"Getting married at such a young age, and taking so many wives?"
Chen Fei found it hard to believe. Such a thing was simply impossible in his hometown, where the average age for young people to marry was generally over 30.
But here, by 30, they were already arranging marriages for their children.
"It's the local custom. However, marrying at 16 is indeed too young, whether it's polygyny or polyandry, it's mainly determined by the living environment. In a few more years, this situation will see a significant decrease. Alright, everyone must be hungry, let's eat!"
Shen Fei seemed to have an open mind about it. Customs and habits formed over thousands of years couldn't be changed overnight. Only by influencing them with civilization could these people become more enlightened with each generation.
Take an example. If legislation prohibited everyone in Chen Fei and Shen Fei's hometown from eating pork, the next second, heads would roll.
The children sitting around the table cheered in unison, immediately scrambling to grab food.
Wrapping the whole naan bread around torn pieces of roasted lamb and adding a touch of refreshing pickled vegetables before taking a big bite was their favorite way to eat. A mouthful of hot vegetable soup completed the satisfaction.
For these elementary school students, the real issue at hand was that no matter how good a wife is, she's not as good as naan bread.
Naan bread can be eaten, but can a wife be eaten?
This multiple-choice question was almost a giveaway.
Chen Fei also took a naan bread sprinkled with sesame seeds and learned to shave strips of roasted lamb off the bone with a dinner knife. After adding some shredded dried radish and rolling it up to take a bite, he found it incredibly fragrant, no wonder the children loved it so much.
He looked towards the largest room in the courtyard, which was also where the students had their classes, and asked, "What about the other children? How do they solve their lunch issue?"
Through the window, he could vaguely see that the students were all sitting quietly in the classroom.
With Shen Fei's efforts alone, much of her time had to be spent on teaching. Surely she couldn't have any energy left to provide lunch for so many students, could she?
"Most of them bring their own, and I provide hot vegetable soup for them, a large bowl each."
Indeed, Shen Fei didn't have the capacity to supply a hot lunch for all students. Simply providing hot vegetable soup was already the limit of what she could afford to do. She turned her gaze towards the six ravenous children at the table and said, "These six are the top students of their grade from the last test. They can enjoy a free lunch with me as a form of encouragement and reward.
The tallest one is Muzike, he's in sixth grade. Next to him is Du Lu who's in fifth grade, followed by Tina in fourth grade, Little Cherry in third grade—her name was given by me. Her chubby red cheeks are as adorable as cherries, making you want to take a bite. Then we have Mo Erhan from second grade and Funa from first grade."
The six elementary school students, three boys and three girls, clearly demonstrated that the girls had an advantage in learning during the early grades.
But Chen couldn't recognize all the students here. Shen Fei, seizing the opportunity, introduced a few more. Bit by bit, it wouldn't take many times for him to be able to name every student here.
When her own name came up, Little Cherry shyly bowed her head, her cheeks indeed as red and plump as real cherries.
The three little boys named were all grinning, making faces at Chen, obviously very mischievous.
Children are naturally curious, and all the students at this school already knew that a big brother named Chen Fei had just started working at the nearby Aircrew Base and was Teacher Shen's fellow townsman.
Perhaps it was a case of love me, love my dog; seeing Teacher Shen's good grace, these little imps were completely at ease with Chen, with no barriers at all, treating him like one of their own.
Shen Fei's hometown had a natural advantage when it came to food, and even if these children were too lazy, they couldn't resist the allure of lunch and would struggle to study hard or else they'd be left drooling and crying over the feast their top-scoring classmates were enjoying.
For the students' parents, a free lunch could significantly reduce family expenses. The food was good and they trusted it when it came from Teacher Shen.
Herding sheep was out of the question. Honestly earning the top grade was the only way to give their families a break.
Children tend to remember rewards more than punishments. They won't learn if they don't want to, and no amount of beating will help, but when it comes to food-driven strategies, these greedy kids had almost no resistance.
Though Shen Fei was maintaining the school all on her own, ensuring teaching quality meant she had to put extra thought into her methods.
