The second day, as soon as Yu Jinyang arrived in the classroom, he decided—out of fear of her fists—to give her another chance to make up for her mistake.
As long as she could get to the classroom early and take out the trash before morning reading, he wouldn’t report her to Yushi this time.
“I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go! If I go, the teacher will definitely scold me. I forgot to do my duty yesterday,” Li Yingqiao buried her head under the covers, her voice muffled as she pleaded with her mother, “Mom, I have heatstroke! Let me rest at home for a day. School is too tiring! Each class is forty-five minutes, and you have to sit there without moving at all—how is that possible? I like watching the shop, I like selling things, I want to stay home and watch the shop! Most importantly, I like Mom! I don’t want to be apart from you.”
The last two sentences, Li Shuli pretended not to hear.
This was always her daughter’s trick; as long as it might keep her from going to school, she could say anything, no matter how mushy.
Li Shuli set the breakfast by her bedside and decided not to push her anymore.
“Alright then, let’s switch today. You stay home and watch the shop, and Mommy will go to school for you.”
Li Yingqiao immediately poked her head out from under the quilt, “Yay!”
Li Shuli nodded too.
“Then eat your breakfast first. When Chun Zhen Nai Nai next door opens her door, remember to help her pull up the shutter.”
“Okay! No problem!”
“Go to the market at eight and buy a fish—I want to eat it,” Li Shuli added.
Before I finish class, you have to get today’s lunch ready. Deal?”
Li Yingqiao’s face fell again.
“Huh? I don’t know how to cook!”
Li Shuli gave her a wry smile.
“Which is why you have to go to school.”
Li Yingqiao instantly dove back under the covers.
“They don’t teach cooking at school!”
Lady Li Shuli leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed over her chest, and after thinking for a moment, said, “How about this, I’ll transfer you to New Oriental Culinary School? See which cuisine you’re interested in—Chinese or Western? Later, I’ll make you a little chef’s hat, you can wear it to class. We can’t lose at the starting line.”
Just as she finished speaking, the shutter door was banged on with a loud “Hey!”, causing the metal to rattle and shake.
Then a voice sounded at the door, “Li Shuli, you have a registered letter!”
Li Yingqiao sprang up from bed.
“Is it from Dad?!”
Li Shuli turned around, her thin figure cast by the morning sun like a pale blue ink rubbing against the mottled wall.
She looked back at her daughter rolled up in the quilt and emphasized again, “I told you, you don’t have a dad.”
Li Yingqiao, “Don’t try to fool me, all the uncles and aunties in Xiao Hua City say Dad is in prison. He’s a murderer, right?”
“He’s not!”
Li Shuli walked over and picked her up from the bed.
“I told you he’s not, so stop making a fuss! Go to class now. If the teacher scolds you, just endure it. If you really can’t, come back and get that little class monitor. If he dares to say anything, Mommy will come and get him.”
“Huh?”
Li Yingqiao suddenly felt maybe that was a bit… too much.
Li Shuli pinched her cheek, grabbed some clothes, and helped her put them on.
Only then did she say, “Don’t listen to other people’s nonsense. Your dad isn’t a murderer. He’s a very good person.”
Li Yingqiao obediently put on her clothes.
“Really? Then why do you never want to talk to me about Dad?”
Li Shuli, “It’s not that I don’t want to. I just don’t know him well, so I don’t know how to tell you.”
Li Yingqiao asked blankly, “If you didn’t know him, how did I happen? Yu Shanhe says his dad and mom are so in love, they even report to each other every time they go to the factory in a day.”
Li Shuli, “…Give me a break. You actually believe that? That class monitor, even your Tang Xiang Auntie is sick of him.”
“No way, Uncle Yu is pretty handsome, just a bit slow in the head,” she said, slinging on her backpack, picking up an egg from the breakfast plate, and cracked it on her head, quickly peeling it clean and stuffing it in her mouth.
Only then did she announce loudly, “Mom, I’m off to school!”
***
Li Yingqiao marched into the classroom, full of the thought, He’ll definitely run to the teacher’s office wagging his tail like a lapdog and tattle on me, and threw down the gauntlet to Yu Jinyang as soon as she entered.
“Hey!” she called out, tossing her backpack onto the desk.
“Yu Jinyang, I challenge you to a duel!”
Yu Jinyang, who had just finished taking out the trash and hadn’t even warmed his seat yet.
Gao Dian, catching the whiff of gunpowder, turned around.
“A duel? Nice! It’s been a while since you two dueled. So, what’s the wager? After school, I’ll call Zheng Miaojia and have her grandpa blow the horn.”
Li Yingqiao hurriedly said, “Don’t! Her grandpa’s stomach hasn’t been good lately. Just call Miaojia, and those cousins with the ‘Zi’ in their names, let everyone bear witness.”
She glanced at Yu Jinyang, squinting. “Yu Jinyang, today it’s either you or me.”
Gao Dian, quick on the uptake, immediately understood, and looked at Yu Jinyang with a hint of pity.
“Either way, it’s you.”
Ever since last night, Yu Jinyang had decided to let Li Yingqiao, this drama queen of a deskmate, do as she pleased.
He put on his headphones, resolved from this moment on not to say a word to her, and quietly waited for the teacher to rearrange the seats.
Li Yingqiao noticed he now had an MP3 player, a foreign brand no less, and the headphones were no longer just for show.
She started to covet it, and her tone immediately softened. “Jinyang, let me listen for a bit.”
The Chinese teacher had just said, “Those who can recognize ten-digit numbers are geniuses.”
