Reborn with My Genius Husband-Chapter 31: Reporting Holly Winslow’s Puppy Love
"HONK! HONK..." a truck blared its horn.
Holly Winslow froze for a moment, unable to tell if the sound was coming from the phone or if the horn from outside was just that piercing.
"I have a meeting, so I’ve got to go."
Wyatt Winslow paused for a moment, then added, "Make sure you eat well."
The line went dead with a BEEP BEEP. Holly Winslow stared at the time on her phone: 12:07.
Following her gaze, Mortimer Quincy looked at her phone. On the screen was a single sentence: *I am the Ultimate, Invincible Super-Scholar.*
"..."
"You want to be the ultimate, invincible super-scholar?"
Holly Winslow snapped out of it. "..."
Before she could figure out how to respond, that rascal Mortimer Quincy answered for her. "Becoming the ultimate, invincible super-scholar is impossible. Hmm... but becoming Scholar Quincy’s wife is totally achievable."
Holly Winslow: "..." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
The two left the Peisheng building. It was already 12:15, so they decided to eat on the street just downstairs.
There were a couple of tutoring centers in the area, so there were many small eateries serving things like rice noodles, noodle soups, and rice bowls.
Holly Winslow compared a few options and chose the cleanest-looking one. "How about this place?"
"Are you sure?" Mortimer Quincy asked, raising an eyebrow.
Holly Winslow gave him a baffled look and asked, quite seriously, "Is it haunted?"
Mortimer Quincy: "..."
The two entered the restaurant and chose a table near the door. The proprietress was busy prepping vegetables with her head down and didn’t notice them come in.
Holly Winslow looked at the menu and called out, "Ma’am, we’d like the shredded pork with green peppers and potatoes, and an order of the spicy stir-fried pork."
"Okay, I’ll start on it right away. Just a moment..."
The woman prepping vegetables looked up, and her voice trailed off. Then, she said enthusiastically, "Moira, you’re here! Are your parents not home again?"
"Yeah, Aunt Willow." Mortimer Quincy nodded politely.
"Oh, Moira, just wait a few minutes. Auntie will cook for you right away." Belle Willow bent down to light the gas stove, rinsed her spatula under the faucet, and started pouring oil into the wok.
Holly Winslow leaned closer to Mortimer Quincy and whispered, "Who is that? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before."
She had met all of Mortimer Quincy’s countless aunts and female relatives, but this Aunt Willow was a stranger.
"She’s a relative from my grandma’s side. She left to work in another city when I was a senior in high school."
Seeing her acting all sneaky and guilty, Mortimer Quincy’s lips twitched. He couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch her cheek. It felt nice, soft like jelly.
"What do you want to drink?"
"A Coke," Holly Winslow said, looking at the drink cooler.
Mortimer Quincy got up, grabbed a bottle of mineral water and a can of Coke from the cooler, and sat back down. He popped the tab on the Coke and placed it in front of Holly Winslow.
While cooking, Belle Willow kept an eye on them, noticing Mortimer Quincy give the drink to his female classmate.
She grinned and said, "Moira, is that your girlfriend? Have you two been dating long?"
’She gets it,’ she thought. ’Young love.’
The sip of Coke Holly Winslow had just taken sprayed out of her mouth. "COUGH, COUGH..."
Mortimer Quincy got a face full of it. Dark brown droplets dripped from his bangs. He glanced at a sheepish Holly Winslow, grabbed a napkin from the side, and wiped his face a couple of times. "Yeah, for a while now."
’Ten years,’ he thought.
Holly Winslow: "..."
’Why is that rascal Mortimer Quincy so open about it, while I have to work so hard to hide it from everyone? Is this the difference between a top student and a slacker?’
Having heard the gossip, Belle Willow quickly pulled out her phone, grinning from ear to ear. "I’m calling your grandma."
Then they heard her loud voice boom, "Auntie! Your Moira has a girlfriend!"
"It’s true! They’re even eating at my place right now. If you don’t believe me, I’ll let Moira talk to you."
