Chapter 34: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 34 Mountain Gully Village 34

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Li Xiulan transferred the mulberry field to other silkworm-raising households in the village for free management, no longer raising silkworms herself, and instead devoted herself wholeheartedly to running the Village Entrance Convenience Store together with Niu Chunsheng.

Because Niu Chunsheng was the Women's Federation Director, he had to handle any matters concerning the village's women and children, and had to run out of the store every few days, so the heavy responsibility of minding the store fell on Li Xiulan.

For example today, Niu Chunsheng was called to the Town Women's Federation for a meeting, and he also said that after the meeting he would go handle the convenience store's paperwork, so naturally it was Li Xiulan alone minding the store again.

Li Xiulan had no complaints about this; she liked minding the store, standing at the convenience store entrance watching the village children hopping and jumping about coming to buy things, and her heart felt happy.

Additionally she could mind the store while squeezing in time to teach her three sons some knowledge.

Previously busy with farm work, she had no time to discipline the children; now that she had time, she disciplined them more, hoping that when they went to study later, they could achieve good grades.

"You three, today you must finish writing 1 to 9 before you can go out to play!"

Li Xiulan brought her three sons to the front of the store and had them write numbers.

Wang Dashan scratched his head and cheek, absent-minded; he had made an appointment to play glass marbles with the village little friends, so how could he have the mind to write numbers.

"Mom, if I finish writing can you give me ten glass marbles?"

The convenience store sold glass marbles, five cents each, and they were colorful petal ones, super good-looking.

Wang Dashan had long wanted to take these glass marbles to show off in front of his little friends.

It was just a pity that Li Xiulan never gave them to him.

"No! Your Uncle Niu also has a share in everything in this store, I can't privately give you glass marbles, otherwise the accounts won't match; if you want them you can only use money to buy them!"

Wang Dashan pouted his mouth, very unwilling:

"So stingy! I hate Uncle Niu!"

Li Xiulan's face showed displeasure:

"Uncle Niu helped you get household registration, letting you go to school this September, you not thanking him is one thing, but you actually dare to hate him? You're asking for a beating, right!"

Wang Dashan, however, was hard-mouthed:

"I don't like going to school, he made me go to school, so I hate him even more!"

Li Xiulan was angered into a laugh, gave Wang Dashan's arm a slap:

"Hurry up and write characters, stop the nonsense!"

Beside them, Wang Erhai and Wang Xiaohua were both writing seriously.

However Wang Erhai was pretending to be serious.

Li Xiulan walked over to look, and discovered that in the square grid paper Wang Erhai had crookedly drawn many little animals: little cats, little dogs, little cows, field mice, even little spiders.

This angered Li Xiulan, and she promptly gave him two slaps:

"Told you to write numbers, you go scribbling randomly for me!"

Wang Erhai at this moment came out with a sentence:

"I won't write, I want to draw, I just want to draw!"

Li Xiulan was at a loss whether to cry or laugh at this.

The eldest son and second son had hardly been disciplined since childhood; before they were both raised like animals, scattered and free, so naturally they were full of wild nature, mischievous and naughty, very disobedient.

Only the youngest son Wang Xiaohua wrote numbers earnestly in his little notebook; although every character was crooked, they all tried their best to stay inside the grids.

"Xiaohua is so good, Xiaohua is so great, later I'll reward you with a sugar!"

Li Xiulan saw Wang Xiaohua so obedient, couldn't help but praise, feeling very satisfied in her heart.

Wang Xiaohua, however, said:

"Mom, I don't want sugar."

Li Xiulan's face showed surprise: "Then what do you want?"

Wang Xiaohua pouted his mouth:

"I don't want to be called Wang Xiaohua, Mom you give me a name change, they all say Wang Xiaohua is a girl's name, they all won't play with me!"

Actually the reason Wang Xiaohua's personality was this obedient was to a certain extent because the village's other little boys all wouldn't play with him, isolation led to an introverted personality, even his eldest brother and second brother sometimes mocked his name.

