He put Zhao Xiaoxiu down from his arms and squatted down himself.
Once she landed, Zhao Xiaoxiu realized that the low shed in front of her was also a makeshift stall.
An old man wearing glasses, so thin he was practically skin and bones, was lying on a wooden plank in the shed, with a box of books casually piled in front of him.
A small solar-powered camping lamp sits atop the bookshelf, illuminating the little bookstall.
When someone stopped, the old man didn't even lift his eyelids, staring blankly at a certain point, his eyes unfocused, looking somewhat dazed.
Zhao Xiaoxiu bent down and waved her five claws.
The old man's hazy gaze slowly shifted to her waving little hand, lingered for a few seconds, as if waking from a dream, and said to the father and daughter, "Five points for five books, choose whichever you like."
Zhao Xiaoxiu said "Oh," then turned around and saw her living father seriously selecting items, and exclaimed "Eh!"
"Dad, do you like reading?" Zhao Xiaoxiu asked curiously.
She squatted down too, her small figure next to Zhao Gang's large one, picking up this book to look at and that book to examine.
It's all text, no pictures, I'm not interested.
Zhao Gang selected two storybooks he thought were suitable for children to read, in response to Zhao Xiaoxiu's question:
"Daddy doesn't like reading, so Daddy will teach Xiaoxiu to read and recognize words."
Zhao Xiaoxiu, who had stacked several thick dictionaries into a tall tower, was completely stunned. "Huh?"
Zhao Gang gently touched her chin, which was about to drop, to help it close, and continued to look down and select books from the box.
Finally, he chose two storybooks, a high school geography book, a book of 300 Tang poems, and a thick book called "The Origin of Mankind".
All of this knowledge is unrelated to the current mutated viruses and can still be used.
Zhao Xiaoxiu stopped stacking the book tower and stood up excitedly, "Dad, are you serious?"
Zhao Gang gave the old man five points and then put the book into his backpack with satisfaction.
On the way back to the cowshed with his daughter on his bike, Zhao Gang said expectantly, "How about Daddy tells Xiaoxiu a bedtime story tonight?"
Zhao Xiaoxiu, who was already a little sleepy, nodded blankly. Why did she feel a little excited for some reason?
As she secretly looked forward to it, she quickly washed her face and feet, climbed into bed, and lay down.
Zhao Gang leaned against the wall and opened the storybook to the first page.
"Two high school students were walking home after a Halloween costume party when they passed a cemetery and suddenly had the idea to walk through it..."
Two tentacles appeared at the right moment, hopping around in front of Zhao Xiaoxiu with bloodshot eyes.
"When they were halfway there, they suddenly heard a knocking sound in their ears... The two turned around and saw an old man kneeling in front of a stone tablet, carving words with a chisel."
A third tentacle appeared, curving into the shape of a person's back, facing away from the other two tentacles that suddenly dared not jump.
One of the students touched the tentacles of the figure behind him.
Zhao Gang cried out in terror, "My God, sir, what are you doing here so late at night? You made us think we'd encountered a ghost!"
The tentacle in the back slowly turned its head and angrily burst open its fleshy bud.
Zhao Gang roared, "A bunch of unfilial descendants! They misspelled my name! I'll crawl out and fix it!"
The two student tentacles instantly cowered in terror. So, grandpa, you're not human!
Zhao Gang looked down at his young cub, "Xiao Xiu, guess what word his unworthy descendant carved wrong?"
After watching a spectacular tentacle performance, Zhao Xiaoxiu asked for confirmation, "Dad, those two high school students encountered a ghost, right?"
Zhao Gang raised an eyebrow slightly. "That's not the point."
"The key point is that we need to know that the old man's unworthy descendants made a mistake in carving the character '戌' (xū). The strokes of '戊' (wù) and '戌' (xū) are very similar. They mistakenly carved '戌' (xū) as '戊' (wù), so the old man has to correct it himself."
After Zhao Gang finished speaking, he waited expectantly for his cub to give any feedback.
But Zhao Xiaoxiu couldn't understand the connection between this ghost story and a children's bedtime literacy story.
Seeing his cub's bewildered expression, Zhao Gang scratched his head in suspicion. The cub seemed a little slow today.
However, if a child is not doing well in school, it must be the teacher's fault.
So Zhao Gang took out the half-pencil he had just exchanged for one point at the night market stall and wrote the two characters "戊戌" (Wuxu) in the blank space of the book.
"Xiaoxiu, come on, read after Daddy—wuxuxu, wuxu!"
Zhao Xiaoxiu looked troubled, but she didn't want to disappoint her father's expectant eyes, so she opened her mouth and repeated it earnestly.
“wuwuxuxu, wuxu…” She felt like she was mentally challenged. What should she do?
Learning to read words was indeed hypnotic. As Zhao Xiaoxiu read, her eyelids began to droop wildly until they closed and she could no longer open them.
Two tentacles tried to pry open her eyelids, but failed.
Zhao Gang checked his study progress for the day: 2/10.
The cub is usually very smart. Zhao Gang felt something was wrong. Was it not like other children learned to recognize characters in this way?
In Shan Yuan's memory, he taught his daughter to read while telling her stories.
Zhao Gang thought about this problem for a whole night and decided to try a different approach next time: teach the characters first and then tell the story!
Because I didn't tell the members of the Qinghe Hunting Team last night that we wouldn't be going to the cleanup area today.
As the time for the main cleanup team to depart approached, Meng Lao Er drove his motorcycle, which had been used to harvest the day before, to the cowshed with a roar.
"Gangzi, why haven't you packed up yet?" Meng Lao Er urged anxiously, "The main force has already left!"
Zhao Gang stared at the motorcycle beneath him; he was the first to spot it yesterday.
He found vehicles that required diesel fuel to operate too impractical, and his own bicycle was much more convenient.
There were also various other old pieces of furniture, which were completely useless to the father and daughter now, so they didn't bring anything back.
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