Chapter 294: Chapter 294
Regardless, the fate of the naughty kid Xiong Youxin was decided. After New Year’s Day, Mr. Qin and Yang Huan took leave and left early. In fact, they could have left after the Chinese New Year, but Yang Huan had never learned German, and even her English was not good, so leaving early to enroll in a language class would help her catch up with the pace as soon as possible.
Xiong Youxin also transferred to the community elementary school near the courtyard right after New Year’s Day, but on the very first day, the teacher called home, asking the parents to come in the next day.
When Su Yan went the next day, both of them came back fuming. Su Yan was furious, and even Mr. Li was stunned, wondering if the naughty kid had caused trouble.
But Su Yan said it was the teacher’s fault. What’s wrong with a child being curious? Isn’t it the teacher’s job to educate and clarify doubts? If you don’t ask questions, what do you need a teacher for?
From then on, the naughty kid regarded Su Yan as his confidant. According to their discussion, Xiong Youxin is an extremely intelligent child with a strong thirst for knowledge. The school teachers have limited knowledge, so if she has questions, she should come home and ask. Whatever Su Yan and Mr. Li couldn’t answer would wait until the weekend for Li Xianglu to take her to the city’s library to look for information.
Who knows if it’s due to Su Yan’s unique educational approach, but the naughty kid never had to call his parents in afterwards, and he even ranked tenth in the semester-end exams across two classes, which left a few teachers, who predicted he’d amount to nothing, red-faced with embarrassment.
The naughty kid Xiao Xin was smug about it. At that time, international calls to Germany were not yet available, so he could only send a telegram to inform his mother far away in Germany.
Winter vacation had arrived. Li Xianglu and Qin Xi parked the car and greeted Old Geng at the back gate before heading to their own yard, planning to put their bags away before heading to the front. But as soon as they arrived at the arch entrance to their own courtyard, they saw Xiong Youxin with his legs spread and hands on the door of their living room, shouting angrily at Qin Zhen across the way: "I told you, Xiangxiang isn’t back yet, you can’t go into her room, she will get mad!"
Qin Zhen had returned, holding a pile of clothes, which seemed to be for taking a bath over at their place. There were only two places to bathe in the courtyard: one was at Grandpa Li’s ear room, and the other was at their end. Because Su Yan was at Mr. Li’s, everyone used Qin Xi and Li Xianglu’s shower.
Qin Xi felt this was very inconvenient and decided to remodel the western bathroom into a shower room in the summer, as installing new plumbing would be too difficult in the winter cold, so it had to wait until summer.
Qin Zhen stretched out his large hand, grabbed Xiong Youxin by the collar on the back of his neck, lifted him up, and then planned to fling him aside.
Qin Xi took a few quick steps over, embraced the child that Qin Zhen was about to throw, then handed him over to Li Xianglu standing behind him and said to Qin Zhen, "What are you doing? It’s just a child, what’s there to quarrel about?"
Qin Zhen’s eyes reddened with anger upon seeing his older brother protecting this brat, the whole stepfamily situation was distressing enough for him, and now his big brother was siding with the brat, he shouted in frustration, "Big brother!"
Li Xianglu shook her head helplessly. No matter how big or tall Qin Zhen got, his emotional intelligence never improved, always stuck at the ten-year-old phase. The naughty kid, half-embraced by Li Xianglu, stuck his tongue out at Qin Zhen: "Ew, you creep!"
What? Qin Zhen saw the little girl making faces at him and got even angrier, reaching out to grab her.
Seeing this, Qin Xi slapped his brother away and opened the door saying, "Hurry up and take your bath!"
Fuming, Qin Zhen went inside with his pile of clothes, and following him, Qin Xi taught his brother how to use the shower and also asked about school matters, figuring out that Li Jianqing had also come back before asking when he was going to the Lu Family.
Qin Zhen wondered, "I’ll go after the shower, otherwise why would I shower?"
Outside, Li Xianglu sat Xiong Youxin down in the small living room on her side and pulled open a drawer to hand over a large chunk of hazelnut chocolate.
Xiong Youxin took it immediately and said proudly, "I told you I would take good care of the house for you!"
Li Xianglu rolled her eyes at the ceiling; she had truly shot herself in the foot this time.
A few days ago, Su Yan was reading educational books, saying we should trust children and assign them tasks appropriately, rewarding them when they complete these tasks.
So, she mobilized the whole family to help assign tasks for Xiong Youxin.
Grandpa Li directly asked Xiong Youxin to help water the vegetables in the greenhouse, one watering can every three days.
Su Yan had Xiong Youxin make sure she drank a glass of milk every day.
Old Geng tasked her with keeping an eye on Wangwang, making sure he didn’t enter the front yard.
Well, it was Li Xianglu’s turn, and after much thought, she came up with a task: to help guard her yard and not allow strangers to enter, although the people in the family were not considered strangers.
That’s why we had today’s incident where Qin Zhen couldn’t get through the gate.
After receiving her reward, Xiong Youxin declared she would carry out her duties resolutely, leaving Li Xianglu no choice but to announce that Qin Zhen was also a family member, even though he was often away from home.
Xiong Youxin argued that someone who is often not at home doesn’t count as family, so Li Xianglu had to bring up Mr. Qin and Yang Huan who were far away in Germany, asking the naughty kid if they are considered family.
Xiong Youxin could only reluctantly accept that both Qin Zhen and Li Jianqing were considered family.
Qin Zhen wasn’t present for dinner, yet Li Xianglu still prepared a large table full of dishes. Li Jianqing had lost a lot of weight, which reminded Li Xianglu of Iro, whom she had seen losing a lot of weight in class as well.
After that incident, Iro moved out of the dormitory. Anna said that Iro got married on New Year’s Day.
She married the eldest son of the Wang Family, Chief of Staff Wang, who was ten years her senior.
Then Iro slimmed down at a visible pace. She would return to the Wang Family every day, driving back and forth in the morning.
However, this marriage didn’t bring much joy to the Ais. Iro stopped returning home from that day on, making it clear to Ai Ma Sha Xinyu that after the wedding, the Ais could no longer interfere with her life, whether she lived or died.
She didn’t visit her parents even once every three days as customary, which also surprised the Wang Family, wondering what exactly the problem was between their daughter-in-law and her family.
After crying several times, Ai Ma Sha Xinyu firmly stated that Iro would one day understand her painstaking efforts.
Li Xianglu scooped a large amount of spinach mixed with peanuts onto Li Jianqing’s bowl and said, "Third brother, eat more spinach. Grandpa grew it, and Xiao Xin watered it, so it’s very tender."
With those words, Li Jianqing, smiling towards the diligent little gardener, said, "Not bad, Xiao Xin is quite the gardening expert."
Xiong Youxin’s eyes sparkled astonishingly as she nodded vigorously, feeling like she found her second soulmate in life, the first being Su Yan, of course.
Su Yan nodded in satisfaction, pleased to see the child doing better under her guidance, but then she couldn’t help feeling a bit helpless when thinking about her sister’s child. Why did John have to like men? Why couldn’t he just find a nice wife and have a child?