AM Chapter 65

【Adolescence 3】Shy and Innocent Child [Extra]

【Adolescence 3】Shy and Innocent Child

Chen Mo successfully enrolled in the private high school farthest from his home, and as he and Liang Jingren had anticipated, Chen Daxiang didn’t hesitate to spend more money to hire a full-time driver to pick him up and drop him off at school on a fixed schedule.

Originally, he was supposed to attend evening self-study at school, but going home after evening self-study would be too late. So when he suggested submitting an application to be exempt from on-campus evening self-study, Chen Daxiang immediately agreed, directly asking him for a pen to sign the application form.

In the living room, the signed application form was casually placed on the coffee table. Chen Mo and Chen Daxiang were eating fruit and amiably discussing who should attend the first parent-teacher conference after the start of the semester.

The parent-teacher conference candidate, sitting on the single sofa beside the coffee table, stared at the application form lying flat. Finally, he grew anxious and asked the new high school student on the long sofa with slight worry, “What if you can’t keep up with your grades?”

Chen Mo turned his head to look at him and smiled, “You don’t need to worry about that, Brother Ren. Although I won’t be going to evening self-study, I’ll at least finish high school. I’ll learn everything I need to, and getting into a university won’t be a problem~”

Liang Jingren heard the veiled implication in his words and twitched his lips. He got up and left.

Chen Mo quickly turned around, climbing and kneeling on the sofa. As Liang Jingren’s figure was about to disappear on the stairs, he called out to him, “Brother Ren! Can you go to the parent-teacher conference on Friday evening?”

Liang Jingren went up two steps. Chen Mo couldn’t see his expression, but Liang Jingren circled his index finger and thumb on the hand he placed on his leg and shook it in an OK gesture. He saw that very clearly.

“Thank you, Brother Ren!”

Chen Mo jumped up on the sofa in excitement, jostling Chen Daxiang, who was sitting on the same sofa.

After Chen Mo sat down again, Chen Daxiang asked him, “What are you scheming?”

Chen Mo looked up at the ceiling of the Villa’s living room and said, “I have to plan for my future in advance.”

Chen Daxiang would have to be hospitalized again this weekend, and this time, he didn’t know how long it would take for him to return.

“If you’re not here, the only adult I can rely on is Liang Jingren. So, I need to spend more time with him, build a good relationship with him, slowly integrate into his life, and eventually make him see me as an indispensable family member…”

“Chen Mo, have you ever considered me family?” Chen Daxiang asked with a kind expression.

Chen Mo smiled and said, “Of course, Dad.”

Chen Daxiang seemed very happy, smiling and patting his head.

“You seem to have matured, Chen Mo.”

The mature Chen Mo nodded slightly and said, “I’m a high school student now…” Then, he looked at Chen Daxiang and said sincerely, “Thank you for taking me in when I was in elementary school.”

Chen Daxiang rarely saw him with such a serious expression, so he smiled and patted his shoulder, “You should thank your mother.”

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes, smiled, and nodded again.

“Okay.”

Chen Mo could pretend and act in front of Chen Daxiang, but in front of Liang Jingren, whether he was mature or not didn’t matter. Liang Jingren had seen every side of him anyway, the good, the bad, the sincere, the insincere…

He wouldn’t hide anymore.

In front of Liang Jingren, he could be mature if he wanted to, and if he didn’t want to be mature, he could still be a child—

He would sneak into Liang Jingren’s room when he was working from home, sitting on the sofa and waiting for him to notice him and take the initiative to talk to him.

He would be mischievous when Liang Jingren was washing his motorcycle in the yard, provoking Liang Jingren to spray him with the hose and have a water fight with him.

He would also make monkey-like primitive screams on the back of Liang Jingren’s motorcycle on the winding mountain roads, affecting his driving.

Chen Mo knew that some of his behavior was childish at times, and Liang Jingren scolded him for it, but he never thought about changing—anyway, Liang Jingren didn’t force him to change.

He gradually mastered the bottom line for Liang Jingren’s anger. Above that bottom line, as long as he prescribed the right medicine, smiling sheepishly or apologetically admitting his mistake, Liang Jingren would soften his heart and let him off. Moreover, Liang Jingren didn’t have a deep memory of minor matters and didn’t like to dwell on them, so he could continue to make the same mistakes next time.

Chen Mo told Chen Daxiang that he wanted Liang Jingren to treat him as family, but in reality, he had long regarded Liang Jingren as family.

Calling him “Brother Ren” over and over again, Chen Mo couldn’t help but fantasize that Liang Jingren was actually his older brother, just a distant cousin, which was why he seemed so aloof and came so late.

One night, he told Liang Jingren this idea in his room, and Liang Jingren put down his pen and laughed.

Liang Jingren turned his head to him and said, “If I were your distant relative, I wouldn’t take you in. Do you think everyone is as honest and kind as Chen Daxiang?”

Chen Daxiang was also an honest man, otherwise, why would he willingly be a cuckold? Liang Jingren probably knew about the relationship between Chen Daxiang and his mother.

Chen Mo didn’t want to talk about this. He only cared that Liang Jingren was now definitely taking him in—even though he had just violently thrown things at him a few days ago, he still allowed him to enter his room while he was working.

“Hmph~” Chen Mo snorted, saying, “Anyway, you can’t get rid of me now~”

Liang Jingren smiled and said, “Yes, yes, yes, you’re like a piece of dog skin plaster!”

Chen Mo’s eyes darted around. He immediately did a carp jump, got up, and ran over to hug the person sitting in the chair at the desk. When Liang Jingren frowned and sucked in a breath in disgust, he revealed a cheap smile like he had successfully played a prank, “I’ll stick to you to death!”

