Afternoon, Friday, November 4th.
Ning Qing glanced at the cloudy sky that was tinted with the red of the setting sun and packed her umbrella. She was wearing loose tailored pants and a warm woollen turtleneck sweater over her shirt, having decided to forgo a coat for more layers.
She looked down on her phone and saw that it was almost 6pm, so she quickly put on her shoes and checked her large tote bag to make sure she packed everything and walked through the courtyard.
Reaching the old wicker chair, Ning Qing squatted down and faced the old woman who was reading a book seriously as the cup of green tea grew cold on the table beside her.
"Grandma, it's getting late. You should go back inside, I'll be back by 8, okay?" She spoke very gently.
The old woman put down her reading glasses and returned her smile. The wrinkles on her skin made her seem very old but her eyes were very bright and she seemed energetic.
"Don't worry about me dear. I'll wait for you to come home. Anyway Xiaoyao is studying in the living room, I don't want to disturb her."
Ning Qing sighed, then glanced at the time, and decided not to persuade her. She just warned her to go back inside if it started raining, and then quickly waved goodbye.
The old woman watched her granddaughter briskly leaving through the gateway and shook her head.
She must be very tired running around all day. Child, you can rest now. It's all right…
But she knew her words wouldn't have any effect. Thinking of Ning Qing's smiling face that always seemed so gentle, only she knew how stubborn she was.
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Ning Qing reached Lin Yuan's house with 20 minutes to go. Walking towards the door she was a little happy thinking about the message she'd received yesterday.
It's good that I can continue to be his tutor.
The pay was very good and she didn't have to work very long and she felt they could get along quite well. She had tried working part-time at the cram school but she didn't anticipate how much extra work graduate students had, it had quickly become infeasible. So when Lin Yuerong had asked her to help tutor her little brother, she was very grateful.
Sister Yuerong has always been very kind to me, I have to teach her brother well.
Ringing the bell, she only waited a few seconds before the door opened.
"Teacher Ning." Lin Yuan stood inside with a calm expression on his face.
Hearing this address, Ning Qing was surprised but she still smiled naturally.
"Hello, Lin Yuan. I'm a little early aren't I?" She entered the house and took the guest slippers Lin Yuan handed her.
"It's fine." Then there wasn't any further talking as she followed him to the living room.
Sitting down on the sofa with her palms on her knees she felt a little awkward.
It feels different from last time. The mood is off…
"Is your sister still at work?"
"Yes."
"...Well then do you want to start early? I hope you did all your homework, I'll be seriously checking it today."
Ning Qing smiled as she spoke with a false strictness.
Lin Yuan who was sitting on the single couch next to the sofa was about to nod quietly in confirmation but then he suddenly thought of something and got up.
"Um, I'll make you some tea first. We can start at the normal time." Then without waiting for a response he quickly left for the kitchen.
Seeing his stiff expression as he walked away, Ning Qing smiled. Then seeing as there was nothing to do for a while, she placed her bag beside the couch and got up to look around the room.
The living room was quite large but overall it was pretty sparse. There was an artificial fireplace next to the tv and there were quite a few photos on the mantel above it. She wandered her eyes across them for a while, stopping at one for a long time.
It was a family of four standing together in front of a school gate. It looked like an elementary school graduation photo. Ning Qing instantly recognised the small slightly pudgy face of Lin Yuerong but she was stunned by a boy around 11 or 12 that was smiling happily in the middle of the photo.
That wide carefree smile was dazzling.
Ning Qing was lost in thought when she heard Lin Yuan's footsteps out in the hallway. For some reason she quickly returned to her seat and took out her phone and pretended to be scrolling.
After a few seconds, she looked up to see Lin Yuan coming to the sofa steadily holding a tray.
"Thank you."
Ning Qing gracefully took the ornate porcelain tea cup from the tray and smiled. Watching him sit down again and glance at her with a slightly expectant look on his face, she placed the cup slowly to her lips, blowing lightly, before taking a sip.
It's sweet.
"It's delicious."
"Oh." He nodded slightly and then lowered his eyes.
Sipping the sugary black tea, Ning Qing couldn't help but think back to that picture.
It must have been a few years after that…
Ning Qing's thoughts returned to what Lin Yuerong had told her one night when she'd been drinking.
