After the discussion, the five dolls fell silent.
Bai Ziqian was also speechless. He forced himself to say, "Alright then, I'll try it at your place first."
If he finds out they've lied to him, he'll not hesitate to go find work at another house in the village!
No matter what, he absolutely cannot go back empty-handed, lest his parents, who always look down on him and praise other people's children, make fun of him.
As Shui Qing observed the changes in Bai Ziqian's expression, she gradually understood.
He's still just a kid, not knowing how to hide his emotions. His parents protected him well, but instead of raising a naive and innocent child, they raised a silly and annoying one.
They're not even as good as the innocent and sweet type; at least they're sweet and can provide emotional value.
She no longer stood on ceremony and said, "Go, wash the dishes, boil water for washing up, villagers will be coming to deliver water chestnuts later. By the way, do you know how to read a scale?"
Bai Ziqian's face turned pale and then flushed.
Alright, Shuiqing understands. "If you can't read the scale, then you can only do manual labor. Go and mix the chicken feed and feed the chickens."
It's too late today, the clothes might not get clean. You'll have to get up early tomorrow to wash them, then come with me to the back hill to plant fruit trees... That's about it, not much work, you can manage."
Bai Ziqian opened his mouth. This is what you call not having much work?
After giving her instructions, Shui Qing clapped her hands at the children and said, "Alright, go get to work."
She did her best to provide them with better food and drink, and she also made sure they didn't neglect their life skills.
She wasn't the kind of mother who did all the work and suffered all the hardships herself, leaving her children to do nothing.
Her principle has always been not to support idle people.
Before Shui Qing could finish speaking, the five children stood up abruptly and each went about their assigned tasks.
Bai Ziqian only saw Yan Qiuxing taking the scales and the baskets.
Fan Jiang and Fan He went to the spring to fetch water.
Little Fan Hu is clearing away the dishes.
He could only follow behind Fan Hu, who was still a little dumpling, and asked, "What will you do after I do all this work?"
Fan Hu counted on his fingers to tell his older brother: "Big brother, we have so much to do. Look, before it gets completely dark, let's go to the vegetable garden and continue cultivating so we can grow even more vegetables in the future."
"Tomorrow morning, the first thing I'll do is recognize and write characters."
"Wait, you can read and write?" Bai Ziqian was genuinely shocked.
Weren't they just country folk? It wasn't that he looked down on them, but aside from anything else, the cost of literacy was exorbitant, especially the cost of writing materials, let alone the education provided by the government.
Do they have silver?
Fan Hu proudly raised her chin and said in a crisp voice, "Of course!"
"Where do you study at Shangguan Academy?"
Fan Hu answered every question: "We don't need to go out. My father taught us very well."
Bai Ziqian then realized that Fan Jin was wearing a scholar's long gown, and that he was actually a scholar.
However, "paper, ink, brushes, and inkstones are very expensive. If you don't have any," he could give them some... Hold on, those belong to the Bai family, not to him.
Fan Hu keenly sensed the kindness in his older brother's tone. He waved his hand like his mother and explained, "No need, no need, we don't need pen and ink."
Dad found some smooth stone slabs on the back hill. All we need to do is dip a brush in water and write on the slabs. Isn't that clever?
Bai Ziqian patted Fan Hu's fluffy head and praised, "Very smart."
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