059, Go to school
059, Go to school
The sky was gloomy and the cold wind carrying snow was howling.
After a night of snow, every time you step on the road, a deep footprint is left.
Lu Mingfei walked hurriedly on the road, holding an umbrella. There was no one else on the road except him. Most of the people in the houses on this road should have woken up, because he saw smoke coming out of many chimneys.
The difference between people in the city and people in the country is that people in the country will open the doors of their homes in the morning and welcome neighbors to visit, sit and chat; while people in the city will keep the gates outside their yards closed unless someone is coming in or out.
So whether in this era or the era in which he originally lived, people in the city maintain a certain distance from each other, while people in the countryside are closer and more familiar with each other.
Of course, this isn't to say that this alienation and indifference between city dwellers is bad. Quite the opposite: for those who struggle with neighborly relationships, this sense of boundaries between people is the most comfortable way to get along. On the contrary, neighbors without a sense of boundaries are the real headaches.
Their family had learned a lesson when they lived on Tongshu Street, so after moving to Chunxi Road, they kept a certain distance from the neighbors and did not interact too much with them. Here, each family has its own courtyard, and as long as the courtyard door is closed, no one will come to your house casually. So, after living here for seven years, their family is not very familiar with the surrounding neighbors.
At most, when you walk on the street and meet someone who looks particularly familiar, and know that they are neighbors living nearby, when you meet face to face, you will nod to each other, which is considered a greeting.
Compared to living in the village and Tongshu Street before, Lu Mingfei still prefers living in the city. He likes the sense of propriety between people, where no one would cross the line and offend others. Since moving to the city, he rarely sees his childhood playmates. Only Hu Zi has come to the city to visit him twice with his family.
As for his cousins at home, he hadn't seen them for many years.
It’s not too far from their home to his teacher’s home, and it only takes about ten minutes to walk there.
When he arrived there, he saw his senior brother sweeping the snow outside the yard with a broom. He greeted his senior brother as soon as he entered the door, then took a broom and came over to sweep the snow together.
"Just leave it there, I'll sweep it." Fu Boming said with a faint smile on his face as he looked at his junior brother who was sweeping the floor with him with a broom.
"It will be faster if we sweep together. It's very windy outside today, let's finish sweeping quickly and go inside to study." Lu Mingfei didn't feel comfortable letting his senior brother work alone.
Their eldest brother was named Fu Boming, the only son of Mr. Fu. He was sixteen years old, three years older than him. From the first day he came to study with Mr. Fu, he had been studying with this eldest brother.
Their eldest brother was a very kind person, and he was more patient with them than the teacher. Moreover, this brother never withheld knowledge from them when it came to studying. If they encountered a problem they did not understand and asked for help, this brother would teach them everything he knew and patiently answer their questions.
So if the teacher is busy with something, the eldest senior brother will take over the class and take care of the younger brothers like a little teacher.
Anyway, after studying here for so many years, Lu Mingfei has never heard any of his classmates say a word of dislike for them, the senior brothers.
He had also been to school in his previous life and knew that not all senior brothers were so good to their junior brothers, so it was a blessing for these junior brothers to meet such a selfless and generous senior brother on the road to study.
Their teacher's house had two courtyards. Their teacher and his family lived in the second courtyard and used the front courtyard to open a private school. Their students attended classes in the front house during the day.
Although these students paid tuition to study at the teacher's home, they would also help out when there was work to do at home. Of course, not all students would help the teacher with the work. After all, some of them were the masters of the house and didn't even know how to hold a broom. In such a situation, it would be difficult to ask others to help with the work.
Lu Mingfei was used to helping his parents with all kinds of housework at home, so in his first year studying here with his teacher, he knew that the senior brothers would get up early every day to clean the front yard, so he would come a little earlier to help clean with these senior brothers.
While they were sweeping the yard, two more people came behind them.
The four of them quickly cleaned up the fallen snow in the front yard. Because the teacher's wife was in the back yard, it was inconvenient for them to go in, so they did not go into the back yard. They just cleaned the front yard and then went into the school to study.
There is also a fireplace in the place where they have classes. It was the first year that Lu Mingfei came to study with their teacher. After obtaining their teacher's consent, he invited the craftsman who had previously built fireplaces for their family to come to their teacher's house and build several fireplaces. Two of them are in the backyard where their teacher and his family live, and the other one is in the room where they usually have classes.
