NOVEL NEXT Chapter 56 - 56: Advancing Studies_l
Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Advancing Studies_l
Translator: 549690339
After leaving Sister Wen Shu’s home, Yingbao rushed back home with the wind at her heels, hopping and skipping to find her parents.
“Mrs. Wen said that I will be her first disciple, and she will teach me individually in the future,” she said.
Hearing this, Jiang Sanlang furrowed his brows: “Wen?”
“Yes, it’s the granddaughter-in-law of the Wen Grandfather who visited our village last time,” Yingbao chattered the whole story to her parents.
“Uncle Wen is frail and needs to recuperate where the mountains are green and the water is clear, so he brought his family here to settle down.”
“Mrs. Wen also said that since her daughter needs to study, why not just set up a girls’ school here and teach other girls.”
Chunniang smiled and said, “That’s wonderful, Baobao can go there to study, and being taught by a female master is the most appropriate.”
However, Jiang Sanlang looked grave and pulled his daughter aside, asking in a low voice, “Baobao, do you really want to study there?”
“Yes,” Yingbao certainly wanted to go.
She was sure that Sister Wen Shu was the same one as in her previous life.
But she was not sure why she had come here in this life.
Jiang Sanlang furrowed his brows deeper, and cautiously asked, “Did the Wen family ask you anything about our ancestral secret recipe?”
Yingbao’s eyes flickered, and she shook her head: “No.”
“That’s good,” Jiang Sanlang patted his daughter’s head: “Remember, do not tell anyone about our secret recipe, not a single word.”
“I know, dad, our family doesn’t have any secret medicine, we have nothing.”
Of course, Yingbao understood her father’s concern. Being an adult in her soul, she wouldn’t reveal her secret to others.
Jiang Sanlang patted his daughter again, slightly relieved. He turned to his wife, “I will have to stay on the South Slope for a while, you watch the children at home.”
His daughter had brought back over twenty seedlings and a large bag of seeds, claiming they were from a cotton variety she bought from a salesman and needed to be planted in the South Slope field.
So Jiang Sanlang was busy. Not only was he busy planting seedlings, but also turning the land to plant cotton, and the fertile fields at home needed attention as well.
Fortunately, the Golden Ears hadn’t started to fruit; otherwise, he would have been stretched too thin.
“I understand, ” Chunniang wasn’t worried about anything else, but that the Han family from the West Village would harass her daughter when they least expected it.
“If she goes to school, we should prepare the proper gifts as well. Even though our daughter is a girl, she should not lack anything when paying respects to her master.”
“I will ask my parents about this, we will prepare all that we need.” Chunniang said, unlocking the box to take out some money to give to her in-laws, hoping they would help prepare the school entering gifts.
Her parents-in-law had more experience and knew the appropriate protocols, they knew better than she and her husband about what gifts should be prepared for going to school.
Jiang Sanlang nodded, gave Yingbao a few more instructions, then picked up his hoe and went to the South Slope.
Jiang Liu was excited when she heard that her third daughter-in-law was sending Yingbao to the girls’ school, she slapped her thigh, “Sending one is the same as sending two, why don’t we also send Danni and Erni to school?”
Jiang’s eldest daughter-in-law didn’t object, and asked her own daughter,
“Danni, why don’t you go to school with your cousin for a few days?”
Danni quickly shook her head: “I won’t.” She was eleven this year, and in a few years, she would be of marriageable age. How embarrassing it would be to stay with a group of young children at school!
“You are ungrateful!” Jiang Liu frowned and glared at her granddaughter, “What’s wrong with learning a few words?”
Now that they were not short of money, if her granddaughter learned to read, it would make her future in-laws look upon her with greater respect.
Danni hid behind her mother, poking Zhou in the abdomen and whispering,
“Mom, I won’t go to school. If I want to learn words, I can learn from Yuanbao.”
