He Dongchuan did not get a day off on Children's Day. Not only that, he could not come back for the next two nights because he had to lead the people in the camp for field training.

Although he was on the final list of the competition and had to focus on training, he couldn't neglect the affairs of the camp and couldn't skip the work. Otherwise, he wouldn't have to train until late at night every day.

He Yan was very disappointed after hearing the news, but he did not act like a spoiled brat like before and begged his father to come and watch his performance.

Don't be fooled by his silly and cheerful appearance all the time, as if he is still a child who doesn't understand anything. He is still clear-headed about the big things and knows that his father's work is the most important. So he was only a little disappointed for a moment before he adjusted his mood.

The night before Children's Day, He Dongchuan did not go home as expected. After breakfast the next day, Su Ting brought a bench and held Manman, and let Manman hold the sign to watch the party.

Just like last year, there were many people holding up signs, but this year everyone had experience, so the signs they held up were not big.

Because the sign is too big and blocks the view of the people behind, when watching the performance, you can only stand at the back holding the sign yourself, or insert the sign at the back. Last year, several people quarreled about this, and in the end, it was Principal Jiang who intervened.

The party still started at nine o'clock and ended at eleven o'clock. Before half past eight, most of the parents had arrived and found their seats.

Su Ting thought she had arrived early enough, but in the end she couldn't even get a front row seat. She sat next to a military wife she knew well and asked, "Why did you come so early today?"

"You have to come earlier. My second son has been reminding me since last night to come earlier. He even wanted me to come to school with him after breakfast. But he didn't think about it. There are so many things going on at home. How can I have the time?"

Yu Xiaofang's second child also has a show this year. After being selected, the child was very excited and made an appointment with his parents a long time ago.

But today is Tuesday, and I can't change my shift, and it's not easy to ask for leave. It's not just He Dongchuan and others who are taking part in the competition who are busy recently. All the regiments and battalions are also focusing on training.

Yu Xiaofang said helplessly: "I was really rushed and had no choice. I came here after I finished cleaning up at home. I didn't even have time to buy today's food. As a result, when I got here, it was full of people."

"It's not that bad, our position shouldn't be too far behind." Su Ting comforted.

"That's right."

This is the third year for the party. Both teachers and students are very familiar with rehearsing the programs, and the programs they put together are very well-organized.

There are few entertainment activities on the island. It's okay for people like Su Ting who go to the city for a stroll every now and then. But the lives of those military wives who don't like to go out are really boring, and such military wives are the majority in the compound.

Therefore, whenever the family compound organized an open-air movie, the open space at the entrance would be completely blocked.

The same is true for the two surrounding brigades. In fact, the members of their brigades find it more difficult to go out and have fewer opportunities to watch performances and movies. Whenever there is such an event, regardless of whether they have children attending the military primary school or not, they are happy to join in the fun.

The leaders of the agricultural brigade were also very considerate. In order to make it convenient for the members to come to watch the performance, they gave everyone a day off. Anyway, as long as it did not interfere with the work in the fields, it would not matter if they took an extra day off.

Although not all members of the brigade flocked to the military primary school, there were indeed quite a few who came, and their number was almost twice that of the parents of students in the compound.

At 8:45, Principal Jiang came over with the logistics leader.

There was a competition in July, and the troop leaders were very busy. The local commander and political commissar had no time to come, so just like last year, the most senior leader who came was from logistics.

The group walked into the school gate and looked up to see the playground packed with people. Not only the logistics leader, but also Principal Jiang was a little stunned.

The logistics leader smiled and said, "Your parties are getting more lively every year."

"Our school mainly wants students and parents to have fun together." Principal Jiang said with a smile, and was very satisfied with the scene.

At nine o'clock sharp, the host teacher walked onto the stage and the party officially began.

As usual, the first program is the chorus.

Because He Yan's performances in the past two years left such a deep impression on people, when the performing students came on stage, there was a buzz from the audience. The military wife sitting next to Su Ting asked, "Isn't your He Yan's performance the first this year?"

Su Ting was proud of her son's popular show and said with a smile, "He went to perform in a play this year and did not join the chorus."

