TLC: Rin
“Xiao Che, your phone is ringing again.” Zhou Zeliang said.
“Ignore it.” Duan Yuche held the cone that was about to melt in the heat with one hand, and fished out his phone with the other hand. He glanced at the screen, and directly hung up, “It’s my father again, annoying.”
“Did your father really bring the poor student he sponsored home?” Zhou Zeliang handed him the bag of chicken nuggets, “Is it his illegitimate son?”
Duan Yuche said vaguely with a chicken nugget in his mouth, “I asked him and he said no. He said I was imagining things.”
A few days ago, he heard that Duan Shumin was going to take home the sponsored ethnic minority poor student to study in the Experimental Foreign Language School, so he went to Zhou Zeliang to complain. After pondering for a long time, the two of them felt that this poor student was most likely Duan Shumin’s illegitimate child. Duan Yuche’s thoughts were chaotic and keen, and he had a fierce quarrel with Duan Shumin and also said very hurtful words.
Eventually, he figured out that this poor student named Cao Feng was indeed not Duan Shumin’s seed, but he couldn’t give up his self-esteem to apologize, and he resented the fact that a stranger was going to live in his home, so he had been in a cold war with him until now.
“How old is that poor student?”
“Not sure, a little older than me, I guess.”
“Be careful, if it’s really your father’s illegitimate son, what if he robs the family property from you?”
“Rob from me?” The melted vanilla ice cream dripped onto his hand. Duan Yuche threw it directly into the trash can. His tone was light as a feather, “I’ll kill him.”
While the two were talking, Zhou Zeliang noticed someone behind them——it was the beggar who followed again.
He nudged Duan Yuche’s shoulder: “Hey.”
“What?”
“You look at the back, that guy is following us, isn’t he?”
Duan Yuche turned and glanced at the back. The guy staggered, as if he wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to hide. Dark-skinned and wretched, he looked like a stray dog that had just come out of the garbage can.
“He’s really following us! What the hell?” Zhou Zeliang tugged Duan Yuche away quickly. “Does that guy want to rob you because you have money?”
“I don’t think so,” Duan Yuche said and thought, with that kind of eyes, he knew at first glance that he wasn’t a bad person. “Maybe he just wanted to thank me?” As the voice fell, the man strode behind the two of them.
Zhou Zeliang immediately guarded Duan Yuche behind him and stared at him warily, “What are you doing?!”
Cao Feng followed all the way and finally summoned up the courage to walk behind. He only looked at Duan Yuche and returned the money to him in silence.
Duan Yuche looked down at the few yuans in his hand, and suddenly realized——it turned out that he didn’t want the money.
The two looked at each other. Zhou Zeliang muttered to himself. He should have told earlier that he was going to return the money, why took him so long. Thought he was going to rob. He reached out and snatched the money back, tucked it into Duan Yuche’s bag, and without saying a word, he pulled him away.
Seeing that the two of them were about to leave, Cao Feng was anxious, so he raised his foot, wanting to catch up.
“Why are you still following!” Zhou Zeliang immediately turned around and glared at him, yelling, “Are you done? I’m telling you, my uncle is from the local police station. Follow us once more and I’ll report you to the police to arrest you immediately!”
Cao Feng didn’t look at him. His gaze was solely on Duan Yuche. But at the crucial point, he faltered. This was his “incompletely cured illness”. He only formally learned Mandarin three years ago, and many of his classmates teased him about his accent.
He stammered for quite a while and failed to elicit what he was going to say.
Zhou Zeliang frowned and whispered to Duan Yuche, “Do you know him?”
“I don’t recognize him.” Duan Yuche raised his head and scrutinized him for a few seconds, “You are?”
”I, I am…” Cao Feng opened his mouth, not knowing how to explain, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He couldn’t speak for a long time.
The more Zhou Zeliang stared at him, the more he looked like a bad person, so he hurriedly grabbed Duan Yuche away.
