Neither Ye Wenxue nor Dazhuang expected that when Xu Lin met his old friend's son, instead of patting Dazhuang's head and saying he had grown taller, or touching Dazhuang's face and saying he looked somewhat like Cheng Dingfang, he immediately started to fuss over how he addressed him.
Ye Wenxue was stunned: "Didn't you call Cheng Dingfang 'Brother Cheng'?"
"It's just between scholars, anyway, I'm a few months older than Cheng Dingfang!"
Da Zhuang remained expressionless, not wanting to pay attention to this inexplicable competitive spirit. He tugged at Ye Wenxue's clothes.
Ye Wenxue forcefully suppressed Xu Lin's protest: "Just call him Uncle Xu. If you have any objections, go and discuss it with Cheng Dingfang."
Xu Lin: "???"
After sealing the kiln, all that's needed is to keep an eye on the fire from time to time. The charcoal burners don't have to be by the kiln all the time. Besides, Old Master Xu is more concerned about making money than anyone else, so he insists on doing it himself. The other people who followed him to learn charcoal making have nothing to do, so they sit under the big tree and learn carpentry from Baldy.
Those chosen to work as assistants in charcoal burning were all hardworking, quick-witted, and knew that one had to earn money with real skills and expertise when traveling.
Especially now that counterfeiters are no longer allowed to engage in risk-free, high-profit businesses, they need to be even more patient and focus on learning.
Therefore, these bandits worked harder than anyone else to learn the trade.
But there is such a thing as talent in the world.
After a few days of instruction from the bald man, Da Zhuang was the fastest to progress, while Xu Lin was the slowest.
The others were unwilling to accept that an eight-year-old child was better than them, and they didn't want to be praised for being more skillful than a blind person, so they seized every opportunity to use the force of their knives when shaving bamboo strips.
However, Dazhuang was no longer satisfied with doing one thing a day. He quickly shaved bamboo strips and handed them to Xu Lin to weave baskets. While Xu Lin was busy, he flattered Old Master Xu, who was in charge of the charcoal kiln, with a few words. He learned to weave baskets and burn charcoal at the same time, and he did not forget to follow Xu Lin to recite books and learn knowledge.
Ye Wenxue, who had been busy these past few days catching, drying, and smoking fish and shrimp, was speechless.
roll.
Dazhuang is really curly.
Several teenagers from the same mountain village as Juan followed suit, muttering as they recited their books while eating.
The bald man ran up to Ye Wenxue with a worried expression and complained, "Can't you do something about your son?"
Ye Wenxue objected, saying, "It's none of your business what Dazhuang does. Why don't you learn from Dazhuang and see how well he makes use of his time? Do you know any other skills?"
The bald man had no way to express his suffering:
"Zhiwen, Zhiwu, Zhixing, and Zhiwang memorized the books, but they couldn't read, so they searched the whole mountain stronghold for someone to teach them. You know, it's good enough if someone in our bandit den can read, let alone someone who can teach others to read... So they started bothering Doctor Chen, and Doctor Chen almost didn't have time to see patients!"
Last night, Dr. Chen came to his room and stood by his bedside like a ghost, gritting his teeth and warning him.
If Zhiwen and the others come looking for Doctor Chen again, Doctor Chen will have to go down the mountain!
The bald man frowned, looking worried. "I finally managed to find a doctor to treat my mother's health. You don't want to be unable to find a doctor around here, do you?"
Ye Wenxue hesitated: "How about this, I'll discuss it with Dazhuang and see if he's willing to teach Zhiwen and the others to read. If he's not, then you... can find them a teacher."
The bald man's vision went black. Even if there were scholars in the villages near the deep mountains of Longxing Prefecture who hadn't fled the famine and were living well, why would they come to be teachers for bandits?
"Teach them to read?" Da Zhuang glanced at the row of boys squatting under the tree, staring expectantly at him, and stroked his chin with a rather mature air. "What benefit would I get from that?"
