Pandora’s Box

Chapter 31

He looked a little like Cheng Yichen, but he also didn’t look like him. The main reason was that even though their eyes were particularly similar, their temperament was completely different. At this age, most people’s edges and corners were smoothened out, and their arrogance were subdued. Yet, it could be seen that his personality was much more flamboyant than Cheng Yichen’s.

However, sitting across from me, he seemed very quiet at the moment.

He suddenly asked, “Are you getting used to living here?”

“Well,” there wasn’t anything difficult about this question, so I replied honestly, “Uncle Chen treats me very well and Ke Luo, Wenyang, and I get along pretty well.”

He was relieved, “That’s good.”

After a moment silence, he started again, “Lin Jing, uh, don’t blame your dad when he didn’t leave you money before. It wasn’t his idea. I suggested him to do that. I don’t want to be strict, but I want you to change your lifestyle. You see, you’ve adjusted very well. Your father and I are very happy.”

“…..”

I thought, Don’t talk to me like my stepmother = =

I said, “As long as you’re happy.”

He paused and asked, “After graduation, do you plan to return to S City?”

“Well,” I said, “whether or not I can graduate smoothly is still a question.”

He smiled and said, “I think you like staying here.”

“It’s not bad here.”

“You don’t mind if your dad and I come visit often?”

“…..,” I replied, “You can do whatever you want.”

He stopped talking and observed me. I felt a little creeped out by him.

I could tell that he was cautiously trying to get closer to me and trying to get to know me.

However, I really wanted to tell him that he only needed to make an effort in maintaining a stable relationship with my dad, and did not need to deliberately please me. I wouldn’t have much of a say on their relationship anyway.

He treated my dad, who was proud and easygoing, to be obedient and submissive. He lacked dignity like a wife slave so there wasn’t anything to worry about.

The relationship between my dad and me, and the relationship between my dad and him was doomed to neither make him and me able to enjoy each other’s company.

My situation was similar to Zhuo Wenyang. Mature, rational, filial and generous Zhuo Wenyang chose to avoid interacting with Lu Feng.

How could I do better than Zhuo Wenyang?

After sitting in silence for a while, I began to feel restless. It turned out that the two of us staring at each other here was more awkward than the three of us doing so at home.

Why was my dad not coming back? Did he fall into the toilet? Did I need to call 120? (Equivalent to your home country’s police line)

When the meals were served, my dad returned triumphantly from the restroom. I really didn’t know where he went for the restroom or if he had some hidden illness since his trip took so long.

“I’m sorry for the wait. Let’s eat quickly since you’re hungry,” he took notice and asked, “Did you two have a good chat?”

I gave a noncommittal “mm” and concentrated on eating Thai curry prawns in front of me.

The flavor of Thai food was worthy of praise.

The curry was divided into three dishes: green curry with shrimp, yellow curry with chicken, red curry with beef. There were also crab cakes with eggs, curry with crab meat, lemon steamed fish, tom yum soup, and grilled coconut salad would stir my appetite.

I was starving and had no intention of maintaining my image in front of them so I opened my mouth and ate.

As I swept up the dishes, Cheng Yi Chen watched me with a smile, “You have a pretty face.”

He picked up the napkin and reached over to wipe my face.

I never thought he would suddenly carry out an intimate gesture. Due the sudden touch, I instinctively dodged to the other side. The bowl of curry in my hand overturned and splashed all over me.

Silence took over the table and Cheng Yi Chen’s hand froze mid-air. I was also embarrassed.

My dad immediately said, “Clothes are dirty? That’s okay. Didn’t we just buy new ones? It’s alright; go and change into them.”

“Oh. Okay.” I stood up, picked up two bags and left to the restroom to change clothes. I took the opportunity to leave this uncomfortable environment.

The journey to the restroom consisted of only a few steps. I didn’t know which dimension my dad ventured into that took him so long. I glanced at the clothes I grabbed, a pair of jeans, a short T, and a shirt.

I didn’t intend to get closer to Cheng Yi Chen, but the color in his face faded a moment ago. It made me feel that it didn’t have to be this way. After debating about it, I wore the shirt that he praised and rolled up the dirty clothes to shove them into the bag.

This shirt was paired with jeans. I stared at myself in the mirror and it looked like a street photo of a Hollywood star. Back at the dining table, Cheng Yi Chen’s expression was gloomy but when he looked up and saw me, the light in his eyes instantly lit up again.

He exclaimed, “Xiao Jing, you have really grown up. He looks like an adult all of a sudden!”

I scratched my head and said, “Thank you.”

After dinner, I went back with my big and small shopping bags. It was getting late and everyone was already at home.

Seeing me return, Cheng Yichen was startled and then smiled. He said, “Xiao Jing looks so good in this outfit! He looks like a grown up!”

