Chapter 19 - The Taste of Chocolate
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
Zhang Liangliang did not run too far. She was sitting next to the flowerbed downstairs, sobbing with her head lowered and shoulders shaking.
Shi Lei walked over and bowed his head to look at her. He wanted to comfort her, but did not know where to start.
"I more or less understand your situation after your parents" conversation. Your father idles about, with some unhealthy addictions and this home relied on your mother for support. Before the accident, although they fought often, but it was still a complete family. Then, your father had an affair, when he took his mistress out, something happened. I"m guessing a car crash……. Your father was fine, but his mistress was not. And your father shouldn"t be driving while intoxicated, so when they were seeking civil liability, they sentenced him. Under anger and frustration, your mother applied for divorce and you were given to your mother, and gave her the only property, the house, to your mother. But after your father was released, he was unreconciled and he comes over often to make a scene. You became like this in the past year or so, right? Probably, you are also like your mother, loathing to have a father like this."
Zhang Liangliang was in shock. She did not think that through a simple dispute, Shi Lei almost reconstructed the truth.
She lifted her head up, black tears hanging down from her face. Shi Lei took out some tissues and pa.s.sed it to her.
"Honestly, it was not too hard to guess. It"s probably because the previous tutors did not want to get involved, so they did not really talk to you. I"ll put it in this way, you hate the fact that you have a father like this, but your mother is not wrong. Perhaps because you are unwilling to accept the truth that she proposed to divorce, but, any normal woman would not tolerate with their husband doing something like this. Of course, I"m an outsider, and I don"t plan to persuade you. What i want to say is that your rebellion, everything you do won"t avenge your father. All he cares is getting a sum of money, or perhaps not only once. Once he achieves that, he might even use your mother as an ATM in the future. The only person you can rebel against is your mother, but is it really your mother that should be bearing with your rebellion?"
"For what reasons do you think that he doesn"t care about me?" Zhang Liangliang finally spoke, choking with emotions.
Shi Lei sat down next to Zhang Liangliang, and said: "If he really cared about you, the first thing he should have done after he stepped into the house was to ask how you are doing. But he did not even hypocritically show some affection, it can only be explained that he does not care about anyone other than himself."
Zhang Liangliang was quiet again, she used the tissue given by Shi Lei, wiping her face furiously.
As she threw away the tissue, Shi Lei saw that Zhang Liangliang was rather delicate and pretty, except the overly heavy makeup she was wearing completely covered it.
"Maybe you think you are very unhappy, and that sense of unhappiness comes from your parents, so you want to rebel through actions like these……."
"Nonsense! Who do you think you are? Don"t think that you know everything! How long have you known me? Yet you are talking about these big reasons! The type of people I hate the most are people like you, you are full of reasons, you know nothing at all, don"t pretend like you know everything! Get lost! I don"t want you as my tutor!"
All of a sudden, Zhang Liangliang, who struggled with difficulty to calm down, seemed to be provoked, and snarled once again.
Shi Lei was distracted for a second, and suddenly understood. "Fine, looks like I"m wrong. You are not trying to rebel against your mother, and also not your father. In your heart, you don"t see him as a father anymore long ago, right? I know, you lack attention and care. You feel like you don"t have a father anymore, your mother is busy with work everyday and doesn"t give you attention. So, you made yourself like this in hoping she would give you more attention and care."
"You are talking nonsense! It"s not like this! I don"t need anyone"s concern, I like the way I am now! Get lost! You"ve already gotten the money for today, my business has nothing to do with you! Get lost!"
Shi Lei knew he guessed her thoughts completely right as she shouted harshly. After hesitating for a while, Shi Lei stood up and returned the house key to her.
"I"ll contact your mother later. You can calm down here for the time being." As he said this, Shi Lei turned around and walked away.
Behind him, Zhang Liangliang widened her tear-filled eyes, and did not understand Shi Lei"s way of doing things.
After taking two steps, Shi Lei turned around, took out a piece of chocolate from his bag and pa.s.sed it over: "When you are not in a good mood, eat chocolate, it helps to soothe your mood."
He shoved the chocolate into Zhang Liangliang"s hands and left.
Zhang Liangliang looked at the chocolate in her hands, and scolded loudly: "Who the h.e.l.l wants your chocolate!" She raised her hand and threw the chocolate towards Shi Lei.
Shi Lei did not turn around. He knew that no matter what he says to her at this time, all reactions he"ll ever receive are her hysterical resistance.
Seeing that Shi Lei really left like that, tears streamed down Zhang Liangliang"s face once again. She glanced helplessly toward the direction of the neighbourhood"s gate, mumbled, but did not know what she was muttering.
