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

Before the start of the school year, Wen Zhiting and Xiang Qin drove their two children to a department store to buy school supplies.

First, I bought each of them a new schoolbag and new stationery, and then I bought each of them two sets of clothes.

Zhou Jingchen stood in front of the mirror outside the fitting room. The boy in the mirror was tall and straight, wearing a light gray-blue plaid cotton shirt, dark pants, and brand-new canvas shoes. His face was handsome and refined.

Wen Zhiting patted him on the shoulder and exclaimed, "Good lad, you're even taller than me."

Xiang Qin straightened his shirt cuffs and said with a gentle smile, "I think Jing Chen's height is still going to keep increasing. He'll definitely be at least 185cm tall in the future."

Zhou Jingchen brushed the hair off the back of his head and smiled shyly.

Wenxi pouted; if you praise him, he'll be smug. She said, "Mom, why am I not growing taller?"

"Why isn't it growing?" Xiang Qin pinched her cheek: "Little Magpie will definitely continue to grow in high school."

Looking at Zhou Jingchen trying on clothes, the sales clerk exclaimed, "Your son is so handsome!"

Xiang Qin raised an eyebrow and smiled: "Right? I also think my son is handsome. He'll definitely charm a lot of girls in the future."

When it was time to pay, Zhou Jingchen said that one set of clothes would be enough, so Xiang Qin asked the shop assistant to pack up both sets he had tried on.

He insisted on paying the bill: "Auntie, I'll pay. Grandpa gave me the money before we left."

Xiang Qin scolded him, "What's wrong with you, a child, paying? This was bought for you by your uncle and me. Don't pull at it; it looks inappropriate. And you're being so formal with me?"

Wen Zhiting patted him on the back: "Jingchen, let your aunt pay. You're going to your new school soon, so you need to wear new clothes and look brand new. Your aunt and I treat you like our own son, we're family, no need for formalities."

Zhou Jingchen's eyes welled up with tears, and he nodded slightly: "Thank you, Uncle and Aunt."

After leaving the mall, Xiang Qin and Wen Zhiting took their two children out for a big meal.

In recent years, many Western restaurants have opened in Pingjiang City. In the past, Xiang Qin would occasionally bring her children over for a meal on important holidays.

The restaurant was elegant, playing melodious jazz music, with the occasional clinking of cutlery.

Just as Zhou Jingchen finished cutting his steak, Wenxi switched his plate with Zhou Jingchen's.

Xiang Qin couldn't help but tap her head with a spoon, gently scolding, "How can you be so rude!"

Wenxi winced in pain, rubbing her head. "What's wrong? I'm too lazy to cut it." With that, she forked a piece of steak and stuffed it into her mouth to chew.

"You, I wonder who you look like?" Wen Zhiting said.

Xiang Qin pouted: "She'll definitely be like you. I'm not like that at all. Look at her, she's always being so mischievous..."

"I'm not like that either. I've heard a lot about your childhood from your parents, and I think her heartless behavior is quite similar to yours when you were little."

"Shut up." Xiang Qin rolled her eyes at him and stuffed a chicken wing into his mouth to shut him up.

Zhou Jingchen chuckled softly, it seemed that Wenxi's personality was indeed more like Aunt Xiang's.

After finishing their meal, the group left the department store, chatting and laughing as they walked towards the parking lot.

Wen Zhiting glanced at Zhou Jingchen's cane and said, "Let's make a new one for you. You're growing so fast, this cane probably won't fit anymore."

"It's okay, Uncle, it works fine for me. I'll wait until I grow taller in high school."

"Okay." Wen Zhiting nodded.

Except for Zhou Jingchen, who wasn't carrying anything, everyone else was carrying large and small shopping bags.

"Director Wen?" I ran into several female colleagues from the factory, all dressed smartly.

The one in the lead greeted them first: "Factory Manager Wen, Accountant Xiang, out for a stroll?"

Xiang Qin smiled politely and said, "Yes, school starts soon, so we're buying some school supplies for the child. Are you here to go shopping?"

The other person smiled and replied, "Yes, we're just out for a stroll."

After watching Wen Zhitin and his family walk away, the female colleague who had spoken earlier frowned and spoke sarcastically:

"See that? He's the factory manager, always carrying bags of shopping bags, completely ignoring our plight. The factory's profits have halved in the last two years, wages have shrunk dramatically, and everyone's complaining. Meanwhile, his family is living the high life."

Another woman carrying a white bag scoffed, "Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse. Even if he stops being the factory manager, he'll have enough money to live on for the rest of his life. In this world, who cares about the lives of ordinary people?"

One person commented objectively, "Director Wen has it tough too. All state-owned enterprises are facing transformation now, and I see him working on this every day..."

Someone immediately retorted: "You're like a eunuch worrying about the emperor's affairs. He can just wave his hand and pull out a couple of coins from his pocket, enough for your family of three to live on for years."

"I wonder who will be on the next layoff list..."

The figures of the group grew farther and farther away, disappearing into the crowd.

-

Pingjiang No. 2 High School is located at No. 106 Zhongshan South Road. It takes four bus stops or about ten minutes by bike to get to Kangshi Lane.

Zhou Jingchen couldn't ride a bicycle, and Wenxi was impulsive and reckless. In those days, traffic was chaotic, and adults dared not let her ride a bicycle, so the two of them could only take the bus.

Although No. 2 High School cannot compare with key schools like Zhenhua and No. 1 High School, it has a long history and decent teaching staff. Most of the students admitted are of average academic performance.

Two streets away from here is Qinli High School, a place where underachieving students gather. Fang Haoyu is a student at that school.

Wenxi's middle school entrance exam score barely exceeded the cutoff score for the Second High School by just one point; she was just a hair's breadth away from getting into the Second High School.

On the first day of school, Wen Zhiting drove the two to the school gate; they were both wearing the same blue and white school uniforms.

There were quite a few students in the class, and the seating was random. The homeroom teacher didn't know the students very well, so for the time being, the seats were arranged according to height, with shorter students sitting in the front and taller students in the back. That's how Wenxi and Zhou Jingchen ended up sitting separately.

There are seven rows of seats in the class. Wenxi sits in the third row and sits at the same desk as Jiang Xiaoya. Zhou Jingchen sits in the last row diagonally behind them, and his deskmate is a boy named Qiao Yan.

Many new faces gathered together, and everyone felt excited and refreshed. Jiang Xiaoya was originally from the same alley as Wenxi; her parents worked at the Hongxing Machinery Factory, but later they moved to a new house.

The two girls were overjoyed to have been admitted to the same school and even assigned to sit together as deskmates. They held hands and whispered to each other, sharing their summer experiences and chattering away.

On the first day of class, teachers of all subjects were setting rules.

"Passing notes and eating are not allowed in my class..." the Chinese teacher said, and with a "smack," a broken piece of chalk landed precisely on Wenxi's table.

"If I catch you whispering or talking to each other even once, you'll have to stand at the back."

Wenxi looked up and met the teacher's cold face. She immediately sat up straight and made a gesture as if she were zipping up her mouth.