"He wants to go to school? Why?" Yang Xiaoyu received a call from Butler Bai while she was working, and immediately interrupted her work.
"The third young master said that he didn't have a school admission notice and didn't know what items he should prepare for the start of school, so he wanted to go to the school in advance to get another notice."
Although it was summarized in one sentence, it took Butler Bai and Wan Qiu a full five minutes to understand the ins and outs of that sentence.
"What's the point of getting an acceptance letter? I'm planning to take him to withdraw from school tomorrow."
Yang Xiaoyu raised her voice, looking down on the school with utter arrogance.
"A mere notification letter is just a matter of making a phone call. Why does Wan Qiu need to go there personally? He could have just had the teacher deliver it to him directly."
Butler Bai pondered that Wan Qiu's request to go to school was most likely due to habit.
In the past, Wanqiu didn't have the right to make phone calls. Even now that she has a mobile phone, she still doesn't have a teacher's phone number.
“No… Since he brought it up, we have to let him go.” Yang Xiaoyu pondered. Yan Hua had given them some instructions when discussing Wan Qiu’s situation.
Wanqiu's personality likely developed from being rejected too many times rather than being agreed upon.
We should try our best to meet Wanqiu's demands and let him get used to the feeling of having his demands agreed to.
"Shall I take the Third Young Master to the school?" Butler Bai asked.
Although Yang Xiaoyu wanted to go back, she couldn't leave today because of work.
I'll let you know in a bit.
When Butler Bai heard that Chu Jianshu was coming back to take Wan Qiu to school, he was stunned for a long time.
This man, who has always been busy and overly serious, not only doesn't fulfill his child's request to go to school, but he even sends his secretary to parent-teacher meetings.
However, it was also because the young masters were all very outstanding, and because of the Chu family's wealth, that the young masters received nothing but praise, and Chu Jianshu didn't bother to listen to flattery.
Things have really changed.
As a butler, he shouldn't be trying to guess the master's thoughts and intentions, but he still couldn't help but sigh.
Wouldn't it have been better if the eldest and second young masters had received such serious treatment from the teacher when they were still in school?
Chu Jianshu wasn't unemployed today; he simply decided to postpone all his work after receiving a call from Yang Xiaoyu inquiring about his situation.
The growing sense of responsibility as a father also made Chu Jianshu reflect on his shortcomings in educating his children.
Perhaps he should see for himself what his children's lives are like at school—things that can't be seen in cold, hard documents.
When Chu Jianshu and Wan Qiu met eyes, the father and son were both lost in their own thoughts.
Wan Qiu never expected that Chu Jianshu would go to school with him.
Wan Qiu had attended parent-teacher conferences before. After being brought to the city, during his first year of school, Ning Qiaozhen not only attended his parent-teacher conferences but also frequently received phone calls from his teachers.
In Wanqiu's memory, it was not a happy thing.
He remembered the 'unhappiness' that spread throughout Ning Qiaozhen's body like a black fog every time she received a call from the teacher, and he also remembered the look in Ning Qiaozhen's eyes after the parent-teacher meeting.
What kind of look was that?
Just as there was a thick, cold ice wall between him and Ning Qiaozhen, he was immersed in the icy water, pounding on the ice wall, and could only see Ning Qiaozhen's blurry figure.
Is Dad going to go to school with him now?
Even Wan Qiu knew that when students or teachers praised him, the students' parents would be very happy.
The warm, orange-hued atmosphere of affection between parents and children will not exist between him and his mom and dad.
The teacher will definitely not praise him.
"What's wrong? Why are you spacing out? Don't you have anything to bring?" Chu Jianshu's voice rang in Wan Qiu's ears again.
Going to school will lead to things that upset Dad.
But Wanqiu would not do anything to stop or refuse him.
Wan Qiu shook his head.
"Let's go then," Chu Jianshu said.
Watching Wan Qiu quietly get into the passenger seat, Chu Jianshu bent down and fastened Wan Qiu's seatbelt.
Chu Jianshu remained silent after sitting back in the driver's seat.
