Learn, learn

Seeing that her mother seemed impartial, Li Guolan stopped crying and continued, "Besides, Dad just passed away, and my little sister went to my aunt's house. If word got out, people would think that the family couldn't afford to support anyone."

Wu Cuihua nodded, "I agreed to let my little sister stay at my aunt's house. Your uncle isn't coming home, and your cousin has gone to the city. Your aunt is too lonely, so I let your little sister go. Besides, it's a good thing that my little sister wants to study, and there's nothing wrong with her earning her own money to spend on her studies."

Li Guolan had no choice but to lower her head in humiliation.

Wu Cuihua continued, "Your father just passed away today. If you still have even a little bit of concern for him, then behave yourself. When you go to your aunt's house, be diligent and cook or do laundry for her."

Upon hearing this, Li Guorong's face flushed, and he could only stammer, "I understand, Mom."

When Li Guorong was a child, he envied his aunt the most. She lived in a two-story house that she built herself and had a flush toilet. He never thought that he would be able to live in an apartment building again. He got up early in the morning, packed his few old clothes, and went to his aunt's house excitedly.

Carrying her few pieces of clothing on her back, she shouted loudly, "Auntie, I'm here!"

A crack opened in a dilapidated wooden building next door, and Aunt Qian came out yawning, staring intently at Li Guorong from head to toe, and said, "Oh, Guorong is here. I heard your voice first thing this morning, you're really energetic."

Qian Mancang also came out rubbing his eyes and said, "Guorong, if you stay at Teacher Li's house, it will be more convenient for us to play together in the future."

Li Guorong's eyes lit up. How could she forget that Mancang lived next door to her aunt? That way, they could hang out together sometime in the future.

Li Lanfang opened the door, frowned, and said, "Come in quickly, what are you doing?"

Li Guorong quickly carried the small bundle inside. Her aunt was wearing a plaid shirt and black suit pants, and her hair was neatly combed, which was different from the kind and slightly plump image in her memory.

The two went upstairs, and the aunt opened the door. The room inside was neatly arranged, with a large wardrobe. The most eye-catching thing was the desk in front of the window, with bookshelves on top filled with textbooks, from first grade to ninth grade, as well as corresponding workbooks.

Aunt Li Lanfang pointed to a piece of paper on the table and said, "This is a schedule. You must get up and study according to the schedule every day."

Li Lanfang then pulled out a first-grade test paper and said, "Your mother said you haven't finished school in a year. Do this first-grade test paper that I made."

Li Guorong picked up a pencil and first looked at the Chinese test paper. The tiny characters on it were densely packed like tadpoles, making her dizzy. The pinyin was even more like ants crawling all over the paper. She put her hand in her mouth, glanced at her aunt out of the corner of her eye, and braced herself to start writing. If she had known that her daughter was teaching her pinyin, she would have studied it properly.

Li Guorong started writing on the test paper, writing big and small, like a puppy urinating. He dawdled for ages, and half the paper was covered in blobs.

Li Lanfang frowned as she watched from behind. If they weren't such close relatives, she would have kicked her out. "If you can't do it, then do math." She then took out a math test paper.

Li Guorong's eyes lit up. She was good at math. After doing business at the market for so long, she was still capable in math. She could do addition and subtraction smoothly, and multiplication correctly. However, division was a complete mess. By the end, Li Guorong's eyes were blurry. Why was math so difficult?

Li Lanfang sighed deeply. "My foundation is too weak. I can only make up for it with hard work." She then took out her original study plan and began to scribble and revise it.

I got up at 5:20, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and tidied my room.

Cooking at 5:40, eating, and cleaning up the dishes.

6:00 Learn initials and finals

Rest at 6:50

7:00 Learn multiplication and division

Go to sleep at 22:00

Li Guorong turned pale after reading the schedule. It looked just like her daughter's school schedule in her previous life. Sometimes her daughter would study until the early hours of the morning. She couldn't help but say, "Auntie, this is too rushed. There's no time to rest."

Li Lanfang's face hardened, she grabbed Li Guorong's ear and scolded, "Your second brother said you're lazy and unwilling to work, but I don't believe it. You're 18 now, and you'll be getting married in two years. You still want to study for more than 10 years? You can only catch up if you treat every day as ten days."

Li Guorong's face flushed red. Her aunt used to like her the most, praising her for being smart and hardworking.

Li Lanfang let go of his hand and began to teach Li Guorong pinyin. Li Guorong had no choice but to practice along. After practicing once, he felt that he had mastered it, but his aunt still made him read it and took out the textbook for him to annotate.

Li Guorong, under her aunt's gaze, was drenched in sweat. The apartment building was not as cool as the bungalow, and it felt like there were a hundred needles under her buttocks, making her want to stretch her muscles.

Li Lanfang said, "I have to go to a meeting at school this afternoon. You need to memorize the multiplication tables on the right. I'll be checking them when I get back tonight." After saying that, she took out all the ancient poems and texts that needed to be memorized in elementary school, which she had organized, as well as a stack of word problem papers.

My aunt's voice was like a devil's whisper as she said, "You need to do all these things when I get back. Also, wash all the clothes in the house. There are sweet potatoes at home for lunch, so cook them yourself."

Li Guorong's eyes were now blurry, and he could only nod repeatedly.

