Chapter 56: Unexpected

(Begging for 80 more follow-reads.)

On the second day, Li You got up very early; having eaten oily food these past two days, his body had recovered greatly. Before dawn, he got up and started running. After running several laps, he found his body was incredibly strong, so he picked up a large stone and ran with it as a weight.

After running, Li You saw it was still early, so he continued reading. The three books he had taken the night before, having been snatched on the sly, he hadn't examined closely; two of them were Buddhist scriptures, which left Li You speechless. Fortunately, there was a Song-dynasty edition of the "Records of the Grand Historian."

Reading these now, besides his own love of learning, the most important reason was to make up for his regret of not understanding history.

Being unable to open a God's-eye view after transmigration was like Naruto without the Nine-Tails, or Sun Wukong without the Golden Cudgel; in short, it was terrible.

The economic base determines the superstructure; combining the memories of the original body with the books to expand his horizon, this way he could understand more information.

Although he couldn't recall much of the future historical context, he had modern thinking; he knew which things were turning history backward and which could continue to develop. This advantage would inevitably allow him to surpass many people of his time.

The morning sun, as round as a child's smiling face, as big as a cart wheel, as red as charcoal burning in a boiler, shot forth with ten thousand rays of golden light, climbing up step by step from the ridge due east, from the faint mist, and from the increasingly steady pupils of the crowd.

It shone upon the mountains and fields covered in a layer of white frost, and upon the small figures sitting upright on the riverbed; the clear sound of reading had long since grown even stronger.

Even Yu Zhengchun, Hei Liuzi, and Ceng Ruan, over these eight or nine days, had already formed the habit of getting up early to study. Although they studied terribly, often making Li You throw his head back and howl at the sky before beating them soundly.

Yet they were very happy inside, because they unanimously believed that the hardship of studying was the hardship of being beaten by the teacher; as long as Li You beat them enough, they would achieve academic success.

Regarding the matter of class, Li You truly took it to heart.

Every day, he first reviewed new characters, then used radicals to learn some new characters, and at the same time told them a fairy tale every day...

"... The few swans around took flight. The ugly duckling also spread its broad wings, letting out a 'Woo—Woo—' cry towards the distance, and followed its companions, flying towards the high sky. At this moment, ducks, cats, and roosters looked up at the sky, exclaiming with admiration: 'Ah, what beautiful swans!'"

"'Look how high they fly!' No one knew that among this flock of swans, one was the ugly duckling who had been mocked by everyone in so many ways... Alright, the story is finished."

After Li You finished speaking, for a moment all the children were immersed in the fairy tale world of "The Ugly Duckling." In the miserable life at Longmen Village, which one of them was not living a bitter life soaked in the juice of Phellodendron bark? Yet who in the hearts of children did not hope to be a white swan?

"Brother Husband, am I a white swan?"

Little Xiao Juzi lifted her thin, dark little face and said to Li You. Whether in class or privately, Little Xiao Juzi always said whatever she wanted to say, while the other children seemed more reserved; they had all changed their address to call Li You "Mr.!"

"Hey, of course you are! After enduring these hardships, we are all white swans!"

Li You looked around at the little faces of the children and said.

Song Baishun had studied before; he always felt that this Mr. Li You was completely different from other teachers. But recently, hearing fairy tales like "A Snail Chasing a Dream," he was also bewitched. He wanted to become the white swan in "The Ugly Duckling," wanted to become Simba in the Kingdom of Glory...

Song Man had previously followed Cao Er; Little Niang and Mei Dan'er were also helping in the kitchen. All three had fallen behind in their lessons, so recently they had been studying hard. However, compared to others, she and Little Niang spoke relatively little.

Ceng Ruan, Hei Liuzi, Yu Zhengchun, and Mei Dan'er were whispering among themselves. Li You frowned and shouted: "Hei Liuzi, what are you saying? Speak up!"

"Oh... I want to be a hunter. I don't care about black swans or white swans; I'll shoot them all down and roast them to eat!"

Hei Liuzi said this boldly, without the slightest fear.

Yu Zhengchun, standing nearby, swallowed hard and blinked his eyes, looking at Li You.

Li You really couldn't understand; such a moving story of counterattack, yet Hei Liuzi had drawn such a conclusion. And it was obvious he wasn't the only one who thought so; it must have been the idea of Song Baishun, that little rascal.

Just as Li You was about to explode, Skinny Monkey ran over, saying the Great Steward wanted him to go to Beizhai.

"Did it succeed?"

Li You, delighted, assigned them their lessons, told them to practice writing on the sand, and then he followed Skinny Monkey to Beizhai.

Beizhai was just preparing to eat. This mealtime was actually very familiar to Li You; not to mention the feudal era with two meals a day, even when he was a child he ate two meals: one around 10 o'clock, another at 3 or 4 o'clock; there was definitely no food at night.

The food was millet porridge, relatively thick, plus the leftover meat soup from last night. The dishes were mostly pickled vegetables, plus a plate of dried chili peppers; besides that, there were also steamed cakes.

In the thousand years of feudal times, except for those brief prosperous ages, most of the time people couldn't get enough to eat. Even Mencius's greatest dream was merely to be full for life in a good year and avoid death in a bad year.

Looking at the food, Li You's appetite stirred again. However, Skinny Monkey led him to the inner courtyard, where there was a table of even more exquisite dishes: a baked Beggar's Chicken, plus flaky pastry, shumai, buns, steamed cakes, stir-fried kidneys, and rib soup.

Skinny Monkey quickly withdrew. Only Wu Zhuge, Da Yun'er, and Li You remained at the table. When Li You bowed to Wu Zhuge, his eyes met Da Yun'er's for an instant; only then did Li You sit down.

"The Second Brother is estimated to be returning soon..."

Before even picking up his chopsticks, Wu Zhuge spoke first: "Regarding Gu Laosan's matter, how do you plan to explain it to Cao Er?"

"Gu Laosan wronged me first... if he's killed, he's killed... just a lackey, I think there's nothing to explain!"

"Ha... bold!"

Wu Zhuge laughed heartily, paused, and said: "Last night I tossed and turned thinking about it. What you said isn't without reason; having people rotate at Nanshan indefinitely isn't a long-term solution... Fortunately, Zhang Cang is in charge of the grain rack and has no free hands; the bunch of kids under him usually lack discipline."

So, throw them all over to your Nanshan side. Let you train them in archery, and at the same time, during this period, supervise the mine workers and salt slaves. Then Beizhai won't need to rotate anymore."

"Ah?"

Li You's heart sank; this was completely not what he wanted!

What he had in mind was to pull a team out from the mine workers. The first priority was naturally Wu Dading, Li Qinchen, and the other seven; next were Liu Longjin, Xiang Ying, Wa Qingyun, Qi Jingkun, and others, to quickly establish his own loyal faction.

But with Wu Zhuge's move, he had directly mixed a big handful of sand into his hands. How could he still carry out his schemes?