After tailing Li Tongzhou’s mother, Jiang Min, for a while, Guo Jingyu really made some discoveries.
Jiang Min led a disciplined life. Apart from her regular work and occasional overtime, she dedicated herself to managing the household. Although her time spent at home was noticeably less compared to her work commitments, she still tried her best. After all, her workplace demanded rigorous testing tasks, sometimes extending late into the night. Despite the challenges, she managed to climb up to her current position through sheer hard work and dedication. She really has a genuine passion for her profession.
As for Li Qingcheng, surprisingly, there were no immediate findings of any suspicious connections within a short period of time. His companions were all colleagues from work. Despite having a separate small apartment, he was the only temporary resident. Every day, a driver would pick him up and drop him off for work, and there were no sightings of anyone else entering his apartment.
When the private investigator met with Guo Jingyu, he said, “Doesn’t seem like he’s keeping a mistress outside. His routine looks pretty regular, always at the office, with chauffeur service, nothing out of the ordinary.” After saying this, he chuckled to himself, “But then again, it’s quite strange not to return home. What do you think?”
Guo Jingyu nodded. “Keep an eye on the people he usually interacts with. If anything suspicious comes up, let me know immediately.”
The other person agreed with a nod.
Guo Jingyu continued, “You mentioned earlier that Li Tongzhou also goes out on weekends?”
The person nodded. “Yes, once every two weeks. He hops into a car and heads out. But it seems like it’s on the way somewhere. Every time, they head towards Yancheng Road. I followed up and found it’s a counseling center.”
“A counseling center?” Guo Jingyu raised an eyebrow.
“Yes,” the informant confirmed. “I went in and asked. They cater to students from elementary to high school. Especially on weekends, many parents bring their children, especially around exam times when people are under a lot of pressure. They go there for some guidance from the teachers.”
Guo Jingyu nodded in understanding, exhaling a breath of relief. “That’s good to hear.”
Guo Jingyu instructed the private detective to keep a close eye on Li Qingcheng. The more he observed Li Qingcheng, the more strange he seemed. It felt as if he had everything under a shroud of disguise, meticulously arranged years in advance, prepared for any casual inspection.
In mid-October, it was time for the class mock exams.
After entering their senior year, exams became a regular occurrence, and they had become somewhat immune to the monthly assessments. For students in the advanced classes, they had completed the entire curriculum in just two years. So, the entirety of their senior year was essentially spent on revising and taking exams repeatedly. Guo Jingyu returned just in time for this examination period.
Guo Jingyu clearly felt the strain in his academic subjects, but regardless, he did his best to fill every empty space as much as possible.
When the results were released, unsurprisingly, Guo Jingyu found himself at the bottom of the list.
Li Tongzhou sat beside him, his scores still maintaining an excellent standard. The two of them represented the extremes of the class: one at the top, the other at the bottom.
On the evening when the results were announced, Guo Jingyu deliberately skipped his usual trip to the art studio and stayed in the classroom, waiting for the test papers to be handed out. He calculated his total score while glancing through the papers. Li Tongzhou was also there, helping him go through the test papers. His furrowed brows showed were much more than Guo Jingyu’s, as if he couldn’t accept this score.
After calculating with a flick of his fingers, Guo Jingyu sighed deeply. “Exactly 385 points.”
Li Tongzhou sat silently beside him and said nothing.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Yc atf batfg rlvf, joafg j yglfo wbwfca bo rlifcmf, Xeb Alcuse revvfcis ajqqfv atf afra qjqfg, tlr ojmf oliifv klat fzmlafwfca. “Ol Kbcuhtbe, vlv sbe rff atja? Qtfc gbecvfv eq, P rmbgfv 400 qblcar! Gfrqlaf atf rlz-wbcat vfijs, ws rmbgf tjgvis vgbqqfv ja jii. Prc’a atja jkfrbwf?”
Li Tongzhou paused, taken aback. Could this score even drop any further?
Guo Jingyu explained to him, “Don’t underestimate 400 points. Last time, Lao Cao helped me estimate. According to the admission scores of previous sessions in the art academy, for those who rank high in their majors, the academic requirements aren’t that stringent. As long as I maintain around 450 points, I should be able to breeze through.”
