Chapter 94 - Donkey Car (2/2)

At noon, Xiaocao came back to the house to take an hour nap. When she got up, she helped her mother and Xiaolian to prepare the fish to make pickled fish. In the afternoon, Xiaolian and Little Shitou would go to the docks to sell more braised food.

It was actually quite funny. Xiaolian had been going to the docks for about four to five days now, but none of the customers at the docks had realized the two girls were different people, except for Brother Six. Little Shitou said that Brother Six seemed to be very surprised when he came over once to buy pickled fish, but the man didn’t say a word.

Xiaocao and Xiaolian were a set of identical twins. In the past, Xiaocao had a sickly constitution and had stunted growth since birth. Her body was thin and weak, and she had a deathly pale pallor. On the other hand, Xiaolian had followed her mother around doing household chores for years. Although her body was also thin, it had a strong foundation and her skin was tanner. It was still easy to tell the two girls apart, even if they weren’t standing right next to each other.

At the present, things had changed. With the little divine stone by her side every day, Xiaocao had been slowly nourished by its power until her body was strong and healthy. She even grew a decent amount of height in the past half year and had almost caught up to Xiaolian, who had previously been half a head taller than her. As for Xiaolian, she had been washing her face every day with the mystic-stone water. In addition, everything she ate and drank had been touched by the stone’s water. Thus, her previously somewhat coarse and tanned skin had been transformed into soft and bright skin.

Now if someone glanced at the two of them, there was hardly a difference between the two. However, those who were familiar with the two girls could still in a glimpse catch the differences. Xiaocao’s eyes were always bright and Xiaolian, from time to time, would reveal a cute and silly expression...

From what Shitou was saying, it seemed like Brother Six, who she had only seen a few times, was able to tell the difference between her and Xiaolian with one look? Xiaocao was a bit puzzled by this scenario.

However, she quickly put that thought to the back of her mind as other ideas came to the forefront. Because they could earn almost three hundred copper coins a day, the whole family labored busily with an optimistic outlook towards the future.

Time passed quickly until it was the day that Qian Wen was coming back for his break. In this time period, possibly due to the influence of the transmigrator who established the current dynasty, all of the schools in the country were using the modern day schedule: five days of study with two days of break. Other than the people who rented apartments in town to live in, most of the other students boarded at the dormitories. On the first day of the week, classes started at 7 am in the morning, and on the fifth day, classes ended at 5 pm. This meant that those who lived close to home could spend three nights and two days there!

Yu Hai intentionally brought some braised food over to the Qian Family when he called on them. He wanted to ask them for guidance and get help in determining what Shitou need to bring to school and other such details.

When Qian Wen found out that Little Shitou had been accepted into the academy by the recommendation of the headmaster, he felt simultaneously happy for the little boy and a tiny bit of envy grew in his heart. The headmaster of Rongxuan Academy was the most famous scholar of his generation. All of the students in the academy had wanted to enter the school based off of his reputation.

However, the headmaster rarely taught the beginner classes. In fact, even the intermediate and higher level classes were infrequently graced by his presence. Great Scholar Yuan only gave out pointers and coached the students who were close to participating in the metropolitan civil exams.

If one could catch Great Scholar Yuan’s attention, then obtaining first place at the examinations would not be difficult at all. The graduates from the academy who had achieved first to third place in the imperial examinations had all been personally guided by the headmaster himself.

Little Shitou had just turned six but was bright and eager to learn. He frequently came over to Qian Wen’s residence to learn how to read and write characters. The little fellow learned quickly and only required one to two repetitions before he could remember it. Qian Wen would have never expected that the boy would be so lucky that the headmaster would recognize his talent while selling food at the docks...

The early morning of spring had a chilly nip in the air. The branches of willow trees by the road had already started to become tender and flexible. One could occasionally see a few strands of green within the patches of withered grass. All of this combined started to make people feel like spring had finally arrived.

On the days when Old Zhang wasn’t delivering firewood to town, he could always be found at the crack of dawn at the crossroads with his ox cart. Rides were offered to a few villagers who needed to go to town and the cost for the ride was one copper coin a person. Old Zhang could make some spending money from this.

Usually, it was considered a good day if he could earn around ten to eighteen coppers from his ride services. The vast majority of villagers were frugal and didn't want to spend that one coin, so they mostly used their own legs to get to town.

Today was the end of the two day break for students. There were a few children in the nearby villages who all studied at the schools in town. Although most of them weren’t at Rongxuan Academy, having scholarly talents alone was enough to make their parents proud. Those families who were able to pay the schooling fees naturally didn’t lack that one copper coin for the ox cart ride. Thus, all of those parents who dearly loved their children would always spend a copper coin to let them hitch a ride to town whenever Old Zhang wasn’t hauling firewood.

Old Zhang was flabbergasted when he saw Yu Hai and his two kids next to Qian Wen. He asked curiously, “Dahai, are you going into town to get your leg checked out?”

Yu Hai’s entire face was wreathed in happiness as he shook his head, “No, Older Uncle Zhang. My leg has already healed. Cao’er and I are bringing Shitou to town to go to school!”

“He’s going to town to study? The yearly tuition is quite a lot, isn’t your family…” Old Zhang didn’t continue his train of thought and merely looked sympathetically at Yu Hai.

Yu Hai’s expression didn’t change and continued to smile brightly, “The academy told us that we can delay paying the first two months of tuition. After a few days, when my leg is completely better, I’ll go hunting in the mountains. Won’t I have the schooling fees then? No matter how hard or rough it gets, I can’t hold my children back!”

“You still dare to go up the mountain?! The last time you came back you were all bloody! It truly scared the heck out of all the villagers! Just be a little bit more poor, ah, who knows what’s in those mountains? The less you go the better!” Old Zhang begged Yu Hai to reconsider out of concern.