Hearing his daughter express worry, Liang Xiu's heart also tightened.
Could it be that his daughter had something she couldn't do?
In the past two years, Liang Xiu's thoughts had changed since being in the city.
Therefore, he worried more.
Even Qi Liangying stopped her actions and looked at Su Xiaotian nervously.
She also knew that Su Xiaotian, so young, was about to take the middle school entrance examination.
In Qi Liangying's opinion, Su Xiaotian was still so small and should be in primary school. It was too early to attend middle school now.
Su Manxiu was also worried, but upon inadvertently seeing a fleeting mischievous smile on Su Xiaotian's face, she shook her head helplessly.
"What's wrong? Xiaotian?" Liang Xiu became more anxious as his daughter remained silent, his tone even more hurried.
"I'm just worried I'll do too well and put pressure on others!" Su Xiaotian said playfully.
Liang Xiu couldn't help but chide, "This child, her skin is getting thicker and thicker. She was cuter when she was little!"
"Our Xiaotian is always cute!" Su Manxiu affectionately pinched Su Xiaotian's cheek.
As they were talking, Chen Xiuyuan, a little boy, toddled into the kitchen. Having just heard Su Manxiu's words, he smiled and said, "Our Xiaotian is always cute!"
His soft, childish voice, with its slightly unclear pronunciation, paired with his serious expression, made the adults unable to help but laugh.
Liang Xiu tenderly picked up Chen Xiuyuan and said with a smile, "Our Xiuyuan is the cutest!"
"Our Xiaotian is always cute!" the little fellow insisted for the second time.
Whether he was just repeating what his mother had said or genuinely believed it, the little fellow did not accept any argument.
The little fellow was indeed very smart and clever, speaking much more clearly than children his age, and he even started walking earlier than other children!
"Xiuyuan, do you think Sister Xiaotian is cute?" Su Manxiu couldn't help but tease her son out of curiosity.
Unexpectedly, the little fellow nodded solemnly, "Sister Xiaotian is cute!"
"Is Little Xiuyuan cuter or Sister Xiaotian cuter?" Qi Liangying, finding it amusing, couldn't help but tease the child.
She thought that Little Xiuyuan would definitely consider himself cuter.
The little fellow said very firmly, "Sister Xiaotian is cute!"
"Xiuyuan is the cutest!"
Su Xiaotian reached out to pinch Chen Xiuyuan's chubby little cheeks, but Liang Xiu stopped her.
"You can't pinch a child's face, or they'll drool!"
Su Xiaotian didn't believe this, thinking it lacked scientific basis.
But she still obeyed, reaching out to stroke Chen Xiuyuan's soft hair.
Perhaps sensing his sister's affection, the little fellow giggled.
After the adults teased them for a while, Su Xiaotian took Chen Xiuyuan out to play.
Su Xiaotian was originally the youngest in the family. Having finally gotten a little brother, she naturally doted on him.
She didn't have much time to come to the county town on weekdays. Since she was here, she definitely wanted to play happily with the little fellow.
As for the exams, she wasn't worried at all.
After the children went out, Qi Liangying said with a smile, "In the blink of an eye, the little fellow will be two years old."
"Xiu, have you had any movement in the past two years?" Liang Xiu asked, looking at Su Manxiu's belly.
If it were before, Liang Xiu wouldn't have dared to ask such a question, fearing it would upset Su Manxiu. But now, there was no such pressure.
Since she could give birth to Chen Xiuyuan, her body should be fine.
Although Su Manxiu was no longer young, it was still possible to have another child.
Su Manxiu touched her belly and said with a smile, "One child is a bit few, but my belly hasn't moved in the past two years!"
Having only one child was a bit of a regret.
But she was a contented person.
She had always thought it was impossible to have children in this life.
Now that she had one, it was an unexpected joy!
In Su Manxiu's heart, there was nothing to regret.
"Such things depend on fate. Anyway, we already have Xiuyuan!"
"That's true!" Liang Xiu thought it made sense. Speaking of which, Su Manxiu was about the same age as her.
