People had different reactions. Xiaobao knew rationally that this was a good thing, but emotionally, she obviously did not think that going to school was a good thing. On the one hand, she was happy, but on the other hand, she was gloating that her elder brother would have to be like her in the future, tied to a chair and listening to classes and doing homework.

Xiao Yuan was much more attentive than her. Even though he was still very young when Wei Qian dropped out of school, he could truly feel the despair and grief that Wei Qian was suppressing in his heart. So he looked up at Teacher Li with a little anticipation, with the ecstasy of a child who had dropped out of school and was waiting for help.

The one who reacted the most was Old Lady Song. She had lived longer than the three of them combined and had experienced so many things.

She discovered that when Wei Qian sat in front of Teacher Li, his temperament changed. He seemed gentle, polite and well-mannered. He looked much more stable than his peers. He had a handsome face, and his banditry was gone, revealing his originally dusty and compelling youth.

A young man at a prime age, with a youth that is as bright as fire.

A thought flashed through Old Lady Song's mind, and she made a quick decision, thinking that this boy should go to school.

However, Wei Qian was the only one who was slightly stunned after hearing what Teacher Li said. After a long while, he smiled lightly without even raising his eyelids, and said calmly: "Thank you, teacher, but...well, I am not born to be willing to go to school, and I may not be cut out for studying..."

"Are you afraid that you won't have enough money to pay tuition?" Old Mrs. Song suddenly interrupted him.

Wei Qian frowned and glanced at his pig-like comrade. If it wasn't for the fact that he shouldn't act rashly in front of Teacher Li, he would have dared to throw his chopsticks on the spot - what's the point of saying this, crying poor in front of a teacher?

Is it to win sympathy or to shamelessly take advantage of others' kindness to help the poor? There must be a limit to shamelessness, right?

But Old Lady Song didn't care. She was willing to roll on the ground. Face? What is face? Can you eat it?

So she once again spoke before Teacher Li, "It's okay, go and study. I'm not old yet, I can still work. I can sell hundreds of tea eggs at the intersection, morning and night. Do the math, this is a lot of money, right? They are still young, it's not time for them to spend money. The tuition for primary school is not much per year, at most you have to pay for the books, you can study your books, don't worry."

Wei Qian glanced at Teacher Li's expression, gnashing his teeth quietly, and forced a harmless yet somewhat embarrassed smile at Teacher Li: "No, it's not because of economic reasons..."

He tried his best to maintain his demeanor like that of the student union president. Old Lady Song took advantage of this again and interrupted him with a hoarse voice. She said to Teacher Li in a loud voice that she had trained herself from cursing on the street: "Teacher, thank you very much. You are the benefactor of our family. As long as this boy goes back to school, I, an old lady, will pay for the tuition. We can also afford to take the college entrance examination in the future. As long as the child has a promising future, there is no need to delay his success, right? Hey... you said, he is really capable..."

Teacher Li smiled and adjusted his glasses, saying, "Auntie, don't worry. I've been a teacher all my life, but I have no power or influence, so I can only accomplish this little. It's a pity for a good child. At that time, this child had good grades and was in the top ten in the exam - right, Wei Qian? I will ask your uncle to do it in a few days. Once it's done, you can go to school directly when school starts in the summer vacation. If you have any financial difficulties, you can tell the teacher. At worst, you can pay the teacher back when you grow up and have a promising future."

Old Lady Song was so overjoyed that she almost rolled up her sleeves and bowed to Teacher Li: "Oh! Really? Thank you so much! Thank you so much!"

Old Lady Song was shouting and yelling alone, completely occupying the right to speak with absolute advantage.

Xiaobao only cared about eating. Wei Zhiyuan looked at this, then looked at that, and finally carefully picked up a piece of meat and put it in his eldest brother's bowl - he saw the blue veins on his eldest brother's forehead popping out.

Teacher Li left after finishing her meal. Wei Qian originally planned to go out and see her off, and at the same time thank the teacher for her kindness and refuse such a ridiculous idea as "going back to high school". However, he didn't expect that just as he stood up and before he could stand up straight, the old and wicked old lady Song kicked him in the crotch unexpectedly.

In front of his younger brother and sister, the eldest brother jumped up faster than ever before, clasped his legs together in a humiliating manner, and dodged like a frightened rabbit. Then the door slammed shut in front of the three of them. Old Mrs. Song had already chased out to see Teacher Li off. Her movements were so swift that she didn't look like an old woman in her seventies or eighties.

After two seconds of silence, Wei Qian roared at Xiao Bao: "Is your grandmother, that old witch, looking for death?!"

