Sleeping on this first night at Lu Qi’an’s, Fu Jia dreamt all night long.
There weren’t any special scenes in his dream, only blurry silhouettes that called his name from a distance. He dreamt of people he liked seeing, such as Lu Qi’an, Cen Mengke, and Datou. But he also dreamed of Lin Qing, Auntie Chen, as well as the Lu Wangqing mother-and-son pair. The strange thing was, Lu Wangqing and Lin Fengxun had never called his name to his face, yet now he could clearly hear the mother-and-son pair facing him as they shouted in unison: “Fu Jia!”This shout woke Fu Jia up. He opened his eyes to the darkness of the room, that call of ‘Fu Jia’ still reverberating within his ears for a long stretch of time, preventing him from being able to stabilize himself.He fumbled around under the pillow, found his second-hand cell phone with keypads, then opened it. It wasn’t six o’clock yet.He sighed in relief then laid back down, and covered his stomach with his hands. Dreaming about that mother-and-son pair made him feel a bit nauseous. He couldn’t sleep anymore and kept his eyes open as he waited for the six o’clock sunrise.
In a daze, he heard the sound of a door opening and closing outside, and then, a faint light pierced through the door crack. The security here was so good, so it shouldn’t be a thief. Besides, what thief in the world would turn on the light as soon as he entered?Fu Jia hesitated for a while but decided not to bother and went on to stare at the ceiling in a stupor. He continued listening to the movement outside, the person moved very cautiously and kept the noise as light as he could, making it hard to distinguish what he was doing. After about half an hour, the outside lights turned off, and the sound of a door opening and closing was emitted again. Upon confirming that there were no longer any movements outside, Fu Jia lifted the duvet and slipped out of bed, then tiptoed outside. He wanted to secretly check who had been there, but didn’t want to make a scene out of it either, so he didn’t wear his slippers. Sunrise was approaching, and a faint light brightened the apartment.
Fu Jia searched everywhere, but didn’t find traces of anyone. There was only a sweet smell lingering in the air.Following the aroma, he found himself staring at the oven. Upon sniffing carefully, the smell originated from the bread that was in the midst of baking, alongside a hint of nutty fragrance as well. Besides the oven was a soymilk machine, currently put on heat preservation mode. Although it didn’t exude any fragrances, its white and creamy content was enough to allow one to imagine its smell, luring Fu Jia in. Fu Jia clutched his stomach, feeling an unprecedented pang of hunger. He wanted to leave the kitchen and go somewhere the nice-smelling aromas couldn’t reach.But as soon as he turned around, the lights switched on.Fu Jia was so startled that he almost slipped on the ground and knocked himself into the kitchen counter. He was so entranced by the oven that he didn’t notice the sound of footsteps behind him. Lu Qi’an put his hand down from the light switch and glanced at the oven and soymilk machine. Then he stared at the hand that Fu Jia covered his stomach with, before finally resting his eyes on his bare feet. He gave a light frown: “The kitchen has tiled flooring. It won’t take too much time to put on your slippers.”Fu Jia scrunched his toes, feeling absolutely embarrassed, and explained himself weakly: “I…woke up early and noticed that someone was moving around here, so I wanted to come take a look.”Lu Qi’an said: “It’s Auntie Miao, she helps take care of me.”
He took out a cup from the kitchen cabinet and poured water into it. He didn’t drink it, nor did he pass it to Fu Jia. Instead, he asked: “Have you washed up yet?”Fu Jia was even more embarrassed because he realized that not only was Lu Qi’an neatly dressed, his watch was on as well, signifying that he had long finished getting ready.Fu Jia shook his head and said: "Not yet, I'll go now."Lu Qi’an hummed in response. Fu Jia quickly returned to the room and put on slippers, then changed into his school uniform. After Lu Qi'an led him into the guest room last night, he went back to his own bedroom and never came out again. Fu Jia washed his clothes but didn’t know where to dry them, or where the hangers were. Fortunately, he noticed that the washing machine in the bathroom had a drying function, so he used it to dry his clothes.After tidying up, Fu Jia walked out of the room to discover that Lu Qi'an was already seated at the dining table and eating breakfastThe toast had been split into two portions by him. He was eating one slice, while the other slice was placed on a plate across from him, alongside a cup of soymilk.
