novelraw Chapter 1000 - 998: The Capital
Chapter 1000 - 998: The Capital
Essentially, Young Master Ji was about the same age as the students in front of him, so there was no such thing as a generation gap. But apart from his age being roughly the same as the students in the classroom, in everything else—whether knowledge, insight, or social experience—he was many times richer than these peers sitting below the podium.On top of that, even if he didn’t say a word and just stood there on the platform, he was a walking, capital-letter "Handsome." Not to mention he spoke with humor and could quote ancient and modern, domestic and foreign; a clearly boring class was handled by him so that the atmosphere was great and the interaction was lively. The students were all unexpectedly active.
Even Zhu Qianyu, who was full of prejudice against him and had assumed he was just a good-looking but useless pretty face, was drawn in by his quick wit and sharp tongue. In the end, she actually forgot her bias against him for a while and listened with great interest through both periods.
After finishing two periods, Mr. Ji stayed on the podium for more than ten minutes, in order to answer the questions of those enthusiastic, studious students.
Zhu Qianyu was usually one of those good students who would cling to the teacher between classes, asking all sorts of questions. But today, she was acting out of character: the moment class ended, she stacked her books and hurried out of the classroom.
Fang Ziqing quickened her pace and caught up behind her. "Little Bamboo, wait for me..."
After finally catching up, panting, Fang Ziqing shoved the water cup into Zhu Qianyu’s arms. "Why are you walking so fast, did you see a ghost or something? Don’t you want your water cup anymore?"
Zhu Qianyu tightened her arms, hugging the cup together with her books, but ignored Fang Ziqing. She strode quickly toward the elevator, and only when the elevator doors closed in front of her did she clearly let out a breath of relief.
"What’s with you? You’ve been especially weird these past few days. Are you feeling unwell?"
Fang Ziqing bent her arm and bumped her friend, giving Zhu Qianyu a careful once-over with a probing gaze. Although she didn’t live on campus, she could still tell that her friend had been a bit off these last few days.
Zhu Qianyu stared at the red floor numbers changing rapidly. "I’m not feeling unwell, I just haven’t been sleeping well lately!"
Fang Ziqing half believed, half doubted, but she vaguely knew her friend’s family situation was complicated, so she assumed Qianyu was worried about family matters. Seeing that she had no intention of talking, it didn’t feel right to press further.
Stepping out of the elevator, Fang Ziqing tugged Zhu Qianyu out of the teaching building.
"Let me treat you to coffee. There’s a new cute guy at the coffee shop—quite easy on the eyes!"
The café she meant was the one Zhu Qianyu usually liked to go to, the very place where she’d run into Ji Huan yesterday.
"I’m not going. I’m going back to the dorm today to help my Sister sort out some materials."
Right now, Zhu Qianyu didn’t want to go to the library or the café. She just wanted to curl up quietly in the dorm and do her own things.
He was a grown man. No matter how capable he was, there was no way he could fool the strict dorm supervisor and sneak into the girls’ dormitory, right?
Of course, Zhu Qianyu was overthinking it a little.
After running aground during the past few days of contact, Ji Huan had carefully reflected on his approach.
He didn’t know anything about Zhu Qianyu’s family background. He only knew she was from L City, so he assumed she came from a good family with strict upbringing, a proper good-girl type.
Putting himself in her shoes, if some man suddenly showed up and started showering him with attention for no reason, he’d be annoyed and on guard too.
What’s more, if his own Sister had run into the same thing at eighteen, he figured he would definitely use every means available to thoroughly punish and crush that man.
Realizing his approach had been too hasty and clearly inappropriate, Young Master Ji quickly put his armor back on and stayed up that very night to draft a new strategy.
This time, he wouldn’t rush things. Since he wanted to really get to know her and also hoped she would truly get to know him, he would create opportunities for her to slowly come to understand him.
Anyway, she was only a freshman. She’d be in L City for at least another two or three years. He refused to believe that in two or three years’ time he couldn’t even manage to become her friend.
Young Master Ji did everything with a plan. Once he said he wouldn’t rush, he really did stop trying to force extra interaction with her.
Catching her out of the corner of his eye, seeing her bolt out of the room the moment class ended like her feet had been greased, he didn’t feel discouraged. He patiently answered all the tough questions and doubts from the students gathered around him before gathering his teaching materials and leaving the classroom.
Once out of the teaching building, he didn’t go to the library. Instead, he drove straight off, and when the car passed the café from yesterday, he didn’t have any thought of stopping.
He figured she wouldn’t be going back to the library or that café for quite a while.
Thinking this, a faint sense of guilt skimmed across Young Master Ji’s heart.
His phone rang just as his car came to a stop outside the courtyard.
"Mr. Huan, how’d it go? Did class go smoothly?"
The caller was Xian Bo, Young Master Ji’s senior back at B University, the very teacher of the elective foreign language course Zhu Qianyu had chosen.
"Senior, do you even need to ask?"
Young Master Ji had always been overflowing with confidence. Wearing his headset, he chatted with Xian Bo as he pushed open the gate and strode into the yard.
"Tsk tsk, they all say Mr. Huan is B University’s once-in-a-decade genius, and sure enough, seeing is believing, your reputation is well-deserved! Junior, you better not show off too much. You’re the Ji Family young master; you obviously look down on this crappy lecturer job, right? Junior, have mercy on me! Spare me!"
Xian Bo and Ji Huan had been close friends for years, so most of what he said was in jest. Even now, his tone was grinning and unserious.
"Relax, Senior. I really don’t have much interest in the noble calling of teaching. If it weren’t for the subsidiary wanting to develop related software, I couldn’t be bothered to deal with that noisy bunch of kids."
That’s right, the reason Young Master Ji had approached Xian Bo and volunteered to cover his classes for free was under the pretext that a subsidiary wanted to develop related learning and teaching software.
As for whether Xian Bo believed that or not, Young Master Ji didn’t care. He hadn’t planned on subbing for long anyway.
After all, Zhu Qianyu wasn’t stupid. Given time, she would eventually notice something.
"Calling them kids—Junior, they’re about your age, aren’t they? So that makes you a kid too?"
"I am absolutely not!"
How could Young Master Ji be a kid? What kind of "kid" starts investing and managing a massive amount of personal pocket money at eleven or twelve? What kind of "kid" starts hanging around the management of the Ji Family and Yang Family—two of the country’s top corporations—at thirteen or fourteen, taking part in management affairs? What kind of "kid" joins the Ji Family at seventeen or eighteen, under the banner of a star student from top-tier B University, and becomes one of the board members with extremely high decision-making power?
On the other end of the line, Xian Bo naturally knew that Young Master Ji was no kid. In fact, from the moment he became the other’s senior, he’d had immense respect for this junior who was eight or nine years younger than him.
"Alright, enough small talk. Are you sure you still want to sub my classes next week?"
"Yeah, go wherever you want and have fun. This week, I’ll keep a good eye on this troop of little monkeys for you."
Although he still hadn’t made any progress today, Young Master Ji had no intention of backing down.