Jiang Yue (5)

It was evening.

The adults were about to finish working; Jiang Yue and Jiang Xing also left early, going home hand in hand. On the way home, they met a few children coming home from school in groups.

They all carried small school bags and said goodbye to each other.

Jiang Yue took Jiang Xing’s hand and stood on the side of the road, looking at them enviously.

Seemingly thinking of something, Jiang Yue’s eyes lit up and she said, “Brother, let’s go take a look, too.”

Anyways, Mother hadn’t returned yet, and they students had all left their class. There should be no one in school right now.

Jiang Xing didn’t know what his sister was excited about, but he always listened to his sister’s words, so he nodded, “Okay.”

The siblings acted like thieves and sneaked into the school.

Jiang Yue’s expectation was accurate. Most of the students in school had left. Other than the live-in teachers, no one else could be seen at school.

She sneakily went to the first-grade classroom on the first floor, leaned against the window and looked inside for a long time.

The writing board was a wooden board painted with black paint that was nailed to the wall, and it had been used for many years. Even after the chalk was wiped clean, there were still chalk marks left, and you can still see traces of the writings on them.

Jiang Yue had never gone to school and couldn’t recognize the characters written there, but she subconsciously traced them with her fingers and wrote the characters for “1 2 3”.

She was stunned for a while. A short pencil tip lay quietly in the corner. The lead had almost been completely used up, only a knuckle length left, and the eraser at its back was completely gone.

Jiang Yue bent over to pick it up and put it in her pocket.

“Child, what are you doing?”

A gentle and heavy voice appeared, startling Jiang Yue. She looked back and saw a man with glasses looking at her.

He must be a teacher from this school!

Jiang Yue felt guilty from being caught, so she immediately ran away. After running a few steps, she remembered that she didn’t take Jiang Xing with her, so she turned back and dragged her brother away.

When they returned home, the siblings were both out of breath and exhausted.

Jiang Xing didn’t know what happened and asked her, “Sister, who was that just now?”

“I don’t know.” Jiang Yue became scared again. It was the first time she went to school. If the adults found out, would they scold her for not doing her job properly?

She threatened her brother a little fiercely, “You are not allowed to tell Mother about today’s affairs, or else I will ignore you!”

Jiang Xing was so frightened that he covered his mouth with his hands and shook his head, “I won’t say anything, I won’t say anything.”

And so the siblings reached an agreement.

After the autumn harvest and the grains were harvested, work in the fields was no longer as laborious. Jiang Xiumei didn’t have to work as hard as before. She stopped letting the children go to the fields, so the school became a place that Jiang Yue frequented.

There was no obstacle to entering and leaving the school because the school had no security guards to keep watch. Plus, she was almost at the age to enter school, so she looked like a student.

Every time she went there, she went sneakily, quietly hiding behind the window.

Under normal circumstances, she would not bring Jiang Xing, because Jiang Yue felt that her behavior was like being a thief and stealing other people’s things. It was a shameful thing; if her younger brother came along, he might also be scolded.

Also, her younger brother was too naughty. She was inconspicuous by herself and no one cared about her, but with a younger brother added, the teacher would definitely say something.

So the sister and brother made an agreement. When they weren’t going to the fields, Jiang Yue went to school, while Jiang Xing stayed at home obediently and was not allowed to go anywhere.

If he behaved, when Jiang Yue went home, she would bring him some wild fruits, or pick some wild pears at the edge of the village. On the weekends, she would take him out to play.

Jiang Xing felt as if they were on a secret mission. He found it very exciting and followed obediently.

Jiang Yue tried her best to keep up with the teacher’s teaching.

At first she was still confused, but gradually her mind became much clearer. From being confused and unable to comprehend at the beginning, she gradually learned faster and better than the students in the classroom. Whenever the teacher asked a question, the children in the classroom wouldn’t be able to answer, but Jiang Yue always could.

Jiang Yue gradually realized that she might be smart. Her intelligence didn’t lose out to anyone, the only thing she was lacking was her own study desk.

Since then, Jiang Yue worked even harder.

If the students had pencil tips they no longer used, she would pick them up and use them herself, and she had now saved up a lot of them. She would also pick up any scratch paper that could still be used, cut them into finger-sized squares, and then stitch them together with needles and thread, so they can also be used as an exercise book.

There were not many teachers in the school. This teacher taught Language and Mathematics. He taught first grade as well as the second grade. The curriculum was very messy, and the discipline was naturally not strict. Sometimes the third grade would suddenly have a class that needed to be taught, so the first grade class would be stopped and he would see to the other class first. It was like an actor running all over the stage in a play. Jiang Yue was fishing in troubled waters, and actually managed to learn secretly for a period of time.

It’s just that the eyes of adults were always vicious. No matter how well a child hid herself, no matter how careful she was, she would always be discovered eventually.

And that time had finally come.