Chapter 18.2

After submitting her manuscript, Su Ting didn’t rush to start a new comic book. First, she lacked inspiration, and second, she wanted to wait and see the feedback from the “Comic Book News” before deciding what to work on next.

With no urgent need to focus on drawing, Su Ting suddenly found herself with free time. She started casually visiting the playground again, with no particular reason.

One day, as she sat down, someone came over. She looked up and saw that it was Zhang Xiaokai’s mother, Huang Wenxia. Su Ting smiled and greeted her.

Huang Wenxia smiled back at Su Ting, exchanged a few pleasantries, then asked: “I heard you went to the city yesterday?”

There were no secrets in the family compound, and Su Ting was used to it, so she wasn’t surprised. She smiled gently and replied: “Yes, we did.”

“I heard you bought He Yan a toy car?”

“Yes, we did.”

“I heard the toy car was a reward for He Yan’s midterm exam results?”

“That’s right.”

After hearing this, Huang Wenxia fell silent for a while. Finally, after some time, she asked with confusion: “Do you really think He Yan did well on his exam?”

Su Ting turned her head and asked: “What do you mean, Sister Huang?”

“You mustn’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that what you’re doing is wrong. It’s just that I think, as parents, shouldn’t we set higher expectations for our children? If a child ranks in the top ten in their class, rewarding them is fine, but if they rank near the bottom and still get rewarded…”

Huang Wenxia didn’t continue, but she thought Su Ting should understand what she meant.

In fact, she wasn’t someone who liked to interfere in others’ business, but her son had a good relationship with He Yan. Last night, he had been crying in front of her, saying that He Yan was rewarded even though he ranked third from the bottom. He was ranked sixth from the bottom, and yet she was still going to punish him! He was sure He Yan wasn’t his biological child! He even said he was going to be He Yan’s parents’ son instead.

Huang Wenxia had been so angry that she didn’t sleep well that night. It just so happened that today she came to the playground and saw Su Ting, so she took the opportunity to ask her about it. She just couldn’t believe it. With He Yan’s grades, could their parents really reward him?

It turned out that it was exactly as she thought.

After hearing this, Huang Wenxia didn’t reflect on how harsh she had been with her own son. She joked: “Sixth from the bottom! I didn’t make him search for his teeth on the ground, and that’s all out of maternal love. And he still wants a reward? Why doesn’t he just fly to the sky?”

She thought the problem lay with Su Ting and her husband. Their expectations for their child were too low! This wasn’t raising a child; it was clearly supporting ancestors!

Su Ting indeed understood. If anyone else had said this to her, she would have been upset, but she knew Huang Wenxia and understood that she didn’t have bad intentions. So, she explained: “Xiaoyan’s ranking in the midterm exam was indeed not great, he was ranked near the bottom of the class, but he hadn’t attended primary school back home. He had only studied for a month, and given his circumstances, my husband and I were already very satisfied with his results.”

Huang Wenxia was stunned. “Hadn’t attended primary school? Then how… no, why didn’t you wait until the second semester to send him to school?”

“Xiaoyan attended Seedling Class back in his hometown. His dad was worried that he wouldn’t adapt if he suddenly stopped attending classes, so we sent him to primary school here, hoping that he could make some friends and adjust to life on the island sooner.” Su Ting smiled gently. “Originally, we were prepared for him to rank at the very bottom, but we didn’t expect this child to be hardworking. His score was decent, so that’s why we decided to reward him.”

Huang Wenxia understood. Although He Yan and her son both ranked near the bottom in the midterm exam, the reason for He Yan’s ranking was because he had studied for a shorter time, while her son was at the bottom because he was foolish!

He Yan being rewarded for ranking near the bottom was understandable. Her son wanted a reward for being near the bottom?

Dream on!

That night, Huang Wenxia finally gave her son the bamboo shoots with meat she had withheld the previous day. She then declared: “From now on, if I catch you not doing your homework and running wild again, I will punish you every time I see it!”

Yang Xiaokai cried: “…I really must have been adopted!”

…

He Yan’s life hadn’t been much better either. After Su Ting had some free time, she planned to start giving him extra lessons.

