Farmer’s Blessed Girl

Chapter 8 – Taking a Disciple

Although Man Bao recognized many words, she still couldn’t understand stories which were complicated. She could only try to grasp their meaning.

Fortunately, the storybook was different from the books on Mr Zhuang’s bookshelf, as the book was written in a vernacular language. Once she read on, she would get the gist of the story although she may not understand all the content.

Man Bao was excited, and happily, read on.

The beginning of the book was the preface. The preface said the stories were anecdotes handed down from ancient history. A few were true, some were false, while others were a combination of truth and falsehood.

But whether the stories were true or false, the evaluation of the stories differed in different eras. The book aimed to study the ideology and the evolution of ideology of the different eras through the readers’ evaluations of these stories.

Man Bao was still young. While she understood every word in the preface, she couldn’t understand the meaning/ context.

She worked hard to finish many of the stories but couldn’t understand them. So, she doubled back to the stories.

Storybooks were the best!

Although the book was about evil fathers, she didn’t read any tragedies at the beginning of the story. The first tale was ranked 10th, and it was about an emperor named Kangxi.

He raised his sons like gu*. To protect his power, he deliberately allowed his sons to fight against each other in order to maintain the balance of power.

At first, Man Bao didn’t understand how Kangxi was seen as a bad father. She treated the story as fiction, but the system reminded her, “Did you see his sons’ ending? Aren’t they tragic?”

Man Bao was taken aback for a moment, and asked, “They are all princes and emperors. What’s so tragic?”

Keke analysed the story for her, “Look, they are princes, but most of them were banned and exiled in the end. Do you know the meaning of banned and exiled?”

Man Bao straightforwardly said, “I don’t know.”

The system choked and then, explained the two words in detailed. In the final analysis, it meant going to jail and serving the sentence.

Man Bao was stunned, “My father is the emperor, my brother is the emperor, and the princes are going to jail?”

Keke replied, “That’s why Kangxi was called a scumbag.”

Man Bao pouted, and felt this father was indeed not very good. She read the story twice and figured out the meaning of the story.

The tale was about a father who wanted to protect his power. To maintain equilibrium, he deliberately allowed his sons to fight against each other and finally banned three sons. Then, he chose a son to be the emperor. The new emperor banned a few of his brothers and exiled a couple more. Therefore, Kangxi’s sons suffered miserably.

Man Bao didn’t like this tale very much. It was quite a pain to read the story and there were several names she didn’t recognized. So, she asked Keke.

Keke taught her to pronounce the Chinese characters and explained the meaning of the words.

Man Bao turned to the next story, and then, bawled.

This dad was worse than the previous one. He starved his daughter to death just because she accepted a piece of bread given by her neighbour.

Man Bao was still a kind-hearted child. She sobbed, and angrily said to Keke, “This dad is really very bad. How can he be an honest and upright official?”

Keke, “Generally speaking, human behaviours are diverse. Honest officials and scumbags are not mutually exclusive. So, a person who is an upright official can also be a scumbag father.

“However, this story was considered fiction in ancient times. This involves another aspect of human behaviour, that is, for the benefit of a certain party, one can fabricate stories to match one’s own interest.”

He added, “You are still young. When you are slightly older, you will understand once you have read more books. Humans, for their own benefit, can even distort the words of those whom they acknowledged as saints. What you have just read would be considered inconsequential.”

Man Bao was confused and only partially understood Keke’s words. Although she knew the story was fabricated, it was written so well, and so, Man Bao decided to hate him. The little girl was about the same age as she was, and she was starved to death. She must have suffered.

Man Bao’s eyes were red from crying.

After class, Mr Zhuang returned to the yard. As soon as the system’s scan noted there was someone at the door, he immediately confiscated the book in Man Bao’s hand. So, all Mr Zhuang saw was Man Bao with red eyes, crying while sitting alone on the steps.

Mr Zhuang’s grandson was only slightly older than Man Bao. And Mr Zhuang liked her very much. He felt distressed, quickly took two steps forward and gently asked, “Man Bao, who bullied you?”

Man Bao wiped her tears and grabbed Mr Zhuang’s sleeves. She looked up and asked, “Sir, are you a good father?”

Mr. Zhuang was dumbfounded for a moment. After giving it some thought, he replied, “Man Bao, even my grandson is older than you. In terms of seniority, it should be grandfather.”

“Boo hoo, boo hoo, sir, are there many bad fathers in this world who specialised in bullying children?”

Mr Zhuang asked, “Did your father scold you?”

Man Bao shook her head, “My father is very good to me, he is not a bad father.”

Mr Zhuang breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Man Bao. Since she was still young, he sat next to her and patiently asked, “Then, why do you ask such a question?”

“I read a story about an upright official who had very little food at home. His daughter was hungry. The neighbour gave her a piece of bread. His daughter ate it. Once he knew about it, he was enraged. So, he locked her up and starved her to death.”

Mr Zhuang’s cheek twitched, and he said, “There is no such official.”

Man Bao insisted, “There is! The book also said it was an era with very strict demands on females. If a girl’s ankle was unintentionally revealed to an unrelated man, she must be married off to him. If not, she would have to commit suicide.”

Mr Zhuang frowned. Even though he knew he couldn’t be totally upfront with such a young child, a kid of Man Bao’s age should not be allowed to read such books, lest they negatively affected her.

But Man Bao had read the book. So, he can only refute the content, “Even if there is such an official, he used an improper way to gain reputation and fame.

“He is called an upright official, but that falls short of reality. After all, it’s just a piece of bread. If he is really honest and upright, he can just repay the neighbour with two pieces of bread.”

“As for the unrelated man, that’s nonsense. In relation to you, I am an unrelated male, so are the students in class. Although there are differences between men and women, these need not be defended to death. If there is such a person, he/ she is either a madman or a devil.”

