Jiang Hua knew the two children had been acting secretive, going out early and coming back late, but she was preoccupied with the matters at Alley End, and Xu Chenghuai was busy with his project. Neither of them had the time to pay close attention to the children.
However, Jiang Hua knew they were only playing around inside the compound, so she was not worried about safety issues. Still, the fact that they had been coming back later and later at noon inevitably made her feel puzzled.
“Where did you go to play?”
Jiang Hua was picking vegetables under the eaves. When she saw the two children running back and noticed that they were drenched in sweat, she could not help frowning. “The weather is so hot. Don’t run around everywhere. It’s very easy to get heatstroke.”
Yunshu nodded obediently. “Got it. We didn’t run around outside.”
Yunkai did not say anything. With his short little legs, he had already climbed halfway up the stairs.
Seeing this, Yunshu hurried to follow. “Brother, wait for me.”
Yunkai stopped in the middle of the stairs, turned back, and stretched out one hand to help the little girl up, urging her at the same time, “Hurry up.”
Jiang Hua quickly reminded them, “You can’t run on the stairs. Walk slowly.”
She watched the two small figures disappear at the stairway, and could not help tilting her head in confusion. She always felt that they were hiding something, and a faint sense of unease rose in her heart.
However, it was only a fleeting thought, and she did not take it seriously.
Inside the second-floor room.
Yunkai walked in first, not forgetting to remind his younger sister behind him, “Close the door properly. Don’t let Mommy find out our secret.”
Yunshu’s expression instantly turned solemn. Her tender little face tightened as she nervously made a dramatic and adorable “shh” gesture. She carefully tiptoed over and closed the door, as if they were really plotting some great secret.
Yunkai jumped onto the bed, then lowered his head and rummaged through his pockets. His small hand reached inside, and he pulled out a handful of money.
It was all one-yuan, two-yuan, and five-yuan bills, along with one-cent, two-cent, and five-cent coins, neatly stacked together.
Yunshu excitedly climbed onto the bed as well. In the same way, she took out the money from her pocket and handed it to Yunkai. “Brother, I counted it. There are three yuan here. Added to what we saved before, we already have eighteen yuan!”
Hearing this, disbelief and shock appeared on Yunkai’s childish little face. “Really? We’re that amazing?”
Yunshu nodded vigorously. Pride showed in her clear, bright eyes as she showered him with praise. “Brother is amazing!”
Praised like that, Yunkai unconsciously puffed out his chest. “If we go again this afternoon, we should be able to save up to twenty yuan.”
Yunshu happily clapped her hands and swung her little legs, planning in her soft, childish voice, “Then we’ll secretly put it on Mommy’s bed and give her a surprise.”
Yunkai did not care about the form. As long as it reached Jiang Hua, it was fine. “Up to you.”
Everyone gradually noticed that the compound had suddenly become much quieter. The children who were usually chirping and noisy had all disappeared these past few days, and no one knew what they were doing.
Some people also noticed that their own children had recently been asking for money frequently. The key point was that the money was spent, yet no one could tell where it had gone.
If it had only been one or two children, that would have been fine. The problem was that after one person complained, others began echoing it, saying their children were the same.
“Could it be that they’ve banded together to trick us out of our money?”
“Probably not. My child doesn’t even play with yours usually. And mine is a glutton. Even if he has one fen, he’ll run to the supply and marketing cooperative to spend it. But now there’s no sign of it at all.”
“Same with mine. This is really too strange. Could they have been bullied and robbed by hooligans?”
As soon as this was said, it immediately aroused everyone’s alarm. The more they thought about it, the more it felt like their children had been targeted by hooligans.
The parents were on high alert. Without another word, they rushed home, trying to pry the truth out of their children.
The children, however, were surprisingly loyal to one another. At first, no one was willing to say anything. But parents were always one step ahead. With a few tricks, they eventually got the answers.
Once one child spoke, the others realized it could no longer be hidden and all confessed. In the end, when everything was pieced together, it turned out that all the children’s money had been given to Yunkai.
But when the parents asked why, all the children suddenly became extremely tacit, and not a single one was willing to explain.
No one knew whether they were protecting Yunkai or whether they were afraid of him and dared not speak.
Most people leaned toward the latter. Otherwise, how could children be so willing to hand over their money?
The matter caused a huge uproar in the compound, but Jiang Hua knew nothing about it. Every day, she went to Alley End early, and when she came back, she rarely interacted with the people in the compound.
More importantly, Song Jin had returned to her natal home. Otherwise, at the slightest bit of gossip in the compound, Song Jin would have come running to share it with her.
