Shen Xi didn't expect that Master Xia would actually know his grandfather's nickname.

However, as the third-in-command of the county government, this Xia Zhushu knows the local county chronicles and celebrities very well, and it is also the way of officials. Whenever an official takes office in a certain place, he must first find out the local county records and the gentry power structure of the county, so that he can administer correctly and not be controlled by others everywhere.

After the Xia master book talked to the master of the main family, there was nothing to do with Shen Xi's father and son, after all, they were subordinates, even if the Xia master book occasionally mentioned that the ancestors of the Shen family did not take the father and son in their eyes.

Shen Xi listened to their conversation on the side, it turned out that Shi Langzhong, the capital of the Ministry of Industry of the imperial court, wanted to go to Tingzhou to supervise the construction of water conservancy, and he needed to live in Ninghua County for two months.

In the Ming Dynasty, Langzhong was a court official of the five grades, and Ninghua Zhixian was only the seventh grade. The county Han County Commander wants to tie up with the officials, so he has to do enough work in terms of reception. According to Master Xia's statement, it is to prepare a house for this Gongbu Langzhong surnamed Lin in this county town and give the best care in life.

The master of the family, Wang Changnie, is an old acquaintance with the Xia master book, and the county magistrate handed over the reception to the Xia master book to take care of it, and a four-entry courtyard located on the riverside in the south of the city has been prepared.

Master Xia learned about the bellows from Wang Changnie, so he came over to see it with his own eyes, so that Langzhong of the Ministry of Industry could live more comfortably during his stay in Ninghua. But this is not the main reason why Xia Zhushu came to the Wang family, the main reason for this visit is to ask the Wang family to contribute a sum of money, so that the government can pay less money or even make a sum of money on it.

That is to say, the money in the reception department will be apportioned by Zhengda Guangming, and the gentry with heads and faces in Ninghua have to pay for them, which is a traditional rule. As for looking at the bellows, it's just a starting point.

When Master Xia got the silver, he said goodbye, and before leaving, he glanced at Shen Xi again, and said with a smile: "This son may be a talent that can be created." ”

Wang Changnie went out to see off the guests, and Steward Liu said to Shen Mingjun: "Mingjun, you also heard the words of Master Xia, you should send your son to the private school to study, only reading can be successful." ”

Shen Mingjun was very happy at the beginning, his son was praised by the official master, this is a glorious lintel, but after listening to Steward Liu's words, his face was sad: "Steward Liu, all the money I pay for my work has been sent home, where is there spare money for the children to study?" I want to come out to work and support my family when he is older, and I don't dare to expect anything in the future. ”

Steward Liu scolded: "Fool's opinion. ”

Then he brushed his sleeves and left.

Shen Mingjun took Shen Xi back to the small courtyard and came to the main house to discuss things with the Zhou family. In order to prevent Shen Xi and Lin Dai from eavesdropping, the two also deliberately closed the doors and windows.

Shen Xi didn't have to guess to know that his parents were discussing his study, but the family's situation was really not good, and now the Shen family wanted to provide Liulang with education, just relying on the little money that Shen Mingjun saved on weekdays was not enough for Shen Xi to go to school.

Shen Xi sat in the courtyard, writing with a wooden stick.

I'm used to writing simplified Chinese characters on weekdays.,It's really not used to writing in traditional Chinese for a while.,Not to mention anything else.,Turtle's "亀", depressed "鬰", body "體" and other words are extremely headaches. Fortunately, Shen Xi's profession is archaeology, and knowing traditional Chinese characters is only the most basic skill, and he is also good at calligraphy.

Lin Dai watched silently from the side, and finally couldn't help but squat down, carefully looked at the ghost-like things that Shen Xi had drawn on the ground, and asked, "Brother, what are you drawing?" ”

Shen Xi looked at her sideways and asked, "Didn't you ask you to call me brother?" ”

Lin Dai pouted and said, "Mother is not allowed...... My mother said that I called you my brother before I married you, and I will call you Xianggong in the future, and I won't let me listen to you, so I messed up the title. ”

Shen Xi didn't force it, he thought that Master Xia's book would become the Bole of his life, but the result was that the bamboo basket was empty. Now he finally came to his senses, this Xia Zhushu was just a petty bureaucrat who was a philistine and a servant of the officials, and the purpose of coming to see the bellows was actually just to come to the Wang family to ask for silver.

"It's a word...... Are you literate? ”

Shen Xi looked at Lin Dai, who was staring intently, and asked.

Lin Dai's little head shook vigorously, and her eyes fell on Shen Xi's face: "I don't know, are you literate?" I heard that only those nobles can read and write, and you are so young, you must have drawn it casually, so I don't believe it. ”

Shen Xi smiled and asked again, "Then do you know how to memorize the multiplication table?" It's a little ninety-nine, one by one gets one, and two two gets four. ”

Lin Dai smiled and nodded: "I will, ninety-nine-eighty-one, ninety-eighty-two, ninety-seventy-six-three......"

Only then did Shen Xi know that the ancient memorization multiplication table was memorized upside down, Lin Dai memorized it for a while, suddenly stopped, and looked at Shen Xi dissatisfied: "You are playing tricks on me, since you asked, I think you will too...... You're just trying to make a fool of me......"

"It's just useless to memorize, you have to learn to write, I'll teach you to write, okay?"

