Chapter 18 - Every Family Has Its Problems
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
No one bothered to put up with Zhang Liangliang’s snarling, Shi Lei found a place to sit and put the earphones aside.
Zhang Liangliang saw it, she immediately dashed over in an attempt to seize the headphones. But Shi Lei reached out his hand and stopped her.
“I don’t care if you are a hipster or what. You should know what I am. Since your mother paid me, I have the obligation to fulfill my promise.”
Zhang Liangliang glowered at Shi Lei, said: “Aren’t you just a tutor? I have switched tutors no less than 10 this year. All of them said the exact same thing when they first started. I’ll wait and see how long you can last!”
Shi Lei laughed. He knew ignoring her rebellious acts and words was not the only way to deal with a brat like her. As soon as he pulls her into his tempo, it was counted as a success.
“Let’s begin the lesson.” Shi Lei minded his own business and said. He reached out for the Chinese book.
The book looks brand new. It had been more than a month since school started and this girl haven’t even opened the book yet.
“It’s the first time tutoring you and I don’t know what level you are at. I”ll give you two questions and do it first.”
No matter what Zhang Liangliang did, Shi Lei did everything his way and did not listen to any of her scoldings.
Moreover, Shi Lei discovered that even though Zhang Liangliang acted in such a rebellious way, and her anger seemed to be able to light the entire house on fire, but from the beginning till the end, she did not swear a single time, not even a single curse. At least this meant that her family education is rather good. Zhang Liangliang’s rebellions were only a way to oppose against her parents, or, particularly her mother.
Shi Lei was not a caring old brother like from the radios and did not have the interest to b.u.t.t into Zhang Liangliang’s family problems. But since he took their money, he should do the job properly.
Shi Lei found an empty notebook and made two questions according to the content of the Chinese textbook. These two questions did not have a standard answer, but it was enough to display a student’s general comprehensive level.
He pa.s.sed the book in front of Zhang Liangliang, Shi Lei said: “Have a go at these two questions.”
“What are you going to do if I don’t?” Zhang Liangliang tilted her neck in disobedience.
Shi Lei smiled. At least Zhang Liangliang’s tempo had followed Shi Lei’s, it was the first step to succeed.
“If you don’t, of course there is nothing I can do. Honestly, this tutoring job is probably the easiest I’ve ever had. Your mother did not expect you to improve your grades anyway. She only hoped to have someone supervise you when she’s not home. I’m not interested to know about your family business. If you want to keep yelling like this, I don’t care. But when I’m here, you can’t do anything else other than facing these textbooks. You can choose to do the questions, you can also choose not to. So much that if you place these textbooks in front of you, doesn’t matter whether you actually look at it or not. I’m happy to sit here with you like this till the two hours are over.” As Shi Lei finished saying this, he leaned back against the chair with a careless expression, and calmly looked at Zhang Liangliang.
“Shameless!” Zhang Liangliang cursed in hatred. Naturally, she did not pick up the pen on the table and stared at Shi Lei face to face like a young, belligerent rooster.
In fact, with her mother’s heredity, if Zhang Liangliang washed off the makeup on her face, she would be a beauty. A girl like this, why did she make herself look like this?
Neither of them talked but kept eye contact from the beginning till the end. Facing against Zhang Liangliang’s vicious glares, Shi Lei did not care at all.
Suddenly, rapid knocking sounded outside with a man’s cursing, Zhang Liangliang’s mother had no choice but to open the door.
“I’m warning you, if you dare to do this again, I will definitely call the police! If it wasn’t for Liangliang, your actions right now are enough to send you to jail for two years.”
The man’s voice was also snarling: “Zhang Meimei! Don’t use your lawyer att.i.tude on me! I’m not scared! I also did law, you can’t scare me! When we divorced, you took all of my family property, I just want my share back!”
“I occupied your property? We were married for so many years, except for the first two years which you worked at an office, five or six years later, you did not earn a single cent for the family. You eat mine, use mine, and even use my money to raise your mistress. Even when the accident happened you were still driving my car!”
“Don’t talk about this with me. I used the couple’s shared property. It doesn’t matter who earned it, as long as it was gained after marriage, we should have half each. You applied for divorce when I was detained, occupied our family property, if you don’t give me half today, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Fine, you are not going anywhere right? I’ll call the police to take you! I’m telling you, you should consider it when you are still in suspended sentence period right now!”
“How dare you!” The man’s voice grew more and more furious.
Zhang Meimei snorted coldly, and he soon quickly heard that she was talking on the phone: “h.e.l.lo, is this 110(1)? There’s a man who broke into my house without my consent, mhm, yes, I’m Zhang Meimei, please send someone over soon. My address is…...”
“Zhang Meimei, aren’t you going overboard? I know, you found someone else and you want to marry him with our family property……”
Zhang Meimei interrupted the man’s words without a trace of politeness, and said: “Whether I’m finding a new lover or not, it is none of your business. We’ve already divorced for over a year. You had an affair during our marriage, our divorce was also issued by the court, what properties did we have? Except for this house, all the money was compensated to your women outside. I did not even ask you for child support, what rights do you have to talk about properties? The police are coming, if you don’t want any more trouble during your suspended period, then f.u.c.k off!”
The man cursed, obviously displaying a sense of guilty conscience and left gloomily after a few curses. If something happened during the suspended period, it’s more than likely that he’ll be sent back to prison and he did not want to take the risk.
As he heard the sound of the anti-theft door closing, Shi Lei finally shifted his attention back to Zhang Liangliang.
The angry little girl just then had turned into a rooster who was defeated, speechless with her head drooped down.
Looking carefully, Zhang Liangliang’s face was filled with tears. The smokey-eye makeup was already gone, now lines of black.
Although it was just a word or two, Shi Lei roughly found out the family’s situation. He sighed in secret, he could not help but to sympathise this little girl.
As soon as Shi Lei opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, he heard a knock. Immediately, Zhang Meimei’s slightly tired but still graceful face appeared between the door and wall.
“Mr. Xiao Shi(2), I have something on at my office and need to go first. Sorry for the inconvenience today. When you leave later, please send me a message.”
Shi Lei nodded. As Zhang Meimei closed the door, they quickly heard the sound of the anti-theft door closing once again, Zhang Meimei had left.
“You are making your mother angry on purpose because of your father?” Shi Lei asked in a small voice.
Zhang Liangliang abrupted raised her head. Her face was gaudy and she shouted hoa.r.s.ely: “What has that anything to do with you? I don’t need you to care about me! That’s not my father, my father died! I don’t have a father!” As she said this, Zhang Liangliang hastily dashed towards the exit, she pulled the door open and ran out.
Shi Lei was shocked. He did not think of this and it was too late to stop her.
When Shi Lei chased after her, Zhang Liangliang had already left the house. Shi Lei saw the key on the cabinet next to the door, he seized it and chased after her once again.
(1) 110: Police number in China
(2) Xiao Shi: Usually when seniors address juniors in Chinese, they add ‘xiao’, meaning ‘small’ in front of their surname.