Just past seven in the morning, Liu Shiran dragged a deeply reluctant Su Yizhou out of bed to wash up and have breakfast.
However, the moment Liu Shiran stepped out of the room, Su Yizhou collapsed back onto the bed and fell fast asleep. As any reader who has ever sneaked a morning nap knows, the snooze right before school is always the sweetest.
Realizing her son still hadn't come out of his room after a long while, Liu Shiran pushed the door open, glanced at the clock on the wall, and roared at Su Yizhou:
"Su Yizhou, I'm counting to three! If you're not up right now, no television for you today!"
Su Yizhou jolted awake, scrambling to change his clothes and wash up. Was he still unable to adapt to this body? (Actually, he just wanted to sleep.)
Prompted by his mom, he choked down his meal and got in the car for school.
Since his dad was from another province, his parents communicated with each other in Mandarin, meaning Su Yizhou could understand Sichuan dialect perfectly well, even if he wasn't very good at speaking it.
Outside the kindergarten gates, it was a bustling scene. And by bustling, it wasn't the children's joy for the new semester that made it so, but rather...
A chorus of weeping and wailing.
"Granny, I don't want to go to school!"
"My baby, be a good boy and listen to Teacher in kindergarten. Granny will buy you something delicious when school is over!" That was the typical exchange between parents and children.
It seemed every kindergarten entrance featured crying kids and consoling parents.
Meanwhile, Liu Shiran held Su Yizhou in her arms, staring intently at him as if waiting for something. Su Yizhou simply blinked his big eyes, looking back at his seemingly not-so-bright mom.
Silence fell like Cambridge in the evening; the two looked at each other in speechlessness. Su Yizhou thought to himself, "Should I put on a symbolic, crying act like those other kids?" But he immediately dismissed the absurd idea. *Mom, asking me to cry is something I just can't do!*
With that, Su Yizhou hopped right down from Liu Shiran's arms, waved goodbye to her, and bolted straight into the kindergarten without looking back. That left Liu Shiran standing alone in the wind, utterly bewildered.
She found it strange that her son hadn't cried and throw a tantrum about not wanting to go to kindergarten like he did in the toddler class, but she didn't dwell on it too long, assuming his dad's talk from yesterday had finally worked. Content, she headed home.
Su Yizhou, however, wanted to vehemently deny that notion—not the reason he hadn't cried, but the fact that he would ever throw a tantrum! (′???`) He was in the middle class now; it was time to be independent.
Entering the kindergarten, he greeted the teacher. On the first day of kindergarten, everyone could sit wherever they wanted. Since he was the first one into the classroom, he picked a seat in the very back row. He didn't want to sit up front and constantly catch the teacher's attention; he just wanted to coast through the day.
You're a vibrant kindergarten middle-class student, hello! How can you act like a university student... cough, just kidding. University students are the flowers of the motherland's future; there's no such thing as coasting through easy classes! Actually, Su Yizhou had practically coasted his way through his freshman and sophomore years just like that.
Whenever it wasn't a core major course, he would grab his book, head to the classroom early to bag a good seat in the back row, and do his own thing.
The other kids trickled into the classroom one by one. Su Yizhou recalled his former kindergarten classmates—many of whom would become his good friends in the future—and a mischievous grin began to spread across his face.
*Hey, So-and-so, you wouldn't want your childhood embarrassing moments spread all across the school, would you? (?°???°)*
Thinking back, it seemed he and Chen Yu had started getting acquainted around this time, though they didn't become truly close until they were in the same class in elementary school.
*Hehe, Chen Yu, you didn't pull a few punches teasing me back then. Just you wait!*
Chen Yu: *"Run for the hills!"*
Watching the familiar faces approach one by one, Su Yizhou began identifying them. Finally, he spotted a chubby-faced boy walking in. The boy gazed blankly at the remaining empty seats in the classroom, seemingly pondering where to sit.
To better tease Chen Yu, Su Yizhou waved at him, and Chen Yu walked over. Don't let this chubby kid fool you; he was actually sharper than a monkey.
At such a tender age, whether he sensed Su Yizhou's ill intentions or was simply spooked by his currently wretched (?°???°) smile, Chen Yu chose to sit in the row directly in front of Su Yizhou.
*My boy, remember this: the front desk is always the easiest one to tease! The young Chen Yu really is a dummy,* Su Yizhou chuckled inwardly.
Next, a delicately sculpted little girl walked into the classroom, blinking her watery eyes as she searched for a seat. Her peach-pink cheeks still bore the faint traces of teardrops—she was a bonafide beauty in the making.
Seeing that the only vacant seat left was the one right beside Su Yizhou, she stumbled over and sat down. Her spirits seemed somewhat low, perhaps due to having just parted with her family.
She kept sniffling, her pout making it look like she was about to burst into tears at any second—no, wait, it looked like she already was crying. She was just doing it secretly, as if terrified of disturbing anyone else.
Flustered, Su Yizhou wanted to comfort the little crybaby beside him, but he realized he had no idea how, so he could only lower his head and ask why she was crying.
Hearing Su Yizhou's inquiry, she seemed to think she had disturbed him; she buried her head in her arms, pressed against the desk, and her crying grew even softer.
Having no other choice—and fearing she might suffocate herself—Su Yizhou leaned right under the little girl's chin and asked, "What are you crying for?" This girl was something else, driving their usual Mandarin-speaking Brother Zhou so desperate he reverted to the local dialect.
Finally breaking her silence, the girl replied in a tearful, muffled voice, "Granny doesn't want me anymore either (???︿???)!"
So that was what it was all about. Su Yizhou hurriedly pulled out a tissue that his mom had stuffed into his backpack for bathroom trips, wiped away her tears, and consoled her: "Your granny hasn't abandoned you. She'll come pick you up this afternoon. Stop crying, I'll play with you today!" (Hooray, I finally have an excuse to play today!)
Whether it was the comfort that worked or not, she stopped crying and nodded slightly.
After a long while, the teachers, having finally finished comforting all the children, let out a collective sigh of relief as they looked over the now-quiet classroom. Su Yizhou couldn't help marveling at how tough preschool teachers had it; comforting just one kid had already worn him out—comforting the whole class would be absolute madness.
Right after that, Teacher Huahua announced today's task: introducing oneself to the person next to you and getting acquainted.
Listening to the classroom fill with a dense hum of Sichuan dialect—"My name is So-and-so, what's your name?"—Su Yizhou thought to himself that thankfully they were all locals; if they had brought in outsiders, someone might mistake them for shouting "you idiot!"
Imagining what some of these kids would sound like trying to speak accented Mandarin in the future, Su Yizhou chuckled quietly to himself.
While lost in thought, Su Yizhou looked over at the girl beside him, who was still in a daze. "My name is Su Yizhou. What's yours?"
"Yizhou-gege, my name is Ji Qianxi."