Early the next day, Tao Fengche returned to school and promptly handed in his signed homework book.

The second period in the morning was Chinese class taught by Feng Hui. The entire class went smoothly, and Tao Fengche thought everything was settled. However, at noon when class ended, Feng Hui, who had just finished teaching Class 2, specifically asked the class representative to fetch Tao Fengche to her office.

Wang Yuan was somewhat worried and wanted to accompany Tao Fengche, but Tao Fengche didn’t intend for him to witness this one-on-one conversation. He simply handed his meal card to Wang Yuan, using the excuse of the cafeteria being crowded, and asked him to go ahead and queue for food. Wang Yuan obediently trotted off.

It was only a short walk down the corridor from Class 1 of the second year to the teachers’ office, no more than two minutes at most. Yet Tao Fengche took more than five minutes to arrive.

He couldn’t understand why Feng Hui wanted to see him again this time.

Yesterday evening, only the homework that required a signature needed to be completed. He also caught up with the previous assignments and there was no upcoming event he needed to attend, let alone the time to go to summer camp…

It couldn’t simply be for a chat, right? Feng Hui wasn’t the type to have that much free time.

But Tao Fengche clearly underestimated Feng Hui’s strong sense of responsibility as a teacher and her… preaching desire.

“Fengche, you’re here?” Feng Hui had just returned to the office after teaching Class 2, books and lesson plans scattered across her desk. She glanced at Tao Fengche and gestured to the small plastic stool prepared beside her seat. “Sit.”

Perplexed, Tao Fengche sat down and soon found himself enduring a storm of moral lectures.

Feng Hui was clearly satisfied with the homework he submitted. After pulling it out and placing it in front of both of them, she spoke earnestly, emphasizing that parents and children grow together. Yesterday, she communicated with Sui Yuesheng and found that he was not the kind of stubborn guardian. On the contrary, he was very receptive. She could also sense his special concern for Tao Fengche’s academic situation, unlike what Tao Fengche had described as a guardian who neglects him due to work.

However, Feng Hui didn’t suspect Tao Fengche of lying. Based on her teaching experience, she concluded that there was definitely a lack of communication between them.

Tao Fengche: “…”

He was dumbfounded, feeling that the Sui Yuesheng in Feng Hui’s mouth was definitely not the same person he knew.

Polite and extremely courteous? If not for alpha’s strong regenerative ability, in other words, tough skin and high resistance to being hit, he would have had to come to school with a face swollen like a steamed bun!

But Feng Hui didn’t realize Tao Fengche’s current mood. She continued earnestly, saying that although his grades were good, family education was just as important as school education, and he should communicate more with his guardian, etc.

Tao Fengche: “…”

He seriously wondered whether Sui Yuesheng’s name was too intimidating, or Feng Hui was too indifferent to current affairs, which led to this conversation today. In Feng Hui’s imagination, Sui Yuesheng was probably some distant relative of his who had suddenly taken over as his burdensome guardian, so their relationship was unfamiliar.

…He wondered what Feng Hui’s mood would be like when she met Sui Yuesheng, who was only a few years older than her, at the parent-teacher meeting.

However, Tao Fengche kept his thoughts to himself. After the last incident, he finally realized that Feng Hui was a straightforward person. Just graduated from university, never dated, and devoted all her enthusiasm to her students, especially because she was their class teacher, she paid extra attention. Just from the occasional calls to students to her office, it was obvious.

The students of Class 1 of the second year had long been accustomed to this, but Tao Fengche had never experienced anything like it before. Since the fight with Cai Hong, it was like opening the door to a new world. His frequency of visits to the office had increased linearly, and even being held by Feng Hui for such a long talk was the second time.

“Third time’s the charm,” Tao Fengche didn’t want to go through it again, but even this time, he was barely holding on.

He put on a sincere expression, with a touch of sadness mixed in. His slightly drooping dog eyes stared directly at Feng Hui, constantly nodding in agreement during her speech. She was very pleased with the results of her education and thought she had saved a young man in distress and saved a family on the brink of collapse.

She spent another three minutes summarizing the conversation before finally letting Tao Fengche go.

Tao Fengche practically flew out of the office, breathing a sigh of relief as soon as he stepped out the door.

Finally survived. Feng Hui’s talk was like a monk chanting scriptures, really hard to bear.

Tao Fengche staggered to the cafeteria and bumped into a complicated-looking Wang Yuan.

Since Sui Yuesheng had stopped his card, the two hadn’t been to the cafeteria for meals.

Although Sui Yuesheng had given Tao Fengche a supplementary card with a limit of a thousand, not every store in Jingpu had a POS machine. Luckily, Tao Fengche rummaged through his room that night and finally found a few hundred yuan in cash, then discussed with Wang Yuan, deciding to go to the commercial street for lunch every day.