At this moment, Jiang Hua naturally had no idea that the parents in the compound were about to come over to confront Yunkai. She had just pulled a wad of money out of her shoulder bag, or more accurately, a wad of loose change.
“Who put this in my bag?” She froze, looked up at Xu Chenghuai, then turned to look at the two children.
Xu Chenghuai’s gaze fell on the money in her hand, and he could not help frowning slightly. “Could it be that someone put it in the wrong place? Where did you go today?”
Jiang Hua shook her head. She was just about to say that she had been at the shop all day and had not gone anywhere when she turned her head and saw the two children sneaking smiles at each other.
How could she not understand now?
Jiang Hua looked at Yunkai and Yunshu, narrowed her eyes slightly, and asked, “Did you two do this?”
Yunshu smiled shyly and nodded gently, looking at Jiang Hua with expectant eyes. “Brother and I earned the money. We want you to use it to buy fabric.”
Jiang Hua’s gaze fell on Yunkai’s face.
The little boy’s tender face was tightly drawn. It was obvious that he was eagerly waiting to be praised, but he also wanted to act cool, so he slightly turned his head away and pretended not to care.
Jiang Hua fell silent. It was clearly something very touching, yet she truly did not dare to act rashly. She exchanged a look with Xu Chenghuai and asked, in as calm and curious a tone as possible, “How did you earn the money?”
Yunshu cautiously glanced at her brother, then proudly straightened her chest. “Brother taught little kids how to do their homework, and I taught little kids how to draw red flowers.”
Jiang Hua: ???
Xu Chenghuai: ???
Neither of them had expected this answer. For a moment, both husband and wife were completely stunned.
Writing homework? These two little brats in front of her had not even started kindergarten yet. Who was unlucky enough to be fooled by them?
Jiang Hua blinked, then immediately tossed the money in her hand to Xu Chenghuai. “Your kids. You teach them yourself.”
Xu Chenghuai was caught off guard when a handful of money was stuffed into his arms. A huge question mark instantly rose over his head.
The two children were also stunned by her action. Yunshu reacted a beat later, opened her round, bright eyes wide, and asked cautiously, “Mommy, did Brother and I do something wrong?”
Yunkai had also been staring at her at some point. He pressed his lips together, his small face full of stubborn defiance, yet faint traces of unease and anxiety could still be seen.
Xu Chenghuai weighed the money in his hand. His brows and eyes shifted slightly as his gaze fell on the two children, his lips moving as he was about to speak.
At this moment, Jiang Hua, who had just said she would let him teach the children himself, suddenly stepped forward and squeezed him aside.
Xu Chenghuai: ???
Jiang Hua’s attention was not on him at all. She looked at Yunshu and asked, “How did you teach the other kids to do their homework?”
“Just like that. Brother said the questions were super easy, and anyone who couldn’t do them was a dummy.” Yunshu spoke in her soft, childish voice, completely unaware of how cold her words sounded.
Jiang Hua was momentarily speechless.
She turned to look at Yunkai. “You really know how to do all of it?”
Yunkai knitted his small brows together, his face full of grievance at not being trusted. “First-grade questions are so simple. Who wouldn’t know how to do them?”
Jiang Hua fell silent again. She cast a complicated glance at Xu Chenghuai and said helplessly, “You handle this.”
Yunkai really did look like he knew how to do it. Jiang Hua felt her head in a mess. In her previous life, Yunkai had also been smart, and she never had to worry about his studies, but he had not been so smart that he could already do primary school questions before even starting school.
Xu Chenghuai did not mind her ignoring him earlier. He beckoned Yunkai over and led him to the side, as if to verify whether Yunkai really could do primary school problems.
What they did not expect was that the result would truly be astonishing.
Whether it was simple arithmetic in math, word formation in language class, or reading and writing letters, even if Yunkai occasionally got stuck, he could still give the correct answer after thinking for a moment.
Jiang Hua was both shocked and delighted. Even Xu Chenghuai’s usually indifferent face could not help showing a look of astonishment.
Thinking of Yunshu saying she taught children to draw little red flowers, Jiang Hua had assumed it meant drawing simple flower outlines and coloring them bright red. However, when the little girl picked up a pencil and used her immature lines to draw one delicate peach blossom after another, the couple completely lost their ability to speak.
Jiang Hua opened her mouth, her face full of undisguised shock. “How did you do this?”
As soon as she said that, both Yunkai and Yunshu lowered their heads, their faces full of guilt.
Jiang Hua immediately frowned and was about to ask more.
At that moment, a sudden burst of noise came from outside. Immediately after, the courtyard gate was pounded. “Jiang Hua, get out here.”
It was Li Qingran, her voice extremely rude.
