Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 238 - 237 Immortal Little Darling

Chapter 238: Chapter 237 Immortal Little Darling

Niuwa has become much livelier lately, and his favorite thing to do every day is to be hugged by Sister Lin.

He also likes hugs from Principal Mother, but he fears that he might tire her, so he asks for hugs less often.

Today the little fellow is wearing a military green outfit, tilting his soft, white little face upward, looking like a small dumpling with one corner peeled open.

Lin Nianhe was charmed, she gently tutted and lifted him up, kneading his little face and said, "Little bastard, now you’re even making demands, huh?"

Niuwa didn’t argue and just giggled in her embrace.

After his laughter subsided, he pulled Lin Nianhe’s hand, took a pine nut from his pocket and placed it in her palm, "I went picking with Erwang at noon, hehe."

Lin Nianhe’s heart nearly melted.

Looking at Niuwa, thousands of thoughts like "What kind of divine little treasure is this?" floated through her mind.

Seeing her not speaking, Niuwa looked down and rummaged through his pockets.

After some struggle, he found another pine nut from the seam of his clothes and placed it in Lin Nianhe’s hand, then said, "No more for today, I’ll go up the mountain to find more for you tomorrow."

Lin Nianhe: "...!"

She clenched the pine nut tightly, her other hand resting on Niuwa’s little head, staring into his eyes seriously, "Niuwa, your sister will definitely buy you a street one day!"

Niuwa: "...?"

A rare confusion flashed in his eyes, but it quickly turned into a crescent moon smile: "Sister, you don’t need to buy me anything, I like you the best."

Lin Nianhe: "Two streets!"

"Really, no..."

"Stop talking, any more and I might not be able to afford it."

"..."

On September 4, 1975, Lin Nianhe promised to buy Niuwa two streets.

After several deep breaths, she was barely able to calm down and finally remembered, "Oh right, what did you say about Zhang Dahu?"

Niuwa extended his hand to remove the hand covering his mouth and replied, "I told him that school just started and you are very busy, asking him to wait patiently for a few days."

Lin Nianhe nodded, "Alright, I’ll give him a test paper later."

Niuwa frowned slightly and his grip on her fingers unconsciously tightened.

Lin Nianhe looked down at him, "You have extra homework too."

Niuwa’s frown relaxed into a smile, "Okay!"

Footsteps approached, other students were returning.

Niuwa twisted out of Lin Nianhe’s arms and scampered back to his own seat with his short little legs, and like nothing had happened, he opened his homework book and started his tasks.

The last class in the afternoon was a self-study period, meant for the kids to do their homework—some of their homes didn’t even have a table, and they had to lie on the kang to write. Principal Wu had visited almost every student’s home and, seeing this, added a self-study class to the timetable.

Lin Nianhe sat by the desk, watching the little ones each returning, shaking off droplets of water from their hands, and smilingly asked, "What did Teacher Wen say?"

He Jianjun happened to pass by, and at her inquiry, he responded, "Teacher Wen said we were idly fussing around, and asked us to help her pluck weeds."

Lin Nianhe: "..."

It must be said, Sister Lan’s educational philosophies are very characteristic of the era.

At that time, there was no such thing as "chicken parenting" education, nor any concept of joyful learning, and educational psychology was completely unheard of.

Teachers and parents’ methods of discipline were simple and rough—disobedience met with beating, poor grades met with beating. Oh, and remember to hit the buttocks, as they’re fleshy and won’t get injured.

Kids back then weren’t treasured; with a bunch of children in the family, parents who were busy all day for food hardly had the energy to take care of everything? Wen Lan once jokingly mentioned that her younger brother ran away from home once, and it took two days before her parents even noticed that a child was missing.

Lin Nianhe saw these kids acting as if this was all normal, guessing that they must have heard similar things frequently at home.

She tapped the tabletop with her finger and said, "I guess Teacher Wen is busy right now, but I really don’t know why we plant corn here instead of sorghum. Should I ask the Team Leader to come and explain?"

Curiosity is human nature, and as soon as the little ones heard her say this, they immediately nodded their heads, eagerly looking at her.

"I’ll go then, you all stay in the classroom and do your homework, and no one is allowed to disrupt the classroom discipline."

"Okay!"

Lin Nianhe left the classroom and first went to find Wang Xue in the second grade next door.

"Sister Xue, I’m going to find Uncle Team Leader, can you help me keep an eye on our class?" Lin Nianhe pointed behind her.

Wang Xue nodded at her, "No problem, go ahead."

Lin Nianhe walked quickly out and headed straight for the Team office.

Li Dahe was puffing on a pipe, his face full of worry.

Lin Nianhe swallowed the words she had at the tip of her tongue and asked first, "Uncle Team Leader, what’s wrong?"

Li Dahe, troubled, saw someone come and couldn’t help but start rambling without caring whether Lin Nianhe could help or not, "I have a meeting at the commune this afternoon, the pigs at Victory Team are sick. I’m worried our pigs might also have issues... Ah, it’s rare that this year is going well, the pigs are also well-fed, if they get sick..."

Lin Nianhe, looking at his increasingly sparse head of hair, asked, "Didn’t a vet go take a look?"

"He did, and prescribed some medicine, but the pigs are losing weight," Li Dahe took a fierce puff of his pipe, choked himself in the process, "cough cough... nothing we can do, just hope our pigs won’t have any trouble."

The state encouraged pig raising, with the slogan "more pigs, more fat; more fat, more grain; more grain, more pigs" present in every production team. Their task here was "one pig per mu," which is to raise as many obligation pigs as there are mu of land available, aside from the obligatory pigs, individual families were allowed and could raise their own, and turning them in could even earn cloth tickets.

Raising pigs was no easy task. In this era without pig feed and where humans struggled to get enough to eat, every ounce of meat on the pigs was hard-earned, and in most people’s eyes, a sick pig was much more serious than a sick person.

Lin Nianhe hadn’t been to the pigsty since she arrived at Ten Miles Team, only hearing that collecting grass for the pigs earned two work points, while feeding the pigs was a job for a few women who couldn’t do fieldwork.

Lin Nianhe thought for a while and said, "I don’t know how to treat swine fever, but I do know a bit about prevention."

Li Dahe’s eyes suddenly lit up, "Really? You really know? Can you do it?"

Lin Nianhe held her hands behind her back, "Uncle Team Leader, your skeptical look really hurts my feelings. When have I ever lied?"

Li Dahe, "Then explain how those eighty eggs came about?"

Lin Nianhe righteously, "Bought from the Cooperative Society."

Li Dahe, "Heh."

Lin Nianhe wanted to argue further, but Li Dahe said, "Alright, tell me the method, I’ll see if it can be done."

"I need to think it over a bit more, this is important and can’t be taken lightly. Let me work on it tonight, and I’ll give it to you first thing tomorrow morning," Lin Nianhe said, "It’s not too urgent to wait overnight."

Actually, Li Dahe wanted to say that he was urgent every minute.

But Lin Nianhe made sense, so he just nodded, "Alright, you got to give it to me tomorrow morning."

"Don’t worry," Lin Nianhe nodded repeatedly, "Since you’re free right now, could you go to our class and explain to the kids why we grow corn here instead of soybeans or sorghum?"

"Why should it be anything else? The commune gave us corn seeds!"

"..."