Poor Family

  Chapter 23 Get Your Wish

  At noon, master Yao Ding dragged his equally sleepy legs and went to take a nap. He assigned the four of them homework at noon, writing 2,000 words, and they were not allowed to rest if they couldn't finish.

  Master Yao slammed the door next door, and Zhang Daxiao stood up, "Junior Brothers, my hands are already festered. I'll go to the pharmacy to get some medicine, and I'll be right back."

   After finishing speaking, he untied the wrapping cloth for everyone to see, and it was really bloody. Yue Fei said: "Isn't there medicine on the table in front? I think it's pretty effective."

   "The medicine didn't help me at all, and the wound got worse instead. I'll come back as soon as I go."

  Zhang Daxiao left the study room in a hurry, Li Yanqing used the excuse to go to the latrine and slipped out, searched around, but couldn't find Wang Gui, where did this kid go?

  At this time, Li Yanqing saw Li Er, and quickly stepped forward to pull Li Er aside, and whispered to him a few words, Li Er nodded, "It's a small matter, I promise not to let him see it."

Li Er hurriedly ran out of the school, Li Yanqing came back to continue writing, about half an hour later, Zhang Daxiao hadn't come back, Tang Huai was a little worried, and said to Yue Fei: "Fifth Brother, Brother Qing, what do you say?" Why did Big Brother Zhang go, and he hasn’t come back yet, Master will wake up in a while, let’s see what he does with his work? Then he will be beaten until he cries.”

  At this time, Li Yanqing saw Li Er who was poking his head at the door, so he put down his pen and said, "I've finished writing, I'll go find him now."

He got up and walked out of the study room. Li Er hurriedly pulled him aside and whispered: "That kid went to the pharmacy to ask the clerk for a long time, and then he bought croton powder, and he bought a lot. I saw him eat it with my own eyes, and then ...he ran to the inn."

  Li Yanqing laughed dumbfounded, and actually ate crotons. Which guy made this bad move? He asked again: "Did you see Wang Gui?"

"over there!"

  Li Er pointed to the entrance of the school, and saw Wang Gui wrestling with several students. Li Yanqing hurried over, pulled Wang Gui aside, and asked him, "Do you still want to go to the Boys' Association?"

   "Of course I want to, even in my dreams!"

   "But we have to endure hardships. You can also see how we were tortured."

  Wang Gui patted his chest, "As long as I can go to the Boys' Association, I'm not afraid no matter how hard it is."

  Li Yanqing glanced at him suspiciously, and said slowly: "If you really want to go, now is a chance."

   "What chance?" Wang Gui's eyes suddenly widened.

  Li Yanqing lowered his voice and said a few words to him, Wang Gui was surprised and delighted, "Really?"

   "Of course it is true, it depends on whether your grandfather is willing to fight for you."

   "I'll tell my grandfather now!"

  Li Yanqing grabbed him, "Don't worry, talk about it after school. His condition should be serious by then."

  . ． ． ． ． ．

   Half a month before the Boys’ Association, Zhang Daxiao, one of the four contestants in Lushan Academy, had an accident and suffered from severe diarrhea. Unfortunately, he was bedridden and had to quit halfway.

Zhang Baojun, one of the four country gentry, gave Wang Wanhao face and gave up the spot to the Wang family. Wang Gui got his wish and joined the preparation team. It was beaten to bloom.

   "Woo-hoo-I'm quitting, I'm quitting!"

  Listening to Wang Gui crying like a pig being slaughtered, Li Yanqing felt sympathy besides sympathy.

  As the time for the Boys' Association drew closer, Master Yao Ding's temper became more and more irritable.

   "You want to participate in the county essay competition with such a nonsensical article? If I were you, I would have been killed by a head-on!"

The hall reverberated with Master Yao's howling roar like a beast, which frightened all the students not to talk loudly, held their breath, and even walked on tiptoe, passing by that special classroom by chance, and glanced hurriedly. The glance is also full of sympathy for the four of them, and of course, some people will also have a kind of schadenfreude.

  In the room, Yao Dingman yelled at Wang Gui with his blood-red eyes: "I'll give you one last chance. The upper line is: Bright Moon and Pine, what is the second line?"

Wang Gui was so frightened that his legs trembled, his soul was almost gone, and he couldn't remember Wang Wei's poems. At this moment, Li Yanqing kicked a stone on the ground, and made a gesture of urinating. Wang Gui's eyes As soon as it was bright, it was like picking up a treasure, and stammered: "Qingqingquanshi. Upstream."

Yao Ding stared at Wang Gui for a long time, then suddenly turned around and whipped Li Yanqing across the head and face with a bamboo whip. The reason why he changed back to the bamboo whip was because his iron-wood ruler was broken when beating his grandson Yue Fei, and he couldn't find a suitable one for a while. hand guy.

   "From now on, Wang Mojie's poems will be silent for three times in official script. No one is allowed to go back to sleep if the silence is endless!"

