Volume One, Chapter Ninety-Seven: Remedial Lessons Plan

With the long endurance test finally drawing to a close, the mutual ordeal at last came to an end as well. Since Mo De remained clear-headed throughout, the questions in the interview that were meant to probe subconscious personality traits had mostly lost their effect. Every answer he gave was so ordinary it could not have been more ordinary.

The questionnaire finished, Gu Yichen left first to fetch his beer and fried chicken, while Lan Cheng politely waved farewell to Little Mo.

After parting from the evaluation instructors, Mo De looked up at the sky. The stars had already lit the whole night. He sighed and turned toward the second-year academic building to which he belonged.

He had never expected this ridiculous test to take up an entire day, and in the end not a single class had been attended. By tomorrow, when the class monitor saw him, there would surely be another lecture waiting.

He reached up and took the key down from the doorframe, only to discover when he opened the classroom that the door had not been locked at all.

Pushing it open, Mo De fumbled for the switch on the wall. Light flooded the small room at once, driving out the darkness and revealing the figure of a girl asleep over her desk.

He had not expected that Su, the class monitor, would have stayed in the classroom all this time, waiting until his test was over and he returned.

Brilliant light dispelled the hush. Su Ziwen was roused by the lamp, and in her daze she reached for the glasses beside her.

She found them on the desk and put them on, and her vision quickly returned to clarity.

The figure frozen in the doorway was indeed Mo De.

Looking up at the clock on the wall, she saw that it was already seven in the evening. Her stomach suddenly let out a loud growl, startlingly out of place in the empty classroom.

Since evening self-study had been canceled, Tianshui High School’s cafeteria no longer served dinner, and Su Ziwen had naturally eaten little while waiting for Mo De.

She stared at him expressionlessly, and Mo De did his utmost to keep his own face steady as he walked back to his seat, took up his backpack, and said with deliberate seriousness, “Let’s go eat something first. I’ve been at the test since this morning and haven’t eaten a thing.”

It was a deftly made escape, neatly smoothing over the awkwardness.

Su Ziwen nodded. Together they tidied up the homework and textbooks, then went to a family restaurant that stayed open in the evening.

Since the class monitor had waited until she was starving just to help him with extra lessons, this meal naturally had to be Mo De’s treat. While they waited for the dishes, Su Ziwen had already taken out her notebook and begun rapidly explaining the essentials of the subjects they had learned that day.

By the time the meal ended, Mo De was stuffed to the brim and his head felt swollen with information, exhausted in a way that made even the endless run of the daytime seem mild by comparison.

Su Ziwen glanced at the time and saw that it was nearly the last bus. At last she stopped her unbroken stream of instruction and handed the carefully organized notes across the table to Mo De.

“If you’re giving this to me, what are you going to use to review when you get back?” Mo De asked after taking the notes.

“These notes were written by me. Of course I know exactly what the key points are. And tutoring you is itself a kind of review for me.” Brushing the stray hair at her ear aside, Su Ziwen sat quietly on the bench and fixed her eyes on Mo De as she said, word for word, “Before bed tonight, digest everything from today.”

Mo De answered with a pained expression, then seemed to remember something and took out a notebook to return to Su Ziwen.

“Oh, right, class monitor. This is the notebook you lent me earlier. The test started so suddenly that I never even had time to look at it.”

He pressed his palms together in apology, but Su Ziwen did not make an issue of it. She put the notebook back into her bag and urged him to hurry for the bus. “If you don’t leave now, you’ll miss the last one again.”

After seeing Su Ziwen back to the apartment across from the station, Mo De returned to the bus stop to wait for the final bus to arrive.

He had truly run enough for one day. He had no desire to run home again, even if it would actually be faster that way.

After returning home, Su Ziwen went straight to her room, raised a hand to signal silence to the black cat perched on the windowsill, and waited quietly for several minutes.

Listening carefully, she heard no one this time climbing the drainpipe to “pass by” her room. It seemed Mo De had indeed obediently taken the bus home.

After topping up the black cat’s food bowl, Su Ziwen took out the notebook Mo De had returned to her.

On the last page, she discovered a folded sheet of paper tucked inside.

When she unfolded it, she found that it was blank.

Su Ziwen frowned in confusion. She did not remember ever leaving a blank sheet inside the notebook.

Perhaps yesterday’s evaluation had been too tiring, and her memory had become a little muddled. She shook her head and decided not to think about it any further.

Setting the notebook aside, the girl stretched, then returned to the bed, sat cross-legged, and began the day’s cultivation of her ability.

...

From afar, seeing that his home was unlit, Mo De felt a little puzzled. Could it be that the woman had gone out to have fun tonight?

Bouncing the huge pillow in his arms, Mo De quickened his pace toward his apartment building.

Only halfway there did he remember that he had promised Mu Qing he would bring her a large pillow when he got home. Mo De hurried off the bus, ran to the mall, and bought a large Relax Bear pillow as recommended by the salesgirl.

On the way home, many passersby pointed and stared at Mo De, who was carrying the Relax Bear over his shoulder, and he grew mortified beyond belief.

He took out his key and opened the door, only to discover that Mu Qing was indeed home. She simply had not turned on the lights. Wrapped in a blanket, she was huddled on the sofa watching a horror film.

“Click.”

“Waaahhhhh...”

When Mo De turned on the light, the sudden brightness scared Mu Qing into screaming again and again, as though the dark sunglasses on her face were nothing but decoration.

“What are you doing?” Mu Qing turned her head, realized Mo De had come back, and finally let out a small breath of relief.

“Watching TV in the dark is bad for your eyesight.” Mo De waved and tossed the giant pillow onto the sofa, and Mu Qing caught it at once. After tearing open the packaging, she hugged it to her chest.

Mm. Nice feel, and the design was cute too. Had Mo De’s taste finally awakened?

“From a physiological standpoint, I’m blind right now.” Mu Qing lifted one corner of her amber sunglasses, revealing eyes that were dull and unfocused.

Mo De was too lazy to argue with her and instead asked, “Did you eat dinner?”

“I ordered takeout.” Mu Qing pointed at the trash can beside the coffee table, stuffed full of fried chicken boxes, and patted her stomach in satisfaction. Eating junk food once in a while really could make a person quite happy.

“Eat less of that...”

“Then make it for me.”

Before Mo De’s lecture could even begin, Mu Qing cut it off at the source.

“I’ll probably be coming home late for the next two weeks. If it comes to it, go have dinner at Sister Xi’s place.” According to Su Ziwen, even though evening self-study had been canceled for these two weeks, the matter of tutoring could not be allowed to lapse. Mo De’s dinners for the next two weeks would probably all have to be handled by that restaurant.

“Okay, okay.” Mu Qing was naturally more than willing.

Although the sisters of the Li family were also full of secrets, they lived beside Mo De all the same. Everyone understood each other perfectly, minds in harmony, each minding their own business, and when they met, they spoke of nothing but food.