However, this was when the rise slowed down and eventually, the novel settled down on 99th place, just above the novel Battle For The Heavens.
.....
Zhou Zhenya finally finished chiseling the tiles to decorate her brother's floor with. She stood up from the corner and started to place the tiles down one by one.
Zhou Xiang and Zhou Jiahao were secretly watching from the sides, very confused as to why their daughter kept decorating their floor.
Meanwhile, Zhou Lei got tired of drawing.
He flicked his wrists repeatedly as he sighed. "Drawing sure is harder than I thought..."
He wasn't even halfway through the first chapter, and yet his hands were already tired. Not to mention that he still needed to color it...
"Haah..." He stood up and put his phone down, turning the power of the computer off before leaving the room.
He didn't take heed of both Zhou Zhenya and his parents since this was routine now.
He headed straight for his room and lied on his bed, thinking about what would happen the next day.
"Hmm... Oh, that's right, I need to get my parents' permission to go home later tomorrow..." Zhou Lei had just remembered the matter about his teacher.
He still didn't want to do it, but he couldn't do anything about it.
.....
Zhou Zhenya finished tiling the floor. However, looking at the wallpaper on the walls, she couldn't help but shake her head.
"These wallpapers... don't match these tiles!"
It seemed that she had also absorbed an Interior Designing book...
Hearing these words of Zhou Zhenya, Zhou Xiang and Zhou Jiahao immediately rushed to restrain their daughter.
"No, no, no... you should stop first!"
"Yeah, you've done our whole floor today..."
Zhou Xiang and Zhou Jiahao spit out many words in an effort to make their daughter stop decorating the house. She was visibly tired, evident by the bags under her eyes.
Zhou Zhenya only glanced at her parents for a second, before escaping from their grasp and walking closer to the wall.
'That wallpaper... look, it even has tears in that area!' Zhou Zhenya looked at the wallpaper in disdain.
With her arms crossed, she looked down and closed her eyes. She shook her head while clicking her tongue multiple times.
The parents could only look at this with a wry smile. No matter how much effort they put in into stopping their daughter, it would only be futile.
For today, their daughter has resolved herself. She... has become responsible.
"I raised that girl!" Zhou Xiang said as she pointed to her daughter while looking at her husband proudly.
"Yes. Yes, you did." Zhou Jiahao nodded slowly as he bit his bottom lip. He was extremely proud of their daughter as well.
Looking at the wallpaper with tired eyes, Zhou Zhenya yawned and said, "I guess I'll work on this tomorrow." She left the room with her palm covering her yawning mouth.
"Cough, cough!" Zhou Xiang felt a sudden uncontrollable urge to spit blood.
It was at this moment that their son, Zhou Lei, returned. He encountered his little sister on his way here.
"Dad, mom, I've something to ask you..." He reluctantly uttered these words.
Having just recovered from the urge to spit blood, Zhou Xiang weakly responded, "W... what is it?"
"I need to... I need to go home late tomorrow because of some matters..." Zhou Lei quietly said these words, hoping that they didn't hear him, but at the same time, hoping that they did hear.
"Hmm? Why?" Before Zhou Xiang could open her mouth, Zhou Jiahao already spoke up.
"Umm, it's like this. There's this project that I need to do." Zhou Lei had prepared this excuse beforehand.
"Ah, let me call your teacher first. What subject is this?" Zhou Jiahao spoke as he reached to his phone.
"It's, umm... it's for Math!" Zhou Lei went quiet before responding confidently.
"Who is your teacher in Math?" Zhou Jiahao said as he browsed through the contacts on his phone.
"It's Teacher Wen." Zhou Lei responded matter-of-factly.
"Right here..." Zhou Jiahao tapped on Wen Hui's profile on his phone and contacted her.
At this point, Zhou Lei had no worries anymore. Of course, while she's not informed about why my parents are contacting her, she should catch on quickly.
Ring, ring!
.....
At Wen Hui's room.
She was in front of the computer, her hands tapping keys on the keyboard. The gap between each tap slowly got wider as she got more tired.
"Zhou... Lei..."
Finally, her hands stopped tapping the keyboard. After a long time, the monitor automatically went into sleep.
Wen Hui was sitting there with her eyes closed, obviously about to fall asleep.
Suddenly, her phone shone brightly and vibrated as it rang loudly!
Ring, ring!
"...Ah!" Wen Hui struggled to stay on balance as she almost fell down from the chair. This caught her off-guard!
She flipped the hair covering her face towards her back and adjusted her seat, all the while reaching out to the loudly ringing phone.
"Hmm?" Wen Hui reached out to her phone, which was beside the monitor on her desk.
As soon as she saw who was calling her, she got confused.
