In fact, the situation that Mrs. Deng faced was similar to what Zhang Xi had guessed, but it was not as bad as Zhang Xi thought. Zhang Xi thought of the village elder too much and had no moral bottom line.
In these days, people who can be village elders, even if they are a little stupid and have a bad structure, still have a basic moral bottom line.
The village elder also has the same idea as the village elder, and considers himself to be public-minded.
In fact, from the village elder's perspective, the entire Dengjia Village is an inheritance left by the Deng family in Nanyang, and Mrs. Deng's husband is just a talkative person raised in the family.
Now that this person has passed away, we cannot cling to the rules of the past.
For the benefit of the family, of course, who is more suitable to be the head of the entire family? There is no reason that the inheritance can only be passed on to Mrs. Deng.
Besides, the Deng family has been developing for more than two hundred years, and the family owners have not changed in the process. The Deng family has survived well to this day.
Therefore, at the family meeting during the Chinese New Year, the village elders and some members of the clan proposed a proposal to change the head of the family.
It's not a forced marriage, at least the village elders are relatively polite to Mrs. Deng, and are even willing to guarantee Mrs. Deng and Deng Ai's future living needs.
But Mrs. Deng disagreed.
Mrs. Deng is also from an aristocratic family. She has seen a lot of dirty things in aristocratic families, and she has also seen a lot of people doing one thing in front of others and doing another behind the scenes.
What you say sounds nice now, but when you take power, who knows what you will do? !
Even if Mrs. Deng doesn't think about herself, she still has to think about her son. After all, her son's surname is Deng and he is a descendant of the Deng family.
If the position of the head of the family is handed over, Mrs. Deng dare not even think about what Deng Ai will end up with in the future.
But Mrs. Deng is a reclusive woman who lives in a simple family. Her husband has passed away, and there is no backbone in the family. She is not the kind of woman with a strong woman character, and she usually doesn't do anything to win people's hearts... The village elder is like this Once she talked about it, few people were willing to speak for her.
Mrs. Deng was so slow that her voice in the family was slowly disappearing, and she was pushed into a corner step by step by the village elders.
Mrs. Deng had no other way to deal with the forces at home, so she had to look outside the home... Zhang Xi was her only life-saving straw.
Mrs. Deng used to be a lady in the family. Although her own methods were not good, her vision was still there.
Mrs. Deng has been married to the Deng family for more than ten years, and has a deep understanding of the village elders. She knows that these people only consider immediate interests.
They were anxious about whoever dared to touch the three melons and two dates in front of them, without even thinking about what to do in the future.
Similarly, as long as such people have a tiger skin as a backer and make them feel that this backer is something they cannot afford to offend, they will not dare to push themselves too far.
After all, what these people value is immediate interests. Although Mrs. Deng does not have the ability to overturn the table, if Mrs. Deng finds such a person who has the ability to overturn the table as a backer, then they really do not dare to act rashly, for fear that the table will be destroyed. No need to eat.
And whether Liu Bei, the left general, and Zhang Xi, the left general and Cao Peng, are considered tiger skins... Mrs. Deng thinks they should be!
At least in the eyes of the village elder, they are tigers, tigers he cannot afford to offend.
Mrs. Deng's vision was not bad. Of course she could see that Liu Bei's current situation was not very good. He wanted people but no one, wanted territory but had no territory. He might one day be destroyed in this troubled world.
But as a woman, she really had no choice. In order to protect the family property passed down by her husband, and to protect her son, she could only choose to pull Liu Bei's banner.
Because Mrs. Deng knew very well that with the village elder's situation, Liu Bei was enough to scare him. As for whether Liu Bei could succeed in the future, and whether she would be implicated... she could only take it one step at a time, and we would talk about it later. .
Therefore, Mrs. Deng came up with a way to let Deng Ai become Zhang Xi's disciple.
There was no way that Mrs. Deng had lived in seclusion all year round, and the only person she knew from Liu Bei's army was Zhang Xi.
Just when Deng Ai was at a loss and Zhang Xi remained silent, Mrs. Deng had no choice but to speak again and said, "Sir, he is knowledgeable about ancient and modern times. If you are willing to teach the dog a thing or two, it will be a blessing for the dog."
What that means is that you teach the art of "rooster crow and dog stealing", and we accept it and let me borrow your skin for a while.
Zhang Xi was speechless when he heard this. Just as he was about to nod, he heard Deng Ai speak again.
"Ai...Ai doesn't want to learn...don't learn those things, Ai is willing to learn...will learn...the art of war! Please sir...give me some advice!"
"......good!"
Zhang Xi was satisfied and took action.
Of course, this was just a show, because Zhang Xi already understood that Mrs. Deng only needed a name, and he agreed to let her borrow this name. No matter what Deng Ai said, Zhang Xi would react this way.
What happened next was that Zhang Xi said some harmless words to deal with Deng Ai, then asked Deng Ai to get up, and then made an appointment with Mrs. Deng for Deng Ai to come to her home to become a disciple in person.
