Sun i dusted off the dirt on Zhao Zhitong, picked her up, and quickly headed towards the school. "What have you been up to, young lady, getting yourself all dirty like this?" she asked.
Zhao Zhitong wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck and answered honestly, "I was digging up wild vegetables."
"What do you want those for?" Sun i asked. "Don’t we already have vegetables in our vegetable garden?"
Zhao Zhitong shook her little head. "It’s not the sa; that one is a treasure, you know."
Sun i laughed, not taking her seriously. "How can wild vegetables be treasures?"
Zhao Zhitong leaned into Sun i’s ear and whispered, "It’s a secret, shhh."
Seeing the mysterious look on the young girl’s face, Sun i rely smiled at her mischievousness and didn’t press further. After arriving at the school, she gave Zhao Zhitong a few instructions, then went to find Country Gentry Wei.
In the school, the grain for the children’s als provided by the kitchen was supplied by the students’ parents each month. The Wei family contributed the largest share and would also periodically donate at to the kitchen to improve the children’s diet.
Naturally, the school kitchen was also managed by the Wei family, ensuring the Teacher wouldn’t be distracted by miscellaneous matters and could focus on teaching.
Sun i and another elderly woman working in the kitchen were also hired by Country Gentry Wei’s family; they both received their wages from Country Gentry Wei.
Lately, with things being busy at ho, Zhao Zhitong might have to eat her als at the school. Therefore, Sun i needed to inform the Wei family first and hand over their grain contribution.
After Sun i left, Zhao Zhitong didn’t rush to the front courtyard as usual. Instead, she started searching for achyranthes bidentata along the path near the vegetable garden.
The book said that soaking achyranthes bidentata in water can clear internal heat and soothe the eyes, she recalled.
She had discovered this early this morning while looking for dicinal herbs for her father.
Although she hadn’t found the specific herb she needed for her father, she had found a lot of achyranthes bidentata.
Grandpa Bai had told her that achyranthes bidentata was effective for clearing internal heat and brightening the eyes. Zhao Zhitong had rembered this and planned to pick so to give to her Teacher.
After laboriously picking several stalks, Zhao Zhitong felt it was enough. She then tucked the handful of wild greens into her clothes and ran to the front courtyard.
As soon as she neared the front courtyard, the students’ clear and loud reading voices reached her.
Because most of the students in the school were quite young and still in the elentary stages of learning, Mr. ng was teaching the Thousand Character Classic today.
A few of the older children were reciting the Analects, which the Teacher had taught them.
There are so many characters in the dical books that I don’t recognize, Zhao Zhitong thought. I really should study more. So, she tiptoed towards the classroom, hoisted herself up to the first window, and, at the top of her lungs, began to read along with the Teacher inside.
The Teacher read a line, "Clouds ascend to make rain, dew congeals to beco frost."
The students followed, "Clouds ascend to make rain, dew congeals to beco frost."
Zhao Zhitong read along with trendous effort, practically shouting. Her high-pitched voice, exceptionally loud, stood out distinctly among the students’ voices, causing Qiao Muchen, who was sitting in the first row, to turn his head and look at her repeatedly.
After leading the students in reciting the sentence several tis, the Teacher began to explain its aning.
As he was explaining, he noticed Qiao Muchen and Zhao Zhitong, who was peeking through the window, looking at each other, winking, and making all sorts of faces; their expressions were quite animated.
"AHEM!" Scholar ng coughed lightly, put down his book, and called out, "Qiao Muchen, tell us, what does this sentence an?"
Startled by the Teacher’s call, Qiao Muchen imdiately snapped his gaze forward and stood up, puffing out his little chest.
He first bowed respectfully to the Teacher, then answered confidently, "Teacher, this sentence explains the formation of phenona such as clouds, rain, frost, and dew. Cloud vapor rises and, upon encountering cold, forms rain. At night, dew encounters cold and congeals into white frost."
