Ch13 - Married to a lacking husband 

Although Mo Qiu had an especially rare last name, back when we were attending school together he was neither exceptional in his grades nor his looks. His personality was even more sombre and he seemed perpetually perturbed. He wore thick lenses reminiscent of the bottom of beer bottles, and he always kept to himself at school, never interacting with others.

In the adult society, to fit in and assimilate one would often have to make sacrifices and wear a mask to cover up their authentic feelings. With the younger crowd, feelings and relationships were more genuine with less ulterior motives, but there existed a rule that was enforced even more stringently. 

The bizarre behaviour of Mo Qiu and his self inflicted ostracization led to him becoming the black sheep amongst a flock of white, and soon he became unbearable to everyone.

At first it was just complaints from peers in private regarding his personality, or mocking remarks directed at his speech and mannerisms. Slowly, things escalated, and more and more people started to humiliate and make fun of him in front of his face. Wherever he walked, the crowd would disperse and avoid being in the same area, and each item he touched only had one place where it belonged – the furnace.

He was a walking nuclear pollutant, as he found himself alienated in every situation. Even the homeroom teacher had problems with him as his grades reminded straggling without signs of improvement.

It wasn’t until the bullying towards Mo QIu escalated towards a breaking point, when he was pushed down from the top of the stairs by someone and injured his leg that the school authorities caught on, and a meeting was held to discuss a plan moving forward with the homeroom teacher. 

The strategy they devised through an afternoon of planning was simple and blunt, they would have me, Lu Feng, help him as we were paired up one to one. Not only would I become his ‘leg’, but I would also help him with homework and be a positive influence on his emotions, so the two of us could improve and grow together.

I had to admit, whoever thought of this idea really was a fucking genius.

I was forced to carry out my newly appointed duties, as I became Mo Qiu’s guardian, and even my seat had been swapped so I would sit next to him.

Although everyone else still could not tolerate him, perhaps due to me being by his side, it had never escalated to him bleeding again.

When my duties were finished, due to my excellent performance, Mo Qiu’s grades saw a significant improvement. Our homeroom teacher, caught in their excitement, appointed me to continue being his private tutor, until the semester had finished.

In the end, a semester passed, followed by another semester, I became his appointed nanny, bodyguard and private tutor for two years. At the end of all of this all I got was a shoutout from the homeroom teacher at the graduation ceremony, as they praised how I was ‘passionate to help fellow peers and was of a huge help in aiding and shouldering the burdens of the teachers’.

After high school I didn’t ever see Mo Qiu again. In private, we barely talked, he scarcely spoke, and I also felt like we were simply two very different people, so from the start I consciously maintained distance with him. After graduating, we each went our separate ways, and didn’t even exchange any contact details with each other.

Meeting him again like this today was something I honestly never expected. 

“How coincidental.” Mo Qiu commented, his eyes full of delight, and a trace of nostalgia. “We haven’t seen each other for many years right, I thought… I thought I would never be able to see you again.”

Apart from his lenses becoming slightly thinner, and having grown taller, it appeared that his personality hadn’t changed much at all.

I chuckled in response, “You saying this makes it sound as if I died.”

Mo Qiu was startled and hurriedly waved his hands in response, “No no no, I, I said the wrong thing… it should be I didn’t imagine I would be able to see you again.” 

The difference between the two wordings were negligible.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

I stopped joking with him and asked, “You’re here for?”

Lf rffwfv ab pera mbwf yjmx jgbecv jcv abbx bea tlr qtbcf obg wf ab rff, “Yt, gluta, P’w tfgf ab qlmx eq atf qbgagjla.”

Vtfc Wljb Vtl kjr jrabclrtfv, “Tbe kfgf atf bcf ktb ybeuta Oeb Itfcu Tec’r qbgagjla?” 

