Chapter 9 "Do you like her?"
Tang Ci unconsciously took a step back, her fingertips gripping the cold railing, and explained in a low voice.
"It's really for tutoring. If we sit together, I can keep an eye on you at any time."
Because Sheng Yu was too close to her and was being stared at by his oppressive gaze, Tang Ci's voice inexplicably began to sound weak, and she really sounded like she was lying.
Sheng Yu probably found teasing her pointless and stopped asking questions. As he straightened up, his gaze also shifted away from her face.
An empty taxi drove toward the hospital from a distance. The driver saw them and honked his horn, the sound breaking the quiet street.
Tang Ci immediately waved to the taxi. After the car stopped, she braved the rain and quickly walked down the steps, opened the car door, and got into the back seat.
Compared to her flustered actions, Sheng Yu was noticeably calmer. When he opened the passenger door and prepared to get in, he saw a stack of clothes on the seat.
The driver leaned forward apologetically, "Excuse me, could you please sit in the back?"
Sheng Yu nodded, walked around the back of the car, pulled out the back seat, and sat down to Tang Ci's left.
After closing the car door, he calmly gave the driver the address, "Huaiyang Street, Tianyun Residential Area."
"Okay." The driver said, turning on the meter and stepping on the gas to drive off.
Tang Ci glanced at Sheng Yu out of the corner of her eye and noticed that he had stopped playing Tetris and was idly swiping his phone screen, looking at something with his eyelids drooping. He looked a little tired.
The journey from the hospital to her home wasn't short. Tang Ci gripped the cushion with her fingertips, hesitated for a moment, and then said to Sheng Yu, "My home is a bit far. Do you want to take a nap?"
Sheng Yu glanced at the street scene outside the window. "I'm not sleepy. You can go to sleep if you are."
The streetlights flashed by, and Tang Ci saw the bloodshot eyes in his eyes and the stray hairs on his forehead, wet with rain.
Tang Ci rummaged through his bag and pulled out a new pack of tissues, placing it on the chair next to him. "You should dry your hair; it's easy to catch a cold if it's wet."
Sheng Yu reached out and took it, his slender fingers tearing open the plastic packaging. After smelling the light fragrance emanating from the white tissues, he glanced at Tang Ci with a faint look before pulling out a tissue and wiping his forehead.
As the taxi approached the entrance of Tianyun Residential Complex, it slowed down. Tang Ci pressed the door handle, preparing to get out, when she heard Sheng Yu instruct the driver, "Please drive inside."
The driver nodded and asked for the specific building.
After announcing the building number, Tang Ci silently withdrew her hand from the doorknob.
The old residential buildings are located on narrow streets. When the taxi arrived at its destination after making several turns, two figures hurriedly walked out of the building.
Through the taxi's headlights, Tang Ci could clearly see Tang Jianwei anxiously supporting Qin Ling, whose belly was slightly protruding.
Qin Ling held her stomach and complained with a smile, "I'm really fine. The doctor said that bloating is a normal physiological phenomenon. Why did you have to run to the hospital in the middle of the night?"
Tang Jianwei held an umbrella over Qin Ling with one hand and took out his car keys to unlock the car with the other. His anxiety had not diminished. "Didn't you say that this is the only heir of the Tang family? If anything happens to my precious son, I'll never forgive you!"
Qin Ling playfully hit him, and he helped her slowly into the car.
The passenger's stopover was too long, so the driver turned to the silent Tang Ci and asked, "Are you getting off here?"
Tang Ci swallowed, but didn't open her mouth yet.
Sheng Yu spoke first: "Let the car outside go first."
The driver looked out the window at the car; it was about two meters away and wouldn't prevent people from getting out.
"...Oh, alright then." Seeing Sheng Yu's unyielding expression, the driver suppressed his doubts and didn't ask any further questions.
The white sedan slowly drove out of the residential area. Tang Cicai opened the car door and got out. As she closed the door, she whispered, "Thank you."
It's unclear whether she was speaking to Sheng Yu or the driver.
Sheng Yu ignored him, and the driver replied with a smile, "It's my duty."
The old neighborhood has dilapidated infrastructure, with potholes and puddles of water everywhere. Tang Ci usually avoids them carefully, but today her clothes were already dirty once, so she stepped into the water without any hesitation. After walking around the front of the car, the hem of her skirt was already wet from the rain splashed up by her feet.
