Chapter 44: Winter Solstice is as Important as the New Year [VIP]
The father and daughter had just arrived home in a bullock cart.
Chen Yao was carried towards the school by Huang Dongsheng and Tian Baozhu who were waiting at the door.
"Dad, I..." Before Chen Yao could explain, she saw her father waving at her nonchalantly.
Shen Qingshan unloaded the things from the cart and moved them home. He invited his father-in-law, who was driving the cart, to come in and rest. The cows were tied at the gate of the yard because they had to be sent to the quarry later.
The father-in-law walked into the house with a smile, took the hot water, put the taxi fare in his arms, and looked at the farm while drinking water.
He doesn't look wealthy, but he has the money to get out of his car. It's really strange.
At the same time, Tian Baozhu brought her cousin to the school gate, and did not forget to tidy up her cousin's clothes and hair, and then gave her cousin a wink.
Huang Dongsheng immediately understood and stood at the door and shouted loudly: "Teacher Shen is here!"
The two returned to their seats, and the noisy classroom suddenly became silent.
The children sat upright, their hands crossed on the desks, staring at the person coming at the door.
Chen Yao looked through the window at the students sitting in rows inside, feeling quite nervous. She prepared herself mentally at the door before stepping into the room.
I don’t know which thoughtful student put a thin wooden stick on her desk. Chen Yao raised the stick to express her gratitude.
Then she told everyone that if they learned math from her, as long as they knew how to count, memorized the formulas, and practiced diligently, they would be able to calculate results quickly and accurately without having to carry counting sticks.
This wooden stick is just a tool to assist you in your studies.
After Chen Yao finished speaking, she began to teach Arabic numerals to the students present.
Students in the Little Sun Kindergarten are the first to be exposed to Arabic numerals and the first to be exposed to the addition and subtraction formulas mentioned by Chen Yao.
Therefore, the learning progress of students on the left and right sides is different.
While he was still learning numbers, he was also doing some addition and subtraction problems given by Chen Yao.
"What does 0 look like to you?"
“Like an egg.”
"What about 1?"
Branches, sticks, vines...
The children began to think divergently. Zhao Xiaofu, who was standing outside listening to the class, couldn't help but frown. What was going on?
"Are you sure you want her to teach this math class from now on?"
Yang Wenying withdrew her gaze from Luodunzi's sand table. She was still not used to seeing those numerical symbols. She rubbed her eyebrows and followed Zhao Xiaofu away.
"The Ayao are actually quite clever, though a bit lazy. They found fiddling with counting rods too cumbersome, so they invented their own method of counting."
Hearing this, Zhao Xiaofu scratched his ears and turned to look at Chen Yao, who would rather sit than stand in the classroom. It was true that she was lazy, but was this method reliable?
Yang Wenying understood his questioning look because she had doubted it herself before: "I've competed with her, and her method is indeed superior. These students are like blank slates, and their ability to learn is stronger than ours."
Zhao Xiaofu clicked his tongue, expressing his disbelief.
Yang Wenying had her own plans, and seeing that she couldn't convince him, she tried to provoke him: "If you don't believe me, why don't you two have a competition later? I'll set the questions, and we'll see who can calculate faster and more accurately. How about that?"
Zhao Xiaofu raised his eyebrows.
Yang Wenying immediately extended her hand to guarantee that this competition would be impartial and fair.
After Chen Yao finished the first class, she checked the math problems of the Little Sun class and gave everyone homework.
Ignoring the resentful looks of his cousin, sister, and younger cousin, he just patted his butt and left.
But just as she stepped out of the school, she was stopped by two other people.
Zhao Xiaofu said he wanted to compete with her in mathematics.
Chen Yao pulled Yang Wenying and whispered, "I saw you two hiding outside during class. Are you teaming up to make things difficult for me?"
Yang Wenying rarely put on a sour face. She whispered to her little sister Shen Yao, and used her words to slander Zhao Xiaofu, saying that he was a mean-spirited person and that it was impossible for her to be biased in the questions she asked.
He even insisted on finding a topic in the book to compete with.
Chen Yao was happy to hear that. Then we must teach him a lesson so that he won’t look down on us again.
These words touched Yang Wenying's heart, and he must be punished.
"Brother Xiaofu, are there any stakes in our competition? Will there be a reward for the winner?"
Zhao Xiaofu opened the fence and motioned for the two to follow him into the house. He placed the books on the table and said, "The winner can make one request to the other party, and the other party must satisfy it."
