Every sensible adult knows how much weight there is in Shen Yinian’s words, after all, no one in this world has dictated that people under the same conditions can sit in the same position.
Both are graduates from prestigious schools; some are high-flying and powerful, naturally, there are also those who are destitute and down and out.
Educational qualifications cannot completely determine one’s social status.
But Zeng Yi was just a child, and on the surface, Shen Yinian’s words really held up; he was completely stupefied.
Shen Yinian accompanied him home, and it so happened that Zeng Wenxin was there. He hesitated and said, "Uncle, do you often tell Zeng Yi that studying isn’t important?"
"What?" Zeng Wenxin had just taken a shower and was somewhat baffled at the question.
"Zeng Yi seems to think that learning is useless because of what uncle says," Shen Yinian hinted without going further.
Zeng Wenxin, however, was stunned and didn’t even notice when Shen Yinian left.
He was always troubled; his son was clearly more cunning than him, so why was he always unwilling to study? He had tried everything—severe punishments for poor grades, and if he did well, he would grit his teeth and buy him whatever he wanted. Yet, all it took was for him to learn to plagiarize, to learn to deceive him.
He had always thought his son was just too stubborn. Now, it seemed, perhaps he was the one in the wrong?
Looking back—"Originally, I couldn’t recognize a single character, but wasn’t it daring to fight that got me these days?" "I do recognize the characters on that report, but what’s the use if I can’t understand it? That kid dared to defy me until I raised my fist and then he cowered." "So and so always brags about his education, but wasn’t he just another coward I pushed off the tank during an exercise?"...
Hadn’t he said such things quite often?
But he never meant for his son to devalue education.
He was filled with remorse; men like to brag a bit, and he especially hated it when others said he was an uneducated brute, so inevitably, those comments slipped into his words, never expecting his son to also start thinking studying wasn’t important.
"Zeng Yi, come here," he called his son over and after thinking, asked, "Is what Shen Yinian said true?"
"Yeah," Zeng Yi was even more aggrieved, stubbornly saying, "Dad, didn’t you say that as long as you’re good with guns, precise with cannons, daring in battle, you’re a true stalwart military man?"
"Uh..." Zeng Wenxin was flustered, wanting to explain but not knowing how. Suddenly, his eyes brightened and he said, "Do you remember Commander Xiao, who came to our house for dinner?"
Zeng Yi nodded, that was the Commander Xiao who had praised his dad.
Zeng Wenxin scratched his head and said, "Actually, when I went to the military academy for further study, Commander Xiao was planning to promote me to battalion commander, but I failed the final assessment and tried, so that plan fell through."
"Then why didn’t you study hard?" Zeng Yi widened his eyes.
Zeng Wenxin felt like he had lost all his dignity in one day and finally resigned himself to fate: "Do you think your dad didn’t try? I just don’t have the brains. I can’t learn anything, but if I could, I would fight through no matter what."
Originally, the family was strapped for cash; his parents wanted to send all four children to school, but it was too tight. He was the third of four brothers, and although his parents didn’t ignore him and appreciated his honesty, like his father’s, he saw his parents straining. Both his older brothers had been studying for years, and his younger brother was sharp-witted; he was the only one who didn’t care much about school, so he voluntarily gave up his chance to study.
He wasn’t bright to begin with, and later, when the family was on the brink of financial collapse, he simply joined the military. Relying on the fighting skills he developed from childhood brawls, he barely survived and even became a battalion commander.
However, after stepping down from the battlefield, he had never been promoted. Although he had many accomplishments over the years, they couldn’t compare to the actual merits on the battlefield. The higher-ups weren’t unwilling to promote him, but...
Even when he studied hard during his military academy training, the results were disappointing. He was never smart, and now that he was older, his brain was even less agile. After wrestling with this, he slowly came to terms with his limitations, only hoping his son wouldn’t follow his same old path.
"Son, listen, you take after your mother; you’re smarter than I am. As long as you’re willing to learn, you can definitely do better than me."
Zeng Yi’s biological mother, although not of great character, was indeed intelligent, having graduated from a community college.
"So, if I want to learn, I can do well?" Zeng Yi asked, choking up.