Llr jqqgjlrlcu ujhf ja Zb Hle kjr abb bnfga, Zb Hle ojmf yfmjwf gfv lc gfrqbcrf jcv raeaafgfv jr tf gfrqbcvfv, “R-Rb, P… P kbgx jr jc liieragjabg, yfmjerf tlr ybvs qgbqbgalbcr jgf gfjiis ubbv, rb P pera kjcafv ab… kjcafv ab yes tlr qbgagjla ab erf jr j gfofgfcmf.”

He really just exposed himself without anyone probing, Shen Xiao Shi hadn’t even asked anything, and he had already in a hurry revealed everything.

Shen Xiao Shi looked as if he suddenly understood and let out two ‘oh’s’, then with a phone in his hand he sat on the sofa and went to play his games.

I told Liu Yue to go retrieve the portrait, while I wrote an invoice for Mo Qiu and gave it to him to sign. 

“Thanks,” Mo Qiu said and returned the signed invoice to me.

I thanked him in response, “Thank you.”

If it wasn’t for customers like him, then we wouldn’t be able to sustain our business.

Luo Zheng Yun’s portrait was neatly placed in a delicate hard paper box, with the same portrait being printed on it. 

The surroundings were dark, and Luo Zheng Yun sat on a leather navy blue seat, the dim ambient light reflected on his face, each outline making his features seemingly classical like he was an acrylic painting. He leaned forward just slightly and stared straight into the camera, and amidst the elegance there was a hint of arrogance and hubris.

Mo Qiu carefully accepted the box, his eyes glued on Luo Zheng Yun’s printed features. It wasn’t until I reminded him to inspect the goods that he snapped out of his thoughts and properly checked the item.

After validating that there was no problem with it, I asked Liu Yue to bring a bag over to wrap it up and pass it to him. He held the bag and stood there, not leaving at the first instance.

I saw that he was on the verge of saying something and was hesitating, so I prompted him, “Is anything wrong? If something is, please go ahead and say it.” 

“Lu Feng, we… are old classmates who happened to meet by chance, can I… can I get your phone number?” His hands were twisted in the handles of the bag, showing his unease. “If there’s time in the future, when you’re free, let’s… let’s go out to eat?” Towards the end, his voice became more quiet until it was barely a whisper, and if someone wasn’t aware of the situation they would think that it was a fly buzzing around.

“I thought it was a big deal. You have the store’s WeChat account right? I’ll have Xiao Shi send over my phone number to you.” My phone was right on the table, and I was sure Mo Qiu brought his phone with him as well today, because he just used his phone to pay the remaining amount due. Yet now, I was like how Sheng Min Ou was once, putting up a sheet of insincerity between us two.

As an inmate who has served ten years in jail, I really did not want to catch up with old classmates of mine and reminisce about what life was like for us then.

If later he asked me which university I got into, and I told him the only thing I was in was a cell, he would be shocked, and I’d feel unpleasant too. 

No one wanted to bring upon themselves a blow to their self esteem and pride.

“No it’s fine, I’ll add you!”

However, Mo Qiu was someone who was simple minded, and appeared to not be able to understand the meaning that was implied in sentences by adults. After hearing what I said, he happily whipped out his phone.

I had not expected this, so I only reached for my phone that was on the table after pausing for a long moment. 

“Ah, okay…”

Mo Qiu left, perfectly satisfied with the sequence of events. I stared at the new name which was saved in my contacts for a long while, hesitating as to whether or not I should drag it into the blacklist.

I had a finger suspended above his name then decided to leave it. Taking into consideration that he was a client of the shop, I settled with keeping it there for now.

Ever since I had intervened to help Sheng Min Ou’s employee and got injured as a result, his attitude towards me seemed to have changed. 

Before, if I even attempted to get close to him, he would react like an enraged wolf that was provoked, letting out a deep growl as a warning and tensing up into a pose, ready to strike out at any time. However, now even when I lingered before his eyes all the time, he could still pretend that I did not exist.

He seemed to be letting go of the reins and letting me do whatever I wanted, so that I could come to the conclusion of giving up myself. He did not care about me, so he did not pay me any attention.

