Good Baby C21

Chapter 21

Li Datao and Fan Chunxiang exchanged a glance, and both of them were alarmed. What could possibly make such a small child panic like this?

They usually took good care of An’an and hadn’t heard any problems from the teacher.

If it wasn’t related to the issues at school, the only other possibility would be the troublesome relatives around them. Could it be that they thought they couldn’t cause trouble with them and decided to pick on An’an instead?

Just the thought of this possibility made both Li Datao and Fan Chunxiang extremely anxious.

An’an leaned against the back of the chair, looking left and right, arms crossed in frustration. After a while, he finally spoke up.

“I… I want to skip a grade.”

Skip a grade? Fan Chunxiang couldn’t understand why An’an suddenly had this thought. She was more inclined to let him progress steadily through the grades.

However, she was an open-minded mother who respected her child’s wishes and planned to contact An’an’s homeroom teacher to ask whether this was a feasible idea.

The idea had been in An’an’s mind since he first started first grade, but he hadn’t mentioned it until now.

His talent was remarkable—he was smart and eager to improve. The pace of normal students was too slow for him; to put it a bit more extreme, it felt like a waste of time.

Geniuses and ordinary people have different learning speeds, but the teacher’s focus is to make sure most students understand.

“Mom, I can understand everything the teacher teaches with just one explanation.”

Xie Shi’an, lying on the desk, tilted his head and stared at her with a troubled expression.

After the teacher finished explaining, there would still be homework to consolidate their knowledge and a review session. Xie Shi’an had already memorized every word the teacher said.

Over time, he even found it a bit boring.

Fan Chunxiang gently rubbed his head and gestured that she understood. She would contact the teacher soon.

Before going to the school, Fan Chunxiang had already received a message from Wu Jingyu’s mother.

Since their first meeting, Wu Jingyu’s mother had admired Fan Chunxiang. She thought that despite her lack of eloquence, she had managed to raise such an outstanding child. She must be very capable herself, and the two had become good friends.

This message was to complain. Her silly son had heard somewhere about the possibility of skipping a grade. He had been making noise at home, even starting to sulk and refuse to eat, trying to force her into compromising.

Originally, she wanted to condemn her son for being overly ambitious, especially when Xie Shi’an, who was so much smarter than him, didn’t even think of skipping grades. But to her surprise, she learned from Fan Chunxiang that An’an had the same plan.

Wu Jingyu’s mother, who had firmly rejected her son’s request before, now found herself hesitating.

She thought of many things, like if Wu Jingyu skipped a grade and no longer had classmates his age, he would find it difficult to make friends who were on the same wavelength. That would be so lonely.

But if An’an could accompany him, it didn’t seem as bad as she initially thought.

After the two families discussed, they decided to respect the children’s wishes. At this age, they were not too young, and they could make some decisions for themselves.

After all, it was the children’s choice, and if it was a little harder, it was their own decision.

After An’an and Wu Jingyu took a few test papers, they got the teacher’s approval to write a skip-grade application, and their parents had to sign it at the school. The two were lucky to be placed in the same class.

With Xie Shi’an, a friend who was more talented and more hardworking than him, by his side, Wu Jingyu felt a lot of pressure, but he was also highly motivated.

Even though he knew the gap between them, he still wanted to catch up to avoid losing face as the older one. His progress was rapid.

The two of them skipped a grade together and continued skipping grades after entering middle school. It wasn’t until high school that the gap between them started to widen.

Xie Shi’an was directly recommended to a key high school, and when he arrived, many teachers were curious about this student who had skipped several grades. Before his puberty, his face still carried some baby fat.

Sitting there in his uniform, obedient and well-behaved, it was hard not to draw attention.

Xie Shi’an found studying the knowledge from the textbooks effortless. In his free time, he liked to tinker with strange and unusual things.

His homeroom teacher was very skilled at teaching according to each student’s abilities. Not only did she not stop him, but she even actively offered him help.

The system had struggled for a while when Xie Shi’an first started high school, wondering whether to use the savings it had accumulated to improve Wu Jingyu’s intelligence, so he could catch up to Xie Shi’an.

This time, Wu Jingyu didn’t skip a grade along with Xie Shi’an. Wu Jingyu knew very well that although he was smart among ordinary people, he was still far behind Xie Shi’an.

Rushing to follow his good friend would only ruin himself. It was better to stay behind and slowly build a solid foundation.

Fortunately, after enrolling, Xie Shi’an immersed himself in many new subjects and didn’t feel much of a gap. He lived a more fulfilling life than anyone else.