Mother is right, we can't work for others for free.
The four boys crouching under the tree quickly approached:
"If you say go east, we won't go west; if you say eat meat, we won't eat vegetables!"
"Master, please accept us!"
"Well, I can weave some little things out of straw. Master, don't you have a few younger siblings? Would the kids like grasshoppers or dragonflies made of straw? Little houses wouldn't be bad either..."
"I... I know ventriloquism. I learned it from peddlers who went from street to street while I was begging. I can speak bird language, bark like a dog, bray like a donkey, and so on. How about I show you one? Ah-oh ah-oh..."
Dazhuang: "...What would I say if I imitated a donkey's bray?"
He glanced at Zhiwu, who said he could weave little grass trinkets: "Weave a few more little grass trinkets for me, and the others can help with the weeding. We'll teach them all together later."
"Alright. Thank you, Master!"
Dazhuang asked curiously, "Who named you? What's your surname?"
Zhiwen was very thin, looking like he had hardly any flesh on his bones. He honestly said, "It was the eldest son's mother who gave us this name."
Zhiwen and the other three secretly glanced at the bald man, whose expression was unreadable. It was Elder Nian who gave them food, and Elder Nian's mother who gave them their names. They wanted to share Elder Nian's surname, but they didn't know how to bring it up.
Ye Wenxue saw through their thoughts and smiled at the bald man, saying, "Since that's the case, why don't you grant their wish?"
The bald man hesitated for a moment: "Alright, from now on you will take the surname Zhang. When you travel outside, you must not tarnish the reputation of the Zhang family."
The four boys, their faces beaming with joy, replied, "Yes!"
Ye Wenxue was quite happy that her eldest son had gained a new little brother. After secretly showing off to Xu Lin, she planned to take Dazhuang home for dinner.
Grandpa Xu walked out with his hands behind his back, nodded to Ye Wenxue, and said, "We can open the charcoal kiln tonight to check the quality of the charcoal. Would you like to come and take a look?"
Baldy didn't even receive the special treatment from Grandpa Xu. He glanced at Ye Wenxue with envy, already planning to stay in the bamboo house that night to see for himself what the high-quality charcoal Ye Wenxue had mentioned looked like.
That way, we can estimate and set a price, then take it down the mountain to sell.
The bandits always stood by Baldy and wanted to see the finished product they had worked so hard to make over the past few days, so they didn't even lift their butts and weren't planning to leave.
"Mother..." Dazhuang stammered, wanting to stay and see how the charcoal was being made.
Ye Wenxue frowned. There were still four children in the valley. She couldn't just focus on the bamboo house and ignore the children at home.
Seeing Ye Wenxue's hesitation and confusion, Dazhuang shook his head sensibly: "Mom, let's go back. Shuangshuang and the others are waiting for us to eat together."
Ye Wenxue sighed, "How about this, you stay here and watch the charcoal kiln being opened, and I'll come back to pick you up after I've put them to sleep tonight."
The valley wasn't far from the bamboo house, just two hilltops apart. Plus, the bald guy and his gang had been behaving themselves these past few days, and Da Zhuang was quick-witted and vigilant, so she could barely put her mind at ease.
Since Dazhuang rarely wanted to see something, she didn't want to spoil his fun.
After agreeing on the plan, Ye Wenxue carried several kinds of vegetables back to the valley by herself.
Baldy wanted to curry favor with Dazhuang and have Dazhuang teach him to read, but he was too embarrassed to do so. So he planned to have Zhiwen and the others learn to read and then teach the brothers in the mountain stronghold, so he could also benefit from it.
It got dark quickly.
The villagers, not wanting to disturb the Xu family's rest, gathered around the charcoal kiln, waiting for the time to be ripe for opening.
Unnoticed by anyone, under the pitch-black night, several figures crept up to the door of the bamboo house and quietly blew in the sleeping smoke.
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