39 Chapter 39
◎The Pig Spirit Goes Down the Mountain◎
With only a few days left before school started, Jiang Jingyun first found a private school with a good reputation for his third brother, then helped with the opening of a new restaurant, and also found time to write a new menu. Every day was busy and fulfilling.
The summer heat is over in August, September is approaching, and school finally opens in the city.
Early in the morning, as soon as the roosters crowed, Jiang Jingyun came out of the room with a messy hair.
Xiao Muyan and Jiang Erge had already gotten up. One of them was watching the fire by the stove, while the other was kneading dough on the chopping board, preparing today's breakfast.
Unlike Xiao Muyan, the second brother is quite talented in cooking and has become a master after several years of training. Now, except when developing new dishes, Jiang Jingyun needs to demonstrate personally, the second brother is the chef most of the time.
Before leaving, his mother held his ears and repeatedly reminded him that not only should he listen to his fifth brother on all important matters in the city, but he should also take good care of Jiang Jingyun's daily life.
Before daybreak, Second Brother Jiang got up to knead the dough and steam a basket of meat buns with large skin and thin fillings. He also specially ground some fresh soy milk to drink. If he had been short of time, he would probably have fried some dough sticks to go with it.
Seeing him come out, the second brother joked: "Wake up, why did you get up so early today? Are you so excited to go to school that you can't sleep?"
Jiang Jingyun was a little grumpy when he woke up. He didn't want to pay attention to his second brother. He found a stool and sat there in a daze, trying to wake himself up.
Yesterday he stayed up late to write a recipe, and his mind was constantly thinking about business matters. As a result, the more he wrote, the more excited he became. Later, he drank a pot of tea against everyone's advice, and tossed and turned in bed all night, unable to fall asleep. When he finally felt a little sleepy, he heard the rooster crowing in the yard. Looking at the sky outside, he estimated that it was already the morning hour, so he decided not to force himself to sleep, but put on his clothes and got up.
"The buns need to be steamed for a while before they can be eaten. Go wash up first." Xiao Muyan saw Jiang Jingyun's listless look and said distressedly, "I'll drive the carriage to take you there later. You can take a nap in the carriage. There's still enough time."
"Oh." Jiang Jingyun was too sleepy to talk. He yawned and went to wash up with a listless look.
Although they had already been to the official school in advance and were familiar with the route, it was still better to arrive early on the first day of school, so after breakfast, the two of them went out.
When we arrived at the entrance of the academy, it was not yet noon.
They happened to meet Su Yuheng outside the door. Before they could say hello, he said jokingly, "Tsk, are you a kid? Do you need your big brother Xiao to send you to school?"
When Jiang Jingyun heard this, he stopped in his tracks and rolled his eyes at his friend whom he hadn't seen for a few days: "If you're envious, just say so. You can also be a baby and let your family send you off."
"Tsk, who cares." After hanging out with Jiang Jingyun for a long time, Su Yuheng also learned a few of his catchphrases, "My new house is near the academy, and it only takes a quarter of an hour to walk here. Who needs a ride?"
"Yes, yes, yes. It's because my family is poor that we have to live in a remote area."
"Recognize yourself. You are stingy, not poor." Judging from the turnover of the Jiang family's restaurant in the town, although they cannot be said to be wealthy, they definitely have enough money to rent a house near the academy. It's just that Jiang Jingyun himself is reluctant to spend money.
"What do you know, young master? I'm just being frugal and managing the household."
The two were still arguing as usual, but Xiao Muyan didn't care. Seeing that the people had been safely delivered, he was about to leave when suddenly a carriage came straight towards them and was about to hit them, with no intention of slowing down. He hurriedly pulled the two of them back a few steps.
"Are you okay?" Xiao Muyan supported Jiang Jingyun, who was unsteady on his feet.
Jiang Jingyun waved his hand to indicate that it was okay, and looked up at the carriage parked at the door. Which bastard was so bold as to ride a horse in front of the school?
The curtain in front of the carriage blocked their view and they could not see the people sitting inside.
Just as he was about to go forward to investigate, a familiar yet annoying voice rang out in the car: "Who is so blind as to block my way here?"
I heard his voice before I saw him.
Jiang Jingyun and Su Yuheng showed disgusted expressions at the same time when they heard it: Tsk, it turns out it's you, Xie bastard.
A tall and fat man wearing a golden crown and a silk gown got off the carriage. It was indeed Xie Weicai.
"Pfft." Jiang Jingyun couldn't help laughing as soon as they met, and said sarcastically, "Oh, I was wondering who it was, it turned out to be a pig spirit running down the mountain, it hasn't even learned how to transform yet, how come it ran out and rushed around, it's scary."
“Hahahahahahahahahaha…” Su Yuheng pounded the ground with laughter. Was Jiang Jingyun’s mouth poisoned? Every time he opened his mouth, it would hurt the enemy three points. Fortunately, he was on the friendly side.
No one knew who had beaten him, but Xie Weicai's face was swollen like a pig's head. He was fat to begin with, and now the flesh on his face was like steamed buns made of leavened dough, squeezing his already small eyes into just a thin slit, with bruises all over his face. Combined with his glittering golden crown and fancy clothes, he looked even more ridiculous.
Jiang Jingyun signaled to Su Yuheng with his eyes: You did it, right?
Su Yuheng raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at him with a smile, the meaning in his eyes was clear at a glance.
After thinking about the accident in the college entrance examination, Jiang Jingyun felt that Xie Weicai was the most suspicious. However, this man seemed to have a powerful background and he, a commoner, could not afford to offend him. Moreover, he had no evidence, so he did not retaliate immediately. He only told Su Yuheng about the matter and asked him to pay attention to it.
