6 Chapter 6
◎Education System◎
The two little guys were wrestling in a ball. Their clothes were already thick, and now they looked more like two balls of fur rolling together.
Hearing the footsteps, the shorter one burst into tears: "She stole my things!"
The green-eyed girl pursed her lips. Her dark skin made the whites of her eyes appear particularly pale, and the contrast was particularly striking. She defended herself in a dry voice, "...I didn't."
"It's her! My father said that the Canglang tribe's cubs just love to steal things!" The boy persisted, his voice almost breaking. "Our cattle and sheep, and you even have this ominous witch..."
"The Khatun is not a bad person!" the girl retorted in a low voice, "It's obviously because you guys were disobedient."
Li Hengqing's eyes darkened slightly. He waved at the girl and called her name: "Naren, come here."
Naren stared down at her toes, but still moved forward step by step. Seeing this, the boy wiped his snot and tears with his sleeve and whispered, "Snitch!"
"Naren didn't complain, and I'm not here to defend her." Li Hengqing said, "What's your name?"
The boy stared at her and refused to answer.
"Well," she could only signal the maid to separate the two of them. "Fighting is bad, so you can't eat today's snacks. Naren, come and question me first."
The two children's words were too pointed, and it's hard to say they were genuinely speaking. Someone must have been behind the scenes fanning the flames. Planting the seeds of hatred in immature children is easy, but undoing the effects is difficult.
However, no matter how Li Hengqing asked, Naren just pursed her lips and said only one sentence: "I thought of it myself."
The unattended little girl looked very lonely. She looked into those green eyes, but in the end she did not ask any more questions and motioned the maid to bring her a bound papyrus booklet.
It was filled with simple mechanical design drawings. It was an introductory booklet, but it made Naren's eyes light up and her hand secretly moved forward.
Li Hengqing saw it clearly, but held the book down. "You must promise me that you will not fight with others carelessly in the future. If you feel wronged, you can ask the adults to seek justice for you. If you fight with others rashly, you may suffer losses."
Naren replied stiffly: "I won't suffer any loss. I beat him until he cried."
Li Hengqing said helplessly, "You win the fight, but the adults in other people's families come to your house and ask you to apologize and take charge of your medical treatment. What if you can beat a child your own age? Can you beat an adult?"
Naren said nothing, her head lowered, her eyes constantly stealing glances at her, and she nodded ever so slightly. Li Hengqing saw this and handed her the booklet: "Take it and read it. Keep it safe. If you don't understand something, you can ask your father."
The little girl carefully flipped through the booklet twice, her eyes filled with surprise and hesitation. "...Khatun, I can't understand the words here."
Li Hengqing smiled and gently brushed away the grass debris on her head: "You will understand it later."
When the boy from the Black Wolf Tribe was called over, he was much more decisive in his explanation: "My father and uncle all said so, and so did the older brothers who came with me. You are a bad person, and I won't believe you!"
After sending everyone away, Li Hengqing returned to her tent and fell into deep thought. The light from the animal oil lamp flickered, but she didn't bother to light the wick, reclining on the couch with half-closed eyes.
If you want to take on the tough challenge of the Black Hawk Tribe, it is not enough to have food and livestock that can feed a large population. The long-term solution is to completely win over the hearts of the people.
And there was also the little girl who was almost ten years old and still couldn't read... Li Hengqing knew that he was living in ancient times, but he couldn't help but consider the matter with modern people's thinking: the tribe now has coal, and this year's harvest is not expected to be too bad, but if they want to make further progress, they must have a group of craftsmen with higher quality.
What the system can give her are blueprints, resource pointers, a certain golden finger, or some excellent crop species, but it cannot create a real factory, or even a city, or more future visions out of nothing.
She concentrated her mind and summoned the system in her mind.
[Current points: 6000 points.]
The previous tasks and construction progress have generated some points, but the supplies in the system mall are undoubtedly sky-high prices. A number of seemingly intimidating golden fingers are followed by a long string of almost countless zeros.
Li Hengqing: ...Isn’t the inflation in this system a bit excessive?
The system panel seemed to sense something, and those astronomical figures were shortened by three digits.
Now, she only has six points left.
She searched for a long time and finally landed on the scroll of [Task of Establishing Education System].
[Task Description: Establish a new education system and provide rewards based on the stage. One point is required to accept this task.]
[Novice stage gift pack: papermaking, movable type printing, custom teaching materials function. ]
[Beginner Phase Goal: Initially establish a relatively complete primary education system, covering as many school-age children as possible within the modern definition.]
[Break through the novice stage and you will receive a portion of iron ore resources. ]
...the implication seems to be that she can help ensure universal compulsory education in a place where, not long ago, people relied on the weather for food and struggled to make ends meet. It sounds quite appealing, but in reality, it's about identifying a customer base for health supplements.
The system actually responded to her thoughts, the inorganic electronic voice was exceptionally cold: [Yes, host.]
[Does the host accept the mission? ]
[Three, two, one...]
[Points have been deducted, I wish you a happy mission. ]
Li Hengqing suddenly opened his eyes and clenched his fists.
How can there still be forced buying and selling!
