Era: Seven money-losing girls? They're trying to trick me into having a daughter again!

When Fang Wei rode his old-fashioned bicycle onto the dirt road in Laotang Village, the sun was already setting.

He first delivered the bicycle to Village Chief Zhou's house, and then leisurely walked back to his own home.

Wu Shaoli sat in the courtyard, her needle and thread flying up and down in her hands.

A pink cotton cloth was spread on her knees, and the general shape of the garment had already been cut out. Although the sleeves were not yet on and the collar was not yet hemmed, it was already clear that it was a little girl's jacket.

Fang Wei gently placed what he was holding on the ground, grinned mischievously, and quietly walked behind Wu Shaoli, suddenly asking, "What are you sewing?"

Wu Shaoli's shoulders twitched, and she almost pricked her finger with the needle in her hand.

She looked up and glared at Fang Wei, scolding, "You scared me to death! Why do you walk like a cat! You don't make a sound!"

Halfway through her sentence, her voice suddenly lowered as she asked, "Have you changed your daughters' names?"

Fang Wei didn't answer immediately. Instead, he took Wu Shaoli's hand, squatted down in front of her, and said mysteriously, "Guess if it's been changed?"

"Don't scare me anymore!"

Wu Shaoli pulled her hand away and slapped his shoulder, urging, "Did you manage to fix it successfully? Tell me quickly!"

"hey-hey!"

Fang Wei chuckled twice, then said smugly, "I already told you, you can trust your man to handle things!"

"...It was successfully modified?!"

Wu Shaoli's eyes widened in surprise, and she exclaimed excitedly, "It really worked?! You're not kidding me?!"

"I'm not kidding you."

Fang Wei pulled over the cloth bag he had placed on the ground and said with a smile, "I brought some things back with me."

He opened the bag and took things out one by one.

First came two military green canvas backpacks.

The backpack's fabric is crisp and sturdy, with the canvas warp and weft threads woven tightly together, and it feels rough to the touch.

The metal buckles on the flap gleamed with a silvery light, and the stitches on the shoulder straps were straight and dense, with a distinctive scent of machine-woven fabric.

Then there were two pencil cases, with the words "Study Hard" printed in red on the lids, and the inside was specially divided into compartments.

Then came a few exercise books.

The cover is printed with green grid lines, and the paper inside feels smooth to the touch.

Looking at those things, Wu Shaoli felt her eyes welling up with tears.

Fang Wei laid everything out on the table and called into the room, "Da Ya! Er Ya! Come out!"

The curtain to the main room was lifted a crack from the inside.

The first one to peek out was Da Ya.

She peeked out from the door frame and froze as if someone had struck her acupoints.

Er Ya crawled out from under her armpit, and when she saw what was on the table, her little mouth immediately opened into a round "O" shape.

"Come here quickly."

Fang Weichong waved to them.

The two girls exchanged a glance and slowly moved over.

Daya clutched the loose threads on her trouser legs with both hands, while Erya put her fingers in her mouth and bit them.

Their eyes were fixed on the two new military green schoolbags on the table, but none of them dared to reach out and touch them.

The feeling that their dream was about to come true made them completely unlike their usual lively and active selves.

"Dad... this, this is..."

At this moment, Daya's voice was so soft it was like a mosquito's hum, and she didn't dare to ask any more questions.

Fang Wei felt a pang of sadness, and immediately shoved the military green backpack into his two daughters' arms, then stared at them and said:

Fang Chunyang, Fang Yunxue.

"These two new schoolbags are for both of you. When school starts, Dad will take you to register at the school in town!"

"From now on, you will be learned scholars."

He smiled and said softly, "I'll sit in the same classroom as the other kids in town, read the same books, and write the same characters."

Fang Chunyang, clutching her new schoolbag, suddenly burst into tears.

Fang Yunxue also started crying.

She cried even louder than her sister, her face covered in snot and tears, clutching the straps of her new schoolbag tightly, unwilling to let go.

Sanya secretly peeked over and looked enviously at the things her eldest and second sisters were holding, but she was sensible enough not to reach out and take them.

Looking at her adorable expression, Fang Wei gently pinched her little nose with his finger.

"Sanya, don't worry. When you're old enough to go to school next year, Dad will buy you a new schoolbag! You and your sisters will have everything your older sisters have!"

Sanya's eyes immediately lit up, and she exclaimed excitedly, "Really?!"

"real."

Fang Wei held her little hand in his palm and coaxed, "Daddy never lies to you."

That night, Fang Chunyang and Fang Yunxue both placed their new schoolbags next to their pillows, and put their pencil cases and notebooks inside.

The two of them tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and every now and then they would reach out and touch the things to make sure they were still there.

Fang Chunyang buried her face in the blanket, biting the corner of the blanket and laughing silently.

The next day, before dawn, the two of them woke up on their own.

Fang Chunyang slung his new schoolbag over his shoulder, gripping the straps with both hands, and walked back and forth in the yard.

Fang Yunxue followed her sister's example and walked around the yard with her schoolbag on her back.

The two accidentally bumped into each other and covered their mouths tightly, afraid to laugh out loud, lest they wake their parents who were still sleeping.

The news that Fang Wei was going to send his two daughters to school in town quickly spread throughout the entire Laotang Village.

"Really? Fang Wei is really going to send his little girl to school?!"

"I wasn't just talking! I bought a new schoolbag! Pencil case, notebooks—all genuine products from the town's supply and marketing cooperative!"

"Wow, David's really struck it rich..."

"Even if you're rich, you can't squander it like this! What's the use of a girl going to school? She'll belong to someone else's family sooner or later!"

"Exactly! After graduating, you still have to get married, right? What a waste of those few dollars in tuition!"

A few idlers quickly gathered outside the Fang family's courtyard wall.

Lai Gouzi, with a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, leaned against the wall, squinting at the two little girls with schoolbags in the yard, and suddenly gave a cold laugh.

"They're really burning money!"

He kicked at a clod of dirt on the ground with his toe and said dismissively.

"These girls belong to other families. Spending so much money to send them to school, what kind of fool is that?"

"With that money, you might as well buy a few bottles of good wine and have a nice drink tonight! Or at the very least, buy a couple of pounds of pig's head to satisfy your craving!"

"Spending money on that little girl..."

He shook his head, pulled the foxtail grass out of his mouth, and spat on the ground.

"Tsk tsk tsk, that head of his, it must have been slammed in a door!"

A few idlers nearby chuckled twice.

Just as a bald old man squatting on the ground was about to open his mouth to agree, his plump wife behind him slapped the half-finished shoe sole she was sewing onto the back of his head.

"Shut up, you bastard!"