Yun Qinghuan couldn’t help feeling a bit amused, “An’an, you were sick. Although you’re feeling a bit better now, you can’t neglect the medicine. Otherwise, you’ll have to endure painful shots.”
Even though An’an was asleep when he received the IV, he woke up when it was time for the injection.
Sure enough, upon hearing about the injection, the little guy, though somewhat reluctant, obediently swallowed the medicine. His valiant and self-sacrificing appearance resembled Yun Qinghuan when she took her medicine.
After he finished taking the medicine, Yun Qinghuan planned to go back to her room. Suddenly, Bai Naihan stopped her, “Sister-in-law, you haven’t taken your medicine yet.”
Yun Qinghuan froze, “…”
She thought there would be no one to remind her to take the medicine since Liu Yuzhi wasn’t at home. She didn’t even cook the bitter Chinese medicine at noon.
Unexpectedly, Bai Naihan, this little brother-in-law, actually reminded her to take the medicine.
But as the elder sister-in-law, especially with a little guy who didn’t like taking medicine watching, she naturally couldn’t set a bad example. She could only turn back to Bai Naihan and say, “I know, I plan to take it later. After all, the medicine hasn’t finished brewing.”
Bai Naihan’s eyes carried a hint of amusement, “Sister-in-law, I’ve already prepared it. Just drink it.”
With that, he pushed a bowl of pitch-black medicine toward her.
Yun Qinghuan felt a bit paralyzed. At this moment, she also saw the playful look in his eyes and knew he was definitely doing this on purpose!
Enduring it for a moment, she couldn’t help it, “When did you prepare this?”
She had no idea!
This little brother-in-law was truly sly!
“I prepared it when you went to deliver food to Mom.” His eyes gleamed with amusement, enhancing his handsome face with even more charm. “Sister-in-law just said good medicine tastes bitter. Could it be that you can’t even follow your own advice?”
Provocation!
A skillful provocation!
Seeing An’an eagerly watching her, Yun Qinghuan gave him a stern look, then walked over, picked up the bowl, closed her eyes, and gulped it down in one go.
Her face wrinkled up due to the bitterness.
Bai Naihan, witnessing her acting even more childishly than An’an, found the scene even more amusing.
After finishing the medicine, she wiped her mouth, purposely tilted the bowl to indicate that she had finished, and then led An’an back to the room.
An’an was still unclear about the situation, just staring at his mom with bright eyes, praising her in his childish voice, “Mom is amazing!”
Yun Qinghuan felt a bit embarrassed. It was just drinking medicine, what was so amazing about it? She even heard the laughter from the man behind her.
She patted the little guy’s head, “An’an is amazing too!”
Mutual admiration, ignoring the man’s laughter.
An’an had recovered quite a bit from his illness and had slept for a long time. When they entered the room, he showed no signs of sleepiness. Yun Qinghuan, who woke up late in the morning and wasn’t feeling sleepy either, intended to carefully plan what she would do in the coming years.
Seeing An’an with nothing to do, she took some paper and a pencil, teaching him to recognize his own name, albeit in a scrambled order.
Bai Jin’an was only three years old, still very young. Even in modern times, he was just about to start kindergarten, and many children at this age might not even recognize letters. Therefore, Yun Qinghuan didn’t expect Bai Jin’an to quickly recognize his own name. She thought that if he couldn’t remember it today, she would teach him a few more times every day.
Who would have thought that after just two attempts, the little guy remembered it directly? Yun Qinghuan was shocked, finding it hard to believe. She purposely scrambled the order for him to recognize, but he correctly identified each letter. She was both amazed and delighted.
As he was now her son, Yun Qinghuan didn’t hesitate to praise him, “An’an is amazing, even better than Mom!”
Indeed, he was quite impressive. Yun Qinghuan considered herself fairly clever, having managed to get from an orphanage to a C9 university through her own efforts. She didn’t have extra tutoring and had to squeeze in time for studying, all while working to earn tuition and living expenses. Growing up, she didn’t have access to the educational resources others did. So, when she surprised everyone by getting into a C9 university, even the orphanage director and school teachers were shocked.
She thought of herself as smart, able to comprehend many concepts after a few repetitions. However, An’an was even more impressive; he learned how to read after just two attempts.
Now that he could read, Yun Qinghuan decided to teach him to write his name. “Bai Jin’an” had more strokes, and she didn’t expect him to remember it all at once. She had him write the first two characters on separate pages, insisting that he write neatly. If it wasn’t neat, he had to erase and rewrite it. Later, she would check.
She even told him that if he wrote well, he could accumulate stars, and when he collected enough stars, he could exchange them for prizes with her.
It was somewhat similar to kindergarten teachers rewarding children with gold stars. Upon hearing this, An’an became even more focused on writing, carefully crafting each stroke. If he felt unsatisfied, he would erase and rewrite it with the eraser on the other end of the pencil.
Seeing him like this, Yun Qinghuan couldn’t help but smile and then started rummaging through cabinets and boxes for books.
She remembered that although Bai Wensong only completed junior high school, he was very eager to learn and had collected quite a few books, including some high school textbooks.
She wanted to find them and see if there were any missing ones. If there were gaps, she could slowly fill them. Since she decided to participate in the college entrance examination in this lifetime, she needed to prepare in advance.
When the time came, it would be like crossing a narrow bridge with a thousand troops and ten thousand horses. She wasn’t exceptionally gifted, and having graduated from school several years ago, she returned most of her knowledge to the teachers. Therefore, she needed to make good use of these two years to study.
Fortunately, Bai Wensong was indeed someone who valued books. Yun Qinghuan managed to find the entire set of high school books. She wondered how long Bai Wensong had been collecting them.
She remembered that when the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination spread in 1977, many people couldn’t buy books; everyone was rushing to get them.
After finding the books, Yun Qinghuan sighed in relief. Now she didn’t have to spend effort looking for them. She casually flipped through the books, and many of the knowledge points were familiar. After all, she had studied them before. Some that looked unfamiliar became clear after reading them a few more times. Many of the knowledge points were still in her mind, temporarily forgotten. As long as she reviewed and practiced more, the feeling of learning would come back.
After neatly arranging the books on the table, she stumbled upon a stack of newspapers. Many of these newspapers were bought by Bai Wensong at the recycling station, for his own reading. Fortunately, waste newspapers were not expensive, and many households used them for wall pasting.
Curious, she flipped through them. The news at this time was all about being revolutionary, unlike anything from later years.
Suddenly, she paused on one of the newspapers. This particular newspaper was somewhat unusual as it had a section dedicated to stories.
It was a serialized story.
With heightened interest, she began reading and discovered that it recounted the experiences of workers in factories during this era.
The protagonist started with youthful enthusiasm, entering the factory with the ambition to learn technical skills and embark on a great career. However, after working for only a few days, he unexpectedly encountered a major problem.
The story abruptly ended here, leaving a suspenseful cliffhanger.
As Yun Qinghuan saw the submission information at the bottom right corner of the newspaper, her eyes suddenly lit up.
∞
Translator Note
Next release
– Dec. 25 (10pm)
(There’ll be extra chapters for Christmas, stay tuned!)
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∞
- John 1:4-5
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
