Qing Kuang Chapter 86

Published at 10th of May 2023 01:03:01 PM

Shuaishuai bent his head to eat up the cake happily, licking all the way from Kou Chen’s feet to his dad’s.

“Are you cleaning the floors?” His dad patted Shuaishuai’s head. 

“Wipe it up,” Kou Xiao glanced at Kou Chen.

Kou Chen quickly went into the kitchen and got a couple of wet wipes, rubbing away Shuaishuai’s drool on the floor, all the way to his dad’s feet.

His dad moved his foot, and he wiped the spot his dad was stepping on too.

“Enough,” His dad sighed. “Go wash your hands.” 

Kou Chen didn’t move, he only balled up the wet wipes and waved it towards the trashcan.

Shuaishuai immediately ran over to step on the pedal and open it, so Kou Chen could throw the wipes in.

Shuaishuai ran back over to him, wagging his tail and begging for pets. He patted Shuaishuai’s head: “Good boy, you’re so smart.”

Shuaishuai leapt onto the couch to lay on Kou Xiao’s lap, and Kou Chen was still squatting by his dad.

He hadn’t experienced this sort of pressure of the calm before the storm in a long time. His dad did stay true to his word that his son was getting older, and he didn’t want to get mad at him all the time.

But he probably hadn’t seen anything come of it from Kou Chen. He still fought, and even though he got a letter of commendation from the police, his latest misdemeanour was still because of fighting.

His grades were as bad as ever, and it was even more noticeable now that he was at a school like Fuzhong, compared to his old school. There were barely any students with grades as bad as his.

Kou Chen didn’t want to look at his dad, his bad grades could probably poke holes into his dad’s eyes with how noticeable they were.

“Did you get your exams back?” His dad asked. “Let me see.”

“What’s there to see on a midterm exam?” His mom ate a piece of cake slowly. “It doesn’t matter anyways, they don’t care about midterm marks for university entrance exams.”

“He can’t even pass his midterms!” His dad suddenly yelled, “What can he do for university entrance exams?!” 

Kou Chen’s hand trembled slightly.

His dad’s yell was sudden, and he wasn’t prepared at all. His heart thumped wildly, and it felt like his chest cavity was gonna explode.

His bad habit of yelling out of nowhere probably came from his dad.

…His dad got good grades, so why didn’t he get that? 

“Oh my,” His mom startled, and her cake fell on the table. She also started yelling, “What are you doing? Who are you trying to scare like that?!”

“I wasn’t yelling at you,” His dad quickly lowered his voice.

“Dad,” Kou Xiao was hugging Shuaishuai off to the side. “Talk it out properly, there’s no point in yelling. He’s gonna turn rebellious if you keep yelling at him.”

“Rebellious?” His dad looked t Kou Chen. “He’d been rebellious ever since he learned how to talk, and he’s still not over it! He’s probably not even going to stop until I’m six feet under!” 

“What are you saying…” Kou Xiao frowned.

His dad cut her off, sticking his hand out towards Kou Chen: “Where are your tests? Let me see.”

Kou Chen paused for two seconds, before standing up slowly and getting his backpack by the door. He dug through it, and got his tests out.”

Because his results were really too terrible, he stuffed them into his bag harshly and now they were all crumpled. 

His dad took the papers and frowned: “What’s in that bag of yours? It’s just a few papers and they’re crumpled like this?”

When the final paper, his English exam, was smoothed out, he saw that his dad’s hands were shaking.

“You passed English,” His dad pinched the paper, probably to stop his hands from shaking. “That’s pretty surprising. Passed Language too. If it wasn’t taught by Old Yuan, you’d probably fail it, right?” 

Kou Chen didn’t say anything.

He did only pay attention in Language because it was Old Yuan’s class, but thinking about it now, he should be apologizing to him for those grades. Old Yuan even smiled at him today.

“Your results last time,” His dad looked at him, “Weren’t this bad, right?”