Xiao Bao looked at him in confusion and innocence, wiped the sweat from the meal, and said to him: "Brother, I want to eat a popsicle!"

Wei Qian: "Eat shit, go wash the dishes!"

Xiaobao had no choice but to wash the dishes aggrievedly. Wei Zhiyuan also spoke up beside him. He asked with concern: "Brother, does it hurt?"

Wei Qian: “…”

So Wei Qian aimed his fire at him: "Shut up, get out! Go wipe the table!"

Wei Zhiyuan went to wipe the table. Before that, he was smart enough to pick up the ointment for bruises and sprains that Wei Qian usually used from the bedside table, put it in front of Wei Qian, lowered his head and smiled secretly, and ran away before his brother's face could fully show the impending storm.

Wei Qian's furious face calmed down. He breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back on the chair that Xiaoyuan usually used to do his homework. The chair legs were short and his legs were long, so he had to huddle together in a wronged manner.

Wei Qian's violent heartbeat calmed down. In fact, he knew in his heart that if he really didn't want to go at all, and really hated school as much as he said, he would never bring Teacher Li home for dinner.

No matter how fierce Old Lady Song is, she is not as high as his chest. If a young man really wants to attack her, can Old Lady Song stop him?

That is impossible.

He really wanted to go back to school, even though his childhood dream of working in a laboratory had been shattered to pieces, but a degree was still something that was out of his reach.

No matter what kind of academic qualifications he has, even if he goes to a very poor university in the future, the diploma in his hand will give him a starting point to struggle like most people in the world. He doesn't expect anything else, he just wants to get on the train that can reach the starting line.

It was too hard to chase the wheels on the rails with your own two legs.

He really just wanted that little bit of hope.

But if he leaves, who will support the family? Who will make a living?

In less than half a year, Wei Qian will be eighteen years old. In the eyes of society, he is already an adult who can support himself. He has strong hands and feet. No one will sympathize with him because of his poverty, and no one will give relief to someone like him - there will always be more people in need of relief in the world than relief money.

Is he going to study this book with the money earned by the old lady selling tea eggs and picking up scraps? He can't do it even if he is beaten to death.

Even if we take a step back and say that Teacher Li is a good person and is willing to help him, he is lucky. But does Teacher Li have the obligation to help him take care of his family and secretly subsidize Ma Zi's mother?

About twenty minutes later, Old Lady Song came back. The moment the door was pushed open, Wei Qian had already prepared some curse words to hurl at her.

He originally wanted to say, "You are not my grandmother. You old thing, who do you think you are? How can you care about my business? This is my home, I have the final say, don't act like an ignorant person in front of me!"

Considering that the sentence was rather long and needed to be said in one breath, Wei Qian took a deep breath. However, when he saw the joy on Old Lady Song's face as she pushed the door open, he couldn't utter a single word.

Old Mrs. Song believes that going to school is an extremely proud and honorable thing. In her hometown, the most knowledgeable person she knows is the village party secretary in the east who has a junior high school education.

She was trying to be nice to him in a very crude and mean way.

Wei Qian finally slowly exhaled the air he had inhaled, along with the fierceness in his internal organs, and it sounded like a sigh.

Wei Qian waved to Xiaobao and Xiaoyuan, and sent them to the cabin with a popsicle each to do their summer homework.

Xiaobao was not happy about having to do homework on the first day of summer vacation, but when she heard her elder brother asking Xiaoyuan to do it with her, she immediately forgot about worrying about her homework and looked up at Wei Zhiyuan cautiously.

Although Wei Zhiyuan had no expression on his face, Wei Qian could see that he was unhappy, so he said in a stronger voice, "Go ahead, take whatever you like, and be obedient."

Wei Zhiyuan knew that his elder brother and the others had something to say and didn't want him to hear it, but the house was small and there was no other place for them to go except to the cabin. So he paused, waved his hand to refuse the popsicle that Xiaobao brought him, turned around and walked into the kitchen, closed the kitchen door, and shouted to the outside: "I'm cutting watermelon!"

Xiaobao was extremely disappointed. She hesitated at the kitchen door for a long time with the popsicle in her hand, but was finally blocked from entering by the crooked and flimsy little door. She turned around helplessly and went back to her room. She felt that even the cream bean ice cream was not tasty anymore.

Wei Qian really sighed this time - his brother and sister both looked so deformed. His brother was a stubborn donkey with a very bad temper and would never turn back. As for his sister... well, let alone her, she was simply an idiot with a unique way of thinking.

How can I live without him these days?

