The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 127: Teaching My Son How to Be a Person Through Reality

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: Teaching My Son How to Be a Person Through Reality

Sun Feifei originally thought that with Ning Yuan helping her deal with the trouble, the worst she would get was a warning or a demerit, but instead, the school dismissed her outright.

Infuriated, she immediately went to confront Ning Yuan.

Facing the enraged Sun Feifei, Ning Yuan was exceptionally calm.

"Don’t worry, Feifei, I will naturally keep my promise. There’s nothing that can be done about the school, so I’ve arranged a better job for you."

At these words, Sun Feifei’s anger dissipated by half in an instant.

And when she heard that the new job Ning Yuan found for her was in public relations at a German company, she was both shocked and delighted.

Being a teacher might sound noble and sacred, but the actual income is especially low, and the only way to raise it is through promotions.

For a young teacher just starting out like her, getting a high-ranking title would take at least ten to eight years, and for some, it might never happen in their lifetime.

But working for a foreign company not only meant her income would multiply but also provided ample opportunities to meet a variety of social elites and celebrities.

By then, she could completely rely on her beauty and abilities to find a wealthy partner, or if not, she would still have other ways to turn to.

Thinking of the discarded medicine, Sun Feifei’s eyes shone with a confident gleam.

---

Shen Mingzhu was unaware of the series of events that had transpired with Sun Feifei as she had been busy with her career.

However, things weren’t going as smoothly as she had imagined.

She visited several decent-sized local food factories, but she either couldn’t get through the factory gates or, once her intentions were heard, wasn’t allowed to finish speaking before she was driven away.

Shen Mingzhu wasn’t discouraged, though.

She rested for two days, adjusted her mood, took the new dress made especially to Xiangying’s measurements, and the snacks she made, and went to visit Xiangying’s home with Pei Ziheng.

When Xiangying heard that Shen Mingzhu had made a new dress specially for her, she politely refused a few times before happily accepting.

Xiangying was a clever person and guessed that Shen Mingzhu’s visit and gift likely meant she was asking for a favor.

"Mingzhu, if you have something to say, just say it. I’ll do my best to help if I can, but if I can’t, there’s nothing I can do," said Xiangying.

Xiangying was straightforward, and Shen Mingzhu was just as honest about her purpose.

Xiangying’s husband was an official at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, with a network that was surely much broader than hers.

Shen Mingzhu wanted to ask Xiangying’s husband to introduce her to some managers of food factories or enterprises, even just a chance to speak would be enough.

Xiangying verbally agreed to help her but didn’t make any solid promises.

Shen Mingzhu knew such matters couldn’t be rushed and so switched the topic to other things.

Visiting Xiangying was just a shot in the dark for her, and she hadn’t held too much hope.

After all, including this visit, they had only met three times.

Good things take time.

On the way home, Shen Mingzhu led Pei Ziheng, picking paths under the shade of the trees as much as possible.

It was already the end of April, and the sun carried a hint of summer’s strength, feeling somewhat hot on the skin.

"Mom."

"Hmm? Are you tired?"

Shen Mingzhu looked down at her son.

Pei Ziheng shook his head, "I really want to grow up fast."

Shen Mingzhu teased him, saying, "I wish you’d grow up fast too. Should we buy you some pig feed to eat? Pigs get big and round in less than half a year after feeding on it, and if you eat it, you’ll certainly become plump and chubby like a pig very quickly."

Pei Ziheng rolled his eyes beautifully, "Mom, you’re so silly."

"Nonsense, how am I silly?"

"If I’m a piglet, wouldn’t that make you a sow?"

"..."

She, who had been educated for more than a decade, was just demeaned by her son who was only kindergarten educated.

But then she thought about it, and the realization that such a smart child was hers brightened her mood again.

’’Mom, when I grow up, I’m going to make a lot of money and open the world’s biggest snack factory for you, so you can be the chairman,’’ he said.

Hearing her son’s reason for wanting to grow up, Shen Mingzhu felt as refreshed as if, in the peak of summer, she had gulped down an ice-cold Sprite, with every pore in her body feeling cool and comfortable.

Even if her career didn’t take off, even if she could only be a housewife for her whole life, what did it matter?

Raising a ’villain’ son to become a talent contributing to the nation and benefiting society, wasn’t that also an achievement and a source of happiness?

After returning home and waiting for a week without any news from Xiangying, Shen Mingzhu basically knew there was no hope.

She decided not to struggle for a while.

One reason was that it had gotten hot, and she didn’t like going out, and the second was that there were two months left until the self-study exams in July. She planned to focus on the exams first and then make further plans after the July exams were over.

----

One day, as Pei Ziheng was coming home from school, he suddenly said to Shen Mingzhu, "Mom, I don’t want to go to kindergarten next semester."

Shen Mingzhu thought it was amusing and asked, "If you don’t go to kindergarten, what do you want to do?"

"I want to go to the first grade."

Looking at her son’s serious and beautiful little face, Shen Mingzhu stopped joking.

"Son, at every age, there’s something one should do. At my age, my job is to take care of you, to let you grow up happy and safe. And right now, your job is to go to kindergarten and have fun playing. When you get a little older, when you’re seven, then you can go to the first grade."

"Mom, what you’re saying is incorrect," he said.

"At your age, you should be having a baby, but you’ve already had a son as big as me ahead of time. Since you could have a son early, why can’t I start first grade early?"

Shen Mingzhu: "..."

Unable to out-talk him, Shen Mingzhu decided to use reality to teach her son about life.

"Son, this is a set of first-grade-level math problems, a hundred in total, each worth one point. If you can score 80 points, I will send you to first grade in the second half of the year."

"Okay."

Looking at her son’s serious and beautiful little face, Shen Mingzhu chuckled inwardly: If only it were so easy to fool someone with a kindergarten diploma.

She had carefully selected these hundred questions.

Seventy of them were at kindergarten level, and the rest were content that would only be learned in the second semester of the first grade.

Her idea was to make her son realize the difficulty and retreat without unduly damaging his confidence.

As an experienced mother, Shen Mingzhu’s planning was incredibly considerate and thorough.

----

Studying until ten o’clock, Shen Mingzhu closed the book in her hand and got up to go to the next room to tell her son to rest.

But upon opening the door, she saw her son sitting on the couch watching TV.

Had those thirty difficult questions defeated him? Had he given up?

Just as Shen Mingzhu was about to approach and offer a few words of comfort, Pei Ziheng jumped off the couch first, picked up the notebook from the coffee table, and ran towards her with a patter of feet.

"Mom, I finished all one hundred questions!"

Shen Mingzhu took the notebook and flipped through it; the questions were indeed all answered, but whether the answers were correct was another matter.

Shen Mingzhu went back to her room to grab a red pen and sat down on the couch to mark the answers seriously.

Pei Ziheng sat quietly beside her, playing with a strand of her hair in his small hand.

The first question, the second, the third...

After marking all one hundred questions and seeing the page filled with red checkmarks, Shen Mingzhu fell silent for a while then turned to look at her son.

"Can you fetch the kitchen knife for mommy?"

"Mommy wants to split open your little head to see just how it’s made up inside, how can you be so smart?"

Pei Ziheng: "..."

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