After giving birth to Xiaotian, she never conceived again.
Manxiu might be in the same situation. Well, such things depend on fate.
The next morning, the three women busied themselves preparing a sumptuous breakfast for the children.
There were steamed buns, mantou, and egg drop soup.
After eating breakfast, the children went to their respective schools to take the exams.
When they left, except for Su Xiaotian, the other children felt some pressure.
They were originally from the countryside and hadn't been to school for several years. They were afraid of being laughed at for scoring too poorly, and afraid of not being able to study if they scored too poorly.
Su Xiaotian, however, looked full of confidence, her steps exuding an aura of eighteen feet.
"Little sister, aren't you worried?" Little Eight asked doubtfully.
"What's there to worry about? You can rest assured, we've learned no less than those attending school!"
Given the atmosphere in the past two years, one could imagine the level of students in schools.
Even if others didn't know, Su Xiaotian had great confidence in her own brothers and sisters.
Their levels were very high!
At this time, there was no such thing as parents accompanying their children for exams.
After the children left, the adults didn't worry about their exams and went to work.
Only Su Manxiu remained at home with Chen Xiuyuan.
"Mom, sister, brother!" Chen Xiuyuan, perhaps feeling lonely by himself, clung to Su Manxiu.
The children were all taking exams, and Su Manxiu felt they must be working very hard.
"Baby, brother and sister have worked hard. Shall we go buy some meat for them to eat?" Su Manxiu said, holding her son's little hand.
The little fellow was very happy, clapping his hands and saying, "Okay, okay, buy meat, eat meat!"
The little fellow was so excited!
Mother and son, hand in hand, went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy meat.
When Su Manxiu arrived, most of the meat at the morning market had already been sold. She only managed to buy two catties of meat, and it didn't look very good, with more lean meat and less fat. Fortunately, there were still a few large bones left, which Su Manxiu bought as well.
Qi Liangying and Liang Xiu also had to go to work at noon and couldn't come back. Su Manxiu prepared lunch by herself.
She thought that children at their age were at the stage where they ate a lot, so she made stir-fried shredded pork with bean sprouts, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and stewed large bone soup with cabbage and tofu. All of them were large basins full.
Finally, there was a large pot of white rice.
At noon, the children returned.
Su Manxiu asked them how the exams went. After looking at each other, the children all had expressions that were difficult to describe.
Su Manxiu was startled, fearing they had not performed well.
After all, they hadn't been to school for several years, and Su Manxiu's suspicion was understandable.
Even if the city children caused a lot of trouble in school, they still had study time, which was much better than these children.
"Didn't do well? It's okay, aren't you taking exams again this afternoon? Just do your best then!" Su Manxiu quickly comforted the children.
"Aunt, I feel like there's something wrong with the exam content!" Su Shouwen was the first to raise a question.
"What's wrong?" Su Manxiu became more worried.
"Those questions are too simple. I think I can get a perfect score!"
The morning exam was mathematics, and Su Shouwen genuinely felt it was a bit too simple.
Su Manxiu knew that Su Shouwen had the most steady personality and shouldn't be speaking without reason.
But how could the exam questions be so simple?
"What do you all think?" Su Shouwen remembered he had some comrades, so he asked.
Several people chattered and compared their answers, and indeed, most of them were the same.
The answers of the three Su brothers were almost identical, while Su Xiaomei and Su Xiaocao had a few questions that were different.
Su Xiaotian also knew these questions. After looking at them, she knew that her brothers had almost all answered correctly, while Sister Xiaocao and Sister Xiaomei had made mistakes on a few questions, but overall, they had done quite well.
Then, the younger ones also compared their answers. For this exam, there was more than one person in each grade, so it was possible to compare answers.
Su Manxiu had been studying with Chen Zi'an for the past two years, but most of the time, she read literature. She knew almost nothing about mathematics, and she didn't know if the children's answers were correct.
However, when she saw that most of the answers were the same, she felt much relieved.
