Chapter 58: No One Understands Parenting

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: No One Understands Parenting

After dinner, Chen Jingle returned to his house. He was just getting ready for a nap when his aunt followed him inside.

"Why did you run off so fast?" she asked with a smile.

Chen Jingle smiled back, though it carried a hint of helplessness. "If I didn’t run, wasn’t I just waiting to get nagged?"

"Your grandpa and grandma are just doing it for your own—"

"Stop!" Chen Jingle’s smile faded slightly. "It’s a holiday today, and I’m in a rare good mood. Let’s not talk about unhappy things."

"All right." His aunt could only sigh.

Just then, Chen Xiuyun’s voice rang out from outside the door. "Student Chen Jingle! Open the door! I know you’re hiding in there!"

Chen Jingle stepped out and peeked outside. It was Chen Xiuyun and Lin Yaoheng. "Why did you two come over too?" he asked. "The door isn’t locked. Just push it open and come in."

"We’re just taking a walk to digest our food since we just ate," Lin Yaoheng replied with a smile.

Chen Xiuyun stood with her hands on her hips like a goofball, striding across the courtyard and into the house. "Where’s your snack cart? Hurry up and roll it out!"

"Didn’t you just eat?" Chen Jingle was speechless.

"Meals are meals, and snacks are snacks. Besides, even if I don’t eat them, it’s nice just to look at them." Chen Xiuyun had been deeply impressed by the snack cart she saw during her last visit, and she was practically drooling over it.

Left with no choice, Chen Jingle wheeled the snack cart out of his room.

"Look at this. You really know how to enjoy life!" Chen Xiuyun clicked her tongue and turned to Lin Yaoheng. "Let’s get one of these later too."

"Sure," Lin Yaoheng nodded in agreement. Whatever his wife said went.

"Oh, right. What were you guys talking about just now?" Chen Xiuyun asked.

"Sister Xiu, you’re just in time. I wanted to ask on Li Wenhui’s behalf." His aunt looked a bit distressed. "She’s in her senior year of high school now, but your uncle and I have no idea what path she should take in the future. You know we don’t have high educational backgrounds and don’t understand a lot of things. You college graduates know much more, so please help me come up with some ideas."

Li Wenhui was his aunt’s eldest daughter.

Chen Jingle looked at Chen Xiuyun first. Since they were talking about serious business, Sister Xiu’s expression immediately turned earnest. She thought for a moment before asking, "How are Wenhui’s grades right now? Where does she rank in her grade during the monthly exams and mock tests?"

"Around 80 to 100, but it’s not very stable."

"That’s decent. With those grades in the science track at Jiangbei First Middle School, she’s practically guaranteed admission to a Tier 1 university. However, getting into a Project 985 or 211 university will be a bit more difficult. Since she still has more than a semester left, she can use this time to patch up any knowledge gaps and boost her scores a little higher. If she can stabilize her rank in the top 50, then getting into an out-of-province 211 university is still something you can hope for."

Chen Xiuyun herself had attended high school at Jiangbei First Middle School, so she had more authority to speak on the matter.

"Can she only go out of the province?" His aunt hesitated.

Chen Xiuyun nodded. "I can only say that applying to out-of-province schools is a safer bet. Ultimately, it will depend on her specific grades and ranking. Although I say out of the province, she can actually apply to the two neighboring provinces that are also part of the Lingnan Region. That way, it won’t really feel like she’s leaving the province!"

"That’s true." His aunt felt much more at ease.

"The key right now is to raise her scores first. I remember she chose physics, chemistry, and biology, right?"

"Yes!"

"Has she thought about what industry or job she wants to pursue after graduating?"

"She hasn’t!" His aunt clapped her hands together in frustration. "She’s always just buried her head in her books. Whenever something is on her mind, she keeps it to herself and doesn’t tell us."

Chen Xiuyun shook her head. "I’m afraid it’s not that she doesn’t want to tell you. It’s that even if she did, you wouldn’t be able to solve her problems. It would only add to her worries. Over time, she naturally stopped wanting to talk."

