Chapter 116
The old lady's eyes were smiling as she sent a voice message, her tone complacent:
"My grandson's wife made this for me, isn't it nice?"
In the WeChat group "Tai Chi Sword Class 2" at the senior citizen university, thumbs up emojis floated by.
- [Thumbs up][Thumbs up][Thumbs up]
- [Very nice!]
- [Grandchildren around your knee, life's greatest joy [Flower][Flower][Flower]]
- [[Flower] What's best? A strong body is best, caring family is best, having a descendant who cares for you is best, good morning! [Flower][Sun]]
- [Like this animated version]
At that time.
Jing City No.1 Middle School.
Qi Shaobai was sitting lazily leaning against the wall, playing on his phone.
Seeing the circle of friends just posted by Old Lady, his eyes softened slightly and he liked it.
A long ring for class sounded.
The other students gradually returned to their seats.
When the bell completely stopped, the head teacher walked to the podium holding a textbook.
He took out a form from the textbook, looked around the classroom, and slowly opened his mouth:
"Classmates, the annual Arts Festival is about to begin. The school encourages high school seniors to actively participate this time too, to ease the tense test preparation atmosphere."
The classroom immediately buzzed with cheers and whispers.
The head teacher pushed his glasses and got to the key point:
"Each class needs to put on two performances. Any volunteers?"
His words instantly quieted the noise.
The head teacher awkwardly pulled his mouth.
Alright.
He knew it.
Asking these students choked by schoolwork to participate in the Arts Festival, everyone was excited.
But if asked to actually perform, they'd rather kill themselves.
But there was no choice.
It was a task from above that had to be completed.
The head teacher's gaze suddenly became sharp as he looked over everyone.
The students who met his eyes either casually looked away,
Or directly stared blankly, pretending to daydream.
Some even calmly took out a test paper and pretended to think about the questions. As for Qi Shaobai, he simply closed his eyes, propped up his head, and feigned sleep.
Head Teacher: ......
The head teacher waited and waited, and relayed the school's intentions again in official language, before the art committee leader finally volunteered under pressure.
After volunteering, they immediately regretted it.
Mentally cursing that they'd soon give up this "good" student position that always got the bad jobs first and never the good ones.
Having settled one act, there was still no one willing to do the other.
Left with no choice, they decided to draw lots.
In less than 10 minutes, the class president prepared small strips of paper and dumped them in a box.
Starting from the first seat of the first row, each student would draw one.
Whoever got the paper with a star pattern was the "lucky" chosen one.
The head teacher crossed his arms and gleefully announced:
"Let's start, completely fair. Whoever is picked cannot decline anymore, you must participate in the Arts Festival performance."
The papers in the box were picked out one by one.
Those who picked blank strips quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing the class president had brought the box to their row, Wei Zhaonan anxiously turned his head.
He said to Qi Shaobai behind him:
"Qi Shaobai, I have a bad feeling. I feel the "chosen one" will appear in our group—"
"Shut your jinx mouth." Qi Shaobai frowned and glared at him.
Soon it was Wei Zhaonan's turn to "draw".
He took three deep breaths with a grave expression, blew on his palm, rubbed it several times, full of ritual sense as he reached into the box.
He carefully took out a strip of paper and gingerly unfolded it.
Squinting, not daring to look directly.
"Yes!"
Upon confirming it was blank, he excitedly pumped his fist and cheered.
Then he turned and encouraged his good friend Qi Shaobai.
"Go for it, Daddy already passed, you can definitely pass too. I'm passing my good luck to you."
Qi Shaobai's cold eyes slightly glared as he lazily took a paper from the box and casually retorted:
"Piss off, Daddy's luck has always been good."
As he spoke, he confidently unfolded the paper.
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
"Damn!"
Just a second ago still calm and composed, the next second he deflated.
Wei Zhaonan craned his neck to look.
On the paper was a star pattern.
He immediately laughed nonstop, not forgetting to mock:
"Qi Shaobai, your luck really is pretty good." Seeing the "lucky one" had appeared, the students behind who hadn't drawn yet breathed a sigh of relief and high-fived celebrating.
The lively cheers of the crowd sounded particularly grating to Qi Shaobai.
The head teacher handed Qi Shaobai the registration form for him to fill in what act he would perform before submitting it, deadline three days. That night.
Qi Shaobai walked home with heavy steps.
He changed shoes silently.
He had racked his brains but still couldn't think of what act to put down.
He certainly couldn't perform Lego building in front of the whole school right?
Passing through the living room, he was still pondering this matter, and didn't notice Old Lady knitting yarn while watching TV with Sheng Mumu.
The old lady had a whim that afternoon to knit a sweater, and asked the butler to buy yarn.
When Sheng Mumu saw it, she was very interested and kept asking the old lady to teach her.
So the elderly and the child sat with legs crossed on the sofa, knitting away.
Sheng Mumu heard the sound from the doorway and glanced over.
She casually greeted "Xiao Qi classmate is back", but didn't get a response.
Puzzled, she called louder:
"Qi Shaobai!"
The preoccupied teen finally heard someone calling him.
He slowly turned his head.
The old lady's mind was still sharp. With one look she could tell Qi Shaobai was worried about something.
She waved him over to ask what was going on.
Only then did she find out her great grandson was fretting over an act to perform for the Art Festival.
The old lady smiled knowingly like someone who had been there before, and said:
"Xiaodi, I remember you performed on stage before."
The old lady paused, squinting as she recalled.
After a while, she slapped her thigh.
"That's right, when you dressed up as Nezha with a red dot on your forehead, the little red tasseled spear is still at my place."
Sheng Mumu couldn't help but burst out laughing when she heard this.
She really couldn't imagine what the aloof and fierce Qi Shaobai would look like with a red dot on his head acting as Nezha.
The more she thought about it, the more bizarre yet funny she found the picture.
She laughed so hard she messed up the yarn she was holding, and could only set it aside to re-knit later.
Qi Shaobai slowly inhaled and spoke plaintively, as if complaining to the old lady:
"Grandma, you said that was for Children's Day in kindergarten senior year. I'm almost 18 now."
The old lady was stunned, blinking her eyes. "Oh? It was that long ago? It doesn't feel like it to me."
Then she chuckled.
Sheng Mumu took the registration form from Qi Shaobai to look at it.
At the bottom were small words — The school strongly encourages family participation in performances for the Arts Festival.
Sheng Mumu's eyes shifted between the old lady and Qi Shaobai.
Suddenly she put down the form and tilted her head to look at Qi Shaobai.
"Xiao Qi classmate, I know what you can perform!"