Chapter 10 Venting

Song Yushu couldn't understand what they were trying to do with this commotion. When Zhou Chengli came out, he handed him the food he had packed.

However, Zhou Chengli did not accept it, his expression indifferent.

"Is this lady Zhou's stepmother? We are Zhou's classmates. We came out today to tell you that Zhou is exceptionally learned and highly regarded by the teachers of the academy. His future is immeasurable. Please, madam, do not make things difficult for Zhou in the future, or the consequences will be unbearable for you."

Kong Yan's words greatly vented the anger of the students present. Zhou Chengli's knowledge was highly valued by the teacher in the academy, and they had naturally heard that this learned classmate had an arrogant and domineering stepmother. Now that they had seen her, they naturally wanted to stand up for Zhou Chengli.

“Making things difficult? Tell me how I made things difficult for him? You are all students of Wenxuan Hall. I had heard that Wenxuan Hall was the best academy in town. Now it seems that the students it produces are nothing special.”

Song Yushu finally understood that these scholars had come out to stand up for Zhou Chengli.

"You, a mere uncouth village woman, dare to speak ill of Wenxuan Hall. You are indeed ignorant. Although you are Brother Zhou's stepmother, you make things difficult for him at every turn and almost ruined his marriage. This shows your despicable character!"

He had initially thought she was just an ignorant village woman, someone he could easily humiliate and make her leave in a sorry state with a few words. But he hadn't expected her to be so good at arguing. She was definitely not an ordinary shrew, Kong Yan thought to himself.

"Didn't Zhou Chengli tell you why I disagreed with his marriage?"

Looking at the indignant scholars around him, Song Yushu couldn't help but sneer inwardly.

"What reason could there be? Brother Zhou and Miss Zhao are in love. You insist on breaking them up because you can't stand them, can you?"

"That's right. I also heard that she looked down on the Zhao family for being too poor. How could she be so snobbish? I heard from Brother Zhou that her family was made of butchers. How vulgar!"

"Nonsense! What are you doing? Go back right now!"

Before Song Yushu could refute, Xue Huai'an rushed over to stop the farce.

“Master Xue, we just want to vent our anger. This is Zhou Chengli’s stepmother, and we’re afraid she’ll come and cause trouble again.”

"It's just a dowry of twenty taels. With Brother Zhou's knowledge, are you worried about not being able to earn it in the future? To put it bluntly, you're just greedy!"

"Enough! It's none of your business to gossip here. Go back now!" Xue Huai'an shouted, stopping them from making any more noise.

"Wait a minute, let me say a few words. It's rare for me to come here, and I've received such a warm welcome from your academy. I feel bad if I don't say something."

Song Yu gave a polite but forced smile.

"You lot haven't forgotten what your own surname is after studying for a few years, have you?"

"So what if I come from a butcher family? I earn my living through my own skills. You all spout so much morality and righteousness, but aren't you all supported by your families? Which of you dares to say that you earned your education through your own abilities?"

"What's wrong with twenty taels? Is twenty taels a small amount? Go back and ask your parents how much silver a farmer can save in a year. An ordinary family only needs six or seven taels for a wedding. How can a bookish scholar who doesn't do manual labor and knows nothing about farming come up with twenty taels? His father swallowed his pride and borrowed money to make up the money for his marriage. Now he's working day and night doing odd jobs. So what if I object to his marriage?"

...

Song Yushu put his hands on his hips and berated the group of scholars mercilessly, finally venting his anger.

The scholars were stunned by the scolding. They wanted to retort, but they didn't know where to begin. They could only leave dejectedly.

Xue Huai'an never expected things to escalate like this. This was the first time in his life he had ever seen such a swearing woman, and what she said was not without reason. Moreover, he was the teacher here, and he was somewhat embarrassed.

"Alright, I was planning to bring him some food, but it seems I was just being presumptuous. But since I've already brought it, Master Xue, please accept it. It's too much trouble to take it back." Song Yushu didn't care what he thought of her. She couldn't bear to be scolded by others, so she stuffed the packaged braised meat into Xue Huai'an's hand and left.

She had to rush back to sell braised meat; earning money was much more interesting than arguing with these ignorant scholars.

"Madam Zhou, wait a moment!" Xue Huai'an was stunned for a moment while holding the things, and then quickly called out to her.

“Call me Madam Wei, I don’t like the title Madam Zhou,” Song Yushu corrected.

“Madam Wei, no matter what, I am the teacher of Wenxuan Hall. They were indeed reckless this time. I apologize to you on their behalf,” Xue Huai’an said, and then bowed solemnly.

"No need. If Master Xue has time, he can take them to learn about prices. They should at least know how much oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and rice cost, and they should also know about the people's annual harvest. Otherwise, reading more books by sages will be in vain."

After finishing her sentence, Song Yushu quickly left. She didn't care whether Xue Huai'an would do anything afterward; she was just stating her position.

"He's back. How did it go? Did he accept it?"

Wei's mother had always known that her daughter and stepson did not have a good relationship, so when she saw that her daughter had taken so long to return, she asked her about it.

“I confiscated it, I gave it to Master Xue,” Song Yushu said in an unchanged tone, not wanting Wei’s mother to know about the argument she had made at the academy.

"It's alright, as long as we don't give anyone cause for gossip. I don't expect you two to have a great relationship," Mother Wei said. She didn't force her to mend her relationship with Zhou Chengli, as long as her reputation wasn't ruined.

Song Yushu thought to himself: I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. After this argument, her reputation as a shrew will probably spread throughout the town soon.

I've been in this world for less than a month and we've already had several arguments. Practice makes perfect, so to hell with reputation!

Unexpectedly, half a month passed and Song Yushu did not hear any rumors, so he breathed a sigh of relief, at least his business was not affected.

Xue Huai'an naturally put in a lot of effort to achieve this result. He found Song Yushu's words to be very reasonable, so he went to talk to the academy's dean. Not long after, Wenxuan Academy cleared the wasteland behind the mountain for students to participate in farming and learn about agricultural matters.

During his lectures, Xue Huai'an also gave a special explanation of the prices in different regions, which broadened the horizons of these scholars who were previously only interested in studying. Now, they had a greater understanding of their parents who supported their education.

In this way, Song Yushu actually did a good thing. In the past, whenever Zhou Chengli mentioned his stepmother, his classmates would sympathize with him. But now there were fewer people who echoed him, which made Zhou Chengli very dissatisfied.

“Brother Zhou, you used to be ignorant of worldly affairs and thought that twenty taels was not much. Now that the teacher has explained it to you, you realize that twenty taels is quite a lot for ordinary people. You really can’t blame your stepmother for your marriage.”

"Yes, my family is poor too. Poor families usually can't afford such a high dowry. You were probably ripped off by the Zhao family."

"In that case, I wonder what about that Miss Zhao..."

"Enough! This is my business, please stop gossiping!"

"Hey! Brother Zhou!"

Zhou Chengli could not tolerate their disapproval of his actions. After all, he had always been praised in the academy for his good knowledge. Moreover, they had mentioned the shortcomings of his beloved, and he could no longer hold back.

"Why is he angry? Didn't he tell us these things himself? We were just expressing our thoughts, is it really that big of a deal?"

"Exactly, we even stood up for him back then, but in the end we brought this on ourselves..."

“From now on, we really can’t take his words seriously. This time, I actually think his stepmother did the right thing…”