Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Su Tinghe returned home, already full from eating in the car. Seeing the visually and aromatically appealing dinner on the table, Su Tinghe wasn't hungry at all but still sat down to accompany Shang Huoyong for the meal.

Among the dishes was a plate of boiled shrimp. Su Tinghe volunteered to peel the shrimp for Shang Huoyong.

Su Tinghe peeled the shrimp meticulously. Although the chef had already removed the shrimp veins, he still double-checked them.

Su Tinghe neatly arranged the pink and white shrimp meat on a plate and pushed it toward Shang Huoyong, looking at him proudly, his face clearly saying, "Praise me."

If it weren't for the fact that the chef had indeed prepared the shrimp, Shang Huoyong would have seriously suspected that Su Tinghe was sabotaging his taste buds. He still remembered the overly sweet pork rib soup from last time.

Shang Huoyong ate one shrimp and commented, "Pretty good." Su Tinghe's face showed a satisfied expression.

Shang Huoyong immediately pointed out, "But you didn't cook it, did you?"

"But I peeled them," Su Tinghe said, pointing to the neatly arranged shrimp meat, boasting, "They're peeled beautifully."

Shang Huoyong didn't want to argue with Su Tinghe about something so trivial and absentmindedly nodded in agreement, "Yes, beautiful."

When bedtime came, perhaps due to Shang Huoyong's persuasion from the previous day, Su Tinghe obediently covered himself and slept without any seduction attempts. Shang Huoyong secretly sighed in relief.

When the morning sunlight shone on their bed, the first sound wasn't Shang Huoyong's alarm but Su Tinghe's.

Su Tinghe turned off the alarm and saw that Shang Huoyong was still sleeping soundly beside him. He quietly got up to freshen up, but when he returned, Shang Huoyong was still asleep.

Not hearing Shang Huoyong's alarm today, Su Tinghe was confused. He patted Shang Huoyong and said, "Time to get up for work."

Shang Huoyong turned his head to the other side and muttered, "No."

Seeing Shang Huoyong refuse to get up for the first time, Su Tinghe gently pulled the blanket down and whispered into Shang Huoyong's ear, "Come on, get up. You can't sleep anymore."

Su Tinghe's voice was soft and gentle, but for someone who wanted to keep sleeping, it was really irritating. Shang Huoyong pulled Su Tinghe into his arms, covered them with the blanket, and mumbled, "Be quiet."

"But..." Before Su Tinghe could finish, Shang Huoyong tightly held him in his arms, covering Su Tinghe's mouth with his hand, demonstrating what "be quiet" meant.

In the dark, Su Tinghe's back pressed tightly against Shang Huoyong's chest. Shang Huoyong's breath sprayed onto Su Tinghe's head, marking a rare moment of closeness since their marriage.

Su Tinghe hesitated, then closed his eyes and decided to sleep a bit longer with Shang Huoyong.

Seeing that Su Tinghe was no longer making noise, Shang Huoyong slowly let go of Su Tinghe's mouth.

After a while, Shang Huoyong still showed no signs of getting up. His breathing became even more steady and deep. Su Tinghe got anxious, struggling out of Shang Huoyong's arms, pulling off the blanket, and tugging at Shang Huoyong's arm, saying, "You can't sleep anymore. If you keep sleeping, you'll be late."

Shang Huoyong finally opened his eyes, filled with morning grumpiness, and snapped at Su Tinghe, "It's the weekend. I don't have work today."

"Huh?" Su Tinghe was stunned and said blankly, "But I have class."

Shang Huoyong remembered that Su Tinghe had to attend some so-called enlightenment class with a bunch of kids today. His irritation grew, and he said impatiently, "What does that have to do with me?"

Su Tinghe picked up the blanket and carefully covered Shang Huoyong with it. "Then you keep sleeping. I have to go to class."

How could he sleep now that he was already woken up? Shang Huoyong was really annoyed. He threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and said to Su Tinghe, "I'm not sleeping anymore. Let's go, I'll take you to class."

Su Tinghe looked at Shang Huoyong and realized belatedly, "Is that okay?"

Shang Huoyong said, "You woke me up for this, didn't you?"

