Chronicle of the 70s

Regardless, the fate of the naughty kid Xiong Youxin was decided. After New Year’s Day, Mr. Qin and Yang Huan took leave and left early. In fact, they could have left after the Chinese New Year, but Yang Huan had never learned German, and even her English was not good, so leaving early to enroll in a language class would help her catch up with the pace as soon as possible.

Xiong Youxin also transferred to the community elementary school near the courtyard right after New Year’s Day, but on the very first day, the teacher called home, asking the parents to come in the next day.

When Su Yan went the next day, both of them came back fuming. Su Yan was furious, and even Mr. Li was stunned, wondering if the naughty kid had caused trouble.

But Su Yan said it was the teacher’s fault. What’s wrong with a child being curious? Isn’t it the teacher’s job to educate and clarify doubts? If you don’t ask questions, what do you need a teacher for?

From then on, the naughty kid regarded Su Yan as his confidant. According to their discussion, Xiong Youxin is an extremely intelligent child with a strong thirst for knowledge. The school teachers have limited knowledge, so if she has questions, she should come home and ask. Whatever Su Yan and Mr. Li couldn’t answer would wait until the weekend for Li Xianglu to take her to the city’s library to look for information.

Who knows if it’s due to Su Yan’s unique educational approach, but the naughty kid never had to call his parents in afterwards, and he even ranked tenth in the semester-end exams across two classes, which left a few teachers, who predicted he’d amount to nothing, red-faced with embarrassment.

The naughty kid Xiao Xin was smug about it. At that time, international calls to Germany were not yet available, so he could only send a telegram to inform his mother far away in Germany.

Winter vacation had arrived. Li Xianglu and Qin Xi parked the car and greeted Old Geng at the back gate before heading to their own yard, planning to put their bags away before heading to the front. But as soon as they arrived at the arch entrance to their own courtyard, they saw Xiong Youxin with his legs spread and hands on the door of their living room, shouting angrily at Qin Zhen across the way: "I told you, Xiangxiang isn’t back yet, you can’t go into her room, she will get mad!"

Qin Zhen had returned, holding a pile of clothes, which seemed to be for taking a bath over at their place. There were only two places to bathe in the courtyard: one was at Grandpa Li’s ear room, and the other was at their end. Because Su Yan was at Mr. Li’s, everyone used Qin Xi and Li Xianglu’s shower.

Qin Xi felt this was very inconvenient and decided to remodel the western bathroom into a shower room in the summer, as installing new plumbing would be too difficult in the winter cold, so it had to wait until summer.