Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Using a tree branch as a pen, Ji Yuan looked at the big words on the podium and wrote them on the sand stroke by stroke.
After a whole afternoon, his hands were a little sore, but he had never been so happy as he was now. He really knew how to read! It was not easy!
After returning to the Ji family, Ji Yuan finally completed the making of the blackboard. It was square and not very big. It was called a blackboard, but it actually had a white base, and people wrote on it with the charcoal pencil they had made.
This is very suitable for hanging on the podium and can be reused.
Ji Yuan polished the edges of the whiteboard until it was smooth and would secretly send it to the small room of the private school tomorrow, hoping that it would be helpful to Master Zhao.
"Master Zhao only knows how to ask for money. He studied for decades and only passed the exam to become a scholar. Pah." Uncle Ji cursed and called Ji Yuan, "Come here, you unlucky star. Come and serve the bowl."
It was obvious that the Ji family was still discussing the tuition fees for the private school.
Ji Yuan took this opportunity to listen to Master Zhao's specific charges.
"Every time there is a festival, Village Chief An asks us parents to send gifts and pay 150 wen in tuition every month. Can we earn that much in a year?" Uncle Ji scolded, "Why are you still studying? You might as well follow me and farm. Today's monthly exam was another mess. I got the second-to-last place. Is this reasonable?"
Aunt Ji sneered: "Farming? Can farming produce a tall house and good fields? Do you really think you earned this house by yourself?"
At this point, the two paused at the same time, obviously unwilling to pay. Aunt Ji scolded again: "There is one more person in the family, why don't you go to the city to work and earn money for your son's tuition? If you hadn't gone to gamble with others, would you still be worried?"
After that, Aunt Ji pointed at Ji Yuan and said, "Don't go to the An family to feed the cows tomorrow. You have to pay them for feeding them every day. The cows cost us three taels of silver, and we have to pay two cents every day for feeding them. Why?"
Ji Yuan listened to what he had almost understood, and went back with his bowl and chopsticks, already having a plan in mind.
It turned out that cousin Ji Li's tuition was lost by his father in gambling. No wonder he couldn't pay it out today.
When you calculate it, the cost of going to school is indeed not small. One hundred and fifty wen a month, which is about one and a half cents, is definitely not something that an ordinary family can afford.
The entire Anji Village is not small, but there are only fourteen students. I think this is the reason.
Uncle Ji's family conditions are indeed very good.
His house was renovated in recent years, Ji Li has been in school for almost three years, and he also spent three taels of silver to buy a calf, and then gave the money for milk to An Dahu's family. It's really a lot in total.
The thought flashed through his mind, and Ji Yuan was still more worried about the tuition fees.
Uncle Ji is in his thirties and can go to the county town to work, but he cannot.
Although Master Zhao tacitly allowed him to sit in, he would feel guilty if this continued in the long run, and this white board was just a superfluous thing.
Not only was he worried about tuition, but he also had to pay for writing brushes and ink. Although he could now learn the order of strokes, he still wrote on the sand, and when he returned home he used sand and twigs as well.
When I think about the handwriting he wrote during today's "exam", I can't bear to look at it.
But if you want to practice calligraphy, you have to buy pens, ink and paper, which is another expense.
No wonder people say that studying was difficult in ancient times. This threshold alone was not something an eight-year-old kid like him could cross.
Count the era carefully.
The tuition fee is one hundred and fifty cents.
The cheapest paper cost one penny for three sheets of paper.
The cheapest ink costs twenty cents for one ounce of ink.
The cheapest pen costs ten cents each.
He decided not to buy the inkstone. The worst one would cost at least 100 coins. He would go back and pick up a suitable stone to try.
At least two hundred coins would be spent in a month.
Even if he put aside the tuition fees, he would have to have at least fifty cents to buy paper and pen.
Not to mention fifty cents, he didn't even have one cent.
It’s difficult, as difficult as climbing to heaven.
Ji Yuan sighed, put away the washed dishes, cleaned up the kitchen and the cowshed, and chopped the firewood for tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, he will have to get up earlier because he will go to the mountains to dig bamboo shoots and sell them for money.
Spring bamboo shoots are delicious, so he wants to dig more before they become available in large quantities.
At Yinshi, almost four in the morning, Ji Yuan got up, prepared breakfast and lunch as usual, ate porridge in the kitchen and set off.
Before he left, Xiao Huang was sleeping, not to mention the other members of the Ji family.
At daybreak, Ji Yuan went to the small room of the private school and delivered the finished whiteboard there.
Then he went to the mountains and picked mushrooms, spring bamboo shoots, and wild vegetables.
He was small and thin, and he bumped into the village chief's youngest son who got up early in the morning to cut grass.
The youngest son, who was in his twenties and usually very quiet, was so frightened that he screamed. After looking carefully, he said, "Yuan Ge'er? Why are you out so early?"
Ji Yuan had one hand full of mud and said with a smile, "Dig some bamboo shoots."
"Oh, don't go up the mountain. There are wolves on the mountain now." The village chief's youngest son said casually. Seeing that he was so small and carrying a large bamboo basket, he sighed and said, "I'll help you carry it."
Ji Yuan shook his head, but talked about another matter: "Uncle An Wu, do you know where I can sell these things?"
The fifth son of the village chief said, "The county town. Our village has troops going to the county town every few days. We are going today."
Ji Yuan, however, couldn't go, firstly because he had to attend classes, and secondly, he didn't want other people in the Ji family to know.
The fifth son said, "How about I help you sell it? I have to go to the county town today as well."
This was obviously also heard from rumors in the village.
Otherwise, why would such a young person come out before dawn?
