“I’m sorry, Auntie. My Mom spoke carelessly without understanding the full situation. I apologize for causing you inconvenience.”
The boy’s attitude was sincere enough, though the way he tightly wrinkled the hem of his clothes still revealed his unwillingness.
The Lu Sheng standing before them possessed exactly the image and temperament of a typical male lead from a campus drama—good figure, handsome face, clean and refined.
But for some reason, Jiang Yao simply could not bring herself to like him.
Especially after learning that her precious son existed as Lu Sheng’s comparison foil.
It was as though they were naturally incompatible, destined to be opponents from birth.
“It doesn’t really inconvenience me. The one affected is Su Muzhe. If you want to apologize, you should apologize to Su Muzhe,” Jiang Yao said while crossing her arms and looking at the boy before her.
Tsk. His self-esteem was rather strong.
The figure stiffened slightly before slowly turning toward Su Muzhe several breaths later.
“I’m sorry.”
Su Muzhe lazily sneered.
This really was different from before. In the past, whenever Lu Sheng was mentioned, Jiang Yao practically wished she could swap the two boys entirely. Yet today, she was actually defending him.
Hearing the sneer, Lu Sheng’s eyes darkened again. He thought the mockery was directed at him.
Su Muzhe, however, did not care what Lu Sheng thought. There was only one question in his mind:
Was his Mom genuinely starting to treat him well now, or was she just pretending?
Ignoring the undercurrents between the two boys, Jiang Yao lowered her head and calmly smoothed out the final exam paper.
Suppressed snickering echoed throughout the classroom.
Ye Qing’s carefully maintained face flushed the color of pig liver. Just as she was about to explode, homeroom teacher Wang entered carrying teaching materials.
Halfway through the parent-teacher meeting, Jiang Yao’s fingertips suddenly paused deep inside the desk drawer.
Inside a notebook wrapped with a fake “Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulations” cover were densely packed drawings of intricate mechanical structures. Strange symbols were marked where the gears connected.
Those symbols were actually spirit-gathering arrays she had seen back in the cultivation world!
Why would they appear in Su Muzhe’s notebook?
Based on her observations over the past few months, Su Jingyang clearly carried secrets. But Su Muzhe was just an ordinary high school student—simple-minded to the extreme, without even a trace of spiritual energy on him.
Then how had he drawn these symbols?
The person who drew them had not used spiritual energy, so the arrays themselves were not functioning strongly, but faint traces could still be sensed.
She turned her head to look at Su Muzhe.
The boy was staring absentmindedly out the window. Sunlight illuminated the sharp contours of his side profile.
What secrets was this child hiding?
“Ever since the beginning of the semester, student Lu Sheng has maintained the best learning attitude in the class. This also cannot be separated from his parents’ companionship. Let us invite Lu Sheng’s mother, Ms. Ye Qing, to share some parenting experience.”
Ye Qing slowly rose from her seat and glanced around the room. Her gaze paused upon Jiang Yao before she smiled provocatively.
“Thank you, teacher, for giving me this opportunity. Then I’ll take this chance to discuss my parenting experience.”
As for what Ye Qing said afterward, Jiang Yao did not hear a single word.
Her mind remained focused on the symbols she had just seen in the notebook.
If this had really been drawn by that brat, he probably did not even know what the symbols actually were.
But if he had not drawn them, then who had?
“Thank you to Lu Sheng’s mother for the sharing. I hope every parent can learn from this experience,” Teacher Wang concluded.
Several other teachers also came up afterward to speak, but Jiang Yao found none of it interesting.
This school was a famous aristocratic academy in the city. Most students planned to study abroad, and the teachers all advocated a “happy education” philosophy. Academic performance was only briefly mentioned in passing and clearly was not taken seriously.
As for families who genuinely cared about grades, the teachers did not need to repeatedly emphasize it anyway. Those parents already pushed their children hard enough at home.
Jiang Yao personally felt grades were not all that important as long as actual ability was learned.
Even if her son failed to achieve anything remarkable in this life, he still had his father as a safety net.
