Chapter 251 – A Perfect New World (XV)

　　This question remained unanswered until Chi Xiaochi’s summer holiday.

He sat across from Zhu Shoucheng to write Happy Summer Vacation.

After writing a lesson plan on his computer, Zhu Shoucheng poked his head in and asked him, “What’s wrong with it?”

Chi Xiaochi took a random geometry problem and asked for advice on where to draw the auxiliary line.

He observed Zhu Shoucheng to be an extremely patient person.

It is not surprising that he did not detect Zhu Shoucheng’s malice when he was a child. During the first three days of tuition, Zhu Shoucheng showed no attempt to overstep the bounds of his authority, not even Chi Xiaochi, who was already wary of him, could find fault with him.

He could only wait.

Like Chi Xiaochi, Zhu Shoucheng is also waiting.

Zhu Shoucheng is an experienced hunter, and Chi Xiaochi is one of the rare good hunters in his career.

If I could make Chi Xiaochi fall in love with him too ……

If ……

After helping Chi Xiaochi with his geometry problem, Zhu Shoucheng returned to his computer and continued to write on his “lesson plan”: “Chi Xiaochi, lacking fatherly and maternal love, should be cared for emotionally.

At the end of the day, he added today’s new edit to a folder called “Chi Xiaochi”.

Every student he loves will have this exclusive Wen folder on his computer.

The next day, after Chi Xiaochi came to his home, he held down his workbook, which he was about to open, and, as if he was afraid Chi Xiaochi’s parents would hear him, he shushed him and said gently, “We’re not going to study today, so let’s go fishing with the teacher.”

As he expected, Chi Xiaochi blinked in surprise and astonishment, “Fishing?”

Zhu Shoucheng knows that few children of Chi Xiaochi’s age really enjoy studying, preferring to spend a day wandering around aimlessly rather than spending an hour with an exercise book.

Having spent a lot of time with children, Zhu Shoucheng’s adult personality is mixed with a childishness that is incompatible with his age, which makes it easy for him to give children the illusion that “he is in my country” and makes them feel quite close to him.

He smiled and said, “Yes. The teacher wants to be lazy today, I don’t want to go to class, can you stay with the teacher?”

To quickly get closer to your child, it is simple to play with him, please him and then share the same secret with him.

Zhu Shoucheng took Chi Xiaochi to one of his regular fishing ponds.

The owner of the fish pond recognised him and when he saw him carrying his fishing rod, he greeted him warmly, “Mr Zhu, you’ve brought your students here to fish again.”

Zhu Shoucheng nods his head in greeting to the owner.

And that really got Chi Xiaochi curious.

Zhu Shoucheng looks down and explains with a smile, “Teacher likes to fish.”

He has researched and compared and fishing is a great activity to bring students to.

Boys of this age rarely fish, they just hear the name as something new and don’t usually take the initiative to try it, so they tend to sit around for a while and get restless.

At such times, it is Zhu Shoucheng’s time to step up to the plate.

He is a very good fisherman, he has a hand-made bait and he knows the habits of the fish in this river, so if he changes the bait secretly, a fish will be hooked within five minutes.

At Chi Xiaochi’s age, children of both sexes are more or less likely to admire people who “do things they can’t do easily”.

About half an hour later, Zhu Shoucheng took Chi Xiaochi’s rod and fished for him, just as planned, while he spread his legs on a small stool and slapped mosquitoes.

The waterfront is always full of mosquitoes, and without Zhu Shoucheng’s warning, Chi Xiaochi had nothing with her, so Zhu Shoucheng lent Chi Xiaochi the flower lotion she had prepared.

Zhu Shoucheng swallowed gently as he watched the pale green liquid smear across his naked arms and legs, properly restraining the gluttony in his eyes.

”Xiaochi, your legs are so white and straight.” Zhu Shoucheng’s compliment, which was not laced with any carnal desire, was like a genuine compliment, “You should go play basketball.”

