met free Chapter 82 The Hunter's Daughter in a Fictional World (Part 7)
Chapter 82 The Hunter's Daughter in a Fictional World (Part 7)
When the car passed by her grandmother's house, Liu Yuxi got out of the car and went into the yard with the money box in her arms, while Wang Dahe drove a cart full of pig offal to the village's riverbank. Liu Yuxi would then notify her aunts to bring their tools and go directly to the riverbank.
When I got home, I gave the money box to my grandmother. Because I gave away quite a lot today and bought ten sets of pig offal, I lost a little money today. However, I had already calculated the costs beforehand. Now it depends on how much the county town can absorb.
In the afternoon, Liu Yuxi, her grandfather, and her three uncles built a five-burner stove in her yard and put up a shed on top of it. It was too hot to burn firewood inside the house in the summer, so it was better to put up a shed in the yard. In the winter, they could put straw mats around the shed to block the wind and keep warm. Moreover, since they needed too many burners, it was more convenient to build it in the yard.
The children in the family all went to the foot of the mountain to gather firewood, as they would need more firewood in the future, and they needed to prepare early. That evening, they discussed that if orders increased, they would find a few women from close relatives in the village to help clean the pig offal; 300 coins a month would be a sure thing. The whole family couldn't afford to be burdened with just this one task.
The old scholar in the village, lacking talent, opened a private school in the village after failing the imperial examinations three times. However, the teaching level was not as high as that of the private schools in the county town. He only accepted children from his own family and nearby villages. The tuition was not high, and it could only be considered as teaching you to recognize characters and do arithmetic. If he encountered a child with high aptitude, the old scholar would suggest that the parents send the child to a private school in the county town to continue their studies.
However, very few farming families could afford to support a student. The cost of a year's tuition at a private school in the county was two taels of silver. Add to that the cost of writing materials, food, and a decent set of clothes for a student. And that's the annual expense. So, most families simply couldn't afford it.
In Liu Yuxi's maternal grandfather's family, his eldest and second maternal uncles missed the opportunity to attend school. When the old scholar opened his private school, only his youngest uncle was of suitable age. So, the family sent his youngest uncle to study with the old scholar for two years. Every day after returning home, the youngest uncle would teach his eldest and second maternal uncles. This was basically how every family did it. How could they let all the children go to school? Was it free? Who would do the housework?
So all three uncles were literate. When it came to the eldest cousin's generation, it was naturally the eldest cousin who went to school. However, among the cousins over ten years old, none of them had any talent for studying. The original owner was not interested in studying, so she only learned a little at her maternal grandmother's house, and she was not as good as her cousins.
As for the younger ones, they'll have to learn from Wang Cheng, who's from his maternal uncle's family. He's currently studying at a private school. Farm children are considered adults by the age of 13 or 14, so how could we let you waste your time in school? It's not like we haven't given you opportunities. We let you study before, but you didn't learn anything remarkable, did you?
No one objected to the family's decision. After all, the conditions were what they were, and every child had learned to read. Not to mention the children, even the aunts who had married into the family for so many years had learned from Wang Li and Wang Cheng twice and knew quite a few characters, though they might not be able to write them very well.
So the family could easily manage the costs and profits of a small business together. The next day, Liu Yuxi and his uncle went to the county town again, and made daily supply orders with the Qian family and various restaurants. They also went to the blacksmith shop to order five large iron pots. After selling the braised dishes, they not only bought offal, but also some pork fat and pork skin to start cooking.
Once the braised food business was on track, Liu Yuxi stopped worrying about it. She would only go to the county town to buy another batch of seasonings when the braising spices were almost used up.
When the week was up, Liu Yuxi went to the blacksmith's shop to pick up the throwing knife. It had been made for her by the most famous blacksmith in their county. The knife was already unsealed and looked incredibly sharp. It even came with a leather sheath, which she could wear diagonally across her chest or at her waist, depending on her preference. After paying the final payment, she put the knife into her backpack—actually, into her spatial storage. Then Liu Yuxi went to the bookstore.
The only books at home were the primers that my cousin and uncle had copied themselves. There were no other books. Although movable type printing already existed in this dynasty, the time traveler may not have been very proficient in improving papermaking techniques, so good paper was still very expensive, and books were still not cheap. Primer books, even though they were thin volumes, cost 500 wen to 2 taels of silver each. The price was related to the quality of the paper.
Liu Yuxi found several travelogues about Yongguo, and also collected all the books needed for the imperial examination, from beginner to final. He asked the bookstore owner if there were any collections of excellent answer sheets from the provincial, prefectural, and palace examinations over the years. Knowing that there were such collections, he selected a collection of questions from the last ten years, and planned to come back and buy a copy every year when a new one was published.
All in all, it cost more than 280 taels of silver, which is more than many farmers could earn in ten years without eating or drinking. How could a family without some wealth support their child's journey through the imperial examinations?
Liu Yuxi bought all these books not entirely for Liu Yu'an's future use, but also to learn them herself. Now that her spiritual power has emerged, who can guarantee that she won't transmigrate into a man in the future? It's better to learn the skills that men should master in ancient times in advance when you have the opportunity. You can't just spend this life hunting and taking care of children, can you?
I put all the books in my backpack, stored the travelogues and exam questions in the storage space, leaving only the books for the imperial examinations outside. I bought some pork belly and went back to my grandmother's house.
Days passed by, and at the end of the year, my sister-in-law gave birth to the fourth generation of the Wang family, a boy named Wang Chenyang. Because of his thick, black hair, he was nicknamed Maomao (meaning "hairy"). The children in the family had all moved up a generation, and they were all very curious about this little nephew, especially Wang Xin and Liu Yu'an. When Maomao was in bed with them, if I wasn't looking closely, the two of them would run over to Maomao and poke him here and there.
My second cousin, Wang Yi, has also settled his marriage. He is engaged to a girl from the same village as my aunt. They know each other well, and my second cousin met her in the village when he visited his maternal grandfather's house. He is also willing to marry her. The two families have agreed to hold the wedding next August.
The main reason is that the braised food business has been good for the past six months, giving the family some extra money. The children are also growing up, so the maternal grandparents decided to rebuild their house. They plan to buy two more plots of land next to the old house and divide them among the second and youngest uncles. The money from the braised food business has already been divided into five parts: the maternal grandparents, the eldest uncle, the second uncle, the youngest uncle, and Liu Yuxi, each receiving 20%. Therefore, the wedding date is set after the house is built and the family property is divided.