Chapter 177

Xiao Zhuzi thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll have Grandpa arrange for me to finish the second half of the year in elementary school.”

Anyway, with his and Fantuan’s grades, any school would accept them. If it weren’t for Fantuan saying he wanted to skip half a grade and go to junior high school earlier, he would have studied hard to catch up on junior high school knowledge and skip with him.

During elementary school, Fantuan didn’t skip a grade because he had to take care of the twins. He planned to skip a grade in both junior high and high school. Xiao Zhuzi knew he couldn’t keep up. He planned to take it step by step, so at most, he could only be in the same class as Fantuan in the first year of junior high. After that, he was afraid he wouldn’t have the chance to be in the same class again.

Su Xiaoxiao said: “Zhuzi, you need to consider carefully. You have solid knowledge in elementary school, and with your grades, you can directly enter the first year of junior high school. If you feel that your junior high school knowledge is not solid, then consider studying for an additional year.”

Fantuan said: “It’s okay. You go explore junior high first. I’ll finish the second half of the year in elementary school and join you in the second year of junior high. Instead of skipping the second year of junior high, it’s better to skip the first year directly. This way, we can be in the same class for two years.” Fantuan sighed, “I’ve already learned all the junior high school knowledge. It doesn’t matter which grade I skip; it’s just a review. Actually, I can just study one year of the third year of junior high and then take the high school entrance exam. I’ve calculated it. I’ll be in high school at thirteen and take the college entrance exam at fifteen. It’s almost the same, not much earlier than others.”

Everyone: “…” 

The elementary school kids trembled in fear. The academic tyrant, Fantuan, is about to come to their elementary school.

Xiao Doubao said, “Brother, why don’t you go to junior high school with Brother Zhuzi? I don’t need you to come to elementary school to protect me; I can do it myself.” His brother Zhuzi is going directly to the first year of junior high, but his big brother still wants to go back to elementary school. What else does Xiao Doubao not understand?

After listening to Xiao Doubao’s words, Zhuzi realized why Fantuan suddenly changed his mind and went back to sixth grade. It turns out he was worried about Xiao Doubao.

Fantuan said: “Big brother didn’t go to elementary school for you. I wanted to play for an extra six months. I’m still a child, and Mom has always wanted me to have a happy childhood without having to distance myself too much from my peers. That’s why I changed my mind about playing in elementary school for an extra six months. Your brother, Zhuzi, is not as smart as me. He needs to honestly go to junior high school to learn more. Your big brother stayed in elementary school to play, and it has nothing to do with protecting you.”

Xiao Zhuzi: “…”

Over the years, Xiao Zhuzi’s fear of being dominated by the academic tyrant has grown, but what Fantuan said is true. Fantuan goes to school for fun, and he needs to study seriously.

As long as the overall direction is not wrong, Su Xiaoxiao and Han Cheng will not interfere too much. The knowledge from elementary school to high school is just that. Fantuan is free to decide what he wants to learn, how to learn it, and how to arrange his time. As long as he can take the college entrance examination before the age of eighteen, it is enough. After discussing with Fantuan, Xiao Zhuzi decided to go to junior high for half a year first. This way, they can be in the same class for the second and third years of junior high, which is better than the original plan of only being in the same class for the first half of the year.

After the decision was made, Xiao Zhuzi accompanied them in writing Spring Festival couplets and asked them to write more so that he could take them back home.

Grandpa Zhang gave all the kids colored paints. This year’s couplets are more colorful than in previous years. Fantuan and Xiao Zhuzi have been practicing writing for several years, and as they grow older, the strength in their wrists has increased. The characters they write now are completely different from when they were younger. No one can guess that these vigorous and powerful characters are actually written by a few half-grown kids.

The drawing skills of the three brothers are naturally extraordinary. Even if they don’t practice much, years of daily newspaper serialization are their best exercise. If it weren’t for Xiao Roubao’s mischief of drawing disrupting drawings like a rice dumpling, oil pudding, laughing sesame balls, peanuts, longans, and other foods on the couplets, this year’s couplets would look like carefully designed artworks. But with Xiao Roubao’s mischievous touch, the couplets have gained a playful and childish charm. Fantuan can allow Xiao Roubao to draw whatever he wants on the couplets they keep indoors, but he absolutely doesn’t allow Xiao Roubao to “cause trouble” on the couplets placed at the front door. That’s the Han family’s facade. He wants their carefully designed work to impress every passerby at their doorstep.

