Shen Xi finally had the opportunity to study.

Although he just went to learn to write with a down-and-out scholar, and would not systematically study the content of the imperial examinations such as the Four Books and the Five Classics, he could not be regarded as a scholar, but this was a matter of great significance to Zhou, who not only bought paper and pen for Shen Xi, but also bought an inkstone and ink, and unpacked an old clothes overnight to sew a schoolbag for him.

The next morning, Shen Mingjun sent his son to school, and before leaving, Zhou told him everything, for fear that the child would live up to her expectations.

Learning to read and write is nothing at all, and it can't even touch the edge of the imperial examination. Shen Xi felt that the old lady's expectations were too high, but it was already rare for a child from a poor family to have the opportunity to read and write, so he could only follow Zhou's instructions and say that he would definitely study hard.

When he arrived at the place, Shen Xi realized that the so-called classroom was just a dilapidated land temple, and even the roof tiles had not been repaired. At this time, the sun hung on the eastern hill, and a few rays of sunlight fell through the cracks between the tiles, illuminating the room.

An old man with a wrinkled face and a shabby shirt, so weak that his hands and feet trembled a little, and at this moment he was using a small wooden stick to draw two words on the sand table on the table in front of him, and asked the dozen or so children below to read with him.

“…… This is old, this is new, for example, the clothes on your body, what you just made are new, and they will be old after wearing them for a long time! ”

The old man spoke for a long time, but the students below still did not understand, and many of them had a confused look on their faces.

At this time, the old man saw that there were parents bringing their children outside, a trace of joy flashed on his face, and he hurriedly put down his teaching work and walked out of the broken temple.

After a simple greeting, Shen Xi knew that the old man in front of him was fifty-five years old, and he had been taking the exam for more than 30 years.

Shen Mingjun wanted to tell the old man about restraint, so he asked Shen Xi to go to the classroom first.

Shen Xi walked among the students who kept looking at him, put down the small wooden stool he had brought, and then put his schoolbag in front of the bench, and then slowly sat down.

The surrounding students exchanged heads and commented on Shen Xi.

When the children of ordinary people come to learn to write, they have to wait until they are about ten years old when they have the best memory and understand a little bit of things, Shen Xi's six-year-old body is the smallest and shortest among this group of students, and he is the only one who comes with a schoolbag, so it seems very abrupt.

Shen Xi saw that the eyes around him were full of greed and covetousness, and secretly exclaimed that it was not good, so he quickly picked up the schoolbag from the ground and hugged it into his arms, so as not to be taken away.

"Hey, boy, where are you from?" A dark-skinned, tall-looking, sturdy teenager asked.

Shen Xi looked at the young man, and the other party was at least thirteen or fourteen years old, and glared at him fiercely with his fists. Shen Xi lowered his head and replied, "I am from Peach Blossom Village, my name is Shen Xi. ”

The surrounding students were discussing, and the young man asked, "Where is Peach Blossom Village?" ”

It's not easy for Shen Xi to answer now, could it be that he explained the geographical knowledge of going up and down to the south, the left and the west, and the right to the east with this newly literate boy, and then told him how to go to Peach Blossom Village? In the end, the young man's face was full of anger: "Why didn't you say anything?" Forget it, you only need to understand one thing, you have to listen to me to learn to read here, or I'll beat you up. ”

A good man doesn't suffer immediate losses, Shen Xi and Wang Lingzhi can still use opportunistic methods, but in the face of such a guy who is two heads taller than him, there is no reason to talk about it.

"What's in your bag, take it out and see!" As he spoke, the young man rushed over and grabbed Shen Xi's schoolbag.

Shen Xi hurriedly protected his schoolbag and argued: "This is the ...... my mother gave me"

The young man said angrily: "Do we have a mother?" Bring! He snatched the schoolbag away, and when he opened it and saw the pen and paper inside, he saw the gold and silver treasures, and his eyes shone with greed.

"Wow, there's pen and paper. Come on, let's divide it, two pieces of paper per person...... No, the paper is still a little small, one for each of you, half for the small one, and the rest of the one is mine. ”

The boy was obviously the boss for a long time, and he was very organized when he divided things. It's a pity that it was Shen Xi's thing just now, but now it has been taken away and divided, just like walking into a bandit's den, Shen Xi doesn't even have a place to reason.

Shen Xi frowned and considered whether to sue his husband?

But when I think about it, the old gentleman who teaches literacy is extremely pedantic at first glance, this kind of person is most afraid of trouble, and in line with the principle that more things are better than less things, he will definitely not support him.

Shen Xi didn't care much about those papers, he had a lot of high-grade rice paper in his private collection in the utility room at home, and these should be paid "protection money" to these classmates who were older than him.

"What's the noise? Sit down, and I'll teach you how to recognize new words. ”

After all, the payment for literacy is a one-time payment, which means that no matter how many days the student studies, the tuition fee will not be refunded.

At the age of the old gentleman, half of his body is in the ground, there is definitely no hope for Xiucai and lifting people, and he has no strength to farm, so he relies on meager restraints to support his family, and one more student can earn more money, which is a great thing for him.

Then the old man continued to teach writing, without exception, all the students were asked to take a small wooden stick on the ground to scratch, anyway, the broken temple inside and outside the mud floor, after the stroke was wiped with a hand to re-level. The old man is also responsible, every time he finishes teaching two new words, he will let the students write by themselves, because the students can't see the words written by the old man on the sand table, they usually go up to see it, and they write it back and forth several times, usually missing arms and legs.

Shen Xi was different, those words couldn't be simpler for him, and he could write neatly with his eyes closed. But in order to behave ordinarily, he was still patient, learning from others to come forward to see the sand table, and then write it crookedly when he came back.

