The sixth time.
“Schopenhauer believed that people are born unfortunate. The so-called happiness and enjoyment are only temporary cessation of desire. The main theme of life is; pain, emptiness, and boredom…”
Pressing the button on the remote control, the projection screen above the podium displayed the corresponding excerpt.
“It is thus written in the book, ‘The World as Will and Representation’…”
The seventh time.
“…desire and struggle are the whole essences of being human.”
Under the dim light, that man was still looking at his phone.
In the span of ten minutes, he had checked his phone several times. There was an endless stream of notifications. There were times when the phone started vibrating just after he put it on the table. Although it wasn’t a big movement, it was enough to distract me.
When he picked up the phone again, I couldn’t bear it anymore. I stopped the lecture, controlled the electric wheelchair to the edge of the podium, and looked towards the other person’s position with a stiff face.
“You……”
I raised my laser pointer and pointed it at the table situated on the far right in the third row, near the hallway. The small red dot moved up slowly and finally stopped at the man’s position behind the table.
Any normal person who found themselves pointed at by an unknown laser would always subconsciously look up to find the source. The other party was no exception.
The young man in a loose white Tee frowned and raised his head, with the words “I’m not happy, don’t mess with me” clearly written on his face. When those dark and deep eyes looked over, I even had the illusion of being stared at by a ferocious beast.
He may not be hungry enough to hunt right now, but if you dare to keep prancing around in front of him, he won’t mind tearing you into pieces to drag back and decorate his lair with.
I pursed my lips, turned off the laser pointer, and said coldly, “If you have an urgent matter, just go and deal with it. Mobile phones are not allowed in my class.”
The voice was clearly transmitted through the headset. The other party raised his eyebrows, looked at me for a moment, tucked the phone into his pants pocket, then stood up and walked out the door. Clean and neat, without making any excuses for himself.
The two people sitting next to him should be his friends. Seeing him leave, they looked at each other, picked up their books, and quickly followed.
The classroom door opened and closed. I stared at their receding figures and subconsciously clenched the laser pointer in my hand.
There was an eerie and awkward silence in the room. Everyone looked at me nervously with bated breaths. They should have been more shocked than I was, that someone actually dared to challenge my authority in class.
It was true that there had not been such a warrior in a long time.
Looking back, I said to the teaching assistants sitting in the last row of the classroom, “Note them down for truancy.”
A white and tender arm was raised in the back row as Yu Xixi responded loudly, “Received!”
Back in the center of the podium, I adjusted the portable mic and pressed the remote again to continue with the previous content, quickly forgetting this episode.
When the class was over and everyone had dispersed, I held the lecture notes and was pushed by Yu Xixi to the office. “Bei-ge, did you know that you now have the nickname, ‘Philosophical Monarch Bei’?” She had a lively personality and didn’t like being dull. It may be related to her previous experience as the Minister of Literature and Art. She always liked to liven the atmosphere even if the destination was just a short couple of meters away.
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.
I often felt that it was a pity for her to be a teaching assistant. She should be an entertainment reporter so that she could surf through work and neglect neither her work nor her desire to gossip.
“Qtja vbfr la wfjc? a?”
Ktf rtjvbkr bo atf agffr rkjsfv bc atf ugbecv. Pa kjr mifjgis klcvs, yea la vlvc’a offi mbiv ja jii. Pa kjr jigfjvs Ymabyfg, kts kjr la ralii rb tba? Ca atlr alwf ijra sfjg, fnfgsbcf tjv jigfjvs rajgafv ab kfjg ibcu riffnfr.
South Law Monk, North Philosophical Monarch. Professor Wang Nan from the Department of Law, and you from the Department of Philosophy, are also known as the two most difficult gods in Qingwan University. When explained – Wang Nan, the bald donkey of the Department of Law; Bei Jiao, the Demon King of the Department of Philosophy.”
“…” P atbeuta atja cb bcf firf tjv cbalmfv atja Ugbofrrbg Qjcu kjr kfjglcu j klu, yea la aegcfv bea atja fnfgsbcf pera qgfafcvfv ab aegc j yilcv fsf. Ktfgf kfgf jmaejiis tfjafv vlrmerrlbcr lc qglnjaf.
“I also saw someone talking about you from the other departments of popular science yesterday, saying; ‘It’s best if you avoid picking the classes of Philosophical Monarch Bei if possible. It’s very hard to pass and the homework is very demanding. But if it’s for his appearance, just pretend that I didn’t say anything’. Bei-ge, your appearance has withstood the aesthetic test of a vast number of students multiple times.”
All kinds of gossip on the Internet– both people I know and didn’t know, from inside and outside of the school, Student Yu Xixi stuffed it into my mouth all at once, not caring if I wanted to eat it or not.
Fingertips tapped the wheelchair armrests regularly, hot and upset.
“By the way, Bei-ge, do you know whose son was the person you kicked out of the classroom today?”
Movements paused.
“Headmaster’s?” I guessed.