Fu Jia was so hungry that his stomach burnt, but he tried to remain indifferent as he asked: “Where’s Auntie Miao?”Fu Jia regretted asking. He shouldn’t have brought up Auntie Miao right off the bat, it was too obvious. If the owner of the breakfast wasn’t around, did that mean he could eat that breakfast?Lu Qi'an knew what he was thinking and said: “Auntie Miao comes three times a day, and I’ve asked her to time it so that our schedules won’t overlap with each other. The next time she comes is at eleven o’clock.”Fu Jia was taken aback. To put things this way, then there must be only one conclusion. The breakfast across from Lu Qi’an was for him. But this wasn’t the most important point. The most important point was that Lu Qi’an didn’t even want to see the auntie that took care of him every day, yet last night he invited Fu Jia to stay over. Why…Why?The dining room was connected to the living room in this apartment. Sunlight from the rising sun spilled in from the floor-to-ceiling windows and filled the entire apartment with a warm, yellow glow. In that moment, Fu Jia thought of many things, he thought of Lu Qi'an's eyes on the basketball court that was impossible to evade. He thought of yesterday, that tray that was pushed in his direction. He thought of many, many things, over the course of many, many years. As if he saw a ghost, he asked: “Lu Qi’an, you… can it be that…you feel more than simply not hating me?”#You feel more than not hating me. This sentence could mean a lot of things. Lu Qi’an didn’t answer right away. In Fu Jia’s blind spot, his hands were clasped together to help him think.After a while, he asked Fu Jia: “Why do you put it like that?”
Fu Jia lowered his head and covered his reddening ears, then said: “Because you’re very good to me, not like before. I want to know whether it’s because I changed so much recently, which gave you a different impression of me.”Lu Qi’an took note of his red ears, and also took note of the words ‘you’re very good to me’. Last night, he clearly had only said, ‘you’re good to me’ without the ‘very’. “You really did change a lot,” Lu Qi’an said, “But I told you from the start that I didn’t hate you.”He remembered how Fu Jia deliberately blocked his way on the stairs at the villa before, and how Fu Jia tore apart a piece of bread and sprinkled the crumbs into his textbook. He continued to say: “Unless you do something wrong.”Fu Jia was dumbfounded: “What does that mean?”Were his words so hard to understand? Lu Qi’an’s face was filled with dissatisfaction as he said: “Reflect on it yourself.”Fu Jia couldn’t help but plead: “Can’t you give me a hint?”His tone and eyes weren’t begging, but imploring.# Lu Qi’an eased his tone and said: “You possess the independence to do what you want to do. I gave you some advice, but I never said you had to listen to me and do as I say.”Fu Jia still had a confused expression: “Then you tell me, what do you think I should do for you to think that I made the right choice?”Lu Qi’an let out a heavy exhale and said: “No. 6 High School attaches great importance to the weekly tests. You should take note of scoring a top rank, as this has to do with scholarship selection. Fu Jia came to a realization: "Okay, then I’ll go review now."After he finished speaking, he went straight to the guest room for his school bag. Since he came under the pretext of studying last night, there were a lot of textbooks in the bag. “Fu Jia,” Lu Qi’an called to stop him. Then he lowered his voice, giving his words a slightly harsh effect: “Eat breakfast first.”Fu Jia immediately braked himself. It was clearly a stern command, but he felt his chest heat up and his face turn red. “I…I’m taking a book so that I can review while I eat.”Then he really took out a math textbook from the guest room and sat across from Lu Qi’an, with one hand holding a book and the other hand holding a slice of toast.He brought the book, but it was all just for show. His eyes ignored the book and concentrated on the person across from him instead. Lu Qi’an didn’t stop Fu Jia’s ridiculous behaviour and instead said: “Today’s Friday. Did you know that you have to write the weekly test today?”Fu Jia’s heart thumped, then completely froze over. Friday was No. 6 High School’s designated test day.