Unexpectedly, Su Yuheng did something big without making any noise, and he chose to do it on the eve of school opening, so that Xie Weicai could make a fool of himself in front of many classmates with his pig face.
Jiang Jingyun secretly reached out from behind and gave Su Yuheng a big thumbs up: Well done!
Su Yuheng raised his chin proudly and accepted the compliment.
Seeing the two of them arguing with each other, talking about things he didn't know and people he didn't know, Xiao Muyan felt inexplicably uncomfortable as if he was being left out. He deliberately moved closer to Jiang Jingyun and asked, "Know him? Who is he?"
Jiang Jingyun explained in a low voice in Xiao Muyan's ear: "It's the one I mentioned to you before, the annoying guy who always makes trouble for me. Didn't someone come to our restaurant to cause trouble before? It was him who did it! And the one who deliberately framed me during the exam before, I suspect it was also his instigation..."
"Oh, I seem to have some impression of him." Xiao Muyan understood. He seemed to have met this man several times when he was picking up Jiang Jingyun from school in the town. Every time he looked ferocious and it was obvious that he was not a good person.
Xiao Muyan, as usual, tidied Jiang Jingyun's clothes intimately and said, "Don't bother with this kind of person. Go to class first."
"Okay." Jiang Jingyun nodded obediently.
Su Yuheng couldn't stand the disgusting look of these two people, so he took the lead and entered the academy.
"Hey, wait for me." Seeing this, Jiang Jingyun hurriedly said goodbye to Xiao Muyan, turned around and ran to catch up.
From beginning to end, neither of them paid any attention to the annoying pig head.
"Jiang Jingyun..." Xie Weicai stared at the front, squeezing out these three words from his teeth, as if he wanted to cut him into pieces. He turned around and saw Xiao Muyan still standing there looking at him, "What are you looking at, you bastard."
Xiao Muyan ignored the other party's rude remarks. After looking up and down at the other person's appearance, he looked away, turned around and drove the carriage away.
There will be no classes in the official school today. The focus will be on paying homage to the teacher and completing the admission process.
There were about forty scholars admitted at this time. Among them, the top-ranked ones were called "Bingsheng" and received six dou of rice from the government every month as a subsidy. The next-highest-ranked ones were called "Zengsheng" and received no food. The lowest-ranked ones were called "Fusheng" and were ranked last among the other students.[1]
Arrive at Chenshi every day and leave school at Youshi. You can take a half-hour break at noon. The official school provides lunch, but students need to pay two taels of silver every month as food expenses.
The teacher in charge of them was probably in his forties or fifties, wearing a dark green square scarf, a grey gown, a tall and thin figure, a goatee, and a calm and wise look. At first glance, he was the type of rigid and serious person that Su Yuheng feared the most. It seemed that although he had escaped the embarrassment of being surrounded by a group of old-fashioned teachers, he had not completely escaped it.
Everyone bowed to the Master and said, "Students greet you, sir."
"My last name is Gao. From now on, I will be responsible for teaching you and answering your questions." Master Gao stroked his beard, glanced sharply at the students, and said in a serious voice, "The fact that you can stand here shows that you are not mediocre people. However, there are always people who are better than you. Don't be proud and complacent. If you can't do it, then learn it. If you don't know, then ask. If you are ashamed to ask others, then you will never make any progress." [2]
Everyone bowed their heads again and said in unison: "We will follow the master's instructions."
"Yes." Master Gao nodded in satisfaction. Although he didn't know how much these students could listen to, at least his attitude was still modest. "There will be no class today. You can get to know each other first, or take the book list to buy all the books. Tomorrow's class will be on time at noon. Everyone, go home."
"yes."
After the teacher left, the quiet classroom suddenly became noisy.
Su Yuheng's tense body also relaxed, and he became carefree again: "Where are we going to play later?"
"I'm not going anywhere," Jiang Jingyun carefully wrote down the titles of the books on the desk one by one, "I'll go to the bookstore to buy all the textbooks first, and then go home to catch up on some sleep and review my lessons."
"Tsk, boring."
Jiang Jingyun looked up at him and said, "If you have nothing to do, the restaurant will need some waiters when it opens. Please help me find some hardworking and trustworthy people."
"How many do you want?"
"Three or four will do."
"Okay, I'll tell the housekeeper later and ask him to pick out a few skilled servants to go over." Su Yuheng agreed, and couldn't help but add a few more words, "Your family can also think about hiring a few servants. If nothing else, during the day, if you all go out to work, leaving your sister alone at home, it's not only boring, but also unsafe."
"Hmm..." This is a problem. When they were in the village before, they had their cousin Xiao Ya and others to help take care of their daughter, and Jinglin and his wife would accompany their sister whenever they had free time. Now, one of them has to follow her second brother to do business, and the other has to go to a private school. He originally planned to let his sister go to the restaurant during the day, but he overlooked the multiple restrictions on women in this era.
But if he wanted to buy people, as a 21st century youth who had been influenced by socialism, Jiang Jingyun really couldn't accept the human trafficking. He hesitated and said, "Let me think about it..."
Su Yuheng nodded. He was just making a suggestion. How to do it specifically still depended on Jiang Jingyun's opinion. "Let's go buy some books."
Not long after the two men left, an unfamiliar scholar looked at their backs as they left, seeming to be thinking about something.
【Author’s words】
Happy Winter Solstice, my dears!
【1】Refer to Baidu College Entrance Examination Content
[2] From Xunzi: Not the Twelve Philosophers
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