Yu Xixi was delighted, “How can the principal give birth to such a beautiful cub, just his old face…”
I tilted my head and glanced at her, “Pay attention to your words.”
She seemed to realize that they were not in the wild countryside, but in a crowded school, and suddenly shut up.
Looking left and right, Yu Xixi lowered her voice and said, “His name is Shang Muxiao, Shang Lu’s son. He was a famous movie star more than ten years ago, the one who filmed <The Retrograde Wind>. Shang Lu was quite popular at that time. My mother likes him so much. But unfortunately, he quit showbiz and went into business after filming <Retrograde Wind>.”
My heart skipped a beat, “Shang Lu?”
I haven’t heard this name for many years. Suddenly hearing this name can make someone fall into a daze. My fingertips tapped the wheelchair armrests regularly, feeling both hot and restless.
More than ten years ago, not only Yu Xixi’s mother liked him, but I also liked him. Speaking of which, he was still the object of my sexual enlightenment when I was young. There were so many quiet nights in the middle of the night, and I would also be thinking about his posters.
Time flew by like flowing water, and in the blink of an eye, he even had such an old son.
Looking back carefully, there was indeed a shadow of Shang Lu between the man’s eyebrows and eyes today. It was just that Shang Lu accurately portrayed the appearance of a typical big male protagonist, which easily left a favorable impression on others. Although Shang Muxiao had a more delicate appearance, his facial features had more of a visual impact. There was an indescribable… sense of distance, making people unable to confidently get close.
“I heard that Shang Lu retired from acting to take care of his sick wife. At that time, he was reported by the media as a peerless and affectionate man. Unfortunately, his wife died the following year.”
“However, although his family was unfortunate, he turned his grief and indignation into strength. In the next few years, he became prosperous in shopping malls. The industries he invested in were more prosperous than the next. He soon made it onto the list of rich and was given, ‘The Golden Hand,’ nickname by the gossiping tabloid journalists.”
Yu Xixi gossiped all the way to the office. When she entered the door, she had already dragged up the matter that Shang Lu suddenly ended his long-term widowhood and married a starlet who was about the same age as his eldest daughter two years ago. The media reported him as, ‘becoming firmer as one grows old’.”
“I heard that only the eldest daughter was seen at the wedding, but the younger son was not. Everyone guessed that the son couldn’t bear to see his father marry such a young mother…”
“Okay, let’s stop the gossip here for the time being. I’ll listen to it next time when I have the chance.” I saw that she didn’t stop for a while, so I could only interrupt, “Send me the recent attendance records before noon tomorrow. You should also remember that, as before, if you miss five classes, you will be directly notified to cancel your qualification for the final exam. There is also the homework from the previous class. Please give it to me after you have compiled it, thank you.”
Yu Xixi pushed me to the desk, shuddered when she heard the words, and whispered, “Sure enough, it is the great devil.”
Although she was playful, fortunately, her work efficiency wasn’t low. In just one afternoon, she completed the things I told her to, then compiled them into a compressed package and sent them to me.
There weren’t a lot of students in my elective courses, and there are only thirty-odd assignments in total. On the form, the scores were listed one by one. It was almost immediately clear at a glance who had handed in and who had not. In a few blank spots, Shang Muxiao’s name was listed.
Shang Lu may have been good at business, but this son wasn’t very good at studying.
I pinched the bridge of my nose tiredly and glanced at my watch. I found that it was past eight o’clock in the evening.
There were four or five missed calls from Shen Luoyu, and seven or eight short messages. When I opened it, Shen Luoyu asked me why I didn’t answer the phone.
I turned off the lights, closed the windows, locked the office, and while steering the wheelchair to the parking lot, I called Shen Luoyu back.
The person on the other side picked it up quickly and said in a relieved tone, “You scared me to death, I thought something happened to you.”
“I’m sorry, but I forgot that I set my phone back on mute for class this afternoon.”
There weren’t any major issues, but just like a routine, she asked me how I was doing recently, and how my health was. Then she indirectly and carefully inquired about my recent contact with my family.
“My parents are very good, and Xiao-Yan is also very good. I just had dinner with them last month, and they also mentioned you, wondering why you aren’t married yet at such an age.”
Shen Luoyu gasped when she heard this, “You’re lying aren’t you? How could my aunt and uncle care about my marriage? You just don’t want me to ask more, so you deliberately use this to stop me.”
I couldn’t help but hook my lips up, “It’s good that you know.”
Shen Luoyu vomited bitterly, “You think I want to care so much? Isn’t it because my mother forces me to? Aunt and Uncle always ask my mother about you, and my mother also asks me if she doesn’t know, so in the end, I can only ask you. Your family is really strange, why do they like to go around in circles just to ask if you’re okay?”
The wheelchair stopped in front of the parking space. The trace of a smile that had appeared because of Shen Luoyu also instantly disappeared because of her words.
