While Lin Lan was busying herself, the children went home one after another.
This time, it was Maisui, Erwang and Xiaowang who arrived home first.
Lin Lan greeted them before looking at Sanwang and Dawang, who trailed behind. Dawang looked fairly normal, but Sanwang didn’t seem all that happy. He had his head drooped, as if he was beaten up and didn’t want to show his face to anyone.
“Oh, Little Third Brother, were you beaten up by someone?” Lin Lan teased him cheekily. It seemed like he didn’t do that well on the test.
Sanwang looked saddened, “Mother, say, why do you think we need to take exams? Going to school should be good enough since all we do is study and read there, so what’s the point of the exams? Who even invented exams? How horrible of them? Is there anything good about taking exams? What if you go crazy from the exams? Useless.”
Everyone laughed at what he said.
Maisui teased him,”If you placed first in the exam, you wouldn’t be saying that. If you don’t take the exam, who knows if you understand the material well? How would you know who was the best in class?”
Sanwang gave her a blank look, “I know you are the best at learning, show off.”
Maisui was very proud, “Mother said there is a reward for this, so I will definitely get it!”
Lin Lan then announced the prizes. Apart from the pen and the school bag, she added, “The kids who attained the top three spots in class will each be rewarded with 50 cents. And as long as you are not amongst the bottom five, each of you will be rewarded with 20 cents.”
50 cents was considered a lot as they could enable one to buy two books. Maisui and Erwang immediately cheered happily. Although Erwang was not as good as Maisui, he was also within the top three placements in the class, so he would definitely have his own share of the prize.
Dawang looked indifferent on the surface, but the tight corners of his lips also revealed a little inner tension.
Sanwang wanted the prizes very much— he wanted schoolbags, pens and even money!
After all, how magnificent would that be? Taking them out to use in class would make all of his classmates green with envy.
It’s a pity that his grades were in a mess and he wasn’t happy, so he fooled Lin Lan, “Mom, there is 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the class, so don’t we have to have them too?”
Lin Lan rolled her eyes at him, “Oh, even if we have our own 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in this house, you’re not getting any of it.”
Sanwang, “There should be two places for 2nd and three places for 3rd.”
Erwang laughed at him, “Though that would make the relationship in our family good, we don’t have enough people, my brother. You’d have to add Wangwang for that to count.”
Everyone laughed, including the usually quiet Xiaowang.
He was also taking classes now. Apart from learning music with Huo Yuan, he sat between his sister and Second Brother in class at other times.
Although he was a late learner, he learned Chinese and Mathematics well in the first grade level.
In Maisui’s words, he would definitely surpass Little Third Brother’s grades.
Sanwang had been fooling Xiaowang into not going to school and not taking examinations. Everyone knew what he was trying to do— because he was the youngest in the past amongst the siblings who were studying, his mother wouldn’t care that much when his grades weren’t that good. However, if his younger brother were to beat him in academics, that would be nothing but shameful.