Chapter 59: The Nerve-wracking Experience of Playing Pretend
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After showering and lying on his own bed, Zhao Yu felt dizzy from all the things going through his head. In order to account for his behavior at the parent conference, Jiang Xiaoqing had faked a doctor’s diagnosis! It said that her father, Jiang Dafeng, had major split personality disorder, and would sometimes pretend that he was a police officer, and thus had acted out of line at the parent meeting!
Holy sh*t! To think she could have thought up something so insane and unreasonable, it was hard to tell if she was a genius or insane? The diagnostic paper she had faked looked perfect. Even the stamp on the back was realistic. Zhao Yu really had no idea how she managed to get something like that. But the more exceptional Jiang Xiaoqing was, the more Zhao Yu felt nervous. Whenever he saw her, it was like seeing Li Dan’s shadow! If Jiang Xiaoqing followed in Li Dan’s footsteps, and only used her talent for crime, the result could be disastrous!
At first, Zhao Yu had not really believed Jiang Xiaoqing’s story about her mother bein sick, thinking she was just a troubled child who used the money she stole from people's’ accounts to play games. But after some digging, he realized that Jiang Xiaoqing’s mother actually did have uremia, and that every month there was a huge medical fee. Jiang Dafeng did not make nearly enough money from selling fruits, thus their household had quite a few debts. Jiang Xiaoqing stealing from accounts was truly to help her family.
Lying in bed, Zhao Yu continued to ponder Jiang Xioqing’s situation. How should he deal with this properly? On one hand, he did not want Jiang Xiaoqing to continue account theft. If that gets out, the kid’s entire life could be ruined! But on the other hand, the child’s desire to help her family was also respectable. To make her stop so suddenly could hurt the entire family! He sighed in despair.
"Holy sh*t!" Zhao Yu slapped his head hard. He did not understand how he, who used to kill people without even batting an eye, had become so worried and emotional over one little girl.
At that moment, the Miracle System in his head suddenly started up. The system notified him that he had finished his adventure for the day. The completion rate was 87%, and he had earned another award. The reward was even stranger. It was an invisible telescope, able to see anything within five kilometers without assistance, it lasted ten minutes.
Zhao Yu sighed softly. The reward the system had given him was another classic specialty product. "Does it want me to keep being a detective?" Zhao Yu wondered.
Zhao Yu had wanted to sleep, but when he looked at the watch, he realized it was almost one in the morning! "It’s already this late?!" Zhao Yu thought in disbelief. The system had ended so late that it was already a new day! Zhao Yu lit a cigarette without hesitation, and accompanying the violent coughing, started a new adventure quest.
"Xun Dui hexagram, wind and marsh. Wind is fluid but water is static. Logic is weak, but there will be gains in both riches and relationships." Hearing such difficult and hard to digest hexagram explanations, Zhao Yu could not be bothered to remember it, and simply closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The next morning at 8:30, Jiang Dafeng got the raffle message right on time. As predicted by his daughter, the fat man first excitedly hopped around for a bit, then told Jiang Xiaoqing to take care of the shop, and left on his moped!
Zhao Yu watched with amazement. Did the fatty have some kind of brain problem? What kind of hospital does raffles? That level of intelligence was pitiable.
After Jiang Dafeng left, Jiang Xiaoqing quickly called Zhao Yu downstairs to pretend to be her father at the fruit stand. It was the weekend, so Zhao Yu was resting and Jiang Xiaoqing did not need to go to school. So the two sat by the fruit stand, nervously waiting for Mr. Wang’s visit.
For some reason, Zhao Yu was still a bit nervous, and started reciting the planned speech. Since they had not managed to talk on the phone before, they did noy know when Mr. Wang was coming, but that had not stopped Jiang Xiaoqing one bit. She had already installed a tracking software on Mr. Wang’s phone, so they had known his location for awhile. Just as Jiang Dafeng left, Mr. Wang had already arrived at Shun Feng Street.
