A few of the children were not very happy, but there was no better way. The main reason that they accepted the idea was because their father’s facial expression had darkened immensely and they didn’t dare go against him any further.
Lin Lan was never married and had no children in her previous life. Now, she was teaching her children by crossing the river from feeling the stones(1). With her open-minded nature, she naturally brought out the tolerant and friendly atmosphere that modern parents would use towards their children. It conflicted with the old-fashioned and traditional education methods of Han Qingsong.
(T/N: A proverb in China that means to not approach a situation without being prepared.)
After all, China’s educational philosophy had always been: filial sons emerge from the stick, which also meant that children would be obedient through the pain of being punished.
If a child was being disobedient? A beating was deserved. But if the child was still rebellious, then a harsher beating would be delivered!
Lin Lan said that Dawang deserved a good beating to learn his lesson, but if his father truly drew out a rattan, she would actually feel very guilty.
Hence, she was willing to use a more peaceful way to communicate with the children to find positive and effective solutions.
It’s just that this method also had its drawbacks— it was rather slow to bear fruit, especially for the children with low emotional intelligence and late understanding. Also, when encountering things that they like, even the usually obedient Maisui and Erwang would turn out to be stubborn, causing Lin Lan to feel rather overwhelmed.
Either way, since that was the case, then they’d keep the radio. While it didn’t have batteries, the children survived just fine without listening to it anyways.
During dinner, the atmosphere was a little depressing. Even Xiaowang didn’t dare to speak as he just leaned on Lin Lan and ate obediently.
Lin Lan tried to liven up the atmosphere several times, but the children did not respond very enthusiastically.
After the meal, Lin Lan said, “Do your homework first. Once you are done, we can start to choose a homestead.”
Hearing this, the children immediately reacted, “Mother, are we going to build a house?”
Lin Lan said with a smile, “Yes, this house is not ours, so we can’t rent it for a lifetime. Naturally, we would have to build our own.”
There was not much homework left to be done. After a few minutes of writing, several children were lying on the kang as they sifted through the selections. Some wanted to live on the east end, but some wanted to stay in another location. After a while, another argument broke out between the kids.
Seeing that Han Qingsong’s face was getting darker and darker, Lin Lan immediately smiled at him, signalling him not to be angry.
But to be honest, it was really noisy for five children to raise their voices in a small house.
In the end, Lin Lan said, “Let’s vote. Raise your hands if you want to vote for a particular location and the majority wins.”
Several children thought about it and had no qualms about the method, so they all emphasised their favourite positions.
Basically, there were two factions— Sanwang listened to the eldest brother while Erwang would pair up with Maisui. Xiaowang, being the youngest, was unfortunately ignored.
Lin Lan said, “Let’s put it this way— if anyone can write the words ‘South, North, East, West and Centre of the village’, that person can vote twice.”
She was going to stimulate them to study hard this way. Otherwise, there would be 5 votes in total and 3 would be sufficient for a victory.
She motioned for Dawang to write first as he glanced at her with angry eyes.
Lin Lan snorted, “If you can’t write, who could? Whoever can write those words would earn 2 voting rights. Your father and I won’t be voting, so you all would have to decide for yourselves.”