Su Tinghe explained softly, "I didn't." He didn't know that Shang Huoyong didn't have work on weekends.

While Shang Huoyong was washing up, Su Tinghe secretly looked up what "weekend" meant and suddenly realized that this world implements a two-day weekend work system. He decided he shouldn't wake Shang Huoyong, who has a bad temper when getting up, on weekends anymore.

But when Shang Huoyong personally took him to class, Su Tinghe felt that waking Shang Huoyong up on weekends might not be such a bad idea after all.

Su Tinghe arrived at Jiusong Academy and was guided by the teacher to the classroom.

Looking at the rows of children in the classroom, Su Tinghe felt both embarrassed and guilty.

No matter in which world, learning to read and pronounce is part of early education. Now he had to learn alongside a group of children, which seemed very strange. Luckily, he had also enrolled in several other courses, so it didn't seem too odd.

When the teacher learned that an adult was coming to the class, he was first surprised, then thought there must be another purpose.

When the kids in the classroom looked at Su Tinghe with curiosity, the teacher made up an excuse to introduce Su Tinghe as the new teaching assistant who would accompany them in learning, and asked everyone to applaud and welcome him.

The kids were very enthusiastic and clapped loudly. A little girl even invited Su Tinghe to sit with her.

Su Tinghe was flattered and became the little girl's new desk mate. The little girl introduced herself as Ruan Xitian, and Su Tinghe said her name was very nice. The little girl proudly told Su Tinghe that her brother had given her the name.

Once class began, Su Tinghe noticed that the teacher taught not only pinyin but also the shapes and meanings of some simple Chinese characters.

This was crucial for Su Tinghe because he had never heard of pinyin before, and many characters in this world were missing strokes, making it difficult for him to recognize them. Now, learning the basics with elementary school students, he suddenly felt enlightened and had to admit the convenience of Chinese pinyin.

But his desk mate Ruan Xitian struggled with pinyin. Looking at the letters, she often mispronounced them, and when writing Chinese characters, she often missed a stroke or added an extra one.

Su Tinghe found it frustrating and didn't want to think about what he'd do if his future child was this clumsy. Fortunately, Shang Huoyong was very smart, and he wasn't stupid either.

Su Tinghe couldn't take it anymore and personally corrected her pronunciation and writing.

"This is b-o-bo, like in 'bo tao' (waves)."

"I know, like in 'bo bo' (uncle)."

"Now, read it for me."

"b-o-biu."

"Biu?" Su Tinghe was stunned by Ruan Xitian's pronunciation. "How did you read two sounds? This is bo, not bi, and this is wo, not o."

Su Tinghe finally figured out the problem. Ruan Xitian's pronunciation of the initial and final consonants was accurate, but when combined randomly, she often mispronounced the pinyin letters.

Ruan Xitian was also frustrated, her face scrunched up, and she said helplessly, "It's not my fault; it's these letters. Why do they have two pronunciations?"

Su Tinghe said, "The teacher only taught one pronunciation."

"But the English teacher taught a different pronunciation," Ruan Xitian said angrily. "It's the same thing, but it has two names. Isn't that strange? Why can't the English teacher and the Chinese teacher discuss and unify it?"

Su Tinghe wanted to refute but didn't know where to start.

The teacher was also helpless and explained to Su Tinghe that the children in the class were all studying in international schools, and some had even lived abroad. They were very good at English from a young age, but this also led to poor Chinese pinyin.

Su Tinghe seemed to understand but not quite. He secretly used his phone to look up what English and international schools were, and then suddenly seemed to understand Ruan Xitian a bit. But as for writing characters with missing strokes, Su Tinghe truly couldn't understand.

"The character 'shua' (play) has 'er' on top and 'nv' (female) below. What you wrote doesn't have this character at all."

"Chinese characters have so many strokes, it's impossible to remember," Ruan Xitian pouted and sighed. "It's really not as convenient as writing letters."

Su Tinghe said seriously, "That's not true. Every stroke of a Chinese character has its origin, which letters can't compare to."

"Then tell me the origin of this character."

