Mom and big sister had taught her to always be polite.
Chou Qiu thought Wen Ruanqing was pretty and looked easy to get along with, which was why she had actively approached her. Her personality was extroverted; her mother always called her a “social butterfly,” but she clearly considered herself just a little ball.
“So thin.”
Chou Qiu grabbed Wen Ruanqing’s hand, comparing their sizes: “Smaller than me.”
Feeling the warmth coming from the palm of her hand, Wen Ruanqing didn’t resist it, but she refuted Chou Qiu’s words: “I am not thin.”
“You are thin.”
Chou Qiu completely ignored Wen Ruanqing’s words, continuing on her own, “Eat a bit more.”
“It’s time for self-introductions.”
The teacher timely interrupted the chat between Wen Ruanqing and Chou Qiu, calling Chou Qiu up first to introduce herself. Chou Qiu immediately stood on the podium: “Hello everyone, my name is Chou Qiu…”
A class contained all sorts of different personalities. Some children were timid, while others were extroverted. Chou Qiu belonged to the extremely extroverted category, capable of mingling with almost anyone.
Wen Ruanqing’s personality leaned toward gentle. When she went up to the stage to introduce herself, her tone was soft: “Hello everyone, my name is Wen Ruanqing. I am three years old this year.”
“Three years old?”
Chou Qiu let out a “Wow,” holding up four fingers: “I am older than you, little sister.”
After finishing her introduction, Wen Ruanqing returned to her seat. She glanced at Chou Qiu, speaking with a touch of pride, “Even though you gave me candy, I won’t call you big sister.”
Chou Qiu gave a “Pfft,” but her gaze remained fixed on Wen Ruanqing. She possessed a tremendous sense of justice; since she felt Wen Ruanqing was her little sister and smaller than her, she had to protect this little sister!
“Alright, now that everyone has introduced themselves, let’s begin our first lesson. Since today is the first day of school, we will play games together this morning to get familiarized.”
The teacher distributed drawing paper down the rows, gave everyone a pair of sleeves and a small apron, and finally handed out the paint: “Everyone, unleash your imagination and begin drawing.”
Looking at the paint on the small palette, Wen Ruanqing picked up a brush to paint. Previously, Wen Tingyin and Huo Yinli would bring her along to draw together, but her body would always end up completely filthy, and she would be teased as a “little striped cat” when Feng Ye saw her.
Now, she had to start drawing completely on her own.
“What are you planning to draw?”
Chou Qiu leaned forward in front of Wen Ruanqing, using the end of her brush to lightly poke Wen Ruanqing’s cheek: “Acknowledge me.”
“Don’t poke my face.”
Wen Ruanqing grew a bit unhappy. She patted her face, her brow furrowing slightly, “It hurts.”
Poking her face caused it to ache.
Chou Qiu froze. She poked her own face with the brush, and realizing it really was a bit painful, she said apologetically, “Sorry, it seems I hurt you.”
Wen Ruanqing glanced at Chou Qiu and began drawing on the paper with her brush. She was best at drawing flowers: “It’s fine, you can’t do it again in the future, okay?”
“Mm!” Chou Qiu leaned close to Wen Ruanqing’s side again, lowering her head to sniff her, and then asked in confusion, “Your body smells so good.”
It wasn’t the smell of milk powder, because she drank that at night too, but her own body didn’t have this scent.
“Medicine.”
Wen Ruanqing answered softly: “The fragrance of medicine.”
Huo Yinli and Wen Tingyin both said her body carried a faint scent of herbal medicine. Later, Wen Si told her that it was the scent of Chinese medicine.
“Medicine?”
Chou Qiu tilted her head: “Are you sick?”
Wen Ruanqing nodded, drawing a small circle on the paper before starting to paint the petals: “Mm.”
“What illness?”
Chou Qiu turned her head to look at her, her attention now entirely focused on Wen Ruanqing: “Can you tell me?”
“No.”
Wen Ruanqing began coloring the flower, looking up at Chou Qiu: “Are you not drawing?”
Only then did Chou Qiu snap back to reality, sitting up straight with a smile: “I’ll draw right now!”
“Mm!”
Wen Ruanqing didn’t dislike Chou Qiu. Having a clingy classmate was acceptable to her.
