Grandma Lu rolled her eyes dramatically. Turning around, she looked at Lu Yuning, who had been howling without shedding a single tear, and helplessly reached out to poke her forehead.
“You little rascal! So mischievous!”
Lu Yuning giggled. “That Ninth Grandma’s eyes were so wide just now. It was scary!”
“I was scared for a moment, so I called for Grandma.”
How could Grandma Lu not know what her own child was like?
In the past, she always felt that this little granddaughter was the kind of person who could be hit with three sticks without letting out a single fart. She was honestly too honest, and it always worried Grandma Lu. With such a personality, what would she do in the future?
Who would have thought that the child would suddenly become clever? Now she had become quite the little schemer. But somehow, she also seemed much more lovable.
Forget it. She was her own child, and the youngest one at that. There was nothing wrong with spoiling her a little.
Grandma Lu smiled. “Alright, go play. But don’t forget to dig up some earthworms to feed the chickens.”
Lu Yuning nodded. “Mm-hmm, Grandma, don’t worry. I definitely won’t neglect my work!”
As for the pigs in the pigpens at the brigade’s livestock farm, they no longer needed Lu Yuning and the others to cut pig grass anymore.
All of that work had been left for the children from families who were even poorer to do.
These days, Lu Yuning and the others only did some chores at home.
Lu Yuping originally had to do more work. After all, she had an elder like Aunt Sixteen, who would occasionally dump her own chores on her.
But now Lu Yuping had also learned from Lu Yuning and become clever. She only did the work Grandma Sixteen assigned her. Once she finished, she would immediately run over to find Lu Yuning to play.
Even though Lu Yuting had already gone to school these past few days, leaving only the three girls, Lu Yuning could still keep them entertained quite well.
As for Lu Yuchun’s family, there was even less to say. She had always been relatively doted on, so when it came to household chores, she did them when she wanted to and didn’t when she didn’t want to.
The three little girls now spent their days hanging around at the Lu family’s place, and they were quite happy.
Well, it would have been even better if Grandma Lu didn’t keep an eye on them while they practiced writing.
Second Uncle Lu had even specially made each of them a sand tray, all so that they could study properly.
To be honest, in the brigade, there were really very few families like the Lu family who encouraged the younger generation to study.
At least as far as Lu Yuning knew, everyone in the Lu family could read and write. Even Eldest Uncle Lu, Second Uncle Lu, and Father Lu had all attended middle school. Eldest Uncle Lu had even studied at a private school and properly learned the classical texts for the imperial examinations!
Although Eldest Uncle Lu hadn’t finished his studies before the imperial examination system was abolished, this showed just how much Grandma Lu and Grandpa Lu valued their children’s education.
If paper and writing materials weren’t so expensive nowadays, Grandma Lu would definitely have been very willing to buy them brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.
At the very least, she would have made sure Lu Yuning learned a little calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting.
Oh, right. Eldest Uncle Lu, Second Uncle Lu, and Father Lu had all studied them too!
Eldest Uncle Lu had learned them when he was young, and later taught his two younger brothers.
Looking at it this way, Lu Yuting’s tendency to love being a teacher at such a young age actually had quite a bit of a family tradition behind it!
Grandma Lu didn’t pay much attention to these things. After reminding Lu Yuning to remember to feed the chickens, she continued to the private plot in the backyard to weed and work.
The private plots were all planted with two crops of rice and two crops of wheat each year. Forget about whether the land lacked fertility and needed to rest. In this era, anything edible had to be planted, even grass roots. Anything they could grow could somewhat supplement their food supply. Otherwise, relying solely on the grain distributed by the production team might really not be enough to fill the stomachs of such a large family.
Lu Yuning looked at Lu Yuchun and Lu Yuping.
“Come on, let’s go dig up some earthworms.”
Lu Yuchun looked at Lu Yuning again and again. “Yuning, did you do that on purpose just now?”
Lu Yuning was stunned at first, then immediately understood. She nodded. “Of course. Ninth Grandma is an adult. If she really got angry and wanted to hit us, how could we possibly beat her? Of course we had to hurry up and call someone!”
Lu Yuchun looked conflicted. “But Fubao…”
Lu Yuning sighed inwardly. This child really didn’t hold grudges, and she truly was kind-hearted.
“Fubao and I never really played together before. Later, I had to help Grandma with the work, so I had even less time. Fubao is different from me. Ninth Grandma takes care of everything for her. I can’t do that. Grandma told me that relying on your father, mother, brothers, or sisters can’t be counted on. Only what you gain through your own abilities truly belongs to you…”
Those words were too profound for Lu Yuchun at her age. She frowned and said, very confused, “But my grandparents are all very good to me. How could they possibly not be reliable?”
Lu Yuning sighed inwardly again.
Child, if you had experienced the adult world, you would understand. Until the moment your interests are involved, you would never know whether those relatives who treated you well in the past were truly good to you or only pretending to be good to you.
Of course, as someone who possessed memories from a lifetime and had spent so long as a soul in the Underworld working as a mission employee, Lu Yuning naturally wasn’t going to say something like that to Lu Yuchun.
Even if she did, the other girl might not understand, right?
She was a perfectly ordinary five-year-old girl who hadn’t even gone to school yet. Why would Lu Yuning tell her all that?
After thinking for a while, Lu Yuning said, “They’re good to you now, but isn’t that because you’re still young? You don’t work now, and they don’t say anything. Isn’t that because you’re young and can’t really do much anyway?”
“Those chores are things the adults can easily do themselves, so they don’t mind. And being a child is different from being an adult. Adults will always say, ‘The child is still young, it’s fine.’ But would they say that about an adult?”
Lu Yuchun was stunned.
