The Pitiful Guy I Saved Is a Possessive Big Shot - Chapter 23

The first one to speak was Shi Yi.

“I don’t remember hearing about this.”

The man’s voice was low and slow as he walked over from the door, his brow still carrying the chill of the outdoors.

“This happened a long time ago,” Shi’s mother explained.

“Back then, your father and Mr. Qin were roommates, and they were very close. Mr. Qin got married quite late. Right around the time I was pregnant with Ning, Mrs. Qin was also pregnant. One night, the two men had too much to drink and made a promise that their children would marry.”

“Later, both children were born as boys, so the matter was naturally never mentioned again. Besides, Mrs. Qin is from Yancheng, and their whole family moved there for work. They haven’t been back in many years, so it’s normal that you haven’t heard of it.”

This fit the plot of the novel. After all, in the story, no such childhood engagement had ever appeared.

“But it was just a joke anyway.”

Shi’s mother reached out and rubbed her younger son’s soft hair.

“Even if one family had a girl, we would never force you to be together.”

The tension in Shi Yi’s lips relaxed slightly, but he still said, “Making such a promise so suddenly was a bit reckless.”

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t count,” Shi’s mother said with a smile as she pushed him toward the kitchen. “When your father gets back, you can criticize him to his face!”

As she spoke, she turned back to Shi Qingning.

“Baby, don’t worry about this. Mom supports your right to date whoever you want.”

“Bo, come and help out too. I have some soup simmering that needs to be brought out.”

Oh.

Shi Yi glanced back expressionlessly and saw Bai Yexi walking over.

He had forgotten about this guy.

The three of them went to the kitchen to get dinner, leaving Shi Qingning alone in the dining room, looking confused.

How did he get linked to Qin Zhishen?

He thought of Jian Ren and sighed.

It seemed the “young master” role also attracted scumbags.

However, based on experience, the strange situations Shi Qingning faced weren’t even one percent of what the main character endured.

Thinking of this, Shi Qingning felt even more protective of “Mint” (Bai Yexi).

With this strange engagement in the way, Shi Qingning couldn’t openly investigate Qin Zhishen anymore, or his family might misunderstand.

Luckily, since he started school, he had met many more people his age.

Chatting online was inconvenient, so Shi Qingning planned to ask Shi Lin and Kong Que about it next time they met.

For now, Shi Qingning had another concern.

His father was coming home.

Shi Qingning had seen plenty of news about his father. As the richest man in Haicheng, Shi Ling was low-key, but his every move was watched.

In public, Shi Ling always looked stern and icy, even colder than his son Shi Yi.

In private, Shi Qingning had very little contact with him.

While his father was away on business, his mother often video-called him, but since his father was overseas and the time difference was large, Shi Qingning had to sleep early and rarely caught him.

Most of Shi Qingning’s impressions of his father came from news reports.

Thinking about meeting a father who was even colder than his brother made Shi Qingning a bit…

Nervous.

Aside from family matters, school continued as usual.

The next day, during a break between classes, Shi Qingning happened to run into the girl who had given him the pink envelope.

“I’m sorry…”

The girl still looked nervous. She didn’t dare look him in the eye.

She was looking around as if hiding from someone.

“I didn’t know you were allergic to perfume. I sprayed some on the envelope… I won’t do it again. I’m sorry!”

“It’s fine…”

Shi Qingning only managed to say two words before she ran off as if being chased.

Is she afraid of something?

Shi Qingning felt confused. Then he remembered her words.

Allergic to perfume? Did Bai Yexi tell her that?

After bandaging Bai Yexi’s hand the other day, Shi Qingning had remembered the letter. He felt it was only polite to give her a reply.

But the envelope was with Bai Yexi, and Shi Qingning had been in such a hurry he forgot to take it.

When he asked about it later, Bai Yexi said he would handle the reply.

So, this was how Bai Yexi replied?

Shi Qingning actually was allergic to many perfume ingredients, but he hadn’t expected Bai Yexi to notice that.

Shi Qingning wanted to ask Bai Yexi about it, but after returning to the classroom, he found the boys in the back row had been called away to move books.

This included Bai Yexi.

Shi Qingning suddenly realized—was that girl afraid of Bai Yexi? Is that why she waited until he was gone to approach him?

Is Mint really that scary? Shi Qingning thought.

He did notice that since Bai Yexi came to school, he rarely talked to anyone except Shi Qingning.

He sat in the back at a separate desk with no seatmate.

The only contact Shi Qingning had seen him have with others was a brief moment with Zheng Kun.

Speaking of Zheng Kun, he was absent today. His seat was empty.

Song Qianqian mentioned that Zheng Kun often took leave from school.

And he wasn’t the only one.

During the third period, the physics teacher was absent again.

