After being reborn, I raised my childhood sweetheart.

Chapter 8 The Taste of Mom

In no time, Lin Jing brought the dishes to the table.

Stir-fried pork with green peppers, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried bok choy, and seaweed and egg drop soup.

It has meat and eggs, a balanced mix of meat and vegetables, and is delicious and visually appealing.

It definitely tastes like a light, home-style dish, with very little oil, salt, and MSG.

"It's so delicious, Aunt Lin, your cooking is amazing!"

Xu Yuan wasn't just flattering him; having eaten takeout and pre-prepared meals for years, he rarely tasted the familiar flavors of home-cooked food he remembered.
"No wonder Xia Ke kept praising Aunt Lin, saying that your cooking is delicious!"

Lin Jing smiled and nodded, "That child really loves coming to my house for meals, and he's a good child."

Xu Yuan's reaction was good, but more importantly, it was the employer's opinion:

"Brother Xu, what do you think...Brother Xu?"

Xu Jingguang took a few bites and then fell into thought. Lin Jing reminded him a couple of times before he came back to his senses.
"It's good... um, it's delicious."

Xu Jingguang looked up at Lin Jing and said, "Since the food is so good, why don't we skip the trial run?"

"That won't do. We still need to try it out for three days first."

Lin Jing has her own ideas and is quite persistent.

"Then...aren't you going to eat with us?"

Lin Jing shook her head repeatedly, "How can a nanny eat with her employer?"

Xu Jingguang explained, "We don't have that many rules in our family. It's fine for you to sit down and eat."

"Really not... I mean, I need to go home and be with my child."

"Ah...that's true."

Xu Jingguang remembered that she had a daughter and immediately felt guilty for her slip of the tongue. "Then, then you should go back quickly. Your child is still young and will be scared if his mother isn't around."

"It's okay, I'll wait until you finish eating and then wash the dishes for you."

Lin Jing insisted, "This is also part of a nanny's job."

So Xu Yuan and Xu Jingguang hurriedly finished their meal and asked Lin Jing to wash the dishes.

Afterwards, Xu Jingguang personally went downstairs to see her off and watched her ride her bicycle home before going home himself.

As the father and son went upstairs together, Xu Yuan suddenly mentioned something:
"Dad, Aunt Lin's cooking... always tastes a bit special, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"This tastes like Mom's cooking, Yuanyuan."

When Xu Jingguang spoke, his gaze softened considerably. "The home-cooked dishes your mother usually makes taste just like this, which is why they feel familiar to you."

The taste of mom's cooking...

"Mom's cooking" is a magical phrase.

Even though mothers back then didn't have a wide variety of seasonings, the flavors they made were unforgettable.

It's like the food from your memory; unless a specific person cooks it, it's hard to recreate the same taste.

Of course, with the filter of memory, the recollection of that unique flavor will amplify that sense of nostalgia.

Children begin to remember things more gradually after the age of six, so for Xu Yuan, "mother" is a very distant word in his memory.

But for Xu Jingguang, his memories of his deceased wife are not like that.

Hearing his father's high praise, Xu Yuan became even more determined to keep Aunt Lin on the team.

Now all that's left is to wait for Saturday to arrive.

To be fair, elementary school life was a very long time for Xu Yuan.

After all, whether it's writing those Chinese characters neatly in the grid, connecting them to form words, or doing two-digit addition and subtraction.

These learning tasks, which are incredibly difficult for children of the same age, are all very boring and childish courses for Xu Yuan, who is both old and young.

"Xu Yuan, stand up! Why are you looking out the window during class?"

Ms. Liao, who was teaching math, was furious. "Is there some of the knowledge I'm teaching flying out the window?"

"Hahahaha." The students in the class immediately burst into laughter.

"I have already learned everything the teacher taught me."

Xu Yuan shrugged helplessly, "So I don't think it sounds good."

"You mean you've learned all of multiplication?"

"Then let me ask you, what is 3 x 7?"

"21."

Xu Yuan casually picked at his ear. Does every elementary school student who is reborn have to show off like this? How boring.

What about 6x8?

"48."

The children looked at Xu Yuan with some surprise.

While multiplication tables are simple for adults, for elementary school students, they represent a process of building knowledge from scratch.

The math textbook uses two units and eight class periods to cover multiples of 1, 2, and up to 9.

The multiplication table is only introduced in the third and final unit, so it is like a profound and mysterious martial arts manual in the eyes of children. Although every child has it in their pencil case, it is very difficult for them to remember it.

Teacher Liao was very dissatisfied with Xu Yuan's attitude: "If you're so good, then recite the multiplication table from memory and let me see!"

Okay, I originally wanted to play the role of an ordinary elementary school student, but now I have no choice but to pretend to be cool to the end!

"One times one equals one, one times two equals two..."

Xu Yuan calmly and slowly recited the multiplication table, and his classmates all looked at him with admiration.

"Xu Yuan is so amazing."

"I can't believe it. You only got 70-something in math before."

But Teacher Liao wasn't going to indulge him:
"Okay, okay, then let me ask you again, what is 238 times 171?"

Xu Yuan was stunned when he heard the number.

Teacher, are you a sore loser?

Seeing that Xu Yuan did not answer immediately, Teacher Liao immediately showed a very satisfied expression.

How can the dignity of us educators be so easily destroyed by a little brat like you!