The two of them directly called a car to leave. Cao Feng chased them for at least fifty meters, even his shoes dropped, causing Zhou Zeliang to scold him “mad dog” in the car.
Cao Feng couldn’t keep up. He stood at a loss on the street, watching the taxi disappear. After a long while, he turned to pick up his shoes that had fallen in the middle of the road.
–
The taxi drove to Zhou Zeliang’s house. Zhou Zeliang’s mother opened the door. When she saw Duan Yuche, she immediately greeted him warmly: “Aiya! Xiao Che is here! Quickly come in for air conditioning. Auntie will cook two more dishes.”
Duan Yuche immediately said, “No need, auntie, no need to make it specially. I just had some snacks. I’m not hungry. I can’t eat much.”
“Don’t be polite,” She said with a disapproving face, “You’re tired from studying, right? Have some more. How can young people not eat more? You’re still growing!”
Zhou Zeliang spoke out first, “Mom, I’ll take him upstairs first.” After speaking, he pulled Duan Yuche, who had changed his slippers, and walked quickly to his room.
Duan Yuche and Zhou Zeliang were seatmates in junior high school. Currently, they were in senior high and were also in the same school. He went to a private school in junior high school. At that time, he had just returned to China. Besides his Eastern appearance, he didn’t look like a Chinese child at all. He was very different from a native Chinese. He couldn’t speak Chinese well, and there were even rumors that he was raised in Europe and was of mixed Chinese and German descent with four nations mixed… Everything was in a mess.
Many people knew that his father was the president of the bank, and Duan Yuche was nicknamed as the walking ATM.
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.
However, Duan Shumin felt that he was acting too much like a thug in the private school. He liked to fight with people and had some bad habits. He had no time to manage him. He was afraid that something would happen during his rebellious period, so he arranged for him to go to a stricter Experimental Foreign Language School to attend senior high.
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Most of the students in the international class were preparing to study abroad. There were many English classes, and two foreign teacher classes a week, so that students could successfully pass the TOEFL, IELTS, or AP.
Pa’r bcis yffc akb vjsr rlcmf atf yfulcclcu bo rmtbbi. Qtlif aegclcu bc atf mbwqeafg, Itbe Ifiljcu jrxfv, “Cgfc’a sbe ublcu tbwf abcluta?”
“Not going back.” Duan Yuche dropped his school bag on the floor and collapsed on the bed, his arm covering his eyes.
Zhou Zeliang thought about it and said, “Okay, but you can’t let your father worry. Call him and say you’re staying overnight at our house.”
Duan Yuche said he understood, but he still didn’t move.
When going downstairs to eat, the landline of the Zhou family rang. Mother Zhou got up to answer the phone: “Hello? President Duan… Oh, yes, he’s in our house.”
Duan Yuche heard a little sound and looked up.
Zhou Zeliang pointed with his chopsticks: “Your father?”
Duan Yuche nodded: “It seems to be.”
“Mom!” Zhou Zeliang exclaimed, “You tell Uncle Duan, Xiao Che will stay at our house tonight…”
Mother Zhou heard it and forwarded it to the phone: “The two children said they wanted to study together… Mn, I’ll send them to school tomorrow…”
Duan Shumin responded, “If it’s not troublesome, can you ask Duan Yuche to answer the phone?”
Mother Zhou handed the telephone receiver to Duan Yuche. He took it and put it to his ear, but didn’t speak.
“You wish to stay at your classmate’s house tonight?” He couldn’t sense if Duan Shumin was happy or angry from his voice.
He gave a low muffled yes.
“Stop getting angry with dad,” Duan Shumin said in a calm tone as much as possible, “You can stay at your classmate’s house tonight, but you must come home tomorrow! In addition, you must go to school. Your Teacher Ma told me about the situation today. Dad didn’t say anything about your poor grades, but you should have basic respect for your studies and your teacher.”
After all, the child grew up in Switzerland. The education there was different from that in China. The primary school students there had never taken a formal academic class. When his mother first sent him back, she specifically told him about this issue. Duan Shumin understood his son very well and rarely made it hard for him on academic issues. Even if he was called to school by the teacher, he always politely explained his son’s special situation to the teacher.
