Chapter 73: Cutting Bamboo to Make Paper [VIP]
Guo Changrong never expected that Yang Jizong would have helpers. He was helped up by his companions and threatened fiercely while covering his neck.
"Wait, all of you wait." He didn't believe that Yang Jizong would never be alone.
Seeing the fugitives fleeing in panic, the students dropped their rocks and sticks and rushed to Yang Jizong, asking in unison, "Teacher, are you okay?"
Yang Jizong waved his hand to indicate that everything was fine, and then signaled everyone to carry the bamboo back first.
In the evening, when the villagers learned from the child that there were fugitives causing trouble by the river, they immediately became restless and wanted to find Village Chief Xue to ask him to solve the matter.
Everyone rushed there but came back angrily, and the man surnamed Xue didn't even care about it.
Yang Wenying stood in the corridor with a pale face, holding Chen Yao's hand, listening to her brother apologize to everyone.
It was obvious that Guo Changrong was targeting them, the brother and sister.
"Ayao, that man is not a good person. In order to fill his stomach during exile, he offered his wife to others for fun. Moreover, he also..." Yang Wenying huddled in front of Shen Yao and trembled, like a young swallow in need of protection.
Chen Yao stretched out her hands and held her in front of her to comfort her: "Don't worry, we are all at home. I don't think they dare to do anything reckless."
"Since Captain Xue doesn't care, then we'll take care of it ourselves. From now on, we'll all be more careful. It's not just people from our village who are not allowed in. If we encounter any fugitives entering the village, we'll drive them out."
"That's right. Every household has rabbits now. They're definitely thinking of stealing them. If they do come and try to steal our chickens and dogs, we'll have to beat them hard."
"Come back and fight back!"
"right."
Everyone discussed it and decided the matter.
Huang Songbai also felt that this must be done. When he left with everyone, he did not forget to remind his niece and Yang Wenying not to go out alone.
The next day, I got up early in the morning.
While eating breakfast, Shen Qingshan repeatedly reminded Yang Jizon that as a man, Yang Jizon must protect his family when he is not at home.
Before Yang Jizong raised his hand to swear, he heard the shouts of a group of women coming from outside the fenced yard.
"Wenying, Ayao, are you home?"
Yang Wenying and Shen Yao immediately finished their bowls of porridge and walked towards the door. "Yes, we are home."
The women standing outside the door each carried a basket and smiled at the two little girls: "After dinner, let's go to the mountains with the aunties to pick wild vegetables. Do you want to come?"
Go, why not go.
Chen Yao and Yang Wenying looked back at their family members at the dinner table, then giggled, picked up their bamboo baskets and small shovels, and followed their aunts.
Shen Qingshan chased after them and shouted, "Don't go any deeper, A'yao!"
Chen Yao and Yang Wenying could not hear anything as they were surrounded by the village aunts and young wives.
They gossiped about papermaking from bamboo, whether Zhao Xiaofu could really pass the examination and become a Tongsheng, and finally gossiped about Chen Yao's happy life after marriage.
The aunts dared to speak, but they didn't dare to listen. Those sexually suggestive questions made the two little girls blush.
Fortunately, when they reached the foot of the mountain, the wild vegetables all over the mountain diverted the aunts' attention.
It was Yang Wenying’s first time digging wild vegetables, but she had no worries about how to dig and identify them, because there were many enthusiastic people around her who taught her how to identify them.
Mouse tail grass that can be used to feed chickens and ducks; yellow quail grass that can be fried, made into soup or stuffing; motherwort that can regulate menstruation, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis; fresh and tender shepherd's purse, etc.
Looking at the full basket in her hands, Yang Wenying felt very satisfied. What she harvested today was not only wild vegetables, but also the kind help from her fellow villagers.
The two returned home, washed the wild vegetables they had dug, put them in a winnowing basket, and planned to cook them for lunch.
Wild vegetable dumplings and wild vegetable soup sound delicious and healthy.
Yang Wenying happily chopped up the Artemisia selengensis she had dug and scattered it in the yard, then called the four chicks she had raised over and watched them peck at the food all over the ground.
"Ayao, when do you think our chickens will be able to lay eggs?" Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste for the big chicken coop that Uncle Tian built for her next to the mule?
