Chapter 241: I would rather eat without meat than live without books
The remaining three people, mother and daughter, looked at each other, and the scene was extremely awkward for a moment.
After a long while, Tan Xi spoke first: "It's okay, your father just said something harsh, don't take it to heart. Que'er, Ling'er, drink quickly."
Five-year-old Ling'er has a bad memory. Although she was scared to the point of crying by her father just now, as soon as he left, she immediately smiled again, holding the bamboo tube and taking small sips.
"Sister, this sweet drink is really delicious."
Que'er felt a little sad, but she forced a smile on her face: "Ling'er, if you think it tastes good, drink more. Be careful with the meatballs in it, don't choke on them."
She knew that her father didn't like her and her younger sister, thinking that they were women and couldn't inherit his knowledge, but it wasn't her fault.
Obviously, she just wanted the whole family to have a taste of the bubble milk tea.
It has been a long time since we bought any sweets at home, but my father’s study has a new book every now and then.
Seeing that she was in a low mood, Tanxi gently touched her hair and picked out the grass leaves and seeds that were not picked out from her hair.
He consoled her, "Your father may be stubborn but he's probably very curious. You can secretly deliver it to him later and just squat outside to watch. I'm sure he'll take it in after a while."
"Really?" Que'er's eyes lit up.
"Of course, mother would never lie to you."
Tanxi took Ling'er to the stream to wash vegetables. After hesitating for a moment, Que'er still did as her mother taught her.
He placed the milk tea at the door of the study, knocked on the door gently, and then immediately ran to the side and hid.
The room was silent for a long time. Just when she was about to turn around and leave in despair, she heard a slight "creaking" sound.
She immediately perked up and looked over, and was shocked to see that the study door was quietly opened a crack, and her father's head came out first, with a small part of the willow beard he had grown specially for him still left inside the door.
Seeing that there was no one around, Chai Yuanwei was completely relieved and opened the door and walked out.
Pick up the bamboo tube and smell it, a faint aroma of black tea mixed with the taste of milk, not only dissipates the fishy smell of the milk itself, but also makes it seem a bit elegant.
He was even more surprised after taking a sip. Even his previously frowned brows relaxed. The sweet drink that Que'er brought back was indeed good.
Que'er, who was hiding and observing secretly, saw that his father had indeed done as his mother said. He quietly took it back into the house to taste it, and the gloom on his face immediately disappeared.
When it was time for dinner in the evening, Chai Yuanwei even took the initiative to pick up some food for her with his chopsticks: "How can you just eat the rice without eating the vegetables? Eat more."
After a pause, he continued, "Dad was wrong this afternoon. I shouldn't have lost my temper with you. The milk tea is delicious."
Que'er held the bowl in her hands, lowered her head, and said nothing. Tanxi, however, began to criticize her, "You, our family has been in Lingnan for so long, and yet you're still clinging to that roomful of books of yours? Can you even think of eating them?"
"...No." Chai Yuanwei suddenly felt embarrassed. Even when he was an official, he was not a powerful figure. His family had never had a good life with him.
"If you ask me, you might as well open a school and recruit two disciples. You can also add some meat to your family by collecting and cultivating. Look at how skinny your two children are."
Tan Xi often said this, but Chai Yuanwei never agreed.
Their family was not rich to begin with. After coming to Lingnan and building a house, most of the remaining money was used by Chai Yuanwei to buy books to fill his study, and their life was quite tight.
He said at the time: "I would rather eat without meat than live without books."
As time went by, I rarely ate meat. The books were placed in the study, and every summer they had to be taken out to dry in the sun. In Lingnan's awful weather, if they were not exposed to the sun for two days, the books would go moldy.
Whenever this matter was brought up in the past, Chai Yuanwei would remain silent, but today he gave a rare response: "Okay."
After wasting several years, he finally faced the reality and knew that he was no longer the censor who dared to speak out in the court, but just a head of a family who needed to work hard to make a living.
Being able to use his knowledge to earn some money for his family and supplement the household expenses is the biggest concession he can make.
"You agree?" Tan Xi just said it casually out of habit. She didn't expect that he actually agreed. She was overjoyed.
"That's great, that's great. Tomorrow I'll go to the village below to help you spread the word. There are a lot of uneducated children there."
As for the people in Shangcun, every family has literate people, so their children don't need to go to school at all. They can just learn from their elders at home.
Who knows whether the people outside have real abilities? The saying that intellectuals look down on each other has never been an empty phrase.
Sang Xingjia had a pretty good sense of timing. When he got home, the food was just ready. He only drank a cup of milk tea, then filled a big bowl of rice and ate it very happily.
During the meal, Sang Yu also casually asked, "Does his teacher like milk tea?" If not, he would make something else that suits his taste next time.
Afraid that he would have to sit on a rock and gnaw on pig's trotters alone next time, Sang Xingjia quickly said that the whole family liked it, thus covering up the issue.
It would take a day or two to carve out a hundred or so bamboo tubes, even if they were simple orchids. Fortunately, Sang Yu didn't plan to set up a stall to sell milk tea again right away.
The pepper seeds that were soaked overnight last night still looked the same as usual, as if nothing had changed.
Sang Yu mixed the wet seeds with moist wood ash in a ratio of one to three, put them into a small woven bamboo basket, and covered them with two layers of straw to keep them moist.
Place the bamboo baskets in the greenhouse during the day and bring them back to the kitchen at night to stimulate the growth of the seedlings through temperature changes.
After repeating this process for four or five days, you can prepare to bury it in the soil and wait for it to sprout.
It sounds complicated, but in fact it only takes a short while to actually operate it, the main thing is the waiting time.
After Sang Yu finished his work, he felt a little bored.
She sat in the pavilion, gazing into the distance in a daze with one hand on her chin. Suddenly she remembered something and asked about Old Mrs. Shi who was weaving bamboo baskets nearby.
"Grandma, didn't the Shen family and the Wang family send anyone here?"
She was so busy making pearl milk tea these past two days that she almost forgot about Chen Huitan.
I don't know how much of a debt of gratitude it is for saving my life, but at least you should send me something to express your gratitude.
As a result, since she didn't mention it, the two families forgot about it as if they had agreed on it?
Mrs. Shi stopped what she was doing when she heard this, and after thinking carefully, she shook her head slightly: "No."
"This is a bit strange." Sang Yu murmured softly, wondering why this happened.
Given Shen Wenfu's wealth, it's obvious that he wouldn't be willing to spend such a small amount of money. Could it be that he was planning to give her a big gift?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was possible. Sang Yu, who had been a little listless at first, gradually became excited and even began to guess what kind of gift it would be.
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