n

n

nChapter 246 – A Perfect New World (X)

nChi’s father had been talking with Zhu Shoucheng at first, but once Chi Xiaochi returned, he asked Chi Xiaochi to take care of Zhu Shoucheng and he went to work for his wife in the communal kitchen.

nChi Xiaochi hangs his bag on the wall, sits down at the table, takes out the mobile phone Lou Ying gave him last night and sends Lou Ying a text message under the table.

nChi Xiaochi: ” Brother Lou, I’m home. Where are you.”

n

n

nWhile waiting for Lou Ying’s reply, Zhu Shoucheng opened his mouth.

nIn appearance alone, he is quite gentle and elegant, at fifty years of age, without an overly oily belly, and with a white shirt that is always clean and washed.

n…… No one knows how many look-alike skins have been put on this face.

nHe peeled a few peanuts and put them on the empty plate in front of Chi Xiaochi: “Xiaochi, how did you do on your final exam?”

n

n

nChi Xiaochi’s eyes went cold as he gazed at the phone.

nWhen he looked up, his expression immediately gathered itself properly, “Well, it’s okay.”

nZhu Shoucheng pressed his arms up against the table and leaned in close to Chi Xiaochi, lowering his voice in the manner of a peer talking about a matter of the heart, and said in a mysterious manner, “Hey, do you know what your parents want me to do here?”

nChi Xiaochi also rested her arms on the table, her eyes curling in a playful smile, “You’re moving.”

n

n

nZhu Shoucheng looked sad: “You want the teacher to move?”

nChi Xiaochi: “If it’s going to rain, it’s going to marry, who can stop it?”

nZhu Shoucheng was just about to continue talking when Chi Xiaochi’s mobile phone dinged.

nHe looks down at his phone, leaving Zhu Shoucheng plenty of time to admire him with impunity.

nZhu Shoucheng is 13 years old and likes to play with 13 year old boys.

nBy the time he’s 25, he still likes 13-year-old boys.

n

n

nHe discovered this in the second year after the GCSEs had just been resumed.

nZhu Shoucheng, who had not accepted a single love letter from a female classmate during his school years, was so excited that he could not help but tremble in his voice as he came here to teach junior high school with a high school dropout degree and looked at all the young boys with shaved, potato-like heads under the podium.

nIn those days, homosexuality was a bull and a snake, and should be beaten down and then have 10,000 feet put on it, and the crime of hooliganism was punishable by being caught and shot.

nBut no one says that a teacher can’t do something to a male student.

nThis is something that is unimaginable to all.

nHow could anyone take an interest in a child, and a hairless little boy at that?

nSo no one could understand Zhu Shoucheng’s excitement, and no one knew that his sweat could not help but stand on end at the sound of the boys’ adoration when he drew a perfect circle on the blackboard without using a circle rule.

n…… He has a whole secret garden.

n

n

nThe following year, as Wen studies were coming back to life, he paid tribute to the beautiful flowers under the pulpit with the title ‘The Garden’.

nLater, he submitted the essay, which was full of sincere feelings, to the city, and it was successfully published in a municipal publication.

nThe editor’s comment is that it is emotionally rich and moving, and that the author has put unlimited emotion into a limited number of words. The author has put a lot of emotion into a limited number of words. Knowledge is not the only measure of a good people’s teacher, but also a deep and tender love for children.

nWhen Zhu Shoucheng received the publication from the editorial office, he buried his face between the paper and ink in ecstasy and breathed heavily.

nLove, it’s love.

n…… However, his love and dreams were soon crushed by reality.

nHe had just started working when his parents set him up on a blind date with a vulgar village woman.

nWhen he refused to get married, he had the excuse of “fighting for the revolutionary cause” and “if the cause is not fulfilled, why should the family be”.

nAfter all, the bloodline of his old Zhu family has to continue.

nWhen she gave birth, she wailed for two days and nights because she was in labour, and finally died in the village health centre.

nIt is a good thing that she is a good fighter and has given the old Zhu family a man in one fell swoop.

nZhu Shoucheng was able to keep the clouds open, and thereafter found a reason to “not feel sorry for his late wife” and chose to take his son with him, never to marry again.

nIt is not that he had never had thoughts about his youngest son, but there was an ethical barrier, and he occasionally joked about his status as a parent and son.

n

n

nWhat’s more, he has a whole garden, so why should he love just one flower?

nIn Zhu Shoucheng’s view, he has had a love affair with many of his children, having given them their first initiation and walked them through an important part of their lives.

nHe told the children that they must not tell their parents about the little secrets they kept from each other. Because parents are too old-fashioned and foolish, they don’t believe that children are old enough to make their own choices in their relationships and shouldn’t follow their old, corrupt rules ……

nWith this rhetoric, Zhu Shoucheng has made a lot of ignorant boys look up to him.

