Being a Tutor to a Rich, Psychopathic Young Lady - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Every day, Xiao Dengqu would send her a message saying, “I’m not mad at you anymore.” Shi Mingyue replied, “Okay, then let’s not bring it up again,” and Xiao Dengqu would get angry. Then Xiao Dengqu would send another message: “I’m not mad at you anymore now.” Shi Mingyue tried a different phrase: “You’re so good, but this isn’t a good way to be.” Xiao Dengqu got even angrier. The next day, she said, “Shi Mingyue, ask me to forgive you, and I won’t be angry.” Shi Mingyue was too busy with her part-time jobs and didn’t reply.

When Shi Mingyue’s shift ended, she walked briskly from the south campus back to her dorm in the north. On the way, she was in a hurry and wanted to avoid any interaction with certain people from the library.

Over the past few days, her work putting magnetic tags on books had attracted the attention of a few boys on the school team. Every time they went to or came back from playing a game, they would stroll by and ask if she needed help. After being rejected, they would still bring her bubble tea and a small fan in the hot weather.

They seemed to think that such “meticulous” attention would win them Shi Mingyue’s favor. In just two days of tagging books, Shi Mingyue received no less than three invitation cards to the same basketball game. Shi Mingyue always refused them all equally, in a silent but firm way.

Every beautiful wormwood beauty is surrounded by other flowers and leaves that serve to highlight her extraordinary beauty, but this also makes her appear delicate and easy to bully. Gradually, Shi Mingyue noticed that the girls who were tagging books with her were less willing to walk with her. While they didn’t explicitly shun her, they kept a subtle distance. If she had been open to anyone, she might have lived up to her beauty, but she always looked as if she was too good for everyone, actively exuding an air of being unapproachable. Her arrogance seemed to seep from her bones, as if she was something special.

What’s more, a Bentley or a Porsche would slowly follow her every time she walked back, a sight that was both a source of jealousy and annoyance.

Working from dawn to dusk, Shi Mingyue walked alone on the way back to her dorm, a solitary figure trailing behind the other students. She looked down at her phone and saw a message from Xiao Dengqu.

Xiao Dengqu: Teacher, you are so infuriating. I’m going to punish you.

Shi Mingyue found her a little funny. The oppressive life she had been living with her part-time jobs found a moment of reprieve here. She replied, “How are you going to punish me? Are you going to hit me with your Doraemon sticker arm?”

One of Shi Mingyue’s roommates loved getting temporary tattoos and usually chose cool, sexy designs. This was the first time she had seen someone with Doraemon stickers on their arm. Xiao Dengqu’s behavior, though strange, was quite cute.

Xiao Dengqu: Teacher.

Just as Shi Mingyue was about to reply, another call came in. She quickly sent a message: “My sister is calling. I’ll talk to you later.”

Shi Mingyue answered the call, and a message from Xiao Dengqu popped up again: “You have other sisters?”

Shifanxing was crying softly on the phone. She had been scolded by her supervisor today for being too slow. After all, she was still young. She acted brave, but when she ran into trouble, she still sobbed with a sense of injustice.

“But it’s okay, big sister. I’ll finish working these two months. One month’s pay will go to my tuition, and the other will go to mom’s treatment. Auntie is helping to take care of Mom. I’m just crying a little. Don’t feel too much pressure.”

Shi Mingyue’s nose ached with emotion. She wanted to say, “Don’t do it anymore,” but she herself had lost her tutoring job. All she could do was say “Okay.” “Don’t work too hard. If you’re feeling down, tell me. Things will be better next year.”

“When I get paid, I want to go eat something good, maybe some roasted chicken,” Shifanxing said, her voice filled with grievance. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a good meal. The cafeteria food is so expensive.”

“You can do that. You’ve been working so hard. You should rest well when you’re on break,” Shi Mingyue said gently. “If you want to eat it, go today. Aren’t you feeling down?”

“I can’t. It’s almost nine now. If I eat it now, it won’t feel special. It would be a waste. I’ll go eat it at noon when I get paid!”

The two sisters talked for a long time. After she hung up, Shi Mingyue felt overwhelmed by a bittersweet emotion. She bit her lip, not making a sound, and turned over to face the wall. She thought of Xiao Dengqu’s privileged life and felt so much sympathy for her sister, who wasn’t even an adult yet but had to work two overnight shifts. Shi Mingyue lay there, wide awake, until early morning. When she checked her phone, she saw that her sister had transferred thirty yuan to her, telling her to go eat something good, too. Shi Mingyue stared at the message, lost in thought. She didn’t have the energy to reply to Xiao Dengqu. Her mind was filled with how to earn more money so her sister could finish her senior year.

