Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife
Chapter 1397: Xibao Goes to School 5

Chapter 1397: Chapter 1397: Xibao Goes to School 5

Xibao didn’t want to go to school. He wanted to learn writing, painting, foreign languages, math, and also Grandpa Jin’s principles of leverage and chemical effects. He didn’t want to learn phrases like "When drinking water, think of the source" or "Sailing the sea relies on the helmsman," which he could remember after just one listen.

Seeing his grandson’s reluctance, Lu’s father stroked his head, "Your mom wrote to me about this last month. I’ll have a word with the principal and have you enrolled nominally. You can go to school for a few days whenever you feel like it, get to know the classmates, and study at home with grandma and grandpa when you don’t feel like it. Just focus on Chinese and math, and when it’s time for exams, just take them. But you need to study hard and score well. It would be embarrassing if you can’t get into middle or high school."

Xibao finally beamed with joy, "I know all the brothers and sisters, little brothers and sisters in our brigade!"

"But you don’t know the students from other brigades who come to our school," Lu’s father pointed out without mincing words. "You’re a kid, and kids should act like kids, don’t keep thinking about studying all the time."

Xibao made a face.

School always starts at the beginning of the year, after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. This year, school started late, on March first.

On this day, Lu’s father took Xibao to register. He went directly to Principal Xie who had spent some tough times in a cowshed during the Cultural Revolution and had returned to school once classes resumed. Naturally, he was very accommodating to Xibao.

Lu’s father didn’t plan to put Xibao in the Youth Red Guards class. Xibao didn’t want to either, as the kids there were all seven years old and there was nothing much to learn.

"I know Xibao’s academic level very well. Even middle school students may not study as many varied topics as he does. Here’s what we’ll do, I’ll give Xibao some of last year’s test papers to do, and then we’ll decide which grade he should be in."

After hearing Principal Xie’s suggestion and asking Xibao what he thought, Lu’s father agreed.

Principal Xie immediately took out the third and fourth grade test papers and had Xibao work on them at a desk while he chatted with Lu’s father.

Xibao, with his sharp eyes, took a fourth-grade paper directly.

With primary school lasting five years, and middle and high school together being four years, nine years seemed like a huge waste of time for Xibao—more than his current age. He still preferred studying with his grandparents.

Seeing this, Principal Xie and Lu’s father couldn’t help but exchange smiles.

In less than an hour, Xibao had finished both papers and handed them to Principal Xie with delight, "Grandpa Xie, please grade them quickly!"

Principal Xie marked the papers swiftly and couldn’t resist saying, "Whose brilliant child is this?"

"The Lu Family’s, of course! Grandpa Xie, how many points can I get?" Xibao craned his neck to look at the papers, and immediately spotted the scores, "Chinese ninety-one, math ninety-nine! Can I go straight to the fifth grade?"

"How about you go to the fourth grade!" teased Principal Xie, "You’re so young, if you go to the fifth grade, won’t the older kids bully you?"

At seven years old, one is eligible for school, starting with the Youth Red Guards class, which lasts a year. Many students only start at around ten years old, and even the youngest in the fourth or fifth grades are at least twelve or thirteen years old, the oldest being fifteen or sixteen.

Who would feel at ease with someone as young as Xibao moving up to the fifth grade?

Fortunately, Lu’s father was only interested in having Xibao’s name registered at the school, so following Principal Xie’s suggestion, he signed up and paid the fees for the fourth grade.

Xibao didn’t even set foot in the classroom before he grabbed the textbooks and tugged at Lu’s father to head home. He also took the papers he did, unhappy with not scoring a hundred. He wanted to understand where he went wrong.

... First thing is to make up for the four Chapters I owed from yesterday. It’s the last day of the month, so I’m asking for monthly tickets. I’ll continue this afternoon, and last night, I went up to the first-level hospital, which finally worked out. Boo hoo.