Quick Travel: Card Destroyer

Chapter 237 Youth is Gone ()

Chen Fanghua moved her chopsticks skillfully with her left hand to eat noodles. Chen Chao could see the traces of time and wind and frost left on that hand.

So far, all the expenses for Chen Chao's schooling have been paid by Chen Fanghua and Chen Hui, the youngest sister in the family, using sewing machines and selling vegetables every day.

The most difficult days were not the times of greatest poverty, but the times when Chen Fanghua finally couldn't bear the high-intensity labor and collapsed from exhaustion.

At that time, her fingers were swollen like radishes, and every move was a huge test to her body and will.

But if she doesn't continue to work, she won't be able to send her children to school.

The desperate woman set her sights on her three daughters.

Ordinary people will immediately persuade the older children to drop out of school and work so that the younger children can go up.

But Chen Fanghua may not even be qualified for such a choice.

She didn't know how many years her body could last, and the days her eldest daughter Chen Chao needed to continue studying were shorter than the two younger sisters, so...

The sooner the eldest daughter is sent out of the countryside, the sooner family conditions can be improved.

So she could only call her youngest daughter Chen Hui.

Having an extra daughter to help with the work and earn money made Chen Fanghua feel more relaxed - just a little bit.

The real result is that both people's hands are useless.

Chen Fanghua also encountered criticism from others.

But she doesn't care.

In other words, she has no room to care about this. No one knows how long this family can last, so it’s better to give away the older one as soon as possible. One year less will be a year less.

On some rainy days, Chen Fanghua couldn't move her hands. It was Chen Hui who wiped away her tears while stepping on the sewing machine to make clothes and pay for her eldest sister's school tuition.

How could Chen Chao not know that his mother and little sister worked so hard? But she could only study hard. The first thing I do when I get home from school every day is to help with the work. After finishing the work, I light up the lamp and read.

I turned over the few textbooks I had and read them over and over again. I even remembered which section was printed on which corner of which page in the textbook.

If she studies well, the teacher will reward her with some small things, such as pens, notebooks, a few candies... This can reduce some of the burden on the family.

In comparison, the middle sister Chen Zhi appears much smaller.

Chen Zhi is also smart, and his studies are as good as those of his eldest sister. However, because his family is poor, he does not dare to sign up for any activities at school, large or small.

During sports meets and spring and autumn outings, other children heard and cheered, but she was the only one who buried her head very, very low.

She huddles in the corner of the classroom like a little hamster every day. After class, her classmates go out to play, but she is the only one huddled in her seat, not daring to talk to anyone.

Fortunately, everyone was understanding.

After a long period of hard work, Chen Chaozhong was admitted to the best high school in the county. Chen Zhi's grades were not bad, and he was probably able to go to a better high school.

Only the younger sister, Chen Hui, hurriedly worked with her mother to earn money as soon as she finished elementary school, thus ending her career in studying and taking exams.

"Mom, from now on... pay more attention to your health." Fearing that tears would continue to well up in his eyes, Chen Chao quickly lowered his head and took a few big bites of noodles.

"I know," Chen Fanghua seemed not to notice the sourness in her daughter's heart, and waved her hands proudly and said, "As long as I persist for three more years, it will be easy for you to go to college!"

Chen Chao forced a smile and listened to his mother's advice: "Chao, this high school is different from junior high school. As long as you go in to study, you have to study hard and persist! You can't be like your junior high school. I still need to take a year off from school!”

"Yes, yes." The young man nodded repeatedly.

She fell ill in her second year of junior high school, which coincided with the most difficult period for her family, so she took a year off to help her family with farm work.

She thought she might have to keep doing this, but Chen Fanghua insisted on sending her back to school.

Fortunately, everyone understands, and fortunately I persist.

<divclass="contentadv">The mother and daughter cherished today's Yangchun noodles very much. Maybe it was because they were excited, but a bowl of noodles actually filled their stomachs.

The cucumbers sold for a higher price this morning, so Chen Fanghua planned to bring some food back to the two little ones at home.

Once before, a relative brought over two mooncakes that were too large to be eaten. No one in the family of four was willing to eat them. In the end, they saw that the mooncakes were about to go bad, so they had to share them among themselves.

In this way, they also felt very sorry.

Let’s bring some mooncakes this time too! Chen Fanghua thought so.

Three mooncakes were carefully wrapped in oil paper. Chen Fanghua originally wanted to give one piece to each of her three sisters, but Chen Chao only broke off a small half and put it in his pocket, leaving the rest at home.

Chen Fanghua couldn't resist, so she had to go home first.

-

Chen Chao was assigned to Class 2. Because she had always been carefree and daring to do things, the teacher took a fancy to her, and her classmates didn't have much objection to her being the class president.

She was very happy, she didn't expect to get off to a good start on her first day of high school!

And when I put a few textbooks that were neither thin nor thick in my hands, I had to bury this joy deeply in my heart.

When you are in high school, these books will definitely need to be read more and remembered more firmly, which means they are more easily damaged.

In order to save the trouble of repairing books, Chen Chao must carefully take care of every page.

She touched the 90% new pen in her bag. It was still there, and the teacher's words of encouragement to keep going were still in her ears.

"Chen Chao, you have to study hard and move up. If you stop here, you will never leave the countryside!"

Open the pen, take out the small bottle of ink, and carefully suck up enough ink.

Even this small bottle of ink was given to her by the teacher. The bottle is a brand-new glass bottle. It may be ordinary in the eyes of other students, but in her eyes it seems to exude the holy light of the palace of knowledge.

Even the smell of ink can be fragrant.

These are all she has.

These things at hand are the only things left to bet on a more glorious life.

After that, Chen Chao began to live in campus life in both the county and rural areas.

Chen Fanghua couldn't pick up and drop off every day, so she could only ride on her old bicycle, rain or shine. Sometimes it rains heavily, and I have to hold my backpack tightly in my arms to prevent the textbooks from being wetted by the rain. When the rain stops, I have to take it out to dry in the sun for a while.

In short, she found a way to squeeze out some time from class and farm work, chewing every word in the textbook carefully, and carefully trying to figure out the meaning of putting these words together.

For each of the exercises the teacher gave them, they could find some methods and techniques from the textbook examples.

Maybe people have different attitudes and talents. Chen Chao can absorb all the knowledge points with just one textbook, but some people need more guidance.

As the class monitor, she naturally has to explain to students who don’t know how to solve the questions.

She soon discovered that when she gave lectures to others, she had a deeper understanding of knowledge points.

When you encounter an opportunity, you must seize it. In this way, she passed the first test safely.

Not to mention other subjects, in mathematics alone, Chen Chao is the best.

Many years later, when someone mentioned this, she would always smile and wave her hands, saying how long ago it was... She would not care about the special meaning of being a girl whose math scores were better than those of her male classmates. She just felt that studying was a matter of course.

Because this was her only bet.

When I wrote this paragraph, I felt very uncomfortable, but perhaps this was something my parents had experienced personally, so I could only keep writing.