Chapter 100: What's the story behind skipping school?

On August 28th,

He Daqing and Xu Wangcai took He Yuzhu and Xu Damao to the school together.

After an entrance exam,

He Yuzhu was directly assigned to the sixth grade class.

Xu Damao also skipped the first grade and went directly to the second grade.

This was actually the result of He Yuzhu intentionally toning down his behavior.

Otherwise, given his actual level of knowledge,

At that time, I could have directly graduated from elementary school.

I have been in this city for more than half a year.

He gradually realized that the effects of that medicine were extremely unusual—

It not only greatly enhanced his physical fitness

It also seems to be very beneficial to mental thinking;

It's not that he became exceptionally intelligent because of this.

But his memory did improve significantly.

Then the new semester officially began.

The two brothers go to and from school on time every day.

But He Yuzhu couldn't sit still after reading only up to September.

He had already mastered all the content in the textbook.

Sitting in the classroom all day felt incredibly boring and tedious.

And so, a student who frequently skipped classes was added to the school.

The teachers back then weren't as responsible and dedicated as they are today.

Anyway, the tuition has already been paid.

Whether or not a student attends class is their own business.

If you can't upgrade, just keep paying to continue studying.

However, Jia Dongxu, who was also in school, told his mother about it when he got home.

The fire of jealousy in Jia Zhangshi's heart burned fiercely once again—

Because her son was too old, he could only enroll in the fourth grade when he started school.

He Yuzhu went straight to sixth grade as soon as he entered school.

Her family scrimped and saved to send their son to school.

Both were students, yet He Yuzhu dared to openly skip school.

How could she possibly tolerate this?

She went straight to the houses in the front yard and began to chatter and complain.

Unfortunately, the families in the front yard are all quite honest and law-abiding.

I don't like gossiping about others behind their backs.

She then went to the Intermediate People's Court herself and chattered on and on to Li Guihua.

She dared not confront Chen Shuxiang directly.

They might get a good scolding again.

"Zhonghai's wife, let me tell you, that pillar in the main house... skipped class."

She lowered her voice deliberately when she said this.

But his voice was so loud that it could be heard even in the backyard.

Chen Shuxiang could not possibly have missed it.

That evening, He Yuzhu and Xu Damao had just stepped into the house when...

Chen Shuxiang grabbed one of his ears and twisted it with each hand.

"You little brat, can't you learn anything good?"

Tell me, who taught you to skip class?

Seeing that the situation was not good, Xu Damao tried to sneak away.

But Chen Shuxiang used her other hand to firmly twist his ear as well.

"Da Mao, are you aware that your brother Zhu Zi is skipping class?"

Xu Damao quickly shook his head in denial.

But his ears were tightly twisted, and his head couldn't move at all.

"You really don't know?" Chen Shuxiang increased the pressure on her hand.

"I don't know," Xu Damao replied softly, lowering his head.

"So you've learned to lie, haven't you? He Yuzhu, you'd better confess honestly."

"He did run away," He Yuzhu admitted readily.

Why did you skip class?

"Because I already know everything in the textbook."

I kind of regret going to primary school; I should have gone straight to middle school.

"You want to go straight to middle school? Look at you, so capable!"

Go get your textbooks; I want to test what you've actually learned.

Chen Shuxiang was so angry that she gritted her teeth.

He Yuzhu took out his textbook.

Chen Shuxiang released her grip on the two women's hands.

Xu Damao immediately wanted to rush out the door.

"Xu Damao, you stop right there! Did I say you could leave?"

I'll settle the score with you after I finish my exam with him—

Not only have you learned to lie, but you've also learned to cover for others, haven't you?

"Oh, Master's wife..." Xu Damao consciously moved to the base of the wall.

Stand still and behave properly.

As a result, after Chen Shuxiang finished testing He Yuzhu...

He looked at him with a strange, odd gaze and asked:

"When did you finish learning all of this?"

"After the start of the school year, it took about two weeks."

"Then why did you even bother with elementary school? We should have sent you straight to junior high."

"Without an elementary school graduation certificate, I can't go to junior high school, right?" He Yuzhu replied sheepishly.

"You still have the nerve to talk back? What's this about skipping school? Where have you been running off to?"

"I didn't go to any special places, I just wandered around the streets."

"You even went for a walk? The streets are full of soldiers, what's the point of walking around?"

"Just wandering around aimlessly." He Yuzhu flashed his signature goofy grin again.

Actually, he wasn't just wandering around aimlessly; he was "scouting" the area—after Japan's surrender, a group of people were retained, including Japanese spies, puppet government spies, and some traitors within the government.

He didn't punish these people initially, leaving them for the Kuomintang government to conduct a public trial and judgment. However, these people managed to save their lives by bribing officials with money or intelligence, and are now living quite comfortably.

