"Li Zhiyun."
The girl wrote the name Li Zhiyun on a piece of paper.
"There, that's your name."
"Oh, oh!"
Li Zhiyun's eyes lit up. Was this really his sacred name?
"Then what's your name?"
Looking at his newly written name, Li Zhiyun casually asked the girl.
The girl gave a slight, bitter smile. She hadn't expected him not to know her name, especially since they had been living under the same roof for so many days.
Still, come to think of it, he never seemed to pay special attention to anything, nor had he ever proactively asked about her situation, let alone her name before.
"Bai Shi."
"Idiot?" *(Note: 'Baishi' sounds similar to 'baxia' or 'baitu', but specifically 'Baichi' means idiot in Chinese)*
"No, not that! Bai Shi!"
The girl smiled wryly, amazed that Li Zhiyun could be hard of hearing enough to mistake that.
"Oh... Bai Shi. That's a pretty name."
Li Zhiyun nodded slightly.
Hearing him praise her name, Bai Shi felt her face flush slightly.
Li Zhiyun asked, "How do you write it?"
So, Bai Shi wrote her own name on the paper once more.
Li Zhiyun picked up the paper, admired it for a moment, and nodded repeatedly.
"These two characters look really nice."
*Snicker.*
Bai Shi couldn't help but chuckle, finding Li Zhiyun's behavior rather endearing.
After that, Bai Shi continued teaching him other characters.
***
Time flew by. Bai Shi hadn't expected Li Zhiyun to be so enthusiastic about learning to read. Even past eleven o'clock, he still looked full of energy.
Finally, seeing that Bai Shi was yawning frequently, Li Zhiyun let her off the hook and told her to go to sleep, while he stayed up alone to ponder the characters.
"Woohoo!"
In the middle of the night, Bai Shi heard Li Zhiyun cheering in her sleep, and in a daze, she saw him still practicing late into the night.
Perhaps it was just a dream...
***
The next day, when Bai Shi woke up, she saw sheets of paper scattered all over the floor, every single one covered in writing.
With a soft smile, Bai Shi set out to tidy up the messy papers.
However, she quickly realized that every single one of those papers had been written with her own name.
*Bai Shi.*
Could it be that Li Zhiyun spent the entire night practicing how to write her name?
At this thought, her face flushed red as she looked at Li Zhiyun, who was snoring softly as he slept soundly on the sofa.
Gentle sunlight filtered through the window and fell across his profile. At that moment, Bai Shi felt that he actually looked quite handsome.
She pulled the curtains shut for Li Zhiyun, made him breakfast, and then stepped out.
***
Near noon, Li Zhiyun stretched lazily and got up.
"Ugh, my back and joints are sore. Looks like I shouldn't have stayed up late practicing my writing."
Li Zhiyun noticed the neatly stacked pile of paper on the table—the fruits of his writing practice from the previous night.
He picked up a sheet covered in the characters for "Bai Shi" and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad at all. I, Li Zhiyun, really am a genius. Even someone else's name looks this good when I write it."
Then, rubbing his chin, he fell into deep thought. "Li Zhiyun..."
He muttered his name to himself, counting on his fingers one by one.
"Li Zhiyun... wait a minute, that's three characters! But this one only has two characters... Oh crap, I practiced the wrong name all last night! These two characters were supposed to be that girl's."
"What a total loss. Damn it, I spent the whole night practicing someone else's name—isn't that just wasting my youth?"
Li Zhiyun felt faint. Speechless, he slumped back against the sofa.
*Rumble, rumble.*
His stomach let out a hungry growl. Looking toward the dining table, Bai Shi had indeed prepared breakfast for him.
"Whatever, I might as well eat breakfast first."
Just as he was about to eat, someone pushed the front door open.
Li Zhiyun checked the time. It was already noon, so it must be Bai Shi returning.
Munching on his breakfast, he glanced back, only to find a stranger standing there—an unfamiliar woman.
"You're in the wrong place," he said lazily before continuing to eat his breakfast.
The woman cast a puzzled look at Li Zhiyun, scanned her surroundings, and then walked inside, with Bai Shi following right behind her.
"L-Li Zhiyun..." Bai Shi called his name softly.
"Hm? You're back."
Only then did Li Zhiyun realize that this woman might actually know Bai Shi...
Could it be the landlord?!
Are we about to get kicked out because we can't pay the rent?