Wei Qian put his legs down, arched his back, held the handle of the chair with one hand, and supported his other hand with his elbow on his knee, covering half of his face. He said to Mrs. Song in a rare and calm tone: "Do you know how much our school pays per year?"

Old Lady Song held up four fingers and said, "Your teacher said four hundred a year. We have the money."

Of course he had the money. When Wei Qian was working as a thug for Le Xiaodong, Le Xiaodong gave him 1500 yuan a month, and he could buy cigarettes and alcohol as he pleased. It was considered a relatively high income at the time. He had some savings, and he could afford the 400 yuan tuition fee, but tuition was only a small part of the cost. What about other expenses?

Wei Qian rubbed his fingers. He really wanted another cigarette at this moment.

"We study... our original school, which has very little lunch break at noon, and we have to go to evening self-study in the evening. It is a completely closed management, and we have to stay in school for twelve or thirteen hours a day. It is impossible to study and work part-time. We are required to eat three meals a day at school, and the most economical cost is 150 yuan a month. The cost of books is another thing, which is also a large expense. Let's not count it for now. As for home, you three buy vegetables and meat - yes, I know you save money by cooking at home, but how old are those two kids? They are at the age of growing up together, and the food money is definitely not saved. Add in the water and electricity bills and other miscellaneous expenses, and it's 200 yuan a month. You live a tight life."

Wei Qian raised his eyes and said, "Tell me, where are you going to get these 350 yuan? After deducting the cost, electricity and water charges, can you make 5 cents from selling an egg? Can you sell 7,000 tea eggs in a month? Do you really think your eggs were laid by a rooster?"

Old Mrs. Song was speechless. After a while, she argued without any confidence: "I sell quite a few every day, probably hundreds of them..."

"I'll buy a few hundred eggs from you." Wei Qian gave a bitter smile. His mouth was dry after all the long talk. He whispered to Old Lady Song, "Don't be so clever. Don't I know the market situation? From morning to night, if you can sell sixty or seventy eggs, your business is good."

Old Lady Song: "Oh, you know shit. I can make money by selling junk, such as wrapping paper, paper boxes... yes, bottles, cans..."

"Even if you work your ass off for a month and can come up with this 350 yuan, what if something else happens?" Wei Qian interrupted her. "You're not young anymore. Let me be frank. What if you get hurt and have to be hospitalized? Do you have medical insurance? Besides, even if I can make do and you can make do, what if the two children's school has a spring outing and sports event? Others buy them new clothes and snacks. Will you let them make do as well? Xiaobao is a girl. It doesn't matter if she doesn't know anything now. In a year or two, she will know how to be beautiful. Are you going to let her wear tattered clothes and not be able to hold her head up in front of her classmates?"

When Old Mrs. Song heard this, for some reason, her eyes suddenly blinked and tears fell without any warning.

Wei Qian was right. She knew in her heart that this was the city, not their remote hometown. In their hometown, there were fields to deal with and families to gossip about. Every child grew up in the mud and no one was more respectable than anyone else. There was nothing to say.

But in the city, everyone has luxury cars and BMWs, and they are well-dressed. There is no way out for being poor.

How miserable this child is!

But she was just a lonely old woman with no skills. Her greatest skill was growing vegetables. Unfortunately, in this city of steel and concrete, she couldn't even find a vegetable plot two feet wide.

Wei Qian was originally panic-stricken and confused, but when he suddenly realized that Old Lady Song was crying, he was speechless for a second or two.

Then, the boy calmed down at an incredible speed. He stood up silently, pulled a roll of toilet paper from the table, tore off a piece and handed it to her. He said with the calmness of a true head of the family: "Don't cry, what I told you is true."

Old Mrs. Song cried even more inconsolably.

Wei Qian let her cry for a while, and finally lost his patience: "Old woman, that's enough. It's unlucky to cry all the time. If you have something to say, just say it. What's there to cry about?"

When Old Lady Song heard that he had lost his civility and decency again and was speaking rudely again, she bent down and took off her shoes, and used the soles of her shoes to beat Wei Qian hard: "You little bastard! You conscienceless little bastard, I'm going to beat you to death! Do you really want to be a gangster? Do you really want to be a laborer? I'm going to beat you to death!"

Of course Wei Qian couldn't be beaten to death by a shoe sole, and he was too lazy to dodge, so he simply hunched his shoulders and protected his face with his arms, letting her hit him and vent her anger.

At the same time, he didn't intend to accompany her to vent her meaningless emotions. Amid such chaotic background noise, Wei Qian racked his brains to think of a way out.

The ground was full of thorns, and hope was like a horse stepping on a swallow, with only its tail just enough to hook onto his fingertips.