"Teacher Shen, can you afford the salary burden?"
Even after starting her own vegetable garden and coming up with so many different ideas, Chen Fei was somewhat worried about the economic pressure on the female teacher, as she must have dug deep into her own pockets.
If one came here with the intention of making money, they definitely couldn't last long; leaving early would be the best choice.
After all, with so many mouths to feed, even if pickles and vegetables were homegrown without much cost, the expenses for flour and meat were still not a small figure.
Previously, when he took out the vital wheat gluten powder, sugar, and yeast from his backpack, he could tell from Shen Fei's reaction of surprise that her stock of supplies wasn't exactly abundant.
"It's alright, I have extra allowances and various subsidies, and sheep and chickens here are very cheap. Plus, with what I grow myself, it's completely manageable. UNESCO and Apocalypse Defense Group have an agreement, and the Aircrew Base regularly provides me with some material aid, like flour, rice, cooking oil, condiments, and personal items, so we're hardly lacking in anything.
It's just that specialty bread flour isn't readily available, so thank you for bringing me the vital wheat gluten powder. Now I can go all out on baking bread again."
Although Teacher Shen Fei was working hard to maintain such a school deep in the wilds of the Xingdu Kush Mountain Range, and the number of students wasn't small, inevitable inconveniences arose. Yet, she remained very optimistic.
Teacher Shen Fei and her compatriots had long ago maxed out their survival skills like farming and were more adept at self-sufficiency and overcoming challenges. Unlike people elsewhere who only know to build a boat to save themselves from a flood, they had never thought of defeating the flood or dragging the deity down to smash it on the ground.
"If there's anything you need or find inconvenient, just give me a shout, but..."
Chen Fei began speaking and then started scratching his head, showing an embarrassed look.
This school, which had to figure out its own electricity, was in a signal blind spot. In fact, most areas of the Xingdu Kush Mountain Range had no civilian signals apart from satellite, meaning no internet or phone calls, almost no different from complete isolation.
Without even a working phone line between the school and the Aircrew Base, how could he be contacted? Relying on people to relay messages would take at least five to six hours each way; in terms of efficiency and cost, it was indeed quite a challenge.
Seeing Chen Fei's embarrassment, Shen Fei laughed and waved her hand, saying, "It's okay, it's okay. If you have some free time, just come and visit. Actually, there's not much work here. The kids usually help me out with some things. If we really need more hands, the nearby villagers always come to help."
This primary school was a joint effort established by several nearby villages; if Teacher Shen Fei faced difficulties, no one would ignore her plight.
"Sure, I'll definitely come over more often!"
Chen Fei said, feeling somewhat embarrassed as he touched the back of his head.
"There's a composition class this afternoon, with all six grades together. You could help me out with that."
Teacher Shen Fei blinked, the corners of her eyes carrying a smile.
"No problem, consider it done."
Chen Fei responded without hesitation and slapped his chest, leaving a few greasy palm prints on his shirt.
After all, he was a college student preparing for postgraduate studies; dealing with elementary students' compositions was a piece of cake and could easily be handled.
"Then I'll count on you!"
After lunch and an additional hour of free time, the bell for class rang punctually at 1:30 pm.
The children, who had been playing in the yard, finally started to settle down and filed into the large classroom, one by one.
The two-hour composition class was presided over by Teacher Shen Fei, who set the topic; the first hour was for writing, and the second for critique.
The growth stages in elementary student compositions each had their distinct features.
Characters, words, short sentences, long sentences, paragraphs; time, place, characters, events; goals, obstacles, analysis and choices, results and rewards; the central idea, distinctive features, conflicts, twists, the main point; personification, metaphors, hyperbole, parallelism, allusions, a wide range of emotions and desires...
when you see a mountain as a mountain, water as water, a mountain not as a mountain, water not as water, then again a mountain as a mountain, and water as water.
Despite having the same topic, compositions by different grades would still show significant differences.
The sound of rustling paper quickly filled the large classroom as students from each grade began to write with focused intensity.