TCFSRMR |Chapter 29

After National Day had only passed two days, it was Mid-Autumn Festival.

The school, as usual, gave a one-week Mid-Autumn holiday.

When the holiday was about to start, the benefits for the teachers were also distributed.

Each person got two jin of mooncakes, plus a bag of candy, and two yuan.

Miao Xiuxiu packed up the things in the office, then ran over to the first-grade classroom. Through the window, she saw Shi Heng and Shi Ying sitting quietly together reading, and the smile on her face just could not be stopped.

If this had been in the past, she really would not even have dared to dream that in her lifetime, she could still see her son and daughter reading together in one scene.

It was Shi Ying who noticed Miao Xiuxiu standing quietly outside the window first. She hurriedly closed her textbook, and also neatly helped Shi Heng clear off the desk.

Just as she stuffed the book into her schoolbag on her side, Shi Heng silently carried both schoolbags onto his shoulders.

Ever since the first day of school, Shi Heng had become Shi Ying’s dedicated bag carrier. Even if Miao Xiuxiu wanted to take over for him, she would be refused.

Miao Xiuxiu both felt gratified that her son knew how to care for people now, and saw how much he protected his little sister, yet she also worried that her son clung to his sister so much that when the two of them grew up and would inevitably have to separate, what would her son do?

Then she thought about it again. Shi Heng was already better so much right now, and who knew, by then he might even be completely cured.

“Mom, what are you holding?” Shi Ying looked up and saw Miao Xiuxiu standing outside, pushed the stool aside, and ran over with quick little da-da-da steps.

“These are the mooncakes Mom was given.” Miao Xiuxiu said with a smile. As she was speaking, Shi Ting and Shi Jie also came over one after the other from the direction of the toilet. Unlike Shi Ying and Shi Heng’s excitement, Shi Ting was obviously somewhat listless.

Fifth grade in primary school was the graduating class, and exams were relatively frequent. Just yesterday there had been a math test, and today when the results came out, on a paper worth one hundred points, Shi Ting had only scored seventy-two.

“That’s already very good. You lost your textbooks for so long, and still managed to get this score. We’re not in a hurry, let’s take it slowly.” Miao Xiuxiu pulled Shi Ting over and comforted her in a low voice.

Shi Jie, though, looked at Shi Ting and understood why her older sister was so upset.

Not long ago, they had gone with their mother to their maternal grandfather’s house. When he heard that the two sisters had both gone to school, Grandfather was very unhappy and kept nagging that what was the use of girls studying, it just wasted money.

He even scolded their mother, asking why, when she had money in her hands, she did not think of subsidizing her brothers at her natal home, but instead wanted to spend the money on daughters who counted for nothing at all.

Their mother was scolded so much that she did not dare make a single sound. In order to keep Grandfather from getting angry, she even promised him that if the two sisters did not score above eighty on their exams, she would not let them keep studying…

“…Auntie, am I really not cut out for studying?” Shi Ting was silent for a moment before saying.

This seventy-two points had still been the result of Auntie tutoring her every day.

“Who is born knowing how to do anything well?” Miao Xiuxiu hugged Shi Ting once, “You also know what your mom is like. She’s just the type with a knife in her mouth and a tofu heart, she’s only saying it with her mouth. She’ll definitely let you keep studying… besides, don’t you still have your dad and your uncle…”

After coaxing her for quite a while, Shi Ting finally had a little bit of a smile on her face.

When they were about to leave the school gate, Nie Lan chased after them again.

“Xiuxiu, wait a moment.”

Miao Xiuxiu stopped in her tracks.

After Nie Lan caught up, there was some embarrassment on her face.

“It’s like this, Xiuxiu, Xiuming wants to see you…”

Before, when she heard that someone had reported Miao Xiuxiu, Nie Lan had felt a jolt in her heart, and her intuition told her that this matter was probably related to Guan Xiuming.

After going back, she had even specially asked Guan Xiuming about it. But Guan Xiuming had said things like, “When people act, Heaven is watching,” and also, “Evil deeds will not go unpunished,” telling her not to bother with it.

Seeing her calm look, Nie Lan had thought she had guessed wrong. She never expected that in the end, it really was Guan Xiuming who had done it.

