Chapter 52: Cold Wave Arrives
Shen Zhiyi originally thought Zheng San would be nervous because of this, but the other party did not make a single mistake in front of so many people, and the more he performed, the more at ease he seemed.
I should have known that my third brother was a performer and had a resilient personality.
The remaining money was still in the sack, not a single coin missing. Zheng San handed the sack back to Shen Zhiyi, showing no greed for the money in his eyes. Instead, he said, "Everything that was due has been distributed. The remaining thirty-three taels of loose change is all here."
The village chief took the sack, and Shen Zhiyi said to Zheng San, "Third Brother, you'll be going out to do business in the future, so you'll need to learn to read and write, and also learn accounting skills."
Zheng San listened attentively, then showed a helpless expression and said, "These are other people's special skills, how could they teach them to me?"
“I’ll teach you,” Shen Zhiyi said earnestly. Seeing Zheng San’s shocked expression, she quickly added, “Lord Lu gave me some books before and taught me to read and do arithmetic…”
Before Shen Zhiyi could finish speaking, she turned to see Zheng San's eyes were already filled with tears. She quickly raised her hand to wipe away the tears and said in a choked voice, "Sister! From now on, you are my own sister!"
"Hold your water back," the village chief reminded him from the side.
Tears streamed down Zheng San's face again, but no one laughed at him. It was an immense blessing that had fallen upon him, and he had to seize it.
If you keep crying, you'll cry away all your good fortune.
"Hey, this is such a wonderful thing, it's like our ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke! I'm not crying at all," Zheng San said hastily.
Shen Zhiyi hadn't expected such a strong reaction to her words. She suddenly realized that her previous thinking had been narrow-minded. Teaching one person is the same as teaching a group, so why be so rigid? She frankly said, "I was mistaken. If everyone learns, we can even check each other's progress!"
"Let's set the study time an hour before dinner. If it's busy with farming, we can rest. Is that alright?" Shen Zhiyi asked loudly.
"good!"
"This is good!"
Their words converged into a positive and uplifting force.
In the following period, Shen Zhiyi began to carry out literacy work, memorizing the characters to be taught in advance, writing them on the ground with a fire stick, and then teaching them to recognize and write them. Later, everyone in Xiaba Village carried their own fire stick.
As a group learning activity, the progress became uneven. Some people remembered ten words, while others only remembered one. Young people learned faster than the older ones, including many gifted teenagers, such as Tie Tou, whose learning ability ranked first.
Shen Zhiyi firmly believes that "education should never be neglected, no matter how poor we are," especially since Xiaba Village is not that poor. However, the matter of education sounds very complicated. It requires preparing gifts for the three festivals and six ceremonies, annual tributes, and attention to writing materials. Most importantly, it depends on whether there is a teacher willing to accept students.
Only wealthy families could afford to support a scholar.
Since she had come all the way to the county town to find a private school to learn about education, Shen Zhiyi took the opportunity to eavesdrop on a short lesson. She felt that her brain was still not working properly; the words were the same, but they sounded awkward to her.
Having had this experience, Shen Zhiyi temporarily gave up the idea of sending the top students from the literacy class to a private school.
As the weather grew colder, the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) became an essential item, saving countless people weakened by typhoid fever.
Meanwhile, some wealthy gentlemen who had initially ignored advice spent exorbitant prices to buy heated kang beds from the government office, which eventually ended up in Xiaba Village, allowing them to make a fortune.
Although the cold wave came suddenly, people were prepared and the situation did not get worse.
There was a knock on the courtyard gate that day. It was clearly not the time for learning to read. Although Shen Zhiyi was puzzled, she still put on a thick cotton coat and went to open the door. She saw Tang Huaya standing at the door with an anxious look on her face. She quickly reached out and pulled her to a sheltered spot and asked, "Did the rabbit give birth?"
"The mother rabbit is lying in her nest, her belly isn't moving. My mother says she can't give birth..." Tang Huaya said anxiously, almost subconsciously, she thought the other person would have a solution, which is why she rushed over to ask.
“If that’s really the case, we’ll have to do a C-section,” Shen Zhiyi said seriously, then grabbed Tang Huaya’s hand and ran outside. “Maybe we can still make it in time.”
Tang Huaya also ran with all her might. The two of them ran back, their faces stiff from the cold wind.
Seeing them like this, Aunt Zhao brought over a bowl of hot water and said, "Hurry up and drink some to warm yourselves up."
Shen Zhiyi drank half a bowl, handed the remaining half to Tang Huaya, and then went into the room where the rabbit burrow was located. Tang Erleng still had tears on his face, and she comforted him, "It's okay, sister is here to help the rabbits give birth, but Erleng needs to help prepare some things."
“Okay, Sister said I’ll go prepare right away,” Tang Erleng said, choking back tears.
"Scissors, hot water, clean cotton cloth..." Shen Zhiyi patiently instructed, and Tang Huaya, who had just lifted the curtain to come in, quickly went out to prepare as well.
Only Shen Zhiyi remained in the room. She walked to the rabbit hutch, where two pregnant female rabbits had built their nests separately. One had already given birth safely, while the other lay there, its fate unknown.
She went over to check its swollen belly and sensed something was wrong. It seemed she had no choice but to take the riskiest step—a cesarean section.
