Chapter 59: The Notice Board

Sun Shan finished his lunch and took a few strolls around the courtyard to aid digestion.

As he walked, he unexpectedly discovered a notice board in the school. On the wall of the small courtyard was a flat wooden board with several weathered old notices pasted on it.

However, one of them was brand new, having just been put up by Old Man Zheng.

Sun Shan asked curiously, "Old Man Zheng, what are you posting up?"

Since there were so few students, a simple word of mouth would suffice; within three seconds, the entire school would know.

Old Man Zheng smiled and said, "These are the official notices regarding corvée labor, freshly baked and piping hot. Our master told me to put them up so everyone can take a look regularly."

He further explained that eldest young master Zheng from the town had returned a couple of days ago. First, to announce the upcoming corvée labor; second, to handle the monetary exemption for the labor; and third, because Master Zheng requested that whenever there were any notices from the county government, a copy should be made and brought back to the school.

Old Man Zheng posting the notice naturally attracted the attention of the students.

Seeing Sun Shan staring fixedly at the notice without blinking, Sun Dingqing asked with a smile, "Shanzi, do you know what is written on it?"

Sun Shan shook his head. Having just learned a few characters from the *Three Character Classics*, how could he dare claim he could understand it?

Yet, based on his recognition of traditional Chinese characters from his past life, through a mix of guessing and deduction, he could roughly figure out what it meant.

In fact, upon seeing the characters for "corvée labor," he already knew it was related to the conscription announced a couple of days ago.

Sun Dingqing patted his little cousin's head and recited the contents of the notice, speaking in a gentle tone: "I only just learned this too. Master taught it to us."

Old Man Zheng chuckled and said, "You're learning well. It was taught this morning, and now you can already read it."

Through their casual conversation, Sun Shan finally understood why the school posted notices about corvée labor.

It turned out to be part of Master Zheng's teaching curriculum.

Every month, eldest young master Zheng from the town would copy various public announcements from the "cross-shaped walls" at the entrance of the county yamen and bring them back.

There was a great variety of things—everything from corvée labor notices like this one, to reward posters, to governmental decrees and reports.

Master Zheng would teach the students word by word how to read notices, how to write notices, and even required the students to care about what was happening in the county.

Sun Shan carefully observed the notice board. The text on the notice lacked punctuation marks and spaces for pauses, with key points marked in red ink—though whether these markings were made by the person who wrote the notice or by Master Zheng himself was impossible to tell.

At present, unless Sun Shan read it very carefully, he could not fully comprehend the specific contents of the notice.

Without the ability to parse phrases yet, and with a vast expanse of characters linked together without any punctuation to separate them, it required close reading to barely make sense of what was written.

Yang Qingbei and Brother De looked at their senior fellow students in admiration and said, "I still don't know what it says at all."

Old Man Zheng affectionately patted the little heads of the two boys and said gently, "No need to rush, ha. Master will teach you later. For now, the main focus is recognizing characters. Once you know more characters, you'll be able to read them in the future."

Other students gathered around and discussed the matter of corvée labor several times over. One enthusiastic student even read the contents aloud to the three youngest junior students—using the Guangnan dialect, of course, fearing that if he used the Mandarin dialect, the little juniors wouldn't understand.

After the midday break, the three boys returned to the classroom.

Sun Shan now understood Master Zheng's teaching method.

In the morning, he would first spot-check what the students had learned the previous day, then teach new knowledge, and afterwards assign self-study while he went to teach the next-door classroom.

In the afternoon, he would first help the students consolidate what they learned in the morning, and then they would practice calligraphy by the small pond.

At this moment, Master Zheng quickly explained the morning's lessons to the three of them once more, the pace of his teaching growing faster and faster.

Scholar Zheng flicked his sleeve and said, "Go outside and practice your calligraphy, and practice diligently. In particular, the characters you write must not be too large; practice toward making them smaller."

He then inspected the copying homework of the three students.

Sun Shan and Yang Qingbei were able to keep their characters within the grid squares, and they wrote them completely correctly with clear handwriting and proper stroke order—quite impressive for beginner pupils.

As for Brother De, Scholar Zheng looked at him expressionlessly. This time he did write the characters completely stroke by stroke, but the characters were so large that two grid squares couldn't even contain a single one. The homework was a complete failure.

Master Zheng did not use the ruler on Brother De, but warned him sternly: "Sun Dingde, you had better practice properly. If tomorrow's homework still exceeds the grid, don't blame me for being discourteous."

Brother De shrank his neck and said submissively, "Master, I understand."

After Master Zheng left, the three boys went over to the small pond again to practice calligraphy.

Drooping his head, Brother De said gloomily, "Shanzi, why is it that no matter how I write, I just can't write small characters?"

Sun Shan bluntly replied, "Because you're playful and don't practice enough."

Pausing for a moment, he asked, "After school let out and you went home, did you practice your calligraphy?"

Brother De nodded, then guiltily shook his head: "As soon as school let out and I got home, I finished my schoolwork."

Glancing around to make sure no one was looking, he lowered his voice and said, "Practicing the whole day at school, and then practicing again when I get home—how boring is that?"

It would be much better to go outside and play with his buddy Big Head Gou, especially since they caught quite a few fish by the stream yesterday that were as big as a palm; roasting and eating them would be so fragrant.

Sun Shan said righteously, "Brother De, learning requires perseverance. You're already slow-witted to begin with; if you don't work hard on top of that, you'll never learn anything."

Brother De was startled. Why was Shanzi speaking in such a loud voice? He glanced around; thankfully, no one was nearby.

Rebellious and unconvinced, he retorted, "What do you mean I'm slow-witted to begin with? There isn't anyone in the village smarter than me. Everyone in the Sun Family Village says I take after the Eldest Aunt and will definitely amount to something in the future."

In the Sun Family Village, when people wanted to compliment someone, they loved to compare them to Eldest Aunt Sun, because she was an obvious, tangible, and visible success story.

Sun Shan said earnestly, "You weren't stupid to begin with, but because of laziness, you're getting more and more foolish. If you don't study diligently, you still won't know any characters in the future, and Eldest Aunt definitely won't take you to work in the prefectural city. Eldest Aunt said anyone who wants to go to the prefectural city must know how to read and write; she certainly won't take on any ignoramuses with their eyes wide shut."

Of course Brother De yearned to go to the prefectural city—who wouldn't want to eat good food and live well? He also knew Sun Shan wasn't lying.

His father and mother taught him the exact same thing, even more bluntly than Sun Shan put it, telling their three sons clearly: if it weren't for the sake of making you pleasing in Eldest Aunt's eyes so you can find work in the prefectural city, they wouldn't waste money sending you to school.

Spending several taels of silver on miscellaneous expenses every year—who wouldn't feel the pinch? How much better to save it; they could eat meat every single day and still have money left over.

Brother De sheepishly scratched his head and said in a muffled voice, "I know, I'll study properly."

Hearing the two cousins' conversation from the side, Yang Qingbei asked curiously, "Do you study just to go work in the prefectural city?"

Brother De said as a matter of course, "Of course, what else? Could it be to work in the county town?"

Sun Shan looked at Brother De speechlessly; that was certainly not what Yang Qingbei meant.

He said earnestly, "Qingbei, don't listen to Brother De. Studying can make a person clever. In the future, whether you go to work in the prefectural city or take the imperial examinations like Master Zheng, you must study well."

Yang Qingbei nodded and said, "A-Shan, I understand."

What was actually on his mind, neither Sun Shan nor Brother De could tell.