After Transmigrating for the Third Time, the Real Young Master Decides to Slouch - Chapter 15

The hotpot restaurant was packed, and a long line had formed outside the entrance. Seeing this, Jiang Tong clicked his tongue. “There are so many people. How long are we going to have to wait? Why don’t we eat something else instead?”

He looked left and right, seeking the opinions of the other three. Dai Chu had just been about to say she was fine with anything when a middle-aged man in a suit, clearly someone in management, walked over. With a smile piled across his face, he asked Jiang Zao, “Excuse me, are you Teacher Jiang?”

“I am.” Jiang Zao’s expression was calm.

The middle-aged man smiled and made an inviting gesture. “I am the manager of this restaurant. Your private room has already been prepared. Please come with me.”

Jiang Tong was dumbfounded. When had his brother reserved this? Hadn’t they decided to eat hotpot on a whim?

Jiang Zao ignored his confusion and called for the others to follow.

The private room was not large. Inside was a square table, just enough for the four of them to each occupy one side. It was not too crowded and not too empty, very suitable for strengthening relationships.

After pouring water for each of them, the manager pointed at the corner of the table. “Please scan the code here to order. I’ll step out first. If there are any issues, you can call me or a server.”

Jiang Zao operated his phone. “I ordered a split-flavor pot. I randomly picked a few dishes. For the rest, see what you want to eat.”

He handed the phone to Dai Chu on his right. “Ladies first.”

Dai Chu did not refuse. She accepted it and perfunctorily ordered two vegetable dishes, then passed it to Lu She beside her in order.

Jiang Tong also leaned over, the two heads pressed close together as they discussed what to order.

“Meat, meat! Order more meat!” Jiang Tong had no idea what courtesy was. Of course, it was also because the dishes the other two had ordered were too vegetarian. They were adolescent boys, people who could not be happy without meat!

Lu She ordered dishes according to his wishes. Suddenly, a message popped up at the top of the screen.

Rong: Have you started eating?

Lu She calmly pushed the message upward and lifted his eyes to look at Jiang Tong. The other boy had turned his head to speak and had not noticed this side. When Jiang Tong turned back, he asked, “Are you done ordering?”

Lu She nodded. “Done.” When he handed the phone back, he reminded him, “There’s a message.”

Jiang Zao took the phone and opened the message. He raised his eyes and glanced across the table. Lu She was holding a cup and drinking water, his expression showing no abnormalities at all.

“Still ordering,” he replied. After sending the message, he returned to the ordering interface, looked through the dishes they had chosen, and submitted the order.

The dishes arrived faster than expected. Barely three minutes passed before the soup base and the ingredients had already been served.

Jiang Tong and Lu She returned after mixing their dipping sauces. As Jiang Tong closed the door, he said, “There really are so many people. I saw the servers outside almost going crazy from how busy they are—eh, all the dishes are already here?”

Jiang Zao put meat into the pot and called them over. “The pot’s boiling. Hurry and sit down to eat.”

“It’s not cooked yet, though,” Jiang Tong complained, placing the dipping sauce he had brought for Jiang Zao in front of him.

The meat cooked very quickly. Jiang Tong picked up a piece, dipped it, and then the entire room was filled with his ghostly wailing. “Wuwuwu, it’s so hot—but it’s so good!”

“Are you a starving ghost reincarnated? Can you be a little more refined?” Jiang Zao was utterly disgusted. “It’s not like there won’t be enough for you to eat. Look at Dai Chu.”

Dai Chu picked up a piece of meat, first blew on it, then ate it in small bites, chewing slowly and carefully. Jiang Tong had never seen someone divide such a tiny piece of meat into so many bites before finishing it.

Jiang Tong bit his chopsticks and asked her, “Dai Chu, you don’t use dipping sauce?”

Dai Chu smiled and shook her head. “No. It’s too greasy.”

“Ah?” Jiang Tong found this inconceivable.

“She’s a girl. She’s afraid of gaining weight.” Jiang Zao could not stand watching and explained. “Look at how much oil is in your bowl of sauce.”

