Good Dad System [Arc 1] Chapter 10.1: Father, He Is A Great Man (19)
The second grandma was the oldest person Pei Chuqing had ever seen. At first, she couldn’t react. She blinked in confusion and didn’t know what to call her. Fortunately, her father found out in time and told her in a low voice that the second grandmother looked good-natured, but she was not eloquent.. She was very nimble and walked as if she had a speed wheel on her. Even she, who was young and energetic, almost couldn’t keep up.
“Mom, have you lived here before?” Pei Chuqing looked at her mother curiously. Her father was walking and chatting with the second grandma in front. She and her mother couldn’t keep up and fell behind.
“I’ve been here before.” Su Xiuzhen still remembers that before her parents-in-law left, they came here to celebrate New Year’s Eve. “Mom doesn’t have much impression of my second grandma’s house. I usually just have a reunion dinner with your grandparents and then we went back to the city.”
“That’s right…” Pei Chuqing continued to look forward, occasionally passing by large and small houses on the side of the road, some of which were relatively new, like they only started in the past few years, with three or four floors , and the suburban roadside. The houses are almost the same, and some are very dilapidated. The door is wide open, but it is dark inside, which looks a little scary.
“Here we are, the room has been cleaned for you.” The second grandmother was very enthusiastic and took the three of them into the back room. Her house was considered medium-sized in the village. All the money sent by her children in previous years was spent on the house, and she also asked someone to build a small flat with a second floor, and there were many rooms.
“Thank you for your hard work. It’s too much trouble for you.” Pei Naochun thanked her and took his wife and daughter to the room upstairs.
Pei Chuqing breathed a sigh of relief. She just saw the dilapidated building on the roadside and felt sad. Fortunately, the room was not as scary as she imagined. The room was not big. There was a hard bed in the middle with a bright red blanket. It has been unoccupied for a long time, and the curtains look a little dusty. There is a mini fan hanging on the top. Because of winter, the plug has been removed from the power strip. The only inconvenience is that there is no bathroom in the room you have to go to downstairs to get to the toilet. But Pei Chuqing is not too picky about this.
“Not bad, right?” Pei Naochun arranged the things clearly. He discussed it with his wife and was worried that his daughter would not be able to sleep well in another place, so he let them sleep together at night. He leaned against the door and recalled the dilapidated house in his memory. “This is much better than the house dad lived in before.”
“Much better?” Pei Chuqing looked confused.
“Yes, it’s much better. If you saw our house before, it could be regarded as a star-rated hotel.” His voice was full of emotion, “Your grandparents are both farmers, and your family is also poor. We can’t save much money. Our previous house was less than half the size of your second grandma’s house. The rooms were separated by wooden boards. However, these wooden boards have been used for a long time and have a somewhat musty smell, not to mention the floor. Where were there any tiles at that time? The floor was always dusty and not even smooth…”
Pei Chuqing was frightened. Her eyes drifted to her mother. She was extremely surprised when she saw her mother nodding in confirmation. When she was a child, the school also called for donations to children in impoverished mountainous areas. They had even seen the black and white photo of a girl with big eyes. She have some sympathy in her heart, but she really can’t imagine what real poverty is like. Even if she can imagine it, it feels very far away.
She once thought that poverty was like that of her family. They drank porridge from time to time, there were never any fashionable dishes on the table, they never went out to play together as a family all year round, and they would never change their clothes unless they were too ill-fitting.
Pei Naochun smiled and rubbed his daughter’s head. He was very serious: “So reading can change your destiny. This truth is true everywhere.” He relaxed his hands behind his back, “It’s not that reading is good, it’s that for many people, studying is the only way out, but…”
“Just what?”
Pei Naochun lowered his eyes and looked very sad: “It’s just that many people can’t even get this opportunity.”
Pei Chuqing wanted to retort. At her age, compulsory education in the country was free. For example, the school where she sat only charged some teaching aid and miscellaneous fees after junior high school, plus scattered class fees and uniform fees. It’s only a few dozen and a hundred in a year. Before she could say anything, she remembered the conversation between my father and my second grandma just now. Even if she found it unbelievable, these things seemed to be reality.
“Do you think it’s weird?” Pei Naochun asked with a smile.
“It’s strange…” When her father asked, Pei Chuqing’s curiosity continued, “Are the tuition fees in the village very high? And isn’t every child required to receive compulsory education?”
“It’s not that easy.” Pei Naochun was amused by his silly daughter. He was just as shocked as his daughter when he first received the memory of this world. After sorting out the memory, he was able to face it calmly, “Can someone still hold a knife? Do you force your children to go to class?”
“What are you going to do if you don’t go to class?”
“If you have more, you can do housework, take care of your younger brothers and sisters, and you can also learn crafts.” Pei Naochun said in a relaxed manner, but the topic was quite heavy. “Now that tuition fees have been reduced, I usually go to elementary school and learn a simple name. If you know how to read, by the time you reach junior high school, there will be many dropouts, let alone further education.”
“…Why?” She didn’t understand.
“Because everyone thinks that studying is useless, Dad will give you a simple example. Do you know what they do as apprentices, delivery, and selling some physical strength, how much money can they make?” Pei Naochun stretched out his hand, “ Just three thousand.”
“No one is a fool. Their values tell them that it is meaningless to waste ten years of study and earn four or five thousand, let alone pay fees.”
Pei Chuqing was surrounded by her father, and she began to calculate in her mind and compare the values.
Pei Naochun spoke again: “It’s just that for the vast majority of people who don’t study, the upper limit of their lives is always only that high.” He was afraid that his daughter wouldn’t understand, so he simply explained, “Most people who don’t study and have no education , the highest-paying job they can find is 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, and most of them are laborers. For most people with academic qualifications, their ceiling may be 50,000 yuan.” He suddenly laughed again, “Of course. It may also be like your father and me, whose salary is only a few thousand yuan now.”
“Nao Chun, the village chief calls you to go to his house for dinner, and bring Xiuzhen and Chuqing.” The second grandmother called directly from the stairs, but did not go upstairs.
“Let’s go, I’ll take you to the village chief’s house for a feast.”
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Lucien On ABRWF Chapter 34.1