Since we can't worry about the mother rabbit's life or death right now, we can save a lot of steps. As for whether the baby rabbits that are taken out will survive, we can only do our best.
Tang Erleng and Tang Huaya quickly prepared the supplies, even bringing out the oil lamp they usually wouldn't light for illumination. Shen Zhiyi took the scissors that had been scalded with boiling water and said, "I'll hand the cubs to you in a bit. You'll need to use a cotton cloth to clean the water from their mouths and noses, and then wipe their bodies..."
Shen Zhiyi passed on her limited experience, then solemnly searched for the right spot to cut. This unfortunate start cost the lives of two of the cubs, making her even more cautious in using the scissors.
As more and more cubs were unearthed, Tang Erleng exclaimed in surprise, "There are actually ten!"
"Unfortunately, only six have survived so far," Shen Zhiyi said helplessly.
"This is already very good!" Tang Huaya gently settled the litter of newborn rabbits, then picked up the dead mother rabbit from its original burrow and handed it to Tang Erleng, saying, "Tell your mother that we're having rabbit meat today."
Tang Erleng, who had been crying just moments before, immediately took the rabbit with great joy and ran outside shouting, "Mom, eat rabbit!"
"Zhiyi, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, all these little rabbits would have been suffocating," Tang Huaya said sincerely.
No sooner had she finished speaking than Aunt Zhao's voice came from the other end: "Girl, how would you like to eat the rabbit?"
Shen Zhiyi didn't react for a moment, but Tang Huaya nudged her arm and whispered, "My mother is calling you."
"It'll taste better with more chili," Shen Zhiyi replied.
"Okay," Aunt Zhao said and quickly left.
"My mother treats you better than she treats me," Tang Huaya said, feigning jealousy, as she pulled Shen Zhiyi outside.
Shen Zhiyi, unusually narcissistic, said, "I've always been likable."
"Yes, yes, you're the most lovable one," Tang Huaya said with a smile, laughing heartily with Shen Zhiyi.
After washing their hands, the two sat on the heated kang in the main room. There was a basket next to the straw mat. During their playful fight, several small things fell out of it. Shen Zhiyi picked one up and looked at it, and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Isn't this a rabbit? It's just missing the facial features!"
"Not only that, there are also sparrows, cats, and dogs," Tang Huaya said slowly, taking out other animals from the basket. "They're all so small, they don't take up much space. I only realized how many I'd collected today when I sorted them out."
"This is a windfall!" Shen Zhiyi said seriously, grabbing several miniature dolls in one hand. "Look, they can be stacked and combined at will, and you can put them in your hair, on your wrist, on your clothes..."
As Shen Zhiyi spoke, she gestured and added, "If there are enough of them, we can sew a circle around the edge of the sleeves. Wouldn't that be even more interesting?"
"It can actually be sold for money?" Tang Huaya asked in surprise.
"How will we know if we don't try?" Shen Zhiyi said confidently. For some reason, you could tell from her expression that this attempt would definitely succeed. "Let's go to the county town to take a look when the weather gets a little warmer."
"Perhaps we could go to town and ask first?" Tang Huaya suggested cautiously.
“Hua Ya, if everyone in the county town buys Aunt Zhao’s little dolls, wouldn’t the young ladies and girls in the town with spare money buy them too?” Shen Zhiyi asked rhetorically.
Tang Huaya thought about it carefully and slowly said, "It seems so! Let's go together then."
"We also need to call Zhao Daya."
“And Sanni.”
The two spoke at the same time, exchanging glances at each other in a sudden lack of understanding. Shen Zhiyi said, "Take them all!"
"By the way, is Ge Niu's situation any better?" Shen Zhiyi asked immediately.
"It's not good." Tang Huaya sighed very softly. "Everyone is concerned about her, but they haven't been able to help her recover. She prefers to be by herself."
"Then let her stay by herself," Shen Zhiyi said seriously.
Tang Huaya looked surprised and quickly said, "If we don't keep an eye on her, what if she does something foolish..."
“Perhaps it’s because she’s been being watched the whole time that she feels like she did something wrong and is feeling uncomfortable. It’s better to pretend nothing happened,” Shen Zhiyi said calmly. “If it were before, would we have been watching Ge Niu for twelve hours straight?”
"Of course not, but..." Tang Huaya hadn't finished speaking when Shen Zhiyi interrupted, "From the moment you said 'but,' you've already thought through what Ge Niu went through and felt that she was pitiful and needed to be watched over at all times to prevent her from doing something foolish, right?"
Tang Huaya suddenly fell silent.
"We'll invite Ge Niu along too. With the money I've saved up, we can have a nice meal and do some shopping in the county!" Shen Zhiyi said softly. Going from penniless to having thirteen taels in savings was something to be proud of for a moment. "And then the expenses..."
Shen Zhiyi caught a glimpse of the figure approaching from the doorway of the main room out of the corner of her eye, and she quickly stopped talking about spending money.
The aroma of roasted rabbit meat, accompanied by the tangible steam, wafted over, and Shen Zhiyi exclaimed, "It smells so good! Thank you for your hard work, Auntie!"
“It’s not hard work at all!” Aunt Zhao said repeatedly. “Quickly try my cooking of rabbit meat.”
"Coming!" Shen Zhiyi said as she sat down on the bench. No matter where she ate, she always felt at home, which made her feel very warm and cozy.
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