5. Study

No words were spoken that night. Read 520 official website

What surprised Bai Gui a little was that Bai Youde did not force him to hand over the remaining silver from selling mountain products. He guessed that perhaps because he was a little different from his peers this time, Bai Youde no longer regarded him as a young boy.

He did not think much about it. Because he walked a lot of mountain roads yesterday and was a little tired physically and mentally, Bai Gui slept particularly well that night.

When the sky just broke, several roosters in the yard shook their bodies, then stretched their necks and crowed.

The biological clock rang.

Bai Gui also got up, rubbed his sleepy eyes, yawned, and rolled off the kang. His clothes were very simple. He just put on a layer of linen clothes and got out of bed.

He walked to the stable as usual and prepared to feed the black horse.

Horses are delicate things. They need to be fed four or five times a day, three times with grass and two times with feed. They also have to wake up and feed once at midnight. That's why there is a saying that horses cannot get fat without night grass.

It is not impossible to feed the horse less often on weekdays.

But if the horse is raised to be a poor horse, it is equivalent to causing the boss to lose dozens of taels of silver out of thin air, which is not an offense.

Bai Youde has always been the one who feeds the horse at three o'clock in the morning.

Staying up late at night hurts people.

Early in the morning, when it was still a little dark, Bai Gui heard the noise. He guessed that Bai Youde was going to the city. It takes a day to go there and back.

Starting from Bailu Village, it takes two hours to get to Xi'an City by carriage.

But there is no work in winter, and the boss will not give the extra money for the carriage, so basically they walk from Bailu Village to the city and then walk back.

It takes half a day to go there and half a day to come back.

A total of one day!

Feeding horses requires patience. Bai Gui has long been accustomed to how to feed horses and fatten them up thanks to Bai Youde's words and deeds.

Wait for the half-grown black horse to finish eating the hay.

A quarter of an hour passed.

Liu Mouer, sweating, came out of the other side of the building, carrying a long bench and a high wooden table on his shoulders. "Gui, your father told me to send you to school. Let's go now."

"Big, wait a minute."

Bai Gui felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. He put down the egg shell that had just been licked by the horse and found a black painted wooden board from the corner of the earthen house. It was two feet long and one foot wide. It was found in the broken kiln and taken from a door.

He had shaved it with an axe, so the original appearance could not be seen.

He then filled a gourd with clear water and hung it around his waist. He used the grain bag to put the old pen and inkstone given by Xu Xiucai.

There was no schoolbag.

Even if a schoolbag was used, it had to be sewn with coarse cloth. One foot of coarse cloth cost twenty or thirty wen.

During the Shunzhi and Kangxi periods, the price of one foot of cloth was between more than ten wen and twenty wen. By the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, the price of one foot of cloth fluctuated between thirty and forty wen. Although forced to open the sea, foreign cloth rushed into the Qing market, but it was only limited to the coastal areas. The inland areas had not been greatly affected, and the price was only a few coins lower than before.

During this period, it cost three or four hundred coins to make a set of coarse cloth clothes.

"This is the schoolbag your father asked the master for this morning. It was used by the eldest young master. There are a few patches. Don't dislike it." Liu Mouer touched a folded cloth bag from his waist and looked at the cloth with some envy in his eyes.

The cloth bag was made of a mixture of fine coarse blue cloth and white fine cloth.

The only flaw was that there was a bowl-sized green patch on the front of the cloth bag.

It was a bit ugly.

Bai Gui was a little reluctant to take over the schoolbag.

According to what he had learned during this period, both the eldest master of the Lu family, Lu Taiheng, and the master of the Lu family, Lu Zilin, were extremely stingy. This cloth bag seemed to be destroyed, but in fact, after the stitches were removed and made into cloth, it could be worth more than a hundred coins.

Most of the money of the wealthy families in the village was saved and made from the seams of their mouths.

There is no such thing as giving for nothing.

For example, when Yan Jian in "The Scholars" was in danger of death, he could not close his eyes, just because of the two wicks in the lamp, fearing that the oil would be wasted.

Bai Jiaxuan was one of the few people who could afford Lu Zhaoqian's schooling.

"It was given by the eldest young master..." After hesitating for a while, Liu Mouer told the truth, perhaps he did not know what concealment meant, "This morning your father asked the master to let him buy some books on credit to buy you books. The eldest young master who passed by heard it and said that after you enter school, you will sit next to him. If he has any books, you can read them first. The schoolbag will be given to you."

Compared with the awe-inspiring boss, Bai Gui is more approachable.

When Bai Gui was born, Bai Youde held him and recognized him as his godfather. Bai Youde and he were both long-term workers used by the Lu family, and they had a deep friendship.

It stands to reason that he should not say these gossips.

But if Bai Gui wants to thank the master Lu Zilin for nothing, it is his fault.

He knows what Lu Zilin is like behind the scenes, and he is not a good person.

"Lu Zhaopeng..." Bai Gui was confused for a while, then he regained his spirits and took the patched cloth bag.

It seems easy not to eat food given out of pity.

But it's all about human relationships.

If he didn't carry the schoolbag given by Master Lu today, the Lu family might not say anything on the surface, but in the future, it would be troublesome to prevent his family from working as long-term workers in the Lu family, or find a reason to punish him or his father.

This is the same as socializing. If you are not grateful today, will you make a scene tomorrow?

You have to be on guard.

Bai Gui bit his lip, put the things in the grain bag back into the schoolbag, lifted it on his shoulder, and turned his back to Liu Mouer. His face flushed for a while, and was cold by the wind and snow, and then his face returned to normal.

The road is quite slippery.

After it snows, the road surface is not slippery when you first step on it, but when there are too many people walking on it, the snow turns into ice, so you have to be careful to prevent slipping.

The Lu family is not far from the ancestral hall.

After walking three to four hundred steps and taking less than a cup of tea, he arrived.

In the building on the west side, through the window lattice, you can see several half-year-old children reading a book. They are all wearing cotton-padded jackets and have rosy faces. They take a look at the book and then recite a passage.

"The sky and the earth are dark and yellow, the universe is primitive..."

"The sword is called the Giant Tower, the pearl is called the Luminous..."

"The Master said: When a disciple enters, he should be filial, and when he goes out, he will be a younger brother. He should be sincere and trustworthy, love others universally, and be kind. If you have enough energy to do, you should study literature..."

Some are still reading "The Thousand-Character Classic" from their elementary school years, while some Mongolian children who are making rapid progress have already begun to recite "The Analects of Confucius".

When Bai Gui saw it, a trace of envy flashed in Liu Mouer's eyes.

But he didn't know whether Liu Mouer envied the cotton-padded jacket Meng Tong wore or the books he read.

"Your Majesty, this table and stool will be placed here." Liu Mouer rubbed his hands, then smiled favorably towards the table of Lu Zhaopeng and Lu Zhaohai, "Eldest Young Master, Second Young Master, Your Majesty, today He is studying in this school. If you two give him any instructions, just give him orders. Master said that Guiwazi will be your school boy. "

Lu Zhaopeng and Lu Zhaohai looked as usual, as if they were used to being flattered.

"Stop talking, uncle, you are busy with your own business. Brother Gui has two people to take care of him. No one can bully him." Lu Zhaopeng showed an air of elegance, not like a young master from the countryside, but like Master Xu.

Bai Gui sat cautiously next to the two of them.

His desk and stool were placed next to Lu Zhaopeng and Lu Zhaohai by Liu Mouer, and he sat next to them.