Chapter 61: Boy Soldiers
After the success of making green plum jam, Xia Wu's self-confidence was greatly enhanced. She and Liu Guizhen tried to make salted green plums and green plum juice, and used Mr. Yang's collection of wine to soak two large barrels of green plum wine.
It takes some time for the green plum wine to develop its flavor, so it should be sealed and stored in a dark place. Xia Wu is looking forward to drinking delicious chilled green plum wine in a few months.
There are dozens of plum trees on the mountain, and it is impossible for the mother and daughter to plant them all.
Xia Wu was well prepared. He edited the materials of processing plums that he had taken in the past few days and posted a long video.
Tasting Green: A Carnival at the Turn of Spring and Summer
The plums ripened early, and the raspberries were not far behind. The green berries gradually turned red. The workers who went up the mountain to work saw it, avoided the sharp thorns and picked some, and they all said they were delicious.
At first, not many were ripe, so Xia Wu picked some to taste. Liu Guizhen said there were many wild fruits like this in the mountains, but none as big as the ones Xia Wu planted.
When Xia Wu bought the seedlings, he bought cultivated raspberries, which tasted better and the green berries could be used as medicine.
Old Master Yang picked some green fruits and brought them back to prepare them, intending to try their medicinal effects.
There are endless green plums and raspberries to pick, and there are fruits every day.
The video released by Xia Wu was played over 600,000 times in three days, and she has become a well-known self-media blogger.
Someone asked if Qingmei was for sale. Of course, he said so, but there were not enough sales on Doudian, so Xia Wu decided to give priority to fans.
A pound of green plums costs six yuan, with a minimum delivery of five pounds. Including packaging and express fees, this price is not too expensive compared to the green plums on the market.
What's more, the things Xia Wu sells have always been of guaranteed quality. Both the appearance and taste are better than similar products sold on the market.
For fear that some people would not know how to process the green plums after receiving them, Xia Wu also kindly provided the production process.
However, there was another problem. There were too many green plums on the mountain, and the older soldiers under her command were unable to pick the fruits alone. If there was any bump or bruise, Xia Wu could not take responsibility.
Not to mention raspberries, which have short seedlings and many thorns. They taste delicious, but Xia Wu is too tired to pick them himself, let alone these old soldiers.
She worked hard for half a day to pick a bowl of raspberries, soaked them in salt and rinsed them with clean water. After making sure there were no bugs in them, she picked some up and threw them into her mouth.
Raspberries taste sour and sweet, and are very delicious. They are small in size and easy to eat. Xia Wu can eat a lot of them when she has nothing to do.
Eating it will not affect your dinner at night.
As soon as Yang Mingyuan got out of school, he followed Yang Ping and Yang An all the way back. The three children did not go home, but went straight to Xia Wu's house.
Who told their mothers to work here?
Yang Mingyuan held up a wrinkled and messy test paper, which looked much cleaner than last year's. He boasted from a distance, "Mom! Guess what I got this time?"
Wang Minping was weighing green plums, packing and sealing boxes. She glanced back and casually asked, "Did it pass?"
Yang Mingyuan's mouth was pouting so much that an oil bottle could be hung on it. "Mom, you look down on me. How could I just pass? Guess again!"
Xia Wu sat on a bench watching the fun. Wang Minping was too lazy to play with her son and refused to guess, which made Yang Mingyuan anxious.
On the other side, Qiu Lan asked her twin children: "Have you two taken the exam?"
"I took the exam. I got first place in the class and my brother got second place."
"I only scored two points less than Yang An in English, otherwise the first place would have been mine."
Qiu Lan smiled happily, "You're going to be in junior high school soon. You two should study hard and try to get into the county junior high school."
Although the junior high school in their town is close to home, the teaching quality is not particularly good and it is a well-known junior high school for slackers in the entire county.
There is only one middle school in Donghua Town. Even in the top class, only the top 20% of students can be admitted to high school. Most of them can only get into the second-high school in the county. Even among those who are admitted to the second-high school, only a pitiful number of students can be admitted to university.
So the county said that if children cannot even get into the first high school, they should be sent out to work and learn skills. It would be a waste of money to continue their studies.
Qiu Lan pays close attention to her children's education. She is ambitious and doesn't want her children to ruin their future in the town middle school. She has already found out that as long as they get good grades and spend some money, she can send her children to a good school.
Yang Mingyuan was still pestering his mother to guess his score. Wang Minping, who didn't know how to educate her children, bluntly said, "No matter how well you do in the exam, can you get the first place like Yang Ping and Yang An?"
