Chapter 9
Xia Weining's life began to return to normal. In addition to preparing lessons and attending classes every day, she would practice boxing whenever she had time. Because she was old and in strong physical condition, she suffered a lot from practicing this. She was covered in injuries and her arms were so painful that she couldn't lift them, but she kept gritting her teeth and persevering.
She is actually not very courageous. Although she speaks harshly to others, she is still afraid in her heart. Only when she has enough power can she be confident and not afraid of anyone.
After practicing today, she bought a lot of meat and went to visit her grandparents. "Just sit still, I'll cook."
Grandma was not willing to let her do it, "Let me do it, you come to visit us so often, you are more filial than our daughter, how can we let you do the work?"
"It's only right for me to come and see you." Xia Weining was washing vegetables. "You should eat more meat to supplement your protein."
The elderly don’t know what protein is, they just know that eating more meat is good for nutrition, but they don’t have the financial means, so they are very frugal.
Xia Weining had the impression that her grandparents seldom ate meat and often ate noodles in clear soup. Both of them were very thin.
This time she will improve her grandparents' quality of life little by little.
Grandpa came in with the prepared chicken and said, "Girl, don't buy these anymore. They're so expensive. It's not easy for you to earn money. No one in this neighborhood lives as well as our family, eating meat every day."
"If you have the conditions, you should eat what you want. It doesn't cost much, and I have plenty of money."
Grandpa and grandma smiled dotingly, and they cooperated very well, one boiling the pot and the other cooking. The temperature in the kitchen was very high. Xia Weining's eyes gradually became moist. This warm scene could not be bought with any amount of money.
Xia Li smelled the aroma as soon as she entered the house and ran straight to the kitchen, "Have you made something delicious again?"
Grandma picked up a piece of meat and fed it to her, "I stewed the chicken that your teacher Xia bought for you. Go wash your hands and have dinner."
"It's so hot." Xia Li put the meat in his hand and grimaced because of the heat.
"No one's snatching it from you, eat slowly."
Xia Li was a little speechless, "Grandma, you fed me."
"Yes, yes, my bad." Grandma smiled and handed her a bowl, "Put it here."
"This is more like it. I'll eat it later."
The scene before her fascinated Xia Weining. Love is indeed the best medicine to heal wounds.
All she wants is for her family to be safe, healthy and happy.
During the meal, Xia Weining talked about her grandmother's heart disease. "Let's go to a big hospital for a checkup when we have time. She suffers every time she goes to the health center and gets fed with water, but it can't be cured."
Everyone was visibly stunned, and Xia Li asked what was on everyone's mind, "How did you know grandma had a heart disease?"
"I..." Xia Weining smiled, "I guessed it because grandma is so thin."
Grandma lowered her head to pick up the rice grains that fell on the table. "Why bother checking? It's a complete waste of money. I don't do any heavy work at home every day, so I won't get sick."
"If you are sick, you need to see a doctor, otherwise you won't get better."
Grandma didn't say anything else and ate in silence. The atmosphere was very awkward. Xia Weining's eyes moved back and forth between the faces of several people. Finally, she sighed and ate her meal.
Xia Weining actually understood her grandmother's concerns. She didn't want to put pressure on her children or make things difficult for them. After all, life is not easy.
My grandmother is like this. She still has the thinking of the older generation. She can be trapped in her own small world forever and never thinks about going out to see the new world. Her life belongs to her descendants. She always wants to do more for them and doesn't want to be a burden to the family. So she can endure, endure the hardships of life and the torture of illness. Even if she is tortured by illness and can't breathe, she can endure it. Her life is easy but difficult.
When Xia Weining returned home, she was still thinking about how to make more money. Only by making money could she persuade her grandmother to get treatment.
Just as she had some idea in her mind, she was delayed by school matters. Recently, there have been many students who fall in love prematurely and skip classes, so the school has formed a patrol team, with the principal and the director each leading a team. The members are teachers from each grade. They hold flashlights and hide in the corner of the wall during evening study, waiting to catch people, and they actually catch a few.
Xia Weining still remembers a second-year junior high student who had just returned from surfing the internet. He had just climbed up the wall when the teacher pulled him down. Flashlights were pointed at him, and the principal shouted, "Which class are you from? What's your name?"
This might have been the most embarrassing time for the student in all those years, and he was too embarrassed to see anyone.
Later, the whole school carried out rectification work and asked teachers to strengthen ideological education for students.
One of Xia Weining's evening self-study sessions was changed into a class meeting, mainly discussing the problems of students' premature love, skipping classes, and being late. She took the initiative to ask her head teacher, Mr. Li, to give the talk herself. Although Mr. Li was surprised, he agreed to her request.
This was a very difficult class meeting. It was not only an education for the students, but also an analysis of her own past. It was a key step for her to open her heart.
She stood on the podium, her eyes fixed on Xia Li in the front row. She smiled slightly, scanned the entire class, and slowly spoke, "Are you curious why I'm the one holding this class meeting? I asked your head teacher for permission."
"I know you're curious, don't worry, just listen to me." Xia Weining moved a chair and sat next to the desk. "If I asked you if you've ever fallen in love or skipped classes, you wouldn't tell me, right?"
The classroom was very quiet, so quiet that you could hear the rustling of clothes.
Several students lowered their heads and didn't dare to look her in the eye. She knew it, but she didn't intend to pursue it.
