Chapter 132

A person's character can be seen from the attitude of the people around him.

For example, Aunt Jiang, no matter whether it is Grandma Jiang, Dad Jiang, Mom Jiang, or Jiang Ning, whenever they have any problems, they go home to find Aunt Jiang. It can be seen that this sister-in-law is really kind, because they all know that it is useless to find Uncle Jiang. Firstly, Uncle Jiang is at home except during the double harvest period and when it rains or snows and he cannot work. He is not at home at other times. Even if he is at home, he doesn't take care of things. At most, he takes care of things in the fields. All the things at home are done by Aunt Jiang.

For example, if you ask Uncle Jiang whether Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Ning have returned, you won’t get any information if you ask him. You can only ask Aunt Jiang.

Aunt Jiang held her granddaughter in her arms, with a gentle smile on her face. She looked at Father and Mother Jiang and said, "Are you tired after coming back? I'll cook you a bowl of noodles first, and then we can talk slowly."

She gently put her granddaughter back on the bed, asked her eldest daughter-in-law to watch her, and went to the kitchen in the back to cook noodles.

The building and kitchen of Uncle Jiang's house are separated. The eldest son's family lives on the left, and the second son's family lives on the right. Behind them are identical kitchens and identical laundry and vegetable sinks. In the middle is a large yard where some vegetables are planted, and the two families share a well.

They currently live on the right side with their second and youngest sons who are not married yet. Once the house for the youngest son is built, they will build another bungalow for themselves and the old couple will live with Grandma Jiang.

This is Uncle Jiang and Aunt Jiang’s plan for the future.

I have to say that Uncle Jiang is a worthy bricklayer. He built his house very well. Even the kitchen was built with cement and bricks to create a special place for firewood. This way, the broken firewood will not be scattered all over the kitchen, making it difficult to clean. There are also several holes on the earthen stove for drying shoes in winter.

Jiang's mother has never been someone who would just watch others work without helping.

She is very hardworking.

She followed Aunt Jiang into the kitchen, put the bacon in the bag on the stove, took out a large bowl from the cupboard, poured the bacon chicken thighs into the bowl, and said, "This is the bacon chicken thighs I pickled outside. They are delicious when steamed. I didn't have anything to give you when I came back, so I gave you a bowl. Try it."

Uncle Jiang's wife is a daughter with a slow temper. She has a gentle smile on her face most of the time and is very emotionally stable. She rarely loses her temper a few times a year. Therefore, her three sons and Uncle Jiang, who are taken care of by her, are also emotionally stable.

Even if Uncle Jiang was a little extreme occasionally and said something that Aunt Jiang disagreed with, he would still listen to Aunt Jiang even though he grumbled.

Aunt Jiang laid two eggs for both Jiang's father and mother, and said to Jiang's mother who took the initiative to light the fire under the stove: "Put your insoles in the stove to warm them up, and warm your feet too.

Jiang's mother heard a sizzling sound, and then the aroma of eggs and rapeseed oil came out, and she said hurriedly, "You don't have to fry the eggs, we can just eat something to fill our stomachs."

Aunt Jiang laughed and said, "You guys can't even stay at home for two days a year, and you're still refusing two eggs?"

Jiang's mother didn't say anything then.

Aunt Jiang then talked about Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Ning: "Dad came back once during the Qingming Festival. Baizi was admitted to university, so Dad and Baizi also came back to worship their ancestors. Together with Daguo, they repaired the graves of the two old ladies and removed the weeds. They went back the next day and never came back again. I guess he will come back on New Year's Eve?"

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve.

It's not that Grandpa Jiang is unwilling to come back, but since Grandpa Jiang found out that Jiang Ning has not one house, but two in Shanghai, plus Jiang Bai's mortgage, the two of them have to pay nearly fifteen thousand yuan in mortgage every month. Even though he knows that Jiang Ning's store can earn about one hundred and fifty yuan a day, which is enough for Jiang Ning to pay off the mortgage after deducting rent and living expenses, the old man still dares not relax.

Especially at the end of the year, business is better than any other time.

The word-of-mouth reputation brought back by the one-year gg and Wuzhong No. 1 Middle School made people around Wucheng hear that there was a clothing store diagonally opposite Wuzhong, where clothes were sold cheaply. So those who bought very expensive clothes in their respective towns last year gave the money to their children and asked them to buy New Year clothes from Grandpa Jiang's store. If they came to Wucheng by themselves, they would come to Grandpa Jiang's store in person.

Business this winter is much better than last year.

Until the day before New Year's Eve, the store's business was still very good and Grandpa Jiang was reluctant to close it.

Last year's New Year's Eve was on January 30th, but this year it is on February 18th. Jiang Ning's winter camp is from November 20th to February 15th.

After Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng had been in the winter camp for more than a month, major universities came to the camp to sign people. Peking University and Tsinghua University signed more than a hundred people directly from the winter camp, including Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng. In other words, Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng were both admitted to these two universities in advance. After the IMO International Olympiad in July next year, they can go directly to the university as auditors and enter university to study in advance.

Of course, you can also stay in your high school and continue to study the high school course content in depth.

After the news reached Wucheng No. 1 Middle School, Principal Sun customized a banner overnight, and Wuzhong reacted quickly. They had long been fooled by the outrageous actions of Principal Sun and Director Zhang, so they also customized a banner immediately and hung it high on the gatehouse of their school to celebrate in advance that Song Peifeng, a sophomore student of their school, was admitted to Tsinghua University in advance.

The first-year high school students of both schools had gone on holiday, leaving only the second- and third-year high school students staying in school for winter break to make up for their lessons. On the day the banner was hung, Director Zhang took the rare step of paying out of his own pocket to set off a large string of firecrackers at the gate of No. 1 High School.

The time he chose was very clever, after the students of the two schools finished their morning reading classes and went to have breakfast.

During the winter vacation, the teachers of No. 1 Middle School and Wuzhong Middle School were not as strict in managing the students as usual. In addition, after the crackdown, the atmosphere in Wucheng has become clearer. Students from the two schools can leave the school and go to the breakfast shops and small restaurants near the school gate to have breakfast, lunch and dinner during the three time periods: breakfast in the morning, lunch at noon, and dinner before evening self-study.

There are fewer wealthy students in No. 1 Middle School, and only occasionally students come to the school gate to buy food such as meat buns and egg pancakes for one yuan each. But there are more students at the gate of Wu Middle School. The continuous sound of firecrackers at the gate of No. 1 Middle School did not attract too many students from No. 1 Middle School, but attracted the attention of many students from Wu Middle School. So soon, the students from Wu Middle School knew that Jiang Ning from No. 1 Middle School had been admitted to Peking University in advance in her second year of high school.

The school leaders of Wuzhong, who had originally hung a banner on the school gate at the same time as No. 1 Middle School during the morning reading class and thought they were finally not one step behind No. 1 Middle School, were so angry when they heard the sound of firecrackers outside that they slapped their thighs and said, "This must have been done by Lao Zhang! No one else could have done this!"

The two directors of the political and educational department and the two directors of the academic affairs department of No. 1 Middle School are all very serious or elegant in character. The only person who can be so eccentric is Lao Zhang, because most people would only think of hanging a banner, but only he would do something like surrounding the entire school with banners. For example, in Wuzhong, they usually try to be quiet for fear of disturbing the studies of the second and third year students. Only Lao Zhang would do something like setting off firecrackers to celebrate this event at breakfast time in the morning.

This also shows that the school leaders of No. 1 Middle School and former Director Zhang were really excited.

Director Wang was already one step too late and was very regretful. However, they could not go to buy firecrackers now, because by the time they bought the firecrackers, the students' breakfast time might be over and they would have gone back to class. Besides, it was No. 1 Middle School that was always catching up with Wu Middle School. This time and twice, Wu Middle School always imitated No. 1 Middle School. What was going on?

However, because of the loud sound of firecrackers from No. 1 Middle School, all the students of Wuzhong suddenly knew that Jiang Ning, who was studying at No. 1 Middle School across the street, had been admitted to Peking University in advance.

That’s Kyoto University!

Even for Wuzhong, their highest goal is only to enter a few 211 key first-class universities in the province. They dare not dream of the two top universities in Beijing, for fear that their scores are not high enough. Not only will they fail to get into those two schools, but they will also miss out on the first-class universities in the province.

At this time, the policy for filling out college entrance examination applications had not changed, and they were still used to reporting lower scores. Those who were not particularly confident like Jiang Song did not dare to apply to the top universities in their minds based on their usual test scores. To be safe, they all silently reported a lower score in their hearts.

Even for a student like Song Peifeng whose academic performance was far superior to others in Wuzhong, the teachers in Wuzhong had no illusions about going to the two top universities in the capital. The ideal situation was that he would be below these two universities and always considered himself to be a first-class university in the province, ranking third in the country.

Who would have thought that their school would actually have a graduate from Tsinghua University!

Soon, the students of Wuzhong, reminded by the security guard, also discovered a new banner hung high on the gate of their school: [Congratulations to our high school sophomore Song Peifeng for being recommended to Tsinghua University in advance]

"Look, Song Peifeng has also been admitted to Tsinghua University!"

"Oh my goodness! National Tsing Hua University!"

"He was admitted as a sophomore in high school!"

