A Young Woman's Heart

……

Chapter Thirty-Six: Come to the Office

Lunch on Tuesday was prepared by Li Wanyan and Xuan Anyi together.

Qiu Yi and Duanmu Ji also helped out.

Mr. Xue made a soup by himself, which contained boneless fish meat and was exceptionally delicious.

"Yaoyao, take this bowl of soup to the fourth grade's table, and you can sit there," Li Wanyan said as she served the soup.

"I know—uh, you don't need my help getting the food?"

"Need not."

People get their meals in order of grade, with younger students getting priority.

The meal wasn't complicated; it basically consisted of two iron bowls, one for rice and one for vegetables.

If you can't fit it all in one bowl, for example, if there's a chicken leg or meatball, then bring a separate bowl.

"Hahaha--"

"I already told you he's terrible at this!"

"What's so fun about games that girls play!"

"You're not good at basketball either?"

"Ren Wenkai, do you have any more candy?"

"It's gone!"

"You're lying, I saw you had some in your drawer before."

"Tell Duan Xingyu to get some more!"

"I'll only do it if I win—"

The lively atmosphere at the table came to an abrupt halt when Mo Xueyao walked over.

The two noisiest people just now, Duan Xingyu and Ren Wenkai, immediately fell silent.

Both of them were about the same size fat, and now they were like obedient children, their eyes fixed on the food in front of them, without saying a word.

"Ren Wenkai, what exactly were you shouting about during my Chinese class?"

Ren Wenkai kept his head down, as if he hadn't heard anything.

“I told you before, if you disrupt the class, come to my office after lunch. I’ll be polite… Your homeroom teacher is busy, but I am.” Mo Xueyao placed the large iron basin in the middle of the round table. “Here, everyone has their soup bowls, right? Serve yourselves. It’s hot in the summer, so having some soup will give you a better appetite.”

The students listened and immediately took action, except for Ren Wenkai, who remained silent.

"Ren Wenkai, everyone else is drinking, why aren't you?" Mo Xueyao looked at the boy. "Aren't you going to drink the soup? It has fish in it, it's delicious."

Under Mo Xueyao's persistent questioning, he finally stood up, seemingly very reluctantly, ladled out a bowl of soup, and then turned his head to the other side, as if he couldn't eat when he saw Mo Xueyao.

“You don’t answer when I talk to you, you don’t communicate properly. Are teachers that scary?” Mo Xueyao shook her head and lowered her head to eat her lunch.

Not all the students at the tables were quiet; the atmosphere was quite lively at the table where Mr. Xue was sitting, and it was the same at the Cha Li table.

Tea was served last. She sat at the third-grade table, and her bowl contained two chicken legs and two meatballs.

These are the last two extra ones.

"Zheng Fanhang, are you eating so fast?" Cha Li didn't really want to drink hot soup, so she poured herself a cup of cold tea and put it beside her. She hadn't even eaten yet, but she took a sip first. "I just sat down and you're almost finished? Have some more. There's still rice left."

“Hmm…” Zheng Fanhang stood up and ran to the door to get some more rice.

There were no seats in the cafeteria, so the cooked food was packed into large metal buckets and carried to the classrooms that served as the dining hall. After everyone had taken their food, they could ask for more rice and dishes as they pleased.

There are usually some vegetables left over, but not much meat, especially things like chicken drumsticks and meatballs, which can be counted carefully.

To avoid waste, things are usually kept to just the right amount.

After he sat down again, Cha Li glanced at his bowl of food.

The chicken drumsticks and meatballs were all gone; only some cabbage and mushrooms remained.

"Zheng Fanhang." Cha Li moved the chicken leg she was about to take a bite away from her mouth a little. "Do you want a chicken leg?"

He immediately shook his head.

"It's okay, I have extras here, I'll give you one."

"Ah, no need..." Although he said that, when he saw Cha Li put the chicken leg in his bowl, he did not refuse, but said "thank you" a little embarrassedly.

"Song Shanyan? You paid close attention in English class today, how about a chicken leg?"

