Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Ji Yuan was banging around in the kitchen, preparing to make a blackboard out of split wood.
Although I don’t know how to give it to Master Zhao as a gift, I’ll just do it first.
Although Ji Yuan was thin, he was strong and finished the task in no time.
In the main room, the family of three who had just finished their meal brought over the clothes they had recently changed out of, as well as the bowls and chopsticks they had used.
Ji Li said arrogantly: "Ji Yuan! You have been so lazy lately that you don't even wash your clothes! And you go out to play every day! Why don't you wash them!"
Ji Yuan started washing the dishes but didn't touch the clothes: "Whoever wears them should wash them, you wash them yourself."
"Me? This is my hand for writing, why should I wash clothes?!" Ji Li is four years older than Ji Yuan and eats well. He clenched his fists, obviously wanting to threaten him with his fists.
Xiao Huang was so anxious that he wanted to get closer.
Ji Yuan gave Xiao Huang a look and said directly: "Wash it if you want."
Ji Yuan had already tidied up the kitchen and put away the dishes.
Their argument was naturally heard by the black-hearted couple in the house.
Ji Li came here because they asked him to.
People in the village are now saying that the two of them beat and scolded Ji Yuan, but they can't do anything about it, so they let people of their own age do it!
Can their son still not clean up an era?
Even if they make a scene outside, it's just children fighting, who can say anything?
The two of them kept an eye on what was happening in the kitchen. They always felt that Ji Yuan was different now than before, and they were a little scared.
Ji Yuan had finished his work for the day. At the age of eight, he was still too young. Fetching water, chopping wood, collecting firewood, cooking, feeding cattle, and herding cattle, plus reading every day, made him drowsy.
Seeing that Ji Yuan was disobedient, Ji Li was so angry that he yelled, "Ji Yuan! You eat at my house! You live at my house! Why don't you wash your clothes? Wash them for me!"
"Don't you have hands and feet?" Ji Yuan said, "If you don't have hands and feet, I will help you wash them."
At this point, Ji Li said again: "How can it be the same? These hands of mine will be used for the imperial examinations in the future. Do you know what it means to take the imperial examinations? It means that I will be a scholar in the future. When you see me in the future, you must kowtow!"
Take the exam to become a scholar?
Ji Yuan was speechless, thinking of what he had heard outside the private school recently: "If you can't even recite the Thousand Character Classic or the Three Character Classic, how can you take the exam to become a scholar? Even becoming a student would be difficult."
Tongsheng is not a formal title, usually it means passing the county school examination.
It is even more difficult to become a scholar, as one has to go through at least three exams, each with more than a dozen major questions.
Ji Yuan's words directly exposed Ji Li's little thoughts.
Ji Li didn't expect that he could always scare the ignorant unlucky star in the past, but today it didn't work. He suddenly became angry and wanted to hit him.
Although Ji Yuan was small in stature, he was very agile. After a few dodges, he made Ji Li, who usually did not do any labor, exhausted and out of breath.
Xiao Huang next to them deliberately stood between the two of them.
Although it was a young calf, it was quite heavy, so Ji Li had no chance of gaining any advantage.
Ji Li was so angry that he could only curse.
Naturally, no one washed the last piece of clothes. Ji Yuan looked at the couple outside the door and fell asleep again.
Nothing can beat his sleep!
If you don’t sleep well now, you will definitely not grow taller in the future!
When he woke up the next day, Ji Yuan had nothing to do. The couple was arguing about Ji Li's tuition.
"Where's the money? I told you to put it away, so where did you put it?" Aunt Ji scolded, "Today is the first day of February, and it's time to pay the money for the private school!"
Uncle Ji hesitated, and when he saw Ji Yuan carrying breakfast into the main room, he quickly winked at Aunt Ji, and the two of them stopped talking.
After Ji Yuan left, they started arguing again about the tuition fee for the private school.
It looked like Uncle Ji had spent Ji Li's salary for this month.
Ji Yuan didn't show it on his face, but he was actually having a headache. His blackboard was ready, but the question was what name to give it to him.
When we arrived at Mr. An's house, the eldest daughter-in-law of the An family was not there, but her eldest son was waiting at the door.
