Chapter 29 started learning

  In the afternoon, Qiu Ye and her brother took away more than 300 remaining rice balls and sold them all out. The siblings were so happy that they ran home, just as they entered the house, they heard their parents' voices in the kitchen.

  "Old Qiu, why don't we just put the tofu in the freezer and sell frozen tofu? You see, the batch of tofu you took out today, although it's better than yesterday's, only sold a few more pieces. But those tens of kilograms of frozen tofu you took out were all sold out."

  "No, frozen tofu is selling well, but that's just temporary. Everyone wants to try something new, and in this weather, more people are eating water tofu than frozen tofu. Don't worry, later on, water tofu will definitely sell better than frozen tofu. There aren't many tofu left today, let's go make some more and send them directly to the cold storage to freeze. By tomorrow noon, they'll be frozen solid, so you can also sell frozen tofu." Qiu dad thinks ahead, wanting to sustain this business in the long run, can't just sell one type of product. Since we have the conditions, let's sell both together.

  "Ah, okay, I'll listen to you. I really didn't think making tofu could be so profitable! Just now I counted it up, today we made over 16 yuan, which is almost half of my monthly salary!" Qiu Ma got excited whenever she mentioned the money they made today.

  "Haha, just this amount of money and you're already so happy, in the future we'll definitely earn even more." Qiu Dad's tone was full of ambition.

  "Well, we're still young and energetic, let's work hard for a few more years, save some money for the kids, and then they'll be set whether it's for school or getting married." said Qiu's mom gently.

  At dinner table, Qiu Ye kept asking her parents about the tofu business in a roundabout way. Her father was annoyed and told her about selling tofu.

  Qiu Ye sighed in her heart, even if her parents liked her, she was still a child and couldn't be trusted. She immediately cheered up, as long as her father wasn't stubborn and could listen to her suggestions. So she said to her father: "Dad, actually Mom can take the frozen tofu to the cold storage on her way to send me off in the morning, and then sell it directly with a pushcart. If we wait for Dad to deliver it, won't that be after the busiest time at the market? It will affect business."

  Qiu Dad thought for a moment and said, "No way, if we take it away that early, by noon the frozen tofu will have melted, all watery and who would still buy it?" Qiu Dad felt this method was good but not feasible.

  "Dad, don't people who sell ice pops usually put them in foam boxes? Why don't you go get one too, and then mom can put the frozen tofu inside so it won't melt, right? And then mom can just take a little bit of the frozen tofu out to show, isn't that good enough?"

  In fact, frozen tofu will also melt when placed in a foam box, but it will be very slow, and selling it at noon is no problem.

  "Ah, your method is worth trying. My daughter is clever and can help her parents think of such a good idea." Mr. Qiu thought for a moment and felt that it was indeed feasible. There were plenty of foam boxes in the cold storage room, as many as they needed, as long as they found a sturdy one to put the frozen tofu in, and when his wife came, he would move it onto the cart and be done with it. His wife wouldn't have to exert herself either. Alright, they would do it that way tomorrow."

  After finishing dinner, Qiu Ye grabbed his brother to do homework and review lessons. An hour later, he went downstairs to his father's house.

  "Dry dad, I and brother came." Qiu Ye entered the house and greeted the dry mother who opened the door, then shouted.

  "Xiao Ye is here, come in quickly. I thought you weren't coming today?" Fang Haibo heard the voice outside and got up from his study to come out.

  "How can I not come? I'm a person of my word, and no one can stop me from becoming a beautiful woman like you, right, Auntie?" Qiu Ye didn't forget to flatter her aunt, making her happy.

  Zhao Shuyan was teased by her godmother and couldn't help but laugh, "Right, Xiaoye is so cute now. After learning a few years of foreign language from your godfather and a few years of painting from your godmother, she'll grow up to be a super beauty."

  "Alright, let your aunt wash some fruit for you. You and Xiaofeng come with me to the study." Fang Haibo was starting to show his teacher demeanor.

  Qiu Ye hastily pulled up her brother Qiu Feng, who was about to dive into the TV. Qiu Feng was still unhappy, so Qiu Ye had to coax him, saying that after finishing his studies with his father, he could watch an hour of TV. Only then did Qiu Feng reluctantly agree to study.

  Arriving at his godfather's study, Qiu Feng became quite excited. The room had three walls of bookshelves, filled with all sorts of books. Qiu Feng was still very polite, although he really liked the books, he didn't touch them and just quickly browsed through the titles, then felt disappointed - they were all in Braille, which he couldn't read.

  Fang Haibo looked at Qiu Feng and nodded secretly, very satisfied with him. He said, "Xiao Feng, I heard that you wanted to join the army when you grew up?"

  "Hmm, when I grow up, I want to take the military academy exam and become a general." Qiu Feng's spirit lifted as soon as he mentioned his ideals.

  "Haha, your ideal is great, you must work hard, Uncle Gang will definitely support you." Fang Haibo said and took out a few books from a bookshelf and handed them to Qiu Feng.

  "Take a look, do you like this kind of impurity?"

  Qiu Feng took a glance and then looked inside, Qiu Ye was very curious and also peeked in. It turned out to be a foreign military magazine with many pictures of weapons, which caught Qiu Feng's attention.

  "Dry dad, isn't there any Chinese characters? I can't understand these tadpole scripts at all." Qiu Feng said with great frustration. Those guns and tanks he had never seen before, and he wanted to take a look at what functions they had, and how they differed from the ones he usually liked, but this manual was full of English, not a single character of which he could understand.

  "Haha, Dad has only this kind of stuff. If you like it and want to know what's inside, you have to learn English with me. If you study hard, in a few months, you should be able to understand these things. Look, my bookshelf is full of such stuff, they're all waiting for you." Fang Haibo was catering to his interests, trying to use these things to spark Qiu Feng's enthusiasm for learning.

  His approach really worked, Qiu Feng was just right for this, so he didn't hesitate at all and agreed to learn English with his godfather.

  "Let's start with English numbers today. You guys sell meatballs every day, right? Learning this will help you practice when you're selling." Fang Haibo said, thinking of his niece and nephew saying "one", "two", "three", "four" together while selling meatballs, he couldn't help but want to laugh.

  That night, Fang Haibo taught them English words from 0 to 20 and also taught them five daily sentences. He said that learning English is about daring to speak and being able to speak, so usually when there's an opportunity, they should apply the learned English in their lives.

  After that, the time belonged to Zhao Shuyan. She originally wanted to teach the two children to draw, but Qiu Feng refused to learn anything. There was no way, so Zhao Shuyan said she would take some time to teach Qiu Feng calligraphy. Her own calligraphy wasn't a strong suit either, but teaching kids to practice writing characters was still doable.

  Qiu Feng still wanted to object, but Qiu Ye's one sentence made him speechless. "Brother, you're going to be a general in the future, can you take out these scribbled characters with confidence? Aren't you afraid that your subordinates will laugh at you?"

  Zhao Shuyan also said: "Right, they say a person's words represent the person, represent this person's face. We should at least arm our own face well. You're a big man after all."

  Finally, Qiu Feng was defeated and Qiu Ye and his godmother made a deal. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, she would learn to paint, while Qiu Feng would watch TV on his days off. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, the two of them would practice calligraphy with their godmother together.