"You know he used to smile a lot, and he was a very naughty kid! He would always mess with me and pull my hair. We were always fighting." She was complaining but she looked happy.
"But ever since my father died he's become completely closed off. We were so close, but now he just stays in his room and I barely see him all day."
"He's going to be in his final year of high school soon, and then he'll be in college. You know I'm worried about him, if he goes to Beijing all alone I don't know what he'll do…"
It'd been the first time Lin Yuerong had really talked about her brother. The last time she had seen the always cheerful senior sister show such a face was almost five years ago.
Thinking back, I was also around the same age…
"What you said before, I looked it up, it's from a book right? I tried to find it in the library at school but it was in Chinese…"
"...I mean I was just wondering where to get it in English…you said before I should read more in English right?..." His voice trailed off slightly until it was a whisper.
Ning Qing was shaken from her thoughts so she was a little confused in the beginning. By the time she'd organised her words he had gone silent. She looked at his lowered head that was looking down at his phone and spoke softly.
"It's good you're being so proactive Lin Yuan. You're right, it's from Demian by Hermann Hesse, because it was originally in German you probably won't find an English version at your school. Actually you can probably find one at Xinjiang Public Library…"
"...Or if you want I can give you my one? I think I have it lying around somewhere at home."
Seeing him look up, she smiled gently.
"How about it? I'll bring it with me to the next lesson, okay?"
"Oh, okay…thanks."
Then she spoke again with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"By the way that reminds me, you still have a punishment right? Hmm, what can you do, what can you do? I have to make it difficult…"
Seeing the surprise on his face, and his eyebrows furrowing tightly, Ning Qing laughed.
"Okay, okay, I'm just joking! Don't look so scared." Then Ning Qing couldn't help but let out another chuckle.
"...Boring."
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…
After a while Ning Qing once again followed Lin Yuan up the stairs to his bedroom. When they reached his room she was surprised to see his desk had already been cleared and the previous disarray of exercise papers and books had been tidied up.
She glanced at the large uneven pile next to his bed.
Well a little.
There were two chairs sat next to the table, a normal black office chair with a school bag on it and another one that was bright pink.
Lin Yuan was about to move to the desk but Ning Qing was faster. She calmly walked to the black chair, picked up his school bag easily and handed it to him with a smile.
"You should get your english textbook out."
Then she sat squarely on the chair and nonchalantly began to take things out from her bag. Holding his heavy school bag, Lin Yuan was clearly stunned, as he was still standing there when Ning Qing looked up again.
He had a look on his face as if saying: "You're doing this on purpose right?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly and the corners of her mouth rose.
Yes, you're right, I am.
She was obviously in a good mood, but she pretended to be serious and scolded him.
"What are you waiting for? We don't have that long you know…Don't tell me you're just trying to delay time because you forgot to do your homework?"
Hearing this Lin Yuan could only sigh and begrudgingly sit in his sister's bright pink chair for the second time. Ning Qing watched him take out his books while she continued speaking.
"Let's focus the start of our lesson on checking your homework and reviewing your mistakes alright?" Seeing that he nodded, she asked him for the few test papers she had given last time.
"By the way how much of the vocabulary have you memorised, and the comprehension questions, there wasn't much so you probably finished those right?" Then she added, "Of course it's fine if you haven't, we can use this lesson to calibrate how much you can do."
Lin Yuan gave her the exercise papers hesitantly.
"Well I've memorised most of the vocabulary but the questions…"
Actually Ning Qing was surprised when he said he'd memorised most of the vocabulary she had given. Of course people who are good at science and maths usually have a good memory but it's not exactly the same if you ask them to memorise words or passages.
It's easier to remember what you like and forget what you don't.
Considering his previous English scores it seems the only way is brute force. Thinking of this, Ning Qing was happy.
At least he seems to be taking this seriously.
"That's fine if your reading comprehension is a little weak, it will slowly improve over time. But I'm very grateful to hear that you memorised so much of your vocabulary, the basics are easy to improve but they are very important. Thanks for your hard work." She looked straight at his unconfident face and said sincerely.
"Oh…" His eyes lowered from her gaze. Then after a brief moment he glanced up at her again with a slight confusion.
"But how do you know I've really memorised it, you haven't even tested me yet."
Ning Qing blinked her eyes, then cleared her throat.
"Well, I trust you. Of course I trust you…"
"...But just in case, let me ask you… "