Chapter 333: Chapter 304 Always
Gu Qili looked at the old man standing outside the door and asked politely, "May I ask who you are looking for?"
"Hello, my last name is Yu. I’m here to pick up the young master. We spoke on the phone last night." Yu Bo smiled politely, "Is he here?"
As soon as he heard Uncle Yu’s voice, Mu Qinian immediately jumped off the chair, pouting his little face: "I’m not going back."
"Young Master, the gentleman already knows about your running away from home, and he is very angry."
"Then let him be angry. He doesn’t have time for me anyway." Mu Qinian pouted, "And besides, Miss Ali has to tutor me for my speech. She’s the new teacher in our French class."
Gu Qili: "..."
Since when did she get promoted to being a teacher.
"Right, teacher?" Mu Qinian turned to look at her, winking at her fiercely from the dark.
Gu Qili sighed in her heart. She liked kids, but she found herself particularly indulgent with this little one she had met by chance. She just couldn’t bring herself to refuse him.
Uncle Yu also looked at her with a puzzled face. With both pairs of eyes on her, Gu Qili was truly caught in a dilemma.
Reason told her that she should hand Niannian over to Uncle Yu, but her emotions wanted to selfishly keep him a few more days.
"Yes." The word came out before she even realized, and she was surprised at her own answer.
Mu Qinian looked up with a face full of delight, "See, Uncle Yu, I didn’t lie, did I?"
Uncle Yu shook his head helplessly, "Since the young master wishes to have his tutoring here, we can only trouble the teacher. Please save my number, and feel free to contact me if there’s anything. Also, the gentleman said yesterday, thank you for taking in the young master. Just let me know what you would like as a reward, and if it’s within our means, we shall fulfill it."
As soon as compensation was mentioned, Gu Qili felt that something was off about the whole situation. She suppressed the prejudice in her heart against this so-called gentleman, and tried to force a smile: "No need, this is our duty as teachers."
After Uncle Yu gave a few more instructions, he finally left. As soon as he did, Gu Qili put on a stern face and told the triumphant-looking Mu Qinian, "Qinian, lying is wrong, and children especially shouldn’t lie."
Mu Qinian lowered his head, rubbing one smooth little foot against the other, looking very wronged.
Sigh!
Gu Qili turned to get her slippers and bent down to slip them onto his little feet. They were much too large for him, but it was better than walking barefoot on the tiles.
She wasn’t anyone to him, so what right did she have to lecture him? Besides, seeing him look so pitiful made her feel bad too.
"Bring your backpack, I’ll take you to the kindergarten."
The usually head-down Mu Qinian suddenly gripped her hand with a nervous expression, asking tentatively, "Then will you come pick me up in the evening?"
"Qinian, is it really okay not to go home?"
"Anyway, my dad isn’t home, and besides, you said you would coach my speech, right?"
"But we’ve only just met, we don’t know each other well, why do you trust me so much? Aren’t you afraid I’ll sell you out?"
Mu Qinian snorted disdainfully, "You’re so dumb, you don’t even know to cover yourself with a blanket when you sleep. If anyone should be happy about not being sold, it’s you."
Gu Qili blinked, she did like to kick off the covers in her sleep, but what does that have to do with intelligence?
And, did he sneak out to watch her last night?
Mu Qinian’s face turned red with a bit of embarrassment, lifting his head proudly, "Anyway, if I don’t see you after school, I won’t leave."
Gu Qili wanted to rub his head but reconsidered when she saw his new Mohawk hairstyle, so she pinched his cheek instead: "Got it."
But when she turned around, a bit of warmth spread through her limbs with the flow of her blood.
As soon as Mu Qinian arrived at the kindergarten today, he immediately became the center of attention among the girls.
"Niannian, your new haircut looks so cool,"
"No touching." Mu Qinian refused coldly, his face stern. Normally, he’d never bother to explain, but he was in a good mood today and added unusually, "Ali did this for me, you’re not allowed to touch it."
"Your haircut is so ugly, it looks like a pile of poop on your head." An unpleasant voice came from behind; it was Jin Xiaojun, the boy from the kindergarten he got along with the least.
Jin Xiaojun held a ball in his arms and spat on the ground, "Ptui!"
"Jin Xiaojun." Mu Qinian’s eyes reddened,
Soon, the two little kids were scuffling together, and a little girl quickly ran to fetch the teacher.
In the evening, Gu Qili waited at the entrance of the kindergarten. First, Tongtong came bouncing out, "Auntie Qili."
Gu Qili picked her up
As soon as Qinian was mentioned, Tongtong’s little face scrunched up. Gu Qili felt something was wrong and looked up to see Mu Qinian trailing at the end of the crowd, his hair messy and with two blue marks under his eyes.
"Qinian, what happened?" Gu Qili rushed over.
