Chapter 8: Teaching

After leaving the blacksmith’s shop, Li Si went to a carpenter’s shop. He wanted to buy a peach wood sword, but after inquiring, he found that this carpenter’s shop didn’t have any peach wood. The carpenter said peach wood couldn’t become large timber, its texture was too soft, and it couldn’t be used to make furniture, so he didn’t have any peach wood.

Li Si was somewhat unwilling to give up, so he went to several other carpenter’s shops, but they all said they didn’t have any. When he asked if they could order one, he was told there was no peach wood in the area.

“How can there be none?” Li Si was a bit puzzled. He remembered that in his memories, peach wood swords could ward off evil. So peach wood swords should be a hot-selling item. However, in this world, the evil-repelling effect of peach wood wasn’t known at all.

With these doubts, he walked home, but saw some children waiting outside his door.

Li Si looked at the sun and found it was almost the hour of Monkey (3-5 pm), so he walked over and greeted them, “You’ve come so early.”

“Teacher,” a group of children respectfully bowed.

Seeing them bow to him, Li Si felt a bit strange, but he couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t tell them not to bow, could he? In this world, etiquette was still very important. Even if someone was good at studying and taking exams, if they didn’t know propriety, others would still look down on them.

Walking to the door, he opened the lock, and a group of children followed him in.

“Wait here, I’ll be back soon,” Li Si went into the kitchen and got some unburned charcoal from under the stove. He began to write on the wooden board he had bought from the carpenter’s shop. What he wrote was “Pitying the Farmers” by Li Shen from the Tang Dynasty.

In the midday sun, they hoe the fields,
Sweat drips to the earth below.
Who knows the food on their plates,
Each grain comes from such toil.

Under the gaze of the children, Li Si walked into the hall, placed the wooden board on a chair, let the children sit on the ground, and sat on a stool himself. Pointing at the wooden board, he said, “This is a poem about pitying farmers. The ‘pity’ in ‘pitying farmers’ means to sympathize, to feel compassion. Do you understand?”

“We understand!”

“Then do you know where food comes from?” Li Si’s face relaxed, and he asked with a smile.

“From the vegetable market,” Yu Hu immediately answered, then seemed to think he was clever and looked proudly at his companions.

“That’s correct in a way, but where does it come from before the vegetable market?” Li Si smiled. This answer was correct, but it wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

“I know, I know,” a skinny, dark-skinned child raised his hand and said, “It’s grown from the fields.”

This child was from a nearby farming family, so he had some understanding of farming.

Li Si nodded with satisfaction and asked this child, “Sun Zhi, is farming tiring?”

“It’s very tiring. My father leaves before dawn every day, works in the fields at noon, and only returns home when it’s almost dark. My father’s back can hardly straighten up now.” Sun Zhi started speaking with excitement at being noticed by the teacher, but towards the end, his mood became a bit low.

“Sun Zhi, you answered very well,” Li Si first praised Sun Zhi, comforting his emotions, then turned to the other children and said, “Every grain of food we eat is grown from the soil. It’s because of hardworking people like Sun Zhi’s father that we can have food to eat. When we finish our food, it’s a way of respecting these hardworking farmers. Do you understand?”

“We understand!” the children responded in unison. Some of the children from farming families had tears in their eyes. They had never heard anyone praise farmers before. In this world, the status of farmers wasn’t high.

Although the social hierarchy was scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant, the “farmer” here didn’t refer to poor farmers and tenants, but to landowners.

Now, hearing Li Si’s praise for farmers, it was the first time they had heard such words, so it was very touching for these children from farming families.

“Now let’s learn this poem. Listen to me read it first.” Li Si smiled and recited, “In the midday sun, they hoe the fields, Sweat drips to the earth below. Who knows the food on their plates, Each grain comes from such toil.”

Li Si’s strong and resonant voice rang out in the room, making the children feel that this poem was easy to remember.

Combined with the questions Li Si had asked earlier, they felt this poem was truly excellent and immediately understood it.

Then Li Si led the children in reading it several times, and began to teach them to recognize the characters and meanings in the poem. These children were extremely well-behaved and attentive.

Because in this world, being able to read was a very remarkable thing. Most people could only recognize a few dozen characters, and sometimes when reading official documents, it took a group of people piecing together to read them out.

After the children had memorized this poem thoroughly, Li Si took out a sand tray from the study and taught them to write their own names in the sand. Then he wrote their names on small wooden pieces and gave them to take home to practice writing.

Finally, he gave them the wooden board with “Pitying the Farmers” written on it, letting them take it home to study and look at together.

Telling them to come back at the hour of Monkey tomorrow, Li Si saw them out.

After they left, Li Si pondered for a long time. This teaching of the children was something he had thought about for a long time. The original owner had previously educated and enlightened these children, and if he didn’t do this, the reputation accumulated by the original owner might dissipate completely, and some people might even resent him. Reputation was also very important to him, as he would have great use for it in the future, so he didn’t mind teaching these children.

Moreover, he felt that enlightening children was a very pleasant thing to do. At least these children were very respectful to him and wouldn’t dare to disrespect him.

Looking at the sky, it was already the hour of Rooster (5-7 pm). Li Si went to a nearby restaurant and ordered a dish, then feeling unsatisfied, ordered some wine.

The wine now was still low-alcohol rice wine, but Li Si drank until he felt a bit tipsy, though his mind was still relatively clear.

After eating, Li Si walked home. At this time, he heard the sound of the night watchman on the street.

“The weather is dry, be careful with fire and candles.”

The night watchman’s call, slow then fast, was repeated three times. Li Si’s tipsiness immediately dissipated. He saw that the street was somewhat dim, the road a bit hazy, and pedestrians gradually becoming fewer.

“Night has fallen,” Li Si sighed softly, quickening his pace towards home. He estimated that after sunset, ghost creatures might appear. Although he wanted to gain soul points, he wasn’t prepared yet. He needed to first understand the abilities of the Beheaded Ghost. Then he would go to Landlord Zhang’s house to take a look.
He couldn’t rush now. He still had more than a year, and in over a year, he should be able to get 200 soul points somehow. He believed that as long as he didn’t give up and proceeded steadily, he would definitely live better and better in this world.

Entering the house, Li Si took out the cloth bag hanging on his chest, and from it, he took out a mottled ink jade. With a thought, a delicately carved child appeared in the room.