I'm A Math Idiot, So What? - Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Disorderly Affections (3)

When Fang Congxin returned from buying breakfast downstairs, I still hadn’t quite grasped the reality of our situation. I stood there, staring dumbly as he poured congee into bowls on the table, and listened to him urge me to brush my teeth.

“What about you?” I asked.

He pulled a new toothbrush from the bag and tugged me off the sofa. “Come on, let’s go brush.”

We stood side-by-side at the washbasin, diligently brushing our teeth.

Boy, relationships between men and women are weird, I thought. You can just kiss without brushing your teeth first?

I used to watch idol dramas and always roll my eyes whenever the male lead would give the female lead a “good morning” kiss after waking up, thinking how unhygienic it was.

But strictly speaking, what we did earlier didn’t really count as a kiss, did it?

Still, just thinking about the words “boyfriend and girlfriend” made my heart feel like a string of firecrackers going off—joyous and celebratory.

“What are you grinning like an idiot for?” Fang Congxin asked, rinsing his mouth with my cup.

I blurted out eagerly, “Now that we’re in such a High Tier relationship, do you think Professor Fang might give me a passing grade as a greeting gift?”

Fang Congxin handed me back the water glass, shooting me a sidelong glance. “You’re not trying to get to my dad by going through me, are you?”

My eyes narrowed slightly. “You figured it out.

To me, you’re just a ticket to the Beauty of Mathematics’ passing grade fortress.”

“Dream on!” Fang Congxin retorted. “Qingqing gets way more time with him than you do. You’re not even in the running.”

He turned to leave.

I followed him out. “Fang Congxin.”

“Hmm?”

“Fang Congxin.”

“What?”

He stood by the dining table, a half-smile playing on his lips as he looked at me.

“Fang Congxin!”

“Spit it out!”

“Can you give me a piggyback ride?”

“Why?”

“That’s not the standard answer! Minus points!”

He chuckled, walked over to me, turned his back, and crouched down. “Hop on.”

I clambered onto his back, resting my chin on his shoulder. With a wave of my hand, I declared, “To the balcony!”

As he carried me through the doorway, he ducked low, and soon we were standing by the window.

“Look! The sunrise!” I exclaimed proudly. “You can see it right from my balcony! I’ve been wanting to show you this for ages!”

Half the sun hung on the horizon, its radiant glow breathtakingly beautiful.

“Recite another poem for me,” Fang Congxin murmured from beneath me.

“Starting tomorrow, I’ll be a happy man.

Feed horses, chop wood, wander the world.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll care about grains and vegetables.

I have a house facing the sea, where spring brings warmth and flowers.”

He chuckled. “Are you hinting you want me to buy you a seaside villa?”

I laughed too. “Why talk about such vulgar things as houses?”

After a pause, I added, “What’s the square footage? Which direction does it face? Apartment or detached house—”

We finished watching the sunrise on the balcony, leaned against the railing for a while, and then went inside for breakfast when it got too hot.

After breakfast, Fang Congxin gave me a math lesson. His mouth opened and closed in front of me, but I didn’t hear a word he said. I was too busy thinking about lewd things.

Noticing my lack of focus, he said, “One thing at a time. If you fail the exam, you’ll still have to pay the tuition. That’s money you owe the company.”

“Can I pay in kind?”

Fang Congxin pushed my head away again. “Dream on.”

“Did you hear what I just said?”

Now I finally understand how those emperors of old could suddenly become so besotted with beautiful women that they neglected state affairs. When such beauty is before you, who could possibly care about boring official duties?

“Yeah, yeah, I heard,” I said impatiently.

“Then let’s test you,” Fang Congxin said.

“I think you should check my heartbeat instead.”

“What’s wrong with your heartbeat?” he asked.

“It’s racing—thump-thump-thump-thump—making it hard to concentrate on what you’re saying.”

Fang Congxin crossed his arms and looked at me. “Your excuses for avoiding studying are getting more sophisticated by the day. Now, hurry up and do the problems.”

“If I finish the problems, can I get a kiss?”

“No.”

“You’re so stingy,” I complained.

Fang Congxin turned his head and pecked me on the cheek. “Before you start, then.”

After the kiss, he turned serious. “Alright! At this rate, we’ll never finish our lesson.”

Sigh. Mathematics wasn’t just a stumbling block on my path to graduate school; it was also an obstacle in my love life. It was truly detestable.

After our study session, the rat extermination team Fang Congxin had called online arrived.

After finishing his tasks, he went to work. I wanted to go with him, but Fang Congxin said my current dazed state would distract him. So I stayed home, hugging my math books as usual.

In the afternoon, Zhang Ziqin messaged the group, asking us to accompany her to get a haircut.

Eager to share my newfound romantic triumph with my friends, I eagerly agreed.

But the traffic was terrible. By the time I arrived at the salon, Zhang Ziqin’s hair was already almost done.

“Why the sudden haircut?” I asked.

Wang Ziqi pouted. “Yesterday, Zhang Ziqin said it was almost the forty-ninth day since her breakup with Zhao Xiaoxiao. According to folk custom, the spirit should reincarnate after that. To celebrate her fresh start, she cut her bangs last night—you know, ‘new beginning’ and all that.”

