Shen Jianhua nodded, knowing Zhou Lanfang wasn’t one to spend money lavishly or without control, which is why he generally didn’t intervene in her spending habits.
"Siyu, do you want to go back with your aunt?"
"I..." Zhou Siyu poked her bowl with her chopsticks, expressing her reluctance to return. The house had only two rooms, where several kids had to squeeze onto one large bed to sleep, a truly unbearable experience.
Once home, her mother would demand her to do this chore and that, and scold her if she didn’t do them well.
But since Shen Jianhua had asked, she was worried that saying she wouldn’t go back might make him think she was heartless, especially since it was nearly New Year and she wasn’t considering seeing her parents.
So she deliberately made an excuse, "If I go back, who will cook for you all?"
Shen Mianmian’s lips curled into a cold sneer. In her past life, until her death, Zhou Siyu never once cooked a meal, and now she’s talking about cooking for them.
She would make any excuse to avoid going back.
Unfortunately, Shen Jianhua didn’t catch the implication in her words, thinking she wanted to go back but worried for them not having meals, "It’s okay, if you want to go back for a visit, go ahead, don’t worry about Mianmian and me."
"..." Content orıginally comes from 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⁂𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⁂𝓷𝓮𝓽
Zhou Siyu bit her lip and lowered her head; she did not wish to go back.
"Then let’s have Siyu go back with me tomorrow night!" Zhou Lanfang either didn’t notice Zhou Siyu’s reluctance or simply disregarded it, deciding on her own.
"Mianmian, was the exam difficult this time?" Shen Jianhua, afraid of neglecting his daughter’s feelings but unsure of what else to talk about, turned the conversation to her studies.
Shen Mianmian bowed her head and continued to eat, offering a light response.
Shen Jianhua’s mouth twitched. He couldn’t quite grasp what she meant by ’manageable’.
Zhou Siyu, however, became smug. The exam had been so difficult, and yet Mianmian had said it was manageable. Surely Mianmian couldn’t understand the questions or tell whether they were hard or not.
"Then, what score do you think you’ll get this time?"
This was the second time Shen Jianhua asked this question.
If everyone could predict their scores, what would be the need for teachers to mark the papers?
Hoping to converse more with his daughter but faced with her indifferent attitude, Shen Jianhua didn’t know what else to say.
"Uncle, I think I did quite well this time," Zhou Siyu picked up the conversation, "The questions were much harder than the previous exams. I nearly racked my brain out on them, but I worked very hard and, with all the revision I’ve done before, I’m quite confident."
After speaking, she shot a challenging look at Shen Mianmian.
Shen Mianmian ignored her, continued to eat her meal, keeping her thoughts to herself; the higher you praise yourself, the more painful the fall.
"Good, I knew it, you’ve got the makings of a scholar," Shen Jianhua genuinely laughed, happy that, between the two children, at least one’s tuition fees weren’t wasted.
"Our Siyu is smart, just like me," Zhou Lanfang said with a smile, tousling Zhou Siyu’s hair and casting a disdainful glance at Shen Mianmian, who was still eating.
Seeing Shen Jianhua and Zhou Lanfang so happy made Zhou Siyu slightly carried away with the compliments, and she couldn’t resist boasting a bit more, "I might even win an improvement award."
"What improvement award?"
Shen Jianhua and Zhou Lanfang asked curiously.
The two children had been going to school for so many years, yet they had never heard of an improvement