He forgot! He completely forgot about the date of the weekly test and thought he still had a few days to review.Lu Qi’an put down his cutlery and said: “Give me the book, and I’ll mark down two questions for you. Once you get to school, you don’t have to review anything else. Just focus on this.”Still stupefied, Fu Jia grunted a response and handed him the book. Lu Qi'an walked into the living room and took a pen out from a small storage box on the table, then stood by the floor-to-ceiling window with his body turned sideways so that he could use the outside light to make marks on the textbook. As Fu Jia Ate, he repeatedly turned his head to peek at him.Of course, there was no such thing as sneaking a peek between Fu Jia and Lu Qi'an because Lu Qi'an was extremely sensitive to Fu Jia's gaze. He was aware of the faintest glance.Lu Qi’an turned a blind eye to him, and continued to steadily circle questions in the textbook.
The very next second, his hand suddenly deviated from its original track and etched an abrupt slash on the paper. He calmly drew another mark alongside the crooked line, covering up this small mistake. After breakfast, Fu Jia and Lu Qi’an left for school together and separated once they arrived on campus. Fu Jia was dizzy with happiness, completely forgetting about the fact that he had stayed overnight outside without permission. He boldly walked into the dormitory, and was immediately caught by the dormitory supervisor. The supervisor gripped his arm and took him to the homeroom teacher’s office. The two held a meeting of denunciations, lecturing Fu Jia for half an hour before deducting two personal character points from his record. Since Fu Jia was in a good mood, he didn’t feel a bit of regret for those two points. After the homeroom teacher let him go, he raced against time to review for the test.He was very obedient. Lu Qi’an told him not to study anything else, so he didn’t. He wholeheartedly focused on the two questions that were marked for him. The weekly tests at No. 6 High School lasted the entire day, wrapping up all the subjects by afternoon so that evening self-study would continue as usual. Students stayed in their seats while the teachers gathered together and were randomly assigned to invigilate each class. This was Fu Jia’s first time taking a test at No. 6 High School– it was as boring as it was difficult. This feeling of anguish lasted for several rounds of tests until it was time for math, and he saw Liu-laoshi, who was walking up to the podium with a stack of paper in her hands. Liu-laoshi didn’t notice him at first. It was only after distributing the test papers and circling around the classroom that she recognized Fu Jia. She then began to circle around Fu Jia.Fu Jia was under a lot of pressure. He was weak in math to begin with, and now with a teacher staring at him from the side, it took twice the amount of effort to concentrate. The air-conditioner was on, but he was coated in sweat. He muddled through to the last question and wanted to give up, but then felt that there was something familiar about that question.He read it over repeatedly and finally concluded that this was the question Lu Qi’an marked for him. Although it wasn’t exactly identical, the method to solve it was the same, and so were the steps as he wrote his work down.He felt like he was beaten to the point of coughing up blood, but he only spent five minutes solving this question. After collecting the test papers, Liu-laoshi asked another invigilator to take the papers away. She then came over to Fu Jia and patted him on the shoulder with encouragement: “You did well.”Fu Jia gave a modest smile: “Thank you, laoshi.”
