Chapter 38.1

Whenever she was free, she would tutor him. In addition, recently she liked to draw a pretty pictures for him.

“If you manage to complete these two questions in under twenty minutes, you’ll definitely be able to enter top 70.”

With his chin resting on his hand, Gu Jing Yuan showed signs of wariness. He gazed lazily at her with his eyebrow raised. 

“That’s too long later. Final exams are still a week away.” 

“Then, what do you want?” She surrendered and let this great Lord take his pick.   

The evening breeze slightly rustled the window gauze and the bright moonlight shone onto him.

His thin lips raised and his deep black eyes revealed a hint of seduction.

“If I complete them, I want a hug. Ge-ge doesn’t mind giving you some self-warming benefits.” 

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

“…” Mys Zk Dk tyhl y qykdv pxkzl. “Mbld vblpl iwlpvksdp yald’v iwyzkqkle vs cl wple.”&dcpr;

Gp pbl pyke vbyv, pbl alynble kdvs bla pnbsszcyt yde vssj swv bla Xzuxrkye raynvknl iwlpvksdp.

Fbl aydesxzu qzkrrle vs y rytl.

Gp bl vssj y zssj yv vbl iwlpvksd vsrknp, kv qlzv zkjl bl oyp vbasod cynj vs obld bl qkapv pvyavle bkp pvweukdt fswadlu.&dcpr;

Xvbla vbyd vbl kdekhkewyz osaep, lhlauvbkdt lzpl eke dsv xyjl pldpl. Ohlauvbkdt zssjle zkjl y czwa.&dcpr;

“Rq usw nyd qkdkpb vbkp kd voldvu xkdwvlp, zlv yzsdl y bwt, y jkpp kp yzps rsppkczl.”

Qw Kkdt Zwyd’p blyav pjkrrle y clyv. Tl oyp kd ekpclzklq.

Fbl fwpv pyke…

A kiss?

“I’ll do it.” He pulled the book towards himself. 

Yet, there was no turbulence in Tao Yi Xi’s expression.

If he did not hear it with his own ears, he would not have believed that she would be game for such a thing. 

He sat upright, looking extremely serious.

Tao Yi Xi took out her phone and clicked on the stopwatch function.

The moment she pressed the start button, Gu Jing Yuan did not waste any time and started looking through the questions with narrowed eyes. His mind was rapidly turning and disgesting the question.

Once the countdown started, his whole person was immediately immersed in the question. Even when someone came knocking on the door, it did not divert his attention. 

Tao Yi Xi waited for a while. Seeing that he still did not move, she stood up and went to open the door. 

It was Nanny Yang again.

As long as the two of them were in the same room, she would come knocking several times a night.

Nanny Yang stretched her head in to have a look at the situation. Her young master did not turn around and had his head buried as he did his practice questions. 

Although she was relieved, the glance she cast at Tao Yi Xi was still frigid. She stepped past Tao Yi Xi and put a tray on the table beside Gu Jing Yuan. Tao Yi Xi’s book acted as a cushion for the tray.

The room was quiet, even though Nanny Yang wanted to stay, she knew she could not. She started contemplating what excuse she can use later on. 

As she was closing the door, her eye fell on Tao Yi Xi, who was leaning against the bookshelves reading her own book. Her outer appearance looked soft but she had an air of detachment. Looking as if she was not involved with Young Master’s studies. 

Aware of Nanny Yang’s gaze, Tao Yi Xi lifted her eyes to return her stare. Tao Yi Xi gave her a polite smile, but her gaze lacked respect.

Hypocritical.

Nanny Yang shut the door in anger.

Tao Yi Xi indifferently withdrew her gaze and continued to read her book. 

As the twenty minutes countdown trickled away, he scratched his ears in frustration and even pulled several strands of hair.

“Time’s up,” she solemnly ended the timer.

Gu Jing Yuan reluctantly put down his pen. 

“I’ve lost.” He helplessly scratched his head.

Tao Yi Xi glanced at him, “Don’t take it out on your hair, you wouldn’t look good if you started balding.”

“…” Gu Jing Yuan’s hands stiffened before he lowered them obediently.

Holding his test paper, Tao Yi Xi looked through his answers in contemplation.