Lu Yuning spread her hands. “See? You know they wouldn’t. We were little children from the moment we were born, and we didn’t know how to do anything either. When we were little and didn’t know anything, the adults didn’t say anything. But what about when we grow up?”
“If the adults who are kind to us now still see us only knowing how to play and not knowing how to work after we grow up, will they still be good to us?”
Lu Yuchun scratched her little head and thought about it before nodding. “Mm, you’re right. My older brother can’t run around and play everywhere anymore either. Every time, Grandma scolds him.”
Lu Yuning nodded. “Exactly. So it’s not that they’re bad to you. It’s just that we can play while we’re children, but when we grow up, we can’t anymore. At that time, we have to learn how to take care of ourselves and our families, right? Otherwise, when our grandparents grow old and our parents grow old, if we don’t take care of them, wouldn’t they be pitiful? Wouldn’t that mean we’re being bad to them?”
Lu Yuchun was a little dizzy. “Yuning, I don’t understand anymore.”
Lu Yuning: “…”
Alright. This really was too difficult for a child who hadn’t even started school.
“Mm, then don’t worry about it. Anyway, we’re still young. We can play, but we also have to learn things. Learn how to cook, how to farm, how to raise chickens, and things like that. Anyway, we can’t grow up without knowing how to do anything…”
Lu Yuchun finally understood. “Oh, I know! It’s like how we take baths now. We can still let Mom help us wash, but when we get a little older, we can’t anymore. We have to learn how to bathe ourselves.”
Lu Yuning nodded. “Right, right, right. Otherwise, we’d be grown-ups already and still let Mom bathe us. Only idiots would do that.”
Lu Yuchun immediately declared, “I don’t want to be an idiot!”
Lu Yuping quickly added, “I don’t want to be an idiot either!”
Lu Yuning: “…”
“Mm, idiots are like that because they’re sick, so they can’t learn anything. Of course we can’t be idiots. We’re not sick.”
Lu Yuchun was surprised. “Huh? Really? Idiots are stupid because they’re sick?”
Lu Yuning nodded.
Lu Yuping frowned. “But Grandma says idiots are stupid because their families did bad things.”
Lu Yuning shook her head. “That’s feudal superstition. It’s specifically used to trick children.”
Lu Yuping suddenly understood. “So that’s how it is!”
…
Grandma Lu picked a melon and was about to see whether it was sweet when she unexpectedly overheard this conversation. She couldn’t help laughing.
This child Yuning really was becoming more and more sensible.
Along the way, Lu Yuning explained to Lu Yuchun and Lu Yuping what intellectual disabilities were and that they shouldn’t make fun of such people, but should instead help them when they could.
Lu Yuchun frowned. “But they’re scary.”
There were people with intellectual disabilities in Hong’an Brigade as well. A considerable number of them had become intellectually disabled because of marriages between close relatives, while another portion had become so because they had fallen ill as children and hadn’t received timely treatment.
These people were regarded as outsiders in the brigade. Some of those with gentler personalities even became the targets of the brigade’s children when they wanted to have fun.
Lu Yuning couldn’t control other people. She could only make sure she controlled herself.
Now that Lu Yuchun and Lu Yuping were playing with her, she also wanted to explain things properly to them, hoping that when they encountered people with intellectual disabilities who had gentle personalities, they wouldn’t join the other children in making fun of them.
That was all she could do for now.
Of course, there were also some people whose personalities weren’t good. As for those people, Lu Yuning still had to tell Lu Yuchun and Lu Yuping to stay away from them.
However, Hong’an Brigade was a village where people of the same clan lived together. Everyone here had lived for a hundred or even several hundred years, and their ancestors were all from the same lineage. Even the clan genealogy was still intact.
Even though the country no longer emphasized such things, the people here still did.
As for those special people with intellectual disabilities in the brigade, there were people in the brigade responsible for taking care of them.
After all, who wasn’t related to whom?
As for those with bad temperaments, the brigade leader had long since arranged for them to be supervised.
They had even specifically found people to take care of them.
This could also be considered one way the brigade took care of everyone’s future.
Those responsible for supervising them could also receive some subsidies from the brigade. In this era, it was already considered quite a decent job.
The three girls went to the private plot at the back and dug up some earthworms before bringing them back. They divided them among themselves, each carrying a jar home to feed the chickens.
Because of this, when Lu Yuchun and Lu Yuping played at Lu Yuning’s house, Grandma Sixteen wouldn’t object. Of course, Grandma Lu’s own authority also played a part.
After feeding the chickens, Lu Yuning waited for Lu Yuchun and the others to come back so they could continue playing hopscotch.
At this time, Grandma Thirteen and Grandma Sixteen were chatting in the alley.
“Hey, Thirteenth Sister-in-law, tell me, is the brigade’s sugar factory actually going to be built or not? If they’re really going to do it, I’ll have my second boy go over and give it a try.”
Grandma Thirteen was surprised. “Has your second boy graduated from elementary school?”
Grandma Sixteen waved her hand. “Oh, he graduated. He’s already fifteen years old. How could he possibly not have graduated?”
The corner of Grandma Thirteen’s mouth twitched.
He was already fifteen and had only just graduated from elementary school. The Tenth Sister-in-law’s Yufeng was only fourteen, yet he would be entering the first year of high school in September!
This Sixteenth Sister-in-law really spoiled her own children too much. Her boy had been held back every year since starting first grade at five years old, all the way until now when he had only just graduated from elementary school. It was still unknown whether he even knew all the characters, yet she was already thinking of having him work at the sugar factory?
Grandma Sixteen was obviously very confident.
“My second boy is very smart! He takes after me.”
Grandma Thirteen: “…”