Chapter 3372 Extra Strong Sister 26
Bai Ruoyu also felt that his room was not as good as Bai Jingxing's, not only in terms of size, but also in terms of location.
Bai Jingxing's room can be said to have the best location on the entire ship, with an excellent viewing position.
Bai Ruoyu came over with envy, "Why didn't I get this room?"
Bai Jingxing: "I'm lucky."
Bai Ruoyu's servant Dayi asked doubtfully, "Didn't Young Master Yang assign the room numbers? Even if we're lucky, it's Young Master Yang's luck, right?"
Bai Jingxing: "I'm lucky to have been given this."
Yang Zezhi stood at the door and knocked. He said to the four people who turned around, "The passengers have just boarded the ship, and the deck is in a mess. You should rest in the room first and wait until the ship moves a little further before going out."
The two agreed, and Bai Jingxing simply invited Yang Zezhi, "Brother Yang, would you like to stay for a cup of tea?"
Yang Zezhi walked in, smiled and nodded, "Okay."
The canal transportation to the south has been opened. There are many more ships on the river than in previous years. The coast has become lively. Even some small docks are bustling with people. Bai Jingxing leaned on the window and looked out. He would not get tired of it even if he looked for three days in a row.
But she could only watch for three days, because they arrived in Longzhou on the afternoon of the fourth day.
The group disembarked and stayed in Longzhou for a day before continuing on their journey. Yang Zezhi said to the others, "Mianzhou's new rice has always been famous in Dajin. Its annual per-acre yield is second only to Jingzhou's, but it tastes very good, and its yield has been increasing. Do you want to go and see what it's like?"
Li Han and the others had no objections and enthusiastically asked Bai Ruoyu, "Brother Bai, your ancestral home is in Mianzhou, right? Are you familiar with Mianzhou?"
Bai Ruoyu said, "I've been back a few times. Although I'm not very familiar with it, Mianzhou is very fun."
Bai Jingxing simply invited them, "Our two families are both in Mianzhou, do you want to come to my house as a guest?"
Li Han and the other two were very tempted, and said embarrassedly: "This, is not good?"
"What's wrong with that? We can go home and have a look," Bai Jingxing said. "There's a farm near my home. The mountain is full of fruit trees, all kinds of fruit trees."
Wang Yi: "There are no fruit trees to eat and no flowers to appreciate right now. What can we do at the village?"
Bai Jingxing: "...There are still some, although they are a little small and a little astringent, but you can eat them if you want."
Wang Yi: "...I'm sorry, but I'm not interested."
"That's settled then. We'll stay in Mianzhou for two days," Yang Zezhi said. "You can also attend classes at the prefectural school in Mianzhou and the county school in Luojiang County."
Although Mianzhou is not within the scope of the Imperial College, they can still go there to study.
Li Han and others agreed and also wanted to go to the official schools in Mianzhou and Luojiang County.
Since the Imperial College began allowing women to take exams and attend school, women's schools in various places gradually flourished.
At first, local official schools only allowed female officials who were interested in studying to attend official schools. Later, the people followed suit, and women's schools became popular. Official schools then began to allow women to take entrance exams.
But there are still not many women studying in official schools.
There are only five in Luojiang County School.
Some county schools did not even have a single female student. The further southwest you went, the more common this situation became. Sometimes, even the provincial schools had few female students.
So the fact that there was a female student among the disciples who came from the Imperial College to study abroad caused a huge sensation in the official school.
Especially in those official schools with few female students or no students at all, Bai Jingxing was stared at like a rare commodity.
This made her very uncomfortable and unhappy.
She was often noticed in the capital, but that attention was either due to her talent or her status. The gazes she received were filled with admiration, envy, jealousy, and even disgust...
She was used to these looks, but in these places, the gazes she received were as if she were looking at something rare, just like they were watching a monkey show on the street.
So when Bai Jingxing encountered such an official school, she simply stayed there for a while. Not only did she show up in the official school and attend classes with the male students, she also discussed knowledge with the teacher in class. If she could beat someone down, she would do so. If she couldn't do it, she would ask Yang Zezhi for help.
Yang Zezhi also indulged her, and the two of them killed all the local officials and were invincible.
Yang Zezhi reminded her, "If you want to gain prestige, it's not enough to just beat people, you also need to show kindness."
So Bai Jingxing wrote a letter to her mother and asked Bai Ruoyu to join him. The two of them tried their best to persuade their mothers to donate books to various official schools in the name of donating to female students in official schools.
There are two sources of books for official schools. One is that they are printed by the imperial bookstore and then sent to official schools; the other is that the official schools purchase and collect them themselves.
However, there are so many prefectures and counties in the world, and not all official schools can get books printed by bookstores. Many of them use books discarded by the upper-level official schools, and some even do not have discarded books.
The books in their library may not fill up two bookshelves, and many of them are standard books that students have their own, and it is difficult to even find the annotations.
Yang Zezhi helped her compile a list of books, which she sent back to her mother.
Zhou Man got the list of books and handed it directly to Bai Shan, "Your daughter asked you to donate books."
Bai Shan took it and glanced at it before saying, "It's quite complete. Besides the necessary classics, history, and miscellaneous books, there are also military books, agricultural books, and some miscellaneous talks. They are all engraved books that Bai Er's family's bookstore has. When did she pay attention to these?"
Zhou Man: "Zezhi must have helped to organize it. I heard from my elder sister that he helped her discuss philosophy with the teachers in the official school, so she didn't feel embarrassed."
Bai Shan looked at the list of books in his hand and said thoughtfully, "He really puts his heart into it."
"So how much should we donate?" Zhou Man came over and asked, "Even if we only count the cost price of a book, it's not cheap. How much do you think we should donate?"
Bai Shan closed the list and said, "Send a set of the books on the list to all the official schools within the Imperial College."
Zhou Man opened his mouth wide, gave a thumbs up and said, "You are generous."
Bai Shan grabbed her thumb and smiled, "It's just this year's paper mill profits. When you send the books, put it on the eldest sister's head. Tell her that even if it's a donation, don't mention our names. Since it was her suggestion, use only her name."
That's true. Now Bai Shan and Zhou Man are both in high positions and have great power. It's really not appropriate for them to be involved in such matters. It's better to put all the blame on the child.
Zhou Man nodded and said, "I'll tell him everything. I'll talk to Mingda about this tomorrow when I get back from the government office."
"No need," Bai Shan said, "I can just mention it to Bai Er when I go to court tomorrow. Aren't you busy with the new year's smallpox vaccination?"
I'm already so busy, there's really no need to waste time running back and forth on this matter.
"The bookstore belongs to Princess Mingda. Since the eldest sister has written back to ask for books, given her personality, there is no way she would not have asked Ruoyu to come along." And given Princess Mingda's personality, she would not object to such a thing.
(End of this chapter)
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