WHI – Chapter 24

Chapter 24

As Lin Ting sat in the print shop, waiting for the owner to bind the past exam papers into a booklet, he even began to doubt the reality of this world.

How long had it been since he’d been this serious?

“Young man, are you also in your third year of high school?” The print shop owner seemed like a decent person, looking at the papers coming out of the printer one by one with a fond expression. “Ah, if only my child could be as diligent as you.”

“Is your child also in their third year?” Lin Ting, with nothing else to do, replied to Wen Lan’s message and casually struck up a conversation.

– Don’t rush me, I’m at the print shop. Is the location accurate?

“Yes, asking him to spend his weekend studying, ha.” The owner shook his head and didn’t say any more.

To improve a student ranked 100th in the entire school to 50th in just a few months, Lin Ting felt it was quite difficult, but he focused on the process, not the outcome.

So, the two of them discussed and decided to set the time for every weekend. Lin Ting originally thought one day would be enough, as he didn’t have much confidence in Wen Lan reaching the top 50.

But Wen Lan was unusually proactive, strongly expressing his determination to secure the 50th spot. The tutoring sessions were then tentatively set for twice a week.

“Don’t you think this kind of ruthless capitalist behavior needs to be resisted?” Lin Ting said upon learning that Wen Lan wanted to take away his only two days of rest.

“If you have something, you can tell me in advance. Rules are dead, but people are alive,” Wen Lan’s attitude was quite firm. “Anyway, I have to get into the top 50.”

“If you want to study this much… what were you doing before?”

“Before, I didn’t know you were so good at academics. The top student is right beside me, so why not use it?”

And so, when Lin Ting stood at the door of the villa that looked like a fairy tale, holding a plastic bag from ‘Hengwei Graphics and Advertising’, he was still a bit resentful.

Fairy tale-like – meaning it was filled with the smell of smoke. The first time Lin Ting came here after getting off the train, he had passed by this house. He hadn’t paid much attention then. There was a ‘Wen’ character at the door.

No wonder Wen Lan always had a scent of sandalwood that couldn’t be washed away; he was being smoked by it.

Just as Lin Ting was about to press the doorbell, the door opened.

The person who opened the door was a man in his 40s. Lin Ting thought he must be Wen Lan’s father.

“Hello, Uncle Wen, I’m Wen Lan’s classmate, Lin Ting.” He smiled friendly.

“Ah, Classmate Lin, hello, hello, please come in.” Uncle Wen was slightly taken aback but returned a friendly smile. “I’m going out. You two play at home. If you need anything, just tell the auntie.”

“Thank you, Uncle.” Lin Ting said, not being polite, and walked straight into the courtyard, taking out his phone to send Wen Lan a message: I’m here, where are you.

Wen Lan’s home was decorated differently from the Gu family’s, with a pure Song Dynasty-style Eastern courtyard. Upon entering, there was a small path made of large stones laid on the ground. Several green plants of different varieties and heights grew interspersed. The two-story house had a small, clean jade-green pond on its side. After stepping over two equally long flagstone bridges, he stopped in front of the door.

– The door isn’t locked, come up.

Wen Lan’s message was quick.

He looked at the open, four-sided sliding door design, sighing in his mind about how they weren’t afraid of thieves, while also cursing Wen Lan a few times.

When Lin Ting went up to the second floor along the rosewood stairs and then wandered around to find his room, he saw Wen Lan still in his pajamas, with his hair sticking up in curls, a mouthful of bubbles, standing in front of the washbasin. He was so angry he could barely contain himself: “Master Wen, you remember to get up?”

Wen Lan removed the toothbrush from his hand, turned on the faucet, rinsed his mouth, and then unceremoniously splashed water on his face, getting his hair wet.

Only then did he speak, “How could I not get up? You’re coming.”

… Did you hear what I meant?

“What did you score in Chinese this time?” Lin Ting followed him from the bathroom, around the bedroom, and into the study next door.

“Just over 100, why?” Wen Lan sat down in the chair next to the desk and patted the chair beside him. “Sit.”

“That explains it.” Lin Ting said, sitting down.

Wen Lan squinted and looked at him: “If you have something to say, say it directly.”

Lin Ting smiled, placed the plastic bag in his hand on the table, and couldn’t be bothered to explain: “Let’s start, tutoring.”

Tutoring, to be honest, was very boring, not just for Wen Lan, but also for Lin Ting.

It was a very simple logic, but when Lin Ting explained it for the third time, he finally lost patience.

“Wen, Lan.” Lin Ting placed his pen heavily on the table. “Your 100th rank is from cheating, right?”

“Not exactly.”

“Exactly? Not exactly?”

“A little bit, not much.” Wen Lan spun the pen in his hand, but Lin Ting snatched it away.

“I think, people should do what they’re suited for. You, on the other hand, are more suited to inheriting the family business obediently.” Lin Ting stood up, patted Wen Lan on the head twice, and picked up his bag to leave.

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t go!” Wen Lan grabbed Lin Ting’s bag strap. “Give me another chance. At least today, no, finish teaching this week’s lessons.”

As Lin Ting hesitated, the study door was knocked on.

It was the auntie, calling them for dinner.

