Sun Tiezhu opened the handkerchief package, and everyone saw that it contained coins of one mao, two mao, and a few one yuan. They counted them and found that it contained exactly four yuan.
Sun Tiezhu waved his handkerchief, and the banknotes inside fluttered out.
"I'll pay you back, you bastard."
Wang Gou Dan's eyes started to redden. "Damn it, are you getting ready to fight?" San Niu and Si Niu, who had come with him, hurriedly ran up to pick up the money.
This is the fruit of her and her sister's two months of hard work, but it's definitely impossible for their father to pick it up.
Before long, all the money was collected, but after counting it, there was still two cents missing. Wang Gou Dan took the money and said to the village chief:
"Village chief, that two cents was the money I gave him as a funeral gift after he died. Please remember it for me!"
Village Chief Ma wished he could kick him away; he'd remember your grandma's ball.
San Niu and Si Niu followed Wang Gou Dan home happily. After this incident, no one will steal their wild vegetables when they go to dig for them in the future.
Village Chief Ma returned to the village committee. Last time, Yan Xiaoqiang said he wanted to build a school in the village, so he went to the town once, but no one in the town was in charge of such matters for the time being.
The Party Secretary replied, "If you want to set up a school, you'll have to figure it out yourselves. There's no funding, no teachers, nothing."
Without funding, there's no way to build houses; without houses, how can schools be established?
Yan Xiaoqiang had a sudden inspiration: "Village chief, wasn't that ancestral hall demolished during the campaign to eliminate outdated practices? We can just partition it into a few separate rooms, put some wood together to make some simple tables and chairs, and then we can have classes there."
The village chief nodded. As required, each household brought their ancestral tablets back home, so the ancestral hall was empty.
The village chief thought for a moment and then shook his head: "Qiangzi, to make a cat freeze in winter, you need a brazier in the ancestral hall, as well as a blackboard, chalk, books, pens, and a teacher."
Yan Xiaoqiang nodded and said he would go back and ask his mother what to do.
Yan Xiaonan was the one who built the Hope Primary School. She knew the course of history: in the future, people without education would find it difficult to get by.
But you can't donate money or goods now, otherwise you'll put yourself in danger.
Yan Xiaonan racked his brains but couldn't come up with a solution. The frustration of having money in his pocket but not being able to spend it lingered in his heart.
Grandma Yan felt so sorry for her child; why was it so difficult for her precious child to do anything good?
"Qiangzi, as the saying goes, those who live near the mountains live off the mountains, and those who live near the sea live off the sea. Let's organize everyone to go hunting and dig for wild vegetables, and let the village chief sell the produce to the state."
Yan Xiaoqiang's eyes lit up. With Nan Nan around, he wasn't afraid of not finding anything in the mountains.
Yan Xiaoqiang went out happily, while Yan Xiaonan hugged her grandmother and said, "Grandma, you must have been a scholar in your past life."
Grandma Yan smiled brightly, her beloved child was so sweet.
Yan Beinan whispered, "Nannan, where can we get the books?"
Yan Xiaonan thought for a moment and said, "Third brother, do you know where we can buy paper? Let's copy down all the texts."
“There’s a counter in the supply and marketing cooperative that specializes in selling stationery. We can go there to buy some, but notebooks are a bit expensive. I only have two yuan.” Bei Nan was a little discouraged.
The village loudspeaker started blaring again, and a moment later, the village chief's voice came through: "Villagers, villagers, everyone go to the threshing ground for a meeting, everyone go to the threshing ground for a meeting, there's important news, there's important news."
Half an hour later, everyone except the elderly and young children in the family appeared at the threshing ground.
"What's wrong? Why are you so nervous?"
"I don't know, I don't think I'll have to pay anything."
"What money? Don't talk nonsense."
"It must be something important, otherwise the village chief wouldn't have called a meeting."
The village chief, holding a loudspeaker, began to speak: "Villagers, over forty children in our Mushroom Village have reached school age, so we are going to build a primary school in the village."
"What, primary school? That's great! It'll be so convenient for my son to go to school."
"What a load of rubbish! The village chief will definitely make us pay him."
"No way, why would you need money to go to school?"
"You think it's free to go to school in town? You idiot."
The villagers became lively.
"My son said, as the great man said, that we should study hard and make progress every day."
"Yes, yes, my son also said that if you study math, physics and chemistry well, you can conquer the world without fear."
"Your son must have a bad memory. He's not afraid of anything, not even traveling the world."
"Your son is the one who's mentally ill."
The village chief coughed heavily, and the entire place finally fell silent.
“Every child of school age must go to school, regardless of gender. The school is located in our old ancestral hall, which will now be converted into a school,” the village chief shouted through a loudspeaker.
“One person from each household will be responsible for building a fence, a desk, and a blackboard.”
"Village chief, does this count as centimeters?" a villager asked.
"Fine, but your child's schooling will cost money." The village chief glared at the man, who turned out to be Sun Tiezhu.
Everyone burst into laughter. Ever since Wang Gou Dan swindled him out of 3.8 yuan, this Sun Tiezhu has been spreading rumors about the Wang family's shameful deeds throughout the village every day.
Wang Gou Dan didn't care at all. As long as your money ended up in my pocket, that was all that mattered. As for the scandals, they were just a few things.
"Where can we find a teacher?" someone else asked.
"Look among the educated youth, those with high education and good character," the village chief replied.
The educated youth were all taken aback. Being a teacher was so great; they didn't have to work in the fields or endure the wind and sun.
But the village chief said that they had higher education levels. Ye Chenming and his sister both started school at the age of six. One was in the second year of junior high school and the other was in the first year of senior high school. Who had a higher education level than them?
The way everyone looked at them changed, becoming ambiguous.
Most villagers still hope their children can go to school. For example, Yan's Southeast has moved his household registration to the county, while Southwest, although at home, has a stable job in the town.
Even Tang Jianjun's daughter is living a very good life now because she married into the Yan family.
Fortunately, the Yan family still has Bei Nan who hasn't gotten married yet, so their daughter must go to school. A child who has received an education is worth a lot more.
The next day, the village chief counted the number of people and found that each family had sent one person. They went to the ancestral hall to discuss the matter and decided to divide the space into four rooms.
One room is the teacher's office, two rooms are the children's classrooms, one for the lower grades and one for the upper grades, and the other room is for storing firewood.
In winter, each room must have a heated kang (a traditional heated platform bed), so three kangs were built along the wall.
As for the cost of the bricks, we split it equally after the bricks were laid. There were only three heated brick beds, so we didn't need many bricks. It really wasn't much money when split among everyone.
Yan Xiaonan and Yan Beinan also started organizing the village children. Before the weather got cold, they were going to dig kudzu roots, dig yams, and pick fruit.
We also need to gather firewood, pine cones, and dead branches.
Yan Xiaonan stood in front of the children and said loudly, "If we want to study, we need pencils, notebooks, and books. We should earn money to buy these ourselves, okay?"
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