Liu-laoshi smiled back: “Next time you have questions, come to my office anytime and ask.”Fu Jia nodded: “Okay.”Liu-laoshi felt very satisfied with his attitude, and then asked: “It’s lunch time now, do you have any plans for it? Why don’t you come join me in the staff canteen.”Fu Jia looked at her in surprise: “How come you’re inviting me?”#Liu-laoshi’s smile deepened: “This is the first time I’ve seen Lu Qi’an get closer to someone other than Lin Qinghe. Being quite curious, I’d like to chat with you.”Fu Jia said yes a hundred times in his heart, and immediately agreed. There were only the two of them this time and Liu-laoshi was insistent on treating him, but Fu Jia was just as insistent on paying for himself. He paid for his own order and took note to pick a meat dish. Despite having enough food to eat, Liu-laoshi still added two dishes for Fu Jia. “I see how you interact with Qi’an, and it makes me quite happy. I don’t really like types like Lin Qinghe, they’re much too frivolous.” Liu-laoshi had heard of all the waves that Lin Qinghe had caused at No. 6 High School. Rumours followed him everywhere, today it’d be the class flowers fighting over him, tomorrow it’d be his ex-girlfriend cursing him out on the streets, all of which Liu-laoshi found very annoying. “I’m a friend of Qi’an’s mom, not at all familiar with his dad’s side, so I don’t know much about the pampered family prince either. It’s always made me quite uneasy,” Liu-laoshi admitted earnestly, “But I see that you’re rather obedient. Even though you were studying at No. 16 High School, you’ve managed to turn yourself around to prevent future troubles. Plus, you solved that last math question beautifully.”Fu Jia blushed and his heart quickly thumped: “It was a coincidence that question turned out to be the one I studied.”Of course he answered the question beautifully! It was the one Lu Qi’an taught him. Liu-laoshi sighed: “Very good, it shows that you’ve reviewed thoroughly. I feel much more at ease knowing that Qi’an has a friend like you. I’m the only one who’s still close with his mom. If he’s not doing good, then I feel like I’ve wronged his mom.”Lost in her memories, Liu-laoshi had a melancholic expression. Fu Jia was very curious about the much discussed Qi’an mommy, but since Liu-laoshi’s expression wasn’t quite right, he didn’t dare to ask rashly.
Before long, Liu-laoshi stopped pursuing this topic and switched to discussing Fu Jia’s academic problems. They conversed until their food had gone cold. After separating, Fu Jia stared at Liu-laoshi’s back silhouette, remembering how she brought up Mrs. Lu in front of Lu Qi’an. She obviously had a decent relationship with Mrs. Lu, or else Lu Qi’an wouldn’t have been so polite to her. It’s just that there were some hidden matters regarding this subject, which caused her expression to change drastically before she finished what she was saying. Truth be told, Fu Jia also knew very little about Mrs. Lu. He had stayed in the Lin family villa for ten years, more or less overhearing some matters that he should know nothing about. Lu Qi’an’s mother was named Qi Bing, and she committed suicide when Lu Qi’an was seven years old. The cause of death was depression.Fu Jia wasn’t sure when exactly Qi Bing was diagnosed, nor did he know the root cause of her mental illness. All he knew was that Qi Bing’s mental breakdown caused her body to deteriorate and she gradually became unable to take care of herself. She struggled to speak normally, and could only voice out a few short sounds.Before she committed suicide, she neither eat nor use the bathroom, and many medical tubes were inserted into her body. Nurses surrounded her twenty-four-seven, leaving her alone only during the hour before she fell asleep. This was because Qi Bing didn’t want strangers to be around her while she was unconscious, it’d drive her crazy. Even so, orderlies would guard her from behind the wall without rest. On the morning of Qi Bing’s death, Lu Zhiyuan went overseas for a business trip while Lu Qi’an was brought out to study by his father’s secretary. Only Lu Wangqing went to visit Qi Bing, but unfortunately, she only stayed until noon.No one expected that night at eleven o’clock, Qi Bing woke up miraculously. Taking only ten seconds to tear off the tube that connected to her mouth, she then swallowed the entire bottle of pills at her bedside, causing her to go into cardiac arrest. When the orderly charged in, it was already too late.She had hidden this bottle of medicine back when she could still walk. Despite seeming like someone who had it together, she had been planning her suicide for a long time.Not leaving anyone to accompany Qi Bing that day had become the biggest lifelong regret of the three Lu family members.
