CH 54.2

Becoming Strong Together (2)

Fortunately, there were no dishes to wash after the meal was finished. The dishwasher rumbled to life after they ate, the TV was on in the living room and the sound was turned to mute, and the pleasant goat and big, bad wolf* went on their chases and fought together in silent hilarity.

*T/N: A Chinese animation series <喜羊羊與灰太狼> (Eng title: Pleasant Goat And Big Big Wolf)

The little mute watched the cartoon with keen interest and occasionally giggled with his mouth open. There was a large bunch of glass crisp grapes and bright yellow loquats placed in front of him.

After Ruan Qingmu’s repeated hints, the little guy finally dared to grab one for himself, one at a time, sneaking bites every once in a while.

After this, Ruan Qingmu poked his head out of the study and saw how obedient and quiet he was, shaking his head while lamenting. “That’s good for him. He won’t bother us now that he got his show.”

Qin Yuan slightly frowned. “Has his ear been checked out? What is the problem?”

Ruan Qingmu laughed bitterly. “Yun-jie said he was born deaf. They must’ve gone to see a doctor when he was little.”

A child in the countryside, whose own mother hung herself with a rope and whose father died of illness, most likely hadn’t been taken to any big hospital for treatment.

“Even if he’s fully deaf, he can still attend a special school. It’ll be good to attend school at his age.” Qin Yuan muttered to himself, “Don’t tell me, he’ll just be put in your family shop?”

Ruan Qingmu was silent for a while. After a long time, he finally said, “There’s nothing to be done. His sister is blind and can only make a little money.”

There were many impoverished people in this world and they all struggled to make a living. It was already hard enough for Yun-jie to support him. If a disabled child weren’t blessed with fortune, he would never be able to afford to go to a special school that costs a lot of money.

He had vaguely heard his mom and Qiu-ge talk about this matter. They had also inquired about it, saying that special schools cost at least fifty to sixty thousand yuan a year for the school fees. If it were a slightly better school, the fees would be even more expensive.

Qin Yuan didn’t speak anymore and finally nodded after a long while. “Fine. Let’s do the questions.”

The study was 20 to 30 square meters, with a wall of bookshelves made of good walnut wood on the side, with many reference books and extracurricular books, and some furnishings that weren’t suited for boys of his age group.

The study had a classical antique look with root carvings, ironwork, and embroidery, without the usual action figures and comic books for boys.

In front of the large floor-to-ceiling window facing the sun was an extremely wide desk. It was a set with bookshelves with a beautiful and elegant dark pattern on the black walnut wood. The condensed lines were cold and solemn. The examination papers were spread on the top, creating a snow-white part.

There was also a computer desk in the study with the desktop computer and iPad Qin Yuan usually used.

Ruan Qingmu sat at the desk.“Should we do our math homework first?”

Qin Yuan stood in front of the computer desk and responded, “Okay. You do it first. I’ll finish comparing our English homework.”

The homework during the National Day holiday was simply brutal and the papers differed from every teaching class level. The three competition classes in which Qin Yuan was studying took full account of the level of the top students and the papers issued were very difficult and had a lot of exercises to complete.

Even a good student like Qin Yuan would have to put everything aside and concentrate if he wanted to finish those papers in two days.

Ruan Qingmu slumped on the desk, sitting in a crooked posture. He kept twisting here and there after a moment, but the pen in his hand was fast. Qin Yuan quietly compared his and Ruan Qingmu’s English papers, making marks on the papers from time to time.

After some time later, he raised his head and lightly advised him. “Sit upright. It’s not good for your spine.”

Ruan Qingmu responded softly and sat upright, focusing all his attention on doing the questions.

After a while, he suddenly reached out for a blank piece of paper on the side and began to fold the paper.

Qin Yuan faintly glanced at him. “Just do the questions. Don’t get distracted.”

Ruan Qingmu righteously said this time, “I am doing the questions!”

Qin Yuan stretched his body and glanced at the papers in front of him: geometry, multiple-choice question. Find the distance from the center point of a side to another point within a triangular cube.

He picked up a pen and casually added two auxiliary lines to the triangular body on the paper, figuring out the answers with a little calculating on his end. He looked at it again and found out that Ruan Qingmu’s choice was unexpectedly correct.

Other than the solution, the paper was bare. Where were Ruan Qingmu calculations?

Ruan Qingmu was pleased with himself. “How is it?”

Qin Yuan gave him a puzzled stare. “Continue then.”

As Ruan Qingmu worked on the problems, he began to fiddle with the draft paper again. He even slumped down and looked at the folded paper objects parallel to his eyes, then drew something with a ruler.

When he finished, he proudly chose his answer.

Qin Yuan frowned, grabbed the paper in front of him, and looked at it. The answer was still correct!

He stared at the crumpled draft paper for a few seconds and suddenly realized something.

Both questions were simple polygons. It was indeed possible to arrive at the correct answer if you were sensitive to length measurement scales by folding out a rough scale, finding the distances on the spot, measuring with a ruler, and estimating by eye.

But you had to have good eyesight and control. Otherwise, it was easy to get it wrong if there were an interfering choice with a close value.