A new mission, Conquering the Vegetable Garden

An Huaixu met his gaze, paused for a moment, and shifted it to the painting.

Just then, a smiling voice sounded from behind An Huaixu; “Fantastic.”

Shi Yun didn’t react and his first thought was – An Huaixu can actually say such nice things, has the sun risen in the west?!

His second thought was, the voice is a bit thick, does An Huaixu have a cold, or is his voice changing a bit late?

In fact, these humorous thoughts flashed by in no more than three seconds, because he quickly tilted his head and saw Qi Guang behind An Huaixu.

He had searched online for information on all the guests, and he greatly respected Qi Guang, who was also a teacher.

“Teacher Qi, hello.”

“Teacher Shi.”

The two briefly shook hands.

Qi Guang’s eyes were full of hope for the younger generation and he praised,

“I watched half of your class from the back, I’ve studied adults a lot, but I really don’t understand children.

I’m especially curious, how exactly did you manage to mobilize the enthusiasm of all the children in just one class?”

Shi Yun: “Personally, the simplest way is to imagine yourself as a child.”

Qi Guang understood, thought of Qi Miao’s lively appearance, and sighed,

“This child has never been close to me since she was a child, she’s especially attached to my wife.

This time, I finally had time to bring her out to relax, but I didn’t expect her to start acting up as soon as she arrived, my wife has spoiled her too much.”

Hearing something was wrong, Shi Yun, regardless of the difference in status, shook his head, rejected his idea, and said sincerely:

“Teacher Qi, children are like seedlings, they will only grow healthily if you apply the fertile soil of ‘attention’ and water the spring of ‘care’.

If irreparable damage has already been done, you can start with the child’s interests and become friends with the child first.”

After he finished speaking, he handed Qi Guang a painting in his hand:

“No child doesn’t love their parents, there is Miao Miao’s answer in this painting.”

Qi Guang was a little stunned, as if he didn’t expect him to refute himself so directly.

He subconsciously raised his hand to take the painting.

“Miao Miao’s painting is very clever, it uses the House-Tree-Person test, you can interpret it from the sandbox test.”

After Shi Yun added the last sentence, he bowed respectfully and left.

The sandbox test can explore a person’s inner world, the house represents a sense of security, the tree is a state of growth, and the person is self-awareness.

Qi Guang looked down at the painting, and the first thing he saw was a small square house, with fences surrounding both sides, representing the test subject being strong, responsible, and lacking a sense of security in their heart.

High trees with falling leaves indicate pressure from the outside world.

People –

Without a sandbox test analysis, Qi Guang could tell.

The character of the ‘father’ stood in the middle, with small bean eyes and a straight mouth, making the whole person look extremely dignified.

His figure was taller than the house and trees behind him, and under his arms, his wife stood on the edge, holding his two daughters on the left and right, smiling and looking up at him.

Qi Guang seemed to understand something, his eyes gradually softened, and his fingers rubbed the faces of their mother and daughters.

“I always hoped that my child would be a very successful person in the future… Did I put too much pressure on her?”

No one could answer this question for him, and he could only find the answer himself.

After Shi Yun left, An Huaixu also left.

He received a notice from the principal to have the guests who had finished the interview go to the backyard to wait, and a meeting would be held in five minutes.

On the way to the backyard, An Huaixu caught a glimpse of Shi Yun running towards Principal Zhang out of the corner of his eye, childishly waving the painting.

His eyes flashed with a different color and he gave him a deep look.

Five minutes later, the other guests arrived one after another, gathered together to talk, and An Huaixu, finding it troublesome, stood by the wall, looking up at the locust tree that was half-extending in from outside the wall.

The locust flowers in City N in August were in full bloom, the white flowers hanging down from the green leaves, swaying in the wind.

An Huaixu reached out and caught a petal, held it between his fingers, and rubbed it carefully.

The pleasant fragrance wrapped around the tip of his nose.

As if sensing something, he turned his head to look at the stone archway and saw a man in pink and Principal Zhang walking side by side, chatting and laughing.

The man met his gaze and waved happily, looking like he was very familiar with him.

An Huaixu frowned and turned his head away without blinking.

Shi Yun was used to his personality, so he didn’t have any complaints.

Jiang Song greeted him and asked him how the class went.

Shi Yun chatted with him intermittently.

An Huaixu didn’t care much, but the sound of them discussing the children was very loud.

He impatiently glanced over and saw Jiang Song and Shi Yun standing together, one tall and one short, one delicate and one gentle, their auras extremely harmonious.

Turning back, he unconsciously glanced again, and Pin Chi joined them, the three of them shoulder to shoulder, and Shi Yun smiled like a flower, not knowing what they were talking about.

Turning back again, Wei Ziyu’s voice rang out…

Back and forth several times, he finally realized his sick behavior, tapped his left cheek with the tip of his tongue, and ‘tsk’ed unhappily.

Just then, Principal Zhang finally opened his mouth to rescue him.

“That’s right, there is a deserted vegetable garden in the back mountain of the kindergarten.

For the sake of the children’s food health, we need everyone’s help to restart the kindergarten’s vegetable garden.”

Wei Ziyu said loudly, waving his hand domineeringly and getting up:

“I’m an expert in this area. Listen to my command later, and I guarantee that we’ll quickly clear the wasteland!”