"Tang Ci".
A clear, crisp voice sounded from behind her. Tang Ci turned her head blankly and saw Sheng Yu roll down the car window and throw a bag at her.
She instinctively reached out and took it. Inside the plastic bag were several medicine boxes, which were the medications she had just received from the hospital.
Tang Ci was annoyed by her own forgetfulness and assumed that Sheng Yu would be unhappy with her behavior, so she looked at him with a humble and receptive expression.
Sheng Yu opened his mouth again, but what he said was: "Remember to take your medicine on time."
/
On Monday morning, Tang Ci got up 15 minutes early. After putting down her schoolbag in the classroom, she went directly to her homeroom teacher to report on the tutoring program.
After knocking on the office door and hearing Lao Chen's response, Tang Ci pushed the door open and entered, finding Lao Chen talking to someone.
Zou Qiang is the physical education class representative. The school is about to hold an autumn sports meet, and he came to pick up the registration form for the sports meet.
Old Chen had already explained the precautions to him and said with a smile, "You can go back first. I will inform everyone about the sports meet during the class meeting. Your task this week is to encourage everyone to participate in the competition."
Zou Qiang accepted the task, but his steps slowed when he saw Tang Ci as he left the office.
Ignoring Zou Qiang's probing gaze, Tang Ci walked straight to Old Chen's desk and said, "Teacher, about the tutoring I mentioned to you last time—"
Before she could finish speaking, Old Chen waved his hand dismissively, "He doesn't agree, does he? I told you long ago, Sheng Yu is such a stubborn person, the more others want him to do something, the more he'll refuse to do it..."
Old Chen couldn't stop talking about Sheng Yu, rambling on about his past arrogance, leaving Tang Ci no chance to interject.
As Zou Qiang walked out of the office and closed the door, he glanced at Tang Ci's retreating figure and gave a disdainful smile.
He had always been dissatisfied with Tang Ci's feigned weakness. She had offered to tutor Sheng Yu herself, but now that she realized things weren't going to work out, she came to Old Chen to act as a go-between.
Zou Qiang pursed his lips and leisurely went downstairs, concluding that Tang Ci's scholarship for this semester was going to be a loss.
After the flag-raising ceremony, Jiang Chan and Tang Ci went to the cafeteria to buy breakfast. When she learned that Tang Ci had received Sheng Yu's approval, she was almost speechless with surprise.
Just now in the office, when Lao Chen heard the news, he also showed the same surprised expression.
"How did you manage that?" Jiang Chan shook her arm in disbelief. "Sheng Yu actually agreed? Is he turning over a new leaf and getting back on the right path?"
Tang Ci didn't mention the dangerous process of her stopping the car, only saying that she made a small bet with Sheng Yu to barely get his consent.
Jiang Chan smiled and said, "That's great! Does that mean you're guaranteed to get the scholarship?"
Tang Ci pushed up his glasses. "We need to improve Sheng Yu's ranking by two hundred places."
"Two hundredth?!" Jiang Chan exclaimed in shock. "Isn't the difficulty too high? Can Sheng Yu, with his bottom-ranked score, really make it?"
Tang Ci pursed her lips, her tone certain: "He can."
Jiang Chan suddenly realized something and said in a clear voice, "Sheng Yu was the top student in his grade when he was a freshman, so his foundation must be very solid. It shouldn't be difficult for him to improve his score."
At this point, she couldn't help but wonder, "I heard he was an excellent student since childhood, winning numerous awards in swimming in addition to his studies. How come he suddenly started to slack off..."
Tang Ci curled her fingertips, thinking of Sheng Yu's tall and lonely figure standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window outside the emergency room.
A sudden pang of sadness welled up in my chest.
When they returned to the classroom, it was still early, so Jiang Chan helped Tang Ci move the desks and chairs.
When the classmates saw this familiar scene, they were no longer astonished as before, and their eyes looked at Tang Ci with a hint of admiration for Hu Shanxing.
Song Ke looked up from his book, frowning with worry, and asked, "Tang Ci, are you moving next to Sheng Yu again?"
