The Fake Girlfriend is Online - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Tutoring Physics

“……”

A wave of silence filled the car. In the front, Gu Qing focused on driving, while beside him, Mu Jinyu openly scrutinized Qing Moran through the rearview mirror—the girl his sister had just dragged into the vehicle.

Qing Moran lowered her head, flexing her wrists. She could clearly feel the man in the passenger seat staring at her. She lifted her head slightly, quirked the corners of her mouth, and returned a polite smile.

“Deskie, that smile of yours is worse than not smiling at all,” Mu Jinxuan remarked.

She had finally witnessed it: the “top student” Qing Moran was light-years away from her supposed “good girl” persona.

In the less than one hour they had been apart, Qing Moran clearly hadn’t had a pleasant time. Her complexion was exceptionally poor, and it was a mystery what she had done or who she had fought after leaving the police station. Mu Jinxuan had specifically looked around earlier but hadn’t spotted Qing Moran’s father anywhere.

Upon hearing this, Qing Moran dropped the fake smile, no longer bothering with hypocritical pretenses.

“Where are you going now?” Mu Jinxuan spoke again. She didn’t ask what had happened; it was obvious that asking now wouldn’t yield any answers.

“Don’t know,” Qing Moran replied, turning to look out the window. She didn’t care where they were going; she just wanted to leave that place.

Before long, the car pulled up slowly in front of the West District Clinic. Gu Qing signaled everyone to get out.

The four of them entered the inner room. Gu Qing, being the last one in, reflexively hung the “No one here, do not disturb” sign on the door.

Gu Qing walked in and reclined on the lounge chair like a lord. Mu Jinyu sat in the single sofa beside him. Qing Moran hesitated for a moment, but seeing that no one greeted her yet no one rejected her, she followed suit and sat on another chair. That left Mu Jinxuan, who was last in line, standing in silence.

There were only three chairs in the clinic’s inner room, and they were all occupied. Just as she was about to sit on the edge of the bed, her brother’s voice rang out.

“Halt. Where do you think you’re going?” Mu Jinyu’s words instantly pinned Mu Jinxuan to the spot.

“Haha, I just wanted to sit down for a bit.”

“Sit? Stay standing. Unless you’d rather face the wall?” Ever since receiving the call from the police station, Mu Jinyu’s brow had been furrowed. He was harboring a deep frustration, though it was unclear exactly who he was angry at.

“Brother, I was wrong, okay? My classmate is right here,” Mu Jinxuan tried to persuade him, hoping he’d save her some face.

“Now you know you’re wrong? Why didn’t you know that before you went into the station?”

A few sharp words left Mu Jinxuan speechless, not daring to talk back.

Qing Moran noticed that the usually trash-talking School Bully Mu didn’t dare utter a single syllable in protest. She stole a glance at the man sitting cross-legged on the sofa.

It was late autumn, and Mu Jinyu seemed as sensitive to the cold as his sister. He was wearing a knit sweater and a long coat. The white sweater revealed a shirt collar, and his brown coat was quite long, reaching his knees even while seated. Walking behind him earlier, Qing Moran estimated he was about 180cm tall. What struck her most was his face—it was identical to her seatmate’s. Especially since her deskie currently had an ear-length bob, Mu Jinyu with his slight bangs looked exactly like her. They were carved from the same mold; anyone could tell their relationship at a glance.

Mu Jinxuan naturally noticed her seatmate’s eyes darting between her and her brother. She explained: “This is my brother, Mu Jinyu. He actually has a pretty good temper usually. Right, Brother Qing?”

Gu Qing ignored Mu Jinxuan’s pleading gaze. Over the past few days, he had been invited for “tea” by teachers and the police alike. If this were his own biological sister, he wouldn’t care about the details—he’d just give her a good thrashing first.

“I suppose my temper is just too good normally, isn’t it?” Mu Jinyu glanced at Qing Moran and softened his tone. He decided to give the girl some face in front of an outsider.

Just as Mu Jinxuan was about to speak, her seatmate’s stomach gave an embarrassed growl.

Gurgle~

Qing Moran’s face flushed instantly. In this atmosphere, the sound was particularly out of place.

Mu Jinxuan snorted a laugh, but after receiving a warning glare from her deskie, she quickly adjusted her expression. She said to Gu Qing: “Brother Qing, could you please grace us with your cooking for my cute seatmate here?”

Gu Qing lazily lifted an eyelid. “Don’t think you can change the subject.”

Despite his words, Gu Qing got up to head to the kitchen. Before leaving the room, he saw Mu Jinxuan creeping toward his lounge chair and barked a warning: “Mu Jinxuan, don’t even think about sitting in my chair. Stand right there.”

Caught, Mu Jinxuan rubbed her nose and retreated to her spot, enduring her brother’s scrutinizing gaze.

After giving his sister the standing order, Mu Jinyu turned to Qing Moran. “So you’re Little Qing?”

“Uh… my name is Qing Moran. ‘Qing’ as in Yan Zhenqing.” Judging by his tone, Gu Qing must have introduced her already.

“Then can I call you Xiao Mo? You can just call me Brother Yu.”

“Okay, Brother Yu,” Qing Moran replied quickly.

“Gu Qing mentioned that your grade director asked you to help tutor Jinxuan?”

Qing Moran could tell Mu Jinyu wanted to ask her for a favor.

Sure enough, before she could respond, Mu Jinyu spoke again: “As her brother, I’d also like to ask you to please help her with her studies. Feel free to make any requests you have. Jinxuan might be going through a rebellious phase; if she behaves badly toward you, just tell me and I’ll deal with her.”