This was also the first time Chu Jianshu had gone to school with his child.
Not to mention He Wanqiu.
Since returning to this home, Wan Qiu has spent most of his time with Yang Xiaoyu.
Chu Jianshu doesn't actively care about his child's personality, and even if he wants to change it, he doesn't easily find an opportunity to start.
He and Wan Qiu spent zero time alone together.
As a not-so-good father, Chu Jianshu was also a bit reserved.
As usual, Butler Bai prepared a small water bottle for Wan Qiu and placed a large water cup in Chu Jianshu's car.
Both of their cups were filled with iced mung bean soup, but Wanqiu's had sugar added.
When Chu Jianshu received the mung bean soup, he glanced at Butler Bai, and his preconceived notions about the butler began to waver slightly.
Wan Qiu's gaze remained fixed on Chu Jianshu's face, and Chu Jianshu was unusually awkward.
He pondered how Yang Xiaoyu managed to remain so calm and composed under Wan Qiu's gaze.
Neither Chu Zhang nor Yang Ze, nor even Chu Yigui, would look at him so directly; their gazes lingered for a long time.
If it were any other child, he would definitely take it seriously.
Just like how humans always have different attitudes towards wild wolves and stray cats.
Throughout the entire driving process, the only sound inside the car was the navigation system.
After realizing that Chu Jianshu didn't want to talk, Wan Qiu looked out the window.
When the light was red, Chu Jianshu noticed Wan Qiu. Was his passenger seat really that empty?
Chu Jianshu was not interested in Wan Qiu's school, or rather, the school was not worth his attention.
Ning Hai and Ning Qiaozhen had no background or money, so naturally they wouldn't send their child to a good school.
This private school does not restrict students by household registration, nor does it even have a student registration system, resulting in a diverse student body.
The chaotic state of the surrounding businesses alone is enough to tell you what's going on here. Within a kilometer of the school, you can see several brightly lit internet cafes and KTVs.
The roads are chaotic and there is almost no greenery.
As Chu Jianshu looked around for parking spaces, he noticed that Wan Qiu's expression was noticeably different from usual.
That's the sense of security you get from a familiar place that you can control.
Wanqiu returned to a familiar place.
A full three years is certainly more reassuring for the Chu family than just one or two months.
Wanqiu's school is not large, with only three teaching buildings: the primary school, the junior high school, and the dormitory, as well as a few bungalows. You can see the whole picture at a glance.
Chu Jianshu left his coat in the car. Fortunately, although it was a sunny day, the temperature was not uncomfortably high.
Wan Qiu remained silent, standing quietly beside Chu Jianshu.
Chu Jianshu looked at Wan Qiu.
I thought of Yang Xiaoyu.
Is he going to hold Wanqiu's hand?
Would a fourteen-year-old son be willing to hold his father's hand?
Although the words "holding hands" kept replaying in Chu Jianshu's mind, what came out of his mouth was: "Let's go."
Although they didn't hold hands, Wan Qiu and Chu Jianshu were very close together.
Chu Jianshu noticed that Wan Qiu was paying attention to the surroundings.
"I'm not familiar with the area, so you can lead the way." Chu Jianshu decided to hand over the responsibility of guiding the way to Wan Qiu.
Yan Hua offered many suggestions, including that since Wan Qiu didn't know how to spontaneously find things he wanted to do, he should be allowed to make decisions based on what he needed to do.
Chu Jianshu realized that his attitude towards the child had really softened a lot, and he even had more patience to do some small things that he used to think were unnecessary.
He also noticed that this was a responsibility he should have fulfilled towards his child.
Wan Qiu looked up and stared at Chu Jianshu, while Chu Jianshu allowed Wan Qiu to probe his thoughts.
"Okay." Wan Qiu nodded.
Instead of following behind Chu Jianshu, he became the one leading the way, slightly ahead of him.
Wan Qiu, who had always lived in the Chu family with some trepidation, took the initiative to act without hesitation.
Chu Jianshu guessed that if Wan Qiu had enough time to learn and adapt, he might be able to become a normal child.