“But Lu Xun once said, ‘Don’t cut your bangs on a whim,'” I pointed out earnestly.

Wang Ziqi nodded. “Exactly! The wisdom of our ancestors holds true. That’s why she’s here now, correcting her mistake from last night.”

She glanced up at me. “What’s the occasion? I could swear I just saw eighteen magpies circling above your head.”

I couldn’t help but grin as I replied, “Did you?”

“I’m single no more!”

I announced the joyous news, over twenty years overdue.

Wang Ziqi shrieked, “Holy shit! Xu Zheng actually got it together? We were planning a commiseration banquet for him tonight! We even had a theme: ‘Heartbreak’s Inevitable Agony’! I can’t believe you caved in!”

I shook my head. “You should still have the banquet. Don’t skimp on it. Because my boyfriend’s name is Fang Congxin.”

Wang Ziqi shrieked again, “Poor Xu Zheng! You did great, sis! Let him cry his eyes out! Serves him right! What’s that saying? ‘Yesterday you ignored me, today I’m out of your league!’ That’s what this is!”

I mentally thanked Wang Ziqi for being such a true friend to Xu Zheng.

Nearby, Zhang Ziqin, who was getting her hair done, overheard our commotion and craned her neck. “What’s all the excitement about?”

“Lin Meng has a boyfriend!”

Zhang Ziqin exclaimed, “Wow! Hurry and bring him to our department for a pre-marital health check! Only if he passes will we send you to the honeymoon suite!”

At her words, Tony’s hand trembled slightly.

“Hey, Big Brother, don’t get shaky now, especially at this crucial moment!”

Wang Ziqi snapped back to reality. “Wait, what about Tong Xiao?”

“He said he’s always been in love with me,” I replied.

With nothing better to do, I told Wang Ziqi everything about Fang Congxin and me, holding nothing back.

Zhang Ziqin, having finished her hair, leaned in to listen for a while too.

Wang Ziqi took a sip of her lemon water. “So, did you ask him why he hugged Tong Xiao?”

“It wasn’t a hug,” I corrected. “Tong Xiao leaned on him. And no, I didn’t ask. Think about it—he chose me over Tong Xiao. That must mean it’s true love. Let her lean on him for a moment. I’m not petty.”

“You’re so magnanimous, Lin Meng,” Wang Ziqi said, popping a preserved plum into her mouth. “Speaking of Tong Xiao, I’ve uncovered something new. I thought about it after we parted ways the other day. Su Xu comes from a remote suburb in some backwater town. No one else from that elementary school even got into Changning University this year. He’s a fish out of water here, completely new to the city. The fact that he was immediately called out to meet her in the woods—” I clicked my tongue. “Must you put it so crudely?”

Wang Ziqi rolled her eyes. “I’m guessing they knew each other before university. After all, I’ve been rooted there long enough to find people who know the story.”

“And guess what? My digging actually turned up something!”

“Tong Xiao and Su Xu are from the same hometown. But when Tong Xiao was a sophomore, a rich old man took her away to study elsewhere.”

“I have a bold theory,” Wang Ziqi paused, looking at us two engrossed listeners. “What if the person who came looking for Tong Xiao at our school was this rich old guy? You know, Tong Xiao’s sugar daddy. Now that Tong Xiao has made a name for herself, she wants to break free from his control—”

“But Brother Sun said the old man looked dirt poor, not rich at all,” I countered, frowning.

Wang Ziqi slapped her thigh. “Then he must have fallen on hard times! He’s probably hounding Tong Xiao, trying to shake her down for money!”

I stared at her. “Isn’t this wild speculation unworthy of your major?”

Wang Ziqi snapped back, “If you want the truth, why don’t you just ask your brand-new boyfriend?”

I retorted just as sharply, “Why don’t you ask your surrogate son, Su Xu? Wouldn’t that be better?”

Zhang Ziqin, who had been listening quietly, suddenly shouted, “Everyone! Don’t let a woman come between our sisterhood!”

We both turned to her in unison. “Zhang Ziqin, what happened to your hair?!”

Zhang Ziqin hurried to look in the mirror, asking anxiously, “What’s wrong? Does it look bad?”

We both replied, “It looks great! Really great!” “Like a chrysanthemum—perfect for the Qiming Festival!” “Chrysanthemum withering, scars litter the ground, your smile is already yellowing—” Zhang Ziqin: “I’ll kill you both!”

I still didn’t ask Fang Congxin about Tong Xiao.

Although Wang Ziqi’s words were embellished with imagination, they weren’t entirely baseless. Any old man who would provoke Fang Congxin to violence must be morally bankrupt and utterly depraved.

But I didn’t want to speculate that Tong Xiao was being kept.

Just as when I wrote a dark novel and was immediately labeled antisocial, it would be wrong to judge her character simply because she lacked money but still loved buying pretty things.

We were like blind men groping an elephant, seizing a single detail and rushing to judgment. Such a simplistic, crude, and arrogant approach was wrong. I suspect Fang Congxin chose to remain silent about Tong Xiao either because she had asked him not to tell anyone, or because he felt it would be dishonorable to reveal a girl’s secrets to another girl.

His silence toward me on this matter must have its reasons.

What an understanding girlfriend I am!