Being a Tutor to a Rich, Psychopathic Young Lady - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
The next day, Shi Mingyue did not wake up particularly early. When she went to eat, Xiao Dengqu was already waiting at the table. After Shi Mingyue sat down, Xiao Dengqu tilted her head and kept talking to her. Shi Mingyue occasionally gave a faint “mm-hmm” in response.
Xiao Dengqu finished eating first and waited for Shi Mingyue to go to class together. When they got to the door, Shi Mingyue was in no hurry to go in. She said in a cold voice, “My clothes.”
Xiao Dengqu immediately said, “Okay, okay, come inside, and I’ll get them for you.”
Xiao Dengqu was smiling the whole time, and her tone was quick. It was obvious she was trying to please her. Shi Mingyue didn’t follow her inside. She couldn’t see Xiao Dengqu from outside the door. After a moment of thought, Shi Mingyue took a step forward.
Xiao Dengqu was using a pole to stretch and get the clothes from the balcony on her tiptoes. Once she got them, she held the fabric and shook it.
Shi Mingyue’s face felt hot. The drying rack in her room was a liftable one. Xiao Dengqu had completely gone to the trouble of finding a pole just to imitate her.
Fortunately, she didn’t pick it up to sniff it, or Shi Mingyue really wouldn’t have been able to stand it. Xiao Dengqu walked out, “Teacher, look…”
Shi Mingyue didn’t wait for her to finish. She took it directly and went to the room next door, locking the door behind her. Xiao Dengqu didn’t follow her.
The fabric had been sun-dried and was quite hot. Shi Mingyue stuffed it into the closet, washed her face, calmed herself down, and went to teach Xiao Dengqu.
Xiao Dengqu sat upright with her hands behind her back. Today’s main subject was physics, which was Shi Mingyue’s strong suit. She had scored a perfect score on the college entrance exam that year.
For basic knowledge, Shi Mingyue would automatically simplify it. She felt that everything could be understood at a glance and didn’t need to go into detail. After she finished teaching, she looked at Xiao Dengqu again and realized that Xiao Dengqu had completely adapted.
Shi Mingyue was very surprised. She felt that Xiao Dengqu’s acting was often not online today. Her performance as a bad student was not convincing at all.
Xiao Dengqu finished the practice questions and looked up at her, asking in confusion, “Teacher, when am I going to learn aerodynamics?”
“Huh?” Shi Mingyue said, “In high school, it’s air resistance. Aerodynamics is in university textbooks.”
Xiao Dengqu sighed with regret and said, “I can learn aerodynamics first.”
Shi Mingyue looked at her and couldn’t help but curl her lips. “She’s still a little dummy,” she thought. “She wants to run before she can even walk.”
“You need to master mechanics first.”
“But Newton’s Third Law isn’t quite right. It says the action and reaction forces are equal in magnitude. I like you so much, but you don’t like me back.” Xiao Dengqu’s tone was accusatory.
Shi Mingyue disliked it the most when people applied physics knowledge to relationships. She had been annoyed by this kind of love-chasing since her student days. She felt that Xiao Dengqu was unsophisticated.
When the morning class ended, Shi Mingyue went back to her room for a nap.
She chatted with her sister for a while, and then she went to read her professional books, but she was still annoyed. She went to open her closet, and a faint scent wafted out. It was different from Shi Mingyue’s own scent. It was more like… Xiao Dengqu’s mellow scent with a faint milky undertone.
A private item had been touched and washed by someone else. She should just throw it away, right? It wasn’t like she couldn’t afford to buy a new pair of underwear.
A few minutes later, Shi Mingyue went into the bathroom. She soaked the clothes in water and then came out and took a tissue to wipe her wet fingers.
Cheng Jin sent her a message: “Are you still at Xiao Dengqu’s house these days? I’ll come over and drop off some documents for you.”