The physics class representative was a short, thin boy named Wu Li.

He brought in the test papers and handed them out. A few minutes later, the head teacher, Jie Chuxia, walked in.

“This period is a test, right?” she asked.

Wu Li said, “Yes, we are testing at the same time as the other classes. We collect the papers when the bell rings.”

Jie Chuxia nodded. “Then do your best.”

She pulled up a chair and sat near the podium.

Even though the physics teacher wasn’t there, having the head teacher watch them made the students even quieter.

The room was silent except for the sound of papers turning.

Since the winter break ended, the school hadn’t held a big exam yet. Although this was just a class test, it was the first exam Shi Qingning had experienced.

For him, it was a very new experience.

In the past, sitting still for forty minutes would have been very hard for him.

But now, he could focus easily for the whole period.

Shi Qingning finished his paper early. He checked it once and waited for the bell to ring so the papers could be collected.

However, not many students felt they had enough time.

The test focused on difficult units, mostly mechanics. The workload was heavy, making everyone’s heads spin.

After turning in his paper, Song Qianqian looked exhausted.

“Why are there so many blocks and balls? I’ll just buy a box of balls and give them to the teacher for free if he stops asking!”

Complaints were heard everywhere.

“I didn’t even finish before I had to turn it in. I left two blanks…”

“I heard from Class 2 that their teacher specifically explained the last question type. Our teacher never even mentioned it.”

“What normal teacher takes leave as much as ours?”

“I heard our teacher was one of the best, and I believed it because of his hairstyle! But look, he doesn’t even show up for class.”

“This is so unfair. Physics is already hard. I feel like other classes are way ahead of us.”

“Don’t even talk about it. I couldn’t even understand the last two big questions…”

Even the top students looked sad. Even if it wasn’t a formal exam, it was a big blow to their confidence.

“Did anyone solve the last question? I couldn’t even finish the first part.”

“Anran, did you do it?”

Fang Anran was still frowning at her paper.

“I only did the first part. The second part was too complex. I don’t know if my logic is right.”

“Wow, even you couldn’t do it?”

Fang Anran sat near Shi Qingning. Although they hadn’t tested before, her daily performance showed she was a good student.

She asked tentatively, “Xiao Ning, did you solve the second part of the last question?”

Shi Qingning was looking at the schedule and looked up.

“The maximum force is 1, right?”

Fang Anran: “…”

The people nearby were stunned.

The question was so hard they didn’t even know where to start, and yet someone just stated the answer.

“How did you solve it?” Fang Anran asked.

As others crowded around to listen, the class representative spoke up.

“Hey, I think Wei Yingkai wrote the answer as the square root of 2.”

Everyone looked over. Wu Li pointed to a boy sleeping in the back corner.

“I saw it when I collected the papers.”

Shi Qingning also looked over.

He hadn’t matched all the names to faces yet.

He only knew the messy-haired boy in the corner loved to sleep. He was down on his desk as soon as class ended and rarely spoke to anyone.

In the classroom of six rows, there were two extra single desks in the back. One was Bai Yexi, and the other was Wei Yingkai.

“The ‘God’ Kai?” Song Qianqian asked. “Did he write down the steps?”

“He did,” Wu Li admitted. “I saw them, but I couldn’t understand them.”

“His steps are always too simple. Sometimes even the teachers don’t understand them.”

“The teacher once said if he actually wrote the steps seriously, he would always get full marks.”

While the others discussed it, Shi Qingning looked at his scratch paper and frowned.

“I calculated it again. It’s still 1N.”

“I’ll go ask him,” Wu Li said, standing up.

“Isn’t he sleeping?” Shi Qingning asked.

For some reason, he seemed to know this person was a heavy sleeper.

“It’s fine, I’ll try.” Wu Li walked over.

The others didn’t have much hope.

“He probably won’t say anything. Maybe we should ask the Class 2 teacher later?”

Shi Qingning was curious. “Why do you say he won’t answer?”

Fang Anran said, “Others have asked him before. His explanations are always very brief.”

“So brief he skips three or four steps…”

Song Qianqian was blunt. “God Kai is like that. He gets the answer right, but he’s terrible at explaining it.”

Shi Qingning looked over. Wei Yingkai was still face down, with two tufts of messy hair sticking up from the back of his head.

When Wu Li called him, Wei Yingkai looked up sleepily. He yawned, handed a piece of scratch paper to Wu Li, and went back to sleep.

Wu Li walked back helplessly.

“Here, these are his steps.”

Everyone took one look and wanted to look away.

Wei Yingkai’s handwriting wasn’t ugly; it actually had some style. But it was far too messy. It was clearly written for himself. Even if others could read the words, they couldn’t understand the logic.

Fang Anran and the others were already studying Shi Qingning’s steps.