He continued, “I’ll go to your school tomorrow afternoon, and then you’ll come home with me.”
“Why are you coming to school? The homeroom teacher called?” Duan Yuche wrinkled his brows.
Duan Shumin said there was something going on, and told him a few more words of advice.
He’s in someone else’s home, Duan Yuche didn’t want to argue with him, so he gave a nasal “mn” to indicate that he understood.
The next day, Mother Zhou sent the two children to school. Feiji, Duan Yuche’s classmate, asked him what he did yesterday: “Teacher Ma asked us to find you. How can we find you.”
Duan Yuche said that he went to the Internet café.
Feiji’s name was Du Pengfei, because he had a head of plane hairstyle that elevated his height of 1.65 meters to a height of 1.7 meters in shoes, and got this nickname. Feiji looked at him with a carefree look and said, “When Teacher Ma comes, he will definitely call you to the office. Aren’t you afraid at all that he’ll punish you?”
Duan Yuche shook his head and said with no fear, “Can he still expel me?”
As expected, within a few minutes, the fat Ma Xiaobo appeared in the classroom, walked to Duan Yuche’s seat, knocked on his table, and said, “Come with me for a moment.”
Ma Xiaobo didn’t scold him, but informed him that he must find the time to get vaccinated, and this kind of thing should never be allowed to happen again: “This time, let’s forget that you’re a first-time offender. The school has its rules and regulations. If you skip more than three classes, you will be dismissed. You don’t want to be the first student expelled this semester, right?”
Duan Yuche didn’t care in his mind, his lips answered. He had long been accustomed to Zurich’s relaxed education. Even if he had returned to China for more than three years, he still couldn’t accept this kind of high-pressure education.
Especially, every time from one to three o’clock in the afternoon, he was seriously sleepy. Because according to conventional reasoning and morals, it’s time to go home from school at three o’clock in the afternoon.
At least in the past, the course content was far less boring than domestic classes. Culinary arts, handicrafts, and playing soccer… Four classes a day, dismissal at three, and then a slow ride home on the school bus.
As he was propping up his chin and drifting off to sleep under the voice of the physics teacher’s lecture, there was a commotion in the classroom.
“Is that a transfer student that Teacher Ma just took with him?”
“When I carried my exercise book to the office this morning, I heard the office teacher say that there would be a poor transfer student from ethnic minorities coming in our class…”
“Transfer student? Is it true?”
“A male or a female? There will also be a poor student in our international class?”
Huh?
Poor transfer student? Ethnic minority?
Nowadays, he was very sensitive to the word “ethnic minority”, because the one Duan Shumin took home yesterday was said to be an ethnic minority.
Duan Shumin said that he was coming to school today to do something, it shouldn’t be…?
Duan Yuche opened his eyes’ wide and glanced obliquely opposite towards the homeroom teacher’s office. The dark blue curtains were drawn in the office, revealing only a gap, and a pot of dark green aquatic potted plants was struggling to grow towards the sun.
The Class 7 of the international class was at the end of the corridor of the central school building. The office was in the first room at the corner. As long as the office opened the curtains, the students sitting in the classroom could easily see what the teacher was doing. Similarly, it was easy for the teacher to see whether the students in class were serious, who was sleeping, who was listening to lectures, and who was passing notes.
So most of the time, the classmates sitting by the window tacitly drew the curtains tightly.
The reason why it was opened today was because of a problem with the fan in the classroom. The weather was too sultry, and the windows were opened to let in some air.
Just as he was wondering if it was what he thought, he caught a glimpse of Duan Shumin outside the corridor, standing outside the window in a suit and leather shoes, as if he was looking for him.
Duan Yuche turned his head to look at him. Duan Shumin happened to see him too. He stretched out his hand and pointed to the blackboard, indicating to listen to the lecture.
Duan Yuche took out his phone and looked at the time, it was almost the end of class.
