Dragon King's Son-In-Law

by Dragon King

  Of course, there wasn’t much force in the punch. Her fist was a little soft, and it tempted Hao Ren to bite it.

  Zhao Yanzi withdrew her fist with a slight blush and said, “I attached a pendant to your necklace. My dad gave it to me, and it could increase your cultivation speed by at least 10%. Since I have no use for it, you can take it.”

  Hao Ren looked down and saw a thumb-sized waterdrop-shaped amber attached to the necklace that Su Han gave him.

  117 They Are Schoolmates

  In Hao Ren’s eyes, it was a gift better than holding hands.

  “Well, I’m going back to school. Don’t visit me at the school in the future! It’s troublesome!” seeing the dazed expression on Hao Ren’s face, Zhao Yanzi scolded him with a blush before running back into the school.

  Watching her running away in her sky blue short-sleeved shirt and short skirt while clutching the deep blue sportswear in her hand, Hao Ren thought, “Well, your bark is worse than your bite.”

  He touched his lips unconsciously before turning to cross the street and taking a bus back to his school.

  After the class in the afternoon was over, the entire school week was done.

  He still remembered Xie Wanjun’s invitation, so he called Xie Yujia. “My class is over. Where are you?” he asked.

  “I’m at the bus stop outside of the north gate. Come here,” Xie Yujia’s clear voice came from the phone.

  Picking up his wallet and cell phone, Hao Ren hurried toward the north gate of the school.

  He usually took buses at the main entrance, and this was his first time taking a bus at the north gate which was also the rear gate.

  The buses at the north gate all went in the direction of downtown. Today was Friday, and the students who were going back home in the city core formed a long line at the bus stop.

  “Hao Ren! Hao Ren!” Xie Yujia spotted him, and she jumped up and beckoned him over to her.

  Being summoned by such a pretty girl, Hao Ren found him in the spotlight as the students who were waiting in line in boredom all looked toward him. He forced himself to jog over to her.

  Standing at the end of the line, Xie Yujia seemed to have just arrived at the stop. Hao Ren ran over and took her backpack from her.

  “It’s ok, I can carry it,” Xie Yujia tried to take the backpack back.

  “It’s heavy, and we have to wait for a while before the bus comes. Let me carry it for you,” Hao Ren said, knowing it was hard for a girl to wait in line carrying such a heavy backpack.

  Resigned, Xie Yujia thanked him. She had watched Hao Ren rock climb and knew that under his ordinary veneer, his strength was extraordinary.

  “Hao Ren looks mild, but he is quite gallant,” looking at Hao Ren up-close, Xie Yujia thought to herself.

  The line moved forward slowly while the buses came and picked up the students.

  Hao Ren weighed the bag on his back and asked, “Class President, what’s in your bag? It’s quite heavy.”

  “Books.”

  “Oh,” Hao Ren didn’t pursue the topic, thinking that the Class President was so serious with her studies that she even brought books with her home on the weekends.

  “Hao Ren, you are the smart one. I don’t see you studying that hard, but you pass all the exams,” Xie Yujia suddenly said.

  “We guys are all like this. We usually cram for the exams,” Hao Ren answered casually, then he caught himself. He knew that it was unwise to boast about their bad habits in front of the Class President, so he tried to change the topic, “Class President, you study really hard. Do you have a specific goal?”

  “I have no specific goal except not wanting to be left behind,” Xie Yujia said.

  Hao Ren thought, “How could you be left behind? You are always first place in our class in terms of grades.”

  Another bus entered the stop, and the line moved forward slowly. Hao Ren and Xie Yujia boarded this bus, and they sat next to each other.

  Sitting in front of them was a student couple who were whispering to each other with their heads touching. After the bus started to move again, the girl laid in her boyfriend’s arms.

  Slightly embarrassed at the sight, Xie Yujia turned to look out the window.

  “Class President, which high school did you attend?” to distract themselves from the awkward sight, Hao Ren asked her.

  “LingZhao High School. It’s not far from our university,” Xie Yujia finally turned to look at Hao Ren and asked, “Which school did you go to?”