"Then I—"
"Do the questions first within a reasonable range." Zhao Xiaofu interrupted Chen Yao's unreasonable request.
Chen Yao curled her lips, "Then which question should we solve?"
Zhao Xiaofu flipped the book to the back and pointed at a question, looking at the two people sitting opposite him. "Do you need me to explain it to you?"
Who are you looking down on!
The two little girls came over to take a look. Yang Wenying frowned slightly and stood up for Shen Yao. There were many words on the letter that Yao didn't recognize.
Chen Yao looked carefully and saw that there were chickens and rabbits in the same cage.
But there were many characters on it that were beyond her current literacy range, so she bowed deeply to Yang Wenying, putting on a humble and studious look: "Teacher Yang, can you explain the question to me?"
Yang Wenying tried her best to tell Chen Yao in plain language that a servant went to buy chickens and rabbits and accidentally put them in a cage. The manager asked the servant how many chickens and rabbits he bought. The servant only remembered that there were seventeen heads and forty-eight legs in the cage, and he didn't know how many chickens and rabbits there were.
After Yang Wenying finished speaking, she asked Chen Yao if she understood.
Chen Yao smiled and nodded, looking at Zhao Xiaofu, who had already taken his counting chips and started fiddling with them.
Chen Yao nodded, but the pen and ink beside her.
Knowing that she was deliberately misinterpreting his words, he let it go.
He actually wanted to see if Chen Yao could really do it.
beginning.
Both of them were immersed in their own ideas for solving the problem. Even Yang Wenying couldn't help but move closer to Zhao Xiaofu. It was because she couldn't understand Chen Yao's weird drawings.
Chen Yao grabbed the brush, dipped it in a little ink, and quickly wrote out the solution on the paper. Then she substituted the numbers and solved the problem in the blink of an eye.
Seven rabbits and ten chickens!
The two people fiddling with the counting sticks looked up at the same time, somewhat incredulous.
Yang Wenying tested Chen Yao's answer and said to Zhao Xiaofu gloatingly, "You lose!"
Zhao Xiaofu glanced at the scribbles of ink on the paper, frowned, and had to admit defeat. "Tell me, what are your demands?"
Chen Yao picked up the straw paper on the table and said, "Brother Xiaofu, you see we have given the children brushes as rewards, why don't you buy some paper to support the children's education?"
The worry on Zhao Xiaofu's face gradually dissipated. Infected by the laughter of the two, he unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth: "Okay, tell me your solution, and I'll buy you two rolls of paper."
Yang Wenying also looked at Chen Yao.
Chen Yao told them the secret of keeping chickens and rabbits in the same cage.
Divide the total number of legs in half and subtract the total number of heads to get the number of rabbits. Then subtract the number of rabbits from the total number of heads to get the number of chickens!
Chen Yao was grateful in her heart for the country's compulsory education, which allowed her to give her children some free paper.
After the two left, Zhao Xiaofu continued to study the mantra left by Chen Yao and the group of ghostly painted talismans in the house.
It was also from this day that Zhao Xiaofu became obsessed with algorithms and even started learning Arabic numerals with the children.
Chen Yao and Yang Wenying returned home hand in hand. Before they even entered the yard, they smelled the aroma of boiled lard residue. It was so delicious that both of them couldn't help swallowing their saliva.
In the kitchen, the women were cooking meat dishes while the two men were working hard to knead the dough, which they would soon use to steam buns at Huang Dongsheng's house.
Today is the Winter Solstice, and her family is going to cook lard residue, make dumplings, fry crispy pork, and stew chicken with Gastrodia elata. Each dish is a must-try.
Chen Yao and Yang Wenying wanted to come in to help in the kitchen, but were sent away by their mother with a bowl of oil residue.
When the three women in charge of cooking said that there was a lot of smoke in the house and it would make them feel choked, they all laughed out loud at the same time.
Chen Yao and Yang Wenying looked at each other helplessly, left two oil crumbs for their father-in-law in the house, and went to the village school with their bowls.
A bowl of oil residue made the children noisy and they all shouted that it was delicious even if they just tasted it.
There is school to go to and food to eat.
They are happier today than during Chinese New Year!
When the crispy pork and dumplings were out of the pot, Miao came to the school to look for them: "Ayao, your father has prepared everything. You kids should go quickly. The sooner you go, the sooner you can come back."
The ox cart loaded with food and relatives set off, the first stop: Wanhe Township.
