I'm A Math Idiot, So What? - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: No Tattling (Part 1)

I thought my encounter with Ke Lu would be a fleeting one, but a couple of days later, he called me.

At the time, Tong Xiao had dragged me to the blackboard to solve a problem.

After skipping several classes and getting a stern lecture from Tong Xiao, I had become her “guest of honor”—a specially designated seat next to the lectern where I sat for everyone to admire.

Ge Chunchun and the others had recently been focusing on calculating betting odds, so they could organize bets on “Whether Lin Meng will actually solve the problem today.” So whenever Tong Xiao called my name, the class would erupt in enthusiastic applause.

As a fourth-year senior accustomed to being teased by the underclassmen, I’d long since lost all sense of shame.

Still, a stubborn streak lingered within me. I really wanted to solve a problem for Tong Xiao and make her see me in a new light.

Unfortunately, such a dramatic turnaround only played out in my head. In reality, I picked up the chalk, wrote out the first two steps of the solution, and gave up by the third.

Tong Xiao said with a smile that could cut glass, “Progress! You actually made it to the third step.”

I still couldn’t quite figure out what Tong Xiao’s true feelings toward me were.

At the Information Management Center, I always felt like she looked at Fang Congxin and me with a strange glint in her eyes. Yet she seemed genuinely committed to helping me improve my math grades, putting in tireless effort without any apparent reservations. It was truly baffling.

After class, I hurried home and found someone sitting on the recliner downstairs.

The blue-gray glow of his phone screen illuminated his face. Startled, I let out a sharp “Ah!” But upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Fang Congxin.

Seeing me return, Fang Congxin snapped, “Where have you been? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

I pulled out my phone and saw several missed calls.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Ke Lu was looking for you,” Fang Congxin said.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me, but he called twice and sounded pretty urgent.”

As I climbed the stairs, I joked, “Ah, he probably wants to confess his feelings for me. He can’t be more than a few years younger than Su Xu, right in that hot-blooded phase where younger guys fall for older women. Too bad I can’t get involved in anything illegal—”

Fang Congxin flicked my forehead. “Are you serious?”

I unlocked the door, stepped inside, and dialed Ke Lu back while Fang Congxin watched. I put the call on speakerphone.

A sneaky voice came over the line: “Big Sis—”

Remembering his puffy eyes, so similar to Guo Qilin’s, I chuckled and asked, “What’s up?”

“Big Sis, are you free to talk?”

I glanced at Fang Congxin standing beside me and replied, “Sure.”

“I’ve been thinking about you all night! Why didn’t you call me back sooner—”

Hearing this, I straightened up from my half-reclined position, instantly alert.

“I was just talking nonsense earlier, kid. Don’t go spouting nonsense yourself, okay?”

Fang Congxin cleared his throat beside me. “Is someone else there?”

“If there’s someone else, I won’t say anything.”

“Spit it out already!” I snapped impatiently. “If you don’t tell me now, I’m hanging up for real.”

“Wait, Sis! Parent-Teacher Conference tomorrow. Could you come?”

“Go ask your grandpa or your sister to go.”

“Grandpa’s in Guangxi and hasn’t returned yet. My sister could take the high-speed train back, but I’m afraid she’d strangle me afterward.”

Back when I was a kid, I always paid someone to pretend to be my parents. I’m getting old, I guess, since I’m now old enough to play someone else’s parent.

“Ke Lu, it’s not that I don’t want to help. It’s just that your sister has a pretty distinctive feature. Most people couldn’t pull off pretending to be her—”

“She wears a prosthetic leg when she goes out; most people can’t even tell. Besides, the homeroom teacher who usually handles parent-teacher conferences is recovering from a minor surgery. The assistant homeroom teacher is running things now, so she probably doesn’t have much of an impression of my sister. Come on, please?”

“No way. If your grandpa finds out, I’ll lose my job!”

“I’ll pay you.”

“It’s not about the money. I also owe Teacher Feng a favor.”

“You’re really not coming?”

“Why are your parent-teacher meetings so frequent?”

“This is the first monthly exam review session.”

“They don’t do this every month, do they?”

“No, just this once.

Sis, please come, please come, please come!”

He whined like a broken record for a while. I couldn’t resist him any longer and finally relented, saying half-heartedly, “Just this once.”

“Absolutely!

Thanks, Sis!”

After hanging up, Fang Congxin poured two glasses of water and scolded me, “You’ve only known him for such a short time, and you’re already spoiling him so much.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Tell me, and I’ll understand.”

