Chapter 754 - 388: Dispute Rises Again (Part 2)

Chapter 754: Chapter 388: Dispute Rises Again (Part 2)

Juhua’s maternal grandmother, Mrs. Wang, received the letter from Mrs. Yang and anxiously rushed over to her daughter’s house with Laishou in tow, so he could continue his studies.

As for the new teacher’s character, this is what Huai Zi told Juhua: "He puts on more airs than Mr. Zhou did, so it’s not easy for him to get close to us village folk. But I always feel like he..."

He held a teacup, sipping from it as he frowned, struggling for the right words. "How can I put this? Although he’s a scholar, I always feel he doesn’t measure up to Mr. Zhou—the previous Mr. Zhou. His whole demeanor is just... far inferior. Yes, that’s it! His demeanor! Heh! This is just between us, but to make a comparison, it’s like that country saying: ’A full jug is silent, a half-full one sloshes all over.’"

Juhua smiled. "The previous Mr. Zhou was no ordinary man. He wasn’t concerned with formalities. He could produce students like Yangzi, yet he could also sit and drink with Dad for hours. It’s as they say, ’A true scholar is a master of his own style.’ A person without great wisdom couldn’t be so carefree and unconventional."

Huai Zi nodded in agreement and sighed. "The old Mr. Zhou used to always ask about our farms and our families. This new one, however, just acts all high and mighty. The village chief even told everyone not to send food to his house anymore—seems his wife doesn’t like it. I’m guessing she thinks us country folk are dirty and is afraid our things aren’t clean."

A glint flashed in Juhua’s eyes. "Then we won’t. We should respect them, after all. It’s not unusual for learned men to be a bit aloof. Not everyone has Mr. Zhou’s breadth of mind and character."

’Speaking of Mr. Zhou made her feel a bit awkward. With both of them named Zhou, it was getting hard to tell them apart. Are they related? Yangzi said that when the old Mr. Zhou left, he told his students not to worry about the school and that he had his own arrangements. So, does that mean he’s the one who brought in this Scholar Zhou?’

What Scholar Zhou’s personality was like shouldn’t have had much to do with the Zhang family. However, due to certain people and events, a connection had been forged, forcing Juhua to think carefully about how to approach them.

As it happened, ever since Scholar Zhou’s arrival, even more people were sending their children to the Qingnan Village school to study. The more airs he put on, the more people stood in awe of him, firmly believing he was more skilled than the previous teacher.

With more people came problems. Who should they accept? Even with an entrance exam, there were too many clever children, and the schoolhouse couldn’t seat them all. And even if it could, the teacher wasn’t willing to teach so many students—he couldn’t possibly manage it all by himself.

So, someone in the village proposed an idea. Anyone from outside Qingnan Village who wanted their child to attend? Fine, they had to pay silver. Even relatives’ children couldn’t get in on connections alone. A small amount of silver wouldn’t work—there were still too many takers. So a baseline was set at fifty taels of silver. Some people even suggested raising it to 80 taels or one hundred taels.

At that rate, very few families could afford such an education.

The village was in an uproar. Although no one knew what Scholar Zhou actually thought and no official rule had been set, the commotion was making everyone uneasy. The main target of the discontent was the Zheng Family’s nephew—Yang Laishou.

This whole issue was supposed to be about new students. Laishou had been examined and accepted by the former Mr. Zhou, so it shouldn’t have concerned him at all. But some people just couldn’t bear to see the Zheng Family doing so well.

The loudest complaints, of course, came from the Sun Family. Liu’er’s mother was spreading rumors everywhere, saying that her family had no children in the school. If she did what others were doing and brought over all the nephews from her side of the family, the schoolhouse would be packed to the rafters. And what about her daughter-in-law’s family? How would that be handled?

Of course, she conveniently failed to mention that several of her own nephews had come to apply last year. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Zhou hadn’t deemed a single one of them worthy.

It wasn’t as if the Sun Family and the Zheng Family shared some deep-seated hatred.

They had argued once, years ago. After Sun Liu’er married into the Tang family, the Zheng Family never once gossiped about her. Later, when Liu’er was divorced and sent home, she was on the verge of death, and it was largely thanks to Juhua’s comforting words that she pulled through.

But human psychology is a subtle thing. If the Zheng Family had remained as poor as ever, Liu’er’s mother probably wouldn’t have hated them so much. Their steady rise to prosperity, however, was like a constant slap in her face—proof of how utterly blind she had been in her judgment. Liu’er had been at death’s door, but Juhua had goaded her with just a few words, and she had miraculously recovered. This made her own mother look incompetent, and she blamed Juhua for driving a wedge between them. She had once cursed Juhua, calling her a scabby-faced girl no one would ever want. But Juhua had not only married Huai Zi, but her face had also healed, and now her younger brother-in-law, Zhang Yang, had become a Scholar. She was living an enviably comfortable life. To top it all off, while not one of her own nephews had been accepted by Mr. Zhou, Mrs. Yang’s nephew had been, and it looked like he would become yet another Scholar in a few years.

Each and every one of these things was a bitter pill for the fiercely proud woman to swallow. She felt as if the Zheng Family was trampling all over her. Of course, she would never admit to being ungrateful. In her view, Liu’er hadn’t been in any real danger back then. It was her own panic that created an opening for Juhua to exploit, allowing her to claim a favor for doing nothing.

And so, she went about the village, fanning the flames of resentment. Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Wang, was much more cunning. She would casually and offhandedly remark to people that, no matter what, the children of their own village should have priority, and it wasn’t right to disadvantage them for the sake of outsiders.

Many families in the village were already green with envy over the Zheng Family’s success, so it was only natural for jealousy to take root.

Zhang Yang becoming a Scholar was one thing. But now this Laishou was said to be clever, too, and a favorite of the former Mr. Zhou. If he also became a Scholar, wouldn’t all the good fortune be hoarded by those two families? It wasn’t as if their own children would suddenly excel if Laishou left, but selfish parents never like seeing other people’s children do better than their own.

Despite their fury over the swirling rumors and disputes, Zheng Changhe and Mrs. Yang heeded Qingmu and Juhua’s advice to ignore them. As long as the teacher himself didn’t expel Laishou, nothing anyone else said mattered.

’These people are so shortsighted,’ Juhua thought, finding the whole situation laughable. ’Does Mr. Zhou owe Qingnan Village some kind of debt? They don’t stop to think that if he were to leave and open a private school in Xiatang Market instead, many of the children from Qingnan Village might not be able to get an education at all.’ (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider supporting it with your recommendation votes and monthly passes on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)