Chapter 443
“C’mon, lemme stay for the night . ” Shi Sheng sized him up with her gaze .
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“Student Qiao Chu, you want to stay at a single man’s apartment in the middle of the night? Aren’t you afraid I’ll do anything to you?” Though Qin Ge had a proper expression on, his words were anything but .
“What do you want to do to me?”
“What else could a lone guy and girl do?”
“Actually, if Professor Qin is willing, I wouldn’t mind ah . ” Shi Sheng had a ‘shy’ expression on, though her inner thoughts were filled with negativity . ‘If this guy dares to do anything to me, see if I’ll hack him to death!’
Qin Ge, “…” ‘You’re a girl! Don’t you know what being reserved is?’
He shook his head before tossing Shi Sheng’s jacket at her .
Pa .
Something fell out of it .
The two looked down at the same time .
Shi Sheng, “…”
Qin Ge, “…”
The atmosphere turned strangely awkward .
Qin Ge gave Shi Sheng a meaningful look while she maintained her composure .
Qin Ge bent over to pick the object up . He then leaned forward slightly to hand it over to Shi Sheng . “Student Qiao Chu . ”
Shi Sheng took it from him, still calm . She didn’t forget to explain, “Got it from a lottery . ”
“Lottery? Only one?” Qin Ge’s smile appeared a bit cold . He turned around and walked towards the door .
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‘No wait, Prof, I can explain! I gave the rest away, but couldn’t find someone to give this last one to!!!’
Qin Ge had already opened the door . Shi Sheng grit her teeth, stuffed it back in her pocket, and calmly walked out like nothing happened .
‘We’re both adults, what’s there to be afraid of? Shameless people are invincible . ’
Qin Ge rented a room from the hotel next to his apartment for Shi Sheng to stay in, while he went back home to sleep .
Shi Sheng was simply about to become a walking emoji at this point . ‘Don’t understand this professor at all . Though I guess beasts’ thoughts are supposed to be different . ’
The next day, Shi Sheng decisively skipped class .
Qin Ge kept calling her, so she deftly placed him onto her blacklist .
Sometimes, people had to be firm . They had to say no to the things they didn’t like . Even if…it was the person they liked who wanted to do those things .
Shi Sheng was a principled human scum .
……
In an auditoria classroom, Qin Ge stood at the podium giving a lecture with a dark expression . The students took advantage of when he turned around to discuss .
“The Great Class Skipper didn’t come again?”
“Didn’t you see Professor Qin’s expression during rollcall just now? I almost thought he’d stab her if she was standing in front of him . ”
“Weren’t there rumours before that he was chasing her?”
“You believed that? That OCD Professor Qin must’ve chased her only because he was unhappy someone skipped his class . Plus, she’s skipped more than a semester’s worth of classes . I reckon Professor Qin’s going mad . ”
“Guess so… I had to do the assignment last week 5 times before passing . Already starting to doubt my life choices . ”
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“At least you only had to do 5 . I had to do it 7 times…”
The group of students grieved silently . ‘Is it too late to change our major?’
When class ended, Qin Ge assigned the class this week’s homework amidst much groaning .
Qin Ge left the classroom and was greeted by the Vice Principal, causing him to frown .
“Xiao Qin . ” The Vice Principal appeared older than 50 . His hair was completely white and he appeared like Maitreya[1] when he smiled .
“Vice Principal . ” Qin Ge greeted him without much emotion .
The Vice Principal chuckled, before pointing at a less populated area in the distance . “Let’s go there for a stroll . ”
Qin Ge guessed that the Vice Principal wanted to talk to him about something, so he nodded .
The Vice Principal talked about some unimportant stuff at first before getting to the point . “Xiao Qin ah, the students have been very adverse to your style of teaching as of late . You know our school encourages a more hands-off teaching method, so teachers don’t need to be so strict…”
Qin Ge’s frown deepened more and more .
