Chapter 76 Teaching

There were quite a few people in the restaurant, so they couldn't get too close. After ladling out the porridge, Song Yushu went to ask the children who hadn't eaten enough and gave them more porridge.

The twenty children settled down there, and every day they would get up and help Song Yushu shovel the snow in the yard. Otherwise, they would stay in the house to keep warm.

"Chengyu, if you have time, why don't you lead them in reciting a few lines of poetry? Otherwise, it's too boring for them to stay indoors all the time," Song Yushu thought of a solution when he saw that the children were too bored.

"Can I do it? What if I can't teach well?" Zhou Chengyu had never taught anyone before. In his opinion, a teacher must have real talent and knowledge, like the teachers in the academy, to be worthy of being a teacher.

“It’s not like we’re making them take the imperial examination. You can’t stay in the room reading all day. Just take half an hour to teach them a few lines,” Song Yushu advised, seeing that he did not refuse.

“Okay, but I can’t guarantee I can teach them,” Zhou Chengyu said, feeling uncertain.

"It's alright, let them have some fun," Song Yushu knew that many people couldn't afford to send their children to school these days, especially the children in orphanages. They were lucky to grow up safely, as they had no chance to learn to read.

The next day, Zhou Chengyu took his own primer, copied down some poems and a few simple characters, and then reluctantly began to teach the children to read.

With twenty children, the wooden house was too crowded, so Song Yushu had them come to the restaurant to listen to the lessons together.

As the slightly yellowed sheets of paper were handed to them, the children were afraid of getting them dirty, so they wanted to touch them but dared not.

Can we read books too?

"There are big characters written on that paper! I heard from the people in town that this is how students study at the academy, it must be true!"

This was the first time the twenty children had shown such excitement. They had never imagined that one day someone would teach them to recite poetry, and their eyes sparkled as they looked at Zhou Chengyu.

Zhou Chengyu had never felt so much pressure. They were just a group of children, and he was almost fourteen, a man who should stand tall and proud! He mustered his courage and took out the sheet of paper with the poems to be learned that day, and handed them out.

As he read a line, the children would repeat it, though their reading was not neat or correct, their voices were very loud. Seeing their cooperation, Zhou Chengyu was encouraged. He taught them several times, correcting their mistakes, before finally beginning to teach them the meaning of the poem.

He didn't have much experience teaching and sometimes stuttered, but he gradually got into it. Although he only taught them to recite a poem over and over again, it was enough for these children.

Song Yushu and the other adults sat in the corner watching the children learn diligently, and they were naturally deeply moved. Yun Niangzi even wiped away tears with her sleeve several times.

"Boss Wei, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, they probably would never have had the chance to learn to read and write poetry in their lives." Madam Yun had long treated these children as her own, and seeing them like this, she felt both heartbroken and happy.

"It's nothing. They have to walk their own path from now on. There's not much we can do to help them."

"That's enough. They won't forget these days."

Then, the children's loud reading voices rang out again in the restaurant. This time, they read in unison and correctly.

From that day on, the children had an extra task every morning: memorizing texts.

As Zhou Chengyu listened with a stern face to the children lining up and stumbling as they recited the poem they had learned in the past few days, his heart was filled with joy. Only now did he truly understand the happiness of being a teacher.

He didn't have high expectations; he only required them to be able to recite the poem, not to write it down. Moreover, he spent three days teaching them a poem, only starting to quiz them after they had learned to recognize the characters.

Some of these children have good memories; they can not only memorize the words fluently but also recognize them. Of course, some are slower to react and need to spend more time memorizing them.

Instead of watching them attend class that day, Song Yushu took Xiong Erni outside to build snow piles.

She had been bored these past few days, so she built a beautiful ice cave outside by laying ice bricks. Thinking of the ice and snow world in her previous life, she and Xiong Erni decided to build a long ice slide. The children also came to help after school. With everyone's concerted efforts, a beautiful ice slide appeared in the snow.

Wow! That's fast!

"Hahahahaha..."

After an ice slide was added to the yard, the children had another activity besides studying. Every day after class, they would slide on the ice slide several times before returning to the cabin. They also built a few snowmen outside, making the place even more lively.

What is the pronunciation of this character?

"spring!"

Zhou Chengyu listened and nodded in satisfaction. He then checked a few more sentences before teaching the next one.

Xue Huai'an stood quietly at the door for a long time without making a sound to disturb their reading.

"These must be your students? They're quite promising," Magistrate Gu said. At first, he thought he had come to the wrong place when he heard the sound of reading. He was surprised to find that there were indeed people reading in the restaurant. They were the children from the orphanage.

Zhou Chengyu was initially engrossed in teaching, but after glancing inadvertently at the door, he couldn't speak anymore.

"Master Xue... why are you here..." Zhou Chengyu felt a little guilty for some reason.

“What are you afraid of? Keep teaching. Your teachers are happy!” Magistrate Gu encouraged Zhou Chengyu from the side.

Seeing that Xue Huai'an didn't seem angry, but instead nodded in agreement, Zhou Chengyu continued speaking.

He was clearly a little nervous with these two people present, but he still managed to finish reciting a poem without any major incident.

After class, the children put their papers away before sneaking outside to play on the slide. Zhou Chengyu's face flushed; he knew his teaching was mediocre and he had embarrassed himself in front of Master Xue.

"How did you come up with the idea of ​​teaching them to read?" Magistrate Gu didn't care about Xue Huai'an's opinion; he was deeply moved by the scene and asked Zhou Chengyu.

“My mother said it wasn’t good for these children to stay cooped up in the house all day, so she asked me to teach them a few poems when I had time. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to teach them well, but even when I taught them just a few characters, they studied very hard. They were afraid that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to read and write after they left here, so they cherished this opportunity.”

Zhou Chengyu has been finding teaching quite tiring these past few days because these children don't know anything, but when he sees their bright eyes looking at him, he perseveres, just like his mother often tells him: do your best.

“You are a good child. If it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to study and learn to read. So there’s no need to feel ashamed in front of Master Xue. When he was your age, he was still studying hard. You can already teach. You’re better than him,” Magistrate Gu said, praising Zhou Chengyu while putting down Master Xue, so that he wouldn’t feel embarrassed.