Sleeping on this first night at Lu Qi’an’s, Fu Jia dreamt all night long.
There weren’t any special scenes in his dream, only blurry silhouettes that called his name from a distance. He dreamt of people he liked seeing, such as Lu Qi’an, Cen Mengke, and Datou. But he also dreamed of Lin Qing, Auntie Chen, as well as the Lu Wangqing mother-and-son pair. The strange thing was, Lu Wangqing and Lin Fengxun had never called his name to his face, yet now he could clearly hear the mother-and-son pair facing him as they shouted in unison: “Fu Jia!”This shout woke Fu Jia up. He opened his eyes to the darkness of the room, that call of ‘Fu Jia’ still reverberating within his ears for a long stretch of time, preventing him from being able to stabilize himself.He fumbled around under the pillow, found his second-hand cell phone with keypads, then opened it. It wasn’t six o’clock yet.He sighed in relief then laid back down, and covered his stomach with his hands. Dreaming about that mother-and-son pair made him feel a bit nauseous. He couldn’t sleep anymore and kept his eyes open as he waited for the six o’clock sunrise.
In a daze, he heard the sound of a door opening and closing outside, and then, a faint light pierced through the door crack. The security here was so good, so it shouldn’t be a thief. Besides, what thief in the world would turn on the light as soon as he entered?Fu Jia hesitated for a while but decided not to bother and went on to stare at the ceiling in a stupor. He continued listening to the movement outside, the person moved very cautiously and kept the noise as light as he could, making it hard to distinguish what he was doing. After about half an hour, the outside lights turned off, and the sound of a door opening and closing was emitted again. Upon confirming that there were no longer any movements outside, Fu Jia lifted the duvet and slipped out of bed, then tiptoed outside. He wanted to secretly check who had been there, but didn’t want to make a scene out of it either, so he didn’t wear his slippers. Sunrise was approaching, and a faint light brightened the apartment.
Fu Jia searched everywhere, but didn’t find traces of anyone. There was only a sweet smell lingering in the air.Following the aroma, he found himself staring at the oven. Upon sniffing carefully, the smell originated from the bread that was in the midst of baking, alongside a hint of nutty fragrance as well. Besides the oven was a soymilk machine, currently put on heat preservation mode. Although it didn’t exude any fragrances, its white and creamy content was enough to allow one to imagine its smell, luring Fu Jia in. Fu Jia clutched his stomach, feeling an unprecedented pang of hunger. He wanted to leave the kitchen and go somewhere the nice-smelling aromas couldn’t reach.But as soon as he turned around, the lights switched on.Fu Jia was so startled that he almost slipped on the ground and knocked himself into the kitchen counter. He was so entranced by the oven that he didn’t notice the sound of footsteps behind him. Lu Qi’an put his hand down from the light switch and glanced at the oven and soymilk machine. Then he stared at the hand that Fu Jia covered his stomach with, before finally resting his eyes on his bare feet. He gave a light frown: “The kitchen has tiled flooring. It won’t take too much time to put on your slippers.”Fu Jia scrunched his toes, feeling absolutely embarrassed, and explained himself weakly: “I…woke up early and noticed that someone was moving around here, so I wanted to come take a look.”Lu Qi’an said: “It’s Auntie Miao, she helps take care of me.”
He took out a cup from the kitchen cabinet and poured water into it. He didn’t drink it, nor did he pass it to Fu Jia. Instead, he asked: “Have you washed up yet?”Fu Jia was even more embarrassed because he realized that not only was Lu Qi’an neatly dressed, his watch was on as well, signifying that he had long finished getting ready.Fu Jia shook his head and said: "Not yet, I'll go now."Lu Qi’an hummed in response. Fu Jia quickly returned to the room and put on slippers, then changed into his school uniform. After Lu Qi'an led him into the guest room last night, he went back to his own bedroom and never came out again. Fu Jia washed his clothes but didn’t know where to dry them, or where the hangers were. Fortunately, he noticed that the washing machine in the bathroom had a drying function, so he used it to dry his clothes.After tidying up, Fu Jia walked out of the room to discover that Lu Qi'an was already seated at the dining table and eating breakfastThe toast had been split into two portions by him. He was eating one slice, while the other slice was placed on a plate across from him, alongside a cup of soymilk.