"Let me tell you a story."
The students below were indifferent. They had long been accustomed to listening to the head teacher bragging about himself in class meetings. Xia Weining smiled helplessly. It seemed that she was like this before. The class meetings were just to listen to the head teacher talk about his glorious career and love and hate. She even listened to the teacher say that his classmate married a student who was much younger than him. She was puzzled at the time why the head teacher said everything.
Through class meetings, students can learn about their teacher’s academic journey, love story, and family life. After hearing about it so often, they probably become desensitized to it.
Xia Weining ignored all this and continued on her own, "There was a girl who grew up in a poor family and was often looked down upon. She was easily met with disdainful stares wherever she went. She became sensitive and self-conscious, so she started dressing up, thinking that as long as she looked beautiful, no one would look down on her. This was because she longed for attention, but she chose the wrong approach."
The students in the audience were finally no longer indifferent. Some of them slowly looked up at her, their eyes beginning to be moved, and they couldn't wait to know what would happen next.
Xia Weining did not rush to speak. She took in the expressions of every student and knew that some of them had the same mentality.
Adolescents are hazy and fragile.
"Do you want to hear me continue?"
"think."
Xia Weining nodded with satisfaction. "It just so happened that something happened around this time that changed her life. From then on, she completely gave up on herself, frequently frequenting barbershops, clothing stores, and internet cafes. She ignored the actual situation at home, often plucking and dyeing her hair, and bought new clothes almost every week. She would dress up beautifully and walk around the campus, accepting everyone's gaze. Only in this way could she not feel inferior. At that time, she was heartless and never consumed by internal friction. I don't know if you know what this word means, which means that she never considered others, only caring about her own pursuit of beauty, let alone self-reflection. She was very relaxed and spent her money with peace of mind."
"And then?"
"Later, she felt that this wasn't enough. She wanted to attract more attention, so she started skipping classes and being late. She enjoyed walking proudly into the classroom under the gaze of the teacher and classmates. The podium became her stage. There was no guilt or embarrassment on her face. Instead, she held her head high and chest out, as if she was being inspected. She thought this would attract attention. The wrong idea filled her mind. She thought it was cool. She even felt cool when the teacher called her into the office and scolded her. She would imagine other classmates saying "Wow!" and she was scolded by the teacher again. Then she would pretend to be deep and profound, but in fact no one cared."
Xia Weining slowly became emotional, her voice choking a little. "Later, she realized that this kind of thing wasn't cool at all. It only reinforced the impression that she was a bad student. In fact, she was almost a bad student at that time."
"Teacher, is this you?"
"It's me."
She finally dared to speak out about her shameful past in public. She knew that it wouldn't be long before the whole school would know about it, and even many parents would know about it, but it didn't matter. These things had been weighing on her heart for too long, and she could finally let go of some of them.
This is her first step towards self-salvation, to face up to the true self.
"Students, what I want to tell you today is that being late or skipping classes is never cool; that's self-degradation. Falling in love too early is also not cool. Don't neglect your most precious youth because of premature maturity. Entering class amidst the teacher's yelling and classmates' stares is even less cool; that's self-abandonment."
There was a shocking silence in the audience again. Everyone was looking at Xia Weining. Her words were completely consistent with the behavior of many people, and even their psychology was not much different. It made people break out in a cold sweat. The teacher was like a friend around them.
They were indeed friends, and many of the people in the audience were Xia Weining's "accomplices". She saw her good friends Wang Xiuhan and Zhao Lin lowering their heads. In the past, the three of them were famous "latecomers".
"Do you want to know what happened to me?"
"I got into college."
Xia Weining smiled and shook her head. "That's right and that's not right. I had good relationships with some of my classmates at the time, both boys and girls. Some did say they liked me, but they were all fake. I knew I should be careful. But then people started saying I was with a man when I was only seventeen or eighteen. I was met with disgusted looks everywhere I went, and parents all stopped their children from playing with me. But I really didn't do that."
Xia Li swallowed and felt an inexplicable pain in her heart. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she just wanted to hug Teacher Xia.
"The rumors were getting more and more intense, and I was terrified. Classmates, do you know the feeling of being so scared that your whole body goes cold? At night, I hugged myself and shivered, worried and unable to sleep. At that moment, I felt like my blood was curdling. After a while, I dropped out of school."
There was an uproar in the audience.
Xia Weining smiled faintly. "I went out of town and experienced work you couldn't even imagine. At that moment, I put my pride under my feet, completely abandoned my pride, and began a true transformation. A year later, I chose to return to school to repeat a grade. I persisted in my studies despite the skeptical eyes of my teachers. At the first class meeting, I revealed on stage that I was repeating a grade from the previous year. Entering a completely new environment, I did my best to prove to my teachers that I was no longer the same person I was before. I began studying day and night, and eventually successfully entered university."
These words deeply shocked the students in the audience. They seemed to have a thousand words to say but didn't know where to start.
"Classmates, the moment I returned to school and found the right direction in life, it meant I had completely cut ties with my past self. However, everything I went through was too painful. I don't want you to be like me. I hope you can happily move forward to the future of your life."
As soon as he finished speaking, warm applause broke out in the classroom, and many students cried, for the teacher on the stage and for themselves in the audience.
Xia Weining's gaze passed through the applause and fixed on Xia Li. The two looked at each other and smiled tacitly.
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