I Give Half of My Life to You

Chapter 8

8: Story Time?
Lin Miao was a bit uneasy. The doctor spoke softly to her, "The Young Master's health isn't good, don't let him catch the wind outside, okay?"

"Then can we walk around in the room instead?" Lin Miao asked quietly.

"You can do that, but be careful, you won't be able to take the responsibility if he falls."

Lin Miao nodded. She let out a breath of relief after exiting the room. He didn't hit her, it's all fine.

In the past, her teacher would whip her palm every time she called Lin Miao to the office. She would even tell her to hit herself with the pointer stick. It made her terrified to be called aside to talk with an adult.

The Young Master was sleeping, so Lin Miao read alone in her room, a bit tense. At the village, she had her mom and brother, picked firewood and mushrooms, and had buddies. She wasn't used to being alone.

So, she surreptitiously sneaked into the Young Master's room with her literacy textbook and a pencil.

He was still sleeping.

Lin Maio sat on the ground, reading and studying characters while waiting for the Young Master to wake up.

Lin Miao didn't touch her books much so she started from the first lesson: Our National Elementary School. The teacher covered all this already.

She didn't want to study at all, but she promised her mom that she would study, so she followed through.

Lin Miao mouthed the new characters and then copied them down.

Some of the characters on her textbook had pinyin, but most didn't.

Lin Miao didn't recognize many of the characters. She then recalled that she forgot to bring the dictionary her mom bought for her here.

"What are you doing? Cough cough cough..." A voice said above her.

Lin Miao raised her head and saw the Young Master, who was now awake. Lin Miao was a bit embarrassed, "I'm studying."

The Young Master also saw the vocabulary characters and pinyin in her book. He held back his laugh and said, "Come here."

Lin Miao came to him. The Young Master took her textbook. "You're in third grade? Nice."

Lin Miao nodded. She thought that he was always sick and probably never went to school, so, Lin Miao said modestly, "No, I don't know a lot, I'm not suited for studying."

But the Young Master turned all serious and looked at the text. "Are the underlined characters the ones you can't pronounce?"

Lin Miao nodded embarrassingly.

"Come a bit closer." The Young Master said

Lin Miao got right in front of him, the Young Master held her pencil with his pretty hand, and pointed to an underlined word, "This word is pronounced róng."

Lin Miao followed, "róng (绒)."

"Read this sentence." The Young Master pointed to the entire sentence with her battered pencil.

"From... roads... blooming with... powder puff flowers and sunflowers, there came... many students." Lin Miao stuttered.

The Young Master pointed at the "róng (绒)" again.

Lin Miao accurately pronounced it.

The Young Master said, "Write the pinyin on there so you won't forget it in the future."

Lin Miao's face reddened as took the pencil from the Young Master, but she only managed to write an "r".

The Young Master saw that her face flushed red, took the pencil, and added an "ong" behind the bit wonky "r".