During this period, Guan Xiuming had been called over to the work team several times. At first she still did not admit it, but in the end she finally could not take it anymore and admitted that the matter was done by her. As for saying that Miao Xiuxiu and Liang Dacheng were colluding, and also those sensational claims like “Miao Xiuxiu has a mental illness and will kill children,” all of those were also imagined by her alone.

Originally Guan Xiuming had still thought that this matter was not that serious. After all, she had just made a mistaken judgment, right? Since the organization had already investigated it out, then let Miao Xiuxiu continue being her teacher. Miao Xiuxiu did not really suffer any loss, did she? Other people had also not done such things as reporting and exposing others. The saying was that if one has faults, one corrects them, and if not, one encourages oneself. She had never heard of anyone being punished for this.

Who would have thought that the higher-ups would actually not let this go. Now this matter was already considered settled. Guan Xiuming not only had to leave the Shilibu educated youth point, she would also get a disciplinary sanction, and it would be the kind that was written into her file and followed her for life.

Under such a sanction, let alone having a chance to return to the city, even if she did, she probably would not be able to find a job anymore.

“I have nothing to say to her.” But Miao Xiuxiu’s face immediately darkened.

Her two children were her reverse scale. If Guan Xiuming only had opinions about her and spread bad words about her, then fine, but she absolutely should not have splashed dirty water onto Shi Heng’s head.

It was only because of that little airplane that Shi Heng had turned disaster into fortune. Otherwise, if the things Guan Xiuming wrote really spread, and outsiders took them as true and really decided that Shi Heng had murderous tendencies, then let alone being unable to stay in school in the future, he would probably become someone everyone disliked wherever he went.

This was simply trying to cut off Shi Heng’s future path.

Nie Lan naturally also knew Miao Xiuxiu’s knot in her heart. At once she sighed and did not say anything else.

What Guan Xiuming had done before was indeed a little too much.

As soon as the group entered the house, Shi Guoan and the others also came back from the fields carrying hoes on their shoulders.

Seeing the things in Miao Xiuxiu’s hands, Yin Zhaodi’s eyes widened at once.

“Sister-in-law, what are you carrying?”

“The school distributed two jin of mooncakes.” Miao Xiuxiu handed the things in her hands to the old lady, “Tomorrow just happens to be Mid-Autumn Festival, so let’s eat them tonight.”

“Cut one to taste and that’ll do. Save the rest for visiting relatives…” Yin Zhaodi immediately said.

“Eat them all, eat them all…” The old lady said cheerfully, “Our family has a lot of people. If we cut one up, I’m afraid each person wouldn’t even get a single bite…”

“The adults can skip it, just let you two elders and the younger kids eat them.” Yin Zhaodi immediately offered a solution.

“How can that do? There’s only this one Mid-Autumn Festival in a year.” The old lady was still shaking her head. “We’ll buy more when we visit relatives. Just so happens these two days we can rest, so you all go into the city for a trip, buy some meat and then buy a few jin of mooncakes…”

Seeing that the old lady had made up her mind, Yin Zhaodi was also helpless, and secretly complained to Miao Xiuxiu:

“Mom really has gotten bold now, to actually be this generous, and even wants to buy more…”

If this had been in previous years, being able to divide one mooncake per person would already have been a good thing one wouldn’t even dare dream of. If mooncakes were bought, it had always been for the few children to have a sweet taste, and then everything would be put away for visiting relatives. They simply would not even bear to let Shi Zhongyi and his wife eat any.

After all, no matter how poor the family was, they still had to handle social obligations and such. Most of the time, after finishing their visits to relatives, they would use the little bit of pastries others gave them to satisfy a craving, and often they had them sometimes but not other times.

There was no one on the old lady’s side of the family, and the only person who would send pastries to their house was the younger sister-in-law.

And looking again at now, before they had even gone visiting relatives, the old lady was already telling everyone to start eating, and even saying that one bite per person was too little.

The old lady, however, acted as if she had not heard, and continued arranging things:

“All this money will be paid from the public fund. Zhaodi, I’ll buy the pastries you take back to your maiden home for you. If you still want to add anything, just go handle it yourself. Anyway, you all have money in your hands too…”

During this period, Shi Guoan had again taken his two younger brothers to secretly sell soy sauce twice, and the family had once more brought in over a hundred yuan. Aside from leaving twenty yuan for common use, the old lady had divided the rest among her three sons.

