Da Ya thought for a while before saying, "I, I know more than fifty characters. I learned them with Xiao Ye and the others."
Zhang Xiucai nodded, but after glancing at Daya a few more times, he casually pointed to some words in the book and asked the children to recognize them.
Seeing that Da Ya was still a step behind, Zhang Xiucai confirmed his guess. However, he didn't dwell on it too much. He simply did what he had planned at the beginning: teach the group to recognize some simple characters and explain their meanings.
Hearing the sounds coming from inside the house, Jiang Yimian breathed a sigh of relief and didn't linger. She went straight up the mountain, planning to call Zhao Dashu and the others to pick her up in the evening.
As soon as she returned to the small depression, Jiang Yimian continued making soap.
This time, she made all sorts of beautiful soaps, as well as soaps of different colors and scents. She only stopped when most of the lard had been used up.
The sun had already set outside, and the people who were still clearing land had all returned.
Zhao Dashu and the other two had already been driven down the mountain by Old Man Liu to pick up Gousheng and the others.
As soon as Chen Tiezhu came out of the kitchen, he said with a smile, "The food will be ready soon, and we can eat in a little while."
Liu Xiaoyun wiped the sweat from her forehead and quickly said, "Let me help you."
Chen Tiezhu smiled and said, "No need, I've already finished cooking. You can rest. I don't have anything to do all afternoon, I've already prepared the dishes."
These past few days, since everyone has been busy clearing land, Chen Tiezhu has taken over the cooking duties.
Because he had a wheelchair, he could move around relatively easily, so everyone agreed.
Seeing that Liu Xiaoyun was still worried, Jiang Yimian just smiled and said, "Aunt Xiaoyun, don't worry. I'll go help Uncle Tiezhu with the fire. You've been working hard all day, so please take a rest."
As she spoke, she followed Chen Tiezhu into the kitchen.
Upon entering the kitchen, it became clear that Chen Tiezhu was not lying. Although he was in a wheelchair, he showed no signs of panic. All the vegetables had been chopped, placed on plates next to the stove, and were within easy reach.
Occasionally, he needs to move his wheelchair to fetch something, but he remains calm and organized.
Jiang Yimian tried to help several times, but found that she was not needed at all, so she could only silently tend the fire from the side.
A meal was quickly prepared, and the three Zhao brothers returned with Gou Sheng and the others.
Ono and the others were beaming with excitement, their eyes sparkling, as they eagerly told everyone what they had learned that day.
"Master Zhang is so amazing! Today he not only taught us to recognize characters, but also to count and use an abacus to do calculations. He calculated huge numbers in just a few seconds."
Xiao Nuan'er and Daya nodded repeatedly, their faces full of smiles. Even Gou Sheng was no longer listless as before, but instead showed more joy.
“Master Zhang knows a lot about carpentry, he’s really amazing. I need to study hard so I can read some of the carpentry books.”
Gou Sheng's face was full of longing, and there was no trace of his previous dislike for learning to read.
The three Zhao brothers looked at him in surprise, finding it strange that he, who used to hate literate people, was so happy today.
They didn't spend much time with Zhang Xiucai; they just listened for a bit and remained drowsy.
Zhang Xiucai wasn't surprised to learn that the group needed to learn one or two characters each day. He assigned them the task and sent them back.
As Jiang Yimian listened to everyone's voices in the kitchen, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a smile. It seemed that her decision was correct.
As expected, everyone has their own expertise. A teacher who specializes in teaching is different. He was able to see the interests of Gou Sheng and the others in just one afternoon. He is really amazing.
At this moment, in a thatched hut near the foot of the mountain in Qingshi Village.
Zhang Xiucai rubbed his sore eyes. Seeing that the sky had completely darkened and there was no light in the house, he went to the kitchen in the dark, intending to make a simple bowl of leaf porridge.
He went up the mountain to look for wild vegetables early this morning, but unfortunately the wild vegetables hadn't grown yet. After searching for a long time, he only found some non-poisonous leaves, which were barely edible, so he wouldn't go hungry or be poisoned.
He took some branches from the yard, stuffed them into the stove, and lit them. Just as he was about to continue cooking the leaf porridge, he noticed several cloth bags in the corner of the kitchen.
He frowned, opened the cloth bag, and was astonished by the white rice and flour inside.
Where did you get such high-quality rice and flour?
It took him a while to remember Jiang Yimian. She seemed to have brought quite a lot of things when she came today. At that time, he was focused on the children and didn't notice the girl. He never expected that she would bring him such good rice and flour.
He then looked at the other bags and found that they contained not only cornmeal and some dried wild vegetables, but also a large piece of meat.
He thought he was seeing things, and stared at the meat for a while before he was sure it really was meat.
Zhang Xiucai was taken aback. After a long silence, he took out some corn porridge and cooked it with the leaves. He then carefully put the rest away.
He felt somewhat helpless, assuming that Jiang Yimian had specially prepared all the rice, noodles, and meat to send to him.
He's an old man; he's just trying not to starve. At this time, having any food at all is the best he can do. How could he possibly accept someone else's life-saving food?
He needs to find a chance to return these things.
*
The next day, after having dinner, Gou Sheng, Xiao Ye, and the others descended the mountain together, escorted by Mimi.
Mimi escorted them to the edge of the mountain before starting to roam freely in the forest, hunting for food.
Jiang Yimian went to prepare for Chen Tiezhu's surgery.
She first disinfected the room where Chen Tiezhu usually lived with alcohol, and then, to Chen Tiezhu's surprise, gave him an anesthetic.
Chen Tiezhu quickly lost consciousness.
Jiang Yimian then took out a scalpel to perform surgery on the other person's leg.
Originally, only Liu Xiaoyun was worried outside; the others just glanced over from time to time.
Half an hour passed, and everyone lost interest in clearing the land. They all waited in the Chen family courtyard, and a sense of anxiety inevitably appeared on everyone's face.
Even though Jiang Yimian had told them several times that it was a minor surgery and there was nothing to worry about, the group was still concerned.
Especially after more than half an hour of complete silence inside the room, everyone felt uneasy.
Liu Xiaoyun was so worried that she couldn't sit still. She kept pacing back and forth in the yard, her eyes red as she looked at the tightly closed door, her fingers clenched together.
Seeing this, Wang Fengqin quickly stepped forward, took Liu Xiaoyun's hand, and reassured her, "Xiaoyun, don't worry, if Yimian says there's no problem, then there's definitely no problem."
Zhao Xing'er also said, "There's definitely no problem, don't scare yourself."
Reassured by the two, Liu Xiaoyun's tense heart finally relaxed a lot, but her gaze never left the tightly closed door.
Almost half an hour later, the tightly closed door finally opened from the inside.
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