Sister Zhao was amused and laughed out loud, spitting out a mouthful of saliva, "Smooth talker."
After a while, the man inquired again, "Does this young lady have a boyfriend?"
Sister Zhao's heart skipped a beat. She knew that Xu Xinchen didn't have any such thoughts for the time being, but she was sitting at the front desk, and it was inevitable that the men coming and going would see her. Who knew if they would have any evil intentions? She was the one who hired her, so she had to protect her.
She frowned and waved her arms, "Go away, go away, other girls are all married, don't get any funny ideas."
The man sighed in disappointment. He'd finally found a fairy, but she was already taken.
That evening, Sister Zhao casually mentioned it to her, reminding her to be careful and to announce to others that she had a partner to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.
Xu Xinchen felt a surge of warmth in her heart. She hadn't expected Sister Zhao to be so kind and considerate towards her, so she quickly agreed.
Xu Xinchen originally planned to go home for dinner, as she had already eaten lunch at the restaurant. However, Sister Zhao held her back, not letting her leave, saying, "I've already cooked so much food; wouldn't it be a waste if you left?"
Xu Xinchen was helping Sister Zhao cook a few dishes when he heard a loud, clear voice from the doorway, "Mom, I'm home!"
Xu Xinchen had just pulled her hand out of the water when she heard loud footsteps approaching. She turned around and was caught off guard by clear, unwavering eyes.
The tall, slender boy in the white school uniform suddenly stopped in his tracks and stood frozen in place.
While cooking, Sister Zhao glanced at him, waved her spatula, and said, "Xiao Bei, what are you doing here? Go to your room and do your homework. Dinner will be ready soon."
Xu Xinchen looked away and focused intently on washing the green peppers, unaware that a gaze was still fixed on her from behind.
The boy stood there in a daze for a moment, then picked up his schoolbag, took a few steps, and slowly stopped on the stairs. Standing on the next step, he looked down and could vaguely see the graceful figure bustling about in the kitchen.
The boy's ears suddenly turned red.
"Come down for dinner!"
Sister Zhao pushed open the door and saw her mentally challenged son sitting at his desk, with stacks of books in front of him, his eyes seemingly gazing at something absentmindedly.
She frowned and knocked on the door. "What's wrong?"
Ji Bei slowly came back to her senses, looked at her mother who was watching her from the doorway, got up and walked over, scratching her neck, "It's nothing."
Sister Zhao looked at him with a puzzled expression, her ears turning red and her face showing some unease. She touched his forehead in surprise, "Do you have a fever?"
"Mom, no." Ji Bei tilted his head, dodging her hand, and walked down the stairs first, stepping one step at a time, casually asking, "Mom, that girl in the kitchen this year...?"
"Didn't Mom say this morning that we've hired a new receptionist? Business is getting better and better at this store, and Mom's health isn't very good. Sometimes she can't manage on her own, so we need to hire a helper."
"Oh." Ji Bei lowered his head and said nothing.
She remembered that she did mention something like that that morning, but she had overslept, stuffed a steamed bun in her mouth, put on her school uniform, and rushed to school, so she didn't hear what she said at all.
He walked into the restaurant with a lot on his mind, only to find Xu Xinchen already sitting at the table, looking at them with a faint smile on her face, but her chopsticks were still untouched.
When she saw him arrive, Xu Xinchen greeted him with a smile.
He lowered his head, avoiding her gaze, gave a soft, perfunctory reply, and sat down opposite her.
Sister Zhao sat down next to him and said with a smile, "The child is all grown up now, and he's embarrassed to meet strangers."
"It's okay." Xu Xinchen smiled like an older sister, not caring at all, and even put a piece of meat on his plate. "I heard you're a senior in high school, eat more."
He paused, looking at the meat in the bowl, for a second or two, before lowering his head and saying softly, "Thank you."
But he still didn't look at her.
Xu Xinchen didn't mind; she just felt that although the boy was very introverted, he was quite polite.
As the group chatted at the dinner table, Sister Zhao, who had already become familiar with her, started talking non-stop. Xu Xinchen truthfully recounted her background without hiding anything.
"So you're a vocational school graduate? You're educated!" Sister Zhao looked at her with delight.
Xu Xinchen chewed a few mouthfuls of rice, nodded, and thought to herself that in her time, college students were everywhere, but in this era, vocational school graduates were...
That's quite a high level of education.
Sister Zhao's mind raced. She put a piece of meat in Xiao Bei's bowl and looked at her expectantly. "How about you tutor my Xiao Bei? My Xiao Bei's grades are pretty good, but he's a bit weak in some subjects. What do you think? Would you be willing to help Sister Zhao with this?"
As soon as they finished speaking, both of them stopped what they were doing.
Ji Bei looked up at his mother with some surprise. He had always felt that he didn't need any tutoring. He had gotten the highest score in the whole grade again. In his subconscious, he thought that only bad students needed tutoring. He had always looked down on it. He was smart and didn't need to work hard. He was always ahead of others. He was a god-like figure in school. Many girls and boys admired him. Why would he need a tutor?
But when his gaze fell on Xu Xinchen, who was still in a daze, he suddenly couldn't say the words. He swallowed them back, lowered his eyes, and mumbled, "Whatever."
Sister Zhao was pleased to see him agree. She had mentioned hiring a tutor for him before, but he had always refused. She wondered why he had suddenly agreed today. She turned to Xu Xinchen, who was still in a daze, and asked, "How about it?"
Xu Xinchen wasn't unwilling, but she wasn't the real Lu Minshi after all. In that era, she hadn't been a student for many years, and most of her knowledge had long been forgotten. She was afraid that she would mislead Ji Bei if she were asked to tutor him. However, she couldn't bring herself to refuse when she met Sister Zhao's hopeful gaze.
Reluctantly, she nodded.
She thought to herself that she could only take it one step at a time.
When Sister Zhao saw that she had agreed, she was very happy and said to her son, "From now on, your Sister Min Shi will be your teacher, you know? Learn more from her."
Then he turned to Xu Xinchen and said, "Don't worry, the tutoring salary is separate. You can just stay for two extra hours every night from now on."
Xu Xinchen didn't feel much relieved.
The boy opposite her seemed to be in a good mood, eating his meal with gusto, and when he met her gaze, he even gave her a slight smile.
Xu Xinchen was anxious all night, but when she entered Ji Bei's room the next day, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Ji Bei sat upright in the chair, looking like a well-behaved child, with an English book spread out on the table.
Xu Xinchen's academic performance wasn't particularly good during her school years. The only thing she excelled at was English, and she even served as the English class representative for a few years. As a result, when she later entered the entertainment industry, her English proficiency was outstanding. She could communicate with foreigners without any problems, and her spoken English was especially fluent, which was frequently praised by her fans.
She sat down at his desk and flipped through a few of his test papers. The papers weren't too bad; the scores were acceptable.
"Just this one subject for tutoring?" she asked, shaking the test paper.
"Hmm." The boy was quite tall, his gaze sweeping down at her before he casually remarked, "I got full marks in all my other subjects."
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