She stopped cooking, turned off the stove, and walked over, handing the phone to Mortimer Quincy. "Moira, quick, tell your grandma you’ve got a girlfriend."
Mortimer Quincy glanced at the stunned Holly Winslow and took the phone. "Grandma."
"Yeah, it’s true."
"She’s shy."
After a few more words, he handed the phone back to Belle Willow.
Belle Willow took the phone back. "See, Auntie, I wasn’t lying! The little lady is very pretty—big eyes, small mouth, and her skin is so fair, it’s like..."
She glanced around, looking for a comparison, and her eyes finally landed on the wall. "...like a freshly painted white wall."
Holly Winslow: "..."
’Can I leave now?’
...
The afternoon tutoring session was English. The subject came easily to Holly Winslow, so the lecture wasn’t difficult for her at all, but she still took meticulous notes.
As the English teacher wrote words on the board, she glanced at Mortimer Quincy. He had one hand propped on the desk, fingers threaded through his short hair, while his other hand was busy taking notes with a pen.
The English letters flowing from his pen looked as if they had been copied and pasted directly from a textbook.
’Mortimer Quincy really is outstanding.’
’I have to work harder and become more outstanding.’
...
The two-day break was spent entirely in tutoring sessions.
「Monday」
After second period, following the school-wide flag-raising ceremony, the Director of Student Affairs took a letter and walked into the sophomore faculty office.
Julian Carlton was grading the homework his students had turned in, getting angrier and angrier as he went. "It’s bad enough that these students copy, but they even copy it wrong! They copied ’R’ as ’8’. If I weren’t their teacher, I’d think their physics class was taught by the gym coach."
"Mr. Carlton." The Director of Student Affairs stood beside him, a serious expression on his face.
Julian Carlton looked up, a bad feeling washing over him. ’A student from my class must have gotten caught doing something.’
"Director Vance, what’s wrong?"
Thomas Vance handed him the letter. "Someone reported that Holly Winslow from your class is dating Xavier Jennings."
Julian Carlton: "..."
He opened the letter and read it for a moment, then looked up at Thomas Vance and assured him, "Director Vance, that’s absolutely impossible. Holly Winslow and Xavier Jennings are just classmates."
"There’s no smoke without fire."
Because Xavier Jennings’s parents were teachers at the school, Thomas Vance didn’t intend to make the matter public. He added, "I’ll go talk to Mr. Jennings later. As for Holly Winslow, I’ll leave it to you to handle."
Julian Carlton breathed a sigh of relief and solemnly promised, "Don’t worry, Director Vance. If this is really happening, I will be sure to reprimand and counsel her."
After Thomas Vance left, he went to the classroom. He had originally planned to call Holly Winslow out, but he saw her with her head down, working on a problem.
’Holly Winslow has been so much more diligent lately. I can’t let this issue affect her motivation.’
...
Around eleven o’clock, Wyatt Winslow received a call. The screen showed the caller ID as "Mr. Carlton." A few minutes later, he hung up, changed his clothes, and headed to the school.
It was lunchtime, and the whole school was quiet. Wyatt Winslow knocked on the door of the sophomore faculty office.
When Julian Carlton saw who it was, he glanced at a few other teachers napping in the office and asked Wyatt Winslow to follow him out to the athletic field, under the horizontal bars.
Julian Carlton thought for a moment before speaking. "Mr. Winslow, sorry to trouble you with this trip. Um... I wanted to ask if you’ve recently noticed Holly engaging in any activities... besides her studies."
The implication was clear: he was asking if Holly Winslow was in a relationship.
Wyatt Winslow pressed his lips together. "No. She’s been busy with tutoring lately."
...
At that moment, Holly Winslow had no idea her father and her homeroom teacher were discussing her supposed "puppy love," much less that the object of her affection had been switched to Xavier Jennings.
She was currently explaining an English problem to her "fake" boyfriend, Xavier Jennings. "’Afford’ is usually paired with an infinitive, and it’s preceded by a modal verb like ’can’ or a phrase like ’be able to,’ so it’s obvious the answer is B..."
