Chapter 29
Yes, Xu Yanan is the child of Xu Jianguo and Sun Yan.
However, among Jian Feng's childhood friends, Xu Yanan doesn't get along with any of the kids.
Sun Yan was closer to Wu Haixia and Zhang Qin, but it was useless. She still spoke ill of them behind their backs. Sun Yan could not say a good word about others. She always had thousands of reasons to think that others had treated her unfairly.
Over the years, one of the main reasons why Wang Mengmei tolerated Sun Yan was that Xu Yanan had good grades.
When women quarrel, they either quarrel with men or with children.
Jian Li's grades were above average, not too good, but not too bad either. Her only advantage was that she was lucky, always meeting excellent and experienced teachers, and she never failed in the key exams.
But apart from that, Wang Mengmei really felt that Jian Li could not be compared with Xu Yanan.
Xu Yanan is only thirteen years old now, but she is already a model child who can help her parents with housework and find tasks to do on her own in her free time.
Sun Yan often boasted outside that she was good at educating children.
"We all train our children and let them cook and wash clothes by themselves."
"The same goes for her studies. She is studying for herself, so we should worry more about her. When we were young, we didn't have such conditions. We didn't know where to pick up a pencil. We couldn't study even if we wanted to."
"I often tell her that academic performance alone is not important. Honoring parents and respecting teachers is the most important thing. She also brings foot-washing water to me and her father every night at home."
"If a young tree is not pruned, it will not grow straight. Look at her good grades now, that's all because of me."
…
Sun Yan's argument was very convincing, and many people in the family compound actually believed her theory and asked their children to bring them water to wash their feet. Of course, not every child is like Xu Yanan.
Those who overturned the foot basin on the spot would inevitably end up in a big fight at home.
Wang Mengmei didn't let her daughter take the foot basin because she didn't think it was right.
If filial piety lies in this basin of foot-washing water, then weren't the most filial people to the old landlords in the past the maids and old mothers around them?
She never expressed her opinion on Sun Yan's educational philosophy, but Sun Yan did criticize her educational philosophy.
"Is this raising a child or raising an ancestor? Give him whatever he wants. With the grades he got in the exam, is it enough to honor his family?"
Sun Yan advised Wang Mengmei not to be so nice to Jian Li.
"You help her do everything. What will she do when she moves in with her husband's family?"
Sun Yan has her own theory, which is that children cannot get used to it.
Seeing that Wang Mengmei didn't listen to her, Sun Yan ignored Wang Mengmei. She felt that she was kind enough to share her experience, but the other party didn't appreciate it.
Nowadays, when parents hold a meeting, the first and second place students sit in front and back seats. Sun Yan sits in front of Wang Mengmei and always mentions the issue of "cheating" when chatting with parents around her.
"I'm not petty and I don't like seeing other people do well, but you said your child suddenly went from the bottom of the class to the top three. That's ridiculous!"
Immediately, a parent who didn't know the details agreed: "That's not true. Our kid has always been at the bottom of the class. If he suddenly improves a lot one day, I really have to check carefully to see if he copied the answers from others."
Hearing the compliments from others, Sun Yan became even more excited.
Wang Mengmei was sitting at the back and couldn't listen any more.
Just at this time, Teacher Fang had already walked into the classroom, interrupting Wang Mengmei's rhythm of looking for Sun Yan to ask for an explanation.
Teacher Fang: "Hello, parents. In today's parents' meeting, we will make a summary of your children's learning situation in the first half of the semester. The quality of grades is one thing, but the most important thing is to communicate with parents. It is almost the end of the second semester of the second year of junior high school, and the third year of junior high school is just around the corner. The high school entrance examination is the first major entrance examination that everyone will face, which directly determines which high school they will enter in the future..."
Teacher Fang talked about the importance of studying hard, and then read out the grades one by one.
Listening to the teacher reading out who ranked first and who ranked second, the parents could not help but focus their attention on the parents of these top students, their eyes overflowing with envy.
How could other people’s children do so well in the exam?
When it was the turn of the students whose grades were not so good, all the parents lowered their heads or gave an awkward smile.
All I could think of was that I would beat the kid up when I got home. Not only did he do poorly on the test, but he also embarrassed his parents. He deserved to be beaten!
After reading out the results, Teacher Fang began to talk about the children's situation in batches.
Finally, parents of outstanding students were called to come to the stage to talk about their own educational methods.
Teacher Fang glanced at the list in his hand: "...Jian Li's parents."
Sun Yan thought she was the first one and almost stood up, but she heard the teacher skip over her and call Wang Mengmei. Her face suddenly turned very ugly.
Wang Mengmei was a little nervous but also felt proud. It was the first time that the teacher called her to go to the podium.
Teacher Fang pushed up her glasses and said, "There's one more thing I forgot to mention. Jian Li's article was once published in a magazine and received a lot of praise. Let's applaud Jian Li's parents and welcome them to teach us how to cultivate children's interest in writing."
