That evening, after the gathering dispersed, Jiang Wang quickly became a well-liked figure among the group, to the point where several of the elder brothers and sisters enthusiastically invited him to their homes for dinner the next day.
When the relatives gradually left in twos and threes, Jiang Wang and Ji Linqiu stayed behind to clean up the cigarette ashes, sunflower seed shells, and fruit peels scattered on the floor. The two elders, exhausted from smiling and chatting all night, helped out briefly before going to wash up.
Ji Changxia did not participate in the conversation at all. It was rare for her to come back to her family for the New Year, and she only managed to see her brother briefly when he arrived. After that, she stayed in the kitchen with her cousins-in-law, preparing all the steaming, frying, and other dishes needed for the New Year’s Eve dinner.
Ji Linqiu hadn’t experienced this atmosphere for years. While sweeping, he noticed that someone had spat a few mouthfuls of yellow phlegm onto the tile floor of his house. He frowned and used a wet tissue to clean it up, his expression filled with disgust.
“It is quite unbearable,” Jiang Wang looked at him, though his thoughts were elsewhere. “For the past few years, when your parents were spending the New Year alone at home, it was probably even harder than now.”
Ji Linqiu could escape, going to distant places to teach and avoid the world, but his parents had their roots here. They could only smile and endure, trying hard to explain to others that their only son hadn’t run away and certainly wasn’t in trouble or imprisoned.
Jiang Wang’s offhand remark seemed to bring balance back to a situation that had spiraled out of control.
“Public opinion is terrifying,” Ji Linqiu said softly. “I might as well bring my parents to the provincial capital.”
“It’s not impossible,” Jiang Wang smiled. “This year, let’s carefully plan it out and deal with the transfer of your job first.”
Ji Linqiu was silent for a moment and turned away to sweep a banana peel from under a chair leg.
His voice was a little muffled.
“Brother Duan and the others have been good to me, and the environment at the other school is also good.”
“But if… if I really go in that direction in the future… I definitely can’t continue as a teacher.”
If the school caught wind of it, the person who recommended him, Duan Zhao, would also be implicated.
The word “homosexual” somehow always gets linked with “moral corruption of teachers,” as if merely touching it would inevitably corrupt countless young people.
Jiang Wang paused, understanding what he meant by “that direction.”
He fell silent.
Ji Linqiu originally brought this up with some tentativeness. When he heard the person behind him stop talking, his heart sank.
Yeah. The obstacles they would face were just too…
“Isn’t that a great thing?” Jiang Wang said, quite pleased. “Yeah, you can quit. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Ji Linqiu: “…?”
Jiang Wang, now in a good mood, swept the floor with grand, bold strokes, like painting an ink-wash landscape. “Public schools pay little and have heavy workloads, and you have to write reports all the time. I think it’s not worth it either.”
“Why not just be the principal yourself? Later on, we can start a national chain of tutoring centers — it’ll also make it easier for me to sell books and test papers, an all-in-one service.”
Jiang Wang clapped his hands. “Ji Linqiu, you’re a genius!”
Ji Linqiu: Wait, I think that wasn’t what I meant.
In just two or three hours, Ji Linqiu’s status had shifted from a “poor, introverted teacher” to a “charming romantic” and then to the “honorary principal of a nationwide gold-medal tutoring centers,” in a strange yet logical progression.
Ji Linqiu had already given up on trying to salvage his pure reputation. He paused his actions to look at Jiang Wang and said with a smile, “Are you serious?”
Jiang Wang was always different from everyone else.
He could always find a new way out, never giving himself any time for melancholy.
As if nothing could ever stop him.
There was a light, proud arrogance in it, yet it was also very masculine.
“My real identity is a profiteer.” Jiang Wang blinked his amber eyes, his voice deep and seductive. “Profiteer never lies.”
‘Yeah, you’d probably sell me off, and I’d even help you count the money.’
Teacher Ji hadn’t realized that he had long been led off the right path by someone and even felt a bit of new excitement in their mutual complicity.
While helping him tidy up the tables and chairs in the first-floor hall, Jiang Wang’s mind was working fast.
It was still only 2007, and English-learning centers were still in their infancy.
In major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, competition was fierce, with many players fighting for the market. But in second- and third-tier cities, as well as in places like Hongcheng, it was mostly small private tutoring centers, not yet a real force.
His online store was doing well, and he could easily invest angel funding himself — all that was missing was a good management system.
—To gather talented teachers, create a training system, and integrate the unique textbook advantages from the “Golden Twelve Volumes” to form a complete, thriving entity.
It’s 12:30 AM, yet Jiang Wang was still full of energy. “That’s settled then. Finish teaching this semester and quit. Come work at my company.”
Ji Linqiu rubbed his forehead again, unsure whether to praise him or not.
“Let’s just get through the New Year first, why rush?”
Jiang Wang acted spoiled. “My throat hurts. Teacher Ji, peel me a pear.”
“I should be peeling you,” Ji Linqiu habitually continued worrying, only to be interrupted again. “Once tomorrow starts, I’ll be the most infamous romantic playboy in the whole town. Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome,” Jiang Wang said arrogantly, slumping to the side. “Peel one, and pick a sweet one!”
In the end, a pear was indeed peeled and eaten clean on the spot.
As soon as Ji Linqiu returned home, his psychological pressure skyrocketed, and he felt as if he was on the brink of a guerrilla battle at any moment.
He was very much like his father — self-restricted by education, unable to break through the way Jiang Wang could.
But given his familiarity with these relatives, Ji Linqiu instinctively felt that the real test, full of obstacles, would only begin tomorrow or the day after.
He dared not relax.