Giving extra lessons wasn’t difficult for Su Ting. Although she had never been a teacher, she had been a student for over ten years. Even though she had worked for several years, she could still recall quite a bit and knew what she needed to do.

She first had He Yan borrow the Chinese and Math textbooks from the previous semester from his classmate, Zhang Xiaokai. Then she briefly flipped through them and began having He Yan read from the first page of the Chinese book.

But as soon as he started reading, problems arose.

He Yan had learned a few things in Seedling Class. He knew “Who knows the rice in the plate, every grain is hard-earned.” and had memorized “Before my bed, the bright moonlight, it seems like frost on the ground.”

In simple terms, the famous and easy-to-remember Tang poems, the teacher in Seedling Class had them read and memorize. However, the basic lessons of pinyin—initials, finals, and tones—hadn’t been taught at all.

Pinyin was the foundation of recognizing characters for primary school students. As long as they learned pinyin, they could pronounce characters by reading their pinyin. Additionally, the texts for the first and second grades of primary school were all written with pinyin.

But He Yan didn’t have this foundation.

Seedling Class hadn’t taught it, and since he had transferred into the Military Primary School, the teacher couldn’t afford to waste everyone’s time reviewing the previous semester’s content just for him.

He was young and didn’t have much of a concept, so whatever the teacher said, he listened to, not thinking about catching up on what he had missed from the previous semester.

This led to He Yan struggling when he opened a new text. Unlike the other classmates, he couldn’t rely on the pinyin to read the words. As a result, he needed more time to understand the text, often leaving him with only a half-understanding during class. Compared to the others, he was essentially working twice as hard for half the result.

Compared to Chinese, Math was much easier for He Yan. In Seedling Class, he had learned numbers up to fifty, and in first-grade math, it was basically addition and subtraction. The difficulty increased from adding single-digit numbers to adding two-digit numbers, but He Yan didn’t find it hard.

The reason he didn’t pass this time was mainly because of his poor Chinese. There were many characters in the questions that he didn’t recognize.

If he couldn’t even understand the question, how could he answer it?

He needed to start with pinyin.

After analyzing He Yan’s problems, Su Ting opened the textbook and began teaching He Yan pinyin.

Since He Yan wasn’t just starting first grade, Su Ting didn’t go through the process step by step. While teaching him to read, she also taught him tones and used the text he was learning to show him how to combine the sounds.

If He Yan were a complete beginner or a younger child, Su Ting’s method might have confused him. But He Yan had already been rushed into things once, and he was clever. He was able to absorb the content she taught him.

Overall, Su Ting found teaching He Yan to be quite enjoyable, though it would be even better if He Yan didn’t constantly compare everything to the standards set by Duan Xiaoying’s teaching.

For example, right now, Su Ting corrected him: “Píng, as in apple! It’s a back nasal sound, not a front nasal sound!”

“But our teacher reads it as ‘pín guǒ,'” He Yan said, feeling wronged.

“Is your teacher correct, or am I?” Su Ting asked with a serious face, then recalled: “Wait a minute. Didn’t you used to say ‘píng guǒ’ was fine? Why is it ‘pín guǒ’ now?”

“B-but that’s what the teacher said.”

“Then your teacher is wrong.”

He Yan scratched his head and replied: “B-but she’s the teacher.”

Does being a teacher automatically mean they’re always right?

Su Ting thought back to her middle school history teacher, who was highly knowledgeable and had a deep understanding of every stage of history since the founding of the country. She was highly educated, part of the first batch of university students after the Cultural Revolution. But her Mandarin was still poor, with a strong local accent.

And the students of their generation, though not as knowledgeable, had all been exposed to standard Mandarin from a young age. Almost everyone had passed the Mandarin proficiency test in college, and she had even received a second-class certificate, enough to teach Chinese at an elementary school.

Therefore, while she might not be as confident in other areas, when it came to the standard of her Mandarin, she truly didn’t believe she would lose to Duan Xiaoying.

More importantly: “píng” is definitely a back nasal sound!

Su Ting was frustrated and didn’t want to argue further with He Yan, so she decided to call in reinforcements.

