Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 34: Good grades

Primary school breaks earlier than junior high school, so as soon as Feng Yiping had finished unloading his luggage at his grandparents', he immediately became the king of the children.

Only Rongrong was a little reserved, hugging Dongdong, while the other three, Yangyang taking the lead, swarmed around him, rummaging through his school bag and hugging his thighs, showing no sign of being strangers.

His aunt once said that these little ones are closer to their cousin than to their parents.

There was nothing he could do about it. Whenever their cousin came back, they had a good time eating and playing. They didn't make them do anything, and they never scolded them. Of course they were better than their parents.

In the past, like most men, Feng Yiping was very annoyed by these younger cousins, no, to be precise, by all the children. There was no specific reason for it. As the youngest in the family, he had no experience taking care of children, and he just simply didn't like them.

He remembered that once, when he was not sure how old he was, his eldest aunt had something to do and had asked him, who was not yet very old at the time, to hold her young daughter Rongrong. Although he was very reluctant, he had always been an obedient child and did as he was told. With this attitude, it was inevitable that he would be a bit passive and sit absent-mindedly holding Rongrong by the vegetable garden.

Rongrong was very restless at the time. Anyone with experience knows that when a child is restless, they still have quite a bit of strength. If he wasn't paying attention, he would let go at that moment, and Rongrong would 'bang' and fall face-first to the ground. Fortunately, the vegetable garden was soft and nothing serious happened, but Rongrong still kept crying 'wa wa'.

One consequence of this incident was that the aunts never asked him to help look after the children again.

The second consequence was more serious. When she grew up, Rongrong, after hearing her eldest aunt talk about this, would point to her crooked nose whenever she saw Feng Yiping and say, 'Brother Yiping, I used to have a nice nose, but it's all your fault. When you were holding me, you weren't careful and you broke my nose, making it all crooked like this. You have to compensate me.'

After they got married, she even said this to her husband on several occasions: 'I had a pretty good nose, but it's all your fault.'

Well, anyway, he really doesn't understand why most women and a few men love children so much and always want to play with them when they see them. Why can't I feel their kindness?

Another thing that really puzzles him is that whenever the media reports on past or recent disasters, they always say how many people were killed in the disaster and then they always emphasise how many of those were children. He really doesn't understand this either. Is it really necessary to emphasise it every time?

Before he had children, he never really felt that there was anything cute about little kids. Although adults would always praise their own children in front of him, saying how cute, sensible and well-behaved they were, none of those words really came from the heart.

This all changed fundamentally after he welcomed his own son.

The change came suddenly, in the early hours of the day his son was born, when he carefully took the swaddled bundle from the nurse's hands and held him against his chest.

Since then, whenever he sees a child outside, whether it is a boy or a girl, good-looking or not so good-looking, clean or not so clean, he likes it and thinks that all children are cute and cute, and sometimes he can't help teasing them.

Since then, whenever he sees various reports that emphasise how many children have suffered misfortune, those numbers are no longer just numbers, and he feels immense pain, as well as hating the groups and individuals responsible for those tragedies.

Since then, for example, when the news reported that during the summer holidays, a child went swimming in a river without telling an adult and was tragically detained, although this incident was thousands of miles away and the person involved had no intersection with him at all, he still felt extremely sad and empathised with the parents' misfortune.

So although Feng Yiping is only five years older than his youngest daughter, Rongrong, he treats them like parents would their children. Children may not understand many things, but they have a keen sense of intuition, especially when it comes to who genuinely cares for them. They can feel it clearly and directly, so of course they are all close to Feng Yiping.

As usual, they had lunch together, and the five children sat at a small table. After Yang Yang's accident, he had been much more obedient at least during meals. Dong Dong was the same. Although he was not being fed by his parents, he saw his older siblings eating heartily, and when Rui Rui did the same, he also took up his small bowl voluntarily.

After lunch, Feng Yiping helped Rong Rong and Yang Yang with their winter holiday homework. He gave each of the three little ones a piece of paper and told them to scribble on it.

The winter holiday homework was of course no challenge for him. He completed all the Chinese and English assignments in one go. When he saw Yun Yun pointing at a stick figure on the paper and saying that it was him, he couldn't help feeling a little proud. So using the techniques he had learned from Teacher Zhu, he spent a few minutes drawing a person. The three of them looked at it and immediately said, 'That's Rong Rong!'

