Zhang Zhaodi and Gu Jiayue stood at the school gate, watching the group of students who had entered the school with her go to the county town to take the Tongsheng examination.
Gu Jiayue patted her head. "Don't be sad. Master promises you that you will be able to take the imperial examination!"
Zhang Zhaodi smiled. "Don't worry, Master. I'm not sad at all. Besides, I now know that taking the imperial examination isn't the only way for me to succeed."
"The Master said that the world we live in is round. As long as I keep moving forward, no matter which path I take, I will reach my destination. So I am not obsessed with whether or not I can take the imperial examination."
Seeing her open-mindedness, Gu Jiayue breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you figured it out. Life is tough for women in this world. Changing the status quo won't happen overnight. We need time to do it."
"I understand, Master. I am willing to walk alongside you and together we can seek a different path for us women."
"This road is too long, and the pain and suffering involved are too much. Can you bear it?"
"Yes, at least we can see hope, right?"
Yes, Taohua Village is the place of hope for women’s liberation!
After these years of subtle influence, there is no longer any idea in Taohua Village that women must stay at home to take care of their husbands and children and cannot show their faces in public.
Even the girls in the family can go out and earn money on their own.
Especially the girls who graduated from school, they spent time learning skills, and after graduation they went to work in various workshops, and their monthly salary was no less than that of men.
Even because they are skilled workers, most of them can get much higher wages than men.
The people from other villages were jealous and wanted to marry the girls from Taohua Village. "When you marry into my family, teach this craft to my son. He will definitely earn more than you if he works as a grown man."
Normally, a family like this would be kicked out by the villagers of Taohua Village. "Bah, shameless fool, you're just daydreaming all day. Why should my daughter marry your idiot son? Go away, it makes me upset just looking at you."
There are many people who have this idea, but there are also many normal people.
Many families don’t care about their daughters-in-law showing up in public, and are even happy that their daughters-in-law can earn money so that their sons will have less pressure.
"Big sister, we old people don't have much skills and can't help the children. The only thing we can do is not to hold back. Look, my son also has a skill in stone carving. From now on, the two of them can go out and earn money peacefully. When the children are born, I, an old woman, will take care of them! I guarantee that there will be no complaints."
With such a sincere proposal, the people of Taohua Village would naturally be willing to marry the two families!
Generally speaking, the girls from Taohua Village are still very popular.
Of course, men are more popular. After all, they are all scholars. Even if they cannot study well, they still have some knowledge.
The main thing is that as long as you are a child from Taohua Village, you can study in the school for free!
Where can I find such a good thing?
Therefore, the boys in Taohua Village have no worries about finding a wife. Before they even reach the age, matchmakers will come to arrange marriages for them.
Along with the news that Gu Yuchuan had won the top spot in the imperial examination came the emperor's personal calligraphy.
Qiushi Academy, the best in the world!
With these few words, Qiushi Academy was transformed from a small rural school into the best academy in the world.
There is a world of difference between an academy and a school!
The biggest difference is the scale and floor space.
Another point is that the academy can receive a sum of education fees from the county government every year!
It can be said that Qiushi Academy has made great strides forward!
When a brand new sign was hung up, although nothing changed, it suddenly felt more upscale, and even the weeds growing randomly by the wall had a different artistic conception.
This plaque was sent all the way from Kyoto to Juzhou City, and basically the whole Daqian knew about it. In a small mountain village in the southwest where education is most lacking, there stands an academy, which is personally recognized by the current emperor as the best institution of learning in the world.
It’s so powerful that they have to try it out!
When the presidents and teachers of some colleges heard about this, they were very dissatisfied and also chose to pack their bags and head southwest.
They wanted to see whether this academy was truly capable of bearing such high praise.
For a time, Taohua Village was completely blocked by people seeking to learn and challenge themselves.
This situation makes the villagers of Taohua Village both sad and happy.
After several years of transformation, Taohua Village can be described as a paradise. Every household's house is made of blue bricks and large tiles, and various trees, flowers and bamboos are planted along the courtyard walls.
Even the road is paved with cement, wide and flat. Peach trees are planted on both sides of the road. Although it's not blooming season, the emerald green leaves create a unique and picturesque scene.
In the fields beside the road, waves of golden wheat stretch out one after another, and the lowing of cattle and sheep creates a unique melody.
This scene made those literati who liked to pretend to be cultured linger and even forget what they were here for. Every day they only wanted to call a few friends to go for an outing and write poetry.
The villagers of Taohua Village were also smart. Seeing that there was definitely no place for so many people to stay, they vacated rooms in their homes to entertain them and actually opened a homestay without any instruction.
"Master, our village is bustling in the afternoon after school and in the evening. Just wait."
When school was over in the afternoon, a group of small vendors pushing food carts suddenly appeared from somewhere and quickly formed a snack street with unique characteristics in front of the school gate.
With a quick ring, students from the academy flocked in and filled the snack stalls in an instant.
After the students left, the vendors started to clean up the garbage in front of them and took away everything.
Of course, these vendors didn't just go home, they moved to another location to continue setting up their stalls. After all, Taohua Village isn't just full of students these days; there are also people who come to watch the fun and challenge themselves! It's a lot of people.
They pushed the food cart to Banyan Tree Square.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, there are knowledge lectures at Banyan Tree Square, and everyone who goes to listen can get an egg.
Although every household has enough eggs now, who wouldn’t want to get something for free?
The content of the knowledge lectures varied, sometimes it was about how to grow potatoes, sometimes it was about how to identify poisonous fruits, and sometimes it was about how to sing a folk song well.
Anyway, everyone can sign up to speak and talk about anything.
After the lecture, there will occasionally be a competition!
Sometimes scholars competed in poetry, song, chess, and painting. Sometimes martial artists engaged in fistfights. Even village women would sometimes compare whose cabbage was the biggest and best.
In short, it’s very lively!
And now this fighting arena is simply designed for these outsiders.
One by one, the dissatisfied people jumped onto the arena to challenge the teachers and students of the school.
But many times we fail.
There were also those who could win the competition, but the people from Qiushi Academy were very humble and carried out the bets very well, so those who won could not find any fault with them.
In the end, the two sides became friends, and some even settled in Taohua Village.
The academy's capacity is limited, so naturally it cannot accept everyone.
Therefore, with the unanimous decision of Gu Jiayue and all the teachers, an assessment system was adopted for students coming from outside to study!
Only those who pass the examination can study in the academy!
If you don’t pass the assessment, there is nothing we can do.
As a result, household registration in Taohua Village became a very scarce thing.
Those wealthy families came to the county magistrate with real money and asked him to find a way to help them get a household registration in Taohua Village.
The county magistrate looked at the gold and silver, drooling and refusing.
"No, no, the higher-ups are keeping an eye on Taohua Village. If I do that, I'll get my legs broken."
But once the gold and silver were in his hands, it was naturally impossible to return them. "Registration is not allowed, but I have an idea. The child is young, shouldn't he find a godfather? A godson is still a son, and when the time comes, won't the people of Taohua Village have to run errands for him?"
These words woke the rich man up, and he immediately took his son to Taohua Village to pay his respects to his godfather.
The bustle of Taohua Village lasted until the twelfth lunar month, when the Chinese New Year was approaching.
The academy was on holiday, and everyone had returned home. Taohua Village was also preparing for the New Year.
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