ATLAS TRANSLATES

All the words Tao Zhi had prepared were completely blocked by that single “I’m sorry.”

She had bought a megaphone and was ready to sound the battle cry, but Jiang Qi Huai came over and with one move, directly unplugged her amplifier.

If he had been sincere about it, that would have been fine, but the way he apologized might as well have had two words carved on his forehead: arrogant.

And his obvious insincerity.

What gave him the right to be so cocky while apologizing??

Tao Zhi had dominated the streets around school and her neighborhood for sixteen years. She’d seen it all. Back when she was fighting with other kids and pulling hair, this bookworm Jiang Qi Huai was probably still learning his ABCs.

If Jiang Qi Huai thought he could outdo her in a war of words, he was too naive.

She quickly recovered and adjusted her expression, nodding: “Fine.”

“?”

“Seeing how sincere your apology is, I’ll reluctantly accept it.” Tao Zhi turned around, pulled out a stack of test papers from her desk, turned back, and threw them in front of him.

Jiang Qi Huai looked down: “What’s this?”

“Your summer biology homework,” Tao Zhi raised her eyebrows, “You’re in charge of biology, isn’t that what you said yourself this morning? Don’t tell me you’re going to pretend you never said that?”

“…”

Now it was Jiang Qi Huai’s turn to be speechless.

“Hurry up,” Tao Zhi lazily leaned on his desk, supporting herself with her arm, “If you work efficiently, you should be able to finish before school ends.”

Jiang Qi Huai picked up the stack of papers, flipped through them briefly, and scanned a few questions. The holiday assignments weren’t difficult, except for the last few long-answer questions, the rest were mostly basic: “You can’t do these?”

“You’re the one who can’t do them!” Tao Zhi reflexively retorted, but then felt a bit guilty.

Who could possibly do these demonic questions.

To cover up her guilt, she turned around again and pulled out the physics papers to throw at him: “An apology gift — you don’t think just saying sorry is enough, do you? Since you know you were wrong, show some real action, classmate Jiang.”

Jiang Qi Huai looked like he was listening to a joke, probably finding her words too absurd to believe. After a while, he said: “You think I’ll help you write these?”

“You think I’ll let you off if you don’t?” Tao Zhi tapped the corner of the desk, “I might not have many good qualities, but I’m definitely petty.”

Since when was that a good quality?

Jiang Qi Huai almost laughed in anger. He licked his lips: “Fine.”

Tao Zhi thought she had misheard. She had expected him to be more difficult to deal with. She blinked: “You’ll write them? They need to be done within this week, okay?”

Jiang Qi Huai made an “mm” sound while flipping through the papers, indicating his agreement.

Tao Zhi suspiciously stared at him for a while, watching as he opened her physics papers, picked up his pen, lowered his eyes, and actually started looking at the questions. His pen tip moved across the questions, quickly marking answers, looking serious and focused.

Tao Zhi suddenly felt that maybe she had been too petty, and perhaps he hadn’t meant any harm when he spoke in the office that morning, maybe it was just casual talk.

Maybe the Glass Princess wasn’t so hateful after all.

But the joy of having two subjects’ worth of assignments taken care of made her too lazy to think about all that, so she contentedly left him to write them while she happily turned back to play on her phone.

After sleeping all morning, Tao Zhi was more energetic in the afternoon. During the first class break, she called over her reliable helper and threw the remaining subject papers to him: “Write these.”

Song Jiang leaned against the back door frame, flipped through them with a confused look: “How the fuck am I supposed to write these? I barely know this shit.”

“Watch your language, why are you so uncultured?” said Tao Zhi, the epitome of culture herself. “Just distribute them among whoever, as long as they’re done and given to me within this week.”

“Who am I supposed to find? Who could possibly do these?” Song Jiang said helplessly. “Fine, I’ll pay someone to write them for you. Does Old Wang in your class really check these things? Is your class that strict? Usually holiday assignments are just collected and given a quick glance for show, right?”

Tao Zhi raised her hand and pointed to the front door sign: “See that? Class 2-1, the invisible key class, understand?”

Song Jiang laughed: “I see it, how did a rat like you end up in this porridge?”

“You’re the rat,” Tao Zhi raised her foot to kick him. “Go ask my dad about that question.”

Song Jiang was prepared and skillfully dodged, darting far down the corridor, waving the papers in his hand: “I’ll get them to you as soon as possible.”

Having distributed all the papers, Tao Zhi breezed through the afternoon. When school ended in the evening, she had just walked out the gate when she saw Tao Xiu Ping’s car.

The phone rang just then, and Tao Zhi answered.

