It's a good thing that the village is rebuilding its primary school.
Otherwise, too many children in Xiaoyangshu Village would be out of school.
The tuition fees are one issue, but the most important thing is that going to primary school in the county is too far away.
There used to be a primary school in Xiaoyangshu Village, but the teachers couldn't be paid, so it closed down because no one could teach there.
The village is indulging in lavish feasts, the township is indulging in lavish feasts, and the town is corrupt and embezzling money, but the primary school teachers don't have the money to pay their salaries.
Many children who should be in school are unable to attend.
...
The original plan was to rebuild the school, but that would be too expensive. So we replaced the broken windows in the old, dilapidated school building, repainted the walls inside and out, and then bought some second-hand desks and chairs.
Of course, in order to save money, we still need to mobilize the village's labor force to do the work.
Chen Dejiang doesn't have time.
Chen Chu said he would come back from school in the afternoon to do chores.
However, he roughed up Liu Haiyan yesterday, and it felt really good.
Liu Haiyan naturally couldn't bear to see her little man working, so she told the village chief Zhang Cai to let Chen Chu teach a lesson.
Zhang Cai nodded in agreement; he also felt that Xu Guozhong's skills were lacking.
Chen Chu was still feeling quite pleased with himself when he got home from school in the afternoon.
I just talked to the woman at the shop this morning, and tomorrow is Saturday. She told him to come over so I can have a good time with her.
I felt incredibly pleased with myself.
Moreover, I didn't see Wang Wei during class today.
Teacher Wang Xia said he was sick and hospitalized.
Chen Chu was even happier, thinking that this kid was afraid of him and that he should be as arrogant as him.
In the afternoon, when I was riding my motorcycle back, I also saw villagers carrying shovels and other tools back home.
Wang Xiaoyan was even inside.
Chen Chu was taken aback, thinking, "Wasn't this guy supposed to be recuperating at home after his three big brick houses burned down? Why is he so eager to work for the village?"
After thinking it over, I realized that this old guy definitely wouldn't do anything without a profit; his eagerness must be suspicious.
He lost his three large brick houses; he probably wanted some kind of subsidy from the village.
Chen Chu couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Wang Xiaoyan, you're really good at scheming, but with me here, you won't get anything."
Wang Xiaoyan also saw Chen Chu, and he muttered a few words angrily.
But then he smiled and waved to Chen Chu.
Chen Chu stopped, genuinely afraid that the old man would try to sneak under his car wheels and extort money from him.
"Nephew, why didn't you participate in the labor today? In our village, each household contributes one person to clean the school building. Look, both of us are here! We're contributing two laborers!"
Wang Dasheng also stood behind Wang Xiaoyan, clearly trying to provoke Chen Chu.
"Oh, I'm here to lend a hand too? I'll teach?"
"What? You teach? What do you know? You're always at the bottom of the class..." Wang Xiaoyan said, then he and his son burst into a sly laugh.
"Hey everyone, don't go! Chen Chu, a college student, is going to teach a class! Let's go listen in! The school buildings are all ready today, and the students are having their first class!"
...
The villagers all love watching the excitement, and although they were tired after a long day, they felt it was all worth it so that their children could go to school.
I might as well test the results of my work.
And some of the village children couldn't wait to rush into the dilapidated classroom to see what was going on.
Actually, classes didn't start until the second day.
However, Wang Xiaoyan's shout brought together all the children in the village, from seven or eight years old to eight or ninety years old.
Wang Xiaoyan was good at organizing and insisted on teaching a class.
"Chen Chu, didn't you say you were going to teach? I've even found you students. So why don't you start teaching?" Wang Xiaoyan grinned, clearly trying to provoke him.
Chen Chu didn't dare to touch him, because if he did, the guy would just fall over and become clingy!
Paralyzed...
Chen Chu was so angry that his teeth itched. He thought to himself, "Damn, that old scoundrel Ma is really wicked!" Wang Xiaoyan had initially decided not to bother with him because of his age, but this bastard was just stirring up trouble!
