newbobooks Chapter 485
Chapter 485
Her family's Little Four suddenly got a fever, vomiting and having diarrhea.He wasn't getting any better and cried for his mom every day.
Si Nian's heart clenched when she heard this.
She immediately went to the school to ask for leave, planning to go home early to check on him.
Who knew that after she had packed all her things, Zhou Yueshen called her in the afternoon, telling her not to worry. He said the child was fine, just had a slight cough, and the fever had broken the same day; it was all an act.
Her mother saw how pitifully her son missed his mom, so she helped him lie, hoping to get Si Nian to come back earlier.
Si Nian was furious upon hearing this. She originally wanted Zhou Yueshen to teach their son a good lesson, but thinking about how the child hadn't seen her in so long, she felt that he wasn't entirely to blame.
He just used the wrong method, causing her so much worry.
True, the child had been with her since he was a baby. Now suddenly taken back to their hometown by his father, in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people, she couldn't blame him too much.
Si Nian sighed and said to Zhou Yueshen, "I originally planned to bring the kids back together during the holidays. When I got the call today, I was so worried that I asked the teacher for leave. I figured it wouldn't be long until the holidays anyway, so going back early would be fine. I didn't expect it to be a lie."
Her mother was the same, corrupted by the boy, actually telling such a lie to deceive her.
Si Nian felt a headache coming on.
Before having her own biological child, she raised the three little ones very casually and never worried much.
Only after having her own son did she realize that being a mother was truly not easy.
After all, when she took over the three children, they were already older and sensible.
Even though Yaoyao was small, she didn't cry or make a fuss.
But her son was different; he grew up in a happy and perfect family from a young age.
Naturally, he couldn't handle sudden separations.
He had a father and a mother, so he felt he could cry and throw tantrums.
Unlike the other kids, who wouldn't say a word even if they were sad, just bottling it up inside.
The contrast at this moment was so obvious.
Si Nian thought to herself: It's better to be a stepmother.
Ultimately, she decided to wait until the kids had their summer vacation before going back.
Before the summer vacation arrived, the school suddenly organized swimming training sessions.
Worried that some children might sneak out to play in the water during the hot summer and have accidents, the school made it mandatory to teach the kids how to swim.
In past years, many children drowned during the summer holidays, making this an issue parents cared deeply about.
However, a fee was required.
After all, the swimming coaches weren't teaching for free.
The parents of most boys paid the fee, but only a minority of girls' parents did.
Since girls weren't as playful as boys and wouldn't strip down to swim outside, parents felt they could save a good amount of money.
But Si Nian believed that both boys and girls needed to learn.
Learning to swim was a good thing; she fully supported the school in this regard.
After all, something that didn't cost much to learn at school would cost a lot more to learn in the future.
So, she paid for all three of her children.
Si Nian wasn't sure about the coaches' skill levels, but she felt that learning to swim was still somewhat dangerous.
Since the children were still young, she went over personally to keep an eye on them so she could rescue them in time if any accidents happened.
She wasn't the only one; many parents showed up.
Boys made up eighty percent of the swimming participants, while girls were only twenty percent.
Most girls felt quite shy, as the swimsuits were thin.
But there were also some who were quite confident and natural, not feeling embarrassed at all.
The school's swimming pool was super large and looked quite old; it was probably built a long time ago.
Looking at it, she couldn't help but sigh. In her past life, she only had a swimming pool in high school, yet in this era, primary schools already had them.
Regional development truly varied drastically. Things that people here experienced in the 1980s, she only saw in the 1990s.
Si Nian led the kids to change clothes. Yaoyao wore her swimsuit, her chubby little rolls squeezing out. Frowning her small brows, she said, "Mom, it's a bit small."
The Second Child laughed at his sister, "I told you to eat less just now but you didn't listen. Now your flab is showing, isn't it?"
After saying that, he looked around and didn't see the pretty little girl who was with his sister before. He hurriedly asked, "Yaoyao, didn't your desk mate, the little girl, come?"
Yaoyao asked, baffled, "What little girl?"
"The one who is super pretty, as pretty as Mom, the little girl with the heart?"
Little girl with the heart?
Yaoyao thought carefully, and a familiar figure popped into her mind, but it wasn't a girl. She shook her head and said, "That's not the little girl with the heart, that's the little boy with the heart. Second brother is so silly, you couldn't even tell."
"Impossible, how could a boy be that pretty," the Second Child said, waving his hand with a laugh.
But as he spoke, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Wait, could that pretty little girl be the boy who looked like a girl that his brother mentioned?
The Second Child: "?"
Crash, something seemed to fall to the ground and shatter into pieces.
Oh, it was the Second Child's broken heart.
The coaches for each class were different, so everyone was separated.
Si Nian instructed the Eldest Child to keep an eye on the Second Child. This wasn't like their usual sports; they couldn't just jump into the water casually.
She then led her daughter to the other side.
The first graders learned even less. Because people felt the children were too young and didn't need to learn, there were only seven or eight kids from each class.
Right now, they were all gathered together, a group of little kids earnestly listening to the coach teach swimming knowledge.
Although they didn't fully understand, it didn't stop them from finding it fun.
The originally heartbroken Second Child immediately forgot his sorrow upon hearing they would go into the water to swim. He raised his hand and asked the teacher, "Teacher, is swimming just doing what a frog does?"