After a long time, she finally stopped crying. Through her blurry eyes, the world was no longer clear. In her eyes, Zhang Liangliang seemed to hear Shi Lei"s voice once again.
Shi Lei said to her: "When you are not in a good mood, eat chocolate, it helps to soothe your mood."
Zhang Liangliang wiped her eyes using the back of her hand, looked at the broken chocolate on the ground in front of her. Although hesitant, she walked over and picked up a small chunk. She carefully wiped away the soil and dirt on it and placed it in her mouth. It was sweet, mixed with the specific bitter taste from cocoa, stimulating her taste buds.
Driven by an invisible force, Zhang Liangliang picked up the rest of the chocolate on the ground one by one and ate them all.
Without knowing why, Zhang Liangliang really felt like her mood was better. Maybe it was because of these chocolate, or maybe because the tears released the negative emotions she held in her heart.
Clutching the house key which Shi Lei shoved to her earlier tightly, the midst of her palm seemed to catch a sense of warmth that remained from Shi Lei.
Suddenly, Zhang Liangliang frantically ran towards the direction of her home, found her phone and called Zhang Meimei.
Zhang Meimei was in the middle of a meeting, but chose to pick it up seeing it was from her daughter.
"What"s the tutor"s phone number?"
Zhang Meimei was a bit surprised, asked: "Did he leave already?"
"Hurry up and give me his number!" Zhang Liangliang"s tone of voice was not polite just like how she usually communicates with her mother. But this time, Zhang Meimei sensed something different. In the past tutors, Zhang Liangliang would never ever asked for their contact details.
Restraining her curiosity, Zhang Meimei sent Zhang Liangliang Shi Lei"s phone number.
Originally, she wanted to call Shi Lei and ask what happened, but there were a bunch of people waiting for her in the meeting room. Zhang Meimei was in deep thought, nevertheless, she put away her phone and returned to the meeting room, returning to her usual role, methodically arranging every single piece of work.
Chapter 20 - Wechat Er"jie
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
Shi Lei enjoyed the 120 yuan dinner he earned by himself, as well as the last share of the 40,000 quota.
As for next week"s quota, if everything goes the right way, it should be 80,000 yuan and Shi Lei had already thought of how to spend this 80,000 yuan.
In any case, the next week should be rather relaxed.
It had been three weeks since Shi Lei got hold of the black card and almost everyday was prostrated with fear. He was enjoying the wonderful life which the money provided, but also felt apprehensive. If it allowed Shi Lei to choose, he probably would choose the not so rich but tranquil life.
Humans are contradicting like this. They want money when they don"t have any, but when they do, they become worried by it.
Shi Lei could not remember who said this, "it"s not a problem if it can be solved with money". In the past, Shi Lei was indifferent towards this statement, but now he gained a profound understanding of it. The real problems cannot be solved by money. Just like the event of him meeting the black card, and he was afraid that there was no way the Scepter would let him go whether how much money he had.
After getting in touch with the Scepter a few times, Shi Lei fumbled and got hold of some rules, in addition for what the Scepter had told him, and the weekly quota that must be spent on which areas to be in accordance with the rules. Shi Lei also knew that in the Scepter"s view, he"s just a newbie slave. The black card should also have levels, in other words, it a.s.signs levels to the possessor.
Newbies probably didn"t count levels, huh.
What made Shi Lei worried was that he received such a high quota for a newbie, how high would the quota be if he reaches level one or level two? Maybe a few million per week? Except for purchasing cars and houses, Shi Lei really had no idea how to spend a million within a week"s time.
Good thing Shi Lei was rather bold with a carefree personality. Otherwise, the fear of the future was enough to crush him.
The Shi Lei right now was not bothered to think about the future. At least he knew that the Scepter did not wish to kill him that quickly. The entire event was a matter of life and death to Shi Lei, but to the Scepter, it was merely a game. The power and authority the Scepter held was beyond Shi Lei"s imagination.
Since the Scepter did not want to kill him too early, Shi Lei believed that the quota in the future will not increase rapidly to an achievable rate.
This was a joke. Unexpectedly, he needed to learn how to spend money.
But before this, Shi Lei always believed that spending money was like basic survival instinct, such as eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired.
Due to the fact that Shi Lei already solved the problem of how to spend next week"s quota, he was in a rather good mood. Under the situation of danger lurking on every side, a peaceful week was rare and precious.
Swallowing down the last mouthful of food, Shi Lei placed his chopsticks down and stopped thinking.
He took out his phone and opened Wechat customarily. He wanted to see if anyone posted new fun videos or memes in Moments(1), but as soon as he tapped into Wechat, a small "ding" rose from his phone.
