Farmhouse Green Plum

"So you can read!" Lin Wenxuan was surprised, and then turned around and walked into the house. "Wait, I have a copy of 'Hundred Medicinal Herbs Collection', which contains some common herbs. Take it back and read it, so you don't miss out on herbs that I haven't taught you."

After hearing the latter part, Song Ying swallowed back the words "I just recognized a few words" which were about to come out of his mouth.

What did she hear?

Lin Wenxuan wants to give her a book!

She's going to have a book! A book about herbs! This is a book for doctors!

Seeing Lin Wenxuan coming out with a thin blue-covered book, Song Ying was so excited that he stared at the thin book, unable to move his eyes away.

Lin Wenxuan didn't notice her strangeness and casually handed her the "Collection of Medicinal Herbs".

Song Ying's fingers were trembling a little, and it took a lot of effort to suppress the urge to open it and take a look immediately.

She was afraid that she had held the book upside down without realizing it, and Lin Wenxuan would see that she actually couldn't read and would not give her the book.

She hugged the book tightly in her arms, calmed down her emotions, and adjusted her expression, "Thank you, thank you, I will definitely protect it and return it to you after I finish reading it."

Lin Wenxuan said nonchalantly: "No need to return it. I have memorized this book and I don't need it normally. Besides, this is an old book from a long time ago. It is made of black-rimmed yellow bamboo paper. The quality is not very good. Many of the pages are damaged at the edges."

"That won't do. This is your book. How can I take it for free?"

Seeing that she insisted on returning it, Lin Wenxuan said, “Okay, return it to me if you don’t need it anymore.”

After leaving the clinic, Song Ying immediately flipped through the "Collection of Hundred Medicinal Herbs", and saw not only a lot of tiny text on it, but also ink-colored pictures of flowers and plants, some of which even had comparison pictures of fresh herbs and those after drying and processing.

Soon, she found the herbs she already knew, such as plantain, ephedra, pinellia, and fritillaria.

There were also several kinds of wild grasses that she had seen but didn't know could be used as medicine.

More herbs, she had no impression.

Song Ying was very excited. If they could identify all the herbs in this book, they would definitely be able to earn more money from selling them!

I have to learn to read quickly and try to recognize all the words in this book as soon as possible!

As soon as the thought came to her mind, she trotted to Zhuangyuanfang on West Street, bought 10 meat buns and a bag of maltose, and hurried back.

They arrived at Xinghua Village at noon. She calculated the time and thought that Yuan Qing would soon be done with school, so she simply went directly to Wutong Village and waited under the paulownia tree as agreed.

The setting sun filled the sky, and the orange-red sunlight shone through the gaps between the leaves, leaving a mottled surface on the ground.

After waiting for nearly two quarters of an hour, I finally saw Yuan Qing walking towards me in the orange sunset.

Seeing that he was indeed the only one there, Song Ying quickly jumped out, "Yuan Qing, Yuan Qing!"

Seeing her, Yuan Qing smiled: "I knew you would come to see me today!"

As he spoke, he took out a thin, smooth slate from the bookcase; "This is for you."

"Slate?" Song Ying was confused. "Why are you giving me this?"

"For calligraphy practice, paper is very expensive. The cheapest bamboo paper is easy to smudge, and can only be used for calligraphy practice. Even so, one knife costs more than 50 coins, and the large submission paper used for writing papers costs 3 coins. Better paper is even more expensive, such as bowl-red paper, which is sold by the sheet, 1 sheets of paper for coin."

Song Ying hissed. Normally, a cut of paper contained one hundred sheets and cost 50 wen per cut, which meant two sheets of paper for one wen. This was still the cheapest bamboo paper!

The current exchange rate is 1 silver coin to 80 wen, so a piece of large petition paper would cost 240 wen!

She had given up calculating the more expensive bowl and red paper, and sighed, "Studying is really expensive!"

"That's right! This is just the cost of paper. Pens, ink, paper and inkstone are all expensive." As a scholar from a poor family, Yuan Qing felt deeply about this.

He took out a forked brush and handed it to Song Ying: "You are just starting to learn, so don't waste money on buying pens, ink, paper and inkstone. Although this brush is forked, it is still usable. You can use it for now."

Then he took out a bamboo tube and said, "Wait a minute, I'll go get some water."

Song Ying didn't dislike the forked brush at all. It was a brush for reading and writing, it was sacred!

When Song Tian went to school, his second aunt bought him a brand new pen. She wanted to touch it, but her grandmother stopped her.

Later, every time she cleaned the brush, Second Aunt would do it herself, as if she was worried that she would break it.

And now, she is holding a brush and is about to practice writing!

She looked at the smooth stone slab again and began to understand. She could practice by dipping the brush in clean water and writing on the smooth stone slab.

Moreover, after the water dries, you can continue writing and practice repeatedly!

This is a really good idea!

Not long after, Yuan Qing came back with the water, took out a slate and a forked brush from the bookcase, dipped them in the water, and began to teach Song Ying how to hold the brush and write.

Song Ying quickly said, "Wait a minute."

Yuan Qing expressed his doubts with his eyes.

"I haven't paid the tuition yet," Song Ying took out the buns and maltose, "your grandmother will definitely notice if I pay the six gifts of tuition, so I can only give you these food, please don't despise it."

Yuan Qing was stunned. He taught Song Ying to read because, firstly, Song Ying was smart and it would be easy to teach him without taking up much of his time; secondly, he liked the sense of accomplishment that he got from teaching others.

But generally speaking, I was rather casual about teaching Song Ying to read, although I taught him seriously.

Now, Song Ying proposed a tuition fee, and he suddenly felt that the situation had become more formal. He had to take on the responsibility of a teacher and was determined to teach his students.

Yuan Qing straightened his back involuntarily and took it seriously, "Well, this gift is just right."

Then, he returned to his friendly and casual state, happily picked up a bun, and pushed the oil paper bag towards Song Ying, "You eat too."

After walking back and forth for the whole afternoon, Song Ying was really hungry, so he picked up a bun and started eating it without hesitation.

After eating a bun, both of them felt much better. Yuan Qing found a high platform, put her bluestone slab on it, and signaled Song Ying to put hers on as well.

"Today I will teach you how to write in a standing position. Bring two cushions over and I will teach you how to sit."

Song Ying was amazed again that there were so many things to pay attention to when writing.

"Like me, with your feet slightly apart and one foot slightly forward, keep your body balanced, but lean your upper body forward..."

After demonstrating, he asked Song Ying to do it.

Just the standing posture and pen-holding posture took half a quarter of an hour, and then it came to holding the pen and moving the pen.

As she learned more, Song Ying couldn't help but get anxious. With the book "A Collection of Medicinal Herbs", she wanted to learn to read more urgently. "Can you teach me to read first and then teach me how to write?"

Yuan Qing, who was addicted to Confucius, refused very seriously, "No, Confucius said: Don't be hasty, don't be greedy for small gains, haste makes waste, and greedy for small gains will prevent great things from being accomplished.

Therefore, learning calligraphy should be done step by step, not hastily. "