Sweetheart, It's Time To Pay Your Debt - Chapter 6

The suffocating pressure from a moment ago felt like nothing more than Bo Liye’s hallucination. By the time she looked up, Qin Mingyan had completely released her grip. The black choker tightly bound the snowy-white flesh of her neck with every breath, it seemed as if she were under Bo Liye’s control.

Qin Mingyan’s jaw was set tight. If one looked closely, faint bloodshot streaks could be seen in the depths of her eyes.

Perhaps… did I tease her a bit too much?

Bo Liye didn’t know how to apologize. She tossed the key in her hand into the trash can, turned around, and sat back down. “I was lying to you. There’s no such thing as a locked necklace. The clasp is at the back of your neck, just undo it yourself.”

Ignoring Qin Mingyan’s reaction, she turned to rummage through her backpack for her homework.

Qin Mingyan’s attention remained fixed on Bo Liye. Seeing her pull out a physics paper, she followed suit and took out the same assignment.

During the period after they took out their pens and began working, Bo Liye’s mood was complicated. This was because Qin Mingyan had not unfastened the choker. The rows of diamonds were still pressed against the center of her throat, as light fell upon them, they sparkled like silver powder dusted over her skin. Bo Liye found she couldn’t look away whenever she raised her head.

Bo Liye swallowed slowly and asked, “Aren’t you going to take the necklace off?”

Qin Mingyan seemed entirely unselfconscious. Her well-defined fingers toyed with the choker as she spoke in a flat tone, “If I take it off, you’ll just find something else to do. It’s better to keep it on.”

Bo Liye’s blood rushed even faster. She desperately wanted to tell Qin Mingyan what a choker signified in certain contexts.

“Suit yourself.”

In just those few moments, Qin Mingyan had fully entered her study state. She suggested to Bo Liye, “Should we time ourselves for the paper? Efficiency will be higher that way.”

Bo Liye paused for two seconds before saying, “Okay.”

After entering the third year of high school, the workload assigned by various teachers had suddenly become heavy. Even though more than half the students at Haichuan followed a curriculum geared toward studying abroad, they couldn’t escape the endless stream of mock exams.

Qin Mingyan set a timer for seventy-five minutes. Bo Liye didn’t enter the “answering zone” quite as quickly. It wasn’t until she heard the rustle of a pen against paper from across the desk that she focused her attention and looked at the first question.

Outside, the sun gradually climbed higher, its golden brilliance pouring through the window and slowly filling the study. Mid-way through, Auntie Wang entered quietly to clear the breakfast dishes and bring in fresh fruit platters.

Among her elective subjects, Bo Liye’s physics grades were the most lackluster. When it came time to choose subjects, Bo Jingxian had wanted her to pick more liberal arts courses, hoping she would follow the same career path.

Back then, Bo Liye’s rebellious streak had flared up. Even though she could recite every one of Bo Jingxian’s speeches fluently, she was determined not to go into politics. Thus, she deliberately chose the three “pure science” subjects just to spite her mother.

She had been on edge for a week, knowing that with her mother’s influence, it would be easy to change her electives.

But Bo Jingxian didn’t. Like the cold politicians on television, she simply made a single phone call, telling Bo Liye to think clearly about what she wanted to do in the future.

Studying subjects she wasn’t good at felt like a farce performed for an audience of one.

When an hour had passed, Qin Mingyan was the first to stop writing.

Hearing the sound, Bo Liye slowly dragged the paper toward her, attempting to hide her progress.

Fortunately, Qin Mingyan didn’t mock her or say anything. She merely glanced in Bo Liye’s direction before looking back at her own paper to derive formulas on scratch paper.

The time Bo Liye spent reading questions grew shorter, and her writing speed increased.

When the seventy-five minutes alarm finally went off, Qin Mingyan reached for her phone to silence it and held out her hand toward Bo Liye.

Bo Liye asked knowingly, “What?”

Qin Mingyan replied, “Give me the paper.”

“And you’re so sure you’re right?”

