Chapter 295 I Can’t Just Sit and Wait
Mrs. Li gave Old Man Liu an enigmatic sidelong glance. "So I'm thinking of getting the money and buying some meat tomorrow to bring back. Let's go early and find our youngest sister first. She'll take us to sign up!"
Old Man Liu's eyes lit up. "You're still quite shrewd!"
Li was unhappy. Even though she was not well-educated, she could tell that this was not a good word. She bent down and tried to take off her other shoe.
Old Man Liu reacted quickly this time and hurried in another direction. "Then why are you still rummaging around the house? Isn't the money box in your hands?"
Li got angry when she mentioned this. "Didn't I put three taels and five cents in the money box? How come there are only three taels and three cents? And two cents of silver are missing. I thought maybe a rat dragged it away and I'm just looking for it."
Hearing this, Old Man Liu's expression faltered for a moment. Then he quickly nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes, it might have been dragged away by a rat. I'll help you look for it too."
…
Dunzi Village
"Mom and Dad, I also want to follow my brother to Taohua Village to study tomorrow." A little girl about ten years old looked at the man and woman sitting on both sides.
The woman was sewing, and it could be roughly seen that this was a school bag.
After hearing this, the woman's hand paused for a moment, but she didn't even move her eyelids. She lowered her head and continued doing what she was doing.
The man moved.
The man raised his large, cushion-like hand and slapped the little girl hard. "You're so arrogant! What's the point of reading that book, a money-loser like you? I'm telling you, stay home and do the housework and farm work. In two years, I'll send you to Landlord Wang's house to be his concubine and live a comfortable life."
The girl covered her swollen face, not daring to cry. But she still wanted to fight for herself. "Dad, I heard that girls in the school not only study, but also learn needlework and accounting. Once I learn that, I can earn more money for you and my brother."
Hearing this, the man's heart was briefly moved. But then he spat. "Even if you learn it, how many years of benefit can you bring to us? After you're fifteen or sixteen, you'll be a cheapskate in your husband's family. What does that have to do with me? So why should I train you?"
"Get out of here and don't be an eyesore. I won't let you go."
The girl didn't dare to argue anymore and could only cover her cheeks and walk out.
When a chubby little boy passed by, he clapped his hands and laughed. "Oh, oh, oh, the money-loser got beaten up. The money-loser still wants to study? Pah!"
The girl ran back to her room in a panic with untidy steps.
Oh, she was a money-loser and didn't deserve to have her own room. Ever since she could remember, she had lived in the woodshed so that she could cook for her brother when he wanted to eat in the middle of the night.
No one noticed the hatred in her scarlet eyes.
No one knew that when most people were dreaming of their children going to school and having the opportunity to take the imperial examinations and change their lives, a fire broke out in an inconspicuous thatched house in Dunzi Village.
When everyone found out, all three members of the family who were sleeping in the thatched hut were burned to death. Only the little girl who was sleeping in the woodshed escaped because there was a water tank next to her.
The villagers put out the fire and looked at the skinny little girl, shaking their heads and sighing. "Oh, how pitiful! She's become an orphan at such a young age. What's she going to do in the future?"
"Yes, yes, this child without a father or a mother is like a weed."
But when they met the girl's gaze, they all avoided it and found excuses to leave.
Life is hard nowadays. Who would be willing to support such a mouth for no reason?
In the end, only the village chief of Dunzi Village was left.
The village chief opened his mouth, and finally said, "Let's go, stay at my house for a while first."
Hey, his family was in trouble too, with more than a dozen mouths to feed, all struggling to find food. But he was the village chief, and he couldn't just watch the child starve to death.
Let’s take care of it for a while. Spring is coming soon, and life will be better when the wild vegetables and fruits in the mountains grow.
But the girl shook her head. "Thank you for your kindness, village chief. Your family is having a hard time, too. I won't bother you."
The village chief frowned in disapproval, "Where else can you go if not to my house?"
The girl smiled sweetly. "Could you please ask the village chief to take me to Taohua Village?"
Peach Blossom Village? Could it be that she wanted to...
This is a really good idea. I heard that the school in Taohua Village not only does not charge tuition, but also provides free meals three times a day. The school also provides accommodation for students from far away families.
If she could enter Qiushi Academy, she would not have to live under someone else's roof.
"Okay, I was going to take my children to Taohua Village anyway, so it's no problem to take you along too." The village chief agreed to take the girl with him, but he looked up at the thatched hut that had been reduced to ashes. "It's a pity your brother didn't have that blessing."
The girl also started crying. "Yes, my parents said my brother was smart and would definitely get the top score in the imperial examination. But unfortunately, he wanted to play with fire at night and accidentally set the quilt on fire. That's why... wuwuwu..."
"Let's go and register first, and then we'll bury them when we come back." Anyway, it's cold now, and the bodies have already been burned to charcoal, so there's no need to rush to bury them.
The most important thing now is to enroll your children in school.
As the sky was just getting light, the people around, young and old, came from different places to walk towards Taohua Village.
The closer we got to Taohua Village, the more people we encountered. Eventually, they were almost shoulder to shoulder.
The Chen family's carriage was stuck at the entrance of the village and could not move forward.
In the carriage sat two boys, one of whom was plump and dressed in expensive silks.
The other was dressed cleanly, but in ordinary coarse cloth. What was unforgettable was his figure.
He was too thin, like a flat bamboo pole, his body as big as his head. The coarse cloth clothes looked empty on him, making people worry about him. If a strong wind came, it would surely blow her away, right?
The fat boy lifted the car curtain and said irritably, "I don't know what my father is thinking. I'm clearly doing well in school in the county, but he insists on making me come to this remote and poor countryside to study. What can I learn in a place where even ghosts can be beaten to death? How to survive at the extreme end of the scale?"
The boy in coarse cloth put away the book in his hand and said with a smile, "Uncle has traveled a lot for many years and must have seen more than us. We just need to listen to him."
The fat man slumped his hands. "There's nothing I can do if I don't obey. He's so cruel. If I don't obey, he won't give me pocket money and let me starve to death. Listen, is this something a real father would do?"
Even without pocket money, the little fat boy won't starve to death.
So he couldn't understand the fat man's despair.
"Since there are more and more people, why don't we just walk in?"
"Okay, this is the only way for now."
The two men abandoned the carriage and asked the driver to slowly come along with the crowd while they went ahead.
Compared to the chaos at the village entrance, the crowd became more orderly as you got closer to the Qiushi School.
Even when they arrived at the gate of Qiushi Academy, everyone lined up in a long queue.
The fat and thin duo mixed in the crowd and for some reason began to line up on their own accord.
But the line was so long that the fat guy had already taken a nap leaning against the thin guy, but it was still not their turn.
"How long do we have to wait for this?"
The thin man looked up from his book and said, "It's almost time. Actually, we didn't wait too long."
The fat man curled his lips. "You're so engrossed in reading that you don't find the time slow."
After complaining, he started to worry again. "I heard they only accept 100 students. With so many people signing up, do we still have a chance?"
The thin man remained unmoved. "There should be hope."
The fat man clasped his hands together, not knowing which god he was praying to. "I hope there's hope, otherwise my father will beat me to death."
"Based on the number of people, there must be at least a hundred people who signed up first. If we wait any longer, will they just give up?"
"No, I can't just sit there and wait for death!"
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