Jiang Laowu said happily, "Really? Then I'll ask Fourth Brother and the others to come and learn too."
Actually, he was able to collect so many medicinal herbs despite his busy schedule thanks to the help of his older brothers.
The Jiang family has many sons, and each son gets married and has children. With such a large family living together, there are bound to be some conflicts.
But these were all minor conflicts.
The Jiang family's wives each had their own selfish motives, but this did not affect the relationship between the brothers.
Although Jiang Laowu said he would find a way to pay Guo Xinyi's betrothal gifts himself, his older brothers took time to help him gather herbs when they learned that he was collecting herbs to save for the gifts.
Jiang Tangtang was naturally happy that her brothers on her mother's side had a good relationship and didn't have the messy affairs that other families had. She nodded and said, "Okay! I'll teach you all when they're free."
The houses are now finished, but there's still a lot to do. One of those things is allocating housing units.
To prevent any conflicts, Jiang Tangtang, as she had previously mentioned, first assigned numbers to the houses according to their types and then marked them.
To prevent mistakes, Jiang Tangtang had many wooden blocks prepared. She then wrote numbers on the wooden blocks and placed them on the corresponding houses.
And tell everyone that this is the house number.
After that, she had many bamboo pieces prepared, and wrote numbers on the bottom of each bamboo piece. Then she put them into an opaque earthenware jar.
Once everything was ready, Jiang Tangtang had a slightly raised platform erected in the open space outside the earthen village to preside over the house-drawing ceremony.
The room-drawing ceremony was very simple.
Not only was the venue unprepared, but there were also no fireworks or lights to create an atmosphere. Yet, the atmosphere on site was comparable to that of a modern large-scale performance.
The villagers were overjoyed, looking expectantly at the earthenware pot and bamboo sticks that Jiang Tangtang had prepared in advance, and excitedly asked, "Chief Gu, when do we start drawing lots?"
Which group goes first?
"Chief Gu, can my family smoke first?"
...
Amid the villagers' jeers, Jiang Tangtang took out another handful of bamboo sticks she had prepared beforehand and said, "Everyone, please be quiet. Each family will send one person to draw lots. We'll draw the order first, and then we'll draw lots according to that order."
This bamboo stick is much simpler than the bamboo blocks used for drawing houses; it only has simple numbers written on it.
The villagers didn't mind having to draw lots twice; they just wanted to get a house as soon as possible.
The villagers gathered around Jiang Tangtang and drew bamboo sticks first.
Some people didn't recognize the characters on the bamboo slips and asked Jiang Tangtang about the number they had drawn.
There were too many people, so Jiang Tangtang asked Lu Chenyan and Xie Ziang to help out.
Although Lu Chenyan is young, he has already learned quite a few characters thanks to his photographic memory.
Xie Zi'ang was a rare scholar among those living in the valley.
His habit of quoting classical texts when teaching Lu Chenyan shows that he is already a well-educated person.
Jiang Tangtang hadn't asked about his past, but based on his knowledge, she could tell that he wasn't from a poor family.
To thank him for teaching Lu Chenyan to read, Jiang Tangtang asked about his family situation and planned to ask Lu Shiyan to help him find his family.
But he refused.
Jiang Tangtang didn't ask any more questions, but she helped him out more on a regular basis.
But aside from giving her more food, Jiang Tangtang couldn't really help her much. At fourteen, she was still a child in Jiang Tangtang's eyes. But in the villagers' eyes, in another year, she'd be old enough to be engaged and married.
Some families even intend to hire him as a son-in-law.
Not only was Xie Ziang good-looking and gave people a sense of composure, but many people also knew that he was literate.
The villagers already knew that Xie Ziang was literate, so they weren't surprised when Jiang Tangtang asked him to help identify bamboo sticks.
The villagers were more surprised by Lu Chenyan.
Watching Lu Chenyan, such a small child, meticulously pointing to the characters on the bamboo stick and explaining them to everyone, many villagers widened their eyes in amazement. "Little mute... how old is Chenyan, and he already knows how to read?"
"I didn't mistake the words on it, did I?"
...
Although Lu Chenyan can already speak, many villagers still remember him from when he was in Dawan Village.
At this point, some villagers couldn't believe what he said. They showed the bamboo sticks to Lu Chenyan and then squeezed over to Xie Ziang to ask him again.
When the answer they received from Xie Ziang was the same as what Lu Chenyan had said, everyone still couldn't believe it.
Some people even planned to ask Jiang Tangtang.
Seeing people doubting his nephew, Jiang Laowu said unhappily, "These are all simple numbers. How could my nephew make a mistake? Even if you brought him the Four Books and Five Classics, it wouldn't be difficult for him."
"Jiang Laowu, stop bragging. Do you really think we know nothing? How old is Xiao Chenyan? Does he know the Four Books and Five Classics?"
“That’s right. Although I’ve never been to school, the youngest son of Village Chief Song used to be educated. I heard that you need to have some basic knowledge before you start studying the Four Books and Five Classics. How old is Lu Sanlang’s son?”
"Jiang Laowu, even if you love to brag, this is no way you should brag."
...
Jiang Laowu couldn't stand people questioning his nephew, so he defended him and said that his nephew could read the Four Books and Five Classics.
He didn't know if his little nephew could read the Four Books and Five Classics, but he did know that his little nephew could recognize many characters.
He's far more capable than his uncle.
Why do people look down on such an amazing nephew?
He puffed out his chest and said, "I'm not bragging. My little nephew knows a lot of words. If you don't believe me, find a book and let my little nephew read it to you. If he reads it correctly, you're not allowed to look down on him anymore."
Seeing Jiang Laowu's certainty, even the villagers who had previously disbelieved Lu Chenyan were now somewhat uncertain.
Someone suggested, "After the village chief's youngest son left, did he lose his luggage? Why don't we ask the village chief and bring out those books so he can identify them in front of everyone?"
Ordinary families don't have books, but it's different for Village Chief Song. Song Jun is a scholar, and in his eyes, books are even more precious than food.
When moving, other families try to take as many clothes and metalware as possible. But a large part of the Song family's belongings consisted of Song Jun's books.
Later, Song Jun died while fleeing famine, and his family was heartbroken. They had no choice but to bury his remains haphazardly on a hilltop, but everyone guessed that the Song family would never want to throw away Song Jun's books.
Firstly, those books were bought with real money, and once things settle down, they might be able to be exchanged for cash. Secondly, they belonged to Song Jun, and keeping them would be a way to remember him.
The villagers were right; the Song family indeed couldn't bear to throw away those books.
After asking Village Chief Song, some villagers suggested that once the houses were distributed, they should find a time for Lu Chenyan to read them aloud in front of everyone.
At this point, the issue of housing allocation was of course more important. This incident was quickly put aside, and everyone's attention was focused on the stage.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com