Chapter 45

Yan Xiang is indeed a very intelligent child.

In just a short time, he was taught six characters, and he didn’t even have to write them; he just recognize them. And he could remember them all.

Mother and son went to the riverside to pick up half a bucket of pebbles, and Qiao Wei tested him, and he didn’t make a mistake.

Of course, what the mother said counts. She immediately rewarded the child with a piece of candy.

Yan Xiang held the candy in his hand, not immediately ecstatic to eat it, but thought for a moment and said, “Mom, I still recognize other characters, if I recognize them all, can I have another piece of candy?”

Qiao Wei was naturally happy to hear that. “Sure.”

Qiao Wei wondered how many characters the child could recognize. She asked, “What characters do you recognize, tell me.”

But Yan Xiang happily turned and ran away.

Qiao Wei: “?”

Soon, Yan Xiang brought the book “The Adventures of Little Cloth Head”.

Oh, he used a book to find characters.

This book had been read to Yan Xiang many times by its original owner, and Qiao Wei continued to read it to the child after she took over. It wasn’t surprising that he could recognize a few characters.

Qiao Wei sat at the desk, propping up her chin, eagerly wanting to see how many characters Yan Xiang could recognize.

Yan Xiang first pointed to the cover and read: “Little, cloth, head, adventure, record.”

The tender white little fingers pointed, and every word was correct.

Qiao Wei clapped exaggeratedly, “Well done!”

Just as she was about to take out another piece of candy for Yan Xiang, he flipped through the book.

Qiao Wei: “?”

Flipping to the first page of the text, Yan Xiang pointed to the beginning of the text and began to read word by word.

Although stumbling, but… it could basically be formed into sentences.

Qiao Wei: “??”

Soon, Yan Xiang finished reading the first paragraph and began reading the second paragraph.

“Wait a minute!” Qiao Wei stopped Yan Xiang in shock and asked him, “How did you learn these characters?”

Yan Xiang said, “Mom read to me slowly, and I gradually recognized them.”

Qiawei: “???”

A thought occurred to Qiao Wei.

She picked up paper and a pen and said to Yan Xiang, “Start reading from the beginning, Mom will record, let’s see how many characters you recognize.”

Yan Xiang asked eagerly, “If I recognize a lot, can I have another piece of candy?”

Qiao Wei grabbed a handful of candy and slapped it on the table, “If you really recognize a lot, you can have all of these.”

Mom is a person who keeps her promises, and Yan Xiang believes her.

He immediately leaned on the table, ready to read.

Qiao Wei stood up, lifted him up, and let him sit on the chair, a bit higher.

She herself dragged a square wooden stool over and sat beside him, holding paper and a pen. “Let’s begin.”

Yan Xiang started to read hesitantly.

As he read, Qiao Wei recorded, sometimes realizing that a word had already been recorded before, she casually crossed it out.

Until her hand was too sore to continue, she finally called a halt.

Yan Xiang, with a dry mouth, waited for her judgment.

Qiao Wei was no longer as shocked as before, much calmer. She asked, “Can you write?”

“No.”

“You just recognize them when you see them, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Do you recognize slogans and signs outside as well?”

“Yeah!”

Yan Xiang glanced at the pile of candies.

“Alright.” Qiao Wei pushed the candy over, “They’re all yours.”

Yan Xiang cheered, threw away the book, and quickly stuffed the candies into his pocket.

After he finished, he covered his bulging pockets and ran off.

He didn’t even want the book anymore.

From the sound, it seemed like he ran back to his room first. After a while, Qiao Wei saw Yan Xiang coming out of the house. He went to the small table under the eaves, picked up an enamel basin, tilted his head back, and gulped down cold water.

After finishing wiping their mouth, they let out a long sigh.

The children were also very determined for a few pieces of candy, their mouths dry and tongues parched.

After quenching their thirst, they finally peeled open a piece of candy and popped it into their mouth. They puffed up their cheeks, humming a tune that sounded like a nursery rhyme, and picked up their small shovel and bucket, happily digging holes in the yard.

Meanwhile, Qiao Wei sat chin in hand, staring at the paper in her hand lost in thought.

She had just been counting numbers. When she reached around eight hundred, she glanced at the remaining pile and gave up directly.

The exact number didn’t matter anymore. Because her wrist was so sore that she couldn’t bear it anymore, which made Yan Xiang stop. This means Yan Xiang’s true literacy level is much higher.

Nobody taught him. Not even Qiao Wei.

But when Qiao Wei and Qiao Weiwei repeated the same story to Yan Xiang, they always held him in their arms, mother and son looking at the pages together. Qiao Weiwei did it this way, and Qiao Wei followed suit.

So through repeated readings, Yan Xiang matched his mother’s pronunciation and specific words, and remembered them.

He came to recognize these characters.

Pure self-learning.

And he was just a child in kindergarten.

Qiao Wei figured this out, and could almost confirm that things were just as she had guessed earlier—

Yan Xiang might not be an ordinary child.

He might, he very well might… be a genius prodigy.

At the age of seven, he became one of the world’s top hackers, manipulating the financial markets, solving national technological problems, and so on.

But genius prodigies usually appear in urban romance novels. They generally don’t appear in period dramas, especially not in stepmother stories.

Yan Xiang, the silent youth in the original text, the tool used by stepmother Lin Xixi to showcase her kindness and goodness, later entered a university in the capital.

But this was casually mentioned at the end of the main text. It wasn’t elaborated on.

When exactly did he enter university? It’s very vague. When this point was mentioned at the end, the male and female leads already had grandchildren.

It only said that he was the first university student in the Yan family and set a good example for his younger siblings.

The stepson being able to enter university once again proved that the original female lead was a good stepmother.

Bullshit.

