TATLC Chapter 86 — Learning to Read

Inside the room

Lu An had a sour expression on his face, grinding his teeth so hard they made clicking sounds.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Lu An replied with clear irritation, “It’s all because of my mother. She actually told me to go do corvee. I just lost my job, that’s all. But mother actually wants me to go do forced labor. It’s not like our family is that poor. It’s only one tael of silver!”

Lin Xiu’er said gloomily, “Mother is too biased toward Chengyu.”

Lu An fumed, “Exactly! When Chengyu married Li Fangyue, the family spent dozens of taels, and she didn’t even blink an eye. But now she’s nitpicking me over one lousy tael.”

Lin Xiu’er also felt resentful. Ever since Lu An lost his job, Tang often complained about her, making her feel likeincreasingly ashamed.

“Your parents still love Lu Chengyu the most!” Lin Xiu’er couldn’t help complaining.

When the second branch was still around, Lin Xiu’er didn’t think Grandma Lu was biased. Now that they were gone, everything felt different.

“Just who is Lu Lin working for anyway? Half the village is getting rich because of him, and everyone speaks so highly of him,” Lin Xiu’er said, her voice tinged with jealousy.

Many villagers now made money by selling embroidery to Huaxia Trading Company. Lin Xiu’er secretly made some pieces herself and had someone sell them to Huaxia Trading Company for her.

She used to look down on Lu Lin completely, but now she had to rely on Lu Lin to make money. The whole situation left her feeling deeply embarrassed. If she had any other option, she would never have stooped to this.

Lu An grumbled, “Who knows.”

He had long known that Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi found work in town. Back when he still had his job, the villagers often compared him to the two. Lu An used to think the two were juniors and didn’t bother with them. Now, it was just too humiliating to even ask about them.

“I heard that many people in Dawan Village made sweet potato strips and selling them through the doll shop. Lu Lin takes a cut from those sales too.” Sweet potato strips weren’t as valuable as dolls, but when you sold a lot, it still added up to quite a bit.

Lu An’s face darkened further. “Enough, enough. Stop talking about it.”

Losing his job had made Lu An despise nothing more than hearing about how “capable” Lu Lin had become.

Hidden away in his room, Lu Lin was brainstorming new doll designs.

He originally thought the corvee labor issue could be settled by paying one tael of silver. Who knew that now everyone in the countryside thought he was rich, and a stream of people had started coming to him to borrow money.

Lu Lin really experienced what it meant to be afraid of fame like pigs are afraid of getting fat¹.

A bunch of people kept bringing up distant family ties to pressure him, asking for several hundred wen right off the bat.

For Lu Lin, this amount of money really wasn’t much to him, but that didn’t mean he was willing to be taken advantage of. Besides, if he gave in once, things would only get more troublesome later. If he helped this person but not that person, people would always talk about it.

Since he kept getting cornered on the street, Lu Lin just hid and avoided people.

Seeing Lu Lin’s situation, Granny Shen sighed. She had originally wanted to go back to the village to visit, but when she heard about the new labor conscription, she decided not to go.

Once the conscription started, borrowing money would become rampant in the village. Granny Shen knew very well that in the villagers’ eyes, she had struck it rich and made a lot of money. If people came to her door asking to borrow money and she didn’t lend it, her reputation would definitely be ruined.

After several autumn rains, winter finally arrived.

Chen Xiaomi sat on the kang and said, “The people in town really live so delicately!”

When they lived in the village, they relied entirely on burning firewood for warmth. Here, they used charcoal for heating. In the mountains, they could just pick up firewood anywhere, but in town, charcoal cost money. Chen Xiaomi sometimes felt it was wasteful to light the stove early, but after lighting the stove, the room became much warmer and really comfortable.

Lu Lin stepped inside. “The weather suddenly got cold!”

Chen Xiaomi nodded. “Yes. Business at the shop seems to have slowed down lately.”

Lu Lin crossed his arms. “It’s probably because people don’t want to go out in this cold.”

At this time of year, winter was very cold. If they accidentally caught a cold, that would cost money too. Recently, the number of villagers coming into town had dropped significantly.

Lin Xiu’er got pregnant earlier than Li Fangyue and gave birth to a son. Villagers all liked boys. When she gave birth to this boy, Old Man Lu and Wang were still quite happy, but since there was already Lu Songzhi at home, Lin Xiu’er’s boy could only be considered icing on the cake.

Since Lin Xiu’er gave birth to a boy, Tang had more expectations for Li Fangyue’s unborn child.

Tang had been treating Li Fangyue well recently, hoping Li Fangyue would give birth to a boy. This put a lot of pressure on Li Fangyue.

After much anticipation, Li Fangyue’s delivery day finally arrived.

Grandma Lu had high hopes for Li Fangyue. After Li Fangyue got pregnant, she gave Li Fangyue plenty of nourishing food. Maybe she overdid the supplements a bit, because Li Fangyue ended up having a difficult labor. After struggling for a day and night and nearly losing half her life, she gave birth to a girl.

The old woman’s face fell the moment she saw it was a girl.

Tang was also very disappointed. Lu Chengyu wasn’t that young anymore by village standards, and Tang had still hoped for a grandson. Lu Chengyu didn’t like daughters much either. After his daughter was born, he took only one look at the newborn and didn’t even hold her.

Li Fangyue knew she had given birth to a girl and wasn’t very happy either, but there was nothing she could do about it.

In the courtyard

Chen Xiaomi nibbled listlessly on a dried sweet potato strip. “Li Fangyue gave birth to a girl.”

“Lu Chengyu must be disappointed,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi blinked and said, “Probably.”

