Chapter 136 Picking up stones

Xue Xiaomei was probably afraid that another parent like Chen Fangqiu would emerge among the students.

His attitude towards the female students in the class wasn't exactly great, but it was much better than before, and he no longer showed excessive favoritism towards the male students.

As a result, the atmosphere in the class improved significantly compared to the previous two or three months.

While studying, Shen Xuewei also tried her best to finish the two novels she was currently writing and those yet to be written.

Ever since she sent the beginning of her new book to Yun Li, she would ask about Shen Xuewei's progress every few days.

Shen Xuewei's reply to her every time was: "Soon, soon."

She waited until December to finally finish writing the CEO romance novel she was working on, and then began writing the one she was going to submit to Yun Li.

Yun Li waited and waited, until she was so eager that she felt the sea was about to dry up, when Shen Xuewei finally sent over 20,000 words.

Upon receiving the manuscript, Yun Li first praised Shen Xuewei, and then said:

When will the remaining 200,000 words be sent?

Shen Xuewei's article, "The Everlasting Red Rose," is about 100,000 words longer than her previous submissions to Yun Li.

Yun Li glanced at it once, but still decided to sign it.

Shen Xuewei is currently at school and has access to computers every day. She is confident that she can finish the novel before the final exams.

Seeing the message from Yun Li urging her to finish her manuscript, Shen Xuewei thought for a moment and typed a message.

Become a rich woman soon: I will send you at least 30,000 words every Friday, and the full text will be sent to you before January 15th.

Yunli: Okay, then I'll wait for your manuscript.

Yunli: The royalties will be handled according to the previous rules. I'll send you the contract in the next couple of days. After you and your guardian sign it, remember to send it back to me.

Become a rich woman soon: Okay, thank you Yunli.

Become a rich woman soon: I'm about to go to evening self-study, so I have to talk to you now. We can chat again when I have time.

Yun Li looked at the QQ screen that had gone dark on the other end. She typed half of the text in the chat box, paused, deleted it all, and sent only a short line of text.

Yunli: Okay, then study hard and contact me when you have time.

After sending it, she leaned back on the cushion and stretched.

She groped around on the table, picked up the cup, and took a sip, only to find that she had already drunk all the tea in it.

She stood up, humming one of her favorite songs, and headed towards the break room.

"The Thirty-Six Strategies of Love are like a game..."

A colleague who happened to be passing by heard her humming a song and joked:

"Hey, you weren't happy before, why are you in such a good mood now?"

Yun Li held the cup and twirled it in front of her. "How did you know that Hua Yunbi submitted another manuscript to me?"

The colleague remained silent: "I don't know, and I didn't ask you."

Yun Li snorted softly, picked up her cup, and walked away.

When she got to the break room, another colleague spoke to her, and she smiled and said:

"How did you know that Huayunbi submitted another manuscript to me?"

Colleague Number Two: ...

Who asked her? He was just saying hello...

By December, the Chen family's house was completed, and the water and electricity work was finished.

According to the original plan, at this stage, we should be ready to move in.

However, because Chen Fangyang insisted on renovating, the house is still being renovated inside and out, and the family has not been able to move in yet.

I expect we'll be able to move in in about a month.

Grandpa Chu was a carpenter, so he helped make cabinets or stools, and once the house was renovated, he hired a tractor to take them to Xiaoli Village.

On a rare weekend, Shen Xuewei returned to the Chu family home after school. After dinner that evening, she first took out her homework and started doing it.

The longer I put off this assignment, the less I want to start writing it.

Chen Fangli and her husband were very pleased to see Shen Xuewei doing her homework on her own, and then turned their attention to Chu De'an, who was dawdling over his meal.

Chu De'an flinched and looked up at the two of them.

"Mom and Dad, why are you looking at me like that?"

Chu Fu said in a deep voice, "Hurry up and finish your meal. You'll be doing your homework with your sister later."

Chu De'an took another bite of rice before reluctantly saying, "Okay, I'll go right away."

He finally finished his rice under the watchful eyes of the two, then slowly pulled out his notebook and went over to sit with Shen Xuewei.

Shen Xuewei glanced at him, then moved the stool she was sitting on to the side, leaving him half a desk.

The siblings did their homework side by side.

Shen Xuewei wrote quietly, while Chu De'an scratched his head and cheek as he wrote.

Chen Fangli watched the two of them with great satisfaction.

The advantage of finishing your homework early is that you can have a good time playing the following weekend.

Shen Xuewei and Chu De'an, along with several of the village's friendly children, ran all over the village.

Finally, someone took the lead and ran to both sides of the road to find suitable pebbles to play a game of catching pebbles.

Besides large stones, there are also many small stones along the roadside.

The children each picked small stones of similar size, and then used slightly larger stones to knock off the sharp parts of these small stones, resulting in relatively round stones.

A villager by the roadside, who was hammering stones with a large iron sledgehammer, stopped what he was doing and watched a group of children looking for pebbles nearby with a smile.

Shen Xuewei was also smashing her own little pebbles when Chu De'an, who was next to her, suddenly jumped up, clutching his hand.

Shen Xuewei was startled and turned to look at him, only to find him covering his hands with tears streaming down his face.

She quickly put down what she was holding. "De'an, what happened? Did you hurt your hand? Let me see."

Chu De'an's eyes welled up with tears. "Sister, it hurts so much."

Shen Xuewei looked at his swollen fingers, held his hand, and gently blew on them.

"It's alright, it's alright. Let me blow on it for you, it'll be fine in a few days. When we get home, I'll put some medicine on it for you, okay?"

Chu De'an nodded with tears in his eyes, "Okay."

The chubby boy next to him leaned over and grabbed his hand to look.

"De'an got vandalized? Let me see."

Upon seeing Chu De'an's hand, he opened his mouth and spat at Chu De'an's wound.

"My grandma said that it's fine to just apply some saliva, no need to apply medicine."

Chu De'an held his hand stiffly, his expression rigid and disgusted.

Little Fatty was on good terms with him, and after spitting, he went out of his way to be a good Samaritan and wiped the saliva evenly on him.

"Okay, it won't hurt in a bit."

Whether it was psychological or not, after Xiao Pang told him, Chu De'an really didn't feel much pain anymore.

He stared at the small stones on the ground that hadn't been properly chipped away, looking somewhat conflicted.

Shen Xuewei could tell what he was thinking just by looking at his expression.

She took the small stone that Chu De'an had chosen and used a slightly larger stone next to her to knock off the sharp points.

After it gradually became rounded, she handed the chipped pebble to Chu De'an.

"Okay, it's done. Go play with Little Fatty."

Chu De'an cheered, "Thank you, sister!"

Little Fatty and his friends had already finished knocking down their pebbles, so they found a flat cement spot near a house by the roadside and started throwing pebbles there.