Of course, she still hoped he would someday accomplish something great.
After the parent-teacher meeting ended—
“You said you cared about me, yet all the other parents crowded around the teachers asking about their kids. Why didn’t you go?” Su Muzhe crossed his arms and leaned lazily against the railing while looking at Jiang Yao.
The sunset dyed the sky behind him crimson. The boy stood amidst the glowing clouds, his bangs covering his brows and eyes. His sharp jawline carried a wild and unruly air, adding an extra layer of mystery.
Downstairs in the distance, several young girls secretly peeked in their direction.
At nearly 1.9 meters tall, Jiang Yao had to tilt her head upward just to clearly see his expression.
“Then should I go ask?” Jiang Yao smiled.
Seeing Jiang Yao make a move as though she truly intended to go inside, Su Muzhe quickly grabbed her.
“Forget it. Let’s not make things difficult for the teacher.”
The moment he imagined his Mom eagerly asking how he performed at school while the homeroom teacher desperately struggled to come up with compliments, goosebumps rose all over his body.
Better to spare the poor teacher.
Besides, even if she went, the teacher might not get a chance to say more than a sentence or two before those snobbish parents crowded around.
“They’d just spout flattering nonsense anyway. You’ve probably heard enough of that kind of talk at your rich ladies’ gatherings.”
“Right, I need to ask you something.” Jiang Yao returned to the classroom and took out the notebook filled with strange drawings. “What’s the deal with this?”
Su Muzhe lowered his eyes toward the bizarre symbols.
“I doodled them while reading a novel.”
“What novel?”
“…”
Su Muzhe paused before replying, “I forgot. I just drew them randomly and forgot afterward.”
Jiang Yao could tell he was not lying.
But the fact that he claimed to have forgotten was rather mysterious in itself.
No matter how many questions she had, this was not the right place to discuss them. She could only interrogate him thoroughly after they returned home.
“Are we eating at home or outside?”
Su Muzhe looked surprised that she had suddenly changed the topic.
Shouldn’t she be lecturing him about studying properly right now? He had worried for nothing.
As though seeing through his confusion, Jiang Yao smiled.
“If you’re interested in strange formations and hidden arts like these, you can study them too. I can teach you.”
“You’ll teach me?” Stop fooling children.
Jiang Yao did not explain and simply repeated her earlier question.
“Home or outside?”
“Either is fine.”
“Then let’s eat outside. I heard there’s a hotpot restaurant in Sangning Plaza that’s pretty good.”
“Either is fine.”
“Call your Dad and ask whether he’s coming.”
“He’s your husband. Why don’t you call him? I’m not doing it.”
“Whether you call or I call, it’s all the same. You call.”
“I won’t.”
“You sure? Aren’t you afraid a certain someone’s beloved game console might disappear?”
Su Muzhe really wanted to respond stubbornly, but after thinking about the game console he had been longing for forever, he ultimately compromised.
“You’re ruthless.”
Su Muzhe thought to himself: Was there even a need to call? As if his father would actually come.
Even though he thought that way, he still efficiently dialed his father’s number.
The phone rang for several seconds before a burst of noisy background sounds came through.
“Hello.”
A low voice sounded from the other end.
“The parent-teacher meeting is over. My Mom and I are going to Sangning Plaza for hotpot. Are you coming?”
The other side did not answer immediately. Instead, he covered the receiver and gave several instructions to someone nearby.
“I’ll come. Do you want me to pick you up?”
“Then Mom and I will wait for you at the school gate.”
After speaking, he hung up the call.
Although the outcome differed from what he had expected, for some reason, Su Muzhe had already begun quietly anticipating the upcoming dinner.
“Is your Dad coming?” Jiang Yao asked.
“Yeah. I told him to pick us up.” As he spoke, he took Jiang Yao’s handbag from her hands. “Let’s go wait for him at the school gate.”
After saying that, he walked ahead carrying the bag, looking cool and arrogant.
After several moments passed without footsteps behind him, Su Muzhe stopped and turned around.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Coming, coming.”
Jiang Yao quickly stepped forward and caught up with him in several strides.