"What's the reason?" Before calling Zhou Rui, Hou Ranxi had also asked Chai Meicen this question.
Chai Meicen was sitting in the research institute, where the staff would still glance at her from time to time.
Hou Ranxi took off his suit jacket and put it on her shoulders, and conveniently stood in front of her to help block some of the gazes.
She finally felt a little more at ease. Being watched like a rare animal really made one uncomfortable all over.
She looked up at Hou Ranxi.
He had a very calm expression, just looking at her quietly. His eyes were always gentle, with a soothing effect.
She gradually calmed down, then sighed and said, "Zhou Rui's good friend said Zhou Rui is a good person."
"This...is a reason?" Hou Ranxi didn't quite understand.
"Actually, after slapping Zhou Rui and Zhou Rui yelling at me that I don't understand him, I started thinking about whether I am a competent mother and whether I really understand my son. That day I asked his friend and felt that I may have really wronged him."
"But you don't have to use this method either. It's like installing a monitor in the classroom to observe the child's every move at any time. Zhou Rui will feel uncomfortable. He is still a very hot-tempered person and probably won't agree."
"What should I do then? Don't let me dance in the square, play mahjong, and I don't lack money either. What do you want me to do afterwards?" Chai Meicen asked Hou Ranxi.
Hou Ranxi replied, "I'll give you money for you to travel around the world."
"Go by myself?"
Hou Ranxi fell silent. Indeed, there was no one who could accompany Chai Meicen.
"I dropped out of college. Actually, sometimes when I think about it, I still feel very regretful. So...if I can't change back, going back to school will also eliminate a regret in my heart."
Hou Ranxi didn't say anything anymore, his fingertips trembled slightly, wanting to reach out and pat Chai Meicen on the shoulder to comfort her.
But at this moment Chai Meicen spoke again: "His dad studies so well, and I was able to get into a good university. How come he studies so poorly? Can you analyze for me if he is in a precocious relationship?"
Hou Ranxi's hand stopped and clenched into a fist instead.
"Zhou Rui is the kind of child who would tell you if he was in love." He replied.
"Yes, I can imagine how he would be so angry coming in front of me and say defiantly: If you dare to bully my girlfriend, you have to get through me first."
Hou Ranxi just smiled without answering.
*
When Zhou Rui learned of Chai Meicen's decision, he was so angry he almost vomited blood.
After recess, he dragged his two buddies to the wall where they could skip class. Their school's design was particularly twisted, with surveillance cameras installed seamlessly in all directions.
It was rare to have a blind spot like this. The wall was much higher than Zhou Rui. Trying to jump over it was very difficult.
When Zhou Rui was agile, jumping up was still easy. Now that his legs and feet were not flexible, he could only rely on Yang Ming and Li Xiaonan to help.
Yang Ming crouched down and let Zhou Rui step on his back to climb up.
Li Xiaonan had already climbed over to the other side of the wall.
Zhou Rui looked up at the wall and saw Li Xiaonan raise his hands and say, "Come on, I'll catch you."
"Piss off, you look like you want to princess carry me? Do you believe I'll kick you to death?" Zhou Rui was annoyed at the first glance.
"Then what do we do?" Li Xiaonan still had that cold expression, but there was a trace of helplessness in his eyes.
"You can also brace yourself, I can get down."
Li Xiaonan nodded, braced himself to allow Zhou Rui to get down smoothly.
After Zhou Rui got down, he put on his shoes. Because he was in a hurry, his legs and feet were still not flexible, so he walked in a funny hopping manner.
Li Xiaonan watched Yang Ming stop a taxi and get in before jumping back into the school.
When Zhou Rui returned home, he saw Chai Meicen humming a song while packing his schoolbag.
She was not surprised to see him come in, but calmly said, "I knew you would skip school and come back."
"Mom, can you be more mature? What are you suddenly transferring to my school for?"
Chai Meicen answered very frankly: "Didn't you say I don't understand you? I'm going to understand you a little."
"You understand! What don't you know about me, there's no need for this."
"Do you like mom's new schoolbag?" Chai Meicen held up her bag for Zhou Rui to see.
Zhou Rui took a look at Chai Meicen's bag.
Bags of this brand started at tens of thousands of yuan at the base price. That wasn't the point. The point was that his mother had put five notebooks for class preparation in her bag, and a pen pouch with ballpoint pens.
"What else do you think I should prepare? I haven't been to school in so long that I've forgotten everything." Chai Meicen leaned in and asked Zhou Rui.
"Put a few more lipsticks in there, and a few packs of snacks, then it will match the schoolbags of girls nowadays." Zhou Rui replied.
"Hmm, you really understand. Are you in a precocious relationship?" Chai Meicen asked him.
Zhou Rui was speechless.