The old man just came over to read it, and then nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, it's well written, keep it up." ”

The old man only said this sentence to Shen Xi all morning.

In the afternoon, the students had to go back to help the family do things, and when classes did not start, Shen Xi returned home with an empty schoolbag.

At this time, Shen Mingjun was still working in the Wang family, and the Zhou family took Lin Dai to the tailor's shop, and Shen Xi was the only one left in the courtyard. He rearranged what he had prepared and began to paint.

After the first few failures, Shen Xi was familiar with the road, and he finished the painting in less than half an hour, and this time the effect was much better than the previous one.

The next step is to engrave the seals of past generations of collectors.

Because Shen Xi wants to make Wang Meng's paintings, completely imitating Wang Meng's style, he does not need to follow any ready-made models, what he needs to do is to find two or three famous collectors in the Ming Hongwu, Yongle, Hongxi, Xuande and other eras, carve their seals and stamp them, and finally do the old process, make the calligraphy and painting into the appearance of one or two hundred years of place, so that a perfect fake of Wang Meng's landscape paintings is completed.

Shen Xi's hands and feet were thin, and it was very difficult to carve stone seals, and he couldn't even carve wood, but he had already thought of this, and asked Wang Lingzhi to find a few pieces of white ash in advance and carve the seals on the wax with a small carving knife.

Although the material of this seal is not good, what Shen Xi wants is disposable, not for preservation, and after using it, he melts the wax and can be reused.

After more than two hours of hard work, Shen Xi finally finished the painting, even the seal was stamped, and all that was left was to use lime and charcoal to make the calligraphy and painting old.

It took several days to smoke the painting with soaked lime and charcoal, and he put his things in the utility room, covered them with thatch, and then came out of the utility room.

At this time, it was already dark, and it didn't take long for Zhou to return home with Lin Dai, and when he saw that Shen Xi was dirty all over his body, the look on Zhou's face immediately faded, and he said angrily: "You are a fool, you are like a mud monkey, you won't cause trouble in the school, right?" ”

Only then did Shen Xi notice the dust on his body, which he had accidentally stained when he was fiddling with lime and charcoal. Shen Xi hurriedly distinguished: "Where is it, I have studied seriously, and Mr. still praises me." ”

"Really?"

Only then did Zhou's face put a smile on his face again, "Then you go into the room and write out the words you learned today to show your mother...... If you don't read and write often, you won't recognize it in the future. ”

"Mother is really knowledgeable."

Shen Xi said in his mouth, but thought in his heart: "Old lady, this is treating me as a fool who forgets to write a pen, we have been studying hard for more than 20 years, if I can't even remember a few words, will I still use it in the future?" ”

At that moment, Shen Xi wrote down all the words that Mr. taught him on the ground, Zhou looked at it with a smile, and asked from time to time what the words were, and Shen Xi answered them one by one.

It's a pity that Zhou is illiterate, even if Shen Xi can't write correctly, she doesn't know. Finally, Zhou nodded in approval: "Han Wa'er is really capable, she has learned so many words in just one day, and my mother will treat you with a good meal today." Go back, you teach these words to Dale, you know? ”

Shen Xi smiled: "What my mother said is that the child understands. ”

Then Zhou went into the kitchen to cook. Lin Dai sat on the small bench next to Shen Xi, looked at the words on the ground, frowned and asked, "Han Wa'er, did you lie to your mother?" You also wrote a lot of words that day, which is much more complicated than these ones, but you only know how to read for the first time today! ”

Shen Xi glanced at Xiao Lori: "Hey, don't talk in my mother's tone, you are a girl, or my daughter-in-law, how can you call me by my nickname?" ”

Lin Dai habitually pursed her mouth: "You let me call you brother, and my mother asked me to call you brother, it's not good, so I can only call you by a nickname." You haven't answered me yet, did you lie to your mother? ”

Shen Xi thought to himself, you are stupid to me, I admit that you will go to the old lady to complain. Immediately said firmly: "I didn't lie, the words I wrote before were secretly learned by me when I occasionally passed by the school, and today these words are from Mr. Protestant." You are not allowed to say it to your mother. ”

"Oh."

Lin Dai nodded, seeing Shen Xi's innocent expression on his face, so he chose to believe it.

After the family dinner, Lin Dai did not mention that Shen Xi was literate before.

By the next day, Shen Mingjun still sent Shen Xi to study early in the morning, and on the way Shen Xi said: "Dad, if you are busy, go and do things first, I know the way, just go by yourself." ”

Shen Mingjun was in a hurry to get to work, and after listening to Shen Xi's suggestion, he simply told him a few words and left.

Shen Xi saw that his father had gone away, thinking that even if he went to the school, he would be bullied by those classmates who were older than him, and he would know how to teach the words taught by the old man, and it would be purely useless to go there, so he would simply not go to it, or go home to make sure that the calligraphy and painting were old and not wrong, otherwise the smoke would be too heavy, which would make the texture of the painting uneven, which would affect the overall effect.

Thinking of it, Shen Xi turned around and returned to the small courtyard, and before entering the door, he looked at the house through the crack in the door, but he didn't see anyone, so he relaxed and opened the door and went in.

This courtyard is next to the Wang family's mansion, and the Wang family passes by from time to time in front of the door, and they are not worried about safety, the Zhou family simply hung a lock, and in order to prevent his son from coming home from school in the afternoon and not being able to enter the house, he gave the key to Shen Xi before going to school yesterday, so Shen Xi can enter and exit freely.

When he arrived in the yard, Shen Xi took out his things and was about to fiddle in the sun, when suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder, Shen Xi was startled, and almost put his hand into the lime water.