Chapter 201 Teacher
As the three of them crossed the small square, they happened to meet Nan Zhiyi taking a walk with Xiaoman.
Xiaoman recognized Sister Zhang and stumbled over to her.
Sister Zhang hurriedly asked, "Why are you out so early today? Haven't you had breakfast yet?"
She usually returns to the compound before 7 o'clock after buying groceries.
This mother and son really got up early today.
Nan Zhiyi stepped forward to support Xiaoman, "This little rascal went to bed early last night and made a fuss about me first thing this morning. I gave him some milk."
When she saw the lotus flowers in Sister Zhang's hand, her eyes crinkled with laughter: "What beautiful flowers! I'll take them home and grow them. Sister Zhang, you really understand me."
Xiaoman also tried to grab the lotus pods, but Nan Zhiyi grabbed her and said, "You're not allowed to grab them!"
Sister Zhang raised her hand higher and said, "Xiaoman, I'll peel it for you to try later."
The other two maids stood by, looking somewhat dazed. Nan Zhiyi nodded amicably to them.
Sister Zhang said, "I'll go back and make something to eat first."
The three of them then walked together towards the cadre dormitory. Aunt Liu murmured, "Guixiang, you've hit the jackpot..."
Sister Zhao gripped the ledger tightly in her hand, without saying a word.
Sister Zhang lowered her head to organize the vegetable basket, hiding the smile on her lips: "Yes, it's work, who doesn't want an easy-going employer?"
Nan Zhiyi carried Xiaoman in, and Sister Zhang was taking the last egg pancake out of the pan.
The golden-yellow crust is as thin as paper, adorned with chopped green scallions, and has an enticing aroma.
She exclaimed, "Sister Zhang, you make such good pancakes! I can never make them like this."
She washed Xiaoman's hands, put her in the high chair, tore off half a pancake, and handed it to her.
The little guy immediately grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth, his cheeks bulging out as he ate.
Sister Zhang brought over a bowl of cold potato salad and placed it next to Nan Zhiyi.
She sat down at the other end of the table and peeled lotus seeds, carefully picking out the green lotus kernels with tweezers: "You're so good at praising people, even making a pancake is something to praise."
“Really,” Nan Zhiyi said earnestly, “the pancakes I make are either burnt or undercooked, and once I even sprinkled sugar instead of salt.”
She laughed, "Back when we lived in the family compound in the mountains, I used to dig for wild scallions with my sisters-in-law. The scallion and meat buns we made turned out like landmines."
Sister Zhang paused for a moment.
She had thought that a pampered young lady like Madam Gu had never suffered hardship, but she never expected that she had actually lived in a remote mountain village.
Just as she was wondering what to say, she noticed that Xiaoman's hands were covered in oil from eating, so she quickly changed the subject: "I saw some small river shrimp for sale this morning, they were so lively. I just don't know if Xiaoman can eat them? I heard some children are allergic to shrimp."
"Buy them!" Nan Zhiyi said. "River shrimp and prawns are fine, as long as they're fresh. He shouldn't be allergic."
After quickly finishing breakfast, Nan Zhiyi put Xiaoman on the carpet to play with building blocks and found two vases for herself.
A short, stout glass bottle was placed on the dining table. She first arranged three half-open pink lotus flowers at varying heights, then added two green lotus pods, and finally placed a lotus leaf as a base.
Another slender-necked porcelain vase was brought to the study, with only a single, graceful white lotus flower inserted, its petals jutting out from the mouth of the vase as if it were looking down at a book.
She then took the scissors to the yard.
The roses were in full bloom. She picked a few pale pink branches and cut them off. She placed the short branches with leaves on the vase on the dining table, and the long branches on the dresser in the bedroom.
Dewdrops rolled off the petals, sparkling in the morning light.
When Sister Zhang came out of the kitchen after cleaning up, she was stunned when she saw the vase on the dining table.
