Ouyang Zishan had already climbed to the highest point and was looking at the scenery in the distance. The sun suddenly set behind the mountain and the air became a little cold.
"Ouyang, come down for dinner."
"oh!"
She slowly climbed down the tree and was helped down by him.
She was already used to her grandmother's cooking, and her favorite was scrambled eggs. However, looking at the two old hens outside, she couldn't bear to eat more than a few bites.
"You have a day off tomorrow, so you can go to the market with grandma to exchange some money."
"Exchange money?" Ouyang Zishan didn't understand what she meant. "Exchange what money?"
"Grandma means to use the twine she makes to sell for money and buy other things."
"Oh," Xiaowei said. The hemp thread he was talking about is a silky item made from the fiber of a plant called hemp. It is a thin thread that can be used to make handicrafts or hemp clothing. "It's what grandma pulls every day."
"Um."
The next day, before dawn, grandma woke them up. The three of them groped in the dark and went to the next village to find some elderly people of the same age, and walked to the market together.
The group walked for about three hours and came across a market selling twine. The vendors categorized these handmade products into high-quality, medium-quality, and low-quality ones, with the high-quality ones fetching the highest prices. Grandma's twine, while thin enough, wasn't made from the finest quality, so it was only considered medium-quality.
Grandma's two months of labor only earned her a little over a hundred yuan. They first went to the poultry market and bought five chicks. Then they ate some noodles and steamed buns, and on the way back they bought some meat. The money was gone.
The three of them had no choice but to walk back again as they had no money to take a bus.
Later, Ouyang Zishan could no longer walk, so his grandmother bit the bullet and stopped a bus. After getting on the bus, the conductor scolded his grandmother who had no money to buy a ticket.
Ouyang Zishan had never encountered such a scene before. She was blushing and kept her head down, not daring to look at anyone in the car. In the end, she didn't know how she got home, and she lay in bed in a very bad mood.
After a few days, she gradually stopped paying attention to this matter, but it had already been deeply imprinted in her heart.
"Ouyang!" Xiao Wei called out, "The homeroom teacher wants you to go to the office."
Ouyang Zishan, who was lying on the table, got up, tidied his hair and walked out.
Teacher Sheng looked at her and said, "Look, the Chinese teacher can't come today because of something. I'll ask you to teach the class on her behalf."
"Teacher, you are not kidding, right?"
"Of course not," Teacher Sheng said. "The Chinese teacher personally selected your name. He said two of your essays were exceptionally well-written, so he wanted to take this opportunity to show them off to the students and teach them some writing techniques."
"Those two?"
"Well, it seems to be 'Grandma' and 'Fantasy'."
"Okay!" She returned to the classroom with her ears drooping, sat in her seat, looked for the two essays, reviewed them again, and waited for the bell to ring.
The bell rang and she stood on the podium. The students below started talking. Then the principal, the head teacher and other teachers came in, and the whole classroom immediately became silent.
"Hello everyone, I'd like to explain why I'm here. Our Chinese teacher had something urgent to do, so she asked me to be her assistant and lead a discussion on writing techniques. Before that, I'd like to ask what's the most profound article that has had the most profound impact on you, or what's the most memorable line of text?"
No one dared to speak.
"Maybe it's because some teachers are here, so no one wants to talk. So let me talk about a text that left a lasting impression on me. You're probably all familiar with it. It's called 'Young Wang Mian.' It's a piece of writing drawn from real life. It simply recounts events, but it leaves a lasting impression on everyone. It just so happens that I also have two essays drawn from real life, 'Grandma' and 'Fantasy.' Now I'll have Xiaowei read them aloud for me."
Xiao Wei stood up and took the composition book from her hand. Without the usual nervousness, he read aloud smoothly. These two compositions were actually quite close to his life: "Grandma's palms are like millstones that have weathered the long years..."
When he finished reading, some students in the class were already moved to tears. The next chapter, "Fantasy," was even closer to them: "Every hair on the boy's head turned into a dream wandering in the sky at night..."
They were deeply moved and won a lot of applause.
Ouyang Zishan continued, "In fact, all kinds of good articles are being written around us every day. As long as we have a pair of eyes that are good at discovering, and use our deepest emotions without too much embellishment to express our thoughts to readers, then we can write a very complete article."
The bell rang and Ouyang Zishan ended today's impromptu class: "Thank you everyone!" She bowed deeply to express her gratitude.
In this school, her talents were best showcased, and life was not as difficult as she had imagined.
The holidays were approaching, and Ouyang Zishan had to follow Xiaowei to the fields to harvest corn and drive away the ducks. The chicks he had bought last time had grown a lot and could roam freely behind the mountain.
After the rain, Xiaowei took her to the mountains to pick mushrooms. They then exchanged them for eggs from nearby villagers while they were still fresh. Summer in the mountains was still quite hot, and sometimes when there were power outages, her grandmother would fan Ouyang Zishan with a palm-leaf fan while she slept all night. Ouyang Zishan's grandmother's selfless love for her touched her, and she was willing to do more housework for her grandmother.
With such responsibilities, she went to the mountains to chop wood, to the fields to catch fish, and to the trees to pick plums and cherries. She wanted to exchange some money to buy a good walking stick for her grandmother.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