Bullshit.

With the buff of being a genius prodigy, anyone could definitely go to university with or without a stepmother.

Maybe the stepmother even hindered his path to education!

Because the fact that Yan Xiang was a genius prodigy was not reflected in the main text at all. At most, he demonstrated “excellence,” but this level of excellence couldn’t match the setting of “genius prodigy.”

Thinking of this, Qiao Wei’s anger surged up.

But then again, maybe not.

There aren’t many genius prodigies in period dramas because of the specificity of the era, it’s not easy to write about.

What could a genius prodigy do in this era? Build a television set or an atomic bomb?

Building a television set wouldn’t evoke much nostalgia, and writing about building an atomic bomb would touch upon political themes that online literature wouldn’t dare to explore.

If the attributes of a genius prodigy couldn’t be manifested, then it’s not really Lin Xixi’s fault.

Lin Xixi herself only had an elementary school education and was a middle-aged aunt with a background as a housewife. Her specialties were household chores and cooking. When Yan Lei’s relatives from the countryside visited, she could cook seven or eight dishes by herself, and they would all praise her. Her reputation for being virtuous was spread throughout the village.

She probably hadn’t even noticed Yan Xiang’s genius prodigy attributes. People from the 1990s didn’t have the concept of a genius prodigy.

To Yan Xiang, she only managed his clothing and meals, never scolded or punished him.

In the main text, as Yan Xiang grew older and attended primary school for two years, the situation in the schools became chaotic, so Yan Lei stopped sending him and arranged for someone to buy books for him to study at home.

Yan Xiang would spend every day reading in his room.

Lin Xixi even complained about Yan Lei forcing the child to study, saying it was tiring him out.

The educated youth who went to the countryside were actually students in middle school. Yan Xiang’s age didn’t match up with theirs; by the time the college entrance exam was restored, he might only be fifteen or sixteen.

But during his childhood and adolescence, the most crucial period of education, he couldn’t receive systematic education due to special historical reasons.

Thinking like this, it really couldn’t be blamed on Lin Xixi.

A genius prodigy born in this era really couldn’t shine.

Qiao Wei now had some doubts. Could it be that the original author initially wanted to add the element of a genius prodigy, but found it difficult to develop this element in a period drama, so it was put aside?

It felt like this was the closest to the truth.

Now, this genius prodigy was in her hands. What should she do?

Qiao Wei looked at the genius little prodigy digging in the yard outside the window, biting her knuckles as she thought for a long time.

Special times, sigh, special times.

At this moment, she understood why the original author had set aside the element of the genius prodigy. It really felt like a sense of powerlessness.

It’s ridiculous. She had originally planned to teach the child a few words every day.

Qiao Wei crumpled up those few sheets of paper, stood up, and stretched her waist.

Once a person experiences life and death, they can see through things, which is actually beneficial because they don’t get anxious about anything.

Or you could say, they become very zen.

A genius prodigy is just a genius prodigy, do your best to teach them.

Until the country’s education system returns to normal, she’ll do her best to teach what she can.

The tall tree catches the wind; especially in such special times, nobody should stand out. Standing out means danger.

A genius prodigy is still a baby.

A baby should have a happy childhood.

Qiao Wei walked to the gate and asked with her hands on her hips, “Do you want me to help?”

“No, I’ll do it myself.” The proud and petulant voice said, “I’m a big boy now.”

“Oh, okay.”

Today is Tuesday, after lunch, Yan Xiang went to take his usual nap.

Today, Qiao Wei didn’t take a nap; she was waiting for someone. Sure enough, when it was about time, someone knocked on the door.

Opening the door, she saw two men outside. “Is this Captain Yan’s house?”

Behind them was a flatbed handcart with several pieces of wood on it.

“Yes, we’ve been waiting for you,” Qiao Wei warmly opened the door.

One man came in first and glanced around the yard. “Where should we install it?”

Then he spotted it. “Oh.”

Qiao Wei had already marked the spot on the ground after finishing her lunch.

The man went out again, and soon both men brought the wood inside. They installed the “manual washing machine” that Qiao Wei had been eagerly awaiting in the spot she designated.

It looked exactly like the one she had drawn.

After finishing the installation, one of the men took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. “Is it like this?”

Qiao Wei took it and opened it, and it was exactly the same as her drawing.

Qiao Wei chuckled. “Exactly the same. You guys are really skilled.”

She prepared cold mung bean soup and cigarettes for the carpenters.

While drinking the mung bean soup, they asked, “Captain Yan said this is for washing clothes?”

Qiao Wei cheerfully replied, “Yes!”

She said, “Let me try it out.”

The carpenters were also curious and waited for her to try.

Qiao Wei had already soaked a basin of clothes.

In this era, the washing basin wasn’t the small basin of the future. With clothes and water in it, Qiao Wei had to drag it to the bottom of the washing rack.

Luckily, she tried it out first, and the dangling wood was a bit too high, making the water too shallow.

The carpenters untied the rope and adjusted it.

Trying again, it worked smoothly this time.

Qiao Wei grabbed the small handle and used the wooden stick to stir in circles in the basin.

The water swirled with a gurgling sound.

Just like a washing machine, and it wasn’t tiring at all; it even helped loosen her shoulder joints.

She had only made this to make washing clothes easier, but Qiao Wei didn’t expect it to be so stress-relieving when actually used.

The sky was clear, the sunshine was warm, and the water flowed and spun.

Three circles to the left, three circles to the right.

Unfortunately, there were people around, so she couldn’t wiggle her hips.

But she was still very happy, extremely happy.

The two carpenters finished several bowls of sweet mung bean soup, leaned in, and scratched their heads, a bit hesitant.

“Um… can I try?”

“I want to try too!”