It gets dark early in winter, and the Meng children are young, so Master Xu temporarily decided on "two classes a day", two hours at Chenshi and Sishi (7:00-11:00) for morning class and one hour at noon. (11:00~13:00) For the Mongolian children to have lunch and take a nap to refresh themselves, then there is a one-hour afternoon class at the end of the day (13:00~15:00). When the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, the lunch time will be extended.
Master Xu's house is a small house with two entrances. The front yard is used by Master Xu as a school, and the back yard is used as a daily living space for the Xu family.
There are three main halls in the front yard. In the middle is the private school where the Meng children attend classes; on the west side is Master Xu’s study room, which contains a statue of Confucius. It was here that Xie Shi completed his apprenticeship ceremony; on the east side, it was specially tidied up. Come out of the "canteen".
As soon as noon arrived, the Meng children stood up and said goodbye to their master. After the Master left, they rushed to the dining hall with great joy - there was a kitchen in the front yard, and the women from Xujia Village were responsible for cooking. You only need to pay three cents a day for food and you can have lunch. If you don’t want to spend money, you can also bring food from home early and heat it up in the kitchen at noon to eat.
With the price of sixty cents per pound of rice in Yuquan Town, three cents can buy half a liter of rice. The canteen not only provides rice and vegetables, but also occasionally fish soup. Three cents for food is really cheap enough.
Even so, it still costs one tael of silver per year.
People who are willing to spend money to send their children to private schools either have a lot of money or have a long-term vision, so naturally they will not begrudge this tael of money.
The Xie family is naturally the latter.
Xie Shi, who is only four years old, has already bought books, pens, ink, paper and inkstones on his own. This set adds up to more than one tael of silver. How can a group of adults in the family be stingy about food expenses?
In the words of Mrs. Xu: "My dear grandson is going to endure hardships at just a few years old. Isn't it for the sake of the future of our old Xie family? Why don't you let my dear grandson eat something good? Isn't it just money? ? How can a family still make money if they have both hands and feet?"
By the way, when Xie Shi was studying in a private school, Mr. Xu mobilized the whole family to study together at home.
During the off-season, there was no work in the fields, but the Xie family never rested. The men are doing carpentry in the yard to support the family; the women are busy sewing clothes, making shoe soles, and embroidering purses. They not only make them for their own families, but also sell them to embroidery shops in the town; even the two sisters Xie Mei and Xie Lan in the first house are not idle. , while learning female craftsmanship, she also did embroidery work.
However, today, without a little dumpling that pops up anytime and anywhere, the atmosphere in the Xie family is not as lively as in the past. The family always feels that working is much more tiring than usual.
From time to time, Mrs. Xu would talk about her good grandson. She wondered if he was doing well in school. She was worried that he was being bullied. He was worried that his master was too harsh in corporal punishment and his classmates were too domineering and bullied the weak. He was also worried that the food in the school was not delicious. Her sweet grandson was starving... As she kept mumbling, the Xie family members all imagined a scene: the courtyard door opened, and the little dumpling ran back home like a wilted carrot, crying and shouting. .
Mrs. Xu's worries immediately spread to the whole family.
The entire courtyard was filled with mist and mist, filled with long sighs and long sighs.
People passing by couldn't help but take a detour when they saw it from a distance.
Looking at the bright sun hanging high in the sky, the Xie Mei sisters, who were sitting side by side embroidering, couldn't help but sigh sadly:
"When will Brother Shi come home..."
If I don’t return home, my grandparents, uncles and aunts will all be worried to death!
·
At the same time, Xie Shizheng and his new friend Xu Shouwen were sitting at a table eating. Today's lunch included leek, eggs, and tofu soup, which tasted delicious with rice.
After reading all morning, several children who were no more than eight years old were starving and devoured their food one after another. Fang Peng, who looked the worst, even had soup splashed on his clothes. Xie Shi, the youngest, was the calmest, and his speed was obviously not slow. He seemed to be chewing slowly when he said "ah woo" one mouth after another.
At first glance, he does not look like an ordinary farmer.
He had eaten countless delicacies in his dreams, but the "good food and good food" in the eyes of ordinary children did not appeal to Xie Shi.
It would be better to say that after eating the sweet white rice in the dream, he can also eat the brown rice in reality instead of crying and making trouble to the family. As a cub, it is considerate enough.
Xu Shouwen subconsciously stayed away from the table where the soup was splashing, and fell in love with this clean-loving junior brother even more. While eating the rice, he asked: "Ah Shi, have you really never been enlightened before? Today is the first time you are learning the Three Character Classic "?"
"Uh-huh, no."
Xie Shi answered him vaguely.
"Then you are really amazing. When I was enlightened, I could never memorize so many words in one day."
Xu Shouwen exclaimed without any doubt.
"...The Master also said that there are no prodigies in the world, and that the most important thing in studying is hard work and diligence. He doesn't like the idea of prodigies at all. This has opened his eyes, right?"
He happily shared many anecdotes about Master Xu with Xie Shi - including but not limited to the many times he vowed to Xu Shouwen in front of him: A man should be down-to-earth, and a stupid bird must learn to fly first. There is no such thing as a child prodigy! He has never seen it in his life! The pursuit of prodigies is nothing but exaggeration, and he has never cared about prodigies!
When Xu Shouwen shared Master Xu's remarks in the past, Xie Shi listened and worked conscientiously on the meal, and was very careful not to let the food or soup stain his new clothes.