All told, Yin Zhaodi had ended up with nearly forty yuan. Getting such a huge sum of money, Yin Zhaodi was so happy at night that she practically could not sleep. Whenever no one was around, she would take it out and count it once, and she would also change where she hid it every day.

Although she knew her man and daughter would not take her money, she still could not feel at ease.

Hearing her mother-in-law say not only that the pastries were prepared for her, but that she could add more to them, Yin Zhaodi immediately broke into smiles and nodded repeatedly.

“I’ll listen to Mom. Whatever Mom says, that’s what I’ll do.”

“Grandpa, Grandma, how about we break off some corn cobs and boil them today?” Shi Ying poked her head out from outside.

After the corn was planted and, through Tongtong’s reminder, Shi Ying learned that the seeds the old grandpa had given her were the kind that were both sweet and glutinous. Of course, compared with later generations, the sweetness and glutinousness were still a bit lacking. But who made it so she had the system? Under the effect of the nutrient solution, the sweetness and glutinousness of the corn had both been greatly improved.

It was just that this kind of corn, unlike ordinary corn which was only eaten at its very tender stage, was not fully plump inside when it was too tender, and only tasted best when it was about to ripen.

Just now Shi Ying had run over to take a look, and the corn was already ready to eat, so how could she not immediately run over to ask for instructions?

When Shi Ying mentioned the corn, the whole family immediately got fired up, and their gazes toward Shi Ying were also very eager.

When Shi Ying had made a fuss about clearing a patch of land in the courtyard and insisted on planting the seeds the old man had given her last time, Yin Zhaodi had been somewhat unconvinced.

Why was it that in these years, every household had empty space in their courtyard, yet almost no one grew things at home?

Wasn’t it because getting water was hard?

Every day, if they wanted water, they had to run to the village’s only well, and only after lining up could they draw some. Crops in the fields could not do without water, and vegetables and such drank water even more fiercely. If they wanted to grow them well, they had to carry water home.

The water well at the village entrance was for drinking, and if it was really carried back to irrigate the fields, that would not do. In the end, they would have to run to the farther riverbank to carry it home.

Every day everyone was busy in the fields until they were dizzy and blacked out, and when they got home they were already so tired they had half a life left. They just wanted to lie there and rest. If they still had to plant so much corn, tomatoes, and the like, wouldn’t they work themselves to death?

And yet Shi Ying had directed the family to plant so many things in the field. If they wanted to keep them all alive, how much water would that take? Because of this, Yin Zhaodi was absolutely certain that the thing they planted would, besides being a waste, have no second result.

But ever since Shi Ying came back, the family had visibly been getting better day by day. Toward this niece who carried the words “lucky star” on her head, Yin Zhaodi’s attitude was completely different from the one she had toward her two daughters. In the end, she did not say any opinion opposing it.

Shi Guoan also promised that if water was needed, he would carry it. But at that time Shi Ying would not agree, saying that she would solve the water problem herself and did not want to tire out her dad.

Shi Guoan naturally would not agree.

Ever since Shi Ying had gone missing by the river, whenever Shi Guoan walked to the river, he would feel palpitations. Even now that he knew Shi Ying had not fallen into the water at all back then, Shi Guoan still could not let any child in the family get close to the riverbank.

Shi Guoping and Shi Guoliang also repeatedly made promises that they would handle the water-carrying.

Shi Ying was a bit embarrassed, so she told everyone that just giving her a few buckets of water every few days would be enough.

Yin Zhaodi knew at once that the corn, melons, fruits, and vegetables in the courtyard definitely would not be able to be grown.

A few buckets of water every few days, and they would not dry to death? Even though she felt sorry for that big handful of corn kernels the other side had given them, what she felt more was relief, because by then when all the things dried up, the men in the family would finally not be so tired anymore.

After that, Shi Ying really did as she said. Even though Shi Guoan and the others were afraid that if the things planted died she would be sad, and wanted to secretly carry some water over, they were all sternly refused by Shi Ying.

Instead, she took the drawings Shi Heng had given her and ran over to ask Shi Guoping to make some strange things.

Ever since Shi Heng made that extremely valuable wooden airplane last time, the Shi family had already developed the mindset that no matter what Shi Heng made, it was all taken as a matter of course.