Fu Jia was so hungry that his stomach burnt, but he tried to remain indifferent as he asked: “Where’s Auntie Miao?”Fu Jia regretted asking. He shouldn’t have brought up Auntie Miao right off the bat, it was too obvious. If the owner of the breakfast wasn’t around, did that mean he could eat that breakfast?Lu Qi'an knew what he was thinking and said: “Auntie Miao comes three times a day, and I’ve asked her to time it so that our schedules won’t overlap with each other. The next time she comes is at eleven o’clock.”Fu Jia was taken aback. To put things this way, then there must be only one conclusion. The breakfast across from Lu Qi’an was for him. But this wasn’t the most important point. The most important point was that Lu Qi’an didn’t even want to see the auntie that took care of him every day, yet last night he invited Fu Jia to stay over. Why…Why?The dining room was connected to the living room in this apartment. Sunlight from the rising sun spilled in from the floor-to-ceiling windows and filled the entire apartment with a warm, yellow glow. In that moment, Fu Jia thought of many things, he thought of Lu Qi'an's eyes on the basketball court that was impossible to evade. He thought of yesterday, that tray that was pushed in his direction. He thought of many, many things, over the course of many, many years. As if he saw a ghost, he asked: “Lu Qi’an, you… can it be that…you feel more than simply not hating me?”#You feel more than not hating me. This sentence could mean a lot of things. Lu Qi’an didn’t answer right away. In Fu Jia’s blind spot, his hands were clasped together to help him think.After a while, he asked Fu Jia: “Why do you put it like that?”
Fu Jia lowered his head and covered his reddening ears, then said: “Because you’re very good to me, not like before. I want to know whether it’s because I changed so much recently, which gave you a different impression of me.”Lu Qi’an took note of his red ears, and also took note of the words ‘you’re very good to me’. Last night, he clearly had only said, ‘you’re good to me’ without the ‘very’. “You really did change a lot,” Lu Qi’an said, “But I told you from the start that I didn’t hate you.”He remembered how Fu Jia deliberately blocked his way on the stairs at the villa before, and how Fu Jia tore apart a piece of bread and sprinkled the crumbs into his textbook. He continued to say: “Unless you do something wrong.”Fu Jia was dumbfounded: “What does that mean?”Were his words so hard to understand? Lu Qi’an’s face was filled with dissatisfaction as he said: “Reflect on it yourself.”Fu Jia couldn’t help but plead: “Can’t you give me a hint?”His tone and eyes weren’t begging, but imploring.# Lu Qi’an eased his tone and said: “You possess the independence to do what you want to do. I gave you some advice, but I never said you had to listen to me and do as I say.”Fu Jia still had a confused expression: “Then you tell me, what do you think I should do for you to think that I made the right choice?”Lu Qi’an let out a heavy exhale and said: “No. 6 High School attaches great importance to the weekly tests. You should take note of scoring a top rank, as this has to do with scholarship selection. Fu Jia came to a realization: "Okay, then I’ll go review now."After he finished speaking, he went straight to the guest room for his school bag. Since he came under the pretext of studying last night, there were a lot of textbooks in the bag. “Fu Jia,” Lu Qi’an called to stop him. Then he lowered his voice, giving his words a slightly harsh effect: “Eat breakfast first.”Fu Jia immediately braked himself. It was clearly a stern command, but he felt his chest heat up and his face turn red. “I…I’m taking a book so that I can review while I eat.”Then he really took out a math textbook from the guest room and sat across from Lu Qi’an, with one hand holding a book and the other hand holding a slice of toast.He brought the book, but it was all just for show. His eyes ignored the book and concentrated on the person across from him instead. Lu Qi’an didn’t stop Fu Jia’s ridiculous behaviour and instead said: “Today’s Friday. Did you know that you have to write the weekly test today?”Fu Jia’s heart thumped, then completely froze over. Friday was No. 6 High School’s designated test day.
