Time passed by and Hou Lin's sense of indecisiveness only kept on piling up. The frequent arguments between his parents always left him unable to choose sides because he didn't want to choose one parent over the other. If he said his father was right, Hou Luli would get upset and if he took Hou Luli's side, then Hou Fa would make a sour expression.
That's why he always leaned towards finding a middle ground. But doing that wasn't always a solution which he learned sooner than later when one day, his class collectively decided to not complete the last minute assignment as a prank on the teacher.
That day, Hou Lin went to his mother and explained his predicament. "Mom. Everybody in my class is not doing tomorrow's assignment. But I think that…I will be able to complete it. So should I do the assignment?"
Hou Luli, who was exasperated reading the slightly more than expected expensive bills for the month, didn't clearly hear his question. "What am I gonna do about this…?" She pressed her temple, "Fa will just get another excuse to point fingers at me. Ugh should I tell him about my extra parlor expenses…?" She muttered to herself.
"Mom?"
"No, no! That's not the right thing to do!" She quickly said while shuffling the bills.
I will be screwed!
"Oh…is that so?" Hou Lin blinked and asked.
"Huh what?" Hou Luli tiredly looked at him. "Sorry dear Mom is a little busy. Just do whatever you want, okay?"
"But I don't understand…That's why I am asking you. You said it's okay to not do the assignment."
"Yeah so don't do it. Damn, I have to rush! Lin, I will be back in some time. Take care of Cai for me, pretty please?"
He did look after his younger brother, but his heart felt uneasy the whole time.
The teacher will get angry if I don't do the assignment, right…? Every teacher says to do the homework but Mom said it's okay to skip…
"Big bro, you should definitely not do the assignment!" His younger brother, Hou Cai, urgently said. "Do you want to be the only person to complete the assignment and then get bullied by your classmates?"
"I…will be bullied?"
He snorted. "Of course, you will. You know Fenfen I keep talking about from the other class? He did not show his answers to his friends in the test even when they decided it before. His friends got mad at him and they bully him now because they failed. If you do the same, your whole class will bully you too because you didn't listen to them."
"I see…I guess then not doing the assignment is the right thing," Hou Lin seemingly came to decide.
But things took a worse turn than expected when the teacher called out everybody's parents in school because it was clear to her that the whole class had planned to mass ditch the assignment.
Hou Fa was completely flabbergasted by this call as he couldn't digest that his son was a disobedient boy. In fact, Hou Lin was smart and he liked to study. So the fact that he didn't do the simple assignment came as a shocker.
"Lin, why didn't you do the assignment? Don't you like studying anyway?"
Hou Lin wasn't sure what to say. "I-I asked…I asked Mom and said that it was fine not to do it…"
Hou Luli was left stunned. "Huh? When did you ask me this?"
"Yesterday when you were looking through the bills. You said that…it wasn't the right thing to do…"
Hou Fa and the class teacher were beyond confused.
"Luli, how could you tell him not to do the homework? That's what students are supposed to be doing anyway, right?"
Hou Luli then remembered that Lin did approach her but couldn't recollect what he exactly came to her for. "I…Lin, that is preposterous. Why would I tell you to skip your assignment? You must have definitely misunderstood me!"
"But I had asked you-"
"Enough, Lin. I mean first you make a mistake and then you try to cover it up by saying that I was at fault. You purposely came to me when I was busy, didn't you?"
Hou Lin tried to speak but nothing came out of his lips. "No…I came to you because…"
I wanted to start my assignment earlier so that I could complete it by my bedtime…If I had waited after you returned from outside, I wouldn't have been able to complete it…
"Complete…bedtime…"
He couldn't understand as to why something which was the right thing to do until yesterday suddenly turned into his big mistake?
"Cai also said…they will bully me…"
The teacher gasped. "Of course nobody will bully you. If somebody does bully you because you refused to join their plan which was clearly wrong, then you should immediately report it to the teacher."
Hou Lin was beyond exhausted. "Seriously what are you doing Luli? I don't know what the heck are you telling them? Lin, who was always so obedient, suddenly becomes rebellious and Cai is completely talking nonsense. As if somebody would get bullied over a simple homework!"
Hou Luli glared at him. "You have some nerve to blame me when all you know is only pulling all nighters for your work! Do you even know what is going on with your childrens' lives anymore?"
"Yeah and clearly you do because that's why we are standing here listening to a crappy complaint about Lin and wasting our time here."
He scowled at Lin. "When your teacher gives you some work to do, you should just do it instead of joining your class gang in fooling around. You should at least know that much, Lin."
Lin stood there motionless, staring at their fighting parents, cursing and blaming each other.
So doing the homework was the right thing to do…
"No, that is dumb. You have to be smart," said an eleven year old Zhan Yahui who he brought to his home after finding her collapsed and malnourished in an alley and offered her the last night's cooked meal.
Zhan Yahui, who gobbled up the food, extremely famished, said, "You should have done your assignment halfway and told your classmates that your parents are very strict and would punish you if you don't do the homework. But it would also make your friends feel betrayed because you ditched the plan. That's when you say that you started the assignment because your parents forced you to but of course, you hated doing it so you left it halfway. That way, you won't become their target to be bullied at all.
But at the same time, you give a different excuse to your teacher saying that you were diligently doing your assignment but fell asleep while doing it. Since she herself knew it was a last minute job given, she would have understood you and wouldn't have called your parents because unlike the rest of the class, you at least tried to do the assignment, even if it wasn't completed. That would have mattered to her rather than completely ditching it."
She snorted. "Doing the assignment halfway was the solution rather than either not doing it at all or completing it all the way. Everybody gets to be happy. Your classmates, your parents and the teacher and you don't become the target of anybody's anger. That's called smart work and that's the right thing to do."
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