Seeing that it was drawn by Shi Heng, Shi Guoping did not dare neglect it at all. He immediately made it, and also helped connect the bamboo tubes one by one.

In the mountains around here, bamboo grew wildly every year.

Then they saw Shi Ying directing the little kids in the family to take all of those things to the fields.

Although they did not know what the kids were doing, it looked pretty much like a real thing.

When they asked Shi Ying, Shi Ying only said it was taught by her older brother.

In fact, it really was. Although the drip irrigation method had been thought up by Shi Ying, she was innately respectful of such drawings and the like from a distance.

But who made it so she had an amazing older brother? In the end, it turned into her providing the name, Shi Heng being responsible for looking it up, and in a short time figuring out what was going on, then drawing out the plans with incredible precision…

At first the whole family only thought that Shi Ying had a big urge to play, and was leading the children around being naughty. But later they realized something was off.

Obviously they also had not watered very many times, and the water they used was also little, so why were the crops in the field growing so well? You have to know that the crops in the fields had been given who knew how many times more water by them, and they still had severe drought. During this period, besides using the tube well to water them, because they were worried that the drought was too severe and the harvest would decrease, Liang Dacheng had even organized everyone several times to carry water to irrigate the plots that had not yet gotten their turn.

Yet when it came to their house, not much water was even needed, and the crops could all survive, and looking at the green and lush state of the leaves, the water was plentiful. In the end, even Yin Zhaodi, who would come back every day and make a circuit around here, would mutter to herself as if she were dreaming:

“Could it be that the Old Heaven secretly rained on our field in the middle of the night? Otherwise, what is going on here?”

Watching the things planted in the yard “shoot up, shoot up, shoot up” as they grew, the whole family felt like they were dreaming. In the end, everyone had figured it out, that it should be related to those things Shi Heng had had Shi Guoping make before, but they had lain on the ground studying it for a long time and still had not understood how it worked.

There was also another even more unbelievable point, and that was that as time kept moving forward, everyone increasingly discovered that the things planted by the little kids were growing too well.

Take the corn, for example. Look at the ears on it, each one was already over a foot long; the autumn eggplants and autumn tomatoes were also all bearing fruit.

Unlike the round eggplants from their area, the eggplants in the courtyard were the long and slender kind. Each plant had set quite a few little eggplants, and the tomatoes were producing an unusually large number as well. These past few days, it looked like six or seven tomatoes had already turned red, obviously only needing a few more days before they could be eaten.

They had even been thinking that if they were going to eat them, they should eat these first, but they never expected that Shi Ying would actually want to eat boiled corn cobs.

When they were ripe, why not pick them, shell the kernels out, grind them into flour, and eat corn cakes? Wasn’t that better?

Right now they were not even fully ripe yet, and she wanted to break off green corn cobs and eat them. No matter how one thought about it, that was too extravagant and too wasteful.

Unfortunately, Yin Zhaodi’s opinion was once again ignored, and the old man and old lady both agreed immediately.

“These were all grown by the children themselves. You say how to eat them, and that’s how we’ll eat them!”

This counted as a final decision. The words that had reached Yin Zhaodi’s throat were once again resentfully swallowed back down, but her mouth was still muttering:

“What’s so good about corn? Spoiling them like this, and the children are all going to be pampered to the heavens…”

The little kids, however, were already cheering as they crowded around the old man and went toward the corn patch. After circling around the field, the old man looked at this ear and was happy, looked at that ear and grinned so widely he could hardly close his mouth, and in the end he almost could not bear to break off any ears at all.

“Grandpa, hurry and break them off.” Shi Ying urged from the side.

“Okay, okay, Grandpa will break corn for my good darling.” The old man finally came to his senses and, steeling himself, broke off six ears of corn.

One ear each for the grandchildren.

“No, no, that’s too few,” Shi Ying kept shaking her head, then stood on tiptoe and leaned close to Shi Zhongyi’s ear to say, “Grandpa, we need to break off twenty ears.”

For ears this big, one ear per little kid was enough. Dad and the uncles probably would not have enough to eat.

“The adults don’t eat this. You little kids keep it and eat it is enough…” Shi Zhongyi said without thinking.

