However, this frightened the child. Liu Xin looked at her grandmother with tears in her eyes and a pout, no longer daring to cry.
"Eldest daughter-in-law, come over here and tidy up the things. Don't let those two tear up the book." Liu Changde called out to the outer room.
Liu Yujiang's wife came in from the kitchen with a shovel in her hand and quickly scooped up the things on the kang (a heated brick bed) and put them on the cabinet.
"Why are there three pencil cases?" Liu Yujiang's wife asked casually.
"Oh, there's another one for Xiaogang. Isn't he going to start first grade in the fall?" Sheng Xiping explained.
"Oh my, look, the child's third uncle is so thoughtful. Xiao Gang hasn't even started school yet, and he's already prepared his pencil case."
That brat, he'd be blind to even the best things. Let him just pick up what his brother left behind.
When Liu Qiang and Liu Peng were in first grade, Liu Changde made their pencil cases out of wood himself, with pull-out lids.
That's pretty good; many children don't even have pencil cases.
Some clinics require those cardboard boxes used for injectable solutions to store pencils and erasers.
Some children would simply drill a hole in an eraser, thread a string through it, and tie it together with their pencils, hanging it around their necks to go to school.
This also has its advantages, namely that pencils and erasers are less likely to be lost.
Even at the Linchang Primary School, very few students use pencil cases like the one Sheng Xiping bought.
It seems that only Sheng Xitai has one; Chen Feng bought it for him.
"They're all kids, so I can't favor one over the other. I'll give them one each. I'll prepare more when Mengzi and Dayong start school."
Sheng Xiping smiled and said, "I only have a few nephews. Even if I provide all the stationery, how much money will I have left?"
"You three, aren't you going to thank your third uncle?" Liu Yujiang's wife pointed at her son and nephew.
Liu Qiang and the others quickly came over and thanked Sheng Xiping.
"Oh, no need to thank me. As long as you study hard and become successful in the future, your Uncle will take care of all your school supplies, including pens and notebooks."
Sheng Xiping raised his hand, patted Liu Qiang on the shoulder, and smiled. "Go do your homework and study hard."
"Okay, I got it." The three children nodded happily and hurried to the west room to do their homework.
Liu Gang hasn't started school yet, but he follows his older brother around every day to learn characters and count. Now he can count from one to one hundred, understand addition and subtraction within twenty, and recognize the Chinese characters for first grade.
After finishing his own homework every day, Liu Qiang had to check Liu Peng's homework before teaching Liu Gang. As the eldest son and grandson, this kid had a sense of responsibility from a young age.
Sheng Xiping sat at the Liu family's house for a while, then, seeing that it was time for dinner, he got up to say goodbye.
"Master, Mistress, it's time to eat at home. I'll head back now. My mom said we're slaughtering a pig tomorrow, so Master and Mistress can take the kids over for a pig-killing feast."
Liu Changde and his wife had intended to have Sheng Xiping stay for dinner, but Liu Yujiang and Liu Yuhe, the brothers, hadn't returned by this time yet, and they didn't know when they would get home.
We can't exactly leave Sheng Xiping here to wait with them, can we?
"Alright, we didn't cook anything fancy at home today, so we won't keep you here."
"When we're less busy someday, I'll have your sister-in-law and the others cook some nice dishes, and then we guys can sit down together and have a good drink."
Liu Changde moved to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), about to put on his shoes and get down to see Sheng Xiping off.
"Master, please don't get down. Just sit on the kang (heated brick bed). I'm not some special guest, why would you need to come down and see me off?"
Sheng Xiping quickly stopped Liu Changde, telling him to stay inside, while he grabbed the cloth bag and stepped out of Liu's house.
When they returned to the Sheng family home, Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei had just come home from school and were sitting down to eat.
"Fourth brother and fifth brother, your sister-in-law has bought you a lot of review materials. Don't forget to take them later."
Sheng Xiping pointed to the kangqin at the end of the north kang, where he had put his review materials.
Otherwise, what if those two naughty kids, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu, tear up all those documents if we don't keep an eye on them?
"Sister-in-law is so kind! We finished all those test papers last time and were worried about not having any practice problems. I didn't expect you to find us some again!" The two girls were overjoyed to hear this.
These two girls aren't as talented at studying as the third brother, Sheng Xikang; they're just really good at putting in the effort.
I get home from get out of class at 9:30 pm, and then I do some more practice problems by flashlight. I get up at 5 am every morning to memorize and do practice problems. This is my daily routine.
With Zhou Qinglan and the others finding all sorts of review questions, and the two girls putting in a lot of hard work, their grades are bound to be good.
In the last mock exam, two of the top three spots in the entire high school rankings were occupied by the sisters.
When the results came out, Wang Junsheng was overjoyed. He was certain that the college entrance examination results of Qianchuan Forest Farm Middle School this year would be excellent.
The two girls quickly finished their meal and then took down the thick stack of review questions from the kang (heated brick bed).
Zhou Qinglan put in a lot of effort, making two sets of questions for each question and providing the answers.
The two quickly put the practice questions away to make sure their little nephew wouldn't damage them, then each took a set and went to school.
Before long, Sheng Xitai finished eating, put down his chopsticks, and hurriedly walked towards the school.
This kid is starting to study now. Although he's not as hardworking as his two older sisters, he's quick-witted and can grasp things very easily.
It's relatively easy for the children of forestry bureau employees to get into high school; as long as their grades aren't too bad, they can all go to high school. So the Sheng family didn't urge him much.
The older kids left, and the two younger ones ate and played at the same time. After they finally finished eating, Sheng Xiping's group of buddies came over and sat for a while to chat.
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