My Taoist nun girlfriend is from the Republic of China era, 1942.

Chapter 181 Lu Yang and Qing Tong

After lunch, the kindergarten entered nap time.

The aunties quickly cleared away the trays, while the teachers herded the energetic little ones into the nap room like ducks.

This is yet another new "battle".

The nap room has about a dozen small beds with cartoon patterns, and each child has their own designated spot.

But for these children, who are under four years old, "sleep" is obviously a deeply hated instruction.

The teacher with the bun hairstyle was at her wits' end, yelling to maintain order.

Lu Yang led Zhao Moli to their small bed amidst the noise.

The little girl was uneasy about the chaos around her. She gripped Lu Yang's clothes tightly with her little hands, and her beautiful eyes were filled with tension and dependence.

She muttered to herself, "Yangyang, it's so noisy..."

"It's ok."

Lu Yang's voice wasn't loud, but it was unusually calm.

He helped Zhao Moli to bed and pulled the blanket over her.

"Lie down, close your eyes, and it will stop making noise in a little while."

Zhao Moli obediently lay down, but her eyes remained wide open, staring intently at Lu Yang, as if afraid he would suddenly disappear.

Lu Yang sighed, sat down on the small stool next to her bed, and reached out to gently pat her back.

"Go to sleep, I'm here."

The familiar reassurances gradually relaxed Zhao Moli's tense nerves, and within a few minutes, her even breathing resumed.

Lu Yang sat for a while longer, making sure Zhao Moli was completely asleep, before withdrawing his hand.

He himself was not sleepy at all.

The muffled sobs of other children filled the air, along with the snoring of several chubby boys who were already asleep.

All of this made Lu Yang feel irritable. He preferred a quiet, independent space where he could think.

He looked around and saw that the teacher with the bun hairstyle was holding a little girl who was crying the loudest and gently comforting her in a corner, so she couldn't pay attention to this side for the time being.

Lu Yang silently slid off the stool, tiptoed, and slipped out of the nap room.

……

The corridor was deserted.

Lu Yang breathed a long sigh of relief; finally, there was some peace and quiet.

He continued forward, observing his surroundings.

As a kindergarten that charges more than 200,000 yuan a year, Qimingxing Kindergarten is decorated in a style that imitates European aristocracy.

However, to Lu Yang, it looked a bit rustic.

At the end of the corridor, the door leading to the backyard was unlocked, but only slightly ajar.

Lu Yang gently pushed open the door, and a small open-air courtyard appeared before him.

A small figure can be seen near the sandpit not far away.

A little girl in a pink princess dress is sitting quietly on a swing.

She didn't swing on the swing; her toes, clad in small white leather shoes, lightly touched the ground, and her small body swayed back and forth very slightly with the inertia of the swing.

Lu Yang recognized the girl; her name was Zheng Qingtong, and she was his neighbor who lived upstairs. She was born on the same day as Zhao Moli.

Her mother often said in private that this girl looked adorable, but her eyes revealed a shrewdness.

And for some reason, it always made her feel uneasy, as if it were her "enemy".

Lu Yang was not interested in his mother's illogical metaphysical intuition.

In his view, Zheng Qingtong was just a slightly smarter and slightly quieter example than other people her age.

He didn't go over to disturb them, but found a sunny step to sit down, intending to stay quietly by himself until the lunch break ended.

"Hey."

A crisp voice suddenly rang out from behind.

Lu Yang turned around and found Zheng Qingtong standing behind him.

Her eyes didn't have the innocent, naive look of other children; instead, they held a scrutinizing and curious gaze: "What are you looking at?"

Lu Yang succinctly replied, "I wasn't looking at anything, just spacing out."

Zheng Qingtong seemed dissatisfied with the answer. She sat down next to Lu Yang, mimicking his posture, resting her chin on her hands and gazing at the empty playground.

Don't you like sleeping either?

Zheng Qingtong took the initiative to start the conversation.

"It's not that I don't like it," Lu Yang explained, "it's just too noisy here."

"Me too."

Zheng Qingtong immediately found common ground, and a "I knew it" expression appeared on her little face: "They always cry, it's so annoying."

Especially that Yu Haoran, the Ultraman sitting across from you, he cries while eating, cries while sleeping, cries even when he loses at games, he's so useless.

Her evaluations of her classmates were precise yet harsh.

Lu Yang glanced at her but didn't reply.

He doesn't like to talk about others behind their backs.

Zheng Qingtong seemed to see through his thoughts and pursed her lips: "Do you think it's wrong of me to talk about others like that?"

Lu Yang thought for a moment and nodded honestly: "The teacher said we should unite with our classmates."

"What the teacher said is all a lie."

Zheng Qingtong's tone carried a hint of mockery that was incongruous with her age.