After hearing Su Ting’s explanation, the reinforcer first confirmed that “píng” was a back nasal sound, then interrupted He Yan’s protest and asked: “Does that mean everything your teacher says is correct?”

He Yan hesitated and asked: “Could the teacher be wrong?”

“Everyone makes mistakes. Since teachers are human too, why can’t they make mistakes? For this particular word, your teacher pronounced it incorrectly.”

He Yan scratched his head and thought about his dad’s words before saying: “Okay.”

“Any other questions?”

“No.”

Su Ting sighed in relief, glad to have explained it to him.

From this experience, whenever He Yan had doubts later, Su Ting would immediately call in reinforcements and ask He Dongchuan for help. After a couple of times, she found it a bit troublesome to call him into the bedroom, so she just had He Yan watch from the side while she tutored him.

But as she watched, Su Ting felt a sense of imbalance.

This wasn’t right. He Yan had nothing to do in the evenings, and he was still her son. Why was she working so hard to tutor him while he was just lounging around, watching?

With a mindset of “no harm to oneself, no benefit to others.” Su Ting decided to drag He Dongchuan into the situation. They would take turns tutoring He Yan, each giving him lessons on alternate days.

He Dongchuan didn’t refuse; after all, he was free anyway. But He Yan soon realized that he was in trouble—Dad was too strict during lessons!

Although He Dongchuan didn’t yell, his expression was extremely serious, and his gaze was particularly sharp, making him seem very intimidating. Also, if He Yan didn’t remember the content he had been taught, He Dongchuan would furrow his brow and give him a “death stare.”

After experiencing the fear of being dominated by his dad, He Yan realized how gentle Su Ting was when teaching.

When Su Ting taught, He Yan still dared to voice his doubts. But when it was his dad’s turn, he became completely silent, not daring to say anything or ask any questions, just hoping his dad would ignore his existence.

Of course, ignoring him was impossible, as he was the only student.

So, to escape this deep and intense situation, He Yan could only work harder and harder, hoping to catch up with the lessons as quickly as possible. Sigh…

——-

Because of the extra lessons, He Yan’s playtime was drastically reduced.

There was no choice—school finished at five o’clock, and by the time he got home, he had to quickly finish his homework. The assignments weren’t difficult, but they were numerous. Chinese usually started with a full page of writing, and math typically required two or three pages, which meant that by the time he finished his homework, it was time for dinner.

After dinner, the tutoring sessions would start. They didn’t last long—half an hour each day—but both his parents would assign him more homework. While the amount wasn’t much, it still took another half hour to complete.

By then, it was almost eight o’clock. The kids whose parents were more eager had already finished their chores and gone to bed. Those with less demanding parents were also getting ready to shower and sleep. He Yan, by contrast, couldn’t find any playmates and could only shower and go to bed himself.

For an entire week, He Yan hadn’t been able to play outside. He felt like he was going to burst from being cooped up.

So, on Sunday morning, after breakfast and saying goodbye to Su Ting, He Yan grabbed his toy truck and went outside.

But he arrived too early. There were only five or six kids at the playground, and they were all playing house. Among them, there was just one boy—a three-year-old toddler.

By the time kids were five or six, they had developed a sense of gender awareness. While they might not understand the differences in anatomy between boys and girls, they were clear about the differences in their personalities.

Boys were bolder, and the games that interested them typically involved activities like playing marbles, rolling hoops, or kicking a ball. Girls were generally quieter, preferring games like jump rope, flower flipping, or playing house. This difference didn’t apply to every child, but in most cases, boys and girls didn’t play together.

He Yan was sent to a military elementary school as soon as he arrived on the island. On the first day of school, he met Zhang Xiaokai and started hanging out with him, playing with the boys. So, by the time he reached the playground, he had already noticed the group of girls and immediately shrank back. He went from running to walking, then to dragging his feet, and eventually stopped in his tracks.

The group of girls noticed him and seemed quite pleased. They had been playing house but were missing someone to play the role of Dad. After a brief discussion, the girl in charge walked over and asked: “Do you want to play with us?”

He Yan hugged the toy truck tightly in his arms, intending to shake his head and refuse, but he heard the girl continue: “Could you play Dad?”

