Chapter 276: Chapter 269: What do you want

At first, only one parent came to the proposal. But as time passed, the idea caught on with all the parents of the students involved. They decided to each give Teacher Xu “Mama Xu” two hundred dollars a month. Although this was a substantial amount, in comparison to their children’s future prospects, it was a small price. These parents had previously exhausted their resources and money, and even swallowed their pride, to send their children to Grade 5 school. In this context, two hundred dollars per month was minimal. This was just for the children’s meals, and didn’t even include any tuition fees.

If they offered more, Mama Xu would refuse, as she wasn’t doing this work to make money.

Following their agreement, Mama Xu started earning three thousand dollars each month. That amount was a lot more than Papa Xu’s monthly salary of a thousand dollars.

After some thought, Mama Xu consulted with Papa Xu and decided that she would stop working and only take care of the children. It might seem easy during the day when she only had to prepare lunch for four children, but at dinner, this number jumped to around twenty kids. She took her job seriously and made sure to cook healthy meals for the children as if they were her own.

Her own children also ate the same meals with the others, which helped the picky eaters in the family develop better eating habits and learn to share. It was a sign they were growing up.

Papa Xu agreed with his wife’s decision. He knew that continuing this way would exhaust his wife completely without help. Thankfully, Mama Lin joined in to assist Mama Xu in the evenings, otherwise the workload would have been too much for Mama Xu.

“Auntie, I can help with this,” a timid student offered upon hearing that Mama Xu was considering quitting her job to take care of them.

“My parents are doctors. They can draw up a sick leave request for you to rest at home.”

Upon hearing this, Mama Xu’s face brightened up. This was a brilliant idea. It was a perfect solution which didn’t involve her losing her job. After all the children got to college, she could go back to working, right?

The student turned his words into action promptly. The very next day, his parents personally delivered the required sick leave form.

Only then did Mama Xu realize how much these parents were sacrificing for the sake of their children.

Mama Xu submitted her sick leave application, which was approved quickly. Their rules allowed her to take as long a sick leave as she wanted, and discuss her salary when she returned to work.

In any case, Mama Xu didn’t need the meager salary she got from her job now that she earned over three thousand dollars a month.

Mama Lin initially contributed five hundred dollars, but Mama Xu refused to take it.

Mama Lin insisted on giving her the money, but Mama Xu wouldn’t have it. Mama Lin came over every day to help her care for the children and even help in the kitchen. Mama Xu wouldn’t feel comfortable accepting her money.

Now that everyone had paid their living expenses, even Tang Yuxin wanted to contribute. But Mama Xu teased her by poking her forehead, calling her the leader of all the children. She said that without Yuxin, the small study group wouldn’t have been possible.

By the year end exams, everyone saw a clear improvement in their marks. This was especially true for the students who attended the study sessions with Tang Yuxin. Their marks were much better than before, and their performances were stable. Most importantly, they showed significant improvement in the subjects they used to neglect.

What they wanted was a quiet atmosphere conducive to learning. Most of the progress couldn’t be attributed to Tang Yuxin or anyone else, but to the students’ dedication in this quiet environment.

If you turned your playtime into study time, adopted scientific study methods, and followed a good routine, of course your efforts would yield exponential results.

When it was time for the summer break, none of them took time off. Their parents offered to pay an extra hundred dollars that month, so Mama Xu ended up with over four thousand dollars. Staying with the children made her feel younger as well.

After the summer break, the two big houses that Tang Zhinian had bought and the one that Tang Zhijun had purchased were finally going to be demolished.

When they first approached Tang Zhinian, he was baffled. How could they decide to demolish the buildings without prior notice?

But not much thought was needed as the compensation was extremely generous. For the building they were demolishing, they were offering complete reimbursement through property of the same floor area, which could be a residence or a shop.

You could choose either or even both. In fact, you had the privilege of making the first choice.

Tang Zhinian’s two properties covered a considerable area. Each was over a hundred square meters, so combined they covered nearly 300 square meters. Including Tang Zhijun’s property, they had almost 500 square meters. If they put in some more money, they could easily acquire a property of 500 square meters.

“What do you want to do?”

Tang Zhinian gathered everyone to put the question to them. Even Sisi was present.

Sisi naturally didn’t offer an opinion. She just sat by her father and read her storybook. A lot of her books were gifts from Tang Zhijun. The current one was brand new and she was engrossed in an exciting part, so what everyone else was discussing didn’t affect her at all.

“Big brother, whatever you say is fine by me,” said Tang Zhijun. He had bought the house for his daughter Sisi, but since she was still too young to live there by herself, and by the time she was in high school, the house would be old. Now that he had made money, he could always buy a new house for her. Thus, this house was rarely on his mind. He had never thought that it would be demolished in the end and they would be compensated for it.

All in all, he was happy to go along with whatever Tang Zhinian suggested.

Tang Zhinian had no objections.

“Sister-in-law, what about you?” Tang Zhinian asked Zhang Xiangcao next.

“I will go along with whatever big brother says,” Zhang Xiangcao answered with a subdued smile. She didn’t have any big aspirations. She was satisfied being a simple woman who took good care of her husband and children and didn’t want to deal with anything else. Of course, she had no expertise in business matters. If it was about cooking, she would have been more than happy to share her ideas.

“What about you, Yuxin?” Tang Zhinian asked Tang Yuxin last. The house was bought in her name, and now that she was officially an adult, she would have to get her ID card.

“Me?” Tang Yuxin had thought about choosing a shop, since renting out a shop would mean fixed income. And everyone from their era knew what was the most expensive thing in the future – everyone would have replied, real estate, because indeed, property was the most expensive.