nHe was a good scholar, patient and gentle with children, could write a good Wen chapter, taught himself English Wen, and later completed a whole college course by correspondence, and at the age of forty-five enrolled in an in-service postgraduate course at a teacher’s college in the city.

nHe is the best teacher in the minds of both students and parents.

nWhen his son failed in high school and did not want to repeat his studies, Zhu Shoucheng went along with him and supported him to go to sea, allowing him to ride on the best wind of his time and rise to the top of the ladder, with a staggering amount of assets and social status at the age of nearly thirty.

nZhu Shoucheng is therefore also the best father to his son.

nThe son wants to take his father away so that he can retire early and stop struggling for his pension, getting up at 5:30 every morning, spending his days at school being angry with the teachers and the bearish children, grading homework that he can never finish, and writing lesson plans that he can never finish.

nBut Zhu Shoucheng refused, saying he could not leave the children.

nThis is the truth.

nHe does not want to leave his garden.

nAnd the flowers next door to his house are about to bloom.

nThe year Chi Xiaochi entered secondary school, he lobbied the Chi Family parents to make sure he got into the experimental class at the school he was working at, so that he could take care of him. The parents thought about it and let him go to the experimental class at another secondary school.

nZhu Shoucheng regretted this for a long time.

nIn just one semester, Chi Xiaochi has taken on a unique character and beauty.

nAt this age, boys tend to be less demanding of themselves and their perception of “beauty” is even more vague. The few who are not bad looking don’t bother to pick themselves up, letting the new stubble crawl all over their chins, showing off that little bit of “manliness” that makes them so special.

nOf all the children he has met, few have been born as well as Chi Xiaochi.

nRegardless of his long hands and feet, which are extremely well-proportioned, he has a neck that stands out beautifully from his peers, with no hidden grey, long, thin and white, and not too hairy except for his dark, dense hair, which makes it look exceptionally clean. At such a young age he had a collarbone and a flower at his ankle bone, which was not in the leg of his trousers, the shape of the ankle bone creating a wonderful bit of puffiness to the pattern, and one could not help but imagine the look on his face as he carefully and thoughtfully stretched his feet high up and carefully applied the flower to his ankle.

nAs a teacher, Zhu Shoucheng habitually scores Chi Xiaochi on a percentage scale.

nAppearance, of course, is an unquestionable 95 points, the first of all Zhu Shoucheng’s hunting targets.

nHeight, minus 40 points, scores 60. this oversized little boy is beyond the age at which it is best controlled.

nPersonality, with a score of 50. he is too quick-witted and precocious in person to be a suitable person to go for, and the good thing is that he has serious family problems and his parents would not believe what he says even if things were inadvertently exposed.

nChi Xiaochi scored a total of 205 out of 300 points.

nIf you have less than 200 points, Zhu Shoucheng will remove the person from the list without any hesitation.

nAs for Chi Xiaochi, although it is heavily biased, it is so good-looking that it would be a waste not to take advantage of the opportunity to pick it.

nBut here comes the problem.

n…… He is so well developed.

nNow, when looking at Chi Xiaochi up close, Zhu Shoucheng, who had already made up his mind and was eager to make a move, was once again hesitant and even a little disinterested.

nHe found that Chi Xiaochi did not look much like a normal child anymore.

nZhu Shoucheng can’t tell you what it’s like.

nThe face was the same, the demeanour was nothing out of the ordinary, but the truth was that Chi Xiaochi lost a good deal of its attraction to him instantly.

nEven Chi Xiaochi didn’t realise that Zhu Shoucheng had been able to sniff out the slightest anomaly in himself, based on his own vast experience.

nHe just kept his head down and read Lou Ying’s reply to him.

nLou Ying replied, “I’m just downstairs from your house.”

nChi Xiaochi flies over the keyboard and types, “This is the first time I have received a reply from you ……”

nBut halfway through typing it, he decided it was too distasteful and deleted it word for word.

nHalfway through the deletion, Chi Xiaochi remembered that Lou Ying was now inside him, sharing the same pair of eyes, and laughed silently at his own antics.

nLou Ying, who was inside his body and saw him in action the whole time, had a slight twinge of pain in her heart.

nAnd Lou Ying downstairs soon received a new text message edited by Chi Xiaochi: “How do I know if it’s true or not. Maybe you’re still at school and don’t want me to know.”

nLou Ying rests the phone against her chin and ponders how to reply.

nHalf a minute later, Chi Xiaochi upstairs received Lou Ying’s first text message, “I’m knocking on the radiator.”

nA second text message followed, “One knock is ‘I’m here’, two knocks is ‘good night’ and three knocks is ‘come downstairs’.”

nChi Xiaochi had just finished reading the text message when there was a tapping sound from the direction of the radiator.

nThe tapping style is like Lou Ying, unhurried and unobtrusive, a slow and deliberate signal of peace.

nChi Xiaochi puts down his phone and counts silently after him.

