Strategies for Dormmates Falling Down

The gatekeeper of the gatehouse was also an old man, and he was sitting on an armchair at this moment.The gatekeeper seldom saw the old man bring the child to school, so he felt quite strange, so he came over and greeted the boy's grandfather politely:

"Hello, is this your grandson?"

"Hey, yes, yes, both are my grandsons." The old man smiled and nodded politely.

"Very good, yes. Are both studying in this school?" The gatekeeper continued to ask.

"Hey, the eldest grandson is going to be in the third grade of junior high school, and the younger grandson is two years younger than the older one. He is coming to school for the first grade of junior high school today." When the old man said this, his face became serious.

"Then this little grandson knows which class he is in. There is a list of posters on the blackboard." The gatekeeper pointed to a long blackboard opposite the door with a poster board on the right half and a blackboard newspaper on the left half.

"By the way, I forgot about it. Let's go, I'll show you." The big boy said to the little boy.

The little boy followed the big boy to the blackboard.

The old man took out his pipe and prepared to smoke a pipe.The gatekeeper handed the old man a cigarette and said:

"Pick mine."

"No, no, you smoke." The old man waved his hand politely and said.

"Oh, why don't you smoke, what are you polite about, I still have more." The gatekeeper said, taking out a pack of cigarettes as a gesture.

"Thank you, thank you, hey." The old man took the cigarette embarrassingly, lit it and started smoking.He was thinking that he should help the gatekeeper light his cigarette, only to find that the gatekeeper had already started smoking.

The two old men continued to chat while smoking cigarettes.The gatekeeper obviously hasn't got a precise answer yet.

"Where are you from?" asked the gatekeeper.

The old man replied, "It's not far from Xiazheng Village."

The gatekeeper said: "Xiazheng, it's not close, it's more than ten kilometers away!"

The old man said, "Yes, yes."

The gatekeeper asked again: "I see you have gray hair, are you old?"

The old man replied again: "63."

The gatekeeper said: "Hey, I'm still one year younger than me. You see, half of my hair is black."

The old man said, "Oh, it's all worrying."

The old man's face became serious again.His words reflected Li Bai's sentence - the white hair is three thousand feet long, and the fate is like a long one.

The gatekeeper didn't answer, and waited for the old man to sort out his inner melancholy.

Grandpa continued:

"My eldest son passed away three years ago. It's not easy for my eldest daughter-in-law to take care of these two fatherless children all these years! Alas!"

As the old man spoke, his voice was low and deep, with an expression of wanting to cry but no tears, the tears must have been drained long ago.

When the gatekeeper heard this, his expression became serious, he took a puff of cigarette, and said:

"Tell these two grandsons to study hard, so that they can stand out from the crowd."

The old man said: "The child is obedient, hard-working, and able to read, but adults are useless. I heard that the tuition costs hundreds of dollars, and I can't afford it! Sigh!"

Grandpa sighed and shook his head.

The gatekeeper advised:

"Let's talk to the class teacher about this later. Now that there are poverty alleviation policies, the school will accommodate."

The gatekeeper stretched his head and comforted him, hoping to convey this optimism to Grandpa.

At this time, the two grandsons had finished reading the class list and came back.The little grandson has been crying since he was a child. If he had heard the old people's conversation just now, he would have burst into tears.

"I see, in the fourth class, go to register now." The eldest grandson said.

"Okay, let's go." The old man replied, and then said goodbye to the gatekeeper: "We are going, thank you, thank you very much!"

"Let's go, the admission matters are all done, and then come to my place for a meeting, oh!" The gatekeeper waved his hand, like a leader.

"Okay, okay, definitely." The old man said, picking up the quilt.The eldest grandson carried the snakeskin bag, while the younger grandson still carried the cloth bag.

The three of them, grandpa and grandson, walked towards the teaching building ahead.

……

"Wait, you mean, you still have an older brother?" Cheng Fan suddenly interrupted Su Xian's memory.

"That's right, he is less than two years older than me, and he is now a third-year student in our school." Su Xian explained.

"That's great, but I don't mean to be envious, but rather jealous."

"Jealous? Jealous of whom? Me? Or my brother?"

"Of course I'm jealous of your elder brother. With a younger brother like you, you should often help him make the quilt at home, right?"

"That's not true. We sleep in the same bed at home, so there is no question of who owns the quilt!"

"That's right, look at how smart I am, I thought of sleeping with you, so I don't need to fold the quilt every day."

Su rolled his eyes several times in his heart now, Cheng Fan is really thick-skinned, and even boasted that he was smart, and promised to sleep in Su Xian's bed that day, what happened?

Seeing that Su Xian did not respond, Cheng Fan cheekily continued to ask:

"If I really went to sleep with you on your bed that day, you wouldn't have kicked me out of bed!"

"Yes, I will!" In a rage, Su Xian said angrily, and regretted it after he finished speaking, thinking that this guy would not be frightened, so he really didn't dare to go to his bed!

"I don't believe it. Just treat me as your brother. By the way, just now you said that grandpa accompanied you to enroll in school. What about your father?"

Su Xian heaved a sigh of relief, and suddenly felt warm in his heart, so he confided sincerely:

"My father died in a car accident when I was nine years old."