As for the village elder, Zhang Xi didn't even look at him. On Zhang Xi's side, the village elder's impression score was already negative.
In the end, Zhang Xi personally sent Mrs. Deng and Deng Ai out of his house.
All of this was just a show for others, especially some people in Deng's village, to let them know that Deng Ai wanted to become Zhang Xi's disciple, so as to save Mrs. Deng more trouble in the past few days.
In fact, Zhang Xi overestimated the courage and structure of these people. Not long after Mrs. Deng took Deng Ai back, relatives and friends of the Deng family came to visit Mrs. Deng.
Just as Mrs. Deng thought, the current structure of the people in Dengjia Village is just like that. All they can see is always what is in front of them.
If what is in front of them can bring them benefits, they will pursue it. If it threatens them, they will hide away.
As for her son Deng Ai... Mrs. Deng could only sigh, because she didn't know whether her son could learn useful knowledge from Zhang Xi.
Mrs. Deng didn't know what Zhang Xi's level was. After all, she lived in seclusion, and Zhang Xi was from Yingchuan, which was too far away from Xinye. The information came from the housekeeper, so it was inevitable that it would be distorted.
Mrs. Deng knew exactly how good her son was... Her son was the pride of her life.
With only the collection of books left by her husband and her half-full teachings, Deng Ai completed the enlightenment of reading and literacy. Mrs. Deng recalled that among her peers, there was no child who was smarter and more eager to learn than Deng Ai.
But unfortunately, for some reason, my own child has a stuttering problem... He is obviously smarter than other children, but he can't tell and is considered stupid.
Mrs. Deng was somewhat worried about her children. One was worried about Zhang Xi's ability to teach, and the other was worried that Zhang Xi was capable of teaching, but Deng Ai's stuttering would make Zhang Xi dislike it and not want to teach.
A very confusing thing.
But no matter what, Mrs. Deng will still do what Deng Ai is asked to do by kowtowing in public.
Three days later, Mrs. Deng asked the housekeeper to bring a gift for becoming a master. She visited Zhang Xi's house again and personally brought her son to kowtow to become a master.
Apprenticeship in these days is very formal, with a whole set of etiquette. With this set of etiquette, Deng Ai has to call Zhang Xi "master", and Zhang Xi can also regard Deng Ai as half of his own. My son, I can rely on him to provide for him when he gets old in the future.
The Deng family came here completely according to ancient etiquette. Although the purpose was not pure, at least there was no fault in the etiquette.
As for Zhang Xi, after seeing off Mrs. Deng and the old housekeeper, he began to teach Deng Ai his first lesson.
A lesson in openness and honesty.
"I know that you are not sincere in worshiping me as your teacher, so I want to make it clear to you first!" Zhang Xi said to Deng Ai before starting the class, "Since I came to Dengjia Village, I have received a lot of kindness from the Deng family, so I am willing to accept it. You are a disciple. You should make this clear to your mother when you return. But now that you have accepted a disciple, you will not slack off. You need to take care of yourself."
Deng Ai was stunned for a long time after hearing this, and finally said nothing, and kowtowed to Zhang Xi respectfully.
In fact, Deng Ai didn't fully understand the meaning of Zhang Xi's words, and it was impossible for Mrs. Deng to talk about family grudges and struggles with Deng Ai, a child who was only eleven years old after the New Year.
But Deng Ai still has some feelings about the situation at home.
Moreover, Deng Ai really kowtowed to become his master, and Mrs. Deng also asked Zhang Xi, whom Deng Ai worshiped, to be her master. Naturally, Deng Ai would listen to whatever the master said.
An eleven-year-old child who has just completed his enlightenment education is not so ignorant that he feels qualified to despise an adult scholar.
Deng Ai still respects Zhang Xi very much now.
Zhang Xi was also very satisfied with Deng Ai's attitude, and then officially started teaching, first testing Deng Ai's knowledge level.
Zhang Xi didn't intend to fool Deng Ai. After all, this was Deng Ai... Even if he would no longer be General Wei Zhengxi in the future, he might be able to train him to become General Zhengbei of Han Dynasty.
It doesn't matter if Zhang Xi is not good at military affairs. When the time comes, he will recommend it to Xu Shu or Zhuge villagers, who are good at this aspect.
Now Zhang Xi only needs to lay a solid foundation for Deng Aixian.
Deng Ai had already completed the enlightenment at home, so the next thing to do was to start teaching real knowledge according to the teaching rules of this era.
The first book Zhang Xi taught was "Book of Rites".
This rule has been followed throughout the years. It is better to learn etiquette before learning skills. This etiquette does not only mean politeness or principles. In fact, it originally refers to the simple "Book of Rites".
""Quli" says: Don't be disrespectful, be thoughtful, calm down, and calm the people. Ao cannot last long, desires cannot follow, ambitions cannot be fulfilled, happiness cannot be extreme..."
The first chapter of "Book of Rites" - Part 1 of Quli.
