"Brother Jiang, I want to order eight baskets of longevity peaches for tomorrow's lunch. Can you take it?"
"Okay, come pick it up yourself tomorrow morning!"
"This is the deposit. Please keep it for now. I'll have someone bring a receipt over tomorrow to pick it up."
"Hey, remember to keep the note. I only recognize notes and not people!" Jiang Miao made it clear with him first, otherwise when the time comes, one of his people will come to get it, and someone else will come again with the note.
"Don't worry, I know your rules." The man hurried away with the note given by Jiang Miao.
Jiang Miao weighed the copper coins in his hand and went to buy food with a basket.
Since asking Zhao Xing to help him advertise a few days ago, Jiang Miao has received several orders in the past few days. The quantity is not large, but it is still profitable, at least more than what he sells at the stall. As expected, in this world, no matter what you do, your appearance is important. Even good-looking buns are more expensive.
When Jiang Miao thought of appearance, the image of the most beautiful person he had ever seen here suddenly appeared in his mind. He said "bad luck", not knowing whether he was spitting on himself or scolding Mr. Pei.
He walked around, bought everything he needed, and returned to the yard.
"Brother Jiang, are you back?"
As soon as Jiang Miao entered the yard, Aunt Liu, who was washing vegetables in the yard, called him.
"Auntie Liu, it's almost noon. Why haven't you sent your son Yijie to the private school today?" Jiang Miao saw a fair-skinned little boy sitting in front of the door, reading a book in his hands.
In the past, when he came back from the stall, Aunt Liu had already sent her grandson to a private school, but today he was still staying at home so late.
"His teacher went out today because of something. When we got there, his wife told them to go home and review their lessons!" Aunt Liu was a little unhappy when she mentioned this. This teacher was always busy two or three days a month, and every time he sent his students back to review their lessons.
"He went out again? He has gone out several times this month, right?" Jiang Miao had been here for less than a month, and he had heard about it several times. The primary school students here also had a hard time. They had no weekends off, and had to go to school almost every day except the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month.
It would have been fine if he hadn't said anything. But when he did, Aunt Liu couldn't help but complain, "That's right! You said you pay 500 coins a month! He only paid nearly 20 coins a day. His teacher has been out three times this month and earned 50 or 60 coins for nothing! If this private school wasn't the closest to home and everyone around here knows someone, I would have wanted to change his private school!"
"Yes, my Jingyu came back yesterday and said that Master Liang didn't teach well and made them read the same passage every day. Half a month ago, I heard him reading about heaven, earth and man, and he was still reading the same thing when he came home yesterday!" Mrs. Bai came out to fetch water and heard them talking, and immediately joined the crusade team. His Wenyu was older and went to a farther academy, where the teacher was more responsible.
"Why don't you go to their private school to report the situation of this teacher? At least get someone to look after him." As soon as Jiang Miao said this, he saw Aunt Liu and Aunt Bai looking at him with strange eyes.
"Mrs. Liang is notoriously aggressive. Anyone who goes to her house and says something bad about her will be scolded by her. She won't care about Mr. Liang and may even be secretly happy about it!" Mrs. Bai obviously had some opinions about her.
Jiang Miao finally understood that he had taken it for granted that modern schools were applied to ancient times, thinking that there were still principals and the like, but he did not expect that small private schools like this one, which were located in the streets and alleys, were all contracted by one person. There was no principal or teacher, they were all one person.
"Then you should change to another private school. Isn't this misleading the students?" Jiang Miao said. He felt that the environment had a great influence on people. Otherwise, why are those sky-high priced school district houses sold so expensively nowadays? Isn't it because of the strong school conditions and teaching staff inside
"You're right. After this month's study, we'll have the New Year holiday. Next year, I will definitely not let Yijie go to study with him!" After being persuaded by him, Aunt Liu finally made up her mind.
"Me too. I'd rather go farther than spend money and waste time!" said Mrs. Bai. When Wen Yu comes back in the evening, she will ask him to go to the academy to ask if they accept children aged seven or eight.
"Brother!" A little boy ran out of Jiang Miao's house. Aunt Liu and Aunt Bai only knew that Jiang Miao brought a child back these days, but they hadn't taken a closer look at him. Now that they called him out, they kept staring at him, which made Xiao Shitou panic and he quickly hid behind Jiang Miao.
"Auntie and sister-in-law, this is my brother Jiang Lei, nicknamed Little Stone. He is rather timid and doesn't like to go out very often." After introducing him, Jiang Miao pulled out Little Stone who was hiding behind him: "Don't be afraid, this is Auntie Liu, and this is Sister Bai, hurry up and call them."
"Hello, Aunt Liu. Hello, Aunt Bai." Little Stone's face was thin, which made his eyes look particularly big. The two of them couldn't help but feel a sense of pity when they were looked at by these watery eyes.
"How old is the child?"
"Six years old. After the New Year, I will be seven."
"He can be sent to school next year. In my opinion, it's a good thing for a child to recognize a few words. Nowadays, those who recruit workers outside like to hire people who can recognize words!" Aunt Liu said earnestly. She has always been proud to have a educated person in her family.
