Teacher Tang, the Life Mentor (2)

Jiang Xiaoman immediately showed the system a look of sympathy, as if she saw in it herself who couldn’t understand anything in the textbook full of words. She comforted it, “It’s okay. Everyone has things they do not understand. Sometimes I also don’t understand what you’re thinking.”

“……En.”

Jiang Xiaoman felt much better after chatting with the system. She sniffed her nose and focused on listening to the teacher again.

This time her mind was clearer, and she could keep up with whatever the teacher was saying. However, it was still hard to read the words.

Previously, when Jiang Xiaoman got bored outside the classroom, she would pick up a stick and tease the ants outside. While her ears listened to the teacher’s lessons, her mind would be distracted by something else, and she didn’t learn a lot of words. Now, she would wholeheartedly pay attention to the shape of the words, and not just memorize the simpler ones.

After one session, she became so tired that she started sweating profusely.

She wanted to sleep when she was tired, but she felt that Teacher Tang would laugh at her. It was too embarrassing if she could not even last a day!

Jiang Xiaoman endured the shock and discomfort and persevered for the whole day. As soon as school was over, she ran away in tears.

After packing up, she ran to Teacher Tang’s dormitory and cried when she saw him.

“Teacher Tang, I don’t want to come anymore.” She had persevered for a whole day, Teacher won’t laugh at her, right?

Teacher Tang did not say anything or became angry. He squatted down and asked her, “Why is that?”

Jiang Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief and said while crying. “I… It’s too difficult. I can’t. The words in the textbook… They know me, but I don’t know them.”

The first grade had already gone for half a semester, it was indeed too difficult to hope that Jiang Xiaoman could keep up without any obstacles.

In the first place, that was not what Teacher Tang expected her to do.

He asked, “Xiaoman, the words are so hard to recognize. Do you know why I wanted you to come to school?”

She wiped her tears and answered seriously. “Teacher Tang wants to pull the seedling to help it grow¹.”

Teacher Tang was taken aback and laughed.

The more he laughed, the more she cried. Teacher Tang was finally barely able to stop his laughter. He thought to himself that this child was indeed smart, and she was able to apply what she had learned. It had only been a few days since she learned it, but she could already apply her knowledge in real life.

“It’s not a good thing to pull the seedling to help it grow. We should use this as a warning not to do something like this.” Teacher Tang said sincerely. “I asked you to come to school because I want you to discover the joys of learning.”

“But studying is not fun at all. I just want to go home and sleep…”

“Of course studying is not fun, but it is fun when you learn something after studying.” Teacher Tang prepared an example and asked her. “When the Teacher asked about the idiom ‘haste makes waste’ and you answered it, the Teacher praised you for being smart. Weren’t you happy?”

“Yes.” Jiang Xiaoman nodded, still somewhat confused.

When the system was bound to her, it once said that she was the smartest child in the village. She was secretly very excited, but no one knew about it.

If she was the only one who knew that she was smart, then what was the point? She only became happy when the others praised her.

What made her happiest was listening to people praising her for being smart.

Teacher Tang continued advising her and said. “So, don’t you need to study harder so you can be happy? Is this not the truth? Learning is fun, but right now you haven’t felt it yet, so Teacher wants to guide you.”

Jiang Xiaoman finally understood.

She played with her fingers and still tried to argue. “But I’m still young, I’m only three and a half years old. All the other kids in the first grade are older than me, and it’s hard for me to keep up. Can’t I come back when I’m a bit older?”

1. As a reminder, this is how “haste makes waste” is originally written in the raw. It makes less sense to use the English equivalent in this sentence so I’m using the literal translation here.

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