There were mixed reactions; Po rationally knew it was a good thing, but emotionally, she clearly didn't think school was a good thing, and while she was happy about it, she gloated over the fact that her big brother would have to be honestly strapped to a chair to listen to lectures and do his homework, just as she was from now on.
Xiao Yuan, however, is much more meticulous than her, even if he was still so small when Wei Qian dropped out of school, he practically felt the despair and grief that Wei Qian had forced in his heart, so he looked up at Ms. Li with a little bit of expectation, with a kind of ecstasy that an out-of-school child expects to be rescued.
The one who reacted the most was Mrs. Song, who had lived longer than the three of them combined and had experienced too much.
She found that when Wei Qian sat in front of this teacher Li, the person's temperament has changed, he appears to be well-mannered, polite and coping well, looks a lot more stable than his peers, handsome face, banditry faded away, revealing his original dusty, compelling youth.
A young man at a good age, burning like a fire like Shaohua.
A thought flashed through Mrs. Song's mind, and she made an instant decision, thinking that the boy should go to school.
However, the only Wei Qian, listening to the words of Mr. Li, he just slightly froze, for a while, he only eyelids also did not raise gently smiled, the reaction is flat, said: "Thank you, teacher, but ...... cough, I am a person, inherently is not very willing to go to school, and may not be reading material ......"
"Are you afraid you won't have the money to pay tuition?" Mrs. Song suddenly interrupted him.
Wei Qian sank his face and swept a glance at his pig-like comrade, if it wasn't bad to make a scene in front of Mr. Li, he would have dared to slam his chopsticks on the spot - what was the point of saying that when you were crying about being poor in front of someone else's teacher?
Are they trying to win sympathy or are they shamelessly taking advantage of people's love to beg for help? There must be a limit to shamelessness, right?
But Mrs. Song doesn't care. She's capable of rolling on the ground. Face? What's face? Can you eat it?
So once again, she spoke before Mr. Li, "It's okay, you go read, I'm not old yet, I can do it. I guard the intersection, even in the morning and then at night, can sell hundreds of tea eggs a day, you calculate, this can earn a lot of money, right? They are still small, not to spend time, elementary school reading miscellaneous fees a year not much, at best, to pay a little book costs, you feel free to go to read your books, rest assured."
Wei Qian glanced at Mr. Li's expression and quietly ground his teeth while barely squeezing out a pure, harmless and somewhat embarrassed smile at Mr. Li: "No, it's actually not because of the economic original ......"
He tried his best to maintain his demeanor as if he were the president of the student body, Mrs. Song once again took advantage of this, interrupted him with her voice, she used her own cursing to practice the loud voice rushed to Mr. Li, "Teacher, but thank you, you are our family benefactor, as long as you let the boy back to school, tuition fees, my old lady, in the future, even if it is to go to college, we can afford to get into the exams, the child as long as he has his own success, but nothing can be delayed, right? I'm not sure if I can afford it, but I'm sure that I can afford it. Hey ...... you said, he really can ......"
Teacher Li smiled and held up his glasses, said: "Auntie, you can rest assured, when a lifetime of teaching, no power, no power, can do so little, but a pity a good child, when the child's grades are quite good, the exam has been the top ten - is not it Wei Qian? In a couple of days I'll let your uncle to do, do a good job and so on the start of summer vacation, you can directly enroll in school, what are the financial difficulties, you can say to the teacher, the big deal is that you will grow up to have success and then return to the teacher well."
Old Mrs. Song was so overjoyed that she almost gathered up her sleeves and bowed to Mr. Li: "Yo! Yes! Thank you so much! Thank you so much!"
Mrs. Song was the only one who shouted and completely occupied the right to speak with absolute superiority.
Xiao Bao only knew how to eat, Wei Zhiyuan looked at this and that, and finally managed to carefully clip a piece of meat and put it in his big brother's bowl - he saw the veins on his big brother's head burst out.
Ms. Li left after dinner, Wei Qian originally intended to go out to see her off, and in the meantime to thank the teacher's good intentions, the "back to high school" this absurdity rejected, but I did not expect that he just got up, before he had time to stand straight, Mrs. Song, that old woman, that old man's wickedness was unawares to give him a kick.
Big brother in the younger brother and sister in front of the eyes, unprecedentedly large jumped up, humiliatingly clamped up the legs, like a frightened rabbit as violently avoided, and then the door in front of the three of them, "bam" a closed, Mrs. Song has been chased out to send Mr. Li out, the movement of the swift, really unlike an old woman who is already seventy-eighty years old. The swiftness of her movements is really unlike an old woman who is already seventy years old.
