Mo Man's free clinic lasted for seven days, during which she gained a general understanding of the sanitation and medical conditions in the county and nearby villages.
Most women suffered from ailments common to the poor in this era, such as mild to moderate malnutrition and various postpartum complications.
Some women suffer from chronic gynecological diseases, which manifest as feelings of depression and hopelessness.
In light of this, Mo Man plans to first open a targeted "Hygiene Class".
She told everyone who came for a consultation about this, and that anyone who wanted to come could come directly at that time, as she would be teaching them knowledge that was useful for women's health.
Amian also heard about it. She had a vague understanding of the concept of "hygiene," but she was very interested in being able to "go to school."
She didn't care what others thought; once Ah Mian made up her mind, nothing could change it.
She wove a brand new little basket, filled it with a few sheets of hemp paper in a respectable manner, and then found a few relatively straight twigs, breaking them into lengths about the size of a calligraphy brush. Of course, such paper and brushes were completely unusable for writing.
But A-Mian didn't care; these branches could still leave marks on the soil.
When Meng Chijian saw this preparation, he felt that A Mian was extremely pitiful. He had originally planned to use the nineteen taels of silver to teach A Mian to read and use an abacus properly (if she learned, A Mian could work as an accountant. Even if other employers did not hire female accountants, she could at least work in her own home).
They searched everywhere in the city but couldn't find a single proper school that would accept women.
Instead, he attracted a lot of ridicule and mockery. People said he must have lost his mind. He should have spent the money on drinking and carousing instead!
"Don't ask anymore, forget it!" A-Mian said angrily. "When I go there, everyone else is a man, and I'm the only woman. I don't feel comfortable."
She was determined to go to that strange-sounding "hygiene school." Not only that, but under the pretext that "it might be tiring to use your brain in the school," A-Mian also planned to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) to take with her.
"I'm not going to the shop today, I'm going to pick reed leaves!"
After having breakfast, A-Mian excitedly went to the riverbank at the foot of the back mountain and picked a whole basketful.
Meng Jing volunteered to help, asking with a grin, "Can I go play at the school too?"
"That should definitely work, we should just go earlier."
"good!"
In this way, the two of them pooled their savings (20 coins) again and bought glutinous rice, mung beans, and red beans, and also cut half a piece of cured meat from the kitchen.
"Ah Mian, should we put meat inside the rice dumpling? Will it taste good?"
Meng Jing was a little worried, as she had never heard of putting meat in zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).
At this time, zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) were generally sweet, often filled with red dates, red bean paste, or dried fruit. However, A-Mian had a sweet tooth, and ever since she was told to eat more meat, she wanted to stuff meat into every kind of food she cooked.
She wasn't sure at the moment, "I guess... With cured meat, how could it not taste good?"
Meng Jing first soaked the glutinous rice and beans in water, then cut off the ends of the reed leaves, washed them clean, and dried them.
A-Mian blanched the cured pork, cut it into cubes, and then stir-fried it in a pan again.
Soaking the thin ropes in water will make them more resilient and less likely to break.
By evening, everything was ready, and the whole family started wrapping zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).
All three members of the Meng family knew how to wrap zongzi, and their zongzi were all triangular in shape; A-Mian actually didn't know how to wrap zongzi at all before... She secretly learned while creating a long, narrow zongzi shape to hold more filling...
After wrapping about thirty zongzi, Ah Mian finally finished wrapping them all, her back aching from the effort.
Now they were cooked in two separate pots.
Soon the aroma filled the air. Ah Mian stared intently at the pot, and after a long while, as if she had been having an internal struggle, she said, "We can't eat it now. We'll take it to school on the day we go to eat it."
Meng Chijian said seriously, "But we have to taste it first. What if it doesn't taste good?"
Amian gritted her teeth: "Then you try one and see if it tastes good."
Seeing that he remained unmoved despite all this, Meng Chijian realized how important this matter was to A-Mian, and chuckled, "Then let's eat together tomorrow."
On the day she was to go to school, A-Mian got up early, packed the zongzi she wanted to eat, and went to the city with the Meng siblings.
When they arrived at the pharmacy, they found that they were the first ones there.
"Ah Mian, what if it's just the two of us, and no one else comes?" Meng Jing was having second thoughts.
"That's perfect, it'll definitely be spacious... We can even treat that female doctor to zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) then!"
However, these concerns soon vanished.
Mo Man's moves are extremely simple, yet extremely effective.
When she arrived, she announced that the first thirty people to arrive would each receive a boiled egg.
Throughout history, few Chinese people have been able to resist the temptation of receiving eggs as a gift.
Amian and Mengjing each received one.
Mo Man then announced that those who received the eggs had to eat them now and return the eggshells to her.
Ah Mian didn't understand why, but she thought the school was a good deal, so she peeled the egg and ate it.
The others did the same.
After such a noisy period of time, when Mo Man began to utter the first sentence of the first lesson in the classroom, a deathly silence suddenly fell.
The sentence was: "Now I'm going to tell you about some hygiene knowledge that women should pay attention to during menstruation and in general."
Well, although everyone present knew about this, hearing Mo Man talk about it so openly still felt strange and unsettling, yet they also had an urge to keep listening.
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