Chapter 53: A Scholarly Family

Qiulian Niang stood beside Zhao Youcai, and hearing her husband say such things, she smiled with some pride: "My eldest son, Tiezhu, is fourteen years old this year and can be considered half a laborer. Dagang, write his name down too."

"Hey, alright!"

The couple made a good start, and immediately others followed suit and signed up enthusiastically.

"Li Zheng, count me in too! I'll also participate in digging the trench."

"Dagang, add me too!"

More and more people signed up to participate in digging the trench, which made the faces of the few people on the side who held opposing opinions look very ugly.

Zhao Wulai was one of them. He looked at Jiang Wei, who was standing outside the crowd, spat, and cursed: "Stinking woman, I don't know what kind of sinister tricks she used to make the Li Zheng listen to her so much. Why should everyone go dig a trench..."

While cursing, he looked wantonly at Jiang Wei's slender waist, feeling a ball of fire burning in his lower abdomen.

Jiang Wei was sharp and soon noticed Zhao Wulai, who was looking at her. Her eyes sank, and a dark color flashed in her pupils.

But she didn't say anything, just silently walked to Jiang Xiaoxiao's side.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was standing beside Liu Dagang, watching him record the names of the villagers with a brush, stroke by stroke.

He was writing very laboriously, and the strokes were crooked, like a dog's scrawl.

When he encountered characters he didn't know how to write, he even just used an 'X' to represent them.

Liu Dagang had attended a private school for a few years when he was young, but because of the famine in the village, his family couldn't even afford to eat, so he stopped attending and came home.

Over the past few years, he had almost forgotten the few characters he could remember.

"Big Brother Dagang, the 'Lin' character in Zhang Dalin is written wrong..." Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the crooked characters and finally couldn't help but speak helplessly.

"Ah, wr-written wrong? Where is it written wrong?" Hearing Jiang Xiaoxiao say he wrote it wrong, Liu Dagang couldn't help but scratch his head embarrassedly, while using the brush to draw an 'X' over the 'Mu' character, preparing to rewrite it, but after writing for a long time, he still couldn't write it.

Jiang Xiaoxiao could only say: "You wrote one 'Mu' character less; it takes two 'Mu' characters to form 'Lin'..."

"Oh, oh..." Liu Dagang suddenly realized, and just as he was about to write, he seemed to realize something, opened his eyes wide in disbelief, and turned to look at Jiang Xiaoxiao: "Xiaoxiao, when did you learn these characters?"

Hearing this, Jiang Xiaoxiao was stunned, and then she laughed it off: "Haha, that, it was my mother who taught me."

This character was in the "Three Character Classic"; she shouldn't have exposed herself, right...

Just then, Jiang Wei walked over. She glanced at Liu Dagang's dog-scrawl-like characters, and a trace of helplessness flashed across her face as she said: "Yes, I taught her."

"Really? Xiaoxiao's mother, you are literate too?!" Someone on the side couldn't believe it.

Before Jiang Wei could speak, the Li Zheng snorted proudly on the side: "Of course, before Xiaoxiao's mother came to our village, her family was a scholarly family. Her father was a private tutor, so naturally, she is literate!"

After the Li Zheng's personal certification, everyone didn't doubt it anymore, but their faces still carried some surprise.

"Wow! A private tutor!"

"I heard that to be a private tutor, one must at least be a scholar. Could it be that before Jiang Shi married into our village, her family was really a scholarly family?!"

"If that's really the case, then the Li family climbed high by marrying Jiang Shi!"

Li Family Old Man, who was hiding outside the crowd in the distance and had almost no presence, frowned upon hearing this.

How come he didn't know Jiang Shi was literate?

Jiang Shi came to their village five years ago as a refugee. It was said that all her family members had died. At that time, every household was poor, and it was enough to have food to eat. Their family bought Jiang Shi as the Third Son's wife for two jin of grain.

Thinking about the years Jiang Shi had been married into their family, she had always been silent, like a wooden gourd, and didn't seem to have said she was literate...

"Bah, this bitch was hiding it from our family. Truly heartless. If our family hadn't given her a bite to eat back then, she wouldn't know if she could have survived until now!" Li Family Old Woman cursed angrily on the side, her fierce gaze glaring at Jiang Wei in the crowd.

But cursing was cursing; she didn't dare to go directly to find trouble with Jiang Wei like before.

The Li Zheng in the crowd noticed the old couple and said directly: "Li Yongqiang, who is your family sending to dig the trench?"

"Send who? My family won't..." Li Family Old Woman just wanted to refuse outright, but was pulled by Li Family Old Man, "My family's Shoucai will go dig."

Since so many people in the village were participating, if their family refused again, it would seem uncooperative.

"Alright, Dagang, write down Li Shoucai's name." The Li Zheng instructed.

"Hey, alright, Father!" Liu Dagang wrote two strokes, his brows furrowed again, and he turned to ask Jiang Xiaoxiao: "Xiaoxiao, how do you write the 'Cai' character?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "..."

How can you ask so naturally??

"Wasted two years of schooling on you, can't even write a character well!" The Li Zheng waved his big hand, simply let Liu Dagang move aside, and handed the brush to Jiang Wei, "Xiaoxiao's mother, I saw the characters you wrote before were quite good. Why don't you record the names for the villagers?"

With the Li Zheng asking her in front of so many people, Jiang Wei couldn't refuse and had to agree.

She took the brush, sat on the small stool Liu Dagang handed over, and began to write.

The three characters "Li Shoucai" appeared fluently on the paper. The small regular script was written neatly, vigorous and powerful, extremely beautiful.

It formed a sharp contrast with the dog-scrawl-like characters Liu Dagang wrote before.

Liu Dagang squatted on the side, covering his face in shame.

Jiang Xiaoxiao stood on the side and patted his shoulder to comfort him. It's okay; her mother is the female lead after all, with the female lead halo, everything she does is top-notch. Being compared isn't something shameful.

Everyone gathered around to watch and let out a collective exclamation.

"My goodness, even I, who am illiterate, can see that these characters are written really well!"

"Xiaoxiao's mother is a talented person; these characters look like they have been practiced hard!"

Zhao Wulai was also watching Jiang Wei writing with the brush outside the crowd.

Even sitting on a low stool, her back was straight, and the expression on her delicate face was indifferent and distant, but her movements always carried a bit of composure.

The more Zhao Wulai looked, the bigger the fire in his lower abdomen burned. His heart felt like thousands of ants were crawling on it, itching unbearably.

As he watched, his gaze inadvertently fell on Jiang Xiaoxiao on the side.

The five-year-old child was dressed cleanly, and her little face was also white and clean, with red lips and white teeth. Even though she was young, one could see that her eyebrows and eyes were extremely well-formed.

Zhao Wulai couldn't help but swallow his saliva and cursed in his heart: Sure enough, they are mother and daughter, each one is so seductive!

He really couldn't suppress the fire, rubbed his crotch twice, and simply turned and left.

Halfway there, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a slender and weak figure sneaking toward the foot of the mountain at the end of the village.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 54 =====