The opening ceremony was supposed to end at 10:30am, but the head teacher’s speech went on for too long and it didn’t end until 11:00.
The parent-teacher meeting for class 3-3 was set to start at 2:00pm and both Auntie Ren and my dad will be there. What was special was the one coming for the class leader wasn’t going to be her aunt.
The class leader’s mother took a vacation from her vaccine research institute specifically to fly back from Shanghai and participate in the parent-teacher meeting.
Her daughter was now in her third year and her son was in his second year, so she had to come back and learn about her kids situation from the teachers no matter how busy she was.
I’m not sure if she was going to stay a few more days or leave the same day the parent-teacher meeting ends. The class leader must be extremely happen her mother is coming back, because she can only drop her sense of responsibility and actually act like a childish 14 year old girl in front of her parents.
To be honest, I really wanted to meet the class leader’s mother once. Her mother left a lasting impression on me from the family photo I saw in the class leader’s room.
Her beauty was on the same level as a famous actress. Even if you used a bad camera, you can’t hide her natural elegance and beauty. It’s hard to believe that the class leader’s mother is a vaccine researcher who has many important responsibilities.
I don’t have a time machines, so I can’t see what the class leader looks like in the future, but looking at her mom will have the same results. Even if they don’t look completely identical, they will still look similar. I really wanted to be able to take a look at a mature version of Shu Sha.
So after the opening ceremony, I didn’t rush home like the other students, but stayed on the playground and played basketball with Liu HuaiShui and others.
We were only casually shooting hoops, so there wasn’t any chance of me getting a heart attack. Also, I could currently handle 3 minutes of intense exercise which was enough for me to go on the attack for a layup.
Xiao Qin followed me around like she was my tail and watched me play basketball, but she stayed silent the whole time (because there were boys) and everyone was already used to it.
“Ye Lin.” Liu HuaiShui said to me while holding a basketball with both hands, “I came up with a ‘mid-air drift rotating fadeaway jump shot’ over the summer, do you want to try defending me?”
“Nah, it sounds like a bad move, just try not to injure yourself.”
A tall basketball fan that I didn’t know was next to me and curious about Liu HuaiShui’s invention, so the two of them began to play each other. Liu HuaiShui’s shot was really tricky, but I didn’t see the “drift”, nor the “rotation”, only the “fadeaway jump shot” was true.
“Ah, I didn’t do it properly, let’s do it again.”
It looks like Liu HuaiShui wasn’t going to stop until he injures himself.
School hadn’t opened officially yet, so the school cafeteria wasn’t open yet. I brought Xiao Qin to the food street to eat seafood fried rice.
“It’s delicious~\(≧▽≦)/~” Xiao Qin said contently after eating a big bowl of seafood fried rice.
When it came to pay the bill, Xiao Qin fought to pay. Since I didn’t have any change, the owner took Xiao Qin’s money so she paid for my meal.
“If you didn’t take out change, the owner would have taken my money.” I complained to Xiao Qin when we left the store, “I wanted to split up my bills to get some change.”
“If you want change, I have some here and I could give it to you…” Xiao Qin said sincerely while holding her purse.
“Hey, what are you doing? Are you trying to treat me to more meals and slowly pay me back because I promised to buy you a new phone? I haven’t even bought you a phone yet.”
“Ahhh, I got caught.”
Xiao Qin tapped her head gently while sticking out her tongue at me to act cute.
“I remember Auntie Ren reduced your allowance as a punishment because she found out you were in contact with your dad, right? Show me how much you have left in your purse currently.”
Xiao Qin unzipped her purse, held it up in front of her and let me look.
She said while slightly blushing: “Ye Lin classmate is seeing my embarrassing insides…”
I’m looking insider your purse, not inside you! Are you embarrassed because you don’t have a lot of money left inside?
I took a quick glimpse and there was only about ¥70 left. Since our meal earlier cost about ¥30, Xiao Qin was only carrying around ¥100.
The prices of everything is so high nowadays even elementary school students carry around ¥4-500, so it’s kind of sad a middle school student only has ¥100.
“What, did Auntie Ren reduce your allowance by that much? I think that amount would get spent easily.”