Chi Xiaochi looked down and smoothed his calves, the long, soft muscles curved beautifully under his palms: “I’m a good basketball player.”

Zhu Shoucheng said, “Really? Let’s have a sparring session some day?”

Chi Xiaochi was surprised: “The teacher can play basketball?”

At this point, Zhu Shoucheng’s rod was bent by a fat, stupid fish.

He flung the fish out of the water and dropped it to the ground.

Zhu Shoucheng was satisfied when he saw Chi Xiaochi’s eyes light up instantly.

He picks up the fish and removes the hook from its mouth, his eyes glowing with the same strange shimmer as the fish.

In the evening, he came home, fell into bed with his clothes on, pulled up his collar and was covered in the garlic aroma of roasted fish.

But Zhu Shoucheng doesn’t want to take a bath.

He recalls the way the teenager chewed the fish in the light and the feel of the fish as he peeled off the skin and separated the smooth flesh with his chopsticks.

He was a million times glad that he had not given up on this prey before.

Zhu Shoucheng thought that he had been loved once again.

When he was in the right mood, his son called to report the news.

He said he had received strong praise from his superiors for his plans to work in the US and, without incident, was due to leave for the US in about a week for his initial work.

The son expressed his strong reluctance over the phone, saying that the only thing he could not feel at ease with was his elderly father and asked him if he wanted to go abroad with him.

Zhu Shoucheng, guarding his garden, was in springtime and full of sweet love, how could he agree to such a proposal, and gently refused, “Yes, as we had agreed before, I will go to you as soon as I retire, and bring the child to you for Meizi in America then, ah.”

The son on the other side of the phone got a little choked up and said that Plum would pack his bags for him and that he wanted to get home to his father for two days while he was still in the country.

This has certainly disrupted Zhu Shoucheng’s strategy.

But he knows how to manage his image quite well, so after putting the phone down, he made a personal trip to the Chi Family and took a two-day leave of absence from Chi Xiaochi’s parents.

For the next two days, all he could do was peek through the door and watch Xiaochi pass outside, listening to the sound of him descending the stairs two steps at a time and the sound of video game music coming from the room diagonally across the hall, and imagining the sweetness on Chi Xiaochi’s face as he did it all.

Zhu Shoucheng was a very affectionate man, and when he made up his mind to fall in love with each of his students, he immersed himself in it with all his heart and soul, and as a result, he was able to acquire a new youth each time.

After his son reluctantly said goodbye to him, Chi Xiaochi once again began his daily tuition.

In order to dilute his boredom with his studies that might arise after playing to his heart’s content, and to prevent him from transferring this boredom to himself, Zhu Shoucheng did not rush to instruct him in his homework, but instead made small talk during tutorial time, asking him with concern, “Xiaochi, you have a little rash on your body.”

Chi Xiaochi lifted her arms, “Yeah. I’m very prone to rashes when I change seasons.”

”We have an old building here, it’s already humid, and when it gets hot again, it’s easy to get a rash.” Zhu Shoucheng took out a special ointment for dermatitis and said, seemingly unintentionally, “It’s an old problem, didn’t your parents think to prepare some medicine for you?”

Chi Xiaochi bristled, “They don’t care about such things. They’ll just think I’ve been bitten by a mosquito.”

Zhu Shoucheng shook his head and said, “It’s not like that.”

Zhu Shoucheng’s notes clearly state that there are a few simple tricks to gaining the empathy of young boys, scolding teachers, scolding parents and talking about girls.

A hundred tries.

This time the result did not disappoint him either.

Zhu Shoucheng easily pried open Chi Xiaochi’s conversation, and together they talked about Chi Family’s parents until dusk, when Chi Xiaochi became more and more angry and didn’t even want to go home.

At Zhu Shoucheng’s words, a small fire rises in his heart, roasting his throat with a burning thirst.

But he stayed true to the steps of his pre-written lesson plan and gently said, “Home is still where you go, but if you want, the teacher’s door is always open to you.