This was impossible to guard against...
Zhou Rui threw his schoolbag onto the sofa and said to Chai Meicen, "If you feel life is boring, go find me a stepdad now. As long as he's at least 5 years older than me, and not over 60, I can accept it all. I always felt that you could only attract men with money before, but now it looks like you can also seduce with your beauty."
"Stop bullshitting me, is this something you can control?"
"That's right, I can't control it, so you should stop coming to my school to control me too."
"I'm not going to control you? If I didn't control you, you would have been expelled long ago. Tell mom the truth, why did you fight this time?" Chai Meicen simply sat down on the single sofa and looked at Zhou Rui to ask.
Zhou Rui choked for a moment, rolled his eyes, hesitated for a while before answering, "Nothing much, I just don't like the sight of him."
It seemed he was deliberately hiding something.
Chai Meicen raised her eyebrows: "Why don't you like him?"
"He's ugly."
"I asked you, and you refused to tell me, so I can only find out another way. I've decided, your Uncle Hou has already contacted the school leadership. I will transfer over tomorrow."
"Is this interesting?!" Zhou Rui was anxious and simply started shouting.
"It's interesting." Chai Meicen answered very seriously.
She felt Zhou Rui could still be saved. He would not be a social failure. She still wanted to save him again.
She was a little stupid, with low EQ and IQ. The only method she could think of was this.
Seeing Zhou Rui's arrogant appearance now made her very anxious. She felt that she should do something. This bizarre incident happened to occur at this time, so she took advantage of it.
Zhou Rui sat on the sofa, rolling his eyes angrily. He glanced at Chai Meicen's bag again, and laughed when he suddenly thought of something.
"Fine, come on then." He said with a crooked smile.
He bet that Chai Meicen would not last a month before dropping out herself.
*
Jiahua International School was quite interesting.
Originally, the international class of this school was just a gimmick to recruit students.
If a child was sent to study at Jiahua International from a young age, even if their grades were poor during the high school entrance exam, as long as they passed the English exam, they could directly promote to the high school's international class.
Unexpectedly, two years ago, a student from Jiahua International's international class scored perfectly and entered Cambridge University. That same year, another male student just missed a perfect score and also entered Cambridge.
Having cultivated two students into Cambridge University in one go, one with a perfect score who also became famous by participating in a TV quiz competition, instantly made Jiahua International famous.
In the past two years, the international class expanded from one class to four.
Moreover, the classes were no longer filled only with slackers waiting to die. There were also some really good students who planned to apply to international top universities.
There were still normal classes participating in the national college entrance examination, as well as elite classes.
As for Zhou Rui, with his grades that struggled to even directly promote to high school, he naturally mingled with the slackers in the international promotion class.
In order to understand Zhou Rui, Chai Meicen had Zhou Ranxi use his connections to transfer her to Zhou Rui's Grade 11 International Class 3.
Standing at the office door, looking at the noisy students outside, Chai Meicen felt a little emotional.
When she was in high school, she was also carefree and happy. That was probably the happiest time of her life. Thinking about it now...her heart suddenly started aching.
After Hou Ranxi finished the paperwork, he came to Chai Meicen's side and said, "Be careful at all times. Call me immediately if anything happens and I'll come right over."
What he meant by “anything” was worrying that Chai Meicen might suddenly transform back and cause panic.
"Okay." Chai Meicen nodded.
Just as the two made eye contact for a moment, Zhou Rui walked over with his hands in his pockets, grinning at the two of them, and said, "I'm here to welcome the new classmate."
As he walked over, he took Chai Meicen's bag to help carry it.
He was also followed by two buddies. Seeing Chai Meicen, Yang Ming took the initiative to greet her, "Yo! Beautiful lady classmate, I really didn't expect we would become classmates."
Li Xiaonan just stood by watching it like a show, then turned to look out the window. The ball game on the sports field seemed to attract his attention more.
Chai Meicen smiled and said, "Well, please give me lots of guidance in the future."
"I definitely will." Yang Ming smiled with eyes reduced to slits.
Zhou Rui didn't say anything either, just nodded with his chin. Yang Ming immediately went to help Chai Meicen carry her school uniform.
"I'll leave her to you then, I'm reassured." Hou Ranxi patted Zhou Rui on the shoulder.
"Don't be too reassured." Zhou Rui shot Hou Ranxi a look.
Hou Ranxi knew the implication behind Zhou Rui's words, but he wasn't worried. "Don't underestimate her too much."
"Yes, yes." Zhou Rui didn't care too much and directly led Chai Meicen away.
Chai Meicen needed to change into the school uniform first. Looking at so many sets of uniforms, then looking at what Zhou Rui and the others were wearing, she asked, "Are there any rules for wearing the uniforms?"