In fact, at Feng Yiping's current level, if he draws a person, it's amazing if it's even a five-point likeness. However, combined with the clothes and the bow in the ponytail, they were still able to tell that it was Sister Rongrong.

Seeing this skill, of course they wanted to learn it. Feng Yiping gladly taught them, but unfortunately it had no effect. They just kept drawing the same way. Fine, Feng Yiping gave up and simply taught them a little bit, and that was proportions.

He took them around the house a few times, and then showed them how to draw by example. The windows, of course, could not be drawn larger than the front door, and the cousin could not be taller than the house. Fortunately, they could accept this, and there were some results after all, so Feng Yiping let out a sigh of relief.

On the morning of the 17th, Feng Yiping and Wang Changning went to school together, a rare occasion when they went empty-handed. Halfway there, they met the monitor, who was riding a 28-inch bicycle, and they exchanged greetings. Tang Shaokang enthusiastically said a few words to Feng Yiping, 'You did really well on the exam, you've brought honour to our class.'

When they arrived at school, Wang Yumin gave him his report card with a smile on her face, and couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder a few times, saying, 'Not bad, well done, you didn't disappoint your teachers.'

Feng Yiping didn't look at the report card. He was a little flattered that a teacher had patted him on the shoulder like that in junior high school.

Unlike foreigners, Chinese people, with their 5,000 years of splendid civilisation, do not make much physical contact when communicating, and there are also specific meanings behind it. For example, between adults and children, the action of patting on the head is generally more common, while patting on the shoulders, patting on the chest, and putting one's arm around the other person's shoulders are generally done more between peers.

Wang Yumin, who had always been strict, was so amiable, and had vaguely adjusted his position in the hierarchy slightly, that he was really a little uncomfortable.

When he opened his report card, he saw that he had full marks in maths, English, physics, chemistry and politics, 96 in Chinese, 99 in history, 98 in geography, 98.5 in biology, and a total score of 891.5.

Wang Yumin said happily, 'I tied with six other students for third place in the county, 3.5 points behind the two students in second place, and 6 points behind the two students in first place.'

Oh, so it seems that the two first-place students did not get full marks from the teacher either.

'We've looked at your test papers, and apart from geography, where you missed a short answer question, you got all the other questions right. It's mainly that you lost too many marks in the Chinese composition, four marks in one go, while the compositions of the first and second places only lost one or two marks. The headmaster called the education bureau and they checked it too, and said that the main reason for the deduction of marks was that your choice of words and phrases was inappropriate,'

Having said that, Wang Yumin's face looked a little strange, and she asked Feng Yiping, 'I've read it too. Why did you write about a person and say that he looked very anxious and apologetic?'

She had unconsciously picked up some of the later idiomatic expressions. Feng Yiping scratched his head embarrassedly, 'Teacher Wang, my younger brother-in-law told me about this once, and I thought it was quite interesting, so I used it. Now that I think about it, it was also inappropriate. I will definitely pay attention to it next time.'

'It's fine, I actually think it's quite interesting,' Wang Yumin said with a smile. "The teacher who corrected your paper is from the Experimental High School, and they could tell it wasn't from their class, so of course they picked on the mistakes.'

Wang Yumin also found it quite funny to remember that when the few Chinese teachers first saw it, they were first taken aback, then they all had a good laugh and joked with each other, "Why are you so anxious?' and 'Really, you're so sorry to look like that!'

'It's fine to speak like this in normal conversation, but you should avoid writing like this in your compositions in future exams, understand? Teachers are always looking for ways to deduct marks. Although they can understand what you mean, and they also find it funny, if they deduct marks, there's nothing we can say because the combination is indeed unconventional,' Wang Yumin reminded him.

'I remember, Miss Wang,' Feng Yiping obediently said.

'Okay, if there's nothing else, go home. Have a good time during the New Year, but remember to finish your homework,'

After Wang Yumin had walked away, Xiao Zhijie pulled Wang Changning over. Xiao Zhijie punched him in the chest and said, 'Not bad, not only are you first in your year, you're also third in the whole county.'

Wang Changning said, 'No wonder Tang Shaokang was so enthusiastic today, it seems he's convinced too.'