Ordinary lotus flowers, after being arranged like this, become even more elegant than those in magazines.
Sister Zhang discussed with Nan Zhiyi: "Sister-in-law, the lotus root is crisp and fresh today. How about we stir-fry some lotus root slices for lunch, pair it with water chestnut stir-fried with pork slices, and also stew some lotus seed and pork rib soup?"
Nan Zhiyi was wiping Xiaoman's mouth when she heard this and nodded, "You can arrange it. Xiaoman's father won't be home for lunch today." Sunlight danced through the lotus vase on her hair, and Xiaoman babbled as she tried to catch the light and shadow.
Sister Zhang said "Oh," and went to the yard to wash and dry the clothes.
Nan Zhiyi then took Xiaoman upstairs, saying, "Son, it's too hot outside, let's play in the study."
In the study, the electric fan oscillated, sending in a gentle breeze.
Nan Zhiyi placed Xiaoman on the carpet mat, surrounded by various toys.
She sat down at her desk and spread out her review materials.
During this period, she briefly reviewed Chinese and English, and both went fairly smoothly.
As for Chinese, after all, I've been writing for many years, so my sense of language is still there.
She didn't lose her English foundation; her mother had hired a tutor back then.
But when she turned to the math examples, she immediately frowned.
Trigonometric formulas are like gibberish, and geometry proofs make my head spin.
After scribbling on the draft paper for a long time with a pen, the solution came out to be far from the standard answer.
"Something's not right..." she muttered to herself, biting her pen.
She used to think math wasn't difficult, but now that she really needs to review it systematically, she realizes how much she's forgotten.
I'm not afraid of subjects like politics, history, and geography that require memorization, but math, physics, and chemistry are the ones that give me a headache.
Xiaoman crawled over and grabbed the book pages, saying in her childish voice, "Mommy...round..."
Nan Zhiyi smiled wryly: "Now, whenever Mom sees a circle, she thinks of π..."
The sound of Sister Zhang hanging clothes to dry could be heard outside the window; the bamboo poles clanged together crisply.
She fed Xiaoman warm water, played with him building blocks for a while, and then reopened the math workbook, starting with the simplest factorization to review.
As the afternoon sun began to set, Gu Xiao returned home earlier than usual.
As he tiptoed upstairs, he saw Nan Zhiyi biting the cap of a pen, her brows furrowed into a shallow "川" character.
The draft paper was covered with calculations, but most of them had been crossed out.
Gu Xiao went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face before entering the study and hugging her from behind: "Which question stumped my wife?"
Nan Zhiyi pointed dejectedly at a trigonometric function: "This... I've memorized the formula, but I just can't fit it in."
Gu Xiao chuckled: "Who said I was a 'bookworm' back then?"
Seeing that her ears were turning red and she was about to get angry, he took the pen seriously and said, "Here, let me see."
She did complain about it behind her back before...
Because they attended the same junior high school, the teachers often used Gu Xiao to scold Gu Yan, saying, "Your brother was always first in school back then, look at you, you've never even passed a grade."
So the group of friends teamed up to complain, saying that Gu Xiao was a bookworm...
Later, I also heard from Gu Yan that Gu Xiao skipped grades to take the military academy entrance exam and excelled in all subjects.
Unexpectedly, one day, Nan Zhiyi would beg him to teach her.
She tugged at his sleeve, her voice softening, "Teacher Gu, please teach me~"
While still holding her close, Gu Xiao drew auxiliary lines on the draft paper: "Look, first convert sin²θ to 1-cos²θ..."
"Oh, I see!" Nan Zhiyi exclaimed in sudden realization, but still tried to save face, "I just didn't quite get it right for a moment..."
"Stubborn." He gently bit her earlobe and continued with the next question.
When discussing geometric proofs, I simply pulled her onto my lap, held her hand, and guided her through the diagram: "Connecting AC and BD, don't we see similar triangles?"
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