"Wear swimsuits for swimming class, this doesn't need to be said right? There's a set for spring and autumn, one set for summer, one for winter, athletic wear for PE, formal attire for school celebrations, plus basketball and tennis uniforms. " Zhou Rui lazily replied.
"I'll wear what you guys have on now?" Chai Meicen took out one and asked.
"Yeah."
Chai Meicen went to the bathroom door with clothes in hand and went inside.
Zhou Rui stood outside waiting. Seeing some girls want to go in, he stretched his long legs across the door frame and said, "Someone's using it right now, piss off and go upstairs."
Seeing it was Zhou Rui, the few girls immediately scurried away grey-faced.
When Chai Meicen came out after changing, she looked at Zhou Rui for a long time.
Zhou Rui looked at her calmly and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm thinking if I worried too much about you being in a precocious relationship."
With how he treated girls, it would be strange if he had a girlfriend.
"You did worry too much to begin with."
"Who taught you to be so domineering and arrogant? Huh? Was it me? I'm just changing my clothes, people can do whatever they want, why are you blocking them?"
"I was afraid others would see your C-section scar." Zhou Rui leaned in and whispered.
Chai Meicen didn't say anything more.
Her body had reverted back, everything seemed to have reverted, but that scar remained.
It was like an indelible mark, leaving this alone, constantly reminding her what she had done.
The C-section scar from when she gave birth was vertical. With the school's short sleeves it would indeed be seen. Although Jiahua International School looked elegant and brilliant on the outside, the toilets inside only had partitions and no individual doors.
Zhou Rui brought Chai Meicen back to the classroom. All the way, Chai Meicen received special attention. Many people were looking at them whispering, not knowing if she attracted the attention or Zhou Rui was more famous.
At the classroom door of International Class 3, there were already people lingering. Seeing Chai Meicen and the others arrive, there was even a cheer. Before Chai Meicen could react, she saw even more people rushing out of the classroom to see her.
Chai Meicen asked Zhou Rui, "What kind of strange ritual are they holding?"
"Revelry," Zhou Rui answered.
"What does that mean?"
"You'll know once you go in."
As soon as Chai Meicen entered the classroom, she understood why this group was reveling.
She stood at the front of the class and saw that all forty students - thirty-five boys and five other girls - were staring at her eagerly, with excitement in their eyes.
One of the girls looked familiar - she was the one who had borrowed Zhou Rui's ID card.
"A science class?" Chai Meicen asked Zhou Rui.
"No, a direct promotion class. The students with decent grades are in the normal classes, the better students are in the other three international classes. I don't know why this year's class is so bizarre for a direct promotion to high school..." Zhou Rui said with a sigh.
Chai Meicen nodded understandingly.
"Ahhhhh! Beauty!"
"Zhou Rui's beautiful lady! You were hiding before, but now you've entered the wolves' den?"
"I have no regrets in life now!"
"Be my girlfriend!"
The classroom was filled with howls and shrieks.
"Get lost!" Zhou Rui cursed angrily.
The classroom immediately quieted down.
He had arranged for Chai Meicen to sit in the very middle seat of the front row, afraid that others would harass her. He had also changed his own seat to sit right behind Chai Meicen in the second row.
Zhou Rui took the schedule down from the blackboard and placed it in front of Chai Meicen. "Here's the schedule."
Seeing the schedule, she was a bit stunned, because it was entirely in English.
"Math is required, choose either Physics or Biology, choose either Chemistry or Economics. You can't take both Chemistry and Biology. Pick your courses and I'll register them for you," Zhou Rui said to Chai Meicen, really taking on the role of welcoming a new student.
Chai Meicen asked in surprise, "We can choose courses? Then won't that mean..."
"Yes, electives may be taken together with students from the other three international classes," Zhou Rui nodded. It was like choosing university courses - those who chose a particular section would take the class together.
"I'll take Physics and Chemistry," Chai Meicen said. She had no exposure to Western Economics and probably wouldn't do well in that course.
"There are small class sessions every afternoon for self-study, from Monday to Friday I've chosen them all for you already. Mondays you have two dance classes, Tuesdays you learn drums, Wednesdays you learn chess, Thursdays calligraphy, and Fridays emceeing."
"Wait! No break days the entire week? Are your small classes really that full?"
Zhou Rui shook his head. "No, normally each person takes two at most."
"Then why did you sign me up for five?"
"You should learn more things while you're still young. I'm doing this for your own good! Why can't you understand the hard work and care of us family members? When you grow up, you'll thank me." Zhou Rui said righteously.
In his heart, Zhou Rui was gloating: Take that, mom!
How many "unscrupulous" things have parents done in the name of "it's for your own good"?
It's time they also experience what "for your own good" feels like!
