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Chapter 26: Inspection

Mi Yang glanced at the textbook on his desk. His name was written on it: Tang Xiao.

Tang Xiao pushed a piece of paper over, actually asking him to write a few characters for him to see. The corner of Mi Yang’s mouth twitched. He took it and, with his left hand, wrote two characters, stroke by stroke. It was Tang Xiao’s name. The characters had quite a few strokes, and he deliberately looked up as he wrote, making the handwriting crooked.

Tang Xiao frowned. “Are you left-handed?”

Mi Yang nodded. He had always had good handwriting in his previous life, and it had only taken about a month to get his right hand back in shape. Although it wasn’t as fluid as before, you could still tell from the strokes that he had practiced for many years. Once his right hand had mostly recovered, Mi Yang switched to holding the pen with his left. He had never used his left hand before, so it was quite interesting to practice from scratch. Besides, the characters he wrote this way didn’t stand out too much among the other children.

Tang Xiao had him write “Chinese Language” again. Mi Yang did as he was told. It was a little better than before, but only a little.

Tang Xiao was probably a bit disappointed, thinking that this little deskmate who claimed to enjoy writing didn’t write very well and couldn’t help him with his homework. He quickly lost interest and turned back to his book for class.

Mi Yang breathed a sigh of relief and sat up straight to listen to the lecture.

The third-grade curriculum was still like a children’s game to Mi Yang, very simple. But since he had just skipped a grade, he needed some time to adapt before planning his next step. So, Mi Yang did his best to act like a well-behaved student, sitting with proper posture and listening attentively, occasionally raising his hand to ask questions, and writing his homework seriously with his left hand.

He was sitting a bit towards the back, and the students in front of him were taller, but Mi Yang didn’t mind at all. He could see just by tilting his head, and even if he didn’t look, he could keep up completely just by listening. After all, it was an elementary school curriculum.

Tang Xiao’s curiosity about him came in waves. Especially when he saw his left-handed writing getting better day by day, his attention slowly shifted to Mi Yang. Sometimes, he would even put his arm around his shoulder and praise him as a “little genius.”

With his arm being pressed down, Mi Yang’s hand was unsteady, and with a “snap,” the tip of his pencil broke. He looked up at Tang Xiao, wanting to give him the reproachful look of an adult looking at a child. But he was too young. When he looked up like that, trying to widen his eyes, he instead looked like he had been wronged and was keeping quiet. Especially with those puppy-like eyes, slightly drooping, it made Tang Xiao feel embarrassed.

Tang Xiao touched the tip of his nose and gave him one of his own pens. “Use mine. Who uses pencils anymore? I’ll let you use this mechanical pencil. It’s 0.5mm lead, super fine…”

Mi Yang shook his head. “No need, I have my own.”

He started to sharpen his pencil again with his own sharpener, but Tang Xiao wouldn’t listen. He snatched the Zhonghua pencil from his hand and gave him his own mechanical pencil. “Just take it and use it. It’s not expensive.” He had noticed his little deskmate from the moment he came in. He was carrying a worn-out military satchel from home, and his stationery was all the cheapest kind. He had hardly ever seen him bring snacks. Tang Xiao automatically conjured up an image of a poor, pitiful little thing. Seeing him sitting there so small and obedient, he subconsciously included him in his territory, feeling that he had to protect his little deskmate.

Mi Yang had no choice but to continue writing with the mechanical pencil. It was too thin, and when he wrote large characters, they looked a bit ugly.

Tang Xiao, however, was quite satisfied. As he sharpened the pencil for him, he praised, “Not bad, you’re improving quickly. I think if you practice like this for another two weeks, you’ll be able to do my homework for me.”

Mi Yang: “…”

Just how bad is this guy’s handwriting that he can even say something like that?

Mi Yang looked up. Tang Xiao’s workbook happened to be open. He had written a character incorrectly and had been punished by the teacher to copy it a hundred times. The same character on the page looked like it had been written in a hundred different ways, each one uniquely ugly.

Mi Yang thought to himself, I’d better practice my handwriting quickly. Otherwise, if my writing really ends up like Tang Xiao’s, it would be too embarrassing. Tang Xiao’s handwriting is even worse than the young master Bai’s!

When school was over, Bai Luochuan was waiting for him at the door. They weren’t allowed to enter other classrooms, so he stood at the door and had someone call for Mi Yang.

The older kids like Tang Xiao would always go wild for a while after school. He stood up with his schoolbag, saw the neatly dressed little young master at the door, and winked at Mi Yang with a smile. “Hey, Yangyang, your brother is here to pick you up.”

Mi Yang immediately packed his schoolbag, took his things, and went to the door to go home with the young master Bai.

As Tang Xiao was passing by in the hallway, he even asked them, “Do you want me to take you home? I rode my bike today.”

Bai Luochuan held Mi Yang’s hand and stood in front of him. “No need, I have a car.”

Tang Xiao shrugged. “Alright then.”

After leaving the school, as Tang Xiao and his group of friends were buying snacks at the school gate, they saw a jeep drive over from a distance. An orderly got out and, after waiting for less than two minutes, walked over, took the schoolbags from the two children’s hands, and drove them away.

The children beside them let out a “wow.” A little fatty eating plum powder next to Tang Xiao said to him, “Hey, Brother Xiao, did you see that? That’s the young master Bai. Ever since school started, his family’s orderly has been picking him up in a car. So cool!”

Another one asked, “Who’s the one with him? Does his family have two kids?”

The little fatty said, “How is that possible? It’s all one-child families now. The kid with him must be good friends with the young master Bai!” He licked his lips, his face contorting from the sourness of the plum powder. “I’m so jealous. He must get to eat a lot of good stuff!”

“Haha, who’s like you, thinking about eating all day!”

Tang Xiao’s brow furrowed as he watched. “Mi Yang lives with him.”

The little fatty was surprised. “Huh? So that’s Mi Yang, the one who skipped a grade?”

Tang Xiao nodded but had lost interest in talking. He casually bought some chocolate and other snacks and left with his group.

And at this moment, Mi Yang, sitting in the car, was having his hand held and inspected over and over.

Bai Luochuan said, “Why is your finger red?”

Mi Yang said, “I wasn’t paying attention when I was using the pencil. I’ll be more careful next time.” This was a bad habit of his. The way he held his pen was not quite right, and it easily caused calluses.

Bai Luochuan was still inspecting it. Mi Yang simply held out his hand and waved it back and forth in front of him. “It’s really nothing. No one bullied me.”

Bai Luochuan snorted, which concluded today’s inspection.

This time, Mi Yang didn’t rush back to his own house. Cheng Qing had passed her nursing exam and had been working a lot of overtime lately, sometimes even night shifts. Their family’s dinner had been pushed back by two hours. Sometimes, when Mi Zehai was busy with work, it was common for them to just have a piece of bread for dinner. Now, Mi Yang would first go to the young master Bai’s house to do homework with him, and then sit in on one or two of Mr. Wei’s lessons, before heading home around eight o’clock.

Eight out of ten times, he would be kept for dinner by Mrs. Bai. When he was around, the young master Bai also ate with extra relish, and the number of times he asked for a second helping also increased significantly.

Mrs. Bai was happy to see this and made them all sorts of delicious food.

Today, as usual, he stayed at the Bai’s for dinner. After finishing their meal and putting down their small bowls, the two children were taken upstairs to the study by Mr. Wei. Each had their own small desk and began to study.