But...
Li Zhiyun noticed that this woman was drop-dead gorgeous. A professional white-and-black suit outlined her curvaceous, explosive figure, and her slender legs wrapped in black silk set his blood pumping.
Logically speaking, how could someone this pretty play the role of a vicious landlady? Even novels wouldn't write it like that!
Yet the look in her eyes was truly fierce. Could it really be the landlady coming to collect rent again?
And since Bai Shi was so poor, she definitely wouldn't have the money to pay.
*I see! It has to be this!*
"I'm sorry, please give us a few more days!" Li Zhiyun cried out loudly in a plea.
The woman stared at him, completely bewildered. Bai Shi reacted just in time; though she had no idea what Li Zhiyun was misunderstanding, she quickly explained, "She's our homeroom teacher!"
"Homeroom teacher? Oh, then it's fine. I thought she was the landlady, scared the life out of me."
Li Zhiyun let out a sigh of relief and went back to drinking his congee.
Bai Shi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This house had been left behind by her parents; it was her own property, not a rental.
Besides, just how strong was this Li Zhiyun? He didn't even react much to a visit from their homeroom teacher. Perhaps this was just his trademark calmness...
*Pfft!*
The next second, Li Zhiyun spat out a mouthful of congee as it finally hit him—their homeroom teacher was visiting!
"Ah, Teacher Jiang, welcome! What a rare guest. Please forgive us for not coming out to welcome you properly."
At this point, Jiang Yueshuang's face was covered in dark lines. Seeing that Li Zhiyun, a new student, had missed so many classes for no reason, and having learned a few things from Bai Shi, she had decided to pay a house call to talk some sense into him. She never expected her rhythm to be completely disrupted by his bizarre behavior, leaving her temporarily speechless.
Most importantly, even though they had already met once before, this jerk didn't even remember her!
*Ahem.*
Jiang Yueshuang collected her emotions, put on an amiable smile, and opened her mouth to speak.
"Quick, go pour some tea!" Li Zhiyun urged Bai Shi.
"But we don't have any tea," Bai Shi replied, shaking her head.
"Then let's tear open our pillows. Aren't there some dried leaves sewn inside them? I bet we can brew those as tea leaves."
"Hey, hey, that's not a good idea at all, is it?!" Bai Shi was shocked.
By this time, Jiang Yueshuang was also horrified, having heard every word Li Zhiyun said.
"No, no, no need! No need for tea," Jiang Yueshuang said with a forced smile.
"No tea... then do you want to eat? The weather's been damp lately, and some little mushrooms grew on the roof. We could pick them and cook a dish."
"No, no, thank you. I'm just here for a chat today, student."
Jiang Yueshuang wiped the sweat from her forehead, thinking that Li Zhiyun was simply too bizarre. If this kept up, he might end up offering her toilet water to drink.
"A chat?"
Hearing this, Li Zhiyun paused for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully. "Chatting is my specialty. Speaking of which, Old Wang's dog next door—"
"Whoa, whoa, stop right there! We're not talking about that!"
"Are you trying to talk about Old Wang's neighbor's daughter's dog cheating on its partner, then?"
Jiang Yueshuang: "..."
Bai Shi was stunned as well. Since when had Li Zhiyun started mingling with the neighbors?
"No, no, I'm here to talk to you about school."
Hearing this, Li Zhiyun blinked in surprise. "School?"
"That's right. I want to know why you suddenly left school yesterday morning, and why you still haven't come to class. If something's bothering you, you can talk to your teacher."
Jiang Yueshuang's gaze softened, thinking that they had finally gotten down to business.
Li Zhiyun scratched his head, unsure of how to bring it up. He certainly couldn't tell her that he was too afraid to go to school because he had offended his desk mate.
"Well, you see..."
Li Zhiyun stammered, unable to spit anything coherent out.
Seeing this, Jiang Yueshuang let out a soft sigh and said in an earnest, heartfelt tone, "Education is the most important thing for a child your age. You can't just give up because your studies are too difficult—especially since your younger sister wrote so many reports and applications just to secure this learning opportunity for you."
*Younger sister?*
Li Zhiyun blinked, immediately realizing that Bai Shi had fabricated the relationship between them.
However, what caught his attention more was Jiang Yueshuang's last sentence. Did Bai Shi really have to write a bunch of applications and reports to secure this schooling opportunity for him?