Although Liang Jingren showed disgust on the surface, he didn’t directly struggle away, letting him hang on him. He even chatted with him about going to a new school in high school, what expectations and discomfort he had for the brand new campus life, and like an old man, he asked if he had made any new friends and told him to listen to the teacher.

Chen Mo perfunctorily responded with “uh-huh” and “yes, yes,” tightening his arms, eventually causing Liang Jingren to pat his arm and pull him away.

After Chen Mo got up, Liang Jingren looked at the clock on the table and turned to tell him to go back to his room to rest quickly. If he really didn’t want to go to bed early, he should read a book and review his lessons.

“You’ll be divided into gifted classes after your midterm exams, right? Aren’t you hurrying to review?” Liang Jingren seemed even more anxious about his grades than he was.

Chen Mo shrugged, confidently saying, “The class placement exam is just a piece of cake~”

However, it was this piece of cake that confused him. He was careless.

He was only two points and one place away from squeezing into the thirty-five places for the first batch of gifted students.

Chen Mo blamed the two points he was short on the fact that he was hungry while reviewing last night and couldn’t resist going downstairs to get a portion of pickled cucumbers to eat—the pickled cucumbers must have expired and gone sour, so his stomach felt uncomfortable in the exam room, and he underperformed!

Liang Jingren held the report card in the living room, listening to his sophistry, slapping his thigh and laughing. Only when Chen Mo roared and rushed up to grab the report card did he grab the child and pull him onto the sofa, holding his shoulders and saying seriously, “Alright, alright, learn from your mistakes. Work harder next time for the final exam, and don’t eat pickled cucumbers.”

Chen Mo pushed his hand away angrily and said, “It’s not the pickled cucumbers!”

Liang Jingren blinked and asked, “Then what is it?”

Chen Mo paused, then his eyes moved to the side, avoiding eye contact, and he stammered, “It’s… it’s those idiots…”

“Are you an idiot?” Liang Jingren asked.

“Huh?!” Chen Mo suddenly looked up at him.

Liang Jingren patted his head and said, “If you’re not, then prove yourself in the next exam.”

In the high school final exam, the second gifted class placement exam, Chen Mo successfully entered the honors class, ranking thirty-second in the grade.

By this time, the honors class had basically taken shape after several major and minor subject placement tests and comprehensive monthly exams, and was finally stabilized at forty-two people.

Among them was a classmate from Chen Mo’s class before the placement, whose final exam score was similar to Chen Mo’s midterm exam score, and her ranking was also basically the same. She also entered the honors class, and Chen Mo was very unconvinced.

When Chen Mo gave the final report card to Liang Jingren, he directly revealed this dissatisfaction to the person who completed the parent’s signature for him:

“She and her boyfriend secretly stayed in the classroom to kiss during PE class!”

“She clearly didn’t put her mind on studying, and she’s having a relationship, and she’s doing such disgusting things at school. Why should she be allowed into the honors class!”

“She’ll collapse sooner or later and her grades will plummet because of an inter-class relationship! Since that’s the case, I might as well report her directly to the dean and give the hard-working student who ranked forty-third a chance!”

Liang Jingren’s reaction was always unexpected. He accurately grasped a newly coined word that he had casually said and began to laugh: “Pfft, hahaha, inter-class relationship, what the hell is that, hahaha…”

Seeing this, Chen Mo twitched his lips, and then silently took the signed report card back from Liang Jingren’s hand.

Liang Jingren didn’t laugh for long. He took a breath, held the arm of the child who was still standing in front of him and refused to leave, and praised him, “Mm-hmm, your grades are good this time, very good, a big improvement! Tell me what reward you want. If you want to go anywhere, let’s prepare properly when we have a vacation!”

Chen Mo pursed his lips and said, “I want you to take my side…”

Liang Jingren was stunned, “Huh?”

Chen Mo said in a low voice, “Those two people are really too much… They were messing around in the classroom regardless of the occasion. I just wanted to go back to get a water bottle. I didn’t mean to see it… They even put their tongues in each other’s mouths! So disgusting…”

Disgusting was secondary. Recalling the scene: there were only three people in the classroom, a pair of dog lovers so loving that they forgot themselves, and him, who was sneaking off to slack off on the pretext of going to the bathroom—Chen Mo really regretted it. Those two people didn’t notice him at all, and he was so embarrassed that he wanted to explode on the spot.

“Disgusting?” Liang Jingren sat in the chair and looked up to ask.

Chen Mo looked at him and nodded.

Liang Jingren smiled and said, “But you’ll kiss people in the future too, right?”

Chen Mo pursed his lips, “I won’t…”

Liang Jingren interrupted him, saying, “Haven’t you ever thought about it? Kissing someone you like, and when the emotions are intense, you’ll do things even more intense than sticking out your tongue.”

“…”

“Eh? You’re blushing? No way? Really blushing? Why did you suddenly become so cute? You look like a pure kid now, haha~”

“…”

Looking at Chen Mo, who stammered and didn’t speak, his red ears seeming to emit steam, Liang Jingren suddenly realized that the other party seemed to lack education and understanding in this area due to the absence of his parents and the alienation of his peers.

However, Liang Jingren couldn’t teach him anything even if he wanted to.

—It was better to just let it be.

Anyway, Chen Mo was only a teenager now and was still in the learning stage. There was really no need to rush, Liang Jingren thought.

After starting high school, Chen Mo suddenly grew taller. Liang Jingren couldn’t reach the top of his head while sitting anymore. So he reached out and touched Chen Mo’s hot face, then pinched it casually, smiling and saying, “You’ll know when you have someone you like.”