So with the fireplace, these students no longer have to suffer from the cold when studying in winter.
As for the firewood for the teacher's family, before winter came, each of the students would send two carts of firewood to their homes. In addition to ensuring that there was enough firewood for the school ahead, they also took care of all the firewood for the teacher's family.
Compared with the tuition fees and the money they spent on studying, a few carts of firewood were just a small amount of money.
In Kyoto, families who could afford to go to school generally wouldn't be short of money for two carts of firewood. Some wealthy families would even send ten or eight carts at a time, because compared to other gifts, a few carts of firewood cost the least.
These things were sent to the gentleman's home and were put to good use. The person who received the gift was happy, the person who gave the gift was happy too, and everyone was happy.
The four of them sat in the classroom studying, and other classmates arrived one after another.
After everyone arrives, they find their own seat and sit down to read. No one is allowed to make noise and disturb others' reading.
Mainly because their eldest brother was sitting here, no one dared to make a noise.
They have two classes here. One is Class B, which is the enlightenment class for younger children; the other is Class A, which is the class for older students who already have a basic foundation.
When Lu Mingfei first arrived, he was also in Class B, but after just one year he was promoted to Class A. He started school at an older age; while others started at five or six, he didn't until he was eight. Therefore, he was two or three years older than the other children, and sitting among the younger students made him seem a bit out of place.
However, after being promoted to Class A, I became closer in age to my classmates.
Fortunately, their teacher divides the classes according to the students' academic performance, not according to their enrollment time. Otherwise, he might still be in the enlightenment class with a group of little kids.
There are two teachers teaching them here, one is responsible for teaching Class A, and the other is responsible for teaching Class B. The one in charge of teaching their Class A is their Mr. Fu, the father of their eldest brother, who opened this private school... let's just say he was the boss.
Just when he was thinking about Cao Cao...Teacher, their teacher came into the school.
After their eldest brother stood up, everyone followed suit. They all placed the fingers of their right hand on top of the fingers of their left hand, and slowly lowered their bodies from their foreheads, bowing deeply and saying in unison, "Hello, sir."
"Please sit down." The teacher on the podium raised his hand and pressed it down, signaling all the students to sit down.
"Thank you, sir." After thanking him, everyone returned to their seats.
Lu Mingfei was also sitting in his seat at this time. He looked up and saw the gentleman sitting above him. Their Mr. Fu was nearly fifty years old, tall and thin with a long face, gentle temperament, and a beautiful beard. He was a handsome uncle.
It was only later, from hearing other classmates, that he learned that their teacher, in order to secure a good academic record, had waited until he was well into his thirties to marry and have children. Their eldest brother was only three years older than him, but their teacher looked significantly older than his father. His father, even at that time, would have been considered a late marriage, but their teacher was probably even later than his father.
Later, under pressure from his family to make a living, his husband opened this private school. He gave up the idea of taking the imperial examinations and pursuing a degree, and focused on teaching students and earning a few taels of silver to support his family. He also nurtured his only son's education, placing all his hopes on his son and his students.
Regarding studying and the imperial examinations, Lu Mingfei had always thought that if he couldn't achieve anything on this path, he might give up after a couple of tries and pursue something else. Of course, achieving even a small degree of success, like a civil servant, would be ideal, but if he truly lacked the talent, he wouldn't be as persistent as their husband.
"You had a day off yesterday. I wonder if you reviewed the knowledge you learned before going home. Today, let's review the knowledge we learned a few days ago, and then continue with the new content." Then Mr. Fu asked the students to take out "The Analects of Confucius" and review the knowledge they learned the day before the day off.
All the students below sat in their seats and listened attentively.
However, Lu Mingfei noticed that some people around him were distracted. Whether they had truly absorbed the teacher's teachings was probably best known to them. At this moment, he didn't care whether others were paying attention or not; he himself needed to concentrate on listening to the teacher.
Although he could recite all this knowledge by heart, every time the teacher talked about it again, he would not stop studying seriously just because he had heard it before.
Only by reviewing the past can we learn new things and pass the exam! Author's words: Thanks to Bole 9492239 (9492239) for supporting me, mua! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading
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