After a month, I didn't feel so tired anymore. After three months, it had become a habit. I would wake up and get up at the same time every day, and so on.
The only thing that makes me unhappy is that I still can't go out to play by myself during the day because there are photographers who specialize in taking pictures of children.
But I've gotten used to it; when I'm home alone, I just keep busy online. However, I still made a small request to my mom:
"Mom, I can choose not to go out to play, but can I make one request?"
Liu Linjuan never expected that her usually well-behaved and sensible daughter would make demands of her, but she didn't think her daughter would make excessive requests.
"Sure, tell me about it."
"Could you teach me to read?"
When Liu Linjuan heard her daughter's request, she suddenly remembered that her daughter was five years old (by Chinese reckoning) and four years old (by Western reckoning). In the past, wealthy families would start her education at three and begin school at five, so her daughter's age was just right. However, she still patiently asked her daughter:
Why should we study?
"I can get big red flowers and certificates like my older brothers and sisters, and I can also read picture books. Although there are pictures in the picture books, I don't recognize the two lines of text at the bottom." As I said this, I lowered my head.
"Alright, but since you want to learn to read, you have to persevere, understand? It's just as important as learning martial arts, you know?"
"I know, Mom. My eldest brother is 13 years old this year and is already in the first year of junior high school. I heard from my fourth brother that my eldest brother is the youngest in his class. People who are the same age as my eldest brother are in the third or fourth grade of elementary school."
And Sister Nan is also very impressive. She is only 11 years old and already in the fifth grade. I heard from my fourth brother that some classmates used to bully Sister Nan. Her teacher said that bullying others is not a sign of ability. If you are capable, you should be able to outperform others in exams. But Sister Nan always gets first place and always gets perfect scores.
Even my third and fourth brothers, one is 9 years old and the other is 7, one is in fourth grade and the other is in second grade, I'm all alone at home."
Hearing this, Liu Linjuan understood perfectly. Even though her daughter was still young, she needed playmates. Besides, she had grown up with Shen Dong and his siblings; even the youngest, Shen Bei, was already in school. Now, she was all alone at home and must be bored. Seeing her older siblings studying, she wanted to study too, so they could go to school together someday. Having thought it through, she said to her daughter, who was now standing before her:
"Okay, starting tomorrow, I'll have your fourth brother teach you to read. Then next fall, when school starts, I'll send you to school. How about that?"
"Really"
"Of course it's true! Look, apart from your eldest brother starting school later, your sister Nan Nan and your third and fourth brothers all started school after they were six years old."
"That's right."
"Alright, are you happy now?"
"Happy"
For 55 years, whenever my older siblings got out of school in the afternoon and had nothing else to do, I would pester them to help me learn to read and write. During summer vacation, I would also go out with my older siblings to play in the streets and see what the city was like in that era. There were no skyscrapers, only a few small buildings, and most of them were single-story houses. Moreover, in the 21st century, it is difficult to see so many ancient buildings. Now we have time to see them to our heart's content. In the past, if we wanted to see them, we had to pay for tickets. Now, we live right here.
During summer vacation, we received a package from my dad and Uncle Shen. Besides food, what made us happiest was that there were five slingshots in my dad's package. The letter said that we could use the slingshots to practice our aim, but we couldn't use them to shoot people. If anyone used a slingshot to shoot someone, it would be confiscated.
For this reason, the third and fourth brothers got into several fights, not because they used slingshots to fight, but because they showed off their slingshots at school.
With the strength of the third and fourth brothers, they didn't actually need to be beaten, but it wasn't a one-on-one fight, or even just a few people, but a group brawl. Even so, the third and fourth brothers still tightly protected their slingshots and didn't hand them over.
The students nearby saw that things were not good and quickly went to find the teacher. When the teacher saw that the third and fourth brothers had been beaten so badly, he took them to the hospital to treat their wounds.
Unfortunately, they happened to be at the military hospital, heading straight to the surgery department. It was almost closing time, and there weren't many patients. They saw a group of people—several men carrying two children. Several nurses rushed over to greet them. But no one expected that when Zhou Tao saw the children were his two sons, he would roar and ask:
"Who is it? Who beat my two sons like this? Tell me!"
Director He, Liu Linjuan, and the other doctors, who were sitting in the office, were all startled and quickly ran out to check on the situation.
Director He and Liu Linjuan rushed over to take the children and saw that both children were covered in injuries. After a thorough examination, they were relieved to find that there were no fractures or internal injuries, only some rather serious superficial wounds.
After finishing, Liu Linjuan looked at the men outside the door, confirmed they were teachers, and then said to Xiao Zhang standing beside her.
"Go to the hospital's security department, find Chief Jin, and ask him to arrange for about a dozen people to wait for me at the hospital entrance."
Xiao Zhang was immediately bewildered and could only ask, "Teacher, teacher, what are you doing?"
“Xiao Zhang, what are you babbling about? Don’t you understand? Zhou Jie’s child was beaten. Does that mean it was done for nothing? We definitely need to find the parents who did it. Zhou Jie’s husband is studying out of town right now, and she’s all alone at home. That won’t do,” Dr. Cui said.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'll go right now."
"Wait, when you get there, tell Section Chief Jin to have them go in civilian clothes, otherwise it might cause trouble."
"Oh, I see, Dr. Cui."
"Director, could you please provide a certificate for both children to confirm the extent of their injuries?"
"Xiao Liu, what do you mean?" Director He asked.
"No matter who hit the child, hitting a soldier's child is provoking trouble, and they need to be taught a lesson."
"Okay, I'll go right now."
"Xiao Chen, go and calculate how much it will cost from now until the two children are fully recovered. Go to the cashier and get a receipt. They dared to hit people, right? Even if I don't hit them, I'll make them feel pain, and heartache at that."
"Okay, Dr. Liu, I'll go right away."
Xiao Chen quickly agreed, thinking to himself as he ran, "When we get to the toll booth, I'll have them drive uphill. Look how badly they beat the child; even his own mother wouldn't recognize him."
In this way, the preparations were quickly completed. Liu Linjuan looked at Zhou Tao, who was crying there, and said:
"Sister Zhou, don't cry. Let's go to the school with the teacher and resolve this."
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