After lunch, Su Manxiu also urged the children to take a short nap.
The afternoon exams were also said to be not difficult by the children when they returned.
Finally, they discussed it again, but because there was an essay in Chinese, they didn't dare to claim a perfect score.
They also briefly talked about the essays they had written. Su Manxiu found it interesting and offered some of her own opinions.
The children were surprised that Su Manxiu could offer suggestions and opinions on their essays, and they were very insightful.
"Aunt, you're amazing!" Little Four's eyes widened in disbelief.
They all said their aunt was uneducated, so how could she offer suggestions on their essays?
Praise from her nephew made Su Manxiu embarrassed. She had actually just listened intently and said a few more words, and she didn't expect to be praised.
"I'm just saying it casually. Don't praise me, or I'll be too embarrassed." Su Manxiu waved her hands.
"Aunt, have you ever thought about writing something yourself?" Su Xiaotian suddenly felt that perhaps her aunt had potential in this area.
After all, her aunt only started reading and writing after marrying her uncle. Being able to offer so many suggestions and opinions showed some talent.
Su Manxiu shook her head repeatedly, like a rattle drum, saying, "How could I have such ability? I'm just saying it casually. I don't know if it's correct."
Su Xiaotian smiled and said, "Aunt, writing isn't difficult. I heard you telling stories to your younger brother before, and you told them very well. Writing them down would be an article."
Su Xiaotian had never heard the stories Su Manxiu told, so she suspected Su Manxiu had made them up to amuse the children.
"Are you serious?" Su Manxiu asked in surprise.
Those stories were just casual remarks, could they really be written down?
"Of course, Aunt. Just write down those stories and then polish them a bit," Su Xiaotian encouraged.
She wasn't sure if Su Manxiu could really write stories, but encouragement was always good.
Just as Su Xiaotian was actively mobilizing Su Manxiu, the system's voice, Anna, suddenly came: "Congratulations to the host for activating the hidden mission: Discover Talent. Reward: Five mall points."
Su Xiaotian was surprised. Mall points? What was going on?
The rewards before were all coupons and money. Why were there mall points all of a sudden?
Did it mean the mall could be used for transactions from now on?
However, was five points a bit too little?
It sounded stingy.
But this was not the time to communicate with the system. Su Xiaotian could only suppress her doubts and dissatisfaction.
Liang Xiu and Qi Liangying were also more at ease hearing that the children had performed well on their exams.
The meat they ate that evening was brought back by them. There were five catties of pork, two catties of lamb, and a chicken.
"Second sister-in-law, third sister-in-law, have you struck it rich?"
Su Manxiu asked in surprise. It was rare to be able to buy so much meat at once!
Liang Xiu smiled and said, "Not at all. We just thought the children worked hard on their exams, so we found people to help us get some meat."
The dinner was still very rich, which made Su Xiaomei and Su Xiaocao very uneasy.
When they came this time, they brought some grain and vegetables they had grown themselves.
However, eating meat every meal made them feel embarrassed.
The two girls did not reach for the braised pork with their chopsticks during meals, only eating stir-fried shredded potatoes and stir-fried cabbage.
Liang Xiu noticed the girls' thoughts, picked up a spoon, and scooped a large spoonful of meat into each of their bowls.
"You need to eat well. You have exams tomorrow. Eating well is the most important thing."
"We're eating very well. White noodles, that's very good!" Su Xiaomei said quickly.
"With so much meat, you don't need to think about saving it for us," Qi Liangying said. "I heard that your exams are also divided by subject?"
"Second aunt, yes. There are liberal arts and science. Liberal arts require history and geography, and science requires physics and chemistry," Su Shouwen explained to Qi Liangying during a break from eating.
Qi Liangying didn't know what physics and chemistry, or history and geography were. She just asked casually.
"Sister Xiaomei, are you taking the liberal arts exam?" Su Xiaotian asked.
"Xiaocao and I are both taking liberal arts."