The school gates were open, and occasionally you could see some boarding students returning to school, dragging large suitcases into the campus.
Wan Qiu intended to enter the school through the open gates, but was suddenly stopped by a stern rebuke.
The stout security guard, wearing a uniform that stretched taut over his belly, walked up to them: "What are you doing here?"
Chu Jianshu and Wan Qiu stopped in their tracks.
When the chubby security guard saw Wan Qiu, who was partially obscured by Chu Jianshu, his expression softened. He glanced at Chu Jianshu and asked, "Are you him?"
“I am his father,” Chu Jianshu replied.
The gatekeeper's gaze was very strange. He looked at Chu Jianshu several times. Chu Jianshu looked very different, both in his demeanor and his attire. The gatekeeper also noticed that Wan Qiu's casual clothes seemed very beautiful today.
"You..." The gatekeeper had never seen Wanqiu's father before, and he asked Wanqiu with some doubt, "Your dad?"
"Mmm." Wan Qiu nodded obediently.
In Chu Jianshu's view, the gatekeeper clearly knew Wan Qiu.
However, with so many people in the school, the gatekeeper would inevitably need an opportunity to remember Wan Qiu.
"Okay, you idiot..." The gatekeeper had barely opened his mouth when the word 'idiot' clearly lowered Chu Jianshu's mood. However, the gatekeeper continued without noticing, "School doesn't start until tomorrow, what are you doing here today?"
Wan Qiu looked up at the gatekeeper before saying, "I don't have my school admission notice anymore."
The gatekeeper was taken aback, then said "Oh," and added, "Wait here."
Chu Jianshu watched as the gatekeeper returned to the guardhouse, took out a brand new slip of paper, and then returned again.
The security guard originally intended to give the slip of paper to Wan Qiu, but then turned it to Chu Jianshu instead: "Don't you have a parents' group? Why don't you just ask in the group?"
Chu Jianshu was somewhat angry at the gatekeeper for calling Wan Qiu an idiot, but he didn't show it.
I received the school admission notice, which simply had a few lines of text and a school stamp on it.
The security guard wiped the sweat from his forehead; he had been sweating profusely even walking just those two steps.
Chu Jianshu did not refute. Although the gatekeeper's tone sounded a bit harsh, his attitude towards Wan Qiu was clearly not particularly bad.
"Do you know Wan Qiu?" Chu Jianshu suddenly asked.
The gatekeeper wiped his sweat, a question on his round face: "Oh, his name is Wan Qiu? I don't recognize him, but he looks familiar."
Wan Qiu stood in front of the gatekeeper. The tall, stout gatekeeper should have been a stranger to Wan Qiu, but he seemed to be in a bad mood because he was standing in the sunlight.
But……
Chu Jianshu did not see Wan Qiu's habitual behavior—staying away from someone in a bad mood.
Wan Qiu stood still, looking up at the gatekeeper, his thin figure contrasting sharply with the tall, fat gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper glanced down at Wan Qiu's brand-new clothes and shoes, grinned, and said, "So you finally decided to buy him some shoes?"
Do most people pay attention to what shoes a child wears?
Why am I paying attention to Wanqiu?
Chu Jianshu wanted to get some information about Wan Qiu out of the gatekeeper.
How did you notice the shoes?
"Wearing the same pair of shoes all year round, and letting other students step on them, how can you not notice? You don't look like you're short of money, yet you never check what your kid is wearing all day long. I really don't know what you've been doing all this time."
The security guard seemed to have started talking non-stop, blaming Chu Jianshu.
"You probably don't know how your kid gets bullied at school, do you? I've seen it so many times. These kids these days are all up to no good, they're born bad, they're so young and they're already ganging up on people."
The gatekeeper stood in front of Chu Jianshu, showing no fear of Chu Jianshu's expression.
Perhaps the sunlight was too bright, causing the gatekeeper's eyes, which appeared too small due to his obesity, to be illuminated by the sunlight, making it difficult for him to see Jianshu's expression clearly.