He no longer showed his aversion to me at every moment, which was actually a good thing for me. However, now he treated me as if I was plain air, an existence that could not be seen, heard or felt, and truthfully this ruined some of the fun I had when I would provoke him.

“I’m very sorry, I should take responsibility for what happened, I didn’t think that it would provoke him to act out to this extent…” 

Sheng Min Ou’s office door which had been tightly shut for a whole afternoon finally opened, and from inside walked out a lady who was well dressed, wearing a beret and an aubergine one piece, as she held a pair of leather gloves in her hand.

I raised my head from the newspaper and Sheng Min Ou’s eyes swept past me, then as if there was nothing out of the ordinary, he retracted his gaze.

“I don’t want the paintings anymore, let’s conclude everything like that.” The lady’s expression was scrunched in worry, and even as she left she let out heavy sighs.

“I understand, take care.” Sheng Min Ou accompanied her to the front door and only turned around to come back when she was completely out of sight. 

I did not raise my newspaper to continue reading it, my sight trailing his movements.

He evidently did not take a look towards my direction, but as if he was omniscient as he hooked his finger to gesture me to come over without shifting his glance, and signalled for me to follow.

Seeing that he was about to enter his office again, I hurriedly put down the newspaper, got up from the seat and walked briskly over.

Sheng Min Ou’s office was eminently minimalist and exceptionally bright, with no trace of anything unnecessary, and even the chairs and tables were of a simplistic design as they were transparent. 

There were no pens on the office desk and no paper apart from a silver laptop and a jarring red pocket.

Sheng Min Ou crossed behind the desk and held up the red pocket, passing it to me, “Take it, it’s the hospital fees.”

I was a bit taken aback by this show of sudden affection, “You’re giving this to me?”

I felt the envelope after receiving it, it was thickly stuffed, and had at least ten thousand renminbi inside. 

“It’s from the lady just then, Ms Sun, the man who hurt you is her ex-husband.” Sheng Min Ou sat down on the transparent chair that looked not in the slightest comfortable and opened up his laptop. “She felt guilty about it, so offered to reimburse the hospital fees.”

“She really was married to a lacking husband,” I clutched the red pocket and swatted it lightly against the palm of my hand, “Hopefully next time she can take a good look at the men in her life.”

“You can go now.” Sheng Min Ou said without raising his head, his words like an order the Emperor gives when dismissing his subjects.

I stared at the crown of his head and his half covered features, unwittingly letting out a long sigh, then thought to myself, ‘Married to a lacking husband, huh’. 

I walked towards his desk, sitting on it and waved the red pocket in my hand in front of his laptop screen to attract his attention.

“Mum doesn’t have long.” I collected all my feelings and spoke in a heavy voice, “The doctor said she might not make it to New Years.”

He stopped typing abruptly and slowly raised his head to look at me in silence.

I licked my lips nervously and asked, “If, and I’m saying if, that day really comes… can I call you?” 

I didn’t need his accompaniment, and I didn’t need him to rush over to be by my side and take care of the funeral proceedings with me, I just wanted to… in that day fated to bring me misery, be able to in the first instance hear a voice that could bring me happiness.

Sheng Min Ou leaned back into his seat and sneered, “I thought you didn’t need my consent to do anything.”

“Indeed, even if you said no I would still call you.” I replied, giving a slight smile, “But I wanted a guarantee that you would pick up.”

He opened his mouth, and just when he was about to say something, the laptop on the desk started ringing, the tone sounding like someone had requested him for a video conference. 

“Leave.” He looked at the screen, the words in his mouth directed to me.

Ai, it really came at an unfortunate time.

I was exasperated internally, but I still wanted to leave on a shameless note, so as I headed out I kissed the red pocket and blew him a kiss, “Then I’ll take it that you agreed.”

Sheng Min Ou had just put in his bluetooth earphones, and hearing me say that he seemed to look over to where I was, but perhaps it was because of the participants on the other side of the call or for some other reason, he didn’t comment further in response.