Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 47: Strange Little Girl

Li An arrived at Liu's house early the next morning, carrying his schoolbag.

The concierge Ah Fu knew about Li An's apprenticeship and received Liu Xuewen's instructions. When he saw Li An, he led him in.

"Young Master, the Master's wife and young lady are having dinner in the side hall at the moment."

"Uncle Fu, I'd better wait for a while before going over. It's not good to disturb the teacher and mistress while they are eating." Li An said after hearing this.

"Haha, it doesn't matter. The master has told me that when the young master arrives, let me take you there directly." Ah Fu said with a smile.

Ah Fu led Li An to the side hall and saluted: "I have seen the lord, the eldest lady, and the third girl. Mr. Li Xiaolang is here."

"I've seen the teacher, the teacher's wife, the teacher..."

Li An bowed and saluted, then stopped after speaking.

I heard Ah Fu say before that Liu Xuewen, the eldest lady and the young lady were having dinner.

Although Liu Xuewen was already in his fifties, it was normal for him to have a daughter in his forties and not yet married. Li An didn't think too much about it.

But when he was saluting, he discovered that there was a little girl about the same age as Ru Lan sitting next to the woman sitting next to Liu Xuewen. He didn't know what to call her for a while.

Judging by her age, she might be Liu Xuewen's granddaughter. It would be inappropriate for him to call her junior sister.

Liu Xuewen put down his chopsticks and said with a smile, "This is my teacher's granddaughter."

Li An breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. Fortunately, he didn't scream, but what should the master's granddaughter be called?

"You are A Niu, right? I always praise you in front of me. Come sit down and have something to eat together."

At this moment, the woman next to Liu Xuewen said with a smile.

"Back to Master, I'm here after breakfast." Li An said.

"You can eat some after you've eaten. At your age, you're growing taller and you'll get hungry quickly."

Liu Xuewen's wife, whose surname is Zhang, is in her fifties and looks very kind.

Zhang stood up and pulled Li An to the stool on the other side of Liu Xuewen, asking him to sit down.

He served him a bowl of porridge with his own hands, placed it in front of him, took a pair of chopsticks and handed it to him, and said with a smile, "Let's see if it's to your liking."

"Thank you, Master."

Seeing Zhang's enthusiasm, Li An couldn't refuse, so he could only thank him and take the chopsticks.

"Haha, treat this as your home from now on, no need to be so polite.

Mrs. Zhang smiled and returned to her seat and sat down.

"Eat."

After Liu Xuewen finished speaking, he took a sip of the porridge, then picked up a piece of pickled radish and ate it crunchily.

The Liu family's breakfast is very light, with white porridge, steamed buns and three stacks of pickles.

Li An took a sip of the porridge and felt someone looking at him, so he looked up.

Then he saw the little girl sitting next to Zhang looking at him curiously.

The little girl's black hair was styled in a double-ring bun. She wore a white embroidered jacket and a pale pink jacket.

When Li An looked over, she was not afraid. Instead, she glared at Li An, put the bun in her hand and took a bite.

Li An was stunned. He was very sure that he had never seen this little girl before, and he had not offended her. Why did the little girl seem to have a lot of resentment towards him?

"Aniu, why are you just drinking porridge and eating a steamed bun?" Seeing Li An standing there motionless, Mrs. Zhang thought he was a little restrained, so she greeted him with a smile.

Li An came back to his senses and said with a smile: "Master's wife, I'm really full. I just want to drink some hot porridge to warm myself up."

"I'm done eating."

Liu Xuewen put down his chopsticks, picked up a handkerchief and wiped his mouth, stood up and said, "Since you came here to eat, come with me to the study."

"Old man, I just had a few sips, why are you so anxious?" Ms. Zhang said angrily.

"Master's wife, I've finished eating and will go over first."

Li An picked up the porridge, drank it in a few mouthfuls, saluted Zhang An, and chased after him.