It all works out so well that Zhu Shoucheng finds it a bit tedious.

This hunt was simply not challenging for the veteran hunter.

It’s a good thing that the prey is tempting enough to cut down considerably on the uninteresting nature of the chase.

For almost half a month, Zhu Shoucheng has been carefully caring for this beautiful fruit, ripening it little by little.

Summer is a great time for harvesting.

One noon, when the electric switch clicked off, when he tossed and turned in bed drenched in sweat and found himself missing Chi Xiaochi more than he could bear, Zhu Shoucheng knew that it was time.

Zhu Shoucheng got out of bed in his slippers and did a thorough job of checking everything, checking the fridge and stocking the bedside table with sweets.

Each child, after being harvested, is given a candy.

As Zhu Shoucheng spreads the sheet a little, he touches a thin brownish stain and remembers that the sheet seems to have been used by the last child to lie here.

The blood on the top can’t be washed away.

Zhu Shoucheng still vaguely remembers the bewildered look in the boy’s eyes as he lay on his back after the deed was done.

He asked in a small voice, “Teacher, did I do something wrong?”

Zhu Shoucheng told him that it was love, and then took his picture.

…… is meticulous in every way.

Zhu Shoucheng, as a skilled worker, knows only too well the intensity of a boy’s shame.

They will not speak out about the hurt they have suffered because the world talks about sex every day.

If a weak girl who is hurt can rely on the “natural physical vulnerability of women” to add a layer of hopeless pathos, a boy does not deserve even that, and even more than the hurt, he is despised for his masculinity.

”Can’t you just run?”.

”Can’t even fight?”

”Then you’re really wasted, you can’t even fight.”

Boys who are hurt at an early age are often a hundred times more ashamed than girls to talk about it, even anonymously on the Internet, preferring to keep it inside themselves, rotting away with their hearts, spleens, lungs and kidneys, rather than show it to others.

The photos and videos left by Zhu Shoucheng cut off the last vestiges of their courage to retaliate.

Unless Zhu Shoucheng is killed, there is no guarantee that what they left behind in their ignorance will not get out, will not ruin the family they already have, will ruin their reputation, and will reduce them to a bit of gossip and a laughing stock for the rest of the world to enjoy after dinner.

Their lives had already gone from wounded roots, were they going to choke off the flowers they had so easily produced in the ruins because of this man.

In the end, all that was left was a seemingly breezy, but in fact fraught, “forget it”.

Zhu Shoucheng did not change this sheet.

He walked up to Chi Xiaochi’s house and knocked on the door.

”Did you take a nap? The power’s out here, it’s weirdly hot, I’ve got green bean lollies at home, you coming.”

Inside the sleepy child followed unsuspectingly as usual, carrying his school bag.

Zhu Shoucheng gazes in fascination at the child eating a green bean ice lolly across the room and gently wipes the corner of his lips with a piece of paper.

Chi Xiaochi ducked at first, but soon tamed down, “Thank you, teacher.”

A beautiful child is most tempting no matter what she says.

And a beautiful, tame child is, in Zhu Shoucheng’s opinion, the jewel of the world.

Zhu Shoucheng speaks softly and wildly of love, tenderly, complimentingly, with the poetry and passion of a loose Wen poem.

It went beyond belief and Chi Xiaochi, as clueless as any child he had ever seen, laid down on the bloodied sheet at his command.

Zhu Shoucheng was about to overturn his body and press his fruit, ready to harvest it, when he suddenly froze.

”…… teacher.”

Chi Xiaochi’s voice sounded a little shaky, but Zhu Shoucheng had no time to tell whether it was fear or excitement.

”Why aren’t you moving?”

Cold sweat beaded down Zhu Shoucheng’s back.

…… He doesn’t know when the paper cutter was held in Chi Xiaochi’s hand.

And now the tip of the knife, glistening with snow, was resting between his legs.