Chapter 4 Men and women should not touch each other.
The lesson lasted about an hour and a half. Around 3 PM, the children left in groups.
During this short time, Zhang Xingjun and Jiang Ru formed a friendship. As he left, Zhang Xingjun winked at Jiang Ru and said, "We're friends from now on. Where do you live? I'll come visit you."
Jiang Ru pointed to the ground she was standing on, then stomped her foot and said, "I live here."
Zhang Xingjun was utterly confused: "Where did you mean?"
Jiang Ru pointed to the mud house behind her and gave Zhang Xingjun a wicked smile: "Of course, this is it."
Zhang Xingjun seemed to realize something. He secretly glanced at Pei Wu, who was standing under the tree with a calm gaze as he looked at him and Jiang Ru.
Zhang Xingjun's lips twitched, and he lowered his voice: "What's your relationship with Brother Pei? Why are you staying here?"
He spoke blatantly, as if afraid Pei Wu wouldn't hear him, his eyes darting around as if Pei Wu were a man-eating monster.
Indeed, since ancient times, when students meet teachers, it's like mice meeting cats.
Jiang Ru found him amusing and deliberately teased him, so she lowered her voice and said, "I'm your brother Pei's cousin. According to seniority, you should call me 'sister.' So, you'd better be careful in the future, or I'll complain to your brother Pei."
After scaring the child, Jiang Ru raised an eyebrow at him, which indeed frightened Zhang Xingjun so much that his face changed drastically. He hurriedly said goodbye to them and left in a hurry.
Jiang Ru watched the panicked figure flee and burst into laughter.
Pei Wu, who was standing behind her, did not react. Jiang Ru turned around and found that he had already sat down, turned a page of the book in his hand, and was completely undisturbed by the outside world, and was actually reading again.
Damn it, he's started learning it again.
In the afternoon, I was tricked by Pei Wu and, before I could figure out how to stop him from taking the imperial examination, I ended up learning from him all afternoon.
Jiang Ru discovered that Pei Wu had an extremely strong thirst for knowledge; he was always reading books and never let up.
Perhaps his determination to pass the imperial examination made things difficult for Jiang Ru.
Her gaze was so intense that Pei Wu couldn't ignore it, so he initiated the conversation: "Can you write your own name?"
Jiang Ru's eyes lit up, her thoughts immediately drawn to Pei Wu. She leaned forward slightly and exclaimed with delight, "You teach me!"
She smiled happily, her eyes sparkling, waiting for Pei Wu to demonstrate for her.
Pei Wu then picked up a twig, dipped it in water, and wrote two characters on the table.
The words on the wooden table quickly blurred and became a blurry mess. Pei Wu assumed she had a photographic memory and would remember them after writing them once. However, Jiang Ru squinted at it for a while and said sincerely, "I can't see them clearly."
Pei Wu stopped abruptly.
His wrist rested on the wooden table, and his dark eyes stared at Jiang Ru for a while, perhaps to determine if she was telling the truth.
Jiang Ru continued to admit, "I really can't see clearly."
Pei Wu remained silent for a moment, then resignedly got up. He squatted down and used a twig to write it all over the ground again.
The white robes were rough, yet they gave Pei Wu an ethereal air, like a lotus blooming in the mud. He wrote with great force, leaving deep furrows on the ground, and the two characters were crystal clear.
This time, Jiang Ru remembered it.
She squatted side by side with Pei Wu in the courtyard, and copied Pei Wu's writing. The characters were exactly the same, and she felt very confident: "I've got it."
Pei Wu lowered his eyelashes and focused his gaze on the two small characters written by Jiang Ru.
She wrote the strokes incorrectly, but she managed to copy them all. As for the strokes, we can teach her slowly later.
Pei Wu was about to stand up.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed his sleeve. In the haste of the grab, the warm fingertips lightly touched Pei Wu's wrist. The touch was fleeting, and Jiang Ru did not realize it. Holding Pei Wu's sleeve, she looked up at him and said with dissatisfaction, "You haven't taught me how to write your name yet."