On the day of the winter solstice, the grandmothers received fifty kilograms of brown rice from the shopkeeper Ren, earned one hundred and fifty coins from A Yao, and tasted the steamed buns, dumplings and fried pork that everyone had prepared together.
"Today is a festival, and we old sisters agreed that no one is allowed to cry." Grandma Wang braved the cold wind and waved to the children on the ox cart, watching them go towards the quarry.
The oxcart disappeared, and the old people standing in the wind returned to their houses together, touching the food and copper coins, crying and laughing.
The old man sat in the front driving the ox cart with two warm steamed buns in his pocket, sighing in his heart.
Only people who share the same suffering can help each other. This family is kind-hearted, and there are still many good people in the world.
The father-in-law usually didn't want to whip the cattle when he was herding them, but today he whipped them so hard that the sound of his whipping could be heard. When it was completely dark, he drove everyone to the quarry.
Huang Dongsheng held a torch and explained his purpose to the officers.
The officer looked at the "familiar" face behind him, and without even saying anything, he led the four people directly to see Coach Xing.
Xing Fang was reading a letter from home under the oil lamp. When he heard Chen Yao and the others coming, he became very impatient and waved his hand to let the officers take them to find Yang Jizong.
It was a dark and windy night, and the quarry was brightly lit. Amidst shouts that grew louder and louder, the laborers were carrying huge stones on their shoulders and moving towards the base of the city wall.
The officers found Yang Jizong and Huang Songbai in the crowd and signaled them to leave the team and rest tonight.
The two walked back with doubts in their hearts, and before they entered the house, they were already stunned.
All they saw was the dim room, the flickering lights, the figures walking back and forth, and the steaming food on the table. Everything seemed like an illusion caused by their overwork.
"Dad." Huang Dongsheng was the first to notice the two of them. He ran out of the house, pulled them into the house, and lowered the door curtain.
"Brother, have some milk tea!" Yang Wenying took out two bowls from the basket and poured the heated milk tea to the two of them.
Huang Dongsheng stuffed steamed buns into the two of them, and when they didn't move, he urged them, "Dad, eat!"
"Brother-in-law, A-Yao, why are you here at this hour?" Huang Songbai half-opened his mouth and looked at Shen Qingshan's legs. "Brother-in-law, your legs?"
"It's all ready. Today is the winter solstice for our ancestor worship, and I made some meat dishes at home. I thought I'd bring them to you to try. Eat them while they're hot." Shen Qingshan sat at the side of the table and pushed the food towards the two of them.
Huang Songbai looked at the big steamed bun in his hand and couldn't wait to take a bite. He listened to his son eating the steamed bun, milk tea and crispy meat alternately, and he was really as happy as a god.
Shen Qingshan also gestured for Yang Jizong to eat, and even picked up a piece of crispy meat for him. Then he casually asked, "I heard from Wenying that you are descendants of the Hongnong Yang family. You were persecuted by evil people and were exiled here to serve."
Yang Jizong paused with his hand holding the crispy meat and looked up at his sister.
Before Yang Wenying could speak, she was pushed aside by Shen Yao: "Uncle, I see you seem to be thinner than before. Try these dumplings and see how they taste."
"tasty."
"Uncle, you should eat more." Chen Yao divided the dumplings between the two of them. When she gave Yang Jizong the dumplings, she gently kicked his legs under the table, laughing as she kicked him, "You've lost weight too, so eat more."
Yang Jizong looked at Chen Yao and his sister, and thought of the question that Shen's father had just asked, and he immediately understood.
Yang Jizong took the dumplings into the bowl and asked Chen Yao, "Did you make these dumplings yourself, Ayao?"
This sticky tone made Shen Yao's scalp tingle, "No, it was made by my mother, aunt, and uncle."
Yang Jizong looked slightly disappointed. He took a sip of the cloyingly sweet milk tea and unexpectedly tasted the pearls inside. "Is this made from tapioca flour?"
Chen Yao's eyes lit up. "Well, thanks to the cassava you found in the mountains, Shopkeeper Ren's hot drink is a big seller in town. By the way, how are you and the others progressing in the land reclamation?"
Just as Yang Jizong was about to answer, Shen Qingshan suddenly stood up and stared at him coldly, "Come out with me. I have something to ask you."
"Dad, if you have anything to ask, just ask inside the house. It's so cold outside!" Chen Yao grabbed the hem of Yang Jizong's clothes and stopped him from moving.
This made Shen Qingshan misunderstand. What was going on? Was his daughter attracted to this boy?
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