Qin Mingyan turned and pulled out another booklet. Upon opening it, four large characters were printed at the top: Answer Key & Analysis.

Stealing answer keys wasn’t uncommon, but it felt different coming from Qin Mingyan. Bo Liye lowered her voice, revealing a rare bit of youthful vivacity in front of her: “Did you steal that from the office?”

Qin Mingyan said, “The physics teacher gave it to me. She let me pick problems to work on.”

Bo Liye didn’t believe her. “How is that possible? If you don’t turn in your homework, wouldn’t she make you stand in the hallway as punishment?”

Qin Mingyan took Bo Liye’s finished paper and lowered her head to check the answers. “Competition prep.”

Bo Liye’s physics was mediocre, so she had never participated in physics competitions. Now that Qin Mingyan mentioned it, she seemed vaguely to remember such a thing.

Bo Liye looked at Qin Mingyan, her thoughts drifting. “Did you ever win an award for Chemistry?”

Qin Mingyan nodded slightly, her calm face showing no pride over the competition. “The ranking wasn’t very high.”

There weren’t many questions on the physics paper. By the time they finished those few sentences, Qin Mingyan had already circled Bo Liye’s mistakes with a pencil.

One multiple-choice question, the last part of a major problem, and a total wipeout on the final long-form question. Her score barely scraped past eighty.

Bo Liye grabbed the answer key first, refusing to believe her luck, and checked the final question. She hadn’t even gotten the first sub-step right.

“Is this answer key even right?”

Qin Mingyan handed the paper back. “These are Independent Enrollment trial questions. They won’t be this hard on the Gaokao, but the problem solving logic is interconnected. You should try it again.”

Beside the paper was a sheet of scratch paper listing a simplified logic for the solution. The elegant handwriting was just like Qin Mingyan herself, beautiful but not weak, with very forceful strokes.

“After adding the influence of the electromagnetic field, the resistance of the aircraft hitting the pole must consider multiple…”

The clock on the wall ticked by slowly, one mark after another. Qin Mingyan’s explanation was incredibly detailed, finer even than the famous tutors Bo Jingxian had hired for Bo Liye in the past. Every emphasized knowledge point was exactly something Bo Liye hadn’t mastered.

If Bo Liye hadn’t requested this “tutor” herself, she would have suspected Qin Mingyan was doing this for the money and had memorized all her academic habits beforehand.

But it was likely just a coincidence.

After all, from childhood to now, no one had ever truly cared about her. Not her parents who were busy with work, not the friends who approached her for her family background, and certainly not Qin Mingyan, who had been bought with her money.

The small spark of sympathy and closeness that had just risen in her heart vanished in an instant. Bo Liye pointed to a wrong multiple choice question and said to Qin Mingyan, “Here, this one too.”

Qin Mingyan’s mother had a weakened immune system, so even when she was hospitalized, there were specific visiting hours. After Qin Mingyan left for the hospital in the afternoon, Bo Liye received a WeChat message from her father. He told her he was going to the Asia Pacific business district for an unscheduled meeting this week and wouldn’t be back until next week.

Bo Liye had guessed this would be the result from last night’s video call, but she still asked: [Is Mom coming back?]

Bo Cheng: [Ask her yourself.]

Bo Liye didn’t ask, she didn’t want to invite annoyance.

Her father, Bo Cheng, was originally named Li Cheng. He had caught her mother’s eye during their school days and married into the Bo family. After her mother entered politics, he took over the Bo family’s companies.

Both of them grew busier and busier. Especially after her mother was transferred to Yancheng, her visits home became fewer. She was either in meetings or “serving the people.” As for Bo Liye, she was not within the scope of people being served.

As usual, Bo Liye shut herself in the study for the entire afternoon. Her efficiency was much higher than in the morning. By the time she finished the papers for her other subjects, it was already 7:00 PM.

Bo Liye sent a WeChat message to Qin Mingyan, asking if she was coming over tonight and if she should send a driver to pick her up.

When Qin Mingyan saw the message, she was in the locker room at Feishi. She looked at the uniform she was wearing and pursed her lips while typing: [I have something to do tonight. I will go there myself at 7:00 AM tomorrow.]