The An family kid also looked nervous. When he saw Ji Yuan, he greeted him and said to himself, "Everyone says I can't learn it, but I have to pay the monthly tuition."
There are many people in the An family, and the money has to be paid by the public, so his mother has to ask his grandparents for money.
What's going on today? Everyone is talking about tuition fees.
Ji Yuan held Xiao Huang in his hand and fed her milk while saying, "It's good to know some words. It will be easier to keep accounts in the future."
"But I'm stupid." An Dahai, the boy from the An family, who is eleven years old this year, looks much taller than Ji Yuan. He patted his head and said, "I prefer raising cattle."
As he spoke, An Dahai came to see the calf raised by Ji Yuan, and said curiously: "Your calf is the best one raised in our village. It has grown meat and is obviously much stronger."
In the past ten days, Ji Yuan not only brought Xiao Huang to feed on time, but also tried hard to find early spring grass for it.
Even the grass at home is cut into lengths of five millimeters to one centimeter, so that it is more palatable.
We even live in the warm kitchen at night, how can we not be stronger?
As they talked, they actually exchanged their experiences in raising cattle.
When the eldest daughter-in-law of the An family came over, she subconsciously patted her son An Dahai on the head and said, "Hurry up and go to school. Today is your monthly exam. If you do poorly, your grandparents will say that you paid for nothing."
"If you can't pass the exam with your uncle An Xiaohe, come back and wait for the bamboo shoots fried with meat!"
Ji Yuan thought of something, and Xiao Huang had just eaten, so he went out with An Dahai.
An Dahai said, "It's over, it's over. Brother Xiaohe always gets first place. How can I pass the exam?"
After saying that, seeing that Ji Yuan seemed to be thinking about something, he asked directly, “What are you thinking about.”
"I want bamboo shoots." Ji Yuan answered casually.
???
Bamboo shoots?!
Stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots means I'm going to get beaten!
What Ji Yuan was thinking was that now that it was spring, he could go dig some bamboo shoots and it would be great if he could sell some in the county town.
Maybe I can buy some cheapest paper and pens, so I don’t have to practice writing in the sand all the time.
If I save up for a long time, maybe I can copy a book to use.
Ji Yuan and An Dahai were just going the same way, and if he hadn't seen Ji Li coming towards him, he would have almost squatted in the place he often went to.
Ji Yuan felt something was wrong, so he took the cow and went somewhere else to cut some grass for Xiao Huang first.
Ji Yuan tiptoed over only after all the students had entered the private school.
Fortunately, Master Zhao has always been strict and does not allow students to be late. The private school is also far away from people, otherwise he would be in more trouble.
Another half-day class is over. Today we learned "Sound and Rhythm Enlightenment". Clouds are paired with rain, snow is paired with wind, and sunset is paired with clear sky.
From single word pairs, to double pairs, three-word pairs, five-word pairs, and so on, there are comparisons.
Learning this book will be very helpful for rhyme and rhythm, and can lay the foundation for future poetry writing.
Unfortunately, Master Zhao had only taught one-third of the book. After a brief review with his students, he began to talk about the next part, which was very different from the previous parts in every detail.
Ji Yuan tried to memorize it carefully, but no matter how good his memory was, he couldn't memorize that much.
He also had no paper or pen to take notes.
The following lessons were even faster, and Ji Yuan could only close his eyes and try hard to memorize.
When he opened his eyes again, a person appeared in front of him.
Master Zhao, wearing a silk scarf on his head, has a serious face and a rather stern and unsmiling demeanor of an old gentleman.
Ji Yuan, who was sitting on the ground, instinctively dodged back and looked up at Master Zhao.
Master Zhao frowned as he looked at the words Ji Yuan had written on the sand. He pointed to the back of the main hall of the private school and said only one word: "Go."
Ji Yuan knew he was in the wrong, so he lowered his head subconsciously and said, “I’m sorry.”
Master Zhao pointed again. The students were still reciting in class, but he lowered his voice and said, "Go."
Ji Yuan was leading the calf, looking back every few steps, and saw Master Zhao entering the school, seemingly instructing the students to prepare for the exam.
He walked obediently to the place Master Zhao mentioned.
Behind the main hall of the private school is a small room where people eat and work on weekdays.