Ji Yuan's eyes lit up and he immediately thanked him.
"But these things won't sell for much money." Uncle An Wu said, "Three or four cents at most."
It's spring now, and wild vegetables, bamboo shoots and mushrooms are no longer rare.
And there isn't much stuff.
Ji Yuan nodded: "Okay, as long as I have money."
No matter how small a fly is, it is still meat.
Ji Yuan originally wanted to ask Uncle An Wu to exchange it for paper and ink, but then he thought better of it.
Let’s collect the tuition for Master Zhao first.
If everyone else pays tuition but you don't, there will definitely be gossip and it might even implicate Master Zhao.
Ji Yuan made one last request: "Can you please not tell anyone else that I sold this."
He hesitated to speak, but Uncle An Wu understood and patted him on the shoulder: "Okay, it's a small matter."
The two of them said nothing more after that and tried to do more things in the early morning.
It was not until the end of the morning hour that Uncle An wiped the sweat from his forehead. After working for an hour and a half, he wanted to take a break.
Ji Yuan saw several Chinese medicinal herbs while collecting. Although they were common medicinal herbs, they should be able to be sold for money.
Uncle An Wu looked at the child's busy back and couldn't help shaking his head. How pitiful.
Finally, I handed the item to Uncle An Wu, who estimated the price, and estimated that I could get about twenty cents.
This is because Uncle An Wu doesn’t charge any travel expenses and is helping us for free.
If other people were to sell it themselves, they would spend the entire day and would only get this much money.
Ji Yuan was grateful and silently kept this favor in mind.
Uncle An, however, just thought it was a piece of cake, as it was not easy to take care of such a young child.
When daybreak comes, everyone has their own things to do.
Ji Yuan hurried back to the village and went to Mrs. An's house and told her that his little Huang didn't want to drink milk.
It is indeed time to wean.
But most people's income will be cut off gradually. Xiao Huang will definitely not be able to adapt to Aunt Ji's sudden move for money. Ji Yuan can only prepare some tender grass to make Xiao Huang's life easier.
After finishing all these, Ji Yuan didn't realize that he was sweating profusely.
I've never been idle since I got up in the morning.
When he led the ox out again, he saw many people from Anji Village riding in the ox carts of Mr. An's family into the city, and each person paid one or two cents for the carriage fee.
Some people are reluctant to pay and plan to walk to the county town by themselves, which is not far anyway.
Mrs. An said distressedly, "With so many people gone, our cows are so pitiful."
As he spoke, he saw Ji Yuan's eyes on the carriage to the county town, and he casually said, "Do you want to go to the county town to play?"
Ji Yuan wanted to go.
But he is really too young.
Whenever he was eleven or twelve years old, he would go there.
Because the itinerary was changed the day before, Ji Yuan rushed as fast as he could, but was still late.
Just outside the window, Ji Yuan met Master Zhao's eyes, and was frightened. He once again experienced what a class teacher's eyes looked like.
Master Zhao was obviously displeased, but his expression eased slightly when he saw the whiteboard on the stage.
Seeing Ji Yuan, who was leading the cow and was sweating profusely, he didn't say anything.
He went to the small room to read books at the beginning of the morning every day. When he arrived, the whiteboard was already there, which meant that Ji Yuan got up early. He was late at this time, probably because he had something to do.
That is to say, Ji Yuan got up around four o'clock, cooked quickly, and put up the whiteboard.
Master Zhao went to the small room to study at five o'clock and saw the white board, so Master Zhao guessed that Ji Yuan got up earlier than him.
This is indeed the case.
Ji Yuan didn't know about Master Zhao's speculation yet, so he stood obediently as punished, and silently recited the first half of the Prosody Primer in his mind. Today Master Zhao was reviewing with his students again, so he could also learn along.
Fortunately, he had memorized these things in his previous life, so he could catch up after reviewing them a few times.
In the classroom, out of the fourteen students, several were already unable to sit still.
It’s really hard to memorize things every day.
The eldest grandson of the village chief was bored. He sometimes read a book, sometimes looked at a pen, and sometimes looked at the birds outside.
He was one of the only two students in the private school who had his own books.
Another person who had books was An Xiaohe from the wealthy An family, who was also the top student in the private school.
An Changsun curled his lips and laughed at An Xiaohe's brother An Dahai for being hypocritical.
But An Xiaohe rolled his eyes at him first, and An Dahai told him not to be angry.
Master Zhao was still leading the reading when An Changsun grabbed a ball of paper and tried to throw it at the drowsy Ji Li.
Unexpectedly, before he could make a move, Master Zhao's ruler landed in front of Ji Li.
"Ji Li! Stand up!" Master Zhao was always strict, and this was not the first time. "You only reviewed these primers once, how come you still can't recite them?"
"If we continue like this, how can we learn the Great Learning, one of the Four Books?"
Ji Yuan outside was even used to it. In the private school, Ji Li, An Changsun, and occasionally An Dahai, were all beaten every day.
The first two are always weird, and the last one is really hard to memorize.
There were a few people who followed An Changsun and Ji Li, most of them just because they saw them bringing snacks and hanging out with them.
As a non-staff student, I have to remember the names of the students there.
An Changsun was also afraid at this moment. He looked at the paper ball in his hand and decided to throw it away quickly. If Master Zhao saw it, he would be beaten on the hand.
An Changsun threw the paper ball out of the window and looked at it subconsciously.
Wait a minute.
Is there someone sitting outside?
Is it the unlucky guy in Ji Li’s family who eats and drinks for free?
Just as An Changsun was about to stick his head out to take a look, he was pulled back by Master Zhao.
"Hands, stretch out!"
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