Chapter 432: Successful Persuasion
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
On the other hand, Qu Shuqiu returned home with trepidation and excitement. The lively atmosphere in Hu Family Village continued.
The village school had accepted more than 130 children. Among them, there were more than 90 from the Hu Family Village. The youngest was only two years old, and the oldest was Wang Dalang, who was already 17 years old.
As long as the children in the village were willing to attend the village school, they could attend it.
The children from the other villages had to undergo an initial assessment. It was not a test of their knowledge, but a test to see if they had the patience to learn and if they were willing to listen to the teachers.
With this test, more than 60 out of the original 200 children were eliminated.
The Wang family’s four in-law families had sent more than ten children over, and eight were left behind.
There were three people from Little Ah Yu’s grandfather’s family. They were Gousheng, Goutou, and Xing Hua.
Originally, Li Hua had also passed the assessment, but she thought that since she was the Big Sister of the family, if too many people came to attend school, there would be no one left to do the chores at home. She took the initiative to go home and let Xing Hua stay and study.
The tuition fees for the children in the village were completely waived. The initial fees for the brush, ink, and paper were also borne by the village.
They would only need to produce the gifts that they present to the teachers themselves.
The children from the other villages paid a subsidized fee of one-third of the tuition and were given a set of brush and ink for free. These could not be brought home, and they had to buy their own paper and bring their own gifts for the teachers.
The gift was fine, but paper was expensive. Even the worst paper was not cheap.
Even for just one child, a month’s worth of paper could be used to pay taxes on 10 mu of land. It was really a huge burden.
Many farmers were reluctant to part with their child, but they could not bear to let their child miss this opportunity, so they asked the child to bring a piece of cloth that they had bought and sewn to write on. They would take it back to wash it every day.
Or, they would use a clay board and write on it with hardwood.
Teacher Luo and Teacher Wan were both born into poor families, but their poverty was different from this level of poverty.
They originally wanted to sponsor these children, but they were rejected by Old Master Hu and the others.
Old Master Hu said, “Lord Teachers, you are kind, but the children are born with insignificant status. It’s good as long as they can learn. We can’t let them forget their environment.”
If the children could go to school smoothly from the beginning and enjoy the same conditions as the other school children, would they still remember how difficult it was for them to obtain an education?
Would they still not forget their original heart and passion?
Most likely, they would go astray instead.
Teacher Luo and Teacher Wan thought about it and felt that it was indeed so, so they stopped overthinking it.
As the saying goes, when you grow rice, you will worry about the rice.
They could fund the tools used by these children with ease, but as the children proceeded further in their studies, it would grow increasingly difficult to continue sponsoring them.
And at that time, the children might not be able to understand.
There were also some families who were making a fuss, wanting to be treated like the children of Hu Family Village, hoping to take more advantage of them.
In the end, they were scolded by Old Liu.
Old Liu stood at the entrance of the village school and was not afraid of the dozens of people from the other villages. He stuck a long rod in the ground beside him and said loudly, “I’m the in-law of the Wang Familv and the grandfather of Little Blessing Star. When I sent my children to school, I also obediently handed over the tuition fees. How shameless are you? You still want to take advantage of others? Since you like cheap things so much, why don’t you go underground and bury yourself early? I’ll definitely light ten thousand firecrackers for you. It’ll be cheap and lively!”
With that, Old Liu led the way into the village school and took out an ingot of silver from his waist. His face was already trembling with heartache, but he still said in a loud voice, “This is the tuition for the three children of the Liu family in our village. If it’s not enough, we’ll top up the difference!”
The person who registered was so frightened that he almost dropped his pen. Wiping his sweat, he dug out a pile of copper coins and handed them over.
Old Liu carried the copper coins and walked out aggressively. Everyone could not help but look at him.
Then, they watched him return with the copper coins, his expression even fiercer. Everyone held their breaths.
The person scribing the transactions tightened his grip on the brush.
Could this old man be going back on his word? Was he going to beat someone up?
Old Liu asked the person, “Our people from the other village don’t have paper. Where can we buy it?”
The person let go of his pen and said, “You can go to town or the county city to buy it yourself, or our village school can buy it for you. It’s all the same price.”
Old Liu slapped the copper coins on the table. “Then buy it!”
Everyone sighed in relief.
Hearing Old Liu’s commotion, the others who had objections did not dare to voice it.
Didn’t they see that even a relative of the Wang Family was behaving according to the rules? It wouldn’t make sense for them, who were unrelated, to be so thick-skinned.
When Old man Wang heard this, he couldn’t help but laugh. “In my opinion, our in-laws are all good people. The Liu Family is especially good.”
“What’s so good about them? Just because they’re not capable enough, they can only act tough on the surface.” Old Madam Wang did not say anything sarcastic this time. She only said to Old man Wang, “Since we’ve already made the decision to let the children rise up, we have to pave this path for them.”
Fierceness could only scare those who had nothing to rely on. If one wanted to really stand firmly and make people revere them, they had to rely on their ability and strength.
She would naturally remember the Liu Family’s kindness.
Even if she did not repay them, she had to let the children and Hu Family Village repay them.
The net between the Wang Family and the various families had to be tightly held. It had to be unbreakable.
She would never allow anything to happen again..
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