He forgot! He completely forgot about the date of the weekly test and thought he still had a few days to review.Lu Qi’an put down his cutlery and said: “Give me the book, and I’ll mark down two questions for you. Once you get to school, you don’t have to review anything else. Just focus on this.”Still stupefied, Fu Jia grunted a response and handed him the book. Lu Qi'an walked into the living room and took a pen out from a small storage box on the table, then stood by the floor-to-ceiling window with his body turned sideways so that he could use the outside light to make marks on the textbook. As Fu Jia Ate, he repeatedly turned his head to peek at him.Of course, there was no such thing as sneaking a peek between Fu Jia and Lu Qi'an because Lu Qi'an was extremely sensitive to Fu Jia's gaze. He was aware of the faintest glance.Lu Qi’an turned a blind eye to him, and continued to steadily circle questions in the textbook.
The very next second, his hand suddenly deviated from its original track and etched an abrupt slash on the paper. He calmly drew another mark alongside the crooked line, covering up this small mistake. After breakfast, Fu Jia and Lu Qi’an left for school together and separated once they arrived on campus. Fu Jia was dizzy with happiness, completely forgetting about the fact that he had stayed overnight outside without permission. He boldly walked into the dormitory, and was immediately caught by the dormitory supervisor. The supervisor gripped his arm and took him to the homeroom teacher’s office. The two held a meeting of denunciations, lecturing Fu Jia for half an hour before deducting two personal character points from his record. Since Fu Jia was in a good mood, he didn’t feel a bit of regret for those two points. After the homeroom teacher let him go, he raced against time to review for the test.He was very obedient. Lu Qi’an told him not to study anything else, so he didn’t. He wholeheartedly focused on the two questions that were marked for him. The weekly tests at No. 6 High School lasted the entire day, wrapping up all the subjects by afternoon so that evening self-study would continue as usual. Students stayed in their seats while the teachers gathered together and were randomly assigned to invigilate each class. This was Fu Jia’s first time taking a test at No. 6 High School– it was as boring as it was difficult. This feeling of anguish lasted for several rounds of tests until it was time for math, and he saw Liu-laoshi, who was walking up to the podium with a stack of paper in her hands. Liu-laoshi didn’t notice him at first. It was only after distributing the test papers and circling around the classroom that she recognized Fu Jia. She then began to circle around Fu Jia.Fu Jia was under a lot of pressure. He was weak in math to begin with, and now with a teacher staring at him from the side, it took twice the amount of effort to concentrate. The air-conditioner was on, but he was coated in sweat. He muddled through to the last question and wanted to give up, but then felt that there was something familiar about that question.He read it over repeatedly and finally concluded that this was the question Lu Qi’an marked for him. Although it wasn’t exactly identical, the method to solve it was the same, and so were the steps as he wrote his work down.He felt like he was beaten to the point of coughing up blood, but he only spent five minutes solving this question. After collecting the test papers, Liu-laoshi asked another invigilator to take the papers away. She then came over to Fu Jia and patted him on the shoulder with encouragement: “You did well.”Fu Jia gave a modest smile: “Thank you, laoshi.”
