The middle-sized young man showed his small white teeth and asked with a simple smile: "What do you want to drink?"
Su Qingluan vaguely felt that he seemed to have said something like "drink it all", but she thought it was probably an accent issue, so she said it again: "Be one with the light and dust."
When this word was said, Su Qingluan suddenly realized a problem: because her parents were also familiar with some words, and Su Xuanhe had been studying in Master Zhou's school, and Mr. Xu Kekuan who taught Su Xueyan abacus and bookkeeping was also a scholar, so among the people Su Qingluan often came into contact with, there were actually not many "illiterate" people in the true sense.
But looking at the entire Huaxi Village, there probably aren't many people who are as "literate" as his parents - the evidence is that when they were recruiting for the second time, they even asked Mu Xingzhi to record the names of all the people - and this was just a list of names, and there was no difficult textual content.
So when she looked at the confused boy opposite her, she suddenly realized that the words she thought were "common vocabulary" might be "out of scope" for the person in front of her.
Thinking of this, Su Qingluan wanted to explain what "harmony among the world" meant.
Unexpectedly, before Su Qingluan could even speak, someone else spoke first: "Tsk, you can't even understand such a simple sentence, and you still want to take advantage of my sister?"
Su Su Qingluan turned her head and found that Yang and the other women were still chatting, and they were a few steps away from where she and the "contracted" brother were standing, obviously trying to "create an opportunity" for the two children. However, behind Su Qingluan, there was still a "little tail" following.
The person who spoke was none other than Su Xuanhe, who had been in a bad mood since the beginning. He had been silent since the beginning, so he was not that noticeable. When he was next to Su Qingluan, even Su Qingluan herself did not notice.
The little fellow curled his lips in disdain and glanced at the "contract" brother, clearly looking down on him.
This made Su Qingluan somewhat interested: his younger brother was a bit of a temper, and was probably the only one among his peers in the village who went to school. Moreover, because he gradually became familiar with Mu Xingzhi and learned some martial arts from Song Bo, he could barely be considered a "double-edged swordsman" among the children of the same age.
Because of this, he was a little disdainful of this "adult" who was not much better than him in every aspect. In the past, Su Qingluan was taken to "blind dates" by Yang, and Su Xuanhe, a little kid, naturally had no chance to see it in person. But this time, it seemed that he had a big opinion about the man.
Although Su Qingluan was not particularly angry about her brother's words, she still felt that it was unacceptable to look down on others just because he had learned a few words. Now that the brat had only learned a few words, he was already acting so arrogantly. If he really passed the imperial examination and got some honors, wouldn't he be so proud of himself?
So Su Qingluan smiled calmly and said, "So, Xuan He must know what He Guang Tong Chen means?"
Su Xuanhe nodded proudly: "Master Zhou said that this word refers to a peaceful way of dealing with the world without competing with it, and embodies the Taoist idea of governing by inaction!"
Su Qingluan thought to herself, it seems Master Zhou isn't just some pedantic scholar who values Confucianism alone; he's also teaching these students Daoist stories. So she asked, "Where does this quote come from?"
Su Qingluan knew this question was a bit difficult. It was rare for a child under ten to know the phrase "和光同尘" and even explain its meaning.
When Su Qingluan was still in college, she thought this word was very beautiful, so she looked up the allusion of this word. If she had to say, she could be said to be "learning and applying it at the same time" - because she knew that there were very few idioms from which the allusion came. If you count "和光同尘", she could count them on one hand.
Sure enough, Su Xuanhe scratched his head, his face slowly flushed, and after a moment he shook his head: "I don't know."
Su Qingluan smiled: "It comes from the Tao Te Ching. Blunt its sharpness, resolve its confusion, harmonize its light, and be one with the dust. This is called mysterious unity."
Su Xuanhe's eyes lit up: "Sister, you really know a lot!"
Su Qingluan felt a little intimidated by her brother's gaze, but she still said, "That's why learning never ends. How can you look down on others just because you know a word?" Then she pointed at Brother "Contract" and said, "Apologize to him."
Su Xuanhe glanced at Brother Hetong. Although he was still a little unconvinced, he didn't act rudely like he had just now. He lowered his head obediently and said, "I was wrong. I'm sorry, Brother He."
Seeing this, Su Qingluan smiled and touched Su Xuanhe's hair, then looked at Brother Contract: "I'm really sorry, my brother just said something excessive."
Brother Contract smiled and waved his hands: "Oh, it's just a kid's joke. How can I take his words to heart? That would be too petty."
Su Qingluan thought to herself that it was not so bad, this brother seemed to be a broad-minded person, otherwise if Su Xuanhe's words just now were to be received by someone with a narrow mind, even if the person would feel embarrassed to argue with a child, he would still not be in a good mood.
Thinking of this, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Before he could fully relax, he heard someone say, "I don't understand what you're saying, but there's no point in overthinking it. Farmers should just work hard and find a wife. By the way, I heard your sister's name is Yan'er, your brother's name is He, and I think your name is also Niao. How come everyone in your family is named after birds?"
The big brother opposite was smiling without any grudge, which made Su Qingluan catch her breath. She couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth: It turned out that the premise of this brother's "broad mind" was that he could choke people to death without paying.
The main time for outings during the Dragon Boat Festival is in the morning, as Huaxi Village has a river that is not too narrow, and there are dragon boat races every year.
However, because the population of the village is really small, there are even fewer young and middle-aged people who can participate in the dragon boat race, so the people who participate in the dragon boat race are even brought from the town and other nearby villages. It is regarded as a "friendly exchange" event around the Dragon Boat Festival every year.
Although it was such a lively and festive holiday, Su Qingluan felt fatigue emerging from the bottom of her heart - as if her soul had been hollowed out.
So when Su Qingluan came to visit Mu Xingzhi near noon, carrying the last of the rice dumplings, Song Bo pushed the door open and the first thing he asked was, "Madam Su, what trouble have you encountered?"
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