Just then, upon hearing that class was about to start, Xu Guozhong ran over carrying one of his son's old elementary school textbooks.
He wasn't trying to help Chen Chu, but rather he was afraid of losing his part-time job. Three hundred yuan a month was enough for him to go to a brothel six times.
They hurriedly separated the crowd.
"Hey, hey, I'm the teacher. I'll teach the first lesson, and Chen Chu will teach the second. It's still early, so we'll have two lessons today!"
Xu Guozhong brought over someone's dog food bowl, then picked up a stone and banged it on the ground, shouting, "Class is starting! Class is starting!"
Everyone laughed, thinking to themselves, "If Xu Guozhong believes he's seeing prostitutes, is he really a teacher?"
Everyone followed suit, including the village chief Zhang Cai and the deputy village chief Liu Bingbing.
Chen Chu froze the moment he saw Liu Bingbing.
His eyes were fixed.
Liu Bingbing's long, flowing hair and fair, delicate face made her look like Chang'e descending to earth.
Chen Chu swallowed hard and entered the classroom surrounded by the villagers.
There weren't many tables and chairs; besides the seats for the village chief, deputy village chief, women's director, and Chen Chu, there were only a dozen or so left.
Chen Chu managed to get a seat because he wrote some false documents for the village.
Xu Guozhong stood on the podium with a serious air, holding a tattered book in his hand.
A dozen or so children in their eighties and nineties sat down in their seats, looking bewildered.
Xu Guozhong was very pleased.
It's as if he got married today.
He was even happier than when he got married, because everyone was looking at him, and he was the only one standing on the stage.
Moreover, Deputy Village Chief Liu and Liu Haiyan, who usually annoyed him, were also sitting below watching him. Then there were more than a dozen children. The open space behind the classroom and outside the windows were surrounded by the villagers' big black heads, their faces covered in mud and sweat, watching the newly cleaned classroom resume classes.
They don't know much, they don't recognize many words, but they also know that their children will have a better future if they go to school than if they stay in the countryside.
They don't understand the importance of going to school, but they don't want their children to be uneducated and looked down upon like they are, so they are all smiling.
Xu Guozhong also saw Zhu Na's mother watching the commotion, which made him even more excited.
He opened the book and wrote a few crooked words on the blackboard.
Then he shouted to the children, "Classmates, everyone repeat after me, the title of the first lesson is 'The Little Crow Looks for Water'!"
The children joined in, chanting loudly and somewhat in unison: "First lesson, the little crow is looking for water..."
Liu Bingbing frowned.
"Director Xu, is it Little Crow?"
"Huh?" Xu Guozhong blushed deeply.
Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing this.
Xu Guozhong broke out in a sweat.
"Hehe, I haven't taught for a long time, so my knowledge has become a mixed bag."
Zhang Cai was both amused and exasperated, grinning as he thought, "This is utterly shameful. With skills like this, I still get a teacher's salary of three hundred yuan."
Xu Guozhong corrected the mistake and then taught other words.
When teaching the word "cotton," he said, "Everyone, repeat after me. Its pinyin is 'niao, huan,' meaning 'bird change.'"
Liu Bingbing laughed again: "Director Xu, it's cotton, not bird change, it's cotton, not bird change."
Xu Guozhong swallowed hard, feeling a little nervous.
I glanced at Liu Bingbing.
"Hehe, that..."
Village chief Zhang Cai waved his hand: "Old Xu, if you can't do it, then go down. I'll find another teacher."
"Other village chiefs, I'll teach you something simple. Look, everyone, you recognize the character 'mama', right? Let's make words with it. Who can make words with it?"
Xu Guozhong quickly called on a student and asked, "Make words using the character '妈' (mother's mother)!"
The student looked at it and said, "Mom."
Everyone thought to themselves, "Isn't that obvious?"
Xu Guozhong then asked another student to form words, but that student couldn't.
Xu Guozhong guided them, saying, "It's very simple. Why can't you make any other words besides 'mother'? For example, you can make words like 'auntie' or 'stepmother'..."