It... was Zhou Jiahao? Who was this again?
Ah! It's Zhou Lei's father...
Maybe he's come to explain why his son has been absent for so long?
While all these thoughts crossed her mind, Wen Hui simply tapped "Accept" and put the phone beside her ear.
"h.e.l.lo?" Wen Hui's clean voice went through the phone.
"h.e.l.lo? Is this Teacher Wen?" Zhou Jiahao asked as he heard the female voice on his phone.
"Yes, and this is Zhou Lei's father, right?" The voice responded back to his question.
"Ah, yes, see, I have a question." Zhou Jiahao immediately went straight to the point.
"Hmm, what is it?" Wen Hui asked.
"It's like this... my son is saying that there is a project on your subject, is that right?" Zhou Jiahao asked amiably.
Watching his father was Zhou Lei who was extremely confident. After all, his teacher did agree to sleep with him. This was a pretty big matter, so it would be surprising if she suddenly forgot all about it.
"Wait..." Wen Hui answered as the call went on hold.
'Hmm, what?' Zhou Lei was stunned when he heard the tune if a call went on hold. 'This... Why did she pause the call?'
Zhou Jiahao's eyebrows raised, his lips pursed as his ears picked up the tune.
He took the phone off his ears and looked at it directly. It said "Teacher Wen: On Hold".
A cold sweat dripped behind Zhou Lei's back. 'I have a bad feeling about this...'
.....
Back in Wen Hui's home.
She was rubbing her forehead as her face was flushed, sweating profusely. The headache was kicking up again.
"Ugh..." Wen Hui's eyes squinted as she struggled to keep her balance on her chair. She stood up and went towards the bathroom sink.
She placed both of her hands on the sides of the sink as she looked at herself in the mirror.
"I... I look terrible!" Wen Hui muttered to herself.
The call was now out of her mind for the time being, this headache bothering her and all.
Suddenly, a myriad of memories came back to her, causing her to blink repeatedly as she adjusted her state of mind.
"What...?!" Wen Hui shouted. The headache was now gone, but what was left was a lingering sense of confusion and incredulity.
Firstly, she was confused because her memories, that for some reason disappeared, had come back.
But what made her more surprised was what she had promised her student.
She... actually agreed to sleep with her incredibly handsome student, Zhou Lei!
What's more, he was the first to bring the matter up, not her!
She rinsed her face and walked out of the bathroom. Her eyes caught a glance of her phone, which was still s.h.i.+ning brightly.
"The call..." Wen Hui just remembered that there was actually someone calling her, and she had left them for a long time.
She quickly grabbed her phone and tapped, resuming the call.
"Um, h.e.l.lo? Sorry for the delay. What is the matter again?"
"Yes, it's like this. My son, Zhou Lei, said to me that you gave him a project that would require him to stay late tomorrow. Is that correct?" Zhou Jiahao said with a slightly fed up voice.
"Wait..." Wen Hui answered as she browsed through her mind. 'Project? I never gave one though...'
After thinking it through, she couldn't recall the so-called project that the other party said. It seemed that it was just an excuse to go home late.
'Whose father was this again? Oh, right, Zhou Lei's father... Wait! Zhou Lei's father? But that fellow hasn't been going to school recently!'
Wen Hui quickly answered with a question. "But your son hasn't been going to school?"
Zhou Jiahao responded with an intrigued voice. "Oh, really?"
"Your son is the small plump boy, right? Yes, he hasn't been going to school for the past few days." Wen Hui carefully chose her words so as to not offend the other party.
"Hmm? But my son is very handsome though." Zhou Jiahao said proudly.
"What? But your son is Zhou Lei, right?" Wen Hui inquired in puzzlement.
"Yes, that is my son's name."
Wen Hui suddenly went silent. 'There's only two Zhou Leis in my cla.s.s. One is very... unpleasant to look at, while the other... is extremely handsome! So... that boy wants to go home late tomorrow? For what though? Hmm...'
Many doubts sprung up in her mind. 'But I remember clearly that this Zhou Jiahao was the father of the plump one. Maybe it's just a parent's love?'
In the end, she couldn't come up with an answer herself.
"I'm sorry, there are two Zhou Leis in the cla.s.s, could you send a picture?" Wen Hui said after a long moment of silence.
"...Sure." Zhou Jiahao's voice carried a hint of confusion. He had never heard of this! His son's cla.s.s actually had someone else that was named exactly like him? How coincidental!
After a period of time, the picture was sent to her messages.
"Hmm? This..." Wen Hui saw the picture and finally felt relieved.
However, with it came a sense of dread.
This boy wants to go home late, and he needs an excuse for it? That's because... it's about the matter of sleeping with me!