Liu Xuewen led Li An to the study, sat down behind the desk, and asked, "You said you just had a year of elementary school. What books have you studied?"

"Teacher Hui, I have studied "Hundred Family Surnames", "Thousand Character Essay", "Tai Gong Family Instructions" and "The Analects of Confucius". The student also borrowed some historical records and miscellaneous notes from the second son of the Sheng family and read "Zuo Zhuan" and "Spring and Autumn". "Lee An said.

A strange look flashed in Liu Xuewen's eyes. He stood up and took a book from the bookshelf behind him. He flipped it open and pointed to a word and said, "What is this word?"

Li An stepped forward, looked at the word Liu Xuewen pointed at, and said, "Shuo!"

"what about this?"

"Jie!"

"Shirt!"

"I don't know this student."

Liu Xuewen searched for more than a dozen words for Li An to identify. It was relatively simple at first, but became more and more unsophisticated later on.

Regarding the idiosyncratic characters at the end, Li An shook his head and said he didn't recognize them.

Even so, Liu Xuewen was surprised.

"Have you really only studied for one year?" Liu Xuewen asked.

"To be precise, it's less than a year. The students started learning in May last year. But I can remember any word after being taught it once," Li An said.

"What if it's reading?" Liu Xuewen asked.

"If there are not many words, you can memorize it after reading it once or twice. If there are many words, you need to read it several times," said Ang Lee.

He had already demonstrated this ability when he was in the academy, and there was nothing to hide.

On the contrary, the better his talent, the more attentive Liu Xuewen will be in teaching.

Liu Xuewen found a book again, handed it to Li An and said, "This is "University". Most of the characters are common. Look at the first three pages and recite them to me."

"Yes."

Li An took the book, opened it and started reading.

After reading it twice, Li An closed his eyes and thought about it, then opened his eyes and said, "Teacher, I have already written it down."

"Carry it." Liu Xuewen nodded and said.

Li An closed the book and recited: "The way of a university lies in being virtuous and being close to the people..."

Li An quickly memorized three pages of content, but he was careful and missed a few words.

After listening, Liu Xuewen nodded and said: "Although you missed some, the fact that you can achieve this in such a short period of time shows that your memory is very good."

"But as a teacher, I hope you will not be complacent because of this. Reading is not just about memorizing by rote, but more importantly, using it flexibly. Those students who have failed many times and have studied hard for many years and memorized the Four Books and Five Classics like a fluent, most of them can memorize it. After coming down, the result is still the same as failing.”

It's not like he has never seen people with good talents, but many people are proud and complacent because of their good talents. When he grew up, he disappeared from everyone.

"Thank you teacher for your teaching, students understand." Li An bowed.

Liu Xuewen saw that Li An looked serious and was not perfunctory at all. He nodded with satisfaction. Just as he was about to speak, a voice sounded outside the door.

"Teacher, the students are here."

Liu Xuewen heard this and said, "Boping come in."

Pan Shan walked into the study, first saluted Liu Xuewen, then looked at Li An and cupped his hands and said, "I've met my junior brother!"

"Li An has met senior brother!" Li An quickly returned the greeting.

Liu Xuewen stroked his beard and smiled and said: "You already know each other, so there is no need to introduce me to the teacher. A Niu, the official school starts tomorrow, you can just go and register. I will say hello over there."

"Thank you, teacher!" Li An said gratefully.

The full name of the official school is Yangzhou Academy, and there are only three ways to enter.

Either pass the annual entrance examination or be a scholar who passes the county examination.

However, Yangzhou Academy only teaches students under the age of twenty. Students who are over twenty years old automatically graduate.

In addition, Yangzhou officials have a quota every year and can enter the school without taking an exam. This is an invisible benefit for officials.

When Li An entered the official school, he used Liu Xuewen's quota.

Many Yangzhou gentry and wealthy businessmen would spend a lot of money to buy places like this.

Thank you for your monthly support, Chi Ye is my idol.

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