Zhou Wencong felt a surge of emotion. Who wouldn't want to be remembered for generations and celebrated by future generations?
He felt a slight tremor in his heart. After calming himself down, he picked up his pen and wrote his name in the lower right corner: Zhou Wencong.
Suddenly, he felt an even greater responsibility on his shoulders. He had to raise the next generation of the Zhou family to adulthood in order to be worthy of this great merit worthy of being inscribed on the plaque.
The moment Zhou Wencong wrote down his name, Zhou Quan saw that his life essence had changed from its original pale yellow to pale gold.
He was surprised for a moment, then smiled. What kind of goal had Wen Cong set for himself? It had actually made his soul change color instantly. This was a sublimation! He had accumulated great merit!
He looked at the clan leader Zhou Shizhou again, and similarly, his life soul also turned pale gold in an instant.
Zhou Quan instantly understood that their decision was the right one. Perhaps the future of this academy would be bright, and it might even produce a few great Confucian scholars.
In that instant, he also felt a warm sensation all over his body, a feeling of being blessed with good karma.
This feeling also dispelled much of the chilling nightmare he had experienced last night.
They asked what else they were missing, and Zhou Wencong showed them a general overview. They said that they were running low on writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, and that they were also missing some books for early learning.
Zhou Quan gave Zhou Shizhou a silver note of two hundred taels, asking him to replenish some books, writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones for the academy.
Zhou Shizhou agreed and discussed the quantity of various purchases with Zhou Wencong.
Zhou Quan looked at the buildings that had been built inside the school. There were three rooms on the west side. Currently, one of them contained a cabinet with books, writing brushes, ink, paper, and other teaching materials and learning supplies.
The other two rooms served as the Master's study and the other as a rest room.
The main building has three rooms, all of which are classrooms, with three wooden signs hanging on the doors indicating Class A, Class B, and Class C.
There are three rooms on the east side, which are currently filled with miscellaneous items and extra tables and chairs.
To the south is the courtyard wall, next to which is a row of large poplar trees. There are no houses built there, and the area under the trees is where children play.
There is still empty space on the east and west sides of the front of the courtyard, which is currently planted with flowers and plants. If a school were built there, two or three rooms could be built on each side, and then the courtyard would be considered fully covered. It was because we didn't need that many rooms and time was tight that we didn't build on the sides and left empty spaces.
When the Zhou family ancestral hall and school were originally divided, they were divided into three courtyards with three main rooms each.
These two courtyards are the two largest courtyards in the newly planned Zhoujiacun New Village.
One is where our ancestors lived, and the other is where the children learned. Zhou Quan and Li Mai felt that it should be built bigger, no problem.
The small square is in the middle, the ancestral hall is to the north, with its main gate facing south, and the school is to the south of the small square, also facing south.
However, the school's main gate is the east gate, which leads to an alleyway, and on the other side is the courtyard of my third grandfather's house.
They also put up a "Fu" (福, meaning good fortune) character screen wall on the courtyard wall of their third grandfather's house opposite the main gate, facing the school gate.
The alley leading from the small square to the school is about ten feet wide. This was specially left so that people could drop their children off at the entrance of the alley when they came to school in the morning. The school had only one gate in the alley, and the children could go into the school by themselves.
Now the walls on both sides of the alley have been painted white, and they are covered with paintings of idiom stories by specially invited craftsmen.
They are all educational in nature. This was designed by Li Mai and Zhou Quan, and Zhou Shizhou found someone to draw them.
The back wall of the school faces a small square, which is also painted white and depicts the scene of the whole village building a new village together.
Whenever the villagers pass by and see this painting, they are reminded of the scene of them working together to build the new village last year, and they can't help but smile.
Of course, those few who took advantage of the situation last year will feel a little guilty every time they see this painting.
After Zhou Quan carefully put away the calligraphy that Zhou Wencong had written for the plaque, he said goodbye to Zhou Shizhou and left.
The two stood in the small square, looking at the alley. Zhou Quan smiled and said, "Let's make two plaques, one to hang at the entrance of the alley and one on the gate."
“Okay, you can arrange it as you see fit. I’ll contribute the money with you.” Zhou Shizhou felt bad. Although he had wanted Zhou Quan to contribute some money to help the school, he felt a little guilty when Zhou Quan actually contributed the money. The villagers didn’t owe them anything.
Zhou Quan smiled and said, "Okay, let's all go together, one piece each."
Zhou Shizhou smiled, feeling relieved, and hummed in agreement.
"Also, although the villagers don't have to pay for the children's education, they should still contribute something after the autumn harvest. On the day the academy is officially inaugurated, each family should contribute a few kilograms of grain to send to the academy, as the new teachers also need to eat."
“Yes, I know. I’ll hold a meeting with them about this. Xiaoquan, how should we pay the tuition for the new teacher? Should it be the same as Wencong’s?” Zhou Shizhou asked Zhou Quan.
Currently, Zhou Wencong receives a monthly tuition fee of three taels of silver at the school. This money comes from the incense money donated by the clan members at the Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall. He consulted the clan elders and informed the ancestors about this.
Zhou Quan thought for a moment, "The new teacher will get three taels, and Wen Cong will be promoted to dean, so he'll get five taels. That's eleven taels a month for the three of them."
"When the new village celebrates its first anniversary this year, we'll have a big celebration. We'll open the ancestral hall, hold an ancestral worship ceremony, hire an opera troupe, and invite all the Zhou family members who have made a fortune outside back home. You should also find a way to get the clan elders to come forward and plead their poverty, and to sing the praises of our academy's great merit, so that they will show more respect to their ancestors."
"If you're worried they won't agree, just erect a Zhou family merit stele in the courtyard of the ancestral hall. The names of those who donated more than a thousand taels to the Zhou family will be engraved on it and worshipped by future generations," Zhou Quan suggested with a smile.
Anyway, he and Li Mai, without them having to say anything, would often contribute money to help the village. Besides today's two hundred taels, when they cleaned up the ancestral hall and brought the ancestral tablets from the old ancestral hall over, their family contributed five hundred taels for incense money.
At that time, their shop had only been open for a short time, and all of that money came from wheat. But she took it out without hesitation. She said that the Zhou family was able to survive this great calamity and save most of the lives because the ancestors protected everyone. We must do our best in such matters.
At that time, the whole family was moved by what Xiaomai said. Thinking about the unexpected wealth left to them by their ancestors, which was more than just a few hundred taels, the family did not feel any remorse for taking out the five hundred taels.
On that occasion, some of the Zhou clan members who had become wealthy and moved out returned, and some even contributed five hundred or eight hundred taels of silver.
If we give it our all this time, we can have about ten people on the monument of merit.
The tuition fees paid by the teachers in the school will certainly be enough for a hundred years to come.
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