Huh?

Play Dad?

It seemed… okay, maybe.

…

He Yan had never played house before, but after trying it, he realized that girls’ games were really complicated!

They started playing in the morning. First, Dad, Mom, Big Sister, and the little brother had breakfast together. After that, Mom washed the dishes and sent Dad off to work.

Then, He Yan took his toy truck to the side, pushed it back and forth. Hmm, his job was to be a truck driver.

Meanwhile, Mom entertained guests at home. The guests included Grandma with kids, as well as uncles and aunts. Guests came in waves, left in waves, and before long, it was noon. He Yan drove his truck back home for lunch.

After eating, Mom washed the dishes again. He Yan was puzzled. Why was Mom always the one washing the dishes?

After the meal, Mom went out to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to buy soy sauce, and once again, waves of neighbors came over. That’s right—other than Dad, Mom, Big Sister, and the little brother, everyone else was a recurring actor.

Once the neighbors left, it was dark. Mom continued cooking, using leaves as bowls, sand as rice, and two twigs as chopsticks. Dinner was ready.

After eating, it was bedtime.

The bed was a long bench next to the playground. Big Sister and the little brother slept on one chair, and Dad and Mom slept on the other.

Big Sister and the little brother each slept at one end, while Dad and Mom had to sleep hugging each other.

“!!!”

He Yan was shocked. “Why do Dad and Mom have to sleep hugging each other?”

The others, as if it was the most natural thing, replied: “Dad and Mom always sleep like that.”

He Yan didn’t believe it and shouted: “You’re lying! My dad and mom don’t sleep hugging each other!”

The girl playing Mom, Zhao Lingling, asked: “How do you know your dad and mom don’t sleep hugging each other? Did you see them?”

He Yan puffed out his chest and said: “Of course I saw it! My dad sleeps with me! So I’m sleeping with the little brother!” He didn’t want to sleep hugging a girl!

Zhao Lingling didn’t believe him. “You’re lying! My dad and mom always sleep hugging each other!”

The girl playing Big Sister said: “My dad and mom sleep together too.”

Everyone nodded, and even the boy playing the little brother said: “Dad and mom sleep together, and I sleep with my brother.”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

When Yu Hongzhi came over with her daughter, she saw the children arguing and casually asked what was going on. The children immediately began talking all at once.

Originally, Yu Hongzhi had just asked out of curiosity and hadn’t planned to mediate, but after hearing the full story, she became interested. With a smile, she asked: “Xiao Yan, do you really sleep in the same bedroom as your dad at night?”

He Yan remembered what Su Ting had previously threatened him with. Holding his toy truck tightly, he watched Yu Hongzhi warily, pursing his lips without saying a word.

But the other kids answered for him: “Yes, that’s what he just said.”

Yu Hongzhi’s smile deepened. “You know why your dad sleeps with you at night and doesn’t sleep in the same bedroom as your mom?”

Still, He Yan said nothing, and the other kids eagerly asked: “Why?”

Yu Hongzhi deliberately slowed her speech, waiting until He Yan glanced at her before she smiled and said: “Your dad and mom’s relationship isn’t good, they’re going to get divorced.”

Some kids gasped: “Divorce?”

Other kids asked: “What’s divorce?”

“Divorce means that your dad and mom are going to separate. One of them will leave this house and won’t want you anymore.” Yu Hongzhi explained the meaning of divorce, but her gaze never left He Yan.

Upon hearing this, He Yan couldn’t hold back his tears. He raised his toy truck, wanting to throw it at Yu Hongzhi, but before he could, he remembered that the truck had been bought for him by his dad and mom. He pulled his hand back, holding the truck tightly in his arms, and glared at Yu Hongzhi with fierce eyes. “You’re a bad person. I don’t believe you!”

He Yan turned and ran, feeling like he shouldn’t have come here today.

But after just a few steps, he heard Yu Hongzhi’s voice behind him: “If you don’t believe me, go back and ask your parents. Do couples who are in a good relationship sleep together? Can couples who sleep apart still be together? Heh.”

He Yan clenched his hands around the toy truck, and after a long while, he lowered his head and began running as fast as he could.