Chapter 41 The Sound of Reading Aloud

Seeing Wan Baocai’s resistance to reading, Shen Nian gave him a faint glance: “Brother Baocai, you don’t have to go to the private school if you don’t like reading, but you can’t stop me from going. I like reading and learning characters, I want to learn.”

Wan Baocai didn’t understand: “What’s so good about reading? You’re a girl, you can’t take the imperial examination anyway, it’s a waste of time to read.”

Shen Nian said: “I’m not reading to take the imperial examination, I’m reading to broaden my horizons, to learn many, many characters, so that I won’t be sold and won’t even know it when I grow up.”

Wan Baocai said angrily: “Who dares to sell you? I’ll deal with him!”

Shen Nian pouted: “You’re the young master of the Wan family, you don’t lack food or clothing, you don’t need to work hard to live, no one dares to bully you. But I’m not. I’m a farmer’s daughter, if I don’t work hard, I’ll starve. If I don’t have any skills, I’ll be bullied. So I have to study hard. Learning makes me happy, you don’t understand the feeling, you won’t understand.”

Shen Feng walked over and said: “Nian Nian is right, learning is a happy thing. If you don’t learn, we will. If we don’t learn now, we won’t have the chance to learn when we grow up.”

Shen Xuan (Seventh Brother) looked at Wan Baocai and said: “Baocai, to put it bluntly, the reason you can live so comfortably now is because of your father. If one day your father is gone, and you have no skills, no one will look up to you.”

Wan Baocai said angrily: “Seventh Brother, how can you curse my father? My father will live a long life.”

Shen Ang (Eighth Brother) said: “Seventh Brother isn’t cursing your father, he’s just stating a fact. Your father is so capable, he will definitely live a long life. But he’s a human being, and all human beings get tired. Your family runs a restaurant, managing such a big restaurant must be very tiring. Your father has to work very, very hard to manage the restaurant well and make a lot of money. He can’t stop when he’s tired, he has to grit his teeth and persevere. He must hope that someone can share the burden with him. But you, as his son, have no skills, you can’t share the burden with him, he has to shoulder everything alone.”

After he finished speaking, he looked at Shen Nian and smiled: “Sister, am I right?”

Shen Nian gave him a thumbs up: “Eighth Brother is right, we should learn to share the burden with the adults. They are good to us, and we should be good to them.”

Shen Ang was overjoyed: “Sister, praise me some more.”

Shen Nian retracted her thumb: “No more praise, I have to go to the private school, I’m going to be late. You’ll be punished by standing if you’re late.”

“Yes, yes, we can’t be late, I don’t want to stand.”

Her brothers quickly pulled Shen Nian out the door.

Wan Baocai stood there dumbfounded for a while, then gritted his teeth and followed.

He didn’t listen to a single word of the profound truths that Shen Nian and her brothers said, he just wanted to see what the private school in Lanhua Village was like.

When they arrived at the private school, he saw that this so-called private school was actually just the village chief’s dilapidated house, it was extremely shabby. There weren’t many books in the private school, only twenty-nine students, all boys, all children from Lanhua Village.

Wan Baocai was shocked. Can you study in a place like this?

The chairs and desks were broken and dilapidated.

He didn’t know that in such a poor mountain village, it was already a rare thing to have a place to study, and the adults were willing to let their children come to study.

In other villages, most children didn’t even have the opportunity to read and learn characters. It was already difficult to eat their fill, reading and learning characters was a luxury.

It was already rare for a village to have two people who could read!

It was just that Lanhua Village was lucky to have a village chief like Zhao Cheng, who was responsible, serious, and attached great importance to education. The private school he ran charged very little tuition, otherwise, the children in the village wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn characters.

However, even though the village chief’s private school charged very little tuition, it was still a considerable expense for the poor villagers of Lanhua Village. So each family would only send one child of school age to study, and it could only be a boy. They could only study for three years at most. If they couldn’t learn anything in three years, they would go home to farm.

In the whole of Lanhua Village, only Zhao Village Chief’s family and the Shen family would send all their children of school age to study, regardless of gender.

Shen Nian had been attending classes at the private school from time to time since she was two years old. Zhao Village Chief was generous and kind, he didn’t charge her a penny.

Seeing that Shen Nian was actually attending classes with her brothers today, the students in the classroom were excited.

“Nian Nian, why are you free to come today?”

“I miss all of you diligent, studious, and handsome brothers!”

“Oh! Your mouth is as sweet as ever! We miss you too, Nian Nian. Let me tell you, I’ve been working hard these past few days, I’ve been studying very, very seriously, and I’ve learned a lot of characters!”