Jiang Tong accepted this reason. Girls really were amazing. To maintain their figures, they could be so ruthless toward themselves.

Jiang Zao saw that he was still biting the chopsticks and smacked his hand with his own chopsticks. “What bad habit is that? If you bite your chopsticks again, I’ll buy you a muzzle.”

Jiang Tong protested, “I’m not a dog.”

Lu She placed some cooled meat into his bowl. He immediately became all smiles. “Thank you. Mm, so good!—Lu She, you eat too. You don’t have to worry about me. I can fish things out myself.”

Jiang Zao smacked his hand with his chopsticks again. “Filthy. Change to another pair of chopsticks.”

“Oh—” Jiang Tong drew out the sound and got up to get new chopsticks, not forgetting to complain, “My brother is a clean freak.”

Dai Chu smiled, and Lu She also pressed his lips together.

Jiang Zao remained unmoving as a mountain and continued putting dishes into the pot.

Jiang Zao finally understood that the saying “an adolescent boy’s stomach is a bottomless pit” was not nonsense. Even though the portions here were not large, they won through sheer quantity. In the end, every single plate was emptied. Needless to say, Jiang Tong, that starving ghost, had eaten plenty. But Lu She, who looked refined and delicate, was unexpectedly also quite good at eating. The two of them had solved at least two-thirds of the food.

Jiang Zao thought that he could not invite guests too often. If he invited them a few more times, he would go bankrupt.

He went to the restroom. When he returned, he heard arguing from inside the room. He raised his brows. Had they started fighting?

But when he pushed the door open and looked, the three of them were gathered together. A clear space had already been tidied on the table, and on it lay a white sheet of paper that had come from who knew where. Lu She was holding a pen and tapping on it.

“I think your reasoning is wrong. The optimal solution for this question should be like this.” As he spoke, he began calculating on the paper.

Dai Chu listened very seriously. After he finished writing, Dai Chu refuted him. “Your method is indeed simpler, but it exceeds the scope of the exam syllabus. If you use this method in an official exam, you may not necessarily receive full marks.”

This time, Jiang Tong agreed with Dai Chu’s view. “Mm-hm, what Dai Chu said makes sense. During exams, it’s still better to be safe and not take risks.”

Jiang Zao smiled and backed out. After closing the door, the manager who had received them at the beginning came over holding a notebook. As soon as he saw Jiang Zao, his face filled with smiles. “Teacher Jiang, have you finished eating?”

“Mm.”

The manager was expectant but also a little uneasy. “Then how did you find the dining experience? You can talk about anything, including the flavor, service, or environment. If there are any shortcomings, please be sure to mention them so we can improve.”

Jiang Zao smiled. “No complaints. Everything was pretty good.”

The other party seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Clutching the notebook in his arms, he was somewhat nervous. “Then could we ask you to write an evaluation here? Oh, oh, we just want to conduct a small survey. If you don’t want to write, you don’t have to…”

“Give it here.” Jiang Zao extended his hand.

The manager presented the notebook and pen to him with both hands.

Jiang Zao accepted the notebook and opened it. This was a custom-made evaluation book for the restaurant. Each service item could be rated with stars, and below, customers could also write their own thoughts.

Jiang Zao casually shaded in five stars for every item. Then he scanned what the people before him had written and wrote a few lines by copying their pattern.

Seeing that everything he wrote was praise, half of the manager’s suspended heart settled. By the time Jiang Zao drew a round full stop, the other half settled too. Just as the manager was about to reach out for the notebook, Jiang Zao tapped the pen tip a few times on the page, then lowered his head and started writing again.

The manager suddenly felt like he was sitting on a roller coaster. His mood rose and fell sharply, making him feel awful.

By the time the manager finished feeling awful, Jiang Zao had also finished writing. He closed the notebook and handed it back, smiled, then turned and entered the room.

The manager held the notebook and stared blankly for a while before remembering to look at what he had written. Turning to that page, he saw that on the final line were the words: “There is a great learning atmosphere.”

