At 4 p.m., the office at Golden Sun Bilingual Kindergarten was filled with noise. A middle-aged woman with a perm was angrily yelling, “So what if my precious boy took a few bottles of yogurt? Does that give anyone the right to beat him up like this? Is the kid so poor he’s never tasted yogurt before?”

Ms. Li frowned and said, “Mrs. Qi, please mind your language…”

But before she could finish, Mrs. Qi cut her off sharply, “This is all your teachers’ fault! I paid a lot of money to send my son here, and now he’s been beaten up like this? I demand an explanation!”

Qi Nian, the boy in question, took this as his cue to start wailing loudly again, turning the office into a chaotic mess.

Amidst the commotion, Arno and Jiang Yi sat close together at a desk, heads almost touching. Arno was carefully pulling out a small piece of bread from his pocket, earnestly stuffing it into Jiang Yi’s mouth. As he did so, he muttered in English, complaining that all this fuss was making them miss their afternoon snack time.

Jiang Yi, who had been called to the office to explain what had happened with the yogurt, started to speak, wanting to point out that the lady across from them seemed to be glaring at them. But before he could say more than a word, Arno had already stuffed another piece of bread into his mouth.

Jiang Yi chewed slowly, trying to swallow the food before speaking again. “I think…”

But before he could finish, Arno quickly tore off another piece of bread and shoved it into his mouth, frowning and grumbling, “Eat carefully.”

Ms. Li: “…”

Mrs. Qi, watching this scene, was nearly beside herself with anger. Her precious son had been beaten to a pulp, his forehead bandaged, and yet here were the culprits, whispering and feeding each other as if nothing had happened.

As a member of the parents’ committee, Mrs. Qi had long known that Jiang Yi’s family situation wasn’t great—a single-parent household, with a father who was just a driver. At home, she often reminded Qi Nian to play with children like Song Ziyi and avoid kids like Jiang Yi.

After all, as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. This blond boy was always hanging out with the driver’s son, so how good could his own family background be?

Mrs. Qi threw her designer bag onto the table and, still seething with anger, said contemptuously, “Ms. Li, hurry up and get the parents of those two kids here. If they can’t raise their children properly, they shouldn’t be in this class. Who knows what kind of people they’ll grow up to be?”

“And what exactly will they grow up to be?” A deep, authoritative voice interrupted, carrying a chill with it.

At the door of the office stood the principal, wiping sweat from his brow, accompanied by a man in a slate-gray suit. The man, nearing forty, had sharp eyes reminiscent of a hawk, and his deep-set features bore a striking resemblance to the blond boy. His expression was indifferent.

The principal immediately plastered on a smile, “Of course, Arno will grow up to be an outstanding person…”

Mrs. Qi looked at the principal, who was now nodding and bowing beside the man, and felt a pang of unease. But seeing her son’s pitiful state, she quickly steeled herself and continued to demand an explanation.

Lu Ting glanced at Arno, who was still dutifully feeding bread to Jiang Yi, showing no sign of the ferocity that had left Qi Nian bleeding from the forehead. Calmly, he called out, “Arno.”

“Take Xiao Yi outside. Dad needs to have a conversation.”

Arno nodded, took Jiang Yi by the hand, and started to leave.

But Mrs. Qi abruptly blocked their way, screeching, “You can’t leave until we’ve settled this!”

Realizing that the father of the blond boy might not be as simple as she had thought, Mrs. Qi redirected her anger towards Jiang Yi, who she knew came from a less affluent background. She spat out, “That Jiang Yi kid’s parents aren’t here, so he can’t leave!”

Without even a slight change in his expression, Lu Ting tilted his head slightly, prompting the principal to immediately have the security guard block Mrs. Qi, allowing the two children to leave the office.

A group of children had gathered not far from the office, and as soon as Jiang Yi emerged, Song Ziyi rushed over with a group of classmates, asking anxiously, “Jiang Yi, did Ms. Zhang scold you?”

In his eyes, Jiang Yi was probably the most well-behaved student in their class. And since Qi Nian often bullied others with his size and his mother was known to be fierce, it seemed likely that Jiang Yi would have been scolded in the office.

Jiang Yi shook his head in confusion. Apart from being asked whether Qi Nian had taken his yogurt and ice cream, all he could remember was Arno’s purple sweet potato-flavored bread.

But he still explained earnestly, “Arno didn’t start the fight. It was because Qi Nian took my yogurt, and Arno got upset and asked him to give it back.”

Song Ziyi and the other classmates were momentarily stunned, but they quickly understood. After all, it wasn’t the first time Qi Nian had bullied someone.

Holding Arno’s hand, Jiang Yi tried to paint a positive picture of Arno for the rest of the class. With a small smile, he said, “Arno is easy to get along with.”

