Chapter 19: Baofeng Went To Private School

Proofread by Claire.KK

“Baofeng? What’s the matter with him?” Li Hongmei asked while drinking her soup.

The three siblings didn’t know what Ye Xiaoxian tried to talk about but looked at her in a daze.

“Baofeng is now eight years old and it’s the time for other boys to go to private school, so I’m thinking to send Baofeng to school. Boys can only know better by being educated in school so they’ll achieve much more in the future.”

Everyone one began to look at her surprisingly.

Li Hongmei was the first getting back to her senses and she said to Ye Xiaoxian immediately, “But I heard that it costs two taels of silver for a year to go to school. How can we get the money?”

Xiao Baozhu also said, “Yea, if Baofeng goes to private school, am I the only one who will do the firewood-cutting work? I’d rather not to go up to the mountain by myself.”

Xiao Baofeng was young though, he was considerate. “Sister-in-law, I’m okay not to go to private school. We are very poor now…I, I don’t want to add more burden to our family.”

Xiao Baoshan was surprised as well but it was for the matter of Baofeng going to the private school. What surprised him was that Ye Xiaoxian actually could bear such a thought!

Although Ye Xiaoxian was the daughter-in-law of the Xiao family and grew up in the Xiao family since her childhood, she bore a different family name Ye after all. Other married women either only cared about their parent’s family or live their own life selfishly, and few of them would like to pay for their brother-in-law to go to private school.

Ye Xiaoxian already knew that everyone would react like this, so she put down her bowl and said calmly to everyone, “I know it costs money to go to private school, but money can be made by our hard work. Now we are selling cold jelly, aren’t we? One or two hundred copper coins a day make three or four thousand copper coins a month, enough for Baofeng’s tuition for one year. Think about it, if Baofeng misses the right age of attending to a private school, he will miss it all his life. The private schools don’t recruit girls. If they do, I’ll send Baozhu in as well. ”

Ye Xiaoxian didn’t think that boys are more important than girls at all, but the reality was that private schools around here didn’t recruit girls, but only boys.

Xiao Baozhu felt a little better after listening this but she was still saying dissatisfiedly, “It doesn’t matter whether I go to a private school or not, but I’ve been chopping firewood with Baofeng in the past two years, and now I’m the only one…”

“Baozhu, you don’t have to go up the mountain alone to cut firewood later on. You can go with us to the town to sell cold jelly. I plan to do other things to sell in the town as well. We are in need of hands. If we can’t chop firewood, we might as well buy some. It’s cheap after all.” Ye Xiaoxian continued.

Xiao Baozhu then felt satisfied.

Ye Xiaoxian then looked at Li Hongmei and Xiao Baoshan, “Ma, Baoshan, what do you think?”

Actually, Li Hongmei wanted to send Xiao Baofeng to private school a long time ago. She had been a prostitute in the county in the early years, and she had seen the world. She knew the importance of reading and the only problem was that she had no money.

Now that it was a rare chance for Ye Xiaoxian to have mentioned this, naturally she would agree, so she nodded, “OK, let Baofeng go to the private school then. But…I’m afraid it’s going to be hard for little Ye. All the money in our family is earned by…you. ”

Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “Ma, we are family so don’t mention it. If Baofeng can study hard in school, his future will be more promising. If he makes a living on his own, he will requite our Xiao family, won’t he? And also, I didn’t make the money alone. Without your help, I can’t possibly open up my cold jelly stall.”

Everyone nodded except Xiao Baoshan.

Xiao Baoshan had been looking at Ye Xiaoxian in silence before, and he was shocked to see that Ye Xiaoxian spoke with intelligence and vision.

He didn’t expect to see such a woman in a remote mountain village. She didn’t even look like a girl in a mountain village but a lady from a big wealthy family.

“Baoshan, don’t just stare at little Ye. Tell me if you agree with us or not?” Li Hongmei kicked Baoshan under the table.