Chapter 64

Early the next morning, Shen Cui went into the city.

She didn’t need to look for Zhang Sheng. The previous night, while she was alone, she had already written a letter as him, expressing that she couldn’t let go of her hometown and family. She thanked Lao Buyu and the others for their care over the past few days, and she planned to return home immediately after the competition. She would also send regular letters in the future.

But she did need to visit the Shen family.

The Shen family knew she had been ill and must still be concerned.

Moreover, she had already finished the academy competition with very good results and needed to share the good news with them.

Shen Cui set off early. When she arrived at Teapot Alley, the men of the Shen family had not yet gone out to work, and the whole family was having breakfast together.

Seeing her, the Shen family was naturally very happy. Li Shi moved aside and voluntarily made room for her.

Shen Cui went to the kitchen to get a bowl and chopsticks, sitting next to Zheng Shi.

While eating breakfast, Shen Lao Ye and Zheng Shi naturally asked about her health.

Shen Cui had indeed been quite tired before, but her health was really good. After letting go of the academy competition, she had a good night’s sleep last night and looked much better today despite getting up early.

Seeing that she had a good appetite, the Shen family finally felt relieved.

After they had all expressed their concern, it was Shen Cui’s turn to share her good news.

Shen Cui began, “I know Dad and the brothers are going to work and are busy, but why didn’t Mom take the sisters-in-law to watch the excitement? I’ve come out several times and haven’t seen you, which is strange.”

The competition venue was only accessible to academy staff, and even Zhou Shi had to enter as a miscellaneous worker of the academy. But for participating academies that had paid the registration fee, they could at least reserve some good seats outside the venue for their families to watch.

Zheng Shi waved her hand, saying, “None of us can read a single word. Why would we go to the hustle and bustle? We don’t want to make fools of ourselves.”

This statement was not untrue, but who doesn’t enjoy a good spectacle? Especially when the academy competition also included performances of music and dance. Entertainment activities were scarce in the small town, and it was rare to hold such a grand gathering. Who wouldn’t want to go and watch?

Actually, as early as the first day of the competition, Mrs. Chen had proposed to go and watch.

Zheng Shi didn’t allow it. She had heard rumors and passed them on to her daughter, causing her daughter to really participate in the competition, which led to her getting sick and feeling very guilty.

Later, she inquired a lot and learned that other academies had been preparing for two or three years, especially for the initial test, where they could use a large number of people to prevent anyone from performing poorly. Her daughter’s academy had only been established for less than half a year, with only a few members.

How could they achieve good results?

So, although Zheng Shi was really concerned, she purposely didn’t go to watch. Especially since Mrs. Chen was going to watch to laugh at Shen Cui, she didn’t allow the other family members to go either.

In this way, even if they lost, no matter how bad the loss was, everyone would pretend not to know, to save her daughter’s face.

If Shen Cui hadn’t brought it up, Zheng Shi was still planning to pretend not to remember this matter.

But since Shen Cui mentioned it, Zheng Shi knew the result was better than she expected and urged her to speak quickly.

Shen Cui didn’t beat around the bush and first said that their academy had passed the initial test without any surprises and had unexpectedly gained the appreciation of the old head of Hongle Academy, Lao Shanzhang, who had personally guaranteed their entry into the retest.

But after that, they couldn’t compare to others, so they withdrew from the competition.

After hearing this result, the Shen family naturally felt happy for her. Zheng Shi said with joy, “My child is really promising. I heard that in previous years in our county town, except for Qingzhu Academy, other small academies couldn’t even enter the retest!”

Chen Shi, on the other hand, was very sour. Her son studied with Huang Juren, and she had previously thought highly of him. But in such a grand event as the academy competition, Huang Juren didn’t even have the qualification to participate.

Of course, if Huang Juren had wanted to participate, he could have set up an academy, paid the registration fee, and participated.

Since he didn’t participate, it was purely a private school with a small class size and couldn’t even attract enough students. He himself didn’t know the Six Arts, so why bother with this?

But Chen Shi didn’t understand these things. She was jealous and sour. Every time she heard the word “study,” she looked at her son as if he were a mouse that had seen a cat. She even drank half a bowl less of porridge than usual for breakfast.

Shen Cui didn’t come to share her joy with her, so she ignored her. After breakfast, she sent Shen Lao Ye and her two brothers off to work and didn’t stay long at the Shen family. The academy’s time gain would only count if she was present.

After leaving the Shen family, Shen Cui went to buy some snacks.

According to the number of people, she bought a large bag of peach pastries for Lao Buyu and his two students.

There were twelve pieces of peach pastries in one bag, which would be enough to last for a few days.

This kind of delicacy was not affordable for every household until the late 1980s and early 1990s in modern society. Three bags would cost five or six silver coins.

Besides, she would also need to stay at the academy regularly in the future, so she didn’t need to eat so delicately. Buying some cheap food like steamed buns and pancakes, which could be reheated later, would also satisfy her hunger, costing a little over a coin.

Later, she went to buy some paper and pens, spending even more money.

But these were all essential for daily life and couldn’t be saved on.

Carrying bags of things, Shen Cui walked home. Before leaving the city, she realized something was wrong—why was the system so generous, giving such amazing rewards for the competition and retest? In fact, it was digging a pit!