When the bell rang after class, Duan Shumin was no longer outside the classroom. Duan Yuche guessed that he might be in the office and walked over.
The office door was closed. A student happened to enter. The door “creaked” and opened. He looked inside just in time to see his father talking to Ma Xiaobo.
Coincidentally, he and this homeroom teacher, Teacher Ma, were considered acquaintances. Ma Xiaobo and his junior high school Chinese teacher were lovers. A few years ago, Duan Yuche just returned to China. He couldn’t speak Chinese well. Every sentence was English with French and German languages. Only occasionally could a Chinese language pop up. He lived in the German-speaking area of Zurich and went to school in the French-speaking area. It was difficult for him to accept the domestic education style after returning to China. To the extent that every subject was poorly studied and he failed all the lessons.
During the first two summer vacations, Duan Shumin arranged for him to go to the Chinese teacher to make up classes.
Both couples were home tutors, one for senior high school students in English and the other for junior high school students in Chinese.
Ma Xiaobo knew that he grew up in Switzerland when he was a child. He asked some of his students to come and talk to Duan Yuche and treat it as if practicing speaking the English language for free. As a result, they learned a f__king Irish accent from Duan Yuche.
Duan Yuche didn’t intend to go in. He merely chewed his gum and stood by the door with his arms folded. By surprise, his eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of a tall guy sitting beside the office seat of the other teacher, seriously writing his test paper, and top of his head was shaggy black curly hair.
He immediately thought of what had just been discussed——the very poor transfer student.
Duan Yuche and he stared at each other for a few seconds, and in an instant he remembered who this curly hair was.
He exactly met him outside the school yesterday!
Cao Feng still stared at him blankly. What happened yesterday was still vivid in his mind, and Cao Feng was very guilty of not being able to bring him home.
Later, after listening to his description, Xiao Zhang knew that Duan Yuche was with Zhou Zeliang again, so he called Duan Shumin to tell him about it.
Duan Shumin was used to it. Knowing that his child was throwing a tantrum, he didn’t say anything and asked Xiao Zhang to send Cao Feng home.
From then on, Cao Feng moved into Duan’s house, a huge villa. He had never seen such a beautiful big house, and Uncle Duan also arranged a wide bedroom for him. He was very kind to him. Today, he took him to buy clothes, and even personally brought him to register in school.
“Then I’ll trouble Teacher Ma, thank you, our Yuche has a naughty personality and needs to be disciplined! If he does something wrong, you can just call me!” Duan Shumin stood up and shook the teacher’s hand very sincerely.
“I did what I was supposed to do.” Ma Xiaobo said politely, “These are trivial matters. You’ve also been a teacher. You know that this is what we should do as teachers. By the way, students aren’t allowed to use mobile phones and game consoles in school. Once they are found, they will be confiscated. If it’s used in class and discovered by other teachers, they can be given a demerit.”
Two days ago, Ma Xiaobo discovered that Duan Yuche was playing a game console during class.
Although he had only met this President Duan a few times, he knew Duan Yuche for more than two years. Due to trust, the whole family had savings cards from Guangshang Bank, and they also bought funds and insurance.
Duan Shumin immediately guaranteed: “Don’t worry! When school officially starts, I’ll confiscate his phone and resolutely won’t delay his study!”
Ma Xiaobo nodded in satisfaction, saw Cao Feng stood up, and said, “One more thing, Cao Feng’s hairstyle is unqualified. There’s an inspection for the appearance and grooming next week. Better get a haircut first this weekend.”
He had a strong voice. Duan Yuche clearly heard the name “Cao Feng”.
He stared at the curly-haired one in disbelief.
The three of them said a few more words in the office before they came out.
Duan Shumin came out first, and Duan Yuche directly followed up. He was still in disbelief. How could it be such a coincidence?
He glanced back and forth on Duan Shumin and Cao Feng’s faces several times.
