Once winter vacation starts, most kids go wild, running around all day and not coming home until it's time to eat.
The Sheng family members are all grown up and quite sensible; they made the most of their time to do their homework in the first few days.
These days, there aren't many homework booklets for winter break. Teachers just assign two small calligraphy notebooks, and for older students, a few essays or diary entries.
There isn't much homework; if I'm diligent, I can finish it in three to five days.
This time, Sheng Xitai learned his lesson and followed his older siblings to do his homework first. Once he finished his homework, he lost interest in playing and could play however he wanted, unafraid of getting beaten up.
Needless to say, Chen Feng, being young and having less homework, finished quickly.
After finishing their homework, the two kids were completely free to do as they pleased.
After breakfast, they would go out and either sled down the slope, skate on the river, or play ice games together. They had plenty of things to do.
Despite the freezing cold outside in the dead of winter, these children didn't feel it at all. They wore thick cotton-padded jackets and trousers, cotton hats, and cotton glove gloves. Their faces were red from the cold, but they were having a great time.
There's one problem: every night when I get home, my shoes are wet, and I have to find a place to dry them.
There was a fire wall in the west room, but it was too small to even fit Sheng Xinhua's clothes and diapers. Where would there be room for Sheng Xitai and Chen Feng to dry their shoes?
So the two men's shoes could only be placed in front of the stove or hearth in the outer room to dry slowly.
One day, Sheng Xitai and his friends were playing a game of digging castles and hide-and-seek outside. They dug holes in several large snowdrifts in the field, hid inside, and let others find them.
By the end of the day, snow had filled the shoes, and the big cotton-padded shoes were soaked through.
As soon as he got home, Zhang Shuzhen saw it and was so angry that she almost beat Sheng Xitai up.
Fortunately, everyone persuaded him to avoid a beating, but what about the shoes?
The pair of shoes that Sheng Xitai is wearing were newly bought for him by Zhang Shuzhen after winter began.
These days, having a new pair of shoes to get through the winter is considered pretty good. Many people just pick up their older siblings' old shoes, patch them up, and wear them for another year.
Sheng Xitai's shoes are soaked. If they aren't dried tonight, he won't have any shoes to wear tomorrow.
So, after dinner, the boy placed two bricks outside the stove pit.
Then place the shoes sideways on the bricks, with the shoe openings facing the stove pit, hoping to dry the shoes as quickly as possible using the heat of the pit.
Normally, Sheng Xitai and Chen Feng's shoes would only get wet on the outside, not this badly wet as they were today.
Sheng Xitai was worried that the remaining embers in the stove would not be enough, so when his family wasn't looking, he added some more firewood to the stove.
As a result, around 10 p.m., Zhang Shuzhen smelled a mixture of burning rubber and burnt smell.
"Where is this smell coming from?" Zhang Shuzhen couldn't sleep, so she quickly got up, lit a candle, and followed the smell to find it.
There was nothing unusual in the inner room, so Zhang Shuzhen took the candle and went to the outer room. As soon as she opened the door to the east room, a pungent smell came out, making Zhang Shuzhen cough.
Just then, Sheng Xiping also noticed something was wrong, so he got up to check.
"Oh dear, what's burning? Why does it smell like burning rubber?"
When the door to the west room opened, Sheng Xiping almost choked and fell over.
He quickly closed the door to the west room, not even bothering to check where the smell was coming from, and hurriedly opened the door to the outer room to let in some fresh air.
At this moment, Zhang Shuzhen, holding a candle, had already arrived in front of the stove.
"Oh dear, whose shoes are these? They're all burnt!"
"What a spendthrift! Why did you leave your shoes blocking the stove door? A perfectly good pair of shoes, now mostly burned!"
Zhang Shuzhen picked up the shoe and, upon seeing it, became so angry that she started cursing.
Sheng Xiping also came over, took a closer look, and couldn't help but shake his head.
The two bricks were too close to the stove pit door. There were still embers in the pit, and after drying the shoes, they also caught fire on the shoelaces, burning most of the shoes.
Judging from the size of these shoes, they should belong to Sheng Xitai.
If Sheng Xiping could recognize it, then Zhang Shuzhen would certainly recognize it. What in the house could escape her eyes?
"Sheng Xitai, get over here!" Zhang Shuzhen shouted angrily into the inner room, disregarding the fact that it was the middle of the night.
In the east room, Sheng Xikang, Sheng Xitai, and Chen Feng slept on the north kang, while Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei slept on the south kang with their mother.
Sheng Xitai was fast asleep and didn't hear his mother calling him, but Sheng Xikang heard her and quickly woke him up.
"Sixth brother, get up quickly, Mom's calling you, what are you doing?"
Sheng Xitai was sleeping soundly when his brother woke him up. Thinking it was dawn, he sat up with a start.
Just then, Zhang Shuzhen called out again, which startled Sheng Xitai so much that he hurriedly climbed out of bed and ran barefoot to the outer room.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Sheng Xitai's mind was still blank.
"What happened? Did you throw firewood into the stove pit again? Look at these shoes, look at the state they're in!"
Zhang Shuzhen threw the shoe, which had already been burned through, in front of Sheng Xitai.
By the dim light of the candle, Sheng Xitai picked up his cotton shoes, and upon examining them, he immediately realized that he had burned them.
"Oh dear, my shoes, my new shoes! I have no shoes to wear."
I don't know how those shoes burned, but half of the sole melted away, and there's no way to repair them now.
Sheng Xitai had only this one pair of new shoes, but he had ruined them like this. Overwhelmed with grief, he burst into tears.
"Serves you right, you're always out showing off. This house can't contain you anymore. You're never home, and your shoes are always soaking wet."
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