This made him feel very uneasy. He had heard rumors recently that someone was secretly dealing with these guys, and he guessed that it was probably Zhao Yonghe's people who did it.

He Yuzhu secretly followed them several times and discovered that it was indeed the Communist Party's underground organization carrying out an anti-traitor operation.

His hands were itching to join in the fun. He had so many weapons stored in his space, but once the world was at peace, they would probably be useless.

Just then, the system also issued a long-term task:

[Mission: Eliminate traitors; random reward.]

However, before he could actually take action, he coincidentally saved Communists twice, for which the system gave him some rewards.

The reward is quite interesting; each time it involves imparting knowledge from a high school course.

This piqued He Yuzhu's interest. He didn't plan to spend several years finishing junior high school. Given the turbulent situation these past few years, he couldn't guarantee that he could stay in school peacefully until graduation.

Wouldn't it have been better to get a junior high school diploma early and then take the entrance exam for a vocational school after 1950? Then you'd have cadre status.

He never even considered going to university, and even if he were to work in the future, he didn't plan to study technology—with his personality, he could neither become a scientist nor an engineer.

By the time He Yuzhu had gathered all the knowledge from junior high school courses such as Chinese, Civics, English, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, History, Geography, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry through the anti-traitor mission, the end of the year was approaching.

Time flew by and it was January 1946. The school was on winter break, and He Yuzhu still took the final exams before the break. He didn't make a big fuss and only got an average score.

That kid Jia Dongxu, after hearing from Jia Zhangshi that He Yuzhu got scolded at home last time, went to He Yuzhu's class to inquire about his grades—what if he failed them all?

He could go back and incite his mother to stir things up, making sure He Yuzhu didn't even have a peaceful winter vacation. Unfortunately, the result was a huge disappointment to him.

Why was he so enthusiastic about this? Simply because he had almost no friends at school, he was much older than his classmates, and his family was poor.

He's not the type to stand up for others; he always shrinks back when things happen. Who would want to hang out with him?

Whenever He Yuzhu didn't skip class, he always brought Xu Damao along, which made him envious. That guy used to be his follower.

As for Xu Damao, he thrived in school. He was sweet-talking, knew a few martial arts moves, and could occasionally bribe his classmates with snacks. So even without He Yuzhu, he was always surrounded by a group of friends after school.

Furthermore, this kid boasted that he had an older brother in a higher grade, and that he could ask his brother for help if anything happened. He even went so far as to have He Yuzhu show up in their class once. He Yuzhu had grown quite a bit taller in the past six months.

He was already about 1.4 meters tall and quite robust, so the group of kids playing with Xu Damao immediately started calling him "Brother Zhuzi".

Of course, He Yuzhu didn't have time to "keep watch" for these kids. He let Xu Damao and the others handle the minor squabbles themselves, and if all else failed, there were still teachers to help.

Besides dealing with traitors, He Yuzhu also went fishing a few times—he had no fishing skills or secret bait, so he just used a fishing net to cast into the river.

No matter what kind of fish it is, just throw it into the fishpond in the space. Anyway, there is a ten times faster time flow inside, so the fish grow quickly, and there is no shortage of fish food in the space.

As for things like silt and algae, he didn't bother to get them. They seemed to grow on their own after the fishpond was filled with water. However, after he harvested the crops, some of the corn stalks and other materials seemed to be missing, probably because they were moved to the fertilized pond.

In addition, he rotated several crops of vegetables, including green beans, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, spinach, chives, celery... He planted everything he could buy seeds for, since the still space could keep them fresh.

He didn't grow any grains, though he still had plenty in his storage space. As for raising livestock, it was too much trouble. If the system could provide him with a livestock pen or a poultry farm, he might consider it.

Now that he has some extra money, he takes every spare moment to stroll around and buy some slaughtered meat to store.

This year, the families in the courtyard are doing much better than last year.

He Daqing brought back a lot of New Year's goods through the canteen's purchasing connections, and Xu Wangcai also sent some over, as a small token of respect from Xu Damao to his master.

Because he had a godfather, Yi Zhonghai had a way to make money and a channel for purchasing goods, and he also bought a lot of New Year's goods.

Jia Laonian's wages rose to eight silver dollars. In addition, with the Japanese no longer looting outside, there were more vendors selling chicken, duck, fish and meat in the market, and the prices were still affordable. During the New Year, his family bought two catties of meat, a chicken and a fish.

The other residents were not discussed in detail. Xu Wangcai once mentioned that these people might be moving away soon.

There is one person worth noting, and that is Zhao Yonghe—this old fellow took leave before the holiday started and left, and no one knows where he went, and he didn't come back until the end of the year.

When he returned, a young woman was following behind him.

The people in the courtyard joked that Old Zhao was getting married.

Zhao Yonghe blushed deeply, and his dough turned purple from the words.