After the forced sale, the treacherous system fell silent again. Instead, a noise was heard outside the tent door. Li Hengqing, assuming it was the maid, reached out and rubbed his suddenly heavy temples, not looking up at the person who came. "Langyue? Please fetch me the brush and inkstone."
But a man's voice rang in my ears: "Where is the princess's pen and inkstone?"
They were so close, as if they had slipped in unnoticed, their warm breath tickling their ears. Li Hengqing held her breath and slowly turned her head to meet the man's gaze. His beautiful eyes were filled with sincere innocence, while his highly aggressive facial features almost filled her entire field of vision.
Without looking away, she greeted calmly, "Why is Khan here?"
Honestly, she wasn't very familiar with her supposed husband. Despite exercising his power, their interactions were limited. In her eyes, their relationship was more like that of a leader and subordinate.
Helian Xiao is the leader, and she is a hardworking and diligent worker.
Is this going to continue forever?
Instead, Helian Xiao looked away first, standing awkwardly beside the couch, his posture a little awkward. Li Hengqing looked at him and felt that his appearance was familiar, but he didn't know where he had seen him before.
"Princess, don't you want me to come?" Helian Xiao deflected the question, found a brush and inkstone for her, and lowered his eyes to concentrate on grinding the ink. His movements were a little clumsy, but he had obviously learned it before, and there was nothing wrong to find.
"No." Li Hengqing spread out the rice paper, straightened up, and casually wrote, "No one in the Canglang Tribe dares not to welcome the Khan."
She wrote "Yun Zhi Jue Zhong". After writing, she looked at Helian Xiao beside her and wrote down his name.
"I heard that someone offended the princess today." Helian Xiao stared at the paper and spoke without thinking for a long time.
"It's not an offense. I've said too much." Li Hengqing looked up at him and changed the subject. "But speaking of today's matter, I do have something I'd like to ask the Khan for his opinion on."
"The human heart is perilous, the heart of Tao is subtle. Only the essence and the unity can hold you to the middle ground." Her pen tip hovered over the two characters, Yunzhi. "Yunzhi is the name my mother gave me. It's hard not to think of my early childhood, when I was just beginning to learn to read. I was only about the same age as those children, but they had no one to supervise them. I want a place where Black Wolf's children can stay in peace, and find a teacher for them."
"You don't need to be proficient in any one thing. It's enough to teach the child to read and write, and to understand simple drawings and accounts." Helian Xiao looked serious, and Li Hengqing explained in more detail, "Let's do a pilot project first. If it's suitable, we can expand it to the entire tribe. I can also provide paper, pens, and books."
Helian Xiao looked at the vigorous handwriting on the paper, then looked at her. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "The Wuzhigen Shaman has a little daughter. Maybe she can do this."
Li Hengqing paused with his pen tip, and the ink spread out as a stain on the white paper.
The daughter of the shaman Wu Rigen? Wu Rigen obviously didn't like her, and Helian Xiao should know about this. So, how could this father and daughter have such a rift that even outsiders knew about it?
She had never heard much about the wind.
No matter what, she wanted to meet this person.
*
The next day, inside the tent.
Qiqige sat cross-legged across from Li Hengqing, taking a bite of a pineapple bun. Her face bore no obvious resemblance to the great shaman who always wielded a bone staff, except for her pair of exceptionally sharp, cold eyes, which seemed cut from the same mold. Their unwavering stare was unsettling.
However, she was about the same age as Li Hengqing, with freckles dotting the tip of her nose, and her smooth pigtails curled up in a childish manner. She smiled slyly, "The stars told me last night that I would meet an important person today, and it turned out to be right."
When she said this, she inexplicably exuded a charlatan temperament similar to Wu Rigen, and the upturned ending of her tone seemed to have a little hook.
Li Hengqing became interested: "Then have you figured out why I'm looking for you?"
Qiqige narrowed her eyes and chuckled. "That doesn't have to count. It's related to the new camp and the Great Shaman's objections, right?"
Li Hengqing acquiesced and said, "I thought you would calculate everything."
Qiqige shook her head, her braid swaying. "Man proposes, God disposes. Ever since you appeared, the paths of the stars have changed. I can't see your future."
Li Hengqing looked up at her and didn't respond.
"I'm looking forward to it, so I agreed." Qiqige didn't care and continued to talk. "The sun and the stars are all outside the Golden Tent. This is the first time I've seen the stars deviate from their original path. How big is your Golden Tent?"
Two thread-bound books in the Northern Di language were pushed in front of Qiqige. Li Hengqing was too lazy to engage in riddles with her and said directly, "You are right. I want to open a school, starting from the new camp."
"That's not something that will happen immediately," Qiqige warned. She flipped open the title page, her eyes flickering slightly.
"There are also schools for adult men and women, focusing on practical skills." Li Hengqing let her flip through the book and said slowly, "It's not a one-time effort, but a long-term plan. Spring goes and autumn comes, and the food will be eaten up, but there will always be new seeds. This is also the future, right?"
【Author’s words】
"The human heart is dangerous, the heart of Tao is subtle. Only by being precise and focused can one truly hold to the middle ground." — From "The Book of Documents: The Instructions of Yu the Great"
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