Learning atmosphere? The manager was baffled. He looked around the hall. Wasn’t this a hotpot restaurant? Who would come here to study?

It was nearly nine o’clock when the four of them finally left the hotpot restaurant.

Jiang Zao’s throat was almost hoarse. When he had returned to the private room, he had happened to encounter a difficult question none of the three could solve. And so, as a teacher whose heavenly duty was to teach and resolve confusion, he had made a grand entrance.

The result was that things had spiraled out of control. One question followed another, directly turning the after-meal activity into a Q&A session.

Jiang Zao pressed his throat with a bitter smile. It hurt a little. He truly hoped these people would remember that he was only a Chinese teacher and stop bringing him questions from every subject. Although he had solved all of them.

After sending Dai Chu into the car that had come to pick her up, Jiang Zao asked Lu She, “How are you getting back? No one from your family is coming to pick you up, right?”

“I can just call a car myself,” Lu She said.

As soon as Jiang Tong heard this, he expressed disapproval. “How can that be okay? It’s so late. You’re going back alone in a car…”

Jiang Zao could not listen anymore. “It’s only a little past nine. How is that late? And he’s tall and strong. Are you still afraid he’ll be in danger?”

“It’s still dangerous! Even if Lu She is very mature, he’s still a minor!” Jiang Tong protested.

Jiang Zao stopped a taxi. “Yes, yes, yes. Minors are the most important. I’ll send you two minors back first. Get in.”

Lu She looked at him once, then obediently got into the car. Jiang Tong also followed him in.

Jiang Zao shook his head and opened the front passenger door to sit down.

He first sent Lu She home, then went to the Jiang family home. The two places were too far apart, and by the time they arrived, it was already past ten. Jiang Zao had the driver wait downstairs and helped Jiang Tong carry the large pile of things they had bought upstairs.

Mother Jiang was watching television in the living room. Seeing them with their hands full of shopping bags, she was startled. “You bought so much?”

Jiang Tong was a little embarrassed and rubbed his nose. “Brother was the one who wanted to buy all of it…”

Jiang Zao put the things down and said, “Yes, I wanted to buy them. These are for you.”

“I have some too?” Mother Jiang walked over. She took a piece of clothing out of one of the bags. After one glance, she immediately shook her head. “Aiya, aiya, this one won’t do. I don’t want it. It’s too colorful. People will laugh if I wear it outside!”

Jiang Zao held the clothes up against her. “Isn’t this pretty good?”

Mother Jiang still shook her head. “No, no.”

Although her mouth said no and that she did not want it, the liking in her eyes could not be hidden at all. Jiang Zao said, “Mom, I already bought it. It’s my heartfelt intention. If you don’t accept it, I’ll be sad.”

“Ah, this…” Mother Jiang looked at the clothes. “But these clothes must be very expensive…”

Jiang Zao smiled. “You don’t need to worry about money. Don’t underestimate the financial strength of the Rong Group. My salary is enough to cover your expenses.”

Mother Jiang’s eyes blurred. She hurriedly wiped her tears and nodded. “All right. Mom will accept them.”

Jiang Tong happily divided the things between the two of them. “Mom, these are yours, and these are mine—”

He finally remembered what was wrong. “Brother, you didn’t buy any for yourself!”

Mother Jiang also panicked. “How come you didn’t buy any? Was there not enough money? Then let’s return Mom’s things…”

Jiang Zao interrupted them. “I just didn’t see anything I liked. In a few days, I’ll go look somewhere else myself. Keep these things—I’m leaving first. The car is still waiting downstairs.”

Without waiting for them to keep him, Jiang Zao opened the door and left.

Returning to the apartment, Jiang Zao took out his key and walked toward his room. At the doorway was an enormous package, with no sender name and no proof of anything.

Jiang Zao looked at this unknown package and sighed. He opened the door and, with some effort, moved it inside.

After finding scissors and cutting it open, he saw that inside was a box full of clothes. Jiang Zao flipped through them and found a piece of pink letter paper.

“I want to see Xiao Zao wear them.”

In the signature position, there was a heart drawn.

Author’s Note:

Wear them!