Tang Ci nodded, her tone slightly apologetic, "I'm sorry, did I disturb you?"
“That’s not what I meant,” Song Ke waved his hand and continued, “Have you talked to Sheng Yu? Did he agree? Don’t make this trip for nothing.”
"It's a promise." Tang Ci smiled and said to him, "Don't worry."
The two spoke in low voices, and their conversation was drowned out by the noise of the classroom, with few people hearing it.
Zou Qiang and Zheng Shuyao, who had just entered the classroom, naturally didn't hear it either. Zheng Shuyao saw Tang Ci move the desk and chair next to Sheng Yu again, and her fingertips clenched the yogurt container in her hand.
Zou Qiang chuckled and raised his voice to mock, "Tang Ci, are you addicted to forcing yourself on me? Sheng Yu doesn't even bother with you, can't you see?"
The students, not understanding what was going on, all looked at Tang Ci, and whispers began to murmur among themselves.
Tang Ci wasn't angry at being mocked to his face again. She calmly asked him, "Why are you in such a hurry? What does it have to do with you if I move my seat?"
Zou Qiang was speechless for a moment, grinding his back teeth before forcing a smile and saying, "Tang, you're doing this for your own good. I advise you to give up your delusion of tutoring Sheng Yu as soon as possible. Aren't you afraid of getting too much scholarship money?"
“My scholarship application process is always reasonable and compliant.” Tang Ci adjusted her glasses and looked him in the eye across the classroom. “If you use the time you spend caring about me to study, you might have a chance to get a scholarship next semester.”
Tang Ci's tone was not sarcastic at all, but Zou Qiang found it particularly grating. The humiliation of being suppressed by her for three consecutive years made him burst into anger.
He strode up to Tang Ci's desk without a second thought and slammed his hand on it. "What right do you have to judge me? You only get scholarships because you know how to play the victim!"
Jiang Chan shoved him angrily, "What's wrong with you? Tang Ci has always been number one in her class, she deserves the scholarship, you're just incompetent—"
Suddenly, Zou Qiang threw Tang Ci's schoolbag, which was on the table, and the schoolbag, which was full of books, hit the blackboard behind the desk with a heavy thud.
Jiang Chan swallowed the words she hadn't finished saying, looked at the crazed Zou Qiang, and instinctively took a step back.
Tang Ci didn't bother to pick up her backpack that had been thrown next to the trash can. Instead, she raised her hand to protect Jiang Chan behind her and gave Song Ke, who was rushing over, a reassuring look.
Then she calmly said to Zou Qiang, "If you have any objections to the scholarship, we can go to the teacher's office after class to talk about it. Now you can go back first."
Zou Qiang noticed the fearful looks in the eyes of his classmates, calmed down, and realized that he had overreacted.
But it would be too embarrassing to slink back like this, so he thought for a moment and tried to sarcasticly, "I'd better not go back to my seat yet. When Sheng Yu comes, he can kick you out, and I can even help you move the table."
Bang--
Suddenly, a silver lighter flew in from outside the door, whizzing past everyone's eyes and smashing straight at Zou Qiang's forehead.
Zou Qiang clutched his head and howled in pain, glaring angrily at the source of the lighter, but immediately fell silent after meeting Sheng Yu's cold gaze.
"I told her to move it." Ignoring the gossipy looks from everyone, Sheng Yu sat down and raised an eyebrow at Zou Qiang, asking, "Do you have a problem with that?"
Zou Qiang swallowed hard a few times, glanced at Tang Ci in disbelief, and then lowered his head to say, "No."
Sheng Yu tapped the table with his finger bones and said, "Pick up the things."
Zou Qiang took a deep breath, squatted down, picked up the lighter, and placed it on his desk.
"Pick more." Sheng Yu's voice was even colder.
Zou Qiang was stunned for two seconds before realizing what he was being asked to pick up. He snorted in humiliation and, under Sheng Yu's silent and cold gaze, bowed down to the trash can, picked up Tang Ci's schoolbag, and put it back in its original place.
"Is it too much to ask you to apologize to her?" Sheng Yu nodded towards Tang Ci, who was standing there dumbfounded.
Zou Qiang, his pride completely crushed, said to Tang Ci with a heavy heart, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright." Tang Ci, who felt extremely uncomfortable being watched, quickly told him, "You should go back now."
