Chapter 141

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"Just received a notice from the Town: our Shanggou Village Primary School, because enrollment has been dropping year after year, will stop teaching sixth grade starting next year, and over the following years will gradually stop down to third grade; if enrollment keeps falling, Shanggou Village Primary School might have to close altogether!"

Hearing Zhang Zhongtian's words, Li Xiulan was immediately stunned.

The school is actually going to be phased out — this is a major issue affecting the interests of every villager in Shanggou Village and several nearby villages!

No wonder Zhang Zhongtian looked so worried!

"How could this happen? What will the children do?"

Li Xiulan's face was full of worry.

Because right now her second son is in sixth grade, and her youngest son is in fourth grade.

Next year her second son goes to junior high, so this doesn't concern him.

But next year her youngest son will only be in fifth grade — this concerns her youngest son a great deal!

"The Leader said, students are to transfer to Town Center Primary School, just like junior high students, all boarding."

Zhang Zhongtian sighed heavily.

He also said:

"There's no choice. You've seen it yourself — more and more people have gone out to work in recent years, and they bring their whole families. Generally, those with stable income outside take their kids with them to study; some who've earned money buy houses in the County Town and settle there directly. Our Shanggou Village is declining."

Li Xiulan hurriedly said:

"Party Secretary Zhang, don't be pessimistic. Aren't more and more people earning money and coming back to build new houses in the hometown? My husband and I have more construction projects than we can handle these years! There should be more and more people returning to live in the countryside!"

Zhang Zhongtian gave a dry laugh; he didn't agree with Li Xiulan's view, but didn't bother to refute it, only saying:

"This matter involves your youngest son Wang Xiaohua. You need to be psychologically prepared. Next year he's in fifth grade, so he doesn't have to transfer yet, but the year after he'll be in sixth grade, and he'll definitely have to transfer then."

Li Xiulan, however, said:

"Wherever everyone else's kids go to study, my kid goes too — just follow the crowd. What preparation is needed?"

At noon when work started, Li Xiulan and Wang Changgen chatted a bit about the school issue.

Wang Changgen couldn't help but sigh:

"If only I'd managed to gain a foothold in the city back then, that would've been great. Now the countryside is really declining — no way out!"

Li Xiulan glanced at him:

"What nonsense are you spouting? You drifted in the city all those years and didn't earn a penny; it was only after coming back to the village to do masonry that you gradually made money, and you have the nerve to say the countryside has no way out?"

Wang Changgen gave a dry laugh:

"I'm not saying I have no way out in the countryside; I'm saying the kids have no way out in the countryside. Haven't you heard? This year Shanggou Village Primary School's preparatory class only enrolled ten or so kids. When our Xiaohua was in preparatory class, just five years ago, there were fifty-some kids! Go back further — when Dashan was in preparatory class, sixty or seventy kids! Compare them and you'll see how drastically enrollment has dropped!"

At that time, the big worker doing masonry alongside Wang Changgen was a middle-aged villager named Zhou Xiaotian.

Zhou Xiaotian laughed along in agreement:

"Exactly. The village has far fewer kids now! I heard from the Village Committee people that the Town leaders did thorough investigation before deciding to gradually merge Shanggou Village Primary School. Right now, all the three- to four-year-olds in Shanggou Village and the nearby villages added together might only be seven or eight; even younger ones are even fewer! Who knows, Shanggou Village Primary School might really shut down — no students, you can't expect teachers to teach thin air!"

Li Xiulan knew Zhou Xiaotian was telling the truth.

She felt an indescribable sorrow in her heart.

Just a few years ago, the whole of Shanggou Village was still thriving, lively and bustling.

Yet in just these few years, the village has grown much quieter.

Although since the demolition, apartment buildings have sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain, and fewer and fewer people live in black-tile mud-brick houses, the new houses that go up are also occupied by fewer and fewer people — everyone goes out to work, and all year round they only return for major holidays like Qingming and Spring Festival, leaving behind only frail old people.

Unlike Li Xiulan's family, where the whole household lives in the countryside.

In the evening when Wang Xiaohua came home from school, Li Xiulan talked to him about this.

"You might have to transfer to the town primary school for sixth grade, and you'll have to board. Are you afraid?"

Wang Xiaohua's reaction was unusually calm:

"Afraid of what? Wherever I study, it's still studying."

Li Xiulan said:

"Boarding means washing your own clothes, and you have to take care of your own daily life."

Wang Xiaohua replied:

"It's just one year earlier. Don't worry about me. With the effort you spend worrying, you might as well buy me a tape recorder!"

Wang Xiaohua still couldn't let go of the tape recorder idea.

Because he really needed a tape recorder to study English.

Because there was no real English teacher's guidance, plus no auxiliary learning tools at all, he encountered enormous difficulty learning English; no matter how hard he tried, his English scores never rose very high.

This even caused him to gradually develop a kind of fear toward English, making his love for learning no longer as deep as before.

Since he started learning English, this was the first time he felt frustration in his studies, and this frustration has persisted until now, a full year already.

Although his English can now reach the eighties, sometimes even occasionally ninety, for someone like Wang Xiaohua who's used to taking pride in his grades, it's obviously far from enough.

He hopes his English can be like Chinese and math — perfect or near-perfect every time.

"Do you really want a tape recorder that badly? What do you need a tape recorder for?"

Li Xiulan didn't understand Wang Xiaohua's obsession with the tape recorder.

"I've said it how many times? To study English!"

Wang Xiaohua shouted irritably.

"Since you want me to study well, why won't you buy me study tools? You're not so poor you can't afford that little bit of money!"

Li Xiulan faced Wang Xiaohua's sudden shouting, a bit dumbfounded; Wang Xiaohua had never acted like this before.

She looked at Wang Zhanggen and said:

"How about buying him one?"

However, Wang Zhanggen kept a cold face:

"What would we buy that for him? There's no tape recorder now, and he still gets first place every time; what does it matter if he loses a few points in English? That's the devils' stuff, we don't need it. I'm just worried that if we buy a tape recorder, his English won't improve, and his Chinese and math will drop too. That thing is just like a television — easy to get addicted to!"

Li Xiulan felt Wang Zhanggen made a bit of sense; she didn't want the child distracted in his studies. Listening to music on a tape recorder is quite addictive; mainly she couldn't open this door for the child. Today the child makes a fuss wanting a tape recorder; if she compromised, tomorrow the child might fuss for a game console. If that really happened, the child would be ruined.

"Xiao Hua, wait a few years until you're in junior high school, then we'll buy a tape recorder, okay? For now we won't buy it; you study with peace of mind, don't think about those things, obey."

Li Xiulan persuaded Wang Xiaohua in a gentle tone.

Wang Xiaohua flew into a rage instead, smashing the bowl onto the ground:

"Why don't you believe me? I'm buying the tape recorder to study!"

Then he flung his sleeve and went back to his room.

With a "Bang" he shut the door.