After hearing this, the parents became even more jealous.
Look at other people’s children!
When Wang Mengmei stood on the podium, her first reaction was that her legs went weak.
After finally finding my own voice, I began to get to the point tremblingly.
All the prepared manuscripts were useless, and Wang Mengmei didn't even know what she had said.
But no matter how well she spoke, there was a burst of applause from the audience.
Wang Mengmei walked off the stage gracefully, feeling extremely happy.
Li Lijuan, who was sitting next to her, was extremely envious: "It would be great if our Xia Liu could learn from Jian Li."
Wang Mengmei thought, she had always said this before.
She always thought Xia Liu was more cheerful than Jian Li, and she always complained to Li Lijuan why Jian Li didn't learn from Xia Liu.
It hasn't been long now, and the people who are envied have all disappeared.
Sun Yan snorted in the front row.
Wang Mengmei ignored her.
She is in a good mood today and doesn't want to quarrel with others and ruin her mood.
No matter what Sun Yan said, Wang Mengmei would never believe that her daughter got her grades by cheating.
After the parents' meeting, Wang Mengmei walked out of the school with her head held high.
Sun Yan fell behind, and the more she thought about it, the more upset she felt.
She returned home, threw the bag in her hand, and angrily found fault with Xu Yanan.
"Everyone else is submitting articles, but what's the point of having a brain like that? Why don't you submit articles?"
"You missed the target? I provide you with good food and drink, and this is how you repay us?"
"You can't even bear the hardship of studying. Go to the construction site and see who is not more tired than you. How dare you say that you can't submit the paper? Isn't it just writing an article and sending it out? Jian Li can do it, why can't you!"
"Just like your father, a piece of trash!"
Sun Yan scolded her daughter until she started to cry. Only then did she feel better.
She was chopping cabbage angrily, thinking that it was time to give the girl a string-up, rather than her always getting first place in the exams and letting down her guard.
When eating dinner in the evening, Xu Yanan's tears had not yet stopped falling. She buried her head in eating the vegetables, and tears fell into the bowl one by one.
Sun Yan got angry when she saw her silly look, and threw down her chopsticks and cursed: "Hold back your tears! Cry, cry, cry, all you do is cry! Am I wrong?"
"I see that you've been so proud of yourself lately. You're probably taking it easy because you got first place in the exam! Look at Jian Li, she's surpassed you in no time!"
"How dare you cry! I worked so hard to prepare this meal. If you don't want to eat, get out of here!"
…
Xu Yanan ate the rice, not daring to refuse, nor to go back to the house.
Her mother is always like this. She can never make her happy. In her eyes, everything she does is disobedience.
After finishing her meal, Xu Yanan returned to her desk.
Take out the manuscript paper from the innermost drawer.
The original composition topic was crossed out again and again, and a string of words flowed out from the black pen.
[If possible, I hope I have never appeared in this world. ]
*****
Wang Mengmei returned home and bought a roast duck on the way.
She can cook most home-cooked meals at home, but roasting duck requires a stove, which she cannot do.
The roast duck with crispy skin and tender meat was shiny with oil, and the shop owner in the stall even asked her enthusiastically if she wanted a small cake.
"This is Peking duck, served with a side of cake."
Wang Mengmei waved her hand and said, "Give me one."
The cookies were served with sweet bean sauce and shredded cucumber and green onions, and were still warm when I took them home.
It happened to be the weekend for Qian Ping, so the four of them ate the duck clean. Wang Mengmei was reluctant to throw away the duck rack, so she prepared to make some duck rack soup, and when she got hungry in the evening after work, she would eat some thin noodles with the soup.
Jian Li didn't dare eat too much. She has been very effective in controlling her weight. From the beginning of the school year to now, she has lost more than ten pounds in two months.
Although she is still not thin now, she is not as prone to edema as before.
Jian Li thought regretfully, if only it were summer now, she could learn swimming to lose weight.
After dinner, Wang Mengmei asked Qian Ping if it was cold at school.
"It's October already, and it'll be more than half a month before the heating comes on. Can you just use those two quilts?"
There were limited quilts at home, and the pair prepared for Qian Ping were not thick enough.
Qian Ping: "It's okay, auntie. There are hot water places in the school. I can get a bottle of hot water to wash my feet at night and they won't be cold anymore."
After a pause, Qian Ping said hesitantly: "Aunt, I will go home tomorrow."
"I'm going to go get something I need."
It has been two months since she came, and her mother has not come to visit her except for bringing her clothes twice.
Although Qian Ping was learning a lot, she felt a sense of loss that she couldn't explain.
My aunt often advised her that her mother's life was not easy.
Qian Ping sometimes thinks that she is pretty despicable. She feels uncomfortable when her mother controls her too much, but when her mother really doesn't care anymore, she is always worried about her in her heart.
Then go back and take a look.
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