She drew intently. The center of the flower was pink, the petals were yellow, and there were leaves; the leaves were green and needed to be filled in completely.
“Waaah…”
A sudden outburst of crying caused Wen Ruanqing to freeze. Looking over, a child had started crying, continuously wailing “I want to go home” and “I want my mom.” Once one child cried, other children followed suit.
The teacher immediately went over to comfort those children. Wen Ruanqing watched in a daze, cupping her face with both hands: “They’re crying.”
Chou Qiu took a glance, withdrew her gaze, and focused her sight back on Wen Ruanqing: “Do you miss home?”
Wen Ruanqing immediately nodded: “Yes.”
She had a mom and a mother, as well as two older sisters.
Chou Qiu reached out her arm to embrace Wen Ruanqing. Her movements were clumsy, completely imitating the actions of adults at home: “I’ll keep you company.”
Wen Ruanqing let out an “Ah,” meekly uttering, “But I didn’t cry.”
“Even if you didn’t cry, I’ll still keep you company.”
Chou Qiu liked the scent on Wen Ruanqing’s body, so she kept thinking of ways to cling to her.
They spent the entire morning drawing. Whenever someone needed to use the restroom, a teacher would specifically lead them there. Before lunch was delivered, Wen Ruanqing also raised her hand to use the restroom.
“Teacher.”
Wen Ruanqing stood up and called out: “Go to the restroom.”
Teacher Xiao Lu nodded: “I’ll take student Wen Ruanqing to the restroom.”
A teacher quickly walked over, taking Wen Ruanqing’s hand to lead her out: “Do you know how to use it yourself?”
Wen Ruanqing nodded: “Mm-hm.”
She looked around the kindergarten as they walked. The kindergarten spanned a massive area and possessed luxurious facilities, though it was still a tiny bit inferior to her home.
“I don’t like you, get out of my house!”
The kindergarten had three restrooms, corresponding exactly to the small, middle, and large classes. As Wen Ruanqing passed by the large class restroom, she heard crying coming from inside. She frowned, poking her head in to look: “What are they doing?”
Inside, three girls were surrounding another girl. The girl being surrounded kept her head lowered, but the girl speaking was incredibly arrogant: “You’re my study companion. I don’t like you, so I’m making you leave.”
As she spoke, the child began pushing her companion: “Get away from me!”
Seeing this, the teacher immediately intervened: “I will notify your parents. You cannot resort to physical force; this is bad behavior!”
The girl who spoke let out a cold hmph: “Then let my mother come, I just don’t like this person.”
Watching this scene, several fragments of memory inexplicably surfaced in Wen Ruanqing’s mind:
“Useless, can’t even help out the family.”
“I hate you, you aren’t a member of my family.”
“Mom, I hate big sister, make her get lost.”
Memories of her past life were like a peaceful lake surface suddenly rippling with waves. Wen Ruanqing’s gaze instantly went blank. It was difficult to digest these memories right now; her head ached a bit, and her heart felt tight too. It didn’t feel like a medical relapse, but the bridge of her nose felt pricklish and sour.
It was rather distressing.
“Wen Ruanqing!”
Seeing that Wen Ruanqing hadn’t returned, Chou Qiu had run straight out from the classroom: “Are you done using the restroom?”
Only after hearing Chou Qiu’s voice did Wen Ruanqing snap back to reality. She turned her head to look, her breathing suddenly becoming rapid: “Qiuqiu.”
“Are you done using the restroom?!”
Chou Qiu jogged over, but discovered that Wen Ruanqing was crying. Tears were continuously crashing down, completely throwing her into a panic: “Why are you crying?”
The accompanying teacher panicked upon seeing this as well: “What’s wrong? Do you feel unwell anywhere?”
Wen Ruanqing shook her head, raising her hand to wipe her tears: “I need to use the restroom.”
“Then I’ll take you inside.”
Without a second thought, Chou Qiu pulled Wen Ruanqing into the restroom: “I know the way.”
The teacher followed behind Wen Ruanqing, looking back at the group of people inside the restroom before making a phone call: “I have a situation here, send another teacher over.”
“I can do it myself.”
Wen Ruanqing had learned how to use the restroom. Closing the cubicle door, she sniffled. Once she was finished, she walked out with reddened rims around her eyes: “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome!”