"The top part of the character 'er' actually represents the cheek hair of a person, and it also generally refers to things related to hair," Su Tinghe explained while drawing the original structure of the character "er" for Ruan Xitian. The other kids thought Su Tinghe's explanation was super interesting and all leaned in to listen.

Seeing this, the teacher invited Su Tinghe to come up to the podium and explain to everyone.

Su Tinghe explained in a way that was both simple and profound, starting from the original structure of the character, telling them that the character "shua" means to tease a woman with cheek hair, implying a sense of playfulness, which is improper.

One child immediately chimed in, "So when Dai Qilin teases Ruan Xitian with a doll, does that also mean 'shua'?"

Dai Qilin loudly denied, "I didn't! I wanted to give the doll to Ruan Xitian. I want to be her seatmate."

Ruan Xitian was full of resistance and shouted, "I don't want to! I want to sit with someone good-looking. I don't want to sit with you."

The kids in the class all burst into laughter. Dai Qilin was heartbroken, and the teacher was busy maintaining order and comforting the students. Su Tinghe, whom the kids thought was good-looking, glanced at the chubby Dai Qilin and thought to himself that he indeed wasn't good-looking.

But it must be said that Su Tinghe's teaching was very effective.

The kids were naturally at a stage where they were curious about everything. When learning to write, they often wondered why a character had to be written this way and not that way. Su Tinghe perfectly answered their questions, and the kids in the class all liked him very much.

Now, Su Tinghe had really become a teaching assistant.

However, little Ruan Xitian was very unhappy, especially after class when the kids swarmed around Su Tinghe, giving him various snacks they had brought. Ruan Xitian puffed out her cheeks, looking like she was about to explode with frustration.

The handsome brother was supposed to be hers alone!

She had to think of a way.

Little Ruan Xitian called Su Tinghe aside alone, took his hand, and very seriously said to him, "Brother, will you be my brother's wife?"

"No," Su Tinghe told her, "because I'm married. I have a husband." (implying he is male).

Ruan Xitian immediately became anxious and eagerly promoted her brother to Su Tinghe, "But my brother is really, really handsome, and he's also very, very nice. He can earn a lot of money, all for you to spend. Will you marry him and be my brother's wife?"

Su Tinghe patiently explained to Ruan Xitian, "But I'm already married. I have a husband."

Ruan Xitian pouted, her eyes welling up with tears, and hugged Su Tinghe, "But I really want you to be my brother's wife. Can you at least meet my brother before deciding? I promise you'll like him because I super like him."

Su Tinghe, unable to get rid of her, had no choice but to agree. Ruan Xitian's sad face lit up right away, and she promised Su Tinghe that she would bring her brother to the next class.

Su Tinghe was at a loss and couldn't help but be amazed at how smart kids were these days.

After class, little Ruan Xitian kept reminding Su Tinghe to make sure he came to the next class. Su Tinghe had to promise her over and over before he could finally leave.

After class, Su Tinghe was ready to head home, wondering if Shang Huoyong, who'd dropped him off that morning, would show up to get him. As soon as he opened the car door, he saw Shang Huoyong.

Shang Huoyong simply couldn't understand why Su Tinghe had come to take a class for kids on the weekend. According to Assistant Song's findings, there was indeed a child of a director from the Shangshi Group in the class.

Shang Huoyong thought Su Tinghe's question was odd and asked, "What did you learn by getting up so early to attend this class?"

"I learned a lot," Su Tinghe said, feeling a bit guilty and not wanting to go into details. He then asked Shang Huoyong, "The kids all seem really cute. Do you like kids?"

Shang Huoyong answered firmly, "No."

Su Tinghe was very surprised and pressed further, "What if it was your own child? Wouldn't you like them then?"

Shang Huoyong thought Su Tinghe's question was odd and said, "I can't have kids of my own."

"But..." Hearing this, Su Tinghe got a little nervous, fidgeting with his fingers, and asked hesitantly, "I mean, what if, by any chance, you did have your own child?"

"There's no 'what if,'" Shang Huoyong cut off Su Tinghe's speculation, then thought of something, frowned, and looked at Su Tinghe, teasingly saying, "Unless you can have a baby."