blankly to the clingy voice coming through the receiver. She did not know who the other person was, but from this voice, Song Tinghuan was certain it was neither the girl who had appeared outside the Jiang family villa that night, nor Zhang Xinran.

She had thought he was just a scumbag. She had not expected him to be a total playboy too.

Song Tinghuan said, “If there isn’t…”

The moment she spoke, Song Tinghuan realized Jiang Yu had not hung up the phone yet.

As expected, the girl’s voice on the other end suddenly froze, carrying a trace of uncertainty. “Jiang Yu, is there a girl in your house?”

Jiang Yu, who had not answered all this time, finally said his first sentence to the phone since Song Tinghuan came in.

His lips curved in a smile, while his eyes were lazy. “Can’t my house have a girl in it?”

Song Tinghuan felt that if another boy said that, it would definitely sound sleazy and greasy.

But Jiang Yu right now had a smile at the corner of his lips, while the depths of his eyes were cold, as if he was deliberately saying it just to make the girl on the other end give up.

The receiver went silent all of a sudden.

“Jiang Yu, you’re a bastard!” came a sharp cry, and then the call was cut off.

The busy tone rang out. Jiang Yu ran a hand through his hair and let out a faint breath, as if he had finally gotten rid of a nuisance.

Fine, let him be a bastard then. At least it was quiet.

He looked up and saw Song Tinghuan still standing there dazedly beside him, her soft dark eyes seeming to hold a bit of disappointment.

What a good melon, and it had suddenly gone bad.

Song Tinghuan was indeed a little regretful.

“A little disappointed?”

“Huh?” Song Tinghuan’s heart jumped. How had he seen through her?

She clutched the test papers in her hand and held them in front of herself, trying to hide her momentary guilt.

The girl’s eyes were full of panic. Did she not know that her eyes had long since betrayed her?

Probably not.

She clearly looked like the kind of girl protected very well by her parents, innocent and naive, pure and easy to fool.

Jiang Yu asked, “This time, what do I look like to you?”

Song Tinghuan did not make a sound, only blinking her long lashes once.

She still could not hide it from him.

Song Tinghuan looked at the boy’s handsome face. The sharpness at the corners of his narrow eyes had softened, and his jet-black eyes were deep and clear.

Being scrutinized by such a pair of eyes, Song Tinghuan felt a kind of panicked sense that there was nowhere to hide.

“Nothing,” she answered softly.

Even though all kinds of weird thoughts had flashed through her mind just now, it had only been for that instant. She was not stupid. She could tell Jiang Yu’s impatience just now, and how relaxed he looked after the other side hung up.

Maybe he was not the kind of playboy she had imagined.

Of course, it was also possible he was simply at too high a level, and she had failed to see through him.

“What are your plans for tomorrow?”

“Huh?” Song Tinghuan blinked. Then she remembered tomorrow was Saturday.

“I made plans with Guan Linlin to go to the bookstore.”

“Can you handle lunch yourself?” After saying that, Jiang Yu added, “Meng Shutang won’t be back tonight, and she probably won’t be back tomorrow night either.”

Song Tinghuan was stunned for a moment before she realized that Meng Shutang was Jiang Yu’s mother. Who called their mother by her full name like that?

“I can. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Song Tinghuan could probably guess that this was definitely another one of Meng Shutang’s requests, asking Jiang Yu to take care of her.

“Okay, I’ll come back tonight.”

“Oh.”

That meant he would take care of her dinner.

“Then…” Song Tinghuan paused. “Thank you for signing it for me. I’m going back now?”

“Mm.”

Jiang Yu looked down. A game had already started on his phone, and his slender knuckles tapped rapidly, causing cool special effects to flash repeatedly across the screen.

Song Tinghuan pressed her lips together. She was terrible at games.

Jiang Yu was not wearing earphones, and Li Yiliang’s excited voice kept bouncing out of the speaker.

“Yu-ge, kill him! Kill him dead!”

“Yu-ge, there’s a girl in the next round. Take her with you?”

“Not taking her.”

“She’s your fan girl, says your name every other sentence, says she doesn’t mean anything else by it, just that she thinks you’re approachable, like a real older brother.”

“What, trying to get my family fortune?”

“…”

Song Tinghuan also froze for a moment, then a few scattered traces of laughter rose in her eyes.

She had not expected Jiang Yu’s mouth to be this rotten, but his brain really was fast.

“Yu-ge, did you watch the video I sent you yesterday?”

“Mm.”

“That chest line is really fucking nice, firm and full, and her ass is big too. Hey, I heard with this kind of… the bigger the chest, the better, right?”

“Mm.”

“Then tomorrow when we go over there, help me pick one? I want the fiercest kind.”

Jiang Yu did not answer. His attention was all on the phone screen, and he did not notice at all that Song Tinghuan was still in the room.

Song Tinghuan was almost dumbstruck. Her ears burned so hot her brain started to short-circuit.

What… what were they talking about? Where were they… going tomorrow?

A third voice finally sounded through the receiver. “Fuck, can you people speak human language? What the hell are you even talking about?”

Song Tinghuan hurriedly turned around and almost bumped into the corner of the bed.

She fled in a flurry of motion, making quite a bit of noise along the way. Only then did Jiang Yu finally look up and catch sight of the girl’s nearly panicked back as she ran away.

Li Yiliang’s confused voice also finally rang out. “What what the hell are we talking about? Talking about horses, man. I studied all night last night. Tomorrow we’re going to the racetrack, of course I have to pick the fiercest one, have some fun!”

Author’s note:

Song Tinghuan: They’re so weird. I don’t want to play with them anymore.

Jiang Yu: ?