Li Xiulan suddenly realized that the name she had casually given before seemed to have a rather large negative influence on the youngest son, but fortunately Wang Xiaohua hadn't gotten household registration yet, so changing his name wasn't difficult.

"Then what do you want to be called?"

Li Xiulan asked.

Wang Xiaohua's little head, staring with big eyes, thought for a moment:

"As long as it's not Xiaohua, any name works! I'm not a girl, I'm a boy!"

Li Xiulan touched his head:

"Later I'll discuss with your dad!"

At this time, the eldest son Wang Dashan shouted:

"Mom, little brother doesn't want the sugar, then give it to me! I finished writing!"

Li Xiulan took Wang Dashan's notebook to look, and immediately got angry:

"You call this finished? One page you only wrote one number! And it's written like dog-crawling script!"

Wang Dashan saw his own mom get angry, hurriedly threw down his homework book, and ran off in a flash, not even wanting the sugar.

Wang Erhai saw his eldest brother run, also hurriedly threw down his homework book and followed running.

The two ran together to the village to play hide-and-seek with other little friends.

Li Xiulan was angered to death by these two worry-free sons, but had no way to chase and catch them for a beating, after all she still had to mind the store.

Turning back and seeing her youngest son Wang Xiaohua still writing characters earnestly, Li Xiulan's mood improved a little.

"Xiaohua, once you learn to write 1 to 9, I'll teach you arithmetic!"

"What's arithmetic?" Wang Xiaohua's eyes were full of yearning.

"Arithmetic is one plus one equals two, two plus three equals five!" Li Xiulan didn't know what arithmetic was either, so she could only explain it like that.

"Why does one plus one equal two, but two plus three equals five?" Wang Xiaohua's little head held big puzzlement.

Li Xiulan couldn't explain it; she originally didn't have much knowledge or education, she only studied to sixth grade of primary school and didn't continue school after that, how would she know so many whys?

"You've stumped your mother, I don't know why, anyway the teacher taught us like that before, when you go to school go ask the teacher!"

"What's a teacher?"

"A teacher is a teacher, a teacher knows everything! When you go to school, whatever you don't understand just ask the teacher! And there are lots of little friends at school, then you can play together with them!"

Li Xiulan's words planted a seed in Wang Xiaohua's little heart, making Wang Xiaohua actually a bit eager to go to school, this had a big influence on Wang Xiaohua's later growth.

In the afternoon, Niu Chunsheng returned from outside.

"Sister Xiulan, let me tell you some good news, the business license and tobacco license came through, from now on we can sell more things!"

Niu Chunsheng was elated.

Ever since this convenience store opened, because product prices were almost exactly the same as the town market, business has always been pretty good.

The reason the previous supply and marketing cooperative had bad business was because quite a few things were a bit more expensive than the town market, don't look at it being not much more expensive, Huanfeng instant noodles fifty cents a pack, he sold for sixty cents, but just that little bit more expensive, business wasn't as good as now.

Everyone suffered hard days before and got scared, now they all economize, if it's more affordable they'll choose the more affordable one.

"That's great!"

Li Xiulan answered with a smile.

Niu Chunsheng said again:

"I bought a secondhand refrigerator at the appliance store, tomorrow the appliance store boss will deliver the refrigerator, before long we can sell popsicles!"

Li Xiulan worried:

"Won't it be very expensive? We don't have much money now, we need to keep some for restocking!"

Niu Chunsheng laughed:

"Secondhand isn't expensive, the appliance store boss said eight hundred, I haggled it down to five hundred through soft and hard bargaining, the deal closed, a new one of that brand costs two thousand plus! Buying it is a profit!"

Just then, Zhong Jianguo from the neighboring health station walked over:

"Xiulan, your husband called you!"

"Okay okay, I'll go pick up the phone right now!" Li Xiulan turned and walked to the health station.

Niu Chunsheng watched Li Xiulan's departing back, thinking that Li Xiulan was a woman with a husband, his heart couldn't help but have some complex emotions.