In the end, only Shi Qingning was still looking at Wei Yingkai’s paper.

After a moment, Shi Qingning spoke.

“Oh, he’s using Riemannian geometry.”

The students were shocked and looked at him in disbelief.

Their first thought was: Someone actually understood Wei Yingkai’s notes?!

Their second thought was: What on earth is Riemannian geometry??

Song Qianqian looked lost. “What geometry? What are you saying?”

Shi Qingning put down the paper and pointed to his own diagram.

“Isn’t this an analysis of a sphere? My auxiliary lines made a triangle. I used Euclidean space, but he used non-Euclidean space—Riemannian geometry.”

The students frowned, looking even more confused.

“Euclidean space is what we learn in plane and solid geometry,” Shi Qingning explained patiently.

“Riemannian geometry is for higher-dimensional spaces. We don’t learn that in high school.”

“I used the Pythagorean theorem and got 1. Wei used an equation for spherical space, which is why the result is different.”

Fang Anran barely understood. “So, Wei Yingkai used advanced college-level math?”

Song Qianqian said, “So Xiao Ning’s answer is the right one for us?”

“For a high school paper, the answer should be 1,” Shi Qingning said.

The question looked like a simplified version of a college physics problem.

“If this were college physics or a competition, the answer might be the square root of 2.”

Song Qianqian sighed. “High school physics is hard enough already!!”

Since the others were still confused, Shi Qingning explained the logic again.

Once they understood and went back to their seats, Shi Qingning glanced at Wei Yingkai in the corner again.

For some reason, he felt the messy hair on the back of the boy’s head.

Looked familiar.

As Shi Qingning was staring, his view was suddenly blocked by a patch of cold green.

“Mint!”

Shi Qingning was startled.

Bai Yexi had appeared out of nowhere. He leaned down, his cold green eyes staring unblinkingly at Shi Qingning.

Shi Qingning laughed. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

Bai Yexi lowered his eyes.

Shi Qingning didn’t realize that to others, he had just been staring at Wei Yingkai the same way.

When asked, Bai Yexi only said, “I don’t know how to do the last question.”

“I’ll explain it to you,” Shi Qingning said.

But before he could start, the bell rang.

“Oh, right.”

Shi Qingning pulled Bai Yexi.

“I saw that this period is Art. My seatmate isn’t here, why don’t you sit with me?”

Bai Yexi nodded. “Okay.”

Shi Qingning was sitting on the aisle. He thought it would be easier for “Mint” to sit there, so he planned to move to the wall seat.

But as he tried to move, Bai Yexi stopped him.

Don’t sit in someone else’s seat.

When Shi Qingning looked at him, Bai Yexi only said, “I’ll sit on the inside.”

Shi Qingning didn’t mind, so he let Bai Yexi have his way.

Soon, the Art teacher arrived. At the start of the term, Art class hadn’t been taken over by other teachers yet. The teacher had the class president turn on the TV to play a short documentary.

While the documentary played, the students did whatever they wanted.

Shi Qingning was explaining the physics problem to Bai Yexi.

It was a cold early spring, but the sun was out. The golden sunlight felt warm rather than hot.

“F1 plus F2 equals the total force…”

The music from the documentary was soft. The boy whispered his explanation, and the golden light glowed on his soft cheek.

His eyes and long lashes were colored gold.

He looked like a dream made of honey and sugar.

From such a close distance, one could almost smell his sweet scent.

Bai Yexi dazed off for a moment. He felt that familiar sensation of falling.

His back was suddenly wet with cold sweat.

It wasn’t until a sharp pain in his palm brought him back to his senses.

His breathing, which had stopped for a few seconds, slowly returned to normal.

He blinked and slowly hid his right hand behind his back.

The snowy-white bandage was now turning red as fresh blood soaked through.

But Bai Yexi didn’t care about the pain.

Pain was helpful; it told him this was all real.

The sunny school was real, the whispering in the classroom was real, and the healthy boy with glowing eyes in front of him was real.

It wasn’t a nightmare.

It wouldn’t break.

Bai Yexi watched the boy blink. His lashes shimmered as he turned to look.

“Why do you keep looking at my face?”

Bai Yexi’s eyes flickered, and his voice was low.

“I’m thinking about the problem.”

Shi Qingning poked his own cheek with his pen and laughed.

“The problem isn’t written on my face.”

Song Qianqian, who was secretly reading a manga in front of them, couldn’t help but look back with a strange expression.

“Your conversation…”

He stopped when he saw Bai Yexi’s expression.

This new student was truly too cold.

Shi Qingning asked, “What is it?”

Song Qianqian rubbed his arms and said, “Your conversation sounds like a little couple.”

Specifically, the kind that has had a crush for a long time but is too afraid to say it. The kind of silly couple that blushes just by looking at each other.