As for the three Su boys, Su Shouwen and Su Sangong would take the science exams, while Su Ciliang would take the liberal arts exam.
He didn't like science much and had been studying calligraphy and painting for the past few years.
According to the suggestions of Chi Ge and Yu Ruiyuan, he would focus mainly on these areas in the future, so he accepted the suggestion and chose liberal arts.
After dinner, Su Manxiu worried that the children would overeat, so she let them play in the yard for a while.
With Chen Xiuyuan, the little radish, around, everyone had a great time. Moreover, after today's exams, they found the content much simpler than expected, so they felt even more relaxed.
When they went back to their rooms to sleep, Su Xiaotian couldn't sleep.
She hadn't had time to study the mission Anna mentioned today.
Speaking of this system, Su Xiaotian wanted to complain. She had never seen such a system, it was too arbitrary!
The missions were never regular. Some missions had been issued for a long time, and some were so long that Su Xiaotian thought she would forget them.
For example, a long time ago, the system had issued a mission to urge her brothers to achieve excellent academic results. Several years had passed, and the mission was still lying in the task bar, gathering dust.
Thinking of this mission, Su Xiaotian suddenly felt that it was time to complete it.
A mission that took several years, she wondered what kind of reward it would give her.
Su Xiaotian carefully examined the system several times but couldn't find where the system mall was.
"Anna, where is the system mall?"
Anna's unchanging voice sounded: "The system mall has not been opened yet!"
Well, it was another big pit.
If it weren't for the fact that the system Anna couldn't be seen or touched, Su Xiaotian would have wanted to hit her directly.
But now, she had no choice!
************
The younger the children, the fewer exams they took.
The oldest ones took three days to complete their exams.
During these three days, Su Manxiu, as their aunt, diligently prepared meals for the children.
Rice, noodles, steamed buns, and dumplings were served in rotation.
It was fortunate that Liang Xiu and Qi Liangying both subsidized a lot, otherwise Su Xiaotian would have worried that her aunt's family's grain would be eaten up.
After the exams, the children agreed to go out for a stroll before returning home.
Su Xiaotian had been to the county town more than once and didn't find anything new, but others had come fewer times, especially Su Xiaomei. This was her first time, and she found everything novel.
Su Xiaotian saw their great interest and went along to stroll.
They were all children from the countryside, and everything in the city seemed new to them. As they walked and looked, they spent a lot of time.
Just as they were tired from strolling and preparing to go home, Su Xiaotian suddenly saw a person lying on the side of the road.
Su Xiaotian was about to go and see.
But she was pulled back by Su Shouwen.
"Xiaotian, we don't know the situation, don't go over."
Su Ciliang also quickly said, "Exactly. It's better to avoid trouble. Let's go back quickly!"
Su Xiaotian said, "No, I think that person looks like they're having an acute illness. Let's go and see!"
Su Shouwen couldn't refuse Su Xiaotian, so he followed.
The person lying on the ground was an old man about sixty or seventy years old, looking about the same age as Grandpa Su.
After careful observation, Su Xiaotian squatted down and placed her fair little hand on the old man's wrist.
After a very quick pulse diagnosis, Su Xiaotian took out a needle from somewhere and pricked a few points on the old man's body.
The old man, who had looked almost lifeless, woke up slowly.
Su Shouwen and the others were incredulous. They all knew Su Xiaotian was good at art, but they had never heard that Su Xiaotian could also perform acupuncture!
Su Shouwen even carefully looked around to make sure no one was nearby before he breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, techniques like acupuncture were prohibited. If discovered, it could bring trouble.
Su Shouwen thought that Su Xiaotian was really too bold.
They had to go home tomorrow morning, so they couldn't delay any longer, lest this little girl stayed in the county town and caused more trouble.
At this moment, Su Shouwen completely forgot that they would soon be living in the county town for a long time.
The old man woke up slowly. Seeing a group of teenagers surrounding him, he flinched in fear.
Su Xiaotian looked at the old man doubtfully. They hadn't done anything, so why did the old man seem so scared?