Chapter 48 - 048 Luoling Primary School

Yuequan Village did not have a primary school. The school was in the neighboring Luoling Village, where Luoling Primary School gathered children from Yuequan Village, Hongxia Village, Luoling Village, and Jinkeng Village. The school was small, with only one class per grade and just three teachers in total: one for Chinese, one for mathematics, and one also serving as the principal, responsible for teaching the first and second grades. From Yuequan Village to Luoling Primary School was about ten li away, which was considered close. Some had to walk as far as twenty li. Many children had to start their journey before dawn and only returned home when the stars were out, truly experiencing a journey adorned with stars and moonlight. If it rained or snowed, their hardships increased as their shoes often got filled with water by the time they reached the school. Some children, not wanting to ruin their shoes, would simply travel barefoot and only dry their feet and wear their shoes upon arriving at school. But although the conditions were harsh at that time, every child was very enthusiastic about learning, braving every storm. Their earnestness was indeed incomparable to the children of later generations. However, there were exceptions, like the present Tian Xinhua, who was known for his disinterest in studies. His academic performance was just mediocre; he was instead completely focused on making money and his heart was not in his studies. But the Old Man had decreed that all children from the Tian Family must attend school until they graduate from high school. He did not demand good grades, but insisted they should grow to be sensible and knowledgeable. The Old Man believed that reading too much was not beneficial, but not reading at all was also not good, thus he set the rule to graduate from high school, ensuring the children received just the right amount of education to be sensible without becoming nerds. Tian Sisi was being lazily dragged along by Tian Xinhua, sincerely disliking every bit of schooling.Tian Sisi pouted and asked, "Brother Xin Hua, can I just not go to school?" Tian Xinhua glanced at her sideways, "I don’t want to go to school either! But great-grandpa has decreed that all children of the Tian Family, regardless of gender, must graduate from high school." Tian Xinhua was also extremely frustrated. Rather than wasting time sitting in class, he would prefer to make money brewing liquor. Sigh! Both sighed together. Meanwhile, Tian Qinghua, who was enjoying his fruit candy nearby, was quite puzzled by their gloomy faces. In his view, what was so bad about going to school? Although getting scolded for bad grades was a downside, he could play with his classmates every day and didn’t have to work in the fields, which seemed wonderful! "I’ve got it!" Tian Sisi suddenly shouted loudly, "Brother Xin Hua, I’ve got a way to avoid going to school." "What way?" Tian Xinhua asked lazily, skeptical about what good idea Ah Nan could come up with given her intellect. "We don’t have to go to class in school; we can study at home instead. Then, as long as we score high marks in every exam, that should be fine." Tian Xinhua’s eyes lit up, that was a good idea. "Ah Nan’s brain suddenly had a stroke of genius, huh? But with your smarts, even listening in class you can’t score 70, how could you score high studying at home?" Tian Sisi, puffing her cheeks out in anger, retorted loudly, "I might not be clever, but are you any smarter? In the final exam last semester, I scored 75 in Chinese, you didn’t even make 70, huh!" Tian Qinghua chuckled and interjected, "You two are just as bad as each other, big brother has no right to laugh at second brother." "Shut up!" Tian Xinhua and Tian Sisi shouted at him in unison. Jianguo and Donghua gave Tian Qinghua a "you-deserved-it" look, choosing not to join their quarrel, content to quietly continue as the candy-eating little brother. Tian Sisi huffily shook off Tian Xinhua’s hand and walked ahead alone, hmph, daring to look down on her intelligence. After all, she was a bachelor from a second-tier university. Better than some, not as good as others, but still much better than you, Tian Xinhua, who never scored over 80 in exams. Tian Xinhua couldn’t help but give a wry laugh, he really had made the little girl angry this time. Shaking his head, he walked forward and took Tian Sisi’s hand. Tian Sisi huffed and pulled her hand away, Tian Xinhua kept reaching for it, trying several times, but she didn’t shake him off this time, however, she still gave him a cold shoulder, twisting her face nearly 90 degrees away. "Brother Xin Hua