Training the Heavens

Chapter 144 Zhuang Tunan

"I've become a fucking child!" Gao Jialin was speechless when he opened his eyes again and looked at the young face in the mirror. It was a good thing to experience a new life, but wasn't he a little too young?
He closed his eyes again and digested his new identity. Zhuang Tunan, now 11 years old, is in the sixth grade of primary school. It will be time for him to take the middle school entrance exam in another semester and a half. He has good academic performance and should be able to get into a key middle school in the city.

My father, Zhuang Chaoying, was a teacher at the middle school affiliated to the Second Cotton Mill in Suzhou. He was a foolishly filial person. It would have been fine if you could be filial to your parents by yourself, but he insisted on dragging the whole family along. My mother, Huang Ling, often quarreled with him about this.

My mother, Huang Ling, came from a relatively well-off family. Her parents had a high social status and were well-educated.

The name Zhuang Tunan was given by my grandfather. It comes from "Zhuangzi - Xiaoyaoyou": "If the wind is not strong enough, it will not be able to support large wings. Therefore, at a distance of 90,000 miles, the wind is below. Then I will cultivate the wind, carry the blue sky on my back, and nothing will stop it. Then I will fly south."

Tunan means ambition and a bright future, which also reflects his grandfather's expectations for him.

Huang Ling's parents were affected to a certain extent during the movement, which also delayed her studies and marriage. She went to work in a cotton mill after graduating from junior high school. Marrying into a Zhuang family was considered marrying down, but it was considered marrying up in that era.

This also cultivated her cautious and tolerant character. When encountering problems, she did not dare to express her dissatisfaction directly. Most of the time, she endured it silently. She did not fight or compete in work and life, and performed well, which earned her many commendations from the factory.

Now the factory is distributing houses, and these commendations have given her a lot of points. She has a good chance of getting a new house, so that their family of four will no longer have to squeeze in such a cramped little house.

Zhuang Tunan looked around the house in front of him. The space of only about ten square meters was packed full. His parents and younger sister Zhuang Xiaoting slept on a slightly larger bed, and he slept on a small bed.

There is a desk on the headboard of the small bed. Zhuang Chaoying corrects homework and prepares lesson plans. He and Zhuang Xiaoting both use this desk to do their homework. Sometimes when they arrive at the same time, someone has to lie on a stool to do their homework.

Various awards are posted on several walls, including Huang Ling's Model Worker award, as well as awards that Zhuang Tunan and Zhuang Xiaoting received in school. This has become the most proud thing for their family.

The rest of the house was rather shabby, with not much decent furniture and few new clothes in the wardrobe. The brother and sister's clothes were slightly better, while Zhuang Chaoying and Huang Ling's clothes looked like they had been worn for many years.

Alas, Zhuang Tunan sighed. Logically speaking, their family's life should not be so hard. Both of them have formal jobs, and they work in a good unit like a cotton mill. Their combined monthly salary is more than 100 yuan. It doesn't cost much to go to school now, and they don't have to worry about housing. They are fully capable of living a better life.

But who can blame Zhuang Chaoying for having so many troublesome family members? His father is patriarchal and loves his youngest son. When he went to the countryside, he drove his daughter Zhuang Hualin to Guizhou. She has not been able to come back until now, so she can only get married and settle down there.

After Zhuang Chaoying started working, he handed over all his salary and had no savings at all. Even after he got married, they owed a lot of debts from the wedding and asked Zhuang Chaoying to continue handing over his salary. They felt at ease using Zhuang Chaoying's salary to save money for their youngest son's wedding.

During the Chinese New Year and the birthdays of the two old guys, they have to prepare gifts to send to them, which is another considerable expense.

Huang Ling was so angry that she took the opportunity of giving birth to a child to slowly ask for part of the money back. Now Zhuang Chaoying receives a salary of 25 yuan a month, and hands over 45 yuan to his parents, leaving only yuan for his own use. In other words, the family is still mainly supported by Huang Ling's salary.

So while other dual-income families lived comfortably, their children well fed and well-fed, Zhuang Tunan and Zhuang Xiaoting, brother and sister, were left with a hard time. Seeing other students enjoying snacks and playing with toys, they could only envy them, unable to ask for anything from their families. Other grandparents loved their grandchildren, but those two were different. They only paid lip service to Zhuang Tunan's affection, at most letting him sit at the table during meals. They never gave him pocket money or gifts, let alone anything.

Zhuang Xiaoting was even more pitiful. They didn't even care about their own daughter, let alone their granddaughter. When she went to her grandparents' house, she had no status at all and didn't even get a good look from them.

Besides favoring boys over girls, maybe it's also because when Zhuang Xiaoting was born, Huang Ling used the excuse of raising the child to take back some of the money Zhuang Chaoying had handed over. So that's why Old Deng always calls her a money-loser.

Damn, such biological father, grandparents are really the best. After looking through Zhuang Tunan’s memories for a while, he was furious and wanted to teach these guys a lesson right away.

Seeing him standing there in a daze, Zhuang Xiaoting was a little curious, "Brother, why haven't you done your homework yet?"

"Oh, I'll do it right away." Zhuang Tunan opened his homework book and looked at the topic he was supposed to write today. He was speechless for a moment:

1. Within the specified timeframe, Factory A plans to produce 120 machines, and Factory B plans to produce 135 machines. It is known that Factory B produces 3 more machines per month than Factory A. Factory A completes the production two months ahead of schedule, and Factory B completes the production three months ahead of schedule. How many machines does Factory A and Factory B produce each month?
2. The volume of a cone is 18 cubic meters and the base area is 3 square meters. How many meters is its height?
You're going to test me, a 985 PhD student, with this? Zhuang Tunan wrote down the answer almost without thinking, and finished the homework in a short while.

He was just thinking of going out for a walk to see what Suzhou was like in 1976, and how it differed from when he came here in the last world to eat fried eel paste and crab roe dumplings.

As soon as I lifted the door curtain, I saw Zhuang Chaoying and Huang Ling walking towards me one after another. Zhuang Chaoying had a smile on his face, but Huang Ling had a drooping face and looked very unhappy.

Zhuang Chaoying saw him and asked, "Tunan, have you finished your homework?"

"It's over." Zhuang Tunan's response was a bit stiff.

Zhuang Chaoying didn't notice, "Then don't rush out to play, go home first, I have something to tell you."

Zhuang Tunan had no choice but to turn around and go back into the house. Zhuang Chaoying followed and said cheerfully, "Grandma's birthday is tomorrow. Let's go celebrate together. Tunan, Xiaoting, are you happy?"

"I'm not happy!" Zhuang Tunan stated his attitude directly, "I don't want to go. Otherwise, don't take me with you."

Zhuang Chaoying's face immediately drooped. "Grandma only has one birthday every year. You are the eldest grandson, how can you not go?"

(End of this chapter)