She Only Cares About Cultivation

As for math, addition and subtraction within one hundred, and if there’s time, learning multiplication and division, will suffice.

It’s just first and second-grade elementary school curriculum, easy for her, but gathering enough people won’t be an easy task.

Most people are still quite traditional, so the mobilization work afterward relies on those key figures in the village to speak up, meaning they probably won’t be ready until early December.

It’s now mid-November, and at least half a month is still needed. An Ran was born on the eighth of the tenth month on the Lunar Calendar, and it’s currently the twenty-fifth of the tenth month on the Lunar Calendar. Really counting the days on your fingers.

Literate people in this era are like rare specimens, and the proportion of educated people in a village does not exceed five percent.

The state realized this and called for literacy campaigns across the country, but it seems this area is starting a bit late. There should have been such policies at the beginning of the Republic, and now that fifty-three is almost over, it is indeed quite late.

After sending off the village chief and the others, Qiuxia and Caihua looked at An Yi excitedly.

"This is great, sister. Becoming a teacher is much easier than working in the fields and it won’t delay you from looking after the child. This preschool must be connected with the elementary school."

An Yi also felt it had solved her biggest future problem, "Indeed it’s not bad. Do you two know how to read?"

Both of them shook their heads simultaneously, "No, we’ve never been to school, always working since we were small. Never dreamed of such a good thing."

An Yi thought there was nothing much to do, and with half a month left, taking care of a child between three people was manageable. She first taught them to memorize the multiplication table, write their own names. The small blackboard and chalk were her spoils of war. Three people sat cross-legged on the kang, one teaching two learning, and one babbling on their own, the atmosphere was particularly nice.

It didn’t delay them from sewing soles, making clothes, diaper pads. With laughter and conversation, outside it was frozen, but inside it was as warm as spring. Sometimes it would get so hot they’d sweat while roasting sweet potatoes, potatoes, steamed buns, glutinous rice dumplings and such became their snacks.

When the sisters were around, they’d brew milk powder for the child to drink. Milk powder was already sealed in an unmarked jar. When they weren’t paying attention, only then did she feed milk from the space. After three or five days, it seemed that the child had gained some weight. With so many good things nurturing, nutrition caught up, and immunity improved, even getting over a cold unconsciously. Occasionally there were boogers, requiring effort to help pick them out for the baby.

Sometimes there would be colic, making some nights hard to endure. Fortunately, milk supplemented her at night, so she didn’t suffer much. If there was lack of sleep, she’d sleep a while in the space, no harm done.

When An Ran was just brought back, her skin was yellowish, suspected jaundice. After being fed Chinese herbal water containing white wormwood for many days, it gradually relieved.

After the Full Moon, An Ran’s skin not only became much fairer but even her eyes appeared more vibrant. Her hearing was fine; she could turn her head following her cues. Overall, she seemed like a healthy child.

However, everything was blurry for the baby at this time. As long as she could follow things in her hand with her eyes, her vision should be fine.

Because the Spiritual Spring water helped detox her, her skin was rosy white, smooth and adorable, like a peeled egg.

But compared to the chubby babies of later generations, she could only be described as frail. Fortunately, being a full-term baby with meticulous care, health-wise there wouldn’t be any big problems.

This boundary of chubbiness needed careful control, lest it arouses others’ envy and jealousy.

In such extraordinary times, she dare not let others grasp any handle.

But before four months, her only staple food could be milk; nothing else would do. Even if someone suggested rice oil soup, she couldn’t do it, worried the baby’s stomach would be overburdened, indigestion persisted, so it must endure a bit longer.

The sisters, though not going outside to sell tofu, if any households in the village wanted tofu, they’d tell the sisters in advance, have a day or two to make it all at once. Although they didn’t earn as much as outside, staying idle was still idle.

With the baby tying her down, she was even less willing to go out. The sisters often came over to fetch water, wash diapers, cook meals, not even making meals at their own homes. Since the baby was brought back by them, not caring about anything would be really inconsiderate, so they proactively took up the diaper duty.