At the key high school, there were plenty of opportunities to participate in competitions. As long as he had the grades, he could succeed. Even though his classmates were several heads taller than him, in intellect, Xie Shi’an still managed to maintain the top spot in his grade.

Li Datao’s business grew bigger and bigger. Everyone thought his future was limitless, but he chose to step back at the peak and handed most of it over to others.

He wasn’t that ambitious, nor did he want to desperately become the richest person.

After all, at the beginning, he just wanted to buy candy for his son on the way home without hesitation and not have his wife gaze longingly at the clothes in the shop window.

The money he had earned over the years was enough for his family of three to live happily for the rest of their lives. Back when the housing prices hadn’t soared, Li Datao had bought a spacious apartment in the capital, planning to transfer it to his son’s name once he became an adult.

They had also prepared a place for their retirement, a three-story villa in the countryside, with savings in the eight-digit range left for An’an.

Having earned enough money, Li Datao now spent his days thinking about going grocery shopping, cooking with his wife, and taking walks, making sure his son grew up healthy and plump.

He had worked hard for half his life and now deserved to enjoy some peace and relaxation.

One day, when Li Datao went to pick up An’an from school, he saw him waving from afar with his schoolbag on his back. The family of three sat in the back seat of the car.

“Mom, I won a gold medal in the competition I went to abroad. The teacher said I can be directly recommended to university.”

Fan Chunxiang and Li Datao both froze upon hearing this. After recovering, they were ecstatic, their hands trembling with excitement.

Xie Shi’an had always had a direction for his future. After seeing many neighbors and friends in old age suffering from illnesses, he didn’t want his parents to end up like that.

After consulting with his teacher, he learned that the university he wanted to attend had a great program in the field he was interested in, and he had made up his mind.

At that moment, the car still hadn’t started. Li Datao took out his phone and texted the driver, rerouting to the best restaurant. They weren’t going home yet; they were going to celebrate.

He knew his son was smart, but he hadn’t expected him to be this capable! While his peers were still in middle school, his son could be directly recommended to the best university in the country.

Even when his business first succeeded, Li Datao hadn’t been this proud.

That evening, the teacher personally called them to deliver the good news.

Always frugal, Li Datao spent quite a bit of money preparing a thank-you dinner at the largest hotel for his son.

Fan Chunxiang had kept the contact information of every teacher An’an had ever had since kindergarten. Every teacher who had taught him was invited, along with their friends. Not a single relative was sent an invitation.

At the thank-you dinner, Li Datao, in his well-fitting suit, went from table to table, raising a glass to thank the teachers for their guidance of his son.

His face glowing with joy and his posture straight, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it felt like a celebration of success.

Wu Jingyu, accompanied by his mother, also came. He sat alone at the kids’ table, looking somewhat gloomy.

He had been happy to hear he would meet Xie Shi’an that day and was preparing to tell his good friend the news that he would soon join him at his high school. But who would have thought that his mother had brought him to Xie Shi’an’s university entrance celebration instead!

Xie Shi’an had spent most of his time on learning and didn’t have many close friends. Wu Jingyu could barely be considered one. He put some of Wu Jingyu’s favorite corn cakes onto his plate.

“I’ll wait for you in college. I believe you can make it.”

“Hmph, then I definitely will.”

After the entrance celebration, preparations for college began. Li Datao was very glad that he had handed over his work quickly, so he could go to the capital with his wife to continue taking care of An’an.

Other college students wouldn’t need their parents, but An’an was still just a teenager. If he had to live alone in a completely unfamiliar city, they would be so worried they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

Because of the special nature of Xie Shi’an’s early graduation, he was unexpectedly taken under the wing of an old professor after enrolling. This professor was a renowned figure in the field.

That day, after completing an experiment with the professor, Xie Shi’an bid farewell and was walking out of a door when he vaguely heard the professor talking on the phone with someone else.

The elderly professor, sitting with his legs crossed, was chatting with an old friend, saying he planned to take on a disciple, and asking when they were free to meet up.

They were both old, and one day, one of them might be gone. That would mean the young disciple would lose the opportunity to meet them.

Xie Shian, hearing this, quickened his steps unconsciously, not listening to anything else.

That day was a holiday. After packing his things in the dormitory, Xie Shi’an grabbed his books and ran out of the school gate. He sat at the bus stop, preparing to head home.

Suddenly, someone appeared from the side, grabbed his wrist, and startled him, causing his books to fall to the ground. As he instinctively bent down to pick them up, he heard a voice nearby.

“Child, we’ve finally found you.”