Mr Zhuang added, “I really think the latter is insane. As for the official, he did it deliberately and exchanged his daughter’s life for fame.

“In the future, you should avoid these people like plague.  But I’ve never heard of such a story, where did you read it?” It was best for him to confiscate the book.

Man Bao immediately replied, “It’s a book titled, “Top Ten Evil Fathers in History”.”

“Since it is history, there must be records. The upright official you mentioned earlier, what dynasty and era was he from?”

“A person from the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.”**

Mr Zhuang couldn’t help laughing out loud, stroked her hair and said, “These characters’ experiences are all fabricated. There is no Ming Dynasty in this world.”

Man Bao blinked, but still believed in Keke. She asked him, “Keke, this history doesn’t exist? You lied to me?”

Unexpectedly, the system which had been silent was actually delighted.

Keke said, “No. Host, although you don’t have a Great Ming dynasty in your world, it doesn’t mean the dynasty doesn’t exist in other worlds. Even if there is no such dynasty now, it doesn’t mean the dynasty will not be established in the future.

“Just like me, in this world, in this era, only you own me. But, in the era of my inventor, I was quite common. I dare not say that everyone had a system, but as long as you have money and are willing to purchase one, everyone can get one.”

Man Bao seemed to understand, but still summed everything up in her own understanding, that was, Keke didn’t lie, but Mr Zhuang was also right, so she decided to listen to both of them.

She looked at Mr Zhuang, and asked, “Sir, do you know any bad father in our history?”

Mr Zhuang, “Why are you interested in this? You should know, the son doesn’t speak about the father’s faults. Even if the father is at fault, very few people will publicize the matter to the world and make one’s father lose face and embarrass the family. What good is it to do this to oneself?

Manbao was puzzled, Mr Zhuang simply took the opportunity to talk to her about the Book of Rites, “Manbao, you are a smart kid. I know you love to study. If so, study hard. You have finished studying Thousand Character Classic. Now, it is time to learn The Analects. When that is completed, teacher will teach you the Book of Rites.”

Man Bao was stunned, and the system couldn’t help reminding her, “Host, thank your teacher quickly!”

Man Bao returned to her senses and immediately knelt on the ground, “Sir, teacher!”

Man Bao kowtowed.

Mr Zhuang felt a twinge of regret after he spoke. However, upon seeing her kneeling on the ground and joyfully calling him teacher, the trace of regret disappeared.

Forget it, although she was a female pupil, she was smart and cute. That was how he consoled himself.

Mr Zhuang helped her up and said, “Go home and tell your parents what happened today.”

“Why? You told me never to tell my parents these things.”

He stroked her hair and said, “Since you are allowed to kowtow (i.e kneel and acknowledge Mr Zhuang as her master/ teacher), this should be done in a fitting and proper way.”

He sighed faintly and forgot to confiscate her book.

The first time he saw Man Bao, she was just a toddler who could barely stand by balancing herself against the wall. She was probably only eight or nine months old.

Xiao Qian came to cook for the students. As she just took on the job, she cherished it very much. She always came early, cleaned the exterior and interior (of the kitchen?), and chopped wood for cooking.

She couldn’t help neglecting the child. That time, Man Bao crawled to the classroom door, turned over and held on to the door to listen to his teaching.

At first, Mr Zhuang was a little annoyed. He felt Xiao Qian didn’t handle her affairs properly. He put down the book, carried Man Bao and went in search of Xiao Qian.

He just wanted Xiao Qian to take better care of her child, but then, he saw her chopping wood with an axe and sweating profusely.

Mr Zhuang was invited by Master Bai, the landlord to teach in this mountain village. Naturally, his family was not rich and powerful. In fact, he also came from a poor family.

As he recalled, his mother also took care of him this way. So, he hesitated for a moment, didn’t call Xiao Qian, turned around and carried Man Bao back to class, and allowed her to sit on the threshold.

Fortunately, the child was well-behaved. She would sit on the threshold without crying or making trouble. She would eat when fed. When the students read aloud, she would babble to herself.

Later, the first word she uttered was, “Sir/ teacher”. That was Mr Zhuang’s version of her first word.

Man Bao was really smart. While a one-year-old child would learn to talk, she and the students in class would read, “Heaven and earth are golden…” (first line of the Thousand Character Classic).

The youngest pupil he taught was six years old. The child would recite 10 times, commit the recitation to memory, and then, come the next day, promptly forgot everything. However, Man Bao could remember everything.

Of course, she could only recite loudly and couldn’t recognize the characters.

So, Mr Zhuang transcribed a copy of the Thousand Character Classic and gave it to her.

Subsequently, he liked her even more as he found out that she could memorise books quickly, recognize words speedily and had an ability to recall almost everything she heard.

She would remember the characters after just reading through the book several times.

How can such a smart, cute, and kind-hearted child not be a boy?***

This was not the first time Mr Zhuang felt it was a shame that Man Bao was not a boy.

But then, he couldn’t help but teach her, teach her to read, teach her principles, and even found a couple of books for her to practice writing. Subsequently, he gave her his manuscripts. Let her collect them.

Although he suddenly said he would accept her as a disciple, he had been pondering over the matter. He hesitated because she was female.

In fact, he was just a scholar who dropped out of the government school. After all, scholarly attainments were finite, so why bother about those false reputations too much?

Was he going to be like the scumbag fathers she talked about, and fished for fame and compliments?

Mr Zhuang firmly stroked Man Bao’s hair, and made up his mind, “Look for your eldest sister-in-law now. Let your parents choose a good day and accompany you here to formalise the teacher/ pupil relationship.”

A confused Man Bao left.