Shi Mingyue: “I probably won’t be. The day after tomorrow is Xiao Dengqu’s grandmother’s birthday. The steward gave me money to go with Xiao Dengqu.”
Cheng Jin: “What a coincidence! I’m going too, but not the day after tomorrow, the day after that. I’ll go a day early then.”
Shi Mingyue: “Huh?”
She had just made an excuse. She didn’t actually want to go.
Cheng Jin: “I haven’t seen you in a while, and I miss you a little. Mingyue.”
Through the text, Shi Mingyue could feel Cheng Jin’s shyness. They had met in the second half of their first year of university. Cheng Jin had a very brief relationship. In the summer after her senior year of high school, she dated a girl she had fought the college entrance exam with for two months. After filling out their applications, the girl went to her parents’ city, and they went to different universities. They didn’t even have a formal goodbye and just naturally broke up.
Shi Mingyue typed two lines of text and then deleted them.
Cheng Jin really wanted to talk to her for a while and kept finding topics: “This time, I should be able to meet that cousin. She’s the same age as Xiao Dengqu, and she did well on her exams this year. She went to university in Shanghai.”
Shi Mingyue: “That dog-loving cousin?”
Cheng Jin: “Yeah.”
“Don’t worry. I have a good relationship with that cousin. She won’t make things difficult for you. I’ll take you out and have some fun. Think of it as a vacation.”
“Little bear touching head.jpg”
Shi Mingyue frowned and tapped her finger on the screen.
After a simple lunch break, she went to Xiao Dengqu’s room. Xiao Dengqu was sitting by the window, yawning with sleepiness. She was covering her hands together. Every time she closed her eyes, she would immediately perk up and continue to stare at her hands.
Shi Mingyue sat across from her, flipping through a book, and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
“Teacher.” Xiao Dengqu put her clasped hands forward. “Look, they’re all red.”
Shi Mingyue looked over. Her thumb and index finger web was indeed a little red. “Are you allergic?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t like this when I used soap. It was like this when I used laundry detergent yesterday. It’s hot, and it’s strange, teacher.” She pushed her hand forward, blinked her eyes, and looked particularly puzzled.
Shi Mingyue held the textbook and flipped it open with force. “Class.”
Xiao Dengqu was still holding her hands. Shi Mingyue rarely cursed at people.
Now, she couldn’t help but think of a word: “little pervert.”
Shi Mingyue couldn’t argue with Xiao Dengqu. She frowned and said, “Open your hands and let me see.”
Xiao Dengqu slowly opened her hands, and a blue butterfly flew out from her palm. For a moment, Shi Mingyue thought it was an optical illusion.
The butterfly seemed to have been cooped up for a long time. It flew straight up. As Shi Mingyue watched in surprise, the butterfly flew towards her. She held her breath. The butterfly fluttered its wings by her cheek and flew towards the window.
Xiao Dengqu raised her eyebrows: “Isn’t it pretty?”
The window was only open a small bit at an angle. When the butterfly was about to fly out, Xiao Dengqu reached out to close the window. Shi Mingyue said, “Don’t close it.”
“You don’t like it?” Xiao Dengqu rested her hand on the window. With a light tug, the butterfly could be kept in the room forever.
The butterfly flew away through the gap. It went from being clear to a little blurry. The sun was still strong today. Looking at it for too long would make her pupils hurt. Shi Mingyue blinked and withdrew her gaze.
Xiao Dengqu narrowed her eyes, not understanding what she was doing. If she liked it, why would she let the butterfly fly away? She should catch it and keep it in a cage.
After the butterfly flew away, it took a while for Shi Mingyue’s eyes to refocus. After a bit, she remembered that she had forgotten to take a picture. She felt a little regretful. Then she looked at Xiao Dengqu and saw that her palms were stained with something white and pale yellow. She asked, “What’s on your hands?”
Xiao Dengqu said, “Pollen.”
“Huh?” Shi Mingyue was confused.