He handed me one of the glasses of water.

I took it and lowered my head. “When the car accident happened, Ke Qiao immediately threw herself over her brother to protect him. As a result, she lost her leg. She used to be a brilliant ballerina.”

Fang Congxin glanced at my hand.

“Ke Qiao might be another version of me in this world,” I continued quietly. “Ke Lu might be another Xu Xiaolan. He must have suffered as much as my mother these past years. It’s a miracle he hasn’t gone astray.”

I’ve grown increasingly comfortable talking to Fang Congxin about my hands. In the past, I always instinctively avoided the word “pain” to keep others from noticing.

Fang Congxin took a sip of water, his eyes lowered as he asked, “Did he tell you this on the phone?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know?”

“Ke Qiao told me.

She said it was clear her younger brother liked me a lot. If possible, she wanted me to talk him through his troubles. She also asked me to tell him that even though she always scolds him, she’s never regretted her instinctive reaction the day of the car accident.

She added that after this exam, her brother might come looking for me. She told me to play it by ear—that I didn’t need to feel obligated to agree if I didn’t want to.”

People at the pinnacle of intelligence are terrifying.

Fang Congxin, Tong Xiao, Ke Qiao—each of them is a mysterious, unfathomable mastermind with the ability to foresee the future.

We ordinary mortals are probably just pawns in their grand schemes, being calculated and manipulated at their whim.

“So you agreed?”

I pointed to the refrigerator. “A few days ago, Ke Qiao mailed me a whole box of cured sausages and another of pickled meats.”

“When you eat someone’s food, you have to agree to whatever they ask.”

“I’ll take you there tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Changning High School is one of the clients we’re planning to target. Is there a problem with me going to check it out?”

“Why are you always hanging around Changning? Should we just open a branch office here?”

Fang Congxin took a sip of water and said, “It’s not out of the question. Let’s get through this busy period first.”

He set down his glass and looked at me. “Are you keeping something from me lately?”

Had Tong Xiao told him about my tutoring? What have they been talking about recently? Had they mentioned me at all?

I parried with feigned nonchalance. “You mean my secret romance with Liu Haoran?”

Fang Congxin scoffed. “Fine, don’t tell me.”

He pulled a green business card from his pocket. “This is what I promised you earlier. Take Old Lin to this place to get fitted for a hearing aid.”

The card listed the contact information for a Siemens hearing aid store. I tucked it away, then asked hesitantly, “Didn’t you say you’d wait another month to get it for me? How did you know this was for Old Lin?”

Fang Congxin yawned. “Probably just a wild guess.”

“…?”

“How did a young girl like you meet Old Lin?”

“Why don’t you use your toes to figure it out?” Fang Congxin wiggled his toes. “Hmm, I’ve thought it over. They say you both work at the same restaurant.”

“Such clever toes,” I said sarcastically.

Fang Congxin propped his head up with his hand. “Wouldn’t that be a bit much for ordinary colleagues?”

“Old Lin’s a loner. He used to have a daughter who desperately wanted to go to Changning University, but she died of illness right before the college entrance exam. With nothing left to live for, Old Lin toured the campus in her place, then decided to drown himself in the lake. Another person planning to drown stopped him. Wanna guess who that was?”

“I bet it was Sister Mei,” I said, disappointed.

“Why won’t you play along? Sister Mei was jilted. She had an epiphany during a meditation retreat in Malaysia. Even in death, she refused to be a hungry ghost, so she had a full meal and planned to drown herself. But someone beat her to the lake, so she had to jump in and save them first. They both survived. Sister Mei opened a restaurant, and Old Lin helps out there. That’s what she told us when she was drunk. I treat Old Lin well, of course, because he’s been swiping delicious treats from Sister Mei for years.”

I turned to see Fang Congxin had fallen asleep on the sofa, water glass in hand. I carefully slipped the glass from his grasp and was about to go fetch a blanket from the bedroom when he grabbed my arm.

“Lin Meng,” he mumbled thickly, his voice thick with sleep. “If I get you enough good food, would that be enough?”

“Huh?”

He opened his eyes and smiled. “I’ll buy you good food too.”

“Then go downstairs and get me some grilled cold noodles.”

Fang Congxin immediately closed his eyes, hugging a sofa cushion. “I was just saying. Wake me up in half an hour. Make dinner light tonight. If you make fish, make sure there aren’t too many bones. And no garlic in the vegetables. Oh, I really want soup today. Ah, right! Did you water Shy Shy? It looks so droopy.”

“……”