There was some glutinous rice flour left from making rice cake in the morning, so Su Xiaoxiao rolled them into dumpling wrappers, stuffed them with sesame and peanut filling, then peeled a few sweet potatoes and added a lot of ginger slices and brown sugar to boil a pot of sweet potato glutinous rice balls soup. There weren’t many, only two or three in a bowl, but it was a bowl of sweet and warm sweet potato and rice-flour dumpling soup.

The cubs stood in line, each carrying a bowl. Before they could start eating, Xiao Du arrived. Su Xiaoxiao also served him a bowl and filled it with a full lunch box for him to bring back to Grandpa Zhang to taste.

The kids watched TV while eating glutinous rice ball soup. Xiao Doubao asked, “Brother Zhuzi, do you have a TV at home now?”

Xiao Zhuzi nodded and said, “Yes, we have it, but my dad had something urgent to do today, so when the TV arrived, the antenna hadn’t been installed yet. Grandpa said we must have it installed before New Year’s Eve to watch the Spring Festival Gala.”

Fantuan said, “You can endure it quite well. We can’t wait to have it installed as soon as we bring it back.”

Su Xiaoxiao: “Zhuzi is steady, unlike you, who are impatient.”

With a mouthful of soft and fragrant glutinous rice balls, Xiao Roubao squinted in happiness and said, “Mom’s glutinous rice balls are so delicious.”

Xiao Tangyuan loves to eat this sweet and glutinous food the most: “I also think they’re delicious too.”

Xiao Roubao: “Xiao Tangyuan eats Xiao Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) that are round and juicy. Mom, when will you make Xiao Roubao and let Xiao Roubao eat Xiao Roubao?”

Su Xiaoxiao worriedly said, “Didn’t you just eat xiao long bao (steamed soup dumplings) the day before yesterday?” 

Xiao Roubao shook his head: “Xiaolongbao is Xiaolongbao, and Xiao Roubao is Xiao Roubao. It’s different.”

Su Xiaoxiao: “Xiaolongbao is Xiao Roubao, and the big one is called Da Roubao.”

Xiao Roubao: “Okay, can I have two more Xiao Tangyuan sesame seeds?”

Su Xiaoxiao: “No, you’ve already eaten a lot today.”

Xiao Roubao didn’t give up: “What about sweet potatoes?”

Su Xiaoxiao: “…”

Xiao Roubao: “What about sugar water?”

Su Xiaoxiao: “Why is she still making afternoon tea?

Xiao Roubao finally got his wish and ate an extra bowl of sweet potato tong sui without rice dumplings. He enjoyed himself all afternoon. ^[1]Tong Sui or Sugar water, is a collective term for any sweet soup or custard served as a dessert, typically at the end of a meal in Chinese cuisine.

Xiao Zhuzi brought a lot of couplets, as well as salty oil cakes and tong sui. Su Xiaoxiao asked Fantuan to carry two pots of daffodil flowers to the car, saying they were spring flowers. She instructed him to place them on both sides of the TV and add two red envelopes, which is a very auspicious gesture.

Xiao Zhuzi declined and said, “If I took them all with me, you wouldn’t have any more of these flowers.” 

Su Xiaoxiao asked Han Cheng to bring up two pots of pomegranates and said, “We have these two pots next to our TV, so we won’t give you the ones that can be grown. After the New Year, I’ll try to plant them in the ground and see if they can survive.”

Since that’s the case, Xiao Zhuzi didn’t refuse anymore. When he left, he still felt reluctant to part ways.

After Xiao Zhuzi left, the cubs continued to work on the couplets. Su Xiaoxiao tried to make a few paper-cut window decorations but failed.

Han Cheng took the red paper and scissors from her hand and quickly cut out a beautiful octagonal paper-cut window decoration.

Su Xiaoxiao took it and looked at it, secretly exclaiming, “Okay, Comrade Han Cheng, I didn’t know you had this skill. Why haven’t I seen you do this before? Do you know other patterns?”

Han Cheng said: “I know some simple patterns that my mother taught me when I was a child. We don’t usually put up paper-cut decorations for the Lunar New Year in the south. It’s more common in the north.”

Fantuan took it, examined it from all angles, folded and unfolded it, and then handed it back to Su Xiaoxiao. “This is simple. Let me help you cut it, Mom.”

Fantuan picked up the red paper, folded it a few times, and with a few swift cuts, he made a paper-cut window decoration exactly like Han Cheng’s.

Fantuan went a step further. With seemingly casual folds and cuts, he created a more complex and beautiful sixteen-pointed star window decoration.