——This is a cotton coat made by his mother herself! The cloth and cotton were all earned through his own hard work, which was the selfless dedication and sacrifice of General Jin Jia!
Xiaotuanzi spent three seconds in his heart to thank General Jinjia for his selfless dedication, and then he happily licked his lips.
He put the small bowl on the table with no grain of rice left, and he ate it more cleanly than he licked it, and burped: "I'm full!"
His voice was directly drowned out by Xu Shouwen's loud voice: "...Ah Shi, you didn't see that, despite the fact that the master pretended to be serious on the surface, his beard was almost standing up when he got out of school just now. He was designated to accept a prodigy student. So beautiful!”
Xie Shi's eyes widened in surprise.
"Looking at Master's face, I thought he was dissatisfied..." Otherwise, he wouldn't have worked so hard to improve the progress and wasted his money.
"You're just pretending!" Xu Shouwen rolled his eyes, "Haha, pretend, you have to pretend!"
As he said this, he laughed heartily. Unexpectedly, extreme joy can lead to sadness. I suddenly choked and started coughing again and again.
"Senior brother, please take it easy..."
Seeing this, Xie Shi quickly handed him water.
Xu Shouwen made too much noise. He almost kept teasing the Master and complimented him for a quarter of an hour. Several Meng boys in the dining hall heard it, and one Meng boy snorted coldly:
"What a child prodigy? You are so arrogant! Who knows if he has learned it at home and pretended to be illiterate to deceive my wife!"
Another Meng boy at the same table glanced disdainfully at Xie Shi who was handing him water: "I will show my courtesy to the master's son!"
Several question marks slowly appeared on Xiaotuanzi's forehead.
"???" Who are these?
The irrelevant doubts were put aside, and Xie Shi looked at Xu Shouwen in surprise: "Brother, I am your father?!"
Although Xu Shouwen and Xu Fuzi have the same surname, this is Xujia Village, so it is not surprising that there are several people with the surname Xu. Among the six Meng boys in this private school, only one was named Xu, which was strange.
Therefore, Xie Shi only thought that Xu Shouwen and Master Xu were closely related, so he knew Master Xu very well.
Unexpectedly, the only Mengtong named Xu was the master's son.
... In the entire Xujia Village, not a single child of the right age became a master. Is it because people in Xujia Village are unwilling to spend money to attend private schools, or is it because Master Xu has a bad relationship with them? It couldn't be that the master was ostracized and bullied by the villagers when he was young and underdeveloped, right?
Xie Shi, who was well-informed in the dream, gradually began to think about stories, and his eyes could not help but shine: Could it be that the master actually had the script "Don't bully young people into poverty"?
Xie Shi, who was caught up in endless thoughts, immediately forgot about the two passers-by who made slanderous remarks. Instead, Xu Shouwen slapped the table angrily and stood up: "What the hell are you talking about!"
"Ah Shi is smart. Not only is he smart, he also works harder than you!" He raised his head like a big brother in the world of martial arts and said, "Fang Peng, Wu Yue, you two don't pay attention to your studies, and you still make trouble over nothing, bullying a child, how shameful!"
Behind him, Xie Shi, who was awakened from his thoughts by Xu Shouwen's loud voice, looked in the direction of Xu Shouwen's finger, with the confusion on his face that a general had come to his senses.
He immediately caught the key words in Xu Shouwen's words: Oh, so these two people are called Fang Peng and Wu Yue?
Fang and Wu were scolded by Xu Shouwen, and the other two classmates also cast disapproving looks and couldn't help but blush.
Looking at the short little dumpling behind Xu Shouwen, they happened to meet his eyes that changed from blank to bewildered. The two of them became more and more ashamed: it was true to say that they bullied children. Look at this kid, he hasn’t even reacted yet and he’s being bullied!
They were not bad in nature, but they were temporarily blinded by jealousy. At this time, they quickly apologized to Xie Shi: "It's us lard who have deceived our hearts. Junior Brother Xie, we shouldn't talk nonsense."
As the king of children in the village, Xie Shi has seen a lot of conflicts between children, and he often serves as a mediator.
"You are a good boy if you know your mistakes and can correct them." He spoke in a familiar manner, put on a serious face, and waved his hands solemnly: "You two senior brothers, please don't make the same mistake again in the future."
Things had changed at this point, but Xie Shi didn't take it to heart at all. Taking advantage of the fact that there was still some time before lunch, he got to know the children in the private school. He took out a few straw grasshoppers and dragonflies and invited the new acquaintances. The friends started playing.
In addition, he has a trump card.
——That’s the Monkey King!
Even Zhao Zixin, who was focused on studying and not interested in children's stuff, was captured by the Monkey King.
The boat of friendship soars in the wind.
After just one hour of lunch, Xie Lin arrived at the door of the private school early with the expectations of the whole family.
To be able to come here to pick up the child, he defeated a group of people including his father, his mother, his eldest brother and his wife, and thus successfully kept the honorable job of "picking up the boy".
The courtyard door opened, and Xie Shi, who held his head high, was surrounded by several Meng boys, like a majestic mountain king.
Xie Lin: ...This scene is so familiar!
Xie Shi's eyes lit up when he saw him.
"Dad, you came to pick me up!"
The little dumpling cheered and ran over.
Soon after, with the same bright smile and cheers, he ran into the yard of his home, his cheerful footsteps shattering the gloom and mist shrouding the yard.
"Grandpa, grandma, mother, uncle, aunt, eldest sister, second sister - I'm back!"