Saying that, Shen Xi drew a horizontal line on the ground, "This is one, add another horizontal below, it is two, and if you add one more horizontal, it will be three." Guess how four is written? ”

Lin Dai said happily: "Then add another horizontal." ”

Shen Xi smiled: "That's not right...... That's four. ”

Saying that, Shen Xi wrote down the counting from one to ten, and then repeated the writing in traditional Chinese, although his immature little hands had never held a pen before, but Shen Xi found that not only the memory and knowledge of his previous life had been passed down, but even those basic skills were also brought over, including writing, and the words he drew with a wooden stick were very neat regular script.

Shen Xi thought to himself: "Even if the thin arms and legs are not yet formed, otherwise it will be no problem to splash ink." ”

Lin Dai looked at it carefully for a long time: "You said that the words above and below are pronounced one, but why are they different?" There are a lot more strokes underneath...... You must be lying again. ”

Shen Xi smiled: "I didn't lie to you, one is 'one', the other is 'two', the above is so simple that it is just convenient for people's daily records, if you want to write accounts or official documents on formal occasions, you must use the following, it is not easy to tamper with." Numbers are very rigorous things, just add a horizontal one, and it will be completely different. ”

"Oh."

Lin Dai nodded as if she didn't understand, and the manager accepted Shen Xi's statement.

Soon Shen Mingjun and Zhou walked out of the room, Zhou was still wiping his eyes, and his teary eyes were a little sad. Shen Xi hurriedly went up and took Zhou's hand and asked, "Mother, what's wrong with you?" ”

Zhou shook his head and said, "It's okay, my mother was blinded by the sand." ”

"I'm going to do things first, you have to listen to your mother at home." Shen Mingjun left the next sentence and went out.

Zhou lowered his body and picked up Shen Xi's hand: "Xiaolang, your father said that even the official master thinks that you will have a future and wants to send you to school, but the family really can't afford you." When you go back, your father will find a way to send you to the old Xiucai who teaches you to read and write, so that you can write your own name...... It doesn't cost much, at least not to be illiterate. ”

Zhou cried again as she spoke, she believed that her son could become a great man, but the family was too poor to let Shen Xi go to a formal school, even if she wanted to send Shen Xi to the kind of temporary school where she just taught a few words casually, she had to live a life, and she was very self-blaming.

Shen Xi smiled happily: "It's okay, mother, even if I don't go to school, it's nothing...... If my mother just wants me to know a few words, I can learn from my uncle when I grow up, and I don't have to spend money in vain...... I think it's hard for the uncle to get into the ......."

Zhou's original eyebrows were kind, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but scold: "Stinky boy, can't you say something nice?" Your uncle is also studying for the Shen family, he can't even go out of the attic now, and he can't take a bath on this hot day, and his whole body is estimated to be rotten, how pitiful? ”

"If you dare to speak ill of your uncle again, see if I don't clean you up!"

Shen Xixin said that this is the old lady he is familiar with, fierce and spicy, if he says a few soft words to him, it will make him feel that the old lady is a ghost.

Zhou Shi said: "I discussed with your father to send you to learn to read and write, you study hard, you must not be lazy." ”

"Hmm."

Shen Xi nodded.

Lin Dai next to her stared at Zhou and said, "Mother, can I go to school with my younger brother?" ”

Zhou blamed: "What do you little girl learn to do? When I went to the tailor shop, my mother asked, they were inviting people, and my mother wanted to go over to try to work, so that she could read and write. ”

Shen Xi felt a little guilty in his heart.

It's not going to school yet, just learning a few words from that kind of pedantic old gentleman, and asking Zhou to work hard to do needlework to help the family.

He feels very sorry for Zhou, but it's a pity that he can't do anything at his young age.

In this era, if you want to make money, you first have to have strength, Shen Xi is still too young, even if he is full of economy, he doesn't dare to do it casually, the best way is to do something behind his back and slowly change the status quo, as long as he doesn't let people know that he did it.

Waiting for Zhou and Lin Dai to leave, Shen Xi sat alone in the courtyard, pondering how to turn the knowledge in his head into white silver.

It's a pity that in his previous life, Shen Xi studied literature instead of science and engineering, even if he knew the structure of the bellows, it was also what he pondered when he researched ancient books, and it would be too unreliable to say that he invented a steam engine to make glass or something, these things he only roughly understood what was going on, and it was completely fantastical to really turn learning into productivity, even if he wanted to do it overnight, there would be no results.

If it is purely academic, even if he is familiar with ancient and modern times, he will not be able to conjure silver, and he is useless to be a scholar, and the best way is to start with calligraphy and painting.

For archaeological needs, Shen Xi has had an in-depth study of the painting and calligraphy of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and has also dabbled a lot in the forgery of calligraphy and painting.

It's a pity that the problem now is that he doesn't have paper, pen and ink, and ordinary people don't prepare these things, and after making a fake, he still needs to engrave seals and prepare ink, which is very difficult to complete with his small body.

Just when he was thinking about things, Lin Dai ran in from the direction of the door and shouted, "Brother, come quickly, someone is bullying me." ”

Shen Xi raised his head when he heard this, only to see that Lin Dai's new clothes that had only been worn for two days had many stains on them, and when he looked closely, it turned out to be mud.

At this time, a seven or eight-year-old boy dressed in fine materials came in at the gate, holding a wooden stick in one hand and a mud ball in the other.

Shen Xi was still sitting, and said unhurriedly: "Call brother, otherwise I won't help you." ”

Lin Dai said hurriedly: "But my mother said...... Okay, I'll call you brother...... Good brother, you help me beat him, he is a bad guy, just now I didn't pay attention, threw mud on me, and stained all the new clothes that my mother bought for me. ”

Shen Xi stood up and walked towards the kid who was half a head taller than him.

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