Sun Mei patted the dust off Zhao Zhitong and picked her up, quickly heading towards the schoolhouse: "You little rascal, where did you go to get yourself all dirty?"
Zhao Zhitong hugged her mother's neck and answered truthfully: "I was digging up wild herbs!"
Sun Mei: "What are you digging those for? We have vegetables in our garden now."
Zhao Zhitong shook her little head: "They're not the same. This is a treasure!"
Sun Mei laughed, unconcerned: "How can wild herbs be treasures?"
Zhao Zhitong leaned close to Sun Mei's ear and whispered: "It's a secret!"
Seeing the little girl's mysterious demeanor, Sun Mei just chuckled at her mischief and didn't ask further. After arriving at the school, she gave Zhao Zhitong a few instructions and went off to find Landlord Wei.
In the schoolhouse, the food for the children was provided by the families of the students each month, with the Wei Family contributing the most, regularly delivering some meat to the kitchen to improve the children's meals.
Naturally, the school's kitchen was managed by the Wei Family, allowing the teacher to focus on teaching without being distracted by mundane matters.
Sun Mei and another old woman in the kitchen were also hired by the Wei Family, and collected their wages from Landlord Wei.
Lately, the family has been busy, and Zhao Zhitong might have to eat at the schoolhouse, so she needed to notify the Wei Family and hand over the grains.
After Sun Mei left, Zhao Zhitong didn't rush to the front yard as usual but started looking for Wheel Herb by the path next to the vegetable garden.
The book said that Wheel Herb soaked in water could clear heat and improve eyesight.
This was discovered early today when she was looking for medicinal herbs for her father.
Although she couldn't find the herbs she needed for her father, she did discover many Wheel Herbs.
Old Mr. Bai mentioned the effectiveness of Wheel Herb in clearing heat and improving eyesight, so Zhao Zhitong remembered it and planned to gather some to give to the teacher.
Zhao Zhitong laboriously picked a few bunches, feeling it was enough, and holding a bundle of wild herbs, she ran to the front yard.
As she approached the front yard, the sound of students reading aloud came through.
Most of the students in the schoolhouse were young and still in the enlightenment stage. Today, Mr. Meng was teaching the Thousand Character Classic.
The older children were reciting the Analects taught by the teacher.
Zhao Zhitong thought of the many words in the medical books she didn't recognize and felt she should learn more. So she quietly tiptoed towards the classroom, held onto the first window, and started reading along loudly with the teacher inside.
The teacher read a line: "Clouds rise to bring rain, dew condenses to form frost."
The students followed and recited: "Clouds rise to bring rain, dew condenses to form frost."
Zhao Zhitong read along with great enthusiasm, almost shouting, her voice was quite loud and stood out among the students in the schoolhouse.
This attracted the attention of Qiao Muchen, sitting in the first row, who occasionally turned his head to look at her.
After the teacher led the students in reciting several times, he began to explain the meaning of the sentence.
While explaining, he saw Qiao Muchen and Zhao Zhitong at the window making faces and gestures at each other, their little expressions were very rich.
"Ahem!" Mr. Meng coughed lightly, put down the book, and said: "Qiao Muchen, can you explain the meaning of this sentence?"
Pointed out by the teacher, Qiao Muchen immediately retracted his gaze, stood up with his little chest out.
After making a bow to the teacher, he confidently replied: "To answer the teacher, this sentence describes the formation of phenomena like clouds, rain, frost, and dew. Cloud vapor rises and, when cooled, forms rain, while dew cools at night and turns into white frost."
"Hmm." Mr. Meng stroked his beard and nodded with satisfaction: "Not bad, not bad. Sit down, but remember to stay focused during class."
Qiao Family's son, Qiao Muchen, was one of Mr. Meng's very satisfactory students.
"Yes, teacher, I will heed the teacher's teachings." With the teacher's approval, Qiao Muchen sat down proudly, glancing with satisfaction at Zhao Zhitong at the window, almost wagging his tail with arrogance.
However, at this time, Zhao Zhitong completely ignored him, engaged instead in a lively discussion with Old Mr. Bai in her space.
Zhao Zhitong: "Old Mr. Bai, do you think the teacher's explanation was wrong? The teacher is very capable, the teacher wouldn't be wrong, surely it's Qiao Jiaojiao who got it wrong, hmph."
Old Mr. Bai: "..." This girl is really biased.
Old Mr. Bai slowly spoke, explaining: "Mr. Meng didn't explain it wrong, and Qiao Muchen also made mistakes."
"My point is, the sentence itself has some errors. Young girl, our predecessors summarized experiences and wrote them into books. We can acquire their thoughts and experiences through reading, but the predecessors aren't always right. We must maintain our judgment at all times."
"Oh." Zhao Zhitong looked puzzled but nodded heavily in understanding.
Old Mr. Bai continued explaining: "The last sentence, 'dew condenses to form frost,' is debatable. Frost is formed from the sublimation of water vapor into ice crystals, not first liquefied into dew and then solidified into frost."
Zhao Zhitong wasn't just puzzled; she was completely lost: "Old Mr. Bai, I don't quite understand."
Old Mr. Bai stroked his beard, chuckling: "It's okay not to understand now. When winter comes, you can go and practice and verify it yourself; practice yields true wisdom."
Zhao Zhitong happily nodded in agreement: "Alright, alright."
By then, Mr. Meng had finished explaining and let the students read by themselves for a while before dismissing the class.
Leaving the classroom for his residence, Mr. Meng saw the little girl standing outside his door, holding a bunch of wild herbs, looking at him with bright eyes.
Seeing him approaching, the little girl presented the wild herbs with an attitude of offering treasure: "Teacher."
Looking at the wild herbs, Mr. Meng was puzzled: "For me?"
"Yes." Zhao Zhitong nodded heavily, with a childish voice: "Yesterday, I noticed your eyes were red, mother said you were tired from reading. This is Wheel Herb, for making tea, it's good for the eyes."
"Haha."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Meng instantly laughed and reached out to receive the wild herbs: "Alright, I'll accept them, thank you, young lady."
Seeing the teacher received her wild herbs and thanked her, Zhao Zhitong instantly became very happy and cheerfully said: "Teacher, let me make tea for you; I'm good at making tea."
Mr. Meng: "Young lady, these wild herbs are still green. They can't be used for tea now; they need to be dried first."
Zhao Zhitong was puzzled: "Dried?"
Mr. Meng knew Zhao Zhitong's maternal grandfather's family practiced medicine, so he wasn't surprised when Zhao Zhitong mentioned Wheel Herb for eyesight improvement.
Seeing the girl knew about the eye improvement but not about drying herbs, he guessed she had overheard and remembered a bit.
Mr. Meng said: "Yes, in medicine, it's called preparation. Herbs in pharmacies are prepared before being used."
"Oh, so that's how it is." Zhao Zhitong nodded her little head, realizing for the first time that herbs need to be prepared before use.