Chapter 172 1/3

Li Qingzhi had already announced the matter of recruiting teachers for his school early on.

He also mentioned that his school only taught students basic literacy, so he didn’t require the teachers to be highly educated or to have official titles. They just needed to know most of the commonly used words.

Of course, the salary he offered was low, only three guan per month, and if the performance was poor, they could be dismissed.

However, the salary wasn’t considered too bad.

Previously, Mr. Yao earned this much by rowing boats for people in a month, but he had to row boats and carry cargo, which was much harder work!

Teaching in a place where the wind couldn’t blow and the sun couldn’t shine and earning so much money… to ordinary people, this was already very good.

Many people in Chongcheng County were interested, including several classmates Li Qingzhi had met while studying with Li Xiucai.

The income of three guan per month was enough to support a family, and teaching was more respectable than keeping accounts at the dock. Those who temporarily had no better options were willing to take this job.

For a while, many people came to Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop to sign up with Li Qingzhi.

If he interviewed one person at a time, it would be too exhausting, and it would fragment his time… So Li Qingzhi told these people that on the twentieth of November, he would select people at the new school, and anyone who wanted to be a teacher could come then.

This news was naturally known to the people in Miaoqian Village.

So, despite Mr. Yao’s opposition, Yao Zhenfu brought him along.

For the past half year, Yao Zhenfu had been idle at home, not even willing to work in the fields, let alone help when something went wrong at home.

Mr. Yao was naturally dissatisfied, but he couldn’t do anything about his son.

He wanted to beat his son, but after a few blows, he couldn’t bear it. He wanted to starve his son, but after a few meals, he couldn’t bear it…

Seeing his son like this, Mr. Yao had been very worried. Now that Li Qingzhi was recruiting teachers for his school, he gritted his teeth, took a stick, and brought Yao Zhenfu along.

“Dad, why do we have to beg Li Qingzhi? I can’t lower my face like this!” Yao Zhenfu looked at the school he was in, feeling somewhat unwilling.

It hadn’t been long since Li Qingzhi had money to build such a large school… Why didn’t he have a wife like Jin Xiaoye, who could earn money?

In fact, Yao Zhenfu also wanted to be a teacher, so when his father drove him, he came.

But he had a very unpleasant experience with Li Qingzhi before. Li Qingzhi pretended not to be good at studies in front of him, even though he clearly had a photographic memory… He felt aggrieved and couldn’t get over it.

“What kind of begging is this? So many people have come, of course you can come too!” Mr. Yao said, “That guy from the neighboring village who only studied for two years came early this morning!”

Yao Zhenfu still wasn’t very reconciled.

Mr. Yao added, “I’ll go and speak for you later.”

Hearing that his father was willing to speak for him, Yao Zhenfu was satisfied.

He didn’t have to kowtow to Li Qingzhi!

Thinking like this, Yao Zhenfu looked at the nearby house and said to his father, “Dad, that guy who only studied for two years is here. He definitely won’t be selected! There are indeed many people who came today, but I’ve seen them. There aren’t many who are better educated than me. If Li Qingzhi isn’t blind, he won’t fail to choose me!”

Mr. Yao also thought that compared to people like that guy who only studied for two years, his son was much better. So he nodded.

And the guy they were talking about, who was now in front of Li Qingzhi, praising him, was actually Tang Chunrong.

Li Qingzhi had to admit that he was very happy to be praised like this by Tang Chunrong.

But just because this person praised him so much didn’t mean he would let him be a teacher in the school.

He handed a piece of paper to the person in front of him and said, “Read the content above.”

When Li Qingzhi wrote textbooks, he also wrote some stories suitable for beginners to read, such as “The Magic Brush of Ma Liang.” The content on the paper he gave now was actually a segment of “The Magic Brush of Ma Liang.”

The words on it were all commonly used, and people who wanted to be teachers here still needed to know the commonly used words.

Tang Chunrong, whose original name was Tang Chunrong, lived in the neighboring village of Miaoqian Village.

There was a scholar in their village. The scholar’s family was not wealthy, so he opened a private school at home to teach a few students.

Also because of this, there were more literate people in their village than in Miaoqian Village.

Tang Chunrong went to the private school to study when he was a child. The book of formal Confucian education was already expensive, and without additional money, the scholar was not willing to explain the contents of the book to them… He felt that it was not interesting to continue studying, so he stopped after studying for more than two years.

After that, he thought about going to the county town to find work, but because he had a skin condition, many people were not willing to hire him…

Blinking, Tang Chunrong was already in his twenties. Like most people in his village, he occasionally had the opportunity to go to the county town to do odd jobs, but most of the time, he was farming at home.

He accidentally learned that Li Qingzhi’s school was recruiting teachers, and the requirements were very low… He gritted his teeth and came.

Tang Chunrong had never been very popular because of his skin condition, so he had developed a habit of flattering people when he met them. He praised Li Qingzhi as soon as they met.

And when Li Qingzhi handed him a piece of paper to read… Tang Chunrong’s heart skipped a beat, feeling a bit worried.

Could it be that Li Qingzhi wanted him to read the Four Books and Five Classics?

Tang Chunrong loved listening to stories told by people in the village since he was a child, and he often went to the county town with his grandfather to listen to storytellers.

When he was a child, he insisted on learning to read because he wanted to understand the stories in books. As a result, when he went to the scholar’s place to study, he found that the books taught there were completely different from what he had imagined.

After he stopped studying, he completely forgot the “zhīhū zhě yě” the scholar taught them to recite, but fortunately, he still recognized a few words.

Later, he bought several books commonly read by storytellers and asked literate people when he encountered words he didn’t recognize… Now he recognized quite a few words,

 so he dared to come over.

But if Li Qingzhi wanted him to read the Four Books and Five Classics, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

Tang Chunrong nervously took the paper and glanced at it, then relaxed. He read it aloud in the local dialect.

This was a very interesting story!

Tang Chunrong’s praise for Li Qingzhi was actually sincere. He liked the stories Li Qingzhi wrote very much and bought books to read them repeatedly, reading them to the people in the village.

He liked this story too! After Tang Chunrong finished reading, he couldn’t help but ask Li Qingzhi, “Mr. Li, what story is this?” He wanted to read it!

Seeing that Tang Chunrong could read, Li Qingzhi asked him another question, “Thirty-five children, each given three buns, how many buns do you need in total?” People nowadays weren’t good at arithmetic, so he didn’t dare to ask too complicated questions.

Tang Chunrong said, “Thirty children need ninety buns, and the remaining five children need fifteen, for a total of one hundred and five buns.”

“Do you think my school should recruit some female students?” Li Qingzhi asked again.

“Of course! Mr. Li, Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop needs female shopkeepers!” Tang Chunrong blurted out.

He thought he was very smart and had inquired about Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop in advance.

As far as he knew, Li Qingzhi had been teaching the female workers of Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop to read words during this time, wanting to cultivate some female shopkeepers.

If that’s the case, what’s the problem with recruiting female students?

As for the appropriateness of boys and girls studying together… Tang Chunrong was a farmer, and he didn’t care.

Not to mention anything else, just talking about farming in their countryside… Generally, heavy physical work was done by men, but during busy farming seasons, women also went to the fields.

If it’s not appropriate to study together, is it inappropriate to work together in the fields?

Li Qingzhi smiled at Tang Chunrong’s words and asked him some questions, such as his family situation.