Chapter 143: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 143

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

In the blink of an eye, time had already arrived at 2005. This year, Wang Xiaohua was in sixth grade, while his eldest brother Wang Dashan was already in the third year of junior high, and his second brother Wang Erhai was already in the second year of junior high.

The news of the village primary school being merged was not groundless; this year, sixth-grader Wang Xiaohua really had to go board at the town primary school.

Wang Xiaohua was still small in stature, only about 1.3-something meters tall; one couldn't tell if it was due to malnutrition or simply that he hadn't started developing yet. Even in the rural areas, this height counted as rather short. Additionally, his teeth grew in poorly; when he lost his baby teeth as a child, lack of attention left his front teeth uneven and misaligned.

This made his personality become even more introverted, even more unwilling to speak with others.

His eldest brother Wang Dashan, on the other hand, after undergoing puberty's development, had already grown to 1.75 meters by this time.

In the southern rural mountainous areas, this height was already considered relatively tall.

Because of year-round physical training, his skin was bronze-colored, his facial features angular and distinct, sunny and handsome beyond compare, and he even had an eight-pack; at a young age, girls were already secretly slipping him love letters.

Wang Erhai, meanwhile, was 1.6-something meters; in height he was middling, in appearance middling, and in grades also middling.

People say brothers grow more alike over time, but these three Wang brothers, as they aged, actually grew to look completely different from each other, the differences becoming greater and greater.

When they were young they still looked quite alike, but after growing up they instead didn't look that alike anymore; whether personality, appearance, or build, all were different.

The only common point was that a certain part of each of them still looked very much like Wang Zhanggen; one glance and you could tell they were Wang Zhanggen's seed.

For example, Wang Dashan's eyes were very like Wang Zhanggen's, Wang Erhai's nose was like his, Wang Xiaohua's ears were like his.

Wang Xiaohua going to board at the town primary school, Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen had no worries whatsoever about it, because the couple knew their youngest son better than anyone; although he was small in stature and introverted in personality, taking care of his own daily needs — food, clothing, shelter — would absolutely not be any problem.

Wang Xiaohua was formidable at studying, but absolutely not a bookworm.

Ever since both older brothers went to board at junior high, every day after Wang Xiaohua returned home from school, he would help do a lot of housework; whether stir-frying dishes and cooking rice, or feeding pigs and chickens, he could do it all.

Wang Xiaohua indeed adapted to the school's boarding life very easily.

Some students didn't even know how to wash clothes, yet he could wash them clean and hang them up with practiced hands and feet.

The school's food wasn't very tasty, but he wasn't picky; eating his fill was good enough.

Arriving at the town primary school, Wang Xiaohua finally got his wish and encountered a professional English teacher.

But he discovered a serious problem: his English knowledge lagged too far behind; grammar, phonetic symbols, and so on — he fundamentally didn't know what they were about.

Back when he studied at the village primary school, he had relied almost entirely on the stare-and-memorize method to rote-memorize English; those English letters in his eyes were not much different from tadpole script; what patterns, what rules were inside them, he didn't understand a single bit.

As a result, now that the English teacher taught class, he actually couldn't understand a single thing.

It was just like listening to a heavenly book.

Moreover, the town primary school's English exams had difficulty far higher than the village primary school's English exams.

The so-called exams inside the village primary school were actually just picking some questions from the textbook to test; because there was no professional English teacher, no one would set questions; only during final exams would the town send down exam papers.

So ordinary English exams were all extremely simple.

That is to say, Wang Xiaohua's eighty-plus English scores in the village primary school contained a lot of water.

As a result, when he came to the town primary school and took his first English exam, he actually only scored forty-plus points.

For him, this was nothing short of a very heavy blow.

Wang Xiaohua could only spend more time studying English, to make up for the previous deficiencies.

But because he had already formed the rote-memorization English learning method before, changing this learning method wasn't very easy.

As a result, for the better part of a year, his English only improved to seventy-plus points.

This score directly caused him, during the first semester final exams, to lose the first-place-in-grade position, and he didn't even make the top ten in the grade.

Relying on Chinese and Math, he barely squeezed into the top twenty in the grade.

That year was the first time since he started studying that he didn't receive a total-ranking award certificate, only single-subject certificates and some unimportant consolation certificates.

For someone like him who had grown proud and accustomed to academic success, this was undoubtedly a very heavy blow.

So when winter vacation came, he began frantically studying English.

He began following the teacher's methods: learning phonetic symbols, learning grammar, learning sentences; and when memorizing vocabulary, he no longer merely remembered the Chinese meanings, but also paid attention to roots and various usages in different contexts.

2005 passed, welcoming 2006.

During these Spring Festival days, Wang Xiaohua didn't even go out to play much.

He just went crazy studying, making up for all the knowledge he had fallen behind on over the past two years.

At this age, he was already sensible to a terrifying degree.

This made Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen both extremely gratified.

The eldest son Wang Dashan and second son Wang Erhai, on the other hand, were both already in junior high, yet still not very sensible; once winter vacation started they ran off everywhere to play, not even touching their winter vacation homework.

Already in puberty, yet still wild as children.

"Wang Dashan, do you still want the reward your dad promised you or not?"

Today, seeing Wang Dashan acting all nonchalant and going out to play with others, Li Xiulan couldn't help but remind him with a sentence.

Wang Dashan couldn't help but stare blankly; it seemed he had almost forgotten the promise Wang Zhanggen had made to him back then.

But immediately afterward he laughed out loud, saying very confidently:

"Mom, rest assured; this year for the high school entrance exam, I'll definitely test into high school! Know why?"

Li Xiulan asked puzzled:

"Why?"

Wang Dashan laughed:

"I heard my driving coach say, starting this year, high schools are going to expand enrollment! From now on, getting into high school won't be as hard as before!"

Li Xiulan stared blankly, half-believing half-doubting:

"Really? Or fake?"

Wang Dashan said with a laugh:

"Of course it's real, my Driving Coach is the best, he helped me boil Eggs for three years, you don't Not Know either!"

Li Xiulan revealed a delighted Smile:

"Then that's wonderful!"

Wang Zhanggen, however, still didn't look favorably on Wang Dashan, keeping a straight face as he said:

"Just afraid that even with expanded enrollment you still won't Test Into it, looking at your Exam Grades/Scores every year, simply terrible to an outrageous degree!"

Wang Dashan said with a laugh:

"Dad, that Promise you made Initially still counts, right? Can't just Not Count it because the School expanded enrollment, you said it, as long as I Test Into High School, anything within One Thousand Yuan, let me Choose whatever I want!"

Wang Zhanggen said Coldly:

"Wait until you Test Into it then we'll talk! Don't get happy too early!"

Wang Dashan's gaze was extremely confident:

"Reassure yourself, I'll definitely be able to Test Into it!"