"He was recommended to the National Tsinghua University and the other one to Peking University!"

The commotion at Wuzhong also caused the few people at No. 1 Middle School who were buying breakfast at the school gate to notice the banner on the school gate building. The students of both schools were shocked for a moment.

You should know that not every big shot who enters the winter camp from national competition can be admitted in advance.

In a small city like Wucheng, two such people emerged at once.

Not only were all the schools in Wucheng shocked, but even the other nine high schools in the city were stunned.

The leaders of Rongchang No. 2 Middle School and the Provincial Normal University Affiliated Middle School were extremely jealous, but the leaders of the Municipal Education Bureau and Wucheng Education Bureau were so happy that they even called the municipal and county TV stations to go to Wucheng for an interview.

On the contrary, the county TV station in Wucheng found out about this a step late. When they arrived at the gate of No. 1 Middle School and Wuzhong Middle School and wanted to interview the school leaders of the two schools and the two students who were admitted to the top universities in the country, they found that the city TV station had already arrived. After interviewing the school leaders, they wanted to interview the two students, only to find out that the two admitted students were still in winter camp preparing for the upcoming IMO and had not returned yet. They were just signed in advance by the two schools and told the schools the good news in advance. The two schools that signed Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng also called No. 1 Middle School and Wuzhong Middle School.

Principal Sun struck while the iron was hot and applied to the Education Bureau to have Wucheng No. 1 Middle School included in the ranks of the city's key high schools. From then on, it was on par with Wuzhong in Wucheng, and there was no longer a distinction between the boss and No. 1 Middle School would always be the second.

The performance of No. 1 Middle School this year is really outstanding.

Director Zhang was so happy that he slapped his thigh and said, "I never thought that in my last year of retirement, I would see a student from our school go to Peking University or Tsinghua University. It would be worth it even if I die now!"

His family members spit at him harshly: "Why don't you say something auspicious on New Year's Day? Bah, bah, bah, children should not be restrained in their words!"

Director Zhang, who is over 60 years old and still has his wife say that "childish words are innocent", couldn't help laughing. He felt spoiled. Even in his early 60s, he still maintained the same naughty character as when he was young. He went over and held his wife's hand: "Come on, let's go to Xiao Sun's house to drink..." The word "wine" almost came out of his mouth, and he quickly changed the tone: "...Tea!"

The emergency he suffered in the middle of the year due to excessive drinking almost scared his wife to death, and now he is afraid to let him drink even a drop of alcohol.

Grandpa Jiang heard the sound of firecrackers at the gate of No. 1 Middle School. He stood at the door of the store and looked into the distance, not knowing what had happened. Many owners and wives of the surrounding stores came out of their houses into the freezing cold wind, looking around curiously and asking what had happened.

Because Jiang Ning was still at the winter camp, Grandpa Jiang didn't think that anything good had happened at No. 1 Middle School that was related to his granddaughter. When someone from a nearby store walked over curiously and saw the new banner on the gate of No. 1 Middle School, they knew that Jiang Ning was Grandpa Jiang's granddaughter and ran over to tell Grandpa Jiang the good news: "Grandpa! Grandpa! Your granddaughter Jiang Ning was admitted to Beijing University!"

Grandpa Jiang still didn't believe it. "What Beijing University? She's only in the second year of high school. She won't take the college entrance examination until next year. How could she get into Beijing University? Don't tell me you're seeing things. Are you trying to trick me, an old man?"

Although this news is very tempting, after all, Grandpa Jiang has two grandsons who have passed the college entrance examination. The younger grandson is now a college student. He has also stayed at the gates of two high schools for so long, and has been influenced by them. Therefore, he does have some common sense.

"It's true!" The man announcing the good news slapped his thigh anxiously, "If you don't believe me, just come with me and take a look. The banner is hanging high up there, and your granddaughter's name is on it!"

With what Director Zhang and Principal Sun did, which was to surround the wall of No. 1 Middle School with Jiang Ning's performance in the mathematics, physics and chemistry competitions, who in the whole Wucheng doesn't know the name of Jiang Ning from No. 1 Middle School? Even those who have never seen her have heard of her name.

Today, Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng are very famous in Wucheng.

Grandpa Jiang smiled and looked towards No. 1 Middle School with a puzzled look on his face. With the arrival of cold winter, his old cold legs began to hurt again, which made him walk a little slowly.

He hunched his back and slowly looked towards No. 1 Middle School. His thick, warm down jacket made him look like an old turtle carrying its shell on its back. As he got closer, he looked up at the top banner with Jiang Ning's name clearly written on it. He read the words on the banner carefully and slowly, word by word, over and over again. Only then did a big smile break out on his old, skinny face, and then his eyes became moist.