Su Yang looked at the tear stains on his younger brother’s face, and the slight suspicion in his heart was instantly replaced by heartache. He reached out, somewhat clumsily wiping the tears from Su Ming’s face, his throat feeling tight.

“Silly boy.” Su Yang’s voice was a bit hoarse as he awkwardly ruffled Su Ming’s hair, “Wanting to study is a good thing, your brother supports you. As for father… don’t take it to heart, that’s just his temper.”

He sighed, “Don’t study this late in the future, it wastes oil.” Su Yang’s voice softened, “Go to sleep early, you need to wake up early tomorrow.”

“Mm.”

Su Yang turned and left, gently closing the door behind him.

Outside, he leaned against the wall, the heartache on his face gradually fading, replaced once again by a lingering trace of doubt.

Xiao Ming’s explanation was perfectly reasonable, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t that simple.

The look in that child’s eyes while reading today didn’t seem like fear, but more like… he had found some kind of treasure, a kind of genuine focus and desire from the heart.

Inside the room, Su Ming let out a long sigh and slumped into the chair.

Su Ming lifted his head, roughly wiping his face with his sleeve, his eyes still red.

“Master, I…”

“You did very well.” Lin Yu’s tone carried a rare hint of praise, “Crisis management handled quite effectively. Successfully transformed an internal family conflict into the core driving force for your personal striving, while also consolidating the loyalty of the ‘second brother’ this important support unit. Not bad, reminiscent of my days as a project manager.”

Su Ming only half-understood.

“Remember, survival rule number two: tears are the final weapon of the weak, but also the most effective disguise of the strong. Used properly, they’re worth more than a thousand words.” Lin Yu continued his teaching, “Your second brother is a quality unit, belonging to high-quality assets, needs to be maintained well.”

Su Ming responded with a muffled “Mm.” He picked up the charcoal stick again, his gaze falling on the wooden board.

The flickering lamplight illuminated his face, which showed unprecedented determination.

The next day.

In the schoolhouse, Teacher Zhou was stroking his goatee, swaying his head as he led seven or eight children in reading.

Su Ming sat in the corner, remarkably not zoning out for once. He sat up straight, his eyes fixed intently on the scroll in Teacher Zhou’s hands, his ears perked up like a rabbit’s, not missing a single syllable.

Teacher Zhou quickly noticed the unusual behavior from that corner.

He stopped leading the reading and paced over to Su Ming’s side, his cloudy eyes revealing a scrutinizing gaze.

This kid played truant and got beaten yesterday, and today he’s like a completely different person?

“Su Ming.” Teacher Zhou tapped the desk.

“Here!” Su Ming jolted and stood up.

“The ten new characters taught yesterday, do you still remember them? Come up front and write them from memory.”

Su Ming’s heart immediately leaped into his throat.

“Don’t panic.” Lin Yu’s voice sounded just in time, “This old master has imprinted the stroke structures of those ten characters into your mind. You just need to copy them.”

Su Ming took a deep breath, walked to the front, and picked up a half-bald writing brush.

He closed his eyes, and sure enough, ten incredibly clear large characters appeared in his mind, every stroke and line as if carved with a knife.

He opened his eyes, lifted the brush, and dipped it in ink.

“Wait!” Lin Yu urgently stopped him, “What do you think you’re doing? Aiming for a perfect score?”

Su Ming froze, asking in his mind, “Isn’t that right?”

“Fool!” Lin Yu sounded exasperated, “The outstanding tree attracts the wind! You, who just yesterday played truant because you couldn’t read, today suddenly have perfect memory and masterful brushwork? Do you want to tell Teacher Zhou that you’ve been possessed by a monster, or enlightened by a deity?”

Cold sweat instantly broke out on Su Ming’s back.

“Then… then what should I do?”

“Concealing One’s Edge! Don’t you understand what Concealing One’s Edge means?” Lin Yu patiently instructed, “Remember, from today onward, your goal isn’t to be the best, but to be the student who ‘is always working hard, but has average talent and shows slight improvement.’ This way you won’t arouse suspicion, while still satisfying your parents and teacher. Safe, low-key—that’s the way!”

“Deliberately write three characters wrong.” Lin Yu gave precise instructions, “Two with wrong strokes, one simply write as a homophone. Make the mistakes reasonable, make them look like the kind of mistakes a slacker like you would make!”

Su Ming steadied himself, the brush tip moving across the paper.

He wrote seven characters correctly, with neat strokes, far better than before. Then, he deliberately wrote the two “kou” in the character “shan” as one “kou”, and omitted one horizontal stroke below the “bai” in the character “xi”. Finally, he wrote the character “yuan” as “yuan”.

Teacher Zhou came over to look, his eyebrows first furrowing tightly, then gradually relaxing.

He stroked his beard and nodded.

“Hmm… three wrong. But remembering seven counts as improvement.” He pointed at the mistaken characters, “The strokes here are incorrect, one stroke is missing here, and this character is a homophone but different character. It shows you’ve been putting in some effort, but your foundation is weak and your mind isn’t particularly sharp.”

He sighed and waved his hand, “Go back and sit down. Diligence can compensate for clumsiness, just work harder in the future.”

“Yes, Teacher.” Su Ming felt as if pardoned from execution, lowering his head as he returned to his seat.

Lin Yu breathed a long sigh of relief inside the ring, “That was close, that was close. This kid does have some acting talent. The boy is teachable, the boy is teachable indeed.”

During the following recitation session, Lin Yu began remote guidance again.

“When reciting the ‘Three Character Classic’ later, deliberately stammer twice, slow down by half a beat. Show that kind of ‘I’m desperately trying to remember, but just can’t recall’ embarrassed feeling, understand?”

So when Teacher Zhou called on Su Ming, he stood up, stammering, his face flushed red, taking half the time an incense stick takes to burn to finish reciting one section, with two mistakes in the middle.

Far from getting angry, Teacher Zhou instead showed a hint of pleased expression.

This was more like Su Ming’s proper level! Although still clumsy, at least his attitude was correct.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep