Chapter 67 Warning (Additional update for 20,000 Yunqi recommendation votes)
Manbao answered happily, adding, "Daya and the others are learning to read very quickly. Now they can write our county, village, and their own names."
Little Qian nodded and said with a smile, "Then you should teach them more. They don't need to learn any poetry or songs, just recognize some characters. The most important thing is to know how to count. Knowing how to do arithmetic is the most important thing."
Qian has his own wisdom. It would be better if he could recognize words, but if he couldn't, he should at least know how to count, so that at least he wouldn't be cheated when he went out to buy things.
Manbao said she would teach them everything.
Qian patted her head and encouraged her to study hard. "Don't worry about the things at home. Mom's health has improved a lot. You just need to be healthy and grow up quickly."
Manbao didn't quite understand why his mother said that, but he nodded happily anyway.
Qian said, "Well, your fifth brother has bought your chicken. Go and have a look."
Manbao finally understood why her mother said that. She playfully put her arm around her shoulders and said, "Mom, I'm healthy, you have to be healthy too."
Then she jumped over to see her chicken.
There were two chicken coops in the corner outside the chicken house. Manbao ran over and was shocked when she saw the chickens in the coops at first sight.
There was a chicken in each of the two chicken coops, which were far apart from each other, but they all looked the same, with disheveled fur and blood all over their bodies. When Manbao jumped over, they shrank their necks in fear and trembled, making Manbao look like a bully.
Manbao squatted in front of the chicken coop and looked at the chickens. They looked so familiar. She took a look at the two chickens and ran to find her fifth brother.
Zhou Wulang was counting money. Not all the flower baskets were sold today, so the profit was less than the previous two days.
He counted them once, made a note in his little notebook, and then gave it to Manbao to count.
Manbao didn't care about the money for the time being and asked, "Fifth brother, did you buy the chicken from the cockfighting guy?"
"Yeah," Zhou Wulang said matter-of-factly, "Didn't you say your mother couldn't bear to eat the chickens you bought? I think it's pointless to buy hens that don't lay eggs. If they don't lay eggs now, they'll start to lay eggs after a while. In the end, your mother still won't be able to bear to eat them, so I bought fighting cocks. They're already in that state. They won't survive if I keep them, so I might as well kill them and eat them."
Zhou Wulang winked at her and said, "It's still cheap. You can buy two chickens for the price of one."
Manbao couldn't help but give him a thumbs up, "Fifth brother, you are so smart."
She swallowed and asked, "Why don't you kill one tonight?"
"Mom said it's too late and dinner is ready. We'll kill it tomorrow." Zhou Wulang sighed, "Mom said that if I help you spend money recklessly again, I won't be allowed to go to the county town. Manbao, you should ask someone else to buy chickens for you next time."
Manbao snorted, "If you don't help me, I'll buy it in the village."
She rolled her eyes and smiled, "I already have an idea."
Zhou Silang asked curiously, "What method?"
"I won't tell you." Manbao lowered his head and counted the money. He not only calculated their private accounts, but also calculated the public accounts that needed to be paid. Then he distributed the money to everyone and kept accounts.
Zhou Wulang looked at it with envy, "Manbao, what's wrong with your brain? I've been studying for so long, but I still can't figure out how to calculate the money to be paid to the government."
Man Bao said: "Diligence can make up for lack of talent. In the future, just give yourself two numbers to calculate, and you will get it slowly."
Koko said that this is mental arithmetic, which can exercise people's brain and logical thinking. Simply put, it can make smart people smarter, stupid people less stupid, or even a little smarter.
When Manbao was younger, he didn’t have much to play with, so his favorite thing was to play this with Koko.
She tested Ke Ke, and then Ke Ke tested her.
So she is the best at counting in the family.
Manbao kept track of the accounts and collected the money that everyone had entrusted to her for safekeeping. She then gave everyone two problems to solve for fun.
Addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers made even Zhou Silang sweat profusely. Manbao taught them, "Use your fingers to count first. If your fingers are not enough, use your toes. After you count more, you will be able to do it without using your fingers."
"But our fingers and toes combined aren't enough?"
"Then count others'?" Manbao said as a matter of course: "I often borrow Dad's fingers and toes to count. You see, I don't need to borrow his fingers and toes anymore."
The brothers and nephews were all shocked. They didn't expect that their father (grandfather) had borrowed fingers and toes from their youngest sister (aunt).
While eating dinner, Old Zhou noticed that the fourth, fifth, sixth, and grandchildren were looking at him strangely. He couldn't help but touch his face and asked, "Is there a grain of rice on my face?"
Everyone who had taken a peek immediately shook their heads and lowered their heads to eat their dinner in confusion.
Manbao was unaware of all this and was busy eating rice from her bowl. She always had a good appetite and ate a lot. Qian would restrain her older grandchildren from eating late, but she couldn't bear to let her little girl go hungry, so she always made sure she had enough to eat.
Manbao knew that food should not be wasted, so he scraped every last grain of rice out of the bowl, put the bowl down, and said obediently, "Mom, I'm full."
Qian took a look outside and saw that there was still light, so she asked her to go and teach Datou and the others to read.
A group of children rushed into the yard, playing and learning to read, until the last ray of sunset completely disappeared and the sky became dark. Then everyone stopped learning to read and started to recite the "Thousand Character Classic" taught by Manbao with their heads shaking.
The clear sound of reading spread to the village. Someone looked in the direction of the Zhou family and said enviously, "Zhou Jin's family is going to produce a scholar."
"Come on, it's just a matter of teaching a child to read a few sentences. It's not certain whether he can even recognize the characters. If it were so easy to become a scholar, wouldn't everyone in the world be a scholar?"
"What do you know? As long as you can read and count, you can even be an accountant in the county. Just look at that girl. If she could study in school for seven or eight years and teach her brothers and nephews what she has learned, in less than ten years, their family would be different from ours."
He sighed, "How could such a good girl be born into their family?"
As he spoke, he looked at his wife with a look of disdain. His wife was very unconvinced and pinched her waist and said, "Don't you see who the father is? Is it because I can't have children? It's because your seed is bad!"
Their children looked at their parents curiously. Just as the couple was about to quarrel, the old man sitting above them knocked on the table with his pipe and said, "What are you yelling about? That's the root of our Zhou family. In hundreds of years, only one or two good seedlings have emerged. Isn't it expected that they will have a promising future?"
He couldn't say anything to his daughter-in-law, so he could only scold his son, "Watch your mouth and don't talk nonsense outside. If I hear anything unpleasant..."
His son lowered his head and responded honestly.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
