Bab 43: Do you know my mum, sir?
At the party that the twins went to, three teenagers who were donned in expensive-looking suits were walking around looking for someone.
"Hey, the Du twins are here!" one of the kids at the party yelled. His voice alerted the rest of the people in the room and some of them ran to the floor-to-ceiling windows to take a look.
Everyone knew that the twins rarely made an appearance at this kind of party and that the only reason they were coming today was because of their best friend, Alex, who coincidentally was the step-sister of the birthday girl.
"Oh my god! Jack looks even cooler than when he was in our school uniform! Is that Lyle? Do you think they would give me their numbers?" said one of the teenage guys as he watched the twins and Alex getting down from the car.
Some of the teenagers who were standing next to him laughed and one of them said, "Dream on! As if they would be friends with someone like you."
The three teenagers from earlier frowned and one of them, Johnny, humphed and said arrogantly, "I don't get what's so great about them! I'm much better looking!"
His somewhat plumpy friend, Joshua, laughed at his friend's words. "Johnny boy, you aren't even 1/10 of them. Forget about them. Let's look for the poor kid."
He took out his phone from his pocket and waved it around. "I just got a new phone. Let's see how great the resolution is on this.
As they continued to walk around, their other friend, Oliver, frowned as he glanced around with an annoyed look. "We've been walking around for the past 30 minutes. I don't think he's coming. Honestly, I just want to go and find a chance to talk to the twins. Are you done here?"
When there was no reply, Oliver then turned to Johnny and asked, "Are you sure you invited him, J?"
Johnny nodded while wearing an annoyed expression on his face. "Yeah. To avoid him from suspecting anything, I even made my cousin go and invite him personally. My cousin's pretty. I thought that he won't reject if she invited him personally."
Joshua thought for a second before suggesting, "Maybe he's too poor to afford any present and felt ashamed?"
"Damn…" Johnny sighed. "I didn't think of that..."
He pulled out a bag filled with worms from his pocket. He was going to frame their classmate by putting this on the buffet or on one of those young ladies. Glancing around, he saw one of the staff and beckoned the young man to come over.
"Get rid of this," said Johnny rudely as he threw the bag at the young man who made a face when he saw what was in the bag.
Once the young man walked off, Johnny turned back to his friends. "I was hoping for some fun… Guess this party is going to be boring as well…"
"Well, you can mess with the other Scholars…"
Johnny shrugged. "Guess we can, but it's not as fun…"
…
In the Imperial Secondary Library, most of the lights were off except for the lights at a small reading section and around the shelves.
A teenage boy was sitting crossed leg on the couch with a heavy book titled "Intermediate French Grammar Lessons".
Since he did not come from a rich family like most of the students here, this meant that he had never attended a lesson for a foreign language other than English.
He could speak almost fluent English, but Imperial Secondary required their students to learn another language besides Mandarin and English. He had chosen French mostly because his mother could speak French, and she could help him with his lessons every now and then.
"Xiao Zhihao?"
Upon hearing someone calling out his name, Xiao Zhihao glanced up from his book. When he saw the man in front of him, he smiled and greeted back, "Hi, sir."
It was his English teacher. Apparently, this teacher of his graduated from Harvard Law School. After working for a few years as a lawyer, he got bored and decided to teach. Hence, he applied to Imperial Secondary. With his background, he made it through the interviews easily.
Even though he was strict in class, the man was pretty chill once the bell rang. Despite being a new hire, he easily became one of the most popular teachers at school. Especially when he looked like a GQ model whenever he was in his formal attire… and that was like 5 days of happiness for the girls in Xiao Zhihao's class.
The man sat down next to Xiao Zhihao, and as he leaned his head back against the couch, he asked, "I thought there's a party tonight at Jean Fu's place? Aren't you invited? I saw a group of Scholars from your year leaving earlier and they said they were going for it."
Xiao Zhihao smiled as he looked at his teacher. "I was invited, but... I don't feel like going… I don't have any friends there anyway."
"Why not? You're quite a good looking boy, I'm sure there are plenty of girls who would want to be your friends."
Xiao Zhihao grinned sadly. "I'm too much hassle than what I'm worth to them."
After he was tagged by Johnny in the first month since he started to attend Imperial High, no one dared to come near him. At best, they would ignore him or pretend that he did not exist. At worse, they would attack him physically.
Luckily, most of his classmates preferred to treat him as nonexistent which he was fine with. If he wanted to catch up to his classmates who came from privileged backgrounds, he had a lot to do. There was no time for small talk or parties.
At least, that was what he kept telling himself. If Xiao Zhihao was to be true to his heart, he was actually feeling quite lonely. That was also why he always wanted to go home. However, he kept everything down in order not to make his mother worry over him.
When he heard Xiao Zhihao's reply, the teacher frowned and looked at the young teenager. "Should I talk to your classmates?"
Xiao Zhihao shook his head. "Nah, I'm good. Please don't worry about me," said the teenager with a smile. He then changed the topic by asking, "So, why are you still here?"
The man sighed and covered his eyes with the back of his hand. He then groaned slightly before he replied in English, "There's an English exam for one of my classes tomorrow. I had to prepare the paper."
"Shouldn't you prepare this kind of things beforehand?" Xiao Zhihao asked in English as well while he continued reading his French book.
The man chuckled. "Don't tell the principal this, but I was too busy partying last weekend."
"You're like my mum. She gets easily distracted as well…"
"I'm sure she does…" the man mumbled under his breath while he looked at Xiao Zhihao with a strange expression.
Xiao Zhihao overheard him and with a curious expression, he looked up at his teacher, causing the man to look away. With a hushed tone, Xiao Zhihao reverted back to Mandarin, "Do you know my mum, sir?"
"Nope. Ah, look at the time…" said the man as he glanced at the antique analog clock on the wall. He stood up and said, "I'm going back to rest first. Don't stay up too late. It's good to be hardworking and studious but don't let it be bad for your health."
Xiao Zhihao smiled, "Yes, Mr. Murong."
....
Author's Note :
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For only $2-7 a month, you would be able to support the author of The President's Man. （･ω･)
https://www.pat reon.com/luoyeyouling
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Please don't hesitate to show your support. Every little amount counts...
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Sincerely,
Luo Ye
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