bookcurios Chapter 132: Master Guo's Entrance Examination
Chapter 132: Master Guo's Entrance Examination
Mrs. Huai was a smart woman and took Li Yuer to a hidden room in the backyard.
"There are houses all around this house, and people outside can't hear what we're saying. Tell me, little girl, do you have something to say to me?"
Madam Huai looked at Li Yuer expectantly.
Li Yuer took out the nail from his pocket and said, "Sister Qingran asked me to bring this to you."
Mrs. Huai took the nails, and when she saw the crescent-shaped white spot on the nails, tears fell from her eyes.
"Jingshu, damn Jingshu!"
Guo Qingran had been missing for many days. The couple and their relatives and friends had been searching for him for a long time but couldn't find him. When they reported the matter to the government, they just said they were searching for him and there was no further news.
Li Yuer quickly comforted her, "Madam, please don't get excited. Sister Qingran is fine now."
Then, Li Yuer briefly recounted what had happened, of course, in a distorted version of the story.
She skipped the part about the cave and changed it to the part where the girl was rescued before being sold by the driver. This was what they had discussed together.
Although Li Yuer was fed up with the various moral constraints and harsh etiquette on women in this dynasty, she had no ability to change them and naturally would not confront them head-on.
For the sake of Guo Qingran's reputation, I had no choice but to distort the facts.
After hearing what Li Yu'er said, Madam Huai gritted her teeth and said, "I knew that the girl from the Zheng family was not a good person. Once, I saw her looking at Qingran with vicious eyes from outside the window, so I suspected her. But, but it's all my fault! Blame me!"
Mrs. Huai seemed to be talking to herself, or recalling painful memories.
From her story, Li Yuer roughly understood the whole story.
When Mrs. Huai's mother gave birth to her, she accidentally fell into the water in winter and caught a cold. Mrs. Huai was not spared and was afraid of the cold since she was born.
When she grew up, the root cause of the disease had not been completely cured. Whenever the weather was cold, she would often cough, feel short of breath, and occasionally suffer from joint pain.
Master Guo took her to see many doctors, and they all said that it was a congenital deficiency and whether she could recover depended entirely on luck.
One winter, when Mrs. Huai and Mr. Guo were on their way back to town from visiting relatives, Mrs. Huai suddenly fell ill and was coughing so hard that she almost suffocated.
However, the carriage was halfway on the road and there was no one around, so where could we find a doctor?
At this time, a traveling doctor passed by, ringing a bell. After giving Madam Huai an injection, her coughing stopped immediately and her breathing gradually became stable.
Master Guo was grateful and immediately took out ten taels of silver as a reward, and promised to come and express his gratitude when he returned.
As a result, the doctor didn't even look at the ten taels of silver, and only asked for the fifty cents of medical fee that he deserved.
Master Guo was both impressed and moved to meet such a master of medical skills who was so dedicated to saving the world.
Master Guo immediately offered to send the doctor home. The doctor did not refuse and got on the carriage as the host wished. He just sat at the outside, keeping a distance from Madam Huai and even behaved in a polite manner.
The two hit it off immediately and had a great conversation. They soon exchanged surnames. The doctor only told Master Guo that his surname was Huang. Master Guo had a kind character and thought that Doctor Huang was an otherworldly expert who would not easily reveal his identity and background, so he did not ask any further questions.
Thinking of his wife's illness, Mr. Guo begged Doctor Huang to help take her pulse.
After a careful diagnosis, Doctor Huang shook his head, then nodded and said, "It can be cured, but it requires 500-year-old ginseng."
It is difficult to find ginseng that is several decades old, let alone one that is five hundred years old.
Doctor Huang got off the car at the gate of Xinpu Town and left an address for Master Guo, saying, "If you find ginseng, you can come here to find him."
The address marked a remote Taoist temple called Yunhexian Temple.
This made Mr. Guo believe that he had met a wandering miracle doctor.
