"I don't know how to read," Ming Cheng confessed to the other two people who he was crouched down with, making sure to stare down at the paper as intensely as he could manage while bowing his head.
His hair would hide his face and his visible focus should come off as a desire to do just like the other people around him.
He knew that this was a good enough act, considering that he had managed to score quite a few morsels of food, and had been allowed to go free after he had been caught stealing them, whenever he had made such an action, after copying some of the other children who had successfully carried out such a play before.
Ming Cheng felt a flick on his forehead, and lifted his head up, only to see Lan Chang with her hand outstretched and a light smile on her face.
From the corner of his left eye, Ming Cheng looked over at Wang Yuan, who had an expression of pure pity and worry plastered on his, and from the film of water that he saw within his eyes, the reaction that the other boy was a genuine one, as much as Ming Cheng wanted to spite him for it.
"I thought that you'd never ask... my son," Lan Chang called out, her voice soft, as she curled her hand into a loose fist, lightly bumping his forehead with it, as her smile grew even larger.
Ming Cheng's confusion must have shown on his, he realised, as he watched Lan Chang first struggle to keep back her laughter for a few moments, before breaking out into a few giggles, then into full blown laughter.
She tipped her head back and let out a roar of joy, almost collapsing backwards if not for the one arm that she threw out behind her for balance.
Ming Cheng unabashedly looked over at Wang Yuan, finding an almost mirror image of confusion on his face as his nose twitched and he looked back down at the scroll, turning his head to look at Ming Cheng and Lan Chang afterwards in a sequence to try and find out the root cause of her laughing fit.
Whatever the reason was, he apparently didn't find it, and he eventually gave up to look back at the scroll and continue reading it.
At least, that's what Ming Cheng thought, making an assumption from his quick and sparse actions.
He at least knew a way for dealing with Wang Yuan's actions.
As long as he kept looking at the boy, he should be able to see the signs of what he was about to do, but the problem was that he would have to continuously keep looking back, as the boy was so quiet and so easy to overlook.
...
Not the most practical or the best solution, considering he had seen Qi Qing read and understand the boy without nary a glance in his direction, but it would have to do for now until he was able to get her methods out of her.
Unfortunately, he would first need her to actually speak to him.