Chapter 174: Chapter 174

You Go Sleep in the Pig Pen (2)

Xiaoman was sensitive to these details and had a lot of experience. Her tears started to flow without saying another word. Her round face was soon filled with tears.

“Waah waah waah…” Jiang Xiaoman cried as she wiped her tears.

“…” Jiang Xiumei took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and asked, “You slept here last night?”

“En!”

“With Fragrance?”

“En!” She was crying as she answered.

Jiang Xiumei took a deep breath again. Xiumei was so angry that she was smiling and gave Xiaoman a thumbs up. “Very great, Jiang Xiaoman! Just sleep with the pig in the future, don’t come home anymore!”

Jiang Xiaoman was surprised. She hugged Grandma’s thigh and started howling.

She was very scared.

Not long after, Fragrance also crawled out, but its feet were unsteady.

Jiang Xiumei stared at it, then picked it up and left. Jiang Xiaoman chased her.

Waah, Grandma really didn’t want her anymore!! She preferred Fragrance!!

After Jiang Xing came home, Jiang Xiumei told him to make another pen next to Fragrance for Xiaoman to sleep in in the future.

Well, actually she just said that in a moment of fury, but Jiang Xiaoman thought about it seriously and nodded. “Okay.”

Jiang Xiumei: “…”

She was furious.

Jiang Xing hurriedly stopped her. “Mom, Mom, Mom, calm down. I’ll talk to her so she won’t do it again in the future. ”

Thanks to her uncle’s plea, Xiaoman managed to live another day.

When she went to school the next day, Jiang Xiaoman’s eyes were still red and swollen. It was obvious that she had been crying so much that the swelling did not disappear overnight.

Yu Qingshi, who sat beside her, could see that very clearly.

There seemed to be something happening next door yesterday. It was very lively.

Yu Qingshi thought for a while, then asked her, “Were you beaten again yesterday?”

Jiang Xiaoman shook her head, “No.”

“Then why are you crying?”

Was it that obvious?

Jiang Xiaoman covered her face and said in a low voice, “It’s nothing. I slept with Fragrance last night, and then Grandma scolded me for it.”

“Oh, so you slept in the pigpen.”

Jiang Xiaoman glared at him and said angrily, “Don’t make it sound like a negative thing. It’s a villa! Fragrance’s villa is very comfortable, and I slept really well! Don’t you usually sleep with Miaomiao too?”

“It’s Miaomiao sleeping with me, not me sleeping with Miaomiao.” Yu Qingshi said, “It’s Miaomiao sleeping on my bed. I never slept on Miaomiao’s bed.”

Oh, so that’s the difference.

Jiang Xiaoman thought for a while and said, “Then I will let Fragrance sleep in my bed.”

“…Then, you will definitely get beaten again.”

“…”

Because of Yu Qingshi’s golden advice, Jiang Xiaoman buried this idea and avoided another beating.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the midterm exams.

It was the first time the children took a serious, formal exam, and they did not understand many of the rules. When some of them did not know the answer, they would raise their hands and ask the teacher what to write.

The exam room was very chaotic, and the teacher supervising it felt like she lost half a year of her life. At one moment, she would be telling the children not to open their book, and the next moment she would have to tell them not to go outside.

Sigh, human children.

It was already a week later when the test results came out.

For Jiang Xiaoman, questions of this level were not a problem at all. If it was not because the answer sheet was limited, she wouldn’t have gotten just one hundred points. She could’ve gotten even more!

Of course, there were many children who got 100 points, because there was not only one class in the elementary school. In class 1 alone, there were four children who got a full score on both subjects.

One of them was Jiang Xiaoman, and the other one was Yu Qingshi. There were also two other children who were very smart.

The teacher complimented and praised them all, then gave them a certificate that made them feel very glorious – despite the paper not having any actual use.

Jiang Xiaoman was very happy.

Her current goal had changed from collecting the small red flowers in kindergarten to collecting certificates.

One at mid-term and one at finals. There were so many semesters; she had to get them every time and couldn’t miss any!

After returning home, Jiang Xiaoman hung the certificate on the wall of the living room, under the ‘Study Hard and Improve Everyday’ couplet.

The studious atmosphere became even stronger!

The next day, Jiang Xiaoman continued to go to school happily.

However, while she felt happy and proud, others were unhappy and dejected.

As soon as she entered the classroom, she heard someone crying.

It was rare to hear children crying nowadays. Who was it?

Jiang Xiaoman looked over and found that it was her old acquaintance Zhang Xinhua.

“Why are you crying?” Jiang Xiaoman asked him.

Zhang Xinhua said, “I was last in class on the mid-term exam. My Dad beat me up last night and said that if there’s no improvement next time, I won’t get any more snacks…”

“You’re so pitiful.”

His dad was really merciless.

Zhang Xinhua cried and asked, “You’re so amazing. You can learn everything and do anything; you even get a full score on everything. Can you teach me how to do it?”

“Of course, that is because I study hard and work to improve every day.”

“Then what should I do?”

“This… this…” Jiang Xiaoman was getting a headache before she remembered a new idiom she just learned. “Hang your hair on the beam and stick a needle on your thigh; that way, you will be able to study seriously1.”

“Eh? That sounds terrible!” Zhang Xinhua’s face turned pale.

“It’s not terrible. It’s very simple.”

“Then, can you teach me how to do it?”

Jiang Xiaoman looked up at the ceiling and said, “There’s no beam here, and I can’t make one for you, but I can let you get the experience.”

After saying that, she took out two rubber bands from her school bag.

She tied some hair together on the left and another bunch on the right, giving Zhang Xinhua small twintails.

“Done.”

Footnote:

1. This is based on two old stories about scholars. One of them would tie their long, braided ponytail on the beam at the ceiling, so if he fell asleep his hair would yank his head back and wake him up. The other would pierce his own thigh with a needle so he won’t fall asleep.