“We planted this, Grandpa has to listen to us.” Shi Ying also did not babble with the old man. She directly stood up on tiptoe and was about to reach for it, “If Grandpa doesn’t break them off, then we’ll break them ourselves. We’ll even break off more than twenty ears…”

Such a “threat” made the old man feel incomparably comfortable, and the old lady was following along behind too. Seeing him like that, she said with a smile:

“This is the children showing filial respect to us, so why wouldn’t we eat them? We’ll all eat them.”

The old man was clearly still a little reluctant.

He was already a man with earth buried up to his neck, and when he had a fresh new thing, how could he still fight with the children for that bite…

But in the end he was pushed by Shi Ying and again entered the corn patch. Behind him, Shi Nan and Shi Bei also followed suit, each holding onto one of the old man’s arms and tugging him forward.

So anxious that the old man quickly leaned down and hugged the two of them.

“Okay, okay, Grandpa will break more, break more. Good kids, go wait outside first. Don’t step on the corn…”

With Shi Ying supervising beside him, the old man ultimately broke off a full twenty ears.

As the sound of “crack, crack” corn-breaking rang out, Yin Zhaodi, standing nearby, was also heartbroken beyond measure.

Very quickly the basket was filled with corn. After it was taken out and poured onto the ground, the one or two dozen ears of corn over a foot long looked truly pleasing.

At once the family all gathered over to help peel open the outer husks. Yin Zhaodi was still muttering:

“If it grew a few more days, it would definitely be even bigger…”

Just as she was saying this, she happened to peel open the last layer of tender husk, and she was immediately startled enough to cry out, “Oh my!”

Unlike the yellow corn in the field, the kernels in her hands were like white jade, neatly arranged, each grain distinct. In the dusk, they even looked a little crystal clear.

When she pressed gently on one, there was some soft elasticity, and her fingers were instantly stained with a rich, natural sweet fragrance.

“This corn seems a little different from the one planted in our field.” Yin Zhaodi raised her finger and sniffed it. It was only after quite a while that she belatedly said.

“Mm, that uncle said this corn is very tasty.” Shi Ying nodded, “Just right, let’s boil some today and try it.”

As she was speaking, they heard an “ah-woo”. Looking up, it was Shi Bei, who was holding a raw corn ear and had taken a bite.

“You can’t eat raw ones…” Saying this, Yin Zhaodi also unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

“Can eat it, can eat it, tasty…” Shi Bei refused to let go, and in the end bit it again before reluctantly letting Yin Zhaodi take it away.

“Stop standing around, hurry and make a fire.” The old lady hurriedly called everyone over.

“Right, let’s all taste what the corn grown by the kids tastes like.” Yin Zhaodi was also incomparably active at this point, briskly scooping water with a ladle to wash the pot, while the few little ones swarmed toward the stove, competing to make the fire.

“Those few eggplants, I think they can be eaten too.” Shi Ying then pulled Miao Xiuxiu and went to the vegetable patch again.

Unlike other vegetables, eggplants, when they had not fully grown, were just a little smaller, but they were still edible.

“Okay, let’s pull a few.” Miao Xiuxiu nodded and agreed, “How does Yingying want to eat them? Steam them or fry them?”

“How about we steam some and mix them with garlic to eat, then pair it with a tomato stir-fry?”

“Okay. I’ll listen to you.” Miao Xiuxiu picked the bigger eggplants and quickly gathered a small bamboo basket full.

Seeing Shi Nan and Shi Bei at the stove, their mouths dripping nonstop as they looked at the steaming pot, Shi Ying found it a little funny again. She simply picked out two or three eggplants, had Miao Xiuxiu help peel the skin, and sliced the rest into four pieces, each crosswise a few cuts.

She took one of the jade-white pieces and handed it to the children.

“Try this eggplant and see if it’s tasty…”

Shi Nan took it and stuffed it directly into her mouth. The next moment she shouted out:

“Tasty!”

Clearly she had also eaten eggplant patties by the field edge before, but none of them had tasted this good.

The others each got a piece too. At first Yin Zhaodi had thought it was just Shi Nan being greedy that made her praise it so exaggeratedly, but after she tasted it, she discovered that the eggplants in their courtyard really did taste very good, especially the sweetness in the aftertaste, which was especially alluring.

Looking back at the stove, for a moment she also became even more eager.

If the eggplants were already this tasty, then the corn’s taste might be even better.