Chapter 38 (1/2)

The time of the Chinese New year was a rather leisurely ti over what they should play For the adults, on the other hand, it was all sorts of bustle

The school had officially entered holiday; there was almost no one on the cao, Yi Xin too had left the campus and headed ho Afterwards, there was basically no need for theo to the university any Jiao Yuan to do the manual hile little Youzi helped by the side

Even though there was one major subject and one elective subject, it was still quite a lot, with several few class within these departments

Jiao Yuan lent a hand inthe multiple choice questions He didn't have any professional knowledge , but he was certainly capable of resolving theup, he would use a pen to record theit easier for Papa Jiao to calculate the finalother types of questions

Papa Jiao asked little Youzi to assist by the sideline, double checking the papers that Jiao Yuan had rade, Youzi was extremely familiar with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division Papa Jiao had even placed a calculator on the side so that Youzi could use it to check the nuh school; would he still need to use a calculator for basic calculations? Jiao Yuan himself couldn't bear such an embarrassment

The affiliating school had released the academic reports, this time Jiao Yuan is fourth in the class Papa Jiao had never explicitly deet what placement or what mark, it was always Jiao Yuan himself who sets the standard, sometimes he was up to that standard and sometimes he fails But obviously this tis went just as Papa Jiao had predicted when Mama Jiao took him to the mall and walked past where the toys were sold, Jiao Yuan stared at those toy guns and couldn't take his eyes off theave up on the option to choose his own clothes

Whereas the main reason for Jiao Yuan to sit here obediently and to help mark the exams, was to earn some pocket money One cent for each paper, it looks like there is around two to three hundred, he could also buy soo out

Zheng Tan couched on the small foldable square table drawn that had chess patterns drawn on it, watching them as they marked the exam papers

Each paper had traces of childish red numbers, sometimes when he encounters people who draws on the reverse side of the paper in boredo the exaling by himself

”Hey, I know this teacher Dad, isn't this the teacher who always like to carry a portable speaker with him? Draith such likeness!”

Zheng Tan stretched his neck and took a peek On the other reverse of that exa teacher and Jiao Yuan had added a few strokes on it Youzi wanted to see, but her sight was blocked by Jiao Yuan He heaving it under the pile of other papers, waiting till they had finishedto show to Papa Jiao and certainly wouldn't let her see, because he had doodled a small penis on the teacher's crotch He even used a si to avoid any suspicion

Anyhow the semester final-exam wouldn't be handed out, unless any student had queries with their grades and had requested to see the paper, and only then would it be distributed Under normal circumstances, these sketches would usually not be seen by anyone else, so Papa Jiao didn't say anything to Jiao Yuan's deeds

Zheng Tan gently pulled his ears, that rascal has such vulgar tastes

Shortly after, Zheng Tan heard another cry of ”huh?” from Jiao Yuan

”Dad, this person said he have never studied English before, asking you to go easy on him”

Jiao Yuan said, pointing at the entirely English noun-explaining questions right above the multiple choice that is on the paper in his hand

Zheng Tan could see that on the blank space beneath the first lish noun explaining question, there was an annotation written with a fountain pen ”My dear Mr Jiao, I alish and did e R Please be lenient if my response was bad…”

According to the requirements of Chu Hua University, those that failed immediately retook this course It had been re-examination before, but the school found out that sos to chance If they couldn't pass, they would do a re-examination since the re-examination was let slip easily, so they became more anda new policy this year— those who fail will directly retake the course

Initially, a lot of people protested When Zheng Tan went out for awalk, he even saw sheets of paper stuck on the walls and branches of trees Those were the protests lodged anony to the fact that other schools in Chu Hua city were not as strict, the students condeave up Some felt asharade when they failed the course, while other were rather optiirls from the junior year

After hearing Jiao Yuan's words, Papa Jiao looked at the name on the paper and said: ”I know this person's conditions, so do the other teachers We will loosen the criteria for him when the time comes”

”Ah, ould have thought that there is such a good thing Next tie, I rite at the end of my co wouldn't be decent with o easy on me”

Writing was always a pain for Jiao Yuan, dragging his literature and languageSometis If he had fallen behind in the ranks, then his parents wouldn't fulfil his wishes That's why Jiao Yuan had great resentainst it

However, even though Jiao Yao's fountain pen writings were not exceptional, his Chinese brush calligraphy was the polar opposite

When Jiao Yuan entered the priraphy shocked his head teacher How could soraphy looked as if it experiences aplasia, have such brush calligraphy?! Even most s Using the words of his head teacher, his calligraphy was already 'reflecting soth in character'

His head teacher also later exclairaphy have some style too? Don't always be 'underdeveloped'”

Zheng Tan had seen Jiao Yuan's fountain pen handwritings There was a fraed on the wall of Jiao Yuan's room There were also some sticky notes around the room that ritten with fountain pens The contrast was so fcking intense that if he hadn't known the truth, he would have never believed that it ritten by the same person

Jiao Yuan looked at the exaan to race as he span his pen

The semester final exa the papers from the other class, the teacher that … Jiao Yuan nodded, yes, this plan is workable!

”Wipe it out of your head, if you do this in the middle school entrance exam, it would definitely have the opposite result You think that those teachers are stupid? ” Papa Jiao didn't even take a look at hi his pen that the boy wasplanning some trickery

”Oh” Jiao Yuan sighed and went back to the rest of the s

Beep beep beep --

The phone in the bedroo

Papa Jiao looked at the called ID, his facial expressions grew faint

”hello…”

Zheng Tan's hearing wasand wasn't a distant away, so he can hear the conversation on the phone

It was a woman's voice, most of the tiled with an occasional phrase in English Papa Jiao stood there with the receiver,once or twice and didn't say much

Papa Jiao was a e , Papa Jiao wasn't usually this indifferent when he was on the phone

The person on the phoneTan didn't knoho ”she” was referring to The woreat frequency that she ire the money and hoped that Papa Jiao would take care of ”her”

So words that runs in the line of ”yeah”, ”oh” and ”okay”, instead he asked: ”Do you want to speak to her?”

The woman fell silent, then said: ”Okay, I have some business I need to attend to I'”

Papa Jiao stopped listening to the murmurs that she said on the other side of the telephone and turned to Youzi as stilled typing on the calculator ”Youzi, your mum wants to talk to you”

Zheng Tan's ears quickly shot up

Youzi's mother? That women who stayed overseas and didn't want to cohter as only seven back to the country while she lives her merry life out there alone?

Zheng Tan didn't thought to associate the woman to Youzi's mum for a second, mainly because her tone of speech was so distant, as if detached, afraid those from Papa Jiao's side would adhere to her