Chapter 124

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

On the first day of school, Wang Xiaohua left a deep impression on the teachers in his class.

He not only listened very seriously to everything the teacher said, but no matter what question was asked of him, he could answer easily.

Actually he could have not listened seriously, because those simple addition and subtraction arithmetic problems the teacher taught on the podium, he had already learned several years ago.

Now he already knew how to do chicken-and-rabbit-in-the-same-cage math problems; in terms of learning knowledge reserves, he was far ahead of his peers.

"Wang Xiaohua, you're really smart! How about you be our class monitor!"

Homeroom Teacher and math teacher Zhang Lili liked Wang Xiaohua very much; on the first day of class she noticed Wang Xiaohua's uniqueness, so she directly had him be the class monitor.

But Wang Xiaohua was very timid and introverted.

"Teacher, I'm afraid I can't do it; how about you let someone else do it?"

Wang Xiaohua said timidly, his face already flushed red.

Zhang Lili saw that Wang Xiaohua was so introverted and not good with words; directly giving him the important responsibility of class monitor didn't seem quite right either, so she stopped insisting:

"Fine then, you be Vice Class Monitor and Study Committee Member. Li Yuncui, you be Class Monitor."

Another child in the class had long been in Zhang Lili's eyes; that was Li Yuncui. Li Yuncui was also quite smart and already knew how to do two-digit addition and subtraction, but compared to Wang Xiaohua she was still a bit lacking. Her biggest advantage was being lively and cheerful; on the very first day of school, while other children were still crying and fussing, she had already taken the initiative to interact and make friends with other children.

Li Yuncui had two little ponytails tied on her head. When the teacher chose her as Class Monitor, she immediately jumped up and down happily:

"Yay, thank you, Teacher!"

In the blink of an eye, Wang Xiaohua had been coming to school for several weeks.

The novelty of when he first came to school had passed; the classmates already knew each other, and everyone had formed quite a few small groups that played together.

But Wang Xiaohua had always kept to himself, rarely talking to others, and others rarely approached him either.

Originally he thought that coming to school would let him make friends.

But later he discovered that he simply didn't have the courage to take the initiative to make friends.

His personality had long been shaped by the mockery of his childhood; wanting to change his timid, weak, introverted personality would probably be harder than getting his parents to stop arguing.

Personality is something that, once shaped, is very hard to change again.

Wang Xiaohua felt very lost inside about this; he longed to make friends in his heart.

But he just didn't dare to take the initiative to make friends.

Other children also didn't dare to come play with him, because he was really too smart and didn't talk much; as a result, he became a freak in others' eyes.

In the class, only Class Monitor Li Yuncui would occasionally come say a few words to him and take the initiative to ask him some math problems.

Teacher Zhang Lili saw this in her eyes and also discovered Wang Xiaohua's problem.

She felt this couldn't go on; if Wang Xiaohua couldn't integrate into the group, it would definitely have a bad influence on him in the future.

So Zhang Lili had Li Yuncui moved to sit as Wang Xiaohua's Deskmate, hoping Li Yuncui's enthusiasm and initiative could open Wang Xiaohua's heart.

"Wang Xiaohua, why don't you talk all day?"

Li Yuncui had been Wang Xiaohua's Deskmate for a few days and felt bored to death; it wasn't fun at all.

Previously she still thought Wang Xiaohua was impressive, actually being able to do third- and fourth-grade problems; now she didn't think so anymore. She felt Wang Xiaohua was just a block of wood.

"I don't know what to say..." Wang Xiaohua said timidly.

"You can just say anything at all. My mom said, not talking all day makes it easy to get bad breath and cavities!"

"I have bad breath?"

"Of course it stinks, it stinks to death!"

"Then I should talk even less, so I don't stink you out..." Wang Xiaohua felt very sorry about his bad breath.

Li Yuncui was angered to death by him:

"That's not what I mean. What I mean is, you should talk more! Like me, talk more, be happy every day, how great!"

Wang Xiaohua didn't know how to respond to her words; he only gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Where's your home?" Li Yuncui took the initiative to find a topic.

"Shanggou Village."

"Then your home is closer than mine. I'm from Li Family Village, which is above Shanggou Village."

"Oh..." Wang Xiaohua responded with a sound, said nothing more, and killed the conversation again.

Li Yuncui ran out of patience, stopped paying attention to him, and instead went to find the classmate at the next table to play Princess Pearl little paper pictures.

Just then, Wang Xiaohua's older brother Wang Dashan came to the classroom door.

"Little brother, come out for a moment!"

Wang Xiaohua looked up, saw it was his own older brother, and hurriedly ran out.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Wang Dashan quietly took out a homework notebook:

"When you have free time, help me do my homework. Don't do it at home, otherwise if Mom and Dad find out, they'll spank me again. And don't let your teacher know either, just in case she tells on me to my Homeroom Teacher!"

"Brother, this isn't quite right..." Wang Xiaohua was somewhat unwilling.

But Wang Dashan said:

"What's wrong with it? Aren't you bored in class anyway? You helping me do it just happens to kill time. When we get back, I'll take over your housework. How about that?"

Wang Xiaohua didn't like doing housework, but now there was already a fixed housework division at home.

The three brothers, after coming home from school every afternoon, would do some housework.

Wang Dashan, this eldest brother, was mainly responsible for carrying water and feeding the pigs; he was comparatively tall and could already shoulder two small buckets of water.

Wang Erhai, this second brother, was responsible for going to the Vegetable Garden to pick vegetables, wash vegetables, and also stir-fry dishes and cook rice.

As for Xiao Hua, he was responsible for feeding the chickens, sweeping the floor, doing all comparatively light work.

Xiao Hua did not like doing these household chores; he felt these chores were meaningless, day after day all the same.

Now Wang Dashan took the initiative to propose such a condition, that he could help him do the household chores he disliked; he thought for a moment, and finally agreed.

"Alright then, then give me the homework notebook, tell me which problems to do?"

Wang Dashan immediately handed over the homework notebook, then opened the textbook, pointed out which problems to do:

"This one, this one, and also this one, just these, for you very very simple, just like this for now, I have PE class next period, I'm going to play, goodbye!"

Wang Dashan threw the homework notebook and textbook over, then sprinted toward the School Playground.

The Classroom Xiao Hua was in was on the First Floor.

During class, he could see Outside the Playground, his eldest brother was with a group of classmates, on the mud ground without Cement laid, playing with a worn-out Basketball, their laughter like the dust rising on the Playground, drifting higher than the worn-out basketball hoop...

Xiao Hua from time to time looked up to look outside, his heart involuntarily melancholy, he also wanted to play wildly with classmates like that, also wanted to shout and laugh happily.

"Xiao Hua, concentrate on class, don't daydream!"

The teacher on the podium discovered Xiao Hua wandering in mind, so reminded one sentence.

Xiao Hua hurriedly withdrew his gaze, nervous to the point of face red, sat upright and listened attentively to the lesson.