Chapter 224: A Beating Before School Starts

Chapter 224: A Beating Before School Starts

Chapter 224: A Beating Before School Starts
Li Changle and his three companions picked up the fat herrings on the beach and put them into a net bag. Then they tied the two ropes together, made a slipknot, squatted down and hung them on their shoulders.

Li Changle steadied the net bag on his shoulder with one hand and held the sack with the other. "Do I look like a refugee?"

"How can someone escape with two bags of fish on their backs?"

"Hurry up, it's almost twelve o'clock."

"What are you afraid of at twelve o'clock? Are four grown men afraid of ghosts?"

"Nothing else, but a greedy ghost."

"..."

The four of them walked into their yard chatting and laughing. Li's mother, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law came out upon hearing the sound. They looked at the people carrying things on their backs in surprise and hurried forward to help.

"With so many fish, are you seeing fish flipping over in the pond again?"

"No, Ale and the others..." Brother Li rushed to tell everyone where the fish came from.

"Whether Ah Le and Ah Wei go fishing or fishing in the sea, it always seems as if the fish are there waiting for them to pick up."

"It's true. Every time I go out at night, I come back with a lot of fish."

"People who are good at shipping are like this. I remember going to the fishing grounds last year, among the three boats traveling together, the one with the best luck had already filled its cabin with its catch before we even got to the fishing grounds."

Li Changle thought so too. In his previous life, when he went out to sea, when he was lucky, the fish seemed to be waiting for him to catch them under the net. When he was unlucky, he would catch dozens of kilograms of small fish in one net, which was not enough to buy diesel.

Because fishing at sea depends entirely on luck, people in fishing villages are particularly superstitious and there are so many taboos.

"Mother, you guys go to bed quickly, we'll put the fish away and take a shower."

"Okay, remember to bring a few buckets of water into the house so it won't be too stuffy."

"I know."

Several people poured the fish in the bags and backpacks into rubber buckets, and then fetched a few buckets of water and placed them nearby to cool down. Then they carried the buckets to the well to take a shower, and then went back to their rooms to rest.

When Li Changle returned home, Zhou Ruonan handed him a dry towel and said, "I told you, don't wash your hair at night. It will give you a headache when you get older."

"My hair is all wet with sweat and it smells sour if I don't wash it."

Li Changle looked at her pitifully, "Wife, help me wipe it. I caught more than ten nets in one go, and my hands are so sore."

Zhou Ruonan glared at him in reproach and pulled a bamboo chair over, "Sit down."

"Okay!" Li Changle sat down, stretched out his legs and leaned lazily against the back of the chair. "The blue tears tonight are so beautiful. I am not well-educated and cannot describe the feeling. It is like a dream, just like a dream."

Zhou Ruonan looked longing after hearing this, "I've only heard of it, but I've been here for more than ten years and I've never seen it once."

"Brother said that there will be occasional ones in August. I will come back and call you next time I see one."

"Yes!" Zhou Ruonan changed the towel, "Your hair is thick, next time you go to Lucheng, go to the black market and buy a hair dryer."

Li Changle nodded comfortably, "The hair dryer is good, you can wash your hair at night from now on."

As he spoke, he remembered something and turned to look at her with a smile, "There is another good news. Uncle Dong said that you should be able to become a regular employee this semester."

Zhou Ruonan looked at him in surprise, "Really?"

"It's truer than Pearl. Uncle Dong heard from Principal Zhou that you are diligent in school and both students and teachers like you."

"How can it be so good? One teacher said that I brought my child to class and treated the school as a nursery."

"Who?" Li Changle's voice suddenly rose, "Which bastard..."

"Are you courting death?" Zhou Ruonan slapped him, hurried over to close the door, and then went back to twist him angrily, "Why are you making such a loud noise in the middle of the night? You scared your son awake."

Li Changle looked back at her and lowered his voice and said, "Who said that to you? Why didn't you tell me? I know I can't beat him to death!"

"What are you yelling about?" Zhou Ruonan pinched him again, "You've already scolded someone for this once, and you still want to hit him?

My position was originally for her sister, but when I arrived, the school didn’t hire her sister. She complained a few times, and you stopped her at the entrance of the village and scolded her. You even scolded her until she cried, and she didn’t come to school for two days.”

After she said that, Li Changle finally remembered what happened. It had been so long, and he had long forgotten about scolding the teacher.

"We did get in through the back door, but it's also true that her sister's test scores weren't as good as yours. You can't just blame us if the school doesn't admit her!"

"If I don't get involved, her sister will do it! Why don't you give her some sarcastic remarks? If I want to become a full-time employee this semester, I'm going to poke her in the lungs again."

"That can't be helped. We can't just give up our job just to make her feel comfortable, right? We just need to live our own lives. Her lung condition has nothing to do with us."

Zhou Ruonan nodded, "Of course she will be promoted to a regular employee, but we are not in the right in the first place. It is a fact that I brought my child to class before, and she is not making up stories. Let her say a few words behind her back to vent her anger."

Li Changle looked at her apologetically, "It's all my fault that I didn't work hard to earn money to support the family. Xiao Hai is in the first grade, so let Xiao Zhou stay at home with A Niang, and you don't have to take them to class."

"Mother has to help dry the dried fish. I have agreed with my second sister-in-law that Xiaomei and Xiaozhou will be sent to kindergarten when school starts. Once the children go to school, Mother will have some free time."

The tuition for the kindergarten class is five yuan per semester. They couldn’t afford it before, but now that their family conditions are better, they are willing to send their children there.