The teacher replied, "That's breaststroke. It only looks simple, but it's actually not easy. However, it's a relatively easy stroke to pick up. If you learn it earnestly, it will definitely come in handy someday."
"Of course! This is just teaching you the methods, giving you an emergency survival skill in case of danger. It doesn't mean you can go swimming anywhere once you learn it. The water outside is not like a swimming pool; it's full of danger. Everyone must remember, absolutely no swimming in the wild!"
The students looked at each other and nodded in unison.
The Second Child originally wanted to show off how he had been playing in the water since he was little, but hearing the teacher say it was wrong, he immediately shut his mouth in fright.
So he had been doing bad things since he was a kid.
Good thing he didn't say it out loud, otherwise, if Mom found out, she would definitely be angry.
He covered his mouth.
"You're the sports committee member, right? Do you know how to swim? What are you usually good at?" The teacher looked at the Second Child, who was a head taller than the other kids.
He had long heard that this kid was the school's star athlete.
Looking at his physique now, the teacher couldn't help but nod.
The Second Child immediately said, "Teacher, the thing I'm worst at is swimming!"
The teacher smiled and patted his head. Seeing his haircut, he found it amusing again. He covered the corner of his mouth with his hand, stifled a laugh with a cough, and said, "Alright, then I'll teach you. Everyone, watch closely."
He taught the Second Child hand-in-hand. The Second Child's face was written with agony. Was swimming really this hard to learn? If he had known it was this difficult, he wouldn't have pretended he didn't know how.
If he had known swimming was this hard before, he definitely wouldn't have been able to learn it.
Just as he was thinking this, a conflict broke out somewhere over there, and a child lost their footing and fell into the water.
The teacher jumped in fright. Just as he was about to rush over to save the drowning child, the kid beside him suddenly slipped away like a loach, paddling through the water toward them at an incredible speed.
Logically speaking, the dog paddle is the slowest swimming stroke.
But this child swam very fast. By the time anyone reacted, he had already grabbed the crying, breathless child and hauled him up onto dry land.
Everyone gathered around. Fortunately, the child had only choked on a little water and was otherwise fine.
By the time Si Nian heard the commotion and came over, the child had already been taken away.
She only heard from bystanders that a child had fallen into the water while playing, and another child had saved him.
Speaking of that child, everyone got excited.
"Did you see? That child has a huge heart shape shaved on his head, it's so cute."
"What a kindhearted child, and with such good taste. When I get home, I'm going to get my son a haircut like that too."
Si Nian: "..."
She looked up and saw Second Child scratching the back of his head, talking to the teacher.
The heart on his head was particularly conspicuous and prominent.
The teacher had a wooden expression. "Didn't you say you didn't know how to swim?"
Second Child replied, "Teacher, I said I was worst at it, not that I didn't know how."
Teacher: "..."
"Then where did you learn the dog paddle? Did a coach at an outside swimming pool teach you? It looks pretty standard to me."
Second Child shook his head and said, "I learned it from my family's Da Huang."
In the past, it wasn't convenient to bathe at home. Second Child thought Da Huang was stinky, so occasionally, when the weather was nice, he would drag him to the river in the village to wash. That was exactly how Da Huang swam.
He just copied him for a bit, and surprisingly, it actually worked.
He learned it in no time.
So whenever he had free time, he used to love sneaking off to catch fish and shrimp.
Teacher: "Da Huang?"
Second Child: "Yeah, Da Huang is my family's dog. He's known how to swim since he was a puppy. He didn't even have to learn, he's super awesome."
In his heart, he couldn't help but grumble: learning to swim from Da Huang was so easy. Da Huang didn't say a single word, and he learned it.
The teacher had just talked for ages and had only managed to confuse him.
It really made him want to pull his hair out.
Hearing that a dog had taught him, the teacher's mouth twitched.
He didn't want to speak anymore.
Since he knew how to swim and clearly went into the water often, the teacher let him go play on his own and pulled the other children back to continue the lesson.
Second Child was bored, so he started swimming by himself.
His head stayed above the water, so he didn't need to take breaths. He paddled with his limbs, moving forward at a slower pace, looking very leisurely.
It just looked a bit comical.
Everyone was full of envy, but someone also mocked him: "What's the big deal? This kind of dog paddle is the easiest. He looks just like a dog, it's hilarious."
Just as those words were spoken, Second Child suddenly leaned back, raised one arm, kicked his legs, and started swimming backward. It was actually the backstroke.
The kid who had just spoken opened his mouth but made no sound.
A group of children gathered around, clamoring for Zhou Zehan to help teach them.
Second Child was very interested. He immediately demonstrated and said, "Look, this is super easy. You'll get it just by watching. I'll show you."
Everyone nodded at once. Second Child demonstrated by swimming a lap and came back to look at the crowd. The crowd was still a bit bewildered. "Why aren't I moving?"
"Yeah, is it really done like this?"
"It's exactly like this. Watch again."
Second Child demonstrated two more times in a row. Seeing that everyone still looked totally confused, he furrowed his little brows and said in disgust, "How are you guys dumber than me? I only watched my dog swim once, and I learned it."
The crowd: "..." It felt like a really dirty insult.