Yang Wenjie grinned and then pulled out a boiled egg from his pocket. “It’s an egg. My mom cooked it for me this morning as a reward for helping with the planting. I haven’t eaten it, so I brought it to swap with you guys.” He even lied to his mom that he brought it to school to eat.

Thinking about this, Yang Wenjie looked at the egg and licked his lips.

However, the egg that made Yang Wenjie salivate wasn’t the ideal snack for Er Bao.

The two kids had a boiled egg every day, usually for lunch and dinner.

Ning Shu often made egg drop soup or scrambled eggs, so the boiled egg in Yang Wenjie’s hand wasn’t their idea of a snack, not even close.

Er Bao pouted, not really wanting the egg since he had already eaten one in the morning.

Yi Bao took out a piece of dried sweet potato. “I’ll swap with you.”

Actually, Yu Bao didn’t want the egg either, but he still swapped.

He wasn’t dumb; eggs were good for health.

Yang Wenjie hesitated. “Can you give me two pieces of dried sweet potato in exchange? My egg is so big, and one piece of dried sweet potato is so small.”

Yi Bao pondered for a moment and thought Yang Wenjie made sense.

So, he gave him two pieces of dried sweet potato. “I can only give you two pieces, not more.”

“Mm-hmm.” Yang Wenjie was already quite satisfied to get two pieces of dried sweet potato.

After Yang Wenjie swapped for the dried sweet potato, it was the turn of other kids.

“Twins, I’m swapping,” it was Cheng Yingyong. “We agreed while planting.”

Based on their bond from planting, Cheng Yingyong became the second kid to swap for dried sweet potato.

“What do you want to swap for?” First Bao asked.

Cheng Yingyong smiled mysteriously. “Guess.”

Er Bao sniffed. “Meat?”

Cheng Yingyong’s eyes widened. “You’re so good! It’s indeed meat.”

With that, he took out some jerky from his pocket. “Here, have some. This was sent by my grandma. The jerky she makes is so delicious. My mom only lets me have two pieces a day.”

Er Bao boasted, “Of course, my nose is very good.”

Cheng Yingyong said, “Thank you for sharing the apples with me the other day. Please have this jerky, and I’d like to swap another piece of jerky for dried sweet potato, okay?”

“Ah?” Er Bao immediately said happily, “Of course! Thank you for treating us to jerky. You’re such a kind person.”

“Mm.” Yi Bao nodded in agreement. “You’re a good person.”

Cheng Yingyong was delighted to be praised. “Can I swap for four pieces of dried sweet potato? Jerky is better than eggs, you know.”

Although they were all kids, they weren’t clueless.

Everyone knew that meat was the best, followed by eggs.

Since eggs could be swapped for two pieces of dried sweet potato, jerky should be swapped for more than eggs.

“Okay, I’ll swap you four pieces of dried sweet potato.” Yi Bao took out four pieces, thinking to himself that it was fortunate he grabbed two handfuls of dried sweet potato; otherwise, he wouldn’t have enough to swap.

His hands were small, so a handful was just a few pieces.

“Sure.” Cheng Yingyong readily handed over two pieces of jerky and received four pieces of dried sweet potato.

He tucked away two pieces and took a small bite of one.

It was sweet and delicious, very fragrant and crispy. It was different from the dried sweet potatoes he had eaten before.

“Twins, do you have any dried sweet potato left? We also want to swap.”

“Twins, I have cookies. Can I swap?”

“Twins…”

By the time Yi Bao finished swapping the dried sweet potato in his hand, his small satchel was already full.

“Bro, let’s take the jerky back for Mom to eat,” Er Bao suggested.

“Mm.” Yi Bao didn’t hesitate.

Er Bao asked again, “Bro, why did you swap for eggs? We have eggs at home. I don’t want to eat eggs anymore.”

Yi Bao explained, “For Da Mao and Tie Dan.”

Yi Bao’s arrangement was not to eat the eggs himself but to save them for Da Mao and Tie Dan to eat.

If anyone found out he swapped eggs for the dogs, they’d surely call him a spendthrift.

Er Bao’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, how could I forget?”

Yi Bao chuckled and took out the snacks he had swapped from his small satchel.

While they still had time before class started, he shared them with his two younger brothers.

Teacher Jiang entered the classroom as the bell rang for class. Seeing all the energetic kids, she smiled.

“Students, are you happy that tomorrow is the holiday?” Teacher Jiang thought to herself, regardless of whether they were happy or not, she was happy anyway.

“Happy.”

