Just when Gu Li was distracted, a soft voice sounded outside the small wooden door: "The new sister seems to be in a girls' school. She costs ten coppers a day to go back and forth to the city. This is almost a day's meal for our family. ”
"Why don't you tell Xiaoli? It's not of much use to learn so much knowledge from your daughter's family. You can just let her go to the mountains to collect herbs like Xiaorou did."
"No, Xiaoli is a young lady from the city. We can't give her the same life of fine clothing and fine food. It won't do for this female student to cut her off again."
"Mom, if I copy more books, it will be easier to make money."
"No, I have an exam soon, so I can't be distracted anymore."
"It's because dad has no future and earns little money." Gu's father looked a little sad.
"How can I blame you? Back then..." Gu's mother hesitated to speak, and finally turned into a sigh.
"As soon as I came back, I brought such a big problem to my family. What a troublemaker!"
"Xiao Yan! Stop talking nonsense!" It was Gu's father's voice.
Hearing this, Gu Li opened the door and walked out. Father Gu and Mother Gu looked up at her, the worry on their faces not dissipating.
A sinister voice sounded: "Originally, if it is Xiaorou, she will not embarrass her parents."
Gu Chen shouted: "Xiao Yan, why are you talking?"
"Originally, Xiaoyi, the girl's school in the village, never said that she would go to the girls' school in the city. She still goes to the mountain to collect some herbs every day to supplement the family income!" Gu Yan, the third child, said unconvinced, "She is a young lady, but she went to a girls' school in the city. It will only increase the burden on the family.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Chen's face turned ugly. What he said was the truth, and everyone fell silent.
But suddenly she heard a "chock" sound, and Gu Li smiled. Her overly beautiful and delicate face was set off by this smile, like a charm in the dark night, so beautiful that it moved people's hearts.
When she smiled, the third child, Gu Yan, immediately became furious and said angrily: "Why are you laughing? Am I wrong? You are a freeloader!"
The smile on Gu Li's face did not diminish, she walked among everyone and sat where Gu Lun was sitting just now.
"Father, mother, brothers, you don't have to worry. Because I have good grades, Master has waived my tuition. As for the fare, I can go to the mountains to collect herbs. Don't worry, I'm not young anymore and can support myself. It won’t be a burden to the family.”
Gu Li's voice was clear, with a hint of girlish naivety: "Third brother, will you take me up the mountain with you tomorrow?"
Gu Yan only felt that he was being laughed at. He couldn't keep it off his face and his tone became even meaner: "Who are you calling third brother? I only have one sister, Xiaorou! Xiaorou will not go to school to burden the family..."
Gu Li raised her eyebrows and sighed softly: "Okay, parents, is it really because our family has no money that Shen Rou doesn't go to school?"
"This..." Father Gu was a little embarrassed.
Gu's mother also showed a look of surprise on her face.
of course not.
It was Shen Rou who didn't want to go to school. She said she felt dizzy when she saw the words, and sneaked out to play with her husband secretly. She didn't go to school even after paying money. Her academic performance was last in the class. She was often slapped on the palm by her master and cried every day.
The family felt sorry for her, so they didn't let her go. Instead, they asked her to follow the third child up the mountain to collect herbs. After all, the family's life was also very tight, and when it came to collecting herbs, she spent most of the time playing.
Because he was often with Gu Yan, Gu Yan doted on Shen Rou and thought her naughty way of not taking medicine seriously was cute, but he never thought that Shen Rou just didn't go to school and didn't make much contribution to the family.
"What does it have to do with you? Anyway, Xiaorou is a thousand times ten thousand times better than you!" Gu Yan said angrily.
The smile on Gu Li's face did not change: "I know even if you don't tell me, Shen Rou doesn't like going to school, so that's why you didn't let her go to school, right?"
Everyone in the venue had different expressions. Even Gu Yan was so angry that he didn't say anything anymore. His face turned blue and white, but Gu Li's next words shocked the whole audience.
She said: "However, my scores are ranked first in every autumn exam!"
Gu’s father and mother were so shocked that they couldn’t speak.
Gu Yan looked up at her in surprise, but quickly lowered his head again.
Gu Chen looked up at her, with a hint of admiration in his eyes. He was the only one here who knew how difficult it was to excel in a female school in the city. Almost all the ladies had their husbands at home to make up for their lessons. Everyone was very diligent and hard-working. Very good, it's hard to get ahead.
"Who are you lying to? I don't believe it!" Gu Yan hummed, but his heart was pounding. She couldn't really be that powerful, could she?
Gu Li, however, was not in a hurry to argue. She turned to Gu Chen and said, "Brother is about to take the provincial examination, right? How about you give me the test questions for my debut?"
"This... Xiaoli, you are too tired today, you should go to bed early." Gu Chen was a little embarrassed.
"Brother, just do me a favor!" Gu Li hugged Gu Chen's arm, smiled sweetly and said coquettishly.
"Then...well, I have a test paper here. It is a question given by our master. You can do it. If there is anything in it that you don't know, you can leave it blank for now."
"Thank you, brother!" Gu Li grabbed the paper and happily went to work on the questions, leaving everyone present with big eyes.
Gu Xiaomeng tugged on Gu Chen's sleeve and said cautiously: "Brother, it looks like this sister is really powerful."
"I won't be able to solve a single question for a while, let's see if she will cry!" Gu Yan crossed his legs and said in a sincere voice.
Gu Chen looked at Gu Li who was writing at the table. The girl was sitting in front of the dilapidated dining table with a pen. Under the light, her delicate facial features were vaguely visible. Her slender fingers were holding the pen. The horizontal and vertical strokes were very rhythmic, which was reflected on the wall. The silhouette is extremely pleasing to the eye, and come to think of it, the font is not bad either.
Gu Li wrote with great concentration and didn't stop for a moment. In a short time, several large pages were filled with words. In less than an hour, she put down her pen and handed the densely written paper to Gu Chen.
Gu Chen just glanced at it and was amazed.
Such beautiful words, with silkworm heads and swallowtails, beautiful shapes and rhymes, each word leaping on the paper like an elf. It is obviously the most ordinary paper, but it becomes precious because of these words.
Everyone in the hall looked at Gu Chen, who was holding the paper and motionless, sometimes thinking, sometimes nodding.
Gu Yan couldn't control his temper and said, "Brother, how are you? Did you answer the question completely?"
Gu Chen shook his head slowly and showed the paper in his hand to everyone: "If Xiaoli can take part in the provincial examination of our temple, her results will be better than mine."
Everyone looked at the paper. Even if they couldn't read, they could see that Gu Li's handwriting was more beautiful than Gu Chen's.
Gu Chen's voice continued: "This test paper was given to us by Master. It is the most difficult test paper among the provincial examinations in the past years."
Gu Yan was speechless and raised his eyes to look at Gu Li. The girl stood with a smile and one hand behind her back, looking unfazed.
