Stepmother Reborn: Dad, my mom hasn't hit me for three days

Zhang Xiuhua, however, did not act as they wished. She stared at Youcai with her eyes fixed on him. "I went to school specially today. Guess who I met?"

Youcai finally took his eyes off the braised pork and looked at Zhang Xiuhua, who was furious. He pursed his lips tightly, hoping that she didn't know about his dropping out of school.

But what you fear will come true. Zhang Xiuhua's next words directly interrupted his extravagant hopes, "You are talented. Teacher Li said that you dropped out of school. How come I didn't know?"

Li Youcai remained silent until Zhang Xiuhua pressed him, then he explained, "I don't want to go to school. It's useless."

"How do you know it's useless?" Zhang Xiuhua had a pretty good temper.

"Those educated youth are all junior high school and high school students. They have studied so much, but they still come to our countryside, right?" Li Youcai pouted, looking unconvinced.

Zhang Xiuhua frowned. "You only see these educated youth. Have you seen those city dwellers? They are all intellectuals. They can eat rations every month. Some are mathematicians, some are scientists, and some are pilots."

Li Youcai pursed his lips and said, "I can't do it."

"If you can't be a mathematician, can't you be a chef in a state-owned restaurant?" Zhang Xiuhua knocked on the table. "You think my food is delicious. That's because you have never tasted really delicious food. The food cooked by the chefs in state-owned restaurants is much more delicious than mine. Every one of them can read and has a high level of education."

Li Youcai looked at her in surprise, "Really?"

"Of course it's true!" Seeing that he didn't believe it, Zhang Xiuhua asked him to ask Zhou Pandi and Li Xiaoying later. They were both from big cities and had eaten in state-owned restaurants.

Li Youcai lowered his head and thought for a while, "Then I'll listen to you and study hard."

Zhang Xiuhua thought about it and realized that the chef at the state-owned restaurant was too far away from him, and he had to give her a short-term job, so she said, "Whoever can get the top three in the class at the midterm and final exams will be taken to the state-owned restaurant for dinner."

As soon as these words came out, Jidong and Baolin's eyes lit up.

Li Youcai curled his lips, "Top three? Then why don't you just kill me?"

This shows how unconfident she is about her own achievements. Zhang Xiuhua could not change her principles, so she just said quietly, "If you really want to be a chef, but you can't even endure this little hardship, then I advise you not to learn it."

Li Youcai felt a little unconvinced that she looked down upon him and wanted to refute her, but when he thought of his own grades, it was easy to say harsh words, but it was too difficult to fight back with his grades.

Jidong added at the right time, "Brother Youcai, you can take extra classes like me. I didn't even start the first grade, but went straight to the second grade. You are much better than me."

Perhaps this had an effect, Li Youcai thought about it and agreed, "Okay!"

Zhang Xiuhua warned Li Youcai, "I wanted to beat you up for skipping school this time. But since it's your first time, I'll let you go. If you skip school again, I'll definitely punish you." She glanced at Jidong and Baolin, "You too!"

Baolin tried to please her, "Mom, I will definitely study hard."

Jidong also raised his hand to assure, "Aunt, I like studying."

Zhang Xiuhua was finally satisfied and began to distribute food to the children.

Li Xiaoying had one more student that night.

In a blink of an eye, Zhang Xiuhua took Youcai to school and persuaded the principal to let him continue his studies.

At that time, tuition fees were a huge expense, and many parents were unwilling to let their children go to school. The principal also did not want to lose this source of income, so he agreed without any hesitation.

Zhang Xiuhua was worried that Li Youcai would be short-lived and not study hard, so she told Teacher Li, "If Youcai skips school, you can tell Zhang Jidong in Class 3, Grade 2."

Teacher Li said he had taken note of it.

After returning home, Aunt Wang came to find Zhang Xiuhua to go cut branches together.

The strong laborers in the village would climb up the trees to cut branches, and they could follow behind to pick them up.

"I heard that your talent has been skipping school before?"

Zhang Xiuhua was surprised. How could she know?

Youcai went to school in the morning and hadn't returned to the village yet. And she didn't tell anyone.

Seeing her so surprised, Aunt Wang laughed and said, "Every little thing that happens in this village is known to the whole village. I have seen Youcai go up the mountain to look for wild fruits several times. I didn't think much of it at the time. I only knew about it after hearing you talk about it yesterday."

Zhang Xiuhua looked back at her door. She thought the door was wide and the neighbors couldn't hear anything. It turned out that she was just imagining things. If she fed the children meat, did the neighbors smell it?

She was still wondering, but Aunt Wang Er had already started praising her, "You are really kind-hearted. You took the trouble to educate the child in front of you."

Zhang Xiuhua put her thoughts back and said with a smile, "The child is still young. If he is not educated, he will grow up to be a bad child. We are mother and son after all. I can't bear it."

Aunt Wang sighed, "Youcai is a child who only cares about food. I don't know if he can understand your kindness."

Zhang Xiuhua wanted to ask more about her words, but Aunt Wang had already changed the subject, "Your family has exchanged so much coal this year. How much money did Li Jianguo give you when he left?"

Zhang Xiuhua didn't tell the exact amount. "He didn't give much money, it was all for the children's living expenses. I used my own pocket money to buy coal. I'm from the south and I'm afraid of freezing here. So I bought more coal to store to prevent myself from getting sick in the winter."

Aunt Wang slapped her thigh and said, "That's right. Winters here are very cold. It's minus 30 degrees. Even if you wear a big cotton-padded jacket, you will shiver all the time. If you have that much money, you might as well buy cotton-padded jackets for the children. If you buy coal, it will be gone after burning it for a whole winter. If you buy a cotton-padded jacket, you can wear it all the time."

This was a suggestion from her. Zhang Xiuhua thanked her for her kindness but hesitated and said, "But the cotton and cloth coupons we save every year are too few."

This is true. Aunt Wang's hair is turning white with worry. "The little cotton we have saved is only enough to make a pair of pants for the child. The cotton jacket was bought two years ago. The cotton in the cotton jackets I bought earlier has clumped into pieces."

Zhang Xiuhua thought of the quilt in the space. She had lived a hard life and didn't like to use soybean quilts, wool quilts, or down quilts. She always used cotton quilts.

She had to find an excuse to get the quilt out so the children wouldn't be frozen when the coal ran out.

But if she was the only one buying cotton, the villagers would definitely gossip about her. She wasn't afraid of gossip, but she was afraid that someone would be jealous and say that she was extravagant and had a problem with her lifestyle, and then hold a meeting to criticize her. If Li Jianguo lost his job because of this, she would become a troublemaker.

She had to think of a good idea to get the whole village to buy cotton so that she wouldn't stand out.

She pretended to be curious and asked how much a pound of cotton cost at the supply and marketing cooperative.

Aunt Wang thought for a moment and said, "Last year it was 1.4 yuan."

Zhang Xiuhua understood, which meant she could sell it at twice the price.

Her quilt weighs eight kilograms. In the south, where the temperature is low in winter, eight kilograms is more than enough for her. But in the northeast, she may need two quilts, one for the bed and one for the quilt.

Of course, this has gone off topic. They didn't have enough money to buy two quilts.

Her quilt is already made and has a quilt cover and quilt lining. If it is sold for twenty yuan, it should be very popular.

You have to know that this price is only available in the south. If you add the transportation fee, you will only make a profit of thirty.

Again, how could she take out so many quilts?