Chapter 850
850
Shen Yuntang wanted to take Cheng Zhao to see what the academy was like first.
He thought that since Cheng Yeran was the prefect, the academy would be more cautious because of Cheng Yeran's status as the prefect.
йΑйＦ
Hide some of the academy's shortcomings and only show its best side.
Cheng Zhao is the son of the prefect, and will be treated preferentially when he goes to the academy. However, if the overall atmosphere of the academy is not right, or the teacher is of bad character, or the facilities of the academy are dangerous, and only Cheng Zhao is treated preferentially, growing up in such an environment will not be conducive to Cheng Zhao's growth.
He would first take Cheng Zhao to have a look at the academy. If it was good, he would take Cheng Yeran to have a look next time.
But when they arrived at the entrance of the academy, they were told that they were not allowed to enter. The teacher of the academy seemed too lazy to talk to him and said impatiently: "Tell your husband to bring the children over."
Shen Yuntang remembered that the county town where Cheng Yeran studied also had this rule, but the academy where children studied did not have this rule. After all, there were many widows with children, and there were no men in their families. Did that mean their children could not go to the academy to study?
Moreover, when he was stopped by the teacher, he felt humiliated. He had not been treated differently like this for a long time. Just because he was a brother, he seemed to be inferior to others.
Ever since she became an official's wife and lived in Beijing for a while, no one dared to look down on her, and she almost forgot the status of boys and girls.
Why can't girls and boys go to school? Just because he could read, he realized how stupid he was before he could read. Do men not teach girls to read just to make them continue to be stupid?
Shen Yuntang wanted to get angry, but he felt that the rules in this world have always been like this, and it is the same everywhere. These are not the rules set by the teacher in front of him. Can he still get angry with him?
If he really got angry, the man in front of him would just say that he was throwing a tantrum.
Cheng Zhao frowned and said unhappily, "What kind of rule is this? My father can even enter the imperial palace, so why can't he even enter this small academy of yours?"
The Master was about to laugh at Cheng Zhao's words when he remembered that a new prefect had recently come to the city. It was said that this prefect was a high-ranking official in the capital who came here after being demoted.
Even if she was demoted, she was an official he couldn't afford to offend. Could it be that Shen Yuntang was the official's wife?
Only then did he take a closer look at Shen Yuntang. He had never seen such a handsome boy before. This young master's temperament was not like that of an ordinary child.
The teacher immediately changed his tone to a polite one and invited them in.
Shen Yuntang frowned and asked him, "You couldn't enter just now, how come you can enter now?"
"You are different." The teacher looked at him flatteringly.
"Why am I different? Am I not a brother?" Shen Yuntang could see why his attitude changed, but he asked him this on purpose.
"You are Mrs. Cheng, so naturally it's different." The teacher invited him in flatteringly and asked the people in the academy to quickly pour tea for Shen Yuntang.
"No need for that. What can an academy like yours teach a child? Can you teach him to be like you?" Shen Yuntang pulled Cheng Zhao and left without looking back.
The teacher of the academy was scared to death. His academy was considered a relatively large academy in the city. There was another academy that was similar to theirs, and the two academies were always competing for students.
If the prefect's children came to study in their academy, then their academy would become more famous, and some wealthy people in the city would definitely send their children to study there, taking the opportunity to curry favor with the prefect.
But he was short-sighted and made the person angry and leave. Not only did he lose an opportunity to please Lord Cheng, but he also offended Madam Cheng. How could he survive in the city in the future after he offended the prefect?
The teacher was so scared that he couldn't sleep for several nights.
Shen Yuntang was very angry, but he didn't want to retaliate against him. After returning, he told Cheng Yeran what happened today, "Fortunately, I took the child there, otherwise I wouldn't know that the teacher here is so snobbish. If I sent the child in, I don't know what kind of person he would be taught."
Cheng Yeran thought about when he was studying, he was just an ordinary person, no one would deliberately flatter him, everyone was of the same class, and making friends was out of their own will. But Cheng Zhao is now the son of the prefect, so it is inevitable that he will be flattered. If the people around him are all snobbish, he is likely to grow up astray.
It was fine when Cheng Zhao stayed in the capital to study with the prince. The emperor treated Cheng Zhao like a prince. The three children had no sense of class and treated each other equally when they interacted with each other.
Now that Cheng Zhao is sent to school, we really have to choose a good academy.
"How about we open a college? We have to select the teacher ourselves." Shen Yuntang felt that education issues could not be taken lightly.
Although Cheng Yeran suffered a lot when he was in school and was treated badly by the village scholar at the beginning, the requirements for treating himself and his children are different.
"Don't be so anxious, take your time, and just think of it as a summer vacation for the children." Cheng Yeran comforted him.
"Summer vacation?" Shen Yuntang did not miss the summer vacation.
"When we were in school, we had summer vacation in July and August, and winter vacation in winter. We had classes for five days and rested for two days. It's not as tiring as here, with only one day off a month." Cheng Yeran wanted to travel back in time with his wife and children. "We are not familiar with this place yet, so I'll take you to play around here when I have time, and treat it as a trip."
