Chapter 136 Mr. Smith, Help!
The moment she fell into the water, Jane was baffled but quite clearheaded, remembering her little aunt's words over the phone a few days ago: "Recently I went to a fortune-teller, who said water is your taboo. You should stay away from it."
Jane did not believe it. At most, she would not go to the sea-crossing bridges. Unexpectedly, although she had avoided getting in trouble at sea, she fell into a small swimming pool.
On her flanks, Justin and Henry soon turned her over. The moment her head was out of the water, she gulped for air, water trickling down her brows.
With her in their hands, the two boys swam to the middle of the pool. In a panic, Jane screamed, "Don't move! Don't move..."
Her legs under the water seemed to go up, giving her the unsafe feeling that her head would sink into the water at any time.
Justin touched the floating lane line first. Seeing the floating thing, Jane immediately hung onto it, which was indeed her life-saving straw.
Seeing her expression, Henry excused himself by saying, "This is Justin's idea."
Not retorting Henry, Justin looked at Jane and said, "Since you came, how could you choose to cower? You said that we should learn what is useful but we can't do. There's no end to learning. It's time for you to put your words into practice."
Jane held the lane line tightly with her arms. She tried to touch the bottom of the pool with her toes and found that they could basically reach it. Suppressing the impulse of shouting at the two naughty boys, she said in a calm tone she could manage, "The duck will learn to swim when it wants to. You can't force it to do it."
Justin said, "The duck is born with swimming ability, but someone should put it into the water, so we're helping you do it."
Jane said, "Did you ask me if I was a duck before you pulled me into the water?"
Having rarely had a chance to see such a cowardly Jane, Justin answered with a smile, "A duck only living on the land is still a duck. Who can swim at birth?"
Henry said, "Since you've come down, let us teach you, okay?"
Without second thoughts, Jane shook her head and said, "I won't learn. Send me to the pool edge."
Paddling the water provocatively in a freestyle, Justin raised his brows a bit and said, "This is my turf. You have two choices: one, call me teacher, and I will teach you to swim; two, call me big brother ten times in a row, and I will think about sending you to the pool edge."
If she called him big brother and could surely be sent to the pool edge, Jane would swallow the insult and do it. But the words "I will think" might be a lure, and she would not bite it, so she turned to Henry and asked, "Henry, I'm usually very nice to you, right?"
Justin cut in, "Doing more exercise is good for your health."
Jane said, "Let's go to the pool edge to do something else interesting."
Justin said, "Don't listen to her! She usually gives us all kinds of discipline. People even have to learn from those who are younger when learning something. You think we're younger than you, so you don't think we can be your teacher, eh?"
Jane answered, "I can do anything but swimming."
Henry said, "You're afraid of water?"
Jane answered, "Not obvious enough? I'm afraid of frightening you, or I would spit blood for you to see now!"
Justin suddenly dived. When he reached the wall of the pool, he sat up on the edge and watched Jane, who was a few meters away, saying, "The more you are afraid of something, the more you should try to overcome it. I'll give you a lesson today. When you decide to learn to swim, call me teacher, and I'll teach you."
Jane held the "straw" in her arms and stubbornly said, "Keep waiting! I won't learn to swim even if I get rotten in the water."
Soft-hearted, Henry persuaded Jane in various ways. Yet, no matter what he said, Jane would shake her head and say she wouldn't learn.
Justin asked Henry to come to the pool edge. When the two of them drank juice there, Jane simply closed her eyes, avoiding seeing that and being vexed. She didn't believe that the two of them dared to let her stay in the water all the time and wait for her to go to the pool edge.
Happy with Jane's awkward condition, Justin kept ridiculing her, "Um, or show us a talent of yours, and we'll bring you up."
Jane closed her eyes, thinking she should ignore them, but she asked uncontrollably, "What kind of talent?"
Justin said, "Show us whatever talent you have. As long as we think it is good."
Jane answered, "Recite the first 100 digits of pi to you?"
Justin said, "Do you think we'll be interested?"
Henry said naively, "Sing a song?"
Justin was drinking juice. Hearing it, he was amused, squirting the drink, but Henry looked sideways at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Justin cleaned his face with a towel and said, "Nothing. I suddenly want to hear her sing a song."
With a kind heart, Henry was trying to find a way to free Jane from trouble. "Miss Cooper, sing a song, please. I haven't heard you sing a song before."
Justin thought, "Too young! Too simple! It doesn't mean that one with beautiful looks can sing nice songs. On the contrary, her singing is probably horrible. She is nice to look at, but her voice is disastrous to the ear."
Jane supported herself with her toes in the water, and her feet had almost convulsed. She knew she could not suffer immediate losses, so she closed her eyes and said, "We have to set the rules first. I can sing a song. If I make you laugh, you must take me to the pool edge right away."
Her words alone had made Justin uncontrollably laugh, but Henry was confused. "Why will we have to laugh?"
Justin said, "Anyway, you should hold your laughter back in a while."
Jane asked, "Agreed?"
Justin said, "Agreed."
Jane cleared her throat and sang the song that had made her famous-the hip hop song: Bring the Noise. Since the first line, Justin had tried hard to stop himself from laughing, and Henry was astonished. He stared at her without blinking, his face full of disbelief, suspecting that something was wrong with his ears.
Justin took out his phone to film this. After all, it was really rare to see something like this. Jane had been tortured for months by him. Losing face was nothing! After singing for a while, she opened her eyes, aiming to see if Henry was laughing.
She was not sure whether he was hard to be amused or he was timid. Whatever the reason, he was petrified, his chubby face looking a little pale.
Justin had suppressed his laughter when hearing the first lines, but he completely gave it up in the part where the lyrics were sung repetitively-he laughed so hard that he had to wipe away his amused tears.
Even Jane was wondering, "Why is Henry not laughing?"
The filming screen was suddenly interrupted by a phone call. Justin answered it and said, "Hello, Uncle Edward."
Before Edward could make a sound, a woman's scream came, "Mr. Smith, help! Help!"
Edward paused for two seconds and then seriously asked, "What's going on?"
Suppressing his laughter, Justin said, "Nothing. We're giving our teacher a lesson."
"Mr. Smith! Please give Justin some discipline... Help!"
Edward asked, "What are you guys doing?"
Justin wanted to explain it, but Jane screamed for help at the top of her lungs, so he had to hang up and send over the video.
Looking at Jane in the pool, Justin said, "I didn't expect you to be a person like that. Where's your strength of character?"
Knowing that Edward would not turn a blind eye to this, she turned her head and leaned onto the lane line to rest, waiting for Justin to be disciplined.
Edward soon called back as expected. Jane didn't know what he was saying, but she saw Justin responding tamely.
After hanging up, Justin returned to the pool, swam to Jane, and said without much enthusiasm, "Let's go."
Holding the line, Jane refused to move. "Call me big sister, and I'll think about if I'll go up with you."