Lin Ting hadn’t arrived very early, and coupled with Wen Lan’s inability to grasp things, the progress for the entire morning was almost zero. Lin Ting sighed. Wen Lan immediately picked up on the auntie’s words and continued, “Let’s eat first to nourish our brains, then study.”

Lin Ting followed Wen Lan downstairs. As he passed a pair of large, six-sided cloisonné vases behind the staircase, he stopped.

It wasn’t because of the rather expensive-looking pair of vases, but the rosewood altar table placed in the center of the vases – on it were photos of a man and a woman, with an incense burner in front of each, each with three burning sticks of incense.

He understood why the Wen family was enveloped in sandalwood mist.

The woman in the color photo was no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, but her attire suggested an older era. The man in the black and white photo looked exactly like Wen Lan.

Wen Lan noticed something was amiss behind him and stopped, turning around.

“My mother, and my brother,” he said.

“Didn’t your brother… and your mother, who left so young…?” Lin Ting found it extremely strange. The ‘Wen Yan’ in the photo looked at least sixteen or seventeen.

Wen Lan let out a laugh, but there was no positive emotion in it. “The photo is of me, but the person being worshipped is my brother… My dad wants to see what he would look like now, so…” He leaned in and wiped a bit of ash from the woman’s photo.

He added, “My mom really liked this photo. She always said she wanted it on her tombstone after she passed away. She left us only a few years later… but she still used this photo from when she was young…”

Lin Ting was silent for a long time, then felt a bit embarrassed. He had been stepping on people’s scars. “I’m sorry…”

“Didn’t I say before that I’d poison you into silence?” Wen Lan laughed, putting an arm around Lin Ting’s shoulder and pulling him closer, while the other hand made a gesture as if to pinch Lin Ting’s mouth.

Lin Ting’s mind was still immersed in processing the two photos, and he didn’t react immediately.

Wen Lan hadn’t expected the other party to offer no resistance at all, until his fingertips touched the slightly dry, but still soft lips.

“… Can you let go, you old bastard?” Lin Ting was the first to regain his senses and glared at him.

Wen Lan immediately let go.

Lin Ting was surprised to see Wen family’s auntie sitting casually at the dining table eating – they could eat at the table normally? It seemed only the Gu family was mentally ill.

“Birthday… which one do you choose?” Wen Lan asked while peeling shrimp.

“Choose what?” Lin Ting said.

“Did you even look at the group chat?” Wen Lan hissed. Lin Ting immediately felt a bit embarrassed and took out his phone to open it.

The people in the group chat had been discussing how to celebrate Wen Lan’s birthday since last week. Lin Ting looked at the 99+ messages and hesitated for a long time before opening it.

After more than a week of enthusiastic discussion and planning, they finally settled on three options.

1. A two-day trip to a ski resort.

2. A two-day trip to a farmhouse.

3. A two-day trip to a grassland.

“I can’t ski, I can’t fish, and I can’t ride a horse…” Lin Ting looked at the PDF itinerary for each of the three options, which were detailed down to the minute and had travel agency watermarks. He sighed, thinking how good it was to be rich; even birthdays required a travel agency to plan.

“Then let’s go skiing, I’ll teach you.”

“Okay.”

Lin Ting didn’t really care. It was all the same to him. He had forgotten what it felt like to have a birthday.

He suddenly remembered that night when he forgot to close the window, and his words, ‘I want you to spend it with me.’

Lin Ting quickly took out the Chinese medicine liquid he had prepared in his pocket and drank it down with his rice in one gulp.

“Still not well?” Wen Lan’s tone was somewhat lazy, as if he didn’t care about the answer, just asking for the sake of it.

“Yes, it’s chronic.” Lin Ting replied casually.

Perhaps it was because he had eaten, but Wen Lan was noticeably smarter in the afternoon. Some of the logic was quite complex and difficult to understand. Lin Ting originally thought he would have to explain it twice, but to his surprise, Wen Lan understood after hearing it once.

“Did you really understand?” Lin Ting didn’t quite believe it.

“Really, if you don’t believe me, give me a problem.”

When he saw Wen Lan smoothly write the correct answer, without even an unnecessary step of calculation, his doubts became even more apparent. “Were you playing me this morning?”

“No, really.” Wen Lan smiled. “You just didn’t teach well this morning.”

Lin Ting: “……”

The tutoring sessions for the next few hours in the afternoon went surprisingly smoothly. Lin Ting even suspected that Wen Lan had secretly manipulated his score to the 100th rank.

It wasn’t until they had another dinner at his house in the evening that Lin Ting couldn’t help but ask curiously at the table, “Do you really need… tutoring?”

Wen Lan very seriously put down his chopsticks. “Really.”

“But I think you should be fine just reading books yourself; you grasp things quite quickly.”

“If I’m by myself, I won’t study. If I don’t make it to the top 50, I’ll reveal your secret.” Wen Lan rested his elbows on the table, clasped his hands into fists, and propped his chin on them, looking at Lin Ting with amusement.

“What secret?” Lin Ting’s face was calm, but his heart was in chaos.

“That day…”

Lin Ting could only hear his own heartbeat.

If this bastard found out about the kiss, he’d have to do him in, and then there would be no future trouble.

“That morning, you were talking in your sleep, and I recorded it.” Wen Lan curled one side of his lips.

Lin Ting immediately relaxed.

“You’re such a dog.”