Corpse Recovery Diver-Chapter 18 - 4_3

Sister Yingzi's parents never paid much attention to her education, but they never said things like "It's useless for girls to go to school," "Marrying off early is better," or "Find a connection and work in a textile factory to make money."

When it was time to pay tuition fees before the term started, they would pay up. Regular fees for materials and such, there was no need to feel embarrassed or any sense of guilt; it was all about asking straightforwardly.

However, everything is relative. Compared to the other girls' families in the village, Yingzi's parents, who simply left her be without much care, inadvertently became a model of valuing their daughter's education.

Yingzi knew that this was influenced by her aunt Li Lan.

Aunt Lan had managed to change her own fate through education, becoming the pride of her grandparents, and even her own father and uncles puffed up their chests with pride when they spoke of her to outsiders.

However, Yingzi's academic performance was only mediocre, even though she truly put in the effort without slacking off;

Of course, her grandparents could never intentionally sacrifice the sons just to provide for the daughter—it was really because her father and uncles genuinely couldn't absorb their studies.

This made her wonder if all the brains in the Li family went to her aunt?

At first, this thought was just that—a thought, not very intense—until the second day after Little Yuanhou was sent here. The somewhat reserved boy sat next to her, and when Yingzi faced a math problem that left her without a clue for a long time, a soft whisper came to her ear:

"Square root of 3."

Later, when Yingzi couldn't solve a problem, she would always ask Li Zhiyuan to do it, and she discovered that Little Yuanhou could almost instantly produce the answer without thinking, eyes glancing at the problem.

For him, perhaps the biggest trouble came from having to write out the solution process, otherwise his dim-witted sister wouldn't understand!

You should know, she was already in high school.

Yingzi had asked him what kind of school he attended in Beijing, and Li Zhiyuan answered: Youth Class.

Yingzi subconsciously understood "Youth Class" as elementary school,

Sighing to herself: How impressive, even elementary students in the capital city are so advanced in their syllabus.

Li Zhiyuan just sat there, daydreaming, occasionally coming back to reality to help his sister with a problem, then going back to daydreaming.

Sensing a pen cap poking her gently, Li Zhiyuan turned his head to look at the problem but saw his sister instead pointing at the steps on the west side of the dam, where a little girl in a floral dress was standing.

It was Cui Cui, Liu Jinxia's granddaughter; she stood there timidly, not daring to come up.

Yingzi frowned at Li Zhiyuan, indicating he should ignore her.

Had it been in the past, she would have spoken up directly, after all, there was a consensus among the kids in the village not to play with her; but just yesterday, Liu Jinxia and her daughter indeed came to their house to "treat" her brother, so it was awkward for her to say it out loud now.

Li Zhiyuan stood up, took the initiative to walk to the edge of the dam, approached Cui Cui, and smilingly asked:

"Are you here? Is there something you need?"

Cui Cui's gaze drifted elsewhere as she pinched the hem of her dress and said, "Came to play with you."

"Sure." Li Zhiyuan turned and waved at Sister Yingzi, "Sister, I'm going to play with Cui Cui."

Yingzi didn't say anything, just sighed and continued writing her homework.

In reality, there wasn't much to play with; often, it was just a simple wish to not stay at home and then running to a friend's house, calling them out, and wandering aimlessly together.

Cui Cui looked at Li Zhiyuan who had come out with her, her eyes filled with laughter—this was the first time she did what the other kids in the village did, going to someone else's house to call them out.

However, she still didn't dare to walk up onto someone else's dam on her own; children of her age might not understand many things, but they were more sensitive, and she didn't want to face the adults' rolled eyes.

"Brother Yuanhou, did my mom say you were sick yesterday?"

"Mhm." Reminded by this, Li Zhiyuan's mind once again flashed with the image of Little Huang Ying, and his smile gradually faded.

"Ah?" Cui Cui immediately apologized, "I won't mention it, won't mention it, being sick must be really tough."

Li Zhiyuan touched his pocket, apologetically said, "Um, I forgot to bring you snacks."

In reality, it wasn't that he forgot; grandparents weren't home, and the snack cabinet was locked, unopenable. Sister Yingzi seemed to know where the key was hidden, but Li Zhiyuan knew if he asked her for help, she would talk badly about Cui Cui to him in the house.

"Snacks? We have them at home, lots of them, come to my house to eat."

"Go to your house?"

"Yeah, come over to play at my place."

"Okay."

With consent given, Cui Cui gathered her courage and took the initiative to hold Li Zhiyuan's hand, the two of them walking together on the ridge path.

At this moment, she really hoped the adults on the dambutts of the nearby houses would see her and ask her, "Hey there, little Cui Hou, who are you playing with?"

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And she also hoped to encounter peers on the road, for them to see that she too had playmates.

Unfortunately, most people in the village had gone to Big Beard's house to watch the jelly made from pig skin.

Still, she was very happy, her lips never stopped curling up in a smile. If it weren't for holding hands, she felt she would be so happy she'd start twirling around.

"Brother Yuanhou, is it that you don't quite understand us when we talk?"

"At first, I couldn't understand at all, then if you speak slowly and simply, I could understand, and now I not only understand everything but can also speak some myself, it's just not very accurate."

When he was first sent to this family, he really couldn't understand a thing when the elders talked to him, and only his siblings who had gone to school could communicate with him in Mandarin.

He remembered that every time he called Li Weihan and Cui Guiying "Grandpa and Grandma," they seemed distinctly displeased, and then they would correct him repeatedly, telling him to call them "Grandpa and Grandma."

Locally, there was no term for "Grandpa and Grandma," and a lot of times to distinguish between grandma and maternal grandma, directional terms were used, like "Grandma Nan" for those living in the south, and "Grandma Bei" for those in the north.