With just one sentence, Yang Mingyuan instantly wilted like an eggplant hit by frost.
Xia Wu quickly waved, "Come here, the three of you. Let me take a look at your papers."
Yang Mingyue ran over like a puppy. Xia Wu handed him the bowl of raspberries and took his test paper.
"The raspberries we planted are ripe. Share them among the three of you."
Yang Ping and Yang An also gave the test paper to Xia Wu. The three children stood beside her and shared the raspberries, eating one at a time, and they couldn't stop at all.
Xia Wu is not a top student, but the questions on the test paper are not difficult for her.
Yang Mingyuan scored 72 points in mathematics and 69 points in Chinese, with a full score of 100, both of which were passed, which is a great improvement compared to last year.
This score probably won't be among the top in the class.
Xia Wu was very surprised and said, "Mingyuan, you did very well on the test this time. Such great progress shows that you have been studying hard recently. Very good. If you keep up this pace, won't you be able to get first place sooner or later?"
Yang Mingyuan felt embarrassed by her praise and chuckled, "The top student in our class scored 92 in Chinese and 98 in math. I'm still far behind."
"Not far, not far. Think about it, a perfect score is 100, and he scored 92 or 98. There's not much room for improvement. Unlike you, if you could score 10 points more each time than the last time, you'd catch up with him pretty quickly, right?"
Yang Mingyuan was coaxed into a fool and took Xia Wu's words as the golden rule.
Xia Wu told him, "Don't compare yourself with others, just compare yourself with yourself. Look at the questions on the test paper. For the ones you got right, you need to know how you got them right. Did you really know how to do them, or did you just guess? If you did, then reinforce your memory. If you just guessed, then master it so you won't make the same mistake next time. It's even more important to remember the questions you got wrong. This is called checking for leaks and filling in the gaps."
"If you master the questions you don't know, won't you be able to do more and more, and will your test scores get better and better?"
Yang An interrupted, "I know what Sister Xiao Wu means. I have a notebook that I use to record my mistakes. After every exam, I write down the questions I didn't know how to answer or the questions I got wrong. I look at them before the exam so I don't make the same mistakes again."
Wang Minping spoke up at this time: "Xiaoyuan, listen more and learn more from your sister An An."
"I see!"
Xia Wu returned the paper to Yang Mingyuan, and reminded him: "Practice your calligraphy more often. Look at your handwriting, it's like it was drawn with golden beans."
Yang Ping and Yang An's papers looked much better. Although Yang Ping was also a boy, he was a rare high-quality boy in the village. He loved cleanliness, and his small body was like a tall sapling. He also loved reading. Xia Wu often saw him reading borrowed books with great interest.
Although Yang An also loves to study, she is a little different from her brother. She is a firm score-oriented person and only focuses on grades.
The brother and sister have somewhat opposite personalities.
There wasn't much room for Xia Wu to show off on Yang Ping and Yang An's papers, so she mainly used encouragement and praise, which was enough to appease the two children.
After asking the three of them to put the papers back into their schoolbags, Xia Wu suddenly became interested and asked with a smile, "Today is Friday, so you don't have school tomorrow?"
"yes."
"Are raspberries delicious?"
"tasty!"
"Mingyuan, does your school have any activities like spring outings?"
In many big cities, educational conditions are excellent, and many children have participated in activities such as study tours and spring outings since kindergarten.
In addition to Chinese, mathematics and English, classes also focus on the development of other subjects.
But in Donghua Town, I guess no school can compare to those outside.
In the primary school where Yang Mingyuan is located, there are less than 200 students and only seven or eight teachers in the whole school. What should they do if there are not enough teachers? Everyone has to take on multiple roles, teaching math, Chinese, and then physical education.
Some older teachers still have to learn English to teach children English.
Such conditions cannot be asked for too much.
Activities like spring outings were too far away from Yang Mingyuan and his friends. After all, every trip home from school was considered a spring outing.
But that didn't stop the three children's eyes from lighting up when they heard Xia Wu talk about the spring outing. They knew about spring outings from their textbooks and on TV. In their minds, spring outings were about a group of friends going out together, bringing snacks and drinks and spending a whole day outdoors, playing however they wanted. How fun!
"Sister Xiao Wu, are you going to take us on a spring outing?" Yang An asked expectantly.
Xia Wu looked at the three children's expectant eyes and nodded without blushing, "Yes, do you want to call some friends and go on a spring outing together tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?"
"Okay! I'll go!" Yang Mingyuan excitedly stood up and jumped up and down with his fists clenched. "Let's go on a spring outing! Let's go on a spring outing! My sister will be back soon, can she go?"
