Jiang Heguang returned, and Xin Hexue was invited back to the living room. Before entering, he glanced towards the depths of the blurry, mixed-flower garden.
With the elder brother back, Jiang Tongchen had no choice but to come downstairs with the help of a servant. His brow held a barely concealed hint of disgust and annoyance, but he had to show submission to his elder brother. “I didn’t do anything this afternoon. If you don’t believe me, ask him yourself.”
Jiang Heguang frowned. “Call him Teacher.”
Jiang Tongchen was speechless, and took a deep breath with frustration.
Xin Hexue casually smoothed things over: “It’s alright. Xiao Chen and I are only about a year apart in age. Calling me Teacher is too formal. I’d prefer Xiao Chen to think of me as a friend he can discuss life and academic problems with.”
‘Xiao Chen?’
‘Who was Xiao Chen?’
Jiang Tongchen looked at Xin Hexue in astonishment, unable to believe the other party could respond so fluently with such hypocritical words.
Jiang Heguang, however, seemed to mistakenly believe that their relationship had eased through this form of address, and his expression improved considerably.
“It’s hard to get a taxi here,” Jiang Heguang said to Xin Hexue before parting. “I’ll have the driver take you back to school.”
He took a bank card from his wallet. “There’s five thousand inside. The PIN is your birthday. Consider it an advance for this month’s salary for tutoring Tongchen.”
He had generously added an extra eight hundred.
Xin Hexue: “Mr. Jiang, this is inappropriate.”
Jiang Heguang: “You have to take a taxi here every time. The extra is for reimbursement for your travel expenses, and also… compensation for mental distress. You can understand it that way.”
“Teaching my brother is, after all, not an easy task.”
As Jiang Heguang spoke, his finger joints pressed slightly against his forehead, apparently having a profound understanding of his brother’s nature.
With things put this way, Xin Hexue thought Jiang Heguang could actually be even more generous.
He didn’t refuse further, only took out his phone from his pocket and glanced at a message. The numbers on the screen showed it was already four in the afternoon.
“Time’s almost up. Are you leaving?” Jiang Heguang asked as he saw him to the door, his arm still holding a suit jacket. He hadn’t had a proper rest since returning from the company.
But Xin Hexue still made a request. “Mr. Jiang, could I trouble you to drive me back? I have some things I’d like to discuss with you alone on the way.”
Jiang Heguang was taken aback, but his eyes sparkled with an indescribable light.
…………
Actually, Xin Hexue didn’t have anything particularly important to discuss with Jiang Heguang. This employer offered good pay for little work; it’s just that the student was difficult. However, he now seemed obedient, and Xin Hexue had no real complaints.
But in the car, he still pretended to be in a difficult position.
Jiang Heguang tentatively asked if Jiang Tongchen had acted inappropriately, and Xin Hexue only discussed the difficulty of guaranteeing teaching effectiveness.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Heguang seemed relieved, and reassured him again that hiring him as a tutor didn’t require exceptionally high teaching quality, like making Jiang Tongchen’s grades skyrocket in a short time.
“Otherwise, I would have sought out those education experts or famous teachers.” At the intersection while waiting for the traffic light, Jiang Heguang watched the surging crowd on the zebra crossing, adopting a kind, elder brother-like tone of earnest persuasion. “As long as he can learn something, and you’re willing to come teach him, that’s enough.”
Was the emphasis on whether Jiang Tongchen could learn, or that he was willing to come to the Jiang household?
Xin Hexue smiled, not believing that a truly fatherly elder brother would break a younger brother’s legs.
He put his phone back in his backpack, then took out the previous gift box from the bag. Inside, the watch Jiang Heguang had gifted earlier lay perfectly intact.
“Mr. Jiang, this gift is too valuable. Please take it back.”
He said politely.
Using a watch worth tens of thousands to “express apology” to an ordinary student seemed extremely extravagant.
Jiang Heguang didn’t even look at it. Just then, the traffic light changed, and the car slowly started moving. “It’s fine. Keep it. Otherwise, I’ll feel guilty.”
After several unsuccessful attempts to refuse, Xin Hexue had no choice but to put the gift back into his backpack.
Jiang Heguang glanced over out of the corner of his eye and saw Xin Hexue sitting properly in the passenger seat, holding the backpack in front of him. The window beside him was slightly open, and the afternoon sunlight was gentle, not intense. A breeze blew in, making Xin Hexue’s hair appear particularly soft.
Making Jiang Heguang’s gaze also soften accordingly.
Xin Hexue suddenly spoke. “Mr. Jiang, I noticed there seems to be a blue hut in the garden? Is it a dedicated dog house?”
Jiang Heguang answered without hesitation. “Yes. We have a black dog. It’s used to ward off evil and protect the house. Its temperament is very fierce, so we put up a sign to prevent guests from getting close and getting hurt.”
After saying that, he glanced at the watch already occupying Xin Hexue’s left wrist, and thought of the ambiguous marks on the snow-white skin during their parting by the car last time. “You didn’t want to accept this gift, is it because you already have one from a girlfriend, and no room on your wrist?”
Jiang Heguang asked in a light, joking tone, but his eyes, fixed on the road ahead, revealed a different story.
Xin Hexue lowered his head to look at a text message and vaguely responded with an “Mm” as acknowledgement. Raising his head, he pointed to the roadside by the school gate. “Mr. Jiang, you can drop me off there.”
His message inbox contained three messages from this afternoon.
— Our big brother suddenly said he wants to chat with me. Xin Hexue, I have an ominous premonition. I’m not sure if I can go stroll the night market with you tonight.
—Whatever. The ugly wife also has to meet the in-laws, let alone it’s the elder brother-in-law. I’m going!
