Dragon King’s Son-In-Law

“Um…” Hao Ren was utterly stunned as he and Zhao Yanzi gazed into each other’s eyes.

Zhao Yanzi suddenly stood up, walk in front of the English teacher with a stern face, and put her written self-reflection report on the desk.

Ms. Jin sat straight and picked up the report. She read it over and turned to Zhao Yanzi. “You don’t sound very sincere here.”

Zhao Yanzi gritted her teeth and gasped for some air. Her face turned green from the embarrassment.

Hao Ren sat beside Ms. Jin, so he could clearly see Zhao Yanzi’s reaction.

“Why, did I say something wrong?” Ms. Jin put on a serious look after seeing Zhao Yanzi’s reaction. “Was it my mistake to catch you cheating on your homework in class?”

Zhao Yanzi gritted her teeth and pouted; she looked unconvinced, which made Ms. Jin even sterner. She said to Zhao Yanzi, “Let me tell you. Don’t think that you are all perfect just because you did well on the midterm! Your English grade is still one of the lowest in the class!”

Zhao Yanzi suppressed her anger, but Xie Yujia couldn’t help but say, “Don’t be mad, Ms. Jin. Good grades come gradually and copying someone’s homework is only a rare occasion.”

“I don’t need you to speak up for me!” Zhao Yanzi suddenly yelled as she stared at Xie Yujia.

Ms. Jin knocked her hand on the table. “What kind of attitude is this!”

“There’s no attitude whatsoever!” Zhao Yanzi talked back.

Although Hao Ren wasn’t a student at this school, he couldn’t keep watching anymore. He stood up and pulled Zhao Yanzi to the side.

Zhao Yanzi pouted and stared at Hao Ren as if she was blaming it all on him.

“Save yourself some words.” Hao Ren patted her arm lightly.

He used to be scolded by his teachers and knew that the best one could do was to apologize and show regret for the mistake. There would never be a good outcome if one were to talk back to the teacher.

Ms. Jin couldn’t hold back her anger and said to Xie Yujia, “Look! Look! This is what the students are like nowadays!”

She looked at Zhao Yanzi and continued, “If you were half as understanding as the students I used to have, I wouldn’t be worrying so much!”

“She is a good student, and I’m not!” Zhao Yanzi shouted abruptly.

“What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” Zhao Yanzi’s Class Advisor, Luo Ying, walked in and spotted Zhao Yanzi who was almost about to quarrel with Ms. Jin.

Zhao Yanzi was a bit scared of the Class Advisor. Thus, her toughness suddenly decreased a lot. She kept her mouth shut, pouting.

Hao Ren finally relaxed. He pulled on her arm, but she pushed his arm away immediately.

“Ms. Jin, there’s no need to get into an argument with a student even though they don’t behave,” Luo Ying said to the English teacher. Then, she waved at Zhao Yanzi and said, “Come over here.”

Zhao Yanzi gritted her teeth and walked to her.

“I asked different teachers for your homework, and I know you copied all of this weekend’s homework from Xue Ling. Let’s put that aside and answer this question first – what did you do this weekend?” Luo Ying seemed to be nice, yet her eyes were staring at Zhao Yanzi sharply.

Zhao Yanzi pouted her mouth and kept quiet, but Hao Ren knew that she went to Zhejiang with him this weekend.

“It is true that you have shown some improvement in your midterms but getting into a relationship while your grades are going up would definitely affect your studies. Do you know that?” Luo Ying continued.

Zhao Yanzi wanted to explain but didn’t know where to start. She wasn’t sure what Luo Ying meant by a ‘relationship.

“Don’t think that I don’t know. That guy named Hao Ren. He climbed over the wall to see you while you were in PE class a few days ago, right?” Luo Ying continued to ask.

Zhao Yanzi and Xie Yujia both shivered at Luo Ying’s words.

Xie Yujia turned to Hao Ren, but Hao Ren didn’t know where to look all of a sudden.

“Now that you are fully committed to the relationship, you don’t even have time to do your homework? Were you hanging out with him this whole weekend?” Luo Ying asked again.

Zhao Yanzi’s anger turned into embarrassment. To her surprise, Luo Ying guessed everything right. Hao Ren’s heart sank at the same time; it sounded like he was the one to be blamed for all of this after all.

“I know a teacher from City North First High School, and I will go find that Hao Ren sometime to talk with him,” Luo Ying said seriously.

“What a Class Advisor… To chase after me across schools.” Hao Ren was stunned as he stood beside Ms. Jin’s desk.

Luo Ying changed back to her friendly tone after the few remarks. “I’ll let it go this time. Go back to class.”

Zhao Yanzi walked immediately toward the office door after hearing that.

Ms. Jin was relatively young, and she didn’t want to let it go.

“Ms. Luo, you are letting her go just like this?” she asked.

“What else can I do? Check out my drawer,” Luo Ying pulled her drawer open and said, “There is a dozen of her self-reflection reports here already!”

