In early March, something big happened, and the village began to have electricity.

  Every household is delighted, after having electricity, they can use electric lights instead of kerosene lamps, and electric lights are much brighter than kerosene lamps with less power consumption.

  After Zhou Guo's family installed electric lights, Zhou Xiaoyun's study environment was greatly improved.

  Kerosene lamps used to be quite dim, and looking at them for a long time was not good for the eyes. Now, with 40-watt light bulbs, even small rooms are brightly lit, making it much more convenient to write and read.

  Zhou Xiaoyun automatically extended her calligraphy practice by half an hour, and Zhao Yuzhen didn't mind the extra electricity cost. She couldn't recognize many characters but could see that her daughter's handwriting was getting better and better, and wherever she went, she would proudly mention Zhou Xiaoyun.

  Uncle Zhou Guofu made a stool for someone last year and had some leftover materials, so he pieced together a desk for Zhou Xiaoyun and Dabao to use. Zhou Xiaoyun liked it very much, the small and delicate square desk was just right for her to write and read.

  The old, somewhat unstable table in the house had been scratched by Dabao with a small knife and Zhou Xiaoyun had always disliked it but had no choice but to use it. Now that there was a new one, she immediately discarded the old table.

  Every evening, Zhou Xiaoyun and Dabao sit face to face, each doing their own homework. Xiaobao is attracted by the learning atmosphere and refuses to leave the table, so Zhou Xiaoyun teaches him to write numbers for fear that he will disturb them while studying.

  In fact, she wasn't afraid of being disturbed herself, but mainly worried that her older child would be distracted by the younger one.

  The little treasure who had something to do learned numbers in a proper manner and eventually mastered 1 to 10 after a long time.

  Indeed, there are no stupid children, only those who refuse to learn! Zhou Xiaoyun sighed.

  Little Treasure grew up and graduated from high school but didn't get into college, then went out to work and couldn't come back home more than twice a year. Actually, Little Treasure is much smarter than Big Treasure, if guided properly, who knows, maybe he's the material for studying, it should start from when he was a kid!

  Zhao Yuzhen naturally raised both hands in approval of Xiaobao's behavior, which was better than running around outside.

  After the electricity was installed in Zhou Guofu's home, he bought a TV set. At that time, there were only two households with TVs in the village, one being Feng Tizhu's and the other being Zhou Guofu's. As a result, many people went to Zhou Guofu's home to watch the excitement.

  The newly bought Panda brand 14-inch black and white TV has an antenna standing upright, after pressing the button with your hand, you need to turn the round circle on top to adjust the channel, no remote control, purely manual. Color TVs with remotes appeared in the village at least ten years later, now having such a TV is rare enough.

  Zhou Guofu's house had children coming to watch TV every day, and later some adults would also come over at night when they had nothing else to do. When there was no room to sit, people would stand and watch, and there were even those who stood outside the house to watch. There was no way around it - in a rural area with little entertainment, who wouldn't want to watch TV?

  In the crowd watching TV, there were both Big Treasure and Little Treasure. Big Treasure still remembered to finish his homework every night, rushing out of the house as soon as he finished writing without even having time to put away his schoolwork. He would only reluctantly return home when Auntie announced that it was time to turn off the TV and rest. On Sundays, he would simply spend the whole day at Uncle's house, even eating lunch there. Little Treasure followed in his brother's footsteps and also became a regular visitor to the Zhou Guofu household.

  Zhou Xiaoyun saw that many people were going to her uncle's house and didn't want to join in the excitement, so she stayed at home practicing calligraphy by herself.

  As time went on, Shen Huafeng began to feel heartache over the electricity bill.

  She initially saw a constant stream of people coming to her home to watch TV, and some were even envious. On those days, she had an extra spring in her step when speaking. The adults who came to her home to watch TV couldn't help but exchange pleasantries with her and praise how well her family was doing.

  Shen Hua Feng was pleased to hear these flattering words. She had always been somewhat dissatisfied that the city's Third Uncle's family lived better than her own. Last time she went into town, she envied Zhou Guomin's TV set. Now, not long after electricity was connected in the village, she urged her husband to buy one too.

  Day after day, so many people come and go, the TV is turned on from morning to night, she comes back to her senses with excitement, if this continues, the electricity bill for a month will be terrible.

  But these fellow villagers are all familiar faces and many of them are even relatives, how can I have the nerve to tell them not to come?

  Shen Hua Feng deliberated for a long time and finally came up with a plan. Every evening at 8 o'clock, she would awkwardly explain that she needed to go to bed early because she had something to do the next day, then turn off the TV. The children, who were right in the middle of an exciting part, would shout "We want to keep watching!" and the adults wouldn't dare say anything, so they would all disperse.

  After two times, some people understood the implicit order to leave and came less often. Even if they did come, they would voluntarily leave at 8 o'clock, and Shen Huafeng was secretly pleased that she had achieved her goal of turning off the TV without offending anyone directly.

  But inside, there are also some naughty kids like Dabao, who always pester to stay longer and refuse to go home. Shen Huafeng can neither scold nor reason with this mischievous nephew, so she can only put on a stern face and let him return home.

  Da Bao felt wronged and went home to tell his mother, Zhao Yu Zhen, about what had happened. The child didn't understand the twists and turns of it all, but Zhao Yu Zhen understood perfectly.

  Zhao Yuzhen felt resentful towards Hua Feng for being too petty and scolded Dabao, telling him not to go again.

  Dabao refused to listen, shouting "I'm going, I'm going, I want to go watch TV. Who made our home not have a TV? I'll go to my uncle's house to watch", and was slapped by Zhao Yu Zhen who was furious.

  Seeing Dabao's face being hit red with five fingers, Zhao Yujuan felt a little regretful. Dabao was still a child and didn't understand anything, why take it out on him?

  The two brothers who lived together had a good relationship, and the elder brother's family was relatively wealthy and often helped their own family. When they were short of money, they would also go to Zhou Guofu's house to borrow, and Da Ya always wore Xiao Xia's clothes - at that time, it was also a common practice to give old clothes from one's own children to younger children in other families to wear.

  This also made Zhao Yuzhen always feel inferior to Shen Huafeng, and her heart was secretly resentful. Adding to that, Da Bao's words really touched the sore spot in Zhao Yuzhen's heart, and she couldn't help but slap Da Bao heavily on the ear, which was rare for someone who seldom hit children.

  Dabao ran into the house crying "wa".