Li Lanfang was satisfied and left. She didn't know why Li Guorong's personality had become so strange; it seemed she would have to discipline him.

The door slammed shut, and her aunt was finally gone. She jumped up from her seat, touched her empty stomach, and hurried into the kitchen. The kitchen was empty except for a few sweet potatoes. She wanted to eat rice, she wanted to eat meat, but thinking about her unfinished schoolwork, she reluctantly ate a sweet potato and returned to her desk.

Li Guorong picked at the eraser with her fingers. She had never realized how fun erasers were before. Then she started sharpening a pencil, sharpening the tip to a point like a knife, and poking small holes in the test paper to write a pinyin. Her head was lying on the test paper her aunt had prepared. She seemed to have forgotten some of the initials and finals she had just learned.

"Guorong, wanna go catch shrimp by the river?"

Li Guorong's previously dim eyes instantly brightened. She stood up, and downstairs, Qian Mancang was waving his hands in the sunlight, like another little sun.

Li Guorong smiled, but then sighed deeply, remembering the task her aunt had assigned her. She called out, "Brother Mancang, I haven't finished the homework my aunt left me."

After hearing this, Qian Mancang ran upstairs and was startled to see a thick stack of homework on his desk. He said, "What's this for? Are you going to take the imperial examination to become a scholar?"

Qian Mancang flipped through the homework on his desk. He hadn't taken any since finishing junior high, so he had forgotten some of the material, but he could still recall it upon closer inspection. Looking at Li Guorong's worried face, he said, "Do you want to go catch fish and shrimp together?"

The hour Li Guorong spent studying at her desk was even more agonizing than being with her ex-husband Ye Fan. She said listlessly, "Of course I want to go."

Qian Mancang patted his chest and assured him, "We'll go together. It's just the multiplication table and pinyin, right? I'll teach you while we catch fish."

Li Guorong licked his lips, wanting to eat meat, and nodded emphatically.

At noon, under the blazing sun, most families, except those working in the fields, should have been taking a midday rest at home. However, along the path leading into the mountains, groups of men and women were carrying baskets on their backs as they went up the mountain. Li Guorong was puzzled. It wasn't raining, and it wasn't morning. The mushrooms and fungus on the mountain had already been picked clean by the aunties. What were they doing here?

Qian Mancang pointed at the groups and said, "These people are all digging for medicinal herbs in the mountains. Not many of them dig correctly. No one in the commune will buy them, and they can't even sell them for a few cents on the black market."

Li Guorong frowned. "It's so dangerous up in the mountains, did their parents agree?"

Qian Mancang chuckled, “They don’t dare to go into the deep mountains either. We and the hunters from several other villages also went to the deep mountains to dig for medicinal herbs, but we didn’t find any. No one is as skilled and lucky as Guorong. Even the barefoot doctor and the old Chinese medicine doctor in the village have not been able to get rich by digging for medicinal herbs over the years.”

Li Guorong proudly raised her head. Fortunately, she had the book Lin Shaocheng had given her. It was a great treasure, and she couldn't let anyone know about it. "The herbs on the mountain have long been dug up. You need a brain to find out how many are left."

Qian Mancang's eyes flashed. Could it be that Li Guorong knew where to find herbs?

Li Guorong continued, "Studying is the right path. Mancang, you have such a good foundation, why don't you study with me?"

Qian Mancang has no time to study. Even if he did, it would be extremely difficult to become a worker. Making money is the most important thing now. He needs to earn money to get married and build a new house. "I'm going to join the army."

Li Guorong's eyes sparkled; he truly was her first love, remaining steadfast in his aspirations. It was a pity that no one appreciated him after he joined the army, and he was sent back to his hometown after his discharge.

The two finally reached the riverbank and began catching fish. However, everyone in the village was short of meat, and the fish in the river were too stupid to be caught easily.

Li Guorong was dizzy from the sun. The two of them kept chattering away, scaring away the fish. Qian Mancang's witty remarks made Li Guorong very happy.

Li Guorong looked at the bamboo forest in the distance and exclaimed in surprise, "Brother Mancang, let's go catch bamboo rats to eat! We can make money that way!"

Qian Mancang's eyes lit up, but he didn't know how to spot them. The easy-to-catch bamboo rats had already been caught, and now only the villagers who knew how to hunt could catch them. He hesitated and said, "I don't know how."

Li Guorong said confidently, "Leave it to me."

In her past life, Li Guorong didn't know how to catch bamboo rats, but she had the internet. Ever since her phone recognized her as being from Chongchuan, it has been sending her information about Chongchuan every day, including the habits of bamboo rats and how to catch them. She has browsed it countless times.

The two walked for almost an hour until they reached a sunny bamboo grove.

Qian Mancang carried two buckets of water, sweating profusely. He was somewhat suspicious of Li Guorong. If the Li family knew how to catch bamboo rats, wouldn't they have plenty of meat to eat by now? And everyone was pale and thin. He figured he was just trying to make the girl happy. If he couldn't catch bamboo rats this time, he would be at a loss. He could at least catch a fish if he spent an afternoon catching them.

Li Guorong walked and stopped, looking for a place with lots of bamboo forest or thatch. Unfortunately, there were more trees than thatch on the mountain. Thatch was easy to grab. Her eyes lit up. There was a bamboo forest ahead.