During his few days at home, Mu Jinyu hadn’t been idle. He had hacked into the school’s academic system to check Mu Jinxuan’s grades since the start of the term and compared them to Qing Moran’s entrance scores. Comparing his sister’s disastrous grades with the top student sitting before him, he concluded that his sister definitely needed this scholar’s help.

“Brother!” Mu Jinxuan tried to refuse. Firstly, she had no interest in following Li Yulan’s wishes to study physics, and secondly, she sensed that her seatmate was also very resistant to the idea.

However, to her surprise, Qing Moran agreed first: “It’s fine. I’ll tutor her well.”

Qing Moran hadn’t expected herself to agree so readily. Although she hadn’t wanted to cooperate initially, she now felt no desire to refuse—consider it repayment for Mu Jinxuan’s rescue earlier that day.

What Qing Moran didn’t realize was that this casual promise, seemingly simple, would be fraught with difficulties in practice.

On Monday during the long break, Li Yulan gave the two of them special permission to stay in the classroom for tutoring while everyone else went to the field for exercises.

Qing Moran’s brows were knit tight. She watched Mu Jinxuan spinning a pen with her right hand while her left finger pointed at a physics problem, looking as if she were concentrating deeply.

“Student Mu, have you figured it out yet?”

“Huh? Oh! I’m thinking. What did you say just now… vertical upward throw, vertical upward throw…”

Qing Moran listened to her chanting “vertical upward throw” without any further progress. She kept telling herself to stay calm: “If a ball is thrown vertically upward, there is only one force acting on it in the air—gravity. The upward and downward paths are symmetrical. The distance during the descent can be calculated using the formula…”

“Ah! Like this?” Mu Jinxuan drew a motion diagram of the ball on her scratch paper.

Qing Moran looked at the clean handwriting. Admittedly, the School Bully’s handwriting was beautiful, and even her diagrams were pleasing to the eye. It would just be better if the mess of formulas she wrote next to them were actually accurate.

Qing Moran rested her forehead in her left hand and closed her eyes, feeling like the last ten minutes of explanation had been wasted. The formulas Mu Jinxuan wrote were technically correct, but they had absolutely nothing to do with the problem: “Student Mu, did you actually listen to anything?”

“Nope,” Mu Jinxuan answered righteously. Her right hand kept spinning the pen while she shot her deskie a smile.

Hearing this, Qing Moran blurted out, “Dammit!” She really wanted to go back one day in time and drag her past self out of the clinic before she could agree to the tutoring. If she could go back even further, she never would have agreed to sit next to her.

“Student Mu, I’ve realized that if you want to annoy someone to death, you’re a natural at it.” Qing Moran spoke while stepping her foot onto the edge of her seatmate’s chair. “I’m starting to suspect you’re just messing with me.”

Qing Moran reached out toward Mu Jinxuan. Mu Jinxuan watched the approaching palm without panic, sitting motionless while spinning her pen at high speed, the smile never leaving her face.

Seeing the Bully’s calm demeanor, the arm Qing Moran had aimed at her collar veered off and landed on the back of the chair. From a side view, it looked as if Qing Moran was “leg-donning” the Bully, her arm looking like it was about to pull her into an embrace.

“Student Mu, are you just incompetent? I’ve been explaining for ten minutes. Even an idiot would understand how this ball moves by now.” Qing Moran leaned her face closer, her tone pure threat.

The hand Mu Jinxuan used to spin the pen finally stopped. She slowly placed it on Qing Moran’s shoulder and whispered in her ear: “Xiao Qing, you took this job on yourself. Don’t blame me for not stopping you. You could have just promised my brother and then not actually done it.” After a pause, she continued: “Also, whether I am ‘competent’ or not isn’t for you to decide.”

Ignited by these provocative words, the already short-tempered Qing Moran exploded. She kicked the chair with her leg, stood up, and grabbed the Bully’s back collar, ready to throw a punch. Whether the Bully did it on purpose or not, she stumbled, but instead grabbed Qing Moran’s arm and suddenly sat down on the adjacent chair.

When they both realized what had happened, there was a stunned silence. Qing Moran was now sitting sideways across the Bully’s lap, her hand still gripping the back collar, creating a position where she was essentially hugging the Bully. Meanwhile, the Bully was holding her arm, with her left hand protectively hovering behind her back to prevent her from falling. Qing Moran felt a ball of fire suppressed in her chest, her eyes glaring fiercely. The Bully, however, felt that their current position was as ambiguous as it could possibly be.

Thud!

Both turned their heads sharply toward the sound at the door.

Hu Hai stood at the doorway, mid-way through unscrewing a bottle cap. Seeing their awkward pose and Qing Moran’s fierce gaze, he wished he had stayed at the school store a little longer.

Qing Moran is truly legendary. She even dares to sit on the School Bully’s lap.

“Fat-head! I haven’t even had a sip of the drink I just bought. When I catch you, I’m gonna choke you to death!” Behind him, Luo Qi ran into the classroom fuming, followed by the sounds of a noisy crowd in the hallway. The long break was over.

“Here, here! I was just helping you unscrew the cap because I was afraid you couldn’t do it!” Hu Hai treated Luo Qi like a savior, turning to hand him the opened drink.

Luo Qi looked at him suspiciously, sensing that “Fat-head” wouldn’t be this kind for no reason. He glanced into the classroom. By then, Qing Moran was standing beside Mu Jinxuan, casually picking up an exercise book.

“Ah, Boss Mu, you guys are tutoring physics, right? How are Scholar Qing’s lessons?” Luo Qi greeted them, though he didn’t plan on letting the guy who snatched his drink off the hook.

“Haha, a true top student is different. Listening to her is truly better than ten years of study,” Mu Jinxuan turned and winked at her deskie. “Right, deskie?”

“Heh. Illiterate,” the Scholar replied with pure disdain.