Weren't she just saying that she only needed to smooth things over with the homeroom teacher a little bit?
He glanced at Bai Shi. At that moment, the girl was keeping her head down, intentionally or unintentionally avoiding his gaze.
"Do you understand?" Jiang Yueshuang asked, looking at Li Zhiyun.
"Huh? Oh, oh, I understand. School! I love it. I'll go right now."
Li Zhiyun nodded vigorously, though his casual attitude made Jiang Yueshuang feel like he was simply brushing her off.
She then proceeded to lecture him at great length with earnest advice, making his head feel like it was about to explode.
"Somebody, throw the guest out!" Li Zhiyun yelled, clutching his head.
Dead silence filled the room. Jiang Yueshuang and Bai Shi stared at him blankly, never expecting him to be so bold.
Li Zhiyun froze, realizing he had blurted it out because he couldn't stand her nagging any longer.
Watching Jiang Yueshuang's smile gradually fade and transform into a chilly expression, he couldn't help but swallow hard.
"Hehe, just joking. Just trying to liven up the atmosphere."
*Slap!*
Jiang Yueshuang slammed her palm directly onto the table and snapped, "If you're only going to—"
"Oh snap, Teacher, you're bleeding!" Li Zhiyun said anxiously to Jiang Yueshuang.
"What?"
Caught in the middle of her reprimand, Jiang Yueshuang was momentarily bewildered. Then she felt a sharp pain in her palm. *Could it be that she hit the table too hard?*
When she looked down, she saw that her palm was indeed bleeding—a protruding nail from the table had pierced right into her skin.
"Ah! It hurts, it hurts! How did this happen?!"
Jiang Yueshuang turned pale with fright, tears welling up from the pain.
Bai Shi was also panicked and helpless, having no idea what to do.
"You shouldn't just slap tables like that. It's very dangerous," Li Zhiyun told Jiang Yueshuang earnestly, considering he had fallen victim to it himself from the very beginning.
"I-I know! Quickly, find something to stop the bleeding!"
"Tissues, tissues! Shishi, hurry up and bring our best tissues to serve the teacher!"
"Oh, oh—Shishi?" Bai Shi blinked. Why did he suddenly call her that?
"What are you daydreaming for? Can't you see Teacher Jiang looks like she's going into labor? How miserable!"
Hearing this, Jiang Yueshuang glared at him fiercely, thinking that that slap should have landed on his head instead.
Bai Shi didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she rushed off to find tissues.
"Teacher, hold on, stay steady! Here, follow my lead: deep breath, push! Deep breath, push!"
Jiang Yueshuang's mind went completely blank. Was this guy treating her like a woman giving birth?! Her palm was just pricked, for crying out loud!
She was left in absolute disarray, unsure whether to feel the pain from her bleeding hand or rage at Li Zhiyun's absurd antics.
"We're out of tissues!" Bai Shi cried out as she ran back into the room.
"Out of tissues?"
Jiang Yueshuang's eyes welled up with tears. *I've lost so much blood already, I'm going to die...*
"Out of tissues? Are you really out of tissues? Don't be stingy at a time like this! If Teacher Jiang dies in our house because of this, it's going to have a huge impact on us! You need to consider the consequences."
*Hey, hey, that's going too far!*
Even as her student, Jiang Yueshuang couldn't help cursing Li Zhiyun out in her heart.
"I know, I've got it!"
With that, Li Zhiyun dashed straight over to the sofa, thrust his hand deep into the cushions, and fished out a pair of pure white panties.
"Teacher, there are no tissues, so let's just use this—um, this piece of cloth to wrap it up first. Huh? What's wrong?"
Seeing Jiang Yueshuang staring blankly at the underwear in his hand, Li Zhiyun went ahead and bandaged her hand himself.
"There, I really am a genius."
"Hey, that's not right! Why are you using underwear to bandage me?! Even if there are no tissues, there must be other pieces of cloth around!"
Li Zhiyun shook his head. "How can you call this underwear? This is clearly a clean piece of cloth."
"Don't take me for a fool, this is obviously underwear!"
"No, it really isn't."
As Li Zhiyun tried desperately to defend himself, he felt Bai Shi gently tug at his sleeve from behind.
"Hm? What is it?"
At that moment, Bai Shi's eyes were misting over, wearing an expression as if she were about to burst into tears.
"Why is the pair of panties I lost earlier... in your hands..."