Qin Sang brought an oil lamp from the room, shielding the flame with her palm as she walked into the courtyard. She leaned in to examine the herbs and picked one up, saying:
"This is Bupleurum, a good medicinal herb for treating colds and flu."
Hearing Qin Sang say this, Xu Hu said happily:
"I dug this up at Wind-breaking Slope; there's more there."
Qin Sang let go and picked up another one:
"This is Licorice. It can be boiled in water to drink; it promotes fluid production and quenches thirst. It's used in many prescriptions."
As she spoke, Qin Sang pinched off a piece of the root and signaled for Xu Hu to try it. Xu Hu wasn't afraid at all; he took it and chewed:
"Dad, it's sweet."
Hunter Xu had already taken off his basket and handed the shot Wild Rabbit to Eldest Brothers Wife, replying with a smile:
"There are actually sweet medicinal herbs? I thought all herbs were very bitter."
"When he was digging them, I thought he was wasting his time. I didn't expect these unremarkable weeds to all be medicinal herbs."
Qin Sang nodded:
"Indeed. For instance, this one is Danggui, a fine medicine for tonifying Qi and nourishing blood. This one is Fangfeng, which is excellent for resisting wind-evil syndromes..."
Qin Sang picked up several herbs one after another and introduced them. Every time she picked one up, the Mall in her mind would give a price quote.
The purchase prices in the Mall for the medicinal herbs Xu Hu brought back today were quite good, all over five mall coins per gram.
Adding in the two rabbits, she weighed out a total of fifteen catties of flour for Hunter Xu.
Hunter Xu originally wanted to give the Weasel to Qin Sang's family as a gift, but Qin Sang had a psychological barrier and insisted on refusing, so Hunter Xu finally gave up.
Da Zhuang was now very adept at handling Wild Rabbits. After shaving off the fur, he used plant ash to tan it.
They no longer worked overtime in the evenings, leaving time for everyone to study.
After cleaning and watering the mule and horse, Qin Sang sat at the doorway of the room. There was a slight draft here, and as the temperature dropped, the breeze from the Palm-leaf Fan wasn't as sweltering as during the day.
She checked her Mall balance. Not bad, not bad; the Mall balance had already accumulated to fifty thousand.
If there were no other expenses, a balance of fifty thousand was enough for the whole family to eat and drink for an entire year.
She also had seventy taels of silver on hand, which was also significant purchasing power.
However, this was only enough to not worry about food and drink. To achieve a comfortable life like in later generations, she still needed to keep working hard.
The two daughters-in-law were sewing clothes. The previous rabbit skins could be made into a vest; it was half-sewn and already taking shape.
The others were gathered in the main room, all listening seriously to Wen Mo's teaching.
Qin Sang took a wooden board and nailed it to the adobe wall, then had Wen Mo use a Charcoal Pencil to teach everyone how to write.
Wen Mo wasn't used to it at first, saying that the teacher didn't teach writing this way.
Qin Sang countered:
"Your sisters, nieces, and brothers don't expect to become high-ranking officials; they just need to be literate."
"Don't worry about how the teacher taught. You just need to get them to recognize and write characters as quickly as possible."
Wen Mo succumbed to Qin Sang's authority, grumbling in his heart:
"Mother makes learning sound too easy. It took him several years to learn how to recognize and write characters. How could his brothers, sisters, and nieces possibly master it in a short time?"
Wen Mo taught somewhat half-heartedly, but the people learning in the main room were very serious. Not a single one was distracted. Even Eldest Brothers Wife, who was sewing, would occasionally prick her finger because she was so engrossed in listening.
Qin Sang fanned herself with the Palm-leaf Fan on the side, very satisfied seeing the room full of children studying hard.
No one was competing with her for the Palm-leaf Fan anymore. Sure enough, learning makes people calm.
Wen Mo taught five characters tonight: Sun, Moon, Heaven, Human, and Of.
"Alright, now memorize them well. I'll wipe them off in a moment for a dictation to see who can write them."