The whole night passed in a chaotic and exhausting dream.
One moment he was at school, being criticized in a mass meeting, humiliated in front of everyone.
The next, he was in a small bus on a mountain road, spiraling around sharp turns, as if ready to fly off at any moment.
After five or six terrifying dreams in a row, he was suddenly pulled into a gentle embrace by a man, holding him tenderly, whispering softly beside his ear.
“What are you afraid of? Brother Wang loves you.”
Even in the falling darkness, being comforted like this made it feel like there was nothing else he needed to worry about.
Ji Linqiu suddenly woke up, instinctively turning to look behind him.
He was sleeping alone, leaning against the old house’s wall. The morning sunlight shone brightly outside, and birds were chirping — it was already dawn.
Jiang Wang was asleep in the guest room and hadn’t come over.
In this environment, Ji Linqiu slept very lightly, hearing every footstep when his sister got up in the middle of the night.
He knew Jiang Wang hadn’t come, but instead sat there dazed, thinking about that dream.
Relying on someone was like sand soaking in a river — silent and impossible to separate.
He even regretted waking up too soon, wishing he could have been held a little longer in the dream.
The new day was also very lively.
The day after tomorrow would be New Year’s Eve, and he had already received many text messages from colleagues offering early New Year greetings.
Relatives were frequently visiting. Many workers had returned home, leaving wives and elders to handle chores, smoking cigarettes and playing cards with friends.
Fortunately, Ji Linqiu’s father wanted to bond with his son and warmly invited them to stay at home for another meal.
During the meal, the topic of Ji Linqiu’s jade pendant came up.
“I never buy jade,” Ji Guoshen sighed. “Little Jiang, you can see, we’re a teacher’s family. Besides books, our house is pretty empty — the TV is from several years ago.”
“But back then, when I was still in Xinjiang, my wife called me in a panic, saying Linqiu had suddenly fallen seriously ill, and even several days of IV drips at the hospital didn’t help.”
“At that time, he was in his third year of high school, the most crucial time for studying, and he suddenly got sick, and I couldn’t come back.”
“Feeling guilty, I thought about it and decided to ask a friend to go to a temple and get a piece of jade that had been blessed.”
After his surgery, the old man was physically weak and needed to rest after a few words, letting Ji Linqiu silently refill half a cup of tea.
“At that time, I wasn’t expecting him to do very well on the exams.”
“I just hoped that Linqiu would be safe, healthy, and happy, without any troubles.”
Jiang Wang looked at the mutton-fat jade bracelet on Ji Linqiu’s wrist and nodded gently, “I think the same.”
“What a coincidence,” Ji Guoshen didn’t catch the implied meaning and laughed, “ever since we got that jade back, Linqiu has obediently worn it every day.”
“And he really hasn’t gotten sick again. Isn’t that amazing?”
“Absolutely, absolutely!” Ji Linqiu’s mother had already heard this story over eight hundred times. While serving dishes, she laughed and said, “It’s rare for Linqiu to come back, so let’s hear something new!”
Ji Linqiu helped set the table and glanced at Jiang Wang in the meantime, “I specifically made you stir-fried long beans with meat today, and I didn’t put in any spice at all. You should thank my sister.”
Ji Changxia’s face turned red. “That’s what I should do, no need to thank me!”
Jiang Wang tried to save a bit of face.
“Actually… I can eat mildly spicy.”
“About yesterday’s meal, I specially called ahead to request it to be mildly spicy,” Ji Linqiu smiled warmly. “But it seems you can’t handle it.”
“…”
They ate lunch at home, and in the afternoon and evening, they would have to follow tradition and first visit the senior elders of the Ji family, chatting and drinking with them.
The mountain road was winding and narrow, with snow on the side that hadn’t completely melted. Free-range chickens and ducks pecked here and there in the woods, and after walking a few steps, a big yellow dog followed closely behind, wagging its tail affectionately.
Ji Changxia led the way, lowering her voice, “Several of my uncles like to drink heavily, so you both need to be careful.”
Jiang Wang became interested. “What do you mean by drinking heavily?”
“First, they drink rice wine, or open a couple of bottles of red wine from the city, and then they switch to yellow wine and white liquor,” Ji Changxia’s expression turned worried. “Last time, one of our relatives from the neighboring village got so drunk that he almost froze to death on the way home. They joke about it every day now.”
Ji Linqiu frowned. “During the New Year, they shouldn’t be so unreasonable.”
Jiang Wang smiled brightly. “It won’t be a problem.”
When they finally arrived at the banquet, before the food was even served, Jiang Wang was surrounded by familiar and unfamiliar faces, looking like the new star of the show.
He spoke charmingly, unlike Ji Guoshen’s son, who took ages to say anything useful. Jiang Wang could smoothly talk about food and pleasant topics, making everyone eager to chat with him.
Several older brothers from the clan deliberately brought over several boxes of liquor, wanting to test the skills of this outsider.
—They couldn’t let outsiders outshine them!
The women also had smiles on their faces, occasionally joining in the conversation while serving food and pouring drinks.
Ji Linqiu’s gaze remained fixed on the liquor boxes, his expression cautious.
“Hey, Brother Jiang,” the eldest son Ji Chuanrong called out loudly, “can you drink later?”
As soon as he spoke, many people chimed in.
“Don’t say you can’t drink! Those who are allergic and on medication shouldn’t make excuses either!”
“You city folks are good at finding excuses. It’s New Year’s, come on, let’s drink to celebrate!”
It felt like the formal test had begun, with the questions thrown out in public.
Jiang Wang laughed: “Of course I can, come on, fill it up.”
The crowd erupted into cheers.
