His father was not muddleheaded. In fact, he was very clearheaded.
He was tired to the bone at work and did not have the time to let his thoughts wander.
“Humph!” The mother was unconvinced. She did not wish to admit that she was being jealous.
“Alright, he is my son as well. How can I not care about him? As you said, his tuition fee is expensive, and it’s my hard-earned money.” He was more concerned than his wife whether the money was well-spent. “Our son has been learning from the young lady for a short while. But have you noticed that he would sleep right away at ten o’clock recently? You don’t have to nag him nowadays. Moreover, do you still remember how he used to do his summer break homework in the past? He would start to do them three days before school reopened, and he would ask his classmates to come to our house, where they would each do some homework and copy from each other. But as you can see now, he just spent half an hour on his homework. I am sure that you have seen it for yourself. How is his learning attitude?”
“Well…” The mother was at a loss for words at the hard facts. “But it is our son who is working hard. What does it have to do with the young lady?”
“Of course there is. Our son has said that it was Teacher Xiao Qiao who taught him all these. The teacher had to teach him in order for him to develop this habit. You must know it is far more important and far-reaching to teach good habits than to teach new knowledge. Don’t be unconvinced and jealous. The young lady is capable. Your son is very stubborn. When we hired a tutor for him in the past, he did not appreciate your effort and we wasted money for nothing. This time, he is serious and he is happy at the mention of the teacher.”
His son used to have a revulsion to studies. He was worried that, like what others had been saying, his son would grow weary of studying.
But right now?
He no longer had such concern.
Without his wife or him pushing his son or reminding him to study, he would spend half an hour on his homework by himself. It was not too taxing on him and he would do his homework every day, managing his time well. It was a very good learning habit of his.
“Other things aside, if you are able to help our son develop such a good habit, then there is no need to get him a tutor. If not, I don’t care how much the young lady is able to teach your son, it’s worthwhile to spend some money as long as he can keep the habit!”
He would wake up at six o’clock in the morning to jog around the small quad.
He would work hard, play hard, and study hard. He would also leave aside enough time for rest. His day was packed with activities. Even if he was playing around outside, he would behave with propriety. He would let his family know who he was hanging out with and where they were at.
He would not play game consoles or play at dangerous places like in the water.
It might be insignificant habits and behavior. However, even the tallest buildings built with bricks and mortars were constructed from scratch.
“Aren’t you exaggerating?” The mother had never felt that the small habits had such an important significance. Now that her husband mentioned it, it seemed to make sense.
“Exaggeration? Not at all. Last summer break around this time of the year, your son wouldn’t listen to you when you urged him to do his homework, read his books, or go to sleep. He would sleep until ten in the morning the next day and he was nowhere to be found after he woke up. I have asked around. All the students who are in the same tutoring class as our son are in a similar situation. Parents who are savvy will be glad of the changes in their children and that their money is well-spent. You’re the only person who is so narrow-minded, blaming the tutor for not preparing homework for our son. Have you forgotten how difficult it was to get him into the class back then?”
At that time, he had thought that his wife must be crazy to believe what others said about the young lady and treated her as a miracle worker.
“I… I was going with the crowd back then.” The wife smiled, embarrassed.
Women had the habit of jumping to conclusions from insignificant evidence and they would end up doing irrational things. “But you’ve not seen the lady before. You are too protective of the lady. Anyway, can’t I complain within my own house?”
Her son might feel that the young lady was a good teacher, but her husband had not seen the young lady before, so why would he defend her?
“Hey, aren’t you glad that I am helping you?” The husband smiled in anger. “Are you stupid? Our son cannot stop talking about Teacher Xiao Qiao. It seems that he is in awe of her. Don’t you feel that he views her as a celebrity, similar to those in the television shows? If you tell it to his face that she is not a good teacher, he may be upset with you.”
The mother pouted at the thought of her son’s temper “Fine, you know your son best, while I don’t understand. Are you happy now? Let’s sleep now. We still have to wake up early in the morning tomorrow.” Her son had only been to a few of the lessons. The teacher was not that capable. Why would her husband made it sound as if her son was full of respect for the teacher?
The mother did not know that the situation was similar in other families.
Qiao Nan might be young, but she had charisma.
In the beginning, the people in their community were merely joining in the fun. They heard that Qiao Nan had a part to play for the good results that Ping Cheng High School had in the college entrance examination this year. However, nobody really went to find out whether it was true and whether Qiao Nan had real abilities.
Since Qiao Nan’s results had been good, after hearing the rumor, they took it to be the truth and wanted Qiao Nan to tutor their children during the summer break. They hoped Qiao Nan would be able to help their children score well in their exams in two months’ time such that they would be able to enroll in top-tier and second-tier universities.
However, Qiao Nan had set a limit for the class. She only took in a small number of students, and the fee was quite high, while the duration was short.
Qiao Nan was hoping that the parents would withdraw after learning of the harsh conditions.
But to her surprise, one of the parents agreed right away and paid Qiao Nan on spot.
Luckily, Qiao Nan did not do any advertisement or worked to attract more students. If not, she would have suspected that the parent was a phony customer who pretended to sign up for her class so as to lure real customers.
But never twice without three times. The Chinese people had the habit of joining in the fun and following what others did.
When one parent started to sign up for the class, more and more parents signed up their children for the class.
The other parents who were slow to react were not in time to sign up for the classes. Qiao Nan had stopped taking in any more students after having taken in ten students. No matter how much money the parents offered, she would not take in any more students.
Parents who hesitated due to the tuition fee or other reasons were upset at Qiao Nan’s firm attitude.