  “The High School Department of LingZhao Middle School? That means Xie Yujia is an alumnus of Zhao Yanzi,” Hao Ren thought in surprise while he answered her, “I went to City North First High School.”

  “It’s a good school,” Xie Yujia said.

  “Did you go to the High School Department afterward or did you enter it directly from the Middle School Department?” Hao Ren continued to ask.

  “I had been in the Middle School Department,” she answered.

  “Which class?” Hao Ren followed with another question.

  “Class Two. I was in Class Two for three years, and I was still in Class Two in the High School Department. Even in university, I’m still in Class Two. I don’t know if it is my fate or just a coincidence,” Xie Yujia said in self-mockery.

  “She was once in Class Two in LingZhao Middle School, which means she is really Zhao Yanzi’s senior schoolmate,” Hao Ren remembered the time when he went to the school to attend the parent-teacher meeting. He was curious about which seat Xie Yujia had once taken, but it would be too weird to ask her.

  “Now that you mentioned it, the little girls who came to watch you race in the Athletic Games, are also from LingZhao Middle School, right? I seem to recognize their school uniforms,” Xie Yujia said.

  “Yeah, I’m tutoring one of them,” Hao Ren said.

  “When I was in the middle school, many students came from rich families, and I think the situation remains the same. No wonder they sent a car to pick you up for the tutoring sessions,” Xie Yujia said with a sigh.

  Hao Ren thought of her simple clothes and her used bike and felt like she must have come from an ordinary family and had entered LingZhao Middle School due to her excellent grades.

  The bus drove at a moderate speed which offered its passengers a good opportunity to enjoy the scenes outside of the windows.

  The student couple sitting in front of Hao Ren and Xie Yujia were bored with the ride. The girl leaned in her boyfriend’s arms, and they poked each other’s cheeks with their fingers while giggling non-stop.

  Feeling awkward at the sight, Hao Ren forced himself to speak again. “Class President, do you think I look like a high school student?”

  Baffled by the question, Xie Yujia leaned to the side and looked at him up and down. “I guess so. The high school students nowadays are quite mature-looking, and I think you could pass as one of them,” she said.

  “Oh,” Hao Ren was relieved and at the same time a bit smug. “I can still pass as a high school student,” he thought.

  “I’ve never returned to the middle school since graduation. Sometimes, I really want to go back and have a look at it,” Xie Yujia said suddenly.

  Seeing the reminiscence in her eyes, Hao Ren wondered if she had had a boyfriend in middle school.

  “Class President, I guess you must have been one of the top students in the middle school,” seeing Xie Yujia getting lost in her memories, Hao Ren couldn’t help asking.

  “Not at all. Many of them were better than me, and quite a few entered Tsinghua University and Peking University,” Xie Yujia corrected him immediately.

  “With a face as pretty as yours,” Hao Ren glanced at her before continuing to ask, “You must have been the most popular girl in the middle school and the high school, right?”

  “Well,” Xie Yujia lowered her head with a smile. Then, she looked out of the window, either feeling bored with the topic or showing her indifference in the title.

  The rickety bus reached
another stop, and the student couple sitting in front of them finally got off. Hao Ren and Xie Yujia both heaved a sigh of relief.

  The bus continued forward. Hao Ren was about to doze off when Xie Yujia woke him with a touch. “Here we are. Let’s get off the bus,” she said.

  Hao Ren stood up in a hurry, and he took Xie Yujia’s backpack from her hands and squeezed toward the rear door of the bus.

  Xie Yujia followed Hao Ren closely while resting her palm lightly against his back, giving herself a leverage in the crowded bus.

  After Jumping off the bus, Xie Yujia took her backpack from Hao Ren and insisted on carrying it herself.

  Hao Ren looked around and found that they were in an area of old buildings. Some of them were low slums and squatter settlements.

  “Is this where Xie Yujia lives?” Hao Ren was a little surprised.

  “I need to buy some groceries!” oblivious to his surprise, Xie Yujia led Hao Ren toward a small food market.

  The cluttered food market was a temporary one on a narrow street between two rows of shacks. Carrying her backpack on her back, Xie Yujia chose some vegetables and bought a packed meal.