After two seconds of silence, Wei Qian growled at Xiao Bao, "Is your grandmother that old hag looking for death?!"
Xiao Bao looked at him confused and innocently, wiped the sweat from the heat of Fang's meal, and said to him, "Brother, I want a popsicle!"
Wei Qian: "Eat shit, go brush the dishes!"
Xiao Bao had to condescend to brush the dishes and go, Wei Zhiyuan opened his mouth next to him, he asked with concern, "Brother, does it hurt?"
Wei Qian: "......"
So Wei Qian aimed his cannon at him, "Shut up and get out! Go wipe the table!"
Wei Zhiyuan then rolled off to wipe the table, and before he wiped the table, he also smartly picked up Wei Qian's usual bruise ointment from the bedside table, placed it in front of Wei Qian, lowered his head to sneak a smile, and ran away before a complete mountain of rain fell on his big brother's face.
Wei Qian's furious face calmed down, he gently breathed a sigh of relief, and leaned forward on all fours towards the chair that Xiao Yuan usually used for homework, the chair's legs were short and his legs were long, so he had to condescend to nestle together.
Wei Qian's violent heartbeat calmed down, in fact, he knew in his own heart that if he really didn't want to go at all, and really hated school as much as he said himself, he wouldn't have led Ms. Li home for dinner at all.
Song old lady that old thing again spirited, not as high as his chest, a young lad really move really, Song old lady can stop him?
That's impossible.
He himself wanted to go back to school from the bottom of his heart, and even though his childhood dream of a laboratory was so broken that it wouldn't stick, a degree was still something he could not hope for.
No matter what kind of education, even if he goes to a very shabby university in the future, but the diploma in his hand, in order to allow him to have a starting line and the vast majority of people in the world to struggle, he does not look forward to anything else, just want to board the train that can drive to the starting line.
It's too tough to run on two legs after a wheel on the tracks.
He really just wanted that little bit of hope.
But if he's gone, who's going to support the family? Who will make ends meet?
In less than half a year's time, Wei Qian would turn eighteen, and in the eyes of society, he was already an adult capable of supporting himself; he had hands, feet, and strength, and no one would sympathize with him because of his poverty, and no one would give relief to people like him - there were always more people in the world in need of relief than there was relief money.
He can't go to school with the money from the old lady selling tea eggs and picking up rags. He can't even do that.
Taking a step back, Mr. Li is a good man, willing to help him, that is counting on his good fortune to catch up. But Mr. Li has the obligation to help him take care of the family, to help him secretly subsidize the hemp mother?
About twenty minutes later, Old Mrs. Song returned, and the moment the door was pushed open, Wei Qian had already prepared the words in his heart to swear at her.
He was going to say, "You're not my grandmother, who the hell are you, you old bastard, and what do you care what happens to me? This is my fucking house, I'm in charge, so don't pretend to be a man in front of me!"
Given that the sentence was rather long and needed to be said in one breath, Wei Qian had taken a nice deep breath, yet when he saw the color of joy that hadn't had time to fade from the face of Old Mrs. Song, who had pushed her way in, he couldn't even utter a single word.
Mrs. Song thinks that going to school and studying is a matter of great pride and honor. In her hometown, the most educated person she knows is the village branch secretary with a junior high school education at the east end.
She was trying to be nice to him in a very rude and despicable way.
Wei Qian finally slowly spat out the breath that had been sucked in, along with the viciousness that had involved the internal organs, sounding like a sigh.
Wei Qian waved to Xiao Bao and Xiao Yuan and dismissed the two of them to take a popsicle each to the hut to do their summer vacation homework.
Xiao Bao was originally not happy that she had to do homework on the first day of summer vacation, then when she heard her big brother ask Xiao Yuan to join her, she immediately forgot to dwell on the homework and carefully looked up at Wei Zhiyuan together.
Even though Wei Zhiyuan's face was expressionless, Wei Qian could see his reluctance, so he aggravated his voice a bit and said, "Go, take whatever you like, and do as you're told."
Wei Zhiyuan knew that big brother and the others had something to say and didn't want to give him an earful, but the house was small and there was no way around it, and there was nowhere else to go but to send them to the hut, so he paused, waved his hand and refused the popsicle that Xiaobao had brought him, turned around and walked into the kitchen, put his hand back to put the kitchen door on, and rushed outside and said loudly, "I'll cut the watermelon!"
Disappointed, Po stumbled at the kitchen door with her popsicle for a long time, but was finally turned away by the crooked, unsturdy little broken door, and she turned hopelessly back inside, feeling that the creamy little bean ice wasn't even good anymore.
