Chapter 38 Holding Hands
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First year, first class.
Teacher Meng, the classroom teacher, stood at the door just finishing a conversation with a parent. She turned her head and caught a glimpse of Little Chu Feng sitting in the middle, a snow-white napkin spread on the table, with some scattered eggshells on it.
His small hands were folding the paper, little by little, into a small ball, which he then put into his backpack.
—Not throwing it on the ground or into the drawer.
Teacher Meng was quite satisfied. Since there was no formal class at the moment, this child might have secretly eaten the breakfast eggs his mother brought. But… for some reason, Chu Feng’s face seemed a little flushed.
***
Little Chu Feng sat quietly at his seat, with his back to the others. He lowered his head, feeling a slight itch in his left ear.
He vaguely remembered hearing somewhere that an itchy left ear meant someone was thinking about you. Chu Feng reached up to scratch his left ear for a moment, only to find it getting itchier, and his whole ear felt hot.
The next moment, someone suddenly popped up from under the desk!
Xie Shiyu emerged from his left side.
“It seems like no one is sitting next to you,” Xie Shiyu said.
“…Yeah,” Chu Feng replied.
“So, I’ll be your desk mate,” Little Shiyu said, looking at him. “Is that okay?”
Chu Feng shook his head. He glanced around and said a little embarrassedly, “But… it seems like everyone else is sitting with one boy and one girl.”
“Yeah,” Xie Shiyu replied. “But there are more boys than girls in our class, so there will definitely be two boys sitting together.”
“Oh,” Chu Feng said, then hesitated. “How did you know there are more boys in our class?”
Xie Shiyu replied, “It’s written on the registration form. Just count them. Didn’t you check it?”
“….” Little Chu Feng didn’t look. He got in through connections.
From Little Chu Feng’s silence, Little Shiyu understood some things, coupled with the gentle demeanor of the class teacher when she brought Little Chu Feng into the class before. Little Shiyu already understood in his heart, so he didn’t continue this topic.
On the left side of the school gate, there is a column of commendation, and the glass cover is pasted with the roster of each class reporting in the first grade, randomly assigned. Parents who come to the school to report can take their children to the corresponding classes according to this list.
Little Chu Feng thought for a moment and felt that something was wrong:
“Did you… check the registration form yourself?”
“Yeah,” Little Shiyu said.
Chu Feng chuckled inwardly. It seemed this guy was similar to Sun Bing, who boasted about his English.
The registration form was meant for adults, and it didn’t have pinyin. How could this guy understand it?
Little Chu Feng didn’t like to be friends with people who boasted. He especially disliked it when people boasted in front of him, hypocritical and vain. Whenever he encountered such people, Chu Feng wanted to expose them mercilessly.
—Boasters cared a lot about their reputation. If someone praised them halfway through their boasting, they would definitely continue, getting more and more outrageous. At that moment, exposing them would be even more embarrassing and entertaining, Chu Feng thought.
Chu Feng decided to set a trap for Xie Shiyu, speaking admiringly, “You’re so amazing! Can you understand it even without pinyin? Do you know hundreds or thousands of characters? I barely know how to recognize characters.”
The standard for recognizing characters after completing first grade education is generally around 900 characters, with the ability to write 350 characters. Chu Feng had already learned many characters in advance from his mother sending him to language classes, and now he recognized over a thousand characters and could write 500 characters.
If Xie Shiyu continued to boast in front of him, claiming to recognize hundreds or thousands of characters, Chu Feng would make him recognize them on the spot.
Chu Feng thought he had set a good trap and waited for the boasting guy to fall into it.
“I don’t recognize many characters.”
Little Shiyu said.
“…?” Chu Feng: “…?”
“I only recognize my own name, genders, and numbers.”
Little Shiyu came to register alone, squeezing in with other parents who brought their children. He checked each registration form, looking for the one with the characters “谢时煜,” which determined the class he belonged to.
Fortunately, he was assigned to Class One, and he found it on the first sheet, so he didn’t have to look through each one. Xie Shiyu glanced at a few more registration forms because he couldn’t recognize a few characters and didn’t know the names of students in other classes, so he counted the genders.
“…Oh.” Chu Feng was a bit surprised. “Did you… come to register alone?”
Little Shiyu: “Yeah.”
This time, Chu Feng truly felt that this person was impressive. All the other children were accompanied by their parents, who helped organize their backpacks, sort various documents, lead them into the classroom, and arrange the teachers’ instructions in the middle…
But this guy did it all by himself.
Little Chu Feng suddenly remembered that in kindergarten, this guy always seemed to go home alone after school without anyone picking him up.
Being young, Chu Feng hadn’t thought about Xie Shiyu’s family situation, but he felt that this person had a strong independence. Since Chu Feng could remember, everything had always been taken care of by his parents, living under their protection and surveillance all the time.
“What’s your name?” Chu Feng pushed his brand-new notebook over. “Can you write your name?”
“Yeah.” Xie Shiyu took out his pencil sharpened yesterday and wrote three characters in the notebook.
Chu Feng: “Xie Sh…..”
The word “Yu” wasn’t in the list of 1,000 characters he learned in extracurricular classes.
Xie Shiyu: “Nian Yu.”
“Oh, that’s a bit hard to write.” Little Chu Feng took out his panda mechanical pencil and wrote his name: “My name is Chu Feng. We’re desk mates from now on.”
“Yeah.”
Hopefully, the teacher wouldn’t rearrange the seating. Xie Shiyu prayed silently in his heart.
***
At three o’clock in the afternoon.
Ding, ding—
The school bell rang, and a group of noisy children poured out of the building on the first floor.