After a moment of thought, Li Tongzhou still advised, “Jingyu, you shouldn’t put all your hopes solely on your major. If you can improve your scores in academic subjects even by a small margin, you should do it. Always try to do your best.”
Guo Jingyu said, “I understand. It’s just that you were too tense earlier. Relax a little.” He reached out and squeezed Li Tongzhou’s shoulder, smiling. “Let’s set a small goal for now, achieve 400 points. Then, we’ll slowly increase it by 10 points, 10 points. We still have a year ahead of us, Li Tongzhou. Do you have the confidence to help me reach 450 points?”
Li Tongzhou nodded quietly. “Yes.”
Over the next few days, Guo Jingyu learned a lesson for his big mouth.
Li Tongzhou’s confidence stemmed from his strong grasp of fundamental knowledge and its flexible application. He was worried that Guo Jingyu might slack off, so he specially compiled a book of mistakes Guo Jingyu had made in the past.
He even made a phone call to Mother Guo, hoping that parental supervision would be put in place.
Mother Guo was so happy. She felt that simply standing by and supervising wasn’t enough. She couldn’t wait to bring back their previous private tutor, having one on each side, to watch over Guo Jingyu as he did his assignments.
Guo Jingyu found himself plunged into the depths of the gaokao question bank, even dreaming at night of Li Tongzhou supervising him, holding a stopwatch and urging him to write faster.
In his dream, Guo Jingyu was on the verge of a breakdown, listening to the ticking of the stopwatch. Frantically scribbling away, he questioned, “Li Tongzhou! Do you even love me?!”
The invigilator holding the stopwatch remained calm and composed. Their voice cold and detached, they said, “Yes, you have ten minutes left. I suggest you start with the longer questions at the end, or you won’t make it in time.”
Guo Jingyu felt tears welling up in his eyes.
…
After waking up from the dream, just as Guo Jingyu was catching his breath while lying in bed, there came a knock on the door. Mother Guo called out from outside, “Jingyu! Hurry up, Xiaozhou is here to pick you up for school!”
Guo Jingyu lay in bed, mustering only enough energy to respond with a nasal sound, his fingers barely moving.
After a short while, the door was lightly tapped twice, then gently pushed open. “Jingyu?”
Guo Jingyu looked up and saw Li Tongzhou, and even more depleted, he just grunted in response, lying on the bed.
Li Tongzhou approached and sat on the edge of the bed, asking, “Are you feeling unwell?” He reached out to touch Guo Jingyu’s forehead, furrowing his brows slightly. “It’s a bit warm. Did you kick off your blanket again yesterday?”
Guo Jingyu closed his eyes and grumbled, “Don’t mention it, I’m exhausted.”
Li Tongzhou laughed softly, pinching his nose lightly. “Studying too hard? How about today I won’t let you touch any test papers. We’ll just do what you like, okay?”
Guo Jingyu opened his eyes, looking at Li Tongzhou with a hint of anticipation. It had been a long time since he last went out for fun.
With gentle eyes, Li Tongzhou coaxed him, “Today, we’ll only do English listening comprehension. Come on, get up and change your clothes. I’ll help you with your jacket.”
Guo Jingyu stubbornly pulled the blanket over his head, acting childish. But Li Tongzhou still managed to drag him out of bed, helped him get dressed, persuaded him to have breakfast, and they went to school together.
On the bus, Guo Jingyu hadn’t fully awakened yet. He leaned his head on Li Tongzhou’s shoulder in a half-dreamy, half-awake state. Whenever the bus jolted, Li Tongzhou would reach out to protect him. Guo Jingyu, with his eyes closed, began to grumble, “I dreamt about you last night, and it was a nightmare.”
Li Tongzhou fell silent for a moment before saying, “You didn’t used to say that.”
Guo Jingyu retorted, “You also didn’t used to force me to do so many questions.”
Li Tongzhou used his fingers to brush away the stray hairs on Guo Jingyu’s forehead. Guo Jingyu squirmed, feeling ticklish. He wrinkled his nose and tried to dodge, but Li Tongzhou gently tapped his forehead. Guo Jingyu opened his eyes, discontented, and said, “Bullying me in my dreams and still bullying me when I’m awake?”