There were very few pedestrians on the road, each hurrying forward. Only the street lamp was still considerate, like a competent old mother, illuminating the dark road ahead for me.
I raised my head, sighed at my “old mother” and said, “Yeah, why don’t they come and ask me directly? I’d like to know too.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Shen Luoyu realized that she had said the wrong thing and began to rush to remedy it.
“No, maybe uncle and aunt are afraid of disturbing your work. You are so busy all day….”
From when I was paralyzed in a car accident to when Bei Yan was born, although there was no quarrel, my relationship with my parents became gradually estranged unknowingly. Twelve years have passed, and it has been frozen three feet wide . Now, even eating together showed the awkwardness of not being able to find a topic to talk about. I usually didn’t contact them when I had nothing to do, and they didn’t take the initiative to ask me if they wanted to know my current situation. Instead, they ask Shen Luoyu to inquire.
Afraid of interrupting my work? When Shen Luoyu said this, even she didn’t know whether I believed it or not.
They weren’t afraid of interrupting my work, they were just afraid of me. They were afraid that I would remind them of their once proud son. That they would suddenly realize that I had become a completely useless waste, and that I would ask them about the reason behind Bei Yan’s birth on a whim one day.
In my third year of being paralyzed by a car accident, my mother gave birth to a younger brother who was twenty-two years younger than me. This child born to my mother at an advanced age after I was paralyzed was like a “Schrödinger” taboo — as long as you didn’t go into it, everyone could still delude themselves into thinking he was just a beautiful accident.
But in fact, just like Professor Wang’s wig, everyone knew exactly why he was born.
“Okay, I’m going to drive, I’ll hang up first.”
Shen Luoyu paused and sighed, showing helplessness.
“I’ll see you in a few days, you should pay attention to your body.”
After hanging up, I opened the car door, put down the booster seat next to the driver’s seat, and moved myself over there with the strength of my arms. Once the wheelchair was in the back seat, I raised the booster seat and moved myself into the driver’s seat.
I was very used to doing this. It only took two or three minutes before and after, and most of that time was spent waiting for the wheelchair to be stowed away.
Since the brakes and accelerators have to be controlled by hand for vehicles with disabled people like me, I usually didn’t drive too fast. Even if there was no car in front of me, my average speed wouldn’t exceed 50 yards per hour.
There was a road around the school that was very narrow and difficult to drive. Both sides of the road were filled with parking spaces, and only one car could pass through.
Today, probably because it was Friday, the restaurants and shops on both sides were very busy. Parking spaces were very packed, and the bicycles were parked in a mess. The difficulty of passing through had skyrocketed.
My nerves were tense and I moved forward cautiously, not daring to slack off, so slow that the yardage speed dropped directly to single digits.
An engine roared from the back of the car, and I looked in the rearview mirror. It was a blue and white heavy machine. The rider wore a black leather jacket and looked like a male. His appearance wasn’t very clear under the helmet.
He may also think that I was slow. The gas pedal kept making a rumbling sound. Although it was not as straightforward and rude as the horn, it was also annoying.
Because of this anxiety, I didn’t control the brakes for the last 20 meters and just accelerated and drove past.
Fate was sometimes that unreasonable. It always loved to give you a head-on blow when you let down your guard.
Suddenly, a calico kitten jumped out from the side of the road, and its figure was particularly panicked by the lights of the car. I jumped in shock and pulled the brakes subconsciously. The little cat darted across the road; safe and sound, but there was a loud noise at the rear of my car.
My mind went blank for a moment. I held my breath, fingers gripping the steering wheel tightly. It took me a while to recover from the horror.
Realizing it might have been a rear-end collision, I lowered the window to check the vehicle behind, but couldn’t see much due to the limited visibility.
The space outside the car wasn’t enough to fit the wheelchair, and I couldn’t walk without a wheelchair. It was often at times like these that I realized how embarrassing a disability can be.
Just as I was thinking about countermeasures, the car window was knocked. The rider of the blue and white heavy machine had already come to the door.
I lowered the window. The other party simply took off the helmet that covered his face.
When they saw each other’s appearance, both of them were startled.
“It’s you.” Before I could react, the tall rider spoke first.
Coincidentally, it was Shang Muxiao who crashed into me.
Translator’s Corner
Fisho says: Surprise! I picked up another novel ohohohoho. It’s gonna be a wild ride guys so hang on 
I’ve been waiting for this !! 😄
thanks for the chapter
Already here…
Thank you, Translator-sama 😍
interesting… I’m in
thanks for the chapter <3
thnk yiu
Sooo happy to see this novel here!
Thank You for the new chapter! (´,,•ω•,,)♡
yes! this is what i’ve been waiting for!
btw i read this when listening the songs from the audio drama heheheh
thanks for the translation!
Love the chapter 💓
Thank you for translating ☺️
Thanks for the translation! It looks promising 😍
Are you sure it’s not 50 MILES per hour? I can SWIM 50 yards in less than a minute you’re practically not moving at 50yds/hour…