“You look perfectly healthy, yet you raised your child like this. Last time in PE class, I saw him just sitting there, fainting from low blood sugar, and nobody even noticed…”
Do you know what your child's classmates call your child?
"Do you know how other people laughed at your child when someone threw dirty bread at them and your child ate it?"
The gatekeeper didn't know much, but he had a deep memory of Wan Qiu, a mentally challenged man with obvious physical abnormalities.
After grumbling for a bit, he got bored and looked up at Chu Jianshu's expression. Suddenly, he was so intimidated by Chu Jianshu's dark face that he shut up.
Under the bright sunshine, the gatekeeper shivered.
"You're only fierce now? Why weren't you fierce when your kid was being bullied?" The gatekeeper muttered a few words, waving his fat hand. "Parents aren't allowed into the school until tomorrow. You can't go in today."
"I understand." Chu Jianshu had no desire to enter this school.
Based on the gatekeeper's words, Chu Jianshu's impression of the school changed from a school that educates and nurtures people to a breeding ground for malice that gathers together the purest malice without any vested interests.
I knew from the information I had previously researched that this school was chaotic, the students generally did not study well, and it seemed that most of the time they were just there to get through compulsory education.
The only information they received from the teacher was that Wanqiu was not doing well in school, was relatively withdrawn and had no friends, and was occasionally bullied.
Many teachers won't say this because, for the sake of the school's image and the protection of other students, they know very little about the details.
"Do you often see these kinds of things?" Chu Jianshu asked.
"There are quite a few, but not all of them are your kid." The gatekeeper smacked his lips, no longer as stern as before. "These students are like mischievous monkeys, they'll do anything. I don't know how your kid will suffer in places I can't see."
Chu Jianshu stared at the gatekeeper. Although there was a big difference in their physiques, the gatekeeper was several heads shorter in terms of imposing presence.
"What did you do when you saw these?" Chu Jianshu asked.
"What can I do?" The gatekeeper paused for a moment, then understood what Chu Jianshu meant. "What can I do? At most, I can kick people out. What else can I do? Even so, some parents have complained about me. I'm just a gatekeeper. Do you expect me to protect your son?"
Chu Jianshu squinted and looked down at Wan Qiu: "Do you remember this person?"
Wan Qiu, who had been quiet all along, nodded after hearing Chu Jianshu's question.
"Is he good to you?" Chu Jianshu asked.
The question surprised the security guard.
Normally, Wan Qiu would probably consider what he needed to say based on other people's attitudes.
However... Wanqiu couldn't look at others about this matter.
He knew it very well.
The security guard was very kind to him.
Wan Qiu nodded.
The gatekeeper was somewhat surprised to see Wan Qiu nod. He couldn't help but scratch his short hair and suddenly laughed: "I thought you were an idiot and didn't remember anything."
The security guard did these things simply because he couldn't stand it and, when he saw it, he just chased the person away.
"If you have new shoes, don't let anyone step on them. If they pull your clothes, tell the teacher. I think you've gotten fat. Are you eating well? Grow taller. If they bully you, fight them back."
As he spoke, the gatekeeper took out a handful of candy from his pocket and stuffed it into Wan Qiu's hand, clearly pleased that Wan Qiu had remembered him.
"If you still remember, then all the candy I've given you hasn't been for nothing."
Wanqiu held the candy in both hands, looked up at the gatekeeper's round face, his eyes bright and trusting.
The not-so-pretty, low-quality candy was held in Wanqiu's hands.
It seemed that those weren't candies, but rather small acts of kindness that Wanqiu received, which she cherished and held dear.
Chu Jianshu saw everything. In his eyes, the vast campus that seemed to be filled with darkness was no longer just inhabited by a huge, hideous monster.
"Do you have a business card?" Chu Jianshu suddenly asked the chubby security guard.
"What would I need that thing for?" the gatekeeper replied instinctively.
Chu Jianshu squinted and sized up the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper was already quite recognizable by his fat physique, so there was no need to ask for a business card.
