The Exiled Life of the Noble Girl

Chapter 52

Wang Chunhua's three sisters-in-law's families lived closer, so they could go and return in a day. It was more convenient for them to visit each other frequently. So every year, they would first keep Wang Chunhua company and entertain her before going back.

Although she could stay for longer this year, she should have stayed at home to accompany her family. But Wang Dazhuang would take Xiao Gang to send her back in a couple of days, which would waste too much time going back and forth. So Mrs. Wang packed up and planned to go back to her parents' home first the next day.

She packed her luggage. Wang's Mother prepared new year gifts for her and gave her some money. Now the family was better off, but still could not lose face in front of her in-laws.

Mrs. Wang took the money and counted it. She returned some of it to her mother-in-law, "It's not easy for the family this year either, I should take less."

Wang's Mother refused, "Chunhua just gave some money yesterday. There is enough at home, don't worry. Take it. You three are the same. They both took it."

Since her mother-in-law said so, she silently accepted it, but she did not know Wang's Mother said the same to all her daughters-in-law.

After organizing her luggage, Mrs. Wang was going to cook dinner. There were still guests at home, so she could not make it too simple. She wanted to find her son to help her start the fire, but then realized there were no children at home.

"Where did they all go?" She knocked on Li Mingwei's room, but no one answered, "How come the girl is not here either, wasn't her leg hurting?"

Wang Chunhua, who was sitting in the yard cracking melon seeds, saw her looking for people every day. She had seen enough of her son practicing writing. She pointed out the direction to her daughter-in-law.

Before Mrs. Wang reached the village entrance, she saw the dense crowd in the distance. This was probably the whole village!

Seeing her come over, Xiao Gang waved to her excitedly, waiting for praise, "Mom, come here quickly. I can write your name now."

Mrs. Wang walked over to take a look at the words he wrote, and they were indeed similar in shape to what Li Mingwei had given her before. Just as she was about to praise him, she heard him ask, "I'm so good, can I have an extra dessert tonight?"

"All you think about is eating."

The happy mood disappeared all of a sudden. Mrs. Wang didn't want to pay attention to him anymore and went to Li Mingwei, asking her softly if she wanted to eat anything special tonight.

"Anything is fine. Sister-in-law doesn't need to prepare especially for me."

During those months of displacement, the picky eating habit she had developed in the capital had been completely cured. She would be happy enough to cry just to have food in her belly.

"How can I not, since you rarely visit?"

While talking to her, Mrs. Wang's gaze kept falling on Xiao Gang. Li Mingwei's heart moved. She asked in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, why don't you send Xiao Gang to school? I see he likes writing quite a bit."

In the more than two hours she had taught writing, many children had come to write for a while and left again, but Xiao Gang had stood from beginning to end, although part of the reason was related to her, it was still not bad.

Mrs. Wang glanced at her father-in-law, who was sitting in the crowd and kept cracking melon seeds with his pipe. She lowered her head and held Li Mingwei's hand, patting it, "Sister, you don't understand."

This was not something she could decide. Her in-laws were the head of the house, and all income was in their hands. Apart from her dowry, she only had some petty cash that her mother-in-law occasionally gave them. Where could she get the money to send her child to school?

"If you really talk about it, which family can't scrape together two or two silvers, but it's two or two silvers every year, plus books, pens and ink stones, none of them are cheap. How can we afford it?"

"Besides, there are so many children in the family. Why should only Xiao Gang be sent to school? The second and third brothers also have sons. If you want to send them, you have to send them together. How much would that cost? They haven't even recognized all the words yet. The family would go bankrupt."

Li Mingwei looked at the other Wang children who were also there. Although they were young, they were also obedient. Two of them couldn't even hold the branches firmly, but were still poking hard, so there was no reason not to let them go.

With so many children, it was not easy for the Wangs to raise them with their financial situation, let alone so much more.

She could hear the helplessness in Mrs. Wang's tone, but she was also powerless to help. She did have some money left, but it was unlikely for her to spend it all on this group of Wang children.

The Wang family was just a microcosm. There were many more such families in Xinghua Village, and Da Chu had many more Xinghua Villages. This was not something she alone could change.

It had taken her grandfather a long time to negotiate and call in favors before the late emperor finally agreed to allocate funds for counties to set up schools in towns and villages. Even with so many court officials in support, this matter was still not going very smoothly.

Seeing how few students Mr. Jin had before Liu Yichu passed the imperial examination, it was obvious even for a whole town, let alone a small village like Xinghua Village. Apart from tuition fees, they might not even be able to afford pens, ink, paper and ink stones.

"Alas..."

Mrs. Wang laughed. "What are you sighing for no reason?"

"I suddenly feel that I'm too poor. If I were the richest person in Da Chu, I would build schools for them and hire teachers so that they could all go to school."

Mrs. Wang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The girl's vision was great, but the possibility of realization was too small.

Thinking that the girl was still young and it was normal to have such naive ideas, Mrs. Wang didn't discourage her too much, but joked, "When you become the richest person in Da Chu, don't forget about your sister-in-law. Your sister-in-law will come to work for you. I don't ask for much, just to have meat every meal."

Li Mingwei said solemnly, "Sister-in-law, don't worry, I won't forget you."

"Hahaha..."

Mrs. Wang was tickled by her response and laughed loudly, attracting many eyes. Feeling embarrassed with so many people staring at her, she quickly closed her mouth.

This time Li Mingwei laughed at her, "Sister-in-law is shy."

"Who has thick skin like you!" Mrs. Wang complained about her. Suddenly meeting her bright eyes, she somehow believed a little in her nonsense.

She thought for a moment and said, "Sometimes people should be a little selfish. Keeping too much in your heart is too tiring. After all, we are just ordinary people. It's enough to live our own lives well."

Was that why her grandfather lived such a tiring life?

Li Mingwei was stunned for some reason. Was she influenced by her grandfather too much? She ran away to get rid of constraints and live a simple life for a few days, so how could she start worrying about things unrelated to her again?

She didn't want to live such a tiring life. She was just an ordinary person now who only needed to live her own life well.

The moment she made up her mind not to worry about so much, she saw a child raise his hand and ran over excitedly.

"What's the matter?"

"Auntie, how is this word I wrote?"

"It's very good. Can you write it again for me to see?"

"Sure!"

The child excitedly wrote in front of her again. She gently praised him first, then pointed out what he had written wrong and taught him how to correct it.

After teaching for more than half a year, she was very good with children now. No child wanted to be scolded as soon as the teacher came over. They were proud in their hearts and would try harder only after being praised.

Time flew by quickly. The setting sun dyed the sky yellow again. Calls for dinner came from somewhere.

The villagers who had been sitting there numbly came to their senses at the same time and looked up at the darkening sky to estimate the time. They called their children and headed home.