Tao Xiu Ping: “Across the street, see me?”

Tao Zhi looked up to see the black sedan’s driver’s window slowly rolling down, and an arm stretched out, enthusiastically waving in her direction.

“…”

Tao Zhi hung up the phone, walked over, opened the passenger door and got in: “How does the busy man have time today?”

Tao Xiu Ping started the car, smiling as he looked at her: “It’s my baby’s first day of school, such an important day, of course I had to come pick you up myself. Did you miss daddy?”

Tao Zhi lowered her head to pull the seatbelt: “No.”

Tao Xiu Ping: “There’s Xing Lin Zhai’s egg custard pastries in the back seat, freshly made, should still be warm.”

Tao Zhi quickly turned around and pulled the paper bag from the back seat, instantly changing her tune: “Comrade Tao Xiu Ping is my eternal idol, Comrade Tao Xiu Ping is as handsome as Eddie Peng.”

Tao Xiu Ping laughed and raised his hand to tap her head: “Ungrateful brat, haven’t seen you for months, and food is more important than your dad?”

“So you know you haven’t been back for months,” Tao Zhi opened a box of egg custard and put one in her mouth, “Even the emperor isn’t as busy as you.”

“That’s because I have a princess to support at home, can’t afford not to be busy,” Tao Xiu Ping turned the steering wheel, “What do you want to eat today? I had the housekeeper make some soup, and daddy will cook the rest for you.”

“Anything is fine, just make your specialties, they’re all delicious,” Tao Zhi looked up, speaking unclearly, “Is Ji Fan coming today?”

Tao Xiu Ping’s hands on the steering wheel paused slightly: “He still has some things to take care of, your mom will bring him over when he’s done.”

Tao Zhi didn’t speak, turning her head to look out the car window.

Grade two had just started, and evening self-study hadn’t begun yet. At this time, the sky hadn’t completely darkened, the blue-purple sky showing a faint brightness, with the moon faintly appearing in the distance.

After a while, Tao Zhi asked: “Dad.”

“Hmm?” Tao Xiu Ping responded.

“Will Ji Fan live with us from now on?”

“Hmm…” Tao Xiu Ping thought for a moment, “Probably.”

Tao Zhi turned to look at him seriously and asked: “Then will mom be alone?”

Tao Xiu Ping was silent for a moment, glancing at her during a red light, before carefully saying: “Mom probably has her own plans.”

“Then you two won’t get back together? Mom doesn’t have a boyfriend now, right?” Tao Zhi said quietly, “She hasn’t married anyone else.”

The air in the car seemed to suddenly freeze.

Tao Xiu Ping sighed, reaching over to take her hand and squeeze it: “Zhi Zhi…”

“It’s nothing,” Tao Zhi quickly interrupted, as if afraid to hear what would come next, speaking rapidly, “I was just asking casually, as long as you two are happy, I don’t mean anything else.”

The Tao family mansion was from over a decade ago, when Tao Xiu Ping had earned his first bucket of gold and bought this house, never moving since.

The small front yard’s lawn was neatly trimmed, with a swing and children’s slide on the side that Tao Zhi had set up on a whim with Song Jiang and the others.

The housekeeper had already prepared the soup, and a rich aroma filled the house as soon as they entered. The ingredients were mostly ready, and Tao Xiu Ping washed his hands and started cooking, quickly preparing several of Tao Zhi’s favorite dishes.

Father and daughter had a pleasant dinner together, with Tao Xiu Ping nagging a bit more, telling her to study hard and not cause trouble, mentioning how they had just finished paying compensation for the last person she beat up when another one ended up in the hospital. Tao Zhi responded with periodic “mm”s and “ah”s until she finally saw this nagging deity off upstairs.

She finished the last bit of soup in her bowl, went upstairs to her bedroom, closed the door, lay down on the carpet, and stared at the ceiling lost in thought.

The night wind billowed the window curtains, making the room cold. Tao Zhi shivered but was too lazy to get up and grab a blanket.

She was afraid of making Tao Xiu Ping unhappy, so she hadn’t brought up Ji Qin’s matter again that evening.

But in her memory, Tao Xiu Ping and Ji Qin’s relationship had always been quite good. During her and Ji Fan’s middle school year, their separation came without any warning.

There didn’t seem to be any particularly frequent arguments or dissatisfaction, both of them appeared quite calm. Tao Zhi still remembered the morning when Ji Qin took Ji Fan and left.

At dawn, she hadn’t gone downstairs to see them off. She stood by her bedroom window, watching Ji Fan refusing to leave, standing at the yard gate crying, calling out her name between sobs.