His method of solving the problem was slightly cumbersome but he was heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, his thought process was lacking, preventing him from being able to solve the question entirely. 

However, if he was given more time, with more trial and error, she believed that he would eventually reach the correct answer.  

The red pen in her hand briefly skimmed his answer sheet, “You have quite the potential.”

It was such an enviable innate capability.

Gu Jing Yuan’s face was covered in utter defeat. His originally lazy countenance was completely ripped apart by her. 

“Forget it.”

Having been baptized by such difficult questions, he became more well-behaved as he picked up the exercise book he previously tossed aside. 

It was then, he spotted the tray at her side of the table. He frowned, “Why is there something on your exercise papers?” 

“Oh, that’s the supper that Nanny Yang brought up for you.”

Gu Jing Yuan immediately picked up the tray. Tao Yi Xi had a sense of extreme dedication towards studying that ordinary people could not comprehend. She treated her books with seriousness and care. This action of putting the tray on her books was practically dancing along her bottom line. Fortunately, the base of the tray was relatively clean, and it did not stain her books.

Observing her expressionless face, he weakly apologized, “I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need for you to apologize.” To remove it posthaste upon noticing it had shown that he had already changed.

“Do you want some?”

Tao Yi Xi shook her head. Seeing how frequently Nanny Yang was coming in, it was true that it was getting a bit late.

“Eat slowly. Later, time yourself to complete this in twenty minutes. I’ll check it tomorrow.” 

Staring at her departing back, his food suddenly felt tasteless.

After taking a couple more bites, he carried the tray downstairs only to bump into her again. 

His mood immediately became brighter.

Their encounter was always so coincidental. It was as if some higher divine being was trying to bring them together.

Upon hearing the approaching footsteps, Tao Yi Xi raised her head in surprise. 

The warm light illuminated her figure, her clear eyes shone brighter than the moon outside. 

She shook the coffee bottle, “Want a cup?”

“Okay.”

Grabbing his black mug, she poured in the coffee and added some milk.  

“You can add other things inside?” 

“Yes. You haven’t been drinking it pure, have you?” 

“…”

Tao Yi Xi thought back to when he was drunk and he complained about ‘that black thing is so bitter’. Her lips raised and she chuckled, “It’s not that you can’t drink it that way. It would just be slightly bitter.” 

“…” This was considered ‘slightly bitter’?

“Here, have a taste and see for yourself.”

Gu Jing Yuan took a sip. The taste was mellow and silky, completely different from what he had drank before.

“Delicious.” But it was a little cold.

She was about to lift the mug to her lips when he stopped her.

“Heat it up first.”

“Ge-ge, this is cold brew coffee.”

After a moment of contemplation, he took her cup, “Then you shouldn’t drink it. Recently, there’s no more competition or examinations. Go and sleep.” 

“?” Tao Yi Xi was pushed forward by him.

How ungrateful, I made you coffee and you treat me like this?

After sending her back to her room, he stared at her mug in a daze. His heart was slightly curious and ticklish, but somewhat hesitant.

In the end, he could not help reaching out.

After a while, the originally full cup of coffee only left a shallow layer at the bottom of the mug. There was a slight coffee stain on the mouth of the cup.

He licked his lips. The tip of his tongue soon retracted back behind his white teeth.

So sweet.

**

Without the blessing of caffeine, sleepiness soon shrouded her senses.

Her body felt inexplicably tired and she fell asleep not long after lying on the bed.

When morning arrived, she felt a slight discomfort in her abdomen. Not a moment later, she felt a warm sensation flowing from below.

Startled, she jumped off the bed. Luckily, there were no traces left on the sheets.

Usually, on her first day, the flow was relatively small.

On top of that, the stomach pangs she experienced this round were not as severe.

With his recent action of always brewing brown sugar ginger tea for her to drink, even the water she consumed had been on the warmer side.

The doctor previously said that these symptoms came about because she previously did not take care of her body well. Hence, she needed to pay more attention to nurturing her body.

He did a great job nurturing it on her behalf. 

As she was washing up, she suddenly recalled his actions last night and she paused.

Did he remember when her period was?

Even she, herself, did not remember it so clearly. 

As an astute person, she experienced a rare sense of bewilderment.