misspoke, Brother Xin Hua’s IQ isn’t as high as Ah Nan’s, don’t be mad anymore, how about letting you bite me once?" Tian Xinhua stretched his left hand to Tian Sisi’s mouth, he always did this to cool her down whenever they fought. "Don’t want to, it stinks, who wants to bite your claws." Tian Sisi barely held back a laugh, kept a straight face, but still turned her head away. Actually, she wasn’t even angry now, feeling herself becoming more and more childish. Could it be that as her body shrank, her mental age followed? Tian Xinhua had seen from the slightly curved corner of Tian Sisi’s mouth earlier that she wasn’t angry anymore, but he still played along and pleaded, "How about Brother Xin Hua carries you?" "Okay! Carry me all the way to the school." Tian Sisi slapped Tian Xinhua’s shoulder crisply, signaling him to hurry and get down. Tian Xinhua smiled, handed the backpack to Qinghua to hold, and squatted down to carry Tian Sisi. The little girl weighed barely over forty pounds, he didn’t feel it at all. Donghua curled his lip, Sister is being lazy again. Every time when going to school, Brother Five has to carry her, so embarrassing! When they were almost at the school gate, Tian Xinhua put Tian Sisi down, so as not to let others see and say that Ah Nan was acting spoiled. Luoling Primary School wasn’t big; it had only a single-floor building and a playground, with a makeshift basketball hoop standing there. Before when there were two young male teachers from the city, villagers often heard clangs from the school, but after those young teachers couldn’t stand the solitude and transferred to the town, that basketball hoop was completely neglected. People barely had enough to eat, who would play such a physically demanding game as basketball? Besides, even if you searched all four villages, you wouldn’t find a single basketball, some people didn’t even know what a basketball was for. The principal of Luoling Primary School, Principal Luo, was in his fifties, petite, with gray hair, wearing glasses held together with adhesive tape. It’s said Principal Luo’s myopia was nearly a thousand degrees. Once, a student pranked him by hiding his glasses, resulting in Principal Luo falling into a ditch on his way home from school, unable to climb out because he always crawled towards the deepest part. It was only after someone passing by saw him that he was helped out and sent home. Later, that prankster student got a beating from his dad. Principal Luo was highly respected in Luoling Village, Yuequan Village, Jinkeng Village, and Hongxia Village, because people under forty in these villages had all been his students and had been spanked by him using a hand paddle. Although the status of teachers had declined over the years, Principal Luo was still respected as Mr. Luo by the villagers. Once, a team of Red Guards from Hongxia Village wanted to make a show in front of the commune leaders, aiming to denounce someone as a negative example; after much thought, they chose Principal Luo under the pretext that he used to teach students about the Dream of the Red Chamber and foreign tales. The team of Red Guards gallantly rushed into Principal Luo’s house, barely dragging him outside when their fathers, who had heard the news, came rushing over. Their dads dragged these fourteen or fifteen-year-old Red Guards out by their ears and gave them a beating on the spot. After the beating, they still dragged their children to apologize profusely to Principal Luo, who, of course, wouldn’t hold a grudge against these youngsters. Besides, what fault did those kids have; they were just overly enthusiastic, he merely sighed and let their former students take their children back. The other two teachers were women in their thirties or forties, one surnamed Liu from Hongxia Village, teaching Chinese, and the other surnamed Jin from Jinkeng Village, teaching math. Both teachers were relatives of leaders in the commune, commonly known as people with connections, and neither of them was highly educated. It was normal for them to spell a few words wrong or make some mistakes in calculations during class. Originally, Principal Luo wanted these two to teach first and second grades, but the two teachers insisted on teaching higher grades, which paid more. Principal Luo had no choice, given their connections. He just had to pay more attention and provide extra tutoring for the students after class. Fortunately, the school didn’t have many students, only about forty or fifty in total; otherwise, he really wouldn’t have been able to manage. PS: Many thanks to Qingkong Wanyue, anna0626, Wo Ai Zi Ji XX, Shi Ru Chu Jian Z for your support!