Chapter 290: Chapter 290: Help Our Child

Su Zhaozhao couldn’t help but laugh at what Zhou Xiaoyun said.

’That’s right. Who would have thought a man like Xie Huaizheng, with his seemingly cold personality, actually had such a tender side?’

The way he took care of her was attentive down to the smallest detail.

He noticed many details that she herself had overlooked.

He always took such good care of her.

All this just made Su Zhaozhao miss Xie Huaizheng even more.

’I just hope Xie Huaizheng comes back soon.’

After her classes that afternoon, Su Zhaozhao went home, tidied up the house a little, and then headed over to Zhou Xiaoyun’s place with a bag of fruit.

Zhou Xiaoyun was already cooking. When she saw Su Zhaozhao arrive with the fruit, she couldn’t help but frown. "Zhaozhao, you’re being far too formal. It’s just a meal. Why do you always have to bring something?"

"Aunt Yun, you gave me so many cured sausages last time. Think of this as my way of returning the favor."

Su Zhaozhao never liked to be indebted to anyone, and that included Aunt Yun.

Zhou Xiaoyun sighed. "This fruit must have cost a pretty penny, didn’t it?"

Now that the weather was cold, fresh fruits and vegetables were becoming scarce.

Even when they were available at the market, the prices were much higher than usual.

The apples and pears Su Zhaozhao was carrying were all plump and looked incredibly fresh, as if they had just been picked from the tree.

Fruit of this quality must have been expensive.

"No, no, it was fine."

’How could she possibly admit they were products of her space?’

In fact, her space now produced an even greater variety of fruits—apples, pears, bananas, grapes, oranges, and more.

Unfortunately, to avoid arousing suspicion, she didn’t dare bring out fruits that were too obviously from the south, like oranges and bananas.

The ones she could bring out were generally fruits that were common in the region.

Zhou Xiaoyun took the fruit and said to Su Zhaozhao, "Let’s not be strangers, Zhaozhao. For dinner tonight, I just threw everything into one pot for a stew."

Su Zhaozhao smiled right away. "Great, that’s fine. I’m not a picky eater."

The weather was so cold that stir-fried dishes would get cold quickly anyway. A hot stew like this would be much tastier.

Zhou Xiaoyun adored this about Su Zhaozhao. She was beautiful, had a wonderful personality, wasn’t pretentious, and was easygoing about everything.

’If only I had a daughter like Su Zhaozhao.’

Zhou Xiaoyun brought the large basin of stew to the table, and the two of them sat down to eat, facing each other.

As they ate, Zhou Xiaoyun started sharing the latest gossip from the military compound.

"Do you remember that Zhang Jufang?"

"I do. I haven’t seen her in a while."

"Ah, her. She was always stirring up trouble in the compound. Her husband finally sent her back to her hometown, and sent the kid back with her," Zhou Xiaoyun said. "If you ask me, he should have sent her back ages ago. All the time she was here, think of how many people she managed to offend."

"She really went back?" Su Zhaozhao was a little surprised.

’But it does seem that way.’ Since that incident with Gu Qingran, Su Zhaozhao realized she hadn’t seen Zhang Jufang in a very long time.

’That must have been it. Xie Huaizheng must have gone to speak with Zhang Jufang’s husband, who then sent her away directly.’

"You bet. It’s good that she’s gone. The compound is finally a bit more peaceful," Zhou Xiaoyun said.

"But now I hear that your neighbor, Li Lianxin’s eldest daughter, has become obsessed with reading novels. She’s stopped going to school and just stays home all day reading."

Su Zhaozhao let out a soft "oh" of surprise.

For some reason, her mind suddenly jumped to the internet-addicted teens of the modern world.

’I’ve only ever heard of kids skipping school to play video games all day. Was the equivalent in this era getting hooked on novels?’

Romance novels were indeed becoming popular in this era, especially the ones imported from places like Hong Kong, which were creating a huge sensation.

Meanwhile, some mainland authors were also beginning to write and publish their own novels.

It was easy to get completely engrossed in something so new and exciting.

Zhou Xiaoyun sighed again. "That girl’s a senior in high school. Her grades used to be excellent, but now they’ve plummeted. She just holes up at home all day reading novels instead of going to school."

"Her parents are worried sick, and they have no idea what to do. These novels... they’re a real menace."

Su Zhaozhao couldn’t bring herself to agree with Zhou Xiaoyun. In her view, novels were a way to enrich one’s mind.

She read and listened to novels herself when she had free time.

She often gained a lot from them and never considered them useless.

"You can’t really say that. I think it depends on the person. If you use them well, reading novels can help cultivate your sense of aesthetics. But if you don’t, then they won’t be of any use to you."

Zhou Xiaoyun nodded. "That’s true, that’s true. But for a kid who’s never been exposed to novels before, it’s easy to get hooked when they suddenly discover them."

"Someone who gets addicted that easily would get addicted to something else anyway."

Su Zhaozhao had seen it before. In the modern world, some kids got addicted to short-form videos, others to video games.

Unless you live in a vacuum, the outside world is full of temptations. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

"Yeah, but Li Lianxin and her husband are frantic. They burned all her novels, but she still has some hidden away. And she’s secretly writing her own, saying she’s determined to become a novelist one day. Tell me, how can you become a novelist if you don’t even study?"

"It’s possible, but at this stage, a student’s priority should be their studies."

"The main thing is, the girl is just too lost in the world of novels. No amount of persuasion works. You could force her head down to her desk and she’d still refuse to study. I even saw Li Lianxin hitting her in the compound courtyard before, right in front of everyone. She threw all the stories her daughter wrote on the ground and forbade her from writing, promising to tear up every new one she found. I felt so sorry for that poor girl."

Su Zhaozhao was speechless.

’So this is how it is. Most parents in this era still take a simple and brutal approach to raising their children.’

’They show their children no respect, which only makes it more likely for the kids to swing to extremes.’

Su Zhaozhao had encountered children like this before. They tended to have a major breakdown after being kept under intense pressure for too long.

Many of them started out as good kids who studied diligently, had no recreational activities, and consistently earned top grades.

Then one day, they would suddenly become obsessed with games or novels and refuse to study anymore.

But from what Su Zhaozhao understood, it was usually because they had been suppressed for far too long, leading to that eventual explosion.

’So what could be done?’

’You have to figure out what the child needs most.’

After dinner, Su Zhaozhao headed home, but she was immediately pulled aside by someone. "Um... Teacher Su, I heard that you’re an expert in psychology and that you even helped Chairman Li’s child get better. Could you please help our child, too?"

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