Just watch the Spring Festival Gala and you will know that the first and last programs in the gala are usually choruses. No matter how good other types of programs are, they can only be placed in the middle.

"Hey, didn't he perform well in the past two years? Why didn't he join the chorus?"

Although the other person was smiling when he said this, the meaning behind his words was not very positive. Su Ting's smile faded: "I also asked him this question. Guess what he said?"

Without waiting for the military wife to speak, Yu Xiaofang asked, "What did Xiaoyan say?"

"He said that singing for two consecutive years was boring, and acting in a drama was more difficult and challenging, so he chose to act in a drama. In fact, his music teacher wanted to let him act in both shows, but he was playing the male lead, which had many lines and was tiring for his voice. If he also participated in the chorus show, his class teacher was afraid that his voice would not be able to take it, so he let him choose the one he wanted to participate in the most."

After Su Ting explained to Yu Xiaofang, she turned around and asked, "By the way, which show is your child participating in? When will he go on stage?"

The other party looked embarrassed and said with a snort, "Don't you know my child? He can't sing or dance. He can't compare with your He Yan."

Normally at this time, the person answering the call should say "No, no," and mention the advantages of the other person's child. This is not hypocrisy, but normal courtesy.

People are like this. They can belittle their own children, but if others say that their children are not good, they will be unhappy.

Su Ting's personality is not that of a smooth talker, but she has a normal emotional intelligence and can naturally hear the other person's true thoughts.

But on what basis?

The other party has no emotional intelligence and is trying to belittle her child in his words and deeds. Why should she expect her to give him face and praise his child?

So, Su Ting said with a smile: "There are indeed not many children like my He Yan who are well-rounded in moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development."

The other party's face froze when she heard that, but she had said first that her own child was not as good as He Yan's, so she couldn't immediately refute her by saying that He Yan was not good in every way. She could only swallow her words back and turned her head away and ignored Su Ting.

Su Ting was too lazy to pay attention to her. She turned around as if nothing had happened and whispered to Yu Xiaofang with a smile.

Yu Xiaofang said: "Look at her face, it's as dark as the bottom of a pot."

"It's black so what." Su Ting said nonchalantly, looking up at the stage.

Although He Yan's show was not the first, he appeared quite early. After the chorus, there were two talent shows, and then they performed a play.

The play is called "Wang Erxiao" and it tells a heroic story that is familiar to everyone.

The play opens with He Yan, who plays Wang Erxiao, wearing a blue cloth jacket full of patches, leading an old ox played by his classmate.

Due to the lack of props, the student who played the old ox wore an adult's khaki coat as a cowhide, and the horns on his head were folded out of brown paper shells.

He bent his waist, hunched his back, held the rope with both hands, and followed He Yan with heavy steps.

As soon as he came on stage, the audience burst into laughter.

Yu Xiaofang couldn't help but ask, "How do you think they came up with the idea of ​​having students play the role of the old ox?"

Su Ting, who came up with the idea, just smiled and said nothing, thinking, what's the big deal, who didn't play the role of a tree when they were in kindergarten? Well, I can't think about it, because it's all black history.

Except for the horns on the head of the old ox, the hats worn by the students who played the devils and the bayonets they carried were either made of paper or made of wooden sticks. The only students who played the crowd and the Eighth Route Army had better costumes, after all, the costumes were easier to find.

Although the costumes and props were a bit simple, the children acted very seriously, especially He Yan, whose acting skills and lines were very good. His performance was very contagious and he almost brought the character of Wang Erxiao to life.

Seeing him fall on the stage with a bayonet in his body, the audience below burst into tears and slowly began to cry, crying and shouting: "Mom, my brother is dead!"

In fact, Man Man no longer knew what death was. She even learned the word after listening to the narration. But her sadness was real. She cried so hard that she was out of breath, and no matter how Su Ting tried to comfort her, it was useless.

Su Ting had no choice but to carry him out of the audience slowly and go behind the stage.

The area behind the stage was very simple. Because the children had changed into their performance costumes at home early, there was not even a changing room. There were only a few desks to put things on, and about twenty stools for the students who had performances to rest. However, there were few stools and many students, so most people had to stand.

