Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Sending Him Off to School

In the end, Old Lady Wang didn’t apologize. Instead, she turned around and bolted.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Old Lady Wang is already over fifty—she can really run when she wants to. In the blink of an eye, she dashed to the entrance of the Wang family’s house, twisted her body, and slipped right through the front door.

Xu Shuhua stood where she was, watching, and curled her lip. “With guts like that, she still dared to come here and bang on our door? Hmph!”

Yu Haijing looked at Xu Shuhua with admiration, suddenly feeling like he was completely unnecessary. He’d been thinking he should stand up for his mother, but now it was clear he’d been overthinking it!

Although Yu Nuannuan hadn’t witnessed the scene herself, Xu Shuhua’s voice was loud enough that she heard every word clearly from inside the house. She realized this was a one-sided victory for Xu Shuhua and couldn’t help but applaud her in her heart.

No wonder she was her grandma—she really was amazing!

By lunchtime, everyone in the Yu family had come home. When they heard that the whole basket of ground cherries had been sold, each of them was so excited their faces turned red.

Counting today’s earnings together with yesterday’s, they’d made sixty or seventy yuan already!

“Mom, since the ground cherries are selling so well, why don’t we just go sell them every day? It’d bring in some extra money for the family, and it’s way better than farming!” Yu Jiang said.

Xu Shuhua glanced at Yu Jiang. “You think I don’t want to go every day? But do you think ground cherries can be picked endlessly? You think they grow back overnight?”

Yu Jiang scratched his head. “You’re right, Mom! I totally forgot about that! But making this much is already great!”

“Once a few more days pass and the next batch of ground cherries ripens, I’ll go pick them again. The season for ground cherries lasts a little while longer, so let’s try to sell as many as we can and save up some money. When primary school starts, we can send Wei to school.”

Yu Wei, the eldest of the grandchildren, was already seven years old and would be eight by the New Year. It was time for him to start primary school.

Hearing that her son could go to school, Zhang Yuguai’s face lit up with joy. “Mom, you really think of everything.”

Yu Wei looked at Xu Shuhua, then at Zhang Yuguai, opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, said nothing. He wanted to ask if school was fun, but figured if he said that out loud, he’d definitely get scolded, so he kept quiet.

Aside from Yu Wei, the second child Yu Kai, the third Yu Yong, and the fourth Yu Jie were all only five this year, so they could wait another year before starting school.

Hearing that Xu Shuhua was going to send Yu Wei to school, Yu Nuannuan was happy too. She’d been wondering how to remind Xu Shuhua that, now that they had some money, they should send Yu Wei and the others to school. She hadn’t expected Xu Shuhua to think of it herself.

What Yu Nuannuan didn’t know was that after several days of going to the county to sell things and meeting so many people, Xu Shuhua had come to realize how important it was to be educated and literate.

If you study hard and get a proper job, even if the monthly salary doesn’t change, at least it’s stable! You wouldn’t have to work like she did, braving the scorching sun, rushing back and forth, and still sweating buckets selling things under the shade of a tree.

Over the next few days, just as Xu Shuhua had said, she didn’t go to the county again, and of course, didn’t sell any more strawberries either. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make money—she just couldn’t find a good excuse to go to the county!

Instead, they used the time to dry and store the grain at home, and turn over the soil in the fields. Now, all they had to do was wait for a rain before planting corn and beans.

Here, they grew two crops a year: wheat was planted in the fall and harvested the next summer. After the wheat was harvested, they’d plant corn, soybeans, sesame, and other grains, which would be harvested after the Mid-Autumn Festival."

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