Of Parents and Children (2)
The parent-teacher meet had Tian Yu stressed out. Up until now, he had managed to keep his grades a secret; even the teacher hadn’t revealed them yet. He was so uneasy even his shooting that day was subpar. He glanced over at Huo Cheng, whose aim was steady as ever, and felt a twinge of resentment.
With an attitude like that, if Huo Cheng didn’t take home the gold at a tournament, Tian Yu would have his head.
“Huo Cheng.” Tian Yu walked over. “The date for the first round of the knockout matches has been confirmed. It’ll be at the end of this month, at the Starlight Farm.”
Huo Cheng’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly. “Starlight Farm?”
“Yeah. Don’t you think it’s such a coincidence? I do!” Tian Yu instinctively reached out to pat him on the shoulder. Huo Cheng dodged him. Tian Yu good-naturedly withdrew his hand, and rubbed the tip of his nose. “There’s an open field there, where we all flew kites in, if you remember. It’s been deemed suitable as a tournament venue.”
Huo Cheng nodded, making an affirmative noise, and released the arrow he had drawn. “Got that.”
Tian Yu watched as the arrow he’d just fired found its way to the centre of the bullseye, and beamed. “If you keep this up, you’ll smash everyone for sure.”
Huo Cheng didn’t respond. Smashing high schoolers wasn’t exactly what he, a time-travelling grown man, found particularly satisfying.
♥
Huo Cheng had really picked up archery because of Shen Wanying. He had seen on Weibo that she was a part of the Archery Club, and, having taken a class or two himself while he was abroad, started learning it as a way to close the distance between them a little more.
Huo Tingxiao had helped him find a teacher, someone who had once been a gold medallist. Huo Cheng was intelligent and quick on the uptake; his teacher had wanted to train him to shoot professionally, but he declined.
So to pitch that against a bunch of high schoolers in a competition gave him very little joy. He couldn’t find it in himself to be happy about it, first place or otherwise.
The phone he had set aside before practice vibrated. He checked it, and saw that Zhao Yimeng had sent a message to the group chat that they had all been a part of since they had become a “study group”.
Zhao Yimeng:【My mom just sent me a photo of the rankings! [Photo]】
Zhao Yimeng: 【Huo Cheng is first again! And I mean first among all the high schools combined!】
Zhao Yimeng: 【Huo Cheng owes us a lunch treat this time!】
Seeing this, Shen Wanying sent Zhao Yimeng a private message.
Shen Wanying: 【Did you forget Ji Yao is also in the group chat?】
Zhao Yimeng: 【Σ!】1I think this is supposed to be a shocked face emoji
In the group chat, Huo Cheng watched as Zhao Yimeng deleted her last three messages.
Fang Yichang: 【What kind of shameful thing did you send and delete this time?】
Zhao Yimeng:【Your shameful grades, that’s what 🙂】
Fang Yichang: 【Ah!】
Ji Yao: 【She’s just yanking your string, the picture she sent didn’t even show your grades.】
Zhao Yimeng: 【Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!】
Fang Yichang: 【?? I don’t get it, but why does it feel like y’all are making fun of me?】
Huo Cheng: 【She took the picture from the top rank down.】
Fang Yichang: 【……….. :)】
Shen Wanying: 【I think I saw a shot of everyone’s grades in the class group chat, Fang Yichang’s grades have improved quite a lot this time ^_^】
Fang Yichang: 【Really? I’m gonna go have a look!!】
An hour later.
Fang Yichang: 【Damn, somehow this time I advanced up a hundred places in the entire level!】
Fang Yichang: 【I finally have a taste of the joy you top students feel!】
Fang Yichang: 【My treat today, all of you have to come!!】
Ji Yao: 【The lower your expectations, the bigger the space you have to rise.】
Fang Yichang: 【…….I’ll feed you unreasonably spicy hot wings, just wait and see :)】
♥
When club activities ended, Huo Cheng and Shen Wanying did not leave school immediately, stopping by the classroom instead. At this point, only some classes had finished their parent-teacher meet. The pair walked up to the third floor, and Shen Wanying heard someone calling her name.
It was Qiu Ziqing and her mother.
Qiu Ziqing’s mother was very happy to see Shen Wanying, greeting her especially warmly. “Shen Wanying, do you still remember me?”