She could at least recognize an MP3 player.
Yu Jinyang ignored her and went on reciting the textbook, his pen scritch-scratching as he silently copied out the poem.
Li Yingqiao, thick-skinned as ever, kept pestering him, “Jinyang~”
Just as Yu Jinyang was about to speak, the homeroom teacher, Yushi, entered through the back door and tapped on Li Yingqiao’s desk.
“Come to the office for a moment.”
Li Yingqiao knew it had to be about him, so she gave Yu Jinyang a fierce glare before obediently getting up and following the teacher out.
***
The new homeroom teacher was named Liang, a woman with delicate features and a gentle, soft-spoken manner.
When she smiled, two little dimples appeared at the corners of her mouth.
But when she scolded people, she was fierce—a completely different person from her usual gentle self.
At the moment, her tone was calm and measured, “Li Yingqiao, I heard your mom can drive a truck?”
Li Yingqiao was a little stunned, not expecting this question.
She thought the teacher would ask about yesterday’s duty, so she quickly nodded.
“Yes, my mom used to haul cargo out of town. She drove a big truck herself.”
“Then your mom must have a C…”
Liang Mei paused, worried Li Yingqiao wouldn’t understand, and was about to rephrase.
“C1 Driver’s License, right? My mom has one.”
Liang Mei had been temporarily transferred from the city to this remote suburban elementary school in Xiao Hua City, and was already feeling annoyed.
She didn’t like this “crafty streak” in kids—no good at studying, but too clever and reckless in everything else.
So, without any preamble, she cut straight to the point, “The school knows your family is having a hard time and wanted to ask if your mom would be willing to help the school canteen by driving the cold chain truck for a couple of days. The previous driver took leave. It’ll be about a week, and the pay is by the day.”
Li Yingqiao wanted to say their family wasn’t struggling, and her mom would help even without pay, but was afraid the teacher would think she was being difficult, so she nodded.
“Okay, I’ll tell my mom.”
Liang Mei then pulled out the Chinese test paper she’d just graded yesterday, spread it out on the desk, and pointed at the dense marks.
She wanted to give Li Yingqiao a wake-up call, so her tone became a bit stern.
“It’s a pity, you have such beautiful handwriting, but you don’t memorize a single poem, and your idioms are all mixed up. You’re in fourth grade, Li Yingqiao. In two years, you’ll be in middle school. Are you planning to keep coasting like this? I know the kids living here in Xiao Hua City, your parents are all resettled households, most families are doing well, but you’re not the same, are you?”
“Your mom works so hard, and I heard the grocery shop you live in belongs to your uncle. If he doesn’t let you stay, where will you and your mom go? And yet you still don’t study hard. As soon as the bell rings, you run home like a monkey. I didn’t rearrange your seat on purpose, so you could learn from your deskmate. Yu Jinyang’s father owns so many factories, but he never slacks off, and he keeps the class affairs in perfect order. Think about it. I’m saying this for your own good.”
Li Yingqiao was just about to leave when Liang Mei slapped the desk.
“Take your test paper with you.”
***
The other teachers in the office watched Li Yingqiao walk out, then leaned over to Liang Mei, hissing quietly, “Teacher Liang, just leave her alone. Be careful she doesn’t go home and complain to her mom. Her mom has mental issues—the hospital gave her a certificate—something like bipolar disorder, the kind that can get violent when she has an episode. Xu Laoshi was hit by her once. And Li Yingqiao’s dad is still in prison. I know you mean well, but she’s a lost cause, just like her mom.”
“Her mom’s a big tank, she’s a little tank,” the other added.
Liang Mei’s temper flared.
She slammed the remaining papers on the desk with a loud “Hey!”, causing the desk to shake, and half a cup of cold water to spill.
The test paper for Yu Jinyang, sitting behind, got completely soaked.
She quickly snatched it up, shook off the water before it could soak in, not caring if any splashed on others, muttering as she did, “Stop talking nonsense. Bipolar disorder and mental illness aren’t the same thing. Li Yingqiao is still just a kid—how can you say she’s hopeless? Honestly, I may not like this girl much, but I’m certain she’ll do just fine in life. I know you mean well, but focus on your lesson planning instead.”
The other teacher pursed her lips, gave a sheepish laugh, and pushed her chair back, thinking to herself, ‘No wonder you got transferred here. With EQ like that, how could the city schools stand you?’
Li Yingqiao didn’t speak a word to Yu Jinyang for a whole week.
She didn’t pay any attention to whether he was wearing headphones or if the headphones were plugged into his MP3, except to quietly return his test paper from last week’s exam when he wasn’t around, wordlessly placing it on his desk.
At home, she still puffed her cheeks as she munched on snacks and shouted, “Mom, I’m home!”
Heading out, she would always announce loudly, “Dear Mom, I’m going to school!”
Before leaving, she never forgot to help Chun Zhen Nai Nai next door, who sold sponge cakes, by pulling up her shutter, and then, swaying and strolling, she would amble off toward school.
She’d even hum that year’s pop song—
“Crows are singing,
Sparrows are chirping.
No one’s better than anyone else.
The river glimmers as it flows.
Ask where my little boat is headed.
My little boat wants to see the moon.
The river is the backbone of the forest.
No one’s more anxious than another.
Illusion, illusion.
The world is just like this—
One slap can make a loud bang!”
Of course, that last line was her own addition.
After adding it, she nodded to herself in great satisfaction, Li Yingqiao, genius! Go be a singer!