320 Opening a Private School
The weather gradually turned cold. In the blink of an eye, it was winter. Other than Wang Chuanyuan and his wife, who still had to do business, the rest of the Wang family returned to the Hu Family Village.
When Wang Wulang and the others found out that there was something called sugarcane planted at home, they were all excited.
It was said that this thing was sweet and juicy. It could even be used to make sugar. Would their family never lack sugar after planting it?
In fact, they were not short of sugar now. Previously, their Grandma had bought a large bucket of malt sugar from somewhere. They could have a taste of it every few days. Now, they were no longer that greedy.
Previously, they had left a portion of wild fruits for planting in the mountainous area. The other dried branches and wild vines were all chopped off to be used as firewood, and the land was used to plant sugar cane.
The children still felt that it was not enough and wanted to explore a few more acres of mountainous land, but they were scolded by Old Madam Wang. “You have to participate in the Junior Examination at the beginning of spring. Don’t you know to be vigilant? Do you want our Wang’s family’s money to go down the drain? When spring comes next year, whoever doesn’t pass will farm at home for half a year!”
Wang Wulang and the others were dumbfounded. “But we’ve only studied for less than a year. How can we pass the exam!”
Only Wang Wulang dared to talk back to Old Madam Wang. The others were already frightened and shivering like quails.
Old Madam Wang sneered. “I don’t care. I only care about the results. In any case, whoever doesn’t get in, farm for me! Or, you can quit studying now. Just farm at home and let your brothers study in town.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Wang Dalang blurted out, “Then, I’ll just farm. I’ll let my younger brothers study.”
Actually, it was not that Wang Dalang did not want to study. Old Master Hu in the village was still teaching him.
Elder Hu was very strict when he taught his students. The children complained endlessly. When he thought about how he would have to study like this for the next few decades, Wang Dalang felt a headache coming on.
He would rather pick dung.
Moreover, most of their farm work was done by the villagers. Wang Dalang did not have much to do himself.
Moreover, they had a high yield of crops, and their grandmother had mentioned a few ways to cultivate fertilizer. Ever since they used those fertilizers, there were not many weeds in the ground. Instead, the soil became more and more nutritious, and they had less to do.
Now, the land of each family was already harvested. Only the ones used to plant sugarcane were left.
From now until next spring, everyone had nothing serious to do.
Old Madam Wang glared at Wang Dalang. “You don’t know what’s good for you. Many people want to study, but they can’t. But you actually want to avoid it.”
Wang Dalang smiled honestly. “I’m not cut out for studying. Grandma, you should spend the money on my younger brothers.”
He needed to farm well so that the family would not starve. This was also an achievement, right?
Speaking of studying, Village Chief Hu found Old Madam Wang and wanted to ask her if there were any teachers in town who could be invited to the village.
“That’s what we plan to do. We’ve had two successive bumper harvests this year. If nothing goes wrong next year, it should be a bumper harvest year as well. After paying the taxes, every family will enjoy a surplus. We want to let the children study.
However, we don’t know much about the private schools in the other villages. In addition, we’re a little far away, so we wanted to invite a teacher to open a private school in our village. We’ll help build the school and choose the land. In addition to tuition and gifts, the teacher will also be provided with three meals a day. It’s just that we don’t know as many people as Madam, so we wondered if Madam could hook us up and find a more reliable teacher.”
Old Madam Wang’s gaze turned to Chi Ding beside her.
Now, Chi Ding was already known to everyone. He was active in the Wang family as a helper.
Chi Ding trembled. “Old Madam, I don’t know how to read, let alone teach!”
What could he teach? Teach children how to assassinate people?