Observing him for a moment, Li Tongzhou suddenly burst into laughter.
Guo Jingyu’s heart raced, but he tried to maintain a stern expression. “I’m really upset. I demand a day off. Even at work, it’s important to balance work and rest. You can’t just make people work overtime like this.”
Li Tongzhou nodded, asking, “How do you want to rest?”
As soon as the topic came up, Guo Jingyu perked up, excitedly suggesting, “How about going for a sketching trip this weekend? Teacher Jin is taking the sophomore students out, just on the outskirts of the city. I heard the scenery there is spectacular, and you can even go fishing! Do you want to come along?”
Li Tongzhou reached out and secretly intertwined his fingers with Guo Jingyu’s. “Sure, if you do well on today’s test, we’ll go together.”
A smile froze on Guo Jingyu’s face. “Today’s test?”
“Yeah, it’s a quiz today.”
Caught off guard by the pop quiz, Guo Jingyu was already feeling the heat from both sides. He gritted his teeth and pushed through, some of the questions feeling almost like drawing, as if he had developed muscle memory from practicing.
When the results of the pop quiz were announced, Guo Jingyu’s ranking remained unchanged, still holding the bottom spot.
However, there was an improvement in his scores. He achieved 415 points.
In just two or three weeks, he had managed to raise his score by several tens of points, earning him a few praises from the class teacher when the report cards were handed out.
Guo Jingyu took back his test paper, glanced at his score, then looked at Li Tongzhou beside him, who naturally took over to start writing down the mistakes. Suddenly, he felt confident about his performance in this cultural class, and felt a surge of pride welling up within him.
With his results in hand, Guo Jingyu indeed obtained permission from his family, especially when they heard he was going out with Li Tongzhou. Mother Guo expressed particular satisfaction, saying, “Go ahead, have fun with Xiaozhou. Take good care of him, you hear?”
Guo Jingyu replied, “I got it. I’ll even carry him up the mountain.”
Mother Guo patted his shoulder and chuckled, “Xiaozhou is taller than you. If you carry him, your legs will be dragging on the ground.”
This was also one of Guo Jingyu’s recent grievances. He remembered that he and Li Tongzhou were about the same height when they were studying together. But now, he wasn’t sure if Li Tongzhou had stealthily grown taller, or if he had been suffocated by the pressure of studying, preventing him from growing taller. He was now nearly half a head shorter than Li Tongzhou, the gap gradually widening.
Over the weekend, Guo Jingyu informed Teacher Jin and took Li Tongzhou with him on the school bus for the sketching trip.
He deliberately selected a few lively songs and loaded them onto his MP3 player. They each took one earphone and listened to the music together. Perhaps because the private tutor knew he was going out to play yesterday and purposely extended the lesson by an extra hour, Guo Jingyu felt sleepy after listening to only a few songs. Li Tongzhou pressed him gently on the shoulder, and he fell asleep with his eyes closed.
Li Tongzhou lowered his gaze to look at the boy sleeping heavily on his shoulder. Faint shadows of blue appeared under the boy’s eyes. Li Tongzhou extended his thumb and gently touched that small patch of shadow, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
The person he liked was really working very hard.
After the bumpy journey, they finally arrived at the outskirts. Teacher Jin brought the sophomore students to sketch landscapes, deliberately choosing a place with mountains and water. They stayed at a nearby farmhouse inn. In the courtyard stood an old tree, lush and well-maintained, evidently having hosted many artists who came here for inspiration.
Guo Jingyu and the others joined in at their own expense, so they didn’t stay with the other students. Instead, they found another small inn nearby. The inn had better conditions, and its courtyard was decorated with some charm. Two persimmon trees stood in front of the gate, their branches full with ripe fruit, their skins bright red and round, looking adorable.
Guo Jingyu immediately noticed these two trees and smiled, saying, “This place is great! ‘Persimmons bring good luck.’ You can tell it’s a good place just by looking at it!”
The author has something to say:
Little Theater:
After returning from the painting studio in the capital and scoring 415 points—
Li Tongzhou: …What should we do?
Guo Jingyu: I’m awesome! Hahaha!
K: I swear at some point in college im just, “I passed!!” HAHAHAH