"able!"
"Very good!"
Xia Wu also reminded Yang Mingyuan, "Mingyuan, remember to find a few classmates who are good friends with you. Have you forgotten what I told you last year?"
Last year, Yang Mingyuan stole strawberries and was isolated by his classmates. Xia Wu taught him to stay away from those people and make other friends. Isn’t the opportunity here now?
Xia Wu also didn't forget Wang Yuexia's children. After Wang Yuexia started working for her, she sent her eldest son, Zhou Bo, to school.
Zhou Bo is the same age as Yang Ping and Yang An. He should have been in the sixth grade, but after taking a leave of absence last year, he fell behind in a lot of fifth-grade courses. Wang Yuexia wanted to let Qiuli go back to school and study in the fifth grade for another year.
This time was not wasted. She let Zhou Bo join the fifth grade and help him adapt to the school first.
Although Wang Yuexia married and moved to Yanggou Village, the three children still go to the same school. Zhou Hai is in the second grade and Zhou Rugang is in the first grade.
The three siblings were not familiar with the children in Yanggou Village yet, so they came back together every day.
Xia Wu said he would take them on a spring outing. The children, who had been very reserved, let down their guard in front of Xia Wu, chirping and chattering as happily as little birds.
Early the next morning, Xia Wu had just gotten up and hadn't eaten yet when Yang Mingyuan and his friends came over.
A dozen children of all ages stood at the door in a large crowd, curiously watching the villagers picking and packing vegetables. Some of them came forward to ask questions and offered to help.
Xia Wu didn't dare to waste any more time. She spread a layer of green plum jam on the steamed bun, ate it whole with buffalo milk, changed her clothes and went out to greet her soldiers.
"Have you all had breakfast?"
"have eaten."
“No!”
Some of these children were carrying cross-body bags, and some were carrying plastic bags. It seemed that they all brought some food and water for the spring outing and were looking forward to it.
Xia Wu smiled and didn't look bad at all.
"Whether you've eaten or not, come inside and eat some more. A full stomach will give you the energy to go on...the spring outing."
I almost revealed my true intentions.
Xia Wu heated up the steamed buns in the refrigerator and asked the dozen or so children to stay in the yard. "Next, I need your cooperation. There are... fourteen of us in total, including him and me, making sixteen in total. We need to split into four groups."
Xia Wu pulled his brother into his camp, but the other kids were still a little confused. The main reason was that there were too many different people in their group. There were sixth graders and third graders. Although they were in the same school, they didn't know each other and were too embarrassed to take the initiative.
There was no other way, so Xia Wu had to take action himself, dividing the children into groups according to age, height and size, and asked them to nominate themselves to be group leaders.
Yang Mingyue, Yang Ping and Yang An are the team leaders of the three teams respectively. Xia Wu is the team leader with her brother and two six-year-old kids.
The steamed buns were hot. Xia Wu cut them into slices, spread plum jam evenly on each slice, and distributed them to her soldiers. The children were so tired that they were speechless and wanted more after eating one slice.
Xia Wu waved his hand and said, "Don't eat anymore. Save some for us to eat up the mountain."
"Okay!"
At this time, they didn't know what they would face when they went up the mountain. They followed Xia Wu happily, and each one of them was extremely happy.
Xia Wu carried a backpack containing her secret tools and walked along the village cement road for less than ten minutes before arriving at the foot of Yandang Mountain. The rumbling sound of excavators could be heard on the mountain. The little boys were discussing enthusiastically, and some even wanted to go over to watch the fun.
But they were all caught by the team leader.
Xia Wu took them to the plum forest and arranged the first spring outing task of the day: picking green plums.
"Do you see these greengages? The sauce on the steamed buns you ate this morning is made with them. Are they delicious?"
"tasty!"
"Do you still want to eat?"
"think!"
"Okay! Then each group needs to learn to cooperate. We have half an hour to compete. Whoever picks the most plums will get to enjoy delicious green plum tea and win a ten-dollar prize!"
Xia Wu really coaxed these little kids into pouting. It was already very interesting to climb the tree to pick green plums that they had never seen before, and now there were rewards to be won, so they couldn't wait to get to work.
Xia Wu had instructed Yang Mingyue, Yang Ping and Yang An in advance to divide the work among the team members. The plum trees were not very tall, so the tall ones would pick the fruits, while the short ones would be responsible for transportation.
She took out several large baskets that had been prepared long ago, and at a command, the boy soldiers took action.
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