nOne, two, three, four.

nChi Xiaochi texted over and asked, “What’s four knocks?”

nThere is no movement from Lou Ying.

nChi Xiaochi took the phone and tapped it on the table, suspecting that the broken phone was the one that had broken down.

nZhu Shoucheng talks to him: “New phone?”

nChi Xiaochi was a little miffed: “Two, three, four and five hands are possible.”

nAs he was bothered, his mobile phone rang twice more.

nChi Xiaochi decided not to look at his phone for a minute.

nOnly after he had counted to sixty did he busily look down at his phone.

n”Knock four times, it’s because I miss you and want to see your face.”

n”Open the window and look downstairs.”

nChi Xiaochi, now with a sense of humour, looked at the ceiling for a moment before replying, “On what grounds.”

nLou Ying complained helplessly, “You kept me waiting at the window for so long.”

nChi Xiaochi : “I did it on purpose.”

nLou Ying : “Why?”

nChi Xiaochi : “Because I suspect you just did it on purpose too.”

n”Wrong.” Lou Ying cried out gently, “I was going to say that four strokes means ‘like you’, but on reflection I think it’s too frivolous and not very nice. So, I’ll say it in a more euphemistic way.”

nChi Xiaochi gently rubbed her nose and put the phone down, “Are you hot, Mr. Zhu?”

nZhu Shoucheng was still trying to work out a new “hot or not” opening line to test him again, but Chi Xiaochi beat him to it and said with a sarcastic smile, “Yes, please.

nChi Xiaochi gets up and pulls the window open.

nThe hot breeze with a hint of drippings rushes in, mixed with a soothing coolness on the inside.

nChi Xiaochi propped his hands on the window sill, took two deep breaths, and as he lowered his head, he swept his fingers on the sill out of the corner of his eye.

n…… Ten fingers are shaking.

nChi Xiaochi was a little surprised.

nAfter all these years, he still has a deep-seated anger and fear for Zhu Shoucheng.

n–when confronted with him, one can’t even stand a simple chatty conversation.

nLuckily, following the direction of his finger, he soon saw Lou Ying sitting across the edge of a ground floor window.

nThe living Lou Ying.

nNot the Lou Ying of a world that knows nothing of what is about to happen, but the Lou Ying who belongs to him, Chi Xiaochi.

nHe raised his left index finger and touched the corner of his lips lightly, signalling him to keep quiet, while tossing a round, slimy object upwards.

nChi Xiaochi bends down, reaches for it and turns his hand over to see a thin-skinned fresh orange.

nLou Ying nods to the tip of his nose and reaches out to point to his stomach again.

n…… Take a whiff and your stomach will feel better.

nLou Ying had noticed his body’s strange behavior before Chi Xiaochi did, so she cooperated with him by texting and saying other things to distract him and make it less uncomfortable.

nThe scent of orange that spills out of your fingers makes Chi Xiaochi feel relieved.

nHe turns his head sideways, realises Zhu Shoucheng isn’t looking over, and flies a kiss at Lou Ying with all the sass.

nLou Ying catches the empty kiss in his hand and then looks upstairs at Chi Xiaochi with a smile, tapping his fingers on his forehead like a dragonfly.

nWhen Chi Xiaochi returns from the open window and resumes his seat at the table, orange in hand, Zhu Shoucheng looks over at him and thinks he has lost his sight.

nIn the warm apricot light, Chi Xiaochi’s face is still lightly flushed.

nAfter another five minutes, Chi Xiaochi’s parents had finally finished serving dinner.

nFour dishes and one soup is a fairly standard specification for hospitality.

nChi Xiaochi already knew what the meal was about, so he made up his mind to just eat the thick stuff.

nHowever, just as the meal started, there was a brief and not very pleasant hiccup.

nNoticing the bulge in Chi Xiaochi’s trouser pocket, Chi’s mother reached out without greeting and took the phone straight into her hand: “…… Where did you get the money to buy a phone?”

nChi Xiaochi said, “Lou gave it to me.”

nChi’s mother laughed dismissively, “He didn’t take it from someone else’s house, did he?”

nLou Ying’s heart snapped at her words.

nHe didn’t care about the rumours, but he was worried that Chi Xiaochi would fight with his parents and hurt himself.

nHe has read this world line in relation to Chi Xiaochi.

nChi Xiaochi used to slam chopsticks with her parents over Lou Ying, but the feedback she got was “you’ve grown up”, “we’re doing this for your own good, why don’t you behave yourself” and “you’ve turned your elbow, we’ve raised you for nothing”.

nIf they were in a bad mood, Chi Xiaochi would get beaten up.

nLou Ying was worried when Chi Xiaochi looked up and smiled, “Then I’ll give the phone back to Lou, and I don’t want a second-hand one either. Mum will buy me a new one then.”

nMother Ikari: “……”

n