Chapter 7 - Winter activity (Translated by Xing and edited by Souhi) ?
Both Tang Xue and Li Yubing originally signed up for figure skating. However, they parted ways after a few lessons. Under the ice skating club"s suggestion, Tang Xue went to learn speed skating. As for Li Yubing, he was noticed by a coach from the ice hockey club next door and was hauled off to learn ice hockey.
Since both activities still involved exercising, the two children"s parents were not too particular about the exact sport they signed up for.
Slowly, it was nearly the end of the school term.
Tang Xue went to visit her grandfather and he restated his promise of bringing her to Disneyland if she becomes the top scorer in cla.s.s.
At this time, there was no Disneyland in China.
In order to achieve her dream of going to Disneyland, Tang Xue activated the skill that she was best at——oppressing Li Yubing. She informed Li Yubing, if you score full marks for both papers again, I would stuff your pencil case with caterpillars. There would one for each day, and it would be a different kind every day.
Under this threat, Li Yubing purposely answered a fill-in-the-blank question for the maths paper wrongly, resulting in a score of 98.
After factoring in the literature paper, his total score was 198.
Mm, still the cla.s.s"s top scorer.
Tang Xue was a little dejected.
Her mother told her that she needed to self-reflect.
Tang Xue thought that this was very reasonable. From that day on, she formed the habit of eating walnuts every day. Yup, she needed to boost her brain power.
During winter vacation, both Tang Xue and Li Yubing signed up for a volunteer program for primary school students organized by the community club—youth guides.
They were all a.s.signed to various places of interest as free guides for tourists. Tang Xue and Li Yubing were sent to the ruins of a battlefield in the west of the city. The sides of the battlefield were overrun with weeds while the actual site held excavated artifacts and reconstructed items from historical records organized to make the area seem happening.
Unfortunately, it seemed that not much people were interested in touring the remnants of a battlefield in this age of peace. The human traffic here was pitiful compared to that of other scenic attractions.
In order to raise the children"s enthusiasm, the activity organizer regulated that after every successfully completed tour, the young guides could ask for the tourists" ticket stubs. Every three stubs can be exchanged for a red flower and the red flowers can be exchanged for various prizes such as schoolbags, stationeries, toys, etc.
There were always four youth guides on duty at the battlefield ruins. At this unpopular attraction, the awkward scenario of not having enough tourists for everyone[1] would inevitably occur.
Facing this compet.i.tive environment, Tang Xue was in her element.
Upon seeing anyone, this rascal would noisily bound over, blink her large eyes and innocently ask: Older brother/ older sister/ uncle/ auntie/ grandpa/ grandma[2], can I guide you through this place? It"s free! Head over to teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com if translator"s notes are missing or if you simply want to read without ads.
Who could say no?
And then, in a daze, this group of people would be led away by Tang Xue.
The history of the battlefield was rather dry. Tang Xue did not properly memorize it when undergoing training. As she rambled on, she forgot what came next and her mind went blank.
It"s alright, those weren"t important at all! Self-confidence was still key!
Therefore, Tang Xue only paused for a little while before starting to BS, earnestly sharing a whole bunch of nonsense.
The tourists all came in a daze and left in the same state. Before leaving, they gave Tang Xue their ticket stubs.
Princ.i.p.al Tang was standing at the entrance. He stopped a tourist and quietly asked, "How was she as a guide?"
The tourist had a bewildered expression. "She said that this was the battlefield of Ultraman and G.o.dzilla, and carried out a demonstration of the weapons."
Princ.i.p.al Tang was so embarra.s.sed that he wanted to disappear. At the same time, he was a little puzzled. "Why did you still give her your ticket stub?"
The tourist"s eye shone. "She"s just too adorable!"
Tang Xue obtained yet another ticket stub and came out to see the arrival of a new tourist. It was a young woman. At her side were two boys scrambling to be her guide.
Li Yubing was standing behind the youth guide table, quietly looking at them.
He seemed somewhat lonely.
Tang Xue felt something surge in her heart. This feeling was along the lines of "this person is under my care". She walked over and grabbed Li Yubing"s hand, leading him over to the young woman.
The two boys were still competing. One said "Auntie, I"ve memorized everything very well, choose me", while the other went "Auntie, I"ve won a speech compet.i.tion before, choose me choose me".
Tang Xue opened her mouth, and in her naturally cutesy voice spoke in an unhurried manner that clearly enunciated very word. "h.e.l.lo, older sister."
These three words immediately struck the female tourist"s heart.
The female tourist was stirred and looked at Tang Xue with a smile. "Why did you call me older sister?"
"You"re so young, I can"t possibly call you auntie."
Oh! The female tourist clutched her heart. Whose child was this, she really wanted to steal her home!
Tang Xue tugged at Li Yubing"s hand and said, "Older sister, he"s called Li Yubing. We are volunteering as free tour guides. Li Yubing has yet to guide once today! Can you let him guide you? Pretty please!"
The female tourist looked at Li Yubing. Oh my, she wanted to steal this one as well!
"You can also call me older sister." She beamed at Li Yubing.
Li Yubing was a little embarra.s.sed. He softly called out, "Older sister."
And then he welcomed his first tour of the day.
Following this, the tourists to the battlefield ruins were basically monopolized by Tang Xue and Li Yubing. The other volunteers in the same group silently grumbled in their hearts but did not dare to vocalize their anger.
At the end of this activity, Tang Xue obtained 7 red flowers in total while Li Yubing obtained 6. Tang Xue took all 13 red flowers to the teacher. For herself, she exchanged a giant Winnie the Pooh plush toy while for Li Yubing, she exchanged an eraser.
Li Yubing looked at the eraser in his hand, and was so touched that he wanted to hit someone.
He should have expected that he was her free labour.
There must be something wrong with his brain for him to feel touched earlier.
Originally translated at teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Head there for extra content or to leave feedback and comments on the novel translation.Translator"s Notes:
[1] Original phrase, 僧多粥少 (sēng duō zhōu shǎo), literally means too many monks and too little porridge. Even though I did not translate this literally in the story, I left this in the translator"s notes as I found this idiom pretty interesting. Now you"ll also know what it means if you come across it in other translated Chinese novels!
[2] It is a cultural norm to address strangers as such even though they may be completely unrelated to you.
I"m at the age where I"m obviously no longer a teenager but still not a full-fledged adult either (or at least that"s what I tell myself since I"m still schooling). Even though it"s not often, I get a rude shock every time a kid addresses me as auntie. The world needs more discerning kids like Tang Xue. Who cares if they have certain motives behind addressing someone this way. ?