"This way she won't have anything to say. If she wants to say anything else, I'll go find her and give her a few pounds of fresh food to shut her up." Zhou Ruonan rolled her eyes at him, "You know how to give people fresh food? I'll be happy if you don't go and curse at people."

"Don't worry, I'm already in my twenties, not the young and naive person I used to be." Li Changle took her in his arms and walked towards the room. "Go to bed early, you'll be busy again when school starts tomorrow."

"You should go to bed early too. You were busy until two or three last night, and it's almost one tonight. You have to get up early tomorrow morning." Zhou Ruonan looked at the shadows in his eyes and said distressedly, "Why don't you stay at home and rest for a few days?"

"I dare not rest now. I will have a good rest for two days after I earn enough money to buy a boat."

Li Changle yawned several times in succession. He had been busy since he opened his eyes. He was really tired. He fell on the bed, fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Zhou Ruonan looked at the man who fell asleep in the blink of an eye, smiled, turned off the light, listened to the sound of his snoring, and fell asleep as well.

It started to rain when it was almost dawn. Li Changle woke up, listened to the sound of raindrops on the tiles, yawned, and lay back down to sleep.

When he woke up again, Zhou Ruonan had already gotten up, and her two sons had also gotten up. There were two schoolbags on the bed, one was a small blue cloth bag, and the other was a military green bag.

"What are you doing up so early?"

Li Xiaohai said crisply: "We have to go to school."

Li Changle reached out and rubbed his head, "Study hard, future college student!"

Li Xiaohai put on his schoolbag and said to him, "Dad, I can pass the exam!"

"Dad believes you can pass the exam." Li Changle said as he got out of bed and put on his clothes.

"Dad, I don't like this little schoolbag. I like the one my brother has." Li Xiaozhou picked up his little schoolbag and said with a pout.

"You are in kindergarten, so you should carry this kind of thing. If you carry your brother's thing, it will almost reach your instep. I will buy it for you when you are in first grade."

The little guy twisted his butt and held his hands, "I don't like it, I don't want it."

"If you don't like it, then don't carry it. What does a little kid need a schoolbag for?"

Li Changle rubbed his curly hair a few times, put on his shoes, and hurried out. He had been holding it in all night, so he had to go and relieve himself.

Li Xiaozhou rubbed his messed up hair and shouted at his back, "Dad is annoying! I want someone like my brother."

"Li Xiaozhou!" Li Xiaohai glared at him, "I told you to buy it when you enter the first grade..."

"No!" Li Xiaozhou ran to the kitchen crying, "Mother, I don't like my little schoolbag. I want a schoolbag like my brother's."

"If you don't like it, give it to Sister Xiaomei to carry!" Zhou Ruonan said without turning her head.

"Then buy me the one like my brother's!"

Zhou Ruonan looked back at him and said, "I told you yesterday that you should buy it in the first grade. If you don't listen, you can't go to the kindergarten class. Just stay at home and help grandma dry the fish."

"I don't want to stay at home and dry the fish jerky. I want to go to school!"

"If you're not drying fish jerky at home, then you should carry your schoolbag and go to school." Zhou Ruonan walked outside with a bowl of rice noodles in his hand, "Xiao Hai, call dad to get up and eat."

"Dad went to the toilet." Li Xiaohai came out with his schoolbag and saw Li Xiaozhou still standing there with a pout. "Come here, put on your schoolbag, and go to school after dinner."

"Brother, let me carry your schoolbag for a while. I'll eat."

"Okay, I'll carry it for you for a while." Li Xiaohai took off his schoolbag and put it on him. The two brothers climbed over and sat on the stool, waiting for dinner.

Li Changle came back from the toilet and washed his hands in the ditch. As soon as he entered the yard, he saw Li Xiaotao running out of the house crying.

Li's mother, who was sitting under the eaves killing fish, looked up and said, "Xiao Tao, you are really too ignorant. I heard your mother asking you about your homework the day before yesterday, and you said you had finished it."

"I didn't mean to not write it, I really didn't see it..."

"You're still being stubborn!" Mrs. Li pointed at him with a bamboo stick, "I told you two days ago that we were going to register, so hurry up and finish your homework. When you came back yesterday afternoon, you ran around outside without even checking your homework.

Registration is today and you are still rushing to finish your homework. You have ignored everything I said. You will be happy only if you piss me off to death, right?"

Li Changle added fuel to the fire, "You got a good beating. You didn't even get to finish your homework during the two-month vacation. You deserved the beating."

"...I did it!" Li Xiaotao looked at him with resentment.

"Yes, then what were you doing just now?" Mrs. Li became angrier and angrier as she spoke. She rushed forward, picked up the bamboo stick and hit him again.

Li Xiaotao rubbed his hurt hand while running, "I really did it. I didn't leave it unfinished on purpose. I just didn't see the other page on the back..."

"You have so many excuses. If you can't register, don't study. Stay home and help dry the fish." Mrs. Li pointed at Li Xiaoyang and said, "What about you? Have you finished your homework?"

"I finished it the day before yesterday. If you don't believe me, ask Xiaoqing." Li Xiaoyang hurriedly pulled Li Xiaoqing, fearing that the war would spread to him.

Li Xiaoqing nodded quickly as a witness, "It's done!"

After Zhou Ruonan looked at Li Xiaotao's homework, she said to Mrs. Li, "Xiaotao didn't lie. There is really only one page left. He will finish it quickly if he works hard. Tell him to make up the homework quickly and register later."

(End of this chapter)