Chapter 3
September arrived quickly, and just as expected, Qi Zheng and I ended up in the same class.
Children have a natural, intuitive sense of beauty and ugliness. Qi Zheng was good-looking, so all the kids liked to gather around him.
But more eye-catching than his looks was his abysmal academic performance-his combined scores in Chinese and Math didn’t even reach eighty.
Qi Zheng’s mind was never on studying.
His looks and his pocket money were his two most attractive qualities, which meant that, as long as he wanted, every classmate could be his playmate.
Except for me.
When it comes to raising children, you can do without money, but not without love.
My mother gave me so much love that I grew up to be a child with stable emotions and a rich inner world.
I didn’t care how good-looking Qi Zheng was; that had nothing to do with me. In my eyes, he was just an ordinary classmate-neither outstanding nor special.
Maybe he was used to being the center of attention, so my indifference stood out to Qi Zheng.
Finally, one day while we were lining up after school, he came up to me and said, “Zhong Yue, your mom is so mean. Everyone in the neighborhood says your mom is a shrew!”
Qi Zheng instinctively thought that his mother’s fierceness was something he could use to attack me.
His eyes held a bit of childish, unconscious malice. At that age, I just thought he was rude. It wasn’t until I grew up that I understood the deeper meaning-
Even though Qi Zheng was only seven at the time, he had already started to accept certain fallacies in society: that women can only defend their rights by gently seeking sympathy from those around them, and that being strong and outspoken in fighting for oneself is somehow wrong.
His words, laced with hidden contempt, might have made another child hang their head in shame.
But unfortunately for him, he was facing me.
Over the years, following my mother, I’d seen countless bad people, all far worse than Qi Zheng. Because of this, I’d learned many skills for arguing with others from a young age.
For example, when dealing with a rude child like this, you should never try to defend yourself by saying, “My mom isn’t a shrew.” Instead, you need to fight back-an eye for an eye, tit for tat.
Blinking, I quickly responded, “Qi Zheng, everyone in the neighborhood says your dad ran off with another woman. He doesn’t want you anymore!”
Actually, attacking Qi Zheng’s mother would have been more effective, but I remembered she’d lent us salt, so I chose to go after his dad instead, which was relatively mild.
“You’re lying!” Clearly, this was one of Qi Zheng’s sore spots. He glared at me angrily. “My dad didn’t abandon me. Mom says he’s just too busy with work and doesn’t have time to come home and see us!”
I looked at him and gave a perfunctory “Oh.”
Qi Zheng suddenly froze.
Maybe my attitude made him realize that, just like my mother, I wasn’t someone to mess with. So when I didn’t respect him, he started to respect me instead.
The next morning, Qi Zheng apologized to me.
I didn’t stop walking. After glancing at him, I nodded casually, which counted as accepting his apology.
He followed behind me, asking dejectedly, “I’ve already apologized. Why won’t you play with me?”
I stopped, thought for a moment, and told him honestly, “You can’t even write your own name correctly. I don’t really like playing with people who are dumb.”
Qi Zheng’s eyes widened, and he looked at me, deeply hurt.
In his not-so-long life, this was probably the first time he’d been rejected by someone.
The more you can’t have something, the more you want it.
He grabbed my backpack strap, stubbornly wanting a definite answer: “Zhong Yue, does that mean if I get smarter, you’ll play with me?”
Annoyed by his persistence, I replied offhandedly, “Maybe.”
Those three words seemed to have a magical power.
From that day on, Qi Zheng suddenly started studying seriously.
And from that moment, he began following me around, calling me Moon.