Shen Yuntang nodded, "Let's put the school thing off for now. It would be great if the girl and the boy could study, but studying is for the imperial examinations, and the girl and the boy can't take the imperial examinations. When they grow up, they will get married, and their parents won't pay for them."
When they went to the capital, the powerful families would ask their daughters and sons to study, but they only asked them to study so that they would have better choices when choosing a husband, as if studying was for the purpose of selling their daughters at a higher price.
Poor families would be lucky if they could afford to send their boys to school, and would not consider girls or boys at all. This was the environment of that era. Even if they were allowed to study for free, families would feel that sending their daughters to school was a waste of time and that there would be one less person to do housework at home.
"Didn't we say before that we wanted to set up a garment factory? Why don't we do it here and set up a vocational and technical school to teach them how to make and design clothes, as well as teach them cultural subjects like reading and writing. Only those who have studied in our school can enter the garment factory. I believe many people will send their children to study in the factory." Cheng Yeran could feel that Shen Yuntang was very angry today, because he was upset because his brother couldn't go to school. It was not something that could be comforted by just a few words. The matter had to be resolved before he could swallow the anger in his heart.
Whenever Shen Yuntang encountered something unhappy, he would tell Cheng Yeran about it. Even if it was just a few complaints, Cheng Yeran never gave him a perfunctory response and always tried to find solutions for him. Over the years, nothing has changed.
Shen Yuntang's eyes turned red after hearing his words. He often thought that marrying him was the right person.
Cheng Zhaoxian had a two-month summer vacation. When Cheng Yeran had free time, he would teach him how to swim, and usually he would read books on his own.
Shen Yuntang found a servant for Cheng Zhao, and bought him like he was selecting a servant.
He asked the pawnbroker to pick out a few children, but the pawnbroker brought several parents instead. The parents brought their children to sell their children, and the pawnbroker acted like an intermediary and collected a commission.
When Shen Yuntang bought people before, the servants who were sold said that their families had encountered difficulties and they had no choice but to sell themselves.
Whispering Wind
Some said that his family was poor and could not afford to raise him, so in order to feed his younger brothers and sisters, his parents had to sell him.
At that time, he just felt that these people were pitiful. After buying them, he never treated them harshly. He provided them with better food and clothing than the servants in other families, and he even arranged rest days for them.
Today was the first time he saw parents bringing their children here. After he became a father, he couldn't stand seeing such scenes.
Shen Yuntang couldn't help but ask about the situations of these people. There was a man who looked honest, but it turned out that he wanted to sell his child because he owed gambling debts.
The first thing he wanted to do was to eliminate this person's child.
The other three parents had too many children to raise, so they sold one to support the others; another one's child's grandmother was sick and needed money for treatment, so they sold the child temporarily; and another one's child's parents had both died, so the child's uncle wanted to sell the child.
Those children looked dressed in gray and were so thin that they seemed to be nothing but bones.
Shen Yuntang originally wanted to let Cheng Zhao come over to make the selection, after all, this servant boy would follow Cheng Zhao in the future. But now seeing this situation, he didn't dare to bring Cheng Zhao over.
Buying a book boy unexpectedly made him see all kinds of human life. Finally, he thought that these four children were too pitiful, so he bought them all.
Shen Yuntang originally thought that the gambler was too bad to sell the child for such a reason, but if he didn't buy the child, the child might be even more miserable.
Except for the child whose grandmother was sick, the parents of the other families were not good people. They could not afford to raise so many children but still had so many children, and then sold them. Shen Yuntang suspected that they had so many children just to sell them for money.
There is also the uncle selling his nephew's property. Although it is immoral, it is not illegal. If I don't buy it today, I don't know what will happen to that child.
Why not just buy them all myself, so that they can at least have enough to eat in the future.
After buying the children, he did not send them to Cheng Zhao immediately. Instead, he arranged a house for them to live in, helped them change their clothes and take a bath, and asked the servants to prepare meals for them.
The four children looked at the food on the table and rushed over like little wild animals, wolfing down the food into their mouths.
Seeing that they were young, Shen Yuntang sent a maid to take care of them and to test their personalities. Those with bad personalities would not be sent to Cheng Zhao.
The old woman was afraid that they would choke to death, so she yelled at them to eat slowly. It was no use whispering. The old woman's yelling was like scolding them, and they were frightened instead, and started eating in small, cautious bites.
As soon as Cheng Yeran returned home, Shen Yuntang took him to the backyard to see the children.
Cheng Yeran stood outside the door and watched them eat. "You are kind-hearted. You saved these children."
“I can only save these few children, but you can save all the people in this city. The fact that they can sell their children shows that this place is too poor. In our hometown village, there is no situation where people sell their children because they cannot raise them. They are poorer than our village. You should find a way to improve the situation here and prevent people from selling their children.” Shen Yuntang sighed. They were so poor that they could not worry about many things. If they wanted to change them, they could only make sure that everyone in the city could afford to eat.
Cheng Yeran sighed: "It will be fine."
He looked at the children inside again and said, "Xingxing will have playmates from now on. If Xingxing sees them eating, he will definitely think that I have captured some wild kids and brought them back."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