"No, I'm almost full."

"Would you like some meatballs?"

“Uh…” Song Shanyan hesitated for a moment, perhaps because the meatballs didn’t have as much meat as the chicken legs?

"Here." Cha Li understood what she meant at a glance and immediately put the meatballs into her bowl. "Here, eat more. You're still growing, so don't be picky about food. Eat all the vegetables too."

“Xu Shengruo…”

"Teacher, I don't want to."

"You don't want the chicken drumsticks or meatballs?"

"Um, teacher, don't you eat meat yourself?"

"It's too hot, I don't have much of an appetite." Cha Li smiled. "You really don't want any?"

"No, teacher, I'll just have another bowl of soup."

"Okay, eat more, you guys too. Have some soup after you finish eating, don't go hungry, you still have four classes this afternoon."

The atmosphere varied among the different teachers, but what surprised Mo Xueyao the most was Li Wanyan's group. The students actually dared to chat quietly. Although it wasn't very noisy, it wasn't absolutely quiet either.

She thought no one would dare to speak at Li Wanyan's table.

In contrast, the place where Mo Xueyao and Duanmu Ji were sitting was the quietest...

Wang Jiale and Hua Yinyin were sitting at the same table. They were sixth-grade students, and they were playing some kind of game while eating. The winning student could get a quarter of a meatball...

That meatball belonged to the two of them; it wasn't an extra one.

As for Xuan Anyi, she sat with Ye Wen and the others. She was called "teacher" by the children, but here she became a student.

Fortunately, Ye Wen and the others were never teachers who put on airs, so they seemed to be just friends who weren't much older than each other.

After lunch, even the teachers didn't immediately return to their offices, and of course, the students didn't all rush back to the classrooms.

Although there were electric fans in the classroom and the sun outside was so intense that it could burn your skin, it still couldn't stop them from running and jumping on the playground to release their excess energy.

"Don't go outside the school! If you want to swim, wait until after school!" Qiu Yi shouted at the group of students running towards the school gate. He had to patrol the school with Duanmu Ji and Mr. Xue to prevent anyone from sneaking out.

Don't underestimate these elementary school students; they're much more agile than adults when it comes to scaling walls.

……

"Ren Wenkai, what were you doing during Chinese class? Why were you making so much noise? And you even overturned someone's chair?" Mo Xueyao led Ren Wenkai to the office, casually flipping through a Chinese textbook as she asked.

The main thing is to find something to do; otherwise, staring into a child's eyes will only make them more hesitant to answer.

She's been through this since she was a child, so she's quite experienced in it.

"Uh……"

"Why can't you speak properly? Weren't you quite loud when you were arguing?"

"Well……"

"What exactly happened?"

"He... stole my candy."

"Duan Xingyu stole your candy?" Mo Xueyao glanced at him sideways, and the latter immediately looked away, as if meeting her gaze would kill him instantly.

"Then why did you sit at the same table as him? Didn't you choose your own seats? Is he bullying you?"

"he……"

"Ok?"

Listening to a child explain cause and effect gave Mo Xueyao a headache.

Forget about him jumping around when you poke him; sometimes you can poke him several times and he won't even utter a single word in response.

It was as if he had lost his ability to organize his thoughts in the office.

"Speak up, why are we bullying you? Are you mute?"

"Uh... a bet..."

"What kind of bet?"

"Hmm... let's bet..."

"What did you bet on?" Mo Xueyao clutched her forehead in anguish. "You made a bet in class? Why weren't you paying attention?"

She regretted saying that, not because she was afraid of hurting the child, but because she had asked too many questions, and he definitely wouldn't be able to answer them.

We have to ask them one by one.

"Are you a simpleton...? Answer me first, what are we betting on?"

"Uh... tic-tac-toe... game."

"So you're betting on who wins and who loses, right?"

"Uh...yes..."

"The winner gets candy?"

"right……"

"Then you should accept the loss, why do you say he stole it from you?"

"He... cheats! When he wins... he won't give it to me, but when I lose, he wants... me to give it to him."