“My mom gives me a reasonable amount, about the same as the amount Winnie receives.” Xiao Qin put away her almost empty purse, “I spent most of my allowance to buy manga tutorials and manga tools, it’s so expensive…”
“Recently, I bought a lecture book from a Japanese mangaka, the Hayashi Hikaru ‘insert’ Kadomaru Tsubura series. One book cost about ¥30, there’s over ten books, so I spent a lot of money…”
Hey, I think it was Little Smart who recommend it to you. Please note the author is Hayashi Hikaru AND Kadomaru Tsubura. Please don’t read out the cross, it just means they collaborated on the book together.
“I’ve also been continuing to publish ‘Cthulhu Also Wants Love’ on u17. Although some people are envious of my artistic skills and called it sinister, but I will keep going.”
“In order to raise my efficiency and release once a week, I asked my mom to buy me a digital tablet. My mom agreed, but asked me to pay half of it with my allowance, then she will pay the other half. So now I don’t have much left…”
Auntie Ren’s method is right. A lot of parents spend a lot of money to buy a piano, guitar, treadmill, etc… but it turns out their child only wanted in the spur of the moment and stopped using it after a few times, leaving it in a corner to collect dust.
If you ask your child to use their allowance to pay for a part of it, then they will learn to cherish it. They wouldn’t ask you to buy something unless they actually wanted it.
“Oh, that means you already have a tablet?”
“Not yet.” Xiao Qin looked down in disappointment and kicked a nearby pebble, “I have to wait until next month to save up enough to buy an entry level tablet. Currently, I’m still drawing with a dip pen, then scanning it onto my computer…”
I laughed and said: “Should I sponsor you a bit? That way you can use your tablet earlier.”
It’s not that I get a lot of allowance (Shu Zhe gets more allowance money than me from his sister), but that I don’t treat Xiao Qin as an outsider. It’s not a big deal even if I had to use my bank card to buy Xiao Qin a tablet since we’re going to become a family eventually.
“No, please don’t…” Xiao Qin rejected me, “I’m already embarrassed that you’re going to buy me a phone, I’ll pay for it with my body later…”
“What, what did you say at the end? Say it a bit louder, I couldn’t hear you.”
“I… I didn’t say anything…” Xiao Qin looked away, “I said when Winnie was working as my assistant, she heard I was going to buy a tablet, so she volunteered to help me out with her own allowance. I was touched but I didn’t agree…”
Winnie was always a great friend. She would always try to do her best to help her friends achieve their dreams. Even if she was giving Xiao Qin money she earned from Ai Mi, but what difference does it make.
I noticed Xiao Qin wasn’t going to accept any help, so I didn’t really force her. I told her there was no need for her to try and pay for me when she only had ¥70 left.
“You still have money left in your meal card, right? Tell me if you don’t have any money left for food, don’t starve yourself, okay?”
“Got it.” Xiao Qin whispered, “According to my calculations, my allowance should be enough to use until next month. If it’s not enough, I will take some from the money saved to buy the tablet. I won’t let myself go hungry, because if I’m malnourished, Ye Lin classmate won’t even be satisfied with the taste of my body in the future…”
“Please don’t say tasting you body again. If you don’t say any dirty words for a week, I’ll give you a gold star.”
“Al-alright.” Xiao Qin quickly agreed, “I’ll always be fed if I’m with Ye Lin classmate. Even if I’m in desperate straits, I’ll beg Ye Lin classmate for food…”
“Stop making it sound like you’re my pet.”
Xiao Qin continued, “Just give me cat food, you don’t even have to add milk. Ye Lin classmate’s milk is very precious…”
“I hope you’re talking about the milk you keep in the fridge. If not, I’m going to have to deduct stars…”
Xiao Qin stopped joking around after I threatened to deduct stars from her. She never really asked why I stayed around school and didn’t go home. It seems she was happy as long as she could stay beside me.
After the meal, I walked slowly with Xiao Qin back towards the entrance of the school. I felt like I could really explain the feeling of “wanting to see the class leader’s mother” well to Xiao Qin.
As I was worrying about it, I saw the class leader walk out from the school building. The adult woman next to her was clearly talking to the class leader, but she was taking large strides and it took the class leader a lot of effort to keep up.