Dog Egg retorted with a funny face and even waved his little fist menacingly.
Seeing the interaction between the two children, Xia Qingqing gently patted Gou Dan on the back of the head: "Behave yourselves, your teacher is still here."
Leaving a teacher with the impression of being mischievous and naughty on the first day of school is not a good thing.
After being scolded by his sister, Gou Dan immediately became obedient and ignored the little boy's provocations.
Qi Xue'er said with a somewhat troubled expression, "Auntie, there's really no way to reduce the tuition fee. If your family has difficulties, you can pay it later. I'll talk to the principal about it."
Upon hearing that tuition could be waived, the student's parent was overjoyed, as if they had received a tremendous bargain: "If you hadn't told me sooner, I wouldn't have had to pay my child's tuition. Please don't prevent my child from attending classes later."
Qi Xue'er forced a stiff smile: "Well, but it can't be delayed too long. Can we pay it all within a month?"
The aunt waved her hand dismissively: "Fine, one month it is."
Anyway, she figured she could delay it as long as possible. It was too expensive for this little kid to go to school. She had originally wanted to negotiate the price, but who knew she could not pay first. Of course, it was more cost-effective not to pay.
As for whether or not to pay in a month, we'll see then.
Once it was confirmed that the child could attend school normally, the auntie left, pulling the little boy who was still making faces at Gou Dan.
The little boy stumbled as his grandmother pulled him, feeling he had lost face in front of Gou Dan. He started yelling at his grandmother, "Grandma, pull me gently, I almost fell over."
"You didn't fall, did you? Hurry up, I have to go back to work," the boy's grandmother said without stopping, even speeding up, completely disregarding whether her grandson could keep up.
Qi Xue'er watched the difficult parent leave, then smiled at Xia Qingqing in a friendly manner: "Sister Lele, what are the three characters of Xia Jiale?"
Xia Qingqing saw some chalk on the table, picked it up and wrote these three words for Qi Xueer to see: "Just these three words."
Qi Xue'er was somewhat surprised by Xia Qingqing's neat chalk handwriting and couldn't help but praise her, "Your handwriting is really beautiful."
Without waiting for Xia Qingqing's reply, he continued, "The registration fee for first grade is 1.3 yuan. The textbooks will be distributed to the students in the class tomorrow."
Xia Qingqing quickly took out the money from her pocket and handed it to Qi Xueer.
Qi Xue'er breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the student pay the money so readily. The parent who had come to register earlier had complained about the high tuition fee and even tried to bargain, leaving Qi Xue'er with a dry mouth from explaining.
Xia Qingqing saw that Qi Xueer had registered Gou Dan's name on the registration form and indicated that she had paid tuition of 1 yuan and 3 jiao.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Teacher Qi, are there any other plans for the class today?"
Qi Xue'er shook her head: "There are no other arrangements. If you have other things to do, you can leave first."
After saying that, she looked at Gou Dan gently and said, "You need to be at school before 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. Xia Jiale, remember not to be late."
"Okay, Teacher Qi," Gou Dan said earnestly, his big, round eyes wide open.
Xia Qingqing shook Gou Dan's hand and reminded him, "Lele, say goodbye to Teacher Qi."
After the siblings left the school, Gou Dan's tense nerves gradually relaxed. He didn't know why, but he felt a little nervous when he saw Teacher Qi, even though Teacher Qi was very gentle.
The next day, when Gou Dan was still half asleep, Zhang Hongyan woke him up: "Xia Jiale, get up quickly, you'll be late for school."
Late? Upon hearing these two words, Gou Dan suddenly jumped out of bed and started yelling, "What should I do? Waaaaah, I'm going to be late! The teacher is definitely going to scold me!"
"Mom was just kidding you. It's not even 7 o'clock yet. Didn't your teacher say school starts at 8?" Xia Qingqing leaned against the door and smiled as she watched Gou Dan anxiously pacing around the bed.
Upon hearing his sister's words, Gou Dan instantly relaxed and collapsed weakly onto the bed.
Xia Qingqing took out a small handbag that she had prepared for Gou Dan beforehand. She had bought it specially from the county supply and marketing cooperative as a back-to-school gift for Gou Dan.
Dog Egg looked at the brand-new military green satchel with surprise, which had two rows of big red letters printed on it: Study hard and make progress every day.
"Sis, this backpack is so pretty, is it really for me?" Gou Dan held the backpack tightly, reluctant to let go. When he opened it, he found new notebooks and new pencils inside.
Xia Qingqing smiled and said, "This is a back-to-school gift for you. You must study hard!"
Dog Egg gave a respectful salute: "Yes, ma'am, I will study hard."
As soon as Zhang Hongyan put breakfast on the table, she saw the new schoolbag in Gou Dan's hand and couldn't help but start nagging Xia Qingqing: "You're just wasting money. Why would a boy need such an expensive schoolbag? A simple cloth bag would be just as good."
What she didn't say was that she had actually prepared a schoolbag for Gou Dan, which was made from Xia Heping's tattered pants, but now it seems that it was all for nothing.
The family of four had just finished eating when Da Niu's voice came from outside the door: "Gou Dan, time to go to school!"
When Gou Dan heard Da Niu urging him, he hurriedly wiped his mouth, grabbed his new schoolbag from the table, and ran out: "Dad, Mom, and Sister, I'm going to school."
"Be careful, come home early after school, and don't play outside."
Children in this era are very independent; they go to school by themselves and come home by themselves.
However, things are different now than in the future. Decades later, with so many cars on the road, children can easily get into accidents if we're not careful.
Xia Qingqing had once witnessed a bus run over a primary school student who suddenly darted out of the road because of a blind spot while turning.
After seeing Gou Dan off, Xia Qingqing and Zhang Hongyan rushed off to work. When they arrived, many people had already started working.
Xia Qingqing's task today was to husk corn at the threshing ground. She could earn 1 work point for husking 10 jin (5 catties) of corn, and the more she worked, the more she would earn.
When she arrived, a group of older women were already sitting around the threshing ground. Xia Qingqing immediately spotted Liang Shuang sitting in the corner and quickly walked over to her.
Liang Shuang looked up from the corn pile and saw Xia Qingqing with her hands empty: "Qingqing, why didn't you bring a stool? It'll be too hot to sit on the ground when the sun gets strong."
Xia Qingqing hadn't expected this at all. Luckily, her home wasn't far from the threshing ground, so she quickly went home and brought over a small stool.
Seeing Xia Qingqing diligently peeling the corn with her hands, Liang Shuang quickly stopped her, saying, "How long will it take you to peel it like this? Let me teach you."
She demonstrated her method of peeling corn, rubbing the cob (with the kernels already removed) against another ear of corn, and with a little force, the kernels fell off with a rustling sound.
Xia Qingqing followed her method, and her speed indeed increased significantly.
Around 9 o'clock, the sun became scorching, and Xia Qingqing felt like a roast suckling pig being cooked.
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