Mu Qinian appeared indifferent, "I got into a fight."
"Miss, who might you be?" The kindergarten teacher saw her and immediately approached to inquire.
Gu Qili opened her mouth but didn’t know what to respond with. As she felt awkward about it, Mu Qinian suddenly said, "This is my sister."
While saying that, she grabbed her hand.
Sister? Gu Qili felt a bit embarrassed.
"Hello, Niannian’s sister, Niannian got into a fight with a kid today, and both were injured. Although the other child was rude first, Niannian still should not have resorted to hitting. I hope you can have a good talk with him when you get back."
On the way back, Gu Qili kept silent while Niannian looked over the speech he was going to give tomorrow at the competition.
She knew she had no right to discipline him, but when they passed a pharmacy, she went in to buy a bottle of disinfectant.
"Auntie Qili, it was Jin Xiaojun’s fault. He said Niannian’s hairstyle looks like a pile of poop. He’s always picking on Niannian." Tongtong sat on the couch, watching Gu Qili attending to Mu Qinian’s face with ointment.
"Stop blabbering." Mu Qinian’s face turned cold.
Tongtong huffed, "You just like the hairstyle Auntie Qili makes for you, so you don’t allow others to say it’s bad."
"Chen Yangtong, can’t you leave it alone?"
"Qinian." Gu Qili sighed, "Don’t be so harsh on girls, Tongtong is just looking out for you."
Mu Qinian pouted, turned his head away, and after a long while muttered, "Sorry."
"No problem." Tongtong cheerfully laughed, showing off her small teeth like a string of pearls.
Gu Qili took a boiled egg she had prepared, peeled it, and started gently rolling it on Mu Qinian’s face, "Does it still hurt?"
As Mu Qinian faced her full of concern, his nose suddenly tingled. He often got into fights before; it was always Uncle Yu who dealt with it, mainly by taking the beaten child to the hospital or simply resolving it with money. When he got home, his father would criticize him for fighting and never cared that he was injured too. He would never ask for the reason, let alone attend to his wounds like Ali.
He felt like Ali was an Ultraman sent to rescue him.
"Ali." Mu Qinian suddenly looked at her fair face earnestly, "Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Nope." Gu Qili continued to roll the egg in her hand, her eyes glistening brighter, "What’s up?"
Mu Qinian’s head hung low, his chubby little hands anxiously rubbing on his thighs, "If you don’t have a boyfriend, consider me, will you?"
Gu Qili almost crushed the egg in her hand, feeling both amused and touched, really unsure of how to respond.
"It’s okay, you can think about it for a few days. How about this - if I win first place in the speech competition." Mu Qinian spoke seriously, his eyes filled with eager anticipation.
"But Auntie Qili is old enough to be your mom." Tongtong said a little dejectedly from the side.
"Chen Zitong, shut up."
"Waah." Tongtong stifled her little mouth for a while, then finally burst into tears.
Gu Qili quickly picked her up to console her, while Mu Qinian turned his head away grumpily, "Crybaby."
The confession from Mu Qinian was interrupted by Tongtong’s loud cries, and later in the evening, he reviewed the content of his speech with Gu Qili. He had already become very confident.
"Ali, will you come to watch my competition tomorrow?" Crawling into bed, Mu Qinian gazed at Gu Qili as she tucked him in, both cautious and hopeful. Fearing she wouldn’t agree, he deliberately added gravity to his voice, "If I don’t see you, I’ll probably get flustered during the performance, and I might even feel the urge to pee."
Gu Qili tucked the blanket corner in a bit, "Won’t your dad accompany you?"
It was fine not to mention it, but once mentioned, his mood soured, "Don’t talk about him. He only has eyes for business. He has so much money he could go around the world who knows how many times, yet he is never satisfied."
"Alright then, go to sleep early, I’ll take you there tomorrow." Gu Qili realized that she really couldn’t refuse any request from this little guy.
Country F, Paris.
Mu Shuoqian had just finished a meeting when he received a message from Uncle Yu: Sir, at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, the young master has a French speech competition. Are you not attending?
Tomorrow morning?
Mu Shuoqian frowned, but Bruno had said it was next Wednesday. Was it he who misspoke, or had he misheard?
"What’s scheduled for the remaining days?" Mu Shuoqian asked Xiao Ran by his side.
Xiao Ran checked the itinerary, "There’s one field inspection and two meetings."
"Let Vice President Lin handle them; book a flight back home for me."
"Why does Young Master Qian suddenly want to return home?" This project was crucial for their expansion plans this year and fundamental to their future investments and building branches in Paris. Xiao Ran couldn’t fathom why Mu Shuoqian urgently needed to return.
Mu Shuoqian didn’t reply; he just looked up at the distant Champs Elysees and murmured slowly after a while, "Qinian looks just like his mother when he stands on the stage."