“Mhm.” Kou Chen nodded. 

“Midterms aren’t that important,” Kou Xiao said. “I was the same, midterms were always worse than finals, I just didn’t really care…”

“Can his grades compare to yours?” His dad cut Kou Xiao off. “You and your mom don’t need to defend him. It’s like I’m an enemy, am I gonna do something to him?”

His mom sighed: “Then, you…”

“If I really wasn’t concerned, would I be so mad?!” His dad stood up and pointed at Kou Chen. “If I really didn’t want to care about him, would I be staying up all night stressing?!” 

Kou Chen stepped to the side, avoiding the finger his dad almost poked into his face.

“I still have hope for you,” His dad took a step towards him, glaring. His voice went deeper too, “I don’t think my son is stupid. He’s not an idiot, he’s not this disappointing!”

Kou Chen furrowed his brows.

“If you have anything to say, just say it.” His dad saw his expression. “You’re not usually this silent. Did your sister tell you to shut up and not argue with me? It’s fine, I’ll say one sentence and you can say ten, just like usual, you don’t need to keep it in.” 

“You can just live in your thoughts.” Kou Chen looked at him.

“Kou Chen!” Kou Xiao smacked the coffee table.

“What did you say?” His dad kept eye contact with him.

“You can just live in what you think about me,” Kou Chen said. “You think I shouldn’t be like this, you think I won’t do that, and if I go against them, I’m disappointing.” 

Flames nearly shot out of his dad’s eyes, but his voice was still under his control: “Okay, we can go with what you think. You’re not disappointing, so what do you think is good about you? Fighting, skipping class, misdemeanour after misdemeanour, and every kid on this street avoids you when they see you! Are you a Demon King or what? You’re just a student right now, this is all you’ve got. What about when you enter society in the future? What do you have? What isn’t disappointing about you? Do you get good grades?”

“Those are two different things.” Kou Chen said.

“Then what do students have that’s of any worth except their grades? Talents? Do you have any?” His dad’s voice got slightly louder. “Is that what you’re gonna say when you’re a working adult? That they’re two different things.”

“I can’t explain it to you,” Kou Chen frowned. 

His dad did have a point, but something just felt forced. No matter how much he felt that his dad’s words were irrefutable, there was just that something.

“Then who can you explain it to?” His dad said.

“I’ll fix myself next semester, I…” Kou Chen paused for a moment before continuing, “It’s not like I don’t care that my grades are like this.”

His dad looked at him. 

He has said the same thing before. Like in middle school, but he was just saying, so now it didn’t have much weight to them.

Kou Chen didn’t say anything else.

And there was something about the air around his dad. He could tell that he was holding himself back. He also didn’t want to escalate things further, seeing as his results this time really was bad enough that even he was upset with them.

His dad didn’t say anything either. A while later, Kou Xiao waved the remote in her hand: “Dad, I want to change the channel.”

His dad glanced at her, and then sat down on the couch.

Kou Chen was still standing there.

“Forget it, there’s no point in fighting over it. But it’s good that you’re even just a little self-aware,” His dad said. “I feel like you’re just too lazy. You’re not motivated, and you don’t want to put in any effort. Me yelling and beating you for all these years hasn’t really done anything at all, and I’m also tired of it.” 

Kou Chen turned to look at him.

“I’ve been talking to your uncle about different schools,” His dad said. “In the past, he said that you could go over for high school, but I thought that you were still too young, and I wasn’t very comfortable with it. I’m not just saying things, I care about you and your sister equally. I only considered letting her go for university, and the same for you.”

Kou Chen was a little confused. He stared at his dad, not quite understanding his meaning.

“But now, you haven’t improved at all, you’ve even gotten worse,” His dad said. “I really am afraid that it’ll be too late by then…” 

Kou Chen turned slowly towards Kou Xiao.

Kou Xiao waved her hand, telling him not to say anything.