Su Xian said, thinking of the single-parent life these years, tears flowed down unconsciously.Suddenly realizing the embarrassment, he hurriedly tried to wipe the tears with his hands, but unexpectedly, another strange and warm hand wiped the tears on his face first.

Su Xian thought that after Cheng Fan wiped away his tears, he would hold him tightly in his arms to comfort him like in the TV drama.But no, Cheng Fan seemed to be just trying to wipe away his tears, so he withdrew his hand and said:

"Why are you like a little girl, crying when you mention sad things! What's so sad, I think the head teacher and your deskmate Lily are very good to you!"

"You don't understand!" Su Xian thought, then why don't you treat me better and make me worry so much.

"I don't understand, so tell me!"

"Lili at the same table is the same as me, her family is not very good. As for the head teacher, she is my creditor. I think she is worried that I will disappear one day!"

Su Xian originally wanted to tell it as a joke, but seeing that there was no funny expression on Cheng Fan's face, he wondered how the people in the city knew the hard life in the countryside!The scene of following grandpa and elder brother to the teaching building on the day of school registration continued to emerge in my mind.

It was the only teaching building in Dongtun No. [-] Middle School. It had four floors and six classrooms on each floor. There were stairs on both sides and no toilets.

Dongtun Middle School is a newly-built junior high school. It started enrolling students three years ago, and currently there are students in exactly three grades.There are six classes in the third grade, eight classes in the second grade, and six classes in the first grade.

There are four remaining classrooms that are just right for teachers' offices.The six classes of the first grade are on the first floor of the teaching building.

The three of them walked to the fourth classroom on the first floor.I saw a desk at the door, with a roster, receipts and invoices, and a stack of money on the desk.A female teacher was sitting on the chair in the back, apparently she was Teacher Chen, the head teacher of Class [-].Teacher Chen is very young, with pimples on his red face, looking immature and youthful.

"Teacher, hello, Su Xian is a student in this class, right?" The eldest grandson took the lead, after all, he has been studying here for two years.

Teacher Chen looked at the roster and saw Su Xian in the second row.The roster is in a certain order, one name per line.

"That's right, are you Su Xian?" the female teacher looked at the eldest grandson and asked.

"No, my name is Su Hao, and I'm in Class 6 ([-]). Su Xian is my younger brother." While talking, the big man pushed the little man from behind to the front.

So, we know that this big man, the grandson of the grandfather, is named Su Hao, and he is studying in Class Two, Grade Three.And the little one, the grandfather's little grandson, is called Su Xian, and he is studying in Class [-], Grade [-].

Seeing this situation, the head teacher smiled:

"Su Xian, hello."

Su Xian: "Hi, teacher."

Teacher Chen: "Well, that's how it is. Today is the start of school registration. It's time to tidy up the dormitory and familiarize yourself with the school. At [-] o'clock in the evening, I will gather in the classroom on time to learn the campus management regulations and get to know the teachers. At [-] o'clock in the evening, I will be here Classroom, Su Xian, I heard clearly."

Teacher Chen is like a city dweller, speaking slowly and forcefully, and always smiling.It doesn't look like an inexperienced teacher anymore.

Su Xian: "Well, I heard clearly."

Teacher Chen: "Okay. Now we start the admission procedures. Su Xian, the tuition and miscellaneous fees are 600 yuan, have you brought it?"

Su Xian blushed and looked at Su Hao and grandpa beside him.Su Hao didn't know how to speak at this time.Grandpa is an old man in the countryside. Although he can't understand Mr. Chen's Mandarin, he still understands the meaning of "tuition fee" and "600".

"This teacher, the child's father has been dead for three years. My two grandchildren are raised by their mother alone, and life is very difficult. We have a certificate of extreme poverty from the village committee."

Grandpa spoke in the local dialect. After speaking, he took out a folded page from his pocket, opened it, and handed it to the female teacher.

Teacher Chen took it over and looked at the content written on it. The signature of the proof was a red stamp."The situation is true" and a signature, probably from a village committee cadre, were also written in the blank space.

After seeing it, Mr. Chen couldn't help but feel a little heavy in his heart.She has encountered many poor students, but there are not many special cases such as single-parent families.In fact, when the school leaders held a meeting with the class teachers last night, they already mentioned the fact that poor students cannot afford tuition fees.

The school leaders asked the class teacher to ask the parents to pay the tuition and miscellaneous fees first, no matter what method they used. For the poor students, they would pay them in the form of subsidies after investigating and implementing them later.The school's approach can be understood as to avoid the situation where some rich people don't want to pay tuition and pretend to be poor.

But who wants to be poor if they are really rich?The farmers in the world are one family, relying on the sky to eat, they are all poor, but they are divided into different levels.

Farmers look forward to the harvest first, and when there is a harvest, some will be sold, and some have to be sold in the market, where they can be sold at a good price.Those who have a harvest and sell well can make money, and those who have no harvest and sell poorly have to lose money.If you made money last year, you may lose money this year, and if you lose money this year, you may lose money next year.

Thinking about it this way, it might be better to understand the school's approach as giving subsidies to the poorest and most needy students.

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