Chapter 57: Chapter 55: Her Son Might Be a Prodigy

Steaming beans and cooking red bean paste used up a lot of firewood, and Lin Lan remembered that the woodshed was running low.

Every household in the flatlands was short on firewood. In this day and age, some things couldn’t be bought even if you had the money.

Where could she get more firewood? Lin Lan furrowed her brow, worried.

Turning her head, she saw a broken jar of charcoal in the corner of the stove and suddenly thought of coal. ’Coal isn’t expensive these days,’ she mused. ’It’s more practical to buy coal for burning.’

She didn’t have any coal ration tickets, but the peddlers in the Eucalyptus Forest sold all sorts of things. If she bought a few cartloads of coal from them, she wouldn’t have to worry about firewood anymore.

Having made up her mind, Lin Lan felt at ease. Seeing the fire in the stove catch, she went out to the stone steps under the eaves to trim fava beans with the old lady.

The old lady waited for Lin Lan to sit down before saying, “That woman took the train back this morning. Ding Bang and Dandan saw her off.”

Seeing the relief on her face, Lin Lan said, “You must be relieved now.”

The old lady sighed. “How can I be? It’s already been over three years since Ding Bang’s divorce. I’ve asked people to introduce him to someone. If he stays single, that woman will think he’s still hung up on her!”

Lin Lan smiled. “He really should find someone. You shouldn’t just rely on one matchmaker. Find a few more. If you cast a wider net, you’ll have more options.”

The old lady nodded with a smile. “I asked a few of the older ladies at his workplace today to keep an eye out for him. I’ll see how it goes in a few days.”

Lin Lan thought about what had happened that day and said to the old lady, “Ma’am, today I dealt with Sun Xiuhua and Zhang Yazhen…” She then recounted the whole story from beginning to end.

After listening, the old lady patted her hand. “Good for you! There’s an old saying: the wicked fear the fierce, and the fierce fear the desperate. As long as you’re in the right and act with a clear conscience, if anyone dares to spread rumors, you tear their mouth shut!”

Lin Lan was stunned for a moment, then she smiled too. “With you backing me up, I’m not afraid of anything!”

She had expected the old lady to tell her to just swallow her anger. But then she remembered that the old lady had been widowed at a young age, raising her son and then her grandson all on her own. If she weren’t a tough and wise woman, how could she have lived so freely?

She recalled how the elders in her family back then were always telling her to endure things and to be mindful of saving face. But it was always the people who didn’t endure, the ones who didn’t care about face, who lived comfortable and carefree lives. Just thinking about it now made her feel stifled.

If she had been this tough back then, if she hadn’t always been trying to spare that scumbag Liu Jianguo’s feelings and had just thrown his medical report in his face, she wouldn’t have been cheated on, and she wouldn’t have been pushed into a car and ended up in this other world.

The old lady shook her head, smiling. “Having someone back you up is just an illusion. You have to be tough and able to stand on your own two feet.”

Lin Lan looked at the old lady and said, “Ma’am, from the day I learned that Old Yang used me to pay off his gambling debt, I made a decision. From now on, I can endure any hardship, but I will not be taken advantage of.”

The old lady patted Lin Lan’s hand sympathetically. “You have to know when to endure and when to be tough. If you endure everything, you’ll become a pushover, and everyone will want to take a piece of you.”

Lin Lan nodded repeatedly. “I’ll remember that.”

After the two of them finished trimming the fava beans, Little Douzi came out, shuffling in his shoes and holding a children’s picture book.

He pulled a small stool over to the old lady, opened the book, and looked at her. “Great-grandma, I’ll read the book to you!”

The old lady chuckled and nodded, then turned to Lin Lan. “Look how capable our Little Douzi is. Such a little guy, and he can already read.”

Lin Lan also stopped what she was doing and watched him with a smile.

Little Douzi opened Somersault Cloud, pointed to the characters, and began to read seriously, “The Monkey King, in his quest to find a master and seek the Way…”

Lin Lan listened to him finish one page, then watched in a daze as he finished a second. Barely able to contain her excitement, she asked, “Little Douzi, who taught you to read?”

The thought that her son might be a prodigy made her heart pound relentlessly.

Little Douzi looked up at her and shook his head. “No one taught me! Mommy, Sister Little Yan, and Brother Little Kai just read it to me like this!”

She herself had only read it to him twice, and the little rascal had fallen asleep both times.

’And Little Yan and Little Kai haven’t read to him many times either, have they?’

’Could it be that Little Douzi has a photographic memory? Or is he like me, his body and soul a new combination?’

Suppressing her excitement, Lin Lan pointed to the character for “wood” in the word “wooden raft” and asked, “What does this one say?”

Little Douzi glanced at her and shook his head. “I don’t know!”

“But you were just reading it so well!” Lin Lan said, not giving up. “Son, read it again from the beginning.”

Little Douzi pointed at the page and read, “The Monkey King, in order to…, boarded a wooden raft—” When he reached the character for “wood,” he paused, looked up at Lin Lan, and asked, “Mommy, this one is ’wood,’ right?”

“Yes!” Lin Lan smiled and gave him a kiss. “It’s pronounced ’wood’! It’s the same ’wood’ in ’wooden raft’ and ’wood log’!”

Now she understood. After hearing everyone read it a few times, Little Douzi had memorized the book’s content.

He could recite the text perfectly when the characters were together, but if you took one out individually and asked him to identify it, he had no idea what it was.

The old lady happily stroked Little Douzi’s head and smiled at Lin Lan. “Little Douzi has a great memory. He’s cut out for studying. You should make sure he gets a good education in the future.”

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. “As long as he wants to study, I’ll support him all the way.”

Little Douzi looked up, his eyes sparkling. “Mommy, I want to study! Brother Little Kai says there are lots of fun stories in books.”

Lin Lan smiled and ruffled his hair. “Okay. When you’re a little bigger, Mommy will send you to kindergarten.”

“Yay!” Little Douzi held the picture book, pointing his little finger at the characters and sounding them out one by one.

After reading for a bit, he pointed to the character for “wind” and said, “Oh! I know! This is the ’wind’ from ’blowing wind’! So this is what the character for ’wind’ looks like.”

Lin Lan watched him happily. “That’s right. As long as you memorize them one by one, you’ll be able to recognize the character next time you see it somewhere else.”

Little Douzi looked up at Lin Lan. “Mommy, can I find your name in here too?”

Lin Lan said softly, “Why don’t you look through it slowly and see if you can find it?”

“Okay!” Little Douzi began to search in earnest.

The old lady looked at the clever Little Douzi and said to Lin Lan with a grin, “Getting an education is an expensive business. If Little Douzi is really going to be a scholar, you’ll have to work hard to earn money!”

“My hard work starts today!” Lin Lan said, smiling as she picked up the basin. “You rest for a bit. I’m going to mash the red bean paste and make bean rolls to earn some money.”

The old lady nodded, leaning back in the bamboo chair and closing her eyes, listening to Little Douzi read Somersault Cloud.

Lin Lan finished making the kidney bean rolls and started frying the orchid beans.

The old lady helped her bag the snacks, watching as she placed the basket into her back-carrier. “Are you having Xiangyang help you today?”

Lin Lan shook her head. “No. I’m going to try selling by myself for a day. If no one reports me, I’ll sell in the Eucalyptus Forest. If someone reports me again, then I’ll set up my stall over by the clothing factory from now on!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep