About ten minutes later, Li Ershi opened the door with a depressed look on his face, and walked out slowly, beating his back.
When Li Fengnian saw him coming out, he immediately ran up to him and said eagerly: "Dad, I want to go to school!"
If you want to develop, reading and writing are essential. In this world, Li Fengnian couldn't even write his own name, so how could he develop?
Li's mother couldn't make the decision, so he could only come and beg his father. What he was hesitating to say just now was that he wanted to tell his father that he wanted to go to school.
"Go, go, you little brat, you actually want to study like the landlord's young master? Are you that material?
Just practice your bow and arrow honestly and go hunting with me in the mountains in the future. This is the way out! "
Li Ershi, who was already looking depressed, looked at his son with hatred.
read? Reading is useless! There are many children in the village who can't bear to study and dream of gaining fame.
In the end, aren't all the years wasted in vain? He didn't pass the examination for fame and fame, and he didn't learn the skills to make a living, and he eventually starved to death!
As a poor family, it would be great if they could live a good life and pass on the family lineage. Fame, fortune and wealth are beyond the imagination!
"Hey, I got it." Li Fengnian sighed and walked out of the yard with a bow and arrow, and continued to practice archery.
He knew that it would not be easy for his father to send him to study because the family was too poor.
And he also knows that now his parents are busy having a second child. When the family has a new pair of chopsticks, there will only be more money to spend.
He could only think of another way.
…
After practicing archery for a day, Li Fengnian walked home rubbing his sore arms.
"Why do you suddenly want to study?" Li Ershi, who was sharpening arrows in the yard when his son came back, asked.
"I'm not willing to be a hunter all my life. I want to get out of Taolicun and make a difference!" Li Fengnian said firmly.
"Get out of Taoli Village, you can't get out! How many people have tried to get out, but in the end they all broke their heads, and then came back dejectedly to pick up the hoe and continue farming, and even worse, their families were destroyed!" Li Ershi He said empathetically.
Because his father was like this back then. He sold almost all his land and property to send his eldest brother Li Dashi to study in the hope that he would gain fame and honor his family. However, in the end, the result of ten years of hard work was the destruction of his family.
After his eldest brother failed the last provincial examination, he never came back. A boy from his hometown sent word back that he failed the exam again and felt ashamed to face his two elders, so he chose to commit suicide by throwing himself into a lake.
After learning such sad news, the two old men could not bear the heavy blow and passed away one after another.
Since then, only Li Ershi and five acres of barren land were left in the family.
Therefore, he is afraid of reading. Don't you think it is a way out for your son to follow you to hunt and farm?
Didn't he rely on these two skills to marry a wife and have children?
Why do you have to go to school without thinking about it?
"How will you know whether you will succeed if you don't try? Rather than die here in Taoli Village, and instead of my descendants serving as farmers and servants for eternity, I might as well give it a try!" Li Fengnian said firmly.
"You!" Li Ershi's eyes widened and he couldn't help but stretch out his hand to hit his foul-mouthed son.
But his hand was stuck in the air and he couldn't move it. Finally, he turned around tremblingly.
Early the next morning, Li Ershi carried Xiaolu out of the house, and it was already dark when he came back again.
In front of the dinner table, under the candlelight, Li Ershi looked sad. After sighing for a while, he suddenly said to Li Fengnian: "Don't go to practice archery tomorrow. Go to the school to study. I have made an agreement with Master Wang today."
"Ah!" Li Fengnian raised his head and looked at his father in disbelief. He never expected that his father would agree to the unreasonable request of a little kid like him so easily!
"Go ahead, I will only give you one year. If Master says after one year that you are not good at studying, then you will come back and farm and hunt with me!"
"Okay!" Li Fengnian stood up excitedly.
After the meal, Li Ershi walked out of the room alone, his back seemed a little heavier.
He looked up at the increasingly bright moon, and his thoughts couldn't help but return to the past.
His father once spent almost all his efforts in order to provide for his eldest brother to study. Now he has become a father himself, and his son is as smart as his elder brother and eager to study.
Although he knew that supporting his son to study would cost a lot and that it was almost a loss-making business, as a father, he really didn't want to kill his son's dream with his own hands.
Give it a try, I should be able to withstand it in a few years!
Li Ershi looked down at his heavy hands and clenched his fists hard.
…
The master of the village school was an old scholar who came from nowhere. Although he was lucky enough to pass the scholar examination when he was middle-aged, he failed to pass the examination for eighteen years, and finally came to the village in despair. He became a private school teacher in the remote Taoli Village.
Even so, Mrs. Wang is also a high-ranking person in the village. Even the village chief treats him with courtesy.
Li Fengnian walked into the school after a brief introduction by Master Wang. He was placed in a corner of the school, next to two skinny monkeys who were equally shabby as him.
As for the other students in the school, they are all rich children with bright clothes and high-spirited demeanor.
Li Fengnian's arrival did not cause much of a sensation in the school, just like an inconspicuous grain of sand sinking to the bottom of the river.
"Hey, whose boy are you from? You're here to study too!" the sallow-looking child asked curiously.
"At the west entrance of the village, Li Ershi's house." Li Fengnian said slowly.
"I'm from Nanpo, and my father is Li Dazhu." The child said excitedly.
Another child like him came to the school, and he was naturally a little excited.
…
The master did not disrupt his teachings because of Li Fengnian's participation, and continued to teach the Four Books and Five Classics.
But Li Fengnian had no choice but to refer to the shabby books that his father had bought from someone unknown, and follow the master's reading aloud to memorize the pronunciation word by word carefully.
The characters in this world are also hieroglyphics, but they are much more complex than Chinese characters. However, there are subtle similarities between pronunciation and Chinese characters, so Li Fengnian can use pinyin to help him learn to read characters faster.
The day passed quickly, and before Li Fengnian could react, the sun had already set off to the west mountain.
The young men from wealthy families in the school are not as naughty as they imagined. Li Fengnian even prepared how to deal with possible difficulties and sarcasm in front of the school.
But it turned out that he was overthinking. Everyone was busy and had their own clear goals. No one was willing to spare time to do things that were detrimental to others and not beneficial to oneself.
Perhaps in their eyes, there is no such thing as Li Fengnian and three other children from poor families.
Because the three of them may one day leave the school due to various reasons at home.
The two sides are not from the same world at all, so naturally they don't have much intersection.