Chen Yao rolled up her sleeves and raised her hand to signal Yang Wenying to stop looking and come over to help her carry the bamboo to the clay stove for steaming.
"Ayao!" Yang Wenying helped her carry it next to the pot, but she still didn't give up and continued to ask.
Chen Yao handed the machete to her: "First, split these bamboos and throw them into the pot to boil, then I will tell you."
So Yang Wenying immediately became full of energy, and Chen Yao didn't tell Yang Wenying until the first bundle of bamboo was put into the pot.
The chicks will not lay eggs until they are 100 days old, and they will lay more and more eggs after 150 days.
As soon as Chen Yao finished speaking, Yang Wenying became very excited, "Then our chickens can start laying eggs."
"Yes." Chen Yao imitated her coquettish tone.
Yang Wenying gave her a cat punch, and felt a sense of accomplishment looking at the chickens she had raised with her own hands. "Tomorrow I'll ask Dongsheng to buy me a few more chickens to raise. Then we can eat eggs every day, and if we can't finish them, we can sell them at the supply and marketing cooperative."
"The enthusiasm actually encouraged Yang Wenying to go for it.
When Yang Jizong came back from school at noon, he saw Sanli cooking bamboo and the firewood under the iron pot was burning brightly.
One was doing embroidery in the courtyard, and the other was practicing calligraphy.
The one practicing calligraphy was not concentrating at all. He kept putting dates into his mouth, stuffing his cheeks with them until they were bulging, making his face look like a tabby cat.
"Ayao, Wenying, I'm back." Yang Jizong put the books on Shen Yao's desk and raised his hand to touch her face.
Chen Yao glared at him. "What are you doing? Wenying is watching right here. How can you not control your hands?" He was getting bolder day by day. He actually took advantage of her parents' absence to bully her.
Yang Wenying didn't see what her brother did. She put away the embroidery cloth and returned to the house. "Brother, since Auntie won't eat with us, let's have wild vegetable dumplings for lunch."
"Okay, I'll roll out the dough." Yang Jizong retracted his hand and pointed at Chen Yao's face, "There are ink stains, Ayao, come with me to wash them."
Chen Yao swallowed the dates in her mouth and retorted in a low voice: “Who wants to wash with you, hum.”
In the kitchen.
While rolling the dumpling wrappers, Yang Jizong listened to his sister telling him about the wild vegetables she had dug that morning. She then introduced to him what wild vegetables they had dug and how to eat them.
Yang Jizong looked at the basket full of vegetable dumplings and felt a bitter taste in his mouth. They had tasted wild vegetables before.
"Ayao, the bamboo needs to be boiled for eight days and eight nights after adding lime. Then you can pound it in the mortar, put the ingredients into the curtain, cover the curtain and press the paper. You can't do it alone. I will select a few students to come to my house to help." Yang Jizong swallowed the wild vegetable dumplings whole, not wanting to savor the taste carefully.
Seeing him eat so quickly, Chen Yao thought he really enjoyed it, so she put all the remaining dumplings in the pot back into his bowl. "Aren't you afraid that this method will get out and cause trouble?"
"These students won't do that. They are trustworthy." Yang Jizong frowned slightly and then swallowed.
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
"Then I'll bring them here in eight days." Yang Jizong finished his last dumpling, stood up and poured a bowl of hot water to rinse his mouth. "I'll go back to my room to copy books first."
"Brother, go ahead and do your work. We'll take care of the rest."
As soon as Yang Jizong left, Yang Wenying and Shen Yao put down their bowls and chopsticks and stuck out their tongues at the same time.
Oh my goodness, these wild vegetable dumplings taste okay if you eat a little, but if you eat too much, they really don’t taste good. It’s also their fault that they were so busy chatting that they forgot to put the meat, eggs and stuffing in!
"Your brother is easy to feed. He eats whatever you give him." Chen Yao washed the dishes and continued to look at the bamboo in her pot.
At the beginning of April, each child in the school received a stack of paper.
Although the paper was a little yellow and wrinkled, all the students cherished this hard-earned paper.
"Thank you, Teacher Yang, and thank you, Teacher Shen, Teacher Wenying, and Teacher Zhao, for your dedication to us. We will always remember it in our hearts." All the students stood up in unison and bowed to Yang Jizong on the podium to express their gratitude.