Zhou succumbed and said to her mother-in-law: “Danni is already this big, it would not look good for her to go to school. If she wants to learn to read in the future, she can learn from her little brother.’
Casting an angry glare at her eldest daughter-in-law, Jiang Liu turned and asked Dani, “If your big sister won’t go, you will go with Yingbao.”
Dani nodded, feeling quite pleased, but was also worried about who would look after her younger brother Huzi if she went to school. “Grandma, what about Huzi?”
It was only then that Jiang Liu remembered her mischievous grandson. “Let
Huzi go too, I don’t know if Mr. Wen takes male students.”
As Huzi was very young, the local school’s master was unwilling to accept him, so he had always been hanging around with Yingbao, Xiaojie, and Dawu to play.
“Let’s ask Mr. Wen later if he accepts male students.”
Spring Mother handed over two coins to her mother-in-law, “I don’t know if this is enough for the courtesy gifts, if it’s not, I can go back and get more.”
Accepting the coins, Jiang Liu said, “We don’t need so much for one Yingbao, but we also have to buy ropes for rituals and with these two coins, it should be enough.”
The next day, Spring Mother sent her two sons to the front yard to ask her sister-in-law to look after them, then she carried the six ceremonial gifts in a bamboo basket, leading Yingbao to meet Mr. Wen for the teaching.
Jiang Liu also led Dani and Huzi, carrying double ropes for rituals, to the Wen Family.
Wen’s fourth son was not there, Mistress Wen, Xiu Zhenniang, was arranging the newly renovated school with a maidservant.
“Mr. Wen, I am here to be a student!”
Yingbao called out from a distance.
Xiu Zhenniang came out of the house, seeing it was people from the Jiang Family, she hurriedly asked a maidservant to bring stools for Jiang Liu and Spring Mother to sit down.
After exchanging pleasantries, Jiang Liu brought up the matter of her young grandson Huzi, “Our Huzi is almost five years old, he usually plays with his sister and cousin. Now that Dani and Yingbao are going to school, it’s not right to leave him alone at home. I think we should also send him to school to study and play with his sisters. I don’t know if Mr. Wen accepts male students here?”
Xiu Zhenniang laughed, “Ordinarily, we don’t, although my husband also teaches, but he is only responsible for teaching the children their first characters. If you’re thinking about preparing for the imperial examinations, it won’t work.”
The meaning of her words is that her husband’s knowledge is limited, only responsible for teaching the children to recognize characters. If they want to sit for the imperial examination, they would need to find another famous teacher.
Hearing this, Jiang Liu laughed heartily, “He’s still a kid, where does he need to take the imperial examination? Please accept him and casually teach him a few characters. ”
Xiu Zhenniang nodded with a smile, “Then let him stay for now, I’ll tell my husband later.”
“Ah, that’s great,” Jiang Liu was overjoyed.
Just like that, Yingbao, Dani, and Huzi all began studying at Wen’s school.
A few days later, a plaque was hung up at the Wen Family’s schoolhouse, with a few big characters written on it: Ai Chang Women’s Medical Academy.
Yingbao, Dani, and Huzi officially started school the day after the plaque was put up.
When they arrived at the school, they found it was only the three of them, plus Sister Wen and a boy named Wen Hengyin.
It was a bit awkward.
They initially thought that their teacher would feel shameful due to the lack of students, but after Yingbao secretly observed for half a day, she found them to be calm and collected, as if nothing had happened.
Next, she and Sister Wen had a class together, taught by Mistress Wen.
While Wen Hengyin, Huzi, and Dani were in another classroom, taught by Mr. Wen with the Thousand Character Classic.
Five students, divided into two classrooms, one teacher per student.
It was ridiculous.
Mistress Wen handed a medical book to Yingbao, and then started the class.
“Our medical learning is divided into four sections: medical science, acupuncture, massage, and incantation.”
Mistress Wen continued, “In the future, we will mainly study medical science, but we also need to learn about acupuncture, massage, and incantations….”