After the Zhang family came to Zhou Island, the old man directly asked someone to make a wooden boat that could travel back and forth from Qiong Island to Zhou Island. He could even row the boat in the inland sea to fish when he had nothing to do. These were all the income that the Wang family could make in the open now. As for whether there were any other income in secret, Wang Shiyu didn't know.
Because this place is surrounded by the sea on three sides, the people here basically make a living by fishing, so the fish here are sold very cheaply, and there are not many big fish in the inland sea, so the Wang family's apparent income comes from fishing, and even the harvest is not much.
Wang Shiyu has now been assigned a new task. She has to walk two kilometers every day to pick up various fish, shrimps and shells on the beach to make money. Zhou Qingyun and Wang Shiyi just study hard at home and don't need to do any work, so Wang Shiyu follows some children in the village to the beach to catch fish and shrimps and pry shells. As long as it is edible, Wang Shiyu can bring it home. Even the seaweed, kelp and laver on the beach, Wang Shiyu takes them home. Although these are a bit fishy, they are still vegetables after all.
"Hey, Wang Shiyu, why did your family only let you go out to pick up seafood? Your older brother and younger brother don't have to do that? Is your family so heavily biased towards boys?"
The speaker was a twelve-year-old boy who happened to be their neighbor, named Xu Shi. As he was the fourth generation of exile, he was old enough to study and take the imperial examinations. As long as he passed the imperial examination, he said he could take his family out of Qiongdao and return to Jinling. However, because his family was poor and there were no private schools here, they had never been to school. They had followed their parents here to make a living since they were born. They were taught to read and write by their family members, and it was extremely difficult for them to pass the imperial examinations.
In fact, the people in this place do not have any concept of favoring boys over girls. As long as the child is born alive, it is fine. So he was a little curious about the new family who actually favored boys over girls.
That's why he would ask Wang Shiyu why he was the only child working in their family. There were three children in their family, so why did they let only one suffer? Looking at their family's situation, it was not that they couldn't afford to eat.
Wang Shiyu smiled gently. She didn't look good now, she could only be described as pretty. In addition, she had been walking on the road for so long, so she was a little darker. But from her facial features, she looked very much like her mother Mo Ruru. If she took good care of herself in the future, the Wang family's genes were not bad, and she would naturally be a little beauty.
"My elder brother and younger brother want to learn to read and become useful people in the future. They can take the imperial examinations. Why should they bend over backwards for the meager money of life?"
After hearing what Wang Shiyu said, the children dispersed because they did not believe what Wang Shiyu said. It was just about favoring boys over girls. There was nothing wrong with it. However, Xu Shi looked at Wang Shiyu thoughtfully and did not say anything more.
When they arrived, it was just the ebb tide. Today was the day of the flood, so they had to pick up the fish quickly, otherwise the sea water would spread up soon, and there would even be a lot of fish on the beach where the flood occurred.
They picked up seafood for the whole day, but Wang Shiyu didn't pick them seriously. She only filled a small basket. She didn't smuggle any seafood into her own space. She picked up as much as she could. In addition, Wang Shiyu picked the slowest, so she was the slowest to go home.
When she returned home, the small scallops, clams and some snails she picked up in her basket became their dinner for the day, and the small octopus and larger fish were taken away by the old man to sell.
After eating these tasteless seafood in the evening, Wang Shiyu returned to her room and lay down to sleep. When there was no sound outside, Wang Shiyu slowly turned around and faced the wall. Only then did her consciousness return to the space and she looked at her manuscripts. These were the books that the old man had previously stored with her.
It was on the road of fleeing famine that she began to slowly learn the local characters, as well as some maps of this dynasty. But as a commoner, why do you collect maps?
Because Wang Shiyu actually discovered that something was wrong with the old man when she was on the road, but she had no evidence, so she copied all the books in the space when she rested at night, and printed out some of the books she couldn't understand. Wang Shiyu knew in her heart that the reason why the old man didn't let her read and learn to read was probably intentional.
Otherwise, why could Wang Shiyi start learning to read at the age of two, but she couldn't? She was almost nine years old. In her memory, the original owner had never been to school since childhood. Every day, apart from cleaning the yard, she had to help her grandmother cook at home, or go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables and cut grass for pigs.
So her calligraphy has never been very good because no one taught her. When copying books, she used a carbon pen, which is easier to write with than a brush. She silently read an enlightenment book called Three Character Classic. To be honest, there were many words in it that she didn't recognize. But Wang Shiyu had an encyclopedia she collected from abroad.
The characters here are somewhat similar to large seal script and small seal script. Since she was not familiar with these ancient books, she could only learn them slowly from the beginning. However, she had the foundation of nine years of compulsory education, so she learned faster. She had already learned all the Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Surnames. As for whether they were correct, only God knew.
He recognized some basic characters, and now he had opened the Thousand Character Classic and started to read. He was indeed reading haltingly, and even had problems pronouncing some characters, which made her dizzy. She even felt that there were problems with many characters, and the original sentence did not mean this at all. It was just that she did not understand, and there was no one to ask. Wang Shiyu did not dare to ask Zhou Qingyun.
I thought the old man was on guard against me, so why should I walk into his trap? I should just study it myself.
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