This blow contained all of Li Mingwei's anger. Xiao Gang was beaten until he was a little confused. The burning pain on his arm quickly sobered him up. He covered it with his hand and looked at Li Mingwei with tears in his eyes.
Li Mingwei pointed at him, "What do you mean studying is a man's business and little girls shouldn't get involved? I'm not a little girl, am I? If I didn't study, could I stand here and teach you today?"
The village chief stood aside, extremely embarrassed. He kept waving his hands and said, "I just said the examiner was a man's business, I didn't say studying was."
The examiners out there weren't only men anyway. He had just said that one sentence, who knew the child would take it the wrong way.
Li Mingwei let out a cold snort, not bothering with whether what he said was true or false. She pointed at Xiao Gang and continued, "Do you speak and act without thinking first? You take whatever others say as the truth, even misunderstanding it and spreading false rumors!"
Xiao Gang looked at the village chief resentfully. Hearing the whispers around him, he couldn't keep his composure. He was about to run off when Mrs. Wang hurriedly stopped him.
"Where are you going? Your auntie is talking to you!"
Although her son was beaten, she couldn't bear to stop Li Mingwei from disciplining him.
"Let him go. It will free up his book for someone else who doesn't have one."
Xiao Gang was stunned. He said loudly, "Auntie, you gave me that book!"
Up until now, he was the only one reading a book by himself. Even his own siblings weren't qualified to share with him, because it was a gift Li Mingwei had given him personally.
Li Mingwei had her arms akimbo. "I only gave it to you so you could learn to read and write. Now that you're not studying, I can take it back."
"Who said I'm not studying anymore!"
"Then where are you planning to go during class time?"
Xiao Gang was silenced. Mrs. Wang hurriedly pushed him back into his seat. "Nowhere, nowhere. Quick, apologize to your auntie and don't speak recklessly anymore."
Li Mingwei looked coldly at the stubborn Xiao Gang, tapping her stick on the ground. Xiao Gang glanced at it and recalled the blow to his arm earlier. He lowered his head and chose to submit.
"Yes, I'm sorry, Auntie. I won't speak recklessly anymore."
"Humph! Don't think an apology means I'll forgive you." Li Mingwei pushed that little girl next to him. "From now on she'll share the book with you. When you've caught her up on the lessons she missed the other day, that's when I'll forgive you."
"Huh?"
Xiao Gang was crestfallen. He had only studied for a few days himself and still didn't know anything. How could he teach someone else?
The little girl sat next to him, also somewhat shy. Li Mingwei saw it in her eyes. She glanced around at the adults who were watching eagerly and said, "What's there to be afraid of? From now on you're fellow students, just like siblings. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. When more girls come in the future, it will be the same."
After she said this, many little girls did come the next day. She barely managed to arrange them, telling them to make do for now. She had someone go into town to buy her some paper and writing brushes, preparing to copy more books.
When enthusiastic villagers heard about it, they set up a table for her at the village entrance overnight.
Li Mingwei...
That was unnecessary though.
Since things were already like this, she could only accept it. Anyway, there were always crowds of adults watching whenever she taught, so her face was already thick enough.
Only during breaks, many people would come to watch her copy books. Occasionally some who didn't understand would pretend to and insist on commenting, making her have to try very hard to hold in her laughter and steady her hand, striving not to waste paper in vain.
That was her hard-earned money! She currently had no income, so every penny seemed extremely precious.
After copying for about ten days, Li Mingwei calculated the quantity and felt it was about enough, so she stopped writing. She started compiling it all into pamphlets, with Mrs. Wang helping her out.
Seeing the new pamphlets in the children's hands, Li Mingwei nodded satisfactorily and tapped the wooden board. "Class is starting!"
At the same time, the bell rang to start class at Hong'e Academy in Anhuai County.
Tang Jue saw his deskmate still staring at the tree outside and couldn't help poking him with his folding fan. "Brother Liu, no matter how good that tree looks, we should still appreciate it after class, don't you think?"
Liu Yizhu came to his senses and closed his eyes, concentrating his gaze on the teacher.
After class ended, Tang Jue squeezed next to him on the bench. From his perspective he looked the tree up and down, scrutinizing it carefully, but didn't find anything particularly special about it.
He unfolded his fan and gently waved it, praising, "As expected of Brother Liu, always able to discover the unique beauty in ordinary things, something the rest of us are incapable of."
Yang Jingyuan in front of Liu Yizhu turned around with a laugh. "Brother Tang is able to interpret daydreaming so cleverly, also beyond what the rest of us are capable of!"
Tang Jue knocked on his head with the fan, annoyed. "Of course, just look who I am."
"The county magistrate's son, who doesn't know that?"
Yang Jingyuan let out a light snort. There wasn't much respect in his tone, but Tang Jue didn't mind. His father had said heroes come from all walks of life. As long as Tang Jue felt the other party might have a promising future, he could associate with them.
So he never put on airs and got along well with most of his classmates.
He nudged Liu Yizhu. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
"Come on." Yang Jingyuan didn't believe it at all. He had noticed something off about him for a while now. "Ever since the start of the school term you've been acting strange, always staring outside in a daze. There must be something going on. Tell us and let us think of a way to help. The county magistrate's son is right here. He's got money and power, so he can easily take care of anything for you."
"No." Zhong Liangyu, who was sitting to the side, leaned forward and stared into Liu Yizhu's eyes. "To be precise, he's been off since late October last year. It's just that he smiled more often when looking out the window before the new year. After the new year there's only frowning left."
Tang Jue applauded him. "You're really attentive toward our Brother Liu."
Yang Jingyuan exclaimed in surprise and moved away from him. "You don't have homosexual tendencies, do you?"
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Zhong Liangyu straightened his chest to display his arms. "I'm a real man!"
"Brother Liu doesn't look like a girl either. Why do you keep staring at him? You even remember whether he's laughing or frowning. "
"He wasn't crying, I said frowning."
"You see, you see, you sit so far away yet you can see his frowns so clearly. And you still say you don't have indecent designs on him."
Zhong Liangyu took a deep breath. No longer enduring, he pounced and started wrestling with Yang Jingyuan.
Liu Yizhu braced the shaking table and sighed with slight annoyance. "Don't fight, fighting is not allowed in the classroom. The teacher will punish you again if he sees."
The two looked at each other, both unwilling to be penalized. They simultaneously withdrew their hands and even affectionately tidied each other's clothes and headwear.
Tang Jue was long used to their swift change of attitude. Ignoring them, he continued showing concern for Liu Yizhu. "Is something going on at home?"
Liu Yizhu shook his head. "Really, it's nothing."
"If you don't want to say, I'll just remind you - keep this up and I just might end up ranking first next time. The end of summer vacation is almost here. If you don't want to waste a few more years, you'd better stop being distracted."
After dropping those words, Zhong Liangyu languidly returned to his seat.
Liu Yizhu fell silent. Zhong Liangyu was right, he really should get a grip on himself.