Zhang Cai slapped his forehead.
The villagers around the village burst into laughter.
Sun Wu shouted, "Xu Guozhong, have you had too many stepmothers? Are you even teaching your kids to find stepmothers? Haha..."
Wang Xiaoyan also coughed and laughed.
"Xu Guozhong, did you get your head caught in the door frame?!"
Xu Guozhong's face turned bright red.
At this point, Liu Bingbing couldn't take it anymore and shook her head to speak, thinking that if Xu Guozhong continued to speak, these children would be ruined.
"Class, let's start by learning simple pinyin together..."
...
Forty-five minutes into the lesson, Liu Bingbing's sweet smile and the children's voices began to produce the syllables of the alphabet. Soon, the children remembered the initials and finals and could pronounce them correctly.
When the villagers heard their child finally speak the correct, pleasant Mandarin that they usually heard from city dwellers, their eyes welled up with tears.
Many rural women gently wiped their eyes.
Before we knew it, applause broke out.
Liu Bingbing's flowing ponytail and heavenly voice finally earned her the villagers' first and lasting respect.
Even Sun Wu was so moved that his eyes welled up with tears, and he clapped enthusiastically when get out of class ended.
Of course, it was Xu Guozhong who rang the bell to signal the end of get out of class, carrying a dog food bowl and banging it defiantly with a grin.
Chen Chu then taught another math class.
His jade thumb ring gleamed, and he spoke eloquently and in simple, easy-to-understand language. Before he knew it, the rural boy, whom many people considered dull, suddenly became very clever.
Chen Chu's explanations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division helped the children quickly grasp the concepts.
Zhang Cai nodded.
Then he exhaled.
At the end of the class, he waved to everyone and said, "That's all for now. Deputy Village Chief Liu will temporarily substitute for the class every day. Chen Chu... come and teach when you have time. Old Xu, you... you'll just be in charge of ringing the bell and banging the pot..."
The villagers all applauded.
Wang Xiaoyan was furious.
He had planned to outmaneuver Chen Chu, but he never expected the kid to be so shameless.
He felt a gust of wind behind him, turned around and saw his son Wang Dasheng clapping along, and glared at him angrily.
"You big idiot, what are you clapping for! Get out of here!"
The father and son, one tall and one short, walked away.
Chen Chu let out a breath.
Seeing that Liu Bingbing was about to leave.
"Um... Deputy Village Chief Liu, it's getting late. Let me take you home, I..."
Liu Bingbing looked at him, and in Chen Chu's eyes, her clear gaze was indeed filled with tenderness and affection. These weren't just eyes; they were a beacon of temptation. "Baby, let me lick your armpits and your toes."
"It's okay, I'll go back by myself. Chen Chu, what you said was very good." After saying that, Liu Bingbing got on her multi-speed bicycle and rode away.
The villagers automatically made way for her and couldn't help but greet Liu Bingbing.
"Thank you for your hard work, Deputy Village Chief Liu!"
"Take care, Teacher Liu!"
Zhang Cai sighed, thinking to himself, "Damn it, why are these roughnecks never this polite to me?"
Chen Chu watched Liu Bingbing's departing figure.
Suddenly, Chen Chu felt that she was not only beautiful, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what else made her beautiful.
However, he felt that Liu Bingbing had already taken root in his heart, leaving an indelible impression.
He really wanted to spend time alone with Liu Bingbing.
Can I really do it?
Chen Chu returned home with a heavy heart.
After finishing my meal, I lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
I finally fell asleep.
Suddenly, I felt a chill on my body in the middle of the night.
He immediately shuddered.
Suddenly I saw a face peering through the window.
A pale, disheveled old woman's face with a sinister grin.
He had seen this face twice: once at the county hospital, and once when he and Xu Hong were looking in the mirror in Ma Huaqiang's greenhouse.
Chen Chu was terrified to the extreme, yet he couldn't move a muscle.
The old woman grinned maliciously and slowly climbed in through the window...
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