Chapter 17 - Girl With a Smokey Eye Makeup
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
After a luxurious lunch, including his bank account, Shi Lei only had about 20 bucks left, and it was the result of Shi Lei giving out all his change.
Shi Lei earnestly calculated this week’s consumptions, he was only about 110 yuan away from the total of 40,780 yuan. If he could get the tutor job today and earn 120 yuan for just two hours, it was more than enough to accomplish the mission.
Shi Lei called a taxi and arrived at the residential area which was not too far from the school.
Shi Lei did not even knock yet and he heard snarls from the inside. It was a woman’s voice. It seemed to be the woman who picked up the call in the morning, except it was obviously filled with strong resentment. Shi Lei hesitated, he wasn’t sure if he should knock on the door.
“Don’t talk about this anymore, I won’t give you a single cent!” The woman’s voice sounded again from inside the house, then it was followed by a moment of dead silence. It looked like she was making a phone call, and now she’d hung up.
Shi Lei fixed his attire and knocked on the door.
“I told you, if you dare come over again, I will call the police!” The woman’s furious voice sounded again, she seemed to think that Shi Lei was the person she was on the phone with and came to find her.
“Uh…… Hello, I’m the one who contacted you about tutoring this morning……” Shi Lei said loudly.
The woman on the inside was blank for a second, then opened the anti-theft door. A rather good looking woman with a nice body stood in the doorway.
She studied Shi Lei slightly and smoothed her slightly messy hair, and apologised: “I’m sorry, I thought it was…… Hurry and come in! You are Shi Lei?”
Shi Lei nodded and said: “Hello, I’m Shi Lei, a fourth year student at Wu Dong University.”
“Come in, come in. I’m sorry about what happened just then, I thought you were that person…….”
After he walked in, Shi Lei discovered that the furnishings inside were rather nice. Except that there were traces of dirt on the walls, as if it just experienced a world war not long ago.
Shi Lei took out his student card and ID, these were the essentials.
“The situation is that my friend called you first, but he was not the one to apply for the position. He made the phone call for me so he did not tell you his name. After he talked to me, I contacted you. You have a daughter in middle school, third year, right?”
The woman seemed to be much calmer and passed Shi Lei a glass of water. She sat opposite Shi Lei and studied him conscientiously.
As if she was satisfied with Shi Lei’s outer appearance, she finally said: “My child is probably very rebellious. Honestly, I’m not expecting a tutor to improve her grades, just someone who can take care and spend some time with her on the weekends. In other words, supervise her so she doesn’t go out with those shady……” The woman frowned and changed her phrasing: “Don’t let her hang out with those children that act willingly as they please and make a scene. So during these times, you just need to make sure that she doesn’t leave the house. I’m busy and usually have to work overtime on the weekends. So I need you to come over every Saturday afternoon, sometimes Sunday if needed. I talked about the price with your friend, 60 yuan per hour. If you don’t have any problems, you can start today.”
Shi Lei was slightly surprised, thinking that this woman was rather quick and decisive, and asked: “You don’t need to ask about my studies or grades?”
The woman shook her head, forced a smile, and said: “As I just said, I really only need someone on the weekends to make sure that she doesn’t go out. It’ll be even better if you can have a lesson or two. You can try it first. I won’t hide this from you but I’ve tried a lot of tutors already. None of them lasted for a month. I really hope you can bear with my daughter!”
Shi Lei thought, ‘I didn’t want this as a long-term job anyways. I only came here for the 120 yuan. As long as I deal with it today, next time I can just tell her to change to another tutor as I couldn’t bear with her daughter.’
But obviously he could not say that aloud. Plus, Shi Lei was curious how this woman who had the manners of a strong and independent woman had raised a rebellious daughter.
The woman looked at the time and took out 120 yuan, she passed it to Shi Lei and said: “Doesn’t matter how it goes, I’ll give you today’s 120 yuan first. I requested a leave of absence, but I need to go back to the office before 3pm. Sorry for the inconvenience today.”
Shi Lei hesitated, and eventually took the 120 yuan, he nodded as he stood up.
The woman pointed towards a room with closed doors, and said: “She’s inside. Oh, she’s called Zhang Liangliang.”
Shi Lei did not say another word, he walked straight to the room and knocked on the door. There was no sound inside. He turned around and looked at the charming woman, seeing that she did not oppose it, he twisted the doorknob and opened the door.
To be honest, as soon as Shi Lei opened the door, he realised how hard this tutoring job would be.
Usually, girls in middle school, about 14 or 15 of age, their rooms should be colours like pink. But everything before Shi Lei’s eyes was nowhere near that.
There were some celebrity posters on the walls, but definitely not good looking guys and girls. Rather, it was some weird looking masculine men filled with tattoos, with ear and nose piercings, and ring-like objects everywhere where it could be pierced.
The room was so messy that it seemed to have experienced World War III, it wasn’t exaggerating to describe it as the look of turmoil and chaos of war.
A girl wearing a black leather jacket sat in front of the desk, jamming along to the music with huge headphones. Even Shi Lei could hear the irascible music from the headphones; they were all in english. Shi Lei walked over and took away the headphones on the girl’s head.
Zhang Liangliang, who was indulged in her own world, turned around and glared at Shi Lei furiously as the music disappeared.
As if she knew Shi Lei’s identity, Zhang Liangliang said angrily: “Give me back my headphones!”
Shi Lei ignored her. He also took the phone which was connected to the earphones, unplugged it and returned the phone to her.
“What are you doing?” Zhang Liangliang grew even angrier.
Shi Lei could finally take a good look at this 14 or 15 year old girl.
Short hair, but also not that short. Because it was curled and styled rather puffy like an explosion just happened, it seemed to be a pile of instant noodles on her head which made it look short. If she straightened it, it would be about shoulder length.
She had horrible makeup on her face. A big black circle, it was said to be the trendy smokey-eye makeup, black lipstick, and some red and green highlights in her hair.
Her leather jacket was unzipped, with only an undergarment inside. Her bosoms weren’t big so Shi Lei could not see the gap in between them as she was not wearing much.
She was only wearing a pair of shorts. In this weather, this kid was not afraid of being cold.
“What are you looking at! Haven’t you seen a beauty before?” Zhang Liangliang was a tomboy, she scolded Shi Lei furiously with her hands on her hips.
Shi Lei shook his head speechlessly, thinking that she was really rebellious, a hipster. The woman outside looked like an executive at a company. Whether it was her manners or virtue, she seemed rather good. It must be tough to have a daughter like this.
The phone call just then might be the reason behind the way this family was. Suddenly, Shi Lei felt that he was blessed to be born into a ordinary family.