Arno remained silent, his face stern.

Jiang Yi tugged at his mouth, insisting, “Arno, smile.”

Arno stared down at Jiang Yi, then forced a smile.

Jiang Yi beamed, turning to Song Ziyi and the others. “See? Arno is easy to get along with, right?”

Song Ziyi and the other children hesitated, exchanging glances. They looked at Arno with curiosity, starting to think that maybe he wasn’t as scary as they’d imagined.

A few classmates even began to cautiously try talking to Arno, which made Jiang Yi feel relieved.

But their newfound courage faded when they saw Qi Nian being led out by Ms. Li, still sniffling, his face swollen and bruised.

The entire class fell silent: “…”

They all remembered that Qi Nian was supposed to be the strongest in their class, right?

To beat the strongest kid until he was barely recognizable… Arno was easy to get along with?

Song Ziyi and the others slowly turned to look at Arno, who was now lazily playing with Jiang Yi’s hand at his desk.

Jiang Yi, with a soft but serious tone, told Arno to smile more at his classmates. After thinking about it, Arno lifted his head and gave them a forced grin.

Song Ziyi and the others: “…”

It would’ve been better if he didn’t smile.

The more he smiled, the scarier he looked.

Jiang Yi, oblivious to their reactions, happily patted Arno’s head and looked at Song Ziyi expectantly. “See? Arno isn’t a bully, right?”

Song Ziyi stiffly nodded.

Not a bully.

More like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The “T-Rex” Arno slowly got up, grabbed a bilingual picture book, and asked Jiang Yi to help him with his Chinese.

Jiang Yi patiently taught Arno how to pronounce the words, but Arno kept mispronouncing certain words over and over again.

Like “gege” (older brother).

Jiang Yi pointed to the card and repeated “gege” many times, and Arno nodded as if he understood. But the next time, he still got it wrong.

Jiang Yi sighed, worried that although Arno was slowly learning bits of Chinese and moving away from scoring a zero, his memory was still nearly as bad as a zero.

At 4:30 p.m., the kindergarten’s dismissal bell rang.

In the office, Lu Ting had finished handling the situation. He glanced at the pale-faced Mrs. Qi and her husband, who was nodding and bowing beside her. Without saying anything more, Lu Ting turned and told the principal that since it was dismissal time, he would just take his child home directly. The principal respectfully escorted him to the reading room.

In the reading room, Arno and Jiang Yi were sitting together, heads close as they read the cards.

Lu Ting took both Arno and Jiang Yi home. He didn’t say much to the principal, but as the principal watched the two children get into the same car with their backpacks, he wiped the sweat from his brow and quietly instructed Ms. Li to pay extra attention to Jiang Yi as well.

In the car, Lu Ting mentioned that Jiang Yi’s father was busy meeting with a project manager and didn’t have time to pick him up, so he would take him home today.

His tone was light, making it seem like the events of the afternoon were trivial, which successfully eased Jiang Yi’s worries about what had happened.

Arno, on the other hand, seemed very happy because this meant that Jiang Yi would be spending the evening with him, helping him learn Chinese.

Sure enough, after dinner, Jiang Yi obediently joined Arno in the study, though Jiang Yi was working on a puzzle while Arno had his lesson.

Jiang Yi, busy with his puzzle, noticed how Arno was nailing the pronunciation of each Chinese word during the lesson—completely different from how he was during the day. Although he found it odd, he didn’t dwell on it.

Maybe Arno’s brain was just muddled during the day and sharp at night

—that’s what Jiang Yi thought as he placed the last piece of the puzzle in place.

That night’s Chinese lesson focused on family relationship terms, a long list of titles like “uncle” and “aunt” that Arno found increasingly tedious. The Chinese teacher, noticing Arno’s waning interest, decided to include Jiang Yi in the lesson, which immediately perked Arno up.

When they reached the word “spouse,” Arno suddenly asked, “Does everyone get a spouse?”

The Chinese teacher nodded, explaining in English that everyone eventually finds a spouse, forms a new family, and starts a new life together.

Arno frowned and asked, “If Jiang Yi finds a wife, will he also start a new life?”

The teacher replied, “Of course. Everyone finds their own spouse, and Jiang Yi will find his wife too.”

Arno turned to look at Jiang Yi, who was sitting obediently at his desk, and then hesitantly asked the teacher, “What if he doesn’t find a wife?”

The teacher: “…”

It was the first time the teacher had seen someone so eager for their friend not to find a spouse.

Looking at Jiang Yi, who was as beautiful as a doll, the teacher gently told Arno that it was highly unlikely Jiang Yi wouldn’t find a wife.

At that, Arno’s face fell immediately.