Although there were many people backstage, it was relatively easy to find someone. Students who were about to go on stage basically gathered at the side of the stage; those who were about to go on stage but were not in a hurry basically gathered in the middle of the backstage to listen to the teacher cheering them on; those who still had time to go on stage and had not finished their makeup gathered near the tables and chairs, waiting for the teachers who knew how to do makeup to do their makeup for them.

As for those children who had finished their performances long ago, they basically returned to the audience seats and sat with students from their respective classes. Students like He Yan, who had just finished their performances and performed very well, stood at the outermost circle of the backstage, looking up and listening to their class teacher praising them.

As the leading actor, He Yan performed without any mistakes throughout the show, so he naturally received special praise from Teacher He. Just by looking at his expression, you can tell how proud he is.

Because Teacher He hadn't finished speaking, Su Ting didn't walk over. She just pointed at He Yan and said, "Look, brother is fine. He's standing there fine."

She cried with her eyes closed, then slowly opened them. Through her tears she saw her brother's hazy voice, and her crying finally stopped.

As her tears gradually dried up, He Yan's figure became clearer and clearer. The little girl finally smiled, waving her hands and shouting, "Brother! Brother!"

He Yan looked up when he heard the voice. He saw his mother and sister from a distance. He smiled and said, "Teacher, my mother and sister are here!"

Teacher He turned his head to look, then turned back and said, "Okay, everyone go back to watch the show."

After that, Teacher He followed He Yan to the mother and daughter, and asked with a smile, "Why are you here?" After asking, his eyes fell on Man Man's face, "Why is she crying so hard?"

"She kept crying when she saw the character played by Xiaoyan being killed, and I couldn't stop her from crying, so I brought her to see Xiaoyan." Su Ting finished explaining and lowered her head to ask, "Do you believe what your mother said now?"

"Yeah!" He nodded slowly and vigorously, leaned over and stretched out his hands to hug He Yan.

He Yan was afraid that she would fall, so he quickly walked to her mother, reached out and hugged her sister, and said with a smile: "I'm fine, I'm fine! Mom, what do you think of my performance?"

"Very good, I almost cried." Su Ting said with a smile.

Then slowly follow up with, “I cried.”

Su Ting teased the girl: "You don't need to emphasize it, everyone knows that you are crying."

He Yan paid special attention to one point: "My sister seems to be speaking more clearly now?"

She started learning to speak very early. She could call dad and mom at eight or nine months old. By the time she was one year old, she had a large vocabulary and could respond to whatever other people in the family said.

However, there are problems that children will encounter when learning to speak, such as unclear pronunciation. At the beginning, Su Ting often couldn't understand what she said except for the name. But as time went by, Su Ting's brain seemed to have an automatic translator installed. No matter what she said, she could translate it into pure Mandarin.

So Su Ting really didn't feel that her pronunciation was becoming clearer, and asked doubtfully, "Is it true?"

"Yes!" In order to prove his discovery, He Yan said to Man Man, "Sister, please say it again. I am crying!"

Slowly follow and learn: "I'm not feeling well~"

"No, I was crying!"

Continue to learn slowly: "Wow-uh-uh~"

He Yan was anxious: "It's WO me, the third sound, KU cry, the first sound! Practice it and it will be me crying!"

He Yan's speech was too long, and he didn't know where to start for a moment. After a while, he tilted his head and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ahhhh!

He Yan was mad: "You clearly knew how to do it before, why don't you know how to do it all of a sudden?"

Su Ting said with a smile: "It takes a process for children to learn to speak. How can she learn it if you ask her to jump from one to ten?" Talking pinyin and tones to a one-year-old child, thank goodness he could think of it.

"But my sister explained it very clearly before!" He Yan firmly believed that there was nothing wrong with his ears.

Su Ting did not argue with He Yan, and guessed, "It might be a flash of inspiration, but it won't happen again in the future."

He Yan sighed: "Okay."

Teacher He spoke at the right time: "Xiao Yan, do you want to sit with your classmates? Or do you want to go back and sit with your mother and sister?"