Yang Jizong gestured for everyone to sit down: "The workload will be heavier in the future. Can you finish it?"
"We can."
Luo Dunzi, Chunya and Shitou sat in the first row because they were too short. Although they were not tall, their voices and grades were better than those of their brothers present.
The students' eyes were shining, and Yang Jizong felt extremely gratified.
Today he will begin to teach the children how to write down their ambitions on paper.
After Yang Jizong finished teaching his students and assigning homework in the afternoon, he carried his basket and went to the end of the village.
As soon as he left, some students couldn't help but murmur.
"The teacher must have gone to help Teacher Zhao."
"I wonder if Teacher Zhao can pass the exam to become a Tongsheng?"
Luo Dunzi was the top student in the school and was recognized by several teachers as a good student and a good class monitor. When he heard someone gossiping and affecting other people's studies, he immediately picked up a rattan stick and hit the table twice.
"Quiet!" the child said with great vigor.
For a moment, the classroom fell silent.
On this side, Yang Jizong knocked on the door of the thatched hut, and Xu called her son into the house.
"Auntie, I can go in by myself. These are the eggs A Yao asked me to bring to Xiaofu. You can cook them tomorrow and let him take them into the examination room. There are also these pastries. They won't go bad in three days. Don't refuse. We are all doing this for Xiaofu's own good."
Yang Jizong handed the basket to Xu. Xu's eyes reddened and she nodded to take it.
Zhao Xiaofu was memorizing his lessons in the house. The thatched house had no sound insulation, so he had heard Yang Jizong's voice a long time ago. When he saw him lift the curtain and come in, he stood up and thanked him.
Yang Jizong looked at the two wooden beds separated by only a curtain. Zhao Xiaofu was sitting cross-legged on the bed. There were two wooden boxes at the end of the bed. The wooden boxes were Zhao Xiaofu's desks for reading and writing.
"Don't be nervous. You will be a student after passing the provincial examination tomorrow. I am not here today to test your academic performance, but to explain the rules of the examination room to you." Yang Jizong sat aside and explained to him in detail.
Once you enter the examination room, it is not only a test of intelligence, but also the candidate's mentality and his or her own state.
Yang Jizong told Zhao Xiaofu everything he had experienced, including eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, and how to keep warm and prevent fire at night.
Zhao Xiaofu benefited a lot from it, and he obviously did not stay up late until dawn that night.
Before daybreak, Xu woke her son up and prepared his bag. "Son, can't I go with you?"
Zhao Xiaofu looked at his mother's white hair and held her in his arms to comfort her: "Mother, the good news waiting for me at home is that I will definitely pass the examination and come back."
Xu wiped away her tears in her son's arms and said, "Okay, then I'll listen to you. I'll take you to the village entrance and watch you cross the stone bridge."
When they arrived at the village entrance, the mother and son looked at the dark crowd and the Shen family's mule cart, and their eyes couldn't help but tear up.
"Brother Xiaofu, we will take you to the city for the exam in a mule cart, and then take your mother back to the village." Huang Dongsheng stepped forward enthusiastically to take the package from Zhao Xiaofu, and helped Xu get into the car.
The villagers held torches in one hand and held their children in the other, with blessings on everyone's faces.
"Brother Xiaofu, do well in the exam. We will wait for you to come back." Chen Yao waved at Zhao Xiaofu on the mule cart.
Zhao Xiaofu wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, waved his arms vigorously and responded to everyone that he would definitely come back with excellent results.
The villagers shouted louder and louder, and directly woke up the villagers of Shanghe Village.
While his father-in-law and mother-in-law were not noticing, Yang Jizong put his arms around Chen Yao's slender waist and took her away from the crowd back home. He pushed her behind the door with a jealous look on his face.
"What, what's the matter?" Chen Yao's heart was pounding.
Yang Jizong leaned his head against hers, with some resentment in his eyes: "You call him Brother Xiaofu, and call me Zi'an."
"You didn't ask me to call you—"
Yang Jizong lowered his head and sealed her lips with his, stopping her from arguing. He kissed her until she fell limp in his arms. He only stopped when he heard Chen Yao call him Brother Zi'an, satisfied.
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