Then Fantuan looked at it repeatedly, frowned, and said, “I don’t think these sharp corners look very good. I want to cut flowers with rounded corners, and I also want to study how to cut the phrase ‘New Year’s Blessings’.” Fantuan’s eyes lit up. “Mom, if we can cut characters, we won’t need to write so many couplets.”

This extremely intelligent brat, although Su Xiaoxiao has become accustomed to it, still occasionally feels overwhelmed by his intelligence from time to time. “Let’s not study that this year. I think what you’re cutting now looks very nice. Cut a few more of these, and we’ll stick with these simple ones for this year. Let’s finish this year’s couplets first. You still have a whole year to prepare for next year’s Spring Festival.”

Xiao Tangyuan loved the paper-cut decorations. She took them, then she asked her brother, “Big brother, can you cut a Xiao Tangyuan for me?”

Fantuan replied, “Little sister, I think your request is a bit unreasonable. You can ask Brother to draw a Xiao Tangyuan, and then I’ll help you cut it out.”

Xiao Tangyuan clapped her hands in excitement. “Big brother, you’re so smart! The second brother, hurry up and draw a Xiao Tangyuan.”

Xiao Doubao said, “Okay, Second Brother will draw it soon, and we also need to draw Xiao Roubao.”

Xiao Roubao also clapped his little paws and jumped up and down, saying, “Yehey! Yehey!”

The kids spent the whole afternoon playing with red paper. This year’s paper-cut decorations and couplets were varied and diverse.

Su Xiaoxiao held Han Cheng’s hand and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Life in the capital, apart from being much colder than in Qingfeng Town, suited everyone well. As long as the family was together, wherever they lived was home.

………………….

The next day, the cubs got up early and pasted the window decorations and Spring Festival couplets they had prepared yesterday. Chen Ping’an thought that the Han Family would also paste their Spring Festival couplets in the morning, so in the afternoon, he came over to ask if they needed any help and was shocked to see so many different paper-cut decorations and couplets inside and outside the courtyard.

“Did you make all of these yourselves?”

Xiao Doubao nodded. “Yes, we made them all ourselves.”

Chen Ping’an couldn’t believe it and asked again, “Did you cut these paper-cut decorations yourselves? Did you write the characters yourselves too?” They looked like they were done by adults.

Chen Ping’an knew they could draw and had very beautiful hard-pen handwriting. However, he didn’t expect them to excel in soft-pen calligraphy to such an extent. He had been practicing brush calligraphy with his grandfather since he was young, and his neighbors would often ask him to help write couplets in advance. He thought he could help out here, but instead of helping, he ended up being amazed, but he was also discouraged.

Xiao Doubao nodded heavily and said, “Yes, I started writing with my brother when I was three years old. My brother started writing at the age of five, and since then, my mother has asked us to design our own couplets back then, but they weren’t as good as they are now.” Xiao Doubao tilted his head and said, “Even now, our characters aren’t as good as Mom and Dad’s.”

Chen Ping’an didn’t give up and asked again, “When did you start learning window decorations?”

Xiao Doubao shook his head. “No, Dad said we don’t put up paper decorations for the Lunar New Year in the south. My brother saw Dad cut one yesterday and just randomly cut so many of them.”

These beautiful window decorations he had never seen before, with more patterns and styles than his mother would have cut for decades, were randomly cut by Fantuan with just a glance.

Chen Ping’an now just wants to say goodbye with his face covered. This family is really intimidating. The small ones are powerful, and the big ones are even more powerful. How were others supposed to live?

Except for helping them put up a few couplets that were out of reach, Ping’an returned home feeling defeated and sat weakly in his chair.

Bai Lan asked him, “Didn’t you go next door to help with the couplets? Why are you back so soon?”

Chen Ping’an shook his head and said: “When I went to Uncle Han’s house, I couldn’t help with anything other than physical labor. Mom, a child of eight, wrote calligraphy better than I have in more than ten years of practice. Although three-year-old Xiao Roubao can only draw food, his drawings are so lifelike that they make you drool. Even I want to take a bite. As for Fantuan, he learned to cut paper decorations last night and already cuts better than you. I don’t want to go next door anymore. It’s too disheartening. I’m not stupid, am I? At least I got into college, right? At least I’m smarter than many people, right? But when I go next door, I feel like a fool who can’t do anything.”

Bai Lan: “…” 

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Sweet Potato and Rice-Flour Dumpling Soup

Xiao Tang Yuan

Steamed Soup Dumpling