“I’ve learned more characters than him. Nian Nian, come sit next to me, I’ll show you.”

“What are you looking at? Your writing is ugly, you dare to show it to Nian Nian, be careful that Nian Nian says you’re bad.”

“I won’t say anything bad about Second Brother Zhao. As long as Second Brother Zhao works hard, he’s good. I take Second Brother Zhao as my role model.”

“No, no, no, Nian Nian, I’m your role model, I work harder than him!”

“I work even harder!”

All the children gathered around Shen Nian, vying to show off their knowledge, and they would be happy for a long time after getting a compliment from Shen Nian.

Wan Baocai was dumbfounded.

Shen Feng and his brothers were used to it.

As the students were talking, they were about to reach out and hug Shen Nian. Shen Feng and his brothers saw this and were no longer calm. They quickly pulled Nian Nian over and hid her behind them.

Shen Qi (Fifth Brother): “Just talk, don’t touch me. My Nian Nian is a girl, she can’t stand the smell of your sweat!”

Shen Yu (Sixth Brother): “Girls can’t be touched casually, it’s easy to ruin their reputation. All of you be quiet.”

Shen Xuan (Seventh Brother): “Whoever dares to ruin my sister’s reputation, I won’t let my sister talk to you anymore!”

Shen Ang: “Everyone, disperse, go back to your own seats.”

They said as they led Shen Nian to her seat and made her sit down. They also called Wan Baocai over.

All the students present were speechless.

“No hug, no hug, do you guys have to be like this?”

“What ruined reputation, Nian Nian is only three years old! Stop talking nonsense!”

“Are you bullying us because we don’t have a cute sister like Nian Nian?”

“Nian Nian calls us brothers, she’s our sister too.”

“Go away, we are Nian Nian’s real brothers.”

“You are real brothers, we are adopted brothers.”

All the children wanted to be Shen Nian’s brother.

Wan Baocai was annoyed by their noise and joined in the commotion: “All of you shut up, stop arguing, I’m Nian Nian’s best brother!”

Shen Bei just walked in with a book in his hand and heard this. He smiled and said: “Our Nian Nian has countless brothers!”

Zhao Village Chief was old and often felt unwell. These days, Shen Bei had been teaching in his place.

When they saw him come in, the classroom instantly became quiet. Everyone quickly returned to their seats.

Shen Bei stood on the podium. Shen Nian stood up first, and the students in the classroom also quickly stood up. Only Wan Baocai remained seated, everyone clasped their hands together and said in unison: “Greetings, Master.”

Shen Bei smiled: “Sit down.”

All the students sat down, straight and upright, quiet as a mouse.

Wan Baocai blinked his eyes. These farm boys were too quick to quiet down!

They were chattering just now, and in the blink of an eye, they were silent. They were all serious and sincere, which made him feel uncomfortable.

Shen Bei didn’t waste any time, he started the lesson directly. First, he checked their homework, then he taught new content.

Although he didn’t have any official titles, his knowledge was no less than Zhao Village Chief, who was a Tongsheng. His teaching methods were flexible and varied, and the students listened attentively and seriously.

Wan Baocai actually understood what Shen Bei was teaching, he found that the characters he taught were quite easy to remember.

But he remembered quickly and forgot quickly. After listening for a long time, he started to feel sleepy. He began to yawn.

He turned his head and saw Shen Nian seriously practicing writing with charcoal on a bamboo strip, her focused look was cute and charming.

He glanced at the other students, everyone was diligently practicing writing.

The whole classroom was filled with an atmosphere of hard work and progress.

Wan Baocai’s sleepiness disappeared instantly.

Everyone was working hard, only he was slacking off, he was out of place!

They were just farm boys, did they need to be so hard-working?

Then he looked at the characters Shen Nian wrote, wow! How can a three-year-old write so well?

Huh? He didn’t recognize this character.

Wan Baocai: “…” How embarrassing!

After practicing writing, everyone started reading.

The books in everyone’s hands were all tattered and torn, and the handwriting wasn’t very clear, but their reading voices were full of emotion, with ups and downs, and loud as a bell.

Wan Baocai couldn’t help but feel excited.

Suddenly, he felt that reading wasn’t so boring after all.

He couldn’t help but move closer to Shen Nian, looking at her book and reading along.

He stopped after reading two characters!

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to read, but because he found that he didn’t recognize most of the characters in Shen Nian’s book.

This was embarrassing!

A three-year-old girl can write characters that he can’t write, and read books that he can’t read.

He, he, he… he suddenly realized that except for money, he couldn’t do anything. No, the money wasn’t his, it was his father’s.

…