"Can I sit with mom and sister?" He Yan asked without hesitation.

"Yes, but you are not allowed to run around."

"I definitely won't run around."

Teacher He nodded and said to Su Ting, "Then I'm leaving."

"Well, Xiaoyan, say goodbye to the teacher quickly."

He Yan quickly raised his hand and shouted, "Goodbye, teacher!"

Then he waved his hands and called out, "Master, meet you!"

Because he couldn't say the words "老" (old) and "再" (again), he gradually and cleverly omitted them. He also pronounced the word "师" (teacher) as "絲" (silk), and his pronunciation was unclear, so Teacher He didn't quite understand what he said.

However, combined with the slow gesture, it was very obvious what she said. Teacher He smiled and said, "Xiaoyan, goodbye!" Then he left.

As soon as Teacher He left, Su Ting also took the two children forward.

He Yan had just finished his performance and was the center of attention. The teachers and students saw that he was relatively quiet, and the parents became very enthusiastic. Although the brigade members did not know him, they still remembered the role he played in the drama and called him "Wang Erxiao". The wives of the soldiers in the compound called him in various ways, some called him He Yan, some called him Sanhuo, and a few called him the character's name.

After sitting down, Yu Xiaofang even jokingly asked, "Is Wang Erxiao here?"

He Yan was so cocky backstage, and now he was being teased again and again, he felt embarrassed and just said "hmm" in a low voice.

"You're quite shameless." Yu Xiaofang knew He Yan's personality and was surprised, but she didn't continue joking. She just smiled and said, "You acted very well."

He Yan, who was praised, revealed his true colors in an instant and laughed triumphantly.

After the party ended, He Yan felt a little dizzy because of the success of the performance. It was not until dinner that he thought, "It would be nice if my dad came back."

"Dad will be back tomorrow."

"Yeah." He Yan nodded, took a few bites of his rice and said, "Even if Dad comes back tomorrow, he won't be able to see my performance."

When Su Ting heard this, she knew that he still felt sorry for the loss. She got up from her room, found her sketchbook, recalled the performance that day, and quickly drew a picture and sent it over.

He Yan looked down and saw a chubby little man pulling another chubby little man with bull horns on his head onto the stage.

"Is this my performance?" He Yan looked up and asked.

"Yes, although Dad didn't see your performance, I can draw the highlights of the performance," Su Ting said, "When your dad comes back, you can take the notebook and tell him about today's performance. In this way, although he didn't see it live, he should be able to imagine it, so it won't be a regret, right?"

He Yan held the notebook and grinned: "Yeah!"

"If you don't have any regrets, eat quickly. It's getting cold." Su Ting said, taking the sketchbook from He Yan's hand and putting it aside.

He Yan said "oh" and lowered his head to eat.

…

He Dongchuan came back the next morning. After two days of field training, he was given a day off. However, he still had work to deal with, so he didn't get home until around three in the afternoon.

As usual, I shave the first thing I do when I get home. I've been busy training outside and have no time to pay attention to my appearance. An adult man's beard grows very fast, and my chin will turn blue if I don't shave for two mornings.

Knowing that Su Ting didn't like men with beards, the first thing he did when he came home from going out was to shave, and the second thing he did was to take a shower.

Although he didn't really want to mention it, he really hadn't showered for two days and the sea had rained quite a few times. This time they went to a deserted island and had seaside combat training. They squatted on the shallow beach for two or three hours and couldn't move at all.

But during the training period, there was obviously no time for them to apply soap, and after coming out of the sea, it was common for them to roll on sand beaches and walk through dense forests. They were soaked in the sea water and had three layers of skin peeled off. After such a training, all the time was in vain.

After returning to the camp, he wanted to take a shower, but this field training was short and he thought he might not have time to change clothes, so he didn't bring anything with him and there were no change of clothes in the camp.

So after finishing his work, He Dongchuan just washed his face, wet his hair and rinsed it briefly to make himself look less dirty.

But it was just an act. When I got home and tried to hug him, he didn't even dare to bend down. He just said, "I need to take a shower first."

After washing his hair and taking a shower, He Dongchuan washed his clothes and hung them out before going to embrace his young lady.

