Panda Cub, So Cute and Fierce 7

Chapter 7: Drawing

====================

He Jingsu finished peeling the egg and placed it on Bei Queting’s plate. Then she stared at her own breakfast for a few seconds, mentally preparing herself before she began to eat slowly.

Mmm, not as good as Mom’s cooking, she thought.

Across from them, Hai Yuesheng was quite busy. Her eyes were fixed on Qiu Si, watching her eat, paying attention to her every frown and twitch, trying to gauge from her micro-expressions whether she liked the food or not.

“Can you please stop looking at me,” Qiu Si said softly.

“Oh.” Hearing her voice, Hai Yuesheng’s cheeks flushed slightly, and her heart beat a little faster. She looked away, no longer staring so blatantly. Every time Qiu Si spoke to her, she loved the sound of her voice, soft like a kitten’s paw scratching at her heart.

He Jingsu’s little eyebrows furrowed into a small hill. She looked at Hai Yuesheng with some displeasure, as if she were the villain about to lead her little aunt astray.

Noticing this look, Hai Yuesheng looked back at her, bewildered, not understanding why she was being looked at that way. Does she not like me?

She was shocked. If He Jingsu didn’t like her, would Qiu Si still be willing to spend time with her?

Bei Queting, who was quietly eating her breakfast, suddenly felt an urge to laugh. She thought Hai Yuesheng’s path ahead would probably be a difficult one.

One was a shy panda cub, already hard enough to handle, and now there was another stubborn, single-minded panda cub standing in the way. She was in for a tough time.

After breakfast, seeing that it was about time, the four of them headed toward the academic building. Halfway there, Hai Yuesheng had to part with them. As a third-year student, her classes were in a different building, in the opposite direction.

“Wait for me for lunch,” Hai Yuesheng said to Qiu Si before she left, worried she would run off early.

Qiu Si’s gaze flickered away, and she didn’t say anything.

After Hai Yuesheng left, He Jingsu moved closer to Qiu Si, staring at her intently.

“Daidai?” Qiu Si felt a little creeped out by her stare and called out uncertainly.

“Little Aunt,” He Jingsu said solemnly.

“Huh?” Qiu Si replied dazedly.

“You’re the elder. Elders can’t set a bad example!” He Jingsu said seriously.

Qiu Si was confused. “???”

Seeing that she still didn’t understand, He Jingsu grew anxious. “Yesterday, you said that the most important thing for us right now is to study!”

Being uneducated is terrifying! You’ll go broke!

Qiu Si felt she might know what He Jingsu was trying to say. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she said softly, “Of course, the most important thing for us right now is to study hard.”

He Jingsu nodded, an expression on her face that said, A teachable student.

Bei Queting couldn’t help but laugh, but then she sighed inwardly, remembering what Aunt He had once said: Daidai was even more dazed than Aunt Jing had been!

She had even said they shouldn’t have called her Daidai, as it had truly made her live up to the name (T/N: Daidai, 呆呆, means dazed).

The three of them parted ways at the third-floor stairwell. When Bei Queting returned to her classroom, she could still feel the distant, exclusionary atmosphere. She didn’t mind. She took out a pen and paper and began to draw before the morning self-study session started.

When she was little, she had taken art classes with He Jingsu. He Jingsu was very talented in drawing, while she was relatively average. But after so many years of practice, her drawings, though not as spirited as He Jingsu’s, were still quite decent.

She was currently drawing a panda cub with a small pair of wings on its back. As she drew the wings, she was suddenly reminded of their first art class when they were little. The teacher had asked them to draw whatever they wanted. At the time, He Jingsu had drawn a panda cub with two small wings on its back. When the teacher saw the drawing, she had said that pandas don’t have wings.

He Jingsu insisted they did, but the teacher said they didn’t. He Jingsu had been so upset she was on the verge of tears. If Aunt He hadn’t repeatedly warned them not to reveal that they were demons in front of others, He Jingsu would have transformed back into her true form to prove that pandas do have wings!

That night when they got home, He Jingsu was still feeling wronged. She transformed back into her true form and insisted that Bei Queting touch her little wings, whining about how she clearly had wings. She was very bothered by the teacher’s words.

“You…” Xia Mu, sitting next to her, suddenly spoke up. When Bei Queting looked over, her face flushed slightly again. “Why did you draw wings on the panda?” she asked in a small voice.

Hearing her question, Bei Queting’s voice softened. “Don’t you think this panda is very cute with wings?”

Her best drawings were of He Jingsu’s true form; she could perfectly capture it on paper.

