Chapter 132 I Don't Want To

"Isn't that outrageous?"

Song Zhizhu chuckled, "I think it's quite suitable. Look at their cowardly appearance, aren't they just two lumps of cow dung?"

"You're the cow dung, your whole family is cow dung!" Niu Zhongfei gritted his teeth in anger.

“Alright,” Jiang Yao said, pointing to Sanwa’s table, “Since you two made it, then switch the table over.”

"..." The cow dung brothers looked at each other, then stiffened their necks and remained motionless.

"Are you deaf?" Jiang Yao said in a deep voice. "If you don't like studying, you might as well go home and farm. Call your parents and take them back. Anyway, it's just a waste of their hard-earned money."

"Look at the books you're reading! Can't you read unofficial histories and folk tales at home? You can't even understand the Four Books and Five Classics properly, and you still can't stand me praising Jiang Yejun a couple of times?"

Jiang Yao reprimanded the students with a stern face, his serious and cold expression causing them to lower their heads and not dare to look at him.

“He’s only been here for six months, but he’s already read all the books you’ve read in two years. You’re not ashamed at all, and you’re even ostracizing him at every turn.”

Jiang Yao sneered, "I think you two are just two lumps of cow dung, and you've corrupted your cousins ​​in the clan. One rat spoils the whole pot of soup."

The Niu brothers leaned against the wall, pouting defiantly.

"Niu Zhongyun, put your big teeth away and wipe your snotty nose. Don't you find it disgusting to keep using your lips to push things up all day?" Jiang Yao frowned in disgust. "Is it really that hard to ask your mother to find you a piece of cloth to use as a handkerchief?"

Sanwa turned his face away, thinking that Niu Zhongyun was a waste of such an ethereal name.

Two white scallions always dangled from his nose. He was reluctant to blow his nose or wipe it, and over time he developed a special skill: when they were about to fall off, he would press his upper lip against his nostrils and inhale forcefully...

"Ugh~" Sanwa couldn't help but lower his head and dry heave.

Song Zhizhu leaned against the table beside him, thinking that this teacher was wise to appreciate what he had, otherwise he would have had to deal with these two piles of cow dung.

"Hurry up and move the table over, or I'll have your dad come. He's down there pulling buckwheat, let's see if he doesn't kick you." Jiang Yao snapped coldly.

Niu Zhongfei glanced at Niu Zhongyun, and the two reluctantly lifted Niu Zhongyun's table.

"No, I don't want Niu Zhongyun's, it's covered in snot," Sanwa said, clutching his chest in despair. "I'd rather have one covered in donkey dung, you two can just wipe it clean for me."

Donkey dung isn't actually that smelly, otherwise the two of them wouldn't have brought so much.

Especially dried donkey dung, which has no smell at all, but it's a different story after being watered.

Niu Zhongyun rolled his eyes.

"Did you hear me? If you don't clean it up, I'll take you both home today and let your parents teach you a lesson. If they don't care, I'll collect two baskets of donkey dung and dump them on your stove today."

Song Zhizhu crossed his arms and said, "Don't you like to play pranks? I can do it too, and Jiang Yeming can too. If he can't, I'll teach him."

Other students arrived one after another, and Jiang Yao ordered them to clean Jiang Yexun's desk, or there would be no class that day.

Afterwards, Jiang Yao smiled and invited Song Zhizhu to the teachers' classroom to chat about Jiang Yexun.

Jiang Yao smiled and poured him a cup of tea.

"I'm so sorry, I never realized they treated Jiang Yexun this way. This child is diligent and hardworking, and he's my favorite child. Although he hasn't been to school for many years, he struggled a lot in the first month, but by the second month, it was like he had suddenly grasped the concepts."

Song Zhizhu listened quietly, unusually without saying a word.

"Jiang Yexun loved reading. While other children wished the teacher wouldn't come, Jiang Yexun was always engrossed in reading, no matter the time."