Pei Wu curled his fingers, wanting to ask her why she wanted to learn to write her own name, but Jiang Ru said confidently, "What if someone asks me who my cousin is in the future and I can't write it down?"
It was clearly a fallacy, and no one would ask her how to write her cousin's name, but Pei Wu resignedly squatted down and wrote his own name below Jiang Ru's name.
His name had more strokes than Jiang Ru's, making it a bit difficult to remember. Jiang Ru looked at it several times before barely memorizing it, then casually remarked, "Your name is so hard to write."
Although she said it was difficult to write, she had basically memorized it. This time, Pei Wu did not stand up rashly, but asked her, "Is it okay now?"
Jiang Ru casually said, "There are other characters too. You taught me 'zhi,' but what about 'miao'?"
Pei Wu tilted his head in confusion: "What '霊'?"
"Your words..." Jiang Ru stopped abruptly as she was about to utter the last word.
She forgot that Pei Wu was not yet of age and had not yet been given a courtesy name.
Pei Wu's eyes were clear and cold as he stared intently at Jiang Ru. Jiang Ru broke out in a cold sweat; she was too unguarded and had accidentally let something slip.
After waiting for a long time without receiving a reply, Pei Wu patiently repeated, "What did you say?"
Those eyes were incredibly perceptive. Jiang Ru knew Pei Wu was too clever for his own good, and that he might notice something was wrong. She quickly changed her words, saying, "I think your name is too hard to write, and I'm afraid I'll forget it."
Jiang Ru changed the subject abruptly, but Pei Wu didn't pursue the matter further. He stood up, straightened his clothes, and patted the sleeve that Jiang Ru had grabbed earlier, saying nonchalantly, "It's alright, forget about it."
He shouldn't have said it, because once he did, Jiang Ru was determined to remember it.
She diligently squatted on the ground and wrote it several times, not even practicing her own name, but focusing on practicing Pei Wu's.
After writing it ten times, Jiang Ru patted Pei Wu on the shoulder and said proudly, "I remember it perfectly; I can write it even with my eyes closed."
She patted Pei Wu's hem. The pat caused Pei Wu to tremble slightly. He glanced at Jiang Ru with an incredulous look. Jiang Ru, not understanding what was happening, tapped him with a twig to remind him.
Pei Wu closed his eyes, calmed himself down, glanced casually at Jiang Ru's handwriting, and insincerely praised her: "Very good."
After saying that, he turned around and was about to walk straight into the house. Jiang Ru was completely confused and didn't understand why he was running away for no reason.
She stared at Pei Wu's retreating figure with a puzzled look, and was about to lower her head when she heard a rustling sound. Pei Wu had walked back to her.
Jiang Ru innocently tilted her head back and met Pei Wu's gaze as he looked down at her.
Pei Wu seemed to be about to say something difficult to say, opening his mouth several times and then closing it again. His lips were very thin, a pale white devoid of blood, but now they were slightly engorged with blood and filled with a touch of pink as he bit them.
Jiang Ru asked, puzzled, "What's wrong, cousin?"
Pei Wu's chest heaved as he took a deep breath: "If you call me cousin, then I have to take responsibility for you."
Jiang Ru tilted her head back and slowly opened her mouth wide.
There's no need to go that far.
Pei Wu had no idea what she was thinking and continued, "Men and women shouldn't touch each other. Although I'm your cousin, you still need to be careful and shouldn't touch each other casually. If word gets out, how will you ever get married?"
Jiang Ru: "..."
Jiang Ru frowned: "When did I touch you...?"
As she spoke, she finally realized that the "touch" Pei Wu mentioned was the one she had just touched the hem of Pei Wu's clothes.
Jiang Ru: "Oh."
She lowered her head, gaining a new understanding of the rigid and serious young man before her. She would never touch Pei Wu's clothes again, not even once!
You pedantic boy, did you bind your feet?
Pei Wu seemed to realize that he had spoken too harshly. He hesitated for a moment, then squatted down slightly to look Jiang Ru in the eye. However, Jiang Ru did not look up, so he could not see her eyes.
