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"Mom and Dad, I'm home."

Li Chunmei came out of the kitchen carrying milk and a plate of peeled lychees. "You're back! Come and eat some lychees. The weather was good this year, and the lychees in the surrounding area had a bumper harvest. Not only are they cheaper, but they taste even better than last year."

Xia Minmin changed into slippers, carried her schoolbag into the room, and put the schoolbag on the desk.

After washing her hands with hand sanitizer, she sat down at the table, where Li Chunmei pushed warm milk and a plate of peeled and pitted lychee flesh in front of her.

Did your teacher, Mr. Chen, talk to you today?

It's common knowledge that Teacher Chen is keen on talking to students and their parents. In his words, encouraging children to make progress requires the cooperation of both parents and teachers, and is not the responsibility of just one party.

Li Chunmei and Xia Jianguo each visited the school once, which is the fewest for the class. The parents of students with poor self-control are called in for a talk by Teacher Chen almost every week.

The parents in Class 1 generally cooperate with Teacher Chen's actions. The reason is simple: Teacher Chen's track record is too good. In any class he teaches, almost all the students are able to get into Peking University and Tsinghua University. He has never lost a class.

He only accepts tutoring students from the first year of high school to the third year, and because of this, both parents and school leaders are happy to cooperate.

"Yes, I've decided to study science. Mom, wish me luck! I hope my grades won't be too bad."

After speaking, Xia Minmin felt worried about her uncertain academic future. The combined science exam was another new challenge, and if she was going to do it, she had to do it to the best of her ability.

"Mom believes in you, you can definitely do it. Quickly finish all the milk, and don't forget your calcium supplements. The doctor said we should try to take advantage of this growth spurt and maybe reach 175 centimeters."

Looking at her still-childish face, Li Chunmei found it hard to believe that a ten-year-old child was already in the first year of high school. In the past two months, she had grown five centimeters in height, reaching 160 centimeters at ten years old, taller than her classmates. No wonder pig farmers feel a great sense of accomplishment when they see their pigs gaining weight.

"Where's Dad? Didn't he come home today?" Xia Minmin asked after finishing the last sip of her milk.

"The textile factory is rushing to meet a deadline today, so your dad is overseeing things there. He's staying upstairs at the discount supermarket. What are we having for breakfast tomorrow?"

In recent years, the home textile factory has been doing quite well, gradually exceeding the combined profits of discount supermarkets and community store supermarkets, with annual profits of approximately two million.

"Milk and beef noodles."

"I know, the usual routine: half an ounce of noodles and half a pound of beef. You should wash up and go to bed now."

Li Chunmei finds it amusing that her father and daughter are alike, both preferring beef noodles with more meat than noodles. Every Sunday, she prepares ten kilograms of beef sauce and stores it in the refrigerator. In the morning, she scoops out a little sauce while cooking noodles, heats it up, and a simple, quick breakfast is ready.

When Li Chunmei came out of the shower, she saw her daughter sitting at her desk doing her homework. She didn't know what to say. Sometimes, it's not a good thing for a child to be too self-disciplined. Her child was too young to be in high school, and there were morning and evening self-study sessions. She didn't get enough sleep to begin with, and reading made her go to bed even later.

"Hey, why aren't you drying your hair again! Stop reading and dry your hair. You need to go to bed early, or you'll stunt your growth."

Xia Minmin closed her workbook helplessly. She already had the longest sleep duration in the class, basically ensuring eight hours of sleep every night.

Li Chunmei was already sitting on the sofa with a hairdryer, waiting. "You're still young. If you don't dry your hair, you'll have headaches later. Also, grades aren't important, but don't ruin your health. Your dad and I don't want to outlive you when you're young."

The hairdryer was very loud, and Xia Minmin could only hear Li Chunmei's voice intermittently.

When Xia Minmin entered the third year of junior high school, the evening self-study period was changed from two periods to three periods. Her thick, black, and shiny long hair was transformed into a bob haircut, and she could go to school without combing her hair every day.

The hair dryer stopped whirring, and Xia Minmin's forehead was covered with a thin layer of sweat, which she wiped clean with a tissue from the coffee table.

"Mom, it's getting hot lately, let's use the air conditioning from now on!"

Li Chunmei said irritably, "It's your hair's fault for being so thick. Even if you blow-dry it with cold air for twenty minutes, it won't dry. Hot air dries it in less than eight minutes."

Fine! Xia Minmin could only pout and accept this explanation. There was nothing she could do; her hair was just too thick!

Li Chunmei patted her daughter's bottom and said, "Stop dawdling and go to sleep."

"oh!"

After checking the doors and windows and turning off the living room light, Li Chunmei was about to go back to her room to sleep under the streetlight.

Ring ring…

Li Chunmei's phone rang; it was Xia Jianguo calling.

Xia Jianguo's voice came from the other end of the phone, "Hello, is this Chunmei? How is Xiaomin sleeping? She's finally decided whether to choose arts or sciences."

"She just fell asleep. Her teacher, Mr. Chen, persuaded her to choose science, but I think she's still uneasy."

"That's normal. After all, math and science are not Xiaomin's strongest subjects. Math in humanities subjects is easier than math in science subjects, so Xiaomin is more confident in it."

"By the way, will the textile factory be able to ship the goods on time tomorrow?"

"It should be fine. This order is a lucky find. If the client is satisfied, we'll have another big client in the future. I'm not going to talk anymore. You should get some rest. You have to get up early tomorrow to make breakfast for Xiaomin."

After hanging up the phone and placing it on the coffee table, Li Chunmei went back to her room to sleep.

The three years of high school are not easy for either the children or the parents. In order to take care of the children, she and Xia Jianguo have synchronized their schedules with the children's.

Their family runs a business, so they have flexible hours and can rest whenever they want, making it easier for them to take care of their children compared to dual-income families.

That's the good thing about school district housing; it's especially quiet in the early morning and evening, and everyone tacitly agrees to create a quiet environment for the children.

Outside the residential area, the lights were bright and the nightlife was just beginning. Inside, however, it was quiet and peaceful, with only a few houses still lit up, presumably because the children were still studying.

As the moon rises in the east and sets in the west, and the morning star shines brightly, lights up one after another in the Dudu Garden residential community, marking the start of a new day.

Xia Minmin quietly opened the door, drank a large glass of cold water, and did ten minutes of stretching exercises on the balcony to loosen up her muscles and bones.

Li Chunmei also came out of the room yawning.

Good morning, Mom.

Li Chunmei smiled and said, "Good morning, Xiaomin! Keep up the good work for the new day!"

Not long ago, I attended a lecture at No. 1 Middle School. It was given to parents by an education expert specially invited by the school. That's where she learned about praise-based education.

She felt this was much better than the oppressive education they received when they were young. Both sides felt more relaxed, and many parents reported that their children's academic performance improved significantly after the change in educational methods.

Li Chunmei had only put breakfast on the table for two minutes when Xia Minmin came over, smelling of baby cream, with a tuft of hair sticking up on her head, probably because she hadn't combed her hair.