Chapter 88: Extra 16
That day, when the young emperor woke up from his nap, he discovered that he had become a kindergarten teacher.
In his class there was a group of extremely mischievous children, all of them very hard to handle. Among them, only one child named Ji Ze was the most well-behaved, so the young emperor decided to appoint Ji Ze as the class monitor.
“Ji Ze, go call the roll and see if any of the children are late,” the young emperor said, clasping his hands behind his back and putting on the air of a teacher.
“Alright,” Ji Ze said. He stood on a little chair holding the attendance book and began calling names in a serious manner.
“Ji Qingzhou!” Ji Ze called out in his childish voice.
Little Ji Qingzhou raised his small hand obediently and answered, “Here!”
“Li Zhan!” Ji Ze called again.
Little Li Zhan, who had just been tugging on Ji Qingzhou’s hair, quickly straightened up and replied, “Here!”
The young emperor glanced at Li Zhan, pointed at him with a small finger, and scolded, “Li Zhan, you must not pull other children’s hair during class, or I’ll smack your palm.”
Li Zhan hurriedly withdrew his hand when he heard that, but he still wasn’t behaving. Under the desk, his little hand tickled Ji Qingzhou’s palm. Ji Qingzhou’s face flushed red. He shyly smiled at him, then secretly grabbed Li Zhan’s hand under the table.
Ji Qingzhou’s palm felt warm. Once Li Zhan was holding his hand, he immediately behaved much better and calmed down.
Seeing that Li Zhan had finally settled down, the young emperor signaled for Ji Ze to continue taking attendance.
Ji Ze was holding the attendance book and had just been about to continue when suddenly a small paper ball flew over and hit Ji Ze right on the forehead.
Ji Ze puffed out his lips and was just about to cry. The young emperor quickly rubbed his head and blew on the spot to comfort him, then turned toward a child sitting in the last row. “Li Min, was that paper ball thrown by you?” he asked.
Li Min looked flustered and said, “Teacher, I didn’t mean to.”
The young emperor kept a stern face and lectured him. “How could you throw paper during class?”
Li Min blushed deeply, looking guilty for having done something wrong.
“Teacher, I was the one who threw it,” Li Min’s desk-mate Zhou Chu said at that moment.
Everyone turned to look at Zhou Chu, but Zhou Chu just grinned at Li Min.
“No, it wasn’t you, it was clearly me…” Li Min protested.
“It was me! Li Zhan saw it just now!” Zhou Chu said, pointing at Li Zhan and signaling for him to back him up.
Li Zhan had been leaning close to Ji Qingzhou and whispering with him. Hearing this, he simply nodded absent-mindedly.
After thinking for a moment, the young emperor said, “Li Min and Zhou Chu will both stay after school and clean the classroom as punishment.”
Li Min looked apologetically at Zhou Chu, but Zhou Chu was smiling happily, clearly pleased with the punishment.
“I know there’s a new slide behind the kindergarten. After we finish cleaning, I’ll take you to play on it,” Zhou Chu whispered in Li Min’s ear. “Don’t let the others hear. If Li Zhan finds out, he’ll definitely drag Ji Qingzhou there too.”
“We could all go together,” Li Min whispered back.
“We can bring them next time. Today I’ll take just you,” Zhou Chu replied.
Li Min immediately brightened up, his earlier gloom disappearing.
Seeing how happy Li Min was, Zhou Chu felt happy too.
The young emperor was about to tell Ji Ze to continue calling names when suddenly there was a commotion. The classroom erupted in chaos. Only then did he realize that a rabbit had somehow hopped up onto the podium.
For some reason, the young emperor suddenly felt a bit hungry when he looked at the little rabbit, and he swallowed.
At that moment, a child named Xiao Shan ran up quickly and scooped the rabbit into his arms.
“Xiao Shan, how could you bring a rabbit to school?” the young emperor asked.
“Because…” Xiao Shan glanced secretly at his desk-mate He Man. The day before, He Man had promised to let him ride his little horse, so as a reward, Xiao Shan had wanted to let He Man pet his rabbit. That was why he had secretly brought it to school.
He hadn’t expected that the teacher would catch him.
“Since you couldn’t give a reason, I was going to punish you by making you clean the classroom together,” the young emperor said.
“If you were going to punish someone, then punish me too. I even brought my horse to school,” Xiao Shan’s deskmate He Man said. After speaking, he blew a whistle, and his little pony trotted over to the classroom door, making all the children excitedly shout.
The young emperor clasped his hands behind his back and thought for a moment, then said, “How about the two of you clean the classroom together?”
“That wouldn’t work, teacher. Weren’t you only punishing me and my friend Li Min to clean?” Zhou Chu protested.
The slide was so small that it could only fit him and Li Min. If He Man and Xiao Shan finished cleaning and wanted to play too, there wouldn’t be enough space. So they absolutely couldn’t let more people join the cleaning punishment!
The young emperor frowned and pondered for a moment, wondering what he should make them do as punishment.
Before he could figure it out, he suddenly heard a loud cry. Qin Zheng, who was sitting in the corner of the classroom, burst into tears.