Bo Liye seemed very dissatisfied with the reply, firing off several messages in a row like a bombardment: [Are you still at the hospital? You didn’t forget to take the necklace off, did you?]

[Wait, that’s not right. Hospital visiting hours aren’t that long. Where did you go?]

[You have to give me twenty hours of tutoring a week. If you don’t reach the quota, you’ll see what happens!]

Looking at the phone screen, Qin Mingyan could imagine Bo Liye’s exasperated expression. A faint, shallow smile appeared on her usually cold face.

It wasn’t until the sound of footsteps approached that she put away her phone and picked up her changed clothes to fold them neatly. As she opened her locker, she saw another part time worker walk in.

Xiang Dandan, like Qin Mingyan, had transferred from No. 1 Middle School to Haichuan. She still addressed Qin Mingyan by her title from their old school. She approached hesitantly before speaking: “Le… Learn-Sec (Learning Secretary).”

“Is something wrong?”

Xiang Dandan glanced outside the locker room and lowered her voice: “You didn’t go up to receive your award on Friday. Was it because Bo Liye threatened you? I saw you get into her family’s car in the parking lot. She didn’t… do anything to you, did she?”

Qin Mingyan put the folded clothes into the locker. The T-shirt on top was the one Bo Liye had given her, having hung in Bo Liye’s closet for so long, it carried the same faint fragrance as Bo Liye.

At the mention of the “parking lot,” her expression turned cold. “You saw?”

Xiang Dandan thought she had guessed correctly and that Qin Mingyan was being bullied. She immediately stepped closer. “Oh, when I transferred here, I heard many things about her. She’s just acting out because her family has a bit of money. Last time, so many people scolded me because of her. Don’t take it to heart, just endure it and it’ll pass.”

Qin Mingyan frowned slightly. She was still facing the locker, her uncurled long hair hiding her expression from Xiang Dandan, but the air around her suddenly turned frigid.

“So, you think that when our monthly exam answers were identical last semester, Bo Liye shouldn’t have let the matter drop? You think she should have made the teachers go through the trouble of checking the surveillance footage to prove your innocence?”

“I…” Xiang Dandan was embarrassed. She stammered for a long time before saying, “Even if my grades are good, the teachers will always protect her. No one would believe me. She must be a repeat offender.”

“You know best who the ‘repeat offender’ is.” Qin Mingyan locked her locker. As she brushed past Xiang Dandan, she said, “Haichuan’s surveillance records are kept on file. You’d better stay far away from her for the next year.”

The words “I didn’t” couldn’t make it out of Xiang Dandan’s mouth. Her face turned shades of red and blue. As Qin Mingyan went to the large mirror to tie her hair into the uniform style, Xiang Dandan seemed to make a decision and chased after her. “A big client came to Private Room A888 tonight. The manager said for you to head over and help once you’ve changed.”

Qin Mingyan nodded, not sparing Xiang Dandan a single glance. She quickly straightened her clothes and went to the wine storage to help.

The consumption in private rooms was high, meaning she would get a corresponding commission. In the past, Qin Mingyan would have been happy to go to a high-end room. But now that the Bo family was paying her a sufficient salary, she had already told the manager upon arriving today that she wouldn’t be coming back. Rather than putting on a fake smile here, she felt more at ease being scolded by Bo Liye.

A888 was indeed a “big client.” The first batch of drinks alone exceeded 200,000 yuan. Qin Mingyan followed behind the other servers, carrying a fruit platter into the room.

The deafening roar of the speakers hit her, making her heart pulse in sync with the beat. Seven or eight girls sat on the sofas, while a row of exquisitely dressed men and women stood on the outer edge of the coffee table. When Qin Mingyan’s eyes met Xia Yiwen’s, the latter was pointing at the people in the front row. Amidst the shifting lights and shadows, Xia Yiwen’s finger turned and pointed directly at her, eyes full of excitement.

“My eyes aren’t playing tricks on me, right? Look who I found!”