The Beautiful Time With You

Upon catching sight of Lin Jiage, Shi Yao’s scoldings trailed to a halt. With a voice that was audibly much softer and tender than before, she asked, “You are awake?”

“Un,” Lin Jiage replied, “Sorry, I fell asleep before I realized it.”

“It’s fine…” Shi Yao replied with a slight smile. “… Is your stomach feeling alright now?”

Lin Jiage nodded before falling silent.

Shi Yao took a pencil to poke Gu Nanqiang’s head, urging him to focus on the paper.

Gu Nanqiang indignantly raised his hand to rub his head, but he still turned his eyes back to the English paper.

After explaining one of the questions, Shi Yao casually turned her head to the side, and all of a sudden, she found herself meeting eyes with Lin Jiage, who had actually been staring at her intently all this while.

The hand which Shi Yao held her pencil with quivered for a short while before she finally said the words that she had been wanting to say all this while, “Um, shall we go out to eat? My dad and mum went for a holiday just two days ago, and there’s nothing to eat at home.”

Without any thought whatsoever, Lin Jiage instantaneously replied with a “Sure”.

The trio had their lunch at somewhere not too far away from Shi Yao’s home.

Of course, how could one have a meal with others without holding a conversation? As such, after taking a seat, Lin Jiage began searching for topics to chat about.

Recalling how Gu Nanqiang was doing papers even though it was the weekends, he thought that the young man’s results shouldn’t be too bad. Thus, he decided to use this topic to kickstart the conversation, “Given how diligent Nanqiang is, his results must be quite good, right?”

“In the mock exam earlier this month, out of a total score of 750, he got 0.” Before Gu Nanqiang had a chance to respond, Shi Yao had already chirped in. “It’s to supervise his studies that I had to come back home.”

Ah… Did I get the wrong topic?

Lin Jiage reflected on the matter silently for two seconds before speaking up once more, “It’s fine. A single mock exam isn’t reflective of his true ability.”

Shi Yao: “It indeed isn’t. But he also got 0 points in the previous mock exam, as well as the one before it, and the one before before it… You can’t begin to imagine how infuriated my aunt was. She had berated him over this matter, saying that even if he doesn’t know how to do a question at all, he should at least try to guess the answers instead of handing up a blank paper. Do you how he responded to that? He said that he can’t do so because he’s afraid that his answer to the question would change history. He claimed that he has time-traveled here from the future world, and answering any question correctly would result in the deviation in the trajectory of the future… Heh heh heh.”

It seemed like not only did I start on the wrong topic, I’m also on the verge of cornering myself as well…

Not wanting to offend his cousin just like that, Lin Jiage tried his best to salvage the situation, “It’s just academic results, it doesn’t mean anything much at all. It would be unfair to define his life by his results.”

“It can’t define his life, but that’s not a reason for him not to study hard!” Disapproval was written all over Shi Yao’s face.

Crap. I was too focused on coaxing Cousin Gu that I forgot about my Soft Bun…

Lin Jiage hurriedly nodded in agreement, “You’re right. Studies should always come first to a student.”

As he spoke, Lin Jiage took careful note of Shi Yao’s expression, and to his relief, he saw the disapproval on her face alleviating by a great deal. Thus, he pondered for a brief moment before adding, “Right, I remember you mentioning that your younger brother would have to be doing a Math paper and a Science paper later in the afternoon back when we were leaving the house. It happens that I’m free later on, so I can help you tutor him.”

Shi Yao’s disapproval was swiftly replaced by gratitude, “Thank you, Lin Jiage.”

Lin Jiage’s nervous heart finally settled down, “Don’t worry about it.”

And subsequently, throughout the entire meal, Lin Jiage no longer dared to broach any topic carelessly to close up his relationship with Shi Yao anymore.

…

By the time Lin Jiage was done tutoring Gu Nanqiang on his Math and Science, it was already nearing evening.

Being able to stay at Shi Yao’s home for nearly an entire day, Lin Jiage contentedly took his leave, and Shi Yao walked him down.