“I can finally sleep a bit later. If I don’t get up in the morning, my mom will spank me, it’s so annoying.”

“My mom doesn’t spank me, she twists my ears.”

“My mom doesn’t give me breakfast.”

The kids complained about the various ways their moms woke them up.

Teacher Jiang listened to their innocent chatter.

These kids were a handful when they were around, but she missed them when they were gone.

It was a love-hate relationship. “Today’s lesson is about counting. Starting from 1, how far can you count? The student who can count the most will receive a little red flower as a reward.”

“Teacher, I can count.”

“Teacher, me too…”

Many kids eagerly raised their hands for the little red flower, but… the two brothers sat quietly.

Though they were at school, they didn’t know how to count.

Neither Ning Shu nor Lin Guodong had taught them.

Ning Shu believed in letting them play while they were still young and leaving everything to the teachers once they started school.

Lin Guodong, while in their hometown, just wanted to spend quality time with the kids and hadn’t thought about teaching them.

Teacher Jiang randomly called out a name, “Wei Linjun, please stand up and count.”

Wei Linjun immediately stood up and counted aloud, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 39…” He paused at 39, unable to continue.

Seeing Wei Linjun unable to count further, Teacher Jiang asked him to sit down.

“Wei Linjun did a great job counting up to 39. Does anyone know what comes after 39? Raise your hand to answer, and the one who answers correctly will receive a little red flower.”

“Teacher, I know.”

“Teacher, me too.”

Kids raised their hands one after another.

The two brothers watched as the other kids knew how to count while they didn’t. They felt a bit disheartened.

They decided that when they got home, they would ask Mom if she knew how to count. If she did, they would definitely ask her to teach them.

Teacher Jiang called several more students, some answered correctly, and some didn’t.

She then looked at Er Bao, who had been unusually quiet throughout the lesson, and smiled, “Lin Hairui, do you know how to count?”

Er Bao shook his head. “Teacher, I don’t know.” The usually assertive Er Bao felt a bit embarrassed.

Teacher Jiang: “Then how much can you count? Shall we count together?”

Er Bao pursed his lips, finally mustering up the courage to admit, “Teacher, I don’t know how to count at all. I’ve never learned.”

Teacher Jiang hadn’t expected that he couldn’t count at all.

She replied, “Oh, right. Lin Hairui, you and your brother just started school a few days ago, and I haven’t taught you how to count yet. That’s why you don’t know. Would you be willing to come learn with me after class, or when other students are playing? If you learn to count more than others, you’ll get a little red flower. Little red flowers can be exchanged for many things, and every student likes them, right?”

“Yes, we all like little red flowers.”

“I like them too.”

“I want to exchange mine for a notebook.”

Kids chimed in with their thoughts.

“I want to learn, can you really teach me, Teacher?” Er Bao was so excited; it was great that the teacher was willing to teach him.

Teacher Jiang: “Of course, as long as you’re willing to learn.”

Er Bao grinned widely. “Teacher, you’re really a good person.”

Little did he know, his tutoring journey was about to begin.

When the bell rang for the end of the lesson, Teacher Jiang left the classroom, and the two brothers followed right after.

“Teacher, Teacher, I’m here to learn how to count!” Er Bao ran after Teacher Jiang, calling out.

Hearing the voice behind her and seeing the two brothers running after her, Teacher Jiang couldn’t help but smile wryly, “Lin Haizhi, Lin Hairui, it’s break time now. You can play with the other students in the classroom. I’ll come and get you to learn how to count during free time in the afternoon.”

Er Bao: “Okay, then, Teacher, we’re going to play.”

Teacher Jiang: “Go ahead.”

The two obediently returned to the classroom.

Ning Shu was still unaware of what was happening at school; she was busy harvesting bamboo shoots in the mountains.

She decided not to bring back the shoots she harvested in the morning but to find a secluded spot on the mountain to photograph and catalog them directly.

By midday, she had harvested about 40 kilograms of bamboo shoots.

After photographing them, she realized that the quantity was indeed less.

However, even though small, mosquitoes are still meat, better than nothing.

On her way back, she still had two bamboo shoots in her hand and a sack full of bamboo leaves.

Bamboo leaves are easy to ignite, unlike the hardwood that Granny Yang had sent over, which was difficult to light.

For lunch, Ning Shu decided to take it easy and made egg fried rice.

She came back late today because she wanted to harvest more bamboo shoots. The egg fried rice wasn’t ready yet when the two brothers came back from school.

As soon as they returned, Er Bao loudly exclaimed, “Mom, we brought you something delicious!”