The poor student and Duan Shumin really didn’t look alike. His father was white and very refined. Cao Feng had a completely rough appearance, from his deep eyebrows to his firm jaw, he was different from Duan Shumin.
With a sigh of relief in his mind, he asked Duan Shumin knowingly: “Who is he?”
“Cao Feng, didn’t I tell you?” Duan Shumin was afraid that he would throw a tantrum and put Cao Feng on the spot, so he grabbed his son’s wrist with one hand. “Your Cao Feng-gege transferred to the same class as you. He has good grades. You study properly with him.”
Duan Yuche’s eyes widened, and he almost cursed.
He glanced back at the bumpkin who was much taller than Duan Shumin.
The tall and large man was holding a pile of brand new textbooks, wearing new clothes, a pair of new shoes, and carrying a new school bag. He knew at first glance that Duan Shumin had bought it. But even though he was dressed in clean new clothes, he couldn’t conceal the cowardly local aura that came out from the mountains.
After a few seconds of silence, Duan Yuche asked, “He has very good grades?”
Duan Shumin said yes, his expression was obviously quite pleased: “He scored more than 800 marks in the senior high school entrance examination, nearly five hundred points more than you, and he was the first in his area.” After speaking, he waved and called Cao Feng behind him, “Xiao Feng, come here, this is your younger brother, Duan Yuche. Xiao Che, this is your older brother, call him gege.”
Duan Yuche wasn’t happy. He closed his lips tightly and said nothing. He thought to himself that in such a small place, how good would it be, and what’s the use of studying well?
As a result of his education, he had always paid little attention to his grades.
Hearing Duan Shumin’s words, Cao Feng’s dry lips opened slightly, and he shouted, “Didi.”
Listen, even his Mandarin was so bad. And you say that his grades are good?
Duan Yuche glanced at him blankly, as if to confirm something in his eyes… but only saw Cao Feng’s nervousness.
His deep black pupils were surprisingly clear.
Duan Yuche didn’t speak in the end. At this moment, Ma Xiaobo came out and called Cao Feng: “Come, Cao Feng, teacher will take you to the class and arrange a seat for you.”
Cao Feng looked at Duan Shumin. Duan Shumin patted him on the shoulder, and said, “Go, Xiao Feng, adapt to the environment today, and come out with your younger brother after school. Uncle will pick you up. Don’t be afraid.”
Cao Feng gave an mn, and bowed humbly: “See you again later, uncle.”
Seeing him doing this again, Duan Shumin also didn’t know what to say, because as soon as he took this child home yesterday, he knelt down right away, and said that he was grateful for all the help he had given him over the years. He even took out the 8,000 yuan bonus from his senior high school entrance examination to Duan Shumin, saying that he would work extremely hard in the future to pay back. It really took him by surprise——He sponsored so many students, but he had never met someone like this.
But this was just a coincidence. Cao Feng’s hometown was the country’s main focus for poverty alleviation, and Cao Feng was one of the few children in the village who could be admitted to the junior high school in the county town. Not to mention that he studied so well and was a pillar of talent——as soon as he heard about his family, Duan Shumin decided to transfer him to Linzhou. He let him come here to attend senior high school and receive a better education. At first, he planned to let him live in school, but recently he was busy with some matters, and Duan Yuche was naughty. So, he thought about taking him home and made friends with his son. If it didn’t work out, it wouldn’t be too late to send him to live in school.
Duan Yuche watched coldly from the side. It wasn’t until Ma Xiaobo brought Cao Feng into the classroom did he speak to his father: “Why let him study in the same class as me? After sponsoring him for so many years, did you treat him as your own child?!”
In the international class, basically most of the students wanted to go abroad. This class was more special than other Experimental Foreign Language School classes, and many students paid a sky-high price to get in.
After all, he was still in school, he controlled his volume, his voice wasn’t loud, but he was full of anger.