Not to mention the strict conditions for the buff to take effect, to use it for a long time, she would need to purchase some items to enhance her focus. The expenses on food, drink, and stationery would be doubled!

Before, the academy was responsible for the expenses of three people’s food, drink, and study. Now, it was like taking care of six people!

This would definitely break the balance of the academy’s income and expenditure!

“It’s all about gains and losses,” the system comforted her. “With such generous rewards, as you said, it’s ‘amazing.’ How can you expect the horse to run without eating grass? There’s a saying in this era, ‘time is money.’ According to this ratio, the cost you pay is negligible.”

Shen Cui asked him not to be so sarcastic, “It’s really not worth mentioning, just trying to take my life!”

As they were chatting, she passed by a bookshop.

There was a notice board in front of the bookshop, with a red paper notice posted on it, saying, “Mr. Shan Ye’s new work ‘The Greedy Joy of West Lake’ has arrived. Buy it quickly!”

And indeed, the business of this bookshop was better than others, with guests coming in continuously.

As Shen Cui was reading the notice, a bookseller’s assistant approached her and said, “Madam, you seem to be literate. Would you like to come in and take a look at some books?”

Shen Cui followed him in, and with the assistant’s introduction, she picked out two of the most popular books.

Although these books had a lot of words, the copying requirements were not high. They didn’t need to be as meticulously written and laid out as enlightening books like the “Three Character Classic.” The paper and binding were also of lower quality, so the overall price was similar, costing one or two silver coins for two books.

When Shen Cui heard the price, before she could respond, the system, mimicking Shen Cui’s previous tone, coldly said, “One or two silver coins, isn’t this asking for my host’s life!”

Shen Cui laughed in her mind and cursed at him, “Go to hell, is my life only worth one or two coins?”

Seeing that she didn’t say anything, the assistant guessed that the price was too high. After all, the ordinary people in the county town were not very well-off and would not easily spend a month’s salary on such entertainment.

So he led Shen Cui to a less desirable bookshelf.

There were old books collected there, with different conditions and prices, but they were definitely cheaper than new books. Of course, they were unlikely to have the latest popular books.

Shen Cui didn’t mind if they were not the most popular books at the moment. She let the assistant pick out two books that had once been popular, costing her half a silver coin.

She also asked the assistant if she could resell these old books. The assistant said she could, but the resale price would naturally be lower. At most, she could sell them for two qian.

In other words, after reading the two books and reselling them, she would lose three qian.

Shen Cui quickly paid the silver and went back to the village.

On the way back, the system couldn’t help but tease her, “The host actually spends money on entertainment? Although it’s a small amount, it seems that the host has improved a lot compared to before.”

“Who said I’m entertaining? This is called early-stage investment,” Shen Cui retorted.

“Hmm, although the host has passed the initial stage of learning to write, reaching the level of copying books to make ends meet… there’s still a long way to go,” the system remarked.

Ignoring him, Shen Cui returned to the village and went straight to the academy. She first gave everyone Zhang Sheng’s farewell letter, then distributed the things she had bought. Afterwards, she opened the time gain and sat down at her temporary desk to continue practicing writing.

To Shen Cui’s disappointment, Zhou Shi, whom she had specifically talked to yesterday, still didn’t come to class today.

It wasn’t until evening, after everyone had finished dinner and Zhou Shi had washed the dishes, that she hesitated and came over.

The hall was quiet, with only Lao Buyu lecturing Mu Er Pang.

Shen Cui smiled and waved to her, making room for her at the table and giving her another piece of paper to use. She whispered to her, “Today we’re learning to write the ‘Thousand Character Classic.’ The first line is ‘Heaven and Earth are mysterious and yellow, the universe is vast and desolate.’ You write along with me first, and after you finish this, I’ll explain the rest to you.”

Having spent every day in the academy, listening to the morning readings for a long time and accompanying Mu Er Pang and Wei Xi in their daily studies, she was familiar with the content of the most basic and simple enlightening books and knew how to write those characters. It was nothing suspicious.

In fact, Zhou Shi had been thinking about what Shen Cui had said all day. Although what Shen Cui said made sense, Zhou Shi considered herself untalented. To write letters for people, to copy books for a living, she didn’t know how much time and effort it would take, or how much work she would have to stop.

But she did want to learn to read and write. Even before Shen Cui said those words, she had been thinking about it. So she came over to take a look.

Unexpectedly, Shen Cui didn’t try to persuade her at all. After arranging her “study tasks,” she handed her a brush and started writing on her own.

Zhou Shi immediately dared not think about anything else and carefully noted the order of her strokes, practicing them on the paper in front of her.

Shen Cui watched satisfactorily as Zhou Shi’s concentration level on the screen rose steadily from the passing line.

Zhou Shi was not stupid. After watching Shen Cui write it once, she remembered the stroke order completely. She quickly wrote it down and blushed, whispering, “My hand is too clumsy. It seems different from what you wrote… I didn’t write it correctly.”

“It’s okay, that’s how it is at the beginning,” Shen Cui said, looking at the paper in front of Zhou Shi. Wasn’t it different from what she wrote? The characters Zhou Shi wrote for the first time were much better than her scribbles!