Wei Qian this time is really sighed - his pair of siblings look so deformed, the younger brother is a temperament so big that he can not do, die not turn back stubborn donkey, the younger sister it ...... alas, not to mention, she is simply a unique two hundred and five.
How can we live without him?
Wei Qian put his legs down, arched his back, held the chair handle with one hand, propped his other elbow on his knee, covered half of his face, and said to Mrs. Song in a rare, calm tone, "How much does our school cost a year, do you know? "
Old Mrs. Song held out four fingers, "Your teacher said four hundred a year, we have this money."
This money of course, Wei Qian for Le Xiaodong as a fighter that will, Le Xiaodong a month to give him fifteen thousand, good cigarettes and good wine at random, at that time is considered a relatively high income. He has some savings in his hand, four hundred dollars of tuition really can get, but tuition is always a small head, other expenses?
Wei Qian rubbed his fingers, he really wanted another cigarette at this time.
"We learn ...... our original that school, lunch break time is very little, the night to go to the evening self study, fully closed management, a day to stay in school twelve or thirteen hours, half work half study is impossible. We require three meals a day in the school to eat, the most economical a month to one hundred and fifty dollars, the cost of books is another calculation, is also a considerable expense, we will not count for the time being. At home, the three of you buy food and meat - yes, I know you cook at home to save money, but what age are those two children? It is even bone and then meat together with the time to grow, meal money absolutely can not save, plus utilities and other messy, two hundred a month, you have to live in a tight."
Wei Qian raised his eyes, "Tell me, just where are you going to get the three hundred and fifty dollars? After costs, electricity money and water money, can you make five cents selling one egg? Can you sell seven thousand tea eggs a month? Do you really think your eggs are laid by roosters?"
the Song dynasty (960-1279)
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Sectionalized reading 20
The old woman was dumbfounded, and after a while, without any bottomless sophistry, she said, "I don't sell a lot of them in a day, I can have hundreds ......"
"I'll buy you hundreds of eggs." Wei Qian smiled bitterly, continuous long speech, he is a little dry mouth, he whispered to Mrs. Song, "Do not play your little smart, what market I do not know, from morning to night, you can sell sixty or seventy even if the business is good."
Mrs. Song: "Aiyo you know shit, old lady can make money selling rags, wrapping paper, paper boxes ...... yes, and bottles, cans ......"
"Even if you can get this 350 dollars a month by working hard, what if something else happens?" Wei Qian interrupted her, "You're not too young, let me put it bluntly, what if there's a bump and you're hospitalized? Do you have medical insurance? Besides, even if I can make do, you can make do, but in case the two children's schools have some kind of spring games, other people are buying new clothes and snacks, you let them two also make do? Xiao Bao is a girl, it doesn't matter if she doesn't know anything now, after a year or two when she knows beauty, are you going to let her look up in front of her classmates in tattered clothes?"
When Mrs. Song heard this, somehow, her eyes suddenly blinked and tears fell without warning.
Wei Qian is right, she understands in her heart, this is the city, not their poor hometown, in the old country, the field stalks, parents, whose children are rolling in the mud, who is not much more decent than anyone, nothing to say.
But in the city, people are all in luxury cars and BMWs and clothes, and there is no way out of being poor.
How bitter this kid is!
And she's just a widowed, lonely old woman with no skills whatsoever, her greatest skill being vegetable gardening, but unfortunately, in this city of steel and concrete, you can't even find a two-foot-wide vegetable patch.
Wei Qian's heart was originally a piece of fear and bewilderment, suddenly found that Mrs. Song dropped tears, he did not say anything for a second or two.
The teenager then calmed down with an uncanny speed, stood up silently, pulled a roll of toilet paper from the table, tore off a bit and handed it to her, and said, with the calming air of a true head of the family, "Don't cry, I'm telling you the truth."
Mrs. Song sobbed more and more.
Wei Qian let her cry for a while, and finally got impatient: "Old woman, almost done, crying and wailing, bad luck or not? Let's talk about something, what's there to cry about?"
Song old lady listening to him again not the kind of civilization and decency, the old state of the outcry, so bent down to take off his shoes, holding the sole of the shoe to vigorously to Wei Qian body: "You a little brat! You heartless little brat, I'll kill you! Do you want to be a hooligan that much? Do you really want to be a small laborer? I'll whip you to death!"
Wei Qian of course could not be smacked to death by a sole, and he was too lazy to hide, so he simply shrunk his shoulders and shielded his face with his arm to let her hit and take out her anger.
At the same time, he wasn't going to accompany her in venting her meaningless emotions, Wei Qian racked his brain to think of a way out amidst such confusing background sounds.
The ground was full of thorns, and Hope was like a horse treading on a swallow, with only its tail just barely hooked onto his fingertips.