“But Lu Chengyu and Li Fangyue are still young. They’ll have a son sooner or later.” He heard that Li Fangyue was well-nourished during this pregnancy and got nice and plump. She wasn’t that good-looking to begin with, ll that extra weight had made her even less attractive.

Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin and asked, “Do you prefer boys or girls?”

Lu Lin smiled. “Either is fine, really.” As someone from the modern era, he didn’t place much importance on gender. In his previous life, he was gay and never thought about having children. Being able to have a child in this world already made Lu Lin very happy.

Chen Xiaomi pursed his lips, thinking in his heart that Lu Lin probably still preferred boys.

Seeing his expression, Lu Lin added, “I mean it. Don’t feel pressured.”

Chen Xiaomi studied Lu Lin’s expression and nodded.

When the eleventh month² arrived, Lu Lin had Chen Xiaocai close the shop and come back for New Year.

After the doll craze lasted for a while, the excitement had passed, but the shop could still occasionally sell a few dolls. When Lu Lin suddenly had the shop closed, Chen Xiaocai felt reluctant, but thinking that he hadn’t seen his big brother and Xiaomai for a long time, and that money could be earned slowly later, he decided it was better to go back first.

When Chen Xiaocai put up the sign saying he was closing, it actually made some of the townspeople anxious. A lot of people worried that once the shop closed, they wouldn’t be able to buy dolls anymore, so they rushed to buy a bunch. This way, right before closing, the shop sold quite a few more dolls and earned thirty taels.

As soon as Chen Xiaocai came back, Xiaomai got so excited.

Chen Xiaomai hugged Xiaocai’s leg and howled for a long time. Lu Lin watched him wail and couldn’t help thinking the boy must have been a wolf in his past life.

Lu Lin settled the wages for Qin Yi and Qin Lang, adding an extra three taels as a bonus. Qin Yi felt very embarrassed by the generosity.

“Lin-ge, is it really okay for us to live in this courtyard during winter? Won’t the owner have any objections?” Qin Yi asked nervously.

Lu Lin explained that the owner had gone to another place to be an official and wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

Only then did Qin Yi feel relieved.

Secretly, he didn’t really want to go back to the mountains either. It was fine when he was always in the mountains, but after coming out, he didn’t want to go back. The cave always got damp in winter, and when wind blew into the cave, they could feel bone-chilling cold. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

Grandma Shen was so excited to see Shen Chi return. The two hadn’t seen each other for a while and spent a long time chatting in the house.

When Chen Xiaocai entered the room, he saw a pile of books and writing materials on the desk. confused, he asked, “Lu-ge, where did all this come from?”

Lu Lin grinned proudly. “I bought them for you.”

Chen Xiaomai asked in confusion, “What did you buy these for? I don’t want to take the imperial examinations.” He wanted to become a big boss in the future, make lots and lots of money, and be the richest person around.

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiaocai with some disdain. “You little kid, how can you have no ambition?”

Chen Xiaomai stared back at Lu Lin. “Lin-ge, you’re not that old either! If you work hard now, you might be able to become the top scholar!”

Lu Lin fell silent. This brat Xiaocai was quite good with words. He actually dared to tease him.

Lu Lin had looked at the books here. The characters used here were somewhat similar to traditional Chinese characters, but when he really got down to it, the differences were actually quite significant.

Lu Lin felt that with his abilities, learning to write the characters here would be manageable, but mastering those classical essays with all their formal structures and rhythms wasn’t going to be easy. The scholars here had been practicing calligraphy with brushes since childhood, while his own brush handwriting was frankly too embarrassing to show anyone.

“Your Brother Lin has limited talent and can’t do it. I can only place my hopes on you,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomai still looked puzzled. “Lin-ge, what’s the use of buying this book anyway? There’s no one willing to teach me.”

Lu Lin looked at him and said, “Don’t worry about that. With money, are we afraid we can’t hire a teacher? I found you a teacher to teach you to read. I don’t expect you to learn much, just to be literate. Shen Chi can learn with you.”

Chen Xiaocai nodded and said, “Okay then!”

Being literate was still something very impressive in Chen Xiaocai’s view. In the eyes of villagers, anyone who could read was extraordinary. When Chen Xiaomi originally wanted to send Chen Xiaocai to school, the school wouldn’t accept him. Although Chen Xiaocai said he didn’t care, he actually felt a little disappointed inside.

Lu Lin prepared writing materials for both Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi. When Granny Shen found out, she was moved again.

Learning to read and study required a lot of silver. Moreover, this place upheld the belief that virtue was more important than talent for women and Shuang’er. Unless it was a particularly wealthy family, they wouldn’t let women and Shuang’er learn anything.

Shen Chi was very curious about learning together with Chen Xiaocai.

Lu Lin found an old scholar in his fifties or sixties to teach them. This old scholar had spent his whole life trying to pass the imperial exams. In his later years, his family became poorer and poorer, so he had no choice but to open a small school in the village and make a living by teaching students. The old scholar’s level was also limited. He could only give children basic education.

Lu Lin’s requirements for the old scholar weren’t high either. He just needed him to teach Chen Xiaomai and Shen Chi how to read.

Lu Lin only bought writing materials for Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi, but he told the other kids in the house that if they wanted to sit in and listen, that was fine too.

Xiaomai had no interest in studying at all. The Qin brothers were curious at first and listened for a while, but later lost interest.

Lu Lin held a book filled with dense pinyin annotations.

Lu Lin had the old scholar read through several articles aloud and marked them with phonetics to help with memorization. This way, Lu Lin could read the articles just by cross-referencing the pinyin.

Chen Xiaomi had no idea what pinyin was. Seeing that Lu Lin could recognize characters just by marking these symbols, he found it very magical.