Chapter 17: Falling Apart

Hearing his dad’s inner thoughts, Miaomiao was completely stunned.

Although in his heart, his mom was always the most beautiful, there were still differences in beauty. For example, today’s look was… well, a bit unconventional. Miaomiao couldn’t quite appreciate it. When he saw his mom walking toward him at the elementary school gate with her wind-swept, frizzy explosion of hair, he almost didn’t recognize her and nearly turned to run away.

However, after hearing his dad’s thoughts, Miaomiao took a closer look at his mom’s outfit today and gradually began to see a unique kind of cuteness in it.

The only question was whether his dad would dare to say what he was thinking out loud. From the sound of it, it seemed like saying it would kill him.

Chi Xiao pursed his lips, hesitated for a long time, and finally spoke.

“Your look…” He paused. “It’s quite… distinctive.”

Miaomiao didn’t quite understand the difference between “cute” and “distinctive,” but both sounded like compliments to him!

As for Ming Can, she instinctively thought he was mocking her.

She pushed the red-framed glasses up her nose and shot back, “What do you know? Fashion is all about the face. If your face is good-looking, anything you wear looks good.”

Chi Xiao: “That’s not what I meant…”

“Alright,” Ming Can cut him off, not interested in his explanation. After all, explaining was just another form of covering up. “Let’s not stand here baking in the sun. Let’s get to the library.”

With that, she took Miaomiao’s hand and started up the steps to the library. After a few steps, she suddenly stopped, her fluffy curls bouncing as she turned her head. Her bright gaze shot through the non-prescription lenses at Chi Xiao, clearly urging him:

What are you standing around for? Hurry up and lead the way!

Chi Xiao caught up, walking half a step ahead of them, guiding this fiery-tempered young lady and her bouncy little brother through the library’s main entrance.

This was the only library at A University open to the public. It required reservations, and the daily slots were limited, so most of the people inside were still A University students. The atmosphere was orderly and quiet.

“Let’s take a look around first,” Chi Xiao said.

He led Ming Can and Ming Miao through the first-floor lobby of the library. To the north stood a statue of a distinguished scholar. Miaomiao stood in front of the statue and took a photo, his serious expression making Ming Can laugh.

Ming Can had a large light pink tote bag slung over her shoulder. When she bent down to take a photo of Miaomiao, the bag slipped off her shoulder, dragging her arm down with it. It looked incredibly heavy.

After taking the photo, Chi Xiao offered to carry the bag for her.

Ming Can glanced at his outfit for the day: a black windbreaker, black pants, and black combat boots—an all-black ensemble that made him look like a cold-blooded assassin. His look already turned heads everywhere he went. If he were to sling a pink bag over his shoulder, wouldn’t the entire library be staring at him?

“No need, thank you, senior,” Ming Can said, taking a cautious half-step back. “I can manage it myself.”

Chi Xiao didn’t insist.

Leaving the first-floor lobby, they went up to the second floor and continued their tour of the university history room, art gallery, digital library, and study area…

This library had been built in recent years and was very modern, with an internal garden and an external glass walkway. Miaomiao didn’t quite understand the purpose of all these high-end rooms, but he could appreciate the scenery and thought the place was beautiful everywhere.

After leaving the study area, they walked onto the fourth-floor scenic walkway.

The south side was a transparent glass wall, offering a bird’s-eye view of the artificial rock pool, the crisscrossing tree-lined paths, and the students hurrying along below.

Walking all the way here and seeing the beautiful scenery, Ming Can suddenly had a thought—

Their route through the library today seemed carefully planned. The places they passed were all interesting, and the path wasn’t tiring. They had walked up floor by floor without taking any unnecessary detours. It didn’t feel like they were just wandering aimlessly.

“Once we cross this walkway, we’ll reach the book café,” Chi Xiao said. “We’ll study there later.”

Ming Can nodded, satisfied with his arrangement.

The afternoon sunlight streamed through the glass, casting the three people’s shadows diagonally on the ground.

Miaomiao had been holding only his mom’s hand, but when he looked down and saw his dad’s shadow walking alone beside them, he couldn’t help but reach out with his free hand and quietly grab two of Chi Xiao’s fingers.

Feeling something soft and warm holding his fingers, Chi Xiao glanced down and caught sight of the three clear shadows on the ground—two tall and one short, their hands connected, creating an unexpectedly heartwarming scene.

It had been a long time since Miaomiao had walked like this with both his mom and dad. He was a little excited, hopping and skipping along. Ming Can’s attention was also drawn to the scene, her gaze sweeping over the shadows on the ground before lifting her eyes and unexpectedly meeting Chi Xiao’s.

A strange feeling rose in her heart, and she subtly averted her gaze.

Although she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, for Miaomiao’s happiness, she didn’t force him to let go of Chi Xiao’s hand.

When they arrived at the book café, they found a spot away from the crowd and sat down at a study table. Miaomiao sat in the middle. Chi Xiao had intended to find him some fairy tale books to read, but to his surprise, as soon as Miaomiao sat down, he pulled out a workbook from his bag and got ready to study.

After the targeted learning over the past two or three weeks, Miaomiao had mostly mastered addition and subtraction within ten. The first-grade curriculum at Morning Star Elementary was relatively simple, and he had no trouble keeping up with the daily homework. However, he was still far behind his classmates in terms of math progress.

Ming Can finally set down the massive tote bag and pulled out a large wooden board called a “hundred-number board”. It had one hundred squares, numbered from 1 to 100, along with colorful acrylic chips for counting. It was one of the math teaching tools she had bought for Miaomiao.

