Chook Chook (7 page)

‘Excuse me.' Miss Wu cleared her throat. ‘There's one more thing, actually.' She turned to Guo and me. ‘Someone has arrived to see you.'

My heart fell.

Jin.

Chapter Twelve

Jin was waiting for us in the dorm room. He was all smiles when Guo and Cap entered, greeting Guo with a big warm hug and shaking Cap's hand when Guo introduced him as my friend.

I shrank behind them, barely managing to balance the large chicken cage in my arms. What would Jin say? Would he be angry? Guo and Cap made way in the narrow room. I swallowed nervously and stepped inside.

But Jin's smile was gentle, his good eye warm and inviting. I thought even his glass eye looked friendlier than usual.

‘Mei, it's good to see you.' He glanced at the chickens poking around their cage. ‘And Little and Lo too.'

‘You should have seen it!' Cap interrupted. ‘I taught Little how to play tic tac toe.' He was bursting with pride and I was a little annoyed that he was bragging to my stepfather even though he didn't even know him.

But Jin looked impressed. ‘Did you? Well, I always knew that Mei had some very special chickens.'

I saw Jin and Guo exchange a look.

‘Hey Cap, why don't we go and play outside for a while?' Guo suggested.

‘Sure,' Cap said and the boys left.

I perched on the corner of Guo's bed and Jin turned Guo's chair around and sat down, his large hands draped over the back. I stared at my lap. My fingers were twisting the flowered print of my dress. I bit my lip, feeling nervous and a little scared.

Outside, I could hear a gentle
thwak thwak
as Guo and Cap kicked a soccer ball around in the courtyard.

Jin looked at Guo's room, taking in the pile of books and notes on his desk. ‘Your brother works really hard,' he said. ‘He's a good student.'

‘He stayed up all night studying,' I said. ‘He fell asleep at his desk.'

Jin frowned. ‘Well, that's no good. He has to take care of his health. There is such a thing as working too hard. Your pa knew that.'

I had heard him mention Pa a few times before, but hadn't thought much about it. ‘How well did you know my pa?' I asked.

‘Not that well. But I knew he was a great, great farmer.' Jin gazed out the window. ‘I remember when he came to the market every week to sell his rice and cabbages. Sometimes he'd have eggs or even bags of wool from his sheep.' His eyes were shining a bit when he spoke. ‘He didn't do just one thing, but a little bit of everything and he did it all really well. He was an excellent businessman.'

I nodded. ‘Guo says he has to learn about business so he can run the farm.'

Jin leaned forward, resting his arms on the backrest. ‘Your Guo is really smart and I'm sure he's going to be a great businessman and farmer, just like your pa. I'm going to help him, just like I'm going to help your ma. I'm going to help you too.'

I looked down at the floor not wanting to meet Jin's eyes. I saw for the first time how cracked and dirty my feet were in their sandals.

‘What's going to happen to the farm?' I heard myself asking, staring at the specks of dirt caught between my toes and under the nails.

Jin sat up straight. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Are you going to sell it?' My voice was barely a peep.

‘Mei, why on
earth
would you think that?'

I kept chewing my lip, keeping my eyes to the ground. I started kicking at one of the legs of Guo's chair, my foot drumming up a hollow beat against the wood.
Thunk, thunk, thunk.

Jin caught my leg. ‘Mei, look at me.'

I did. The creases in his brow had deepened and his mouth had turned downwards. But for once he didn't seem scary, even though he wasn't smiling. He looked very concerned.

My voice was just a whisper. ‘You're not a farmer and Guo's at university. Who's going to take care of the farm?'

‘Oh, Mei.' Jin moved to sit next to me on the bed. I gazed into his good eye, seeing the warmth in it. ‘I promise I will never, ever, ever sell your father's farm. Never. And I'm going to learn about farming. Your ma's going to teach me, Guo's going to teach me,
you're
going to teach me.'

I couldn't help snorting. ‘But you're a butcher.'

‘So? I can learn.' Jin had a dreamy look on his face. ‘I want to learn from your father too and not do just one thing. We can be a new type of family. We're not farmers or butchers, but good businesspeople who do a lot of different things.' He knelt down in front of me and took my hand. ‘We're going to take care of each other, okay? That's what families do.'

I could see a small tear forming in his good eye. I watched it slide down the side of his broad nose, but he didn't seem to notice. ‘You know, your ma was so, so worried about you. She couldn't stop crying, saying it was all her fault.'

As I thought of Ma, my own tears stung at the corners of my eyes. ‘I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make her upset. It was all my fault.'

‘Your ma loves you very, very much.' He bent forward so that our foreheads almost touched. ‘And so do I.'

I nodded and pulled my hands out of his to wipe away my tears. Jin gave me a big bear hug. I hugged him back. He smelled musky, a little bit sour and a little bit sweet, different to Pa and Guo, but it wasn't too bad.

Eventually, he let go and stood up, holding
out his hand again. He was smiling and his good eye was still glistening.

I reached out and slipped my hand into his, letting his giant fingers wrap around mine, squeezing them gently. I gave him my own smile.

‘Come on,' he said. ‘Let's see if the others want some ice-cream.'

After we had ice-cream, Jin took us on a tour around the city. We went to the city centre to see all of the tall buildings and to go to the top of the Canton Tower. I had never been so high up before. With the wind whipping my hair so that it flapped like wings, I felt like a bird soaring through the sky.

The best part was that Guo was laughing in a way I hadn't seen in a long time. He did it with his whole body, the laughter starting in his belly and spreading through his arms and legs and up to his face. He was like my big brother again, like how I remembered him when he was joking around with Pa in the fields. It made me really, really happy.

Jin was chuckling along with my brother. I could tell he was happy too.