Afterwards, Mr. Guo asked around for information about the 500-year-old ginseng, but found nothing. Finally, Zheng Rongrong, a classmate of Guo Qingran at the female school, said that her family had some.
After Guo Qingran dropped out of the town's government-run Yucai Academy, she transferred to the Huilan Girls' School, which taught women of noble character and noble character, such as "Female Virtues" and "Female Precepts", as well as the arts of music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
Generally, it is used to train the young ladies of wealthy families to become future mistresses of the house. Some merchants also use it to improve their daughters' reputation so that they can marry into a wealthy family.
Guo Qingran was very happy to hear the news. She had an average relationship with Zheng Rongrong because Zheng Rongrong was a bit snobbish and only associated with ladies of status in the academy. She never spoke kindly to classmates who were not as well-off as her.
In order to get ginseng, she had no choice but to make friends with Zheng Rongrong.
Although the Zheng family is a century-old medicinal material merchant in Xinpu Town, they are confined to a small area. Their scale and variety of medicinal materials are far less than those of medicinal material shops in larger cities. In addition, there are many negative news about the Zheng family's medicinal materials.
Guo Qingran did not expect that the Zheng family could have 500-year-old ginseng. She knew that 500-year-old ginseng must be very valuable and their family could not afford it at all.
They didn't plan to buy a whole ginseng, they just wanted some ginseng roots to use as a medicine inducer.
However, no matter what she said, the Zheng family refused to give in and even directly threatened that it was a betrothal gift for the future eldest grandson's wife.
Zheng Rongrong's brother is the eldest grandson of the Zheng family, but unfortunately he is a good-for-nothing, uneducated, often skipping classes in college, bullying classmates from poor families, and hanging out in brothels, being extremely lustful. Guo Qingran would never marry such a man, no matter what.
The Zheng family had asked matchmakers to propose marriage many times before, but Mr. Guo politely rejected them every time.
She also knew in her heart that if she exchanged her lifelong happiness for ginseng, her mother would never eat it.
After Mrs. Huai calmed down, Li Yuer said, "In fact, we are here to study sincerely this time."
Madam Huai held Li Yuer's hand and said apologetically, "Your Li family is our great benefactor. Logically, there should be no problem with your apprenticeship. Unfortunately, my husband resigned from the academy a few days ago. He didn't refuse before."
Li Yuer thought for a moment and said, "Then do you think this is okay? We didn't plan to go to the academy. We are all children from ordinary families. We have to work or help our family with small businesses on weekdays. We can't go to school on time. Is Mr. Guo willing to be our private school teacher?"
"This..." Madam Huai hesitated for a moment and said, "Please wait a moment. I will discuss this with my husband later."
The two returned to the front hall, where Master Guo was testing the basics of Li Laosan and others.
Datou had just finished reciting part of the Three Character Classic. Although there were quite a few mistakes, Master Guo still nodded and said, "Not bad."
Li Yu'er and the other person stood aside and watched.
When it was Shitou's turn, the teacher knew that he had no basic knowledge, so he just recited a few simple poems and asked him to repeat them.
"Bai, Bai, what mountain, entered, entered?"
Where did he go in? Shitou touched the back of his head, but he couldn't remember, so he lowered his head in shame.
"Next." Master Guo did not make things difficult for him. He could see that Shitou was a good and honest child, but unfortunately he had no talent for studying.
The house sparrow looked at the teacher with a smile, waiting for him to test him.
"When I hoe the field at noon, my sweat drips down to the ground. Who knows that every grain of rice on the plate is the result of hard work? Please repeat it."
The house sparrow repeated it, shaking his head.
Mr. Guo smiled and nodded, "Next."
It's Li Laosan's turn.
"The moon shines brightly before my bed... repeat it again."
Li Laosan nervously clenched his hands on both sides of his body into fists unconsciously, but he still repeated it haltingly.
"Okay."
The last one was Lai Zi, and Master Guo recited a poem called "Spring Sleep Without Knowing the Dawn".
Lai Zi quickly repeated it.
"Not bad!" Mr. Guo nodded with satisfaction.