Chou Qiu wiped Wen Ruanqing’s tears, but her technique wasn’t very good and was a bit rough: “Don’t cry anymore.”
“Mm.”
Wen Ruanqing walked over to a lower sink, stood on her tiptoes to wash her hands, and then wiped them clean with a paper towel: “Let’s go back together.”
“Alright, I’ll lead the way.”
Chou Qiu held Wen Ruanqing’s hand, teasing her, “You cry way too easily.”
But when Wen Ruanqing cried, she looked exceptionally pitiful, and Chou Qiu really didn’t like seeing her cry.
Wen Ruanqing kept her head low and remained silent. Only when she sat back in her seat did she let out a sigh of relief, murmuring, “I usually don’t cry.”
“Oh.”
Chou Qiu didn’t believe her at all. By the time they returned, it happened to be lunchtime. Wen Ruanqing’s lunch needed to be prepared separately, while the other children ate the lunch provided by the kindergarten.
“Here is your lunch. Did you just cry?”
Teacher Xiao Lu knelt down, stroking Wen Ruanqing’s hair: “If you want to go home, the teacher can call your mom.”
Wen Ruanqing shook her head, picking up her small spoon: “No.”
It was her first day of school; she absolutely did not want to go home.
Perhaps the memories of her past life were influencing her; she firmly believed that if one went to school, they had to attend properly and could not carelessly ask for leave.
Seeing this, the teacher didn’t push any further, but her attention remained closely fixed on Wen Ruanqing.
“What are you drinking?”
Chou Qiu turned her head and noticed Wen Ruanqing drinking a cup of dark liquid, asking curiously, “Is that milk tea?”
Wen Ruanqing shook her head, biting her straw: “Medicine.”
“Medicine? It’s so dark and gooey.” Chou Qiu didn’t quite believe it, “It looks awful to drink.”
Wen Ruanqing took a big gulp. Even though she had been drinking it for so long, she still found it terribly bitter; her tongue went numb all over again: “It is awful to drink.”
Chou Qiu let out an “Oh,” eating a piece of Chinese yam, but her gaze lingered on the cup in Wen Ruanqing’s hand: “I think it tastes awful too.”
Her tone was a bit low, but Wen Ruanqing noticed it. She lifted her cup, attempting to pour a tiny drop from her straw onto Chou Qiu’s spoon. Wen Ruanqing shook it vigorously, but was only able to shake out a tiny speck.
Chou Qiu licked it up, and her expression instantly contorted. She stuck out her tongue, spitting repeatedly: “Pah, pah, pah! It tastes so bad.”
Wen Ruanqing also had a bitter face: “It really does taste bad.”
But she had to drink it. She had to take this medicine before she could eat her meal, and after eating, she had to take other medications.
“So pitiful.”
Chou Qiu muttered to herself. She searched through her small backpack for a sheet of little red flower stickers, peeled one off, and slapped it straight onto Wen Ruanqing’s face: “Here, wear this.”
Wen Ruanqing was dazed by the sticker. She raised her hand to peel it off, but Chou Qiu stopped her, her eyes completely filled with laughter: “Hmm?”
“With this on, I am the boss, and you are my little underling. From now on, I’ve got your back!”
Chou Qiu’s eyes shone brightly as she uttered those words, patting her chest, “Rest assured, I will protect you.”
Wen Ruanqing: “?”
Eh?
On the first day of primary school, Huo Yinli and Wen Tingyin carried a pile of books back to their seats. Huo Yinli conscientiously wrote her name on them. She and Wen Tingyin had been taking calligraphy lessons constantly, so their handwriting was far from ugly.
“Students, we have all gained a basic understanding of each other this morning. This afternoon, we will address internal class matters. We will conduct a small quiz first to select the class monitor and various subject representatives. However, our class positions change once a week, so every student will have a chance.”
The teacher distributed the classroom quiz paper down the rows. It included Chinese, English, and Mathematics, though the contents were relatively simple; most kindergartens would have taught them.
“Easy.”
Wen Tingyin picked up her pen with full confidence and began writing. Huo Yinli also took a glance and set her pen in motion. They wrote quickly, and the teacher graded them just as fast: “Full marks.”
“Full marks, you know.