Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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The next morning, Ji Yan took a break from training and came back to take Tang Tang and their son to the kindergarten in the family compound for registration.
Ji Yan thought Tang Tang would wear the new clothes he had given her yesterday, but to his disappointment, Tang Tang was still wearing her old clothes, the same shoes, and no makeup on her face.
She hadn’t used the things he had given her. She clearly said she liked them yesterday, so why wasn’t she using them…?
“Honey, what are you looking at?” Tang Tang asked, puzzled. Why was he always looking at her clothes? Was there something wrong with her?
Ji Yan pursed her lips and shook her head. “It’s okay, let’s go.” Maybe she didn’t want to wear it today, but she might wear it in a few days.
The kindergarten in the family compound was bigger than Tang Tang had imagined. Because they arrived late, most of the other children had already arrived, and there were quite a few of them at a glance. “This kindergarten is quite good, and there are quite a few teachers.”
Hearing Tang Tang say this, Ji Yan unusually added a few more words: “The teachers here are all family members of military personnel, but their educational backgrounds are all fine. Many of them are graduates of teacher training colleges, which is more than enough for them to teach these children.”
Tang Tang had actually heard about this from the regimental commander’s wife. She also said that the kindergarten teachers’ salaries were quite low, and these teachers were actually quite wasting their talents by coming here to teach children, because many of them were graduate students, but they came here to be with their husbands. This was a special forces unit, located in a remote area, making it difficult to get to work. Therefore, many military wives had given up their original careers.
Tang Tang admired these military wives very much.
Ji Xiaozhuo was in the junior class last semester, but this semester he was in the middle class. The middle class teacher was a young woman in her thirties. She clearly knew Ji Yan and came over to greet him and Tang Tang, who was standing next to him. Then she bent down and patted Ji Xiaozhuo’s head. “You must be Xiao Zhuo, right? I’ll be your teacher from now on. My name is Su Yue.”
Ji Xiaozhuo raised his little hand and shook Su Yue’s hand, greeting her sweetly, “Hello, teacher.”
Su Yue took his hand in return and turned to Ji Yan and Tang Tang, saying, “Let me take you to see the classroom and help Xiao Zhuo choose a seat.”
There were twenty-five students in the middle class, and they were all sitting in their seats, excitedly talking. They were already excited on the first day of school, but seeing their teacher bring over a child they didn’t recognize made them even more excited. They all stared at Ji Xiaozhuo with wide eyes, chattering excitedly as they observed him.
“The teacher brought in a kid I’ve never seen before, he must be new.”
“Look, his pockets are so big, it’s hilarious!”
“Wow, he’s even better looking than Su Jie! Su Jie is outshone!”
“Nonsense, he’s so fat, how could he be better looking than Su Jie? My mom says fat people aren’t good-looking.”
The children were naturally excited to see their new classmate. Seeing that things had calmed down, Su Yue clapped her hands to quiet them down. “Okay, everyone, quiet down.”
But it seemed that since it was the beginning of the semester, the children had forgotten all the classroom rules they learned last semester. Even after Su Yue repeated herself several times, the children didn’t quiet down and continued to stare at Ji Xiaozhuo, discussing him with great interest.
These kids from the residential compound were all very mischievous, and once they got excited, it was really hard to calm them down. Su Yue had a headache and looked worriedly at Ji Xiaozhuo, afraid that he wouldn’t be used to this environment and would be frightened by the commotion.
Su Yue was overthinking it. Ji Xiaozhuo wasn’t afraid at all and wasn’t bothered by the stares. Instead, he calmly returned their gazes, starting from the first row and looking at each child one by one, making eye contact with each one for a long time until the children couldn’t stand it anymore and lowered their heads, too afraid to look at him.
Three minutes later, all the children in the class had lowered their heads under Ji Xiaozhuo’s gaze, and the once lively class suddenly became quiet.
Su Yue: “……..”
Tang Tang, watching from outside: “……..”
Only Ji Yan watched calmly, as if the scene was perfectly normal.
Tang Tang felt that Ji Xiaozhuo’s aura at this moment was very similar to Ji Yan’s.
Su Yue finally withdrew her complicated gaze from Ji Xiaozhuo and introduced him to the children: “Classmates, this is our new classmate, his name is Ji Zizhuo. You should all get along well with your new classmate and not bully him.”
The children remained silent, creating an awkward atmosphere.
Su Yue smiled helplessly, intending to find Ji Xiaozhuo a deskmate immediately. However, after scanning the entire class, she noticed only one child without a seat. But this child…
Su Yue hesitated, turning to the door to whisper to Ji Yan and Tang Tang, “It’s like this, there are twenty-five children in the class excluding Xiao Zhuo, and only one child doesn’t have a deskmate. Xiao Zhuo was supposed to sit with her, but there’s a slight problem. This child without a deskmate isn’t very talkative, and many children who sat with her kept clamoring to change deskmates, so…” Su Yue didn’t finish her sentence.
“Come on,” Tang Tang continued, “why don’t you think we should give Xiao Zhuo a separate table, or let her sit with this child?”
Tang Tang’s gaze fell on the only child in the class without a deskmate. She was quite surprised; she had expected a fierce-looking boy, but instead, she saw a very soft and adorable little girl. She had a cute apple-shaped hairstyle, a fair and delicate face, and big, watery eyes with curled eyelashes that blinked constantly. Her only flaw was that she was a little thin, but this didn’t detract from her beauty; she was still incredibly pretty. Just looking at her made Tang Tang want to hug her tightly.