There was one person who didn't look so happy though, and that was Cap. As the day went on, he grew quieter and quieter. I wanted to cheer him up.

‘We can ask my stepfather if you can stay with us. We don't have to tell him about your uncle. Just say you need somewhere to stay for a little while. I'm sure it'd be alright,' I whispered to him. I was certain Jin and Ma wouldn't mind. But Cap just shook his head, kicking at the rocks by his feet.

When we got back to the university, the sun was already setting. Jin said we'd have to hurry so that we wouldn't miss the last train back to the village.

But when we got to Guo's room, someone was waiting for us.

Professor Law!

Guo was surprised to see him. ‘Professor, what are you doing here? This isn't about the assignment, is it?'

But Professor Law waved that aside. ‘No, no, this has nothing to do with schoolwork, well, not yours anyway.' He cleared his throat and then held his hand out to Jin. ‘Ah, Mr Lin, I believe.'

‘It's Wong, actually,' Jin said as the two men shook hands. ‘Lin's my stepson. What can we do for you, Professor?'

‘Well, actually, it's about this young lad here.' The professor gestured towards Cap, his eyes sparkling with excitement. ‘You see, I think this boy is one of the smartest kids I've seen in this school, and that includes some of our own university students. I haven't seen a stunt like that in all my years as a professor. Imagine, Tic Tac Toe Chickens!'

So he knew. But he didn't seem angry at all. In fact, he looked really pleased, even proud of Cap.

Cap was blushing furiously and he stared shyly at the ground.

‘Now, I don't know if you are aware of this,' the professor went on, ‘but we actually have a wonderful boarding school for young gifted boys like you. It's affiliated with the university.' He turned from Cap to Jin and then back to Cap again.

‘Of course, we'd need a signature from his parents,' he said, scratching his head. ‘I was under the assumption you were the boy's father, but it seems I might have been mistaken.'

‘Cap doesn't have a family,' I blurted out. ‘His parents died, he's an orphan.'

Jin, Guo and the professor all looked confused. I saw the panic in Cap's eyes and I pressed my lips together.

‘I see,' the professor said at last. He turned to Cap. ‘Is this true?'

Cap didn't say a word. I saw a single tear slide down his face. He turned away and walked down the hallway.

I felt horrible about breaking my promise, but I didn't know what to do. Guo came over and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

Professor Law was now talking to Jin and Guo in serious whispers. Eventually, the professor smiled and walked to where Cap was sitting hunched over in a corner. He squatted down beside the boy. I couldn't make out what they were saying.

‘What's going on?' I asked my brother.

‘Cap's going to attend school during the term and live at the dorms,' Guo explained. ‘All of the costs will be covered by the program and Professor Law's going to pay for anything else. But the program is for children from the villages to come and study in the city.'

‘And that's where we can help out,' Jin chimed in. ‘I'll have to talk it over with Ma, but I'm sure we could take over Cap's guardianship. And he'll come and stay with us during the school holidays.'

My eyes lit up. ‘Really? Cap's going to come and live with us?' I felt my heart soaring and a big smile stretched across my face. I gave my stepfather an enormous hug, smushing my face against his burly chest. He laughed and hugged me back. A loud crowing erupted from inside Guo's room. It seemed like Lo was happy about the news too.

Down the hall, Cap and the professor were still sitting on the floor talking. Cap's face was beaming and then all of a sudden he leapt up and pumped his fist in the air.

‘AWESOME!'

I ran up and threw my arms around Cap. I was surprised when he gave me a tight hug back.

‘What do you think, Mei?' Guo was grinning. ‘You and Cap will be like a real brother and sister now.'

Cap and I looked at each other and laughed. It felt
just
right.

Cap's ‘Tic Tac Toe' Tricks

Cap's secret to playing noughts and crosses (or tic tac toe) is to recognise patterns and combinations of moves. This type of pattern recognition is common for other strategy games, such as checkers and chess.

With a bit of practice and patience, you can learn some of his tricks too.

How to play

Noughts and crosses is an easy game between two players. Players take turns drawing Xs and Os on a 3 x 3 grid. To win the game, a player must get three Xs or Os in a row going across, up and down, or on a diagonal.

Often games will end in a tie and usually players will draw a new grid to play again. Players should take turns going first because going first is an advantage.

As you play the game more and more, you'll realise that the best way to play is to not only try to make your row, but to also stop your opponent from finishing their row and winning.

Once you have played the game a few times with your friends, you can try to wow them. Maybe you will be a noughts and crosses champion too! Here is one strategy you can test out.

The L-shape strategy

For this trick, you're going to try to make an L shape with your moves. An L is a strong position because even if your opponent blocks one row, you can still finish the other for a win.

Let's say it's your turn to go first. Most of the time, if you're going first, the best position to take is the middle square of the grid.

Pay attention to your opponent's next move. If they take a side spot and
not a corner spot
(doesn't matter which side spot it is), then you're in the perfect position to make an L.

Once your opponent completes their turn, take either of the corner squares
next
to their spot.

What will then happen is your opponent will try to block your diagonal. (If they don't for whatever reason, you can finish the diagonal row and win.)

But if they do block it, you can then take the free side spot next to your first move, creating an L shape.

Your opponent will now probably try to block you from going across or up and down.

But you can just complete the other row to win!

Remember to always pay attention!

It's tempting to get so caught up in making your own winning combinations that you forget about your opponent entirely. Always pay attention to what your opponent is doing and think about whether you should be blocking them, rather than trying to win. Remember that even Cap didn't win all of his noughts and crosses matches – he just never lost!

For more hints and tricks for noughts and crosses and other fun strategy games, you can visit
www.waichim.com/capstricks
.

What other noughts and crosses tricks or tips do you have? Email them to us at
[email protected]
.

Have fun!