She wrote “Classroom” on one wooden door and “Study Room” on the other.
The larger room became the study room. Using a piece of chalk, she wrote several classical poems on the blackboard—ones that would definitely appear on the primary school graduation exam.
The smaller room was used as the classroom. After all, each grade had at most about ten students, so the room didn’t need to be large.
Before eight o’clock, the students gradually arrived for class. When they saw Lin Qiuman standing at the classroom door, they all politely greeted her.
Lin Qiuman smiled and greeted them back, asking everyone to sit in the study room.
“Older students, read louder. Younger students, follow the older ones and read these poems—*Climbing Stork Tower*… Begin.”
Lin Qiuman pointed at the poems on the blackboard. With her sweet voice leading the way, the students started reading aloud noisily.
It wasn’t class time yet. Instead of letting them gather and chat, it was better to make use of the time.
Listening to the gradually more orderly sound of reading, Lin Qiuman stood in the yard with satisfaction, waiting for the rest of the students.
Most of the students came to school in groups, but Shen Lingkang arrived just before Lin Qiuman rang the bell, rushing in right on time.
Seeing Lin Qiuman standing in the yard, he suddenly didn’t know whether he should keep running or smile and greet her.
Last night, he had even dreamed that this gentle teacher had become his sister-in-law.
“Student Shen Lingkang, why are you so late today?” Lin Qiuman noticed the damp mark on his sleeve and frowned as she asked.
Shen Lingkang glanced away nervously. “I woke up late.”
“Have you eaten?” Lin Qiuman remembered that when Shen Linghua wasn’t home, Shen Lingkang’s sister-in-law would drag him out of bed whenever she woke up and make him collect firewood or watch the stove.
But Shen Linghua was home right now…
“No…” Shen Lingkang shook his head.
“Is your third brother not home?” Lin Qiuman’s brows knit together again with concern.
“Third Brother went out early with the village chief.” Shen Lingkang shook his head again, too guilty to look at Lin Qiuman. The small pencil stub he was holding was quietly slipped behind his notebook.
Hearing this, Lin Qiuman turned around and walked straight into the dormitory. The moment she closed the door, she jumped into her space.
Fortunately, she had placed some everyday items near the entrance. She quickly picked up an egg from the floor and went back out.
“I found this wild duck egg in the mountains. I’ll make it for you to drink.”
Lin Qiuman wasn’t asking for his opinion. As she spoke, she walked toward the lunch jar.
“That looks like a chicken egg,” Shen Lingkang said. He had never eaten a whole egg before.
Even when his third brother was home, the best meal they had was mixed-flour steamed buns rather than pure sorghum buns.
When his third brother wasn’t home, any eggs in the house were saved for the two sons of his eldest brother’s family.
“It’s a wild duck egg,” Lin Qiuman said. She had thought Kang Kang was only around ten years old and easy to fool. Unexpectedly, the little guy was stubborn—if there was food to eat, why worry about whether it was a chicken egg or a duck egg?
She cracked the egg into the lunch jar, which contained freshly boiled hot water. As soon as the egg touched the water, it turned into egg drop soup.
“Drink it while it’s hot, or it’ll taste fishy.”
Lin Qiuman handed the jar to Shen Lingkang and turned toward the classroom, leaving him standing there foolishly, almost in tears.
After Shen Lingkang finished drinking the egg soup and returned to the study room, Lin Qiuman signaled the students to stop reciting.
“Before we start the lesson, let’s talk a little.
Some of you might think that as long as you can recognize characters and do arithmetic, that’s enough. Why learn so much knowledge, right?”
Lin Qiuman didn’t show any stern expression the entire time, so when she said this, many students nodded.
“I used to be just like you—I only wanted to play. But one day, my teacher did a small experiment in class. Right before our eyes, he made a block of ice!”
Lin Qiuman recalled it with a look of amazement.
“Ah? Ice? The kind you can eat?”
“Teacher, was your teacher a god?”
The students immediately burst into chatter, talking over one another.
Lin Qiuman shook her head. “No, my teacher was just an ordinary person. It was during a hot summer. Every student in our class got to taste ice, and after that I fell in love with studying. I even swore that I would become someone like my teacher.”
“Teacher, your teacher was so nice, letting you eat ice!”
“Teacher, can you make ice too?”
The students looked at Lin Qiuman with eager expressions, swallowing as they imagined the taste of ice in summer.
Lin Qiuman nodded. “Yes, I can make ice. I just need to prepare some things to do the experiment for you.”
The classroom erupted again with cheers and excited noise.
To the students now, Lin Qiuman was a mysterious figure. After only a short conversation, they had already grown fond of this new teacher.
Lin Qiuman raised her hand to signal them to stop.
“Alright, our pre-class meeting ends here. Let’s begin today’s lesson.
From now on, we’ll have classes by grade. When it’s your grade’s turn, you’ll go to that classroom.
The rest of the students will stay in the study room. I’ll choose a class monitor from each grade to manage the class in my place.”
More than forty pairs of eyes looked at Lin Qiuman with curiosity. Some of them had heard from city people that schools had class leaders, hygiene monitors, sports monitors, and so on.
Teacher Li had never mentioned choosing class monitors. They didn’t even have physical education class…
“Teacher, who can become the class monitor?” one mischievous student raised his hand.
“I’m not sure yet. That depends on each person’s ability.” Lin Qiuman deliberately kept them guessing and smiled.
“For the first class, it’s math for Grade Five. Students in Grades One, Two, Three, and Four, take out your Chinese textbooks. Turn to the character list at the back and memorize the characters you’ve learned along with their word combinations.
You can read them aloud or write them silently—use whatever method you like. When I come later to give a dictation, whoever gets everything correct will become the little class monitor.”
Previously, when Teacher Li taught, everyone stayed in the same classroom. While she taught Grade Three, she would assign homework to Grades One and Two and ask them to write quietly.
Lin Qiuman felt that this would distract both the students doing homework and the students listening to the lesson.
It was better to teach them separately.
As for secondary subjects like moral education and nature studies, those could be taught together.
More than forty pairs of eyes stared at Lin Qiuman with excitement. They had thought that the tallest or strongest student would become class monitor. Unexpectedly, whoever got full marks in dictation could become the monitor.
At once, everyone flipped to the character lists.
Lin Qiuman brought the Grade Five students into the classroom and closed the wooden door to begin the math lesson.
From the study room next door came the loud, buzzing sound of students reading.
“Teacher Lin is still young. She can’t control the students. Listen to all that shouting—the roof might get blown off.”
Before leaving, the old village chief had arranged for two village officials to come to the school to observe Lin Qiuman’s teaching.
Before they even got close, they shook their heads in disappointment.
Even when Teacher Li was around, students talked noisily—but now it seemed even worse.