Xiao Dengqu explained: “You put on pollen and a little honey to catch butterflies… It said online that you could catch them this way. And it worked.” She spread both her hands, which were completely covered in it.
Xiao Dengqu asked Shi Mingyue several times if she liked the butterfly. Shi Mingyue said “mm-hmm.” She was worried that she would go and catch butterflies every day, so she added, “It’s just okay.” She lowered her head and flipped through her physics book. She flipped to one page and then flipped back, pausing for a few seconds. She took out a tissue to wipe her hands.
Xiao Dengqu held her hands up to her nose and took a light sniff. “Teacher, it smells like honey.”
Xiao Dengqu had spent a whole morning in the flower room catching butterflies. In the afternoon, she had no energy at all. Shi Mingyue only briefly taught her and let her write some practice questions.
Shi Mingyue sat across from her and took out her phone to message the steward. She still had a few unread messages. Shi Fanxing said that the last time she transferred almost 20,000 yuan to their mom, their aunt kept asking where she got so much money.
Cheng Jin had shared a lot of links with her, all related to studying abroad. Cheng Jin’s family was rich, so she didn’t have to go through the process of going abroad herself.
Shi Mingyue understood that Cheng Jin wanted to take her abroad with her. She only clicked on some cute videos of cats and dogs below. The little cat was being teased and kept clinging to Cheng Jin’s leg.
Cheng Jin: “Isn’t she cute? Her name is Jiaowife.”
When Shi Mingyue was about to switch to the next video, the screen showed Xiao Dengqu’s face. She didn’t know when she had changed it. Her eyes were just narrowed with sleepiness, and her face was gloomy, looking full of aggression.
The little cat was cute, but the little monster was weird.
Shi Mingyue exited the video, not letting her watch it. Xiao Dengqu pouted with a sullen face. Then her eyes fell on Shi Mingyue. She looked at her ears and neck and suddenly smiled again and said, “Teacher is cute.”
At night, Cheng Jin had just finished binding her materials when she received a message.
light: “Cousin.”
Cheng Jin was about to ignore it because talking to Xiao Dengqu always felt strange.
She had just tapped the back button when another message came.
light: “You have a cat?”
Given Xiao Dengqu’s previous behavior with dogs, Cheng Jin asked: “Why are you asking? Do you want to get a cat?”
light: “I have a little cat, but when I buy her clothes, she won’t wear them. I want to ask you where I can buy clothes for little cats. Also, the bell on your cat is really pretty.”
Cheng Jin: “You have a cat?”
light: “Mm-hmm, she’s unhappy lately.”
Cheng Jin: “It’s so hot. Why are you putting clothes on a cat? Isn’t that animal abuse? How could it be happy?”
Afraid that she was abusing the cat, Cheng Jin asked in detail: “What have you done? How are you taking care of her?”
light: “Huh? They don’t need to wear clothes? She’ll be shy. My little cat is very shy.”
Cheng Jin: “It’s hot. Don’t let her wear clothes indoors.”
Very afraid that she was abusing the cat: “What else have you done?”
light: “Given her a bath.”
Cheng Jin: “Cats don’t like baths. You have to do it gradually. Let her get used to the water temperature first, and take it slow.”
light: “Thanks, Cousin. Where did you buy the cat bell, cat necklace, cat ears, and cat tag? The quality control at other stores isn’t good. My cat needs to wear the best and most beautiful.”
Cheng Jin: “I don’t use cat tags much. They’re heavy around the neck. Plus, if they run out one day and you forget to bring it, it’s hard to find them. I just implant a pet chip. You can see the pet’s information and location with it.”
light: “Mm-hmm, I want to get one implanted too.”
A few minutes later, Cheng Jin sent a long list of things over: contacts for custom clothing, some handmade shops, and a very reliable pet hospital.
Bells, cat wands, and many other small toys.
Cheng Jin: “Be good to the cat.”
light: “（＾＿＾）”