It was one of the few times Jian Li could remember sharing a table with Qi Xiaoyan. The man sat quietly at the head of the table, reading documents on his Kindle. The food in front of him hadn’t been touched, as if he’d been waiting for Jian Li.
Nanny Zhang helped Jian Li into his seat. He turned to Qi Xiaoyan and said apologetically, “Sorry I kept you waiting. I came down late.”
It was an ordinary thing to say, but the butler standing nearby was startled. The young master must have hit his head pretty hard. Ever since, he’d been doing all kinds of strange things…
Even Qi Xiaoyan, who was usually so cold, couldn’t help looking at him twice. At last, the corner of his mouth twitched. “Maybe you should go back to the hospital tomorrow for a follow-up. Have the doctor check whether your brain’s still not right.”
Jian Li: “…”
Did he really look like some kind of lunatic whose brain hadn’t healed?
Nanny Zhang was the first to laugh. “You’re not home much, so you might not know, sir, but the young master’s been very well-behaved lately. He’s polite, too, and he’s stopped seeing those drinking buddies of his. I don’t think it has anything to do with his brain.”
Qi Xiaoyan looked at Jian Li, unconvinced. “Really?”
Jian Li’s cheeks puffed up as he lowered his head, refusing to look at anyone. Just how awful had the old him been in Qi Xiaoyan’s eyes? The kind of person who couldn’t even talk properly?
At a loss for words, he bent over his food and decided not to speak. His image was already in tatters, so there was no point trying to explain himself.
This was Jian Li’s first dinner at home. Nanny Zhang had put a lot of thought into it, preparing all the kinds of meat the original Jian Li had liked. She’d laid out everything from land, sea, and air, every bird and beast she could get her hands on.
None of it suited his taste, though. The only dish he finished was the stir-fried lettuce stem at the far end of the table.
Jian Li had always preferred mild flavors, and even more so since his hospital stay.
Seeing him fixated on a plate of greens, Qi Xiaoyan did something rarely seen and put a piece of braised pork rib in his bowl. “Nanny Zhang made that especially for you. Don’t waste her effort.”
“Thank you,” he said, gazing at the food in his bowl. In his memory, the man had never done anything like this.
Nanny Zhang was delighted. She tugged the butler away, leaving them alone.
Jian Li had more or less finished eating, but since the man hadn’t left, he kept picking at his food. Only when Qi Xiaoyan finally set down his chopsticks did Jian Li let out a breath of relief.
“You won’t be going back to your old school. I’ve arranged your transfer. The new term starts the day after tomorrow. I’ve told the butler what you’ll need to prepare. If anything’s missing, call me.”
Jian Li nodded and set down his chopsticks too. “Uncle Butler already told me. But there’s something I think I should talk to you about.”
Qi Xiaoyan rarely spoke to him so seriously and calmly. “Go ahead.”
“I’d like to apply to board at school,” Jian Li said. He’d been thinking about it since before he left the hospital. To avoid any unnecessary complications, he thought it would be best to see Qi Xiaoyan as little as possible.
Besides, now that he was an adult, he didn’t think he should keep living at the Qi villa.
The old Jian Li had been thoughtless, never considering the consequences of anything he did. But he wouldn’t be like that anymore. There had to be a limit to how stupid he could be. Even if Qi Xiaoyan still felt guilty toward him, surely he’d made up for it by now.
He had to learn to stand on his own two feet, and try to leave a halfway decent impression before he got kicked out.
Qi Xiaoyan frowned. It was obvious he didn’t agree.
“If this is so you can sneak out and fool around more easily, you can forget it. Your cards will stay frozen for the time being,” the man reminded him.
Jian Li’s face flushed as if he’d just been slapped. He’d always been thin-skinned, and in front of Qi Xiaoyan, he felt like a joke.
“That’s not why,” he muttered in protest, though it didn’t sound very convincing.
Qi Xiaoyan leaned back, relaxed and languid. He seemed intrigued by Jian Li’s reaction. “Then why?”
Jian Li suddenly lost his nerve. He didn’t know what he could say to make the man believe him, so he fell silent.
Qi Xiaoyan raised an eyebrow and unconsciously tapped the table twice with one hand. “You don’t even have the courage to make your case? Jian Li, aren’t you usually pretty good at arguing with me?”
Jian Li knew Qi Xiaoyan was calling out to someone else through him, but the force of the man’s presence still made him instinctively curl inward.
“I…”
That was all it took for the other man’s patience to run out. When Jian Li failed to offer anything useful, Qi Xiaoyan abruptly stood up. “Come back and make your request when you’ve got the confidence to back it up. We’ll discuss boarding later.”
Jian Li felt embarrassed. He thought to himself that he’d wait until he had a little more confidence, then.
He sat at the table, dazed, for a long time before taking his crutches and limping upstairs. Never mind. He’d never been good at dealing with people. Rather than avoid one person only to have to deal with a whole dorm full of them, he might as well endure the discomfort and stay where he was.
After all he’d been through, he liked socializing less and less.
Over the next two days, Jian Li got used to the Qi manor. Being invisible suited him just fine.
He’d always been mild-tempered, and after everything he’d gone through in his previous life, even dying and coming back to life, he spoke less than ever. Aside from mealtimes, he could sit alone in the conservatory all day.