"If she doesn’t say anything, how would she know we can’t solve it?" his aunt frowned.

Chen Xiuyun smiled. "She’s probably brought it up before, but you guys just didn’t take it seriously. Parents and children think differently, and everyone looks at things from different perspectives.

"It’s just like when I told my mom that graduate school was so tiring. She simply replied, ’What’s so tiring about studying?’

"Let me give you an example. The boarding students at Jiangbei First Middle School all wake up at six in the morning, get to the classroom by six-thirty, take half an hour for lunch, rest for an hour, and stay in evening study hall until ten. Some even study until ten-thirty, eleven, or midnight. Wenhui lives at home, but her schedule is probably about the same. This kind of high-intensity studying goes on for three years. How could it not be tiring!

"But my mom just couldn’t understand it. She just thought that sitting indoors, safe from the sun and rain, only needing to read books, was the most comfortable thing in the world. As for whether you can understand it, Aunt, I really don’t know."

Sister Xiu didn’t hold back at all, ruthlessly roasting her own mother in front of everyone.

A hint of awkwardness flashed across his aunt’s face. "I know her studying is exhausting. I try to make sure she eats and drinks well every single day."

"See, look at that. I told you that you didn’t understand." Chen Xiuyun threw her hands up helplessly, her brows furrowed tightly. "During a crucial stage of life like senior year, what a child needs isn’t just good food and drinks. They need emotional companionship and encouragement. Struggling alone versus having someone to strive alongside you are two entirely different things."

Chen Jingle didn’t really want to speak up, opting to silently sip his tea.

Although his aunt had become a tiger mom, aggressively pushing her kids academically, it was a recent development over the past couple of years. Furthermore, she had focused most of her energy on her son, Li Wenrui. In the early stages of educating her daughter, Li Wenhui, she had lacked understanding and had resorted to an authoritarian, dictatorial parenting style.

On top of that, Li Wenhui had spent her primary and middle school years living with her maternal grandparents. It was easy to imagine how a child growing up in that kind of environment would turn out; she wasn’t close to her parents at all.

Even though his aunt’s family had bought a house in the city after high school started and moved in together—which somewhat made up for lost time—the impact of her early childhood was still there. It wasn’t something that could be easily erased.

To put it bluntly, Chen Jingle felt that none of the many relatives and elders around him knew a thing about family education.

The first generation believed that as long as they provided enough food so the kids wouldn’t starve, it was enough. The second generation believed that as long as the kids were well-fed and did well in school, it was enough. As for the third generation, represented by himself and Chen Xiuyun... they either didn’t want to get married, or they didn’t want to have children even if they did.

Where had things gone wrong?

"Don’t just focus on drinking your tea. Say something!" Chen Xiuyun tapped the coffee table.

Chen Jingle set down his cup. "Aunt, what are your goals and expectations for Wenhui? Tell me both the short-term and long-term ones."

His aunt didn’t hesitate. "As a parent, I naturally want my child to be successful and have an increasingly better life in the future."

"Do you have any more specific thoughts?"

"Oh, come on, I’m only asking you guys because I don’t know."

Chen Jingle pondered for a couple of seconds. "Whether it’s climbing the bureaucratic ladder, making a fortune in business, or pursuing academics, there has to be a general direction, right? I don’t think you need to rush this at all. After you go back, you can discuss it with Wenhui first and respect your child’s own ideas. At the end of the day, it all depends on what she wants. If she isn’t interested in a certain major or industry, even if you think it’s great and choose it for her, it won’t necessarily help her live a good life."

"I know that, and I definitely intend to respect her opinion. It’s just that I’m completely clueless right now. I wanted to hear what you guys had to say so I can have a better foundation to chat with her later," his aunt said, knitting her brows. "So tell me, what exactly do you mean by climbing the bureaucratic ladder, making a fortune, or pursuing academics?"