I hope I didn't cry because of what he said.
In fact, Pei Wu regretted it as soon as he said those words. His original intention was just to let Jiang Ru know the proper separation between men and women. Besides, Jiang Ru was about to come of age and get married. Pei Wu had to plan all of this for her.
If she doesn't understand these things after she gets married, it won't be good for Jiang Ru.
So after reprimanding you, Pei Wu changed his tune and comforted you: "I wasn't blaming you, I just..."
Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Ru looked up, held out her hand to indicate to Pei Wu that he didn't need to say anything more, and nodded in agreement: "Cousin, you're right, I understand."
Pei Wu confirmed several times that Jiang Ru was indeed not crying before he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Feeling embarrassed to go back inside, he could only sit back down at the table.
For the first time, he couldn't concentrate on his book at all, his gaze repeatedly falling on Jiang Ru, afraid that his words might have hurt her feelings.
He was too serious for his own good; he wouldn't secretly spy on someone without making a sound. He spied on Jiang Ru a few times, and Jiang Ru noticed each time.
"Is he about to give me another lecture?" Jiang Ru thought, unable to contain herself any longer, and suddenly looked up.
Unfortunately, Pei Wu had just turned his gaze away and was now looking at the book. He had been reading for about fifteen minutes without turning a single page.
The sun was no longer as scorching as it was at noon, and they were under the pear tree, completely enveloped in its shade. Only the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves cast small patches of light on Pei Wu's cheeks.
He was handsome, but his personality was too rigid, which made Jiang Ru realize deeply that she was facing an ancient person.
Caught peeping, Pei Wu looked up in despair and asked frankly, "What happened?"
He pretended to be calm, but in reality, he was so nervous that his hands were clenched tightly and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.
Jiang Ru paused for a moment, looking at Pei Wu's overly thin body, and decided not to settle accounts with him anymore. Instead, she inquired about their livelihood: "Did you earn all your expenses over the past three years by teaching these children?"
Pei Wu replied, "I didn't make any money."
Jiang Ru: ""
Perhaps her questioning gaze was too obvious, Pei Wu paused before saying, "I didn't take any money."
This upright and honest official, who emulated Lei Feng and did good deeds, suffered from malnutrition and was so thin he looked like he could be blown away by the wind. Yet, he refused to accept a single penny from the people and focused on compulsory education. He deserves to be selected as one of the top ten people who moved China.
Jiang Ru clapped her hands and gave Pei Wu a look of admiration (as if he were mentally challenged).
Pei Wu probably understood what she was thinking. He felt a little helpless and tried to make amends, saying, "They are all neighbors. Their parents have always taken good care of me, so I shouldn't accept any payment."
Jiang Ru smiled, but she was worried about her and Pei Wu's future. Not to mention whether Pei Wu would be able to take the imperial examination, she suspected that one day, someone would open the courtyard door and see two mummified corpses, a man and a woman, lying in the yard.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Pei Wu added, "Besides, if there's a good harvest, they'll give me some too."
Speaking of crops...
There was no other way but to go back to my old ways.
She studied agriculture in her past life, farmed in her previous life, and she still has to farm in this life. It seems she can never get rid of it.
It's just farming, which is her specialty. Besides, she can get Pei Wu to farm with her. Maybe he'll fall in love with farming and won't want to take the imperial examination anymore?
Jiang Ru circled Pei Wu a few times, finally making up her mind, and asked Pei Wu, "Does your family own any land?"
Jiang Ru stared at Pei Wu longingly, her eyes wide open. "At least, he should have a few acres of land, otherwise..."
If she doesn't even have land, she might as well go back to where she came from, otherwise she would become the most miserable person in the history of rebirth, because she would starve to death because she had no food to eat.
A note from the author:
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If you see anyone asking me, I promise this post will definitely be finished.
Then I update around 11 p.m. every night, sometimes a little later, sometimes a little earlier.
I usually update daily, with occasional days off.
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