There was nothing he could do about handing in a blank paper for the Weekly Test in math.
He could have guessed on the multiple-choice questions, but to Chen Shi'an, getting a guess right or wrong meant nothing.
Rather than agonize over how many points he could get on the Weekly Test, he might as well keep studying his middle school mathematics while everyone else took the Weekly Test.
When the bell rang to end evening study, Chen Shi'an took out a few milk candies, set them on the desk of the class monitor watching him, and hurriedly made his escape.
He returned home.
The air was filled with the fresh sweetness of mung bean sweet soup. Compared with last time, this batch had an extra hint of Chinese violet.
They had picked it on their mountain-foraging trip. Unlike wild mushrooms, wild greens could keep in the refrigerator for a while. With some free time after work, Li Wanyin had used the Chinese violet to make a pot of mung bean sweet soup that tasted of her childhood.
"Did you make mung bean sweet soup, Sister Wanyin?"
"Yes. It's been cooling for a little while. It's just ready to eat."
Chen Shi'an came home very punctually, almost always right around ten on the dot. Over time, that had become a marker in Li Wanyin's daily body clock.
She would finish showering and washing her clothes before ten, so she wouldn't have to compete with him for the bathroom after he came home. When she wanted to make something like this, she timed it so the sweet soup would be ready to eat just as he returned.
Because their schedules differed, Chen Shi'an had never seen Li Wanyin leaving for work or coming home from it. It almost created the illusion