Disabled Childhood Sweetheart: A Humble Puppy Begs for the Young Lady's Pity

The green desk lamp on the desk emitted a soft glow, a gentle breeze drifted in through the cracks in the window and gently stirred the white gauze curtains, and a faint scent of milk floated in the air.

Zhou Jingchen patiently guided her step by step, breaking down each question into its simplest form so that she could fully understand it.

Wenxi had been sitting at her desk for less than twenty minutes when she started to get restless.

Her little body twisted and turned, her eyes darting around, sometimes glancing out the window, sometimes glancing at the ornaments on the corner of the table.

She picked up a piece of fruit with her fork and casually put it in her mouth, her cheeks bulging out like a little hamster that had stolen a pine cone, looking completely satisfied.

"Focus," Zhou Jingchen's voice rang out calmly.

Wenxi smiled sullenly, picked up a piece of snow-white pear flesh with her fork, and held it to his lips.

Zhou Jingchen subconsciously opened his mouth slightly, but the girl twisted her wrist and stuffed the pear back into her mouth, chewing it with great relish.

Zhou Jingchen sighed helplessly, "Did you understand this question?"

Wenxi nodded vaguely, then precisely aimed her fork at a piece of pinkish-white crisp peach.

Zhou Jingchen stretched out his hand, his well-defined fingertips lightly tapping on the workbook: "Then tell me, what is X?"

Wenxi was holding a peach, about to put it in his mouth, when suddenly his eyes lit up and he smiled as he brought the fork to his lips.

She tilted her head, her bright, sparkling eyes fixed on him, and even offered him a piece of peach, clearly inviting him to eat.

The boy hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth to bite, but just as his lips were about to touch the fruit, she mischievously turned the fork around abruptly—

She contentedly popped the crisp peach into her mouth.

Seeing him standing there with his mouth agape, looking helpless and a little embarrassed, Wenxi couldn't help but burst into laughter.

She slapped the table and laughed so hard she bent over, her back arching, and a pair of small, white tiger teeth showing at the corners of her mouth.

Zhou Jingchen rubbed his forehead, tapping the workbook again with his fingertip, his tone tinged with helplessness: "Are you even going to study or not?"

"Learn, learn, learn!" Wenxi immediately sat up straight and nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

"What is X? I've taught you this problem at least five times."

"X? Hmm..." Wenxi pretended to ponder, resting her chin on her slender fingers, before finally uttering two words decisively, "It's 9!"

Zhou Jingchen took a deep breath, raised his hand to press his throbbing temples, and said in a slightly deeper voice, "Take another look?"

"Isn't it 9?" Wenxi muttered under her breath, her fork reaching restlessly towards the fruit plate.

Zhou Jingchen lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on the draft paper beside him filled with neatly written solution steps...

The last part clearly states: X=5.

He paused for a moment, then closed the workbook: "Let's stop here for today."

Wenxi was chewing on a piece of apple, the sweet and sour juice bursting in her mouth. She squinted her eyes and said, "Okay, I'm tired too."

As she spoke, she forked the last piece of apple from the fruit plate, offered it to him, her eyes crinkling with a smile, her tone sincere:

"I'm just kidding, here, have this one."

Zhou Jingchen was tidying up the books and pens on the table when he heard this. Without even looking up, he shook his head and said, "I'm not eating. You eat it yourself."

"Are you sure you don't want to eat?" Wenxi waved the fork in her hand. "This was cut by my mom for us herself. If you don't eat a single piece, she'll be so heartbroken."

Zhou Jingchen raised his eyes, his deep gaze fixed on her for two seconds, before finally yielding and slightly parting his lips.

He lowered his head slightly, his lips almost touching the piece of apple.

But the girl was faster; with a deft flick of her other wrist—

The moment he opened his mouth, he took her finger into his mouth.

The girl's fingers were fair, soft, and slightly cool.

"Do my hands taste good? Hahahaha..."

Zhou Jingchen stood frozen in place, belatedly realizing what was happening and finally relenting. He frowned as he watched her clutching her belly, gloating and laughing until tears almost streamed down her face.

"Zhou Jingchen, how can you be so stupid!"

She laughed while teasing him, even lightly kicking his leg twice with her toe. "People say once is okay, twice is okay, but three times is not. How come you always fall for it?"

Her eyes crinkled into crescents as she smiled, like a moon filled with starlight.

She never tired of these little pranks.

Zhou Jingchen remembers that when he was about six or seven years old, Wenxi, Fang Haoyu, and another boy were playing football on the grass in Haiping Park.

Zhou Jingchen certainly couldn't kick with his feet; his crutches were his feet. Although he often fell, he still loved the sport. His soul held a stubborn streak, an unwillingness to admit defeat.

He was so engrossed in playing that he didn't notice his pants were loose and about to fall down.

Wenxi, with a lollipop stuffed in her mouth, ran around the field like a crazy girl.

Seeing that his pants were about to fall down, the mischievous girl ran behind Zhou Jingchen and yanked them down with a "whoosh"—

Zhou Jingchen's two thin legs were exposed to the air, and the other children burst into laughter when they saw this.

Wenxi not only pulled down his pants, but also Fang Haoyu's pants and Jiang Xiaoya's pants.

Jiang Xiaoya was also a playmate in that alley, but Jiang Xiaoya was a girl who loved to cry and would run home to complain to the adults.

Wenxi was severely beaten by Xiang Qin, and after that, she dared not pull down other people's pants again.

The girl's silvery laughter echoed in the room. Zhou Jingchen replied softly, "I'm going back to sleep."

She raised an eyebrow, her smile vanished, and she crossed her arms: "Where are you going to sleep?"

Seeing that she seemed about to explode, he had no choice but to give in: "Sleep here."

The tutoring program continued as scheduled every day. Zhou Jingchen changed to a more interesting teaching method. He knew that Wenxi also wanted to study hard, but she really hated those rigid questions and texts.

So he compared the numbers in the problem to fruits that Wenxi likes to eat, and compared some mathematical definitions to things that are easy to understand, in order to make it easier for Wenxi to understand.

Sometimes, while talking, Wenxi would doze off, her head drooping, her chin bobbing as if she wanted to knock it onto the table.

Zhou Jingchen always managed to catch her chin at the last moment, preventing her from falling onto the desk and hurting her chin.

When the monthly exams came out, Wenxi jumped five places from last place, breaking the curse of being the bottom-ranked girl.

She handed the report card to Wen Zhiting and asked him to sign it.

Wen Zhiting nodded in satisfaction, first praising him and giving him a treat, then adding at the end:

"We're still far from the cutoff score for the top high school; let's keep working hard."

Back in her room, Wenxi kissed her exam paper and jumped three meters high with joy.

"Zhou Jingchen, Dad just praised me! It's the first time he's ever praised my grades!"

She jumped excitedly onto Zhou Jingchen, wrapping her legs around his waist. Zhou Jingchen almost fell over because of her, but luckily he held on to his cane.

He didn't know where to put his hand for a moment, and it awkwardly stopped three centimeters away from her waist, barely supporting her.

The boy was tall and big, and Wenxi looked like a small ornament on him.

"Zhou Jingchen, is it possible for me to surpass Fang Haoyu's grades? Hmm? I want to surpass Fang Haoyu, can you help me surpass him? That way he'll never dare to laugh at me again."

The girl held his report card and wrapped her arms around his neck. As she spoke, a sweet, milky scent enveloped them both.

He gently patted her: "Get down first, I can't stand up much longer."

Wenxi, thinking she had hurt his legs, jumped down and looked up at him with her fair face: "Can I ever surpass Fang Haoyu?"

"Yes, he's tenth from the bottom. If you move up five places, you can surpass him."

The girl laughed and jumped happily, her ponytail fluttering in the air: "I must surpass Fang Haoyu, because he always makes fun of me for being in last place."

Wenxi felt a great sense of accomplishment from her improved grades, and she became more willing to attend tutoring sessions. During these sessions, she would force herself to focus on her studies.

Once, she lay listlessly on her desk and said:

"Zhou Jingchen, no matter how hard I try, I'm still miles behind you. With your grades, you'll definitely get into the best high school, while I might barely make it into the second-best. What if we can't go to the same school then?"

Zhou Jingchen said softly, "As long as you work hard, you can get into No. 2 High School."

In the monthly exam at the end of May, Wenxi indeed surpassed Fang Haoyu's score. Her progress was so rapid that the teacher once thought she had copied Zhou Jingchen's paper.

One day, the homeroom teacher happened to run into Wen Zhiting on the road and chatted with him about Wenxi's grades.

"Director Wen, Wenxi's grades have improved remarkably recently. He's amazed all the teachers in every weekly and monthly test."

"She's been working very hard lately. Jingchen tutors her every day after school, and the two kids don't go to bed until after midnight every night."

"I see, no wonder. This child is naturally smart; he just wasn't focused on his studies before. If he keeps this up, getting into a top high school shouldn't be a problem."

That evening, Wen Zhiting was very happy and made a special detour to a roast chicken shop in the north of the city to buy a large roast chicken to take home for his two children.