At this point, Jiang Yao sighed, "Even during lunchtime, he would read a book while eating."

"If he had started school a few years earlier, our Jiang family might have produced a scholar who passed the imperial examination. It's a pity that he was herding sheep at the age when he should have been studying. The other children disliked him because he was too studious."

“If his mother still wants him to study, he can go to school in the countryside next spring. If she can’t afford the tuition, I will pay for it for him.”

Song Zhizhu calmly shook his head. "No need. I'm his second uncle. I'll let him study. With the teacher's words, I'm at ease."

Jiang Yao smiled and nodded, chatted with him for a bit, then took his book and ruler to teach.

Song Zhizhu stood outside the door and secretly glanced at the three children reading. His eyes welled up with tears.

He returned to the Jiang family with his hands behind his back, feeling quite gratified.

Song Chunxue was digging potatoes in the field above the yard when she saw him return and nervously went to greet him.

"How is it? Did Sanwa get bullied?"

Song Zhizhu shook his head. "Being bullied is a minor matter. Jiang Yao will pay more attention to Sanwa in the future. You don't know, Jiang Yao praised Sanwa, saying that he can go to school in the countryside next year. He's really promising."

He couldn't help but sigh, "If I had such an obedient and sensible son, I would do anything for him, even eat tree bark."

"..." Song Chunxue really wanted to say that in a few years they would really have to eat tree bark.

"Second brother, you should stock up on more food when you get home. Buy more when you have money. It would be bad if you ate tree bark."

“Of course, we all went hungry when we were kids, we almost starved to death. No matter how much grain we hoard, we can’t sell it.” Song Zhizhu looked at the sun overhead. “I should go home now, you go ahead and get busy.”

"Let's eat first and then go back."

Song Zhizhu shook his head. "Your sister-in-law will scold me. I'm leaving."

"Wait a moment, I'll go get something." Song Chunxue quickly went into the yard and came out with a pig's foreleg.

"What are you doing? I don't want to."

Seeing what was in her hand, Song Zhizhu turned and left, his tone very displeased, "You and your son have had a hard life, and as your second brother, I can't help you much. How can I take your things?"

"Second brother, wait a minute! We still have a pig at home. We'll slaughter it after the New Year..." Song Chunxue chased after him, lifting her leg.

Song Zhizhu ran off, saying, "I said no, and that means no. You go back and eat it yourself. I don't want it."

"Second brother, don't run away, there's not much meat on this front leg."

Song Zhizhu ran very fast, and in the blink of an eye he had already run a hundred meters or so.

“Then go to the boss,” Song Zhizhu said, slowing his pace. “I know you were really angry with the boss, which is why you killed that pig, but he’s having his baby’s one-month celebration soon, you can’t just ignore him.”

Song Chunxue ran a few steps, carrying her leg, and said, "Second brother, wait a moment, I have something to tell you."

“Go back, I don’t want to.” Song Zhizhu ran a long way and waved to her, saying, “I will come again on the 26th. If the eldest son’s father-in-law doesn’t come, I, as his uncle, will.”

Song Chunxue was so tired she could hardly breathe. "Second brother, please walk slowly."

In the blink of an eye, Song Zhizhu had already walked a long way.

"Go back now." He turned his back to Song Chunxue, waved his arm, and quickly disappeared down the winding path.

Song Chunxue squatted on the ground, holding the pig's foreleg, and couldn't help but shed tears.

In this world, only family members would never take advantage of you.

And this second brother was her closest relative.

I remember when I was little, I didn't have any pants to wear, so my second brother wove a grass skirt for me.

She was too young to walk, and her older sisters were busy with their own chores, otherwise they would be beaten by their second aunt.

Having lost both her parents and living under the roof of others, only her second brother made her feel valuable.

"Hey, you're such a sentimental woman, crying again?"

Li Dazui poked his head out from the roadside embankment and laughed at her.