Su Ting poured him a cup of cool tea and asked, "Are you sleepy? Do you want to go back to your room and rest for a while?" Without asking, she knew that he must not have slept much in the past two days.

"No..." He Dongchuan was about to shake his head, but then he remembered something and said, "I'll take a nap later. Will you behave well these two days when dad is not at home?" The second half of the sentence was said to his daughter.

"Be good!" He said slowly and without hesitation, his voice very loud.

Su Ting tutted twice, but she managed not to expose her daughter-in-law's words. He Dongchuan heard his wife's voice, but still smiled and said, "So well behaved."

After he slowly started to concentrate on playing with the toys, he lowered his voice and asked his wife, "Did your daughter bother you these past two days?"

Su Ting said helplessly: "It's fine during the day, but at night he wakes up and cries, and no matter how I comfort him, he won't stop."

"If she cries again tonight, I will comfort her."

Su Ting turned her head and asked, "Don't you want to have a good rest tonight?"

"It's okay. I was given a day off."

"Okay, I'll leave this to you."

He Dongchuan nodded and asked, "How was Xiaoyan's performance?"

"It was very successful. His show received the best response of the whole show," Su Ting said as she stood up, went into the house, took out her sketchbook, opened it and handed it to He Dongchuan.

"What is this?" He Dongchuan asked while lowering his head.

"You didn't come back yesterday and didn't get to see the show. Xiao Yan was very disappointed, so I drew some highlights of the play he performed and asked him to tell you about it with these drawings when you come back."

"Well..." He Dongchuan pondered for a moment and did not choose to continue flipping through the pages, but closed the sketchbook.

"You don't want to see it?"

He Dongchuan said: "Looking at it now, when he tells me about it, it won't feel fresh anymore."

Su Ting thought for a moment and said, "That's right. Why don't you go back to your room and sleep for a while?"

"Um."

…

As soon as He Yan came home from school, he saw his father sitting on the sofa. He couldn't help but stare at him, then raised his hands to rub his eyes, which made He Dongchuan's eyebrows jump: "What's that expression on your face?"

He Yan seemed to confirm that his father had returned after hearing He Dongchuan's voice. He jumped three feet high, ran to the sofa and asked, "Dad, you're back? When did you come back?"

"I'm back. I'll be home this afternoon."

"Oh, so are you going to cook tonight, Dad?"

Su Ting held her forehead and asked, "Are you looking forward to Dad coming back for food?"

He Yan chuckled and made up an excuse: "I mainly want to know if Dad has time."

"We'll start cooking at 5:30, and we still have half an hour." He Dongchuan looked down at his watch and asked, "What do you want?"

He Yan didn't know that his mother had revealed all his secrets to his father, so he kept it a secret and said, "I won't tell you yet." He reached out to Su Ting for the sketchbook.

After receiving the sketchbook, He Yan wanted to keep it a secret, and said while holding the book: "Today I want to tell you a story."

"Oh? What's the story?"

"You'll know after I finish telling you," He Yan said as he flipped open the picture book and pointed to the first page, "A long time ago, there was a cowherd named Wang Erxiao..."

In fact, He Dongchuan already knew what was going on in his mind, but this time, in order to cooperate with his son's performance, he pretended to be very serious, being nervous when necessary and asking for follow-ups when necessary.

When He Yan announced that what he had just described was the play he performed at the party, and that he was the actor of the protagonist Wang Erxiao, and that these paintings were Su Ting's paintings of the highlights of his performance, He Dongchuan expressed his surprise at the right time: "Then your performance must have been a success, right?"

"Of course not!" He Yan raised his head proudly.

"It's a pity I didn't see it."

He Yan comforted him, "It's okay. Although you didn't see it, you saw the painting. Why don't I tell you this story?"

"Too."

Su Ting, who knew the whole story, could hardly hold back her laughter.

Not to mention, although He Dongchuan's facial expression didn't change much throughout the whole process, he grasped the tone very accurately and acted quite realistically.

Before, Su Ting wondered how He Yan could be so good at acting when he had never acted before. Now she understood that it was completely innate and inherited from genes.