Kou Chen suddenly understood what his dad was saying, and he suddenly understood why Kou Xiao told him to not argue with his dad.

‘Don’t argue with him no matter what he says.’ 

Because Kou Xiao knew his dad would bring this up, and he would argue.

He could already feel the blood surging to his head.

“I’m not going.” He cut his dad off curtly.

“…What?” His dad asked. 

“I’m not going,” Kou Chen said. “I won’t go abroad, I won’t transfer schools. I will stay here. I am not going anywhere else.”

“We don’t mean right away,” His mom stood up, nudging him off to the side with an arm around him. “Let your dad speak, don’t refuse so fast…”

“I,” Kou Chen didn’t let his mom move him. He looked at his dad, “Am not going anywhere else.”

I am not going anywhere else. 

I can’t go anywhere else.

I don’t want to go anywhere else.

Not a single step.

Kou Chen could feel how could his hands and feet were because the flood had all left its positions. Not just his hands and feet, but his legs, arms, his whole body, they were all cold like he fell into a frozen lake. Only his head was burning. 

He had to thank his dad.

Without his words, he didn’t know when he would ever experience such fear like this.

He wasn’t afraid of an unfamiliar city, an unfamiliar school, unfamiliar people, or unfamiliar languages. He wasn’t afraid of them at all. Half a year ago if they insisted on sending him away he would go, and maybe just stay there out of spite. 

But not now.

No.

He still wasn’t afraid of those unfamiliar things.

He was afraid of… being away from Huo Ran. 

When his dad said the two words ‘go abroad’, his first thought even shocked himself.

He can’t go abroad.

If he went abroad, he’ll be leaving Huo Ran.

“Why are you so stubborn?” His dad stood up again in anger, hands shaking fiercely. “What are you thinking? Do you have to go against everything I say? Or do you have a reason for not wanting to leave?”

“Don’t be so harsh on him,” Kou Xiao walked over, nudging Kou Chen when she passed him to hug their dad. “If you were the one that had to leave, would you go? You wouldn’t get to see your friends anymore.”

“It’s not like he’s staying there forever, he can still be in contact with his friends. Communication is so advanced these days, and so is travel. He can come back on his breaks!” His dad said. “And you can make new friends over there… Never mind, it’s not like he has many friends…”

“Don’t say that,” Kou Xiao clicked her tongue. “He’s different now, he has a whole group of friends. Don’t say you didn’t know! He’s always going out, stop saying he doesn’t have any friends!” 

His dad frowned and didn’t say anything. A moment later his gaze turned sharp and he stared at Kou Chen: “Are you dating someone?”

Kou Chen didn’t want to have any expression.

He wanted to be cool, calm, and composed.

But he knew that his left eyebrow twitched. 

His left eyebrow got a mind of its own.

It wanted to fight back.

“Are you?!” His dad raised his voice.

“So what if he is?” His mom smacked the table. “What else is he supposed to do at his age? Just studying all day isn’t any fun…” 

“He doesn’t study either!” His dad yelled.

“I’m not,” Kou Chen said. “But there’s someone I like.”

At that, everyone went quiet.

Even Shuaishuai stopped panting. 

Kou Chen wasn’t surprised at their reaction, seeing as he’d never said that he liked anyone before.

Even he went quiet.

“Who?” His dad asked.

“I won’t tell you, and I won’t tell anyone.” Kou Chen said. “I might not even tell the actual person.” 

“Why not?” His mom paused, “What kind of person are they?”

“…It’s just a little crush, why won’t you say it? Who fucking cares about it?” His dad was pretty pissed. He grabbed his left hand with his right to stop it from shaking, but to no avail. Both his hands shook. “As long as you don’t fall in love with a criminal. If you dare, I’ll dare call 110!”

“That’s really none of your business,” Kou Chen mumbled.

His dad raised his hand, pushed Kou Xiao aside, grabbed a chair, and then threw it at him. 

Chapter end