  Watching exquisite Xie Yujia walking around in the dark and muddy temporary food market, Hao Ren’s heart ached for her.

  Obviously, Xie Yujia knew how to keep a home running, though her style was quite different from Zhao Hongyu’s.

  With the boxed meal and vegetables in her hands, Xie Yujia led Hao Ren out of the messy temporary food market and toward a small shack.

  Now, Hao Ren felt not only heartbroken and sorry for her but astonished as well!

  Xie Yujia walked to a weathered wooden door and knocked. “Grandma!” she yelled.

  Squeak! The door opened, and an elderly lady stood before them; her legs were shaking as she stood there.

  “Grandma, I bought this for you. Eat it while it’s still warm,” Xie Yujia placed the packed meal into her hands before messaging the elder’s wrinkly hands. “I’m busy today, so I will come to talk to you tomorrow,” she said.

  The old lady nodded shakily. Glancing at Hao Ren standing by Xie Yujia, she smiled happily and held up her thumb.

  Xie Yujia blushed and murmured, “Grandma! It’s not what you think!”

  She helped the old lady into the room, and she soon came back and beckoned Hao Ren. “Let’s go,” she said.

  “She is…” Hao Ren asked in bafflement.

  “She is a mute old lady, and her son is working out of the city and rarely comes back. She lives alone, and each time I come home, I would buy her some food on the way.”

  Their view suddenly opened up after they walked out of the narrow shanty zone.

  Glancing at Xie Yujia who was walking beside him under the sunshine, Hao Ren suddenly felt like she was beautiful on the outside and the inside.

  118 The Super Genius

  Xie Yujia was walking step by step with her right hand carrying groceries and the left holding her backpack straps.

  The road was divided into sections by the shadow of the utility poles, and Hao Ren strode past the sections over and over as if he was accompanying her on her journey.

  All of a sudden, this scene seemed familiar to him. Time went back to his childhood when he drew blocks on the ground and played hopscotch while holding each other’s arms. He took a look at Xie Yujia; she was so kind and gentle just like a newlywed.

  Relaxing slightly in the sunlight, Hao Ren felt like it was hard to tell if he was in the past, in the present, or in the future.

  Walking into an old neighborhood, Xie Yujia led Hao Ren to a dusty building after making a plenty of turns.

  After they got to the third floor, Xie Yujia smacked a dark security door. “Brother! I’m back! Open the door!”

  Bang! The shabby security door was pulled open forcibly. Xie Wanjun, who was in a worn shirt, appeared like a small mountain.

  Looking from the doorway, the apartment seemed quite tidy, but the decorations were the most basic. The real rich people should already have moved out of older residences in an old neighborhood like this.

  “Come in.” Xie Wanjun made way for them. Otherwise, nobody could go through while he was standing in the doorway.

  “I bought some mushrooms, some celery, and some peanuts,” putting down the plastic bags full of vegetables, Xie Yujia said.

  “You don’t have to report that to me…” Xie Wanjun waved his hand impatiently.

  “You would think that my purchases are not good if I didn’t tell you…” Xie Yujia rolled her eyes at Xie Wanjun.

  Seeing the siblings arguing with love and sentiment, Hao Ren had no chance to get a word in. Therefore, he went to find a spot to sit down.

  “Fine, fine, I’ll cook today.” Xie Wanjun lost the argument to his sister eventually, and he picked up the plastic bags and walked into the greasy kitchen.

  He was wearing a pair of XL sports shorts, and his husky legs were even thicker than the short concrete poles that were used to stop the cars outside.

  “Have a seat.” Xie Yujia pulled out a chair before getting him some tea.

  Hao Ren’s fondness for Xie Yujia grew when he saw how hard-working and virtuous she was. He only saw the ‘Class President’ who was serious about everything at the university. However, the person he saw at the moment was Xie Yujia in real life.

  “Yujia, take him to your room to rest. I’m going to cook now, and it will be too smoky and greasy!” Xie Wanjun yelled from the kitchen.

  In an old apartment like this, the kitchen was just an area without a door to separate it from the other rooms. As a consequence, part of the cooking smoke would flow into the living room. However, it would be too hot in the kitchen if a door was installed.