"Xu Yuan, your teacher acknowledges that you are very smart, and you may even be a genius. But even if you are a genius, there will be more difficult problems waiting for you." "Therefore, the lesson Teacher Liao wants to teach everyone is that learning has no end. It means that the road to learning has no limit. Everyone must maintain a humble attitude and continue to study hard. Do you all understand?"

"understood!"

"That's wonderful! I can study for the rest of my life!"

"Am I going to have to study my whole life?!"

A child, filled with despair about the future, pondered the philosophical question: "Then what is the meaning of our lives?"

Of course, not all classes are boring; Xu Yuan still likes music and art classes.

Elementary school music classes actually teach music theory, including the staff notation, and art classes teach some simple drawing techniques. These were things Xu Yuan hadn't paid attention to before, but he treated them as extracurricular activities and studied them more seriously than he did Chinese or math.

Another point worth mentioning is physical education class.

Xu Yuan didn't like exercise in the past, and when he was young, he didn't take care of his health in order to earn money to pay off his debts. By the time he was 30, he had a lot of chronic diseases. In this life, he cares a lot about physical exercise.

However, Xu Yuan was very disappointed with the physical education classes for the lower grades.

The PE teacher asked the sports representative to gather everyone together, called out a number, and they jogged a short lap around the small playground before the teacher waved his hand and said, "Dismissed!"

Then the children excitedly called their friends to go play together.

What about my physical exercise routine?
But thinking back on it carefully, all the games we played together in elementary school, no matter what the rules were, always ended up leaving us drenched in sweat.

Indeed, there's no need to do any special training.

The boys and girls split into two groups and started playing on their own. Even Lu Guang, who seemed a bit aloof and immersed in his own art of war, was called over by his classmates to play together.

"Let's go kick stones!"

Haha... I forgot that I don't have any friends in class.

Just as Xu Yuan was thinking about whether he should practice running, he suddenly felt a warm breath near his ear:
"Young Master! Young Master! Young Master! Young Master!"

The sudden, mindless repetition coming from behind his ear startled Xu Yuan, causing him to back away repeatedly.

Xu Yuan turned around and saw Xia Ke clutching her stomach, letting out a silvery laugh.

Lin Yueyao, who was standing to the side, also jogged over to catch up.

"You guys are having the same PE class as us?"

"Yeah, I just realized that too... Oh right!"

Xia Ke suddenly patted Xu Yuan's shoulder hard, her eyes filled with admiration:

"You're really amazing, young master! You actually helped Lin Yueyao's mother find a job!"

Xia Ke's shoulder still hurt a little from hitting herself, but Xu Yuan grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Hey Xia Ke, can't you call me Xu Yuan anymore?"

Xia Ke tossed her ponytail, hummed and thought for a moment, "How about this, I'll call your name when I make a wish to you!"

"Xu Yuan, do you want to play with us later?"

Lin Yueyao put her hands behind her back and cautiously started a conversation with Xu Yuan, "We're going to play beanbag toss in a bit."

"I know how to play beanbag toss..."

Come on, come on, come play with us!

At this point, Xu Yuan had already sensed that the relationship between the three of them had clearly changed.

Xia Ke addressed Xu Yuan as "Young Master," but in her heart, she considered him a good friend.

Although Lin Yueyao was willing to call him Xu Yuan, she regarded him as a young master in her heart.

Xia Ke dragged Xu Yuan to their class's activity area.

When Xu Yuan arrived, he discovered that Xia Ke and Lin Yueyao were all hanging out with girls.

Girls of this age clearly don't like playing with boys.

"Xia Ke, why are you hanging out with boys?"

The girl with braided pigtails clutched a sandbag in her hand, looking quite dissatisfied. "We were here first!"

"Who is this boy...? He's not in our class, is he?"

The girl with smaller eyes on the other side spoke gently and seemed more approachable.

"This is a friend that Lin Yueyao and I met in the audio-visual education class."

Xia Ke patted Xu Yuan on the shoulder, "Let me tell you, he's amazing!"

"From the audio-visual education class?"

Xia Ke's friends then gathered around, treating Xu Yuan like a rare species, asking, "Do you guys get to use computers in class?"

"This is not."

"Your blackboard can write by itself? Then we don't need chalk anymore."

"The projector and blackboard are used together, but they are rarely turned on."

"So, can you watch movies in class?"

“Theoretically, it’s possible to watch, but I haven’t watched it yet.” Xu Yuan shook his head.

"Alright, are you guys still going to play beanbag toss or not?" the girl with braided pigtails said impatiently.

"Coming, coming, come play." Xia Ke pulled Xu Yuan over.

The rules of beanbag toss seem to be similar across the country: pitchers throw beanbags from both sides, while everyone else hides in the middle of the field. If you get hit, you're out of the game, but if you catch a beanbag, you get an extra life, or you can revive someone else.

The girl with the braided hair seemed to dislike Xu Yuan, this outsider, and threw the beanbag at him with all her might when they were playing.

Although she felt she was putting in a lot of effort.

But Xu Yuan felt that the speed was too soft, so without thinking, he simply caught the sandbag in his hand.

"Wow, that's amazing!"

Xia Ke, standing to the side, exclaimed in shock, "He actually managed to catch Song Xiaohong's Dreamy Ever-Changing Sandbag from Class 1! Young Master is truly amazing!"

Another girl chimed in, "Is this the true strength of the audio-visual education class?!"

"Humph, it's just good luck."

Song Xiaohong, the girl with braided pigtails, naturally refused to admit defeat.

"I'll beat you to a pulp..."

"Come!"

(End of this chapter)