Someone sent him a friend request.
Er"jie.(2)
That was the person"s nickname. Shi Lei glanced at the Wechat ID, it was a series of numbers, should be a phone number.
Her settings for Moments were open and Shi Lei clicked into it, immediately seeing a rather familiar delicate and pretty face.
Er"jie"s Moments were filled with all kinds of selfie and acting cute. Black, straight hair, pretty face, about 15 or 16 years of age, she looked rather cute.
But, who was this little girl? Why did she look familiar?
Quickly, Shi Lei remembered the charming female lawyer as this face was rather similar. But the age was not right…….
Er"jie…….
Shi Lei suddenly realised that this Wechat should be Zhang Liangliang"s.
This was the time when Shi Lei realised that Zhang Liangliang, was actually Zhang Liangliang(3) as "liang" was "er"(4). Zhang Meimei was really carefree with her daughter"s name.
Shi Lei did not see that the little girl had good looks before. But since her mother was a beauty, having a beautiful daughter did not seem illogical. Plus, a mother and daughter who looked alike was a natural thing.
Since he knew who the person was, Shi Lei accepted her friend request.
As soon as Shi Lei accepted Zhang Liangliang"s friend request, a message popped up.
——Guess who I am.
——No matter what, I am your teacher. You should be using honorific word "nin"(5)
——You guessed it, it seems like no matter how heavy my makeup is, it can"t hide my natural beauty (sent a narcissist sticker).
Shi Lei was not even bothered to type and sent a emoji of vomiting.
——Uh, you"ll come tomorrow to teach me, right?
Hmm? She changed? Looked like the words he said moved her.
"Or maybe because my charms are so dazzling that made a rebellious teenage girl go back to the right path. As expected, there is no end to virtuous achievements, having good looks really solves everything." Shi Lei thought even more narcissistically.
——You need your mother to decide, if she rings me tomorrow, I will go.
Shi Lei had a thought; since he agreed to take the job offer, he should do it properly. Although she only accepted it under an emergency situation, he probably won"t ever need the pay of 100 or 200 yuan. When there"s a start, there"s a finish, he could prevent a good girl from rebellion without a reason.
——Ok, I"ll see you tomorrow! Oh, right, which do you like better, the way I dress in my Moments or now?
——It"s good to be tidy and neat.
Come early tomorrow, da shu(6)! Chu. (A sticker of a rabbit skipping and hopping away)
Shi Lei had a sudden blackout, da shu?! Are you sure you are calling me that? I"m only 21 years old this year, only 5 or 6 years old than you, da shu? And the meaning of that last chu, you are an underage brat, are you sure you know what that means?
The good mood he had was influenced by a silly girl so easily.
At midnight, although Shi Lei was sure that he had finished spending the quota, but he still went to ask the Scepter about the problem with 780 yuan. The Scepter told him in the end that it was because the operating system installed in his laptop was a pirated version.
"Pirated version is the enemy to all original versions, so, the 780 yuan set must be taken away from the quota!" The Scepter sounded extremely righteous and Shi Lei felt shameless.
After he returned to the dorm, Shi Lei used his phone to read for a while before falling asleep.
Speaking of reading books, he must use the Qidian website to let it charge some money into his account. After experiencing the accident with the illegal operating system, Shi Lei promised that he will never used pirated versions of anything in any form. d.a.m.ned pirating, almost killed someone.
Mhm, everyone"s responsible of protecting the legal versions. Pirating is shameless, please support legal reading.
After waking up in the morning, he opened the bank app, great, it really was 80,000 yuan.
Shi Lei laughed coldly whilst laying down in his bed. If it wasn"t for him already finished thinking of a plan on how to spend this 80,000 yuan, he would be worried for another week.
He took the initiative and called Zhang Meimei. If he did not need to go tutor today, he"ll spend these 80,000 yuan today.
The most expensive Alienware laptop at De Ji Plaza was about 80,000 yuan. Subtracting the discount, he could purchase it at the price of around 70,000 yuan and it should not be hard to spend the few thousands left. But this time, he needed to make sure that they are installing the legal version of operating system.
(1)Moments: Function of Wechat where it displays all the posts of the users on one"s friend list
(2)Er"jie, (3)Liangliang, (4)as "liang" was "er": The "liang(靓)" in Zhang Liangliang"s name means pretty. One way of saying the number 2 in Chinese is also "liang(两)" but with different tone. It is then transferred into the other way of saying 2 which is "er(二)", hence she nicknamed herself "er"jie" meaning "second sister".
(5)Nin: honorific word for "you", usually use "ni" for most situations
(6)Da shu: literally meaning "big uncle", but it is a cute way for younger girls to address older guys