Tao Xiu Ping carried several large suitcases out and put them in the car trunk, while Ji Qin stood by the car, silently watching the whole time.

Before leaving, she went over and hugged him gently.

Tao Xiu Ping’s back was completely stiff.

Little Tao Zhi didn’t understand. She felt that if dad and mom still liked each other, why did they separate? She didn’t understand why adults could have so many reasons and explanations, why they couldn’t be together even if they still liked each other.

The day before, she had secretly asked Ji Qin if she liked another uncle. The woman stroked her hair and told her: “Mommy likes daddy, and loves Zhi Zhi very much, but sometimes two people can’t stay together just because they like each other. Zhi Zhi might understand this much later. Daddy also loves Zhi Zhi, daddy will be very very good to our little Zhi Zhi.”

Those black eyes similar to her own and the warmth of those fingers were so gentle.

Little Tao Zhi didn’t understand.

She only knew that from that day on, there would be no one to kiss her when she woke up every morning, no one to braid her hair prettily.

Tao Zhi was a person with a big heart and easily forgot things. Any unhappiness would disappear completely after a shower and a sleep, and the next day she would be back to being an energetic delinquent girl.

The top student’s efficiency was indeed very high. The next day, the physics and biology papers were completely done for her. Tao Zhi specifically looked at the long-answer questions, which were also filled with complete answers.

Tao Zhi felt relieved and waited for Song Jiang to bring her the remaining subjects. On Thursday morning, she handed them all to Teacher Wang.

Teacher Wang was quite surprised. In these few days, he had clearly seen through Tao Zhi’s uneducated nature and hadn’t expected her to actually turn in the homework: “You really finished it?”

Tao Zhi stood beside his desk with her hands behind her back, looking honest and well-behaved.

“Oh, and it’s all filled in,” Teacher Wang casually flipped through them, “Alright, I’ll check the physics first.”

Tao Zhi responded and left the office.

Back in the classroom, it was still morning self-study. She entered through the back door, and Jiang Qi Huai happened to be sitting in the last row. Tao Zhi glanced at his desk.

The top student was indeed quite serious about studying. Almost every time she saw him this week, he was reading books or doing test papers. Although he would respond when people talked to him, he wasn’t proactive about it.

In Li Shuang Jiang’s words, this handsome top student from the affiliated school was a bit aloof.

Because he had helped her with physics, Tao Zhi’s impression of him had improved considerably. She was always someone who could separate different matters, and if Jiang Qi Huai wasn’t so arrogant and pretentious, she would be willing to chat with this princess a few more times.

This thought didn’t survive four class periods.

In the last morning class, which was physics, Teacher Wang entered with a dark face, slammed yesterday’s stack of homework on the podium, and as usual, started flipping through them one by one to call names and scold people.

At first, Tao Zhi didn’t take it seriously, since Teacher Wang always had a black face. Li Shuang Jiang was called out and criticized, and Tao Zhi was still listening quite happily, but the next second she heard Teacher Wang: “And you, Tao Zhi, stand up.”

“…”

Tao Zhi hadn’t even had time to wipe the smile off her face as she stood up.

“Originally when you handed in your homework this morning, I was quite gratified. I thought you were finally influenced by your surroundings and wanted to study properly. I even graded it for you!”

“Look at this terrible paper you wrote! Huh? Not a single correct answer, the entire test paper, not even one multiple choice question correct! Even if you had guessed, you could have gotten two right by chance!”

“…”

Tao Zhi couldn’t smile anymore.

“And these long-answer questions, I saw they were all filled in and looked quite proper, but what’s the meaning of writing math formulas here?” Teacher Wang’s face was red with anger, “Did you think I never learned math? That I wouldn’t recognize it? Huh?? And chemical formulas too? You’re quite comprehensive, developing all subjects in my physics class, aren’t you?”

Tao Zhi didn’t make a sound, slowly turned her head, and expressionlessly looked at the culprit sitting behind her, her deep black eyes filled with deadly intent.

If looks could speak, those eyes would only say five words at this moment —

You are already dead.

Jiang Qi Huai was completely unfazed by her, showing no signs of guilt or remorse whatsoever. His long legs stretched forward, resting on the desk rail as he stared back at her, casually twirling his pen in his hand.

“What are you looking at your classmate behind you for? I’m talking to you!” Teacher Wang slammed the papers on the podium with a bang, pointing at the paper angrily, “You have the nerve to look back? With physics problems at this level, Jiang Qi Huai could solve them all correctly with his eyes closed!”

Author’s Note: 3:0, KO. Jiang Qi Huai wins. Jiang Qi Huai: Brothers, isn’t this getting better? (?)