"I've neglected my child too much before, and I won't do that again. Thank you for taking care of Wanqiu all this time." Chu Jianshu's thanks were very sincere.
Even though he wasn't the one who had neglected Wanqiu, he sincerely expressed his gratitude to those who had taken care of her.
He will then have someone formally thank the gatekeeper.
"I hope you keep your word," the gatekeeper said, not too harshly, then wiped his sweat and went back to the gatehouse.
At least the guardhouse was still in the shadows, and there was even a fan blowing air out from inside.
Inside the school gate, a few students were playing together in twos and threes. Wan Qiu looked at the school; he would be coming to school tomorrow.
Having received the school admission notice, the mission of this trip should be considered complete.
Chu Jianshu did not want Wanqiu to stay here, as it was clear that Wanqiu had not left any perfect and beautiful memories here.
They walked in the shade of the high-rise building. Chu Jianshu unbuttoned one button of his shirt and looked down at Wan Qiu.
Should we go back now?
Wan Qiu quietly followed beside Chu Jianshu. Because they were not allowed to enter the campus, Wan Qiu also lost the responsibility of leading the way.
As Wan Qiu left the school gate, she quietly relaxed her tense body.
Without looking back, they moved step by step away from this place that would make Chu Jianshu unhappy.
Even though Chu Jianshu was already unhappy.
Chu Jianshu observed the surrounding environment.
There are obviously many shops here that students would like to visit.
When Wanqiu is here, does he see other students also have something they yearn for?
Wan Qiu kept his eyes down, looking at the ground, only occasionally glancing up at Chu Jianshu, seemingly indifferent to everything around him.
Chu Jianshu couldn't tell whether Wan Qiu was genuinely indifferent or choosing to ignore things because she cared too much.
Chu Jianshu abandoned his plan to go home immediately. He pulled down his hot collar to let the late summer breeze into it.
He took out his wallet, took out a banknote, and placed it in Wanqiu's hand.
"I'm not very familiar with this place. Can I use this money to show Dad around?"
Wan Qiu blinked, looking at the money in her hand, then looked up at Chu Jianshu.
Wan Qiu nodded.
Wanqiu was very familiar with this stretch of road.
It is the only route from home to school.
In this remote place where there aren't many tall buildings, when the morning sun shines on the not-so-wide road, you can see many students in school uniforms walking briskly towards the school gate.
In the shady spot where he and his father were locked, students would always crowd together, huddled around the vendors who displayed lots of cheap snacks.
Breakfast stalls, small carts, and occasionally ring toss games, shaved ice, fried skewers...
In the flowing blue ocean, there are always students lingering around.
Wanqiu simply didn't know what snacks were popular among her classmates, nor did she know what the fragrant foods from those street vendors actually tasted like.
Wan Qiu wanted to introduce everything to Chu Jianshu, but he discovered that what he thought he knew was just what he thought he knew.
These everyday memories of going to and from school piece together to form similar scenes, but Wan Qiu is merely an observer outside these scenes. He has never truly entered into them to experience the joy of those within.
Wan Qiu stood still.
He was at a loss when faced with the task his father had given him.
Is this too much to ask?
Chu Jianshu waited for a long time, but Wan Qiu did not take any action.
“Wanqiu, this is my first time here.” Chu Jianshu rarely tried to encourage his child, but this time, he said earnestly, “You know a lot more than your father does.”
Wan Qiu raised his head, the faint unease in his eyes not dissipating, but Chu Jianshu's encouragement was not without effect.
"Dad believes in you."
As Chu Jianshu watched Wan Qiu being encouraged by his words, trying to suppress his fear and cautiously attempting to do something, he couldn't help but think of Chu Zhang and Yang Ze.
If, instead of constantly demanding, he had offered appropriate encouragement in the first place...
What they might gain is a family bond that Chu Zhang and Yang Ze trust and rely on more, rather than the family they are currently maintaining a superficial peace while the cracks are unknown.
"No matter what, you have to try it." Chu Jianshu didn't know whether he was saying this to Wan Qiu or to himself.
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