Hao Ren sighed slightly, thinking, “Zhao Yanzi is just like me when I was her age. Quite a self-reflection report producer!”

“And you,” Luo Ying turned to Hao Ren and said to him, “As her cousin, you need to tell her to focus on her study more!”

Hao Ren thought, “I tell her to study every day. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have gotten so much better on her midterms.”

Xie Yujia was confused as she heard Luo Ying call Hao Ren Zhao Yanzi’s cousin.

Ms. Jin turned from angry to surprise when she found out that Hao Ren was Zhao Yanzi’s cousin. That meant Zhao Yanzi was the cousin of her favorite student’s boyfriend.

“How are you lately, Yujia? You should be a second-year student now, right?” Luo Ying asked Xie Yujia.

“Yes, I’m in my second year, and midterms have just finished as well,” Xie Yujia answered softly. Good students like her had always been popular among teachers.

Hao Ren felt awkward standing between them. He sneaked to the door and said to Xie Yujia, “I’ll go take a walk outside.”

She gave him a sweet smile and said, “Eh… Don’t go too far. You might get lost.”

Hao Ren nodded and got out of the office. He felt the stress inside the office, and he is a lot more relieved.

While standing outside, he vaguely heard Luo Ying asking Xie Yujia quietly, “Is he really your boyfriend?”

“He is actually pretty nice, and… I know Zhao Yanzi as well. She is a nice girl,” Xie Yujia tried to defend Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi.

Hao Ren went to the balcony of a classroom ahead of him. He looked into the window when he passed by Class Two of the Eighth Grade and saw Zhao Yanzi doodling on her blank notebook in her seat, which was located in the front of the classroom.

A few students turned to him as they noticed someone at the window. Zhao Yanzi looked over as well. However, she immediately looked down at her notebook as soon as she saw Hao Ren. She put more force on her pen as if she was mad at the pen.

Their Geology teacher was explaining air pressure on the whiteboard, and he noticed the weirdness on Zhao Yanzi’s face. He called out her name and asked her to answer a question, but Zhao Yanzi couldn’t explain it at all since she wasn’t listening.

She looked at Hao Ren by the window and blushed in embarrassment.

Hao Ren smiled, thinking it really was not her day. He walked on to the sports field next.

After a while, he figured it was about time that Xie Yujia finished chatting with her teachers. Therefore, he went back to the office that he was in earlier.

Luo Ying looked up from the homework that she was grading and said, “Yujia is in the office next door.”

Hao Ren stayed at the door and asked, “Could I talk with you for a bit, Ms. Luo?”

Luo Ying stood up in surprise and walked out of the office.

Luo Ren felt strangely nervous facing a middle school teacher like Luo Ying. However, he took a deep breath and said, “Actually, Zhao Yanzi is not a bad kid at all. She is under a lot of pressure at the moment. Please be more patient with her.”

“She skips classes, talks back to the teachers, reads comic books and magazines in class, and causes conflicts with students from higher grades. Aren’t those enough?” Luo Ying asked Hao Ren.

“Maybe she is not as obedient as Xie Yujia, but that doesn’t mean she is not a good person,” Hao Ren said.

Luo Ying stared at Hao Ren as he looked into her eyes sincerely.

“Maybe my way of judging students is one-sided and too simple. However, the improvement in their grades is the best indication of their hard work. If Zhao Yanzi can rank in the top six in the finals, I will change my view of her,” Luo Ying said.

Hao Ren thought for a bit and nodded. “OK!”

Luo Ying added as Hao Ren was about to leave, “Yujia is a very good girl. Although university relationships often end after graduation, I would still like for you to take good care of her.”

Hao Ren looked at her and didn’t know what to say. Luo Ying expression and tone showed her care for her old student.

“She likes you a lot from the way she talked about you. Although you were not my student, I could see that you are not a bad person. So, please be nice to her,” seeing that Hao Ren was quiet, Luo Ying added.

“Um…” Hao Ren mumbled and answered before heading toward the other office.

Xie Yujia pushed the door open and walked out of that office at the same time.

Xie Yujia was surprised to see Hao Ren and Luo Ying outside of the office and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Oh, he is asking me about Zhao Yanzi. Do you want to stick around for a little while, Yujia? We can have dinner together.”

“It’s ok, Ms. Luo. I still need to go over to the High School Department!” Xie Yujia answered energetically.

“Ok! Go ahead then!” Luo Ying laughed pleasantly.

“Goodbye, Ms. Luo!” Xie Yujia waved and pulled on Hao Ren’s shirt, guiding him downstairs.

Luo Ying watched them and smiled as she shook her head.

She thought Hao Ren was a bit presumptuous when she first saw him at the Parent-Teacher Meeting. But now, she thought that Xie Yujia might have a good pair of eyes for picking out guys.

“But this Zhao Yanzi is like a crooked stone that is difficult to polish. She will have much better grades if she behaves like Xie Yujia…” Luo Ying sighed slightly and went back to her office.