Shen Wanying flashed her signature smile and nodded. “I do, you’re Qiu Ziqing’s mother.”
Every time Qiu Ziqing’s mother would attend a parent-teacher meet, she would greet Shen Wanying when she saw her. So of course Shen Wanying remembered her.
Qiu Ziqing’s mother was all smiles. “That’s right. I saw how much your grades have improved and wanted to come congratulate you.”
“Thank you, Auntie.”
“You’re welcome, keep up the good work,” Qiu Ziqing’s mother said. “Oh, I heard you recently started a study group that is so effective that even the student who consistently scored lowest in the level saw a huge improvement. Could I request that you let Ziqing join this study group?”
Before Shen Wanying could respond, Qiu Ziqing interjected. “Ma, didn’t I already say I have a study group?”
Her mother glared at her. “And what good did that study group do you? Did your grades improve?”
Huo Cheng, who had been silent up to that point, opened his mouth to interrupt. “It’s time for us to go in.”
Naturally, this was aimed at Shen Wanying, who nodded and said goodbye to Qiu Ziqing’s mother. “Aunty, we’ll be leaving first, then.”
“Alright.” Qiu Ziqing’s mother watched Shen Wanying leave, and the smile on her face slowly disappeared and she turned to her daughter. “How can you believe yourself to be better than other people? Look at Shen Wanying, she’s naturally beautiful, and gets good grades… What about you?”
Qiu Ziqing pursed her lips, and replied grouchily, “I know, you’ve always wanted a daughter like Shen Wanying, but would someone like her want a mom like you?”
“What are you trying to say about your upbringing?”
“I didn’t have the privilege of Shen Wanying’s upbringing.” With that, Qiu Ziqing picked up her school bag and left in a huff.
♥
Class 1’s parent-teacher meet ended. Jiang Yu was very satisfied with Shen Wanying’s performance this time. When she saw Huo Cheng, she congratulated him. “Huo Cheng, your grades are so consistent. Wanying has a lot to learn from you.”
Huo Cheng replied, “Actually, her grades are very consistent. She excels at some things that I could never dream of levelling with her in.”
“You’re too humble,” Jiang Yu returned. “Right, earlier, I heard Zhao Yimeng say you were all having dinner together?”
“Yes.” Huo Cheng nodded. “Everyone in the study group did pretty well on this exam, so we’re going out for dinner to celebrate.”
“I see. Alright then.” Usually, Jiang Yu didn’t like Shen Wanying participating in social activities like this, but if Huo Cheng was around, she didn’t mind.
“Don’t worry, Aunty.” Huo Cheng reassured her. “I’ll send her home after dinner.”
Jiang Yu smiled. “In that case, please look after Wanying for us.”
“I will.”
♥
That night, Fang Yichang treated them all to hotpot. At the table, besides the five from the study group, was also his good friend Hong Hong. Hong Hong had always been under the impression that Fang Yichang joined the study group to pursue Shen Wanying. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine Fang Yichang would turn out to be good at studying!!!
Was it that he could be good when he applied himself or was it his talent for defying expectations?
Even Fang Yichang himself had never expected that his haphazard studying would result in such a big improvement. Could it be, he was a bit of a genius himself?
“Everyone, please eat as much as you want, and eat well. By the way, Ji Yao, I’ve ordered the unreasonably spicy hot wings for you already.”
Ji Yao did not grace him with a response. He never agreed to be a part of that spectacle.
♥
While the study group was celebrating, their teachers were facing something of a situation. The grade rep had sent out a message saying that there was a chance the most recent test scripts had been leaked. The other teachers in the group chat responded with confused question marks. The grade rep singled out Fang Yichang’s form teacher and asked, “Fang Yichang did really well this time around, were the questions leaked to him beforehand?”
♥
T/N: Whew, this was a long chapter and an entire ride. I was all oooo look at ZYM & FYC flirting and I was happy but then I got to the part about Qiu Ziqing’s mother and I cringed so hard like aunty pls this is not it. No wonder Ziqing hates SWY so much. I don’t even blame her for being a bit of a bitch anymore lol. Can I just say though, I love this weird unlikely-study-group dynamic? I hope they stay together bc the chaos is just *chef’s kiss*, I want more. If you do too and want it now, let us know! Because advance chapters are always an option 😉