CH 20

Zhou Yuan had lost his front tooth. He felt that this sullied his image and made him look funny, so he tried to be as taciturn as possible. After all, he wouldn’t be the laughing stock of class, if he didn’t open his mouth to speak.

Little Miaomiao obviously was oblivious to this kind of reputation-saving tactic. She thought that Zhou Yuan must be forlorn. So, she tried to offer him solace and whispered, “The tooth will grow back soon.”

Little Miaomiao secretly made a mental note to ask Uncle Hua about teeth tonight.

Little Miaomiao believed that her uncle knew everything, especially in regards to this.

Zhou Yuan watched her comforting him, so he hummed in response. Then, he took out a book and began to read.

While Zhou Yuan buried himself in his book earnestly, Little Miaomiao stretched out her hand and carefully pulled out the packet of dried meat that she had placed inside his desk drawer.

In her heart, she thought that the dried meat was very difficult to chew, especially since Zhou Yuan lost his front tooth. It would just inconvenience him; therefore, she shouldn’t bring any meat tomorrow.

Moreover, if he eyed the dried meat, he would surely be disheartened, since he wouldn’t be able to chew it properly.

Little Miaomiao surmised that her furtive, little movements would go unnoticed, but Zhou Yuan obviously saw her. But he didn’t move either. She heaved a sigh of relief after taking the packet back, as if the task was very difficult for her to complete.

Although Zhou Yuan couldn’t completely comprehend her thoughts, he thought that she was very cute.

Normally, it didn’t matter if Zhou Yuan never spoke in class. All the teachers seemed to have a certain impression of him after the Chinese teacher incident. But the third period was music class.

The students had to go to the music classroom for their music instruction.

When all the children arrived in the classroom, the music teacher was already sitting behind the piano. She adjusted the piano, raised her head and said, “Children, do you remember the song “Heavy Rain and Light Rain” that I taught you last time?”

Little Miaomiao flipped through her music book and found that she had forgotten most of the song. 

But, having more children in the choir also bestowed Little Miaomiao an advantage. She didn’t need to understand what she was doing – she just needed to open her mouth and imitate the other children.

“Firstly, let’s sing the song once from the beginning.”

“One, two, three…start!”

“Pitter patter, the light rain is falling, pitter patter…”

Little Miaomiao followed the lead of the other children, although she didn’t know what she was singing about.

When she observed the students, the music teacher noticed that Zhou Yuan wasn’t singing at all. After the song reached its conclusion, the music teacher walked over to the children. Little Miaomiao was blushing and shivering with apprehension when she saw the teacher approaching her.

The teacher stopped next to Little Miaomiao and asked Zhou Yuan in a muffled voice, “Did you forget the lyrics?”

Zhou Yuan lowered his head and coughed twice. Then, he took out a piece of paper and wrote, “I am suffering from a terrible cold and have developed mouth ulcers, so it’s not easy to speak right now.”

The teacher felt a little distressed and said, “Remember to take the medicine.”

Zhou Yuan wrote again, “Thank you.”

Because of this, all of the other teachers believed that Zhou Yuan had mouth ulcers; therefore, it was uncomfortable for him to speak.

When school reached its conclusion during the afternoon, Zhou Yuan walked out of the classroom. The P.T. teacher saw him and said, “Student Zhou Yuan, you should pay more attention to your health. Keep yourself warm when you return home. You should also eat fruits that contain more vitamin C to help with your mouth ulcer.”

These words baffled Zhou Yuan’s father. His son dragged his father away in a hurry.

After traversing a couple of steps, something finally dawned on Dad Zhou. He said with an inscrutable facial expression, “Buddy, I now know that you were not reincarnated.”

Zhou Yuan asked without hesitation, “Why?”

“Because we adults don’t care when others find out that we had lost a tooth. We adults all know that children will eventually lose some of their teeth. We don’t take it seriously. Only a reputation-saving child will care about such trivial matters,” Dad Zhou said jauntily.

Zhou Yuan: “…”

Dad Zhou sat in the driver’s seat. He couldn’t believe that his son didn’t fight back. He weakly articulated, “Dude, you should know that attacking a driver while you’re riding in the car is extremely dangerous, right?”

Zhou Yuan looked at him, “…”

On the other side of the street, after being picked up by her aunt, Little Miaomiao waited for the taxi on the side of the road.

“Uncle is on duty today,” Aunt Hua said, “On National Day, I’ll go to driving school. I’ll learn how to drive, so that we don’t have to take a taxi anymore.”

Fortunately, it was easy to hail a taxi near school. Eventually, Aunt Hua found one. Aunt Hua helped Little Miaomiao into the taxi. Taxis didn’t have a child safety seat, which caused Aunt Hua to frown, so she fastened Little Miaomiao’s seat belt herself. She thought that she really needed to learn how to drive soon.

After returning home, Little Miaomiao thought about asking her Uncle about how to make teeth grow faster.

However, Uncle Hua still didn’t return yet, even when it was Little Miaomiao’s bedtime.

Aunt Hua coaxed Little Miaomiao to go to sleep. She had always adapted according to her husband’s work schedule, but…

Aunt Hua stroked Little Miaomiao’s face. She didn’t want to raise her alone. Even after a week of living together, Little Miaomiao had only uttered three sentences with Uncle Hua. She was even a little afraid of him.

Little Miaomiao was getting closer and closer to her. She would secretly hold her hand and allow Aunt Hua to hug and kiss her. She also spoke about school with her.

But…was this considered to be a complete family? Little Miaomiao always acted cautiously, whenever Uncle Hua was home.

She had never raised a child before. The two of them tried IVF multiple times, but they failed. Later, she slowly accepted the fact that she couldn’t be a mother.

She knew very little about how to raise children except for giving them love and affection.

She was the same as any other woman that became a mother. She can’t stop loving her child. But, unlike them who dealt with infants, she had a six year old child right from the start.

The two situations were very different from each other.

Aunt Hua sighed and couldn’t help but embrace Little Miaomiao who slept next to her. Her concerns seemed to slowly fade away.

She decided to speak with her husband about this matter.

Because of this, Aunt Hua couldn’t sleep. It was almost early in the morning when she heard the sound of the door unlocking from the outside.

Aunt Hua scrupulously moved Little Miaomiao to the side, then stood up and saw the exhausted Uncle Hua.

Aunt Hua traversed over to his side. Seeing that he was completely exhausted, she felt sorry for him. She was reluctant to explain her concerns to him, “I’ll heat up some food for you.”

“No, I already ate outside. I had an operation today. I couldn’t get out of it.”

Uncle Hua ensconced himself on the sofa. He was completely fatigued. Aunt Hua stated softly, “Lie on my lap, I’ll massage your shoulders. You must have had a rough day.”

Little Miaomiao heard Uncle Hua while she was sleeping. His voice woke her up. She still recalled Zhou Yuan’s problem, so she departed her room to ask Uncle Hua about it. She heard Aunt Hua offering solace to Uncle Hua. This halted her movements. Uncle Hua had to be exhausted. 

I shouldn’t bother him today.