Chapter 234 - 226: Studying
Zhong Anping returned home and began rummaging through boxes and closets, flipping through the books he had studied from elementary to middle school. Fortunately, he had kept all of them. He carefully wiped every book with a clean cloth, which included a few perfect score test papers, causing a hint of bitterness in his eyes.
He still remembered the regret in the respected teacher’s eyes when he told his middle school class teacher that he couldn’t continue to high school. The teacher didn’t try to retain him because she knew too well that as a mere teacher, she couldn’t change the situation.
The head teacher only told him not to abandon the knowledge he had learned, and even if he had to work at home, not to forget about studying. She always told him to pick up his books and read from time to time. The respected and beloved teacher even gave him a full set of high school textbooks to enable him to study at home.
Zhong Anping took the set of high school textbooks given by the head teacher from the bottom of the box and wiped them from time to time. Since returning home to farm, he hadn’t taken out those books to study at all, not even the set of high school textbooks his teacher had given him. He had let down his teacher’s expectations! Zhong Anping’s heart felt both regret and hatred.
"Brother, why are you taking out all these books? Don’t tell me you are actually considering studying anew, just like Sisi suggested?" Zhong Ankang walked into the room, saw his elder brother squatting in front of a pile of books in a daze, and couldn’t help asking.
"Yes, I think Sisi makes a lot of sense. Knowledge is always useful, no matter when. Since we have nothing else to do at night, let’s use that time to study," Zhong Anping responded solemnly.
Zhong Ankang immediately jumped up, "If you want to study, do it by yourself. Don’t drag me into this. Brother, I advise you to give it up too. The more you learn now, the worse off you’ll be. With our social status, we can’t go to college anyway, so why waste time on such thankless tasks?"
"An Kang, can’t you think a little more long-term? Haven’t you grasped the meaning behind Xinhua’s words today? The current situation is very likely to change. If it really does, then it would be our opportunity. Perhaps in the future, people like us could also go to college."
"Brother, stop dreaming. We’ve been carrying the label of a rich farmer for over a decade now, do you still hold any hope for change? As for me, I’ve given up hope! Ah, at this point, I only have one dream: to work hard, earn more work points, make our parents’ life comfortable, marry a wife as gentle and virtuous as mother, have several children, and hope that my children won’t have to bear the ’rich farmer’ label like me. That alone would make me fully content!"
Zhong Anping listened with a wry smile and patted his brother on the head, "How can you be so content with so little? Earthworms dominate just one spot, dragons soar across nine skies. I don’t expect you to soar across nine skies, but could you please aspire to something more?"