Pin Chi: “Are we going to the vegetable garden in our free time?”

He sensed something was wrong and interrupted Wei Ziyu, who was happy by himself: “But Teacher Wei, you have a class in the middle class in the third and fourth sessions, right?”

Wei Ziyu, who had forgotten about this, waved goodbye to his happy vegetable garden, giving a performance that showed what it meant to be happy for nothing: “…”

Qi Guang also missed it very much: “The children now are not like us back then. I remember when I was only half grown, I had to go to the fields with my dad.

Although it was hard, the joy of harvesting crops that you planted yourself was infinite.”

Hearing this, two students who had galloped under Qi Guang laughed.

Qiao Yu laughed a few times and then became embarrassed, pursing his lips and lowering his head.

Pin Chi, who was a few years younger than him, was the opposite of him.

He was very bold and patted Qi Guang’s shoulder and said, “Old Qi, I’ve heard these words of yours, if not eight hundred times in your class, then it must be five hundred times.”

Qi Guang told this bad kid to go cool off: “You still have the nerve to mention it, don’t think I don’t know that you always sleep in my class!”

Pin Chi grinned with a mouth full of white teeth: “If I didn’t sleep, you wouldn’t remember me, old man.”

Qi Guang laughed and pretended to hit him.

Pin Chi ran away smoothly.

The topic returned to the vegetable garden, Principal Zhang said a few more words, and then ended the meeting before the class bell rang.

Qiao Yu waved his textbook and entered the older class, Wei Ziyu and Pin Chi went to the middle class and the younger class, one on the left and one on the right.

Principal Zhang led the remaining three people to the back mountain with hoes.

Shi Yun inspected the outside of the three classes according to requirements.

In the older class, Qiao Yu was talking about martial arts techniques, and the boys’ eyes shone with light, eager to try.

In the middle class, Wei Ziyu was holding cards, teaching the children to recognize various vegetables.

In the younger class, Pin Chi casually leaned against the edge of the table, introducing various dance types in an interesting and funny way.

Everyone was in a good state, commendable for novice teachers.

Shi Yun wrote down a record in his notebook.

[Observation diary for August 2nd – Morning:

Qiao Yu’s explanation is detailed, but too gentle, and even led by lively students, thus frequently losing control of the class.

Wei Ziyu has a strong guiding force and likes to ask questions the most, but he lacks the drive of a reward and punishment mechanism, and the classroom atmosphere is dull.

Pin Chi’s descriptions are vivid and lack demonstrations. The explanation of knowledge is superficial and not deep enough.]

After marking the punctuation marks, Shi Yun handed the notebook to Director Lin, took something from the warehouse, and went to the back mountain with a woven basket on his back.

***

A group of people shuttled through various small roads, following Principal Zhang one step at a time, struggling to push aside the weeds, and arrived at the vegetable garden.

It was said to be a vegetable garden, but it was actually a piece of wasteland simply surrounded by a fence.

An Huaixu questioned: “Can things really be grown here?”

Principal Zhang said with arms crossed: “Back then, when my dad was the principal, we ate vegetables grown here.”

Listening to their words, Jiang Song shielded his eyes from the sun and looked forward.

White clouds floated in the blue sky, wildflowers grew in the verdant high mountains, and the fresh and pleasant breath was sent into his nose by the wind.

He took a deep breath, feeling refreshed.

Qi Guang was a little tired, leaned on a tree to rest for a while, and urged: “Don’t stand there, let’s start, the sooner we finish, the sooner we rest.”

Principal Zhang took a sickle and took the lead in splitting the messy grass roots in front of the door.

Qi Guang pushed open the door and entered the vegetable garden.

He threw down the hoe and habitually issued orders: “Come on, clear away this obstacle, and then…”

An Huaixu didn’t know if he didn’t hear it or if he found it troublesome.

He directly swung his hoe and used brute force to turn the soil.

Jiang Song looked around and chose to dig out the grass roots with Principal Zhang on the side.

Qi Guang fell silent because no one listened to him, but in the end he didn’t say anything, just sighed and continued to do his own thing.

For a time, there was no extra conversation except for the principal occasionally reminding them to pay attention to safety.

Until the sun was high in the sky, the scorching heat began to burst out from the ground, and dryness swept through everyone’s throats.

An Huaixu propped up his hoe and lifted the hem of his clothes to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

Principal Zhang was also tired and called them to rest under the shade of the trees for a while.

An Huaixu sat on the ground, leaned against a tree, and closed his eyes to rest.

The sound of cicadas pulled away his thoughts.

He didn’t know how long had passed when a cool towel fell on his shoulder, and he suddenly opened his eyes.

In the dazzling sunlight, he looked at the face that was very similar to his bamboo horse in front of him and almost thought that his guilt and bitterness for more than ten years were just a nightmare – Shi Yu had not been lost because of looking for him, but had grown up with him safely and happily.

Holding a bottle of water, Shi Yun was startled by him unexpectedly.

“I came to deliver towels and ice water. I’m sorry, did I disturb your rest?”

An Huaixu rubbed his eyebrows, his tone slightly tired: “Don’t get so…” close.

Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Song called Shi Yun over.

“My hands are a little weak, Xiao Shi, can you help me twist the cap off?”

Shi Yun: “With great pleasure.”