Shi Mingyue got up early. An Yunxi, her roommate in the opposite bunk, was a night owl who read novels and wasn’t sleeping soundly. She woke up at the sound of Shi Mingyue’s movements and asked, “Are you going to help wash vegetables at the cafeteria?”

Shi Mingyue’s self-esteem was struck. She wanted to pretend she didn’t hear the question. Several minutes passed. When she came back after washing her face and started to comb her hair, she saw that the light in the opposite bunk was still on. She mumbled, “Mhm.” “I’m sorry for bothering you.”

An Yunxi turned over, her voice muffled. “It’s really hard work.”

Before the dawn could fully chase away the night, a silent symphony began in the kitchen behind the cafeteria. A low, continuous buzzing sound filled the air. It seemed to intentionally avoid the sleeping dorms, so as not to disturb the students’ sweet dreams. When Shi Mingyue entered the space, filled with the aroma of various foods, the buzzing immediately enveloped her. It was like when she was a child, she would look up at the blue sky and watch every airplane that flew across it. But now, she longed for the buzzing to end sooner.

At noon, she rested her head on her desk and looked at her phone. The work at the library was completely finished. The small fan on her desk hummed, and she was the only one left in the dorm, so she didn’t turn on the air conditioner, just taped two soaked tissues to the front of the fan. She opened her chat history and typed:

“Xiao Qu, have your grades come out yet?”

Shi Mingyue felt a profound sense of shame. What kind of teacher stoops to such a level for a student? She held her phone, hoping for a reply. She could have asked the housekeeper, but she felt too ashamed. She had accepted such a high hourly wage only to have her student score twenty points. And every time she left, she had confidently taken a gift. Shi Mingyue silently counted in her mind, and she had to recall the message within two minutes. She timed it perfectly and immediately recalled it.

Just then, Xiao Dengqu’s message came in: “I don’t know.” “I don’t remember what I scored.”

What she scored? Shi Mingyue felt a pang of suffocation. That was even lower than the score Xiao Dengqu got on her own.

…

Cheng Jin must have noticed that Shi Mingyue was in a bad mood recently, so she didn’t ask her out anymore, only checking on her via WeChat. Shi Mingyue said she didn’t have time. Cheng Jin didn’t go to the library or the cafeteria to find her, which protected Shi Mingyue’s fragile self-esteem.

Cheng Jin was a very good friend. She was very kind and gentle to her. Before Cheng Jin introduced her to the tutoring job, Shi Mingyue was happy to go for a walk with her in the evenings to talk and relieve stress. But, without realizing it, Cheng Jin had also become a part of her stress. Shi Mingyue instinctively wanted to reject that feeling.

When Cheng Jin asked her to go out, Shi Mingyue bought her a yogurt. The two of them walked behind the dorm building. Shi Mingyue told Cheng Jin that her tutoring job had ended.

Cheng Jin seemed to have already expected it. “Don’t feel pressured,” she said. “This isn’t about your teaching ability. My cousin has a very strange personality. I was afraid you’d get anxious, so I didn’t tell you. I’ve heard that no one has been able to tutor her for more than four lessons. Her personality is genuinely not good. She has a terrible temper and throws things when she’s unhappy. Her grades are bad, she’s lazy, she loves to lie… Anyway, she’s weird and has some mental issues. The number of tutors before you is uncountable.”

Cheng Jin went on to say that she’d heard about her playing cruel pranks on teachers and not getting along with students at school. Some of the things Cheng Jin heard didn’t sound like normal student behavior, and she didn’t fully believe them either.

“That’s not true,” Shi Mingyue said, judging from her own experience. “She only threw a fountain pen once and didn’t really lose her temper. I think her grades aren’t that bad.”

“How do you mean?” Cheng Jin was a little surprised.

Shi Mingyue explained, “When she was doing the problems, many times it seemed like she knew the right answer. She would hesitate between A and B, but she was indecisive and would choose the wrong one by accident. I don’t know if she just lacks confidence.”

Cheng Jin laughed. “Mingyue, don’t you think she was choosing the wrong answer on purpose? She was clearly bullying the teacher.”

With that reminder, Shi Mingyue started to notice some clues. She pursed her lips and said, “Maybe she just doesn’t need a tutor.” Perhaps she was a little mischievous and liked to play tricks on her teacher, but to Shi Mingyue, with such a high hourly wage, a few tricks were harmless. At most, she had gone from being a teacher to being a playmate.

Cheng Jin looked at her and said, “It’s rare for you to be able to smile when you’re with me.”