Liu-laoshi smiled back: “Next time you have questions, come to my office anytime and ask.”Fu Jia nodded: “Okay.”Liu-laoshi felt very satisfied with his attitude, and then asked: “It’s lunch time now, do you have any plans for it? Why don’t you come join me in the staff canteen.”Fu Jia looked at her in surprise: “How come you’re inviting me?”#Liu-laoshi’s smile deepened: “This is the first time I’ve seen Lu Qi’an get closer to someone other than Lin Qinghe. Being quite curious, I’d like to chat with you.”Fu Jia said yes a hundred times in his heart, and immediately agreed. There were only the two of them this time and Liu-laoshi was insistent on treating him, but Fu Jia was just as insistent on paying for himself. He paid for his own order and took note to pick a meat dish. Despite having enough food to eat, Liu-laoshi still added two dishes for Fu Jia. “I see how you interact with Qi’an, and it makes me quite happy. I don’t really like types like Lin Qinghe, they’re much too frivolous.” Liu-laoshi had heard of all the waves that Lin Qinghe had caused at No. 6 High School. Rumours followed him everywhere, today it’d be the class flowers fighting over him, tomorrow it’d be his ex-girlfriend cursing him out on the streets, all of which Liu-laoshi found very annoying. “I’m a friend of Qi’an’s mom, not at all familiar with his dad’s side, so I don’t know much about the pampered family prince either. It’s always made me quite uneasy,” Liu-laoshi admitted earnestly, “But I see that you’re rather obedient. Even though you were studying at No. 16 High School, you’ve managed to turn yourself around to prevent future troubles. Plus, you solved that last math question beautifully.”Fu Jia blushed and his heart quickly thumped: “It was a coincidence that question turned out to be the one I studied.”Of course he answered the question beautifully! It was the one Lu Qi’an taught him. Liu-laoshi sighed: “Very good, it shows that you’ve reviewed thoroughly. I feel much more at ease knowing that Qi’an has a friend like you. I’m the only one who’s still close with his mom. If he’s not doing good, then I feel like I’ve wronged his mom.”Lost in her memories, Liu-laoshi had a melancholic expression. Fu Jia was very curious about the much discussed Qi’an mommy, but since Liu-laoshi’s expression wasn’t quite right, he didn’t dare to ask rashly.
Before long, Liu-laoshi stopped pursuing this topic and switched to discussing Fu Jia’s academic problems. They conversed until their food had gone cold. After separating, Fu Jia stared at Liu-laoshi’s back silhouette, remembering how she brought up Mrs. Lu in front of Lu Qi’an. She obviously had a decent relationship with Mrs. Lu, or else Lu Qi’an wouldn’t have been so polite to her. It’s just that there were some hidden matters regarding this subject, which caused her expression to change drastically before she finished what she was saying. Truth be told, Fu Jia also knew very little about Mrs. Lu. He had stayed in the Lin family villa for ten years, more or less overhearing some matters that he should know nothing about. Lu Qi’an’s mother was named Qi Bing, and she committed suicide when Lu Qi’an was seven years old. The cause of death was depression.Fu Jia wasn’t sure when exactly Qi Bing was diagnosed, nor did he know the root cause of her mental illness. All he knew was that Qi Bing’s mental breakdown caused her body to deteriorate and she gradually became unable to take care of herself. She struggled to speak normally, and could only voice out a few short sounds.Before she committed suicide, she neither eat nor use the bathroom, and many medical tubes were inserted into her body. Nurses surrounded her twenty-four-seven, leaving her alone only during the hour before she fell asleep. This was because Qi Bing didn’t want strangers to be around her while she was unconscious, it’d drive her crazy. Even so, orderlies would guard her from behind the wall without rest. On the morning of Qi Bing’s death, Lu Zhiyuan went overseas for a business trip while Lu Qi’an was brought out to study by his father’s secretary. Only Lu Wangqing went to visit Qi Bing, but unfortunately, she only stayed until noon.No one expected that night at eleven o’clock, Qi Bing woke up miraculously. Taking only ten seconds to tear off the tube that connected to her mouth, she then swallowed the entire bottle of pills at her bedside, causing her to go into cardiac arrest. When the orderly charged in, it was already too late.She had hidden this bottle of medicine back when she could still walk. Despite seeming like someone who had it together, she had been planning her suicide for a long time.Not leaving anyone to accompany Qi Bing that day had become the biggest lifelong regret of the three Lu family members.
