The Exiled Life of the Noble Girl

When Li Mingwei and Dong Shan appeared in his sight, Xiao Gang was so excited that he almost jumped up. Since he came back from town last time, he would come here to take a look every day at noon.

He had been waiting for half a month. In fact, Li Mingwei had finished making the booklets long ago, but the mountain roads were still covered in snow, and Dong Shan was afraid that she would get into trouble like last time again, so he decided to wait until the road conditions got better before taking her here in the cart.

"Auntie, uncle!"

Seeing the child running towards them, Li Mingwei waved her hand at him, "Xiao Gang, what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you!"

"How did you know we were coming today?"

Xiao Gang grinned without answering. He went forward to help Dong Shan push the cart. He took a look at the things on the cart, but didn't seem to find what he was looking for.

"Auntie, where are the books you copied for me?"

"Where are they?"

Li Mingwei pointed to a blue cloth bag to show him. Inside were dozens of Thousand Character Classics that she had made herself. Although somewhat crude, they could still be of use.

Xiao Gang lifted the edge of the bag to take a peek inside. Seeing that it was full of books, he opened his mouth wide in surprise, "How come there are so many? I thought we were only learning the Thousand Character Classic?"

"It's not just for you to learn."

After thinking over his auntie's words twice, Xiao Gang finally understood the implication. He grinned from ear to ear and stopped helping push the cart. He ran back to the village as fast as he could to notify his little friends.

"Hey!" Li Mingwei called after him, "Remember, I'm only teaching the Thousand Character Classic. After I finish teaching it, I'll be leaving."

"Got it!"

Xiao Gang acknowledged and then continued sprinting. In less than an hour, the news had spread throughout the village, and many villagers went to the Wangs to ask about the situation.

After receiving affirmative replies, they brought their children to the open area at the village entrance early the next day to wait there.

Li Mingwei was still racking her brains there. The snow had mostly melted, so it was impossible to have them practice writing in the snow. She could only ask Xiao Gang to find her a wooden board to barely write on with burnt wood charcoal.

Xiao Gang knew she was shy, so he helped her gather the people, "Children who want to learn, please come forward. Uncles and aunties, please move back and don't block the way."

The villagers politely stepped aside. Li Mingwei counted the number of children and found that she didn't have enough booklets for everyone. So she told Xiao Gang, "See which of them are from the same family, and just give one booklet to each family."

Xiao Gang nodded to show he understood. When he opened the blue cloth bag and the booklets inside were revealed, many children couldn't help but gather around to take a look, wanting to reach out and touch them.

"You can't touch them!" Xiao Gang closed the bag and glared at them, "Go find a place to sit down first, and I'll hand them out one by one."

Li Mingwei added, "Children from the same family should sit together."

Kids that age tended to be naughty. Some were obedient, others were not. Li Mingwei simply picked up a stick from the back and drew a circle in the air, threatening them, "If you make trouble, you'll have to leave. I'll hit anyone who misbehaves inside this circle."

"That's right, my auntie hits really hard when she's angry!"

Xiao Gang put on a serious face to help scare the children. When it came to getting hit, he even rubbed his arm, making Li Mingwei reflect on whether she had actually hit him before.

The village chief walked out, clasped his hands behind his back, and swept his eyes over the group of children, focusing on the few troublemakers. He said sternly, "Go ahead and hit them. Naughty children should be punished. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, just tell us which family the child is from and we'll take care of it."

The children's backs turned cold, and none of them dared to move around anymore. They obediently found a place to sit.

Only then did Xiao Gang reopen the blue cloth bag. He randomly grabbed a booklet, flipped it open and took a look. He noticed the characters inside were different from the one his auntie had given him yesterday.

"Auntie, how come the words in this booklet are different? Weren't they all copied by you?"

Li Mingwei raised her brows, "Who have you been learning from these past few days that you've picked up how to distinguish handwriting so quickly?"

Xiao Gang looked at her as if she were dumb, "Auntie, I can't recognize the words. I can't even tell big from small."

"Oh."

Right, she was overthinking it. Li Mingwei took the booklet in his hand and glanced at it. Liu Yizhu's handwriting was indeed smaller and neater than hers.

The two of them distributed the booklets together. Li Mingwei tapped the wooden board to draw everyone's attention, then reminded them, "There's only one copy per family. If it gets damaged, you won't get a replacement."

The children unanimously responded "Yes!" And so, the makeshift little schoolhouse in Apricot Blossom Village began its lessons.

Following Mr. Jin's teaching methods, Li Mingwei arranged for them to read aloud and recite in the morning, and practice writing on the ground in the afternoon, similar to a proper school, just with a simpler curriculum.

Soon, Li Mingwei realized that teaching children was not as easy as she had thought, especially under these uneven distribution conditions. Some families had three or four kids, and those sitting at the edge couldn't see, so they would try to snatch the book, often leading to fights.

She could only separate them and partner those who came alone with others. The ownership of the booklets still belonged to the original child, but during lessons they could share.

"Oh dear..."

Seeing her sigh, Mrs. Wang poured her a cup of water to help her relax, "That's just how it is with lots of kids. Mine at home are always bickering too, it's impossible to be perfectly fair."

Li Mingwei took a sip of water and sighed again. She was beginning to understand that siblings tended to fight the most fiercely.

It was time for them to practice writing. After drinking the water, she picked up the stick and went down to continue patrolling, making sure she paid close attention to each child.

She walked to the back of the group and found a little girl secretly watching them from behind a tree. Smiling, she went up and beckoned to the girl, "Do you want to learn how to write?"

The girl nervously clutched her sleeves and nodded, biting her lip.

"Why didn't you come these past few days then? It's too late now, there are no more books left. But let me try to find you a spot."

The girl widened her eyes at her, seemingly unable to believe that she had so readily agreed to let her learn to write.

Li Mingwei felt it was odd. She patted the girl's head, "What's wrong?"

The girl said hesitantly, "Xiao Gang said girls weren't allowed to come."

She had several little friends who also wanted to come along.

Li Mingwei clenched her fist. She knew it, besides the Wang kids, how come there wasn't a single girl? Turns out Xiao Gang had been spreading nonsense.

She had assumed other families didn't want their daughters mingling with a bunch of boys and planned to speak with the village chief about it in a few days. They were all just children, there was no need to be overly cautious. She would do her best to look after the girls as well.

She shouted loudly, "Xiao Gang!"

Xiao Gang was diligently practicing writing. Being yelled at so suddenly left him somewhat bewildered. He wasn't the only one startled, the other children also paused and looked back.

Li Mingwei dragged the girl by the hand to the front while twisting Xiao Gang's ear to haul him over.

She said angrily, "When did I ever say that girls weren't allowed to learn?"

Xiao Gang scratched his head, completely confused, "You didn't say that!"

Li Mingwei pointed at the girl, "Then how come she said you told them not to come?"

The girl explained, "You didn't say we couldn't come, just that we shouldn't get involved."

"That's right, they shouldn't be involved anyway! Grandpa Village Chief said that studying is for men. What business do they have getting involved?"

Li Mingwei tightened her grip on the stick and smacked him with it.