First graders were dismissed.
“Come on, don’t run around!”
Teacher Meng, the class teacher, organized the students’ at the classroom door:
“We need order when leaving school. Boys line up here, girls line up there, arranged by height!”
There wasn’t much difference in height among the first graders. The girls had already lined up in an orderly manner, while the boys were still in a disorderly bunch. Chu Feng was squeezed in the middle when suddenly—
Sun Bing from the English class squeezed over. Though he was taller than Chu Feng, he deliberately pushed Chu Feng to the back and laughed as if nothing had happened.
Sun Bing knew that after school, the first graders would line up in two columns, holding hands and leaving together to prevent anyone from getting lost.
But their class was short of eight girls, so there would be eight extra boys in the boys’ line. Sun Bing didn’t want to be one of the extra boys, and Chu Feng had just been standing where the last girl should have been.
The boys’ line was also in order now, and Chu Feng was squeezed into the extra position, with no one to hold hands with.
Teacher Meng glanced back and was about to say something when suddenly, he saw someone walk out of the extra boys’ line and move to the end of the girls’ line.
Little Shiyu stood at the end of the girls’ line, holding Chu Feng’s hand, which no one else was holding.
The surrounding boys burst into laughter, especially Sun Bing:
“Hahaha, are you a girl? Why are you standing in the girls’ line! Hahaha!!”
Xie Shiyu paid no attention to their laughter.
“Do you mind?”
The teacher in front shouted, “Quiet! Quiet!! You eight boys at the back, adjust yourselves, yes, like this student here, four of you come forward!”
The extra boys groaned in protest, none of them wanting to be with girls. The other boys who weren’t extra all turned back to look in this direction, and when they saw Little Shiyu at the end of the girls’ line, they all burst into laughter.
First graders already have a strong sense of self-esteem, especially on the first day of school, when nobody wants to be the center of attention and laughter from the whole class.
But Little Shiyu seemed completely oblivious, paying no attention whatsoever. He held Little Chufeng’s hand and, amidst the laughter, asked him in a voice no one else could hear: “Do you mind?”
Little Chufeng didn’t say anything.
— He is already letting him hold, how could he possibly mind.
But Xie Shiyu’s tone seemed like he needed a definite answer.
Little Chu Feng lowered his head and whispered softly, “I… don’t mind.”
Xie Shiyu smiled and didn’t say anything else.
The line of students walked under the golden afternoon sunlight.
Small hands held together, heading home in the sunshine.
Little Chu Feng’s left ear started itching again.
***
After exiting the school gate, the line continued to the left.
Children without parents picking them up needed to maintain the line. Along the way, there were teachers and older students escorting them to ensure their safety until they reached the intersection, where they would disperse completely.
“Hey, do you know what FBI stands for?”
Suddenly, Sun Bing, who had learned English, asked.
Most first graders hadn’t been exposed to English, except for Chu Feng, who had received extracurricular English training. The girl holding hands with Sun Bing was curious, “What is FBI?”
“What, you’ve never heard of FBI?”
Sun Bing made a disdainful expression, spitting as he spoke arrogantly. He was dressed in brand-name sportswear worth thousands of yuan. The girl, wearing a faded dress, lowered her head and dared not speak again.
Sun Bing achieved the effect he wanted and boasted, “FBI, you know, from the United States! It’s a higher-level department than ordinary police, specialized in investigating big cases! Like serial murder cases!”
Chu Feng, listening from behind, rolled his eyes.
The boys in front of Sun Bing were very interested in these things. “Wow! You know so much!”
Sun Bing, who had attended English classes in advance, looked very confident as he boasted, “Well, not bad, not bad. But this Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, is just an abbreviation. Its full name is—”
Last week, his English class B teacher had just introduced this knowledge. It was perfect for showing off! Sun Bing had practiced those words several times at home, and he was about to speak—
Suddenly, a very standard British accent came from behind him:
“Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Chu Feng walked behind Sun Bing, looking calm. He uttered the well-known words with precise pronunciation, sounding like an English tape recorder.
“..Wow!” The girl in the dress and the boys in front immediately turned around, looking at Chu Feng with surprise and admiration.
“You’re so amazing!”
Chu Feng just smiled without saying a word.
Sun Bing’s face turned green with anger. Unwilling to give up, he continued, “Actually, besides the FBI, the United States has another amazing institution, the CIA. Do you know the full name of the CIA?”
“Central Intelligence Agency.”
Chu Feng spoke as fluently as if he were speaking Chinese. He followed behind Sun Bing indifferently, as if asking, “Can we talk about something I don’t already know?”
“Wow!” All the surrounding children exclaimed, “You’re really amazing! Your English is so good! Did you go to English classes early?”
Sun Bing saw that everyone’s attention was now on Chu Feng! He felt anxious, thinking that it must be because teachers from Class C and Class D had also mentioned this knowledge, and Chu Feng had secretly learned it! Sun Bing unwilling to be outdone hurriedly said:
“Of course, you have to start learning English early. How could you wait until second grade to start English classes at school? Both he and I go to English classes on weekends!”
Sun Bing was thinking about how to subtly highlight that he was in Class B while this seemingly fluent English speaker, Chu Feng, was in Classes C or D, to make himself look even more impressive.
The other girls and the boys who had mocked Little Shiyu turned their heads as well. They looked at Sun Bing, then at Chu Feng, who spoke English surprisingly fluently.
“Did you guys really… start going to English classes so early?”
Little Chu Feng looked at Sun Bing and smiled slightly at the surrounding classmates.
“Yeah, I’m in Class A, he’s in Class B.”
***
Xie Shiyu: “Wow.”
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