“Yes, it’s very cute,” Xia Mu nodded earnestly. “But why aren’t the wings bigger?”

The current wings were a bit disproportionate to the body.

Bei Queting let out a low, restrained laugh, but it was enough for one to catch her amusement. “Because, the wings are just that big.”

It had a certain contrasting charm, especially after seeing Aunt He’s large wings. Looking at He Jingsu’s wings in comparison made them seem indescribably cute.

Xia Mu said, “Oh, oh,” to show she understood, but her mind was full of confusion. What does she mean the wings are just that big? Isn’t the size of the wings determined by your drawing?

But Bei Queting’s drawing was really good.

Meanwhile, in He Jingsu’s class, their homeroom teacher, Old Liu, came in shortly after they returned. She was holding a stack of graded test papers. Standing at the podium, she looked at the little rascals below, rapped her knuckles on the desk, and said sternly, “Did you all go completely wild this summer? Look at the state of your placement tests!”

The students instantly fell silent, looking up at their teacher with a hint of apprehension.

They knew that the placement test would determine their academic standing for a good while.

Old Liu looked at the momentarily chastened rascals and nodded in satisfaction. “This test was very unsatisfactory! I hope that in the coming days, you will all quickly get back into the right mindset for studying. You are now in your second year of high school. How much more time do you have to waste!”

With that, she began to call out names for them to come and get their papers.

When she called He Jingsu’s name, Old Liu looked up at her and praised, “Not bad, your grades have remained quite stable.”

Although this kid stared at her test paper as if trying to burn holes in it, her results were still presentable.

“Mhm!” He Jingsu took her paper and nodded seriously. Of course, she had to maintain her grades. After all, Beibei was number one, so she couldn’t fall too far behind!

Seeing her serious little expression, Old Liu couldn’t help but smile inwardly, remembering how she was when she was even younger. Her personality hadn’t changed a bit over the years.

He Jingsu returned to her seat with her paper, and soon after, Qiu Si also went up to get hers. Both of their scores were quite good; they had only gotten two extremely tricky and misleading questions wrong. Everything else was correct.

He Jingsu sighed softly. She really didn’t like math.

“What’s wrong?” Qiu Si whispered.

“Math is so hard!” He Jingsu said with a pained expression. She could adapt quickly to other subjects, but with math, she always felt like she was tearing her hair out. She had to force herself to study it.

Qiu Si nodded in empathy. “It’s so hard!”

A student in front of them who overheard their conversation turned to look at their scores, his expression growing complicated. He turned back to look at his own score and sighed deeply.

Comparisons are truly odious.

During the break, He Jingsu went to find Bei Queting, her test paper in hand, to ask for help with the two questions she got wrong.

When Bei Queting saw He Jingsu with her test paper, she knew she must have hit a wall with math again. She naturally took the paper from her, looked at the mistakes, and then took out a piece of scratch paper to start working through the problems.

Xia Mu, sitting beside them, saw their natural interaction and quietly made some space for them.

Someone else saw He Jingsu come over and, after a long internal debate, walked up and asked casually, “Junior He, is there something you don’t understand?”

He Jingsu looked blankly at the male student in front of her. He was dark and thin, looking like the type who often played basketball. But more importantly, He Jingsu didn’t know him.

“Do I have to tell you what I don’t understand?” He Jingsu asked, puzzled.

The male student was speechless.

Bei Queting, who had been gripping her pen tightly, relaxed her hold slightly. “He probably means you can ask him if you don’t understand something,” she said softly.

The male student immediately shot her a grateful look.

“But I have you, so why would I ask him?” He Jingsu was even more confused.

The male student’s face stiffened.

“Yes, so you don’t need to ask anyone else,” Bei Queting said, continuing to explain the problem to He Jingsu, completely ignoring the boy beside them.

The male student looked awkward. Seeing that neither of them had any intention of acknowledging him, he hesitated for a moment before leaving. When he returned to his group of friends, they bumped his shoulder and started teasing him.

The more they teased, the redder the boy’s face became. He shot them an annoyed glare.

Bei Queting, who was explaining the problem to He Jingsu, felt her gaze turn cold for a second. She glanced at He Jingsu, who was completely oblivious and unconcerned, and felt a sense of relief.

It’s good to be a little dazed.

***

Author’s Note:

Little Daidai, on the verge of tears, transforms back into her true form and insists that Beibei touch her little wings.

Little Daidai: See! I do have wings!

Super wronged, but also super smug when she says she has wings, hahaha.