The corners of Wen Mo's mouth curled up slightly. He didn't believe his sisters and brothers could learn them all at once. He wanted to let his Mother know that he was the only Scholarly Seed in the family.
Qin Sang didn't know about Wen Mo's little scheme. She also felt that doing a dictation after just one lesson was a bit rushed, but since Da Zhuang and the others had started their education late, they could only resort to cramming style learning for now.
It was fine to be a bit rushed; the more characters they could recognize, the better. So she didn't speak up to stop him.
After waiting for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Wen Mo wiped the characters off the wooden board. He put his hands behind his back with the air of a teacher and said:
"Now start the dictation. No looking at others."
Except for the two daughters-in-law who were making clothes, everyone else bowed their heads and began the dictation.
They each had a wooden board on their laps with paper on top. The writing tool wasn't a brush; Qin Sang said it was a Charcoal Pencil made from charcoal powder, but it was actually a Charcoal Pencil made from carbon cores exchanged from the Mall.
Because they were studying, two more oil lamps were lit. Qin Sang restrained herself from inspecting them, not wanting to put too much pressure on them.
Wen Mo was still comforting them from the side:
"Don't panic. It's okay if you don't get it right once. If you write a character wrong, just penalize yourself by writing it ten times."
As soon as Wen Mo finished speaking, Si Jin raised her hand:
"I'm finished."
Immediately following her, Er Fu and Eldest Girl also raised their hands:
"I'm finished too."
The smile on Wen Mo's face froze. He walked over to Si Jin, pulled the paper from the wooden board, and looked at it, unable to put it down for a long time.
Si Jin asked somewhat nervously:
"Little brother, did I get it wrong?"
"Which character did I get wrong?"
Wen Mo looked at the characters on the paper, unable to believe it for a long time. His fourth sister, who had never attended a day of school, had actually written everything correctly after just one lesson.
How was he, a Scholarly Seed who had studied for five years, supposed to live with this?
No, that's not right. Fourth sister is older than him; it's not surprising she got it right.
Refusing to believe it, Wen Mo tossed Si Jin's dictation paper aside and went to Eldest Girl.
Seeing that there wasn't a single mistake on the paper in front of Eldest Girl, Wen Mo's mouth began to twitch.
How could this be?
Eldest Girl didn't know if her dictation was correct either, as her young uncle didn't say a word:
"Young uncle, is mine right?"
Wen Mo nodded with difficulty:
"It's right."
"What about mine?"
The others handed their dictation papers to Wen Mo one after another. Looking at the characters of different sizes but without any errors, Wen Mo's smile looked worse than if he were crying.
"Right, they're all right."
Si Jin said happily:
"Reading and writing aren't that hard. Why did you always throw a tantrum whenever writing was mentioned before, little brother?"
San Gui pointed at the characters on the paper and said as if he knew what he was talking about:
"The character for 'Heaven' only has two more horizontal strokes than 'Human'. The structures of 'Sun' and 'Moon' are also similar. Little Five even said that 'Sun' and 'Moon' put together make 'Ming' as in tomorrow. So, characters are just about adding or subtracting a stroke, or putting one together with another?"
On the side, Da Zhuang also smiled and scratched his head:
"I'm used to gripping a shoulder pole, so when I grip a pen, I always feel like I'm going to snap it if I use too much force. It forced me to slow down my speed."
Eldest Girl said in a small voice:
"Mine is the ugliest. Young uncle, can I write it a few more times? I want to write as beautifully as my young aunt."
That stung.
Wen Mo felt a tightness in his chest.
Why did Fourth Sister say writing wasn't hard?
Why could Third Brother infer so much from one example?
Even the most honest and dull Eldest Brother said he could learn even faster.
And Eldest Girl, the youngest, how old are you? Are you trying to be a Child Prodigy by writing so well?
Fortunately, there was still Second Sister.
Wen Mo looked at Second Sister:
"Second Sister, why aren't you saying anything?"