Chapter 136

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

This night Wang Xiaohua slept together with his two older brothers, and he remained gloomy and dejected the whole time.

Wang Dashan and Wang Erhai both came over to comfort him, yet he still would not speak.

The two older brothers felt this younger brother was just a stuffed gourd, no fun to play with, so they stopped paying him any mind.

In a blink it was the next day.

Just as dawn broke, Wang Zhanggen brought the Geography Master up the mountain to search for a feng shui treasure land.

The two trekked across mountains and streams, covering a vast stretch of mountain land around the village.

Finally they found a feng shui treasure land where both people and wealth would prosper.

The Geography Master also calculated for Wang Zhanggen, setting the time for the second burial.

By the time they returned in the afternoon, the Geography Master ate a dinner at Wang Zhanggen's home, then left.

During dinner, the Geography Master saw Wang Xiaohua still gloomy and dejected, so he teased him: "Little kid, still sulking? I'll give you a candy, how about you stop being mad at me?"

"Little kid, still sulking? I'll give you a candy, you stop being mad at me, okay?"

Wang Xiaohua replied coldly:

"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at myself."

"How come you're mad at yourself?" the Geography Master asked curiously.

Wang Xiaohua fell silent after that.

Only from then on, he studied even harder, devoting nearly all his time to learning.

Facing this change in Wang Xiaohua, Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen not only failed to see any clue, they actually thought it was a good thing, believing it was a feng shui shift brought by the grave relocation.

Time passed day by day.

This couple, Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen, continued doing masonry construction work in the rural area; because of the accumulated experience and reputation from before, in the following time they contracted one or two projects almost every year.

With such steady work, they gradually climbed out of poverty and gradually began to accumulate a bit of savings.

And they attributed all this to feng shui, believing it was the feng shui change that brought transformation to their family.

In a blink Wang Dashan was already in sixth grade, Wang Erhai in fifth grade, Wang Xiaohua in third grade.

Wang Dashan and Wang Erhai's grades were still rotten as ever.

Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen didn't bother to intervene, because they also knew intervening wouldn't accomplish anything; after all, they themselves weren't the studying type, so how could they teach their children?

When Wang Xiaohua entered third grade, he faced the first major challenge of his life.

Third grade started English.

Before this he had never encountered anything related to English; at home they didn't even have a television, almost completely cut off from the outside world, let alone English exposure.

Most fatal of all, inside Shanggou Village Primary School, there simply was no English teacher!

Primary school third grade starting English has only become widespread in recent years; remote rural primary schools generally lack English teachers; no English teacher but English class must be taught — how to teach?

Shanggou Village Primary School's approach was simple: have the Chinese teacher or math teacher or PE teacher bring this tape recorder to give lessons to the students.

During class, they played English tapes, letting students read along with the tape.

The effectiveness of this teaching method is imaginable.

Wang Xiaohua was already considered quite clever in class; math and Chinese he consistently scored near full marks, but on his first English exam he only got 54 points, not even reaching sixty!

Yet even this score was still class rank one!

Many classmates scored zero; single digits and teens were a whole swath.

Seeing his English score, Wang Xiaohua fell into deep fear; although he was still class first, he couldn't be happy at all, because he knew he hadn't learned this subject well, and most fatal of all, he didn't even know how to learn it well, because no one around understood English; even if he wanted to ask, no one could answer him.

The only thing he could do was memorize by rote every single word in the English textbook, following the tape recorder's pronunciation; just hearing the tape recorder a few times in class certainly couldn't make him remember those words in the textbook.

To be able to repeatedly listen to the tape recorder's pronunciation and repeatedly rote-memorize, Wang Xiaohua made a request to Li Xiulan: he hoped Li Xiulan could help him buy a tape recorder.

However, this time, Li Xiulan unexpectedly did not support him like before; previously when he wanted to buy books or pens, Li Xiulan bought them without a second word, but this time buying a tape recorder, Li Xiulan was unwilling.

"What do you want that thing for? If you have that thing, will you still study seriously? Will you go bad?"

Wang Xiaohua was dumbfounded by his mother's suspicion:

"I'm buying a tape recorder to learn English, not to play! Just help me buy one!"

Li Xiulan asked:

"How much money?"

Wang Xiaohua said: "My deskmate Li Yuncui bought one; she said it costs over a hundred yuan."

Li Xiulan was immediately shocked: "That expensive!"

Wang Xiaohua said:

"The expensive ones let you hear clearly; cheap ones always make static noise, can't hear clearly!"

Li Xiulan was still quite unwilling; she felt learning should come from textbooks, what logic is there to buying a tape recorder to study?

In her shallow cognition, a tape recorder was like a game console — both would lead a child astray.

So she said:

"Xiaohua, our family is poor, we don't compare with others; what others have we don't, others buying tape recorders to study is their business; I believe you're this clever, even without a tape recorder you can still learn well."

Wang Xiaohua was furious:

"Without a tape recorder I fundamentally can't remember how words are pronounced, fundamentally can't study; the school has no English teacher!"

Wang Zhanggen at this moment chimed in:

"However other classmates study, that's how you study!"

Then he also said:

"Besides, didn't you still get first place this time? Without a tape recorder you can get first place; with a tape recorder you might not necessarily!"

Wang Xiaohua felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his inner heart.

He did not know how he could persuade his parents to spend that hundred-plus yuan to buy him a learning tool.

The final result was cruel yet also very realistic; no matter what Wang Xiaohua said, his parents did not agree to buy him a tape recorder.

The matter of learning English, he had to solve it himself.

As a result, in this year's final exam, although he was still class first place, he was no longer first place in every subject.

His English grades were far inferior to Li Yuncui's, trailing Li Yuncui by over ten points.

It's not that Li Yuncui scored amazingly well either; she only scored in the eighties for English, while Wang Xiaohua, relying on rote memorization, memorizing English words like shapes, also scored in the seventies.

That was already him using almost all his strength to study, because he had no way in, no method, no skill, he had nothing at all, just like a profound martial arts secret manual placed before him, with no one to guide him, he could only grope on his own.

He felt very unconvinced in his heart about this; he felt that if he had a tape recorder, he could at least score ninety.

At the same time, dissatisfaction toward his parents gradually grew in his heart.

He wanted to buy a tape recorder not to play, but to study, and they weren't short of this hundred-odd yuan, so why were they unwilling to buy it for him?

This made him truly unable to understand!

Even many years later, when Wang Xiaohua had grown into an adult and left Shanggou Village, whenever he recalled this matter, he still could not understand what kind of mood his parents had held when they refused this request of his.