He’s A Scholar
Jiang Yimian and several others arrived at the town entrance. Yang Er was dozing off leaning against an ox cart. They approached him, and he woke up. His gaze fell on the fish fry and loach fry in the bucket, and he was momentarily stunned.
“You plan to raise fish!”
Jiang Yimian didn’t hide it; she answered casually.
Yang Er was startled, hesitated to speak, and finally said nothing.
The group sat on the ox cart. After a while, several women from other villages came to share the ride.
Yang Er, seeing it was almost noon, didn’t wait any longer and drove the ox cart away.
When the group returned to Qing Stone Village, they could see the smoke rising from every household’s kitchen, and occasionally smell some delicious aromas.
Gousheng rubbed his stomach, feeling a little hungry. He decided to eat a big bowl of rice when he got home.
If they hadn’t been worried about missing Yang Er’s ox cart, they would have eaten something before returning.
Thinking about food, he quickened his pace. From afar, he saw many people busy at the foot of the mountain. The previously empty space was now piled with bricks and tiles, and some wood.
At that time, the Village Chief and an old man with a white beard were standing in front of the pile of wood. He was the one who lived opposite Jiang Yimian’s thatched hut.
The two were talking, and the old man looked dejected and lowered his head.
Gousheng looked at the bricks and tiles and wood on the ground in surprise and exclaimed, “Wow, so many bricks! How big a house are they going to build? Who are these people? They must be so rich!”
Liu Dayong and Zhao Dashu were also full of envy, wondering when they could live in a brick house.
Jiang Yimian didn’t feel anything; she casually glanced at it and walked straight ahead.
The group greeted the Village Chief and didn’t stay long.
However, after a few steps, Jiang Yimian paused.
Li Yishi looked at the old man before him, a little embarrassed. “Scholar Zhang, I understand your intentions, but you also know the situation in the village. There aren’t many people. We couldn’t even run a school before, and after the war and famine, how could we possibly do it now? Your days are hard, and you want to run a school to exchange for some grain. I know this request isn’t excessive, but everyone in the village is busy, and their children are a labor force. They won’t send their children to learn literacy. I still have some corn flour at home; I will send some to you later.”
He knew how difficult Scholar Zhang’s family was, but starting a school was simply unrealistic.
Qing Stone Village, although not as badly ravaged by mountain bandits as other villages, was originally poor and the poorest among several villages. It had few people and little good farmland.
Each family had a lot of land, but the grain produced wasn’t much. They were all on the brink of starvation, let alone reading and writing.
It was good enough if those children had a meal, which family would have the spare money to let them learn literacy?
Scholar Zhang shook his head, sighed, and slowly walked back to his dilapidated thatched hut with his cane.
Jiang Yimian looked at the seemingly stooped back, but felt a little surprised.
She hadn’t expected this old man with a white beard to be a scholar. The few times she had met him, she only thought he looked kind, not like a farmer who spent all day in the fields, but she hadn’t expected him to be a scholar.
If he could teach Xiaoye and the others to read, it would be easier for her.
A scholar would certainly be better than her and could teach more. She wouldn’t have to worry about what she could and couldn’t say every day.
It seemed she had a chance to chat with Scholar Zhang.
When they returned to the small low-lying land, Wang Fengqin was still cooking, clearly waiting for them.
The group stayed at the Jiang Family for dinner and then went about their business.
Old Man Liu was busy with the reclamation project with everyone else, so Liu Dayong and Zhao Dashu went to help after dinner.
Wang Fengqin and several women were also busy. The men were responsible for cutting down trees, while they were responsible for cutting the withered weeds and rootstalks.
Fortunately, the weather hadn’t warmed up yet; otherwise, the grass on the ground would have sprouted from the ground.
Jiang Yimian found some spare buckets and wooden basins from several families and raised the fish fry and loach fry separately.
She was placing the basins in a warm place where they could get some sun.
Xiaoye, Xiao Nuaner, and Daya, upon seeing the new things, curiously gathered around, staring at the fish fry in the buckets and basins, curiously asking, “Elder Sister, when will these small fish grow into big fish? Are they for eating?”
Jiang Yimian met their three pairs of expectant eyes and helplessly replied, “They can be eaten, but not all of them.”
She was planning to exchange them for copper coins. If it was just for eating, the fish in the lotus pond were enough.
Xiao Nuaner nodded vaguely and stared at the small fish fry for a while before going to practice calligraphy with Xiaoye.
After temporarily settling the fish fry, she fed the fish fry and loach fry some chopped earthworms and water plants as food, and then she went to work on the soap.
There wasn’t much pig fat in the cellar. She needed to buy some more when she went to town tomorrow.
After Jiang Yimian finished her work, she scooped several portions into bowls after stirring the contents of the pot into a paste.
She added different pigments to the bowls, mixing them into her desired colors. She then took out piping bags from her space and filled them with the differently colored pastes.
The square boxes that she had asked Gousheng to make were ready. The top was uncovered, while the other five sides could be laid flat or fixed into a square box.
They were well-made, and the boxes were obviously polished. There were no splinters, and they were very smooth.
Jiang Yimian used the piping bags to layer the images she had imagined in her mind into the boxes. Soon, the large boxes were covered with differently colored pastes.
Jiang Yimian glanced at them, a little uneasy. She had watched many videos, but the specific outcome would depend on how the finished products looked after drying.
She covered the square boxes with a dust cloth and put them aside. She then poured the paste from the pot, which was now in various colors and aromas, into individual bamboo tubes.
By the time she finished pouring the paste from the pot, an hour had passed.
Jiang Yimian stretched, cleaned up the kitchen, took out some distillation equipment from her space, distilled some high-concentration alcohol from the wine, and then went to help reclaim the wasteland.
Because there weren’t many dense weeds on the ground, the reclamation wasn’t too difficult. With Jiang Yimian’s help, cutting down trees became easier.
The group worked until nightfall before resting.
After Jiang Yimian finished her meal, she remembered to put the fish fry and loach fry indoors.
The weather was still cold, so she had to keep the fish fry and loach fry warm; otherwise, they would freeze to death before they grew up.
When others learned that she was raising fish and loach, although they didn’t have much objection, they were still a little apprehensive. No one had experience raising fish, so they were naturally worried.
Old Man Liu came to take a look. Seeing that the fish fry and loach fry were all lively and kicking, he was barely reassured. He started to think about how to ensure the survival of the fish fry.
Since Yimian wanted to raise fish, he couldn’t let her waste copper coins in vain. He had to figure out a good way to raise the fish.