Just as Ming Can was about to explain to Chi Xiao how to use the hundred-number board, her phone rang.

It was a call from a student council member, sounding urgent. They said the teacher in charge wasn’t satisfied with the event proposal they had submitted and demanded they revise it immediately.

Ming Can was instantly stressed. Over the phone, she instructed the member to contact the others and set up an online meeting right away to revise the proposal together.

After hanging up, Miaomiao asked with concern, “Do you have something urgent to do?”

“Yeah,” Ming Can replied, pulling her laptop out of her bag and placing it on the table. She gathered her frizzy curls into a frizzy ponytail while explaining to Chi Xiao, “Senior, could you please teach Miaomiao on your own? His homework for this weekend is on these pages. He’s currently learning numbers above ten and addition and subtraction. You can use this teaching tool I brought.”

After saying this, Ming Can sent Chi Xiao a few instructional videos on how to use the hundred-number board via WeChat.

The teaching tool was simple to use, and Chi Xiao didn’t see any major issues. He nodded at her, “Go ahead and handle your work.”

Seeing his calm and composed demeanor, his tone so casual and effortless, as if he were a celestial being untouched by mortal struggles, Ming Can couldn’t help but let out a short, amused snort. She quickly covered it with a cough, “Ahem, then I’ll leave it to you, senior.”

With that, Ming Can picked up her laptop and left to find a quieter spot for her meeting.

Left alone, father and son stared at each other. Chi Xiao tapped the hundred-number board lightly with his fingers and said calmly, “You can count the numbers on this, right?”

Miaomiao: ?

The teacher in charge of this event was extremely nitpicky, offering a laundry list of revisions. Ming Can and her team spent nearly an hour in an online meeting, barely managing to revise the proposal according to the teacher’s demands.

She had been so focused during the meeting that even as she packed up her laptop and walked back, her mind was still preoccupied with whether there were any details in the plan that needed fixing.

When she was just a few meters away from the study table where Miaomiao and Chi Xiao were sitting, Ming Can finally snapped out of her thoughts and looked up.

Seeing something unexpected, she paused mid-step, lowered her head, and pressed her lips tightly together, trying not to burst out laughing.

Not far away.

The young man who had been calm, composed, and confident just an hour ago now sat frozen in his seat, completely petrified.

One hand propped up his forehead, pressing so hard that smooth wrinkles formed on his otherwise flawless skin. His bangs were messy, sticking up in all directions. His other hand rested on the hundred-number board, pointing at a number, and his eyes seemingly lost in some incomprehensible deep confusion.

Beside him sat a little boy, also looking dazed, though his mental state seemed slightly better than Chi Xiao’s.

When the boy saw Ming Can approaching, his eyes shifted slightly, his bewildered expression seeming to say—

Mom, come quick, Dad seems to be falling apart.

Ming Can walked over to them and glanced down at the workbook on the table. Her expression instantly darkened: “What’s going on? Not a single problem done?!”

The petrified Chi Xiao seemed to hear someone scolding him.

He forced himself to snap out of it, composed his emotions, and said to Ming Can, “I was just teaching him how to count to a hundred. We haven’t gotten to the homework yet.”

Ming Can was shocked: “Why are you in such a hurry?”

Chi Xiao looked confused: “Was I in a hurry?”

“Big brother, you’re teaching way too fast,” Ming Can said, rubbing her forehead. “Just over half a month ago, Miaomiao barely even recognized numbers. Now you’re making him count to a hundred? Isn’t that just bullying a kid?”

Chi Xiao: …

This child was nothing like he had imagined.

He remembered that Ming Can was very good at math, so he had subconsciously assumed her cousin would also be smart. At first, when he asked Miaomiao to count to a hundred and Miaomiao said he couldn’t, Chi Xiao was already shocked. Then, when he tried to teach Miaomiao to count one number at a time, Miaomiao would get stuck every time the tens digit changed. When he encountered repeating numbers like 33, he would skip straight to 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, and then 100—done! It was ridiculously fast, leaving Chi Xiao utterly stunned.

Ming Can watched his expression with amusement, secretly thinking: Can’t handle a little turbulence? You should know, I’ve already weathered the toughest 2-point era for you. If I told you about it, it might just scare you to death.

However, she completely understood how Chi Xiao felt. She believed their childhood experiences were probably very similar—recognizing numbers as soon as they could talk, mastering mental abacus calculations in kindergarten, and being able to instantly solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division within hundreds before even starting elementary school. They had always been the smartest in their class, learning everything quickly and effortlessly. It was hard for them to understand why ordinary classmates struggled so much, let alone a little kid like Miaomiao, who at five or six years old still had almost no grasp of math.

Ming Can emphasized Miaomiao’s current progress to Chi Xiao again: he had just started learning numbers above 10, and being able to count to 20 or 30 was already quite good. There was no need to rush.

Worried that this genius might think Miaomiao’s talent was too lacking and refuse to teach him further, Ming Can tried to brainwash him: “Just think of Miaomiao as a two- or three-year-old who’s just starting to learn math. It’s normal for kids that age to take half a year or even a year to learn counting. Miaomiao only took a little over ten days to master addition and subtraction within 10. Doesn’t that make him a little genius? I think he has a lot of potential in math!”

Miaomiao felt a bit happy hearing his mom call him a little genius, but after thinking about it, he suddenly felt something was off. Pouting, he retorted, “You’re lying! I’m not a three-year-old!”