Chapter 65: Embarrassing Stories
Translator: Lonelytree
Mother and Father Xiao ignored all the gossips.
The villagers who wanted to see them get angered and allowed the children back into Xiao Lingye’s tutoring classes didn’t get what they wanted. Eventually, the villagers got tired and stopped talking about it.
However, that didn’t affect the villagers’ impression of Xiao Lingyu. She was an obedient, sensible, and kind child. Other than the time she stubbornly dated Chen Ran when they were underage and caused a ripple through the village, the villagers wished she was their daughter.
Since they were traveling with Xiao Lingyu and Xiao Lingye, the villagers naturally hunted them down for learning skills.
A woman asked, “Lingyu, when are you going back to the city?”
Xiao Lingyu said indifferently, “Auntie Liu, it’s hard to say.” Then, she stopped talking.
Auntie Liu was their relative. She was Xiao Lingyu’s grandfather’s youngest daughter-in-law. She was one of the relatives who mocked Father Xiao back when Father Xiao went to her home to borrow university funds for Xiao Lingyu. Since then, the Xiao Family had been indifferent to her.
Liu Changjiao did not seem to notice to cold shoulder, and she continued shamelessly, “Lingyu, I heard that people in the big cities are all rich, and everyone knows how to enjoy themselves. But people like us don’t have such fate. We can only hope that our children will work hard and bring us older generations out of the countryside.”
She glanced at Xiao Lingyu when she said that. When Xiao Lingyu didn’t reply, Liu Changjiao’s expression turned ugly. However, she pressed on, “Lingyu, you are our village’s first university graduate. You are Taoyuan Village’s most promising student. Can’t you help us? Tutor our children so that they can enter university and go to big cities to earn big money.”
Xiao Lingyu plastered on a fake smile, “Auntie Liu, you think too highly of me. As long as the children work hard, they have a chance to get into university, and work in big cities.” Xiao Lingyu muttered internally, ‘But definitely not your two lazy sons.’
Liu Changjiao was very unhappy that Xiao Lingyu had deflected her request. However, she didn’t show it on her face. She smiled and said, “Lingyu, you’re right. As long as the children are willing to work hard, they will definitely be able to enter a good university.” She smiled and looked at the people around her. When she saw people nod in agreement, she went in for the kill. “But Lingyu, not every child is as smart as you and your brother. They can’t improve no matter how hard they study. Take, for example, my little fatty, no matter how hard the teacher works with him, his result doesn’t improve. Lingyu, you and your brother must have some kind of secret to having such good results. Why don’t you share it with auntie?”
The others were disdainful at Liu Changjia’s interrogation, but they pricked up their ears to listen. They also wanted to know if Xiao Lingyu and Xiao Lingye had some studying secrets. If they had, they should share it with the villagers.
Xiao Lingyu smiled, “Auntie Liu, you flatter me. There is no secret to studying. You only need to work hard. Auntie Liu, you might not know this, but I was burning the midnight oil every night to study during my three years of high school.”
As soon as Xiao Lingyu said that, her third granduncle concurred, “That’s right. I remember how studious Yu ‘Er was. She carried a book with her everywhere. She was reading even during meal times. She often studied until dawn.” The third granduncle sighed, “If such a hardworking child didn’t get into a good university, it would make no sense!”
Third granduncle’s words faceslapped Liu Changjiao. Liu Changjiao’s 13 and 14-year-old sons were naughty children. They hid at home when they heard they had to go to school. How could children like that even sit down to study and wish to enter university?
Third granduncle’s words led everyone down memory lane.
“Haha, speaking of, I remember seeing Lingyu walking with a book one day. She wasn’t paying attention and walked right into a ditch.” A kind aunt said with a laugh. “She was all dirty, but she didn’t mind it. Instead, she was more worried about her book. She was so nervous about dirtying it, and she started to cry.”
“Haha, I had one that is even funnier. One time, I went to borrow a sickle from Qiuying. At that time, Qiuying was doing laundry, and she didn’t have any detergent left, so she called for Lingyu to grab some for her. Guess what happened. The girl came out holding a mirror and a book. She couldn’t differentiate a mirror from a box of detergent!”
“Haha, that is funny.”
“This one time…” For some reason, the whole bus started to bring up embarrassing stories about Xiao Lingyu.
Xiao Lingye was dumbfounded. He turned to his sister and asked, “Sis, did these things really happen?”
The embarrassed Xiao Lingyu glared at him and said unhappily, “Of course not!” Xiao Lingye didn’t believe her. Otherwise, how did the aunties and uncles manage to paint such vivid pictures?
While the villagers shared Xiao Lingyu’s studying tales, they noticed the stories showed how hardworking Xiao Lingyu was. Perhaps there was really no learning secret. The Xiao siblings merely studied hard.
Some of the elders decided to go home and urge their children to spend more time studying. In the future, there would be more university graduates from Taoyuan Village. They didn’t go to universities as prestigious as the one Xiao Lingyu, and Xiao Lingye attended, but they were universities nonetheless. But that was for the future.
Along the way, the villagers chatted, and soon, they arrived at Xing An Town.
Xiao Lingye planned to accompany his sister before he went to school. Xiao Lingyu planned to buy two new shirts for Xiao Lingye. The weather in spring was neither hot nor cold, so they had to prepare for the changing weather.
Xing An town was the biggest town in the entire county. It had a population of more than 40,000.
There was a flood of people and cars. It was very lively.
Xing An Town would be refurbished six years later, but now, the roads were filled with potholes and mud.
It was fine on sunny days, but the town would turn into a mud ring on rainy days. One had to be careful, or one would fall and turn black instantly. One also had to be careful of passing vehicles and splattering mud.
Despite that, the farmers from the countryside still visited Xing An Town quite often.
This was because Xing An Town was the hub of commerce. People could get what they want and sell their products.. There were many farming products on sale like vegetables, soybeans, peppers, and so on.