“…I know you mean the best for them, but you’re still too young . These kids get more rebellious the sterner you are with them . I see you’ve been under a lot of pressure lately, so how about you take a break for some time?” The Vice Principal smiled and spoke .
But Qin Ge already understood . The Qin Family was pressuring the school . Had it been before, Qin Ge would’ve resigned without looking back .
But…
Qin Ge couldn’t help but think of a certain someone .
“Xiao Qin, the school doesn’t mean anything else by it, so don’t stress out . We just wanted you to have a rest . ” The Vice Principal patted Qin Ge’s shoulder .
“Vice Principal, can you give me some time to consider?”
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The Vice Principal sighed . He was the one who hired Qin Ge and had high expectations for the latter . What a shame…
Even the best of talents were useless in the face of money and power .
‘This kid Qin Ge is good in every way, save for his stubbornness . ’
“Sure thing . ” The Vice Principal shook his head and left .
The peach blossoms surrounding the pathway were in full bloom . When a slight breeze blew past, they rustled on their branches .
The pink petals danced in the wind, spinning in lazy circles as they fell onto the man’s shoulders and hair .
Qin Ge slowly held his face . His expression regained its coldness after he put his hands back down .
The school only gave him a week’s time . Qin Ge held classes as per usual, as if nothing had ever happened .
When he returned to his apartment, the security guard gave him an apologetic look . “Mr Qin, sorry… You can’t come in . ”
Qin Ge didn’t ask him why . He didn’t have to . He already knew why .
Qin Xin was cornering him .
Qin Ge sat in a dark corner of a noisy bar, downing cup after cup of strong alcohol .
Lightly-dressed women occasionally cast looks in his direction, some of the bolder ones going so far as to scoot closer to him . But before they could even get close, they were scared off by his cold gaze .
Gradually, no one dared to approach him anymore .
……
The ear-splitting music and raucous crowd made one feel as if they’d entered another world .
“Chu-Chu, do you know what he told me?” Chen Xi had a bitter expression . “He said you’re a girl, so you’d be easily forgiven even if you did those things . But he’s ‘different’ . If he does it, his future is ruined . Fuck that! Chu-Chu, I’m sorry . It’s all my fault . ”
‘If I hadn’t gotten Chu-Chu involved in the first place, Chen Xiao wouldn’t have made her take the blame . ’
“En . You misjudged him . Be smarter next time . ” Shi Sheng poured more alcohol for Chen Xi . “Just take it as a lesson . ”
Chen Xi downed the drinks like they were water . Shi Sheng didn’t stop him . All humans were rebellious—the more you tried to stop them doing something, the more they wanted to do it .
Chen Xiao’s family situation wasn’t too good .
Back then, he co-headed this project with another senior . But that senior left the country and tossed the project to Chen Xiao .
At first, Chen Xiao wanted to do a good job . He spent all his effort on it, even going so far as to delay his graduation .
But something that happened at home made it so that he urgently needed money .
There were still some funds leftover from last semester, but Chen Xi was the one in charge of them, so he couldn’t touch them . He could only set his sights on the project itself .
And someone needed to take the blame, so Chen Xiao picked Shi Sheng .
Chen Xiao had been under pressure at the time . His father owed a million in gambling debt . If Chen Xiao didn’t pay up soon, his mother and little sister would have been tormented to death by the debtors .
He’d only been thinking of how to come up with the money, so his IQ had gone into the negatives . Even if Shi Sheng had just called the police, the truth would’ve been revealed .
Shi Sheng accompanied Chen Xi . Suddenly, there was a hubbub in the already chaotic crowd .
Shi Sheng turned to see what the fuss was about, and her gaze suddenly paused .
[1] One of his reincarnations is called the Smiling Buddha (I think), so I guess you can see how this analogy came about? Though technically he’s not Maitreya since Maitreya is supposed to be the Future Buddha, but people get confused easily .