All the children turned to look at Qin Zheng. That was when they noticed that someone had braided his hair into cute little pigtails and even put lipstick on him. He looked just like an adorable doll.
“Qin Zheng, what happened?” the young emperor asked.
While crying, Qin Zheng pointed at his deskmate Qi Jingchuan and said, “Qi Jingchuan bullied me!”
Qi Jingchuan looked flustered and explained, “We had agreed that I was going to dress him up like a girl…”
“But girls don’t look like this. You made me look too ugly,” Qin Zheng cried.
Qi Jingchuan scratched his head and asked, “Then how do you want me to dress you?”
Qin Zheng sniffled miserably and cried, but he didn’t know how to describe it, since there weren’t any girls in their class.
“I know!” Tu Dayou, who was sitting on the other side, said. “It’s because you didn’t put him in a pretty little dress.”
Qi Jingchuan suddenly understood and asked, “But where was I supposed to find a pretty dress?”
Ji Qinghuai, Tu Dayou’s deskmate, had been quietly reading. Hearing that, he softly said, “I could sneak my little sister’s dress for him to try.”
“My sister is really stingy. She wouldn’t lend it to him,” Ji Qingzhou, who was sitting in the front row, chimed in.
Beside him, Chi Zhou said indignantly, “Ji Qingzhou, you were saying bad things about sister Qinglan. I will tell her.”
Ji Qingzhou glared at Chi Zhou and said, “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Chi Zhou lifted his chin proudly.
Li Zhan, who sat next to Ji Qingzhou, also stood up for him and pointed at Chi Zhou. “If you’ve got guts, fight me.”
“Fine, let’s fight!” Chi Zhou refused to back down.
“No fighting. Calm down,” Ji Qingzhou said, holding Li Zhan’s little hand.
Li Zhan finally cooled off a bit, but he and Chi Zhou still glared at each other, looking ready to start a fight at any moment.
“Waaah!” Seeing that getting a dress was hopeless, Qin Zheng began crying again.
Qi Jingchuan wiped Qin Zheng’s nose and looked toward Ji Qinghuai for help.
Ji Qinghuai lowered his head and whispered to Tu Dayou, “How about I just steal my sister’s dress for him to wear?”
“That wouldn’t be right. You’re a gentleman—how could you steal?” Tu Dayou said. “I’ll steal it for you instead.”
Chi Zhou was still confronting Li Zhan. Hearing that, he shot Ji Qinghuai and Tu Dayou a glance and said, “Don’t even think about it. I will make sister Qinglan lock up all her dresses today.”
The whole classroom had been chattering at once, and it turned into complete chaos.
“Stop meddling in other people’s business!” Ji Qinghuai said to Chi Zhou.
“I wasn’t meddling,” Chi Zhou replied. “Sister Qinglan’s business was my business!”
“Then we won’t steal it, okay? Stealing is bad,” Tu Dayou quickly said.
Hearing that, Chi Zhou finally dropped the matter.
“Let’s fight!” Li Zhan jumped in.
“Come on then!” Chi Zhou turned toward Li Zhan again, rolling up his sleeves as if ready to start.
“Calm down, calm down!” Ji Qingzhou hurried over and pulled Li Zhan back.
“Don’t cry anymore. I’ll definitely get you a little dress,” Qi Jingchuan coaxed.
“Then will you wear it? I want to see you wear it!” Qin Zheng asked, looking at him.
“That’s fine. If you want to see it, I’ll wear it,” Qi Jingchuan said.
At that, Qin Zheng stopped crying and smiled. Qi Jingchuan reached out and wiped away his tears.
“Later we can sneak out and let them keep arguing,” He Man whispered.
“But what if the teacher got angry?” Xiao Shan asked.
“It’s fine. I’ve got you,” He Man replied.
As he said this, He Man picked up Xiao Shan’s rabbit in one arm and held Xiao Shan’s hand with the other, ready to make a run for it.
The young emperor sat on the podium with his head drooping, staring at the noisy classroom full of children, looking completely worn out and helpless.
Ji Ze stepped down from his small stool, placed the attendance list on the desk, then secretly took a lollipop from his pocket and put it into his mouth.
The young emperor looked up at him, smacked his lips, and Ji Ze grinned at him before handing him another lollipop.
The young emperor accepted it, then pulled Ji Ze behind the podium, and the two of them crouched there, quietly eating their lollipops.
The children in the class had been arguing loudly, but for some reason they suddenly fell silent.
“I smelled lollipops,” Li Zhan said first.
“I smelled it too. It’s watermelon-flavored,” Ji Qingzhou added.
Behind the podium, the young emperor and Ji Ze exchanged a look and instinctively bit down on their lollipops.
The young emperor gave Ji Ze a signal, and the two of them grabbed hands and dashed out of the classroom.
All the children rushed after them.
The young emperor ran while shouting loudly, still holding Ji Ze’s hand, until he suddenly woke up.
Thankfully, it had only been a dream.
That dream had been so strange!
The little emperor smacked his lips again and said with lingering satisfaction, “But the lollipops were really delicious.”
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