How could no one want to sit with such a lovely little girl?
“Teacher, this little girl looks so cute, why doesn’t anyone want to sit with her? Is it because she doesn’t talk much?”
Su Yue hesitated for a moment before saying, “Actually, it’s not that she doesn’t like to talk. The little girl basically doesn’t talk, and she doesn’t like to play with her classmates. She just sits on the side all day playing with her toy cars by herself. Even when the other children try to talk to her, she doesn’t react much. Children can’t stand being alone, so they don’t want to sit with her.”
Tang Tang understood. These children were at an age where they were lively, active, and talkative. If a deskmate didn’t talk or play all day, most children really couldn’t stand it. No wonder.
But why didn’t such a cute little girl like to talk or play?
Ji Xiaozhuo was also a lively person and usually quite talkative. Tang Tang wondered if he could stand sitting next to such a quiet girl. She couldn’t help but ask Ji Yan for help, “Honey, what do you think we should do?”
Ji Yan didn’t answer, but instead asked Su Yue, “Whose child is that little girl?”
Su Yue replied, “She’s the child of Battalion Commander Wen Changyi.”
Ji Yan’s eyes deepened upon hearing this. He glanced at the little girl inside and said to Su Yue, “Ask Ji Xiaozhuo about this. He can decide for himself.”
Su Yue hesitated for a moment, then nodded. She walked to Ji Xiaozhuo’s side and whispered something to him. Then, Ji Xiaozhuo looked at the cute little girl, nodded after a while, and, carrying his little backpack, went straight to sit down next to her.
Tang Tang secretly tugged at Ji Yan’s sleeve, “Honey, look! Baby’s sitting with that little girl. I wonder if he’ll be able to handle it.”
Ji Yan glanced down at the hand tugging at his sleeve, a smile he himself didn’t realize curling at the corner of his lips. His voice had also turned inexplicably soft, “Don’t worry, he’ll figure it out himself.”
Tang Tang could only continue watching the two children in the classroom, trying to see if they interacted. Unfortunately, just as Teacher Su Yue had said, the little girl was engrossed in fiddling with her toy car, not even glancing at Ji Xiaozhuo, and Ji Xiaozhuo didn’t greet her either, continuing with his own activities.
“Honey, look, neither of the kids is talking. Won’t these two little ones become completely separate and ignore each other? Can the baby handle not having anyone to talk to?”
Ji Yan patted her head. “It’s okay, Ji Xiaozhuo won’t stay silent. He has his own way.”
Tang Tang didn’t understand what he meant, and Ji Yan didn’t explain further. She could only continue to watch the two little ones anxiously from outside the window until the teacher announced they could go home. The friendship between the two little ones hadn’t progressed much.
On the way home, Tang Tang asked Ji Xiaozhuo, “What do you think of your new deskmate?”
Ji Xiaozhuo thought for a long time and only answered with three words: “She’s dull.”
Tang Tang immediately patted Ji Xiaozhuo’s head. “Baby, you can’t say that about your new deskmate. She just doesn’t like to talk much, she’s not dull, you know?”
Ji Xiaozhuo chose to remain silent, knowing his mother didn’t believe him. Actually, his deskmate really was dull and a little silly.
Tang Tang was worried that Ji Xiaozhuo wouldn’t play with the girl because she was quiet, so she instructed him, “Xiao Zhuo, you need to get along well with your deskmate from now on. Talk to her more, okay? If she doesn’t talk to you first, you can take the initiative to talk to her. The more you talk, the more familiar you’ll become.”
Ji Xiaozhuo tugged at his worried mother’s hand, “I know, Mom. She’ll talk to me soon, don’t worry.”
Tang Tang didn’t know why her little guy was so confident. Teacher Su Yue had said that many children couldn’t get along with that girl. Did her baby have some special method?
Ji Xiaozhuo had actually found a way. He seemed to ignore his deskmate all morning, but he was actually observing her quietly. Besides discovering that she was a bit dull, he made another important discovery: she seemed to really enjoy assembling her toy cars, always taking them apart and putting them back together, seemingly enjoying it immensely. So he had a way to infiltrate her circle.
No one knew what Ji Xiaozhuo was up to. As soon as he got home, he took out all his toys and laid them out on the floor, examining them closely. After a long time, he chose a castle model and then— started taking it apart.
Tang Tang was startled, not understanding why he was taking apart the model she had painstakingly assembled. Just as she was about to ask, she saw the little guy stuff the huge pile of parts he had painstakingly disassembled into his little backpack.
Tang Tang was completely bewildered.
Ji Yan, however, told Tang Tang not to worry about Ji Xiaozhuo; she would understand in time.
Tang Tang felt that the father and son sometimes did things in a very profound way, often leaving her confused. Could this be the difference between intelligent people and ordinary people? Especially when Ji Yan started teaching Ji Xiaozhuo large number multiplication and division, this feeling became stronger than ever before. She even began to doubt whether she was stupid, because she didn’t understand anything Ji Yan was teaching him.
Even a little kid like Ji Xiaozhuo could understand, but she, an adult, couldn’t. Tang Tang was so discouraged she questioned her existence, but she still tried her best to listen to what Ji Yan was saying. She still wanted to struggle, even if it meant learning a little bit.
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