After these two messages, two hours passed before Lu Yang sent a new one.
— Big Brother went to your school to find you.
Accounting for travel time, it was about right.
Xin Hexue slightly raised his eyelids. A familiar figure was not far down the road.
…………
Zhuang Tongguang raised his wrist to check the time. His clear, handsome brows were now adorned with a pair of glasses, but they couldn’t conceal the worry that spilled from his expression.
According to what Lu Yang said, Xin Hexue should have finished tutoring at three.
If he hadn’t asked Lu Yang today, Zhuang Tongguang wouldn’t even have known his younger brother had taken a part-time tutoring job outside.
Why?
Why didn’t he even discuss it with him?
Is it because he doesn’t have enough living expenses, or is there something he wants to buy?
Just like thirteen years ago, Zhuang Tongguang still sees Xin Hexue as that little brother who shared everything with him, the child who needed him pushing the bicycle from behind to bravely set off on the road.
They grew up together, and were closer than many blood-related brothers in the world. Xin Hexue and him are like a stream and soil; without the embrace of the soil, how can the stream run forward without hesitation?
Zhuang Tongguang feared Xin Hexue would dry up, feared he would stagnate, feared he would run too slowly to keep up with the world’s changes, and feared he would run too fast and fall. But in the end, what he feared most was that he himself couldn’t keep up with Xin Hexue’s pace.
He was no longer needed by his younger brother.
He even learned about the news of his brother’s relationship from others.
The Mercedes-Benz parked by the roadside under the dappled afternoon tree shadows. He didn’t notice at first until a young student got out from the passenger seat.
Early autumn was turning cool, and the temperature had been fluctuating these days. Xin Hexue wore an extra jacket over his short sleeved shirt. It was a very light blue, reminding Zhuang Tongguang of the rabbit-fur-collared little coat he stored at the bottom of the wardrobe. It was the coat Xin Hexue was wearing when he first arrived at Lingzhou Train Station, but now it was far too small.
Zhuang Tongguang’s usually expressionless face softened involuntarily, but that gentleness was shattered the next second by a wave of shock.
Polished leather shoes stepped onto the ground as a well-dressed man got out of the car and handed Xin Hexue the item he had forgotten.
That face…after years apart, Zhuang Tongguang thought he couldn’t remember it clearly, but the blurry image of the person sitting across from his parents in his memory instantly sharpened.
“Xiao Xue!”
He strode forward and pulled Xin Hexue behind him, his face unusually cold and hostile as he pressed the bank card back into Jiang Heguang’s hand. “Our family doesn’t need the Jiang family’s charity.”
Xin Hexue had something to say: “Big Brother?”
Jiang Heguang chuckled softly and asked, “Are you misunderstanding something? This isn’t charity, it’s a legal salary.”
Unfazed by Zhuang Tongguang’s hostility, he adjusted his clothes and casually dropped a bombshell: “Besides, even if it was pocket money an older brother is giving his younger brother, it wouldn’t be your place to comment, would it?”
Xin Hexue’s eyelashes trembled as he stared intently at the other person. “Mr. Jiang, Big Brother, what are you talking about?”
Even though he had guessed it already, he still pretended not to know.
K admired the host’s professionalism.
…………
As Jiang Heguang said, if he really wanted Jiang Tongchen’s grades to improve rapidly, he should hire famous teachers from prestigious schools or educational experts, not Xin Hexue.
So, what was the reason? What was so special?
On the first day during afternoon tea, Xin Hexue heard from the housekeeping auntie that this employer was in poor health and had a heart condition.
Perhaps it was a coincidence; heart disease patients aren’t exactly rare.
But if it was a coincidence that even the names were exactly the same, it was hard not to wonder.
And today, Jiang Heguang took out a card and even knew his birthday?
He was just a tutor, it didn’t seem worth such excessive attention.
So, after reading Lu Yang’s text message and learning that his brother was looking for him, Xin Hexue asked Jiang Heguang to drive him back to school.
But judging from Zhuang Tongguang’s reaction, he knew more than he had guessed.
Zhuang Tongguang spoke of how the Jiang family had tracked down the illegitimate child in Lingzhou, sent people from afar to buy their silence, and used money to humiliate their family…as if they cared about Xin Hexue’s father, who had disappeared without a trace years ago, or would cling to the Jiang family and tarnish their “reputation.”
At the time, Xin Hexue was preparing for the high school entrance exam. On the day the Jiang family came, he stayed at school waiting for Lu Yang to finish training.
Zhuang Tongguang, who returned home early, witnessed the entire scene and remembered this arrogant young master sitting across the tea table.
Xin Zhiying didn’t accept a single cent and chased the Jiang family out with a broom. “Get out before our child comes back! Remember, our Xiao Xue’s surname is Xin, and he has nothing to do with you!”
“And there never will be,” Zhuang Tongguang said sternly, setting his cup on the table and spilling some tea. Xin Hexue wiped away the wet, shiny stain with a tissue. “Tutoring? Who knows what they’re plotting?”
When he turned to speak to Xin Hexue, Zhuang Tongguang softened his tone. “Don’t go there anymore, okay? I can give you pocket money.”
His focus shifted directly from persuading his brother to break up with Lu Yang to urging his brother to stay away from the Jiang family.
As expected, internal conflicts can only be diverted by external ones.
Xin Hexue said obediently, “Then treat me to milk tea first, Big Brother. And add extra pearls, please.”
While Zhuang Tongguang went to order milk tea, Xin Hexue glanced at his phone and received another message from Lu Yang.
[Someone just approached me and offered five million to leave you. Is this person crazy?]
[He said he’s your brother. He doesn’t even bother making up a lie properly, it’s hilarious. Then I’m Xin Hexue’s husband.]