There is also a gentle woman in her fifties here.
The woman seemed to know him and waved at him: "Come on."
"I am Master Zhao's wife. Come and sit down."
Ji Yuan bowed first: "Greetings, Madam Zhao."
Madam Zhao didn't expect the boy to be so polite. Seeing his tattered and thin clothes, she couldn't bear it and pulled him to sit down: "Today's test questions."
Exam questions?!
Madam Zhao didn't say much. Master Zhao always didn't allow others to say much about school matters.
Today, she followed Master Zhao's instructions. If she saw a little boy, she would walk a few steps outside the main hall of the private school and then listen to his instructions.
I didn't expect that there really was a child sitting outside the private school window, reciting the Prosody Primer silently.
She and Master Zhao looked at it for a while before the following events happened.
Ji Yuan thought about it for a moment and figured out the key point, and couldn't help but look shy.
It turned out that Master Zhao had already known about his studying in a private school.
Then he thought that everyone was trying to collect tuition fees today, but he was penniless and so poor that he didn't even have a jingle.
I wanted to sell bamboo shoots to make money, and this idea only came to me this morning.
Madam Zhao did not say much, but left a pen and paper for Ji Yuan to stay.
Today's test questions were relatively simple. They required us to copy from memory several passages from "Thousand Character Classic", "Three Character Classic" and "Prosody Primer", as well as a few arithmetic problems.
Ji Yuan took a deep breath and decided to do the questions first no matter what.
He stroked the paper, not expecting to be able to touch it so quickly.
There was naturally no problem with the arithmetic questions that followed.
But no matter how I hold the brush, it feels awkward, and the words I write are even more unsightly.
At the end of writing, Ji Yuan couldn't help but cover his face with his hands.
In modern times, he also had beautiful hard-pen calligraphy, but nowadays he is not as good as children.
Listening to the students leaving school outside, Ji Yuan couldn't help but take a look, and just happened to bump into Master Zhao who came in with the test papers.
Mr. Zhao's expression was still serious, and Ji Yuan quickly stood up and didn't dare to sit down anymore.
Master Zhao came over and took the paper written by Ji Yuan. He took a look at it and was stunned. He raised his voice and said, "You wrote this?!"
All of them are missing arms and legs. What kind of word is this?
Ji Yuan nodded like a garlic, and Master Zhao's words went back and forth but never came out.
Master Zhao looked carefully and saw that all the arithmetic problems were correct. He couldn't help but look up again, but he didn't look at what Ji Yuan had written down. He asked directly: "If you know your mistakes, you must correct them. If you have learned something, you must not forget it. Next sentence."
"Don't talk about others' shortcomings, and don't rely on your own strengths." Ji Yuan answered immediately.
"Keep reciting."
Ji Yuan thought without hesitation: "The messenger can be overturned, and the desire of the vessel is hard to measure. The ink mourns the silk dyeing, and the poem praises the lamb."
Recite all the way to the end: "Ignorance, stupidity and ignorance are all ridiculed. The auxiliary verb of the predicate is 焉哉乎也."
Master Zhao did not stop, and studied them all, from Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, and even Prosody Primer.
"Let's go." Master Zhao stroked his beard.
Walk?
Ji Yuan was about to apologize when he saw Master Zhao pointing outside: "Let's go."
Madam Zhao came over with food and patted the boy on the shoulder: "Go, the master wants to have lunch."
What does this mean?
Ji Yuan still looks back every few steps.
He knew he was wrong and shouldn't eavesdrop on the reading.
I had thought that I would learn something so that when I got older I could go out and make a living, but I didn't expect it to be like this.
Ji Yuan also knew that no matter what Master Zhao did, it was right.
The lunch was tasteless. In the afternoon, Jiyuan took the calf for a walk outside the village. As they walked, they arrived near the private school.
Ji Yuan hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether he should step forward.
Xiao Huang walked over skillfully, and Ji Yuan hurried to chase him. When he looked up, he saw the place where he usually sat. The window above was opened, and Master Zhao's voice was clearer. He could also see the big words hanging in front.
Just then, Master Zhao walked over, glanced at him nonchalantly, and continued to comment on the students' test papers, obviously approving of Ji Yuan's attitude here.
This window was opened specially for him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