"Yes, I will send him next year. I will ask Jingyu and Yijie to help me keep an eye on him. The three of us will be together and will not be easily bullied." Jiang Miao touched Xiao Shitou's head. In his opinion, children should study, not for becoming an official or getting rich, but just to understand more truths, and not to wait until they suffer in life to sum up.
"That's right! We are from the same courtyard, so we can't let others bully us." Aunt Liu said. Now that her grandson has two companions, she has more confidence to let him go to study elsewhere.
After returning to the house with the basket, Jiang Miao started to cook. Xiao Shitou sat in front of the stove and helped to light the fire, looking up at Jiang Miao from time to time, as if he wanted to ask something but didn't dare to.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke: "Brother..."
"What's wrong?"
He didn't know what was the use of studying, but he envied the man for being able to read and write. If he could read a little, he could ask someone to send a letter to his brother and ask him to come back to see him.
Now that his brother has bought him back, he still wants to go to school. Even Xiao Shitou himself feels that he is a little greedy.
"Of course. Why do you ask?" Jiang Miao was a little surprised. Could it be that this child is tired of studying
"It costs a lot of money to study." A lot, more than buying it!
"Don't be afraid. Didn't you go to earn money with your brother last time? And you have been helping your brother make birthday peaches these days. You have earned so much money! Are you still afraid that you can't continue your studies?" Jiang Miao wrapped up the dozen taels of silver and stuffed them into the gap between the bricks under the bed, while the other copper coins were left in the jar.
"That money is for my brother to marry a wife!"
Jiang Miao laughed: "Brother is still young, there is no need to rush to get married now. I can still get married when you grow up."
“But…” Little Stone wanted to retort that many people in the village who were his brother’s age had married.
"Don't say buts, come and eat. I've made you your favorite fried meat." Jiang Miao didn't want to receive any more requests for marriage from his brother, so he interrupted him and tried to shut his mouth with food.
"Ah Che, what's that in your hand?" Han Qin sat on the railing of the pavilion and looked down. He saw Pei Che holding something that looked like a painting. He jumped off the railing and reached out to grab it.
Pei Che turned his hand and hid the painting behind him, avoiding Han Qin's clutches.
"Don't let people see it! Could it be that... you are painting a picture of a beauty?" The pair of peach blossom eyes flashed with a strange light, and it was obvious that he was thinking about some messed up things in his mind.
"laugh!"
On the railing on the other side, there was a man in black clothes sitting, and the sarcastic sneer came from his mouth.
"Hey, Su Jin, what do you mean?" Han Qin glared at him fiercely.
"Besides you, who else would talk about beauties all day long? Just think about it and you will know that what Ache painted could not be a picture of a beauty." Su Jin ignored Han Qin, but He Chen, who was sitting on a stool in the pavilion, took over the conversation and explained it for him.
"You guys don't know anything. You're just jealous that I'm favored by those beauties. I won't bother with you." Seeing that they teamed up to deal with him, Han Qin felt that he was no match for them, so he quickly brought the topic back to the original topic. "A Che, what exactly are you drawing?"
"You'll know after you see it." Pei Che walked over and spread out the scroll in his hand on the stone table. "Take a look, is this painting different from the previous one?"
There was a hidden expectation in his words. As they had known him since childhood, they could naturally hear it. Their curiosity was immediately aroused and they all gathered around the table to admire it carefully.
The painting shows a snowy day with snowflakes floating in the sky. Not far away there is a mountain covered with snow. Several plum trees are stretching out on the mountain with a few red plum blossoms dotted on the branches, showing vitality in this world of ice and snow, which makes people admire it.
But what was the difference between this and his previous paintings? It couldn't be that the scenery was different, right? Han Qin and Su Jin looked at it from all angles, but they didn't find any obvious difference between this painting and his previous paintings.
Among the four, He Chen had the highest attainment in painting. After looking for a long time, he pointed to one spot and said, "Ah Che, is this the difference you were talking about?"
The place he was pointing to was under a few plum trees. There seemed to be less snow there than in other places, and the shapes of the trees could be vaguely seen, like the shadows left by the plum trees when illuminated by light. This also made the plum trees in the entire painting more vivid, as if they were standing up from the painting.
"Not bad!" Pei Che gave him an appreciative look. The faint sense of complacency revealed in it made everyone feel very fresh.
"What are you talking about? Why can't I see any difference?" Han Qin stretched his peach blossom eyes into almond eyes, but still couldn't find any difference. After He Chen explained it to him, he suddenly understood.
"Ah Che, sure! I was wondering why you were in seclusion at home these days. It turns out you have figured out a new skill!"
"It's not that I figured it out myself, but someone pointed it out to me."
"Who is so great? Which master is he? Is it the one who asked to paint for you before? What's his name?" Han Qin joked.
Pei Che glared at him and said, "His name is Brother Jiang, not a master."
Brother Jiang
The three of them were speechless. What kind of a name is this
(End of this chapter)