"She said she liked all of us, but I saw her secretly roll her eyes when Wang Haoran wiped his snot on her."

That's quite a keen observation. Lu Yang finally became interested: "You've been observing the teacher the whole time?"

"of course."

Zheng Qingtong said matter-of-factly, "Adults are the best at lying. My mom said she would take me to the amusement park, but she brought me here instead."

My dad said he would come home early, but he never did.

So you have to keep looking at them, looking into their eyes, to know if they're telling the truth or lying.

Lu Yang was silent.

He thought of Zheng Qingtong's mother, the woman named Gao Rong, a person who would make him feel physically disgusted just by looking at her.

"Does your mother lie to you too?"

Zheng Qingtong suddenly turned to him and asked, her clear black and white eyes full of inquiry.

Lu Yang shook his head: "My mother rarely lies, and when she does, it's usually a white lie."

"why?"

She said, "Those who follow the Taoist path must refrain from lying."

What language?

Zheng Qingtong clearly didn't understand.

"It means not to lie," Lu Yang explained. "Deceiving people with ill intentions will diminish one's merits and affect one's cultivation."

Zheng Qingtong blinked, trying hard to understand the two words "merit" and "cultivation," which were beyond her comprehension.

After a while, she came to a conclusion: "Is your mother a Buddhist? Like my grandmother, she chants scriptures at home every day."

"No, my mother is a Taoist priest."

"Oh." Zheng Qingtong nodded as if she understood, but quickly steered the conversation back on track: "What about your father? Has your father ever lied to you?"

Lu Yang thought about it carefully.

“He lied to me,” he answered with certainty. “He promised to buy me a real excavator, but he didn’t.”

Zheng Qingtong immediately revealed a smug look on her face, as if to say, "I knew it!" She continued, "See? Adults are all the same."

"Different."

Lu Yang retorted, "My dad said that it's a fixed asset, the purchase process is very complicated, and it requires a special parking space and an operating license. I'm too young now and don't meet the requirements."

"..."

Zheng Qingtong opened her mouth, completely stunned by the string of words she didn't understand but which sounded very impressive.

She stood there stunned for a while before muttering under her breath, unwilling to give up, "That...that's a lie too."

Lu Yang was too lazy to argue with her; he felt that explaining "fixed assets" and "legal regulations" to a girl was a very troublesome thing.

The two fell silent for a moment.

The warm sunlight shone down on me as a ladybug slowly crawled up the steps and moved along the edge of the concrete.

Both of them were drawn to the small red beetle without prior arrangement.

They crouched down, huddled together, and quietly observed.

Zheng Qingtong stretched out her index finger, as if to touch it, but then withdrew it mid-air. She turned her head and whispered to Lu Yang, "Will it bite?"

"No, it eats aphids."

What are aphids?

"There is an insect even smaller than this that sucks the sap from plants; it is a pest."

"Oh……"

The ladybug climbed to the end of the steps, spread its elytra, and flew away with a "buzz".

A hint of disappointment appeared on Zheng Qingtong's face, but then, as if remembering something, she took something out of the pocket of her dress.

It was a piece of chocolate, wrapped in gold foil, the edges of which were already melted and deformed from being squeezed.

"for you."

She handed the chocolate to Lu Yang, her face showing a mixture of demure generosity and modesty: "This is something I secretly hid; the teacher doesn't allow us to bring snacks."

Lu Yang glanced at the chocolate and shook his head: "Thank you, but I don't like sweets."

"Why? Because sweet things taste delicious."

Zheng Qingtong was puzzled. She carefully tore open the foil, licked it herself, and squinted her eyes happily.

"Excessive sugar intake increases the risk of tooth decay and obesity in children."

Lu Yang explained to Zheng Qingtong in a very serious manner.

Zheng Qingtong was once again bewildered by Lu Yang's barrage of technical jargon. Holding the chocolate, she stood there, stunned, unsure whether she should eat it or not.

She didn't want to get fat because her mother had said that being fat would make her look bad.

Looking at her conflicted expression, Lu Yang suddenly found it a little funny.

He discovered that although this girl named Zheng Qingtong seemed much smarter and more knowledgeable than her peers, her intelligence was largely based on her observation and imitation of human relationships and social customs.

She knew how to read adults' expressions and how to use language to probe and attack, but she seemed completely clueless about deeper, more logical things.

"Jingle Bell--"

A crisp bell rang out from the classroom, signaling the end of lunch break.

"Let's go, it's time to go back."

Lu Yang stood up and patted the dust off his pants.

Zheng Qingtong quickly stuffed the rest of the chocolate into her mouth, her cheeks bulging, and made a muffled "mmm" sound.

Following behind Lu Yang, they slipped back to the classroom together.

(End of this chapter)