  Xie Yujia felt a bit upset at her brother for asking others to go into her bedroom casually.

  However, she didn’t want to bring Hao Ren to her brother’s messy bedroom. Thus, she pulled Hao Ren up by his sleeve and said, “It’s greasy out here, come to my room!”

  Hao Ren was pulled into her bedroom, and he wanted to exclaim at the fact that he was invited to the Class President’s home and even her bedroom, which was something he never thought would happen.

  There were some old posters on the wall, and the quilt on the bed was folded nicely. However, there was a string hanging from the room, on which were Xie Yujia’s…

  Seeing Hao Ren’s eyes moving in that direction, Xie Yujia blushed. She rushed over and took the items off the string and then quickly put them away in the drawer; she acted calm and composed throughout the process.

  Hao Ren coughed twice, pretending that he didn’t see anything at all. Then, he turned around to look at the pictures under the glass layer of the desk.

  Among all the pictures, there were recent pictures as well as old ones, and Xie Yujia was in every one of them.

  Hao Ren went through the pictures successively; he saw Xie Yujia in middle school, high school, and also some fainted black-and-white pictures of her when she was in elementary school.

  “I never thought that Xie Yujia, who is always so serious in class, could be so cute in her childhood…” Hao Ren said to himself.

  As for Xie Yujia, she slowly walked towards him while still blushing. “They are just pictures of my childhood, nothing interesting,” she tried to explain.

  Staring at the pictures, Hao Ren asked, “You like the sea too?”

  “Yes, I went to the seaside a lot when I was a kid,” Xie Yujia answered as she stood beside Hao Ren and also looked at the pictures.

  Being close to Xie Yujia, Hao Ren could easily feel the warmth coming from Xie Yujia’s arm and shoulder with his extraordinarily sharp senses.

  “Hehe, everyone loved to go to the beach when they were a kid as long as they were born in East Ocean City.”

  Sensing the shyness in Xie Yujia’s voice, Hao Ren stopped staring at her childhood pictures. He turned his face toward her and asked, “You live here with your brother?”

  “And also with my uncle
and aunt, but you won’t meet them today as they went out for dinner and will be back late,” Xie Yujia said.

  “So Xie Wanjun is your cousin?” Hao Ren realized instantly.

  “Yes.” Xie Yujia nodded, “My parents don’t live in East Ocean City anymore, but I study here. Thus, I have been living at this place ever since middle school,”

  Hao Ren nodded. “No wonder Xie Wanjun and Xie Yujia don’t look alike, but they are so close to each other as if they are real siblings.”

  “I like to call him my brother since we are really close, but he rarely lived here since high school. He went to a full-time boarding school and only came back on weekends once in a while. Not to mention when he went to university and rented his own place, he is almost never back; he has to go to the stadium for training,” Xie Yujia continued.

  “Alright, that’s why.” Hao Ren lowered his voice and asked, “Is your brother terrible at studying? So playing basketball is his only choice for a career?”

  Xie Yujia shook her head unexpectedly and replied, “My brother is doing excellent at school! Even now, he is one of the best among all the fourth-year students at East Ocean University! Please don’t assume that he is doing terrible. He is smart, or I should say that he is even smarter than me. If I’m confused about any questions, he is the one that helped me out!”

  Hao Ren was surprised at her response; he didn’t expect that the ‘gorilla’, who was incredibly good at basketball, was also excellent at school as well as cooking!

  “I know my brother plays basketball all the time, but he has already received an offer with a full scholarship from Stanford University. He will go to the United States for postgraduate studies once he finishes his fourth year!” Xie Yujia said.

  Hao Ren opened his mouth subconsciously and felt like things were becoming even more unbelievable.

  The guy who was known as the strongest person in East Ocean University was indeed incredible.

  “Yujia, come out for dinner! I just prepared a few dishes!” Xie Wanjun yelled from the kitchen.

  “Let’s go!” Xie Yujia walked out with Hao Ren.

  As soon as Hao Ren walked out of Xie Yujia’s bedroom, he saw a couple of plates of freshly stir-fried vegetables placed neatly on the black table. When he turned to look at the hefty man, Xie Wanjun, there was already something different in the way he looked at him……