CH 8

“What about me? What was I doing at the time?” wondered another girl, her voice filled with excitement.

“You liked to sing for us. But the adults couldn’t understand what you were singing about. They thought you were crying.” This girl didn’t speak much about her childhood with her classmates, so Zhou Yuan just said that because children usually cried during their youth.

Zhou Yuan continued to talk about a few other classmates. At first, this group of children thought that Zhou Yuan was lying to them. But the more he spoke, the more they started to believe him. Zhou Yuan really knew what happened when they were young!

Zhou Yuan continued, “We were all very good friends at that time. One day, we were discovered by the bad guys and we tried to flee from them. But our legs were too short and we couldn’t run any faster. In order to protect us, Little Miaomiao went back to stop them from capturing us, but she was captured herself. Only now, was she saved and returned to us.”

Little Miaomiao listened to Zhou Yuan, she couldn’t remember anything that happened when she was only one or two years old, but she did remember what came afterwards. It turned out that some bad guys captured her during that time.

The children erupted in excitement after listening to this story. They continued to bombard them with questions, some children directed their questions at Zhou Yuan and others at Little Miaomiao.

“My mother said I was stupid since I was a child. Is that true?” asked a little boy.

Zhou Yuan replied to him, “No. You were too intelligent, even though you possessed no talents. You were the most intelligent among us. But in order to be discreet and remain undiscovered by the adults, you pretended to be stupid on purpose.”

“Was he as smart as you?” All the children knew that Zhou Yuan was the smartest child in class.

“He was more intelligent than me, I just escaped getting caught because I’m obviously not very bright.”

“Then…I…I…at that time…did I stutter?” Deng Feng, a classmate who stuttered a little, questioned anxiously.

“Of course, you didn’t stutter. You were the most eloquent amongst all of us. You were just discovered by the bad guys, that’s all.” Zhou Yuan said.

The atmosphere in the room began to affect Little Miaomiao. She asked in a low voice, “I…Where was I at that time?”

“You liked to defend us the most. You were also the cutest among us.” stated Zhou Yuan.

Little Miaomiao blushed, after hearing his reply. An indescribable feeling began to surge in her heart.

Abruptly, the class bell rang. Zhou Yuan ordered, “Everyone go back to your seats. I’ll tell you about your past endeavours, when we have time.” The children reluctantly returned to their seats. The math teacher soon walked in.

Little Miaomiao lost herself in Zhou Yuan’s words. She didn’t realize until class started that she needed to go to the washroom…

Fidgeting in her stool, Little Miaomiao couldn’t help but stare at the teacher.

She remembered her Aunt telling her that if she needed to use the washroom during class, she should simply raise her hand and ask the teacher to be excused. Just like how she saw other students raising their hand to be excused.

Zhou Yuan soon noticed Little Miaomiao’s uneasiness, swiftly reacted, and raised his hand.

“Zhou Yuan. What’s the matter?”

“Cai Jing and Hua Miaomiao need to use the washroom.” Zhou Yuan declared.

The math teacher smiled and said to the two little girls, “Go.”

Cai Jing wanted to use the washroom, but she was too fraught with embarrassment to ask. After she heard Zhou Yuan’s words of assistance, she instantly shot up, took Little Miaomiao’s hand, and walked out.

Because Zhou Yuan often lent a hand to the children, no one dared mock them, when they wouldn’t request a leave.

Afternoon came and school ended. Feelings of happiness and exuberance filled all of the students, especially Little Miaomiao.

She made new friends today, she learned so much about her childhood, and even brought back sixteen for her aunt!

As soon as Little Miaomiao returned home, she put down her schoolbag, and was about to gift her aunt with the sixteen.

However, she soon saw something appear before her. Aunt Hua was holding a sixteen in her hand and said, “Miaomiao, look what aunt bought for you today ~ This is the pomegranate that you ate yesterday.”

When Aunt Hua was on her way to pick Miaomiao up from school, she remembered the pomegranates. Her thoughts drifted to how yesterday’s pomegranate seeds were withered and rotten. An image of Miaomiao’s sad face crept into her mind. She decided to buy some pomegranates.

Little Miaomiao was astonished. Now that her aunt has sixteen, she thought, whether it was appropriate to give her the ones that she brought.

After finishing her homework, Little Miaomiao fell into a deep sleep again. Aunt Hua took her homework sheets and put them into her schoolbag.

Opening her schoolbag, she noticed a pomegranate inside. Aunt Hua was astounded. She was sure that there were no other pomegranates in the house.

She sent a WeChat message to Teacher Li regarding it.

Meanwhile, Teacher Li was speaking with one of the parents.

Teacher Li received twin WeChat messages from two parents, “Mrs. Li, my child told me that there was a student named Hua Miaomiao in class and about how she was injured by some bad guys.”

It turned out that Deng Feng, who stuttered, was quite joyful and exuberant, when he arrived home. He explained to his mother that he didn’t stutter at all as a child.

Mom Deng and Dad Deng found it unusual. Didn’t he stutter when he was a child? Wasn’t there always a brief lull in his voice when he cried?

Of course, they weren’t so direct with him, instead they asked gently and curiously what he was talking about. How can Little Deng Feng’s oration skills be comparable to those of fully grown adults? So, he expounded every detail that he heard from Zhou Yuan. But what caught their attention was the girl, Hua Miaomiao, whose hands were latticed with criss-crossed scars.

Mom Deng panicked and sent Teacher Li a message about the aforementioned classmate. It disturbed her greatly, that there was a child about the same age as her son, who suffered through such anguish.

After learning about the details of the matter, Teacher Li told Deng Feng’s parents about Little Miaomiao’s predicament.

As Deng Feng was about to go to bed, his parents spoke to him with a solemn, grave tone, “If you know something, then you should tell us.”

“Originally, we didn’t want to tell you certain things, in order to protect you. In fact, you were also captured along with Little Miaomiao at that time. Those bad guys were afraid of your ability and wanted to silence you. But you were still a very eloquent and powerful being.”

“You should behave kindly to Little Miaomiao in the future. She was the one who informed us, where you were and this helped us free you from the bad guys.”

Little Deng Feng’s eyes opened widely, before he nodded vehemently.

Teacher Li found it strange that Aunt Hua sent a message asking about whether or not school distributed pomegranates during lunch.

Of course, the school issued pomegranates today. Teacher Li proceeded to ask Zhou Yuan about this matter. She was becoming more and more fond of this child. She wondered how this child was so intelligent.

She soon received Zhou Yuan’s reply, “I gave it to her. Yesterday, she was sad and depressed, because the pomegranate withered and rotted away. She intended to give the pomegranate to her aunt, but before doing so, it had wilted away.”

Teacher Li felt inexplicably moved, when she read this. She took a screenshot of her conversation with Zhou Yuan and sent it to Aunt Hua.