allonlinenovel Chapter 66, Provocation
Chapter 66, Provocation
Yunyi's lips twitched. She realized that she seemed inseparable from the title of "boss," and hurriedly waved her hand, "Sir, you're too kind. Just call me by my name."
Jia Zian nodded and didn't press the matter further.
The donkey cart quickly left Lishu Village and soon returned to Xiajiazhuang.
"Uncle Village Chief, the master has just arrived. Let's settle him in today. Tomorrow I'd like to hold a master-apprentice banquet. Uncle Village Chief, please let all the children in the village who want to study come over and have a couple of drinks with the master."
"Okay." The village chief nodded. "I'll tell everyone when I get back." Then he got off the bus and went home.
Old Zhou then drove his donkey cart back to the red-tiled house.
The name "Red Tile House" is what the villagers gave to Yunyi's new house because it was made entirely of blue bricks and red tiles.
Upon arriving at the gate, Yunyi led Jia Xiucai and his wife out of the car: "We've arrived."
The Xia Song family had only been in Xiajiazhuang for a short time, so apart from the villagers themselves, most people in the surrounding villages didn't know them, although some might have heard of them.
On her way there, Jia Liu thought of what she had heard before: that the man had returned with the children, but the woman had died, so he bought a wife and brought her back. However, she went up the mountain three months ago and never came back. She never expected that this family would build a new house.
Obviously, what I heard wasn't true; this family wasn't the poorest, they should be the richest.
Hearing the commotion, Xia Songshi ran out: "Yunyi is back, this is..."
“Mother, this is Scholar Jia and his wife,” Yunyi introduced. “This is my…mother-in-law.”
Jia Liu was taken aback for a moment, and before she could speak, Xia Song greeted her with a smile: "Hello, the children are now in your care. Come in quickly and make yourself at home."
Yunyi nodded, then led them to the back and arranged an empty room for them to stay in, while the side room next door would be used as a classroom for the time being.
However, she thought she could build two more rooms on the side of the backyard, so that it would be convenient for the village children to come and go when they came.
Xia Songshi brought out new bedding: "Just tell me if you need anything, don't be shy."
"Thank you, Madam." Jia Liu hurriedly expressed her gratitude.
"Don't call me 'Mrs.' or 'Scholar's Wife,' that's too formal. I should be older than you, so just call me 'elder sister,' and I'll call you 'younger sister.' My maiden name is Song."
“Sister Song.” Madam Jia Liu nodded. “My name is Liu Mei, you can call me Da Meizi.”
"Okay, Big Plum."
The two women hit it off immediately.
Yunyi had already called Dabao and the others over to greet Jia Xiucai. Since they would be spending a lot of time together from now on, they naturally wanted to get to know each other better: "Uncle Xiucai, I'm entrusting these kids to you from now on."
Since the mother-in-law has already treated the other woman's daughter-in-law as sisters, she naturally has to be a generation younger.
The children were very excited.
"Okay, but should the girls study together too?"
“Yes,” Yunyi nodded. “Girls can also learn to understand principles through education.”
Although Jia Xiucai was somewhat surprised, he did not refuse.
"If the children from the village want to come in the future, I hope you won't refuse them. If there are more children, I will increase their tuition fees."
“You’ve given me more than enough,” Jia Xiucai waved his hand. “As long as the children are willing to come, I’ll naturally welcome them.”
"Thank you, Uncle Scholar. You can rest for now and start again tomorrow. I'll go to town later to buy some writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones for teaching tomorrow."
"They're just starting out, so we can use a sand tray first..."
"Okay, I'll have someone make it tomorrow."
……
After having a simple lunch at home, Yunyi took a donkey cart to town.
After arriving in town, Yunyi first went to find the Huang brothers, the carpenters, and asked them to make desks and chairs for the school. They also made a sand table, which was basically a shallow square wooden tray that could be filled with fine sand so that people could practice writing on it with sticks.
Carpenter Huang said that ten sand tables could be delivered tomorrow, but the tables and chairs might take a few days. That takes time, and they need to be coated with varnish and dried, so it will take at least half a month.
Yunyi said yes, then left the courtyard, bought some ingredients and thread, and went into the bookstore.
There are two bookstores in Carp Town, one upscale and the other affordable.
This Guangming Bookstore caters to the general public.
Last time she bought 300,000 yuan and a set of writing implements here, but the house wasn't finished then, so she didn't take them out. Now that she's going to study, she naturally needs to buy more.
Ten sets of the Four Treasures of the Study, three sets cost three hundred thousand. At least for beginners, we need to make sure that both of us have a set of books. We also chose a set of the Four Books and Five Classics, a ream of high-quality Xuan paper, and two more reams of cheaper rough-edged paper.
With so many items, the total came to 148 taels of silver. This was definitely the price of a big customer, and it immediately caught the attention of the bookstore owner.
"Girl, you've bought so much, I'll round it down to one hundred and forty taels for you." The shopkeeper was very honest. "You can't buy this price anywhere else."
"Thank you very much, shopkeeper. But I saw a few damaged copies of books downstairs. Could you give them to me?"
Many books in bookstores are handwritten, and generally, the more beautiful the handwriting, the higher the price.
Especially with these early learning books, the fonts that children first encounter often influence their writing style later on.
The books Yunyi selected all had exceptionally beautiful handwriting, and naturally, they were also the most expensive.
The shopkeeper pulled out three damaged books and readily gave them to Yunyi. However, these three books were not primers, but rather the Six Secret Teachings, the Tao Te Ching, and the Book of Changes.
Looking at her purse, which was now more than half empty, Yunyi knew it was time to head into the mountains.
Meanwhile, in the mountains, a duel was taking place between Sixteen and the leader of the Qinglong Mountain monkey troop.
The monkey king, who was as tall as an adult, was actually quite depressed. Sixteen was just a tiny little thing, and it seemed like he hadn't even grown all his fur yet. How could he be so foolish as to try to seize the throne?
So, at first, the Monkey King refused, but he couldn't resist Sixteen's constant provocations. The key point is that it was one thing for her to provoke him, but this little female monkey was also seducing the male monkeys under his command. No one knows what methods she used, but all the monkeys under her command were completely infatuated with her. If this continued, it would be unacceptable.
So the Monkey King accepted Sixteen's challenge, and then they fought.
The Monkey King originally thought he could easily defeat the little female monkey, but to his surprise, the little female monkey was quite agile and managed to dodge. So he became furious, roaring and waving his big claws, determined to smash Sixteen into mincemeat.
Sixteen knew it couldn't compete with its opponent in strength, so it could only rely on speed, agility, and cunning. As it dodged, it muttered to itself: "You're all monkeys, the monkey king, how can you be so ugly? Isn't this affecting the overall appearance of the entire monkey troop?"