"Grandma, I was wrong. I won't do it again."
Li Wu rubbed his butt. In fact, it didn't hurt much, and he couldn't help grinning again.
Yang Yufen averted her eyes, afraid that she would hit him again. What a well - behaved and cute child he used to be! Now he's at the age when even cats and dogs dislike him.
"Tell me what good deeds you've done."
Yang Yufen looked at the broken washing machine with a headache.
"We wanted to eat roasted potatoes. Grandma Wang just dug some potatoes and gave us a basket. But we wanted to wash them faster, so we thought of putting them in the washing machine. Then the washing machine broke while it was washing."
Wang Xing explained.
"Grandma, I'm sorry. It was my idea. I saw that you could wash clothes quickly with the washing machine, so I thought the potatoes would also be washed clean quickly if put in it."
Li Wen hung his head. If he hadn't proposed it first, his elder brothers wouldn't have done it.
"Well, then who disassembled the washing machine?"
Yang Yufen didn't expect that the washing machine at home would be disassembled when she came back from outside.
Wang Xing and Li Wen stood out.
"It was us who disassembled it."
"So, why did you run away?"
Yang Yufen looked at Li Wu.
Li Wu scratched his head.
"I saw you coming back, Grandma, and my legs just ran on their own."
"Now that you've disassembled it, can you put it back together?"
Yang Yufen looked at the scattered washing machine. They even had all the necessary tools.
"Yes. It's just that the drain pipe is blocked by mud lumps and needs to be cleaned."
Wang Xing and Li Wen replied loudly.
"Okay, then clean it and assemble it back. If you assemble it well, Grandma will reward you. If not, you'll wait for a beating!"
After saying that, Yang Yufen picked up the vegetable basket that had been thrown on the ground and went back into the house. These were newly - picked green beans, still very tender. They would be crisp and refreshing if pickled. They were grown by Gui Xiang's husband, who gave her a whole basket.
It was too late to build a greenhouse. Wang Shuo said they could try using plastic film. If they kept the temperature well, the seeds would germinate earlier and the beans would bear fruit earlier, and the price would also be higher. Moreover, green beans grow for a long time, have a high yield, and can be stored for a long time. They are better than growing green vegetables.
In a blink of an eye, it was almost the sixth month. By this time next year, Niannian would be back. As long as the two children were healthy, being a bit naughty was okay.
If they couldn't fix the washing machine, she'd let them wash their own clothes later.
Yang Yufen didn't have much hope that the children could fix the washing machine. The children wanted to eat roasted potatoes, and since the potatoes had been washed and soaked in water, with their skins bumped, they couldn't be kept.
Roasted potatoes were actually similar to roasted sweet potatoes. But surely the three children couldn't finish a whole basket of potatoes. So Yang Yufen simply put the potatoes in the pot to make potato rice and cut a piece of cured meat into thin slices and put them in.
Outside, the three children worked together. Wang Xing and Li Wu held the parts, and Li Wen screwed the screws back.
When Yang Yufen finished making the rice and the fragrance of the cured meat wafted out, Li Wu couldn't help swallowing his saliva.
"Second brother, when will you be done? I'm starving."
"Don't make a sound. You're affecting me."
Li Wen concentrated on screwing the screws, recalling where each part was disassembled from and checking if there was anything missing.
After making sure there was nothing left out, Li Wen stood up.
"I'll plug it in and try."
Seeing that Li Wen had finished, Wang Xing quickly took the plug and plugged it in.
Yang Yufen came out to call the children for dinner and didn't expect that the children had really put the disassembled washing machine back together.
In order to eat quickly, Li Wu turned on the water.
The water gushed into the washing machine, and Li Wu turned the switch. The washing machine started to run.
"It's running! It's running!"
Li Wu was very excited.
"We still need to test if it can drain water."
Wang Xing reminded. Li Wen tested it again, and the water gushed out, flushing out some sand and mud.
"Okay."
"Finally, we can have dinner!"
Li Wu jumped up happily.
"Go and wash your hands."
Yang Yufen smiled slightly when she saw the washing machine. At this time, Wang Xing and Li Wen also felt their stomachs growling and happily went to wash their hands for dinner.
The roasted potatoes were still in the stove, but the potato and cured - meat rice smelled so good that they stuffed it into their mouths in big mouthfuls.
"How did you learn to fix it?"
Yang Yufen was a bit curious.
"We watched Grandpa Liao fix things. He disassembled them one by one and then put them back together, so we did the same."
Wang Xing explained.
"Well, that's good. You're quite smart. You can remember where all those parts were. But if you use the washing machine to wash all sorts of strange things again, you'll all get a beating. Since you fixed the washing machine this time, I won't beat you."
Yang Yufen scooped a spoonful of egg custard for each of the three children.
"Grandma, then why did you hit my butt?"
Li Wu was indignant.
"Who told you to run away like a guilty person and even climb the tree? What if you fell down?"
Yang Yufen said crossly. This child seemed to have inherited his father's stupidity. Sure enough, it was because he came back more often. This child wasn't so stupid before!
Shen Xianjun, who only had one day off a month, sneezed violently.
"Surely my mother is scolding me."
Shen Xianjun rubbed his nose.
"You took a cold shower and then blew the fan yesterday. You can even blame this on Auntie. No wonder Auntie dislikes you so much."
Hu Jun looked at his brother - in - law speechlessly. Sometimes he thought this guy was quite smart, but sometimes he wished he could sew his mouth shut with a needle.
If it weren't for the fact that this guy handed in all his allowances and always mooched off his food, he'd kick the guy away.
"The task assigned to us by the higher - ups is that this year, we'll select the first batch of freshmen to enroll. They are all top students from all over the country. The political review must be passed, and their family backgrounds and interpersonal relationships need to be thoroughly investigated."
"Received!"
From students to instructors, they not only had to study but also had to discipline the freshmen. Both training and learning couldn't be neglected.
"Really no more tuition fees? Can girls also go to school?"
"No tuition fees. Neither tuition nor miscellaneous fees are charged. Children over seven years old must all be sent to school, whether they are boys or girls."
"But there's no school in our village. To go to school, won't we have to go very far?"
"The higher - ups are now encouraging the construction of schools. Our village is the largest among the surrounding villages. The nearby villages aren't far away, and there are many children. There must be a school built."
"A school will definitely be built, but it may not be in our village. I heard that the neighboring village has already applied. If they get ahead of us, our children will have to go to school in other villages."
The news of compulsory education spread far and wide, and the whole country paid great attention. Even the remote mountain villages received the news.
One school after another was approved for construction, and the whole nation was involved in the construction. Even in the poor mountainous areas where there were no conditions to build new schools, suitable houses in the villages were emptied out and reported for application.
Yang Yufen called back to the village and heard from the village head that the previous school in their village was being renovated. She also donated 500 yuan.
"Encourage the children to study, especially the girls in our village. In the future, they can be like my daughter - in - law and get into college. They're no worse than boys. Now that there's no tuition fee, being literate will help them find jobs in the future. Nowadays, jobs are assigned after graduating from college!"
