Chapter 548 Life Skills
Manbao turned around and tried to slip away, but Mr. Zhuang had already spotted the ladder in the corner. He grabbed Manbao by the collar and shouted angrily, "Go back and copy the Book of Rites for me!"
Manbao's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he shouted, "Sir, we didn't bring the Book of Rites."
"I'll borrow it for you. Mr. Lan has it."
Manbao was about to cry, and she immediately turned to look at her two junior brothers.
Bai Erlang huddled aside like a quail, and Bai Shanbao gave her a helpless look.
Manbao was not afraid of copying books, but she was afraid of copying "Yili". Not only was the content complicated and difficult to understand, but even the characters were difficult to write. There were thirteen chapters in "Yili". After copying them, her mind would be blank.
Although she was often punished to copy books, this was the first time she was directly punished to copy a copy of "Yili". Mr. Zhuang was very persistent. He wrote a letter to Zhou Silang and asked him to find someone at the intersection to deliver it to Lan's house.
Zhou Silang was reluctant to spend money, and the Lan family was not far away, so he put the letter in his pocket and left without even looking at his punished sister.
Manbao could only slump his shoulders and go back to the study to grind ink and wait for the book to arrive.
Mr. Zhuang was still unwilling to let her go, saying, "Copy it nicely and in neat handwriting. Bind it into a book. When you make mistakes again in the future, you can use it as a model."
Now even Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang's eyes became active.
When Zhou Silang came back with the book, Manbao could only try his luck, dip the ink, and then start writing properly.
Because I had to ensure neatness, and the content was something I was not very familiar with, the characters were difficult, and the meanings were difficult, so I might make typos if I wasn't careful, and my speed was also much slower.
Manbao copied only five pages by the time the sun set.
She put the copied papers aside to dry and put them away only after they were dry.
Bai Shanbao stopped studying and tidied up the table and ran out.
When Manbao went out, he saw them clumsily helping Zhou Silang chop firewood. Manbao walked over to them and sat down.
Zhou Silang took the time to glance at her and asked curiously, "Have you finished copying?"
Manbao: "How can it be so fast? It will take at least ten days to finish copying."
Zhou Silang was surprised. "It's just a book. Weren't you all pretty fast at copying books before?"
Bai Shanbao laughed gloatingly, "How are they the same? We can recite the Thousand Character Classic and the Analects by heart, and we can even write them out with our eyes closed, but the Book of Rites, hehehe..."
"What are you so proud of?" Manbao said, "The teacher said that when you make a mistake, you will have to copy the Book of Rites."
"I won't make mistakes."
Bai Erlang immediately said, "I don't know either."
Manbao snorted, turned his head to the side, touched his stomach, and felt a little hungry. "Fourth brother, what are we having for dinner?"
"Let's go to the restaurant at the end of the alley. I've made an appointment with them and they'll deliver it soon. I've already steamed the rice."
Everyone disliked Zhou Silang’s cooking, so they basically ate out for three meals a day.
Zhou Silang usually bought breakfast, or they would buy some while out for a walk. Lunch and dinner, however, were usually delivered to their door by Zhou Silang.
Steam the rice yourself.
Manbao sat on a small stool, missing his sister-in-law's food as usual.
Zhou Silang also missed her, "If only my sister-in-law were here, we wouldn't have to spend so much money every day."
Manbao said: "Not much actually."
Zhou Silang looked at her and said, "I really doubt that you are not our child. The way you spend money is like your family is very rich."
"My family has no money, but I have money."
Zhou Silang actually thought what she said made sense.
"We have a distinguished guest tomorrow. Do you think I should buy some snacks?" Zhou Silang changed the subject.
The three little ones nodded immediately, "Yes, yes."
They haven't had snacks for a long time. There's nothing they can do about it. Zhou Silang, who manages the money, is more generous than Old Zhou, but he is still very stingy with some unnecessary expenses.
For example, snacks.
Bai Erlang said, "Buy some osmanthus cake."
Bai Shanbao: "And chestnut cake."
Manbao: "Glutinous rice cakes are also good, the snow-white ones."
"That's a lot of requests. I'll go check it out tomorrow and buy whatever's cheaper."
The three little ones chuckled, knowing that Zhou Silang was just saying that. Otherwise, if they didn’t like the snacks he bought, wouldn’t it be a waste?
Since a distinguished guest is coming, of course you can't just buy some snacks, you have to buy tea and other things, and even make tea.
Zhou Silang mentally calculated what he needed to buy and said to the children, "Go wash your clothes tomorrow. I won't help you."
Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang immediately looked at Manbao, and Manbao acted coquettishly, "Fourth brother, can you help us for a few more days? We are not ready yet."
"It's been a few days and you're still not ready? I've taken you to see it two or three times," Zhou Silang flatly refused, "I won't help you, go by yourself!"
After saying that, he patted his hands, put the axe away, and took the firewood back to boil water.
The three children sighed repeatedly. After discussing it, they decided to wash up early today.
After washing up, the three of them put on shorts, bandaged their hands, and packed their clothes to go out.
Zhou Silang was stunned and asked, "Aren't the clothes washed in the morning?"
Manbao said, "Everyone has the same idea as you, so there are so many people doing laundry in the morning. The queue can take up to an hour, which is really time-consuming."
Bai Shanbao nodded and said, "It's not dark yet, so we can wash clothes quickly."
Of course it was fast. It was the first time for all three of them to wash clothes. Although they had seen it done several times, when it was their turn, they still threw the clothes into the river. After they were soaked, they dragged them out, patted them twice, and then wrung them dry and put them in the wooden basin.
Daji, who was following behind the three men, was stunned. His forehead twitched and he couldn't help but say, "It's not clean."
The three little ones looked at Daji, then looked at the clothes in their hands, threw them into the river and stirred them, then pulled them up and asked their friends to help wring them out.
Daji wanted to say something but stopped talking after thinking about it.
Never mind, I'll learn it with time.
Zhou Silang boiled the last pot of hot water. Just as he was about to draw the hot water out, before he had time to wash up, he saw them coming back with wooden basins.
He asked with a smile: "Why don't you wash it?"
Manbao said: "We have already washed it."
Zhou Silang subconsciously glanced at the sunset in the sky and felt something was wrong. "No, how long have you been out? Have you reached the river?"
"We're here. We took a long shower."
Zhou Silang opened his mouth wide and wanted to ask them where they had been for so long.
He glanced at Daji who was following behind with an expressionless face, and couldn't help but let out a sigh. Forget it, let them be. The clothes are not his to wear anyway.
If there were only a few of them in the house, it wouldn't take long for everyone to become sloppy, but that's just the way it is.
So when Mr. Zhuang came out and saw the wet clothes hanging on the wooden poles in the yard, he said, "Take out the clothes and wash them again. Don't hang clothes up to dry unless they are wrung out."
He felt that he had to teach the children some life skills. He was not a teacher at all, but an old father who was worried about his children.
The next chapter will be around 6 p.m.
(End of this chapter)
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