They ate from one store to another, with a “live for today” mentality.

But today Feng Hui had a sudden talk with Tao Fengche, and the school didn’t allow takeout or packed food, so the two had to settle for lunch in the cafeteria. But at this moment, Wang Yuan’s expression…

Tao Fengche’s heart sank.

Over ten days ago, the embarrassment of not having money to pay at the clay pot rice restaurant left a deep psychological shadow on him.

Although he hadn’t topped up his meal card since the beginning of the year, he remembered there was still money in it. Sui Yuesheng had also said that Assistant Zhou would top it up for him. He couldn’t have forgotten, right?!

Just as he was about to ask Wang Yuan if the card couldn’t be swiped, the latter spoke in a faint voice: “Tao Ge, do you know how much balance you have left on your card?”

Tao Fengche inexplicably felt nervous. Before he could answer, Wang Yuan gave the answer tremblingly: “Over a hundred thousand, Ge… Our school’s most expensive meal is fifty yuan, did you foresee your guardian would stop your card, so you topped it up in advance? This is a bit too much preparation…”

“When are you planning to eat until?” Wang Yuan asked soulfully.

Tao Fengche: “…”

Good question, he wanted to know too.

Tao Fengche never expected that Assistant Zhou, who took orders from Sui Yuesheng, would top up his meal card in such a way.

“Even in school, you’re the only one with this much,” Wang Yuan said, pulling out his phone and typing furiously, “I have to share this.”

But how could Tao Fengche let that happen?

He grabbed Wang Yuan’s neck with a smile: “I’ll treat you to a meal, pick any place in school.”

Wang Yuan’s eyes rolled: “A week?”

Tao Fengche agreed: “A week it is.”

After all, there was over a hundred thousand in the card, might as well use it.

“Deal!” Wang Yuan put down his phone, picked up his chopsticks, and mumbled while eating, “Ge, I was just joking, you took it seriously…”

Wang Yuan would never admit he had the impulse to hack the school forum and broadcast this incident.

Tao Fengche took a bite of his meal, suddenly feeling a pang of unease.

Feng Hui’s earlier words, “Mr. Sui actually cares about you,” echoed in his mind.

Could it be…

Tao Fengche forced the thought down.

But he had to admit, he spent the entire afternoon with a sense of expectation, distracted during class, and even quickened his pace towards the school gate after school.

The car wound its way up the mountain road. It was just a regular evening after school, but Tao Fengche inexplicably felt a bit nervous, with a faint sense of expectation.

So it was hard to describe his feelings when he walked into the dining room to find only one set of utensils on the table.

He suppressed the sudden surge of disappointment, ate in a daze, and couldn’t resist asking Xu Song casually: “Isn’t Sui Yuesheng coming back for dinner?”

Xu Song was visibly startled: “Young master Sui didn’t tell me he was coming back, did he tell you?”

Tao Fengche smiled wryly at his own self-delusion: “Never mind, I must have remembered wrong.”

He took a sip of soup to cover it up: “Don’t tell him about this.”

“Yes, sir.” Xu Song nodded in agreement.

All evening, Tao Fengche was restless. He suddenly began to care about whether there was the sound of a car engine downstairs. While doing biology homework, he habitually turned to the answer page but, after a moment of daze, closed it and took out a reference book from the shelf, began to mark notes, and reviewed all the knowledge points of the day before starting.

Even he couldn’t explain why he was doing this.

At 9:20 p.m., he finished his homework, but instead of going downstairs to work out as usual, he took a book and sat by the window, flipping through it absentmindedly, his eyes occasionally drifting outside.

At 10:00, he told himself he would go work out, convincing himself with the excuse that he was too tired recently and could rest a bit today.

Although he felt time was dragging, objectively speaking, he didn’t wait long.

Around 9:45, the familiar Karlmann King stopped at the main house entrance, Sui Yuesheng got out, followed by Assistant Zhou.

As expected, Sui Yuesheng would continue working even after coming home.

Tao Fengche pursed his lips, knowing what would happen next, but still found himself back at his desk, opening a textbook.

In less than five minutes, Sui Yuesheng pushed open the door: “Finished your homework?”

Tao Fengche nodded, pushing his prepared homework forward, casually asking: “Aren’t you having a meeting tonight?”

“No rush.” Sui Yuesheng was busy scanning through his homework without looking up.

He didn’t seem in a hurry, even took time to check his biology homework, had Tao Fengche recite the lessons, and casually asked a few questions to check his understanding.

But when Tao Fengche got up around 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom, he heard some noises.

Curious, he opened his door and followed the faint sounds upstairs, stopping at the familiar study door.

It was late, but the lights were still on, and he could hear Sui Yuesheng giving instructions to Assistant Zhou.

Tao Fengche felt a sudden complexity in his emotions.