1580 Teach
Xia Zhe was a very thrifty person. He only ate in the canteen and only used army-issued items. He had no desire to buy anything.

“I went to check on all these in advance. I’m worried that you can’t get used to life here, so I want to make sure that I do everything to make your life here more comfortable,” Xia Zhe said.

“I’m not that delicate! But you can wash the dishes after we’re done~” Qiao Mei set the empty bowls aside and said to Xia Zhe with a smile.

“I’ll do all these chores in the future!” Xia Zhe agreed with a smile.

The two children kept climbing around on the brick bed. Qiao Mei picked up a book and sat down beside them. “Xia Fan! Xia Xing! Come and sit here! Mom wants to talk to you!”

Xia Fan came in front of Qiao Mei first and sat down properly. The reason why he could sit down so steadily could be due to the fact that he ate a lot and had grown much bigger than his younger sister. Up till now, Xia Xing could not sit up straight and even faced quite taxing at times.

“From today onwards, Mom will read to you every night! Do you agree!” Qiao Mei said.

“Wow!” Xia Xing shouted loudly. Xia Fan also babbled something unintelligibly.

“Then I’ll take it that you’ve agreed. I’ll start reading now.” Qiao Mei took out a book of fairy tales. She did not want to make things too hard for the children. She only wanted the children to start learning the meaning of different words. This would also help them understand better what the adults were saying.

Xia Zhe leaned against the door frame and watched quietly as Qiao Mei taught the children how to read. This was his first time being a parent and he had never seen how other people take care of their children. He was also the youngest in the family so he had zero experience at all. He did not know if Qiao Mei was doing the right thing.

When he was in the capital, Feng Hua had told him that it was normal for children of this age to fall asleep immediately after eating. However, when he looked at Xia Fan and Xia Xing, they did not seem to behave in the way that Feng Hua described.

Qiao Mei kept reading the wondrous fairy tale. Xia Fan and Xia Xing had long become impatient but they did not know how to tell Qiao Mei that they were not interested. They could only crawl to Qiao Mei and pull down the book.

“You don’t like this book? Or you don’t like Mom to read to you?” Qiao Mei asked with a slight frown.

Xia Xing immediately shouted, “Wow!” Qiao Mei did not quite understand what Xia Xing meant. Was that a yes or a no?

“If you don’t want Mom to read this book, then shake your heads,” Qiao Mei said patiently.

Xia Fan and Xia Xing shook their heads at the same time. This scene stunned Xia Zhe. Although this was his first time being a father, the reactions from Xia Fan and Xia Xing just now did not seem to be something that kids their age could do…

“Then do you want me to get another book?” Qiao Mei asked as she pointed at the books.

This time, the two siblings nodded in unison. They felt that fairy tales were really childish. Who were all those princes and princesses? Why did they want to live happily ever after? They could not understand why those people wanted to do that.

Qiao Mei brought over a book on mathematics and started to teach the children basic sums from the kindergarten syllabus. This time round, Xia Fan and Xia Xing looked very interested. They were still fooling around a moment ago, but now they were focused on the book.

Xia Zhe took this opportunity to go to the firewood room to make many small smooth wooden sticks to use as teaching materials. Qiao Mei placed the wooden sticks in a pile in front of the children and pointed to a drawing of two wooden sticks in the book. “Look here, how many wooden sticks do you see? Can you show Mom?”

Xia Fan was the first to make a move. He took out two wooden sticks from the pile and placed them in front of her. Xia Xing’s reaction was a little slower and she seemed to find the wooden sticks too ugly. She quickly crawled to the other side and took two toys before struggling to crawl towards Qiao Mei.

“They… can understand what you say?” Xia Zhe looked at the two children in shock.

“I also only found out recently… that our children are actually so smart,” Qiao Mei said as she scratched her head in embarrassment.

To Xia Zhe, it was totally plausible. Qiao Mei was so smart and capable and his genes were not bad either. It was reasonable for Xia Fan and Xia Xing to turn out so smart.