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Chapter 59
The gym was crowded with people.
All the teachers in charge of the senior year classes at Jingshi No.1 Middle School had come for today's college entrance exam motivational assembly.
With the senior students from two schools combined, the scene was very lively. Temporary sheds had been erected all around the gym, to provide help for senior year students with psychological issues.
On the stage, the head teacher was testing the microphone.
"Hello, hello, 1...2...hello..."
Qi Shaobai felt it was too stuffy and noisy inside the venue, so he wandered outside alone.
Little did he know, there were no fewer people outside.
He could only try to take the less crowded paths.
The sun in late August filtered through the camphor tree leaves into speckled dots of light, falling on the cement walkways of the campus.
He dragged his lazy footsteps, hands in pockets, as he walked.
The sunlight wasn't glaring, and the breeze caressed his face, unexpectedly giving rise to a trace of leisure.
A girl walked towards him from the opposite direction, accidentally meeting his gaze.
Just then, the shadows of the tree branches swayed.
A beam of light restlessly broke through the gaps between the leaves and spilled down, falling on the girl's pure and fair complexion.
Her eyes were limpid, her eyebrows arched into two small arcs, her hair pulled back behind her ears, her neck and shoulders slender and smooth, and her soft hair was dyed the color of sunlight, looking warm and cozy.
As she raised her eyes, they met the boy's clear and limpid ones.
Qi Shaobai's features were cold and indifferent, with his chin slightly cocked.
His pupils soaked in the warm sunlight, with subtle rays of light rippling through, making him look especially good-looking.
The cicadas in the trees seemed to have agreed, and suddenly roared loudly, buzzing.
In an instant, it was as if the earth and sky had been isolated into a vacuum.
A breeze blew past the boy's broad shoulders.
His T-shirt hem fluttered in the wind, and his bangs swayed too.
Their gazes briefly overlapped for a few seconds, before quickly parting.
They brushed past each other.
...
By the time he returned to the gym, Qi Shaobai had two bottles of chilled mineral water in his hands.
The air conditioners overhead were blasting cool air into the venue.
He finally didn't feel so hot anymore.
Sheng Mumu followed the stream of people into the gym, and immediately spotted Qi Shaobai, who stood out with his looks amongst the crowd.
She smiled and waved.
"Qi Shaobai."
Qi Shaobai was chatting with Wei Zhaonan. Hearing her voice, he turned his head, and gestured with his eyes for her to come sit over. There were seats behind them.
After Sheng Mumu sat down, he very naturally handed her a bottle of water.
It was one he had gone out to buy just now.
Qi Shaobai had his hands in his pockets, leaning back in his chair. He introduced Sheng Mumu:
"Our head teacher is very naggy. Get mentally prepared, it may take a long time, delaying you from returning to the flower shop."
Sheng Mumu took the water bottle, droplets of condensed water slid onto her hand, cool and chilled, dissipating more than half of the summer heat. She replied:
"It's okay, no matter how long the speech takes, I've cleared my schedule for the whole day today, just to accommodate you."
The corners of Qi Shaobai's lips imperceptibly curled up slightly. "Mm."
The opening act of the motivational assembly consisted of speeches by the head teacher and subject research group leaders, analyzing the current dire situation, and sounding the alarm for parents and students.
The content was dry and boring.
For the first ten-odd minutes, everyone could still listen attentively.
But when the head teacher took the mic again, saying "Let me just briefly supplement with two more sentences", the people below had clearly lost patience, and started looking around restlessly.
The head teacher's voice had a soporific power, and Sheng Mumu felt her head getting fuzzy and heavy.
If not for the cold air being blasted at full force in the venue, making it an unsuitable environment to sleep, she might have really dozed off.
Just as she finished a yawn, tears still glistening at the corners of her eyes, a parent sitting in the front row suddenly turned around.
"Mrs. Qi, hello, pardon my intrusion, I am the procurement head at Zhenyang Group. My son is in the same class as your young master."
He held out his name card with both hands, smiling ingratiatingly, with the smoothness of an adult.
Sheng Mumu was taken aback for a few seconds before accepting the name card, politely nodding slightly.
She had thought it was just casual small talk between parents, and it would be fine to just politely take the name card.
But unexpectedly, this was just the start.
Within just five minutes, the parents sitting in a small circle around them had all handed over name cards in succession.
Sheng Mumu suddenly understood.
The parents' association of an aristocratic school was a social circle for the parents.
Previously during Qi Mo's school parents' meetings, it had always been his executive assistant who attended.
That executive assistant, despite his mild and honest personality, looked as unapproachable as his boss on the outside.
These parents had probably wanted to get acquainted with the Qi family to establish connections for a long time, but lacked the avenue.
Now that it was her turn, looking to be of weaker temperament, they swarmed over at once.
She felt bad rejecting them outrightly, so she put on a formulaic smile, accepted everyone's name cards, and only said, "I'll pass these to my husband when I get home."
After dealing with these people, she heaved a silent sigh of relief.
She turned and shot Qi Shaobai a weary look.
Qi Shaobai appeared much calmer than her.
He seemed long accustomed to such occurrences.
Seeing Qi Shaobai's composure, Sheng Mumu was suddenly reminded of Qi Mo for a fleeting moment.
She realized with a start.
Although these father and son had no direct blood ties, they were surprisingly similar in many ways.
Qi Mo hardly showed up at Qi Shaobai's school, perhaps not wanting the slippery sophistication of the business world to be shown too early to the 17-year-old boy.
And Qi Shaobai's aloof and taciturn personality was probably also a protective layer, shielding him from the people around who wanted to ingratiate themselves, preventing such occurrences from reaching Qi Mo.
The two of them, in their own ways, were preserving the purity in the father-son relationship, unwilling to become a burden to each other.
That was reasonable in theory, but Sheng Mumu still felt they were too pretentious.
What couldn't be directly communicated and clarified face-to-face?
If she were the dad, after living together so many years, their relationship would have long reached the intimate stage of being able to drink beer shirtless together.
Sheng Mumu put the name cards into her bag.
She then looked towards the stage, frowning in puzzlement.
The head teacher's "brief supplement of two sentences" still had not ended.
Oddly, the dense mass of heads in the front rows seemed to not be looking at the stage, but were instead unanimously facing the direction of the gym entrance.
Following their line of sight, she looked over curiously.
A familiar figure appeared at the gym entrance.
Qi Mo was tall and straight, standing by the entrance. His cold eyes swept across the crowds in the venue, his imposing aura strong.
Finally, his gaze met Sheng Mumu's.
His eyes tightened, the corners lifting slightly, as he walked towards her.