When one or two comments were made on this, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was such a young looking person before?

Ke Luo teased, “Hey, you’re actually wearing a dress shirt? You’ve changed, little one! Could it be that Wenyang’s symptoms were transmitted from person to person?”

Zhuo Wenyang also looked at me. I was suspected of imitating him so I couldn’t help but felt ashamed. I had to say, “This shirt is my tribute to master Zhuo Wenyang. This is called Near Zhu Zhechi (easily influenced by surroundings).”

Zhuo Wenyang smiled and said, “I think Lin Jing looks better dressed than me.”

Ke Luo instantly laughed and gave a meaningful, “Yo.”

This time, I didn’t grab Ke Luo and wrestled him to demand an explanation of what he meant by that because I was already floating on the clouds from being praised by Zhuo Wenyang and I couldn’t get back down.

My dad stayed with them for a while longer and finally returned back. To be honest, they had been very kind to me these past few days. They were caring, but were too caring, making me feel very uncomfortable. Especially Cheng Yi Chen. What the hell was he doing with me?

The last class was finally finished. Finals week that caused me to cry and thought would end my life was finally over.

It stood to reason that I had completed this huge project so I should be proud and could completely let myself go.

Yet, for the first time in my life, after finals, I started to anxiously think about one question, that was, did I pass?

I was not fearful of my handling of the thesis. After all, my thesis was blessed by great gods, but the handwritten exam was based on my own effort.

I never cared about this before. After all, one would say that progress was what mattered, not the result. However, now there was Zhuo Wenyang in the front and Yuan Keke in the back supporting me.

Zhuo Wenyang personally passed his previous notes to me so wouldn’t it be unreasonable to fail the course?

Yuan Keke also helped me copy notes and towards the end of the semester, she frantically urged me to complete my homework. She changed the name of our three persons group chat to “Lin Jing will not fail supervision department group” and received Zhuo Wenyang’s support.

At this point, I felt like a newcomer to the sect and was personally taught by two grand martial arts masters. They couldn’t even wait to send their qi (energy) to me directly but if couldn’t pass the elementary level, that was too shameful. I was afraid the masters would be angered.

I obsessively logged into the school website to check my grades daily. In fact, the professors were quite efficient. Subjects that were tested early on already had results. Although my scores were not high, the font wasn’t bolded in red. That was enough. As for subjects tested later, I had to wait.

I experienced torment of the waiting process. When I was playing games, as soon as I heard my college student teammates mentioned the word “examination,” I felt triggered by such keywords and immediately sighed. This was such a change in life.

DV saw that I was down so he comforted me, “Brother, don’t be scared. Is failing a subject such a big deal? Who among us has never failed a subject? University life is incomplete without failing once! Make-up exams and retakes are the real heroes!”

“…don’t make it sound like I’m already done for!”

“It’s enough to work hard. Is it possible that they will still scold you?”

That was when I realized that I was extremely worried about my grades because I worked hard, not because I was really scared of being reproached by Zhuo Wenyang and Yuan Keke.

When one didn’t put in effort, one didn’t care about the result. However, if one worked hard, there were worries.

I did not remember when was the last time I tried this hard so I couldn’t help but care. Only those who did not pay up could have the ease of never looking back, right?

The results came out one after another and finally, there was a college level English result, but it still read “unknown.”

Honestly, I didn’t take the test very well and a lot of it was mostly guesswork.

Even if my English was not strong, at least it was enough for me to be admitted into T University back then. However, after the car accident, I was immensely affected by it. It was still a little ridiculous in trying to cram all this homework in a short amount of time even with the blessing of the Number 1 Student.

Therefore I could only be a dead horse acting like a living horse doctor. If I could recite the answers, I already would have. If I couldn’t muster up an answer, I left it up to fate. This aspect was even more lonely.

I was in the middle of lunch until I saw everyone in class queuing up to thank the professor for not slaughtering them. I was so excited that I quickly threw away my chopsticks and opened up the campus app aggressively.

The moment I logged in, I closed my eyes and prayed for a few seconds. Then, I carefully opened one eye.

There was a “60” in the middle of the screen.

This was the most beautiful number I had ever seen.

I almost bursted into tears. I held up my mobile phone, making a frantic call while jumping up and down while dancing.

“60! I tested into 60!”

The other four people at the table looked at me with judgement on their faces.

Well, you people wouldn’t understand the joy of taking the 60th exam.

Cheng Yichen asked, “Xiao Jing, is this all done?”

I nodded again, “Yes! Didn’t fail any subjects! All passed!”

Cheng Yichen said with a smile, “That’s amazing, it’s worth celebrating.”

Ke Luo chewed on his braised beef, puzzled, “Celebration??”

Zhuo Wenyang asked me, “How do you want to celebrate?”