Shi Mingyue was only briefly relieved after facing reality. After that, she couldn’t smile anymore. The high-paying job was gone, and she would have to go back to hard times. After they had walked for over forty minutes, Cheng Jin clearly wanted to hold her hand and kept shifting the yogurt from one hand to the other.

Shi Mingyue checked the time. “It’s late. I need to get back to my graduation project. I’ve been really busy with my part-time jobs.”

Cheng Jin insisted on walking her to the building. She held up her hand to Shi Mingyue. “Thanks for the yogurt. You don’t have to buy things for me next time. I’m not that thirsty, and my appetite is small.”

Shi Mingyue smiled and nodded.

When she returned to her dorm, she checked her phone and saw that Xiao Dengqu had sent a message while she was chatting with Cheng Jin: “Take a look.”

Just as Shi Mingyue was about to reply “at what?”, another message from Xiao Dengqu came in: “I want to see what you’re doing.”

Shi Mingyue was conflicted and didn’t reply to Xiao Dengqu’s message. She knew she had been catering to Xiao Dengqu too much. After talking with Cheng Jin, she was even more certain that Xiao Dengqu didn’t need a tutor. Shi Mingyue decided to come to her senses. She had to abandon her fantasy of taking a shortcut and work hard at her part-time jobs to earn money for her mom’s medical bills. Otherwise, she would face even more mental and physical pressure later on.

She didn’t reply to Xiao Dengqu’s message. She looked at the lipstick and perfume on her desk that didn’t fit her poor life. After some thought, she took two photos with her low-resolution phone and posted them on her school’s second-hand group and a selling app. She honestly wrote that they were gifts from a student from her tutoring job and that she didn’t have much use for them. She added that she was open to in-person transactions. Shi Mingyue saw the Chanel outfit in her closet and took a picture of it as well, planning to sell it. However, she hesitated to post it. Shi Mingyue stood in the shower and washed her face several times. Finally, she decided to keep only the fountain pen, since Xiao Dengqu had written a note with it, so it had a special meaning.

When she came out, she checked her phone. A few minutes ago, Xiao Dengqu had added another message: “Teacher.” It was as if she wanted to appear polite and well-behaved.

Shi Mingyue went back to the school kitchen to help, but this time the head chef told her that most of the students had already left and the cafeteria was closing for summer vacation. She wouldn’t be needed anymore until school started again. Shi Mingyue thanked him and accepted the money he transferred to her, keeping two hundred yuan for herself and transferring the rest to her mother.

When she got back to her dorm, Shi Mingyue continued to work on her graduation project, looking at the internship salaries that the interviewers had sent her. She decided to set her sights on a factory job. Maybe she could work in a factory like her sister. This was the highest-paying job she could find right now. The two shifts would make it impossible to work on her graduation project, but… she couldn’t deceive herself anymore.

Even though she had psychologically convinced herself, she was still struck by a feeling of deep despair. The pressure was suffocating, and she could only taste bitterness in her mouth. At that moment, her eyes fell on the bottom right corner of her screen. She opened WeChat and typed: “Hello, I would like to ask if I can continue tutoring tomorrow.”

A few minutes later, her WeChat flashed. The name was the housekeeper. The message came at just the right time, like a glimmer of light in the darkness, a scorching, dazzling light. Her trembling fingers immediately moved the mouse to click it.

Housekeeper Xiao: “Mhm, Teacher, the test paper has been graded.”

A picture of the test paper was immediately sent. The score, a large “22,” had been clumsily and crookedly changed to “52” with a black pen. You could see the changes in the handwriting at a glance. The method was not clever at all, as if it was openly declaring that someone had done something bad. Below it was the name Shi Mingyue had filled in.

Teacher for 52 points: Shi Mingyue

Housekeeper Xiao: Teacher, do you still want to come for lessons?

Shi Mingyue was filled with gratitude. This was a miracle in a desperate situation. She immediately replied: “Yes.” She took the initiative and asked again: “Have I passed the assessment? Will I live in or just come three times a week?”

Housekeeper Xiao: Xiao Qu did a fantastic job. You should come and give her a reward.

It seemed she had sent it too quickly. She recalled it and re-sent it: Do you really want to live in?

Shi Mingyue didn’t really want to live in, but the salary was higher. After the frustration of her recent part-time jobs, she naturally wanted a more stable job. So, she replied: Yes, I really want to.

Housekeeper Xiao: Xiao Qu did a fantastic job, an unprecedentedly excellent job. She’s practically a genius. You can talk to her about the live-in arrangement yourself. Teacher, come and reward her.