"Hmm, hmm." Scholar ng stroked his beard, nodding in satisfaction. "Good, very good. Sit down now, and pay attention in class."
Qiao Muchen, the son of the Qiao clan, was a student Scholar ng was particularly pleased with.
"Yes, Teacher. I will heed your instruction." Having received the Teacher’s affirmation, Qiao Muchen sat down, feeling extrely pleased with himself. He couldn’t resist shooting a triumphant glance at Zhao Zhitong by the window, all but preening.
However, Zhao Zhitong was completely ignoring him at this mont. She was engrossed in a lively discussion with Grandpa Bai in her space.
"Grandpa Bai, do you think the Teacher explained it wrongly?" Zhao Zhitong asked. "The Teacher is very knowledgeable; the Teacher wouldn’t make a mistake. Qiao Jiaojiao must have gotten it wrong, hmph!"
Grandpa Bai was speechless. This young girl, such double standards, he thought.
Grandpa Bai slowly began to explain, "Mr. ng didn’t explain it incorrectly, nor was Qiao Muchen entirely wrong."
"What I an is, there’s a slight error in the sentence itself. My dear girl, our ancestors summarized their experiences and wrote them into books. We, the younger generation, can gain the experiences and thoughts of our ancestors by reading these books. However, our ancestors were not necessarily always correct. We must never lose our own judgnt, no matter the situation."
"Oh." Zhao Zhitong nodded vigorously, looking as if she half-understood.
Grandpa Bai continued his explanation, "The last part of that line, ’dew congeals to beco frost,’ is debatable. Frost is actually ice crystals ford by the direct deposition of water vapor from the air. It’s not that water vapor first liquefies into dew, and then the dew freezes to beco frost."
Zhao Zhitong was no longer half-understanding; she was completely lost. "Grandpa Bai, I don’t quite understand," she admitted.
Grandpa Bai stroked his beard and said with a chuckle, "It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand now. When winter cos, my dear girl, you can verify it through your own observation and experintation. Practice is the criterion for truth."
Zhao Zhitong nodded happily and readily agreed, "Okay, okay!"
By this ti, Mr. ng had finished his explanation. He let the students read by themselves for a while, then announced the end of school for the day.
As Scholar ng walked out of the classroom towards his quarters, he saw the little girl standing outside his door, holding a small bundle of wild greens in her hands, her eyes shining brightly as she looked at him.
Seeing him approach, the young girl presented the wild greens in her hands as if offering a treasure. "Teacher," she said.
Looking at the handful of wild greens, Scholar ng was puzzled. "For ?"
"Mhm," Zhao Zhitong nodded vigorously, her voice sweet and childlike. "Yesterday, I noticed your eyes were red, Teacher. My mother said it’s because you read too much and strained your eyes. This is achyranthes bidentata. You can use it to make tea; it’s good for soothing the eyes."
"HAHA!"
Upon hearing this, Scholar ng laughed and accepted the wild greens. "Alright, I’ll accept them. Thank you, young girl."
Seeing the Teacher accept her wild greens and thank her, Zhao Zhitong was overjoyed. "Teacher, let make tea for you! I know how to make tea," she chirped happily.
Scholar ng said, "Young girl, these wild greens are still fresh. You can’t make tea with them now; they need to be dried first."
Zhao Zhitong was puzzled. "Dry them?"
Scholar ng knew that Zhao Zhitong’s maternal grandfather was a physician, so he wasn’t surprised that she knew achyranthes bidentata could be used to make tea for soothing the eyes.
Seeing that the young girl knew it could soothe the eyes but was unaware it needed to be dried, he figured she must have overheard it sowhere and simply rembered it.
Scholar ng therefore explained, "Yes, in dicine, this is called ’processing.’ The dicinal herbs in apothecaries are all processed before they are used, you see."
"Oh, so that’s how it is," Zhao Zhitong mused, nodding her little head. This was the first ti she understood that dicinal herbs needed to be processed before use.
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