Zou Qiang didn't move, his gaze hesitantly turning towards Sheng Yu.
Sheng Yu said lazily, "Get lost."
After the surrounding classmates dispersed, Tang Ci hesitated for a long time, but finally took advantage of the moment when the teacher turned around to lean close to Sheng Yu and whisper, "Wasn't it a bit inappropriate for you to treat Zou Qiang like that just now?"
Sheng Yu casually flipped through the textbook. "What's wrong with it?"
Tang Ci frowned and said worriedly, "Isn't that too... fierce? You'll easily make enemies like this, which is very dangerous."
Sheng Yu raised an eyebrow, tilted his head, and whispered in her ear, "Didn't you know I was fierce when you got close to me?"
The heat suddenly enveloped her ears, and her heartbeat quickened.
Tang Ci quickly rubbed his ear, blushed, and said to him in a serious tone, "Hurry up and study. Studying can cultivate your character. If you study more, your temper will improve."
"..." Sheng Yu squinted and chuckled, "Tang Ci, are you itching for a beating again?"
Tang Ci quickly shook her head, lowered her trembling eyelashes, and began to read.
/
Tang Ci stopped her weekday part-time jobs and used her evening study sessions to tutor Sheng Yu.
After class in the afternoon, Tang Ci got Sheng Yu's high school entrance exam results and test papers from Lao Xu, and prepared to develop a plan to improve his grades.
Sheng Yu leaned back lazily in his chair and listened, answering whatever Tang Ci asked, which startled Zhou Yiyang in the front seat.
After Tang Ci finished understanding the situation, Zhou Yiyang rested his elbow on Sheng Yu's desk and teased, "You've gotten into study mode so quickly, I'm not used to it."
Sheng Yu tossed the book in front of him and said, "Then you can learn along with me."
Zhou Yiyang's eyes twitched. "I'm not going to study today. I've made plans to go for a walk in Beishan with some friends tonight."
As he spoke, he glanced at Tang Ci, who was engrossed in studying the exam paper, and asked Sheng Yu in a low voice, "You're really not coming?"
Sheng Yu shrugged, pointing the ballpoint pen in his hand at Tang Ci, "You'll have to ask her."
Tang Ci looked up from the test paper, looked at Zhou Yiyang carefully, and said gently, "He has tutoring tonight, so he can't go."
Zhou Yiyang was stunned, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the two of them, and suddenly said, "Young Master Sheng, you seem to be henpecked. Jin Ming invited us to play ball on the playground later, are you still going?"
Tang Ci paused in her note-taking, her ears burning uncontrollably. She explained in a muffled voice, "You can go, but don't be late for evening self-study."
Not long after Sheng Yu and Zhou Yiyang went downstairs, Jiang Chan asked Tang Ci to go to the cafeteria for lunch together.
Tang Ci had a poor appetite and only ordered a vegetarian dish and a bowl of porridge.
After she finished eating, Jiang Chan still had half of her noodles left, so Tang Ci took their water cups and went to the water room to get some water.
The water room was next to the basketball court. As soon as Tang Ci arrived, he saw a group of girls standing outside the wire fence talking about something.
She hadn't paid attention until she heard her name mentioned in a faint conversation coming from inside the stadium.
Tang Ci screwed the cup lid on and walked outside the court, following the girls to look into the court.
She stopped in her tracks when she saw the two figures standing under the basketball hoop.
With tears in her eyes, Zheng Shuyao asked Sheng Yu in a low voice, "Did you agree to let Tang Ci sit next to you because you like her?"
As her breathing tightened, Tang Ci, standing outside the crowd, suddenly realized that she wasn't as selfless as she thought.
She said she wanted to get Sheng Yu's life back on track, but the emotions she had been suppressing in her heart couldn't be hidden.
Like all the girls who liked Sheng Yu, Tang Ci secretly hoped to get some response from him.
Even if it's just a little bit.
She can satisfy that.
Standing in the autumn wind, Sheng Yu asked in a emotionless voice, as if she had heard something ridiculous, "What's the connection between these two things?"
Tang Ci blinked her eyes, which were sore from the wind, slowly exhaled, and turned to leave the stadium with the two cups in her arms.
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