Chapter 13: Starting from Literacy

“Thirty minutes? Ning Ning, I couldn’t finish in an hour, and how many words is a thousand anyway?”

Lin Xiao stared wide-eyed. Was this really the suffering a poor student like her was supposed to endure?

“Fine, I’ll give you an hour. Just write as much as you can. About a thousand words would fill these two pages.”

It was a blank exercise book. Each page had twenty lines, each line about twenty characters—two pages would roughly be a thousand words.

…

Maybe it would be easier just to go back and take a beating. Lin Xiao chewed her pen and struggled for a whole hour, only managing about a hundred words:

The most unforgettable day: today, October 18th. It was so hot. Ning Ning is a good person. She scolded my parents and helped me cut ties with them. From now on, no one will bully me. Ning Ning brought me home. Uncle and Aunt Ning are kind too. I like them, and I like Ning Ning. Today is my most unforgettable day.

Ning Ning looked at it and fell silent. Her diary entries at age three had been better than this.

“It’s fine. We still have time. Let me teach you. Writing about the most unforgettable day doesn’t mean there’s only one event. There could be several things that together made the day unforgettable.”

“And when you write about an event, you need a beginning, development, climax, and conclusion. You can also add some setting descriptions and inner thoughts. That’s the easiest way to make a complete essay. For example, if you want to write about today, you could start from the morning…”

Ning Ning took a deep breath and patiently explained how to structure a composition, what a narrative essay should look like, and finally wrote a simple but touching sample essay in just ten minutes for Lin Xiao to compare.

Then Lin Xiao pointed timidly at a neat character in the notebook.

“Ning Ning… I don’t recognize this word.”

Ning Ning almost fainted. So she would have to start with basic literacy.

“‘苟’ (gǒu). From the idiom bù gǒu yán xiào (not given to light talk). It means not casual, not frivolous—describing someone serious and solemn.”

“It’s fine. From now on, I’ll have you learn fifty idioms every day. Don’t be afraid. I’ll revise your study plan in more detail.”

“O-okay.”

Lin Xiao nodded weakly, not daring to protest. F-fifty idioms a day… Ning Ning really was something.

That night, Lin Xiao dreamed of nothing but idioms. She had no energy left to worry about whether anyone disliked her. The next morning, Ning Ning woke her early to recite texts, making her memorize while eating breakfast. Ning Ning planned to go into town to sell the hairpins, and Lin Xiao volunteered.

“Ning Ning, let me go with you.”

“Alright.”

Lin Xiao sighed with relief, thinking she had escaped the sea of studying. But on the way, Ning Ning kept quizzing her.

“What does bù gǒu yán xiào mean?”

“It—it means not talking much, being… serious.”

“Close. It describes someone solemn and serious. Now, what about shì bì gōng qīn (personally handling everything)?”

“Uh… um…”

“Gōng qīn means doing things personally, insisting on handling everything yourself. Forgot again? That’s fine, I’ll quiz you more and you’ll remember. Now recite the text from this morning…”

After walking for an hour, Lin Xiao’s legs weren’t tired—but her head was pounding. How did Ning Ning know every single mistake she made? How did she know everything?

Ning Ning taught with seriousness but also warmth, radiating both the brilliance of a top student and the light of a devoted teacher. Lin Xiao now reacted to her like a mouse seeing a cat—her instinct was to run. Luckily, Ning Ning also believed in balancing work and rest, so once they reached town, she stopped testing her.

“Huh? Ning Ning, why are we at the department store? Weren’t we here to sell?”

Lin Xiao looked up at the sign, confused.

“Yes. We’ll set up right beside it. The department store sells things at higher prices. For hairpins, they charge fifty cents to a yuan each. We’ll sell ours for fifty cents. With that price comparison, we’ll attract plenty of customers.”

Ning Ning could study, but that didn’t mean she only knew books—her business sense was sharp too. She spread a cloth on the ground, laid out the better-quality hairpins, and even arranged them into a cute bunny shape to catch the eye.

Before she finished setting up, someone had already come over.

“Little girl, are you selling these hairpins? They’re so pretty. How much?”

“Fifty cents each, eighty cents for two. Look, aren’t the designs fresh and pretty? I bought these at the city department store—urban women love them. They make you look younger. If you don’t believe me, let me try one on you.”

Smiling, Ning Ning clipped two onto the woman’s braids. In the sunlight, the pearls sparkled. She handed her a mirror she had prepared.

“Well? Doesn’t it look good?”

“Hm? Aren’t hairpins supposed to go on top of the head?”

“They can go anywhere. On braids they’re even prettier, like decorations. They don’t have to just hold stray hair. Placed loosely, not too close to the scalp, they look stylish too.”

As she spoke, Ning Ning added two more to the woman’s hair.

The woman’s clothes were plain, but she wore a watch and her outfit was new, without patches. She had just come from the department store—clearly not short on money.

Sure enough, after checking the mirror, she saw the hairpins made her look younger and versatile in style. She immediately bought them.

“I’ll take four.”

“Great. You’re our first customer today, so I’ll throw in a hair tie as a gift. Wishing you happiness and youth forever.”

Ning Ning’s bright smile and auspicious words made the woman beam.

“Oh, you really know how to talk. I love buying from someone like you.”

“I’ll take four more, to give to my nieces.”

Without hesitation, the woman paid three yuan twenty cents.

Lin Xiao gaped. Eight hairpins, which cost them sixteen cents, had just been sold for over three yuan? She was still dazed when Ning Ning snapped her fingers in front of her.

“Back to earth. Learned something?”

“Yes! Ning Ning, you’re amazing. You can study, and you can make money too!”

“Of course. Stick with me. Just focus on studying. Now, your turn—next customer is coming. Watch me, then try it yourself. We’ll wear a few ourselves—that’s called being the model, to attract buyers.”