Jiang Hua looked at Xu Chenghuai in confusion. He returned her a look, clearly just as clueless.
After thinking for a moment, she went over and opened the courtyard gate, only to find a whole group of people standing outside, all of them wearing unpleasant expressions.
Li Qingran was furious, yet tinged with schadenfreude. “Jiang Hua, your Yunkai is really something. At such a young age, he’s already learned the ways of those street thugs.”
Jiang Hua almost instantly thought of the money. She tugged at the corner of her mouth. “If you have something to say, say it directly. Don’t speak in riddles.”
The calmer Jiang Hua was, the more smug Li Qingran became. She wanted to see if Jiang Hua could still laugh later.
“You still don’t know? Your Yunkai has been collecting protection money in the compound these past few days. Who knows how much money he’s taken?” Li Qingran looked at Jiang Hua with malice.
Jiang Hua herself did not know why Li Qingran disliked her so much.
As for the so-called protection money, she had already confirmed the matter with Yunkai earlier. Jiang Hua beckoned to him. “Yunkai, come here. Tell everyone why you took their money.”
Yunkai pressed his lips together and reluctantly stepped over to Jiang Hua’s side. With a disdainful look, he said, “That was payment for teaching them how to do their homework. We agreed on it.”
Not a single person believed him.
Li Qingran laughed outright. “If you’re going to make up an excuse, at least come up with a believable one. Think about it yourself. Do you believe what you just said? Do you think your parents believe it?”
Disgust appeared on Yunkai’s small face. “No wonder Ma Fenghuo is so dumb.”
Yunshu nodded vigorously at the side, her face full of relief as she said in her soft voice, “Luckily, our mom isn’t a dummy, or else we would be dumb too.”
Jiang Hua’s mouth twitched immediately.
The people gathered in front of the Xu family were holding back laughter. Only Li Qingran’s face alternated between green and red. If it had been Jiang Hua saying this, she could have argued back. But it was a three-year-old child speaking. She could not very well argue with a three-year-old.
Jiang Hua looked at the crowd. “Yunkai is telling the truth. If you don’t believe it, you can go home and ask your own children, or go ask the teachers at school about the children’s recent homework.”
Yunkai said coolly with a stern little face, “If you still don’t believe it, I can take you to where we usually have class.”
Jiang Hua raised her eyebrows. There was even a special place for classes?
The crowd was half-believing and half-doubting, but they really did follow Yunkai out. Seeing everyone being led away so easily by a small child, Li Qingran stomped her foot in anger. She could not stop them, so she followed behind with resentment.
She wanted to see for herself how Yunkai, a little brat who had not even started school yet, taught other children how to do homework.
No one expected that the siblings would actually lead them to a courtyard. More precisely, an abandoned courtyard.
Yunkai walked in as if very familiar with the place.
Unexpectedly, there were people inside. Several children were sprawled around a stone table. When they saw the group enter, they were startled.
Li Qingran was stunned when she saw one of the children. “Ma Fenghuo, why are you here?”
Ma Fenghuo stared blankly at his mother, then looked at Yunkai and Yunshu. Together with the other children, he stood there at a loss.
“See? Yunkai didn’t lie.” Jiang Hua pointed to a stone slab propped against a tree trunk not far away. On it were arithmetic problems written in charcoal, the strokes clearly childish.
The crowd still found it hard to believe, but with the children present and caught red-handed, they knew they could not hide it anymore. Suppressing their embarrassment, they confessed everything about Yunkai teaching them lessons and helping them with their homework.
Some adults checked their children’s homework and discovered that after being taught by Yunkai, they truly no longer made mistakes.
While everyone marveled at this, they also felt deeply frustrated with their own children for not living up to expectations.
For a time, Jiang Hua became the object of both envy and jealousy.
Li Qingran, meanwhile, was so embarrassed that her face burned red. She angrily twisted Ma Fenghuo’s ear. “How can you be so stupid? You can’t even compare to a three-year-old!”
Ma Fenghuo cried out in pain.
Afraid that Jiang Hua would laugh at her in return, Li Qingran quickly dragged Ma Fenghuo away by the ear.
However, word of Yunkai’s intelligence spread throughout the compound. When the siblings walked through the alleys, people often stuffed snacks into their hands, and those with children at home enthusiastically tried to lure them back to their own houses.
As a result, Yunkai and Yunshu did not really dare to go out these past two days.
Jiang Hua also found it quite a headache, because people kept asking her, directly or indirectly, how she taught her children. She had an answer in her heart, but there was no way she could tell anyone.
…
The fabric issue at Alley End was still unresolved, yet unexpectedly, a new problem appeared.