"Oh? Mr. Wang? How come you are here?" Jiang Xiaoqing feigned surprise when she saw her homeroom teacher.
Mr. Wang stood in front of the fruit stand and first glanced at Zhao Yu, then muttering, "I couldn’t call your father on the phone, and was worried, so…"
Before Mr. Wang could even finish, Zhao Yu stood up from his seat in one swift motion and rushed in front of Mr. Wang and enthusiastically shook his hand, "Ah, so it’s Mr. Wang! Hello, hello, hello to you!"
Mr. Wang’s hand was in pain from Zhao Yu’s forceful handshake. His expression was rather awkward, and he was still somewhat traumatized from the incident at the parent conference.
"He…hello!" Mr. Wang pulled his hand away with difficulty, and spoke as he scrutinized Zhao Yu, "It’s hard to tell, you’re so young, but your daughter’s already so big…"
"Hehe, sometimes, I don’t even believe it, hehehe..." Zhao Yu was all smiles. Jiang Xiaoqing slapped her head in frustration.
Zhao Yu also realized his mistake, and hurriedly picked up a banana, "Here, Mr. Wang, do you want some fruit?"
"I’m fine, I’m fine!" Mr. Wang waved his hand. "Hm…actually, I’m here to talk about your child!"
"Child?" Zhao Yu glared at Jiang Xiaoqing, "What’s wrong? Did our Xiaoqing cause some sort of trouble again? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her later!"
Jiang Xiaoqing slapped her head again, and could not even raise her head out of shame.
"Ah? How could you? How could you hit your child?" Mr. Wang glared at him, his eyes wide, "You see, Xiaoqing is our school’s star student, you have to protect her! It’s almost time for the High School Entrance Exam, as a parent, you have to take good care of your child!" He continued, "The reason I am here is mainly to assess your family’s situation. See, if there is some difficulty, if…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Huge difficulty! So, so, so much difficulty!" Zhao Yu was a pretty good actor, not even letting Mr. Wang finish his question, he had already started wailing, "Ah! My wife! She has uremia, every day it’s examination after examination! We bleed money every day...ahh….our life…ahh…"
Jiang Xiaoqing nearly buried her head into the ground, and pulled at her own hair in frustration.
"Mr. Jiang, don’t be too emotional…ah? Snot! Be careful of your snot!" Mr. Wang watched as Zhao Yu rushed at him with snot and tears all over his face, and retreated quickly.
Suddenly a moped pulled up, stopping in front of the fruit stand. A middle-aged woman wearing a sunhat appeared. She waved at Jiang Xiaoqing as she spoke,"Xiaoqing, hurry and give me two watermelons. As long as they’re the same size it’s fine!" As she finished, she turned towards Mr. Wang and Zhao Yu who were currently scuffling. She raised her sunhat, and her expression turned curious.
Jiang Xiaoqing’s heart skipped a bit. She paused a bit before she could answer, "Oh…Mrs. Ma, I’ll get it for you now! Wait!" As she spoke, Jiang Xiaoqing hurriedly went to grab her watermelon.
Mrs. Ma was one of the regulars at the shop, and was very familiar with Jiang Xiaoqing’s family. Jiang Xiaoqing prayed non-stop, "This is such a bad timing, please don’t reveal anything!"
"Xiaoqing," Mrs. Ma was unfortunately quite nosy and asked, "What are they doing? Where’s your dad?"
Even though Mrs. Ma’s voice was not loud, everyone had heard her loud and clear. Mr. Wang’s brows knitted, and he quickly turned a suspicious eye towards Zhao Yu.
Zhao Yu looked at Mr. Wang, then at Jiang Xiaoqing. Jiang Xiaoqing also glanced at Mr. Wang, then at Mrs. Ma. In an instant, the atmosphere in the fruit stand thickened, as if the air itself had frozen.