Although Yao Ding wished to break one day into three days, the time for the Boys' Association finally arrived. At this time, Xiangzhou had entered the middle of winter, and it snowed twice in a row, turning the world into a snow-covered world. The happiest time of the year for us.

  On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yao Ding gave them an unprecedented day off to let them have fun, but the four of them slept for a day and a night, and even Wang Gui, who loves snowball fights, couldn't get out of bed.

At dawn the next day, more than a dozen squires from Xiaohe Township gathered at the school to see the four of them off. Twenty days of hard study made them gain a lot. Even Wang Gui could recite a hundred words in one breath in front of his grandfather. Many poems made grandfather Wang Wanhao so proud that everyone would praise his grandson for his promise.

  Even Zhang Baojun secretly regretted that he shouldn't let his grandson give up. Every day he saw his grandson Zhang Daxiao pretending to be sick and slacking off and refusing to get up, so he couldn't get angry at all.

  Li Wenyou encouraged them on behalf of everyone, hoping that they would bring honor to their hometown, and took another plate of broken silver and handed it to Yao Ding.

  In the past, the four major families in the village monopolized the places, and the squires were not interested in seeing them off, but this time it was different. They all heard from their children about the hard work of the four preparing for the war, which sparked a glimmer of hope in their hearts.

Yao Ding still had a dark face. In his opinion, the four of them were far from what he wanted. Li Yanqing could barely do it, Yue Fei couldn't do it, and the other two were idiots. He couldn't count on the top three. I am content.

Yao Ding arranged the four students in a row and bowed to the squires who saw him off. Then he got into the carriage. The carriage was provided by Wang Wanhao. Sitting inside is also warmer in season.

The carriage was divided into two rooms, inside and outside. Yao Ding sat alone in the front and took a nap, while the four students sat in the back. They sat directly on the soft carpet with a thick quilt covering their bodies, but they were very excited , talking non-stop all the way.

   Tang Huai smiled and said, "I was the youngest among the four last year, but this year I am the oldest. It's really interesting!"

  Among the four, Tang Huai is nine years old, Yue Fei and Wang Gui are both eight years old, and Li Yanqing is only six years old. However, he is mature and has a big frame. He looks like he is eight or nine years old. No one would think that he is only six years old.

At this time, Yao Ding's listless voice came from the front, "Other schools only select students who are twelve or thirteen years old. I am confused. I chose some of you, but there is still a six-year-old student. Hey! This time it is really embarrassing. It's going to be thrown home."

  Wang Gui and Li Yanqing stuck out their tongues, and they both laughed.

  Among the four, Yue Fei is the most serious, taciturn, and doesn't like to mess around. Although Tang Huai doesn't talk much, he is indispensable for doing bad things.

   At this time, Yue Fei asked Tang Huai: "A Tang, you participated in the Boys' Association last year, tell everyone how to compete! Let us know."

  Tang Huai thought for a while and said: "Last year, there were seven days of the competition. The first three days were for the ring, followed by a day off. The fifth day was for the exam. It started at dark and lasted until noon, and then the results were announced the next morning."

   "What results are announced?" Li Yanqing asked.

   "For all the results, the results of the group arena plus the results of the subsequent exams, the person with the highest score will be the leader of this year."

   Speaking of this, Tang Huai was very frustrated: "Last year in the group arena, we were eliminated in the first round, and we were ranked last in the final exam, and the result was defeated. Of course, it's the same every year."

  Li Yanqing asked curiously again: "I heard that a school dropped out of the competition last year. What's going on?"

Tang Huai waved his hand and made the three of them bow their heads. He lowered his voice and said, "There are open and secret fights and unscrupulous tactics. Last year, Tangbei Township Academy was the first place in the group arena, but the next day they had collective diarrhea and had to withdraw from the Boys' Association. Yuli Township Academy Just because we were second in the group arena and first in the exam took away the leader, we also won the seventh place for an unprecedented time, and everyone said that Tang Beixiang Academy shouldn't be eating out that night."

  Everyone felt a little heavy in their hearts. At this moment, Wang Gui smiled and said, "Let's talk about it lightly! What rewards will there be for winning the leader?"

   "Rewards! I heard that the leader gets 300 guan, the second gets 200 guan, the third gets 100 guan, and there will be no money for the rest."

   Tang Huai saw that Wang Gui's eyes were bright, and hurriedly said: "This money does not belong to me, it is for the school, repairing leaky houses, repairing gates, tables and chairs, etc."

  Wang Gui was immediately discouraged, "Then what good do we have?"

Tang Huai scratched his head, "There are also personal benefits! The township will give rewards, but the most anticipated thing is that the names of the top students can be entered in the county annals, and the county magistrate will give each of them a copper plum and the title of child prodigy. what else?"

  Beside Li Yanqing added solemnly, "Rich people will do everything possible to marry their daughters to you."

  The four children laughed together. Amidst the laughter, the carriage rolled over the snow and drove quickly to the county seat.

  (end of this chapter)