The butler and Qi Xiaoyan’s assistant had taken care of everything for school. Jian Li didn’t need to do much, just stay at school and behave.
On the first day of the new term, Qi Xiaoyan made another rare appearance at the breakfast table. Perhaps Jian Li had been so unlike his old self these past few days that Qi Xiaoyan wanted to confirm it for himself and give him a reminder of how things stood.
“You’ll be starting senior year at this school. What are you planning to do?” The man took a sip of coffee, then turned to ask him.
Jian Li was still half asleep, his eyes a little puffy. Without thinking, he blurted out, “What else? Study hard and make progress every day…” He’d slept badly the night before and was cranky from having to get up. Qi Xiaoyan’s imposing presence didn’t affect him as much, so he spoke casually.
Qi Xiaoyan choked on his coffee and coughed hard twice. “You…”
Even so, Jian Li didn’t seem to realize what he’d said. He handed over the napkin beside him. “Here…” he said, taking another bite of his sandwich.
The man accepted it without a word. To him, hearing Jian Li say he’d study hard was like seeing the sun rise in the west.
The boy had come to live with him when he was ten. His grades had been decent at first, but he gradually stopped caring. By the end of last term, Qi Xiaoyan remembered, he’d been near the bottom of his grade. He couldn’t recall exactly how far down, but it had been among the last five.
He wiped his mouth, set down the napkin, and looked steadily at the person across from him, who was sipping his milk with his eyes closed. “Are you serious?”
Jian Li drained his glass of milk, then looked at Qi Xiaoyan in confusion. “Hm? About what?”
The corner of the man’s mouth twitched. He’d known it. He shouldn’t have expected too much from this kid.
Seeing that Qi Xiaoyan had nothing more to say, Jian Li focused on his food. Senior year was senior year. He’d just have to do it all over again. He’d only managed to get into a mediocre university in his previous life, but this time around, he ought to make up for some of his regrets.
Not for anyone else, but for the life ahead of him. He had no parents and no one to rely on, so he’d have to work twice as hard as he had in his previous life.
To Jian Li’s surprise, Qi Xiaoyan hadn’t sent him to some kind of elite private school. City No. 3 High School was famous across the city as a devil’s boot camp. On average, over 93 percent of each class scored high enough to get into a first-tier university. On average! Almost every student who studied there went on to a bright future.
It was a terrifying statistic.
Jian Li frowned as he looked at the group of top students below the platform, wondering what Qi Xiaoyan’s motive had been in sending him here.
If it had really been the original Jian Li standing there, the place would probably have driven him crazy. Fortunately, it was him, Jian Li, reborn. This was practically a huge favor to him, though it would probably disappoint Qi Xiaoyan, too. If nothing unexpected happened, he’d adapt just fine.
For senior-year students, Jian Li’s arrival wasn’t all that interesting. Once he’d introduced himself, no one looked at him again. Everyone was focused on the exercises in front of them.
They put him in an inconspicuous little corner at the back of the classroom. That was that.
It seemed that apart from transferring him here, Qi Xiaoyan hadn’t arranged any special privileges for him, Jian Li thought to himself.
His deskmate seemed like a study fanatic. Thick lenses perched on his nose. Jian Li guessed they were at least 500 degrees.
“Hi, I’m Jian Li. I hope we get along,” he said.
His deskmate stared at him blankly, as if he’d just woken up, and shook his hand. “I’m Bao Yifan. Trust me, no one here needs anyone to look out for them.”
Jian Li didn’t understand. “Huh?” It sounded like an alien language to him.
Bao Yifan didn’t say anything else. He pulled the books he’d spread across Jian Li’s desk back to his own side, then gestured for him to get ready. It was time to start studying.
It turned out his deskmate had been right. By the end of the day, Jian Li hadn’t had any time to get to know anyone or even speak to them. One teacher after another came in to teach, and whenever a teacher left, the subject representative would hand out worksheets. One set was merciful, three was normal, five was understandable, and seven or eight was downright insane.
Jian Li collected worksheet after worksheet until he went numb. His spirit broke, and he was close to tears.
Everyone ate lunch in the cafeteria. Jian Li hadn’t received his student card yet, so he stayed at his desk, chewing on dry bread while working through worksheets.
The two math worksheets handed out that morning had to be finished before evening study hall. He was almost glad he didn’t have to go eat. Even if he sacrificed his short lunch break, he wouldn’t be able to finish them with his current brainpower.
He couldn’t do this problem, and couldn’t remember how to solve that one either. With a deep sigh, he tossed the half-eaten piece of bread aside. He had no appetite at all.
The road to university stretched on forever, disappearing into the distance.
Qi Xiaoyan, Qi Xiaoyan! Jian Li repeated the name to himself. Did the man even know what kind of place this was?
In Jian Li’s memory, the man had always been stern, capable, and distinguished, someone who stood above everyone else and could do anything. It was as if nothing in the world was beyond him. Jian Li suddenly wondered whether Qi Xiaoyan had been as down-to-earth as the students around him when he was in senior year.
At a time like this, no one seemed particularly special. Everyone started from the same place, in the same environment, then worked hard and went their separate ways. There was no such thing as a noble class.