Providing financial aid was fine, he didn’t sulk on bringing him home anymore, as well as studying in one school was fine. But now that he was studying in one class as himself, he was inevitably suspicious of Duan Shumin’s intentions.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Duan Shumin put his arm around him and stood by the railing on the second floor. He whispered, “Cao Feng has good grades and is an ethnic minority. There are policies on it. The school not only doesn’t collect money, but also has subsidies. If you really don’t like him and can’t get along with him, after a while, I’ll send him to live in school.”
Originally, the admission period had passed, and there should be a fee for transferring across provinces, but Cao Feng’s grades were very good. The principal of his county wrote a letter of recommendation to praise the student’s excellence. In addition, Duan Shumin went out in person, so it was very easy to register him on the school registration.
Duan Yuche was instantly dumbfounded. Not far away were the students who were playing and noisy during the lesson. After a few seconds of silence, he nodded and quite reluctantly accepted.
Of course, Duan Shumin indeed had the intention of letting Cao Feng supervise him. His son was in a rebellious period. He was difficult to teach and disobedient. Moreover, he didn’t accompany his child through his childhood. It wasn’t until a few years ago, his child’s mother suffered from cancer, his child was sent back to China to live with him, the biological father.
But his father’s work was so busy that he had no time to take care of him.
When the class bell rang, Duan Shumin finally exhorted: “Cao Feng is two years older than you. You must be polite and call him gege. After school is over, come out with him, don’t throw a tantrum. Dad’s car is parked in the usual place.”
Duan Yuche returned to the classroom. The teacher had just entered the classroom, asking the students to flip the pages to a certain page on the podium..
When he went in, he didn’t bother to find it at all. He found Cao Feng sitting in an empty seat in the back at one glance.
He was sitting alone.
Cao Feng’s appearance was really eye-catching. He was very tall and had dark skin. In Jiangnan canal towns like Linzhou, you couldn’t see such a rough boy at all.
The other party showed him a kind smile, exposing his teeth. Duan Yuche had to pull his lips, considered it as smiling, and quickly returned to his seat.
“The transfer student is from the Hmong.” Feiji, his seatmate, opened the exercise book and said in a low voice.
“How do you know?” Duan Yuche found the geography exercise book in the drawer.
“You weren’t in the classroom a moment ago. Teacher Xiaobo brought him in and introduced him. It seems that his name is Cao, Cao…”
“Cao Feng.” Duan Yuche continued.
“Yes, yes, Cao Feng, how did you know?”
“I heard it in the office.” Duan Yuche asked him, “What page of the exercise book?”
“Page 25.”
Duan Yuche turned to page twenty-five, and it was clean——he didn’t write or hand over his homework. It’s been like this all week.
He looked in the direction of the office. This time, the curtains were drawn wider, and he could clearly see Ma Xiaobo talking with his father Duan Shumin.
Why were they still chatting? Weren’t they finished already?
He knew that Duan Shumin liked to sell their bank’s products to people, and even if he reached the position of president, he still couldn’t change this habit.
Today was Friday. There’s no need for self-study in the evening. The homework for each subject was written in the corner of the blackboard. Duan Yuche glanced at it, but didn’t look for the exercise book. He put the empty school bag on his back, turned and took a glance.
Cao Feng was standing because the student on duty had to clean and the broom was placed in the cleaning room behind his position. He had to give up his seat to open the door.
He stood against the wall, holding the new school bag in his arms, staring at Duan Yuche with dark and timid eyes. Duan Yuche also looked at him, struggling in his mind for quite a few seconds, and then hooked his finger at him.
Thanks for the chapter
Aah, teenagers and kids, you want to pummel they all day long :3
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
please dont be mean to him qwq
thanks for the chapter <3
I already dislike the MC hahaha hes such an annoying spoiled teenager, it’ll be fun seeing his character development!
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
my hmong american self reading this: very shook 🫨
looking at that last name, i was confused because that’s not a clan name. but maybe it’s different in china? 😅
mc is such a brat so far. but he’s only like 15/16. seems like a child of divorced parents. and currently his momma got cancer. so understandable.
waiting for his sweetness to shine.
thanks for the translation! i just had to comment on the hmong part!